When people come to me for help with their fitness programs they're usually pretty frustrated or simply have no idea where to begin formulating an effective program. The first thing I do with every individual I work with is to discuss and clarify their goals. Some come with very specific goals, they're the easiest to design workouts for, but most come with only a vague notion of what they want to accomplish working out. To get the most from your workouts effective goal setting is a must. The key components of effective goal setting are:

LONG TERM GOALS:
These are goals that you will work to accomplish over a period of weeks or months. This goal should be attainable but significantly challenging so that you don't reach it too easily.

Example Long Term Goal:
Prepare my body to run a marathon in the spring 2001. This is ultimately my goal, successful completion to be determined on target date — when I run my goal event.

SHORT TERM GOALS:
Goals that are smaller in scope and can be evaluated in shorter time periods such as days or weeks. A short term goal should relate to one's long term goal and be a stepping stone to greater goal achievement. As short term goals are achieved new ones will be established to continue moving you towards successfully achieving your long term goal.

Example Short Term Goals:
Short Term Goal #1 — To prepare my body by eating nutritious food on schedule, resting and completing 95%–100% of my scheduled workouts. This I can check daily and either I AM or I AM NOT doing these things.

Short Term Goal #2 — I will not get discouraged if I suffer minor setbacks along the way. I can check my progress on this after every practice race or workout I complete.

As you're developing goals following the above guidelines keep in mind that you're charting out the path you plan to follow over the course of several weeks, months or even year, so be S.M.A.R.T.

(S) Be SPECIFIC when you write your goals, eliminate vague statements or generalities.

(M) Choose goals that are MEASURABLE. It's not enough to simply say I want to train my body to run "long" if you eventually want to run 26.2 miles (the distance of the marathon).

(A) Make your goals ATTAINABLE. Don't set yourself up with a goal you simply can't achieve. It would be difficult to run a world record marathon on only 3 runs a week.

(R) Be REALISTIC when writing your goals. See "Attainable".

(T) Give yourself a set amount of TIME to achieve your goal. It's ok if you don't achieve your goal within the given amount of time, but it's motivating to create that sense of urgency to progress consistently throughout the allotted period of time.

Once you've completed the goal setting process and have clearly defined what you want to achieve you are ready to formulate a program specifically tailored to you. Next month we'll talk about program design and putting together your personalized workout schedule.

Bryant Howard BA, MA, CFT, SPN — Bryant is certified through the International Sports Sciences Association. He is both a Fitness Trainer and Performance Nutrition Specialist. He also holds certification in CPR and First Aid. He has trained competitive athletes for ten years and offers personal and group training sessions in the Portland, OR area. Bryant Howard owns Performance Fitness Training