Awaken The Athlete Goal Plan

Goals

Principals of Bruce Lee

Be honest with oneself, combine natural instinct with control….flow like water, don't take your eyes off the moon, find balance. If you pay attention to his words they are priceless.

Lets talk about plan outline this week. Today I will get into goals. There is an overall general goal and then detailed short term and long term goals. You want to know these goals but not overwhelm yourself so lets go in steps.

My details and yours may differ but the process is pretty much the same, do your best to treat yourself as your own client too, you know yourself best even when working with a trainer. If you have read my posts from this series starting January 4th then you are already looking at your mental prep and can start getting into some fun stuff. The goal you want, that awesome body, feeling strong and invincible - Health at its peak! You want to feel you have reached some physical potential and play with this vessel you have been given by testing it out. Its time to be doing things you always wanted to try, small or big things, and going for it with confidence and the will to try. This step forward is doing just that, isn't that just too cool?

General and Short Term Goals

Before I get into the detailed things I personally want to work on, I am going to focus on a very short term general goal, probably exactly the same as most of you.  Those of you regularly exercising and just using this to get to a new level don't really fall into the same goal idea as the restarters and beginners but your general goal is the shift which all this is prep toward. You're moving from goals you have attained toward newer ones that take you a level up. Us restarters and beginners are also kind of in the same arena except our goal is to get going, stick out this starting point and feel good through it.

For us we are more likely to have bumps that may throw us off since you regulars are already in Beastmode! So there is our general goal, the restarters and the beginners are working on the 'Get into Beastmode' general short term goal. You regulars are looking at 'Step up the Beastmode' goal, shifting into a higher gear and taking things up a notch.

Most of us have long term desires of fat loss, muscle gains, body shaping and some finer tweaks. For now, just getting in Beastmode will start the process on most of our various goals. Once we are habitual then we can pin point more detailed areas to be refined and apply those goals into the program by making the appropriate changes.

Right now the goal is Commitment which means habit, consistency, prove it, do it, get used to things, the shopping, the eating, the new schedule that fits all this comfortably. Week one into the program is about feeling it out, then the next few weeks solidify the pattern and clock some time repeating it as a lifestyle and daily schedule. That’s the practice. You work out the kinks and usually it happens within week 1, by week 2 you start to feel it flow.

The guaranteed results that you can expect, if you stay as consistent as possible at doing something each day, will be better sleep, better digestion, a body that is settled into schedule so that you don't have to force the sleep and training or eating, it just happens naturally usually the same time each day.

You will see changes in clothing fit, scale or mirror but will definitely FEEL the changes in all sorts of improvements that are personal to your weak spots. You may notice things feeling better that you did not notice were off because you just lived with it. I find my health issues all improve and quieten once I am on my 2 gallon water per day. My sleep and hunger are predictable and call to me at same times each day once I am working out daily. I get a pattern with that within work, home, life etc. You find you have more energy, get to your workouts eagerly and enjoy eating healthier. You flow.
Isn't that a great goal and isn’t even better to know you are guaranteed these results just by applying yourself comfortably and that means you, any of you! Sometimes its so obvious others notice the glow and changes within a few weeks which is a bit of a moral boost to keep you motivated toward tomorrows effort.

Simple Fitness Planning

My goal is to add some activity at least 3 times per week, every other day and if I am flowing well up to 5 days.

Figure out how many days you are going to commit for now, for the first few weeks only.

I gave myself some play so that if I only do 3 days I get my goal and don’t beat myself up about the other 2 days. If I add a day or 2 more on the fly, it fits and I feel like it, then that just gives me a boost that I am on the top end of my goals. Play with that idea. Keep in mind my history is 6-7 days exercise some days for hours so for me this is a lower end and fair way to get started. You may only be looking at a day or 2 per week to ease in, its all personal to your level and history etc, remember the posts before this one, be real while you reach for the stars, balance, its done in steps.  Overreachin can also be sabotage.

What do we like to do, what do we want to add that we know we will make the effort to do? Don't say some sport you never did and NOW want to try. That works for some and clicks, but for others that is not familiar and can backfire so know yourself. I want to say gymnastics for me but I know very well it would be entry level, short time spurts of it and if I am real, my body needs some prep and conditioning first so I am risking re injury if I push for that. What I am saying is also don't try to do what you used to do when you were fit because it many not be time to start that quite yet either. BUT these are the detailed goals and long term goals I spoke of and will be considered later on so hang on to those goals. We are going on a prepping program right now toward those!

Your failsafe

Also think about a back up, if you can't make the gym or find you won't train at home, find it hard to follow your present plan, have a simple set up that you can do anytime that you can fit in, a small fast block of exercises you know you can do with a band or body weight or whatever. Keep it simple. Just do something rather than miss.  Re adjust the plan so that it won't be missed, address the kink and find a way around it, eliminate it.  Unexpected happens all the time to any of us, being prepared is prudent.

I am going to be adding weight work for lower body as my focus, not to say I won't hit other body parts but these need it most, are big muscle groups and the knees need the conditioning. The right knee especially since its just under 2 years from a knee reconstruction then another surgery for meniscus repair. I lost muscle, strength, stability, torque, speed and agility. This will help. WE can't fit it all in at once and I am being real with my time and motivation as to what I am putting on my plate here. The Key is to periodize which in non trainer terms is to take it in steps. I have to be cautious with cardio or plyo work, keep it all slow and easy. My metabolism is high and I am trying to gain weight. I will add some yoga specific to me that I will be doing myself. I know I cannot commit to classes but not to say it can't or won't happen, just setting up to avoid missing days and workouts, eliminating any of the self sabotages that I know can get me.   Most of you will probably be opposite in that you will need cardio and need to add some that you will enjoy or at least tolerate LOL!

Ill probably add some bodyweight work like pullups, chins, one arm pushups… so that I hit those muscles with a good weight and I know these I can do but need to build up again. This is toward my fitness routine for when I next compete.

I have a spin class I teach for 45 mins 3x a week right now so that will be my cardio and good for the knee, if I find my weight dropping I will slack in the intensity or teach the class off the bike for a few classes to stop the weight loss.

You see how I catered to my life, work, time and needs and fit things in to get more bang for my buck?  Certain exercises I am adding will work toward a number of my present short and longer term later goals! Be creative, be real. Don't plan to add things you say 'I would like to'.  Add things you know you 'will do' no matter how unchallenging it may seem at first. Try the week first, sometimes we find things that sound easy or simple are actually challenge us at this point in our fitness. Its always changing.  Set yourself up to avoid the sabotage, be ready for the things you know realistically can come up or throw a kink, some of us have repetitive things that come up, don't ignore it, work with and around it. Don’t be too gungho, reach slowly and take those progressive steps to those gungho goals!

Over this week we will look at ideas to achieve those goals we have, avoiding self sabotage with consideration of mental, emotional, time and things that normally can take us off our game. We will cover some fool proof execution, scheduling, back up plans and look at how we feel at the moment, giving ourselves a bit of feedback and outlook at this point.

Lets get excited about the week, excited about being productive and starting on this fun journey!!