Setting Goals and Challenging Yourself

One of the things that keeps us working out is setting goals.. Sometimes people will get in a rut with their workouts because they don't have any actual goals they're striving for.. With people who compete, this is easy. You can set goals for different races you enter and train towards that goal. For people who don't compete there needs to be more creativity. Lots of people have goals of losing weight, which is a great goal if you're overweight, but it's kind of boring.. I like physical and mental challenges better. They give you something clear to set your sights on and, if you set the goal appropriately, you have to work your butt off to get there, so the weight loss and great physical shape come as a result of your efforts.. Examples of inappropriate goal-setting would be for a person who can do 10 pushups to set a goal of doing 12.. Too easy.. Or for someone like me who's in their 40's and American to set a goal of competing on the Chinese Men's Gymnastics team in London 2012. That's unrealistic (I doubt I could get the citizenship by then :)   

Here's how I set goals.. I pick challenges that are things that I am not even close to achieving yet and I know will take a great deal of physical and mental strength to get there. Like the 100 burpee challenge in 5 minutes.. I'm at 6:42 right now and I was a mess the last time I tried it.. 20 burpees in 1 minute I can do.. but for 5 straight minutes? not even close. This is a challenge that will take me months to achieve and there's always the possibility that I may not get there. That's what a challenge is all about. Pushing yourself beyond your limits.. Another challenge I set for myself is to do 200 snatches with a 24kg kettlebell in 10 minutes with 1 arm switch.. I've done 50 snatches with a 24kg with 1 arm switch and it was super hard for me. Plus, I'm still in the process of trying to heal a forearm muscle that I strained snatching a 32kg bell about 8 months ago.. A couple days ago I snatched a 12kg for 10 minutes with 1 arm switch to start building the strength back up in the forearm following my 2 weeks of (trying but mostly failing to) taking it easy on the arm. I got 210 snatches and it felt pretty good the next day so I'm pretty psyched about that.

A long time ago I also set a challenge to be able to do 5 pushups with an 80lb clarinetist on my back.. And I'm happy to say that I can now cross that one off my list :)

I'd be interested to hear some of the challenges you've set for yourself.. Or, if you need help setting goals let me know and I can definitely help you..

All the best,

Kevin