If you’re already working out—or thinking about starting—you obviously have fitness goals.
So how do you measure your progress toward those goals?
I’ll give you four simple steps.
Step 1: Set Specific Goals
If you want to measure progress, you must set a very specific goal. Here’s the most important part: The goal should be important to you.
People sometimes miss that and set goals based on “should” or what someone else has achieved. Push that stuff aside and ask yourself these questions to dial in your focus:
What do I want to achieve? Why is that important to me? How will I feel when I achieve my goal?
You might want to lose weight, gain muscle, drop body fat, improve strength or endurance—these are all great goals.
Whatever you settle on, it’s important to attach a realistic number and timeframe to your goal. For example: “I want to lose 20 lb. by 2025” or “I want to be able to do 10 push-ups without stopping in four months” or “I want to work out three times a week for six months straight.”
Whatever your goal is, be specific. And if you’re struggling to attach numbers, a coach can help you set a reasonable, time-bound goal that will keep you motivated.
Step 2: Measure Your Starting Point
Lots of people miss this step in the gym. You must know where you are so you can make a plan to reach your destination.
Measuring can be as simple as stepping on the scale or seeing how many push-ups you can do now.
Whatever your goal is, document your starting point by writing it down.
If your goal is to train three times a week, write down something like this to log your starting point: “April 1: I have succeeded in working out once a week for a month.”
Step 3: Make a Plan
With your goal and starting point in place, you need a way to get from Point A to Point B. Your plan should include all the things that will move you forward.
This part can be tough! How do you lose 20 lb. or become strong enough to do 10 push-ups? If you aren’t a fitness coach, you might be lost. Many people give up at this point because they just don’t know what to do.
We can help! We specialize in laying out plans very quickly, no matter what your fitness goal is. We can tell you how often to work out, what to do in your workouts and what you can do to make swifter progress toward your goal.
Step 4: Track Progress and Adjust the Plan
With a plan in place, you should keep track of your workouts and check off all the boxes associated with the plan. You can use an app for this or just a spreadsheet or notebook.
But you must track everything! If you do, you can look back and see that you’re making steady progress toward your main goal, and you’ll take pride in a lot of completed workouts.
At specific intervals—90 days is a good block of time—you should review progress and adjust your plan so you can keep moving forward.
This is another sticking point for people. They often create a plan and keep doing the same thing over and over even when they stop making progress. Or they don’t know how to adjust the plan and quit before they reach the goal.
Again, we can help! We send “Report Cards” to review progress and wins, talk about new goals and adjust the plan to ensure they’re always moving forward. And when they reach their goals, we help them set new ones—after we celebrate!
