What’s In Your Fitness Toolkit?

Last week I came back to fitness blogging with a note about goals. I asked you all to write down your fitness goals, regardless of if they’re “fit back into my bikini” or “lower my cholesterol”. These goals needed to be:

• Specific – A vague goal like “be healthier”, “run more” or “eat less” is meaningless.
• Measurable – A goal you can’t measure is a goal you can’t work towards. For example “lose weight” is meaningless but “lose 20lbs by Xmas” is good
• Realistic – If you have a bad back, you probably won’t be doing deadlifts next month. Similarly, if you are severely overweight, you’re not going to be slim by next week. Goals need to be realistic or you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

I emphasize these things because these goals are not just things to dream about.  These goals are actually tools for us to use.  We will fine tune these goals, create plans based on them and use them as our motivation.  As such, they are the first tool in our fitness tool kit.

Common Goals

Now, most health related goals usually fall into the following categories:

• Lose weight – This could be stated as a simple weight goal or it could be something like “lose 3 inches from my waist”. Either way, you want to get rid of some extra fat. This is actually not the best of goals since weight loss isn’t always the healthiest of ideals but hey, it’s better than nothing.
• Improve health – This one is usually stated as “lower cholesterol”, “lower blood pressure” or “ability to go up the stairs in my house without being out of breath”. All of these are good goals since better health is a great thing to strive for.
• Performance goals – “run a mile in under 10 minutes”, “bench press 200lbs” or “run a marathon”. These are all standard ways of setting some kind of achievement based goal.

The goals for improving health are usually the best since they’re all encompassing but the other ones aren’t bad either. Actually, the best way to go about getting fit is to have multiple goals, preferably some from each category.  So if you have time, go back and try to come up with a goal or two from each of these categories.

Now let’s look at the tools we’ll be using.

• Move more – This doesn’t necessarily mean exercise. It just means getting a more active lifestyle. We’ll examine this in more detail in follow up posts but for the moment, think of this as walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
• Resistance exercise – This one usually means things like pushups, lifting weights and so on. Basically, this is a workout for your muscles and bones.
• Cardio exercise – If resistance exercise is for your muscles and bones then cardio exercise is for your heart. This one includes things like running, swimming and biking.
• Eating healthier – This means both eating less and eating better. Yes, you will need to give up some of those cheeseburgers and replace a few of those lattes with water.

This is 90% of our basic tool kit.  From each one of these categories we will draw specific items that will help us achieve our goals.

The Last 10%

One last thing, I am not in the business of selling magic solutions that will make you thin and healthy in 3 weeks and allow you to go back to your old ways afterwards.  If you want to get fit with me then you will need to commit to making lifelong changes. You must be willing to commit to exercising, being active and eating healthier FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Think about that one for a second because it’s a big one. I will suggest a variety of ideas to you in the next few weeks and you need to decide if you want to adopt them as a part of your life. I urge you to try them out before ruling them out, but I also urge you to take this seriously. If you want a healthier life you need a healthier way of living life. No temporary diets, short term exercise plans and month long eating programs. If you’re not willing to commit to a life long change, you may as well stop reading now because you’ll be wasting your time.  That’s the last 10% of our tool kit, a resolve to change our lives in permanent ways.  Sounds so simple but without this 10% you’re pretty much doomed to fail in the long run.

Now, if you’re ready to make some changes, tune in next week when we start talking about some ways of adding activity to your life.

By the way, here’s my own list of goals:

• Run the Maui Marathon in September in under 6 hours.
• Get to 180lbs by February of 2011
• Do a set of 10 bench presses with 300lbs by January of 2011
• Try out (at least 10 classes) a martial art of some kind by June of next year
• Completely eliminate soft drinks from my diet by October of 2010 (for long time readers of 60 in 3, you know how I’ve struggled with getting rid of my diet coke habit).
• Have my doctor tell me she’s amazed with how healthy I am when I take my next physical in February of 2011.  (Ok, so this one isn’t very specific but it’s good for the ego and that’s not a bad thing)

60 in 3 Reboot - Step 1, What Does Being Healthy Mean To You?

I haven’t updated this site in almost a year because I’ve been busy with quite a few other things. I tried out a fashion blog but decided I knew nothing about fashion (something my girlfriend would heartily agree with). I’m currently writing a self improvement blog and we’ll see how that goes. Still, every few weeks I think about 60 in 3 and I miss it. I miss talking to all of you about my workouts, eating plans and exercises. I miss hearing from you about your questions, your triumphs and challenges. A few weeks ago one 60 in 3 reader wrote me an email about how inspired this site had made him and the success he had in losing weight and getting in shape. That clinched it for me, I knew I had to get back to this place and to all of you.

So here’s the plan. I’m going to start posting on 60 in 3 on a regular basis. New posts will be up every Monday just in time to distract you from coming back to work. Topics will be the usual, exercise, workouts, eating, weight loss and all the rest. If you have questions or suggestions for articles, please feel free to send them my way. In the meantime, I thought I would start this reboot with a quick series of articles on how to get started. Which brings us to today’s post, getting started…

Step 1 – What Do You Want?

What does being healthy mean to you? Does it mean losing weight? Does it mean being able to run a mile in under 15 minutes? (you laugh but that was one of my original goals). Does it mean looking good in a bikini? Does it mean dropping your cholesterol levels or your blood pressure? These are all very different things and in many cases they might actually require different techniques, eating plans, training methods and life changes. So which of these matter to you?

Write Them Down

Take a moment to write down what being healthy means to you. These phrases will not just determine what sort of changes you need to make in your life, they will also serve as motivations and goals, so make them realistic, specific and measurable. For example:

• I will take two inches of my waist by May of next year
• I will lose 50lbs by next April
• I will fit into my old pants by next Easter
• I will be able to run a mile in under 10 minutes by next spring
• I will get a clean bill of health from my doctor when it comes to my blood pressure by my next physical in June of 2011

Check For Conflicts

A lot of times we write things down without really thinking about what they mean. We put down things like “I want to bench press 300lbs by next summer” right next to “I want my back to be healthy by next June”. Well, those two are probably mutually exclusive. Not necessarily so, that’s true, but most people who have back injuries should focus on those before they move on to lifting weights. Another common mistake is to make things unrealistic. For example, it’s simply not realistic to lose more than 1 to 2lbs of weight per week. Sure, you can do it, but it’s not healthy.  Still, don’t worry about this too much right now, we’ll focus these goals a bit more as we go along.

Last But Not Least

Keep your goals with you. This isn’t meant to be a one time exercise for you to get rid off as soon as you’re done. These goals will guide you for the rest of your life in some cases. So keep them with you, frame them, put them on your computer background, print them out and hang them by your bed, do whatever it takes to keep them in mind.
Next Monday we start getting our butt in shape

What’s A Good Goal?

Answer - A good goal is something you can barely achieve in the time specified.

Notice some important things.

Can Achieve

If my goal is “I want to win the next ms. America contest” that’s a pretty bad goal.  As a 35 year old man, I really doubt I could be Ms. America.  So that’s lesson #1, a good goal has to be achieveable.

Barely

A good goal is something you need to strive for and try really hard.  If it’s easy, it’s not a good goal.  If my goal is to get to 220lbs then that’s a pretty bad goal, since I already weigh 221.  Losing 1lb is meaningless and easy.

Time Specified

A goal with no timeline is meaningless.  I want to reach 180lbs.  Really?  When?  Is it next month?  That’s not achieveable and so it’s stupid.  Is it within the next ten years?  Also meaningless.  Is it by Dec 31st, 2009?  Well, now we’re talking.  That’s achieveable but it’s tough, which makes it a perfect goal.  I would have to push myself to achieve this but I think I could do it.  Alternatively, I could say my goal is to reach 215lbs by end of June.  Again, tough but achievable.  Notice how the numbers change with the timeline.  Something that’s impossible in the short term could be a good goal in a longer time frame.  Alternatively, something that’s easy in the long term could be tough but doable in a shorter time line.

The Magic Three Parts

So remember, when setting your goals:

• Achievable - If it’s not doable, it’s not a good goal.  It may be nice to day dream but those day dreams are meaningless as goals unless there’s a way to make them come true.
• Tough - A good goal must challenge you.  It must not be easy.  It must be hard and push you right to your limits.
• Time based - A good goal must have a deadline.  This deadline will in many cases determine if the goal is too tough or too easy.  Without a deadline, a goal is useless.

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What are your goals and their deadlines?  Would love to hear them through the comments.  Feel free to include non fitness related goals if you want to share.

Is Improvement Necessary?

When I first started working out, I couldn’t lift anything other than the bar and I couldn’t run for more than 5 minutes at 4.5mph.  That’s pretty bad no doubt about it.  Slowly but surely I improved to the point where I can lift a respectable amount of weight and maintain a 6.5mph pace for over an hour without feeling tired.  I’m very proud of these accomplishments and I’m happy with the way my body performs these days, but now I wonder, should I keep trying to improve?  Should I keep pushing myself to lift more, run faster, go longer?  Is there a point to improvement beyond a certain level?

Let’s take weight as an example.  Clearly there is an “ideal” weight that I should be aiming for.  This weight should not be too high nor too low.  Once I get to it, I should stop trying to change my weight and just focus on maintaining that level of weight.  It’s a bit difficult to figure out that ideal weight but with the help of a doctor, a trainer or any of a number of websites, you can come pretty close.  So in terms of “improving” my weight, I know exactly what I need to do.

Unfortunately, workout performance isn’t quite the same thing.  I am running today at 6.5mph.  Should I try to improve?  Will there be benefits from improvement?  Will those benefits be worth the effort needed in order to improve?  This isn’t as clear as the weight issue.  Theoretically, performance can always be improved but realistically there’s going to be a point beyond which I cannot progress.  Also, what’s the point of running at 6.6mph compared to 6.5mph?  Sure, I’ll be running faster, but is there any benefit to my body?  My heart rate and blood pressure are excellent.  Will improving my cardio performance help my body?

What about weights?  If I bench press more weight will it really help me?  I already have very good muscle tone and I’m lifting a considerable amount of weight.  Will trying to improve that improve my health or will it just increase my risk of injury?

Purpose

As I was struggling with some of these questions, I noticed a few things.  Look at the way in which I phrase these questions.  “Will doing X improve my health?”  That’s important because it clearly shows what my goals are.  I didn’t say “will doing X help me win the race” or “will doing X give me bigger muscles”.  I am concerned with health and that’s it.  I’m not trying to imply that winning races or building muscles are bad goals, I’m simply saying that, for me, the goal is health.  We all have our own reason for working out and recognizing those reasons is important when it comes to making decisions.  Without knowing WHY we workout, we’re going to make bad decisions about HOW we work out.

Let’s take the running question as an example.  I have no intention of becoming a competition runner.  I don’t need to run very fast nor am I looking to beat some specific time goal.  I run because I enjoy running and because I want to keep my body in shape.  So my decision on improvement should take these factors into consideration.  Will improving my speed improve my health?  The answer is yes but only slightly and only up to a certain point.  Improving my endurance by running for an hour at 6.5mph as opposed to 5 minutes at 4mph was clearly a huge change.  Improving from this point will only provide me with a marginal health benefit at best.  Plus, at a certain point, I might actually be decreasing my overall health since training at these levels might increase my risk of injury.

Deciding where to stop improving is harder then deciding when to stop losing weight.  There is less science around the “optimal” performance level.  So I’m going to use a few factors to decide this.

• Personal comfort - I want to run at a good pace but I don’t need kill myself.  So speeds that are too high for me to enjoy my run are out.
• Injury Risk - I have no desire to go through the repeated and frequent injuries that high end athletes go through.  With running, I want to minimize the impact damage to my legs.
• Cardio Performance - I do want to keep my heart rate and blood pressure in a good and healthy range.  That means working out hard but it also means not working out too hard.  A heart rate above 85% to 90% of max is not good.

With all this in mind, I’ve decided that my current running speed is fine but I would like to go for a slight improvement.  I have no desire or need to go faster or longer but I think moving up to 7.0mph would give me a better health benefit without any downsides.  So I’ll keep working on some improvement in my running speed.

Weights

For weights I am making a similar decision with similar considerations.

• I like the feeling of lifting more weight.  There’s something very primal about it.  Yes, it might be shallow and vain, but that’s ok
• I am getting to the point with several exercises where increasing weight might increase the risk of injury.  For example, I can already feel the strain on my joints when I do something like overhead triceps extensions.
• In terms of health benefits, there’s very little else that I can gain from more weight.  I already do enough weight, enough reps and enough times a week.

So I’m going to try and improve in a few specific exercises where I think I can still benefit from improvement, but for the most part, I’ll keep my weight levels as is.  I might sub in some new exercises just to keep things interesting and to keep my body challenged, but I’m not going for as much raw improvement as I was before.

You!

Are you trying to improve?  If so, why?  That’s not a joke.  I honestly want you to know WHY you should be improving.  What are your goals?  Do you need to improve in order to achieve them?  In what ways?  Make sure your goals are aligned with your plan or else you’ll find yourself lost along the path.

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Remember, a bit of time spent upfront thinking about goals will save you a lot of bad decisions down the road.