Goal setting: why bother?

With that most over-hyped of all holidays, new years, fast approaching I think there is a timeliness and relevance to this post. No doubt many of you will make some form of “new years resolution”, which you will keep up for a week or less and then end up returning to your pre-resolution habit as if the whole experience was just a drunken mistake (which it probably was). All joking aside however, setting a goal does not have to be restricted to one time of the year and it does not have to mean massive change but instead is an on-going process of small changes that ultimately lead to fulfilling a larger, long-term goal. As this is a health and fitness blog I think it is necessary to use training and training goals as the vehicle for this discussion.

Regardless of how you train, the importance of setting goals has been well established within the psychology literature (Bueno et al. 2008., Lutz et al. 2008., & Moreno et al. 2010). The benefits of goal setting have included increased motivation, success and adherence to name but a few. Not only does goal setting have a psychological effect but it also allows us to get the most from a training programme.

I have recently had to contemplate what I want to achieve from my training and this thought process enabled me to set some goals. Before this contemplation I was training as if I was a competitive athlete i.e. training for a couple of hours a day focusing on minute technicalities in lifting proficiency and pushing through grueling metabolic conditioning sessions. That would have been fine, if I was a competitive athlete or at least had some ambition of competing, but I didn’t. I was caught up in this idea that I had to be “elite” and yet I didn’t have a goal insight. The lack of a goal caused me to believe that I wasn’t achieving anything, which then resulted in me constantly switching programmes, which ultimately meant I didn’t achieve anything; it is a vicious cycle.

So I took a reality check and decided that I was going to take some ownership, “What do I want to achieve from my training?” I discovered an underlying desire to be strong, after all, strong is happy. I also wanted to put on some muscle mass and improve my body composition. Most importantly I wanted all these things for health reasons and aesthetics and NOT to increase a performance variable within a sport. Once I had these specific goals I could begin to read, research, pose questions to knowledgeable friends regarding training and nutrition and develop my own programme based on my needs.

Having set some broad goals such as becoming stronger and improving body composition, it is beneficial to break these outcome-related goals in to performance-related and/or process goals. For example, I want to get stronger (outcome goal) to do that I will need to increase my back squat and push press by 5 – 10 kg (performance goal). I can choose to focus on these lifts and programme the appropriate reps and sets in such a way as to elicit an increase in strength. These goals not only enable me to programme effectively (reps, sets, variations of lifts etc.) but also keep motivation levels up as I work towards achieving my goal.

Once goals have been achieved it is possible to re-evaluate the programme, make changes where they are needed and set new goals. This process can be done on your own or with a coach/PT and can add significant value to your training programme. Therefore, I think it can be said that setting goals effectively is an integral part of training, whether that is to be able to workout with friends at any given moment, walk up a mountain and enjoy the views, stand up out of a chair without assistance or to become a better sportsperson.

As we have highlighted in a previous post and alluded to in this one, training for health and training for performance are completely different in nature. So, before you start/go any further in your training it may be wise to take a step-back and reflect on what you are training for, or not as may be the case. This is a crucial stage in choosing/creating a training programme and will ultimately affect how you train and what you stand to gain or lose.

Reference List: 

Bueno et al. Emotional and motivational mechanisms mediating the influence of goal setting on endurance athletes’ performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 2008: 9 (6); pp 786–799.

Lutz et al. The why and the how of goal pursuit: Self-determination, goal process cognition, and participation in physical exercise. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 2008: 9 (5); pp 559–575.

Moreno et al. Motivation in the exercise setting: Integrating constructs from the approach–avoidance achievement goal framework and self-determination theory. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 2010: 11 (6); pp 542–550.