How To Set SMART Fitness Goals: Examples Included

A goal without a plan is a wish.

– commonly attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but that’s up for debate

A goal without a deadline is a dream.

– Robert Herjavec, some dude on a hit television show who obviously dabbles in quote unoriginality

I’m going to show you how to set SMART fitness goals, with examples aplenty.

But Monster, I already have goals! I’m going to get big as FAWK, brah!!!

*sigh*

That right there, folks, is exactly why I’m going to show you how to set SMART fitness goals, with examples aplenty!

See, I run into a lot of people on a daily basis. For some reason or another that escapes me, the topic of fitness always comes up — as if I appear to know a thing or two about #gymmingit!¹

Anyway, by whatever mysterious way people figure out that I know something about training, they ask me for help. And when I ask them to tell me what their goals are so I can tailor my advice to their needs, most of them tell me what they think are fitness goals but are really just dreams or wishes, as you just fucking did, brah!!!

They (and you) say all the right stuff about wanting to lose weight or gain muscle, but they (and you) leave it at that, what in essence are meaningless values that don’t have a specific course of action that they (and you) are committed to.

These are the sorts of people who more often than not fail at accomplishing their “goal”.

Because I want you to be someone who brings shit to reality and not a dreamer (or wisher), your goals should be all of the following things below. But that’s only if you want more effective fitness goals, which should be of interest to you because research suggests that goal setting the way I’m about to show you drastically improves your chances of going to your high school reunion looking so hot that your crush who wouldn’t give you the time of day back then wants to hook up.²

SPECIFIC

Be clear, not vague, about what it is that you hope to accomplish.

MEASURABLE

Determine by what means you’re going to quantify progress and success.

ATTAINABLE

Make your goal difficult but realistic. It shouldn’t be so easy that it takes such little effort that there’s nothing worthy of taking pride in; nor so difficult that it’s impossible and does nothing but justify everyone’s opinion of you being an absolute fuckup when you fail to reach it.

RELEVANT

What you want to do is important to you because…

TIMELY

Have a deadline to create a sense of urgency. Without one, you’ll more than likely drag your feet figuratively toward your goal more than you literally do when you walk.³

SO NOT LIKE THIS…

I’m going to have the hyoogest legs in my gym.

– you, a dude

BUT LIKE THIS…

I’m going to run the Smolov squat program for 13 weeks and hate my life every step of the way because it’s supposed to be brutal. That means I’ll squat three to four days a week, sometimes on consecutive days and with loads that are very close to my one-rep max. Yeah, brutal…but it can’t be as brutal as everyone in the gym stopping what they’re doing to laugh at what you’re squatting, which gets old after a while and is why I need to gain at least 40 lbs of strength, about the minimum amount of gains made by people who follow the program to the letter.

– you, a dude

SO NOT LIKE THIS…

I want a beach body.

– you, a lady dude

BUT LIKE THIS…

I went on a group trip last summer and hate the way I look in every photo, which makes me question my friends because none of them told me I was on the beach looking like that. Some friends!!! Anyway, I need to lose 20 lbs before the next trip in July, so I’m just going to hire a trainer and do whatever they tell me to do for the next few months.

– you, a lady dude

SO NOT LIKE THIS…

I want to lose weight.

– you, a dude

BUT LIKE THIS…

My goal is to lose the excess body fat from my permabulk. I’ve been bulking since forever. It’s time that I stop pursuing size and instead strip the fat to finally reveal the muscle underneath. To accomplish this, I’ll continue weight training but also throw in some cardio, the intensity level of both activities steadily increasing as the weeks go on. When weight loss stalls, I’ll slowly reduce my carb intake by a few grams. If I don’t drop 20 lbs before my calorie total falls below 2000 or so, then I’ll resort to carb cycling.

– you, a dude

SO NOT LIKE THIS…

I need a bigger butt.

– you, a lady dude

BUT LIKE THIS…

I’m going to add two inches to my glutes in three months by eating 200 more calories and adding another glute day in addition to my other two booty building days. This shit is sooooooo important to me because Instagram is life and I need more followers, so why capture people’s attention by doing something stupid like showcasing my intelligence when I can just use my booty?!?!

– you, a lady dude

True to my word, I’ve showed you how to set SMART fitness goals, with plenty of examples to boot!

A goal needs a plan for it to be more than just a mere wish, dream, fantasy, or other synonym I’m not in the mood to dust off my Roget’s thesaurus for. So your goal should include all of the info present because it shouldn’t be as ambiguous as your sexuality.

Lastly, before leaving you, it appears that I have to tell you that the first letter of every goal-setting step comes out to spell S-M-A-R-T, which is why the word “smart” has been capitalized throughout.

HOLY SHIT!!!

*mind blown*

Glossary: bulk, calories, cardio, fitness, glutes, goal, gym, intensity, muscle, one-rep max, personal trainer, program, squat, summer

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

How To Set SMART Fitness Goals: Examples Included

SPECIFIC

MEASURABLE

ATTAINABLE

RELEVANT

TIMELY

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