“The goal is to keep the goal the goal.” – Dan John

How many of you know someone with one of the following goals:

“I’m going to get down to X% body fat this year.”

“I’m going to squat, bench and/or deadlift a PR.”

“This is the year where I put on the most size EVER.”

As unique and individual goals, that’s all fine and dandy, right?

But how many of you know people that want to make ALL OF THESE their goal, at the same time?

I do – and it’s about every 20-something male that’s ever walked into my gym!

So not only are they going to shed body fat, but they’re going to get bigger and stronger to boot?

And all at the same time?

Unfortunately, these people are destined for mediocrity.  The body isn’t built to adapt to all things at once.  You need to focus on one goal, achieve it, and then working on maintaining those gains while shifting the emphasis of your program.

I don’t really blame the trainee most of the time, though, unless they’re just hopelessly unrealistic.  The blame lies at the feet of these ridiculous muscle rags and websites that espouse that you can do all of these at once.

The only time you’re ever going to get bigger, stronger and shed body fat at the same time is when you first start training.  Hello newbie gains!

Unfortunately, anyone who has been training seriously (with emphasis on the word seriously) for more than a year or two is well beyond this phase.  It’s time to focus on one, or maybe two, goals.

Remember this: If you are serious about one goal, you need to stick to that one goal.  Anything else is gravy.

Sometimes, two goals work well together – in other words if you’re serious about getting stronger, adding a little size never hurts. Dave Tate has talked about this numerous times, how adding body weight and improving his leverage improved his powerlifting total.  These goals do not conflict with each other.

If you want to improve your relative strength, you might be able to get a bit stronger, or at least maintain your strength, while shedding some bodyfat.

But don’t sabotage your goals by having way too many of them, all of which are going in different directions. The perfect example is the 150 pound kid who wants to put on some muscle and size, but doesn’t want to lose his 6-pack abz.

Your Mission for Today: Write down ONE goal you want to achieve for this year.  If you achieve nothing else, this is want you want to accomplish.

And then stick to this goal until you achieve it!

Once there, you can redefine your goals, or move in a different direction.  But don’t get caught up in “shiny object syndrome” where you’re constantly changing the emphasis and focus of your programming.

You’ll be mired in mediocrity, with no one to blame but yourself.

Stay strong

MR

(Lead photo courtesy of Cburns1)