SMART Goals

SMART is a mnemonic I borrow today from the project management field to help me set my training goals. The five keywords mean the following:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Actionable
R – Realistic
T – Time-bound

I will now use each one of the above keywords and apply them to my personal training goals for the next 6 months.

Specific

As mentioned before I would like to weigh 74 kg and only have 10% body. I realize that this will be a two step process of bulking up and later cutting the fat. For now I will focus only on the bulking phase.

If I am at my ideal weight my lean body mass will be 66.6 kg. During the bulking phase I must thus try my best to overshoot this as I will inevitably loose muscle again during the cutting phase.

Right now I am at 68 kg with 11.7 % body fat, which means I currently have about 60 kg of lean mass. My goal should thus be to pack on, at the very least, 6.6kg of muscle with 7 kg or more perhaps being the ideal to compensate for later muscle loss during fat cutting.

Whether or not this is actually possible I don’t know yet, we are still getting to the “R”.

Measurable

This is one of the easy parts since I am already measuring my weight and body fat percentages every week. In addition to this I can also take a normal tape measure to measure my biceps, calves, waist etc to help me identify where changes are happening.

I will measure my weight and body fat every Friday at the same time to make sure that “outside factors” does not influence the measurements.

Actionable

To attain my goal I will have to be very strict with my diet and ensure that I am getting the right amount of calories that will be necessary for muscle growth. I will also have to keep an eye on my progress and adjust the diet when necessary. Since I have followed a strict diet before I am sure that I can manage this.

Naturally another important part is my training at the gym; again I must consistently follow a program that will be in line with my goals. I have already started to keep a training log in a little A5 book I carry around the gym. I can use the notes I write down as a feedback mechanism which will help me determine when adjustments needs to be made.

Realistic

This is the difficult part and the part where reality can actually de-motivate me a tad. While 7 kg may not sound like all that much it may actually take much longer than I think to build that amount of muscle.

According to what I read on the Internet ^[1] it would seem that if everything goes perfectly I can only expect to put on at most 2 pounds of muscle per month.

Thus to build 7kg of muscle it would take me almost 8 months if everything goes perfectly. 8 months for 7kg of muscle is perhaps not that bad, and also not completely unrealistic – the fact that I am still reasonably new at strength training also counts for me as beginners can gain muscle a little more rapidly.

Time Bound

I don’t want to spend too much time on the bulking phase as I will be potentially gaining a lot of fat during it. I am going to set a 6 month limit on it. If I only gain 4 kg of muscle in the next six months I will be very happy about it and will proceed to the cut phase.

I must however be vigilant at all times to ensure that my diet and training is optimal as the last thing in the world I want is just to spend the next 6 months in gym wasting my time!