Training Questions to ask yourself

1. Am I training for a goal or entertainment?

2. Does my training program match my goals?

3. Do my behaviors match my goals?

4. Do I have a realistic, measurable goal set?

Many people train for health, performance, aesthetic enhancement and fun. All of these reasons for training are fantastic but I would bet that barely any people who train have asked themselves these four questions about their training. If you do ask yourself these questions, you will automatically put yourself ahead of 99% of all people who exercise and ahead of 98% of personal trainers.

1. Am I training for a goal or entertainment?

This question is the first one to answer to determine whether you are actually serious about your training. If you are just training for fun though, more power to you. You are still improving your health and a range of other factors. The answer to this first question however, is the key to answering the others. If you are just training for fun, you can stop reading now. For those who answer that they are training for a goal, read on!

2. Does my training program match my goals?

This is the most important question to ask yourself. Your training program needs to match your goals for you to have any likelihood of achieving them. This sounds incredibly obvious, but is neglected by nearly every trainee. For example, does your training program match your goal if your goal is fat loss and you are performing a bodybuilding body part split? I don’t think so! If you want to gain muscle, do you think doing bodyblade curls on a swiss ball will help? I don’t think so, you are not training, you are entertaining!

Hypertrophy training? Really?

3. Do my behaviors match my goals?

Training is a 24 hour a day dedication. Achieving your goals in the gym is a 24 hour a day task. You need to ensure as well as train hard you need to recover hard. this means eating right, drinking right, sleeping right, taking your supplements, using the foam roller, stretching or whatever behavior aligns with your goals. You want to lose weight but eat at fast food restaurants 3x a week? Not going to happen? Want to gain muscle but are up to 3am each night watching ESPN? Not going to happen! Quite often we will see that a trainee has a decent program and works hard but is undoing themselves in the other 23 hours a day they have available to them.

4. Do I have a realistic, measurable goal set?

This question, although last, tells you the likelihood of ever achieving your goal even f you are doing a good program and following it up with good behaviors. If your goal is to drop to 10% body fat from 15% in 6 months while increasing your dead lift 20 kilograms, that is a realistic and quantifiable goal. If you want to run a marathon, compete in kettlebell sport, gain 30 pounds of muscle and double your bench press in 3 months, it is not going to happen! Focus on setting smart goals and also only a limited number. There is only so many goals one person can achieve.

So remember to ask yourselves these questions in regards to your training and also stop bitching to people that you aren’t achieving your goals until you can answer all these questions with a truthful yes! The only person that is responsible is you!