Setting goals and fitness milestones is a great way to motivate yourself to keep at your fitness, and in some cases, push yourself to reach your limit.
Some people choose to start small by setting milestones to lift certain amounts of weight by a specific date and others like to aim for the stars by signing themselves up for a 10km marathon. Regardless of what sort of goals you set, all fitness milestones involve a series of steps you need to prepare for.
Here are a few of the most popular fitness milestones, and how you can work towards achieving them!
1. Climbing/hiking up a mountain.
Hiking up a mountain is a great ambition to have.
Throughout life, we conquer metaphorical mountains all the time. Whether it’s a mountain of paperwork to get through in the office, a mountain of cleaning duties to tackle around the house, or a mountain of mortgages and bills to pay off. Whatever the case may be, getting to the top is always an extremely satisfying feat.
The same goes for real mountains.
The feeling of making it to the top of an incredibly challenging mountain is amazing. And you certainly appreciate the view a lot more when you’ve worked your butt off for it, don’t you?
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as packing a backpack full of supplies, chucking on your hiking boots and heading off. You’ve got to build your fitness up first. Especially, if you’re going on a multi-day hike or intend to carry a 20kg pack!
Routines that build endurance and strength are the most important when training for a mountain-climb. However, the type and amount of training you need to do will heavily depend on which level of fitness you’re at. Chatting to a personal trainer is a great way to identify your current strengths and outline what you need to work on the most.
2. Competing in a marathon.
Marathons are another really great fitness milestone to set yourself, as the satisfaction upon completion is just as strong as climbing a mountain. The key difference between the two is that a marathon involves competing against others, whereas you can climb a mountain completely alone if you wish.
In saying that, if you thrive off a bit of healthy competition, which some people do, a marathon milestone might be for you! Training for a marathon requires a lot of hard yards and the amount of time it takes you to prepare for your marathon will depend on your current level of fitness, as well as the distance you choose to tackle first. Starting out with shorter distance sprints and working your way up to a long distance marathon is a good way to prepare, however you should also seek advice from a professional on the best ways to train without causing injury.
3. Beating your own PB.
At Striders, we go by the philosophy of “striving to be the best you, you can be”, because we know that no two human beings are the same, therefore there is no point striving to look like somebody else. Yes, you might aspire to reach the same level of fitness or be as healthy as your role models, but instead of competing with them, compete with yourself. We promise you will feel way more satisfied!
Beating your own personal best is a great goal to set, as it can be smashed over and over again – multiple satisfactions, woo! Things like running on the treadmill at a specific incline, for a certain amount of minutes, or correctly deadlifting a certain amount of weight, are good examples.
Identifying which type of fitness activity is the most effective for you is the first step in setting up a personal best to beat. A personal trainer can help you do this, by running you through a series of tests (nothing serious, we promise) to see where your strengths and weaknesses are.
If you need help setting – or smashing – your fitness milestones, give us a call. We’re more than happy to help!
