Back to Blogs

6 Steps To Crush Your Fitness Goals

By Gaelle Abecassis | Jan 5, 2024

Common fitness goals and dreams suffer from a case of what we call "the vagues." Shedding fat, building muscle tone, or losing 10 pounds — modern society has, unfortunately, conditioned us to equate fitness with outward appearances. The reality is this: Fitness is a feeling. You feel strong, capable, healthy, and energized when you’re fit. Odds are that if you pursue a fitness goal like this, you will end up with less fat around your gut and legs, drop weight, and develop some muscle along the way. And you might even develop a new image of yourself as an athlete.

Step 1: Adopt an Athlete’s Mindset

We all know men and women who commit to and identify with a sport. They may be an endurance athlete who swims, runs, bikes, climbs mountains, or all the above. Their approach to fitness involves training for and practicing their sport. Overall fitness is a benefit, not the sole focus, of what they do. This makes them athletes, not simple exercisers. 

Step 2: Set a Goal

Endurance athletes have specific goals with deadlines. These goals can range from running a first 10k to entering an Olympic distance triathlon or biking across a continent. And this goal-setting isn’t limited to endurance sports. It applies to strength training as well. Being able to do 10 pull-ups (or even one!) is a legit athletic goal. With a goal set, the training follows naturally with a prescribed pathway to do whatever you set out to do. Your goal may take three weeks to prepare for, or it might take three years to grow fit enough to accomplish. The key is finding a goal that motivates you.

Step 3: Find a Training Plan

Whatever your athletic goal, a training program exists to prepare you for it. A coach can help you layout your fitness journey and tailor your training to your current availability and baseline strength and endurance levels. Maybe you’re a harried new parent with little time to train. Or you could be single and self-employed with the flexibility to train like an elite athlete. A coach will develop a plan that works for you. Humango’s coaching app does the same. Plug in your goal event and date, and the app will produce a progressive plan to get you to the finish line. Along the way, you should grow stronger, leaner, and faster.

Step 4: Follow Your Training Plan

Unlike general fitness classes that repeat the same workout, a training plan builds you up step by step. A big part of its success involves recording your workout data, sharing it with a coach, or uploading it to an online AI coaching app like Humango. This data will reveal how your progression as an athlete is going. Are you struggling to finish each workout? Are you bored because the training is too easy? The coach — or coaching app — will cull the data and adjust your future workouts accordingly.

Step 5: Finish Strong & Revel In Your Fitness

Achieving the actual goal itself is the ultimate payoff for all your work. Your training plan should deliver you to the start of your event in peak fitness, full of energy, and in top physical shape. Before you launch into competition, take a moment to appreciate the strong, fit athlete you’ve turned yourself into. Then go smash whatever event you entered and relish the accomplishment. 

Step 6: Set a New Goal & Start the Process Again

The wonderful thing about being an athlete is that the pursuit never ends. There are always more goals to shoot for and more events to try. And if you grow bored with training for one sport, you can always try a different one. Exchange running for cycling, for example. Athletic seasons come and go; the athlete's ultimate payoff is staying fit for life.