Tip 2 - Setting your goals

What's so important about setting goals? Like weight lifting tip # 1, you need to know where you want to go, once you know where your coming from (tip number 1).

Alright, you've just taken a measurement of your arms and they are a sinewy 15 inches. You want to add another two inches to your arms which is 17 inches. Now, you have a goal in mind - two inches of muscle to each of your arms. How important is this? This will make all the difference in the world between failure and success. You see, you've just given your brain an absolute figure. Your brain now knows, without a doubt, what it needs to do.

Without these figures, your brain doesn't know, or care what it needs to do. You show up to the gym and do a workout but really, without any direction, there is no reason for your brain to tell the rest of your body to grow 2 inches of muscle to your arms. I know, this might sound crazy but I know, without a doubt that this works.

The term "goal setting" shouldn't be used. It should be called "This Is What I Want More Than Anything In The World" term. Whether it be to lose 30 pounds of fat, become a body builder, or tone your body up, you need to give your brain a direction, which in turn will open up your body to muscle growth (If building muscle that is what you want).

Here's what I like to do. I will usually give myself a long term goal such as losing 30 pounds of body fat in 15 weeks. This is my number one goal. I'll break that long term goal into medium goals. What do I mean by medium goals? I want to lose 2 pounds of fat each and every week. Each week is a medium term goal and to reach this medium term goal, I need to lose 2 pounds of fat each and every week.

In order for me to reach these medium term goals, I need to come up with small mini goals. Small mini goals are to improve with each workout. For example, let's say I do 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer on level 5 on Monday. On Thursday, I want to improve on that time and do 15 minutes using the same level. This is a mini goal that has been met, which in turn will help be burn an additional 2 pounds of fat per week, which in turn, as long as I keep improving, will get me to my final goal of losing 30 pounds of fat in 15 weeks.

Take a look at the big picture and break it down into smaller goals. If you can do this, you'll reach your ambitions whether it be to build muscle and strength or lose body fat and weight.

Monitoring and updating your goals will be just as important. Once you start to see your goals being met, it will only reinforce these ideas and your brain will know it can reach those goals and therefore will work harder. This is very, very powerful. I suggest you keep a log handy and bring this log with you to every workout.