I assume the people who said they were training for strength building (heavy weight, low reps, long rest periods between sets, etc.) had probably set themselves clear concrete goals, and adapted their training to achieve them at the best of their ability and as fast as they can.
But what if you don’t have such specific goals? (Like being able to do 20 push-ups in two months, working toward a 150-pound deadlift, being able to run for an hour, doing the split, or whatever it might be.) What if, as is the case for most for us here I guess, you’re working out for general health and fitness improvement? You basically just want to feel good, energized, capable. But even when you have that approach, you still have some expectations (maybe unconsciously) of what should happen down the line, like being able to lift more gradually, being more flexible, being more endurant, lose fat around a specific part of your body, etc. But now I’m thinking maybe our training style is not meant to get us there, and some of our expectations might never be met, or not as we would want them to (even if it’s unconscious).
What approach do you like best? Not that there is anything wrong with either of them, I just wonder what benefits we might get from being more conscious of all this. Do you think it’s necessary for you to set a specific goal and to train towards it or do you just go with the flow without thinking too much about it? Does the approach you have make you frustrated or disappointed? Like, let’s say you’re putting a lot of time and energy into heavy strength training trying to lift and round out your butt, but you don’t see any change because that’s just not what your body is built to be like. Wouldn’t that be a lot more frustrating and discouraging than hoping you’ll eventually see that result at some point (in the long run) taking on the second approach, but diversifying your training much more and gathering small results in other aspects of fitness meanwhile? And to the contrary, if you don’t set any specific goals, wouldn’t it be frustrating not to know what could happen if you focused on one thing more intensely for some time?
For example, I don’t set specific fitness goals, but I generally have fitness “plans” or challenges I set myself (like completing a 1000 calorie workout every month) just for the fun of it. I’ve also thought a lot about what I could do to increase the amount of movement I do during the day, considering I have a very sedentary job and lifestyle outside of my workouts. I’ve come up with a few ideas that I’m trying to progressively turn into habits: doing yoga/pilates in the morning, maybe add in a short run once or twice a week, go for a short walk after work and before my FB workout, set an alarm on my work computer to remind me to get up and move a bit during the day, etc. It’s all very general, varied, nothing oriented towards a specific goal. I don’t have a favorite training style either: I like strength training, hiit, cardio, pilates, yoga, stretching, kickboxing, etc. and I really like switching things up (I can’t choose, you should have seen me trying to pick an ice-cream flavor as a child… If I take vanilla, I can’t take chocolate, and if I take chocolate I can’t take mango :D). But I’m thinking that if that’s the approach I’m choosing, I should maybe start thinking about the results that this training style/life style could bring and what results it won’t probably bring. To come back to yesterday’s post: stop unconsciously expecting that I should be able to lift a little more for various exercises every few months, for example. In short, be actively conscious of the fact that that’s not what I’m working towards.
Bonus personal question here if you’ve made it this far into the reading: what results do you think I can expect from this training style and what results do you think I should forget about?
I don’t know, I’m just rambling here, but I’d like to hear your thoughts about this if you feel like rambling too. :D
Follow-up discussion: goal-setting
Hi again Blendfriends,
Thank you so much for all your interesting replies to yesterday’s discussion about strength training (https://www.fitnessblender.com/community/discussion/19192/thoughts-and-questions-on-strength-training-after-a-conversation-with-a-physiotherapist). I found it really interesting and it gave me a lot of food for thought. One of the common themes in the comments was goal-setting and preferences, which is logical. This made me think a lot, and I’m curious to see what you guys have to say about this new string of thought of mine. :D
I assume the people who said they were training for strength building (heavy weight, low reps, long rest periods between sets, etc.) had probably set themselves clear concrete goals, and adapted their training to achieve them at the best of their ability and as fast as they can.
But what if you don’t have such specific goals? (Like being able to do 20 push-ups in two months, working toward a 150-pound deadlift, being able to run for an hour, doing the split, or whatever it might be.) What if, as is the case for most for us here I guess, you’re working out for general health and fitness improvement? You basically just want to feel good, energized, capable. But even when you have that approach, you still have some expectations (maybe unconsciously) of what should happen down the line, like being able to lift more gradually, being more flexible, being more endurant, lose fat around a specific part of your body, etc. But now I’m thinking maybe our training style is not meant to get us there, and some of our expectations might never be met, or not as we would want them to (even if it’s unconscious).
What approach do you like best? Not that there is anything wrong with either of them, I just wonder what benefits we might get from being more conscious of all this. Do you think it’s necessary for you to set a specific goal and to train towards it or do you just go with the flow without thinking too much about it? Does the approach you have make you frustrated or disappointed? Like, let’s say you’re putting a lot of time and energy into heavy strength training trying to lift and round out your butt, but you don’t see any change because that’s just not what your body is built to be like. Wouldn’t that be a lot more frustrating and discouraging than hoping you’ll eventually see that result at some point (in the long run) taking on the second approach, but diversifying your training much more and gathering small results in other aspects of fitness meanwhile? And to the contrary, if you don’t set any specific goals, wouldn’t it be frustrating not to know what could happen if you focused on one thing more intensely for some time?
For example, I don’t set specific fitness goals, but I generally have fitness “plans” or challenges I set myself (like completing a 1000 calorie workout every month) just for the fun of it. I’ve also thought a lot about what I could do to increase the amount of movement I do during the day, considering I have a very sedentary job and lifestyle outside of my workouts. I’ve come up with a few ideas that I’m trying to progressively turn into habits: doing yoga/pilates in the morning, maybe add in a short run once or twice a week, go for a short walk after work and before my FB workout, set an alarm on my work computer to remind me to get up and move a bit during the day, etc. It’s all very general, varied, nothing oriented towards a specific goal. I don’t have a favorite training style either: I like strength training, hiit, cardio, pilates, yoga, stretching, kickboxing, etc. and I really like switching things up (I can’t choose, you should have seen me trying to pick an ice-cream flavor as a child… If I take vanilla, I can’t take chocolate, and if I take chocolate I can’t take mango :D). But I’m thinking that if that’s the approach I’m choosing, I should maybe start thinking about the results that this training style/life style could bring and what results it won’t probably bring. To come back to yesterday’s post: stop unconsciously expecting that I should be able to lift a little more for various exercises every few months, for example. In short, be actively conscious of the fact that that’s not what I’m working towards.
Bonus personal question here if you’ve made it this far into the reading: what results do you think I can expect from this training style and what results do you think I should forget about?
I don’t know, I’m just rambling here, but I’d like to hear your thoughts about this if you feel like rambling too. :D
Thanks guys, enjoy your day!! 😊