Phase 1.5 of the Road to Fitness

Yesterday, I wrote about the 1 year weight training plan that I started a couple of weeks ago. Today, I want to talk about my goals with this plan and some of the changes I’ve notice I need to make in order to continue improvement.

Long Term Goals

I want to be in shape for my wedding, but what does ‘in shape’ means? As I search on-line there are a lot of people and formulas trying to define the very same term. But, my conclusion is, that opposite to the majority of things in life, the term ‘in shape’ gets to be defined by us, our priorities and motivations. It is very easy to say ‘my goal is to be fit’, but never have a real definition of it. Thus, going to the gym endlessly without the results we would like to have. Sooner or later becoming frustrated and quitting as an end-result.

The first and second step is to define ‘in shape’ and to set a time frame. The sequence in which this is done doesn’t really matter. In my case the time frame was set, 1 Year from now. Now, I have to decide what is my reasonable ‘in shape.’  ‘In shape’ goals could be something like running a marathon or a little bit less challenging like going up the stairs without needing a tank of oxygen. Just don’t cheat yourself. Pick reasonable goals, but make sure that they are challenging as well. In other words, if you are a couch potato don’t expect to be able to run a marathon in a month or two, it is very unlikely that you will be able to do this, but you should also challenge yourself and maybe you will be able to complete a 5Km in a decent time.

I have three goals:

1. Strengthen my legs. I have bad knees and my legs have suffered because of it. There are days in which I can barely go downstairs without hanging to the hand rails for dear life. At the end of the year I would like to be able to play a basketball game and not limp for a week, go back to playing volleyball and carry my wife through the door of our honeymoon suite. ;-)
2. Loose fat. At this point I am at somewhere between 28 to 34% of body fat. I would like to lower my body fat percentage to below 20% and ideally 16% or lower. Notice that I said lower body fat, not weight. I weight around 233 lbs. (around 105.7 Kg), I am guessing that I would end up some where around 210-215 lbs., but the weight is not important to me, the fat percentage is.
3. Gain Flexibility. Limber has never been a word used to described me. This is the challenging aspect to me. In the past I was able to loose and maintain low fat percentage and have strong legs, but I have never been flexible.

Of course these goals are not set in stone, it may be that I reach my goals ahead of time and I need to find new goals or that I find it too hard to reach in the allotted time or maybe my focus has changed from pure weight training to cycling. In all these cases it will be OK to modify my goals.

Short Term Goals

As mentioned on yesterday’s post my year training plan is divided in 9 phases. I figured (no scientific method here) that it would make sense to make short term goals as I go through the phases with slight modifications as I see fit. the following is my Phase 1 short term goal:

• Stick to it. No diet, no calorie counting, no cardio, no set schedule, no weight limits…. my only rule is to go to the gym three times a week, try to rest a day between workouts and take it easy with the amount of weights. Some may find it ridiculous that a proper training plan doesn’t include any food plans or cardio and I completely agree, but that’s not what I’m looking for in the first month. I am looking to get used to finding time to go to the gym. After 2 wks into it I have been very inconsistent when it comes to workout times, I have been to the gym at 7:45 AM, 10 AM, 10 PM and 6 PM… but I have been there 3 times a week.

Two weeks into it I realize that I need to set a second short term goal. I have been able to increase my lifting weight dramatically, but that takes more energy and in the last couple of workouts I’ve had problems finishing strong. I need to start thinking about nutrition pre, during and post workout. I’ll keep you guys posted with my nutrition changes. Let me know if you have any suggestions.