S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting For Fitness and Weight Management

Choosing to live, eat and exercise right should be our main principle to follow, but it is sometimes very hard work and tangible achievements almost always involve setting several short-term goals. And a proven way to ensure success is to make sure we are setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals?

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that describes the various attributes a goal should have to ensure maximum probability of success. The actual adjectives that the acronym stands for differs depending on the circumstances:

S – specific, significant, stretching

M – measurable, meaningful, motivational

A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

How Can I Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals For Fitness And Weight Management?

Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain muscle or just be fit, setting S.M.A.R.T. goals will give you an edge by keeping you focussed and motivated throughout your mission. See how being S.M.A.R.T. pays off:

1. Be Specific About Your Fitness Goal:

Most of you might begin with a reasonable goal like “I want to lose weight”, but if you really stop to think about it, that goal is not quite specific enough. What amount of weight do you want to lose? When do you want to lose this by? The answers to this and other so-called “W-questions” make our goals more Specific.

Try to answer the 6-W questions :

Who: Who is involved? That’s easy! “ I …”

What: What do I want to accomplish? Again, be specific here: “… want to lose 5 lbs … ”

When: Establish a time frame. “… in two months …”

Which: Identify requirements and constraints. Which way are you going to do this? “… by eating right and exercising …”

Where: Identify a location. The more details you fill in to form a complete picture, the more likely you will be to execute the plan. “… in the gym …”

Why: Give specific reasons, purposes or benefits of accomplishing the goal. “… so I can be healthy, fit and energetic.”

“I … want to lose 5 lbs … in two months … by eating right and exercising … in the gym … so I can be healthy, fit and energetic.”

Seems specific enough!

2. Make Your Goal Measurable:

OK so you have set a specific goal and have started making positive changes in your life toward achieving it. But how do you how well you are doing?

“You can’t make what you can’t measure because you don’t know when you’ve got it made.”

-Dr Irving Gardner

Measuring your progress at frequent intervals is as important as setting the goal in the first place. This serves a two-fold purpose: firstly you know pretty quickly whether what you are doing is working or not and you can take corrective action to keep yourself on track. However, the bigger advantage is the motivation that initial success will give you: nothing will boost your confidence and morale than seeing your body change for the better in the mirror every day.

3. Set Attainable Goals:

What if instead of setting a “5 lbs in two months” goal, you decided instead to shed “30 pounds in one month”? Not only is this unrealistic and virtually unattainable, but you are already setting yourself up for failure from the very beginning. Creating reasonable and attainable goals for yourself will propel you to success and keep that motivation factor alive as well. Think small, attainable targets and you’ll be alright because it’s the attaining of small goals that boosts your morale and helps you aim higher.

4. Be Realistic:

This is a little different from setting attainable goals. For example you might set yourself the attainable goal of a 32 inch waist in 3 months. That is certainly attainable if you are only a few inches away from your target. But when it comes to the methods you plan to use to achieve this goal, you might start to become unrealistic. “I will run everyday for two hours”, “I will not eat any sweets, cakes or pastries for the next 3 months” and “I will avoid all fried foods” are all examples of unrealistic methods that you have a slim chance of sticking to.

Be realistic and ask yourself what the chances are that you will stick to any drastic change in behaviour.

Do you have two hours to spare for running? Every single day?

You won’t eat cake? On your partners / kid’s / YOUR birthday?

No fried foods? Even as a treat? You have to have 'cheat' days to fool the body!

While some of these may be possible with extreme dedication, you are the ultimate judge about whether they are realistic – and sustainable.

5. Stick To Timely Goals:

Finally, no goal makes much sense unless you attach a timeframe to it. This is the “… in two months …” part of the goal statement. By limiting the time you have to accomplish a goal you have a fixed timetable to work with and the sense of urgency that will spur you to keep on track. In my opinion this is probably the most important attribute of a well-set goal because none of the others matter if you don’t set a time-limit by which to accomplish your goal.

By using the S.M.A.R.T. technique of goal setting to your fitness plans, you will see slow but steady incremental benefits that are bound to raise your morale which will, in turn enable you to to raise your own expectations even higher. 

Go ahead – set a S.M.A.R.T. fitness goal right away and work toward it!

Introduction to Kettlecross Functional Fitness

Welcome to Kettlecross Functional Fitness.

I will be looking at all areas of fitness in the regular posts which will follow.


Firstly, let me share with you the secret to gaining your fitness goals......HARD WORK !!!!

No matter what crap gimmick or pill or potion is peddled on shopping channels, achieving your health and fitness goals is 'hard work' no matter if you are a professional athlete or regular person.  Hard work is physical and psychological (you have to be doing the exercise but also have the will to train correctly, hard and eat right ) and there are simply NO SHORTCUTS.

In very basic terms there is a 'Holy Trinity' you need to observe when training.

1.Resistance Training (developing the musculature)
2.Cardiovascular Training (developing heart & lungs)
3.Nutrition (eating in a balanced way to maximise 1 &2) 

Get a balance between the three and you've cracked it !!


Lets take a look at 'fine tuning' parts 1 & 2 and look at what functional actually means.

Functional - Func.tion.al

1. capable of operating or functioning

2. capable of serving the purpose for which it was intended

(Webster's Encyclopedia 2nd Edition, 1996)

Functional training has its origins in rehabilitation and physical therapists often use this approach to retrain patients with movement disorders and incorporate tasks specific to each patient. For example, exercises that mimic what patients did at home or work or in sport are used with the aim to develop or adapt exercises to allow individuals to perform the activities of daily life more easily and without injuries.

In the context of exercise, functional training involves mainly weight bearing activities targeted at core muscles of the abdomen and lower back. Most fitness facilities have a variety of weight training machines which target and isolate specific muscles. As a result the movements do not necessarily bear any relationship to the movements people make in their regular activities.

 Functional training for sports Functional training may lead to better muscular balance and joint stability, possibly decreasing the number of injuries sustained in an individual's performance in a sport. The benefits may arise from the use of training that emphasizes the body's natural ability to move in six degrees of freedom. In comparison, though machines appear to be safer to use (recommended for beginners), they restrict movements to a single plane of motion, which is an unnatural form of movement for the body and may potentially lead to faulty movement patterns or injury over time. Standard resistance training machines are of limited use for functional training – their fixed patterns rarely mimic natural movements, and they focus the effort on a single muscle group, rather than engaging the prime movers, stabilizers and peripheral muscles

* In 2009, research was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research which compared functional training to fixed training equipment (machines), this was considered the first research of its type comparing the two methods of strength training. Results of the study showed very substantial gains and benefits in the functional training group over fixed training equipment. Functional users had a 58% greater increase in strength over the fixed-form group. Their improvements in balance were 196% higher over fixed and reported an overall decrease in joint pain by 30%.

Many people, especially females, equate strength training with bodybuilding; This means individuals who are involved in endurance or flexibility-based sports do not strength train for fear of gaining too much bulk and losing flexibility or are concerned about ‘looking manly’ !!  By utilising strength training principles and adapting workouts to their specific needs or sports, proper functional training can provide the performance/vanity benefits we want to achieve – so many people are missing out due to misconceptions!

* 2009 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research