When you study any subject, either at school or college you keep notes and record what you are learning. If you didn’t it would be difficult to track your progress and see how you are performing.
The same logic should always apply to personal fitness.
How does keeping a record of your workouts help you?
When you keep a record of your workouts you are helping yourself in a couple of ways. Firstly, you can see how you are improving over a period of time. For example, if you are doing a certain number of reps and sets using weights you will instantly know from week to week how you are improving by increasing your weights. Secondly, using a log of your training helps you understand what exercise types and methods are helping you and which ones might need changing.
It’s especially important to keep a record of your results for weight loss. Record your weight, your measurements and more and tie this in with your training and your diet.
Alternatively (if this sounds confusing) a professional male or female personal trainer can of course create a training program which includes ongoing monitoring and advice.
How does setting fitness goals help you maintain a fitness routine?
It has been proven in studies like the one found here (Fitting in Fitness: The Science Behind Goal Setting (ubc.ca) ) that setting goals can help you both physically and mentally.
Physically, setting a goal can help you see results faster because you are working towards something and taking physical actions in order to achieve that goal. Let’s say your goal is to become more flexible. There are plenty of ways to reach this goal but physically taking a Yoga class in the UAE will be a great start.
Mentally, setting a fitness goal puts you in the right frame of mind to achieve that goal. Being in the right state of mind can do wonders for your self-esteem and motivation too.
Ideally, when you first start out on the new health and fitness journey you want to break down goals into smaller, more achievable ‘mini goals’ These are much easier to manage and much easier to fit into your daily schedule.
Let’s say for example you want to lose 30lbs in Abu Dhabi as part of a weight loss training program. Once you have a good personal training for weight loss program in place split that 30lbs of weight loss into a number of months and try to reach that ‘mini goal’ within that time frame.
A word of warning about goal setting. Being human we often make goals that can be unrealistic. It doesn’t mean you’ll never reach that goal but your time-frame might not be realistic.
For example, it would probably be impossible to get a great six pack in a month or lose 50lbs in six weeks. Try to be as realistic as possible with your training goals because doing so means you won’t be disappointed or even worse ‘less motivated’