Goal Setting

Goal Setting Weightlifting

Goal setting is one of the most important aspects of life. Without goals and visions for the future, you may not be where you want to be in life. For most people, you will have them in different aspects of life. For example, I have goals for life and then for lifting. Goals are essential for getting where you want to be in life.

Every goal starts with an end goal in mind. I feel like seeing the vision of the end goal, helps you create the mini goals you need to get to the end goal. For each end/long-term goal, the mini goals are broken into two categories, short and mid-term goals. From a time perspective, I would say a short-term goal is within a year time from. A mid-term goal is a year to about three years. Long-term goals depending on the person could be three to five years or even longer. For me, I think five years is the longest to look ahead unless you are planning for retirement financially.

Let’s look at goal setting for weightlifting. In weightlifting, first, determine what is the end goal? National champion? World team member? Look good? Whatever you decide then you can move on to when this goal is achievable, within a year, one to three years, or three to five years. Let’s say it will take you five years to reach your end goal, then you have to decide where you want to be in three years. If you want to become a world team member, project what numbers you will need to make the team, from there set what you want to hit within three years to keep you on track for the five-year goal. Once that is set, project the total you want within the next year, once that is established, that should be in your mind every day you train.

After all of the goals are established and you have all of this in mind, you can now break it down from program to program. You get your four-week program, you look at the exercises each day and then talk with your coach and ask what is the goal of this program. Bigger squats, fix snatch catch, good posture in clean and jerks? From there you know the main focus of the program and set what you and your coach decide on what you want to hit at the end of that program. Write those in the week four of your program, then backtrack each week leading up to that and write in the numbers you should hit each week. For example, your goal is to back squat 200k on day one of week four, the peak week. Let’s say your reps are 7, 5, 3, 7, 5, 3 (a wave Dane likes to use for squats). So week four looks like this: 160x7, 170x5, 180x3, 180x7, 190x5, 200x3. Week three is your deload week so you go: 140x7, 150x5, 160x3, 140x7, 150x5, 160x3. Week two is a ramp week 150x7, 160x5, 170x3, 170x7, 180x5, 190x3. This then gives you the base you want to hit for week one: 140x7, 150x5, 160x3, 160x7, 170x5, 180x3. This is a great way to improve program to program and keep your goals in check.

Overall, you need to establish the end goal and backtrack from there to take the necessary steps to get there. Keeping the end goal in mind is the most important aspect to get you through the tough days and keep you motivated throughout your training. If you can break it down from long-term goal to mid-term to short-term and then finally the day to day you will be in a great spot of achieving what you want.