Before you dive head-first into a muscle-building routine, it’s important to set realistic goals for yourself. Otherwise, you might end up getting discouraged that things aren’t progressing as rapidly as you’d like.

To help increase your likelihood of success, ZOZOFIT has some tips for setting achievable goals for muscular strength.

Your Guide to Setting Goals for Muscular Strength

Without setting specific goals, you may not ever reach your full fitness potential. Goals are important because they can help you stay focused and productive. If you don’t have any measurable goals, you’re less likely to push yourself past your comfort zone to get where you want to be. Whenever possible, use the SMART method for setting muscular strength goals. SMART is an acronym for “specific,” “measurable,” “achievable,” “realistic,” and “timely.”

Specific

If you make vague fitness goals, you might as well not make goals at all. Specificity is one of the most important aspects of any achievable goal. Simply telling yourself to “get in shape” isn’t going to get you anywhere. Instead, choose a specific goal such as building up your core muscle strength or building more defined back muscles.

Measurable

Measuring your progress is another important part of setting achievable goals for muscular strength. As your body composition changes, some of those changes may not be obvious to your eyes alone. That’s why it’s wise to measure your body so you know what subtle changes you’re experiencing, even if they may not be visually obvious yet.

There are various ways to measure your progress, but some of them are quite cumbersome. For example, using a standard measuring tape may not yield the most accurate results because it’s very difficult to measure the exact same part of the body each time. For this reason, many people are turning to cutting-edge 3D measurement technology, such as the ZOZOFIT app, to accurately track their muscle-building progress. This precise measuring technology is remarkably easy to use and takes the guesswork out of taking measurements.

Achievable

When making goals for muscular strength, you need to ensure they’re achievable for your body. You need to be physically capable of accomplishing your goal, or you’re basically dooming yourself to failure. It’s perfectly acceptable (and even advisable) to set challenging goals, but make sure you don’t step over the line and create goals that are impossible to reach.  

Realistic

In addition to being achievable, the goals you set need to be realistic for your personal lifestyle. If your goal requires you to work out three hours every day but you work 60 hours and have a family to care for, you may want to set a more realistic goal. Make sure it fits in with your lifestyle and gives you sufficient time to recover.

Time-Based

The final step in creating realistic muscle-building goals is to make sure they’re time-based. Give yourself a deadline or you could spend the next three years half-heartedly chasing a goal you could have achieved in 12 months if you were ultra-focused.

A System for Achieving Your Goals for Muscular Strength

So, there you have it! The SMART system can help you set achievable goals for muscular strength. Download the ZOZOFIT app to help you keep accurate track of your progress and maintain your momentum today.