What Is The Training Goal?

Here is a simple question that, unfortunately, many people cannot answer when asked. So my question to you is – whether the training you decide to do is going for a run, lifting weights, using bands or kettlebells or whatever – what is the training goal? Can you answer what the main objective of performing that exercise is? If the answer is yes, great! If not, why are you doing it?

A correctly constructed training plan will have a main objective, which, depending on the goal, may have many smaller objectives along the way. Each step will acheive something – either reaching an immediate goal, or doing work to enable a goal to be reached down the line. Each session will be planned with a proper warm-up, with each exercise flowing to the next in a logical order, and so as to not interfere with any other sessions. Each exercise will be chosen or adapted to suit the individual…and so on.

If you are doing a workout because (and these are all real reasons I have heard in reply to ‘why are you doing that?’)

• You saw it on tv
• Your mate did it and got good results
• You heard it was hard
• You were bored and felt like doing something
• You were shown it during your gym induction
• You read it in a magazine
• Somebody said sprints were the best way to train
• Etc.

you will probably not be doing the best thing to acheive your goals! Some people have said in the past that exercise is a drug – the correct dose of the correct drug will acheive the best results, the wrong drug may do more harm than good – picking workouts randomly in this analogy would be the equivalent of taking 2 random pills out of your bathroom cabinet when you have a headache and hoping it goes away!

The solution to this problem, unfortunately, is not easy. In an ideal world PE lessons in school would cover the whys and hows of training sufficiently that people would be able to construct a well thought-out basic program, however this is not the case. Therefore, it may be worth learning some basics about training theory, or asking for guidance from someone who understands them. Here are some books that cover some useful areas (click the picture for details!):

Of course, I also offer one-to-one training, designing training programs, online training, seminars etc… if you are interested, drop me an email at alex@absolutegolduk.com and I will give you more info.

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Tags: training, program, planning, why, exercise, progression