The Best Way to Reach Your Fitness Goals? Be Specific

Our main approach for all of our members at A4 Fitness CrossFit and Boxing in West Los Angeles whether they are personal training clients, CrossFit members, or MMA members is to be more specific when trying to assess their fitness goals. All too often people have a broad sense of what fitness goals they would like to achieve. For example, when a coach or personal trainer asks his/her personal training client or CrossFit member a specific goal they would like to attain the typical response is usually pretty general. "I want to lose weight. I want to get stronger. I want to be more fit."
So how can we as personal trainers, CrossFit coaches and the fitness community as a whole measure fitness goals in a tangible way? "How many pounds would you like to lose in a month? Would you like to get a strict pull-up? How much weight would you like to back squat?  Would you like to be able to do a handstand? Would you like to enter an amateur fight?" Such questions are usually met with enthusiasm and intrigue. It gives our members something clearly measurable to strive for. If certain goals still seem a bit daunting to our clients and members, it is our job as personal trainers and CrossFit coaches to work as a team with our members and our fitness community to offer alternatives while still being specific. "A strict pull-up may seem a bit out of reach for you at this time. I noticed  you are currently using a thick green pull-up assisted band let's shoot for switching to a thinner purple assisted pull-up band in the next month." Such goals, once attained, ignite a fire in a majority of our A4 Fitness members. They set a clear and specific goal, achieved it, and have already set their next goals in motion.The possibilities then become endless. 
Whether it's running a 6 minute mile, squatting more than your body weight, stringing multiple muscle-ups together, gaining more muscle mass, fighting in an amateur boxing match or getting upside down and walking on your hands BE SPECIFIC.