Do You Need To Have A Goal To Work Out?


“I want to have abs,” “I want toned arms,” “I want to have a chiseled chest,” “I want to lose weight” – all of these are common goals that we hear from most if not all new members. They get into the gym thinking that fitness is a one-thing fix-all, but it’s not always the case. Here at Bent On Better, we prioritize fitness with a purpose, we set functional goals that can help not only your physique but, most importantly, the functionality of your own body.

In this episode, Matt and Lynn will answer your question on how to set fitness goals that will stick and how a change of mindset can be the missing cog to keep things rolling.

When To Start Your Fitness Journey
Members at Bent On Better come in various ages, shapes, and sizes, and even intangible dynamics like surgeries, past injuries, pain points, and other limitations; nonetheless, our trainers are here to assist you repair anything you believe needs fixing for you fitness-wise.

a woman deadlifting a trap bar with a coach beside her
Being fit doesn’t mean you have to be skinny or have a defined body. It means you have the health and strength to do what you want in life. So give yourself a break, don’t compare yourself to others, and start today!

New members seem to have this perception of fitness that it has only one look or expectation that, to a fault, has been widely spread by the health and fitness industry. We’ve been programmed to think that people who are fit or “in shape” are always skinny or have defined muscles–it doesn’t matter if people have different heights or are a certain age, it’s always people who are young, slim, and doesn’t have any illness. Because of these standards, people think they need to be at a certain level to start on their fitness journey, but there is no starting point. 

When people ask you, “When’s the best time to plant a tree?” the answer would be, it was yesterday. The same thing goes with fitness, the best time to start on your journey to a healthy lifestyle was years ago, but the second-best time is today.

What’s Stopping You From Your Progress?
For people who are caught up in thinking that they are the problem, it’s not always the case. External forces play a huge role in how you can perceive your self-worth. May it be social media, friends, and family who have gone on diets, the fitness industry’s juice cleanse diet, and influencers– these things are one of the most significant factors in making us feel that we are inadequate and that we are not worthy of making a change in our life. 

What we want you to understand is that you don’t have to be a certain way to get to a point in your life where you can address the problems that you have been experiencing on a daily basis. We build so many barriers around ourselves because of what we see on commercials and social media that we end up feeling trapped in our own bubble. 

We all think that we have to fit a certain mold, but these limitations aren’t real. The space between your ears is the same amount of distance that is preventing you from being ordinary to extraordinary. You have all the power within yourself to make that change. 

How To Find The Right Goal
Now back to the main question, how do you get to your goal? Our fitness coach, Lynn April says that having an end goal or the desired result is the guaranteed way to not get there, and she has the experience to back up that claim. You see, after giving birth to their son, Joey, Lynn had a goal of being able to do a back squat. Why? For the simple reason of having bragging rights to say that she could. She hadn’t been under a bar for a couple of years, so she wanted to have that glory. It wasn’t for better movement or to be able to fix a certain problem; it was just that simple goal. 

Lynn wanted to be able to do the “big fancy lifts,” but it was never a priority. It was a goal that was set up for her far future. But how often do people even do a back squat in real life? To lift a child maybe, but you can do those things with a kettlebell too. 

Another thing is that people think they need to use a “correct” instrument to do their lifts, but it all comes down to preference. Our fitness coach, Matt April loves barbells. Meanwhile, his brother and fellow coach, Nick April, prefer the kettlebell. You can do a deadlift with either instrument, and each has its specific way of handling them, so it all depends on which one you’re most comfortable with or which one is the most fun to handle for you. 

CONCLUSION:

“Goals help to motivate you and inspire you to make a change, but the problem I have with goals and the way most people operate is that people think of a goal as a destination. And if you think of a goal as a fitness destination, you will surely fail eventually. Either you fail from fatigue because you’ve been working so hard or you hit that goal, and you feel like you’ve accomplished it and you stop.”- Matt April

At Bent On Better, we want to help shift this mindset that “you need to do this” because you want to be one thing, instead of thinking about what the activity can do for you or how you’ll be able to move. We want to reframe how we think about exercising, training, strength training, mobility work, stability and flexibility improvement, and eating healthy meals 80% of the time. You need to do all these, get better sleep, and drink more water. If you can do these consistently over a long period of time, it’ll be easier on your routine and you can even develop a new identity for yourself to live a lifestyle that you’ve built instead of working towards a destination or end goal.

“If you want to make a goal– because it’s great to have a goal, we love goals! Make your goals something beneficial to you.” -Lynn April

May it be to get up and down the stairs with your grandchildren or play tag with them, making functional goals that will give you a better lifestyle will be your ticket to longer years of fitness.

Watch the video here:

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