Women's fitness goal setting

There has never been a unified standard answer for female fitness goal setting. The most reasonable logic is always to first anchor one's own physiological characteristics, current life status and real needs, and then split the priorities of stages, completely breaking away from the single aesthetic kidnapping of "white and thin" and "vest line and peach butt". Compared with "others think I practice well", "I feel comfortable and can persist" will always have a higher priority.

Last year, I met a girl who worked in Internet operations. When she first came here, she clutched a screenshot of Pamela and said she would develop the same hourglass waist in three months. She only ate 1,000 calories a day and had to do waist and abdominal exercises for an hour after get off work. As a result, she fainted once in less than 20 days. My aunt postponed it for two months. She went to see a doctor and said that there was a problem with the corpus luteum function and the gain was not worth the loss. To be honest, choosing fitness goals for many people is like going to a milk tea shop and copying other people’s orders. Others like to drink 30% sugar and less ice, but if you are lactose intolerant, you still drink it. It’s weird if you don’t have diarrhea.

There are actually two completely different goal-setting logics in the current fitness circle. They have been arguing for several years and still can’t tell the difference. In fact, the essence is that they are suitable for different groups of people. One group is the "result-oriented group", which advocates that all goals must be quantifiable and have clear feedback, whether it is how much the body fat rate has dropped in the visual dimension, how many centimeters the hip circumference has increased, or how many times the body weight has been achieved in the strength dimension, or how long the half marathon can be run, which is more suitable for the time. For girls who have relatively ample time and have clear needs to prepare for competitions or get in shape, my friends who play women's bodybuilding set their goals for the three months before the competition to "reduce body fat by 0.5 percentage points per week and increase hip thrust weight by 2.5kg per week". The execution is extremely efficient and there is no problem. The other school is the "function-oriented school" that is more advocated in the field of sports rehabilitation. They don't worry about appearance and data at all, and give priority to solving the actual discomfort of the body. For example, sedentary people first improve the problem of shoulder and neck strain, and mothers after giving birth first repair the pelvic floor muscles. People who usually get out of breath when climbing the third floor should first practice until they can walk five kilometers without any effort. This kind of training is actually more suitable for 90% of ordinary girls. After all, most people do not exercise for the purpose of competing on stage, but just want to feel less pain and be more energetic. There is no need to cram data.

Oh, by the way, there is another point that many people tend to overlook: never set your goals too high. I used to have a student who was a high school teacher. The initial plan he made for himself was to go to the gym three times a week, with one hour of strength and half an hour of aerobics each time. However, after school started, he changed his homework until ten o'clock every day, and he didn't even have the energy to remove his makeup. After going there twice, he gave up completely. Later, we adjusted the goal to spend 15 minutes every day on weekdays doing shoulder and neck stretching + pelvic floor muscle training at home, and running three kilometers in the park when she had time on weekends. She has been doing it for almost half a year now, and her waist that used to be so painful that she had to put plaster on it has long been gone. Last week, during the spring outing, she took students to climb a mountain. She walked at the front carrying two large bags of supplies, and she didn't even breathe much.

Another thing is to understand women's physiological characteristics clearly and don't copy men's fitness goals. The testosterone level of women is only about one-twentieth of that of men. It is simply unrealistic to develop eight-pack abs in three months. If you force yourself to lose fat, it will easily affect your endocrine system. It is common for your aunt to run away and your hair to fall out. I also ran into a pit when I wanted to run a half marathon two years ago. I set a goal of running five kilometers every day. After running for half a month, my knees hurt and I had difficulty walking down the stairs. Later I learned that I should add lower body strength training. The goal was divided into running twice a week + two leg trainings in the first month. I only ran three kilometers each time. I gradually increased the amount. In the end, I finished the race smoothly and no more knee problems occurred. Really, the principle of progressive loading sounds professional. To put it bluntly, don’t compete with yourself. Taking your time is better than anything else.

After all, fitness is your own business, and you have the final say on your goals. Even if today’s goal is to take two less stops to walk home from get off work, or even if you skip milk tea and drink an extra glass of water today, that still counts. After all, what we train is our own body, not for others to see, right?