Offseason Training: Goal Setting and the Importance of Tracking your Progress This is often a majorly overlooked portion of everybody s approach to training and nutrition design, they fail to track their progress and set goals. Setting goals and tracking your progress has an immeasurable effect on the rate at which you improve performance. These usually aren t seen as a big part of the picture due to their transparency but if you ask any professional athlete or professional coach, they will 100% tell you setting goals is of the utmost importance to your overall improvement, but to be more precise, setting specific goals. Vague goals mean nothing. I want to be a better hockey player Or I want to be stronger Doesn t mean a damn thing. You might as well not set a goal. A real goal sounds like: Ok I can dead lift 365lbs right now for my 1RM, in 12 weeks, I want to be able to dead lift 380lbs That s more like it. That is specific, attainable and measureable. That s how goal setting and tracking is done. Or, from a hockey performance perspective: I scored 15 goals last season, this season I want to hit 20
Tracking Your Progress Tracking your progress plays its own unique role in the big picture, it brings a clear picture as to the road you travelled and how you got to where you are today. For example, if you were making progress for a certain period of time and then everything plateaued, you now have the power to go back through all your notes to check and see where you went wrong. This also gives you the power to never make that mistake again so you can continue to make non-stop progress. Now flip it around, let s say you set a goal and you got there a whole lot sooner than you thought you were going to. Now you have the power to look back and see how that happened, something in that formula of stuff you did in the past several weeks allowed you to take a short cut to your goals. Having the notes to see and understand what works for you so you can duplicate those results again is to your extreme advantage. The lesson here guys is those who track everything, can quite literally pin point where they went right and where they went wrong. Offering a fast track to re-trace your steps and get back on the right road to success. But for those who do not keep track of their training have no idea where they went right or where they went wrong, they are flying blind. When you re flying blind, you don t know what works best for you or what you should do next. What gets measured gets managed. Goal setting is as applicable to business as it is to making progress in the gym. Many of the top CEO s in huge corporations got to where they are because they measure EVERYTHING.
They measure cost, time, marketing strategies, employee performance, sales, profit, income, net worth, competitor s strategies, the list goes on and on. Using measuring tools is what guarantees success in any goal setting facet; in the gym, this means your notebook. By measuring and managing all of your activity you will by default make progress every week. Keeping 100% track of your performance and your activities constantly sets new standards and new goals for you to achieve each and every workout. Because each and every workout you have a set number to beat from your last training session. This also works as a huge motivation and confidence technique as you see yourself both in the gym and on paper getting stronger each and every week. This can be done in a number of ways. Although a serious case can be built for the old school pen and paper method. There is something so much more motivating and personal about writing down your results as opposed to keeping track of them by typing it on your phone, not to mention a phone can be a major distraction in the gym. Having a notebook brings you a lot more power than you would think. The personal touch of hand writing your goals has been effective and recognized by so many motivational speakers and is demanded in many how to become successful books written over the years. Some of the most influential books ever written have an order of operations to success that all include the hand written goal. Owning a notebook and knowing what you need to do every time you get to the gym to beat your last workout takes a lot of mind work out of the game. Which makes it far less stressful on your mind and
body. When you take the memory work out of it all, the only thing you need to be focused on is going in the gym and kicking ass, one note at a time. Goal Setting Goal setting is where a lot of guys go wrong. The key with goal setting is to make them specific, and measureable. You want your goal to have a specific outcome and for the process to be measureable and attainable. For example, if your goal is I want to build muscle this offseason. That is not specific enough, the key to unlocking your motivation and ensuring you create continuous progress would be more like I want to have 10lbs of extra lean muscle mass by the end of this offseason. That is a goal that is specific with a number, but also with how that number is made. That number is made up of lean muscle mass, not just gaining 10lbs. Anybody can gain 10lbs, but it takes a different kind of personality to turn the gears up to gain 10lbs lean mass during the offseason. You would be a completely different animal come ice time next year. On top of this, it is also measurable and attainable. Here are the top three mistakes hockey players make when setting their offseason goals (if they have even set them, that is): #1. Not specific enough: When you aren t specific with your goals you really don t have anything to base your plan from. If your goal is I want to get in better shape. Well ok, that s a good start. But what is better shape to you? Is it more muscle? Is it better endurance? Is it less body fat?
You see where I m going here? Vague goals literally mean nothing and do nothing for anybody. Vague goals often lead to guys wanting to both gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, an extremely hard thing to do unless you have a ton of drugs or are brand new to training. In those two scenarios, it can be done, but that pretty much excludes everybody reading this. Like the Old Russian proverb goes If you try to chase two rabbits at a time, you will catch neither. You have to choose one goal, complete it, then choose another. #2. Having no way to measure your progress: If you have no way of measuring your progress, how do you know if you are on the right track? Also, if you re goal isn t specific, can you even measure it? If you pick just one goal to measure and measure it throughout the process, you have an exact layout, week to week of what is working and what is not. If that measurement is positively changing, something is wrong and you need to re-trace your steps and figure out why you are not progressing. That s where your notebook comes in. Without knowing these facts and measurements it is harder to tell when you need to change up your routine. #3. Not setting deadlines: Setting deadlines is one of the most motivating things you can do for yourself. Think of all the successful endeavours you have achieved in your lifetime, a lot of them are all tied to a deadline. A few examples of achievement through deadline include: Getting ready for an exam Had a due date on a project
Having to plan a wedding Getting in shape for a vacation or special event Needing to raise money for an event Paying taxes Whatever the case may be these all have deadlines and consequences if you do not meet these deadlines. They demand that you get the job done. The same will happen to your fitness goals if you put deadlines on them too. Setting deadlines also puts some blood in the game, more is at stake. You don t want to fail. Also when you think about goal setting, you have to set deadlines or it sounds ridiculous. Think about it I want to dead lift 500lbs. OK, when? When you re 60 years old? Next year? When!? It doesn t make any sense to not put a deadline on your goal, it s just empty words without a deadline. Also, now that there is a deadline, every little decision you make now determines whether or not you are going to meet that deadline. Go out partying this weekend? That will set you back a bit. Getting all your meals in, training your ass off and sleeping well at night? Looks like you re going to make it. Every last thing you do now is fixed upon that date. That is a very strong power my friends, deadlines create champions.
PLAN OF ACTION 1. Set three goals for yourself this offseason that are measureable, attainable and are tied to a deadline. Write these down, don t type them. You can write them anywhere, it doesn t matter. But it is to your advantage to keep them in a place where you will see them on a regular basis. Seeing them every day will allow them to creep into your subconscious mind and become habit. Habits create success. 2. Print out all your workout sheets and put them in a binder. Carry this binder with you to every training session and track all your sets, reps and amount of weight used. Additionally, if you want to make the best progress humanly possible this offseason, track your eating in this binder as well. Nothing will be able to stop you then as you will be covering all your bases.