Dr. Antonio shared many different ways on how to achieve fitness goals. He also explained that fitness goals do not come easily, and there are many things that we all have to consider when training for fitness goals. The first thing that Dr. Antonio said that I thought was extremely important that you need to choose a specific fitness goal. This is an obvious point, but as Dr. Antonio said, you need to choose a specific goal that does not include just changing the way that you look. Similarly to this point, he said that you need to shy away from going after physical goals and focus more on achieving certain performance goals. For example, this could include not trying to get a six pack, but trying to run a marathon or be able to squat a certain amount of weight. According to Dr. Antonio, many college students struggle with this set in trying to achieve a fitness goal. Students will focus too much on the physical aspect of training, but not the performance aspect. He also said that training for a goal takes time and you will have to make sacrifices. You are not going to see results in the first week; you are not going to be able to do the complex training when you first start. You are also not going to be able to achieve your goals if you don’t sacrifice some things. Dr. Antonio also said to start with the basics, and the difficulty will decrease over time. My last week’s fitness goal was to be able to run up to 7–10 miles again. In order to be able to accomplish this goal, I will have to implement Dr. Antonio’s advice of starting with the basics and working up to the more intense training. When training for my half marathon, I could easily run 7–10 miles. I have to remember that this takes time and by starting slow, I will be able to work my way up to these distances. I also have to remember that in order to run these distances, I need to sacrifice some other things that are not improving my running. This could be going out late with my friends if I plan to run 5 miles the next morning. My fitness goals can be achieved by doing these steps as well as listening to the Principle of Progressive Overload. This principle states that as the workload increases during training, you will progressively gain muscle and strength. In order to achieve my fitness goal of running a certain mileage, I will continue to progressively increase the distance I am running each week. For example, I may add another mile to my 3 miles, and then another to my 4 miles the next week. By doing this, I will slowly build up my ability to run further distances. In order to track my workouts, I am going to write down in my daily planner the runs that I am doing, the distances, and the strength workouts that I do in between. By doing this, I will keep myself accountable and motivated to finish my workouts and write them down in my planner.
