Bodybuilding Goal Setting for Long Term Progress · Video

Shawn Ray, a 13× Mr. Olympia competitor, spends the 1-hour video Bodybuilding Goal Setting on how to set fitness goals that survive contact with a real year. Most training that goes nowhere was aimed at nothing in particular, and the effort was never the problem. The session runs in three parts: why a defined target changes the training, how to read the body you are starting from, and how to turn that into muscle-building goals with numbers attached. A preview clip plays on this page, so you can hear how he explains it before you buy.

Start from the body you have, not the one in the plan

Setting fitness goals before assessing where you actually stand is how lifters end up chasing someone else's timeline and calling their own progress a failure. The video starts with the honest audit: your current level, your existing injuries or health conditions, and the reason you are doing this at all. That last one, the why, is what holds the goal together when the weeks get difficult. Watch it in one sitting and write the first target down before your next session.

What people call smart goals for fitness

The framework is four decisions, and the video walks through each of them. Make the objective specific enough to picture. Make it measurable, whether that is a weight on the bar, a distance, or a body-fat percentage. Put a realistic timeframe on it. Keep it achievable against your genetics, your job and everything else you are committed to, because a target set too high does the same damage as one set too low.

How to set goals when several of them compete

Most lifters carry three or four objectives at once and wonder why none of them move. The video is direct that goals get prioritized and ordered by importance, so the critical one gets the weeks it needs and the rest wait their turn. Long-term targets get broken into smaller milestones, which is what creates a sense of progress rather than one distant date that never seems to arrive.

A target without a number and a date is a wish

Bodybuilding goal setting gets specific in the third part of the video. Assess your current muscle mass, choose the areas you want to prioritize, then attach a measurable target and a timeframe to each one. Training frequency gets decided at the same time, because a goal you cannot fit into the days you actually have is a goal that was never real. Progress gets tracked in weights, measurements and workouts logged.

Who should start with another title

A lifter who already has a clear target and a deadline will find this session confirms more than it changes. Shawn Ray does not walk through exercises on screen. What it does instead is the part that comes before any program: deciding what you are training for, in terms specific enough that you can tell whether it happened. Shawn Ray goal setting, or goal setting for lifters generally, is the least glamorous hour in the collection and the one that decides what the other hours are worth.

Two other titles carry this forward. Training Plateaus and Progression covers what to do when the target stops getting closer, and The Mental Resilience Playbook deals with the head that has to keep showing up in the meantime. The video is delivered as instant access after checkout. A streaming and download link is emailed immediately, with lifetime access so you can return to it whenever you need it.

Disclaimer. Bodybuilding Goal Setting is provided for educational purposes only and is not medical or healthcare advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Consult a qualified physician before starting any new training program, particularly if you are living with a medical condition or an injury. Individual results vary. Full terms in the BuildWithPros Disclaimer.

Watch it once, then write down one target with a number and a date on it.