Non-Negotiable Fitness Goals
Written By Kyle Ligon - MovementLink.FIT Head Coach
This article is available both as a YouTube video you can watch/listen to and is also transcribed below.
The reasons most people exercise are pretty simple: to look good, feel good, be physically capable, and to be healthy. Unfortunately, because most people have not taken a modern approach to goal setting, which involves creating a holistic view of the life they want to live, as people move along their fitness journey, specific goals tend to creep to the top of their mind. Maybe they want to run a marathon, back squat a certain amount of weight, get caught up in the sport of CrossFit, or just start hyper focusing on a weight loss goal. These types of goals are not inherently bad goals, but unless you’re trying to be a professional athlete and your livelihood depends on you reaching these types of goals, there should be a core set of goals that any health and exercise habits you choose to implement into your life should account for.
All too often I see people’s goals lead to high effort, progress towards those goals, but this can lead to narrow results that actually neglect aspects of health and fitness that are vital for a thriving body and mind across our lives. Short-term goals and interests can be fun and motivating, but they will come and go across our life. But, if we keep a perspective that maintains a base set of goals, what I call non-negotiable fitness goals, we can make sure that as we push forward our current interests, the efforts we’re putting in are not accidently at the expense of anything else that really matters for our life.
Here is the framework for our Non-Negotiable Fitness Goals:
Functional Performance - We want a foundation of fitness and skills that allows us to easily perform everyday tasks and participate in anything physically we’re interested in, or may become interested in, in the future. At the MovementLink.FIT gym, we test all aspects of our functional fitness in two benchmark weeks we do each year. we do each year, so we can track progress and identify any imbalances.
Healthy Body Composition - We want a body that is composed of amounts of muscle and body fat, distributed across our body in a balanced way, that supports the other non-negotiable fitness goals. Where using a scale to measure weight only provides our weight, a DEXA scan, bioelectrical impedance scale, and hydrostatic weighing measure your body composition in a way that provides insights into the amounts of muscle and fat and our bone density. Typically, when people are trying to lose weight, they are actually trying to lose body fat and over time grow and maintain muscle mass and bone density, so the body composition measurements provide a much healthier picture of progress when compared to weight on a scale.
Tissue and Joint Health - A body that can move freely and pain-free through full ranges of motion reduces the chance of injuries, boosts functional performance, and provides movement choice options, especially as our interests change. At the MovementLink gym, we perform a series of movement tests to test ranges of motion across our whole body.
Overall Health and Wellness - Balanced hormones, vitamins and minerals, and well functioning body systems and organs reduces the chance of disease and helps us thrive physically, mentally, and socially. Getting blood work done through your doctor or a company like InsideTracker can provide valuable insights into how your body is functioning.
For most, once these are laid out, it’s easy to embrace how improvements in all of these areas would benefit someone’s life. Additionally, these are so essential that these goals do not need to change as we age. These goals are timeless, could apply to anyone, and are our top priorities when choosing exercise strategies and when reflecting on where those exercise habits lead.
The amazing thing that you’ll find when prioritizing these non-negotiable goals is they don’t detract from any other goals that may unfold from our interests. They are essentials which is why I consider them non-negotiable.
Negotiable Fitness Goals
Developing negotiable goals along your journey will mainly come from your interests, hobbies, sports, etc. You’ve got to get out, play, and enjoy yourself! Maybe you become interested in running and you set your sights on a marathon. Completing a marathon would be a negotiable goal - achieving it would be incredible, but, because it is not essential to your life, your training choices and efforts should not come at the expense of any of the non-negotiable goals. Unfortunately, most people who set their sights on running a marathon adopt a running-only workout program which neglects many aspects of fitness, can be a detriment to body composition as muscle mass and bone density can decrease, can also be a detriment to tissue and joint health, and because of the opportunity costs associated with only running vs participating in a holistic cross-training program, even overall health and wellness can suffer. Additionally, even enormous challenges like running a marathon do not require putting any of the non-negotiable goals on hold. There’s a major bandwagon issue with social media and the internet filled with running only programs. People adopt these not because it’s ideal, but because they are comfortable with it and it seems to be what marathoners do, but even professional marathoners cross-train, it’s just the amateurs who tend to not. Check out my article, Why All Professionals Cross-Train.
Our non-negotiable goals should be foundational and guide our decision-making when choosing strategies to reach our negotiable goals. In the marathon example, I would definitely bias my training towards running, but would also ensure that I get adequate exposure to the exercise stimuli required to satisfy our non-negotiable goals.
It’s important to recognize that these non-negotiable fitness goals should not limit your negotiable fitness goals, but instead set standards for the methods you choose when chasing goals to ensure that your efforts are not at the expense of aspects of fitness that are extremely valuable to your life.
Non-Negotiable Exercise Stimuli
To make progress on all the non-negotiable goals, adequate exposure to a broad range of specific exercise stimuli is crucial.