Understanding Fitness Acronyms: How SMART, FITT, and NEAT Boost Results

But I think one, as a trainer, especially anybody that walks through the door, They are going to come in and there's a specific goal that they have in mind.

I think as a trainer, it's very important when you have that person walk in that you sit down with them and you talk about what we call smart goals.

And when we talk about smart goals, the reason why those are important is if somebody walks in and they say, hey, I want to lose 20 pounds.

that doesn't really tell you anything.

It tells you, okay, that they have a weight loss goal of a certain number, but it doesn't tell you why, it doesn't tell you when, it doesn't tell you, I mean, most of the time there's a purpose behind everything.

And so if you're gonna sit down and work on someone and doing what we call subjective information, which is just having that communication one-on-one, sit down and start with the SMART goals.

So let's talk about SMART.

What does the S stand for? Okay, number one, specific.

Ken, why is that important?

Well, like you said, Wendy, I mean, to say I want to lose 20 pounds, yeah, that's specific in that I can get on a scale and see that I'm either going towards or I've actually hit my goal.

But specific means, yeah, what is it that you want to change exactly? Because you know, getting into the next, you know, without touching into the next letter M, I mean, we, we have to have goals and it's, it's the target.

It is what, it is what defines whether you've achieved it or not.

So as specific goes, you know, if I want to sit fit into a certain pant size, if I want to run again, it's easy to say 20 pounds again, who doesn't want to to shed some weight most of us do but if i want to run a sub uh sub three hour half marathon right very conservative goal there but if i also want to be able to lift my child if i want to be able to bench press or squat a certain weight this is where specific gives you the idea of Okay, am I on target or off target? So that way, you know, do I need to make any adjustments to my goal are actually the tactics that I'm using to achieve the goal.

So the more specific the better.

Because if I just want to get stronger, that tells me nothing.

I can get a good night's sleep and be stronger the next day.

But specific gives you a certain number, a certain time, whatever it is that tells you whether or not you've achieved your goal.

So the more specific, the better.

And like you said, so we've got S for specific, M, which is going to be measurable.

That is also very important, especially if somebody is going through and they're training with you.

We want to see, are we making progress? To your point, you said, well, I want to run, let's say, a 5K.

And somebody may say in under, let's say, 30 minutes.

Well, that's something that's measurable because as we go through and we start training, are we hitting that goal? On race day, are we going to make that? And so I think we, M and A, go together.

And so I'm going to go ahead and say A too, Ken, if you don't mind, but achievable.

Is it something that is achievable? Meaning, can you, well, first of all, do you like to run? I think that's one of the things that's going to be important.

But I think one, as a trainer, especially anybody that walks through the door, They are going to come in and there's a specific goal that they have in mind.

I think as a trainer, it's very important when you have that person walk in that you sit down with them and you talk about what we call smart goals.

And when we talk about smart goals, the reason why those are important is if somebody walks in and they say, hey, I want to lose 20 pounds.

that doesn't really tell you anything.

It tells you, okay, that they have a weight loss goal of a certain number, but it doesn't tell you why, it doesn't tell you when, it doesn't tell you, I mean, most of the time there's a purpose behind everything.

And so if you're gonna sit down and work on someone and doing what we call subjective information, which is just having that communication one-on-one, sit down and start with the SMART goals.

So let's talk about SMART.

What does the S stand for? Okay, number one, specific.

Ken, why is that important?

Well, like you said, Wendy, I mean, to say I want to lose 20 pounds, yeah, that's specific in that I can get on a scale and see that I'm either going towards or I've actually hit my goal.

But specific means, yeah, what is it that you want to change exactly? Because you know, getting into the next, you know, without touching into the next letter M, I mean, we, we have to have goals and it's, it's the target.

It is what, it is what defines whether you've achieved it or not.

So as specific goes, you know, if I want to sit fit into a certain pant size, if I want to run again, it's easy to say 20 pounds again, who doesn't want to to shed some weight most of us do but if i want to run a sub uh sub three hour half marathon right very conservative goal there but if i also want to be able to lift my child if i want to be able to bench press or squat a certain weight this is where specific gives you the idea of Okay, am I on target or off target? So that way, you know, do I need to make any adjustments to my goal are actually the tactics that I'm using to achieve the goal.

So the more specific the better.

Because if I just want to get stronger, that tells me nothing.

I can get a good night's sleep and be stronger the next day.

But specific gives you a certain number, a certain time, whatever it is that tells you whether or not you've achieved your goal.

So the more specific, the better.

And like you said, so we've got S for specific, M, which is going to be measurable.

That is also very important, especially if somebody is going through and they're training with you.

We want to see, are we making progress? To your point, you said, well, I want to run, let's say, a 5K.

And somebody may say in under, let's say, 30 minutes.

Well, that's something that's measurable because as we go through and we start training, are we hitting that goal? On race day, are we going to make that? And so I think we, M and A, go together.

And so I'm going to go ahead and say A too, Ken, if you don't mind, but achievable.

Is it something that is achievable? Meaning, can you, well, first of all, do you like to run? I think that's one of the things that's going to be important.