Fitness PM Thursday: Setting Goals...and getting my ass kicked by my old man

In real life, I am a project manager.  In fact, I have a Project Management Professional (PMP) (TM) Certfication.  Yes, that is a sexy title.  No, it doesn't bring in as many groupies as you'd think.  In my feeble mind, the worlds of project management apply very well to fitness.  So well, in fact, that I am creating a weekly feature entitled Fitness PM Thursday.

My goal for Fitness PM Thursday is to introduce a relevant concept from the field of Project Management and demonstrate how it can apply to fitness.  Yes, the nerds have a voice in my blog!

Now - today's topic...when I was a teenager, my dad would occasionally tell stories about his time in the Marine Corps.  One of the stories that sticks with me to this day was about some sort of pissing contest he got into with one of his buddies.  Evidently, my dad and this guy were 1-2 when it came to all of the physical fitness tests in their platoon.  After "beating" his friend in the run and push-ups, their platoon's next exercise in the test was the pull-up.

Do you know what a pull-up is?  The standard pull-up is performed with both hands grasping an overhead bar, palms away from you and hands shoulder-width apart.  Starting from a fully-extended arm position, you pull your body up into the air until your chin is above the bar...then lower yourself back down until your arms are fully-extended (straight) again.  Pull-ups are no joke.

Back to the story - my dad's friend's turn to do pull-ups arrived.  He cranked out 45 pull-ups...but he really strained on the last few.  My dad had NO CHOICE but to ". . .whip out 45 pull-ups. . ." as well, and then he pretended to strain for the last one and STOPPED at 46 pull-ups.  How charitable of him!

Now, this all happened sometime between 1957 and 1961 - well before I was born.  I have some doubts, yet I have seen my dad demonstrate several feats of strength which I would not be able to do myself.  The old man is strong as a freaking ox, but 46 pull-ups?  This number has been driving me nuts for 25 years.  I have not reached 46 pull-ups yet.  I am not close.  However, I have increased my number of pull-ups significantly in the last three years, and for me, goal-setting is the key.

As a project manager who is tasked with showing results, I do a lot of goal setting - it's part of a concept called "Management by Objectives" where employees have a say in the results of the company (first coined by Peter Drucker in the '50's).  In my mine, this applies directly to fitness, and I (and most others at our company) utilize the following guidelines for setting a goal - you just need to remember the acronym SMART:

• S - Specific:  Make sure that the goal you are setting is specific, i.e. it is easy to tell what you are "producing".  In my case, my goal is about doing a larger number of pull-ups.
• M - Measurable:  There is a quantifiable, inarguable success indicator.  In most cases, this is a number.  46 seems like a pretty good (but pretty f'ing high) number.
• A - Attainable:  The goal can be reasonably accomplished (aka "passing the snicker test") from your current situation and anything less would not meet the goal.  46 is a ton of pull-ups...how about 20?  Or how about 10?
• R - Relevant:  Is this in your business (in this case, getting fit) goals?  Will doing a sh*tload of pull-ups make you a better marathon runner?  Will doing a bunch of pull-up give you better back, shoulder and neck strength?
• T - Time-based:  The completion date is clear.  "Before I die" is not a good example.  "Before my reunion on September 15th, 2011" is a  good example.

To me, ensuring my goal is attainable from my present situation is the key.  So, based on all of this, here's my intermediate goal for pull-ups:

• I will do a set of 30 standard pull-ups by December 31st, 2011.

This is a challenging but (hopefully) reachable goal for me.  You can apply this method to pretty much any diet or fitness goal - but remember - you really need to measure where you are at before you set goals.  So, whether my Dad's pull-up record is true or not (I think it is), that number has been nagging at me for years.  I hope he's still around when I finally get to 47 pull-ups!

PS - I would like to give credit where it is due - while I won't share resources from inside our company, you can find more globally accessible information about goal-setting and SMART at this link.