Incorporating Competition to Reach Fitness Goals
By: Ben Greene, CSCS, CPT, YMCA of Parkersburg
If you have come to a point where no fitness goals excite you, if your results have begun to stagnate, or if you are bored with your current training, you may want to consider signing up for a competition. Whether it be a 5K, powerlifting meet, basketball league, or even just a friendly foot race, a little competition can completely reinvigorate your training and add an exciting goal into your life. Even if you aren’t a very competitive person there are some very valuable lessons that can be learned through competition, and you may even learn something about yourself!
Reasons Why You Should Consider Competition
It puts an official date and time on the goal. Many times, when people set a goal they want to accomplish “Y”, in “X” amount of time. However, they don’t actually establish a set date and time to test that goal, so it goes on to never being tested. But when competition game day comes, you’ll be tested whether you feel ready or not.
It forces accountability. It is impossible to procrastinate your training without harming your results come game day. If there are some struggles at the beginning of your preparation and are not made up for by the end, they can haunt you come game day. So, where many people may fall off after missing a few sessions, competition forces you to stay strong with your training until the end.
Establishes benchmark results. No matter the type of contest, this gives you a way to truly show what you’ve really got. Upon completion, it provides personal statistics that you can go on and beat in the future.
Teaches programming. This will force you to program your training specifically towards your competition. Through this, you will figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. Keeping only what is most effective and specific towards the competition by the end of the training preparation.
Gives extra motivation for each workout! Now every time you go to train, you will be training with a very specific goal in mind. Every session will be done with the intent to be the best you can be, come game day!
Would you like some friendly competition suggestions? Check out our sports programs and group fitness classes at www.parkersburgymca.org.