Off-Topic Creating goals

[Jonathan Beckham]

Howdy everyone. I come to as a fat, tight and incredibly weak 44 year old. Everything I have read about StrongFirst seems to be where I belong.

My basic goals are 1. Lose weight. I am not worried about this because it is a matter of stopping shoving garbage down my throat. 2. Be able to do Simple & Sinister with a 24 kg kettlebell for single hand swings and get ups in under 20 minutes. These aren't ultimate goals but what I believe will be a solid foundation to really push to bigger goals. I will be using Relax Into Stretch and Super Joints for the mobility and flexibility.
Due to a lack of money and space, I will only have access to kettlebells and body weight.

What are some other goals that would be good to do along the strength and weight loss?

 

[pet']

Hello,

@Jonathan Beckham
Welcome to StrongFirst !

Becoming supple, flexible and mobile, avoiding injury and becoming better at what you do / what you want to do..so being happy while practicing

Kind regards,

Pet'

 

[Anna C]

@Jonathan Beckham

Welcome! You're definitely in the right place.

A few things that come to my mind as far as other goals that would be good to go along with what you have so far... breathing improvements, stress reduction, and quality sleep are all things that will help your journey. I would also add, learning to listen to your body. Yoga practice is one great way to this, but you can learn on your own just through mindful practice.

 

[kodo kb]

I like your plan and goals. They seem like the right ones for you. The only other goal I'd suggest would be Dan John's meta-goal: "The goal is to keep the goal the goal."

Get what you just wrote down done, and only after that move on to something different. Don't skip around to other things. Do this first, and feel what it's like to complete this sort of goal. As you said, you're building a solid foundation.

If you see something shiny you really want to try, add it lightly as a warmup or cooldown, but don't make it into something regular or let it interfere with your S&S practice. If you don't want to do this that's great, but that's how I've handled my training-ADD when I need to.

 

[Michael Scott]

Welcome to the forum @Jonathan Beckham. Be patient, be diligent, and ask questions. There are many experienced, knowledgeable people on here that are willing to assist and provide advice & guidance.

I would recommend that you get the Simple & Sinister (S&S) book , and read it a few times. That is a great starting place. I am aiming for the Simple standard with the 32 kg kettlebell myself, as a 51 year old man that, like you, needs to lose weight.

I highly recommend working through S&S before anything else. The foundation will be laid for other routines.

 

[offwidth]

@Jonathan Beckham
Welcome to StrongFirst...

Regarding goals... My perspective... don't go overboard with goals. It's akin to multitasking. Have few goals. One, maybe two. Meet those goals, then set other goals. Often times I see people that have lots of goals; guess what? They don't reach any of them. Keep them few, keep them simple.

That being said, weight loss, and S&S are fine goals.

Make sure your goals, especially your weight loss goal is SMART.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time bound

Again, welcome. You are in the right place.

 

[Steve W.]

@Jonathan Beckham
It sounds like you already have your goals in place. My advice on achieving them is to decide on the process you will use to achieve them, then forget those original goals and make your new goals process-related.

For S&S, your goal should be doing S&S, at whatever level is appropriate for you right now, at least 5x/week (don't neglect the auxiliary exercises).

For Super Joints and Relax into Stretch, set a goal to practice for a specific amount of time and specific number of sessions per week. At first, just experiment with different drills and get a feel for which ones you seem to respond to best. I can also highly recommend Original Strength for general mobility and movement skill. They have some books you can buy and workshops you can go to, but the OS YouTube channel is a VERY extensive resource of the different moves and variations.

For nutrition, I have no specific advice since that really isn't my area.

But my main point is to convert your general and achievement goals into specific and process-oriented goals and then focus on the process more than the achievement. Make your goals punch the clock and do the work goals. Then trust the process and be patient.

Good luck.

 

[Steve Freides]

What are some other goals that would be good to do along the strength and weight loss?

You have enough goals already - pursuing a few goals simultaneously is plenty, and becoming stronger while dropping weight isn't always easy. I'd say becoming stronger and losing weight as goals are plenty, and S&S as your vehicle for improved strength is an excellent choice.

-S-