Maximise your training with Structured Goal Setting

Setting goals is a very important aspect of your health and fitness journey. There is a difference between “working out” and “training”. The difference between the 2 is that working out is suited towards more random workouts which are mixed up all the time and don’t have much set structured progression or vision. Whereas “Training” there is a goal in mind and there is a structured plan of training blocks which are specific towards progressing your training and ultimately achieving your goal. This is why setting a specific and measurable goal (example: Run 2km time trial in 7 mins etc) instead of “get fit” will determine if you are actually “training” or “exercising”.

How to Set Goals?

A great system/structure to goal setting is to set what we call is a Outcome Goal (The main priority/performance goal), a Training Goal (a goal in training that directly influences the Outcome Goal) and Process Goal (the process at which will improve and achieve the Training Goal).

Goal Setting Examples

Here are a few different examples of how you could structure the system for a variety of different goals:

Fat loss / body composition
Outcome Goal – Lose 5kg and drop a clothing size in 12 weeks.
Training Goal – Complete 3 strength sessions and 2 conditioning sessions per week for the full block.
Process Goal – Hit your protein target daily, track sessions in the app, and add 2.5–5kg to your main lifts every 2–3 weeks.

Strength
Outcome Goal – Squat, bench and deadlift a combined 300kg by the end of the block.
Training Goal – Train each main lift twice a week following a periodised program.
Process Goal – Log every top set, prioritise sleep on training days, and get a form check from your coach every fortnight.

Event-based (fun run, Hyrox, obstacle race)
Outcome Goal – Finish your event in a target time, or simply finish strong and injury-free.
Training Goal – Build weekly running volume and complete race-specific conditioning sessions.
Process Goal – Follow your taper in race week, rehearse your fuelling strategy in training, and get 2 recovery sessions in before race day.

Why this structure works

Breaking a goal into these three layers stops you from fixating on the scoreboard (the Outcome Goal) and gives you something you can actually control every single week. On the days motivation is low, the Outcome Goal can feel too far away to be useful — but the Process Goal is always right in front of you. Tick those off consistently and the Training Goal and Outcome Goal tend to take care of themselves.

It also makes it easy to tell whether your program needs adjusting. If you’re consistently hitting your Process Goals but the Training Goal isn’t moving, that’s useful information for your coach — it usually means the plan needs tweaking, not that you need to try harder.

Getting started

If you’re not sure how to translate “get fit” or “lose weight” into a proper Outcome/Training/Process structure, that’s exactly what a first session with one of our coaches is for. Bring us the vague version of your goal and we’ll help you build the structured plan around it.