2008 Goals

2008

2008 Goals

Last year was a bit of a disaster. There were some wins (put on about 5 kg of muscle), but a lot of losses, primarily because I blew my back to pieces (okay, two bulged discs—L3–L4 and L4–L5, plus we found spondylolisthesis of L5–S1). None of this is a total disaster in the long term, but it does limit me at times.

I spent most of the year recovering lost ground with the weight training, and spent months off the bike because the riding position aggravated the back (losing cardio fitness and putting on fat).

So I’m quite looking forward to this year.

Goals for the year: I’m not going to put career, family, and finance goals in this journal as they are largely irrelevant to it’s purpose, but this year I am going to list my education and spiritual goals, as I believe they do impact on my health and fitness goals.

Education

I want to make sure that I’m reading some books that are designed to help with my business and my fitness. I think two a month is quite a reasonable goal. I’ve divided the twenty-four books equally among four categories, and have listed a few books in each category that I thought might be good starting points (these lists are obviously incomplete, and may change over time).

General Self Improvment

• Steven Covey The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
• Sharmen Lane The Seven Secrets to Create Your Fate.
• Dax Moy The MAGIC Hundred.
• Randall Strossen Winning Ways: How to Succeed in the Gym and Out.
• Geovanni Derice Mind Over Matter.

Business Related

• Micahel Gerber The E Myth Revisted.
• Samuel Blankson Planning And Goal Setting For Personal Success.
• Alex McMillan Teach Yourself Entrepreneurship.
• Greg Balanko-Dickson Tips and Traps For Writing an Effective Business Plan.
• Bill Cates Get More Referrals Now!.
• Mitch Meyerson Mastering Online Marketing.

P.T. Related

• Ed Thornton It’s More Than Just Making Them Sweat.
• Scott O. Roberts The Business of Personal Training.
• Teri S. O'Brien The Personal Trainer’s Handbook.
• Douglas S. Brooks The Complete Book of Personal Training.

Health and Fitness Related

• Craig Ballantyne Turbulence Training System.
• Vince DelMonte No-Nonsense Muscle Building.
• Brian Jones The Complete Sandbag Training Course.

Spiritual

This is an area that I’ve really been neglecting over the past year or so. I don’t really know what went wrong, but I think there’s been a feedback loop between not doing these things, and being depressed—each has reinforced the other. I want to reintroduce a number of Yoga practices in order to combat the depression.

To implement this goal, the following practices will be resurrected:

• Meditation (10 minutes a day).
• Mantra (one full mala daily).
• Relaxation (10 minutes Savansana most days, 20–30 minutes Yoga Nidra on the other days).
• Gratitude (nominating five things for which I’m grateful, daily).

Health

Partly as a result of being off the bike, and partly as a result of bulking up, my body fat percentage has climbd from about 15% to around 20%. I want to lose this extra body fat (because it is unsightly and unhealthy) by the end of March (while maintaining or increasing lean body mass).

To implement this goal, I will do the following:

• Create a basic food journal so I know how many calories I’m eating and their source.
• Clean up the diet (I’ll do Dax Moy’s elimination diet starting New Year’s Day).
• Exercise (cardio) more.
• Elevate my BMR by eating small amounts frequently, doing weight training (to increase muscle mass), and doing interval training.
• Maintain my LBM by weight training, and avoiding long, low intensity cardio sessions.

Fitness

Since leaving the U.K., my cycling has gotten slower and slower, partly as a result of not being in training for time trials, and partly due to time off the bike with my back injured. Either way, my level of cardio fitness has fallen.

With my back limiting the duration of a ride, the only way to increase the distance is to go faster. I want to regain cycling speed so I can maintain evens (20 mph for 30–40 minutes over level terrain by the end of the year. Shorter term goals for this will be 27.8 km/h by end of March, 29.3 km/h by end of June, 30.8 km/h by end of September, and 32.2 km/h by end of 2008.

To achieve this, I’ll:

• Increase my sustained power output by increasing my base mileage (limited by my back’s tolerance of longer rides and the need to avoid low intensity long duration cardio) and do interval training.
• Improve my aerodynamics by improving my lower body flexibility (stretch the hamstrings and hip flexors so I can reach the tri-bars) and upper body flexibility (stretch the shoulders so I can get narrower).
• Improve my power transmission by doing core strength training once per week.
• Improve my power to weight ratio by doing strength training (particularly the muscles used in cycling) and losing the spare tyre.

Flexibility

Since damaging my lower back, my flexibility, particularly my forward and backward bending flexibility, has been quite limited. This has been limiting by activities in a number of ways, and contributes to the ongoing grumpiness of my lower back. I want to regain enough foward bending flexibility to be able to touch my toes again by the end of the first half of the year.

I’ll do 20–30 minutes of Yoga asanas each day in order to reach this goal.

Strength

I want to keep getting stronger, and would like to gain another 5 kg of lean body mass (muscle) by the end of the year. To achieve this, I’ll implement the “steady as she goes” policy and continue with the three full-body workouts a fortnight programme I’m currently doing (it isn’t broken, so I’m not fixing it).

Specific goals for each of the lifts are listed below.

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Strength Training

Weights

Dip with Dip Stand

For 5 reps:		101/4 kg		121/2 kg [+21/4 kg]
For 15 reps:		1/2 kg		21/2 kg [+2 kg]

Seated Overhead Press with Barbell

For 5 reps:		35 kg		40 kg [+5 kg]
For 15 reps:		28 kg		321/2 kg [+41/2 kg]

Chin with Chin Stand

For 5 reps:		3/8 kg		21/2 kg [+21/8 kg]
For 15 reps:		-28 kg		0 kg [+28 kg]

Seated Row with Low Cable

For 5 reps:		63 kg		70 kg [+7 kg]
For 15 reps:		473/4 kg		55 kg [+71/4 kg]

Bicep Curl with Barbell

For 5 reps:		271/2 kg		321/2 kg [+5 kg]
For 15 reps:		221/2 kg		271/2 kg [+5 kg]

Tricep Pushdown with Overhead Cable

For 5 reps:		261/2 kg		321/2 kg [+6 kg]
For 15 reps:		221/2 kg		271/2 kg [+5 kg]

Squat with Barbell

For 5 reps:		89 kg		971/2 kg [+81/2 kg]
For 20 reps:		723/4 kg		80 kg [+71/4 kg]

Parallel Grip Deadlift with Shrug Bar

For 5 reps:		91 kg		100 kg [+9 kg]
For 20 reps:		72 kg		80 kg [+8 kg]

Single Leg Standing Calf Raise with Dumbbell

For 5 reps:		453/4 kg		50 kg [+41/4 kg]
For 15 reps:		161/2 kg		20 kg [+31/2 kg]

Leg Pull with Low Cable

For 5 reps:		18 kg		20 kg [+2 kg]
For 15 reps:		141/8 kg		171/2 kg [+33/8 kg]

Partial Stiff-Legged Deadlift with Barbell

For 5 reps:		731/4 kg		85 kg [+113/4 kg]
For 15 reps:		611/4 kg		721/2 kg [+111/4 kg]

Kneeling Crunches with Overhead Cable

For 5 reps:		36 kg		421/2 kg [+61/2 kg]
For 15 reps:		33 kg		40 kg [+7 kg]

Side Bend with Low Cable

For 5 reps:		443/4 kg		50 kg [+51/4 kg]
For 15 reps:		361/4 kg		45 kg [+83/4 kg]