Setting my Fitness Goals

Sometime back in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I turned to my wife and asked her “what would you do if I said I wanted to start running?”

And now, almost two years later, I run four miles nearly five times a week. I’ve bought a pair of running shoes. I’ve lost over forty pounds. And my goals? Well, they keep changing.

It’s more “updating” then moving goalposts. In fact - the overarching goal remains the same: be healthy for my kids. I want to be able to keep up with them.

But be healthy for my kids - while a worthy goal - is not measurable. A few goals I’ve set (and made) include:

• reach 20% body fat (at least according to my scale)
• remain under 225 lbs (I’m now around 208 lbs)
• Run a 5k (I’ve ran six this year - and even one 10k!)
• daily run to a 5-minute walk, 40-minute run, 5-minute walk (I only did this once - but I did it!)
• continue strength training

So what should I look to do next?

I did something that probably shouldn’t be done - I searched “ideal male body measurements” online.

Keeping in mind that these numbers might not be realistist, I came across the following numbers for a “perfect male body”:

• Waist - 45% to 47% of height
• Shoulders - 1.618 times waist
• Arms - same as neck
• Chest - 10 to 12 inches greater than waist

Since I’m 6’4” - or 76 inches - that puts my “perfect” measurements at:

• Waist - 34.2 to 35.7 inches
• Shoulders - 55.3 to 57.8 inches
• Chest - 44.2 inches to 47.7 inches

Rounding the numbers and selecting an easier-to-reach point and I get:

• Waist - 36 inches
• Chest - 44 inches
• Shoulder - 55 inches
• Arm - same as neck

Where am I Now?

Here are the measurements I took on a few days ago on October the 23rd:

• Waist - 39 inches
• Hip - 38 inches
• Chest - 39 inches
• Neck - 16 inches
• Right bicep - 13.5 inches
• Right thigh - 23 inches
• Calf - 17 inches

Obviously that’s more measurements than in the goals, and it’s also missing the “shoulders” measurement. But this is giving me a direction to go to.

What fitness goals do you set for yourself? Do my goals make sense? Comment below!