What's up for 2012?

I hate New Years resolutions. They are usually just bullshit spouted by people that have no real intention of keeping them, but want to keep up the appearance that they will change something about their lives for the next year. This allows them to think that they will really better themselves.

"I'll eat healthy this year!" Arbitrary. Difficult to measure.

"I'm going to go to the gym!" For a week. Then the new season of "Real Housewives of Whatever" will start and you won't see the gym until June.

"I'm going to quit drinking and smoking and coffee!" Horseshit. Some of the hardest things in the world to quit. Plus, why would you want to give up coffee? It's amazing!

All in all, these are great goals. But why are these resolutions already doomed to fail? They are either too arbitrary, too immeasurable or just too damned difficult. Theres no real "goal" in any of those. You signed up for the gym last year, and didn't go. You tried quitting smoking last year, but you're still puffing away.

None of these goals are easy to keep track of. Sure, you can mark on your calendar that you went to the gym every Monday for 4 months. Thats great! I'm very happy that you did that...but what did you accomplish while you were there?

Goals need to be realistic and measurable.  You need to be able to say definitively that you did or did not accomplish said goal. Without further ado, here's a list of my fitness goals for the year of 2012.

1) Deadlift 2.25-2.5 times my bodyweight, which would be 450-500 pounds.
2) Squat 2 times my bodyweight, which is 400 lbs.
3) Bench press 315.
4) Clean 250 pounds.
5) Dunk something. Anything. Just dunk.

Boom. Quick and dirty, just how I like it.

My goals don't have to be your goals. You might not care how much you can squat or pull. But make your goal plausible. Lose 10 pounds is a poor choice; you can't take into account body composition changes. Make your goal to drop 2 pants sizes. Make your goal to be able to do 1 pull-up. Once you have a goal, the fun begins. Figuring out how to get there is where all the adventure is!

Now, go lift something heavy!