What Metrics Do You Care About and Why?

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namaoza

New member
Hi fellow fitness fans,

I’m curious what numbers or abilities are important to all of you. In this world where we can quantify nearly everything, the old standards of weight, Blood pressure, and BMI are now augmented with FFMI, Cardio fitness, recovery, variability, and resting, Vo2 max, and tons of others. Add into that abilities (e.g., can I lift X pounds, can I jog or run a mile, etc…) and obviously everyone’s definition of “fit” is unique. I’m curious what all of you think of when considering your goals. Is it all about one number? A combination? A lifestyle? Curious to see your thoughts.
 
@namaoza The first fitnessy "goal" I ever set forth was to be able to do a turkish get up with 100 pound kettlebell. I hit that a number of years ago.

For me fitness has always been a supplement to the outdoor recreational activities that I enjoy in my free time, when I was younger, I just did the activites but as time has gone on, spending an hour or so a few times a week has really helped me maintain my skills/abilities to do the things I enjoy without feeling like I'm literally dying. So fitness specific goals aren't really something I focus on A LOT, but I do have vague micro-goals to keep things interesting.

When I started incorporating barbell training I figured a fun goal would be to back squat my body weight, which I did, so that I was neat. I'm just vaguely increasing my DL and squat until I run outta weight I guess, then I have to buy more.

In terms of cardio, I mostly jog and row, I don't really have specific goals for those in mind because it's mostly filler not really something I focus on specifically I guess.

If things are feeling stale then having a goal helps keep motivation high but I'm at the point now where fitness is a habit and I don't really need to think about it much to stay committed.

I try to stay mindful of goals because with goals comes a "pass/fail" mindset and potential to push to hard which may lead ot injury which ends up being detrimental in the long run.
 
@namaoza One can get carried away tracking individual numbers that may lead to negative self talk and unhelpful thought patterns, I try to keep a vague awareness of stuff but try not to get too hung up or fixate on anything specific.
 
@dawn16 Great point. I’ve thought a lot about this over the past few years when considering of the tracking we do is ultimately helpful or not!
 
@namaoza My personal goals revolve around building muscle through weight training, staying in a healthy BF range whether cutting or bulking (currently on a cut of sorts, just hit 15% at 182-4ish lbs), and keeping a healthier lifestyle when it comes to food and drinks.

At 41 I have a 5 year old and almost 6 month old. I want to grow old and see them grow up. I want to model a healthy lifestyle for them and teach them why we eat the way we eat (omnivores, low fat meats, fruit and veg with healthy carbs). I also want to teach them that having a treat (read: cookies, ice cream, candy, etc.) is a good, special thing, but it isn’t a healthy habit to create nor does it remain special when you do it often. Recently stopped drinking at home, as I’m a craft beer nerd and it gets out of hand for me when I don’t have a solid cut off like leaving a restaurant, bar, etc. Trying to set a better example all around and I feel better, resoundingly so, when I don’t drink.

TL;DR build muscle, have a healthy amount of body fat, still have fun, and be a good example for my kids.
 
@namaoza Happy to share. A lot of folks are way more extreme on here than I am, and possibly have more time than I do, but I do what I can with what I have. It’s sometimes hard to separate myself from folks who have been training for a lot longer than myself, don’t have kids, have kids who are older, etc.
 
@ecs867 I totally get your point about trying to separate yourself from those who have life situations that allow them to direct more of their time and energy to fitness than you have. It’s funny how quantity is our definition of “extreme” - one could argue that if you’re a busy person and you find time to build fitness in at all, you’re more “extreme” than those who put in more raw hours.
 
@namaoza I agree. “Just find something you enjoy doing and move” is what usually tell people who ask about my routine. Of course followed up by telling them to get plenty of protein haha. I don’t even have the most impressive physique or anything, but I was probably around 24-25% BF back in Dec 2020 so I think friends are naturally curious about what irked for me sometimes.
 
@namaoza I tend to overdue my legs and not put in enough on arms and chest. This helps track progress and hit more balanced and reasonable targets.
 
@namaoza I guess my fitness plan is from a longevity focused lens, so the metrics I focus on, in this order, are:
  1. Body fat percentage
  2. Strength (tracked with 5 rm on various lifts)
  3. Sleep quality (track with Apple Watch and 8 sleep bed)
  4. Diet quality (minimally processed, plant heavy, moderately high protein)
  5. Cardio (measured by my 2 mile run time)
  6. Mobility
The idea is to maintain as much of my youth as possible for as long as possible. Strength training to maintain both strength, bone density, and dynamic stability. Sleep and cardio to maintain cognitive function and cardiovascular fitness for the latter. Diet quality and body fat percentage to starve off heart disease and possibly some cancers. There is overlap in protection between areas of focus. I am in pretty good shape, so my main goal is to just not regress and ideally keep inching forward.

I have been doing some variation of this for a long time, if I hated it, I wouldn’t do it. I am probably more structured in my approach than previously, but I don’t lose any enjoyment out of life from this. I eat delicious food, but I still have ice cream and pizza, they just aren’t a large part of my diet.
 
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