04 Sep What are Realistic Fitness Goals for the Average Person?

Although we see powerful and capable athletes on TV and extremely lean fitness models in various ads on our computers, very few people actually think that that level of fitness is something they can achieve. For the most part, they are right, and we will talk about why that is a little later, but more important issues are those of time and the body’s genetic limits. You can achieve a great deal if you set your mind to it, train hard and stay consistent, but no one has ever built a great body starting from scratch in just a few short months. You can get a halfway decent body in a short period of time, but it will be far from healthy and it will cost you. In this article, we will look into some common misconceptions about what can be achieved naturally and how long it takes to truly transform your body.

How come all these guys and girls in the magazines, professional sports, adds and movies look that good?

The thing about the physiques you commonly see in the media, ones that are promoted as products of hard work under a good exercise and diet program, is that they are made to look like that through a combination of intense preparation for the photo-shoot, tanning and oiling, good lighting and Photoshop magic. That magazine look is something those people take special, and often somewhat unhealthy, measures to achieve for a short period of time. They only need to be that lean for a few days.

They do not maintain that kind of physique all year round, and have bulkier and leaner phases. It also helps that they make their living off photo-shoots, personal training, commercials and movies, sports, etc. Most of what a professional athlete will do is train very hard for hours 6-7 days of the week. Add to this the fact that over 90% of these people are on some mix of performance enhancing drugs that can cost more than your monthly salary, and you see why you can’t afford to hold yourself up to the same standards.

What exactly constitutes and “average” person?

When we use the term “average person”, everyone is usually picturing pretty much the same thing. It’s someone with a regular job, a couple of hobbies, perhaps a family and a relatively active social life. In this day and age, even if you lock yourself in a room and play video games for a week, you can still have an active social life – you connect with people through social media, play with and against others online, etc.

This kind of person can be skinny, skinny-fat, overweight, even fairly lean with a bit of muscle. What this kind of person lacks is free time and the motivation to train incredibly hard all the time, and what they do have are bigger priorities, e.g. family, dating, work. Of course, most people are ready to put in some work and make a few changes if it means that they will become healthier, sexier, stronger, more relaxed and more confident. These are highly obtainable goals, and you can definitely beat out 90% of the population on all those points with a few years of intelligent and regular training.

Set your goals a few steps lower and you can still be better than most people you see in the street

Forget about all the pictures of incredibly lean men – usually at 5-6% body fat – and yet they have full muscles with a 3D look, and forget about women who “magically” maintain large breasts at incredibly low body fat levels. Unless you want to use exogenous hormones, site enhancement oils, diuretics, get breast implants and throw your money on a whole bunch of other things, you are never going to look like that, plain and simple. For an average person with no or very limited prior training experience, things still look fairly good though. Chances are that your goals are losing all the extra fat, strengthening your muscles and getting a lean, firm and balanced body that is strong and healthy.

So, what can an average person expect to achieve with a moderate amount of effort and relative consistency?

For men with excellent genetics who don’t use steroids, a total lean muscle gain of 40-50 pounds in a lifetime of exercising is the limit. For women it is 20-25 pounds in their entire lifetime. This is if you have incredible genetics, train on a good program, train with great intensity and focus, are consistent, get near optimal nutrition and enough sleep and proper rest. So, realistically, you are looking at a solid 35 pounds of lean muscle for men and a solid 15 pounds for women over the course of 3-4 years of consistent training. This helps dispel a few of the fitness myths that are most detrimental to your progress. First of all, this is lean muscle mass, so the way you ultimately look – the “shredded” vs. “sexy beach body” vs. “big and bulky” vs. “toned and tight” look – will largely depend on your body fat percentage, which is largely related to eating habits and levels of cardio.

Women can add up to 15 pounds of muscle, but chances are, the average woman will also shed double that amount in fat and excess water weight during this time, which leaves girls leaner and firmer – giving the illusion that they have somehow “toned down” which is a ludicrous term with no scientific validity. For men, this means that you will most likely be the same weight you are now, or even a bit lighter if you are overweight and after a few years, you will be carrying a whole lot more muscle and less fat. Healthy fat percentage ranges for professional male and female athletes are 10-14% and 15-25% respectively. So, you don’t need to limit yourself to incredibly strict diets and go to insanely low body fat levels. In fact, their diets are very high in calories judging by normal standards and are also high in carbs.

Defining your 1 year and 5 year goals

Looking at all of this information, you can set some realistic goals for yourself. Your first year goal should be to put on as much muscle as you can – yes, girls too – while staying relatively lean and then dropping down to a pleasing body fat percentage at the end of the year with some slow and steady dieting for the last 2-3 months as you switch your focus to just maintaining what you have built in the gym. After this, you’ve got a good base and can then define your long-term goals depending on any specific body-type, health and performance goals you might have.