How to set goals?

FitMama2013

I started Stronglifts at the end of November and have fit in 2-3 sessions each week since. I'm trying to set some feasible goals for myself, but I'm not sure what a good range might be which is realistic. But I would love to be able to say I want to squat/bench/pull X pounds by the end of the year because that's very motivating to me, but I don't want it to be unrealistic.

Currently, here's what I'm doing - OHP is the only one that is starting to get a little harder for me towards the last set:

Squats - 95 (5x5)
Bench - 65 (5x5)
Power Cleans (instead of rows) - 55 (3x5) ---> I don't have anywhere to drop the weight, so I think that will hinder how high I can go with PCs
OHP - 65 (5x5)
Romanian Deadlifts - 105 (4x5) --> I will lower the number of sets as the weight gets higher

When I was in much better shape in college and about 90lbs lighter than I am now (7 years ago), I squatted 210 for 1RM and power cleaned 170 for 1RM.

Do y'all have thoughts? How did you set your goals in the beginning or was it just a "wait and see" kind of approach? I weigh around 240 right now so that factors in on some of the lifts like squats where I'm lifting so much more weight (from my own body) than I did years ago. Hopefully I won't be worrying about that much weight a year from now

Would this be a realistic goal for 1RM in your opinion?

Squats - 140
Bench - 115
Power Clean - 80 (since I can't drop it, I don't want to hurt my back)
OHP - 100
RDLs - 170

Thank you!

_TastySnoBalls_

For my lower body, which are also my strongest, lifts right now my goal is to lift BW. I have already achieved that with deadlifts (took 6 weeks). Next goal for deadlifts is 1.5BW, 2xBW by the end of the year would be awesome!

For upper body (weak as hell) lifts, I have short term goals of 100 lbs each. I imagine I may be able to reach those by the end of first quarter. Then I'll take it from there.

Fittreelol

I started lifting in mid December 2012. I set goals for 2013 that ended up being ridiculously low, but I just set new ones. Strstd.com is a good calculator to see what is reasonable for your sex/weight. Its also good to consider how much priority you want to place on lifting compared to other physical activity, and also to consider calorie deficit . Why rdl instead of a conventional deadlift?

FitMama2013

Thank you both! I will definitely check out the calculator. And RDLs don't hurt my knees as much as regular. I have arthritis and squats 3 days a week is pretty hard on them already.

AngelsFan91106

I use the .25x body-weight increments as goals. Right now I'm working on 1.5x BW squats and .75x BW bench.

Another fun idea is to use plates as incremental goals (this is primarily for lower body). Like I was so excited when I squatted 135 and I can't wait til I could deadlift 225.

Fittreelol

I do whant AngelsFan does too a bit. There's a reason 135, 225, 315, and 405 are so special to lifters. :laugh:

If your knees hurt after squatting it might be a good idea to check form. Try to have someone video you if you can and post it for feedback. Really push your knees out when you squat and if you go back to conventional deadlifting. They might hurt from squatting 3xweek with arthritis, or they might hurt because of a slightly off form. Doesn't hurt (pun intended :blushing: ) to make sure!

girlie100

I love Strstd.com it puts my feeble bench into perspective against my squat and deadlift lol

FitMama2013

These are great ideas! Thank y'all so much. I'm going to work on setting some goals today, so I appreciate it.

Fittree - that's a good point, and just to make sure I'll get my husband to video for me. I was a college athlete and had a lot of coaching on these lifts, but that was 6+ years ago and my body is very different now, so I may be off a bit on a few of them. Better safe than sorry, so thank you!