Mike Boyle, a well-known personality in the fitness industry, has a book to sell. To sell that book, the marketing strategy is to provoke debate in the fitness blogosphere.

The first time I heard of him was from his Death of Squats video. Squatting, that thing we do when we sit on the couch and get up from the couch, has gone out of style, apparently. All the people who have gotten stronger and built muscle by doing squats were wrong. They shouldn’t have done it that way. Now there’s a new way to get the same results, but better! Click Add To Cart to find out how!

Well, most people who go to the gym don’t like doing squats and don’t do them. So I guess that video didn’t enrage enough people into buying his book.

So the next step was to provoke everyone who does cardio: The Death of Aerobic Base Training. From the video, he says, “So what’s aerobic training good for? Nothing.” Elsewhere in the talk he admits that it’s good for getting better at running, swimming, cycling, and other distance sports. But apparently those aren’t good for anything. Let’s not forget that aerobic training is good for improving cardiovascular health, but again that doesn’t seem to matter to Boyle. Who cares about the health of my heart and lungs? No one can see those when I’m at the beach, so they’re useless. Let ‘em rot!

No wonder it’s so hard to get accurate and honest fitness and nutrition information. Marketing tactics are at odds with facts when there’s a product to push. Boyle’s actual message is probably more nuanced than the video lets on, but the marketing is a tad heavy-handed.

Saying that aerobic training is dead ignores the fact that there are people who enjoy aerobic exercise! They do it because it’s a form of exercise that they want to do, not because they’re forced to do it. Oh, and it’s good for them!

I’ve tried to do things that I was told are good for me many times. But if I didn’t enjoy them, then I didn’t stick with them, and got nothing in return. I want that time back! If someone enjoys aerobic exercise, and gets benefits from it, then aerobic training is certainly not dead.

(Photo: “Oh the struggle to be thin”, MoToMo)

In the last post, I wrote about the Workouts Goal, which is a goal that’s all about motivating you to stay active in whatever it is you choose to do. Today, I’m writing about the Milestone Goal, which is about pushing yourself to achieve measurable improvements in the specific exercises you’re performing.

Your Own Roadmap

A milestone in FitLogg, like in real life, is an action that marks an important stage of your mission for overall fitness. It’s a checkpoint, a little victory, and a time to party! In FitLogg, reaching a milestone means that you’re getting fitter. Different people enjoy different exercises, so our ideas of what “getting fitter” means will vary.

But a sure way to get nowhere is to perform at exactly the same level every time we exercise. Arnold didn’t get big by lifting the same 25 pound dumbbells day after day! Our bodies are adaptable things, and they need to be challenged. When an activity starts to feel easy, it’s a sure thing that our bodies have adapted and are no longer going to respond. The fat won’t melt off as easily, and the muscles will stop getting bigger and stronger. Creating milestone goals is a great way to keep your sights on the road ahead, to motivate yourself to keep pushing and getting results.

Read on for instructions and ideas for milestone goals.

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