How to Change "Unhealthy" Habits for Healthy Ones, Part 1

I was listening to a coaching talk by Dr. Krista Scott Dixon (her site is Stumptuous.com) and how to help clients make positive lifestyle changes and keep making changes. The whole talk was about an hour long and was both informative and full of pertinent reminders for me to remember because I work with people who don't live and breathe fitness. I often forget that knowledge that I take for granted- because this is, you know, my job- isn't always ingrained as much in the general population. 

It got me thinking that around this time of year, people tend to lose the steam of the initial burst of energy to uphold New Year's Resolutions, so I figured that today would be an opportune time to sprinkle some psychologically-themed tips to help reinvigorate the resolution-keeping. I think I'd like to make this a few-post series as it's easier to write a couple short posts rather than one long one (and probably bore you enough that you decided to click somewhere else).

I chose to put "unhealthy" in quotations because not all habits are necessarily unhealthy, but perhaps they are unhealthy for your specific goal. For example, having a bowl of ice cream a few days a week isn't necessarily unhealthy (especially if you're crushing vegetables, lean meats, healthy fats etc. during the rest of the week). However, if you want to lose a few pounds of body fat then, at this point in time, that bowl of ice cream isn't healthy. Understand, then, that "unhealthy" is relative to your specific situation, not a blanket statement for everyone.

The first step to changing habits, and maintain the new habits, is setting the goal. 

You have to know where you're going before you can plan your route. 

And we're talking about S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely). I'm not going to belabor the point because you can easily google this for more details but for example:

"I want to lose weight." or "I want to run faster"

S.M.A.R.T.-en those up:

"I want to lose 10 pounds by my birthday in 3 months."

"I want to bring my 100m sprint down by 3 seconds by the beginning of track season [in 6 months]."

Now, find your motivation...

Ok, so you have your goal and your time frame. Now, in order for our goal to be compelling, we need find the core motivation for it. If I say I want to eat more vegetables every day, but don't really have a true reason that's important to me, ordering pizza will be much more alluring. 

Here's what I want you today. Ask yourself why you've set this particular goal and see how far down you can drill. It may be, that after digging deeply into your psyche, you find that your goal is a) not specifically what you want to do, b) not actually realistic given your time, resources, and your desire to accomplish the goal, or c) just right (high five!). 

If you find that option "a" or "b" is true of your goal, it's time to tweak it to transform it into the "c" option.

It's important to find the core motivation behind the goal because sometimes we have competing motivations, so we need to find ways to eliminate competition in order to be successful. The level motivation for our goal must exceed the level of motivation for activities/choices that will not contribute to accomplishing the goal. 

I'll give you a personal example (it's a simple, and perhaps silly one, but it popped in my brain).

I had a goal a few years ago to conquer the Iron Maiden Challenge within a year of beginning my training for it. The IMC is a pull-up, pistol squat (1-legged squat), and 1-arm overhead press with a 24K (53lb) kettlebell. It's a pretty awesome feat of strength and I really, really wanted to do it. I love to lift heavy things, I love physically challenging things, and it seemed like something I could actually accomplish with training. 

However, I didn't check my core motivations. As I said, I love to lift heavy things, I actually really, really love to deadlift and squat more so than pressing and pistol-ing. By, like, a factor of a million. 

Despite why my athletes think, I don't just goof off all day when I'm not coaching and my training time is fairly limited. Therefore, I need to be very discerning and precise as to what exercises compose my workouts; I want to maximize what time I do have to get the most bang for my buck. 

I found, after 6 weeks or so, that I didn't really have time to do what I love, mainly hoist barbells with copious (in my mind anyway) amounts of weight on them. And that didn't make me happy or motivated to train (gasp!). My desire to accomplish the IMC diminished with each day that I had to sacrifice my deadlift time for my pistol time. (I have NOTHING against pistol squatting, I just like deadlifts more). Ultimately, I realized that, yes, I can train for the IMC and get it, but I'm honestly more motivated to deadlift/squat and improve in those (for my own satisfaction, really). So, the IMC goal got shelved for now and I focused on my barbell lifts. 

As you can see, I was a *kinda* happy with it. This was ultimately more satisfying for me than, quite honestly, successfully mastering the IMC.

So, what do we need to know? 

1. Set a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

2. Ask yourself "why" (multiple times) this goal is important to you. 

3. Tweak and adjust the goal based on the answers to number 2. 

Check back next time for Part 2: How To Find The Daily Habits to Success

Athlete Sleep Survey Results

20,000 Stronger Week 2: 617,506 lbs Lifted to Date

We always strive to become more accurate with our program design by understanding our clients on the deepest level possible. This year we've implemented the Athlete Exit Survey. It's basic, it's fast. But it delivers us rich information about how we (the coaches) are doing and helps us gather useful information to better serve our clientele. 

This past week we conducted a sleep survey:

It was great to see 58% of our clientele get more than 7 hours of sleep on any given night, but there is still work to do for the other 40%. Here are a few articles on sleep and its impact on your body: When You Can't Sleep, 6 Rules to Resolve By, 4 Things Currently Improving My Sleep Life: Part 1 & Part 2.

***Heyyyy Now, that's the equivalent of The Statue of Liberty AND 3 Railroad Boxcars in 2-weeks***

Your Influential Shadow

It’s been a li’l while since I last posted, but we had a crazy December. We currently train 4 teams from a local volleyball club (BRYC if you’re interested in playing for them) and we had a high volume of young ladies that we need to evaluate, program for, and on-board to the SAPT family. It was a lot of work, but I’m through the initial tsunami!

My husband wrote a blog post awhile back on his site about a conversation we had with my dad. My dad is a rather intelligent fellow and a retired Air Force general with years of leading and commanding people. He imparted this wisdom upon us, “Be mindful if the shadow you cast.” You can read Steve’s post for the more eloquent and full musing upon the topic. This quote sums it up here best:

"Exactly," said John (Kelsey: that's my dad). "One of the distinguishing qualities of a shadow is that it stretches outward from a person, covering the ground around them. And this happens whether the person wants it to or not. It's unavoidable."

"Titles act in much the same way. They stretch out in front of you wherever you go, and will be noticed by everyone around you. They affect how everyone views you and the things you oversee. This is a burden that you must carry, and while it may be a joyful burden, it's still a burden. It's inescapable."

We all cast shadows that touch the people around us (as a coach, parent, boss, teacher, sibling, spouse, friend, etc.) and in my role of a coach, my shadow reaches a lot of pre-teens and teenagers. As this mass of teenage girls descended upon SAPT I became acutely aware of how impactful their coach, especially their female coach, is in their lives. What I say and do can affect these girls- for better or for worse- long-term.

Coincidentally, my co-worker Emily sent me a link to this article from the Washington Post about the removal of the term “bikini body” from Women’s Health magazine. I encourage you all to read it as it as I don’t plan on rehashing it here.

The combination of this article with the influx of teenager girls spawned a couple of thoughts:

1. There is an overabundance of message bombarding women and girls about what they “should” look like, and frankly, it can be damaging to our psyche. (this isn’t a new principle)
2. I struggled (and still do at times, though it’s easier to fight the lies) with body image anxiety, so much so that it drove me into an eating disorder for years. How can I wield my shadow to help prevent that from happening to young women?
3. I’m in a position to help combat those messages; while I can’t walk around and provide constant verbal counter-action, I can speak openly and positively about body image with them. I can engage them in conversation, listen to them, and encourage them to seek a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle rather than one that is focused solely on obtaining the nebulous and narrow view of a “bikini body.”
4. The shadow I cast on these girls could be part of an effort to swing them away from body image worries that plague my sex.

Great, Kelsey, good for you, but why does this even matter?

Because you cast a shadow too! Your shadow is influential, and probably in ways you don't even realize. 

How are you wielding the power of your shadow? Are you mindful of the impact you have on those around you? Do you take your burden seriously?

As a boss, how do you treat your employees? Parents- you undoubtedly have the most powerful shadow in your kids' lives. Your words and actions will affect them for the rest of their lives. Coaches and teachers also are incredible influencers, again for better or for worse.

Aside from this particular instance, I considered the my shadow in all realms of my life and it caused me to be more mindful of my interactions with others and how I present myself. I encourage you to take some time and sit down and think about where your shadow goes and who it touches. It could make a world of difference. 

We Lifted Nine Elephants

Week 1 of our 2016 initiative 20,000 Stronger is officially complete! One of the (many) ways we're having fun as we strive towards this goal is by tracking weight lifted for the Big 3 and total repetitions for push-ups and pull-ups.

Just based on our first week's totals, it's clear that after 365 days of training, we'll be posting some insanely large numbers. In deadlift alone, we've already lifted the approximate weight of nine elephants! But, what I'm MOST proud of is the quality of these repetitions. 

At SAPT, we practice excellent repetitions. So, while you look at these huge numbers grow over the coming months, remember we hold ourselves, as coaches, and SAPT trainees to the very high standard of excellence in movement execution. 

What does that matter? It makes all the difference in the world. Perfect repetitions ensure that all SAPT atheltes remain safe and are only using loads their bodies can handle with perfect form. This builds an incredible foundation from which we build superior athletic performance.

If you are unfamiliar with our practices, here are some videos showing examples and some of the variations that will compose the growing total of pounds lifted and repetitions completed. 

Squat: 

Bench Press:

Pushup: 

Deadlift:

Deadlift:

20,000 Stronger

My pledge for the New Year.

I've set a really big goal for 2016. It's bigger than anything SAPT has achieved to date. It requires the full support of pretty much anyone I have ever come in contact with and many more I don't yet know!

For every training session we deliver in 2016, I will set aside $1 to donate to each client's choice of three charities (Alzheimer's Association, Side-Out Foundation, or Special Olympics). My goal is to make a minimum of a $20,000 total donation at the end of the year in the name of all our clients and supporters.

I am committing fully to this goal by announcing it today and humbly asking for your support throughout the year to help us achieve it. We will not get there without the fanatic support of our friends, family, clients, and followers. 

What can you do to help? 
Training with us is the most direct way, of course, but even if you are unable to train with us in-person, there are many ways to help us get 20,000 Stronger:

• Get the word out by sharing our content 
• Refer SAPT to your friends and colleagues 
• Follow us and engage on social media
• Introduce us to media outlets that need a great provider of weight-loss, health, fitness, sports performance, injury prevention, and post-rehab content or expertise
• Connect us with corporations that are looking for help making their wellness programs more impactful (our services are completely scalable)
• Distance coaching! Don't let geography be a barrier. Distance coaching will count towards our goal, too!

I'm pumped for this year and I sincerely hope you are just as excited for your own goals. Please reach out to us (via the "get started" link on our home page), or in the comments section, if you have any questions or great ideas on how we can achieve 20,000 Stronger. 

Wishing you the best,

Sarah Walls, Founder & President, Strength & Performance Training, Inc.

Follow ME! Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

P.S. - We delivered about 10,000 sessions last year, so when I say we need your support... I really mean it!

Skipping and Athletic Performance- Can't Have One Without The Other

We’ve talked about rolling and crawling and how both can improve your athleticism (you should read those posts if you haven’t already). Next up, how skipping can improve athleticism. Yes, skipping. 

Rolling, crawling, and skipping are on the continuum of locomotion, starting with rolling and ending with running. Sounds fancy, I know, and in the process of developing global movement patterns, locomotion (moving forward, backward, or sideways) is one of the categories. Running- this includes everything from a jog to a sprint- is also part of this continuum and is obviously crucial in athletics.

However, what if you run like a newborn giraffe? How do we fix that?

Why by working on skipping! Skipping is the link between crawling and running. It’s like the peanut butter that holds the sandwich together. I stumbled across a great blog post by Allan Phillips from Pike Athletics and I think this quote sums it up quite tidily:

"If we can’t skip properly, running will require us to cheat in some way.  Cheating mechanisms are often unnoticeable by watching someone run but we know the brain must fill in the gaps for running if the basics of crawling and skipping aren’t present."

Think about it: the movement of skipping is very similar to that of running. Both are one-legged hops over distance, the opposite sides have to coordinate together (right leg + left arm and vice versa), the midsection must stay stiff in order to transfer the force applied to the ground to produce that distance-hop, and even the joints go through a similar range of motion- hips, knees, and shoulders all flex/extend in a fluid manner.

Skipping is a fantastic diagnostic tool for a coach. It quickly tells me if an athlete can a) disassociate upper and lower body (remember that from the rolling post?) and b) coordinate left and right sides of the brain/body. If they can’t do these, know where we need to go?

Back to rolling.

Back to crawling. 

We go back to the beginning of the continuum to help lay the foundation for the more advanced movements. Once we’ve established and re-developed (or maybe developing for the first time) those basic motor patterns, we can return to the skip (which is really just crawling while standing up).

I have yet to see an athlete who runs well who can’t skip. All of my goofy-looking runners (affectionately called that) can’t skip or at least can’t skip well. I am no expert on running form but by teaching athletes to skip, I can typically improve their running form with little to no extra-fancy knowledge. (Granted, if I have an athlete who needs to run very well- say a cross country runner or triathlete- I will send him/her to a running coach.)

And when we're talking about improving movement patterns for sports, strength training- which includes skipping- for young kids is imperative to combat the mentality of early sport specialization. (And I’m not the only one tooting this horn.)

Plus, skipping makes you smile. Seriously, try skipping and NOT smiling. It’s hard.

All this said, skipping is a foundational movement that, if skipped over (see what I did there) running and arguably other athletic movements will suffer. Therefore, teaching skipping.