Key to Accomplishing Fitness Goals: Consistency is STILL King

Here is a post I wrote almost exactly a year ago and I thought it would be a good reminder to repost this as because, shockingly, consistency is STILL king when it comes to fitness goals (or any goals really). Granted, today is Tuesday and not Monday, but you know, pretend it is. 

Monday’s are my favorite day of the week. As you recover from your recoil of horror, let me explain.

I am a “routine” person. I find comfort and stability in the routines. As a kid, I didn’t really like summer vacation all that much because there wasn’t structure to my day like there was during the school year. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed time away from homework and the annoying kids at school, but I usually missed the schedule that school provided. I went to school, I went to practice (various sports, depending on the season), and I attended Girl Scouts (lifetime member!).

I carried this into college; I went to class, I worked out (a lot), I studied, and I slept. That was pretty much it. 

Kelsey circa '08, probably on a Thursday afternoon.

I had a pretty regimented 4 years- I kept to my schedule. I woke up and went to bed at the same time every day, I went to the same coffee shop to study, I (almost) always sat at the same table, I worked out at the same times, and even took the same route to each class. Though the details of my schedule shifted a bit every semester as my classes changed, I maintained a fairly rigid structure throughout the week.

At first, weekends were hard for me, because the structure was gone. I compensated for it by working at one of the campus dining halls on the weekends. I clung to my routines as I would a kettlebell during swings.

I know, I was a barrel of fun in college.

I was a competitive body builder in college, as I think most readers of the blog know, and the routine and structure I had helped me accomplish my goals of successfully competing in each show. I learned through those four years that long-term goals necessitate long-term strategies.

Prepping for a competition on a Friday night in college... yes, I am painting myself tan. I had to enlist my cousin (he had to paint my back) before going to bed at 8PM. This was standard for competition season.

I’ve loosened my tight, death-grip on my schedule over the years- mostly thanks to my loving, patient husband who helps me step outside those routines and relax on the weekends- though I still maintain a fairly structured work week. I have goals I want to accomplish, both short- and long-term, and I know that having a routine allows me to work on each one regularly.

While I’m not advocating that you should NEVER deviate from your schedule, I am saying that structure is a boon when you’re on the path to achieve a goal. It allows for consistency and adherence to processes that propel you forward to that goal.

Do you want to deadlift your bodyweight? Drop 1 minute off your mile time or 5 seconds off your 60 yard dash? Leaner? Improve your performance on the field, court, or in the pool?

All those things take time and consistency.

Question: How are you going to consistently strength train? How are you going to ensure you’re consistently running? How are you going to consistently adhere to your eating plan?

Answer: By planning times in your day/week to do so. The best way to do that is to make it part of your normal routine. Everyone has their own daily and weekly rituals. Simply add training and/or meal prep or both to them!

When I get in the car, I check my mirrors, put on my seatbelt, turn the car on, check my mirrors again, put the car in reverse, and back out. This is my routine, and it’s so ingrained that I do most of it automatically without thinking about it. If I get distracted (say a large bird hits my windshield- true story) and I don’t perform all the checks in order, I usually forget something and I wind up lost on the process.

The same can be said, on a larger scale, about training. If it’s not part of your routine, you’ll forget to do it (or worse, find excuses not to do it).

This is my number one piece of advice for anyone looking to improve in the physical fitness realm- be it for athletics, aesthetics, or life-  make it a part of your life routine.

SAPT Technique Tip: Rib Position in the Row

Here's a quick video with yet more rowing technique. Like I said in the prior two posts, the poor row is butchered over and over again. Don't be that lifter!

If you want to reap the full benefits of the row, pay attention to your rib position. You'll have to watch the video to find out why!

SAPT Core Exercise of the Week: Slider Miyagi Plank

Do you want a li'l somethin' to set your core ablaze? (and channel Karate Kid, obviously)

Try these puppies: 

Training tips:

Keep your midsection tight as well as your butt (everyone forgets that bit). This will prevent your hips from twisting or swaying from side-to-side. Lock your elbows and keep most of your weight on your supporting, not sliding, arm.

If you can't keep your hips level, spread your feet apart to create a wider base. As you become more proficient, you can inch your feet closer together.

You also get the added benefit of challenging shoulder stabilization so it's great for overhead athletes or anyone who needs to work on the smaller muscles in the shoulder.

To make it harder, you can elevate your feet.

We use furniture sliders at SAPT, but if you don't have them towels on a hard surface work, as do magazines (totally used that before) on a carpet, or sliding your bare palm lightly across the floor will work if you're in a pinch. 

SAPT Technique Tip: Arm + Knee Supported Dumbbell Row

Trotting along the theme of row technique, today’s video breaks down the nuances of the bent over row with the arm and knee supported.

I love this variation, and yet again, it’s often poorly executed. Check yourself out in the mirror next time you perform this or have someone watch you to make sure you’re not falling into one of these traps!

Main points:

Many people round the upper and lower back too much, don’t even retract their shoulder blade at all, and wind up shoving their shoulder into their ear.

On the flip side, some folks extend/arch their lower back and neck too much and can set themselves up for injury at those locations. Also, this lends itself to instability which will limit the amount of weight you can actually row.

I see people all the time lean too far forward in their toes (heel is off the ground) which also makes them feel unstable. Instead, you should sit back in the heel of the foot that’s on the ground and most of your weight should be in your hips. This creates a much more stable position and the row becomes markedly easier to perform correctly.

Neutral spine all they way.

SAPT Technique Tip: Row Like A Boss

The row is one of the basic human movements that should be included in all training programs. I would even go so far as to say it’s essential yet very much ignored. It’s also probably one of the most butchered movements, the poor thing.

Everyone likes to work the “mirror muscles” (the front side) and we tend to drift away from training the backside as fervently as we do the front, mostly because usually those exercises are harder so, naturally, we don’t like to do them.

However, rowing creates a powerful upper back that a) makes you stronger in general, all the power comes from the back of you, b) prevents shoulder injuries by stabilizing the shoulder blade and maintaining a healthy scapulohumeral rhythm (fancy way of saying how your shoulder blade moves on your rib cage in conjunction with your arm bone), and c) provides a solid foundation from which you can bench more weight. Oh, what was that? A strong back means a stronger bench?

With all that in mind, here’s a video outlining some of the most common row technique flaws that plague weight rooms everywhere.

Main points:

Don’t squinch your shoulders up towards your ears.

Don’t crank your shoulder blade down into your back pocket.

Both those movement patterns only feed into dysfunction: shoulder impingement and lower back hyperextension/back pain, respectively.

We want to see scapular retraction, as if you’re pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades as you row.

Even if you have great retraction, if you don’t allow your scapulae to glide forward as you extend your arm, it becomes a horizontal bicep curl and doesn’t really help improve your back muscles’ strength.

A Sport Specific Speed and Agility Drill: Barrel Roll to Sprint to Backpedal

Wednesday's post skimmed the surface with speed training- acceleration and deceleration- and offered a pretty great drill (in my humble opinion at least) to teach those two aspects of speed work concomitantly. 

I have yet another fantastic drill to work on speed/agility. This one is also incorporates acceleration and deceleration, but throws in the challenge of getting up off the floor directly into the sprint. Have a look-see before we break it down:

The athlete starts in a plank position, rolls over (right or left), gets up, sprints forward, slows down, and changes direction into a backpedal.

This particular athlete plays volleyball so this drill is perfect for volleyball players who often dive on the court (on the ground) and then immediately have to be up at the net (sprint forward) and eventually have to transition to her/his original spot on the court once the ball is returned from the opposing team (backpedal).

That said, this drill can really apply to any athlete since many athletes find themselves on the ground at one point or another and need to return to play as quickly as possible. 

I already spoke on the benefits of training the acceleration/deceleration aspect in the last post, so I won't belabor those points. Two specific things about this drill that I really, really like: 

1. The athlete has to learn how to re-orient his/herself. The barrel roll challenges the vestibular system (balance) by scrambling the inner ear and eyes a bit so the athlete has to learn how to figure out where they are in space, quickly, before they can get up again. A lot of people neglect to train or at least challenge the vestibular system so athletes can get disoriented on the field/court and thus lose valuable seconds within a play. You can "strengthen" the vestibular system by throwing in drills that change the athlete's field of vision, the physical position of the head/body, or requiring them to change directions rapidly. 

2. Not only does the athlete have to figure out where the body is in space, but now they have to get up off the ground. The transition from ground to standing is another place where seconds are wasted (and that can mean the difference between winning or losing...) so the faster an athlete can get up and back in the game, the better. Drills like this isolate that transition a bit so the athlete can learn how to do so most efficiently. 

This is a more slightly more advanced drill. Before giving this to an athlete, I would want to ensure she/he is able to change directions well and so drills that only focus on that are ideal to start, like the drill in the other post. Once they look pretty good there, we can throw in drills like this that add extra challenges that are a bit more sport-specific, or as I say, "life-specific."