 Add those small things in! Are you guilty of doing the workouts you love but then skipping the small things? If so you are not alone. As a coach, I see this all of the time. Runners love to run, not lift, so if pressed for time they will always get their run in and most likely tell themselves that they will do the foam rolling or PT work “later.” Triathletes will get their swim, bike or run in but they are much more hit and miss with lifting or stretching. Lifters get in all the strength work but where is that cardio or that mobility? Over and over, I see my athletes skipping the little stuff. {foam rolling, mobility work, stretching or maybe some PT exercises} It is fantastic that the planned runs or rides are getting done but sometimes it is just as important to get in the little things. Just as recovery is a critical part of being the best athlete one can be these little things are too. The little things are a big part of the foundation for achieving goals. If they are always skipped, then the danger is that down the road you will be missing some key building blocks in your athletic foundation. As an athlete, it is not only about training the engine and just like it takes time to develop the engine it takes time to develop muscles, tendons, muscle patterning, mobility and flexibility. There aren’t any quick fixes or short cuts. You can’t pop a pill and suddenly not need to stretch any more and there certainly is NOT an app that will do it all for you. Athlete DevelopmentFitness takes time to develop and as much as we would wish it so, it isn’t always a straight line progression. If you are new to fitness, you will learn that it is a series of small steps you have to take over and over again to see the changes accumulate. When you are new, you may see some big changes quickly and it can be very gratifying. The more you stick with it the more progress you see. But, all athletes hit a level where that progress slows down or they plateau.That can be frustrating. It is not just about building the engine but also about the muscular endurance that will help prevent injury as you go longer or harder. It truly is year after year of consistent training that will help someone attain long term goals like racing a marathon or a triathlon. The first goal and a major goal is to finish any of these events. Then if you are trying for particular times in long distance events (that means ANY distance event from a 5k on), consistency in training is key. Keeping training consistent is more of a challenge than is often given credit. Life (job, kids, social life), injuries and lack of motivation can interfere. Even the most motivated of athletes will go through lulls where the motivation is just not the same. It is easy to get into the mindset of just getting the minimum done. Everyone goes down this path at some point or another. Don’t get us wrong, getting in your run or ride or swim is a success and is gratifying but is it all you need to be the best you can be? What's Missing? As an endurance athlete, skipping the small stuff over and over ultimately sets you up to not achieve your full potential. Most athletes can get away with it for quite a while but at some point it will catch up. Most of us don’t have perfect form. Most of us are not 100% balanced from left to right. Most of us have muscles that shut off or just don’t want to fire. Most of us don’t have perfect nutrition and most of us need to work on technique. We all have areas that need strengthening. We all need to pay better attention to mobility, we all need to maybe work a little on our nutrition and then there is the mental training too. Everyone can benefit from working on these areas. What's Holding You Back?Time. That’s always the issue. In the 20+ years I have been coaching, I have yet to find an athlete who says they have all the time they need to fit it all in. We live in a fast pace world and for the most part we are all simply too busy. So, how do we find time to fit in these much needed and often neglected parts of fitness? This is where that app that can do it with the push of a button comes in. Wouldn’t it be handy to press a “stretching app” and suddenly feel some of the tightness go away? Well, technology is not there quite yet. Instead we need to find ways to create little pockets of time and ways to be creative with these little things so that we can fit them in. Start with five to ten minutes a couple of times a week. Maybe you can do some mobility in the elevator at work as you ride up. Or maybe you can stretch tight calves when you brush your teeth. If you stop and think about it, we can all find a few minutes here and there. We need to recommit, put in those little things and make some new habits. The Small Things and Why They MatterBody Work Miles and miles and more miles. This is typically the focus of most runners and triathletes. However, with bigger volume comes bigger risk of injury. Taking the time to do the small and, sorry, not usually not exciting work to get the deep intrinsic muscles activated, balanced and strong will lead to better overall movement patterns. Developing these better overall movement patterns leads to the ability to maintain better form over longer periods of time doing the activity that you love. We know that this small stuff often might not feel like you are doing anything. We hear that all the time. It is not always about big movements, breaking a sweat or breathing hard. You have to trust us on this one, it is worth it to be consistent with core work, mobility, stretching, glute activation and strength work. General Training Concepts Another small thing that athletes often skip or don't want to work on is really understanding different efforts and why they are important. As we've said before, endurance development takes time. This is base building that you may have read about or heard of. Endurance is an aerobic pace - an easy, conversational pace. Most people have a pace they run just naturally out the door. This is fine to start but the problem is usually this pace is neither easy nor hard but instead a moderate pace. This moderate default effort does not allow for the best energy system development nor does it lend itself to be really rested for harder efforts or excited for easier ones. For many, it’s so easy to get drawn into a moderate or hard pace for every workout. Hammering every workout is not developing a base. Trying to force general aerobic fitness by driving pace in a run, hammering in a spin class can lead to problems. And consequently, if you do have to take time off for any reason, injury, work, life, it’s easy to try and jump back right where you were. If you’ve only had a week off, that might be ok. If there was an injury or if you’ve taken more time off, you may need a more gradual return to where you were. Besides the fitness reasons for working on this we need to develop this easy aerobic base and spend time here as this is where you will find many of the health benefits associated with fitness. Heart health, lowering cholesterol, mood lifting, etc. Technique Drills. Form reminders. Who needs them? You do. Are you a world class swimmer? World class biker? Planning on a gold medal in the marathon in the next olympics? If so, then maybe you can skip the drills. For all the rest of us, sorry, drills work to reinforce good habits. And truthfully, those world class athletes spend a lot of time doing the small stuff. We all get in an automatic mode trying to fit in a workout. Be deliberate and remind yourself about small little things you can do that don’t take much time day to day. These small bits of training over weeks, months and years of consistency add a lot of value. You will gain efficiency that can translate to speed, you will train more days due to fewer injuries and you might even find a new activity (like yoga or pilates) that you enjoy.. Nutrition And we’d be remiss if we didn’t bring in nutrition and fueling your busy life. Is this an area that could use some tweaking? Can making some little changes yield some big results? Certainly! It’s so easy to feel bad about some daily choices and give up on it all. Pick some small things you can do that can help you make some changes in this area. Pick an area that feels right for you and that is a small and doable change you can try. For instance, try focusing on:
There are many ways to tackle nutrition and it can feel overwhelming. We are excited to be offering nutrition consulting services so if you are looking for some help please let us know. It’s always helpful to know that everyone has struggles around these issues and talking with someone can help move you forward. The Inner Conversation The last “little thing” we are going to touch on is the background conversation going on in your head. Sometimes we are not even aware we are having these conversations, but these alone can sabotage some of our efforts. Are you telling yourself you will do it later, you don’t have time, it does not really make a difference, the cardio workout is the important part…...the conversations are endless so make sure what you are telling yourself supports your goals. What’s your “Little Thing?”As you can see there is a whole lot behind the “little things!"
Before you start feeling like a slackerly slug, realize that it’s impossible to make all these sorts of changes all at once. Start with some small item and add it in consistently. Soon, it can become a habit. Here’s some of the changes we consistently ask clients to add:
Even adding these few items into a week doesn’t take more than at most an hour or so out of your week. Can you do it? We think you can and will! Now we must say goodbye as we have a foam roller or mobility workout to go work on! Even we have to make time for the little things. Remember change comes over time. Don’t beat yourself up if you start and then slip, just keep trying to tackle those things that over time will keep you healthy longer and out having fun enjoying what you do!
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