THREE on making habits sticky, improving technique and avoiding injury in 2021
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• IGNORE THE FINISH LINE Whether it’s improving your pace or power, or choosing a race distance that you haven’t attempted before, it’s OK to be ambitious but don’t let the gravity of your goal keep you from accomplishing it. This sports essay in The New York Times documents a swimmer’s attempt to swim 12 miles across Lake Tahoe with a friend. Even after six months of training, when the day came the seven-hour swim in 65-degree water still seemed daunting — until their escorts, former Coast Guard members, gave them some advice: “If you want to make it across the lake, don’t look at the horizon,” they recommended. “If you look at how far away you are,” they told us, “you’ll never make it.” The writer, a computer scientist, processed the Coast Guard’s data in a simple way that can be applied to most goals: break the goal down into chunks that your brain can comprehend and that your body can accomplish.
• BUILD A BETTER BIKE If a new bike wasn’t on your Christmas list or you’re doing the prudent thing and committing to saving more this year, the good news is you can unlock your cycling fitness goals by fixing up your existing bike. WIRED is out with a new write-up that outlines how you can avoid buying a new bike by learning how to better maintain, upgrade, and fix the bike you already have. The writer reached out to performance cycling experts including Calvin Jones, a former US National and Olympic Teams mechanic, “to make the most out of whatever two wheels you have underneath you.”
• AVOIDING LOWER BACK PAIN WHILE RUNNING If you’re a runner who sometimes experiences back pain while running or shortly after a run, you might pay closer attention to your form and ask whether you have too much motion or too much stiffness. Colleen M. Brough, DPT, assistant professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, talked to Men’s Health to try to answer the question, “Why the heck does your back hurt?” and provide tangible exercises to consider if this sounds like you. (Of course, consult your doctor before starting a new training regimen.)
• SIX EXERCISES TO IMPROVE SWIM SPEED & TECHNIQUE In the same way that your run might be suffering because of a lack of core and hip stability or tight hamstrings and calves, swimming requires proper conditioning on land, particularly when it comes to “tiny connector muscles, ligaments and tendons” that get overlooked training in the pool, Ironman-certified coach Wendy Mader told The Wall Street Journal. Keeping these muscles, ligaments and tendons healthy and strong can translate to improved stroke technique and increased swimming speed. Mader showcased six exercises designed to “strengthen the upper back and boost core stability and shoulder mobility.
• EMBRACING DISCOMFORT When we’re training and racing, many of us push right up to the point where we feel uncomfortable and then dial it back, whether out of fear of bonking during a race or getting injured during a training session. The start of a new year often leads athletes to up our ambitions, but we often lack a plan for pushing through difficult plateaus. With that in mind, Runner’s World writer and licensed strength and running coach, Jess Movold, has published a piece to help guide athletes through the mental and physical challenges of a hard run.Self-talk: While positive self-talk is extremely powerful, negative self-talk can be exceptionally destructive – it’s important to have a strategy on how to deal with the negative self-talk.
• RESOLVE TO LOOK BACK ON LAST YEAR This month, instead of making a New Year’s resolution you might consider conducting a past year review. The concept gained renewed popularity when Tim Ferriss published a blog about the benefits a few years ago. The process takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour reviewing all of the people, activities and commitments that triggered peak positive and negative emotions over the past year, with the goal of scheduling more of the positivity-driving people and activities in the coming year. According to Ferriss, “It’s not enough to remove the negative. That simply creates a void. Get the positive things on the calendar ASAP.”
• THE WORLD’S DEEPEST POOL You probably can’t travel there right now, but if you’re a diver looking to add a destination to your bucket list this pool probably deserves to be high up on it. According to CNN, “Scuba divers can plunge to brand new depths without setting foot in the ocean thanks to a multi-million dollar facility that's just opened in Poland. With a depth of over 45 meters (around 148 feet) Deepspot is claimed to be the world's deepest swimming pool, containing 8,000 cubic meters of water — more than 20 times the amount as a 25-meter pool.” The pool is intended to be a training and practice site “and even contains a small shipwreck, as well as artificial underwater caves and Mayan ruins for divers to explore.”
• PRIORITIZE SLEEP There’s one resolution we can get behind — and that’s prioritizing sleep. WIRED published a video featuring sleep scientist Aric A. Prather, PhD, who explains the importance of sleep and all of its phases, from light slumber to deep sleep. Not only is sleep a critical part of athletic recovery, Prather says “sleep is so critical for so many parts of our body and our mind.” WIRED’s report concludes that “sleep strengthens the immune system and helps regulate metabolism. It can clear out toxins that build up in the brain and prevent neurodegenerative diseases.” Watch below:
WHY BEHAVIOR CHANGE IS ELUSIVE
The THREE Letter by Joe Maloy 2016 U.S. Olympic Triathlete, THREE Co-Founder and Editor-at-Large
Happy New Year, everyone! It’s been one week since we closed the door on a crazy 2020. No matter if you made a resolution or if you think resolutions made on New Year’s Eve are stupid, this edition explores why behavior change is so elusive and how we can get better at taking the actions which lead us closer to our goals.
Think of behavior change as a tug-of-war between the equal powers of “what you’re currently doing” and “what you want to do.” The behavior change team needs help! The “what you’re already doing” team has that big kid on the end who is so freaking hard to move. His name is “Habit,” and he doesn’t want to move anywhere. For a resolution to become lasting and create the intended change, it needs to get Habit to switch teams.
The first few days and weeks of behavior change are hard and the rope doesn’t move too much. Habit is not sure what to do, so he keeps pulling for his current team. As you keep pulling on the “behavior change” side of the rope, though, Habit starts to think “Hey, that team is pretty cool.” He starts to stop pulling so hard. The behavior change team makes some progress. After about 21 days of tugging, Habit switches teams. It’s important to remember that Habit is always on the winning team. Here are two suggestions to help you habitualize your resolutions in 2021:
1. Ditch the “all or nothing” attitude by setting goals with target ranges to increase your chances of success.
Messing up in the early stages of behavior change is as common as writing “2020” instead of “2021.” People who accomplish lasting behavioral change don’t let these missteps take them too far from the path they want to walk. They keep pulling because they know, eventually, Habit will join their team. Set goals with “target ranges” instead of using words including “always,” “every,” and “never.” Success is addictive and failure is discouraging. “Range-based” goals should seem ambitious yet achievable. They say what you want to do, but they leave a little “wiggle room” for life to get in the way.
ACTION: Set goals with ranges (“Workout every morning before 8am.” becomes “Workout 4-5 weekdays before 8am and at least 1 weekend morning before noon.”) You could even be more specific with the workout by giving it a time and place. “Do yoga in the living room 2-3x per week and run outside 2-3x per week, depending on the weather.”
2. Use “habit stacking” to cue new actions by piggybacking on already-formed habits.
“Habit stacking” is a term coined by Stanford professor B.J. Fogg. Fogg studies behavior change and recommends pairing the desired action with a habit you’ve already built. This essentially convinces Habit to switch teams faster.
For example, let’s say your goal is not to eat after 8pm. You already know you don’t eat after you brush your teeth, so try brushing your teeth at 8pm. It’s already your “cue” to close the kitchen, so use that to your advantage.
ACTION: After or Before <Insert current habit>, I will <Insert new habit>.
Of course there are plenty more tactics you could implement, but remember the main idea that behavior change is hard, and the only way it works is by making the new behavior a habit. Ditching the “all or nothing” attitude will help your plan be more resilient to obstacles and missteps, and “habit stacking” can help you accelerate the change you’re aiming to create. Feel free to use one, both, or one of your own strategies to stick with your next resolution to change.
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Joe Maloy 2016 U.S. Olympic Triathlete, Co-Founder and Editor-at-Large
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
This week we’re bringing back three articles from the archives about mindfulness which, experts argue, should be part of any serious athlete’s regimen.
Do you meditate or focus on mental strength as part of your training? Reply to this email and let us know how it’s impacted your wellbeing or performance. We’ll share the best insights in our next edition.
We hope this newsletter helps you start the new year on the right foot. We look forward to seeing you on a starting line soon.
