Tag: Personal Growth

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From Running to Strength: How I Built an Effective Upper Body Routine

Hello again, dear readers,

After running 1000 miles last year, I decided my legs were in the best condition they’d ever been, even before my stroke. Encouraged by my previous success, I expanded my exercises to include my upper body. I decided on pull-ups, pullovers, pushups, tricep pushups, and planks. These were all exercises I was previously familiar with and knew how to do, and they should help balance the fitness of my body a bit more. 

Next, I had to find a time/trigger for my exercises and determine how many to do. Since I’d been so good at keeping my running schedule, I used getting ready for my run as my trigger. So, every running day, before I head outside, I do some number of pull-ups, pullovers, pushups, triceps pushups, and planking. At the start of this routine, I only did one pull-up, one pullover, 21 pushups, one triceps pushup, and 1 minute, 21 seconds of planking. I found it easier to keep track of the goal numbers if they were aligned. 

I also decided that if I could achieve the target number 10 times, I would increase the number by 1. Eventually, I found that I could do two sets of exercises and did my first before I ate breakfast and my second before my run. In the beginning, when I was doing relatively small numbers of each activity, I tried to do four sets spread throughout the day. Still, I didn’t have appropriate triggers for 2 of them or 3 of them on non-running days, so I periodically forgot to do them all. Still, my before-breakfast set was reasonably easy to remember. I kept up with this set and have done it daily for over 200 days, gradually increasing my counts to 10 pull-ups, 10 pullovers, 20 pushups, 10 triceps pushups, and 1 minute 50 seconds of planking. There have been non-running days that I’ve missed the second set, but those have been rare enough that I haven’t worried too much about it.

So, after you’ve built and established a habit, consider using it as an anchor for expanding it into an entire routine. In making this routine, I prioritized rooting the practice over starting with higher/more challenging numbers. In the beginning, doing a single pull-up felt underwhelming, but I built the habit of slowly increasing the repetitions in my mind. I’m pretty confident that 10 successful sets aren’t optimal, but it’s easy to keep track of, and it’s working for me now. 

If it stops working, I must find a way to fix it. However, what matters most is that I am progressing and getting stronger.

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The Power of Small Goals: Achieving Big Results Through Consistency

One of the lessons I keep discovering throughout my various habit formation is that small goals done consistently over time can lead to pretty startling results.  

I want to accomplish a goal in one herculean effort, and I often fail when I attempt such a thing. Last year, I ran over 1,000 miles. If I had set out to run 1,000 miles all at once or even in a single month, I’m confident I would have immediately failed; however, by splitting the 1000 miles into more manageable albeit still challenging parts, I could achieve this more significant number. 

I also recently committed to maintaining our front yard better, and the first objective was to weed our planted areas. When I first decided, weeding the entire area would be nearly impossible, but I decided to find a mere 20 minutes to work on it every day. 

I expect it to be finished sometime this week, and I’ll have to maintain it. Again, had I tried to strip the areas of weeds all in one day, it would have been miserable and potentially unwise as it’s pretty hot outside.

If you need help to complete your goals or even get started at them, try to make them smaller. Don’t try to run 1000 miles all at once. Intellectually, I know it’s better to set goals this way, but I still feel an urge to try and do it all at once. 

In my goal formation, I remember to make the habits smaller and plan to practice over a more extended period. Starting earlier and going longer is a safer way to approach many activities.

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Running Through Rehab: How I Built a Consistent Running Habit

I’ve been running regularly for the past five years. I began my current running program when we still lived in Portland, Oregon. My wife and I had been walking nearly every day since I’d been released from rehabilitation, and I felt I had progressed enough to try running.

A few years before this, I had attempted to get into running but hadn’t committed to it, but I had learned about the couch to 5k running program (c25k). I had enough commitment to maintain my running schedule and found an app for my phone, which allowed me to import some of my music into this program.

 

Couch to 5K (C25K) Program

C25k fit me quite well; it starts relatively slow with short-run segments with walking segments between them. Each week, the run segments get longer and the walk segments shorter. After five weeks, I ran for the entire time, about 5 kilometers. I went through this program several times, and each time, it got easier, and I got faster.

 

Zombies, Run!

Then my wife heard about a running app that was gaining popularity at the time, Zombies, Run! It’s an app that uses game concepts to motivate running. It’s set during a zombie apocalypse, and you play a character helping a small settlement of survivors by running. During each mission, you collect or deliver items while randomly acquiring materials to build your settlement. I found it quite interesting, and motivated me to run more and more to find out what happens next in the story.

After running 5k three times per week for a year, I was ready to push myself more, and I found an extension program by the same group that made the c25k program, which smoothed the transition from 5k to 10k using the same concepts of increasing the duration of run segments and shortening the walk segments. Again, this worked well for me, and I was proud of being able to run 10k. I won’t say it was easy, but it was possible.

 

An Added Challenge

I kept with this as we moved to Nashville, Tennessee; however, this move added a challenge to overcome. The average climate in Nashville is quite different from Portland. It is quite a bit warmer in Nashville, and I needed to keep myself hydrated while running. Luckily, my habit of counting steps helped me figure out a schedule for sipping my sports drink.

I use the schedule every 400 steps; I pause for a few seconds and drink. Conveniently, I discovered that 400 steps is roughly half a kilometer for me.

Now equipped with a rehydration schedule, I ran 5k nearly every day. It took me a while to get used to the new environment. After running 5k at least three times per week for a year, I aimed to push myself further by increasing my run distance by a kilometer each month. During the first month, I ran three 5k per week, then gradually increased to three 6k per week, and eventually, I was able to run 10k three times per week. My goal was to improve my endurance and speed.

 

1 Month: 3 x 5K (to get used to running)

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End: 3 x 10K

 

While I was faster at running 5k, I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be, although I doubt I ever will be; however, as long as I’m getting better, I should be content with my progress. I repeated this sequence a couple more times and then set a new goal: I will run 35k per week for a year.

3x10k and 1x5k. Some weeks were harder than others, and I had to figure out how to balance my running schedule with other activities and impediments like weather.

 

I had to set up rules so every solution to a complication wasn’t ad hoc but part of a comprehensive plan. First, I made a goal statement: to run 35k per week. Then, I made a list of likely impediments, which included inclement weather and other obligations like birthday parties or doctor’s appointments. Scheduling appointments was easy since I set running days separate from appointment days.

 

The other complications were more brutal to balance, but I found that if I couldn’t juggle the days to fit my schedule, I could spread my anticipated missed days running over the other days so, instead of 3x10k + 1x5k, I could run 2x12k and an 11k. I was happy as long as I accomplished my primary goal of 35k.