As the new year has rolled in, many of you will create new goals for yourself both for physical/mental health or possibly some additional events or activities you’d like to experience or get done this year. To focus on exercise related goals, that might be to get involved with a new type of protocol in the gym or to be getting involved in something new for the first time.
Should you go out and buy a new pair of running shoes and hit the pavement or treadmill? Unless you’re familiar already with some type of cardio program, the results you might find could be less than desired or even result in injury. Though I’m a huge fan of incorporating some cardio activities into your weekly exercise regime, it’s important to build your base up before putting in too many miles.
Ankle sprains are the most frequent acute injury, and overuse is to blame for more than 70% of injuries, according to a narrative review on new runners and injury prevention techniques that was published this month. Running despite exhaustion, aberrant kinematics on uneven terrain, and insufficient neuromotor control, balance, and coordination are important processes behind injury and injury development. Plyometric exercises, dynamic flexibility, neuromotor strength and balance, and other components of comprehensive kinetic chain prehabilitation programs can promote steady, controlled mobility on trails. Patient education regarding the signs and symptoms of early musculoskeletal discomfort and training modification can assist damage from developing into serious overuse injuries. On the trail, real-time modifications to cadence, step length, and knee flexion may help reduce the risk of damage from impacts.
Anyone Lifting weights?!
The image that might come to mind could be that of a bodybuilding magazine or some popular influencers you might follow that post a few 30 second clips about their MOST IMPORTANT lifts to be able to perform or look a certain way. The good news is that there are no MOST IMPORTANT lifts and whatever style of training you might see pop up in your feed that offers this extra type of benefit is probably not necessary either. What is important? Being active and consistent with whatever type of training and whatever training volume you’re able to handle and enjoy doing.
Training Types
It’s commonly known that progressively lifting heavier and heavier weights is the most effective strategy to make a muscle larger and stronger. This knowledge has been passed down since the beginning of time. If you’ve ever heard the age old story of Milo, carrying a young bull on his shoulders every day until he was an adult. As the bull got heavier, Milo’s muscles became larger until he finally became one of the biggest and strongest men of his time. This story is perhaps one of the oldest examples of progressive overload during resistance training, and at the heart of the story is the effectiveness of lifting heavy weight for muscle hypertrophy. This belief has been pervasive until recently. To the surprise of many, lifting lighter loads is actually just as effective at increasing muscle mass as lifting heavy loads, so long as the light load lifting is performed with very high intensity and effort. This has been found through two different meta-analyses, one in 2017 and another just recently published. Measuring intensity can often be gauged by different measures like reps in reserve (RIR). Over the last decade, researchers have sought to understand how training with lighter loads could elicit the same muscle growth as heavy lifting. The potential mechanisms are not yet fully detailed, but it is becoming evident that lighter load with high exertion is effective for producing maximal hypertrophy, but perhaps not maximal strength. There’s a reason those serious about the art of “power lifting” train with very heavy loads for usually no more than 4-5 reps, often less. The hypertrophic potential of training with lighter loads for increasing muscle mass could have implications for athletes recovering after injury, when lifting very heavy loads is generally not recommended or feasible.
Goal Setting through SMART Goals?
This brings us to goal setting. In my opinion, the biggest overarching thing that gets missed in goal setting for an individual is the WHY.
WHY are you engaging in this goal?
"SMART" goals have become the standard in many areas, including fitness. While there are various explanations of what "SMART" stands for in this context, the most widely accepted one is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. In actuality, SMART goals were initially developed to assist managers in keeping their staff members on target in a corporate environment, and some research indicates that they may even be somewhat counterproductive for applications related to health and fitness.
The structure of the SMART goal paradigm contains a serious fault in my opinion from the very beginning. The letter "R" is frequently thought to stand for "relevant," which begs the question, "relevant to what?" Although the "big picture" or wider context for the goal is not explicitly stated in the SMART goal technique, this part of the acronym implicitly suggests that the goal is defined in reference to some other factor. As a result, individuals set isolated, decontextualized SMART goals, face challenges, end up possibly changing those goals in the end, face more challenges, and eventually give up.
Something that I had read about previously and admittedly not yet integrated yet into my own life, or other clients for that matter, stems from an article from 2018 explains how building a goal hierarchy is more superior than establishing a small number of unconnected or disjointed SMART goals. The cornerstone of a goal hierarchy is the superordinate objective. A picture of one's idealized, expanding self that is more akin to a value or an identity than a goal is referred to as a superordinate aim. As a solid, persistent, long-term goal that embodies one's sense of self, the goal hierarchy is more likely to hold firm when conflict or challenges arise.
The intermediate goals serve to support the top superordinate goal(s). These are more concrete, less abstract, and offer a general path that brings someone to their superior aim. Subordinate objectives—which resemble the SMART goals that many people are used to setting—support intermediate goals. Subordinate goals are specific objectives that outline precisely what you'll do (and how you'll do it) in order to accomplish your intermediate goals.
Shown in Figure 1 below as an example; Being "healthy" is the overarching goal. A person's aspirations and ideal state of being are reflected in this identity-based objective. Because it embodies a core value, their idealized self is a healthy person who behaves in a healthy way and is likely to persist for months or years.
Being a healthy individual who follows healthy activities is obviously a bit wide. The intermediate objectives serve that purpose. An example of a "healthy person" could be someone who maintains physical fitness, gets enough sleep, controls their stress levels, and consumes a balanced diet. That's wonderful, but how would one actually go about getting such results? In this instance, the subordinate goals are utilized. These are the incredibly specific objectives that represent the daily and weekly efforts that will result in the intermediate objectives and, ultimately, the superordinate objective.