With a new year comes new goals that many of us begin to commit to! Maybe you signed up for your first marathon, decided to go to the gym consistently, or be better at remembering to drink water, like one of our Prehab athletes! Whatever it may be we have a few ideas to help you kick start and stick to your plans and goals for 2022!
Athlete: Jerome Avery, Professional Sprinter
Get Your Baselines
Maybe your goal is to get faster this year! Prehab specialists recommend getting a good baseline to build off of when you start a new training plan or phase. One of the options at Prehab to gather your baseline objectively is through our Prehab Gaitscrip, our premium gait analysis and athletic assessment. Getting your baselines in your running analysis and athletic assessment can give you a better idea of where you are currently, and what “low hanging fruit” you need to work on before you progress. This is a good way of helping to prevent injury and build upon your fitness in a smart way!
– Dr. Arsen Virovyan, DPT
MindSet Goals Vs. Action Based Goals
A lot of New Years goals start out as action based goals, meaning your goal is contingent on completing an action with no purpose behind it. “This is where we see a huge drop in sticking to our goals!” Chari Hawkins, Team USA, heptathlete says. Sometimes doing an action just to do it isn’t enough. “For example if I say I want to do xyz in the new year and I don’t necessarily define why I am doing those actions I am likely to mess up, because I’m human!” Chari says her goal is to “Be a woman that drinks water, balances electrolytes, and does so in the proper manner.” She explains this is different than giving an amount of water to drink everyday. Knowing what she needs to do to be successful is enough to help her create the mindset that in order to work towards her goals as an athlete she needs to make this part of her daily routine and lifestyle. A tip she recommends is setting weekly mindset goals and modify those as needed.
Put Together A Plan
Getting a plan of steps to take to help you reach your goals is a super effective way of helping make sure you set yourself up or success. A plan can be thought of as drops added to a bucket. They are small steps taken simultaneously to help you reach the ultimate goal! Prehab’s Ambassadors, Emma Abrahamson, has been one of our role models for this! She talks about many of the steps she is taking in the new year, and how they have been crossing over in her big picture goal! Here are some tips Emma found helpful while putting together her plan. Her goal for 2022 is to run a race again after taking some time off after her competitive college days.
– Find ways or people to hold yourself accountable
– Take things one step at a time
– Recognize where you are mentally
– Ask for help when you need it
Watch her latest vlog talking about her goals and how Prehab has been helping her work towards and achieve her goals!
Runner Specific S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Setting the right goals is important for runners. Goals that are too ambitious you may risk burnout; setting goals that are too easy, and you won’t get better. As many of us know runners tend to set multiple goals to tackle during training throughout the year. While setting mindset goals will remain consistent throughout training, it is important to have a bit more flexibility when it comes to traditional goals. With that said, it doesn’t diminish the importance of those objectives, too.
Once you’ve set your foundation and get your baselines, it’s time to turn your attention to the more results-oriented goals for the season. We recommend our athletes practice making S.M.A.R.T Goals, which stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
Specific- Set up a time and a place for your goals to be achieved. Such as signing up for a race!
Measurable- Set a goal with bench marks so your progress can be measured.
Achievable- Choose a goal that pushes you but isn’t totally out of your reach.
Relevant- Your goals should be from your own personal ambitions, not just something your running buddy wants to do.
Time-bound- Keep your training on a timeline. If you signed up for a race, this takes care of keeping it time-bound.
Our challenge in the new year is helping runners create mindset oriented goals about fitness, health, and wellness. For this we recommend runners work on establishing a greater purpose behind their running (i.e.. Charity run or Run For My Hero), along with concrete goals for racing and training. This will help set you up for greater motivation and success in the upcoming season!
For more ideas be sure to follow along our Prehab athletes on our Instagram page and sign up for our Prehab Newsletter.
