In Praise of Small Goals

by Bridget M.M. Simpson

April 2013

Published in AKWA (Aug/Sept. 2013)

In the interest of posting something on this blog I started with the best of intentions, 
I am going to post some content which may not be new, but may be of interest.  
AKWA is the newsletter of the Aquatic Exercise Association.

I tell my class participants that they get bonus points for just showing up.  Once you are there, doing the workout is almost easy.  Maybe you start off just going through the motions, but you gain momentum, catch other people’s enthusiasm, get it done, and by the time class is over you feel better.  But if you don’t drag yourself to the workout, you are sunk.  

As fitness professionals, we are driven to motivate people and their progress in turn motivates us.  I know there have been times when I have pushed myself to finish an event because my classes had offered encouragement and I knew they would be eager to hear about my adventure.  Even the time I came in last, with a Coast Guard escort (they kindly said that they would let me finish the course).  

I offer a weekly Range of Motion class, and one of my strategies is to apply each exercise not only to a specific muscle, but to a daily use for that muscle.  The Arthritis Foundation is great about connecting their exercises to daily living, and it bears remembering not only what muscles we have, but how we rely on them.  My periodic difficulties with mobility have reminded me that fitness goals are not limited to big events.  There have been times when my ultimate goal of participating in a triathlon has been predicated on my ability to regain the mobility needed to tie my own sneakers in the transition area.  

When we are teaching aqua classes, what do our participants take back home with them?  Are they associating some of the combinations with daily life?  I used to joke that a side kick was what you needed to do to kick things under the bed.  If you are doing a torso stretch with your class, perhaps bracing your left hand on your right knee to help you look way back over your right shoulder (then reversing the stretch, of course), do your participants connect this motion with helping them maintain their ability to check behind them as they back out of a driveway?  

We need to be sure that we are connecting our classes to our participants’ lives outside the gym or pool. My office has a nursing home next door.  I spend a bit of time each week crossing the parking lot to deliver mail, visit, and see most of the people spending their days sitting or lying down. With an aging population, we need to look ahead to the future goals of all people, regardless of current fitness or enthusiasm for increasing fitness.  Not everyone wants to run a marathon (which may shock distance runners everywhere), but I think it is safe to suggest that we all want to be able to cope with daily needs independently.  Have you ever struggled with getting dressed?  Getting to the bathroom?  Getting from one end of the shopping center to the other?  Many of us may be able to relate to these challenges based on experiences following injuries, but were lucky enough to consider the difficulty short term.  

We need to plan to age without an assumption that we will lose function and independence.  I believe that we need to look at every step we take, at any speed, as a step we will be able to take again in the future.  It’s like having your cake and eating it, too.  If you don’t take steps now, you may not be able to take them in decades to come, and that may be what forces you to leave your home and depend on the ability of others to move your body into clothes, into beds and chairs, and into the bathroom facilities.  

What you do today can enhance tomorrow, and it is never too late to make a difference.