Se7en Ways To Build Better Habits with RISE to Strength…

Earlier this year Cape Town Swim introduced a new program called RISE to Strength. This is for swimmers, like myself, that want to do more, but don’t know how to take their swimming to the next level. After twelve weeks on the course I am a much stronger swimmer, for so many reasons, and definitely not just because I have been doing extra gym work. I have learned that there is much more to swim training than just “swimming the miles.” I have learned to value my rest and recovery so much, and that in order to achieve my swimming goals, I really need to be a lot be kinder to myself.

The programme consists of a weekly swim schedule, as well as two strength workouts. There are videos for every exercise, to make sure you are getting them right. Each week a new exercise to focus on, as well as weekly motivational talks on one of the pillars of training: nutrition, sleep and so on. And a group chat where you could ask questions at any time.

I was wary of a program that involved the word “Strength” because I had a vision of looking like an idiot in online classes. I was concerned that if I was not doing the workouts correctly, that I would not be making the most of the training offered. But the programme includes two weekly strength workouts and videos of every exercise to check that you are doing things correctly. You cannot go wrong, and there are so many ways to ask for help and feedback.

Honestly, I knew that I needed to add strength training into into my program, but I came up with every single excuse not to include it into my routine. It always boils down to the “I don’t have time” crunch. I thought if I signed up to this programme it would at least help me to achieve my strength training goals. It turns out the RISE to STRENGTH programme is not just a strength training programme, but also about strength of character. RISE to Strength introduces holistic training, incorporating mindset into your programme on a daily basis. In the past 12 weeks I grown so much as a person, not just as a swimmer.

I came into the programme a little tired and run down, not to mention slightly, injured. I knew I had to make some changes to my typical strategy to “Just Push Harder.” I decided that I would give myself these twelve weeks to see that if by focusing on rest and recovery rather than my characteristic drive to get stronger, if I would get as much benefit from the programme as I had intended. It totally worked, by focusing on my days off and ensuring that they were actually days off, and training myself to sleep better, and fuel better even on rest days, I gained so much more in every area.

1. Making the Hard Things Easy: There are things that I find terribly difficult, getting enough sleep (as a mom) is one of them. It is one thing to stop doing, “just one more thing” at the end of the day. I had to make going to bed a lot nicer… made sure a book I was enjoying was next to my bed and my glasses(!). Stopped working at 9:00 pm, – this has always been hard, writers can just keep on writing, but I made sure to stop for a hot drink, and at the same time shut my lap top. Suddenly getting to bed was a lot more inviting, and getting to sleep earlier became easier and easier.
2. Keep Track of What You Are Doing: For the longest time I have intended to keep a journal of my workouts, but I have been inconsistent and somewhat shifty about doing this. In order to schedule my workouts well I needed to write everything out for the week to create a plan, and then I had to figure what I actually got done, and it is not the same thing. One thing led to another and I found my self tracking things, and it has been “not a little” enlightening. I can see the effects of a late night on the next days swim, for example, and it is very motivating to do better.

3. Pause and Plan: By definition, I am a busy mom, I dash to training in between life, but keeping a journal meant that for a few minutes every day I would pause, process and reflect on what I have done, and what I planned to do next. This pause and reflection is completely new to me, and might be the most important few minutes of any training day.
4. Incremental Changes Are Lasting Changes: I am terrible at slow change, I want to do everything completely and properly, right now… the fact that the programme is scheduled is an excellent thing for people like me. I just couldn’t figure out how to fit the workouts into my day… And then I realised that I could incorporate the exercises into my life, throughout the day. It is easy to do a few squats before I wash dishes, it is easy to do a few pushups whenever I step into the garden… these exercises are easy to incorporate into our days if we add them to things we already do it is actually getting them done.

5. Stacking Habits: The workouts for this programme are very easy to do at home, I was battling to set aside the time needed to get to gym and back… but I swim at gym a few times a week and it is easy enough to just stay half an hour longer and get onto the weight machines once I am done swimming. Suddenly I have found time for a weight session at gym twice a week, something I never thought that I would be consistent at.
6. Less is so much More: To gain from the hard work we put in, we need rest days, and I hadn’t been taking them. As soon as I saw an opportunity to swim I would take it. If I had a rest day, I would use it for massive spring cleans or mountain hikes, leaving me much more exhausted than a swim ever would. I had to learn to rest on my rest days, and now I sure do look forward to fresh weeks and new swim days since I have been taking my rest days more seriously.

7. Practice not Perfection: I am at that stage in my life where there are certain exercises that I haven’t done for ever. I might never be able to do a single-leg bridge, but I can do a double and that’s actually fine. I was worried that the exercises would be too hard for me. They weren’t at all… Not to mention, if you start with just two (push ups, for example), it will be a very short time before you improve and can do a whole lot more.

RISE has not been what I expected, it has been so much more. I thought it would be all about workouts and finding more time for training which is just not very sustainable for life. But it is about so much more… changing little things incrementally throughout the day, and working on improving by small amounts in several areas. RISE has been a complete game changer for me.

Before this programme I was training hard and consistently, but swimming was quite separate to my life. I have learned to put it all together, swimming includes so much more than jumping in the water, whatever the weather. That is part of it, but to swim better you need to sleep better, fuel better, rest better… it’s a whole lot more than just swimming!!!