It’s 2018. A New Year means new challenges, new experiences and new resolutions! You’ve set these goals because you want this to be your best year yet. More often than not, one or many of these are likely to be centred around health, wellness and fitness. Helping you achieve these and smash your goals by taking care of your feet and legs is why we do what we do here at Sole Motion Podiatry. We know that staying free of pain and injuries opens the door for you to tackle and succeed at anything you’d like. When you’re on track with these goals, you feel great, you look great, and it’s great for your health and well-being. So we’re here to help!

Here are a few ways to help you stay on track and succeed with your 2018 fitness goals!

1. Keep any previous or existing injuries and pains in check

This is a biggie. Pain and injury don’t occur for no reason. If you were injured last year during exercise and you start performing the same exercise again this year, there’s a significant chance you’ll injure yourself again. An injury is not only painful, but many see it as an ‘out’ of a particular goal, which will ultimately have you feeling worse.

Start by coming in for a check and assessment of your feet and legs. Let us know your goals, any plans for achieving those goals (we can help with those too!), any previous injuries, pains, and concerns you have. We’ll perform a comprehensive exam and work with you to minimise your risk of flaring up any old injuries as well as developing any new ones!

2. Set Milestones – don’t go too hard, too fast

Where we see a lot of people fail with their fitness goals – and trust us, we’ve been there ourselves too – is going too hard, too fast. Saying you’ll run a marathon in a couple of months when you’re only new to running is a bad idea, and you’ll likely let yourself down when you realise this is very difficult, unless you’d like to quit your job to commit to training full-time.

Your body needs time to adapt to certain activities and build up strength in the right area. More than just the physical, setting milestones is great for you mentally. Setting small, achievable milestones means you can be regularly ticking off the milestones, and with the comes a fantastic sense of accomplishment. Starting small can mean saying you’ll get to the gym a certain amount of times per week, or you’ll run a few kilometres without stopping by the end of the month, or whatever works in with your current fitness level and goals. If you need help, let us know – and don’t forget to celebrate all of your achievements along the way!

3. Register for an event with a friend

When you commit yourself to an event, you feel far more committed to getting out there and training for it. Events also have a small financial investment when you register, which has psychologically been shown to motivate you more as you’ve paid for it and don’t want that hard-earned money going to waste. You may even want to do the run to raise money for a charity or organisation you support!

Having someone do it with you means that you keep each other accountable for training and you can have fun training together (or at least endure the training together!). Your buddy will check in on you to keep you on track, and vice versa.

If it’s a big event, make sure it’s in the second half of the year to give you enough time to prepare without burning out. While not all of the dates have been announced yet, here are some local Melbourne events for you to think about taking part in:

• Melbourne City2Sea – dates TBA
• Medibank Melbourne Marathon Festival – 14th October 2018
• Werribee Mansion Run – April 22nd
• Wyndham Fun Run – Chirnside Park March 4th
• Sunset Series – Melbourne Zoo Feb 7th
• Neon Run 5km – Night Run Mar 3rd
• Geelong Half Marathon – 8th April
• Puffing Billy Great Train Race – April 29th
• Run Melbourne – 29th July
• Mothers Day Classic Geelong & Melbourne – May 13th
• Surf Coast Hell Run – Sept 30th 

You can find a large selection of running events, including running groups to join, on the Australian Running Calendar here: https://runcalendar.com.au/melbourne

4. Get some good workout gear

Aside from good, supportive shoes that are professionally fitted by a store like The Athlete’s Foot, we find that having good, dedicated workout gear can be a great motivating factor for getting people out there and active. Many of our patients even use new workout gear as a ‘reward’ for when they reach certain milestones.

We remember seeing a great quote somewhere that says ‘train your mind, and your body will follow’. This is very much true in this case – if you feel great and active in your workout gear, your body will follow as you feel encouraged and motivated to get out and reach your goals.

5. Look after your feet and legs

Take the time to clean, moisturise and generally look after your feet and legs. Take the time to focus on this aspect of your health, and you’ll end up feeling great about it and your progress. Feeling sound in the knowledge that you’re working through your milestones will help keep you motivated!

On the same principle, don’t avoid any issues or pains when they come up. When things go wrong, some people may become avoidant and disconnect from addressing the problems in the hopes that they will just go away. If you start to get foot pain when you exercise, stop and take the time to find out what is wrong and what’s going on. This can either help you resolve the issue quickly, or if it’s an injury or a strain, help you to keep working out in other ways (and still reach those milestones) while the injury heals and you’re back to doing your regular routine.

Our expert team at Sole Motion Podiatry will be with you every step of the way through your goals and help keep you on the right track to smashing your fitness goals! Our team specialises in sports medicine and injuries and are equipped with advanced technologies and treatments to help you recover in the fastest time possible! If you’d like to start reaching your goals, or are already on that journey, come in and see us! You can give us a call at 1300-FX-FEET.