Hi and welcome to another week,
Loved, loved, loved the sessions last week. I feel like I say that every week, but things did seem to flow particularly well last week and I found myself waking up each morning with a different ‘sore spot’. Just one of those weeks where I knew I had been training hard, that my training was varied and intense, and that I was making some strong forward progress. Forced to pick a favourite session, I would either nominate Monday with the 3 rounds of Tabata squats or Wednesday’s ‘punching/lifting/abs’ session as the most enjoyable. I am certainly looking forward to this week as well with the return of the bobsled and the introduction of kettlebell ‘Sprawl to Snatch’ drill. I just cannot wait to get into it.
I just can’t figure out what to write about this week. I have half-finished stories about Little Athletics, Ernest Shackleton and the Australian Swimming trials. But none of them really seem appropriate. I want to write about showing persistence in the face of disappointment and ‘fighting back’ rather than wallowing in any disappointment you might be feeling – but somehow I cannot quite figure out how to say it. So I will say something else.
Once upon a time in America there were a people known as the Apache – a true warrior people who lived in the South-Western desserts (the areas now known primarily as Arizona and New Mexico). If you don’t know anything about them, let me do a 3-line history lesson:
They were the last tribe to ‘surrender’ to the US government. The Apache had been at war with Mexico for a long time, and came into conflict with the US government in the 1850’s when gold mining in the Santa Rita mountains led to what is often called the ‘Apache Wars’…which eventually led to the creation of a reservation in 1875 which led to another series of problems and eventually the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 – but again, this isn’t supposed to be a history lesson but some background is necessary to make the story work.
The Apache had a culture of ‘RAIDING’. They would form together in a band and challenge themselves to steal horses, supplies, equipment and whatever else from rival tribes (including government military bases). Despite being provided with ‘all’ the items they required (‘ALL’ is a long bow!) when the reservations were formed, this culture of ‘RAIDING’ continued – the Apache continued to challenge themselves to band together – to outwork and outsmart their neighbours, to do more than they needed, to achieve something. And – as you can imagine – this brought them into further conflict with the government who simply could not understand why they continued to attack and steal MORE horses/weapons etc when they were being GIVEN horses!
To me, those of us who are getting ready for the April Challenge are in some way embodying this spirit. We could just continue on and ‘accept’ the status quo. It would make our lives a lot easier. But it isn’t enough for us. We want the challenge. We WANT our lives to be more difficult. We WANT to be challenged. We don’t want to take the easy way – we are determined to walk the long way around and do the things that make other people say ‘Why on earth would you do that? You already have/do enough’. We know those people just don’t understand.
I can promise you this. The sessions will not be easier in April. If you get through the April Challenge, you will have lived the ‘GET IT DONE’ mantra. It wont be easy but it will SO be worth it!
Repeating last weeks news – the April Challenge is ON – and it means you need to complete 25 sessions within the calendar month. Successfully complete the challenge and earn yourself a ‘Get it Done’ t-shirt…the shirt that MUST be earned. Rules? We got rules!
1/.25 sessions must be completed within the calendar month. Double sessions (more than 1 per day) can only be used twice in determining the final total.
2/.Tanks counts. Running club counts. PT does NOT count.
3/.Each person must nominate one additional personal ‘challenge’ that must be completed to the satisfaction of the trainers each WEEK during the month. The challenge must be determined by the participant, but can be modified by the trainers if they consider it to be too easy or too hard.
Get thinking. Plan out your sessions. Get a contingency plan together. Get it done.
Just a quick reminder about our ‘MARCH SPECIAL’ – Join/Re-join/renew your membership in March and go into a draw to win a brand new bike from Apollo. At the time of writing there have been 57 new contracts signed in March – so if it closed today you would have a 1 in 57 chance of winning…pretty darn good odds for such a fantastic prize!
Now, it doesn’t matter if you choose to join for 3-months, 6-months or 12-months – you will go in the draw to win a fantastic new bike. Remember that being a Round 1 member brings a whole range of benefits – unlimited classes, no need to ‘book’, full access to the weights, cardio and Olympic lifting equipment, access to TANKS, access to PT, access to personalised weights programs…it goes on and on.
So join up in March – get your fitness campaign on track and maybe win yourself a bike as well!
For all you runners out there, the ANZAC Day Run is almost upon us. For more details and entry information, please visit the Athletics WA webpage at waathletics.org.au or go directly to the entry link at https://sitedesq.imgstg.com/eventsregform/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_event_detail&EventID=11548&OrgID=199.
As mentioned in last weeks blog, we are temporarily out of bags for the 12-month members packs. I received confirmation from the suppliers that the new bags – back pack style – will be shipped this coming week. The fundamental truth of the matter is that I need to get a bit better at stock management, but to be fair the redesign of the bags and exchange of samples has taken me a few weeks to get ‘right’. In any case, a lot of time has gone into getting the new back packs ‘right’ and I hope everyone will be happy with the outcome.
With the ‘other stuff’, our new leather boxing gloves – all colors and sizes – will be in the gym in the next couple of days (arrived in Perth today – Sunday 25th March) along with a new product – leather weightlifting gloves. These gloves could be used as ‘inner gloves’ or wraps as they have a nice strong wrist lock on them, as well as to prevent calluses and blisters when using the barbells and kettlebells. The weightlifting gloves will be $25 per pair.
For those of you waiting on the bag mitts – we are struggling for medium and large sizes at the moment – these should arrive at the same time as the backpacks – Easter week.
New Bumper plates and a couple of new bars are on the way to help us in TANKS, new seats are on the way for the spinning bikes…the hits keep on coming. The newly arrived sandbags and ‘power bands with handles’ will be thrust into use over the next couple of weeks…then there are the tyres (thanks to Heath and JD) and sledgehammers and a couple of other tricks up our sleeves…
Quite a few members are now enjoying the benefits of PT sessions with Jason, Sean, Lloyd and Leila. They are tremendous trainers and scheduling yourself in for a regular session or even just an occasional ‘smash session’ will do wonders for your fitness.
Just to advise everyone in the next couple of weeks we will be refining our PT procedures – from top to bottom really – and this will only make the experience you get simpler, easier and – we believe – BETTER.
Really thrilled with the support being given to these two initiatives. Each of them will really give your training a little bit of a ‘shove along’ – if you are prepared to show a little bit of resilience that is. There have been some awesome achievements at TANKS over the past couple of weeks – so rewarding for us trainers to see people pushing hard and getting stronger seemingly by the week.
Not part of these groups? Do you want to push things to another level? Send me a note or just chat to one of the trainers next time you are in the gym.
Footy season starts this week – well, last night in fact. So pleased to see Nathan Wilson kick a fantastic goal for GWS and Steve Coniglio play really well through the midfield…in case you are in any doubt, all the good stuff they do, I definitely taught them that! Just such a thrill to see the kids you have coached playing AFL footy. All that aside get on board the Round 1 Fitness tipping contest – it is not too late:
http://www.footytips.com.au/comps/Round_1_Fitness&p=speedball
Muscle ups…there are different ways! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEwBXNKbyfQ
Workout 12.5 – Thrusters and Chin-ups: http://games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-open#tabs-5
An article that Sean O’Neill definitely took to heart in planning today’s (Sunday morning) session: http://www.livestrong.com/article/556240-the-worlds-greatest-exercise/
The path of least resistance: http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/life-decisions/
Follow your passion? Follow your EFFORT! http://blogmaverick.com/2012/03/18/dont-follow-your-passion-follow-your-effort/
Gym motivation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rq02FOzY70&feature=digest_mon
Add to that all the stories about the classes, Cross fit WOD’s, TANKS, running club, exactly what defines a ‘6’ minute round, questions about ‘graduating’ from Beginners, mutterings about PT pain, a couple of gym photos and all sorts of other stuff…The daily activity on the Facebook site will help keep you focussed on your training. Get involved!
Pain is temporary…if I quit however, it will last forever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aY8gXqlKAs&feature=related
See you in the gym!
Michael.
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