Hi and welcome to another week,
Last week I loved my training – just like every week I suppose, but with the new year has come some diet modifications (a lot stricter – during the week in particular) and with the ‘cleaner’ food I guess comes cleaner ‘energy’ and I have found it pretty easy to get motivated to train and train hard. One thing is for certain, last week’s ‘Body Work’ session was certainly one for the ages – kudos for everyone who attempted it and double kudos to anyone who fully completed two ‘LAPS’ of the circuit…massive, massive effort.
I am really happy to say that the Power Ropes are out again this week – they are very possibly my single favourite piece of exercise equipment (apart from a heavy bag) – I just love the full body burn you get from a couple of minutes on the ropes…it just HAS to be good for you. Aside from that, multi-jumps are back (but not in a ‘BIG’ way), there is a new burpee variation in 1-minute rounds and a special surprise for Friday…if you have a weighted vest, Friday is the day to wear it!
I mentioned it in last week’s blog (and again further below) but the rest of the trainers and I have had a lot of fun in the past couple of weeks coming up with the ‘Wall of Pain’ (or ‘Records’ wall). I mention it here as well because as a group we are all amazed at just how far everyone/everything in our gym has come in the (almost) 3-years since we opened the doors – and remember, Jason, Sean, Leila and Lloyd have all been around since pretty much day 1. What have we been talking about? Well, can anyone else remember that when we first started there were only eight (8) barbells available for use in the circuits – 4 x 10kg and 4 x 15kg…heavy ones for the ‘boys’. The class I took at 4pm Friday saw NO-ONE touch the 10kg bars (we have had eight for a loooonnnnnggggg time now) – all the girls used 15kg. And none of the boys used the 15’s. Or the 20’s. It was 25’s and 30’s all the way. Remember back in 2010? The original ‘November Challenge’ was done with 10kg bars for girls and 15kg bars for boys…when Sean O’Neill and myself attempted it neither of us could train for the following couple of days we were so sore – and that is despite the half-squats we were doing!
Creating the records wall has had us all shaking our heads in amazement at just how far everyone has come – 100 at gear 14 used to be a ‘sprint’ on the bikes…now people ‘hold steady’ at 120+ for 2-minutes. Heaps of people do double skips, bridges are being held for 3, 4, 5 and (in Lloyd’s crazy sessions) 6 minutes, burpees happen not with a careful reach down to the floor but a ‘jump’, pushups are done by girls on their toes and boys universally clap – and our squats are LOW with nice straight backs. Now, I don’t know if any of this has seen everyone break through their weight loss targets, but I can say one thing for certain – everyone’s GPP (general physical preparation) is WAY, WAY up on where it used to be. Round 1’ers are fit, strong and up for the challenge. I guess I found this out myself (the hard way) last weekend by moving a couple of thousand bricks at home…sure, by the end of each day I was a bit tired and my back hurt, but the next day I jumped out of bed, had a run, did a class then put in another few hours yard work. Before R1 I would have been a cripple for a week, complaining to everyone in the office and begging my friends to come and help me finish the work!
I really do believe that there are some people out there – members both past and present and (hopefully!) future – who have absolutely transformed their lives and their lifestyles…and done it through the simple combination of discipline, consistency and a willingness to continually push themselves just a little bit more, just a little bit further. They didn’t look for quick fixes (though we ALL hope for them at times) – they just stuck at it and after a few months (years for some) changes had happened that they hoped for on day 1 had occurred without them ever really noticing.
On that note, here’s to the same group of trainers getting together in three (3) years time and having to completely revise the ‘Wall of Pain’ again because through discipline and natural improvement everyone has simply ‘gone past it’ – rendering it completely irrelevent!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
We will be changing our pricing structure from February 1st this year (in two weeks). The pricing changes will be as follows:
| Membership Type | Current Pricing | New Pricing |
‘SUPER’ Membership
Total Package Value: $1945 – Save $595! |
$1350 (if paid up front)$120 (if paid monthly) | No Change |
‘Premium’ Membership
Total Package Value: $1507 – Save $337!! |
$1170 (if paid ‘up front’)$97.50 (if paid monthly) | No Change |
12-month Membership
Total Package Value: $805 – Save $90. |
$650 (if paid ‘up front’)$59 (if paid monthly) | $715 (if paid ‘up front’)$65 (if paid monthly) |
6-Month Membership
|
$450 (if paid ‘up front)$82.50 (if paid monthly) | No Change |
3-Month Membership
|
$250 (if paid ‘up front’)$96.25 (if paid monthly) | No Change |
1-Month Membership
|
$110 | No Change |
Why have we done it? We are basically just trying to keep up with our costs – and as I have stated ensuring that R1F is a sustainable business is a key plank of our business goals for 2013. We have posted small losses in each of the past two financial years and whilst our gym is busy our increasing rent / power / rates AND our commitment to ensure that there are two trainers supervising each session conducted at 5pm/6pm/7pm and 8pm Monday to Friday really has driven our costs upwards in the last 18 months.
Before making this decision, I did a quick comparison to some other local gyms – and found our nearest competitor (price wise) is a certain 24×7 gym with a Red logo on Beeliar Drive. Costs there? $11.95 / week + an ‘Access Fee’ of $103 – or $724 per annum. The same package at R1 will cost $715 (if you pay up front) or $780 paid in either fortnightly or monthly instalments. Given we run 60+ sessions per week – and a new class every day – and this competitor runs none, I still believe we are offering the best value for money available. In any case, I hope you are able to understand the reasons for the change and believe that the additional $6 per month (just under 10%) still represents great value for money.
There will (obviously) be no impact on any current contracts until renewal time.
The Bootcamp announced a couple of weeks back is fully booked – and it is on NEXT WEEK END!. There are still a couple of people who haven’t paid their registration – if this is you, please make sure to resolve it before the weekend comes around or we will offer your spots to people on the waiting list. Apologies for being so militant about this but there is a lot of interest in the event (could have booked it out twice) and I don’t want those people on the waiting list to miss out if there is anyone who has been allocated a team who is still ‘in two minds’.
We will be holding the session at C.Y. O’Connor beach – if you are unsure of the location we will get a convoy leaving from Round 1 at 8am this Saturday.
Want to know the teams? Well, there are signs up all over the gym with the list of names and teams on them.
We will be running a 4-week ‘Beginners Workshop’ commencing on Saturday February 2nd at 09:30am. The sessions have been scheduled to run each Saturday in February and each session will run for just over 1 hour. The course will be limited to 8 attendees and cost will be $89 per person (inc. GST). It is open to both members and non-members.
Basic agenda?
Week 1 – Punching basics (stance, jabs) + some simple barbell, kettlebell and bodyweight moves.
Week 2 – Punching extended (hooks and uppercuts), burpees + some extended barbells and kettlebells.
Week 3 – Boxing – simple footwork and combinations + speedball and some dumbell basics.
Week 4 – Boxing – Conditioning drills, more speedball + chinups and abs.
Please note that the focus of these sessions will be on technique and NOT on fitness. The sessions have been timed so that at the conclusion of the course those people who are interested could follow up the course by jumping into the 11:15am Beginners class and have a go at applying their newly gleaned knowledge!
If you are interested in trying to do things a little bit better or developing some understanding about what each exercise is working etc then this might be just the thing for you. Numbers are limited to 8 people which is intended to enable each attendee to get some close attention from the trainers.
Now powered by Juice Plus+, Round 1 Fitness is repeating the pre-Christmas JP+ offer – sign-up for JP+ Premium (Fruits + Veg + Berries) during January and receive 1-months free gym membership. That is $110 worth of value at no cost when you sign up for JP+ – a terrific deal.
If you are struggling with your diet and battling to get the 2 fruit/5 (cups of) veggies that the government recommends as part of their ‘Healthy and Active Australia’ campaign (http://www.healthyactive.gov.au/) then JP+ is a terrific way to bridge the gap + more – forget 2&5 – JP+ contains more than 17 different types of Fruit and Veg and you take it in capsule form – the only preparation needed is to get a glass of water!
As promised, two (2) new whiteboards are now up and running:
– The ‘RULES’.
There are elements of ‘The Rules’ that are serious (bring a towel and USE it!!!) and others that are purely tongue in cheek (no back-chatting the trainers) but it is worth having a read. The idea is to set out a number of standards for the gym that we all understand and help support our efforts to improve ourselves. Actually recording things such as ‘Squat to (at least) parallel’ is a general reminder to everyone that doing things properly actually matters.
– ‘Wall of Pain’
We have come up with twelve (12) Round 1 ‘Challenges’ that we would like to track for posterity – a series of activities that are (somewhat) representative of the training we do at the gym and the best level of performance we have seen (and by whom) for each challenge.
The rules for each challenge are quite strict and the idea is that they will be enforced rigorously – I guess whilst we are trying to provide an environment at the gym for ‘everyone’ to train hard whilst working at their own level, we also thought it was time to go beyond the ‘short-term’ challenges that we often run (spoiler alert – New Challenge for February: ‘NUMBERS GAME’) and create something that long-termers can aspire to.
A great week on Facebook this week – links GALORE!
Core exercises: Time to bleed! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rw7IDDz0pQ&feature=em-subs_digest&list=TLnCpfGTKUWVA
Stars selling Soda: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/why-do-stars-think-its-o-k-to-sell-soda/
Why don’t Olympic Lifters do overhead squats? http://breakingmuscle.com/olympic-weightlifting/why-dont-olympic-weightlifters-overhead-squat-part-2
Super Box Jump: http://www.crossfitfootball.com/blog.php?id=49543
Bob Harper does Fran: http://therxreview.com/the-biggest-losers-bob-harper-does-fran/
Take it slow: http://breakingmuscle.com/crossfit/when-paleo-and-inov-8s-are-bad-you
Muscle-up series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S2M3CRzLFI&feature=player_embedded
Hannibal the King: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4679474738931
Do Carbs make you fat?? http://www.bornfitness.com/do-carbs-make-you-fat/
Back Extensions: http://www.catalystathletics.com/blog/blog.php?blogID=1767
We do a tonne of different stuff at the gym, but boxing remains the heart of Round 1. In the circuits I like nothing more than the heavy bag station – loads of fun and benefits to both strength and cardio simultaneously. I haven’t put a ‘pure’ boxing link up for a while but this ‘highlights of 2012’ package just cannot be beaten…all you White Collar Boxers – get inspired!
2012 Boxing highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YrggDswJDk&feature=em-subs_digest
See you in the gym!
Michael.
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