Hi and welcome to another week,
Great sessions last week – Tuesday in particular was an absolute all-timer with all of those Ski-jumps and Multi-jumps. They certainly left a mark on my legs – or maybe it was the back-to-back squat sessions I had completed on Monday and Tuesday – or was it Sunday and Monday? All the days seem to merge into one at some point! All that aside, back to the topic at hand (the classes) – the Chipper in Tanks (or double chipper for some people) was a lot of fun and it was great to have the tyres out again, I really enjoyed the Wednesday boxing session (4 minute wall sit!) whilst all the body weight exercises in one-minute rounds made for easy transitions and a fast paced class.
My favourite session of the week though was the Body Work class from Monday night – and I didn’t take it and I most certainly didn’t do it. 100 lat raises, 100 Push-ups, 100 Burpees, 100 Inch Worms, 100 Ab Wheels and 100 Squat Jumps…and I feel like I have left something out. That’s it – 100 Situps. Great work to everyone who pushed their way through it!
I have had a couple of interesting conversations with members this week about what ‘direction’ their training is heading. Both have been coming to the gym for about 12-months – one has been doing boxing classes only, the other some boxing and PT – and both have reached a bit of a cross-roads. They have achieved their original goals – lose a bit of weight, get in ‘shape’ – and now aren’t really sure where to take things. They both like doing classes but both want to do ‘more’…neither is really sure what the ‘next step’ is.
This is not really uncommon – and to be honest if you train consistently (do the classes 3-4 times per week) and pay attention to your diet – even improve it by 10% – you will make steady progress over 3-months or so and after a year or so should find yourself in a pretty good place. This assumes of course you have been pushing yourself, slowly but surely increasing your weights, doing your pushups on your toes (girls) / with a clap (boys) and generally continuing to up the ante. The question is of course, what do you do when you have ‘achieved’ this goal – the general ‘get fit and healthy’ target that sends most of us to the gym in the first place.
They are right to be confused – and there is no right (or wrong) answer re- ‘the next step’. For a lot of us, there isn’t a next step – making the gym and being fit/healthy an everyday choice IS the end game. But if you want to keep ‘making progress’ then you have a couple of options:
Pick a new activity to do – and make it something that you have always enjoyed.
Set yourself a clear, short-term goal (3-6 weeks) and really get after it.
I guess both of these things are obvious enough – but how do you clarify what you enjoy when you aren’t sure what the options are. And how do you know what goals to set when you aren’t even sure what you can do now? Well, this is where it gets a little bit hard!
In terms of things you might or might not ‘like’, I thing the best strategy is to have a think about the things you have done in the past – sporting or exercise related – that you have found ‘fun’. And then pick one of them and give it a go. Maybe you will decide to kick a footy around, or join a netball team, or start riding your bike to work – it could be anything really. Pick it, give it a go and see how you go. From there, you will be able to use all of your new found training knowledge – all the things you do regularly at the gym – to focus on improving your sporting performance rather than focusing on just trying to become ‘fitter’. Basically, adding a ‘sport’ to your life might help give your workouts a little more focus and all of a sudden you will find yourself making pretty good progress again. You might even find (like a couple of other Round 1’ers have) that your new found fitness will see you performing better on the sports field than you did when supposedly in your prime!
The other strategy – set yourself a short-term goal – is a little easier. First off – we run challenges at the gym every couple of months…if you don’t want to have to use your imagination at all simply join in one of those (August challenge is on in two weeks) and have a real go at it. Outside of the gym, there are always Fun Runs, Ocean Swims, Triathlons, Bike Rides and all kinds of events – White Collar Boxing anyone?? – that you can prepare for and compete in within a 4-6 week period. I can feel the heads shaking from here, but if you have been doing 3-4 sessions at the gym each week, you absolutely CAN finish something like the ‘City to Surf’ Fun Run (12km version) with 4-weeks of preparation. Once the event is over, revert to your baseline training schedule again for a couple of months – then find yourself another challenge to take on.
See you at Round 1,
Michael.
I am pretty easy going with this one – but please remember that when you bring your kids to the gym they need to SIT DOWN quietly. Do them a favour – bring them a dvd to watch, a computer game to play and some snacks to eat. Having them wandering through the gym – particularly when they are jumping on the equipment, swinging on the rings etc – is not OK and someone is going to get hurt…and in case you hadn’t noticed there are lots of spots in the gym where a small child could get injured quite seriously.
If you have finished your session AND the gym is quiet (no class running) then I wont mind if you directly supervise them on the rings or let them ride the bikes for a couple of minutes…like I said, I am pretty relaxed about it. But when the kids are unsupervised in the gym when sessions (classes or PT sessions) are underway then disaster is going to find us.
Well – our 3-month membership ‘Super Special’ is now over. Thanks to everyone who supported us by picking up this package…it was a great deal and I hope you all make the most of your new membership.
One thing that does make me smile – even at the ‘special’ price, our 3-month membership is still more expensive per month than our ‘normal’ 12-month membership…and our 12-month membership includes a bag, gloves, handwraps and a towel…if saving money is what you are looking to do, the 12-month membership is amazing value. Just saying!
Our new power-racks are in – we have gone from two (2) racks to four (4) and basically doubled the useable equipment in the TANKS area. We are still waiting for one of the rack ‘inserts’ to be delivered (don’t worry, if you look at the racks you will know what I mean!) but everything else is go – yesterday we had four (4) people doing squats in TANKS and they were all able to use a rack – great for safety, great for technique.
Remember, this equipment – the racks and platforms – are available for members to use outside of TANKS times…if you are looking to add some strength training to your regime, don’t forget the gear is available…if you are uncertain how to use any of it, just ASK!
A whole heap of miscellaneous goodies arrived this week for use in the boxing classes AND ‘just for fun’ around the gym:
Medicine balls in 2kgè 9kg sizes.
4kg kettlebells (available in ‘pro-style’ for the first time).
6kg kettlebells (available in ‘pro-style’ for the first time).
Additional 6kg and 12kg deadballs.
Two (2) x 4m climbing ropes.
All of this gear gives us a heap more flexibility in terms of our class design/planning as well as providing some smaller kettlebells for anyone struggling with the 8kgs. I would still recommend using NO LESS than 8kg for swings, but when it comes to windmills, TGU’s, bottoms-up press etc dropping down a size or two might help with your technique.
We are continuing to grow and build our gym – if there is equipment that you believe we are missing, please let us know!
The next Round 1 challenge – ‘Golden Gloves’ – will be starting on August 1st. So far we have shared the following details:
Must complete twenty (20) BOXING classes during the month of August. These have to be ‘BOXING for FITNESS’ OR ‘Beginners’ classes – Body Work and TANKS (and PT) don’t count for this challenge!!!
You must also complete three (3) sessions of ‘ROAD WORK’ every week. This means three (3) runs every week – (treadmill is acceptable!) – for at least fifteen 15 minutes each session.
The last detail – which everyone who has spoken to me seems to be quite fearful of – is also pretty simple. Every time you do a class (20 times for the month) you must complete 20 Pushups, 20 Squats and 20 Situps at the END of the session. If you are a boy you must also complete 10 chin-ups. If you are a girl you must complete 5 chin-ups (yes, using a band is acceptable). That is it.
The challenge sheets will be available on the desk from this Friday – details of how to ‘WIN’ the ‘golden gloves’ will be revealed in the blog next Sunday.
The next White Collar Boxing event is on this coming Friday night and there are now four (4) participants from Round 1. Good luck to Crystal, Viv, Aaron and Clint as they take to the ring to put their skills to the test – all in the name of charity. Head to www.ticketbooth.com.au if you are interested in having a look…the event is at the Italian Club on Fitzgerald St.
DreamTeam remains the stupidest game ever. It is late on Sunday as I type this and it looks like Lloyd is going to beat me by a pretty small margin – he is about 30 points ahead as I type. Of course, this was the week I sacked Gary Ablett as my captain (captain = double points) in favour of Dyson Heppell (playing against the Giants). Of course, Gary picked up a lazy 49 possessions and 163 Dream Team points…had I just left things as they were it would have been VICTORY. I am so sick of this stupid game. Or perhaps just sick of being BAD at this stupid game.
Over on the tipping front, Leigh – who fell behind Steve last week – has made up a point and it is now VERY tight at the top with Stephen one ahead of both Leigh and Ross with Lloyd one point further back and both Dale and Nathan still good chances to take home the top spot. Good luck everyone!
Some more great links on Facebook this week:
Aaron Pederson members Profile: https://round1fitness.com.au/rn_profile/aaron-pederson
3 Months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3ctJI8ja38
Sunny Day, Happy Workout! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Occ7kJGJhHQ&feature=em-subs_digest&list=TLTphwRfkiTMw
GHD Situps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRneJ36X4i8
American Weightlifting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjraZOeAC8w
Interesting article about getting Vitamin C through your food…has been a lot of Vit C chitter-chat around the place lately given we are in the midst of cold and flu season:
http://paleo.com.au/2013/07/vitamin-c-the-paleo-diet/
See you in the gym!
Michael.
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