Hi and welcome to another week,

After missing the best part of two weeks training due to my sore back, it has been good to get going again over the last few days.  Whilst running the classes is a lot of fun, it really is a lot more meaningful (to me anyway) when I am eating my own dog food – writing the plans, taking the classes, DOING the classes.  Really helps me get a true picture of where the ‘hidden’ challenges in each session are (and the ‘cheats’ people use to squeak past them!).  Regardless of that, foam rollers are great, pre-hab and stretching are important and I just wish I took more of those 10-minute opportunities I have each day to indulge in those exercises.

With the weather REALLY heating up – it seems like only yesterday I was crying about the incessant rain! – I thought it would be worth reminding everyone of a couple of quick ‘gym’ hints when it is hot.  First off – the absolutely obvious stuff.  Hot days are not the time to mess around with your fluid intakes – get them UP.  Drink throughout the day.  Drink throughout your exercise session.  If you are not in the gym and have decided to go outside for a run, please plan ahead where you will get your fluid from – and please wear a hat.

If you are in the gym, COLD drinks are the most effective way to bring your body temperature down.  Well – my recent experience at the AIS tells me that in actual fact SLUSHIES are the most effective way to bring your body temp down, but given that carrying a slushy with you around the circuit might be a bit unrealistic a COLD drink is the next best alternative.  So if you can, carry something cold.  For me, a ‘steel’ container stays cold a lot longer than a plastic one does – so I would recommend you use a steel drinking container whilst in the gym, and make sure you have left it in the fridge before the session (not much point having a steel bottle if it has been in your car which has been in the sun all day!).  The other thing about cold drinks?  When conditions are HOT and you are sweating a lot, there is certainly a case to be made that products such as Gatorade do make a difference – the electrolytes in the drinks help replenish nutrients lost by the body through sweat.  A lot of you will know that I am not usually not a fan of sports drinks – particularly when Round 1 workouts only go for 45 minutes or so – but at this time of year they really can make a difference to your ability to train with intensity throughout the session.

What else can you do?  Dress smart – wick away clothes are really smart in summer.  Don’t wear long pants – even leggings.  Don’t wear compression gear whilst you are training.  Pretty basic stuff really – but I guess the message is if you have some ‘proper’ training gear – make sure you wear that on hot days – save the 100% cotton surf t-shirts for the beach, the pub or those 9-10 months of the year when temperatures are ‘reasonable’.  In a shameless plug for the gym, the ‘Is their Any Danger’ singlets are made of a wik-away style fabric and are really comfortable/effective gym wear – only $10 at the moment as well!

If you are really ‘feeling it’ during a session on a ‘HOT’ day, then please be smart and take a break.  Grab your drink bottle and go for a 30second / 1minute walk to gather yourself.  Have a long drink and generally just try to calm down, settle your heart rate and relax.  If it is a morning/night-time session, make that walk OUTSIDE where there will be a bit more airflow.  Keep moving though (don’t let the lactic acid ‘pool’) and I would suggest a steady walk to the top of the driveway and back would be a great way to go.  Don’t wait until you fall over though – if you are feeling ‘hot’ and uncomfortable, then have a drink and go for a walk straight away – we have had the ‘water fan’ out the front for the last couple of days – sometimes standing in front of that for a minute or so can really help you cool down and feel better.

In closing, there is no doubt that training in the heat can be uncomfortable – but it is also really beneficial.  You will find you warm-up and ‘get into it’ a lot more quickly and for those of you with heart rate monitors you will notice your average calories burned per class goes up by 10-15% when the weather is warmer.  So keep training and keep training hard – push the negative thoughts to the back of your mind – but be smart about how you do things by remaining hydrated and dressing appropriately.  And remember, there are classes as early as 5am in the morning and as late as 8pm at night – so if you want to ‘beat the eat’ you can always think about moving your session to another time-slot.

See you at Round 1,

Michael.

Gym Update #1 – December Super Special – 10-Round Pass

With just one week to go until Christmas, we will be offering a great special on our 10-round passes for THIS WEEK ONLY.  From the 16^th December (Monday) until Christmas Eve (Tuesday, December 24^th) the passes will be available for $99 (usual cost is $120).

This is a great special – and allows non-members to access our classes for less than $10 per class.  The passes remain valid for 12-months.

How do you buy them?  Well, coming into the gym is the best bet!  But we can process payments over the phone if that is the only way you can make it in.  If you want the passes mailed out to you though that will cost you an extra $1 to cover the cost of postage, time etc…otherwise we will hold the passes for you in the gym.

Can you buy one of the passes for a friend as a present?  Sure – but I would prefer we do that as a gift voucher if their names aren’t already in our system…if you buy a $99 gift voucher during the period of the special we will honour that with a 10-round Pass after Christmas.

Gym Update #2 – KrankCycle

Last week we promised a KrankCycle would be in the gym (albeit ‘on trial’) and…it is!  Please take the time to give it a go.  If you are uncertain how to use it, please have a chat to me and I will run you through it.  It is a great way to get an upper body based cardio workout if you are recovering from a lower limb injury – as well as build some strength.  You can use it in both standing and seated modes – one arm or two, forwards or reverse…lots of options, give it a try.

Gym Update #3 – TANKS/Starting Strength Updates

For those TANKS people out there, just wanted to say congratulations on getting through the last 6-8 weeks of programming.  I have had a bit of a change of philosophy in structuring the classes lately and – if anything – this seems to have caused them to become even more challenging.  The classes are now broken up into 4x ‘blocks’ – a mixed mode warmup, a ‘pure’ strength section, a full-body circuit/chipper and a muscular endurance component.  I think that this change not only makes the sessions more interesting, but also provides opportunities for people who are struggling with one particular exercise to ‘move on’ after 15 minutes or so.  Would love to hear your feedback.

Starting strength is nearly one-month into the second ‘block’ and it is quite exciting to see the development in those people who have stuck it out.  For example, this week was our ‘second’ run through of Deadlifts and whereas in our first ‘block’ we didn’t get anyone past about 60kgs or so, this time around that has been at the bottom-end of the weights achieved – with the heaviest lift being 100kgs (by someone who tips the scales at a ‘whopping’ 61kgs!).

The thing with starting strength – if you don’t use it, you lose it!  Even if you have only been able to complete a couple of the SS sessions, I really would encourage you to take what you learned and ‘try it out’ in the gym.  15 minutes of deadlifting/bench-pressing/squatting etc before/after a boxing session would be time well spent.

Gym Update #4 – Opening Hours

Quick reminder – we are now open at 5am every morning from Monday to Friday.

Secondly – details of the Christmas opening hours are pasted up on the walls throughout the gym – my advice would be to take a photo of the timetable with your phone (and that way you wont have to worry about getting it wrong).  Suffice to say, we are closed on Christmas Day and New Years Day but open (albeit with modified hours) on each of the other days.

Facebook Highlights

Some great stuff on our FACEBOOK site over the last couple of weeks – if you missed any of the links I have copied them all below:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/20219142/fears-over-damaged-hearts/

kb swings and double skips:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFj2exAZ9Ws

Tracy Kelsey:  https://round1fitness.com.au/rn_profile/tracy-kelsey

Control the damage from overeating:  http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/controlling-the-damage-from-overeating

Christmas wish for Health and Fitness industry:  http://breakingmuscle.com/health-medicine/a-holiday-wish-for-the-health-and-fitness-world?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=sendible&utm_campaign=RSS

Burpees:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=614586275256271&set=vb.350207468360821&type=2&theater

Paleo – Good, Bad and Ugly:  http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/paleo-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly

Enjoy!

Link of the week

A couple of links this week.  The first is an all-out training video from RossTraining.com who features here quite regularly.  This one is a 2013 training montage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDOITqACuqQ

The second one is a nutrition article – and one based on living a Vegan lifestyle.  It talks all about becoming fitter and stronger whilst eating a vegan diet – which to my mind is a very tough ask.  However, Beth (who you guys will all know from the Thursday afternoon classes!) is vegetarian and is looking for some help on becoming stronger whilst following a vegetarian (which I know isn’t vegan) diet…and I have been doing a heap of reading on the topic.  I am sure that no matter what your dietary preference, you will get some great stuff from this article:

http://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/strong-healthy-and-vegan-yes-it-can-be-done

See you in the gym!

Michael.