Hi and welcome to another week,
The sessions last week have caused me pain! I made a commitment to myself to complete every session in May wearing my weight vest. Today is the 18th of May (which means I am past half-way) but I am really (really) unsure how I am going to make it to the very end. My abs hurt, my shoulders hurt, my legs hurt. Every part of me hurts.
Why am I doing it? I just felt my training had really stagnated and with everything else going on (Football, Life Plan, arranging Perkville, new InBody machine etc etc) I couldn’t spare any ‘extra’ time for weights etc – I just like doing classes. So to ‘up it’ in a class would be either to trust myself to really ‘focus’ and lift my work-rate or ‘force it’ by wearing a vest. Unfortunately I know myself well enough to know that the ‘force it’ option is the only one that would be effective – particularly if I wanted to set a month long challenge…so on goes the vest and up goes the pain and struggle. I will admit though that there is a (small) part of me that is enjoying the challenge and I know that just getting through will give me a sense of accomplishment.
I want to talk this week about making sure that everyone has a little bit of perspective with their training – and particularly with where they are at with regards any weight loss/strength gain goals which they might have. My main message (which I will get too) is that I just think everyone needs to give themselves a little bit of a break. If you have put on a couple of kilos and only gotten to the gym once in the past couple of weeks – it is OK. If you have had some bad food days and aren’t feeling great about yourself – it is OK. If your intentions are good (and you are back in the gym now) then why dwell on what has happened? Give yourself a pat on the back for turning things around and enjoy the session you are doing rather than worrying so much about what you should have done last week.
None of us are perfect. Carrying an extra couple of kgs than you did last month or feeling ‘stuffed’ half-way through a boxing class are not fatal character flaws – they are just signs of someone who has been living their life (maybe living their life too well??) for a while. You are back in the gym and that is a positive step. Let it be a positive – congratulate yourself for getting back on track, make some firm plans for your next session, go home and eat some grilled chicken, broccoli and sweet potato and pat yourself on the back for that as well! Kicking your own butt because you have ‘let yourself go’ is not helpful – it will only reinforce in your own mind how ‘hard’ it will be to get ‘back where you were’…take it from me, it wont be that hard. Getting some consistent habits going again – training and diet – and the passage of a bit of time is all it will take. You have done it before, you CAN do it again. And I am pretty sure that there are people out there with much (MUCH) bigger problems than the ones you are battling with.
Keep everything in perspective. Your training is supposed to be a POSITIVE part of your life – don’t let it drag you down. Rather than being disappointed in yourself for ‘still’ not being able to do a chin-up, credit yourself for the effort you are making to TRY. Keep everything in perspective. You are getting to the gym and having a go – and whilst you probably shouldn’t have eaten that cake/chocolate/icecream – drank that beer/wine on the weekend, well, you did so don’t stress about it now. You are in the gym and doing your best and if you want to resolve to be ‘better behaved’ NEXT weekend, well, good on you – but be sure to give yourself credit for the work you ARE doing now. If you are in the gym and doing your best, well, there is a positive so pat yourself on the back and keep moving forward. Forward!
Does all of this advice contradict everything I have been preaching in the Life Plan? Well – to me, NO. The Life Plan allows for sweets, it allows for alcohol, it allows for free-eating days. Sure – it tries to keep these things under control so they become ‘sometimes’ foods but the Life Plan ALSO tries to keep everything in perspective. 3 gym sessions, some stretching, some discipline with what you put in your mouth…
Keep everything in perspective. Hit the gym and have some fun – try to improve of course, but don’t beat yourself up about changes in your body size/shape exercise abilities or otherwise. You are having a go and doing the best you can at this time. Is it the best you have ever done? Well, maybe not – but you can fix that! Is it the best you will ever do? Well, maybe – but that depends on your priorities in the future and none of us have a crystal ball.
Keep trying your hardest but remember, what you are doing just by ‘Getting it Done’ really is admirable – be positive with yourself and the effort you are putting in and you will be amazed at how easy it is to get back to the gym tomorrow (or the next day, whatever! J).
See you in the gym.
Michael.
OK. We have just made the biggest single investment since opening the gym back in 2010 – and it isn’t actually on more gym equipment. The ins and outs of the Life Plan process have taught me something as well – no matter how much all of us do our skinfolds and standardise the way we measure, there always seems to be marginal differences between trainers when measuring people. And those ‘marginal’ differences (to us) can mean a LOT to the person who is trying to make changes to their body composition – leading to motivation to spike or fall away even when they KNOW that there is going to be a margin of variance.
No more.
We have procured an InBody 570 (http://inbodyaustralia.com.au/inbody-570/) medically graded body composition analyser. This is a near on $30K investment that will allow us to show you:
Total Body Weight
Fat mass (and Body Fat percentage)
Skeletal Muscle Mass
Segmented Muscle Mass showing the difference between muscle in each arm/each leg etc.
3 million other things that I don’t need to go into here.
Now – I am expecting it to arrive in the next two weeks. When it gets in we will start booking appointments from people to have the scans completed (the machine has sensors so you can leave your clothes on!!). Each scan will cost $25 (members) and $35 (non-members). Each scan will come with a detailed information print-out and we can store your data for comparison in future scans.
How will this impact on the existing Life Plan? Well, we will obviously continue with the callipers/tape measures for the end of month 5 / end of plan measurements so we have a consistent pattern (bit hard to start again now). But when we run the next Life Plan (which I am planning to kick off in August) we will kick that off with a InBody Scan and will use the scanner throughout the process.
I have promised this for a few weeks but our new Versa Climber has SHIPPED! This will be a great addition to our cardio range – add the versa to the recent addition of the krankcycle and we really have some great solutions for some high intensity/non impact (off legs!) training.
Want to know more? This is a good little explanation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zKWxM9rwfE
This next section is effectively a cut and paste from last week. I would really (really) encourage you guys to join the rewards program – you will get bonus points that translate into gym discounts for doing what you already do…paying your membership fees and scanning in to the gym each time you arrive (this is not a ‘Facebook’ check-in, it is just scanning your membership card when you arrive!). You also get bonus points for mentioning the gym on Twitter, on Facebook and for referring a friend…it is good – join up!
Round One Fitness has partnered with Perkville to offer an online reward system. It’s a fun and easy way to earn cash credits for attending classes, personal training, referring friends…and just paying your membership fees!
HOW IT WORKS
Perkville integrates directly with our membership system (EZ Facility) so each time you check into the gym you’ll automatically earn points. Each time your membership payment is processed, you’ll earn points. You can track your points online at www.perkville.com. Once you earn enough points you redeem your points on Perkville and bring in a printed voucher to use as payment at the gym.
Perkville is a trusted partner of EZ Facility. Perkville will never share or use any Round One Fitness client information.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
Create an account at www.perkville.com. Make sure to use the same email account that you signed up with at our studio. You’ll earn 50 points just for joining! If you try to sign up and can’t see any points allocated, just send me an email (info@round1fitness.com.au) and I will check out what is going on!
Here’s how you can rack up points:
Redeem points for:
200 points = $10 credit.
400 points = $25 credit.
HOW DO I EARN POINTS FOR REFERRING A FRIEND
You’ll need to sign in to your Perkville account and enter your friend’s email address to send them a referral email. When they come in for their first class, we’ll ask them for their email address (it goes on their membership application form). If the address they give us matches the address you entered into your Perkville account, you’ll automatically earn points (50 points in fact) for referring them when they make their first purchase.
WHAT DO I SAY WHEN I POST TO FACEBOOK?
Share your experiences! Tell your friends what you love about Round 1. To earn points, be sure to post through the Perkville website though, not from your Facebook page. This seems to be pretty straight forward as there have been a few people do it already. If you are a twitter person – you will also get points for tweeting about the gym. Just mention @RoundOneFitness in a post and you will have two (2) points added to your account.
It has been great to see some people really having a go at getting their weights done over the past week. Not everyone has been perfect, but if you are trying and asking questions and looking to improve the battle is half won. I have to say that every single time I squat or deadlift I learn just a little something that I am able to use the next time I do it – approach your session looking to improve rather than chasing perfection (or worse, just trying to ‘get over it’) and you will find you get the most out of it. A small increase in capacity every session is all I am looking for – small improvements each session over an extended timeframe = great long term results.
The rules for the new month are pretty same as the rules for the old month:
| Training
3x Round 1 Group classes each week. Complete the kettlebell and Barbell program detailed in the ‘Weights’ section each week. |
Prehab
Two (2) x 30 minute walk/stretch sessions per week. |
| Diet
– No Pasta permitted at all. – One serve of rice permitted each week. – Breakfast cereal permitted only ONCE per week. Oats is the only acceptable cereal. – One serve of sweets (lollies, chocolate, cool drink etc) per week. – No product with any added sugar/sweeteners except as part of your ‘Free Eating Day’ (or your one serve of sweets each week’). – No Bread. At ALL! – No more than three (3) pieces of fruit on any given day. No Fruit Juice AT ALL. – FIVE (5) alcohol free days each week – only two (2) drinks permitted on those days when you can drink. – TWO (2) free eating days per month. – Three (3) serves of dairy per week. |
Weights
Kettlebells – Two sets of 100 swings each week. You may break up the swings as you please (eg. 5 sets of 20) but all 100 must be completed during one ‘session’. Barbells – Two sessions per week. – Session 1 = 5 Sets of 5 Squats AND 5 sets of 5 Benchpress + core circuit. – Session 2 = 5 Sets of 5 Deadlifts AND 5 sets of 5 Overhead Press + core circuit. The core circuit is 3x 60 second bridge, 1x 60 second side bridge (each side) + 3x MAX Rep chin-ups (30-seconds between sets) |
Good luck everyone. Everyone has been doing so well to this point – the lifestyle changes should be WELL ingrained now that we are up to month number 5…making the changes (dairy) this month should be pretty straight forward!
Got another 2 inner foams installed last week – which means that six out of eight shields have now been replaced. I will find a way to get the other two done this coming week… anyone who witnessed the mess and chaos of the ‘replacement’ process last week will happily confirm for me what a horrible job it is – no excuse not to finish it off though!
Our new range of sleeveless t-shirts have arrived. These are a really simple design and are SUPER awesome! Red with a big logo, white with a small logo – heaps of sizes, just $20.
Well, it sure was great to see TeamWA superstar Charlie Cameron get amongst it in Adelaide’s upset win over Collingwood…what can I say, I picked that. Unfortunately I also picked Richmond…and Essendon….my tipping genius was VERY short-lived. Only 6 games this week and this week there was one clear winner – Kelly Burdett picked 5 correctly so well done to Kell.
Over in the DreamTeam competition, the bye rounds continue to destroy the league with low scores all over the place. Of most interest this week is the family feud between Brad and Kade Mahar…whilst the saying is ‘Age before Beauty’ in this case, Kade has knocked off his Dad (and quite easily). In other news, Leigh’s ‘Roodelicious’ was the top scorer of the round (1833) points followed by Roly’s ‘Bourbinators’ and MY ‘Round 1 Bulls’. So in your face Lloyd – it might have only been 5 points but a win is a win!!!
A bit of a ‘different’ week on FACEBOOK – I focussed more on posting gym related pictures and comments and less on grabbing some links off the web. The response was great with regards the interaction with you all – hopefully I can find a bit more balance where photos/videos from R1 are supplemented with articles/vids from the web…one day I will get it all right!
Station515: http://stationfiveonefive.com/wp/blog/thenextstep/
Money is the motivation? http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/money-a-motivator-in-exercise-app
The thing that carbs build are fat: http://quivertree.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/02/05/the-only-thing-you-can-build-from-carbohydrates-is-fat-tim-noakes-explains-video/?utm_content=buffer54482&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Enjoy!
Go Ross! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoQ3FBqQUk4
See you in the gym!
Michael.
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