Hi and welcome to another week,
Great sessions this last week. I have really enjoyed the skipping lately – the new RX Ropes are amazing – and make doing doubles that much easier. I am also enjoying the 5-week Body Work rotation – two weeks in I have done three of the latest ‘block’ of sessions (they have all been too hard for me but still a lot of fun) and whilst I am not all that eager to ‘suit up’ for any of them again I am certainly a lot more comfortable with the idea of doing multiple BW classes in a week than I used to be…I am sure I will end up doing a couple of repeat sessions over the next 3 weeks and I am OK with that (though I am hoping just a little bit that I don’t have to repeat class ‘D’ – all those pushups!). I also hope everyone has been getting something out of the video’s on our YouTube channel – we will keep working on creating an exercise library and (hopefully) it becomes a valuable reference library for everyone at Round 1.
Apologies for the lack of a blog last week – but the Life Plan Kick-Off ended up being quite a bit bigger than I imagined and my ‘blogging time’ (usually Sunday mornings) was filled up by ‘InBody’ Scans and questions from people wanting to get started. I really did appreciate so many people taking the time to come to our diet/lifestyle lecture last week and hope everyone found it worthwhile. At this stage I am considering running a ‘repeat’ session to coincide with the Month 1 Life Plan measurements…please email me if you are interested. No promises but if there is sufficient interest in a repeat with perhaps the opportunity for an extended Q+A then let me know.
What else? Well, my life has been kind of taken over by all of the planning/leg work associated with the gym changes as well as getting the Life Plan / Muscle Challenge up and running. Somehow though, I have managed to find a little bit of time to get some training done in the middle of it all and actually seem to be making a little bit of forward progress – which is a nice feeling. The August Challenge was a great kick-along for me personally, and I felt really pleased when I finished it…somehow, that encouraged me to find the ‘next thing’ which has me doing a few more weights on top of my boxing classes and I have been feeling good because of it – I am back recording my workouts (taking my own advice) and even in a few weeks I am seeing my weights starting to go back up! Isn’t it funny how doing your training consistently encourages you to go to the gym consistently? Isn’t it funny how eating well encourages you to keep eating well? How, if you just keep to a plan/hang-tough, the rewards always come? I know I have spoken about all of this before but that is because it is true – if you just stick at it – for long enough – you will be rewarded. If you remember why you started when you begin thinking about giving up, you will probably find a reason (or two) to keep going instead.
So now what? If you finished the August Challenge and decided not to jump into the Life Plan – you don’t need to wait for me to kick off a new challenge. All you have to do is decide what it is you want to get ‘better’ at and get started. If it is something simple (I want to be able to do a bin run) – then the solution will be simple. Spend 10 minutes after a class RUNNING. If it is something harder (I want to deadlift 200kgs) then you may need to engage one of the trainers to help you with your technique and put together a program. But in any case, the more you are ‘engaged’ in the process of improving the more likely you are to improve. And the more you improve, the more likely you are to just – keep – going!
See you in the gym.
Michael.
The Life Plan and Muscle Plan are now entering their second week – thanks to everyone who attended our nutrition and life-style session back on August 31st…to have more than 100 people in the gym on a Sunday afternoon was amazing and I hope everyone got a little ‘something’ they can take away. One thing I will mention though – if you are doing the ‘Life Plan’, just do the Life Plan! This sounds really obvious but there is really no need to make any more than the simple, basic food changes that are specified in the plan for month 1. Remember, we are all in this for LONG TERM change – what I have found is that whilst making a lot of changes to your diet in one hit might bring great results to a percentage of people, all it does for the majority is cause them to become tired, frustrated and fall ‘off the wagon’ back into ALL of their old habits. Month 1 is all about eliminating bread and minimising sugar – that is a BIG challenge if you have been eating a traditional diet and you are taking it seriously. Just stick with that for now and don’t stress…the restrictions on other food types ARE COMING.
Muscle Plan people – stick at it. I know it is complicated and I know it is hard and I know that doing things like squats based on a 1-rep Max percentage is hard when you don’t know your 1-rep max…but it is week 1. Take your time. Work out your 1rm’s. Seek out assistance from the trainers. Watch the videos we have been putting up on YouTube. Again, the Muscle Challenge is a marathon and not a sprint. Being in a rush to just ‘do it’ doesn’t help you get it done. Take your time, focus on your technique and make sure you are doing things correctly.
I have been hinting at things on Facebook, but our gym refurbishment project is creeping ever closer. Whilst it is ‘in progress’ there will need to be some temporary relocation of equipment (to enable things to be moved and new things to be installed we must FIRST relocate what is there today) which almost certainly WILL have a bit of an impact on day to day sessions.
I will be trying everything I can to keep any disruptions to a minimum, but at the same time please be patient – the changes will be more than worth it when they are concluded.
What is happening? Well – the changes are quite varied but in essence, we are doubling the size of the rubber floor and installing additional racks to support more diversity in Boxing and increasing numbers in Body Work. The treadmills will move from their current location out to the front of the gym (just inside the door) and a new A/V system will be installed/extra fans be installed to support this. Lastly new flooring will be installed to better support the variety of exercises we are doing – from sledgehammers to body weight, the poor carpet has taken a beating and the changes will both tidy this up and be a more practical long-term solution.
With no blog last week, I neglected to say a big congratulations to everyone who managed to finish the August ‘300’ Challenge. I know for me finishing my last lot of Goblet Squats (I commited to doing complete sets of 50) was a great relief and gave me a great sense of achievement – I really hope everyone else feels the same way.
The challenges are great like that – somehow just going ‘all in’ to achieve something really does give you an amazing feeling when you come out the other end. This challenge might have ‘ONLY’ been three classes each week – and it might have ‘ONLY’ been an extra 30-minutes doing the extras – but it is amazing how hard it can become doing those things when life continually gets in the way.
To everyone who finished the challenge – fantastic effort. For everyone who started with the best of intentions but somehow fell short (due to illness, work, whatever), stay positive. Another challenge is on the horizon and I am certain you will get through to the end!
The rewards scheme we are running is amazing. Every time you come to the gym and SCAN your membership card, you get two points. For every dollar you spend on your membership, you get one point. You are already doing these things – so join the scheme, get the points and USE the points to save money on ‘stuff’ at the gym. Now, this ‘stuff’ might be your membership, it might be personal training, it might be a small group session (tanks or starting strength), maybe a pair of gloves…it could be ANYTHING. Join Perkville. We currently have 930 different people who have ‘earned’ points – but only just over 400 people have actually joined the scheme.
From my perspective, I have to pay Perkville every single time someone scores a point…whether they have officially ‘joined’ or not. If I am going to pay for it, I would really (really) love for the scheme to benefit the person who is doing the sessions. Join the scheme at http://www.perkville.com/ – if you can’t seem to get it working, send me a note and I will try and help you out.
Free stuff at the gym just for turning up? Sounds alright to me!
OK. With the week off last week due to the talk, I neglected to post details of the winners of the Footy Tipping comp/Dream Team comp.
The tipping was won by Brendan Corley – who cruised to a 3-point victory in the end. He has been on top of the ladder for the past 7 or 8 weeks I think and to say it is well deserved is an understatement. Brendan is the recipient of a $100 gift voucher for use at Round 1.
The DreamTeam contest was won by Kim Devereaux – who continued a remarkable tradition by winning the competition from 8th place (just as Roly Davies did in 2013). I will never understand how someone who quite literally scrapes in to the finals can win the whole competition, but given it has happened two years in a row (with both Kim and Roly only confirming their positions in the 8 in the last week of the season) there must be something to it. Kim beat Dale Godsell by just over 100 points in the Grand Final and ALSO receives a $100 gift voucher for use at Round 1.
A great article on the Ross Training site – ‘The Key to Confidence’. I would really encourage everyone who is looking to make changes/improvements to take the time to have a read: http://rosstraining.com/blog/2014/08/08/the-key-to-confidence/
See you in the gym!
Michael.
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