Hi and welcome to another week,
Great sessions last week. I honestly don’t know what started the 9-minute round thing but it is amazing…the classes give an incredible push whilst somehow also providing a mechanism for everyone to work at their own pace. We have done three so far (there is another in the upcoming week) and I think everyone is starting to get the hang of it. I also think everyone is starting to get the hang of the Turkish Get-ups in Body Work – I must say, from a coaches perspective the improvement within two short weeks has been amazing.
All of that said – Wow. Last week was a week of chaos at the gym. What was already going to be a sad time with Leila running her last sessions before heading off (for a while) to have a baby was made a little harder when Sean let me know he was also moving on – leaving the fitness industry for a new career in sales. Since Sean will still be around the place for another week I thought I would save my (blog) farewells to him for next week and instead say a few words about Leila’s contribution. Well, contributions because there have been many.
Lils started at Round 1 as a client – until (happily for me) – she agreed to leave her position at Next Generation and join us at Round 1. At the time she joined, the gym was much smaller and less complicated than it is now – but also a lot less diverse in terms of trainers. Sean and Jason – both young guys without families – were working alongside me, and the vast majority of our clients were family people dealing with the complexities of kids, jobs, after school sport and social activities – you name it. Not to say that J and Seany didn’t understand – they did. But they didn’t UNDERSTAND. Lils did. She knew what people were going through and how hard it was for most people to just get to the gym – and the empathy she brought and showed helped the rest of the trainers understand.
Without wanting to be sexist about it – Lils also understood how intimidating it was/is for girls to venture through the doors of a ‘Boxing Gym’. Now, whether you think Round 1 is a ‘Boxing Gym’ or not (it isn’t) is irrelevant – when you are a ‘new person’ it is a boxing gym and walking through the doors is intimidating. I still get told ‘my friends wont come – they say it is too scary’ by people…Leila helped. She made all of us understand how to make new people feel at ease (well, she helped everyone else do it – I am a lost cause I am afraid!) not by lecturing – simply by making them feel like they could ‘do it’ – if not necessarily today, then one day. This attitude of ‘can’ I guess has really helped the gym moved forward. I am pretty happy to say that we honestly believe that anyone and everyone can train with us if we support them and they are prepared to stick at it – Lils ALWAYS supported them and helped teach the rest of us how to do it. When we slip up – and we do – I think it is in this area of failing to continue to be supportive and encouraging…Lils was never this way.
Lastly – and she will acknowledge this but hate me saying it – Lils is a complete and utter physical wreck. If there is an injury she hasn’t had then I don’t know what it is – but she is both smart and determined. Some people (like me!) get injured and just ‘carry on’. This is not clever. Lils would carry on – but she would find a way to work around her injuries and get through the classes. Not only that, she was smart enough to integrate her rehab/prehab activities into the classes so that when the session was over it wasn’t a matter of spending another 30minutes ‘recovering’ (though she did this when she had too), rather the training and recovery was done and her busy day (3 kids = busy times) could be resumed. She understands the importance of rehab and injury management. She understands the impact of food on injuries (inflammation) and was able to help the rest of us (and hopefully by extension all of you) with each of these things.
As I noted on Facebook, I am not saying goodbye to Lils because she IS coming back. I am still not sure how I am going to get through the week without her providing her doses of sanity and reality to the place…I guess I just am. All the best to you Lils – to you and Raym and the baby to be – all of us wish you guys the best of everything.
Just to finish off, I just want to say that I am pretty determined to continue pushing Round 1 Fitness to be a GREAT training facility – and one that delivers results to its clients. If you have been noticing a real ‘PUSH’ from myself and the other trainers on technique recently, well, get used to it. The sessions are programmed as if the exercises are being done properly…if you are rushing through them, you wont be getting the workout or the benefits intended. You might also have noticed a little bit of ‘scaling’ going on with regards pull-ups and thrusters last week – again, get used to it. If you are ‘scaled’ (a trainer asks you to do a modified version of the exercise), it isn’t because we don’t think you can do it or that we want to embarrass you by singling you out. It is that we want the best outcome for the best effort and at this point in time, you are just better off performing a less complicated activity. That said – you should WANT to do the program as set. You should be striving for it – striving to improve – and if you work diligently at things you will be amazed at the feeling of satisfaction when you finally ‘DO IT’.
See you in the gym.
Michael.
P.S. Please (please) read down at least as far as ‘Gym Update #7’. I am intrigued by the idea of getting together a BIG crew for the Spartan Sprint race in Perth next April 18th…it is 7kms, 20 obstacles and (as long as we work together), every obstacle could be done by everyone…If you think you might be keen, read down and send me a note and I will start the ball rolling!
I am still finalising details everyone but from the 2nd Monday in December (December 8th) there will be some small rises in our membership fees for casual sessions, PT Sessions, 12-month Memberships (including FIFO) and Unlimited Memberships. 3-month packages and 10-round pass prices will remain unchanged.
I will include full details of the changes next week in the blog – suffice to say if you have an existing membership with Round 1 then you will not be impacted by the price change (until renewal time that is for those people on 12-month contracts).
As part of the change, I will also be offering people the option of receiving $70 worth of PERKVILLE points in lieu of receiving a Round 1 Pack (gloves, bag, wraps, towel) when they renew their membership…that way, people will be able to use the points to get whatever they want from the gym.
The next ‘GET IT DONE’ challenge will be commencing on MONDAY December 1st. As with other ‘Get it Done’ challenges, completing the challenge will mean you are entitled to a Round 1 ‘Get it Done’ T. Last week, I announced two ‘hints’ to help prepare everyone for the challenge:
Hint number 1: You will need to complete 20 Classes between December 1st and Christmas Day. This challenge will be NO JOKE. Tanks will count, PT will count, Challenge Team will count. Starting Strength will count.
Hint number 2: Each day, you will need to complete a ‘RANGE’ of activities ‘in order’. For EXAMPLE, 12 of one exercise, 11 of another, 10 of another etc. These ‘extras’ will be designed such that they will not take more than 15 minutes. You will need to complete the ‘EXTRAS’ on twelve occasions for the challenge to be completed.
Two more hints this week. The format will be very ’12-days of Christmas’.
Hint 3: Your true love wont be bringing you ‘5 gold rings’ – they will be asking for “5(00) metres on the rower.
Hint 4: Your true love wont be promising ‘7 Swans-a-laying’ – they have a bad attitude and will be asking for ‘Seven Scorpion Pushups’.
As said last week – this challenge will be NO JOKE! Never have we run a Get it Done challenge that needed less than 25 classes…this time we only want 20 but it might just be the toughest one to finish ever. You CAN do it. And if you are looking to lift the bar in the run-up for Christmas (to make up for all the ‘bad behaviour’ that you will be indulging in) this will be just the thing. Plus, the ‘Get it Done’ t’s are cool. I have two of them – both hard earned!
Two weeks in and all is well. What can I say at this late stage – STICK AT IT. We have scans coming up in a couple of weeks but I have to say, I don’t need to see the scan outcomes to know that some people have accomplished some amazing things…all I have to do is see them walk into the gym.
Stick at it. Stick at it. Two more weeks!
With regards the ‘celebration’ dinner, I am trying to organise an ‘EARLY Sunday’ dinner (from 4:30pm) at the new Lone Star restaurant (so everyone can get their steak and salad of course!) on November 30th…the idea would be that we do our scans on the Thursday/Friday nights plus Sunday morning then all get together on Sunday avo for a bit of a group ‘thing’. I will put the same details on Facebook but if you feel like emailing me (which also works best!), the info@round1fitness.com.au will work just fine.
No progress here unfortunately – the turf still lies dormant (though you might have noticed the move of the tyres etc outside?). Hopefully some more news to share next week!
Really happy with progress here. I could certainly see how much better the Starting Strength crew looked at the end of this week vs the end of week one – I cannot wait for the timed workout next week so we can start to get a real measure of their progress. I am working on a ‘Hero Workout’ for the SS crew to close off the program…they have suggested that they might like to complete it wearing super-hero costumes…but ‘No Capes’ ‘eh Ben?? Now that is something I am looking forward to seeing.
With the Challenge Team, they are pretty amazing and have been doing things I wouldn’t really want to do – and smiling about it! The programming is being thrown into a bit of chaos though as we go back over things to make sure
As promised, the new gloves DID arrive last week. We now have heaps of sizes in stock – including in the super cool new ‘dual-logo’ Leather Gloves. These leather gloves cost a bit more ($45) but they are pretty special – full leather, nice big supporting wrist wrap and now with a dual logo design (wrist and knuckles)…they look so good I had to buy myself a new pair the day they came in.
There is a Spartan Event – a sprint race (7kms, 20 obstacles) coming up next April 18th. This has never really been my thing but I just have an idea that – given the 7km distance – we could get 200 Round 1’ers signed up and ready to race in the event…I was thinking we might arrange t-shirts, a ‘special’ Sunday morning training squad (to help everyone get through the running) and who only knows what else!
Email info@round1fitness.com.au if you think you might be keen. I will be setting up a team name during the week…
Perkville is awesome. It is a rewards scheme that gives you ‘credit’ in the gym for every time you pay for your membership/every time you scan your membership card at the front counter. You can then turn that ‘credit’ into TANKS classes, InBody Scans, Personal Training, Protein, new Boxing Gloves etc – whatever you want really!
Signing up really is simple – go to www.perkville.com , enter the same email address that you have registered at the gym and everything else is done for you.
Free stuff at the gym just for turning up? Sounds alright to me!
Well, I am a huge believer in static holds for strength development (we do them all the time in boxing classes) and – I always love it when people agree with me…
http://daily.barbellshrugged.com/utilize-static-holds-improved-performance/
And…just because so many people mentioned getting something out of the Kelly Starrett link last week, here is some shoulder mobility work. As the title says, ‘Seriously, you should do this yesterday’:
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/09/seriously-do-this-yesterday-one-of-my-all-time-shoulder-fixes/
Michael.
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