Hi and welcome to another week,
Thanks to everyone who supported the gym over this ANZAC Day weekend – it is always hard to be working when seemingly everyone is enjoying some downtime with their family and friends but to have three days with such high attendance and enthusiastic people, well – it makes being in the gym a fun time!
Our classes this week look really exciting. I am really happy to be adding the dynamic step-ups and banded tricep pushdowns – things I have been doing in my own training lately – into the Boxing sessions and think everyone will benefit from them. The rounds are quite variable this week as well – obviously it was 2-minutes today (Monday), 5’s on Tuesday, partners on Wednesday and 7’s on Friday. This week also sees the new ‘block’ of Body Work classes being introduced – the sessions look amazing and the ‘Class A’ barbell challenge is something I am really looking forward to having another go at (we obviously try all this stuff out before throwing it at you guys!).
I wanted to talk this week about good training habits. Now, this might seem a bit strange coming from someone who will openly acknowledge poor food preparation habits and even worse commitment to prehab such as foam rolling, stretching and massage – but I am trying to change. And I am occasionally even feeling a bit better because of it.
The first thing I want to mention is ‘movement preparation’ (aka warming up). Now TANKS regulars will hopefully be able to pass positive comment on this but I have made a real change in the way I have been programming the ‘PREP’ phase in TANKS sessions over the past 5-6 months. This change has come as a direct result of the programming from Field Strong that I have been following and it means a warm-up that is hard but BALANCED – it has a focus on getting the body ready for the work phase/strength phase that is to come. For most boxing classes, this (to me) would look like some steady skipping (3-5 mins) followed by some light kettlebell work (swings, static goblet holds) or ‘empty bar’ barbell work (presses, squats and cleans) – no more than 3-5 minutes. Prepped and ready to go!
Next, during the session I try to keep my ‘eye on the prize’ and understand two things. First off, that it isn’t necessary to ‘always’ go flat out. Second, to recognise when I am letting ‘point one’ compromise my training outcomes. For example, when I pick the weights up to complete a set of reps – the focus doesn’t need to be on doing them ‘flat out’. The focus should be on maintaining good form, a steady pace and not putting the weight (bar, kettlebell, dumbbell, rings) down until all of the set reps have been completed. When I am on the bikes, rowers or bags, it should be with the understanding that it is a ‘cardio’ station and whilst my technique needs to be ‘good’, hopefully by now I know how to ride/punch/row well enough that I can be a ‘more than steady’ – I need to be working HARD…the aim of these stations is not to conserve energy for the rest of the session (hence the use of targets on the bikes and rowers in so many of our programs).
Lastly – and this is a learning from our various challenges that have now spilled over to the recent ‘One Percenters’ program – try and ‘finish’ the session with 5-minutes spent working on a weakness. This doesn’t have to be something that you are unable to do – but it might be something that you have found tricky in the past, or something that you struggled with last week…it could be as complicated as a barbell muscle up or as simple as practicing your right hook or doing a pushup with your elbows in. Knowing these ‘extras’ are coming at the end stops me (and you!) from ‘winding down’ during the last round of the class as you mentally get ready to leave, go home and move on with the rest of your day (with real life).
Anyway, there are my ‘good habits’ for this week. Do your prep, maintain focus and perspective whilst the session is on and plan to spend 5-minutes at the end of your session working on something ‘little’…Good Luck!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
p.s. If you would like to complete a members profile, we would love you to! Send me a note to info@round1fitness.com.au and I will get all of the proformas sent to your inbox! J
p.p.s. Don’t forget we have an amazing referral scheme at Round 1. First off, if you refer someone on PERKVILLE (www.perkville.com) when they come to the gym, you will get a bonus 50 Perkville points. Which is cool. Second, if they subsequently join up on a membership and quote your name, you will receive an additional MONTH for free (assuming they join on a 12-month contract). Which is also pretty cool…you will get to train with your friends AND get a free month at the gym…can’t go wrong!
Only a few days left to go. I have already handed out one t-shirt (well done Erinn) and I suspect Jess L has also finished her challenge – but is hanging onto the sheet so she can complete ’30 classes in 30 days’…amazing! I still have one to go – along with a few multi-jumps – and that will be April done for me as well.
If you aren’t in quite such good ‘shape’ with regards to class numbers, remember that there is no limit on doubles this time around and still THREE DAYS TO GO!
With the T-Shirts, I would prefer not to hand them out until the end of the month but if you are heading away for work or something (like Erinn was) I will try to make sure you can proudly wear you challenge shirt when you leave!
Body Scans will be available this coming Sunday May 3rd so that everyone who has paid for their two scans can get that ‘post – challenge’ scan done. Remember that you MUST NOT TRAIN before a body scan.
OK. We obviously try to make things as easy as possible for everyone to get there training done by providing 70+ group sessions every week AND also providing the four ‘Work-outs of the Week’ (WOD, Strength, Cardio, Full-Body). But sometimes this means that there is just too much choice and people get more and more confused than ever. So I am trying to be ‘here to help’.
If you have any training questions – the structure of your week, what class is what, how to get the most bang for your time in the gym – feel free to email me (info@round1fitness.com.au) and I will publish the answers here each week. In the meantime, here is my take on things:
– Boxing is the ‘Default’ class. If you can do 2-3 of these each week, you will be in pretty good shape. J
– Body Work has a greater focus on strength than Boxing and you will get the opportunity (well, depending on numbers) to do some more focussed lifting and you will DEFINITELY get the chance to do some more focussed cardio. If you do 2x Boxing classes and 1x BodyWork…well, I am not saying that is all you need but it is a good week for most people. Remember, Body Work runs off the white board so you really do go at your own pace.
– If you want to do some real ‘strength’ work in a group setting then you need to do TANKS. I know it is an extra cost (each class is $13.50) but this is because there is only room for 7 participants. You will get to deadlift, squat, bench press etc in a supervised setting and whilst we don’t max out all the time it is programmed on occasion. If you did 2x Boxing, 1x Body Work and 1x TANKS I would call that a pretty perfect week.
– Personal Training? Well, it is amazing. You and your results are the entire focus of the setting. This doesn’t mean you just do what you want – but you will be set tasks to help you achieve the direct goals that you have. As I often say it is important that I follow a set program that is programmed by someone ELSE – because I would never, ever choose to do (for example) 1km rowing intervals…but they are good for me! This is personal training. Getting someone to push and encourage you through the stuff that is incredibly challenging but so GOOD for you!
Thanks to the great support we have been receiving for our TANKS, No Rules and Body Work sessions (thanks everyone) I have been forced to add some more barbells and bumper plates to the gym. We are often running out of 10kg bumpers – so there are more of them. There are more 15kg bumpers and more 20kg bumpers as well. There are also 4x new Force Barbells on the way.
I know, I know – this is no big deal…but in case you were wondering, a good Olympic bar starts at around about $500 per unit (which is why I get grouchy when they are treated ‘recklessly’). And the bumper plates aren’t cheap either…whilst they are made to be ‘dropped’, when they are flung to an unsprung floor (anywhere except the platforms) from overhead, they will split and crack…
There is a new product in the gym – Gymnastic Grips. These slide over your palms to protect you from callouses (and worse!) when you are doing barbell work/pull-ups/rings etc. Great product and if you are a Body Work or Tanks regular it might be something worth investing in. $15 at Reception.
We have some pretty new gym tags in – they double up as bottle openers and the registration number has been laser printed on the back so it should never, ever need replacing. You don’t even have to do 10-burpees to get one (but they do cost $5 each!).
More info on Beach Bodies will be coming towards the END OF THIS WEEK. If you want the details, be sure to send me your details to let me know you are ‘IN’.
To add some extra info:
– There are no more than 3 classes in any week (most weeks only have 2). BUT – even though you don’t have to be ‘in the gym’ if you don’t have access to a squat rack, rower or assault bike (not to mention power bands, kettlebells, deadballs etc) then you will probably have to be ‘in the gym’.
– The program contains a lot of lifting and you need to be confident in your squatting, dead-lifting, bench pressing and pressing in order to complete it. You need to know how to adjust the power racks etc. If you don’t know these things, some PT is a really good plan. If you can’t manage that, you really do need to find a way to get involved in some Body Work classes (minimum) and more suitably TANKS classes prior to kickoff. If you choose the group session ‘pathway’ though, remember those sessions are about training a group of people and are not one-on-one skills development.
As mentioned, this is by far the most complete programming effort we have undertaken and will require a fair bit of commitment to complete from anyone who wants to have a go…the results should be pretty impressive though!
The idea of the plan is to do the work over winter so that when summer rolls along, you will have already done the work…you wont be scrambling to fit into your boardshorts (or your bikini).
If you have read down this far and might be interested in the program, please email me at info@round1fitness.com.au and I will make sure you receive future updates.
After 11 people ‘picked the card’ last week, this week Brad Mahar topped the table with just ‘6’…the rest of us were worse again than that! I only managed 3 – getting twice as many wrong as I got right! Brad has moved up into a share of 2nd place on the ladder behind Michelle (on the back of Collingwood winning a few no doubt) and Justin…
A terrible Dream Team week with no-one topping the 2000 point mark. And to continue my weekend of misery, only one person in the competition scored more than me…and it just happened to be Nicole Marszal who I was playing against! Very, very sad state of affairs. Top scorers for the week were Nicole on 1953, myself on 1938, Travis on 1902 and Justin on 1866…here’s hoping for some better scores in Round 5.
In the lead-up to the Mayweather – Pacquiao fight this coming weekend, here is a highlight video of Floyd training:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOqbYk8phRA
…and just to keep the commentary balanced, here’s Manny!
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