Hi and welcome to another week,
Tough training week last week. There were two ‘high volume’ punching days (Monday and Friday) and those classes were great fun (I love the boxing training elements) – but the cardio challenge they present is enormous. I feel like I haven’t been doing quite as much ‘punching’ lately and the session on Monday which had us punching a bag for 40-odd minutes left me with a heart that wanted to explode. A ‘good-bad’ feeling if you know what I mean. Of course, I also loved doing 7-minute rounds on Wednesday but, as Kirei stated: “I don’t think it matters what you program for 7-minute rounds – whenever they are on they will be the toughest class of the week”.
This week’s sessions look pretty cool. I am trying out a couple of new exercises (chest elevated barbell pushups for one) as well as some new exercise combinations – just some different lifting / rings stuff as well as some assault bike / kettlebell stuff that should be both challenging whilst really pushing the conditioning element of our training at Round 1. With TANKS, the show goes on with our combination training and this week we are working one-arm rows with leg-elevated fence pulls (body rows). It certainly left a mark on me and I am looking forward to seeing how everyone goes with it this week.
I wanted to talk this week about the way each of us have a changing mindset towards ‘stuff’ as our life goes on. This is true of us as a society (think of everything that was once acceptable that is no longer tolerated) and – of more relevance to us as individuals – when it comes to our training and physical well-being.
A few months back we ran the 28-Days later challenge and those (78 finished) who participated managed to shed more than 300kgs (avg was just over 3.9kgs per person). This weight loss was achieved through little more than abandoning alcohol and foods with added sugar for 28 days (the month of February) – the training that went along with it contributed to nearly 100kgs in muscle gain (all done on the InBody 570 Body Scanner). Sure the 28-Days Later Challenge was tough (that’s why it is called a challenge) but it also helped change the mindset of a lot of people towards the food that they eat. By the end of the month, it was no longer all that hard for them to ‘go without’ sweeteners or avoid ‘pre-packaged’ foods that are full of sugar – what was happening is they didn’t even ‘see’ them on the shelves at the super-market/on the menu at the restaurant. What had happened was their mindset had changed to the point that they don’t even consider those foods as an option – they would read the menu and find things easy to pass over because “I don’t eat that”. Their mindset towards the food that they eat has changed.
A great members profile (Aaron Thomas) went up last week and another will go up tomorrow (Jason Anderson). In his profile, Jason talks a little bit about the change in his mindset since starting at the gym. When he first started, Jason notes that he was amazed when, at the end of a session – a couple of participants said to one another ‘See you tomorrow’. He wondered what could possibly be ‘driving’ them to return the next day. A couple of years down the line, Jason finds himself training almost every day. Now, not every day involves doing a group session – there are lifting days, recovery days (imagine that, changing your mindset such that a 30-45 gym session might mean nothing more than rolling, stretching and working on ‘mobility’) and class days. His mindset has changed – he knows that two sessions each week isn’t enough for him to be as healthy as he would like – yet he also has learned that beating himself up in every session isn’t the greatest plan either. His mindset is all about his health and continued (but gradual) physical improvement – he isn’t thinking about a 4-week quick fix followed by a return to ‘NORMAL’ – he knows it just doesn’t work that way.
It is hard talking about this stuff because until your ‘mindset’ changes, you just aren’t ‘ready’ to talk. And once your mindset has changed, well – you don’t need to talk to me about it anymore – you just LIVE IT. To use an extreme example, it wasn’t that long ago when communism was considered a perfectly reasonable way to manage the economic/political systems of a country. Times have changed – but most important of all, peoples’ mind-sets have changed and communism has been confined to the same bucket as slavery and women’s suffrage. Being healthy for life is about your mindset – about understanding that being consistent is the most important thing of all. Making a commitment to regularly exercise, regularly recover and eat consistently well is the most important step you can take. But until you realise that life can be happily lived despite the absence of food with added sugar and sweeteners, until you realise that it is possible to make a little bit of time each day for some physical activity, well – you just aren’t ready.
If you ARE ready – our latest challenge (In the ZONE) encompasses training and eating (our first since the 28-Days Later Challenge) and is possibly the most ambitious thing we have ever tried to do. It is without doubt the most COMPLICATED challenge we have tried to do – it involves getting everyone to at least have a go at really (really) measuring their food quantities and eating to a very carefully defined schedule. If you think you are ‘ready’ to give it a go – if you think you have reached a point where you mindset is to effect real, long-lasting change – then please make time to head along to one of the information sessions and give it a try.
If your mindset is right, you can do it – and you will get results.
See you in the gym,
Michael.
Our next gym challenge ‘In the Zone’ – starts in just TWO (2) weeks. This challenge is based around a zone eating plan which utilises set measures of:
– Protein
– Carbohydrates
– Fats
in each meal of the day. Quantities are based on two things: your lean body mass (we can estimate this or you can get the exact number by doing a body scan) AND your activity level. Eating based on a zone protocol is a bit tricky when you first start – it does involve measuring your food and therefore can really fall into the ‘pain in the butt’ category. BUT. Because you are managing your food types and quantities based on your body type it does reduce the problem that so many of you keep telling me: “I eat pretty well – I just eat too much”.
The question ‘how do you work it all out’ is a little bit tricky, and that is why we will be running TWO (2) ‘HOW TO’ sessions for zone eating. One will be on Saturday May 29th at 3:30pm. The other on Sunday May 30th (again at 3:30pm). Both sessions will be at the gym and – as always with these things – if you want to come, bringing a chair is a really (really, really) good idea. We will also be handing out ‘menu sheets’ (for want of a better word) that breaks a whole heap of common foods up into proteins, carbs and fats to make your life a lot easier on that same weekend.
What else? Well, there will also be a training component to this challenge – it will be completing THREE (3) sessions per week with no more than a two day break between sessions. In simple terms, this challenge is all about rhythm – eating regular meals at regular times, training a few times each week…generally getting a nice consistent, sustainable ‘life plan’ happening to remain fit and healthy for the long term.
Beach Bodies is a 3-month training program that is just about to go ‘LIVE’. It is scheduled to run all winter – the training for the first week will be released on Sunday May 30th – and it will run for 13 weeks. For everyone who has seen the sample, the program features a DAILY training program (6 days per week with Sunday set as a ‘rest’ day) and it is quite detailed/specific in what it is asking you to do. The idea behind beach bodies is that we do our work now so that when summer comes around, we are ready to put on our board-shorts (or bikini!). It involves a weekly rhythm of lifting (squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, power cleans) together with supporting exercises AND conditioning activities. It is not a program for Beginners but those people familiar with Body Work sessions will be well positioned to ‘have a go’.
For those people who are keen on Beach Bodies but love their group classes, provision has been made to do a couple of Boxing Classes each week as part of the program.
The program will run via Google Docs (please get yourself a Google ID if you are keen!) and will be shared with all registered participants on each SUNDAY. The program will be released one week at a time.
A registration link will be sent to everyone who has registered their interest TOMORROW – Monday, May 18th. If you are keen on getting involved, please make sure that you let me know via email to ‘info@round1fitness.com.au’ so I can include you on the mail-out.
We have been doing a fair bit of work lately on revising the Round 1 ‘reception area’ and the plans are pretty close to finalised – just awaiting final quotes and it will be good to go. The basic premise is making getting ‘in’ to the gym a lot simpler – avoiding the bank up of ‘traffic’ at the front door – and making it easy for members to get their workout started.
It should be amazing when it is all done – there will most likely be a ‘little bit’ of an interruption to normal proceedings whilst the cabinetry is being installed but here’s hoping for smooth sailing.
There is a great new wall-mounted barbell rack that is about to be installed to get all of those new barbells off the ground in the Tanks/Lifting area. A little bit of messing around is required (moving the TANKS white board etc) but hopefully should all be done in the next couple of weeks or so…If it isn’t done before the long weekend then that might be the target installation time.
In a remarkable turn of events, I – ME – actually won a week of the footy tipping for the first time in living memory. The tips this week must have been super (super) easy but I somehow (along with Ben Coates and Amanda Dixon – but who cares about them!) managed to get 8 tips correct.
On the overall ladder, things aren’t looking quite so good for me but I guess I must have made up a little bit of ground! The leaders held firm though with Dani and Michelle holding their spots atop the ladder, just clear of Christine, Justin and Shelby.
A pretty difficult week in Dream Team with late withdrawls and surprise omissions plaguing us. My team took the field two players short and then copped another hit with an early substitution. Somehow (and I am still not sure how) I managed to hold on for the win vs Brad.
Top scorers for the week were Kim (Half Time Heroes) with 1939, Lloyd (Gym Gods) with 1933 and Craig (Cat-astrophic) with 1928.
Thanks to former Round 1’er now Queensland resident Carleigh Cowling for this great article – ‘Reasons to exercise that aren’t about weight loss’. On a side note, Carleigh wanted to wish all of her friends from 6am a ‘hello and best wishes’ so ‘hello and best wishes’ to everyone from Carleigh who has settled in well back in Qld.
http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2015/05/11/4233218.htm
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