Hi and welcome to another week,
Great classes last week. I have decided that the designers of the assault bikes were mistreated as babies and are trying to take out some kind of sick vengeance on the world. Every time I have to do a calorie ride, I think ‘I can do this’. Then 15-seconds later I think ‘I am in trouble – and why are my legs burning?’. Apparently they are good for us though??? Right???
Happy blog this week for a happy moment in my life. For those people out there who have known me for a while, you would be aware that for the 10-years leading up to this one I spent a whole heap of time coaching football in what passed as my ‘spare time’. I have been very fortunate with my coaching in that I got to coach at national level and now get to watch a whole heap of the ‘kids’ I coached playing AFL footy on tv every weekend. Whenever one of them does something good, you can guarantee that somewhere I am watching and telling anyone/everyone in earshot that ‘I taught him that’.
This year has been a bit of a ‘rough’ year for footy in WA. Whilst the two AFL sides are atop the ladder, the state teams at u16 and u18 level have been copping some criticism for their performances. Whether the criticism is fair or not is a debate for another day, but when you see reports on the news or in the paper about the ‘sorry state’ of football over here just remind yourself that of the top SIX fancies for this years NAB Rising Star award (Best first year player in the AFL) that four of them – Patty Cripps, Jesse Hogan, Cam McCarthy and Dom Sheed – all come from WA. And happily for me, I coached all of them. Whilst those boys – along with a few other young kids from WA including Kam McIntosh and Charlie Cameron – have received the Rising Star nominations and the publicity, there has been something else going on.
At the end of the draft last year, a lot of players missed out on being selected – not just from WA but from all over Australia. One of those who missed selection had been the captain of WA at the 2014 National Championships and had been awarded the state’s MVP award for the championships. Not only did he captain the state at u18 level, but he had also been captain of the championship winning u16 team in 2012. Further, before his 18th birthday he had been playing effective senior footy for his WAFL club (Peel Thunder) and was a member of the AFL Academy (and what do you know – he was joint captain of that program as well). Given all of this, everyone just assumed that he would be drafted, but it isn’t always that simple. This is particularly true if you are ‘small’ and ‘a bit slow’ and have been in the spotlight of recruiters for so long that they all have a long list of everything that you ‘CANNOT’ do. Elite sport is so tough because sometimes it seems that no matter how much you do or how hard you work, opportunities are not necessarily yours just to take. This is particularly true in team events – if it is a ‘simple’ matter of running the fastest or jumping the highest then that is one thing. But in most team sports – determining which players are the ‘best’ or who ‘deserves a chance’ is pretty subjective, and everyone (of course) has an opinion.
The AFL has a 2nd chance system though – it is called the Rookie Draft. When the rookie draft came along – two weeks or so after his draft day disappointment, the name Brad Walsh was called out at selection 24 by the Carlton Footy Club. I guess this made him the 90th best player eligible to be drafted at the end of last year (my quick count showed 76 players were drafted but I am happy to be told I am wrong on this one). If 90th best seems a low ranking to you it seemed a really, really low ranking to me – and having coached in all the games that Brad had played during two years of championship footy, I am another one of those people I mentioned above (you know, the ones with an opinion!!!).
Brad though wasn’t too worried about his draft ‘position’. He sorted out his university course, packed his bags and headed to Melbourne – just ecstatic that someone was prepared to give him a chance. From the moment he got there the ‘word’ has been nothing but positive – how hard he works, how accountable he is, how professional he is…all things that everyone who knew Brad just expected to happen. He is the first to arrive at every session and the last to leave…and this has translated to a player being named in his team’s (VFL – Northern Blues) best players 7 times in 11 games. He is still only 18.
I have been reading reports about Brad’s games and apparently he is still ‘small’ and still ‘a bit slow’. But last night he played his first AFL game after being ‘elevated’ to the senior list last week. Yep – he was the sub, and yep, he has played better. But he was out there on an AFL field for the first time and hard work and effort and dedication and every other cliché is the reason that he made it there.
Sporting success does have something to do with genetics and being physically gifted – of course it does. But if it really means that much too you and you are prepared to just keep pressing on despite adversity, well, you can make it. Brad taught me a great lesson last year because when our team (I was coach, he was captain) wasn’t going well and he was being criticised for ‘everything’ – well, he just put his head down and worked through it. And he was only 17 when he made that decision not to sulk and just to ‘double down’ on the effort and commitment. He knew what people were saying about him – that he was ‘small’ and ‘a bit slow’ – and he knew the people saying those things held his future in their hands. He didn’t sulk and say it wasn’t fair – he just worked through it. He did more than everyone else because he wanted it more than anyone else and he wasn’t prepared to allow other peoples perceptions of him affect the way he went about it.
Take the lessons on-board. Everything you want is there for you to take – but you are going to have to TAKE it. Do the work. Do the rehab. Have some discipline when it comes to what you put in your mouth. Then go to sleep and do everything right when you wake up again tomorrow. Rewards will come.
Good luck!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
p.s. Tonnes of info this week. I would encourage everyone to check out the special, the challenge scheduled for August, details of the Raising Happy Men seminar AND the link of the week. Don’t be put off by the title or the subject matter – listen to the words he has to say.
We have an amazing special for our 10-round passes this week. For just $79 you will get:
– 10 Round Pass (usual cost = $120)
– InBody 570 Body Scan (usual cost $35)
No real conditions, no real requirements. 10x group training sessions AND a Body Scan for just $79. The total value of the package is $155 – and remember, with our new scaled Boxing for Fitness classes every session really is accessible for all fitness levels.
Terms and conditions? Well, there is a limit of ONE per person and they will only be available until July 31st OR until we sell 100 packages, whichever comes first. If you want one of the packages, please call the gym on 9414-1141 OR via our Self Service Portal (select ‘Buy’, then ‘Sessions’, then ‘July 2015 10-round + Special) OR just ask about it next time you are in the gym.
Our next challenge is scheduled for the month of August – the ‘Crazy 88’ challenge. The challenge is a classes based challenge and involves the following:
20x Classes between Monday, August 3rd and Sunday August 30th.
Completion of Eighty Eight (8) reps of each of EIGHT (8) different exercises. I know technically this is 20 + (8×88) which = > 88 but just go with me…it is the Crazy 88 challenge!
There are no real ‘tricks’ here – there are 20 classes to complete (in 28 days) and a few extras to get done. The only rule with the extras is that once you start work on the ‘88’ you must FINISH them. You don’t (for example) need to do 88 pushups in a row – but once you start your 88 you need to finish ALL of them before you can move on. You might do sets of 10, sets of 5 or sets of 2 – it doesn’t matter, as long as they are DONE. The eight exercises involved will be announced on the morning of August 3rd via FACEBOOK (and of course they are on the sign-off sheets).
Finishing the challenge will get you a Round 1 ‘Get it Done’ t-shirt…when you sign up you will also receive access to a Body Scan which you can use either as a ‘Get started’ motivator or as a post-challenge reference point.
The cost of the ‘Crazy 88’ Challenge is $25 and you can sign up either at Reception or via the following web-link:
Crazy 88 Challenge Registration
Hopefully everyone has seen all the posters/hand-outs around the gym for the ‘Raising Happy Men’ seminar being run by Vi Maharaj. Vishal is a long-time gym member (and psychologist!) who has started up a company (‘Raising Happy’) aimed at improving everyone’s life experience – aimed at helping people be ‘HAPPY’. The ‘Raising Happy Men’ seminar is the latest seminar Vi has put together and this one features John Worsfold as a speaker – it will be amazing to hear John speak about the relationship between ‘success’ and happiness and the key barriers to men being ‘happy’.
I would encourage everyone (anyone) who wants to live a happy life to check out Vi’s webpage (raisinghappy.com.au) and think about getting along to the event on the 27th of August.
Thanks to everyone who has supported to myofascial release session the last couple of weeks. We will continue on with the 12pm Sunday time-slot in the short-term at least – or until we can come up with a better solution that fits in with the rest of the gym. Our biggest problem of course is that we have classes running every hour we are open all weekend…and the foam rolling session takes up a lot of room that means we really need an open floor…
We have been working away in the background to try and source some really high-quality gym attire for everyone – and recently progressed to sign an agreement with Hylete (www.hylete.com). This is a pretty big deal for us – Hylete are the suppliers to a wide range of sporting organisations including the National Pro-Grid League (check out the link of the week if this doesn’t mean anything to you).
Our first delivery of Hylete attire has arrived and will be up on the shelves pretty soon…we are working through some solutions re- printing before pushing forward. Aside from the t’s, we have singlets (for girls) and crop pants which look amazing.
One of our members (the amazing Mon Wright) is a great physio and her team at Life Ready are a major sponsor of the City to Surf. When she saw that we are putting together a team for the event, she put together a great physio support offer for our running team.
We have already had a couple of runners talking about sore hip flexors (and a sprained ankle from last weekend!)– and I know my ITB’s are always a problem when I up the running – so this could be just the thing we all need to get us safely to the finish line. Remember, it isn’t just about ‘doing the work’ – you need to make sure your body is fit and ready to do the work! And this is (obviously) where Monica and her team comes it. The details are as follows:
Life Ready Physio Bicton
1 Westbury Crescent, Bicton (Cnr Canning Hwy)
P: (08) 6313 4010
E: bicton@lifereadyphysio.com.au
W: www.lifereadyphysio.com.au/our-clinics/bicton
1 hour massage with a Remedial therapist $75 (usually $89)
Initial Physiotherapy consult $79 (usually $89)
Physio follow up $67 (usually $77)
Private health rebates apply to eligible policies for both Remedial massage and Physiotherapy. HICAPS claiming also available at the time of service.
We are Medibank and HCF members choice providers – members are able to claim up to 90% of the service through their fund.
Now – one of our members took Monica up on the offer this week, and poster the following comments on Facebook:
“I had a 1 hour remedial massage at life ready physio Bicton last night as per your mention of their offer for round 1 members in the blog. It was great and really worked through all my sore bits from the extra lifting in beach bodies and training for the crossfit comps. Can definitely recommend it for anyone needing a sports massage and only cost me $30 after my medibank contribution was taken off x”
We are through 5-weeks of the schedule and 3-weeks away from our next ‘big’ run (Port to Cottesloe and back followed by coffees at the beach) on August 8th. Really happy with the progress everyone is making and if you stick at it, you will blast through the 12kms at the end of August.
If you are still thinking about the CTS but aren’t sure about ‘how’, you WILL be able to do running club for the next 2-weekends when we are based at Anning Park. When we are all together on the oval it is a lot easier to modify the efforts/manage differences in running speeds/fitness levels than it is when we are out ‘on the road’. So if you want to get started, next Saturday we leave the gym at 8am SHARP!
Lastly – if you wanted to register for our City to Surf team, the link is here:
Week 8 is up and has been shared via Google Docs. I have added a couple of demo videos to YouTube – specifically Turkish Get-ups and Log Cycle Lunges – that are programmed for this week. Week 8 is a significant de-load from week 7 – whilst I still want you to keep pushing forward with your reps you will notice that the conditioning elements have dropped back to a more ‘normal’ level!
I have been working on a Beach Bodies phase 2 program for anyone who might be interested – please let me know via email if you are keen as the programming effort is significant and I don’t want to spend a heap of time working on things that people don’t want to do! I am trying to set this second phase up as a ‘scaled’ approach which would enable people to maintain a linear progression OR move towards more supportive movements depending on where they are at with their training.
Not only am I a bad tipster – this week one of the selections I got RIGHT still cost me. The Dogs losing to the Cats (as I predicted) not only left me disappointed, but out a couple of Lotto tickets to gym going Geelong supporters. It hardly seems fair!
In other tipping news (is there other tipping news?), this week saw an amazing TEN contestants select 8/9 winners – including Paul O’Connor who has now taken over top spot on the tipping ladder by 1 point from both Chris Peclaris and Shelby. It is tight behind them with anywhere up to 8-10 tipsters still in with a chance of taking it out.
Some massive scores in Dream Team this week as everyone gets their teams set for the finals which are now less than one month away. Rocco (Rocco’s Ropes) notched the high-score of the weekend with 2386. If that isn’t the highest score in the history of the Round 1 Dream Team contest it is definitely in the top couple – well done. Several other teams also topped 2200 points which is amazing – Ash B (NeverNeverLand) and Justin V (Juddy’s Allstars) hit 2256 and 2274 respectively, whilst Lloyd (GymGods) just missed out with 2175. Good luck next week everyone.
Nathan Grima (North Melbourne Footy Club) announces his retirement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YN3zjcWbBc (language warning).
I like it when he says ‘If you are playing reserves, you might want to ask yourself why’. For those of you in the gym, if you aren’t getting the results and progress you would like the reason is often staring straight back at you from the bathroom mirror every morning.
We know this can be a daunting time. You’re probably wondering if we really are the right fit for each other. And it’s OK! Many people before you, have felt the same, and that’s why we want to offer you something special – our $29 Health Check.
Let’s work out together to see if we’re the right fit. Just hit the button below to let me know if you’re ready to see what’s included.
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