Hi and welcome to another week,
We are a couple of weeks into the latest challenge and ‘The Grind’ of it all is well and truly underway (for me at least). Somehow, someway I have slogged through eleven (11) classes in 2-weeks and I swear it is starting to get the better of me. I was in to run the TANKS sessions early on Saturday morning and my body just felt a bit sore and broken…demos were a little more than ‘challenging’!
It is funny though. Eleven sessions in 2-weeks is not really any more than I would usually do. And if I was to be honest with myself, I haven’t really been making the effort to get my strength work done as often as I should during those two weeks. I could tell myself that with Lloyd off work due to his knee operation (he is coming along fine by the way) that covering an extra 15- or so hours of ‘gym shift’ which has me running about 12x extra classes each week has me too tired to do my lifting…but I know that is only half the story. What is getting me is ‘The Grind’! Don’t get me wrong – ‘The Grind’ is good…but it can become a real battle – and the battle is in my head and with myself!
So…what is ‘The Grind’? It is that day in, day out, get in the gym and get it done no matter what mentality that we all struggle with at times. It is the training you do when you are sore and tired. It is the training you do when you have other things to do – especially other things you want to do. It is “arriving late at social events, sneaking out of work at lunch-time, getting up super early in the morning all to get your training done” training. It is “lifting weights that you don’t want to lift, throwing punches your don’t want to throw and riding bikes you don’t want to pedal” training. And ‘The Grind’ is what – in the long run – makes the difference between making progress and not. Because if you only ever train when you are feeling a million bucks, you might never, ever do anything again!
When I was making some notes for this blog during the week, I have scrawled down a heap of things about how having a ‘GRIND’ mentality can relate in positive ways to the rest of your life. Being willing to do things that you don’t want to do when you don’t really want to do them is a great trait to have – and can bring with it great opportunities. It means you will always be open to new experiences as they present themselves – that you will be willing just to ‘jump in’ with both feet no matter the circumstances. I guess the way I see it is that ‘The Grind’ is really all about just attacking the day and having a ‘I can do it’ mindset. Having a ‘GRIND’ mentality might be the difference between laying around a hotel pool or exploring a new city when you are on holiday – or making the jump and applying for a new job versus staying in a position where you are unhappy. ‘The GRIND’ is about being brave and pushing ahead no matter what – especially if it makes you feel ‘uncomfortable’.
I talk about my footy life in this blog a little bit and the reason for that is that the level of competition when it comes to professional support is extreme. ‘The GRIND’ applies equally to the goals that they want to achieve (win games, AFL Draft, senior selection, financial rewards) as much as it does to the goals that all of us want to achieve (lose a bit of weight, become healthier/fitter/stronger). So many times I have seen players who everyone ‘tells me’ are destined for success fall short – and so many times I see it happen to players with a lot of talent but who just refuse to ‘Grind’. The same is true in our gym with those people who get where they say they will vs others who fall short.
So – I guess this brings an obvious question. When it comes to aspiring professional athletes – how is it possible that they don’t ‘GRIND’? Does that mean that they don’t train? The answer of course is ‘NO’ – they are always ‘AT TRAINING’. But there is a difference between being there and ‘BEING THERE’. And I think as I keep writing all of you will agree that the same thing happens to each of us as well. What I am talking about are players who only want to do what they want to do at training – if it sounds a bit hard or a bit physical, they find a way to loop around to the back of the group a bit more than they should, they lace and re-lace their boots, they have conversations with the trainer whilst the drill is underway.
What else? Come game day, they want everything on their own terms. They want the build up to start time to be ‘perfect’ and – that doesn’t mean perfect for the team, it means perfect for them. Maybe they want some one-on-one time with a coach, they might need a particular flavour of power-ade, they might NEED to be able to play their favourite song through their head-phones and precisely the same time before the ball is bounced. And if any of those details go awry, well, they start making excuses about their performance on that day before even taking the field. How does that turn out? Well, when they are good, they are very, very good…but when they are bad!
Those who are prepared to ‘Grind’? Well – every day is a new opportunity. Whatever is on the schedule, they are up for it. And they aren’t looking for excuses – ever. They aren’t thinking about ways that they might fail – they are thinking about the things that they WILL DO that will help them succeed! Do they worry that things aren’t perfect? I can only assume so – but front of mind is a “I am here to do this” mentality that sees them ready to take on every challenge.
All of this is why I love-love-love gym challenges. They MAKE me grind. If you asked me what my training week was going to look like right now I would swallow pretty hard and tell you that I WILL be doing a class every day. I WILL. I am going to finish this challenge. I am going to embrace ‘The Grind’.
Good luck,
See you in the gym,
Michael.
p.s. Congratulations to Jonno Kirk who competed in his first CrossFit competition over the weekend – and took out 2nd place. So proud of how hard everyone at our gym is training – they effort put in really shines through every time we step out of the gym and compete.
We will be pushing ahead with BB#2 and it will kick off immediately upon the conclusion of BB#1. The structure of the program will be similar but different – each day will consist of 2x program streams. Stream 1 will be for those people just getting started and will (for example) include a linear progression similar to the one that we followed for nine-weeks in the current program. Stream 2 will be more focussed on the supportive exercises etc that we are all doing now in the ‘back end’ of BB#1.
Other elements of the program – classes, conditioning, stretching and pre-hab – will be largely unchanged.
Costs will be pretty straight-forward:
– $99 for new participants.
– $49 for anyone continuing on the training pathway who participated in BB#1.
As with BB#1, these prices include monthly Body Scans for participants – if you have participated in BB#1, the price you will pay is less than 50% of just getting the four (4) body scans done!
Registration link is below:
https://tms.ezfacility.com/OnlineRegistrations/Register.aspx?CompanyID=1214&GroupID=1369966
We will be receiving our next order of Bag Mitts and MMA gloves sometime in the next few days – they are on the boat! The new MMA glove design (no thumb) really is amazing so if you are a fan of that style of glove, given them a go – we only have red in stock right now (black ones on the way) and at $30 they are available at a really good price. Just on the pricing thing, I would encourage you to have a bit of a look around at pricing for these gloves elsewhere – the prices we offer these leather mma gloves for really is pretty amazing.
Our ever popular bag mitts will be back in stock as well – including some limited edition purple/white and blue/canary yellow colours for all of you Freo and West Coast fans. I have seen the colour mock-ups and they look amazing…excited about them being on the shelves. I tried to get some red-white-blue ones as well for all of us Bulldog supporters however the manufacturer said to me that due to the high demand for those colours they are unavailable.
We are a couple of weeks away from having the first lot of Hylete gear on the shelves. It has been ‘in stock’ for a little while now – we are just playing around with some screen printing to make them a little more ‘Round 1’. As noted last week, when they go up the t’s and singlets will be $35, the crops will be $65.
My comments about pricing last week drew some attention from Hylete HQ – the rrp of the crops is $70….but of course, that is $70 US!
Week 12 is up and we have some cool stuff to do – some more ‘tempo runs’, some box jumps and the usual mix of lifts. Some of the strength changes people have been recording has been nothing short of incredible – more than doubling the weights used for each of the core lifts (Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift and Overhead Press) is not particularly uncommon…
Two weeks to go – stick fat everyone, get to the end and reap the rewards.
On September 19th Corey Gaidzionis is hosting an ‘Adults Only’ Quiz Night to raise funds for his latest ‘Ride to Conquer Cancer’ event. Tix are $25 per person – tables of EIGHT (8) people. The event will be held at the Success Regional Sporting Facility (which is just south of the gym on Hammond Rd) and will kick off from 7pm.
If you are interested in getting a table together/getting along, please contact Corey on ‘conquercancer2015@gmail.com’.
Craig, Shelby and Bryce all picked 9 correct winners this weekend which has made a bit of an impact at the top of the leaderboard. Paul is still in front by 2-points – but Shelby has vaulted up into 2nd spot ahead of Michelle and David. There are only three weeks left and one mis-step could really be the difference between winning and losing.
Some BIG scores this weekend – well done to all of the finalists who showed exactly how/why they made it through to the top 8!
Unfortunately there are winners and losers and Lloyd (Gym Gods) was elimated by Ashley who recorded the weeks highest score. Travis defeated Rocco (by a measly 5 points) in the other elimation final…With Lloyd’s defeat, it will be the first time in 3 years that the team finishing the season in 8th spot doesn’t go on to win the grand final.
In the qualifying finals, the top 2 teams both recorded BIG scores (2300 points +) and went straight through to preliminary final weekend. Both Justin and Dale have very strong sides and will be very hard to beat.
I have linked to this before but since this week is all about ‘The Grind’ I thought I would go there again:
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