Hi and welcome to another week,
Thanks to everyone who has made the time to come into the gym over the past week or so – particularly over this long weekend. We really do appreciate you setting some time aside in your day to come and train with us and we really (really) hope we made it worthwhile for you. Our goal is to provide you with training that is always challenging – but within an environment that is fun and makes you want to come back…we hope you will let us know if/when we are falling short.
Before I start in on the blog this week, I just wanted to quickly mention that the October Challenge is now open for registration and I would love to see everyone giving it a go. I will happily throw out all the old ‘summer is coming’ type lines if you like, but honestly the combination training/food challenges (like this one) really do bring people great results AND help teach them about their food choices. This challenge is a bit unique as well – we are throwing a ‘healthy breakfast’ (don’t stress, we have recipes!) challenge in weeks 2, 3 and 4 AND a ‘healthy sleep’ challenge in there as well…it is going to be amazing. Click on the link here to register!
Why do the challenges we run at the gym work so effectively in terms of helping people meet their fitness and weight loss goals? Well, I guess there are probably all sorts of psychological reasons that when a challenge is on participants train more and watch their food more carefully, but I am going to point at THREE.
ONE: The challenges work because they have a SET START and END.
Basically, if you thought you had to go without sweeteners from here until eternity – or until you lost (insert a number here) ‘X’ kg’s in weight, you would probably fall off the wagon after a few days. But in the challenges, you know a couple of things. Firstly, you know that it isn’t forever – and that you can stick with anything for 30-days. Secondly, you know that you have a couple of “outs” in the form of cheat days…so if you do slip up the situation is not irretrievable.
TWO: The challenges work because you are not just accountable to yourself – but you feel accountable to everyone else who is participating.
Sure, you feel a commitment to get to the gym a few times each week because you want to feel fit and healthy and know that it helps relieve some of the stress in your life. And you know there will be a few people there who you will be more than happy to catch up with and sweat alongside. But during a challenge, those feelings somehow turn from a ‘nice to see’ to a commitment – after all, who are you going to do that challenge circuit alongside? Who are you going to talk too about breakfast ideas? About lunch ideas? About meal prep ideas and, I mean – you’re telling me that there are classes on the weekends? Challenges bring with them COMMITMENT and when you feel committed and engaged you find a way to get it done.
THREE: The challenges work because you have a CLEAR GOAL.
I know, I know. I bang on about ‘what are you training for?’ and having both small (short-term) and bigger (long-term) goals all the time. And I am sure you all think about this from time-to-time and maybe even think that it is a good idea…but it rarely goes past that for most people. But a challenge? Well, that has a CLEAR goal – in this case, 21 classes. And a CLEAR tracking system – and seeing that goal become closer to being realised as every day goes by – is a VERY strong motivator!
In short – the challenges bring great short-term results to everyone who fights there way through from the start to the end. And I guess, the simple truth is – how could it not? You are watching what you eat for ONE MONTH. You are training regularly for ONE MONTH. You are doing a little bit of extra in terms of weight training for ONE MONTH. And if you put your head down and do everything right for ONE MONTH, you are going to see a super positive outcome.
Get into the October Challenge – it starts next Monday, October 5th.
Cheers – See you all in the gym,
Michael.
P.S. The new Hylete gear is in the gym – get excited. It is on the racks and shelves and super awesome!
P.P.S. The Halloween Party I mentioned last week is going to happen. No, I don’t really have any details but rest assured it will be happening on Saturday October 31st…and yes, it will be at night so that is the time to plan for…and yes, there will be prizes for best dressed (individual and couple).
With the weather warming up, just a reminder to make sure you are staying nice and hydrated before/during your sessions. Personally, I like to try sipping on my water from around about 30-minutes before I start training…and I ALWAYS carry my water bottle with me throughout the circuit. For those of you who train without water, well – you are just crazy. You need to be regularly drinking to replace the fluids lost through sweat and enabling your body to keep performing well. If you are dehydrated, you will not be able to work as hard and therefore wont get as much benefit from your training.
If you are one of those people who leave their bottles out the front on the lockers, well – that’s fine…but if this restricts you from being able to regularly grab a drink then that is not a great plan. And if you are regularly running back and forth to your water bottle and missing out on parts of your session, well, that is not a great plan!
Keep your water bottle with you, drink from it regularly, train nice and hard!
I have been asked what seems like one hundred times in the last week ‘what shoes are best to wear in the gym’? The short answer is that I can’t really answer that – what is comfortable for you might not be comfortable for me (and vice versa). Further, for those of you out there with fitted insoles and other podiatric supports, well, you of course need to choose a pair of shoes that will be able to not only comfortably fit your feet – but comfortably fit your feet with the insoles in as well. With all that said, what I have found lately is that getting shoes that have a rubber reinforced toe ‘pouch’ (for want of a better word) just means longer lasting. When you are regularly doing burpees, dragging the sled around etc your shoes just get wrecked – having a rubber casing over your toes really helps here.
I have also found that wearing ‘runners’ in the gym isn’t a great plan. I just find that what offers cushioning when you are running doesn’t help when you are doing squats – or boxing! A nice flat sole that doesn’t compress too much works really well. So for me at the moment that means I am wearing a pair of Converse ‘Chuck Taylors’ which have been working really well. Not the best for running but they cope just fine with the 380m or so that is a ‘bin run’. The Converse cost me $28. I am also trying out a pair of Dunlop Volley’s which (to me) look much the same as the Converse but with a smaller toe-pouch. These cost me $29. I guess what I am trying to point out is that spending a lot of money on expensive running shoes that will be used mostly in the gym doesn’t make a lot of sense…
Really looking forward to the October Challenge. A heap of new ‘Get it Done’ T-shirts have now arrived (and for Malcolm, Nicola and Vanessa P your missing shirts from the last challenge have arrived as well!!!)…and as promised the new shirts are in a beautiful NAVY BLUE colour. So get excitied. As I mentioned last week, a few people have expressed a concern that the challenge will conflict with the AFL Grand Final weekend and that will prevent them from taking part? Don’t STRESS – the challenge starts on the Monday following the GF.
As promised, the videos for the two weekly challenge circuits were published to the YouTube Channel during the week – seems like a lot of fun to me!
Some details of the challenge have been released so far – these include:
– Complete 21x classes within the challenge time-frame (Monday October 5th until Sunday October 31st). Double sessions are permitted.
– As well as having a ‘food restriction’, each week of the challenge will include a food challenge! An example of this is to ‘Eat a healthy, balanced breakfast every day this week’. We have recipes ready to go to help you here that include some portion size guidelines.
– The October challenge will feature our first ever ‘SLEEP CHALLENGE’. Now, we cannot regulate how LONG you sleep for, but the challenge will be a simple one – be in bed with the LIGHTS OUT and TV OFF at least EIGHT (8) hours before your alarm is scheduled to go off….shift-workers might need to have a chat to me on this one!
The challenge forms are ready to go and the registration links will be emailed out during the week ahead.
Keen on the challenge? The registration link is HERE!
We are planning to include a monthly ‘beach workout’ in the planning for this summer – starting in November. I would love some feedback here on what you would like in terms of details (day? Time?) to help in the planning. At this stage we are looking at a Saturday morning around 09:30am …the idea will be just to have a bit of fun and do something a bit different.
Week 5 of the program has been published and should be accessible to all participants. I just want everyone to have a little bit of a technique ‘check point’ this week. Sure – we want to maintain our linear progression, but are our squats deep enough? Are we keeping our legs still when vertical pressing? It is really a matter of just having a bit of a stop and review – after all, there is no point progressing if we are not progressing ‘well’.
We also have a daily conditioning challenge this week – each day features a repeat effort of assault bike – 3x2min efforts – and I am looking forward to seeing how much everyone can improve within the constraints of a single week!
Our hire gloves have arrived in the gym. They are amazing – the quality of these products really does keep getting better and I am so proud of the products we have in the gym at the moment that carry the name ‘Round 1’. I know the new bag mitts don’t impact a lot of blog readers but if you happen to bring a friend along you can be pretty well assured that the gear they will be using is well looked after, good quality and designed for use in our gym.
The gear is here. It is as amazing as I promised it would be. Get excited and get kitted out!
T’s and singlets will be $35, the crops will be $65.
The link of the week is pretty simple – it is a link off to our YouTube Channel where we have posted the first THREE (3) videos of our pull-up series. There are two more to come – one is related to assisted pull-ups (that should happen this week) and the other related to getting started with some kipping pull-ups. If you follow the videos – and are both patient AND persistent – you will be doing unassisted pull-ups sooner rather than later.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk0rPGfBb0Hso5traupLg8w
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