Hi and welcome to another week,

Thanks to everyone who came to support us at Round 1 over the past week.  My obliques are burning from those tea-pots, my legs are sore from whoever knows what and it has just been a great week of classes.  I am really looking forwards to this week – tomorrow (Monday) is the first (week) day in nearly 4-weeks when we have run a 7-minute rounds session so I am hoping that you all get along to the gym for that…and (of course), that everyone comes to the gym at 6:45pm for the sports taping workshop with the team from Aubin Grove Physio.

Before I start on the blog this week, I would love for you to click on the link below and spend 90seconds watching the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilSVFecILb4

The commentator says “Burrell wins it” – but that isn’t true of course.  Carl Lewis appears to run through the middle of the field and wins the gold medal in (then) world record time.  When I say ‘appears’, I mean, that is (obviously) what happens.  Lewis doesn’t get the greatest start but because he is ‘the fastest’ he picks up speed and runs past everyone and wins.  One reason this race became so renowned is that if you listen to the audio, the commentator didn’t even mention Lewis until after the race had finished.  Famously, Bruce McAvaney (who was commentating for Australian TV) used the phrase “Lewis can’t win” in his commentary as the athletes went past about the 20m mark.  But because he was ‘the fastest’ he just ran past everyone, broke the world record and won the race!

The reality (of course) is somewhat different.  Runners actually reach their top speed at about the 50m-60m mark.  From that point forwards, they are actually “DECELERATING” (umm – yep – they are running flat out of course but are slowing down because they are fatigued)…and the person who seems to be running the ‘fastest’ is actually the one who is ‘slowing down the slowest’.  In the video you watched, Carl Lewis wasn’t speeding up and running past everyone.  He was just slowing down at a slower rate than everyone else in the race.  Does that kind of make sense?  Simply by doing a better job of just ‘holding on’ he was able to move through the field.

Soooooo.  Where exactly am I going with this?  Well, what we see at the gym all the time – and I guess it is true of many gyms but this is the first one I have ever had – is that so many people just get a FLYING START out of the blocks.  For the first couple of months after they start, they are all in (much like the runners when the gun goes off in the 100m).  And – as is natural – after a time their initial burst of energy begins to tail off a little bit, they find life gets in the way (as it does for everyone), maybe the strength isn’t going up/weight isn’t falling off as fast as they had hoped – and they start to fall away in both effort and attendance.  The question at that point is – how much?

In the 100m world championship race I linked too above, the winning runner was the one who slowed down the LEAST.  The same is true in the gym.  Everyone starts out like a train – sure, some might sneak ahead a little, some fall behind a little, but most everyone who “starts” gets out of the blocks and moving pretty quickly.  But the ones who end up with the best results are the ones who manage to maintain their efforts over the long haul.

The more I have been thinking about this the more it seems to apply to so many areas of life – how many times is the person who just persists for the longest the one who achieves the best outcome in the end.  There are also one million and one quotes that define the ‘In it for the long haul’ attitude that seems to be the thing that brings the best results (“before you quit, remember why you started”, “one year from now, you will wish you had started today”, “success seems to be a matter of hanging on after others have let go”, “a winner is just a loser who tried one more time”…you guys get the idea) so there simply has to be something to it.

To get the results that you want it is not about being the person who gets off to the ‘best’ start.  No-one knows, cares or remembers who was in front at the 20m mark of that 100m race.  It is about being the person who applies maximal effort for the LONGEST time…that is how you get where you want to go!

Good luck everyone.

See you in the gym,

Michael.

p.s.  A few of us are now sporting dirty great moustaches all in the name of Men’s Health.  If you can spare a couple of bucks for our fundraising, the link to donate is here:  http://moteam.co/round-1-fitness

p.p.s.  The link to the Christmas challenge registration is HERE…keep reading below for more details of course!

Gym Update #1– Aubin Grove Physio Session       

Tomorrow night (yep, Monday November 23^rd) the team from Aubin Grove Physio will be coming to the gym at 6:45pm to present a session on Sports Taping.  They will be going through taping of feet, ankles, knees, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders…and bringing enough tape so that all attendees can have a go doing the strapping for themselves.

This will have a bit of an impact on the gym classes – the 7pm Body Work and B+ classes will NOT RUN and the 8pm boxing session will be delayed by approx. 15 minutes – but will be well worth it…missing one session so that you can get some skills that will last a life-time is well worth it!

Gym Update #2 – Strength Testing Day

As mentioned a little while back, when the current Beach Bodies cycle finishes we will be doing a ‘1-rep max’ testing day in the gym.  This is scheduled for November 29^th (a Sunday) and the plan is to test the maxes as follows:

–       12pm Bench Press

–       12:30pm Squat

–       1pm Overhead Press

–       1:30pm Deadlift

Please be aware – we have COMPRESSED the timetable to try and make it a bit easier for everyone to come and get tested!

For everyone who has jumped into a Body Work class, Tanks class or No Rules class and had ‘no idea’ what to set the barbell at for their strength set, well, this might be the day for you.  If I am super motivated we might even cook a few burgers throughout the day!

If you are interested in testing, please let me know by return mail to info@round1fitness.com.au.  You could also register online HERE – now that link will tell you registration is $10 (it is free if you do it via email or at reception) but because I cannot create a ‘No Cost’ registration link (the software doesn’t support it) I made it $10 and will give you a set of R1F Lifting Gloves (usual cost = $25) for your trouble.  The day itself should be a lot of fun…it isn’t about setting records, more about spending some time in a pretty supportive environment at the gym and enjoying the chance to see what your training has made you capable of.

In addition to the testing listed above, we will also be giving people the chance to test their 500m row AND their 30calorie assault bike throughout the day.

Gym Update #3– 12 Days of Christmas

The latest 12-days of Christmas Challenge is Ready to GO!  Register online HERE or at reception next time you are in…cost to participate in the challenge is $10.

The requirements for this challenge are SUPER simple.

1/.Complete 12x classes.  The class load is always ‘LIGHT’ for the 12-days of Christmas Challenge to acknowledge all of the social activities that sabotage our training time each December.

2/.Complete the 12-days of Christmas challenge circuit TWELVE times.  Details of the circuit can be found on the Challenge forms (you get one after you register) and there is also an explanation video up on our YouTube channel HERE!

Get involved – use the challenge to keep yourself focussed on your training over the festive season and hold onto those gains you have worked so hard to achieve over the past 12-months.

Gym Update #4– MOVEMBER

There are a heap of people from the gym who have all signed up for the Movember fundraising – so if you see some particularly ‘dirty’ looking moustaches around the place it is not (well, not NECESSARILLY!) a fashion statement but an effort to raise awareness and funds for Mens Health.

If you are interested in donating we would LOVE to have you – the gym’s fundraising site can be found here:

http://moteam.co/round-1-fitness

We will be finishing off our MOVEMBER efforts with a special “MAN’S WORKOUT” in the usual Body Work timeslot on Saturday, November 28^th (that’s this weekend!!!)  I actually have no idea what we will be doing in this workout but I envisage us coming up with as many ‘manly’ activities as we can…perhaps dis-assembling a carburettor followed by using a remote control to change all of the tv channels to different games of football.  Or something.

Gym Update #4 – Beach Training and Christmas BBQ

Here we go – Beach Training day number ONE will be on Sunday December 7th and will kick off at 09:30am.  Our plan is to spend 60-minutes or so doing a beach workout and then follow-up with a bbq and a bit of a get together from 11am.  We will be meeting down at C.Y. O’Connor beach (there is a grassed area where the kids can play plus a couple of bbq’s)…save the date, get along and lets have some fun in the workout then spend a bit of time enjoying one another’s company.

Gym Update #5 – Beach Bodies#2 – Week 13 is up

Week 13 is our testing week – each day you will be testing to find your current 1/3/5 rep max (or max rep number) depending on the exercises…there is quite a lot to get through but stick at it – having finished the 13-weeks it will be amazing to see some of the progress that has been made.

Remain consistent in your training – get the sets done – and let’s all be ready to set some huge PR’s during Week 13.

Link of the week

Chris Kelly from ‘Nourish, Balance, Thrive’ was the guest on PA Radio this week – great podcast about the implications of diet on the way you feel and how you can identify when things “aren’t right” just by making some pretty simple observations about yourself.  As with this podcast every week, it is the personal stories shared by the participants that make it so worthwhile!  Enjoy:  http://powerathletehq.com/2015/11/20/pa-radio-episode-131-chris-kelly/