Hi and welcome to another week,

Thanks to everyone who supported our sessions in the gym last week.  Very excited to say that we have recorded our busiest ever April on record from an attendance perspective…we actually had more members back in April 2014 and April 2015 but more numbers in the gym this year.  Now whilst that sounds like a terrible business model (more clients, less money!) in many ways it really does represent what we hope to achieve with Round 1 – clients who actually USE the gym and improving their health/fitness because of it.

Today’s spiel is all about today’s Round 1 Showdown event – our first ever in-house fitness competition.  We appreciate the understanding everyone showed us with a couple of regular Sunday classes being canned to enable the event to proceed – we hate cancelling classes (and did put on an extra one at 7:15am to try and lessen the blow!) but if we want to try and do some of this ‘different’ stuff we are slowly coming to the realisation that every now and then we might have to do it (cancel a class or two).  Rest assured it wont be every week – or even every month – but for us to effectively run special events such as today’s ‘Showdown’ and even the summer-time beach workouts, we might need to drop a session or two to make sure those events run as well as they possibly can.  Remember, to stay informed about events at the gym, check your emails (though I try not to SPAM you I always send out details about timetable changes!) or just LIKE and FOLLOW our Facebook group…

Anyway – onto the showdown and what a great day it was for everyone – competitors and spectators. The atmosphere, the athlete’s energy and spectators support was unbelievable – it was really quite inspiring to see so many people cheering on not just one athlete, but everyone…not a single person missed a rep due to lack of support from the crowd, that is for sure. The event itself kicked off at 10am and we had 35 athletes competed against each other in 4 different workouts. The workouts consisted of exercises that all Round 1 members will be familiar with – there were mini-sleds, burpees, assault bikes, wall balls, rowers, kettlebell thrusters, pushups, bin runs – a bit of everything really to try and make it as ‘fair’ as possible for every competitor.  After every workout was complete, we awarded points to each competitor based on where they finished in the field (100 for first, 90 for second, etc) and when the day was done this is how the two leaderboards looked:

The Girls:

3^rd Lauren Miller (310 Points)

2^nd Diane Price (340 Points)

1^st Sheena Bidois (360 Points)

Guys:

3^rd Cameron Gessner  (315 Points)

2^nd Marvin Dressels (335 Points)

1^st Mark Weber (360 Points)

 Whilst all congratulations (of course) go to the winners, it is important to remember that the idea behind the ‘Showdown’ wasn’t so we could out who ‘the fittest’ guy/girl in the gym is, but rather to help people push themselves just a little bit further than they normally would in a class – to get them to understand just how hard they CAN go and maybe inspire them to find that level during their ‘normal’ gym routine.  Then of course, the increased effort and intensity they are able to reach will (undoubtedly) help push everyone around them just a little bit further.  The showdown was made to not so you could beat the person next to you but so that you could test your own limits. We figured doing this in your regular gym environment – surrounded by your friends – would be the best environment to do this and hence the Showdown was born!

Many thanks need to be given for the success of the day.  To the athletes first you guys were all amazing and again left all of us who work at the gym looking on in amazement.  Some of the efforts we saw today – particularly to just ‘keep going’ after you were completely spent – really were incredible.  We have acknowledged the winners above, but a few other people also caught our attention at different times throughout the day:

Boris Pacey- Boris was our most seasoned veteran but didn’t let that get in his way and put in 100% the whole day. It was really great to see him out there fighting on and a top 10 finish in workout 2 was a great reward for effort.

Jem Williamson- Another athlete who put in 100% especially in workout 3 where she hammered out 61 calories on the assault bike placing her 1^st overall in that workout.

Aaron Thomas- Even though the going got tough for Aaron during the first workout, he still managed to push through and had completed as many reps as possible until the last second every time. Hats off to Aaron for the persistence and resilience he showed during workout 3 when he looked completely ‘done’ but somehow still got himself on the assault bike and cranked out a few calories in each of the three sets.

Amy Barlow – Amy was inspiring to watch throughout the day – just head down, working hard – and got a great reward for effort in the last workout when she put the after-burners on and won her heat.  Rest assured I will be looking for some faster than normal burpees during her regular 7am boxing sessions!

To our helpers on the day, thanks to:

Josip Smolic for being our ‘6^th’ judge and making sure everyone’s times/reps were faithfully recorded – we couldn’t have done it without you mate.

Leigh Moore (apron and all!) and Ben Visser for manning the bbq and making sure that everyone had enough to eat in between workouts.  They did a great job and the sausage sizzle was amazing!

Claire Zappa for getting along and taking everyone’s photo throughout the whole day – Claire also organised the microphone and the coffee truck to come down.

To the Round 1 team, special thanks to Sarah for going above and beyond and organising all of the athletes showbags (how cool were they!) and the prize packs.  Thanks to Elie for ‘running point’ as organiser/manager of the day and of course to Kirei, Eden, Lloyd and Clancy who all gave up their Sunday’s to judge the competition and make sure it all ran as smoothly as possible.

When’s the next one?  Well – who knows.  If you enjoyed the day – we would love to hear about it.  If you hated it, likewise.  Either email us (info@round1fitness.com.au) or simply post your feedback to our Facebook group…

See you in the gym,

Michael.

Gym Update #1 – Elevator Challenge

The Elevator Challenge is now OVER – and congratulations to everyone (especially ME) who finished it.  For anyone and everyone who lived through it, I think we can all agree that the last week was a massive challenge – it actually got to the point where I was staring at the assault bike WAY more concerned about my 60 calorie effort than I was about the idea of completing a 45 minute boxing class.  Part of me keeps saying ‘maybe you should go as hard in the boxing class as you do on the bike’ but I keep telling that part of me to ‘be quiet’.

I loved this challenge – thought it was more than achievable whilst also enforcing a higher level of commitment than I would ‘usually’ adhere too…and like I said, those 60x calorie bike efforts were something else again and I just have to be fitter simply for living through them.

Stay ready for our next challenge ‘The ONE’ which is coming in June.  This is all about improving ONE part of your training and ONE part of your diet for 30 days…it looks pretty cool!

Gym Update #2 – Medium Gloves and Backpacks

Medium gloves are here, new back packs are here…everything is here.  If we owe you stuff, please let us know next time you are in the gym.

Gym Update #3 – Ski Ergs

The Ski-Ergs are ‘sorta’ on the way.  There is a bit of a back log of orders on these and it is looking like another month from now until they are in the gym and installed…I am sure once we get them I will be wishing that we never did…in the meantime, I just wish they had already arrived!

Gym Update #4 – New 5kg Plates

Power rack/Body Work/Tanks people will know by now there are a heap of new 5kg bumper plates in the gym.  Remember please that the 5kg plates are NOT designed to be dropped (for that matter, please don’t drop the bigger plates from shoulder height or above) so PLEASE look after them.  Whilst I am happy to spend the money on equipment, I would really prefer to get $1000 worth of NEW and COOL and EXCITING stuff rather than just replacing gear that has been broken through mis-use.  Respect the gear everyone!

Footy Tips and DreamTeam

An up and down week in Dream Team – there were no really ‘high’ scores (and no really low ones either – except for me of course!) and a whole heap of close games (again, except my one of course where I went down in flames!).  Special congratulations go to Brett and Lloyd who broke the 2100 point barrier for the week…not the greatest score I guess but given results of the weekend (in our league at least), pretty solid efforts!

Over in the tipping contest, Jo Brown and Matt Foti both led the way this week with 8 winners – Jo missed out on Port Adelaide (lord only knows why she tipped the Tigers!) and Matt picked Melbourne to beat the Saints.  Our overall leader is still Christine Rafferty who is holding a 1-point lead over Dani Elsum on 40 points.

Link of the week

Here is a cool little story from Sarah Fragoso covering ‘ALL’ the things she learned during her 30’s.  A lot of this doesn’t mean much to me (I am a boy and I have zero tattoos) but a lot did…

http://sarahfragoso.com/39-things-learned-30s/