Hi and welcome to another week,

Great sessions last week.  I loved having the ski-ergs in the classes and as someone who is trying to ‘UP’ their conditioning at the moment they are just so great for me.  Really hope you guys feel the same way and that we are all looking forward to a summer with arms and back muscles that seem to be exploding out of our skins…or that is the dream right!

I have been lucky enough to spend a heap of time with people participating in our latest ‘The One’ challenge over the past week or so and can report on one resounding theme…”I’m SORE”.  Well, this is sort of going to happen when you break out of your ‘normal’ routine and focus in on some unfamiliar exercises in order to build on an area of weakness…in fact, I could almost say that if you aren’t sore you aren’t doing it right (‘cos I am really bloody sore!).  And I guess I feel like I pretty much live my life ‘sore’ – one part of me or another seems to be constantly ‘hurting’ – so when people ‘complain’ about being ‘sore’ or ‘feeling tired’ I can all at once both empathise and have NO IDEA what they are talking about (I mean, isn’t that just the way all of us feel all of the time!).

So when I dig a little bit deeper I started to work out that no-one is really complaining about being sore – what they are saying is that they would like a way to not feel so sore in between work-outs.  Which I guess means they are complaining about being sore but not really – they just want some magic potion or powder or process that will stop them feeling so sore between work-outs.  (And if that could be sold in a single serve, low cost package with another powder that makes their muscles grow and body fat drop at the same time, well, that would be even more awesome).  In other words, they want a way to ‘recover’ better, faster and want to go from work-out to work-out without having to endure that ‘how exactly am I gonna get up those stairs’ feeling.

Let me start my ‘recovery’ response by saying that if you want to hear about how you should do a bit more foam rolling, stretching and all of that well, you are probably looking for advice from the wrong trainer.  I guess I was born before all of that ‘stuff’ became a thing so whilst you will often see Lloyd, Kirei, Eden, Elie and Sarah laying about on foam rollers, massage balls and with power bands attached to various parts of their body, you will probably not see me doing that ‘stuff’ too often…my recover message is that you need to move (to recover from heavy squats, you go for a walk/light jog and do air squats and walking lunges) but I understand that this is not the modern way of doing things.  When I need to ‘recover’ I usually put on my hand wraps and gloves and do a boxing class really, really badly.  But I will admit that there is lots of info out there in the industry about what you should be doing to ‘recover’ and when you start going through it you can very quickly become confused about what is important and what the focus should be.  And as for what has been ‘scientifically’ proven to help?  Well, you can find articles espousing foam rolling, ice baths, active stretching, static stretching, etc…and a heap of articles saying lots of those things have little or no impact.

So…if you are ‘sore’, what do you do??  Well, first off you need to understand (and accept) that if you are going to train for the long term then there are going to be quite a few days when your body doesn’t feel all that great.  There are going to be days when various muscles are sore and sometimes you wont exactly be able to figure out exactly what you might have done to cause that soreness.  And you need to understand that it is normal and OK…and it is OK to train even when you are sore (but NOT OK to ‘hammer’ those sore spots with high volume).  If you are like most people I would say no matter if you have been going to the gym for 2-weeks, 2-months or 2-years that if you work hard you will never ever reach a point where you don’t have days when you wake up sore.  But the difference between 2-weeks and 2-years of training is that after 2-years you cease being ‘surprised’ by the way your body feels and in many cases you look forward to that ‘good sore’ feeling which is a nice reminder of how hard you have been working.  I guess this means that part of your growth as a ‘gym person’ is that understanding that being fit and strong takes a lot of commitment and part of that commitment is an understanding that there will be days when your body feels ‘less than zero’.

Great work to everyone who is getting through the challenge – great work for getting out of your comfort zone and really challenging yourself to improve your weaknesses.  If you are feeling sore (and a little bit sorry) after your workouts, please remember that as your body gets more ‘used’ to the new training exercises you are doing, you WILL feel better…but of course by then you will be onto a new regime focussing on the the next ‘weakness’ you have identified…and will be dealing with the next lot of ‘soreness’ and sore spots!

Ultimately, you have got to stress to progress.  Ice baths if they work for you.  Rolling out if it works for you.  Stretching if it works for.  Or if you are like me get back on the horse and get moving all over again.  But if you are looking to train and continually improve yourself, you are going to continually suffer through sore spots…wear them like a badge of honour!

See you in the gym,

Michael.

Gym Update #1 – Price Changes, July 2016 

So – we have some price increases coming in July.  Before you read on, I just want everyone to understand that whilst our prices are increasing, if you are already a member at Round 1 you will NOT be impacted.  This means that even if your current contract expires, you will be able to continue training with us at the same rate you have always been on – as long as you renew your membership within one-week of it expiring…if you leave for 6-months then come back again, all bets are off.  I hope that all makes sense – prices are changing in July but current clients will NOT be impacted even if their contracts expire.

That said, the price changes we have coming are the most significant ones since we have opened the gym.  I guess the reality is that times are challenging for everyone and we have found that the costs that are creeping up all around us are having a significant impact on us – during the 7 months that ended 2015/started 2016 we actually managed to have red ink on the balance sheet in FIVE of those months…it has certainly been a challenging time for us as a gym as we try to invest in new equipment and infrastructure AND still keep our heads above water.

SO – our plan is to do everything we can to invest in the clients who have be supporting us for so long by maintaining their current membership rates but prices for new clients will be increasing as of July 1^st…I guess the message here is if you are a casual user, 10-pass holder who have friends in the same boat and you WANT to access the current membership rates, please commit to the gym BEFORE the price change occurs.

Gym Update #2 – ‘THE ONE’ Challenge, June 2016           

Great to catch up with so many challenge people over the last couple of weeks to talk about their training challenges, food challenges and everything else that is going on…I have to admit to finding this challenge a lot tougher than I had thought it would be – both from a food and a training perspective.  I really had forgotten how tough it was to eliminate added sugars and sweeteners from my diet was (and how many of my nasty food habits involve things with added sugar).  As for the training, it is my own fault for saying that I wanted to improve my conditioning but slogging through some of the workouts that Eden has set me has been ZERO fun.  Absolutely ZERO.

So – with three weeks to go it really is the time to refocus and recommit to not just getting to the end – but getting to the end in style.  If you are on a strength based program, really push those weights – if you are on a cardio based plan, really push the speed.  Let’s all try and maximise the outcome within the month so that we look back on our efforts/results with real pride rather than thinking that we could have/should have and WISH we had done a little bit more.

Gym Update #3 – Staff availability and PT

Just a little bit of an update on personal training, staff hours and how all of that is working.  Each of the trainers has a ‘set’ series of shifts that they work in the gym – their ‘full-time’ hours if you like.  Now – whilst they have the flexibility to do PT sessions outside of their scheduled shifts and some will choose to do this – I don’t put them under any pressure at all to work even one minute outside of their rostered hours.

The reason for this is that if you are in doing PT at 6pm at night – yet you had been working a gym shift from 5am-1pm earlier that day – you are probably going to be feeling a little less than ‘fresh as a daisy’ and this has the potential to impact on the session.  Likewise, if you are in doing PT at 6am on a day when you are working until 9pm when you are running those late classes your level of enthusiasm might be a little lower than it would usually be/should usually be.

So please be respectful of the guys and their hours when you are looking to do PT – I have tried to make this a little easier by recording their set hours on the little white boards in the gym reception area.  This doesn’t mean the guys DON’T want to do PT outside of their shifts…just that they are already spending 40hours a week here (+ the time that they are here training) and please understand if they want to schedule you at a time they are ‘on shift’.

Gym Update #4 – Ski Ergs Update

Well, the ski-ergs have been up and running for a couple of weeks now and I think everyone can agree that they are going to be a massive boost to the gym – they are a tough workout and just gives us another mechanism with which to challenge everyone to get stronger and fitter.

We have been using them in classes for a little over a week now but if you are still unsure what to do?  Remember that our ‘How To’ video is up on YouTube.

Gym Update #5 – Hoodies and Attire

There are still a few hoodies left on the shelves and I have made some tentative enquiries about stocking some more.  The likelihood is that the next ‘lot’ will jump up from $45 to $60 each.  That doesn’t sound fair/right I hear everyone say, but the reality is that the hoodies actually cost us (base) $40 each to get in…and when you deduct the $4.50 GST off the sale price of each one it gives us a grand total of 50cents profit per unit…then you take into account the impact of our rewards program and it is quite easy to see how challenging it is to provide products to you guys.

If our next order is LESS than 100 units (which is what our first order was) then our base cost goes up even further…hence my reluctance when people have been asking for ‘more’ to get any more in.  It is a bit of a catch-22 in a lot of ways because we definitely want to provide you guys with an awesome range of products but when the cost is puts us at risk of being unable to pay the rent….

If you are still keen on a hoody, please let me know (I know a few people already have) and I will firm up the quotes and look to restock.

Footy Tips and DreamTeam

Well, as I write this there are still a couple of games to go…so updates will be made to this over the past couple of days.

Link of the week

Really enjoyed this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCEheg8IoGI

‘I have gotta face my fears!’.  LOL.  Reminds me of standing at the start of a 400m race…you aren’t scared of losing, you are scared because you know how much it is going to hurt!