Hi and welcome to another week,
Right. So hopefully (for my sake) what has felt like a week long ‘cardio beat-down’ in the gym is over! I am sure it hasn’t really been that bad but from where I have been positioned – which feels like it has permanently been on the seat of an assault bike or half-way through a bin run! – it has been all cardio all the time since Thursday. I will admit – some of it has been my own fault (well, Thursday was Chris King’s fault but I did ‘choose’ to join in) but Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Well, at least half of that cardio in each of those sessions just felt kind of ‘UNECESARRY’! I guess what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger/better/etc right? Anyway, I did managed to get a class done every day last week (Monday to Sunday) as well as doing a little bit of extra work on my boxing, got through this new ‘metabolic circuit’ extended thing I have been working on twice (it is coming soon TANKS people!) and did all my challenge extras. So feeling proud and happy with myself right now. All I have to do this week is do it all over again!
On to the blog – which I have tried to tie in to my little rant above in some small way. I wanted to write this week about how the best way to get better is just to be persistent and keep going. And I wanted to come up with a new way to talk about that rather than the clichéd gym membership sales guidebook where people are asked if they want ‘3-month results or 12-month results’ – a question I hope no-one is EVER asked at Round 1.
So lately I have been reading a pretty cool book called ‘Art and Fear’ by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Now the book is all about creating art – how it is created and equally how it is not created. Whilst this might seem like a bit of a strange choice of book for me firstly, I like to read all sorts of stuff and secondly, well – the idea that someone has tried to figure out what is driving/enabling ordinary people to ‘create art’ (paint, sculp, compose, whatever) is interesting to me. Anyway, enough of the background and self-justification and on to the story that I wanted to get too. In the book, there is a great anecdote about an art teacher who decides to divide the class into two halves at the start of the term. When the group is split up, one group of students are told their entire grade will be dependent on HOW MUCH they produce. Quality be damned, on the last day of term they will present their work to be ‘weighed’ and grades will be awarded according to weight (they were to produce pottery). The other group of students (of course) were told that it didn’t matter how much work they did – they would be graded on one thing only – quality. At the end of term, submit their ‘BEST’ piece and it will be graded according to the quality of the work. So a pretty simple scenario for both groups.
When the end of term came and marks were awarded – and I am sure you can all figure out where this is going – the results were very clear. When it came to assessing the overall QUALITY of the work, the highest QUALITY pots were produced by the group that was told they would be assessed only based on the QUANTITY of work which they produced. The reason of course is simple when you think about it – in an effort to get a good mark, those students had to do a lot of work – all of which contributed to them becoming BETTER at doing it…which led to better outcomes. The ‘quality’ group? Well, they did lots of planning and procrastinating and not a lot of actual ‘practising’ – therefore the final outcomes they achieved were not to the standards achieved by those who just got in and (literally in this case) got their hands dirty!
The same applies to your training. If you want to get better, don’t think about it – just do it. Find a way, get to the gym and get it done. As for your food and diet stuff (like the challenge at the moment), if you want great results, don’t think about and plan WHEN you are going to start. Just start. And show up each day (either in the gym or in your own kitchen) and get the ‘work’ done whether you feel like it or not. Just show up and do it. Have a quantity focus – and the results will come. Now – this doesn’t mean (of course it doesn’t) showing up and putting in a lousy effort with poor technique and things will just ‘turn out’ – you do have to give it a go, listen to the coaches cues etc when it comes to the ‘how’ – but as Shaun Millar said in his member profile a few months back, his own journey and improvement has been fuelled by taking on a ‘keep turning up’ approach…and (if you ask me anyway), the outcomes he has been able to achieve are remarkable and most definitely worthy of being followed.
Anyway, that’s it. Stick at it challenge folks – one week left – and I hope to see everyone in the gym this week!
See you all in the gym.
Michael.
p.s. For all of the info on this weeks Love for Lachie fundraiser, please check out our dedicated blog post here:
https://round1fitness.com.au/love-for-lachie-fundraiser-2016
If you have been paying even a little bit of attention, you would know that this coming Saturday (October 29th) is our ‘Love for Lachie’ fund-raising day. There will be a heap of activities on throughout the week – and especially on the day. Don’t forget, we have our:
– Love for Lachie ‘Bali Holiday Raffle’ – tickets available at reception for $5 each or 3 for $10.
– 2x 1-hour coaching sessions from 10:30am next Saturday with Olympic Gymnast Jen Smith and Crossfit Games athlete Brian – these tix are $50 each and available here: https://www.trybooking.com/232402
– A ‘Lucky Kettlebell’ contest with a $250 prize pack from Black Wolf Kettlebells.
– A ‘Round 1 Cup’ event where the trainers will ‘race’ off – you will be able to back your ‘horse’ and finishing time to win prizes.
– Bring a friend for $5 promotion – bring a non-member along to one of the boxing classes on the day (7:15am, 8:15am or 9:15am) and they can train for just $5 – all of which will be donated to the ‘Love for Lachie’ foundation.
– Lucky door prizes for EACH of the sessions we run on the day – enter for a the cost of a gold coin donation when you get to your session.
– Breakfast burgers available after the early sessions – beers and burgers available after the sessions with Jen and Brian (from 12:30pm).
– Food stalls, vendor stalls and other goodies!
There is a heap more info on the Love for Lachie events here: https://round1fitness.com.au/love-for-lachie-fundraiser-2016.
There will be a BIT of modification to our timetable to support the ‘Love for Lachie’ fundraiser – Tanks will run as normal, as will Boxing at 7:15am, 8:15am and 9:15am. From 10am though, the gym will be ‘handed over’ to ‘Love for Lachie’ events – first off the Round 1 Cup, then the two coaching sessions. Neither Body Work (normally scheduled for 10:15am) or Beginners (11:15am) will be running next Saturday.
We would love to see as many people there as possible so we can raise as much money as possible for the ‘Love for Lachie’ foundation to support research into childhood brain cancer.
Our Halloween party is on NEXT SATURDAY NIGHT from (about) 7pm. So find your ‘scariest’ costume and head along to the gym next Saturday night for a bit of fun and a couple of drinks with all your gym buddies.
I will be cooking up some burgers on the night so don’t worry about bringing any food – but if you are keen to have a drink or two throw them in your esky and bring them along as well…we all had a great night at last years event and it would be great to see a heap of people along next weekend!
Just one-week to go guys – one week to go.
Our challenge in the final week is to stick out our current challenge – No sugar or sweeteners of any kind, eat breakfast every day, no bread or pasta (at all) – and add one more thing: you now must eat FOUR (4) serves of tasty, delicious, healthy vegetables to your diet every single day.
If you aren’t sure what we mean by ‘four serves’ please check out the video explanation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT_GSUiPags
Now – there is also a slight change in the challenges for the final week. The rowing is still ‘in’ but rather than being a 1km row accompanied by some goblet squats, it is a 1km row followed by a farmers carry – half bin run distance (down to number 16 and back). If you have any queries about the challenge, the classes, the food, the extras, well – just ask!
Our new website is officially ‘GO’ – just head to ‘www.round1fitness.com.au’ to check it out. I hope (really hope) that you are all as happy with it as we are. Little things like linking the gallery and photos directly with our InstaGram account are obviously cool (as is the overall update of the sites ‘look and feel’) but the main reason for the change was to support screen resizing in order to make the site compatible with being accessed from mobile devices (phones and tablets) whilst retaining readability.
The old site design has been great for us but 5 years ago our site was accessed from desktops and laptops more than 85% of the time…last month, those same figures were 73% from mobiles! The world has changed and we were lagging behind – hopefully the new site makes accessing all of our content a better experience for everyone!
Really enjoy the footwork explanations that come with these videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQdQBd7nKQ&index=1&list=PLGnxT4gc3iD6GjJlkFKmHX0WtU-dFAmyL
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