Hi and welcome to another week,

Some awesome sessions in the gym last week and we really appreciate the support everyone showed us.  My favourite classes of the week had to be the Wednesday session (7-minute rounds) and the Tuesday session (3-minute rounds with abs galore).  Overall I found doing the sessions there was a bit of a ‘drop’ in the cardio efforts when compared to the previous week – though interestingly that was not the intention of my programming.  I am having an interesting challenging in structuring the sessions at the moment – attempting to reset the ‘balance’ between power based cardio efforts (eg.  30 x assault bike calories in 2 minutes) and endurance-based cardio efforts (eg.  Maintain speed at + 65rpm on the assault bike for 4x minutes).  I think we have been weighting our plans too heavily in favour of the power elements in our most recent training ‘block’ and need to better balance that out in the current block…I would love to hear everyone’s feedback on this by the way (email to Michael@round1fitness.com.au).

Before heading on to the blog, I did just want to make a few special shout-outs to some members (and a couple of staff) who have been doing some impressive things:

Adam Marsh and Josh Rebola for WINNING the FESTIVUS GAMES up at Box6017/Crossfit Osborne Park on Saturday.  Super impressive guys and a real reward for the incredible effort that you have both been putting in.

Silver medals to Christine Ross-Davies, Eugene Wepa, Hohi Wepa and Taima Komene in the Crossfit Masters League ‘State of Origin’ competition held down at SuperBox Mandurah on Friday night and Saturday.  Whilst the Queenslander’s might have come out on top this time, you guys are truly amazing and again, hard work = results.

To Eden Mayer, Elie Greige, Ash Veletta, Reece Martin, Damien Henson, Lee Wansbrough (and I am sure there were others) who headed out to Crossfit Artax at 2am (yep, 2am) to do their bit as part of a 48-hour assault bike relay to raise money for telethon…awesome commitment by all of you.

OK.  So I have obviously been doing the October Challenge and just wanted to talk this week about a couple of things I have learned.  I guess the first question to ask is why is it that every time that I do a challenge that involves food, I feel like I have to ‘re-learn’ the same lessons?  Anyway, regardless of that ‘FACT’, let me try and describe what has been happening.

My training weeks don’t vary too much.  I pretty much do a class each day from Monday to Friday – generally at either 12pm or 1pm depending on what my day ‘looks like’.  I try to get in one more over the weekend and 2-3 sessions during the week where I lift a few weights.  When I am going well I also get another couple of 20-30minute cardio ‘efforts’ in – though ‘effort’ is a big word to describe what is usually a pretty ‘cruisey’ session on a bike or rower.

My food also doesn’t change too much – and in some ways that is the problem.  Because habits are habits be they bad or good – and some of mine are not all that awesome.  Mostly, I (well, we ‘cos the family are usually at the gym as well) leave the gym at 8pm on Friday night and get takeaway food on the way home.  This usually looks like burgers or Mexican – so it could be worse – but it is oftentimes followed by icecream and accompanied by a drink or two.  Saturday’s also often sees a drink or two and features some ‘snacking’ in the afternoon and things that couldn’t really be described as carrot sticks, whilst Sunday will see another couple of drinks, some more snacking and maybe some more ice-cream.

None of this seems too bad in isolation – until you start doing a challenge when you only get two (2) days in the month where you can break ‘The Rules’ which is when you start to have a real think about exactly what has been going on.  Now I am not trying to say my eating is terrible or that my drinking is out of control – that isn’t the case.  I still have a jumbo sized easter egg and a bottle of vodka that I received as gifts earlier in the year sitting on my bedside table adorned with ribbons so I do so ‘some’ restraint, but I guess what the challenges always make me realise is exactly how much of a gap there is between what I am doing when I am at my ‘BEST’ and what I am doing from week-to-week.

Now, are my week to week habits ‘terrible’?  Well, I don’t really think so – but that in itself is the problem I guess.  What I have realised this week is that my ‘food’ habit have been steadily creeping up on me over the past 6-months or so (probably since the February 28-days Later challenge in all honesty) and I have been repeatedly justifying my own patterns of behaviour – in effect, telling myself that what I am doing is ‘fine’ and ‘not a problem’.  Which of course means that I am unlikely to ever acknowledge that I need to make any changes.  Which means that I probably wont ever make any changes – until something like the October Challenge comes along and gets me to re-focus.

I guess in so many ways it is easier for all of us to justify our own decisions as ‘GOOD’ or at the very least, as ‘OK’.  You know the whole “I only had one glass of wine” type justification that comes after a “long, stressful day”.  The problem is of course that un-checked we all pretty quickly get to the point where the “glass of wine” is a nightly occurrence and we can’t understand why all the training we are doing in the gym isn’t “getting me anywhere”.

Anyway – no more self justification for me.  This challenge has at the very least guided me back onto the tracks – I guess the question (as always) will be whether or not I can stay on them after it is all over in a couple of weeks?

See you all in the gym.

Michael.

Gym Update #1 – Round 1 Spring Special

We have a pretty cool membership special starting this week – if you join Round 1 from tomorrow (Monday October 17^th) until next Sunday (Sunday October 23^rd) you will receive:

–       Free Round 1 Fitness Duffle Bag

–       Free Round 1 Fitness Bag Mitts

–       Free Round 1 Fitness Hand Wraps

Not only do you get all of that free stuff (more than $70 worth) of value, but we will also WAIVE your joining fee ($50 for new direct debit clients) AND throw in a free ‘GET STARTED’ Body Scan (another $25 worth).  All up, you will save $145 just by joining the gym next week.

This offer is available with ANY of our standard membership packages next week – up-front or direct debit contracts…

Gym Update #2 – New Website is ‘GO’

Gym Update #3 – Love For Lachie Fundraising Day

What are we raising money for?

The gym will be hosting a Love for Lachie charity day on Saturday the 29th of October with all proceeds going to children’s brain cancer research.  Our member Rossy (who I think most of you would know or at least recognize!) is of organising the event as she is involved with running the “Love for Lachie Foundation”.  The foundation was set up in honor of her close friend Lachie Muldoon who passed away from Brain Cancer last October – at just 10yrs of age. Brain cancer is the number 1 killer of Australian children and receives less than 1% of all government cancer funding so their mission is to raise funds to support research, the cure is just dollars away.

What is the event?

On October 29^th, we will have a ‘modified’ program in the gym with ‘normal’ classes running at 7:15am/8:15am and 9:15am.  After that, we wont be running any more ‘Round 1’ classes and instead have a coaching clinic being run from 10:30am until 12:30pm.   The clinic will be run by two (2) guest coaches – Olympic Gymnast Jen Smith and CrossFIt games athlete Brian Beck.  These clinics have been designed to offer something for everyone for those of you who are keen to develop their gymnastic skills ie: pull ups, muscle ups, hand stands and also a lifting session focused on some lifting technique and a couple of workouts one of which will be a WORKOUT FOR LACHIE designed as a tribute to him.

How much does it cost?

You can buy tickets for the guest coaching clinic at the following link https://www.trybooking.com/232402

There will be food stalls running all day starting with brekky from 7am, naughty and nice treat stalls so we will really see if the Round 1’ers are naughty or nice the sales on the day will tell all! Also following the special coaching clinic there will be a carpark recovery lunch available for those wanting to refuel with a gourmet burger and a few beers / wines for sale too.

BRING A FRIEND FOR FIVE

On Love for Lachie Day you can bring a friend, family member, work colleague anyone for a $5 donation to Love for Lachie so come along and bring a training buddy to any of the 7.15am, 8.15am and 9.15am boxing classes – they can train for just $5 and all of that money will be donated directly to the ‘Love for Lachie Foundation’.

What else?  Well,  a holiday to BALI is up for grabs!!!!!

Throughout the morning sessions we will be running some raffles, games and challenges and have some awesome prizes up for grabs including : Kettlebell and merchandise pack from Black Wolf Kettlebells, Nimble Activewear $100 and $150 vouchers, The Quarrie Bar and Bistro $100 voucher, RXD Unbroken recovery pack, 4 x double passes for stand up paddle lessons from Stand Up Surf North Fremantle. We also have a major prize which is a Bali Holiday including 5 nights deluxe accommodation and a $250 travel voucher from Attadale Travel, tickets for the Bali raffle will go on sale the week before the event so bring a few dollars to the gym with you to get on to that great prize too!

Two weeks down and all is….WELL???  At least I hope it is.  Our training efforts are just about to start amping up – we are now up to FOUR (4) classes per week AND FOUR (4) challenges per week for each of the next two weeks.  Our food is also about to get a bit ‘tougher’ with no bread or pasta allowed in our diets for the next couple of weeks.

Now – I am not totally against people eating bread and pasta (despite popular perception).  But I am about everyone ‘earning’ their carbs and too often our diets can consist of a carb content that far exceeds our daily requirements based on our activity levels.  Don’t get me wrong – I understand that pasta is both super delicious AND a very convenient, family friendly dinner option – and once upon a time Vanessa and I would have been eating it at home at least twice each week.  What I have learned though is that if I do that I have a really (really) hard time maintaining my body fat % at a level I am happy with…and if I can keep my body fat % low(ish) then everything I need to do in my life is just that much easier…plus I am getting old now and carrying around extra weight is just not fun.  So these days, I get my carbs from veggies – primarily leafy greens with a little bit of sweet potato thrown in a couple of times each week – and my body finds that is more than enough to fuel my lifestyle/training routine.

Bread is something else I am happy enough with everyone eating – but again, as a ‘pure’ carb source for most people it is just unnecessary.  Rather than having a couple of chicken and salad sandwiches or a tuna and salad roll or whatever, change it up – just have the chicken and salad…and really ‘crank up’ the quantity of salad you need to eat.

Just really give it a go guys – you might find yourself feeling a bit ‘flat’ for a few days but your body will quickly adapt and you will feel better for it.

Gym Update #5 – Food Matters is GO

The Food Matters program is ‘GO’ and consists of 4x 1-on-1 consultations over a 2-month period.  There will be a one-hour kick-off session then 30-minute follow-up meetings every 2-weeks thereafter.  The cost of all these sessions – and the before and after body scans AND the program hand-book – is all included in the program price of $200 (do the sums…this is a pretty good value package!).

We have sent out invitations to the first group of TEN (10) registered people asking them if they would like to participate – please let us know ASAP if you want to take up the offer of a place in the program OR if you would rather ‘WAIT’ and do it later or ‘WITHDRAW’ from the waiting list altogether!  There is a big group of people keen to participate so whilst this might all sound a bit ‘abrupt’ the idea is that we want to get started helping people who are in a position to be ‘helped’ as soon as possible!

If you are interested in ‘Food Matters’ and haven’t told us about it yet, please register your interest in the program via email to info@round1fitness.com.au.

Link of the Week