Hi and welcome to another week,
It is funny sometimes how the classes that seem the ‘simplest’ when you give them a quick glance turn into some kind of brutality when you are actually doing them. The session last Wednesday (and Thursday as well I guess, but once you realised how many lunges were going to be involved – which happened about 2 minutes into the first round, you quickly knew it was going to be a bad time!) was like that…you read the walls, it all seemed ‘not too bad’, but when you got to the end of the first lap there was only one thought in your mind – “I don’t think I can do that AGAIN”. As I have said time and again when planning sessions and talking about planning sessions and reminding myself what to do when planning sessions, most of the time an overly complicated plan is a BAD plan!
All that said, in the sessions this week I am trying a couple of newish things. I guess this has come from some of my recent injury dramas – I have been having to work around a shoulder injury in classes – and sometimes I find that whilst I am keen to train, I am not keen to do loads of shoulders…and I know that other people have similar issues with knees, elbows etc. Anyway, I am trying out what I am calling a ‘multi-station’ this week when you have a ‘rep’ target, but you can make up the reps however you like from a selection of exercises…now, admittedly this compromises some of the program escalations I am working through, but so do any of the ‘novelty’ style sessions (deck of cards etc) that we throw in every few weeks…anyway, it looks like fun and I am keen to give it a go.
Our next gym challenge – the April ‘ALL CLASS’ challenge – starts next week and you can sign up HERE. Now, since we run challenges every second month, I guess you can assume I am a bit of a believer…this belief comes from three (3) main reasons: Personal Understanding, Being Accountable and having a Performance Focus!
Personal Understanding in the challenges comes through being ‘forced’ to really commit to get your training done/clean up your diet – doing this quickly reveals to you the things you are doing in your life that can be counter-productive to the goals you have for yourself – or rather, the way you want to think of yourself. If you have to find a way to get another session in every week, then something else has to give – and clearly that time cannot be time spent at work or with your family…so you need to take it from some of the ‘other’ stuff you do. Like, maybe watching T.V after dinner, or scrolling through social media or whatever it is that you do that is not helping you achieve the things you say you want to achieve. The challenges really provide a little window (or insight?) to your habits and the way you are doing things and what is important/valuable to you.
I know for me personally I participate in all of the challenges and this one coming up is going to be a cracker – there are a LOT of classes for me to do and between my commitments at Round 1 and coaching a footy side – not to mention family stuff! – well, finding a way to get in 6-sessions every week is not easy. But since I am pretty determined to do it, what I will know at the end of the challenge about the things I have had to ‘give up’ in order to get to the end, well, that insight is going to be invaluable as I try to maintain the momentum through the rest of the year!
Being Accountable is the main reason I hear back from people about why they decided to participate in the challenge. It is no mystery that the busiest month of the year in terms of gym attendance is February – the 28-days Later challenge has the highest participation of any of our challenges and it really does drive people to get into the gym and get their sessions done. When that accountability drops away on March 1st – and this is consistent over each of the past two years – attendance drops by approximately 30 people per day (or around 3 people per class). Getting to the gym and training because you have paid your $10 and ‘NEED’ that signature really is a great motivator for a lot of people – and that accountability really can help you achieve great results in a short time-frame.
Having a performance focus is the last of the benefits. It really is amazing how when you come to the gym 2-3 times per week that you get into a habit of essentially doing the ‘same’ stuff each time you come in. Sure, we change the exercises, but your interpretation doesn’t change and you grab the same barbell/kettlebell, approach the bags/bikes with a similar intent…and a lot of the time the mindset is just to ‘get to the end’. Something happens during a challenge though and it is those extra 2-3 sessions on top of the 2-3 you are already doing. You start to push the limits a bit – you realise that you might be able to lift a heavier bar, so you do – and that becomes the new normal. Your focus changes from ‘getting it done’ to ‘performing better’ and it is the grind of getting those extra sessions done that seems to trigger it. Sure, there will be days when you are just tired and fatigued and the status quo remains, but the challenges really do seem to trigger people to perform and push the limits!
That’s it. I really hope you do join me in doing the All Class challenge…getting 25 classes done and dusted in a month sounds like it should be something I can achieve – I am pretty interested in understanding how that is all going to work out in the end!
See you all in the gym!
Michael.
So we have a heap of new shields and speedballs up – and I think the new speedballs are in the ‘pretty good’ category. I do understand they are not quite as easy to hit ‘fast’ for people out there in the ‘intermediate’ speedball category, but with a bit of practice and concentration you can really get them flying AND to this point none of them have fallen apart! And just on the ‘falling apart’ thing, it is quite clear looking at the damage on some of the speedballs that they have been hit by people wearing rings – if you are boxing with rings on your fingers guys, please cover them up with either handwraps or inner gloves before you hit anything…and yes, that might mean specifically wrapping over the ring!
The last two new style shields will be going up this coming week – Tuesday is my plan.
What else? Well, believe it or, lights are next! If anyone has noticed how ‘dull’ the lighting is in the F2C area, well, I am not sure what is going on with that globe but it has been getting dimmer and dimmer for weeks now. Anyway, I feel like I have spent every dollar I have on some new LED lights to replace ALL of the high-bay lights in the gym today. This SHOULD improve the lighting as well as significantly reduce energy use…which means it is a step in the right direction in terms of lowering our carbon footprint and implementing the changes recommended by the governments Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
Not sure we will ever get all of the recommendations implemented but having the plan is the first step.
So – Registration for the April Challenge – the so called ‘ALL CLASS’ challenge – is now up and available and you can access it from here: ‘Sign-up for the ALL CLASS Challenge’.
It all kicks off on Monday, April 3rd and you will have until April 30th – 28-days – to get your 25-sessions done. There are no ‘EXTRAS’ in this challenge but it will be REAL in every way – getting 25 classes done in a single month is going to be TOUGH. As I have been saying over the past couple of weeks, this is truly a THROWBACK challenge – the first ever challenge we ran at Round 1 was constructed solely around classes and (until now) it is the only challenge we have ever run like that…
Looking back over my notes from that original challenge, there are a lot of comments about how motivating it was just to have to keep ‘driving ahead’ to get the classes done. It also created a secondary competition with people pushing themselves to get the 25 sessions done in the fastest possible time. According to my notes, that battle was won in 16 days by Anthony Lacey (who completed a session every day from Monday to Saturday then did THREE each Sunday to takeHi and welcome to another week,
So our footy tipping contest is up and running…and there were some upsets which = some terrible tipping results. Not for CTPearce though (who I assume is Chantelle??) who has banged out a 7 – missing only on the Crows and the Bombers…personally, I found the tips really difficult and ended with 5 – I got every game played on Saturday WRONG and every other game RIGHT. If only a few less games had been played on Saturday!
It is not too late to join the footy tipping competition here: http://www.footytips.com.au/comps/Round_1_Fitness_2017&p=speedball
Over in the DreamTeam, we had the week off in our 20-team competition so nothing to report really…first update next weekend!
Progress is progress and fat loss is NOT Linear: http://www.staceyschaedler.com/progress-progress-fat-loss-not-linear/
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