Hi and welcome to another week,

Big thanks to one and all who trained with us at the gym last week.  There were a couple of awesome days weather wise – that is for sure – but the mornings were as cold as I can remember pretty much all week AND that rain just continued to fall…how can there be any left in the sky???  Anyway, I guess it is officially SPRING now so happier times are ahead!

Before I go on into the blog this week, I do want to ask you all to have a look down at the membership special we have running for the next week only – it is detailed in the blog under ‘Gym Update #1’.  We haven’t run a special for ages and ages and this one is all about joining with a buddy…for existing members, don’t stress – you can also take advantage of the offer (free $50 NIKE voucher, free Body Scan AND a free 2-person PT30 session) just by referring someone else who joins…all the details can be found online HERE:  https://round1fitness.com.au/specials

Anyway, this week’s blog is all about one of my recent reads – a book called ‘The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art Of Turning Trials Into Triumph’ by Ryan Halliday.  As I mentioned in last week’s post – and thanks very much to all who took time to provide feedback on what was a pretty popular success story, I really appreciate it – I had planned on writing this article a week or so back but was side tracked a bit by Aidan’s success story!

Anyway, reading the Halliday book – which you can think of as a cool collection of stories from people ranging from business execs (Steve Jobs) to baseball pitchers (Tommy John) to US Generals (Ulysses S Grant) about how they have overcome ‘obstacles’ in their life.  I was put on to the book by the Trainheroic website who put up a cool post on Instagram entitled ‘WHAT IS NOT UP TO US?’ which featured a picture of 10-12 things that ARE up to us.  You can see the picture HERE or simply take my word for it that the list of things we DO control (according to Halliday) are:

Our EMOTIONS – Our Judgements – Our Creativity – Our Attitudes – Our Perspective – Our Desire – Our Decisions – Our Determination.

It (of course) went on to say that these “elements” are our playing field – that everything on it is ‘fair game’ in terms of our own ability to complete tasks and overcome challenges.  In other words, it is the whole ‘everything you ever do is a decision, and every decision has consequences’ type philosophy…except it goes into a LOT more depth than the usual ‘whether you get up and go to work each day is a decision’ rhetoric.

So – what the hell has any of this got to do with anything?  Well, as a list it is pretty simplistic (I know that) but when you read through the book and think about each of the obstacles in your own life in terms of ‘Where is the YES’ then everything becomes just a little more achievable.  Or, more simply, is there an element of what you are trying to achieve that you can tie to your own emotion/ judgement/ creativity/ attitude/ perspective/ desire/ decision/ determination?  If there is, well, you CAN do it.  If there isn’t – well, you are probably better off focussing your energies on something else…but giving that something else ALL of your energy.

A gym example?  All of you guys out there who tell me that you are good at all of the cardio in the gym but no good at the bikes?  Well, that is WITHIN YOUR POWER to change around.  It is going to take some determination and focus, but it sure can be done.  Likewise if you want to lose a few kilos, get a bit stronger, for those ectomorphs out there add on some muscle and size…all of those things can be done.

Fair warning – the book can seem a little like it is trying to kick your butt from time to time – trying to make you feel like everything you have done/achieved in your life is pretty much negligible next to the examples being held up…but at the same time the stories are pretty inspiring and by the time you get to the end of each chapter you are generally ready to try and ‘attack’ the day ahead with a bit of vigour…unfortunately for me I read each day right before bed so I probably miss out on the full effect of that!!! J

I don’t know.  I find the more I am able to read and search for positive examples of positive action in others, the more I am able to produce positive actions in myself.  And books such as this one – whilst they don’t do the work for you, they do have the ability to make you see each of the challenges you are facing individually as just a little bit smaller and more achievable than they previously were.

Don’t have time to read?  Well, going back to the book, if you are DETERMINED to read this book and make the DECISION to read it, well you will find the time you need (say, 15 minutes per day) will be easy enough to find as well!

See you in the gym,

Michael.

p.s.  The parking drama is rearing it’s ugly head again – just as it seems to every few months.  The simple rule is this:  If you are parked in a bay that belongs to a business other than Round 1, that is going to cause a problem.  The biggest issue we are having is with people in the morning parking in the bays in front of the units directly to the SOUTH of the gym (that is towards Beeliar Drive).  Don’t do it.  Please just don’t do it.

Gym Update #1 – Super Membership Special this Week

We have a membership special coming up from tomorrow (MONDAY September 5th) until next Sunday (September 10^th) – the first special we have had in almost 6-months.  It works like this:

Join the gym – any membership type – with a ‘buddy’ and receive a Body Scan each, a ‘Buddy’ PT session AND a $50 gift voucher from the NIKE store.  So all of that is more than $100 of free stuff EACH just for doing what you should already be doing…training at Round 1!

We don’t want to leave our existing members out.  If you refer someone to the gym and they join in the next week, well, YOU will get all the ‘BUDDY’ benefits!  Both you and the person you have referred will receive the Body Scan’s, PT session AND the NIKE voucher!

It is a pretty amazing special – yes, there are T’s and C’s (simply put, if you cancel within 3-months of the membership starting you have to pay for all your goodies…but I think that is fair enough!!!) but all up it is an awesome deal and an awesome special.

Gym Update #2 – August Challenge…All DONE!

Big congratulations to everyone who has managed to get to the end of the August ‘As You Wish’ challenge.  There have been three (3) pretty challenging programs up and running – Core, Cardio and Strength – and I know from the perspective of all the trainers it has been amazing watching so many people in the gym, doing there extras and really challenging themselves away from the group training environment.

I know for me personally the basis of my training remains the boxing group sessions at the gym – that is the stuff I do every day and what kind of keeps the ‘wolf away’ in terms of managing my body composition and staying ‘in shape’.  As I think a lot of people have discovered as this challenge has gone along though, if the classes are the base then it is the ‘other stuff’ you do that really pushes you to progress.  Talking to people who are saying that they are going to reload and do it again – what can I say, GREAT IDEA!!!

Somewhat understandably, Body Scan traffic was ‘light’ this morning (it was Fathers’ Day after all) but the challenge is nevertheless done and dusted.  If you haven’t done your scan yet and still need to, remember that we don’t do bookings for these – we will just need to squeeze you in between sessions as we are able.  I know this can kind of suck but we promise to do the best we can…after all, working on Fathers Day to DO the scans wasn’t exactly top of my list of ‘Fun to Do’ things either!

Gym Update #3 – October Challenge (is coming).

Every year, our biggest challenge – both in terms of participation and outcomes (meaning specifically weight-loss) is the 28-days Later challenge that runs in February.  This challenge is awesome for a few reasons, but I guess the main one is it enables everyone to get the new year ‘off and running’ after a period of holidays and misbehaviour over the Christmas holidays.

This year we want to try and duplicate that challenge – but BEFORE Christmas.  Rather than everyone be looking their leanest and best in March, we want to make sure everyone is ready for the beach when summer rolls around…not only that, the idea is that come February Challenge time, we are all ‘making progress’ rather than just ‘getting back to normal’ after a few too many beers and bbq’s through December/Jan.

So – we are busily working on the structure of the challenge and a book of new recipes and all those sort of things…and wondered if there might be some people who would like to tie in the END of this new challenge with a dinner-dance style event early in November.  I envision tickets to such an event would cost around-abouts $120 or so…if this is something you might be interested in, please let us know via email (info@round1fitness.com.au) so we can work out if it is worth organising or not!

Gym Update #4 – Hoodies, Hats and Stuff

So – good news.  We have some of our black and silver ‘TRAINING’ hoodies up on the shelves for the last time.  These really are a ‘what is on the shelf is what we have’ type situation but when I checked this morning we had every size under the rainbow!

These hoodies are super nice – warm, comfortable, all of that! – plus they say ‘Round 1’…how can you go wrong!

In addition to all of that – we also have a few of our trucker hats still left on the shelf (those are $20 each) and a new supply of both hand-wraps and quick-wraps are on the way!

Link of the Week

With footy season (and netball season) just about done, I am already getting questions from parents relating to getting little johnny (or johnette!) ready for the next season.  You know, faster, higher, stronger, better etc.  Well, there is an article out there (right HERE in fact) that does a pretty good job of summarising what I would tell you:

http://www.skillofstrength.com/2017/05/25/summer-training-for-high-school-athletes-5-dos-donts/

On a similar note, if you ARE interested in a program for your kids – probably in that 13-18 year old range, stay tuned for our ‘Developing Athlete’ program that will become available in the next month.