Hi and welcome to another week,
Once again, thanks a million to everyone who came along to train with us last week. Some crazy busy sessions – Wednesday 6am and Saturday 7:15am spring immediately to mind – and just a heap of people really busting their butts. I know there is a challenge going right now and that contributes to attendance, but the atmosphere in the gym has just been amazing in the past few weeks – busy classes, people in early before class/staying late after class doing their extras…it has just been a really motivating place to work (and hopefully train/spend time).
In addition to the challenge stuff, last week also saw us kick off the DAP (Developing Athlete Program) with 16x 13-17year olds getting a bit of a start with some athletic development. Over the first week, we have done some core work (teaching how to spiderman walk, active bridge, side bridge and dead bug properly), covered technique for three (3) of the big lifts (squat, deadlift and bench press) and started work on same base level conditioning. The week ahead brings more of the same (core, lifting fundamentals and conditioning). I guess what I wanted to share today was what I have learned from a coaching perspective working through the course with the kids at this early stage.
Why would you care about this? Because what I am discovering with the kids is kind of what we go through with every person who is ‘new’ to ‘Body Work’ / ‘Tanks’ and just getting started with a strength program. There are two elements to what I am going to write about – the first is about strength and specifically ‘WHAT’ strength, the second is about mindset.
Starting with the strength ‘problem’, the first issue that needs to be dealt with is CORE strength. We see this in our boxing classes as well to be truthful – when people first start holding a bridge for any more than 30-seconds is an issue – doing a deadbug is a MASSIVE issue. Without core strength (without getting too specific for the purposes of this CORE means abs, obliques and spinal erectors) any thoughts of getting stronger are going to be closer to dreams – your core comes first.
So – with the kids, we are building their core with specific exercises – the aforementioned bridge work, dead bugs and spiderman walks as well as the work planned for next week with multi position medicine ball throws and morgans. But equally important to these direct core activities is the indirect core work we do with high rep/low weight repetitions of squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, rows (including fence pulls), weighted lunges and – importantly, weighted carries. The list goes on of course but I am sure you get the idea. I am sure if you just read through that list you would acknowledge we do a LOT of that kind of activity in our Boxing sessions which is why whenever a client who has been training with us for more than a couple of months or so attends their first Body Work class (most often accidentally due to a time-table reading malfunction!) myself and the other trainers can say with confidence that that person ‘Will be fine’…after all, a lot of the ground work has already been done.
If you set the ground work we have been talking about to this point aside, you have to remember when you are lifting weights that you are doing it to get STRONGER. You don’t need to think about it beyond that. Technique is important – I am not going to say it isn’t and that is why we spend time trying to teach it – but at some point you have to actually add some weight to the bar and lift it if you want to get stronger. Technique is important but if you are going to wait until it is ‘PERFECT’ before you start adding resistance to the bar, well, you are not going to ever make any progress. Your technique will evolve and improve as the resistance increases. How come? Because there are only ever two (2) reasons you can’t lift a weight – you just aren’t strong enough OR your technique is inadequate…so to progress beyond the point of initial failure, either one or two of those limiting factors need to improve.
And to me, this is where your mindset about your training needs to come into play. If you want to get better/stronger/faster then you can’t be nice about it. I know I have rambled on about this 100000 times but if you want improvements and benefits to come from your training, then hit the bags harder, lift heavier weights, ride faster, row faster, grit your teeth and ‘HANG ON’ when you are doing your core work. The old ‘Get your Mind Right’ expression is never truer than when you are 35 minutes into a 45 minute session and you need to make a decision about cruising to the end or crushing it to the end…the result of those little mental battles we all have (every day) are generally what determines whether or not we get great outcomes from our training or ‘cruisy’ outcomes from our training.
The last point I wanted to make about all of this stuff – and again, equally applicable to the Developing Athlete crew AND everyone else – is that if you don’t get your food right, well, you wont get the outcomes you want. For the DAP crew, that means making sure they are getting ENOUGH food and cutting out the junk…that’s how you build muscle. For the rest of us, it means cutting out the junk, laying off the alcohol and (for most of us anyway!!!) not eating too MUCH. I created a little pyramid for the DAP guys and the last two things I have spoken about – Food and Mindset – are at the bottom and the top of that pyramid respectively! (Here it is).
One last and final thing. None of this stuff needs to be complicated. You can get great outcomes by doing boxing classes so long as you continue to challenge yourself to hit all your targets, get all of your reps done (and done PROPERLY – no half reps or cheating in the interests of ‘going faster’) and – importantly, focussing on hitting the bags HARD and continually challenging yourself with more weight in any of the kettlebell/barbell/dumbbell activities. If you always stay the same then you are always going to stay the same!
Let me know if any of this sounds good (or not) with an email to Michael@round1fitness.com.au
See you in the gym,
Michael.
We are planning a Fundraising Day on Saturday November 11th to raise funds for M.S. This is the fundraising being done by Kirei and her team of intrepid cyclists who will be heading off on a bike ride of some unspeakable distance later in November. We will have some raffles etc to run but the main focus of the day will be a WARRIOR WORKOUT which we will be chasing some participation ‘donations’ for as well as a ‘Train the Trainer’ session where ‘the people’ will have the opportunity to ‘Train the Trainers’. The plan at this time is that you can BID to ‘Train the Trainer’ via silent auction – and not only are syndicates allowed, they are encouraged!
All of the bidding sheets are up on the cupboards in the reception area at the gym. Grab a couple of buddies, work out which trainer you want to ‘work over’ for 15-minutes, place your bids and plan your workouts. With the trainers, we have all made a deal that NO PAYBACK IS ALLOWED. If you make Eden (as an example!) do barbell thrusters, sled pushes and assault bike sprints for 15-minutes, he is not allowed to get you back…
It is all for charity after all and what is a little bit of pain and suffering between friends.
At the conclusion of the ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions (those will start at 11am) we will have a sausage sizzle/bbq (+ maybe a cheeky beer or two) to finish off the day!
Well, we are getting closer (and closer, and closer) to the end. 3-weeks down, 2-to-go which means only TWO MORE TIMES for the ‘TRES HUNDO’. Thank goodness.
I know for me I have had a couple of ‘difficult’ moments with my food over the last couple of days – to the point where I made a bit bowl of mixed berries and Greek yoghurt after dinner last night…it wasn’t exactly the peanut butter icecream I wanted but I have to admit it was pretty tasty and made it easier to get through the rest of the night! (Was cheaper too!).
With two weeks remaining though – I am not sure how anyone else is going – my weight hasn’t actually changed much (aka ‘AT ALL’) from where it was at the start. I guess I am hoping that means I have swapped a couple of kilos of muscle for a couple of kilos of fat but I am kind of expecting the worst (just like the Feb challenge when my outcomes weren’t great). I have to say though that I do feel a lot better and am proud of myself for resisting temptation/sticking on the straight and narrow path as it pertains to my food for 3-weeks now…just got to keep it going!
Other challenge stuff?
Well, the sign-up sheet for the final scans will be going up on Monday October 30th (that’s NEXT Monday) so be sure to look out for that. And I was hoping we might be able to convince a few people to meet up for a beer and maybe some food down at the Quarie AFTER all the weigh-ins have been completed…maybe from 3pm on Sunday November 5th???????
Anyway, the invite is there for any and all who might be interested…let’s all just stick to the plan from now till then and maximise our results!
https://round1fitness.com.au/welcome-to-the-developing-athletes-program
The crew are one week in here and I went through a fair bit of this at the top of the blog. In the week ahead we will be continuing to focus on ‘TEACHING’ the lifts, core strength and conditioning in preparation for the ‘real’ training to start at the commencement of week 3.
Really pleased with everyone’s efforts to this point and pretty confident we are going to achieve good outcomes for everyone who fights their ways to the end.
As mentioned, the new speedball swivels went up last week and I am expecting the new speedballs to arrive during this week. The plan from there is to get some new steps in – trying something different here! – get the new speedballs up and really change the ‘feel’ of the area (which I have not been happy with for a while now).
A heap of new F2C balls are also on the way though I am pretty happy with the setup there atm!
As mentioned last week, thanks 10000000 to Dom and the team at SAVI Systems (https://www.savisystems.com.au/) who have upgraded all of our speakers in the gym. Of course, the new speakers and improved sound have just made it all the more difficult to ‘hear’ the clock so I am busily working away to find a solution for that as well…unfortunately trying to find something that can cope with both ‘REST intervals’ AND ‘warning’ intervals (we use both at Round 1) is proving challenging.
So – a bit of workout motivation (and fun) today:
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