Boxing Blog

    If you wouldn’t wake up early to do it…

    Hi Team,

    Thanks everyone for another awesome week of classes.  Have had more than one person let me know that the sessions last week – yep, even last Monday’s 1-minute rounds! – made up the toughest week of classes at Round 1 since EVER.  Well, not sure about that, but I do know that the sessions were amazing and I am surely WAY better now than I was this time last week…between getting through the classes and the challenge diet + extras, I am feeling relatively proud of myself this weekend (I am writing this on Saturday)…unfortunately I am sure those feelings will all go south on Monday when I am trying to slog through a class after a couple of beers to celebrate my wedding anniversary on Sunday night…that’s how the cycle goes I guess.

    There is a little bit of news relating to the gym expansion – we will be starting to cut the hole in the wall this coming Wednesday…I am not exactly sure what the impact of this is going to be – but I am sure it will be ‘something’.  Regardless, we will be doing everything we can to make sure each and every class still proceeds as normal (though we might all need a sense of humour and some ear-plugs!).  This means we are still probably a month away from having all of the new gear in unit 2 ready for use – a few people have been asking me about costs etc associated with using the ‘new gym’…I am happy to share a little bit of stuff to give everyone a general guide:

    Firstly, those people happy with their current membership who don’t want/need to go ‘next door’ will not be impacted.  I actually think this will be mostly everyone – Boxing, B+ and BodyWork classes will all stay ‘right where they are’ (for the moment anyway – there is an argument that Body Work should move and I will continue to consider that).  No Rules and Tanks sessions WILL MOVE…Tanks is a ‘cost +’ option today – that class will be included in the new membership costs for those people who want it.  No Rules is included in your membership today but is a very ‘low participation’ session.  Speaking of costs – which was the whole point of this section! – for people who DO want to access Unit 2, your membership will increase from $38.50/fortnight to $53.50 per fortnight…or about $1 per day (and yes, you can kind of apply that same logic to the monthly cost, 12-month up-front cost etc).  To answer another question, we WILL be running sessions ‘next door’ – my plan at the moment is to run them at 5:30am and 5:30pm – and these will be traditional S&C style classes with barbells, kettlebells, sled pushes, pull-ups…all the usual suspects…I do hope this gives you a bit of an idea about the plans and costs for the ‘new gym’…

    Anyway, enough about what is ‘coming up’ and all of that.  I am supposed to be blogging about the ‘Now’ and helping keep everyone on track with their food, with their training, with everything really.  And I think I have something (just maybe) to talk about.

    I read a cool quote the other day – here goes:  “If you wouldn’t wake up early to do it…then you probably shouldn’t stay up LATE to do it.”

    Now I have hunted high and low for the source of the quote but I can’t seem to find it – so given that I will credit Dean Somerset (https://twitter.com/deansomerset) who cited it on TWITTER last week…in any case, it is a quote that has a lot of meaning to me and I think it is important to everyone.

    A lot of people who come to train with us at Round 1 do so in the hope of losing a couple of kilos, reducing their stress and (hopefully) feeling better about themselves.  I like to think we do a lot of stuff to help everyone with that (or I like to think we at least try really hard to help) but one thing we don’t do too much with is SLEEP.  And it is just so important.  And when I think back to my old life – you know, when I had a ‘normal’ job that didn’t involve a 4am alarm every morning – well, my sleep was TERRIBLE.  I would regularly stay up late watching some ridiculous tv show or other, or reading a book (or, to be fair to that life, simply working late ‘cos that was a pretty regular thing!) and as a result, when I did finally go to bed I wouldn’t sleep well – and then I would wake up the next day feeling exhausted, feeling like I had only had about 7 minutes and 24 seconds of sleep (like, MAXIMUM that much).

    Before I go on, let me just add in here that when it comes to losing weight, reducing stress and feeling ‘good’, SLEEP is the often overlooked secret ingredient.  And if you are doing everything ‘right’ but not sleeping well then you probably aren’t going to get the results you are chasing.  So…that said, back to the story:

    Now some of the things I was up late doing – well, fine.  Working late to hit a deadline?  OK.  That makes sense.  Working late ‘because’ (and I am sure a heap of you guys do the same)…well…maybe.  Staying up to watch a live sporting event I had been looking forward too or to catch the ‘last episode’ of a series I was watching with Nessy (or something that seemed important – I am not a video game person but I am assured that the arrival of a new and long awaited game is an important event to some).  Fine.  Sitting up, flicking channels, killing time…well…

    And this is where we apply the criteria of the quote.  “If you wouldn’t wake up early to do it…then you probably shouldn’t stay up LATE to do it.”  On the work issue, no doubt a deadline in danger would have you setting the alarm for VERY EARLY – let’s go with my alarm time of 4am – and doing so without hesitation.  If it was ‘just work’ though, and it would be there on your desk at 8:30am and there was no time constraint…would you STILL set your alarm for 4am?  Somehow I don’t think so…so GO TO BED!

    Would you set your alarm early to get up and watch a sporting event on TV?  I know I do – every single Monday morning at this time of year I get up at 3am rather than 4am to try and enjoy a little bit more of the American football season (though my team is losing – what’s new?? – so this year sucks!)…but I sure as sure don’t get up at 3am any other day to sit in front of the TV and channel surf.  What I am saying here is that it doesn’t have to be something ‘productive’ that you are staying up for…it just SHOULD BE (*must be*?) something that has ‘real meaning’ to you.  If it doesn’t have real meaning, well, GO TO BED.

    Now, I know people are going to come back to me about how they are a night owl and they can’t sleep before 1am and etc etc.  I don’t totally disagree – everyone has different body clocks and rhythms…but when you are tired is 100% in your control.  If you don’t get out of bed until 7am and then stay up until 1am, well, is there any mystery that the next day you don’t want to get out of bed until 7am and then “just aren’t tired” until 1am?  For things to change, first you must change…start getting up earlier and you will be tired earlier and you will go to bed earlier…if you make an effort to slowly turn this around over a couple of weeks/months you might find yourself able to get out of bed just before 6am (and this will help you go to sleep around 11pm).  Just saying “I am a nightowl” over and again isn’t going to help you turn off the tv/computer and go to be – it is just reinforcing that it is OK to stay up late doing ‘stuff’.

    (This is a big change of gears, but it is the same thing for you guys who don’t eat breakfast because you “aren’t hungry”…you aren’t hungry because you NEVER eat breakfast, so your body doesn’t expect any food so it wont send any hunger signals…the reality is, if it is 7am and you haven’t eaten since 7pm the night before, you ARE hungry + thirsty and you should eat some breakfast…again, you can change all this simply by starting to eat breakfast in the morning and turning your little internal clock around…but I am clearly getting off the track here…).

    I don’t expect everyone to be at the gym and training at 5am – goodness knows, I am already amazed at the number of people with the dedication to do that – but I do want you to give yourself the best chance of achieving your goals…for so many of us, sleep is the missing step!  Part of getting enough sleep – enough GOOD sleep – is simply to go to bed…this simple guideline “If you wouldn’t wake up early to do it…then you probably shouldn’t stay up LATE to do it” is certainly one that could help you determine whether what you are doing late at night is necessary or something that could easily be left until tomorrow.

    Anyway, that’s it from me.  There are some great classes on the schedule this week (mini-sleds are out!) and I am really looking forward to maintaining momentum!

    See you in the gym,

    Michael.

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