Hey Team,
Happy Sunday everyone. Hoping you have all had a great week and a better weekend. Things we are kicking around at the moment include:
| 1/. Bench Press seminar. (Well, a series of seminars but BP would be first.)
2/. Partner Padwork based training block. 3/. Hammer Strength based training block. 4/. Pre-Summer “SPARTA” training block. |
Let me know via reply email which of these things (if any) you are interested in.
Remember also that we are making some timetable changes coming up as well – Developing Athlete is moving to 4pm whilst Functional is moving to 5pm and 6pm. This will be a TRIAL change to see how it works – I have been getting (a lot) of requests for an earlier Funky Fit class each evening but (of course) am protective of the DAP program and want to maintain it…so we will see how we going moving to 4pm, see if the kids are still able to get to the gym in time and give it all a try.
We are also CONSIDERING a bit of a ‘rejig’ of the boxing sessions each afternoon – just in an effort to create a ‘stretching window’ after each session. I am not sure this is realistic in the mornings when everyone has gotten up early to ‘get in and get it done’ however each afternoon people usually have a couple of minutes to spare (maybe not 10, but generally 5) to stretch and recover after their session. Anyway, this change is more likely to be trialled in September, so – again, stay tuned to the blog, social and the online timetable for updates.
I spoke to my footy boys a week a couple of weeks back about what their ‘footy super power’ was…the gimmick being of course that when they put on their playing jumper, that’s what enabled their ‘super power’ to come out etc etc. Anyway, all of that has had me thinking (quite a lot) about modern culture, heroes and ‘our gym’.
When I was a kid, it felt like every 2nd movie I saw had a ‘super hero’ in it. But not a super hero in the modern sense. The super hero in old movies was a ‘regular’ guy. But there were a few ‘universal’ truths about this ‘regular’ guy (it was almost never, ever a girl so apologies to the girls). He was in what you would say ‘good shape’. He was a good fighter. He moved well – you know, could run, jump over fences etc. And he seemed to have a lot of confidence in his own ability to ‘overcome’ the odds.
The movie making was pretty different as well because we were regularly given a bit of a picture of his regular guy life and the way he was ‘transforming himself’ into something ‘better’. And yes, the cliched training montages from the Rocky films are amongst these type of scenes but they were seriously endless…you used to see the heroes PRACTISING, trying to become better (albeit in completely unrealistic timeframes) but ‘better’ all the same.
I guess I am lamenting this a bit because it really does seem like the tide has turned away from this ‘self improvement’ focus to some kind of ‘magical power’ type of solution. It seems all of our movie heroes were either ‘born that way’ or had their abilities enhanced due to some kind of ‘one off’ type of ‘accident’ (like a spider bite!). The one ‘super hero’ we see in the movies these days (‘The Rock’) is someone I never see ‘training’ to get better in the movies – he is just this larger than life dude who is just presented as being ‘the best’ and ‘invulnerable’. Where is the work? Where is the focus on development and improvement? Where is the grit and grind? It really does feel like this is one of the main ways the world has changed – we aren’t focussing on the hard work that goes into becoming better…we are just ‘who we are’. I just couldn’t disagree with this any more. Who we are is a product of the work we have done and the work we all continue to do.
Getting better is not easy and it takes a lot of commitment both IN and OUT of the gym. You have to train and train hard not for a little while – but for a few days each and every week for the rest of your life. Not only that, if you want results that other people can SEE, you also need to pay a bit of attention (more than a bit depending on the genetic hand you have been dealt) to the food you are putting in your mouth…and sometimes, not even all of that is going to be quite enough to get you where you want to go.
It is all training, effort and trial by fire. “This is working.” “This isn’t.” “OK – I’m moving forward again.” “This used to be hard but I can do it now.” And on it goes. And all of that, in-between work, family, friends, personal triumphs and disasters, new jobs, new houses…you name it. There are obstacles everywhere and at each point the ‘easy’ decision to make is just to quit – just to be like everyone else. But if you want to continue to move forward, well, you have to make some sacrifices and keep working hard.
Training is HARD. And it is not a journey from A-B (even if it seems that way when you are just starting out). Because when you get there, you will realise B is not the end…it is just the first stop on a long and never ending journey.
See you in the gym,
Michael.
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