Hey Team,

After a couple of weeks without a blog – due in the most part to the flood in the office two weeks back followed by last week’s team training course – it sort of feels good to be sitting in front of my screen on Sunday afternoon.  I know – I’ve got issues!!!  We have been working hard at Round 1 over the past month or so to try and “systemise” our boxing classes a little more – just in terms of terminology and what we are teaching – and I hope everyone has enjoyed the last week of sessions as we have taken the first step towards our ‘new’ format…I mean, it’s really the OLD format in a lot of ways…

Remember he whole idea of Round 1 Fitness was always ‘Instructor Led, Boxing for Fitness’ sessions – that was the whole concept of the gym was back when we opened the doors in 2010 and – whilst it’s great that we have expanded and now have a whole Functional Fitness offering (it’s actually pretty AWESOME) – I have felt that we have sort of lost our way a little lately with the boxing classes with the emphasis becoming too much on cardio and kettlebells and not enough on boxing, not enough on achieving that mind-muscle connection and stress relief that ONLY the boxing efforts (done properly) can bring…

We have a few more changes coming – a couple will be subtle but we have some new class formats we will be introducing as well – so please stay tuned over the next couple of weeks…I will of course be blogging about the new stuff/any changes AND everything will be posted on socials – so be sure to check out @round1fitnessgym on Instagram or Round1FitnessGym on Facebook…and if you’re on Facebook, don’t forget to request to join the ‘Round 1 Members Group’ – you can find that one here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/2277338565926892

I’ve been doing the Summer Slam Challenge for 5x weeks now – for all of my fellow challengees (is that a word?  I suspect NOT!!) we only have ONE WEEK to go.  I slugged my way through a 30-minute stair climber session + Hammer circuit after classes today (sadly, no class for me this morning – I was running boxing due to Leon being on parental leave) and, well, it gave me the chance to do some real reflection.  As a few people know, from the end of the 28-Days-Later challenge in Feb until I went off to Melbourne for a week, I had managed to put on almost 5kgs.  And that’s despite training pretty much every day.  THEN, on holidays in Melbourne, I added ‘nearly’ another 4kgs.  Which isn’t great.  So I sort of needed a kick up the butt/restart and the challenge has given me that.

More than that though, I would go so far as to say that this challenge has been the ‘best’ challenge I have ever done…which is saying quite a lot because I have done every challenge we have run at Round 1 since 2010.  But the way this has been structured in such a ‘low pressure’ way has really made it feel achievable…to be honest, most of what we have had to do in this “Summer Slam” is follow the typical advice that we give to every new member who comes through the door and does either a Health Check or participates in the ‘Body Scan/Goal Setting’ portion of a two week trial…so what I’m going to do here is try and outline ALL of the things that have worked for me in this challenge – I’m going to call this ‘Tips for those getting started…or for ANYONE who feels they are ‘in a rut’.

Step 1:  Be CLEAR about how things “look” now versus how they WILL look.

There’s a great table in the challenge pack that looks like this:

It’s a simple table to complete.  You write down what you are doing ‘RIGHT NOW’ – then what you are going to start doing TOMORROW.  You record what might go wrong (eg.  Kids get sick, Caught up at work late etc) and what you are going to DO about it (Mitigation).  Basically you preset your expectations.  Then you STICK IT ON YOUR WALL!

There is another table for FOOD – it looks the same!

You do the same thing.  What I am doing now?  What am I going to do?  How am I going to work through this…it makes life SO SIMPLE.

Step 2:  If stuff is in the way…move it OUT of the way!

This challenge has meant 3x classes per week + 2x ‘EXTRAS’.  Which is sort of OK for me who likes to train 5-6 times each week anyway.  I will openly admit though the EXTRAS are hard for me – I am happy to do a class when I am told what to do, but WAAAAAYYYYY less motivated to go off on my own and do an extra.  So I have had to carve out a specific time in my week to do the extras (when a class isn’t on because ‘temptation’!!!) in order to achieve this target.

Basically, when you are trying to make some changes, you simply can’t “DEAL” with stuff going wrong/getting in the way of your plan.  If there is ANYTHING that is getting in your way, well…you need to find a way to move it OUT of the way.  What do I mean?  Well, I sit down with people who tell me they want to go walking 3-4 times each week on top of their classes – a GREAT PLAN.  BUT, they tell me that they can’t do that because every time they go walking their shins hurt because their ‘shoes’ –  the ones that they purchased back in 2013 – aren’t exactly helping things.  Or they want to do boxing classes ‘EVERY DAY’ but don’t have boxing gloves???  I could go on (you had better believe it!!) but long story short, these ‘problems’ that are holding you back?  These problems simply need to be solved or you will NEVER move forward. 

To solve a problem you need one of two things:  some problems need $ to solve.  Other problems need time.  Put aside the time or the $ that you need to be successful, or you will simply NEVER be successful.  I know that sounds over-the-top but I listen to a lot of stories people tell me about all the things that they are going to do…but there is often just ONE THING holding them back.  You need to move that ‘thing’ out of the way and simply get on with it…and no-one can do it EXCEPT for you!!

In simple terms, to get great results you NEED to be training regularly.  And to be training regularly (3x per week) you need ‘STUFF’ – you need shoes, gym wear, you might need boxing gloves or a power band etc.  Get ALL of the STUFF you need.  Don’t put yourself in a situation where you have this great ‘PLAN’, but then don’t want to execute it because ‘something’ isn’t right.  On top of that, you NEED to create time.  I know the world has gone crazy in 2022 and everyone is on the go 24×7…but there is ALWAYS time if something is important.  You simply need to decide whether you WANT to do it or it would just be something ‘nice’ if it happened all by itself without making any compromises…

Step 3:  Most of us get the BIG stuff right, it’s the sneaky stuff that brings us undone!

Food (and alcohol) is so easy for people ‘MOST’ of the time.  Most everyone who eats breakfast does OK.  Pretty much everyone does OK at dinner 5-6 nights per week.  But lunches and snacks?  Bad times!!

You 100% KNOW that in order to be successful you need to stop going to the work cafe at 10am because your friends ALWAYS talk you into ‘snacks’.  You 100% know that it’s after dinner chocolate that your partner “ALWAYS” buys that brings you undone.  You 100% KNOW that leaving lunch at home on a Friday will result in a lunch-time pub meal.  You 100% KNOW that the work vending machine has ‘Cherry RIpe’ chocolates and if you walk past after your 2pm ‘crash’ you wont be able to resist.  So…what are you going to do about ALL of these things??

The challenge makes us all hyper-vigilant when it comes to what we eat/drink so we tend to move past these bad habits…but the rest of the time???  We allow some of these less than amazing habits to really rule our lives – I mean, don’t visit the cafe, don’t buy the chocolate, take your lunch EVERY Friday and bring healthy snacks from home/eat a better lunch to avoid the crash…but somehow we just can’t get out of our own way sometimes.  Making progress doesn’t mean being ‘PERFECT’ – it just means having an awareness that if you are trying SO HARD 90% of the time, then the progress you are chasing is hidden amongst the other 10%.  

Step 4:  Being CONSISTENT beats chasing PERFECT

Sometimes (well, everyday!!) I seriously wish we could turn the clocks back 20 years and disconnect the google machine.  It seems that ‘everyone’ is always chasing a ‘better’ way.  I mean, did you know that turkey is LEANER than chicken?  Apparently that can ‘make a difference’?  I mean…WHAT?  You don’t need to throw out what is working PERFECTLY well to chase PERFECT.  Rather than swapping chicken for turkey, maybe get rid of the after dinner M&M’s every Wednesday night whilst watching NetFlix!  

There is equal craziness with ‘boxing’ vs ‘functional’ fitness questions – the main question being ‘what burns most fat?’.  Well…how hard are you working?  How often are you attending?  How heavy are the weights you are using?  How hard are you punching?  There is no secret code, there are no right or wrong answers and – unfortunately, there are no shortcuts.  What gets the ‘BEST’ results is whatever you are most motivated to get up and ‘DO’.  If you prefer to do boxing classes, do them.  If you prefer to do Functional classes?  Do them.  Because one thing is for certain – if you love Boxing but decide you new plan is to do Functional but then only decide to come along on days when the workouts ‘look good on SugarWOD’, well…I suspect you aren’t going to get the results you want.  Likewise, if you love Functional but decide to start doing boxing because you want to build your cardio base but suddenly can’t get yourself out of bed in the mornings anymore, well, I don’t think your cardio will improve much at all.  

Do the stuff that makes you happiest and do it consistently.  If you do that, walk for 30-minutes 2-3 times each week and eat ‘like an adult’, well, you’re going to get great outcomes.

Step 5:  This information sucks, but, well…we’re playing a LOOONG Game.

I honestly wish I could tell you that you could just do everything ‘RIGHT’ for 6-weeks (the length of the challenge) and then you could just go back to sleeping in each morning, eating cake for morning tea, pies for lunch and netflix + choccies every night and it would ALL be fine.  It really doesn’t work that way.  

So often all of our actions are based around getting results in the short-term.  Which I understand – and hell, for me right now, a short term goal of 5kgs weight loss is really important!  Ultimately though, we should be making decisions that are for the long-term – and trying to set performance based goals on the same basis. 

Life – is long. I am living proof of that right now, LOL.  You need to be thinking about your health and fitness ‘life’ with at least one eye on the long term.  I have said many times that the stats say every person in Australia gains 10kg every 10 years after they turn 40. I don’t know about you guys, but that scares the hell out of me – the fact that as I grow older and (in theory) less capable physically, I will at the same time be adding weight to my body making EVERYTHING harder to do (don’t believe me?  Throw on a 10kg vest, leave it on all day and see how it makes you feel!).  So whilst I need to drop some kegs RIGHT NOW, the more important thing is that I have a plan as to how I am going to keep that weight OFF as I continue to grow older…Whilst it might be important to you RIGHT NOW to fit into your boardies/bikini by the time December comes around, you should also be thinking about what you would have to do in order to fit into that same suit in 2 years?  5 years?  10 years?

That’s it.  Those are my 5 tips.

– Be 100% CLEAR about WHAT you are changing (food and training).

– If something is holding you back, invest the time or money (and quick) to remove the roadblock.

– The big stuff is EASY – watch out for the sneaky little things

– Consistency beats perfection…just SHOW UP.

– It’s a long game…sure, short term goals are important but keep one eye on the future!

Keep those things in mind as you get started on your journey (or, if like me you need a bit of a mid-race reset) and everything will work out for the best!

See you in the gym,

Michael