Hey Team,

Welcome to another Sunday – I’m hoping not TOO many people out there are nursing hang-overs from last night’s Christmas (well, Christmas adjacent!) celebrations…it sure is a very social time of the year.  Me?  I’m fine – in bed at 8pm trying to see off this cough…we (Team R1) have been hit hard by sickness recently with Leon off sick, Brett off sick, Tracey off with COVID, Sophie off with her wisdom teeth and me trying to limit my time ‘in the gym’ because of this constant cough.  It has been a real challenge just having warm bodies available to run classes – let alone trying to implement all of the ‘NEW STUFF’ we rolled out last week (https://round1fitness.com.au/20221204-2/).  Anyhow, somehow we got through it.

I know there has been a bit of talk about the ‘new rules’ recently and I just want to reiterate that the changes we have made have been done in the interests of YOUR SAFETY.  The areas of primary concern are:
– Boxing people MUST wear either hand-wraps or quick-wraps under their gloves.
– Strength people MUST use barbell collars during any/all barbell movements. 

Yes – in the case of hand-wraps – they are ‘your hands’ and it is ‘your body’.  But if wearing a pair of wraps stabilises your wrist and protects you from a TFCC injury which would mean no training for MONTHS and potentially forever, well…I think WE need to take a bit more responsibility to protect people from themselves.  I mean, whilst wearing a seatbelt doesn’t guarantee your safety in a car accident that doesn’t mean it’s OK to just not wear one…it improves your chances of surviving a serious accident and sometimes people need a RULE in order to see sense! ?

Similar in the strength gym.  I know when you are warming up your bench press with a 5kg plate on each side of the bar that there is really NO DANGER.  But – rules are rules and good habits are good habits.  I’m pretty sure everyone can appreciate that creating a rule that said anytime you were lifting more than 80% of your max weight for that particular lift and that particular rep range it would be essentially impossible to enforce/police.  And having a rule that said anytime the bar got ‘heavy’ you needed collars is just as impossible…what’s heavy for person 1 isn’t heavy for someone else and vice versa…so the rule is all encompassing…if there are plates on the bar, put the collars on.  Let’s set the complaining aside a little – it takes 10-seconds to put 2x collars on – understand that the rule is safety related and get on board! ?

OK – Time to ride the positive bus for a little while.

I was super excited to see so many people in the gym last week having a crack at the new Fully Loaded class on Monday and Wednesday as well as the all new BoxFIT45 sessions, Ladies Lifting and Boys Club.  A quick reminder – Ladies Lifting is the one class on the time-table that is JUST for the girls – so let’s keep the boys away…there’s a boxing class that starts at 7:15pm so jump in that or do something else…likewise, Boys Club is the one class on the time-table for JUST the boys AND there is another class in the boxing gym at the same time.  I’m sure we can all work our personal timetables around those two events!

But despite the confusion around the battle of the sexes, I thought that just giving something NEW a go was a great thing to see.  And remember, when you do something ‘NEW’ you can’t expect to ‘love it’ or be ‘great at it’ the first time.  No matter what the session, there are going to be new things that you will find tricky at first – and because no-one likes to feel like the little kid at the back of the line who couldn’t keep up, new and tricky things can quickly lead to people just giving up/writing it off/not trying again.  Truthfully, it’s why we don’t do ‘free trial sessions’ – with no commitment, jumping into a busy gym when you don’t understand the lay of the land?  It’s probably not going to be great for most people…but after 10 or so sessions, you start to get the hang of things, you start to feel like you ‘CAN’ do it…and because you feel POSITIVE, you WILL be able to do it.

So – here’s to everyone being out of their comfort zone and trying new things – and here’s to keeping it that way over the next month or so.  Everyone is about to be gifted a TONNE of reasons to not go to the gym – don’t let “I don’t want to do that class” be one of them.  Go to the gym at whatever time you can…and just jump in/give it a crack with a smile on your face/positive vibes in your back pocket.  There are going to be days when you can only make it to ONE time-slot…don’t let the schedule become another excuse.  Whatever it is, there will be a workout to be done and progress to be made…don’t let your perception of Good/Bad or Happy/Sad to impact your decision making.

Anyway – that’s it for this week.  

See you in the gym,

Michael.

P.S.  The BEST way to find out what classes are/aren’t running over the next couple of weeks is through the booking app – Member Me +, or the booking website ‘https://round1fitness.ezfacility.com/Sessions’ – if you have booked into class then you wont show up when a class isn’t running etc.  The timetable ALWAYS changes around this time of year (starting from the 19th we have some early closes then between Christmas and New Year are only running a few sessions each day) but if you remember to book in, then it will be IMPOSSIBLE to mess it up!