Hey Team,

Thanks as always to everyone who has been in training with us this past week.  We are WELL into our July block in the boxing gym – I have been loving the sessions and it was so much fun to be able to throw in a ‘shadow boxing’ class last week.  I mean, I know it’s tough and it’s hard to merember things…but it is supposed to be about having a bit of fun, the class working together to remember the combos (and help one another out) and, well…FUN!  (And yep, “Merember” was an intentional typo as I pretended to forget how to spell “remember” in the way everyone forgot the combos, but I didn’t expect you to get it…at least I think I’m funny!!).  

For those who wander through the hole in the wall (aka, the Strength gym!!), we have just finished off our latest training block with testing for our Front Squat and Overhead Press this past week.  I know for me it has been a bit of a disaster – illness and injury have come at me hard over the past few weeks and whilst I completed testing for both movements my max efforts actually DECREASED which is pretty disappointing…but, like I said, illness and injury really impacted on my training consistency and it’s hard to move forward when you aren’t being consistent in your training.  But what does “being consistent” actually mean?

I was chatting to Coach Gab a few days back and we were talking about this exact thing – habits and consistency.  And she put it in a way I’d never really thought about before.  Vegetarians don’t go into the kitchen and suddenly decide they are going to eat a steak – they’ve MADE the decision…and now they live their life that way.  I know it doesn’t seem quite that simple for the rest of us – but can it be?

When you make the decision to come to the gym, generally there is a driver that gets you in for that very first session.  It could be anything – you might want to fit into a dress for a wedding in a couple of months, you might be training for a fitness competition (Hyrox and City to Surf are on the horizon), you might be tired of struggling to walk up a couple of flights of stairs at the train station…or you might just be looking at some of your older relatives and thinking “That is NOT going to be me in 30-years – I still want to be active and mobile”.  For those people who go through the 2WT/Health Check process, we try to dig in a bit to these reasons – and most importantly, we ask “Why is this reason important to you?”.

Being able to define “WHY” you are doing something is a big part of achieving consistency.  I know for me I have been ‘thinking’ about getting out and doing some more running for probably 12-18 months now.  I used to absolutely love it and was running a marathon every year – then COVID and ‘stuff’ and I lost the habit and, well, suddenly running became harder than it had ever been in my life.  BUT, with Hyrox on the agenda it has become a lot more important to get out and get it done…basically, like the vegetarian – “the DECISION” has been made.  I HAVE to run (and soon) so I’ve been out running.  Essentially, there is a reason and I’ve MADE a decision.

Now – there is always “Life gets in the way” stuff associated with everything.  I know for me – there’s a new baby in my life who I want to spend time with, footy season is getting to the pointy end and finals are on the horizon, we have a bit of a ‘situation’ with staff where 3x people will be away concurrently in the very near future – and obviously my time is being further ‘threatened’ with each of these things.  But as Gabby said, the “DECISION” has been made.  I will need to do some serious time management – and make some pretty significant time sacrifices I think – but I will need to find a way to fight through these challenges whilst meeting all of my other commitments.

I guess the overall message is that if you are battling to maintain your ‘consistency’ then rather than throwing your hands in the air, you need to remember WHY you started in the first place.  If your time is being restricted because of a change at work, then think your way through it – you started for a reason…maybe drop back to 2x sessions per week for a time (1x during the week and 1x on the weekend) – that way, you move into ‘maintenance mode’ for a time and reset when you can.  MAYBE it means changing your training time from 6am to 5am for a block.  MAYBE it means changing your training time from 6pm to 7pm or even 7:30pm for a time? Now – can you achieve as much in two sessions as you can in three?  Potentially not.  But you achieve a helluva lot more in two than you would in ZERO…and if you are able to maintain CONNECTION with your ‘decision’ (feeling better, living better, running that marathon, whatever it was) then it will be SOOOOO much easier to restart once things ‘get back’ to normal…in fact, if you are able to stay focussed, then you will find yourself looking for opportunities to return to normal and you might even find that despite your worst fears, 5am sessions actually WORK in your life…or coming in for a quick 45-minute blast on Saturday and Sunday doesn’t impact the family quite as you feared…so despite all of your ‘planning for the worst’, the reality is that just by finding a way to ‘persist’ in the short-term, everything just ‘works out’.

By the way, if you need help with any of this – working out a schedule that will work for you, being held accountable etc – that’s kind of what we’re here for.  Remember that there are classes before work (5am, 6am, 7am), during the day (9am, 12pm, 1pm) and after work (4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 7:30pm)…we run a ridiculous number of classes.  On top of that, the gym is available for individual strength and cardio sessions pretty much ALL DAY…and the trainers can help you pull something together if you need help working towards a specific goal.

Be consistent – stick with the decisions you have made.  Even if you have to tread water for a period of time (6-weeks, 3-months, whatever it might be) – treading water sure as heck beats sinking to the bottom of the ocean.  And whilst ‘starting again’ always seems like an impossible task, resetting from a maintenance model of 2-sessions per week back into ‘full training’ (3-4 times per week) is nowhere near as intimidating and achievable for most people.

Stay engaged – work through the ‘tough-times’, stick with the decisions you have made.  Long-term over short-term is always the way!

See you in the gym,

Michael.

p.s.  I have to admit, I love the ‘old school’ photos I often include with the blog posts…the one this week is from 2014.  I guess I love them ‘cos I’m proud we’ve been around for 14-years and have done so much different stuff.  Let me know if you love them – or would rather see me use more ‘recent’ pics with the blog posts!