Getting motivated to T-R-A-I-N in the middle of a chaotic life!

Hi Everyone – and welcome to another week,

Welcome to a BEAUTIFUL Sunday!  Who even knew the temperature could possibly EVER get above, like, 20-degrees ever again!  This winter has been harsh but today was a great reminder to us all what an amazing place we live in – where the sun shines and getting outside is simply the best…and also (of course) that summer is just around the corner.  I know for me – after missing an entire week of training with this stupid ongoing back issue I have – I really need to get back and do SOMETHING this week (my mental health needs it more than anything) as I am beginning to get a bit worried about what will happen next time I jump on the body scanner.  

Oh well, I guess I know what I need to do!  Unfortunately the knowing it is easy…the doing it is a touch harder.  L

That said, aside from my recent back injury, I have been finding it really hard to get any ‘real’ training done lately.  As a few people will have noticed, we have lost quite a few staff hours over the past 12-18 months with Elie, Kirei and Eden all moving from full-time work at Round1 into full-time study positions and part-time/casual work at the gym.  This has put a fair bit of extra workload on the rest of the team – and meant that I have probably run as many group sessions in the past 3-months as I had done in the preceding 12-months.  This is good in a lot of ways – running classes is certainly one of my favourite things to do AND the #1 reason I left the corporate life and started a gym (I LIKE the coaching and particularly enjoy coaching groups) but unfortunately there is a lot of other stuff (who knew) that also has to be done in order to keep the place running – and that has only been added too with the challenges of obtaining planning approval for the extension (and more recently, the challenges of getting ON with the extension).

I have certainly become really ‘time poor’ and whereas once upon a time I could pretty much bank on having a spare 60-minutes or so every lunchtime to do a class, lately even that has been a push.  And even when I have ‘HAD’ the time to train, finding the ‘WILL’ to actually do it has been a little harder.  Each Thursday is a good example – I finish work at around 9:15pm on Wednesday (after a 5am start that morning) and am back in the gym at 5am Thursday morning…I then run all the classes through until the 12pm boxing session but from 1pm am ‘done for the day’.  So I *should* be able to train at 1pm every week…but I am finding it harder and harder to find the drive to change my t-shirt and get stuck into it – it really is a battle.

I know it is a battle so many of you guys go through every day – after a long day at work it is HARD to get into the gym (or equally, it is hard to get into the gym when you have a long, hard day ahead)…and even though you physically have the time, having the time AND the drive to use it?  Well, that’s another thing entirely.

So…how do you do it?  How do all of us do it?  And more importantly, how do you continue to do it day-after-day, week-after-week when it feels like the results aren’t worth the effort and the couch and a beer are calling LOUDLY.  After all, there are sure as hell easier things to do than slog your way through a session at Round 1 – particularly when it so often seems that there are just no hours left in the day for ‘me time’?

I wish I knew the answer – I guess if I did there would be a chain of Round 1’s in every town across Australia.  But I think I have a fair handle on how to go about ‘getting motivated’ so here goes:

1/.  Remind yourself that you are ALREADY motivated.  You WANT to be known as a person who is active and who trains…after all, that is why you have a membership at Round 1!

2/.  Given that, you have to recognise that you aren’t MISSING motivation…your motivation is – for the moment at least – being spent on other things!  Like what?  Like a stressful job or a challenging family situation maybe?  This is why it is so hard to get your training done when life is stressful…because it IS hard.

3/.  Think of things this way – an object in motion will STAY in motion.  So make a commitment RIGHT NOW to attend a set number of classes (pick a number between 2 and 4) before you read this blog next Sunday.  And pick the times that you are going to do them.  Select a ‘REWARD’ that you will give yourself for this positive behaviour.  (Ice-cream after dinner next Sunday – nice Ice-Cream – works for me.  It might be something else for you).

4/.  Rinse and repeat for a couple of weeks – staying focussed on the POSITIVE outcomes of your efforts.  If you miss – don’t worry about it.  What you DO is way more important than what you DON’T…and your efforts to stay on track ARE worthy of celebration.

(sorry in advance for the cheesy image but it's kinda true!)

That’s it.  Because if you do that for 3-4 weeks in a row, you will find your gym ‘HABIT’ is back in full swing.  And one thing I do know about people, is that whilst motivation might come and go and ebb and flow, habits – whether they are good ones or somewhat less than ‘ideal’ – are bloody hard to break.  So give yourself a chance to get back on track by doing the same thing I am going to do…set a little mini target for the week ahead, setting up a little reward scheme, then – head down, bum up – GET IT DONE!

Let me know if any of this sounds good (or not) with an email to Michael@round1fitness.com.au 

See you in the gym,

Michael.

p.s.  I don’t want to gloat TOO much but I am happy to report my victory for the second successive year in the R1F Dream Team competition.  Whilst the revised blog format has made it hard to report on the competition, congratulations to Liam Blampied for finishing atop the ladder at the end of the year, and also to Michael Campbell for making it through to the semi finals…ultimately though, well…J.

A Change is Gonna Come.

Hi Everyone – and welcome to another week,

So – in case anyone was wondering it has been COLD in the mornings…and cold at lunchtime…and cold at night – over the past couple of weeks.  Somehow the gym keeps filling up with dedicated people but I have to say that the sunshine over the past day or so has been very welcome in my little corner of the world…it just seems a little easier to think about getting outside and doing something when the sun is shining.  And the idea of getting outside reminds me that I need to get in the gym and get my training done…after a couple of less than perfect weeks of training myself, happy to say that this sunny weather has even an old, jaded man like myself thinking positively about ‘Getting it Done’ in the week ahead!

Did you know that it was a little over 8 years and 6 months ago that I left my I.T. gig and opened Round 1.  Who cares is a fair enough reaction – but I am telling you about it because this week the ‘final’ step in what will be the biggest change we have made at the gym was made when I finally signed the lease to take over the unit next door…

Anyway – I want to change gears for just a moment and talk about the what and why.  As most of you would probably acknowledge, I don’t tend to go in for fitness industry trends and other such things too much.  Our focus at Round 1 today is what it was when we opened – run instructor led, interval based, group training sessions aimed at developing sustainable levels of fitness in all of our clients.  We hit the heavy bags, do some pushups, pull-ups, squats and core stabilisation work – and whilst there is a LOT more gear in the gym today than there was back in 2010, the fundamentals of our sessions haven’t changed all that much.  How come?  Well, because the sessions have been getting people results…and when you add in a bit of dietary ‘discipline’, they have been getting people AWESOME results.

One thing HAS changed in our gym more than anything else during those 8-years though.  Our clients.  Our clients are way better, way fitter, way stronger.  And in order to keep improving, they need to be continually challenged in new and different ways – which is why I laugh when people tell me not to worry about changing the sessions every day – just roll out some of the programs from 2010…I simply couldn’t do it because nearly everyone would leave disappointed – the variety of activities we do these days is pretty amazing.  This is the reason we have so much gear in the gym now - to provide everyone with the equipment they need to challenge themselves – and as an extension of that statement, we are putting together the gym ‘next door’ with this in mind. 

If I wind it back for a moment, the reality is that everyone is different.  Some people just need access to our existing group classes – and that will continue to be our focus as it is the BEST way to get ‘Bang for your buck’ conditioning and weight loss.  But some people need access to Squat Racks, Bench presses, lifting platforms.  Others need Jammers, V-Squat machines and Iso-lateral shoulder presses! SOME need treadmills – others need rowers and ski-ergs.  So we buy them and hope you love them.

In setting up next door we are taking the following approach:

1/.  Create MORE ROOM in the current area for our ‘Boxing’ and ‘Body Work’ sessions.  The power racks will be moving OUT, the SPARC’s will relocate over into that area which will open up space both in front of the heavy bags AND on the rubber floor for us all to MOVE!

2/.  Create an elite (yep, ELITE) training environment in the new space for those amongst us who need/want access to MORE whilst also creating room for us to run our specialty courses including ‘TANKS’, ‘Developing Athlete Program’, ‘SPARTAN’, ‘Strength Fundamentals’ (and a couple I am working on that are yet to see the light of day).

There is going to be some equipment going in next door that you simply wont find anywhere else – or at least anywhere else outside of the national level sporting clubs in this state. 

More simply, what we are trying to do with the expansion is:

-       Provide a more enjoyable experience for everyone participating in Boxing and Body Work sessions by providing more SPACE.

-       Provide an environment to enable those people wanting to ‘push the envelope’ with their training that simply isn’t available anywhere else.

Change is pretty scary and at this point even I am not all that certain how it is all going to work when we open up next door.  I know what we are going for – create an environment that better supports EVERYONE who is training at the gym today.  As I have been saying since the very start, the intention is that we will never stand still – that our gym will continue to build and develop through equipment, programming and coaching improvements as every year goes by.  And whilst we are embarking on the biggest change yet, really, it is just one more in a series of changes…

Anyway, let me know if any of this sounds good (or not) with an email to Michael@round1fitness.com.au 

See you in the gym,

Michael.