New Website, New Sessions, Body Work goes'BACK TO THE FUTURE'

Hi Everyone – and welcome to another week,

Another week done.  And Friday it was freezing.  And tomorrow (Saturday) it is supposed to be even freezing-er…It was only last week I was commenting that this year had been ‘cold, but none of those sub-zero mornings yet…’. So much for that sentiment…and (of course) a big ‘well done’ to the early morning crew who fought through it this morning and ‘Got it Done’ regardless.

Last week was a big week for the gym with our new website launching – and this change (our new website) was really the ‘sticking point’ that had been holding us back from making a few OTHER changes.  I will try and cover the ‘big hits’ off here:

Firstly, it will be the end of the ‘FREE 7-day Pass’ system that has been in place for a few years now in favour of our new ‘HEALTH CHECK’ service.  Our ‘HEALTH CHECK’ is aimed at helping us better establish relationships with our new clients through providing ‘Body Scan + 30-minute Consult + Boxing Class’ to everyone.  Yes, it means getting started at the gym will now cost you $29 instead of being ‘FREE’, but truthfully for every ‘genuine’ trial we have given away over the past few years there would have been 2x people who simply came along to train for free with no intention of becoming part of our family and another two who booked in for a session (often several times) yet never, ever made it through the front door. The obvious hope is that the new system wont be too off-putting for genuine clients AND will help us ‘on-board’ them more quickly (body scan, eating plan, exercise calendar etc) but will help us in the other two cases by discouraging people who simply want a free session and – because they have made a financial commitment – get those people who *WANT* to start but lack the confidence to actually come along to the gym in through the doors…

Secondly, it is also our plan to revise our class time-table.  More details on this over the next couple of weeks, but essentially our Beginners classes will be ‘no more’ AND we are looking at implementing a ‘continuous circuit’ every Thursday between 6am-8am and again from 5pm-8pm.  Still working out the details but the idea will be whenever you get to the gym is when ‘YOUR’ class starts…and it ends when YOU are done.  It will still be 100% instructor run and will still be a uniquely designed session – but your start and finish time will be whatever YOU choose…In any case, the trial of this initiative is a few weeks away yet but it is something we are keen to trial on at least one day each week.  We have given the session a ‘working name’ of ‘Rolling Thunder’ which I don’t really like…any suggestions for a BETTER name would be appreciated.

Rolling Thunder Thursday??

What else?   Well.  Body Work is about to undergo a pretty major change.  Starting from TOMORROW (Monday, July 2^nd).  It is going to go from it’s current iteration (genuine strength and conditioning session – warm-up, conditioning, strength block, conditioning, hypertrophy based finisher) into more of a ‘conditioning’ session with LESS FOCUS on lifting weights.  In short, it will look a lot like it used to look ‘back in the day’ – a boxing class without the boxing.

Body Work has been a continuously evolving class since we opened the gym.  Once upon a time ‘Body Work’ still featured a HEAP of boxing…but there was a greater emphasis on ‘strength’ work – which often meant rather than doing 1x barbell circuit during the session you would do 3x.  Aside from that, Body Work and Boxing were pretty much the same and we ran them BOTH from the same class plan...But over time, things changed.

Body Work slowly but surely ‘split’ from Boxing, to the point where – in recent times, it has had more in common with TANKS than Boxing…which isn’t really where we want it to be.  At all.  And there are a few reasons.

Firstly, it has become a ‘complicated’ class.  Or rather, it has become a class that SEEMS complicated which is off-putting for first timers…and, if someone thinks it is too complicated/hard, then they are unlikely to have another go.  I have had people asking me if there is a ‘BEGINNERS’ version of Body Work – which I guess is really the ‘Strength Fundamentals’ program in many ways…BUT, the overall point is that if you can do Boxing, you SHOULD feel confident you can do Body Work.  In recent times, this has NOT been the case.

Second, it has developed a reputation as being a ‘STRENGTH’ focussed session where everyone ‘lifts heavy’.  Now, that isn’t really what happens (as most who have done it recently will tell you, the emphasis has been squarely on it as a ‘conditioning’ session with a strength block rather than the other way around) BUT that is the perception…sure, there is a 15-minute period in each class where some people pile on the plates, but…

Third – it has been taking away from TANKS.  Tanks IS designed to be a specific S+C class with a strong strength focus…done in SMALL GROUPS so that trainer interaction is high.  But there is a lot of overlap between TANKS and Body Work these days…and they are on different programming cycles – which means if someone was to do BW on a Monday, it might compromise their ability to fully participate in TANKS the next day.  Which clearly isn’t the idea.

So Body Work is going ‘BACK to the FUTURE’.

Body Work - Back to the Future

Well.  Kind of. Because the whole premise of ‘Back to the Future’ was that he accidentally went back in time and was trying to get BACK to (I think) 1985…which was the future.  We actually just want to take Body Work back to what it once was.  Which raises the question of course…what WAS it?

It was – and will again be – an interval based OR circuit based class featuring body weight exercises, cardio efforts and ‘simple’ barbell/kettlebell/dumbbell/med ball work.  You will be able to complete a Body Work session without having to ‘make up’ your own barbell…the ‘circuit bars’ will be more than enough.  Of course, if you feel the need to ‘rack up’ and go heavier, I am sure that will be fine.  If you look at the picture below, you will be able to see one of the upcoming Body Work sessions.

Body Work - Sample Session Plan

So – to sum all of this up, Body Work is going to be quite different from tomorrow onwards.  The class will be a ‘simpler’ session with much less emphasis on heavy lifting and will instead be all about moving between (relatively) high-rep/low weight strength work, traditional cardio work (rowers, bikes, skis etc), body weight exercises (pushups, squats, burpees, inch worms) and core activities.  The changes have been made to make the class more accessible/less intimidating to people who want to give it a try…one thing that WONT change is that it will still be based around a 6-week plan, where the session that runs this coming Thursday, will then run again the Wednesday after then again on the Tuesday after that (and so on…).

The ‘heavy lifting’ stuff will be retained in the TANKS sessions and I would encourage anyone who finds they are ‘missing’ the recently departed style of Body Work sessions OR who just wants to get stronger/really challenge their fitness levels to give these (TANKS) a try.

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.