Oxygen Health & Fitness

Prepare for the worst case scenario with the best Kiama Fitness Community

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Got some Monday Motivation for ya.

Nervous times across society continue. Questions are starting to be asked in all areas including Gyms, viruses, safety and it’s perfectly normal to be asking those questions.

People have asked me…

“what will you do if this happens”

“what will you do if that happens”

“How will you bla bla bla”

Whoa back up.

A LOT of thought goes into the very fine details of Oxygen Health & Fitness.

We’re very proud of the way we’ve able to adapt to some pretty significant challenges over the past 11 years almost.

Here’s how we handle this current challenge…

Prepare for the worst case scenario.

What’s the worse case scenario for Oxygen in these uncertain times?

We close.

Forever.

Like millions of other small businesses across Australia that are hurting and nervously anticipating Thursday’s Government announcement re JobKeeper stimulus etc etc etc.

What can we do to avoid that worst-case scenario?

Give the second half of 2020 our very best effort. 

That means taking action on projects we’ve stalled on. It means marketing ourselves better and growing our database of cool, Kiama people who are interested in staying fit, healthy & active in the beautiful town of Kiama. It means following up with prospects better and closing sales with people who are a great fit for our business.

Ok what if it isn’t worst-case scenario?

Like we close, for a while.

We closed down for the first time in 10 years (outside of Xmas holidays) this year and handled it superbly. I never thought after all the obstacles I have faced in setting up the business from a failed business partnership, to being ripped off by 2 former employees, to having the Department of Planning and Kiama Council try really hard to not let us open a Facility…

I never thought a bloody virus would shut me down.

It did though, and we handled it superbly as I mentioned. We were able to lend all our equipment out to our valued Members, with each one receiving a Barbell with Weights, a Set of Dumbbells, a Bench or Ball, A Conditioning tool and a Novelty item. Then we launched Oxygen Online Fitness Training in Kiama and Zoomed 3 times a day for two Months and created an awesome experience for our Members when billions of people were stuck at home with nothing, no equipment and no motivation.

Now that I’ve also made the commitment to re-launch Kiama Boot camp come Spring 2020, I’m doing heaps more Outdoor Training Sessions in Kiama already and really lookin forward to the months ahead.

Between these 2 options, Oxygen Online (Zoom @ Home) and Oxygen Outdoors, we have the best fitness community in Kiama covered.

We’re currently at the end of a 5 year Lease here at Oxygen Health & Fitness.

This business has been my life for over a Decade and I’d hate to see it end.

But none of us know what tomorrow will bring so all I can do is give it a red hot crack for the rest of 2020 and say I did my best. I may do that and still have to close along with millions of other small businesses around the world. I ain’t goin down without a fight though.

If Oxygen had to close, I could walk away content that I gave it my best shot for over a decade. I’m at least preparing myself for a shift within the Fitness Industry by studying for my Certificate 4 in Training & Assessment here in town at Kiama Community College and also my Graduate Certificate of Strength & Conditioning at Uni of Wollongong.

Here’s a recent Indoor/Outdoor combo I did with my Firies mates from Kiama Fire Station 346:

 

 

 

BossWomen – an inspiring Kiama Fitness Community

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Last Friday I surprised a group of ladies from Oxygen Health & Fitness with a session a little out of the box. 

It’s been a big few months for everybody and thanks to a loyal bunch of clients, Oxygenfitnesskiama was able to not only survive through the pandemic, but thrive, and these ladies were front row & centre in showing their support.

So we got out of the gym for something different.

I promised them coffee, so that was an easy sell, but then we got in our cars and set off for a little adventure.

The result was an awesome morning and the creation of a great new community.

BossWomen is a group of ladies from Oxygen Health & Fitness, a Kiama Fitness Community famous for hard work. They’re managerial mummas, they’re ladies of leadership, and they’re bloody inspiring.

Here’s a little bit of Monday motivation…

Oxygen TV – the launch of Kiama Fitness

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Today on Oxygen TV, Dave is here with the Weekly Wrap to discuss all things Oxygen Health & Fitness. Topics covered today include:

  • Winter in Kiama
  • The launch of Kiama Fitness
  • 2 new shows in the works for Oxygen TV
  • Tactical fitness
  • BossWomen of Kiama

Join our Free Facebook Group – Kiama Fitness

As Kiama’s first and largest Boot Camp, as organisers of Australia’s Toughest Fun Run, to now running an award winning fitness facility in a professional Allied Health partnership, we know Kiama because we’ve been doing fitness all over this town running our business for 10 years now.

And on the topic of business, we really help small business owners well. We’re great at helping Boss Women, managerial mummas and ladies in leadership. If you’re a local first responder, we already train Firies, Police, Nurses, Lifeguards, if you’re a local level sports athlete follow along with the show Tactical, see the different types sessions and how anyone in Kiama can replicate us.

Tactical is the diary of 3 Local Firies taking on tactical training sessions designed by Kiama’s Outdoor Training Specialists @Oxygenfitnesskiama via a 4th slightly older Firie and Member of Oxygen who will video their journey via Elev8 aerial images

These 4 Retained Firefighters who collectively notched over 100 days of bush fire fighting last Summer, will keep watch over every area of this town on a mission to be at their best for themselves & their families but also the safety of this town.

Along the way you’ll discover areas of Kiama and surrounds we’ve already trained in and we’ll take it up a notch. Its all part of the Spring 2020 re launch of Kiama Boot Camp.

If you like what you see in this group and you want to get involved training outdoors, or indoors, great we’re here to help.

You’ll also hear about an inspiring group of BossWomen who are leading the way in the Kiama community in general. These images are brought to you via NEG Photography.

Oxygen’s always had FitChicks, our female training standards to aim for, and and our guys equivalent Spartan Training Club. They’re Measures of excellent fitness. Now we have BossWomen overseeing them, Tactical overseeing everyone and Oxygen overseeing them all.

Oxygen Health & Fitness is our business but there is so much great value and free information we can give to the people of Kiama.

You’re about to experience all the great ways to stay fit, active and healthy in the great town of Kiama. Strap in.

*Boot Camp
*Strength Training
*Bodyweight Training
*Interval Runs
*Boxing Sessions
*Sports
*Walks
*Beach Sessions
*Games
*Relaxation
*Floatation
*Massage
*Golf Courses
*Kids Fitness
*Food
*Drink
*Stayz
*Weekend Retreats
*Local Road Trips
*Home Gym Packages
*Zoom @ home Sessions

Oxygenfitnesskiama 2019 Year in Review – Part 2

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In case you missed Part 1 of our 2019 Year in Review, click here.

Jul/Aug/Sep

Training & Testing

The July Program was a great chance to practice all the things we challenge you with in Testing Week. Some Heavy 5 Rep, then 4 Rep, 3 Rep, 2 Rep Sets.

It was all about getting some practice in to nail your technique and prepare as best as possible to perform when you needed to for Testing Week. 

Here was some of our feedback and tips for testing Week criteria:

SQUATS

  1. Pull the bar down hard to activate your Lats.
  2. Hit a parallel depth (or lower) every Rep.
  3. Push those knees out as you stand back up.

DEADLIFTS

  1. Activate your Lats to minimize a rounded back.
  2. Push your lower body & pull your upper body.
  3. Lock it out at the top for 2 seconds to complete.

BENCH PRESS

  1. Line it up over your lower chest BEFORE lowering.
  2. Gently squash bar into your chest, don’t bounce it.
  3. Stay as tight as possible whilst pushing back up.

PUSH UPS

  1. Move AFTER the metronome beep.
  2. Lead with the CHEST, not the head.
  3. Hit full depth every Rep.

PULL UPS

  1. Pull from your arm pits to activate Lats.
  2. Stay tight and don’t kip/bounce/have an epileptic fit.
  3. Extend your arms fully every Rep.

PLANK

  1. Get tight (Glutes/Quads/Lats/Guts).
  2. Stay tight (Glutes/Quads/Lats/Guts).
  3. Shout out when you think you’re done (you’re not).

ROWER

  1. Push hard with the legs.
  2. Extend back with the hips.
  3. THEN pull with your upper body.

RESULTS

We 100% guarantee when you get better at all the above exercises you will transform your body.The catch is that you get better at these exercises when:

  1. you do them consistently
  2. you execute great technique
  3. (and this is the clincher) you eat well consistently. This includes fueling your body well in the lead up so you perform better and eating a great post workout meal and consuming nutrients that help your body repair, regenerate and recover.

Winter Warrior Challenge

The Winter Warrior concept was designed waaaay back in about 2012. Winter typically being colder & darker makes it one of the toughest periods of the Year to keep people motivated. So we’ve been coming up with different ways to hold people accountable (there’s that word again) by tracking attendance, running different challenges and most of the time, pumping out some good hard workouts.

2019’s Winter Warrior Program kicked off this week and it fits the bill.

The Long Rest Breaks from our July Program have well and truly disappeared. The Heavy Weights we were using too.

Now it’s more about Moderate Weights (which still feel pretty heavy the way this Program is structured) and Incomplete Rest Breaks.

Each Minute on the Minute, bang, we’re doing something. Sometimes two things.

It’s tough, but every Program here is challenging in it’s own way. Every Program is as hard as you make it.

Some people love the Heavy stuff with Long Rest Breaks.

Others love this non stop high heart rate style Sessions more.

You can’t do either type of Program all the time. It’s called Periodisation. It means splitting your Year up into Phases of High Intensity/Lower Volume, Lower Intensity/Higher Volume etc so that you can keep forcing your body to adapt, allow your body to recover and continue making progress. It’s the sciency-shit.

Oh one last thing, if you thought the mid-week Sessions were tough, just wait for Saturday. Each week from now until the end of Winter (yes it’s not that far away) we’ll be hitting the Ladder of Death. Check out the Video below for an idea of the 300 Workout.

Oxygen HQ 4th Anniversary

We celebrated our 4th Anniversary at Oxygen HQ in August and we sent out some info in the Mail regarding a Membership Sale we were having to celebrate. We always celebrate the milestone moments because running a small business is hard work and the statistics out there on how many businesses fail and close their doors are scary.

In many ways a fitness business could be one of the most time consuming ones there is. Very early starts and late finishes are the norm and that’s just the Session times. Then you’ve got all the hours in between to actually run, manage and grow the business. It was a proud moment 4 years earlier when Kiama MP Gareth Ward officially opened our Kiama Gym.

So why were we having a Sale?

An important and sometimes uncomfortable part of running a business is the conversation around raising prices. It’s smart & common practice to commit to raising prices in small increments on a regular basis. It’s also smart to make sure you deliver a ton of value to justify the price rise. The purpose of a business is to be profitable, not charitable and sometimes this is forgotten. According to our Accountant, we needed to be more profitable to ensure we can deliver a high quality service, re-invest in our continued growth and pay our Staff accordingly. So we raised our Prices.

Some may argue that Oxygen is already more expensive than other Gyms around, why should we pay more? Don’t compare us to Gyms. With a gym you pay for access to the building. That’s it. Some might offer classes like boxing or abs/bums/thighs etc which is generic, cookie cutter for everyone. Don’t compare us to a Gym, compare us to working with a Personal Trainer. I myself did PT over 15 years ago and even back then would charge $50/hour. So by the time you’ve trained 3 times per week you’re looking at $150 per week. The way Oxygen is structured you have a Program that’s based around your Goals, you train with a Coach every day, plus a motivated group of people and you can do that as many times per week as you want for anywhere from $25-$90 per week depending on which options you go with.

Why the changes in Memberships?

Every year we review our Membership & Service offerings to see what’s working well and what needs improvement. All Members get Unlimited Access to the Gym, but some Members are more experienced than others and so different levels of Membership are available to reflect that. Clients can earn discounts for improving their performance by way of a Challenge. But this also involves a Penalty if they can’t live up to the expectations.

Some Members require more help with other areas of their health whilst some don’t need it as much. Some of us have lots to learn, others know what they need to do but require more discipline or accountability to actually apply what they know. So different Memberships offerings are necessary.

Oct/Nov/Dec

Oxygen Challenge Week Series 19

Series 19 was not only the biggest we’ve ever run, it was also one of the best.

We had a couple of Members who’ve been around the block and done a few Challenge Weeks, and also a few Oxygen Veterans that have done over 14 Challenge Weeks and commented how much they enjoyed this latest Series. Well, enjoyed might not be the word but you know what I mean.

On top of the enjoyment factor, attendance numbers were at an all time high. Prior to last week, the biggest Session we had ever run here at Oxygen HQ was 36 people for a Winter Warrior Session. Last week we had 38, 39, 40, 41 and a record 43 people at one particular session. We had a Warm Up routine that was used all week which was 8 Stations of 4 people, or 32 people total. One Session early in the week I looked at the number of people in the room and figured we’d have to make it 5 people per station. That still wasn’t enough so it became 6 people per station and eventually we were able to fit everyone in because that particular set-up would fit 48!

The attendance numbers seemed to be fairly evenly spread through the week too which made for a great contest between the 4 Teams and an awesome vibe as everyone battled it out across the 10 Sessions.

Green broke out to the early lead, then Yellow made a statement that night winning everything on offer at Session 2. Blue won Session 3, then Yellow the 4th, Green the 5th, Red the 6th, Green the 7th, Yellow the 8th, then Blue won the 9th mid week Session on Friday morning to be tied with Yellow going into the Finale.

Yellow then simply dominated the Finale & surged to a big lead to win Challenge Week Series 19.

Yellow veterans Kat Hayward, Leanne, Jamie & Jess Williams were there a lot, Dean & Jess Alaban attended heaps too and Dean managed to refer one of his employees a new guy Matt Le who was more than helpful. That sort of horsepower together with the Smith boys Ryan & Tyler and Ben Hayward made for a strong Team. Steph Reid fitted in a few Sessions before her Wedding preparations on the Saturday. Then you throw in a returning Yellow Lynley Coles who did Oxygen many years back and knows what Challenge Week is all about. But it was a new kid on the block, Michelle East, who many refer to as Mighty Mouse, who ultimately took out the honours for Yellow MVP after really embracing the concept of Challenge Week, turning up morning & night and showing her worth to the Team.

Other notable mentions must go out to Blue MVP Kylie Strong who only got out of a boot from a broken leg on Monday and turned up to heaps of Sessions and fought hard. Green’s MVP was Melissa Stewart who smashed it out for 9/10 Sessions despite juggling 2 kids and a husband with a busy work schedule. Red’s MVP was the hard-working Faye Worner who I believe did every session despite some recent injury troubles abut it’s unsure whether she has a job to go back to this week as the CEO of the busy Waminda Women’s Health Corporation.

Congrats to Yellow, all our MVP’s and everyone who participated in another very challenging week.

Member of the Year Awards

Over a delicious 3 Course Menu at Olive & Vine Restaurant, we held the 2019 Oxygen Member of the Year Awards on Saturday Night. It started with the Challenge Week Presentation and soon after we moved on to the first of our Awards.

The Rookie of the Year is someone who has only joined in the past 12 months since the last Awards Night and who shows a lot of promise. They’ve got to show potential with a Barbell, pump out some solid reps with their Body Weight, have a bit of ticker and just generally be a nice friendly person. Kylie Falconer certainly fits that bill and we’re stoked to have her around.

The Mums Gone Strong Award recognises a special Woman who has juggled the tasks of motherhood with an equally strong commitment to training to be at their best for their family. With a busy full time job, a 3 year old daughter and a hubby who worked in Sydney, Katherine Faulkner was driving down daily from Bellambi earlier in the year. She’d not been getting the results she liked from her Anytime Fitness membership and upon seeing her mate Nic Smith’s progress, decided to join. Since then she’s “found her tribe” in her own words, referred her Husband Tim and trained through her second Pregnancy to deliver a healthy baby boy Axel.

The FitChick & Spartan of the Year again have to be strong with a Barbell, good with their Body Weight and just an asset to have at training. They’ve sometimes been at it for not only 12 months but a couple of years before they make some solid progress. This year’s recipients were exactly that, with Jess Alaban and Liam Sheridan showing some great consistency over the past few years at Oxygen before they made some real breakthroughs in 2019.

Our Kings & Queens of Conditioning went to Nardia Guillaumier and Ryan Smith because simply, it doesn’t matter what task you give them, they’re gunna be hard to beat. They have awesome aerobic capacity and although it sounds like the same thing, they have ticker. What that means they keep going, and show perseverance when the going gets tough.

Our ultimate gong, the Member of the Year, went to Kyla Reeves. Kyla started Oxygen in February 2018. She had little gym experience and came to us looking to regain her health after the birth of her little girl Bowie. She became a popular Member and a great ambassador for our Mums Gone Strong movement in 2018. Earlier this year she discovered she was pregnant with Twins and committed to being as strong and healthy as she could be to deliver two healthy babies into the world. And that she did, becoming one of our most consistent members training up to 35 weeks pregnant and delivering 2 beautiful babies Kyuss and Elke.

She recently completed her comeback from Twin pregnancy by attending our Challenge week Finale as her return to training. An inspirational training partner and beautiful person inside and out.

Well done Kyla and congratulations to all our Award Winners from 2019!

Oxygen’s 10th Birthday!

Oxygen Health & Fitness first started today 10 years on October 11th 2009. Thank you to everyone who has played a part in getting us to where we are today, none more so than Jade, Jan & Mal Lambert. Here‘s a selection of highlights from 10 Years as Kiama’s Best Fitness Business.

Programming is what we do best

 I hate it when fitness “gurus” on Instagram etc use that word – Program – when they constantly show ever changing workouts with exercise variations different to yesterday, exercises they just plain made up and workouts that just make no sense whatsoever. Ahh that’s not a Program love, that’s rubbish. See examples like Alexia Clark, KaisaFit etc.

A Program is something a Coach designs to provide a new stimulus to the body, then a period to adapt & compensate and then some time to allow improvement. if you constantly change the workouts & exercises you’ll never know if you’re improving and there’s a fair chance you’ll perform an exercise one day that you’re not accustomed to and perhaps with less than optimum technique you might even injure yourself.

A lot of people think they need to “change it up” to “keep the body guessing“. Some people do it because their attention span is waaaaay too short and they often don’t have very clear goals so it never really matters too much. Think about it, let’s say your child takes guitar lessons and they’re getting a bit bored. When questioned they respond that they still really like guitar and they want to be in a famous rock band one day. Would you say that it’s ok because they’re bored this week that they can switch over and do piano lessons? Of course not. It might keep them interested this week but what purpose does it serve?

A lot of fitness professionals use variety too often because they fear their clients will get bored and lose interest. I myself did this a lot in the beginning of my career in the early 2000’s and used to pride myself on the fact that one client I trained never did the same workout twice in a row for over 2 years. He enjoyed it and he was a client for many years but during this time it was really hard to gauge whether he had really improved much.

Since then I’ve looked at what the best Coaches across the industry do and they create Programs usually based around 5 or 6 Main movement patterns and they get better at them over time. There is variety but not as much as most people think. Programs can be anywhere from 4-16 Weeks depending on a number of factors but for us, in this Group environment, we’ve found 4 Weeks allows a long enough period of time for some small improvements but a short enough timeframe so that people don’t get bored. You need some continuity to make the technical improvements required to then be both competent and confident with more weight or reps.

This Kiama Fitness Business already has the entire Year of Programming mapped out for 2020 with a number of 4 Week Programs, Testing Weeks, Challenge Weeks, Target Weeks, Boot Camps, the Oxygen Olympics and the first of what we hope will be some successful In-House Competitions. There’s plenty to look forward to next year so if you’re keen to be part of it or know someone who should, send here to the New Year’s Revolution Challenge.

Happy New Year!

Oxygenfitnesskiama 2019 Year in Review – Part 1

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One of the Highlights of my Year is sending out the Oxygenfitnesskiama Yearly Wrap as it’s great to go back and reminisce over everything that has happened in the past 12 Months. I’d encourage you to do the same in your life as there is undoubtedly things you’ll have forgotten about and it’s great just to review what lessons you might have learnt and what things you have to be grateful for. It takes a while to compile but it’s always worth it and it helps give you an attitude of gratitude. 

Thanks to everyone who contributes to making Oxygen Health & Fitness – Kiama’s Best Gym.

Here’s our 2019 Year in Review:

Jan/Feb/Mar

New Year’s Revolution Challenge

The New Year‘s Revolution Challenge of 2019 was a 4 Week Program Block that kick started our year. Though Testing Week is nothing new to us here at Oxygen, it was advertised as a Program that focused on strength and helps establish a base for us to launch into the rest of 2019. This is opposed to typical New Year‘s Resolutions that start like a bat out of hell, with no real plan in mind other than lots of cardio and restrictive diets. The research shows that by February 40% of New Year‘s Resolutioners have already quit! By 6 Months it’s 60% and by year end it’s 90%!
 
We kicked off with Week 1 which got everyone alternating days of Barbell Lifts and Body Weight Conditioning. The idea was to start with a comfortable weight you can manage for 5 Reps, then as you progress through the Sets and your body adjusts to the technical aspects of each Lift, you add weight to challenge yourself. This is only if your technique looks good. If you hit a parallel Squat. If you touch that Bench Press bar to your chest each time. If you keep that full body tension pretty well. 
 
The Body Weight Sessions kicked off with Core work, aka Plank practice, and holy dooly 30 seconds may as well have been 30 minutes. Next up, a bit of Power work to fire up those fast-twitch fibres and then it was onto some Sub Maximal Tests for Body Weight Exercises like Push Ups and Pull ups mixed in with some other lower body movements to keep the heart rate up. They wrapped up with a stint on the Rowers and it appeared we’d all become pack-a-day smokers over the Xmas break, or at least that’s how a few people reacted (including me).
 
Freestyle Friday was a chance for people to come in and work on 1 or 2 Lifts, a few Accessory Exercises or whatever the hell they wanted really. Our Members always enjoy getting stuck into it on Fridays.
 
Weekend Warrior, which has always been the most popular Session in our week, was a typical Saturday slog. We hit some Power work first up to get the body fired up and then mixed in a heap of Strength Exercises with minimal Rest which made for an intense Cardiovascular effect despite the fact we were lifting Weights.
 
And I guess that’s the REVOLUTIONARY part of the whole New Year’s Revolution Challenge. It’s about making strength your foundation, not cardio. It’s about fueling your body with more food, not less. It’s about the weight on the bar, not the weight on the scales. It’s just about being more, not less.
 
If you’re sick of the same old New Year’s Resolution bull$hit, gettin out and goin for a jog, boring cardio, restrictive diets, joining a new gym (cos it’s 24 hours and THAT’s what you’ve been missing all this time), going to the same gym (and convincing yourself you’ll be disciplined this year), telling yourself you know what to do you just have to do it (despite the fact that you’ve been telling yourself the same thing for years and never actually done it), if you’re tired of all that and you need the expertise of a Coach and the accountability of a Group of like minded people, join the 2020 New Year’s Revolution for just $197. Register Now, it starts Monday 6th January.
 

Kiama Precision Nutrition Coaching

For those of our Members looking for some extra guidance with their Nutrition in 2019, we followed a Precision Nutrition approach to focus on ONE HABIT AT A TIME.

PN have a detailed Curriculum which we delve into with our VIP Membership but a similar approach anyone can take is to follow our FORTNIGHTLY HABIT & WEEKLY CHALLENGE.

There’s a certain level of accountability to “proving” what you eat versus “telling” us what you eat.

There were times when it may have be a pain in the ass and you did’t feel like playing along. No probs, we all go through dips in motivation throughout the Year.

What I can tell you though is those who have had the BEST RESULTS at Oxygen over the past 10 Years have proven to us on a regular basis what they’re eating.

So we kicked off 2019 with the HABIT to Eat Protein @ every Meal

The WEEKLY CHALLENGE was show us a Photo of Breaky, Lunch and Dinner and name the Protein.

Each Fortnight throughout the Year the HABIT changed, each week it was either Breaky/Lunch?Dinner or Snacks. Everyone kept each other accountable by posting their Photos in our Precision Nutrition Facebook group here.

Testing Done, Goals Set

Our first Testing Week of 2019 has come and gone and although I love all of these Quarterly Events (we do Testing in Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) the January one is my favourite.

One of the reasons why, is because it usually results in a big shift in mindset. The kind that can lead to big breakthroughs. It involves having to swallow your pride a bit and hold a mirror up to yourself. Why aren’t my results as good as I’d like? How come I’m not as strong as before? Why does everything feel so difficult?

Drumroll……. You’re not in shape. Although technically round is a shape 🙂

There are a few exceptions, but a LOT of people (me included) ate too much, drank too much and weren’t as active during the holidays.

I can already hear a few people saying “but I was actually pretty good bla bla”. Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t. But pretty good ain’t gunna get you to where you want to go and so the mindset fork in the road is here.

Is what I’m doing going to get me to where I want to go? No.

Is what I was doing through the back half of last year going to get me there. No.

Are my Goals something I want bad enough? Yes.

What am I willing to change/sacrifice in order to get closer to my Goals?

For most of us, it’s not that we aren’t working hard enough. For most of us, it’s not that we need to attend more sessions. For most of us, it’s not that we need more exercises or advanced techniques.

For most of us, it’s NOT staying focused on the Goals we set for ourselves.

For most of us, we don’t stay focused and then make poor nutrition choices.

If you ask yourself those questions and you’re not quite prepared to do what it takes, that’s ok too. We all go through dips in motivation. But at some point you have to snap yourself out of a funk, get serious about what you want and make a plan to do it.

Then every 3 Months throughout the Year, we’ll gauge your improvement with Testing Week to see how much you’ve imp[roved at a range of skills. We guarantee if you get better at these performance skills, your physique will change as a by-product.

Winners are grinners

On a very hot Autumn afternoon in March, Oxygen Mixed Touch Footy Team played 3 Games and took out the B Grade Premiership. It was a great effort in the conditions and also considering we had a really disjointed Season with people constantly away, 3 Forfeits, 3 cancellations and a few other hiccups. We played awesome all day and strung together some awesome Team Tries resulting in every Player getting a try during the Season and avoiding the dreaded Nudie Run. We’ve had a Team in the Jamberoo Comp for almost 10 Years and at one point we lost about 10 A Grade Grand Finals so it’s nice when you actually win one, even if it is B Grade. Well done Team!

Willo’s know how to party

In March we celebrated the belated 50th Birthday bash for long time Oxygen supporters Leanne & Jamie Williams. They both turned 50 late last year but couldn’t find a time in their busy schedules to fit in a party but the Kiama community knew that was never going to stop the celebrations.

The theme was 70’s and everyone made the effort to dress up for an awesome night at Casa de Williams. They have a lovely home, there was a sensational dance floor, it was catered with delicious food and there was plenty of different drinks to keep the crowd entertained.

Well done Willo‘s and thanks for a great night!

Apr/May/Jun

Firefighter Training begins

I took off for Wellington, about 6 hours west of Kiama for the week doing Phase 1 of my Retained Firefighter’s Training Course before heading out again a few weeks later for Phase 2. I was a bit frustrated to miss 2 weeks of training after a really good start to the year but I still got some good workouts in and definitely sweated. Having not lifted a weight for 2 weeks. I got straight back to training when I got back and wow, it was a struggle.

I was active with the Firefighter training but it’s not the same thing. They did feed us enough food but it’s not how I normally eat and it was a bit low in protein. Combined with the heat from Wellington temperatures, the heat from wearing the Helmet, Breathing Apparatus, Firefighter Turn-out Gear and also being in an 800 degree shipping container I did lose a few kilos. With a lower protein diet, some of that will certainly be muscle. The way I struggled with my strength training, no doubts about it.

I had been on a such a roll too through Jan/Feb/Mar so naturally I was a bit disappointed that it felt so difficult. But there’s nothing I could do about it other than to pick myself back up and get back into it. I had to just to accept it as a small hiccup in my progress.

All this led to me chatting with Joy after that week of training. She noticed I was struggling and we got to talking about how tough it must be for people who constantly miss training. Here for one week, then they miss the next. Here for 4 sessions the following week, one session the week after.

Everyone’s got their own reasons why we need to miss training here & there. That’s life.

But if you’re doing this consistently you’re seriously not prioritizing your training. It’s not important enough to you.

And with that sort of sporadic attendance you will NEVER see results.

I’m sorry if that’s confronting but we can’t sugarcoat that to you.

Strength is the foundation of every meaningful fitness goal.

Progressions in strength take time. Not stacks of time but time nonetheless.

But they are still worth it.

If you’re haphazard with attendance, these progressions are so much harder.

The message from your Kiama Personal Trainers was to stay consistent. Attending anything less than 3 sessions per week is not enough.

If your schedule allows it, aim to exercise daily. Oxygen is open 6 days per week and not everyone can attend Saturday so that may only mean 5 days availability for some people. But you need to overestimate how many times you will exercise because inevitably life will get in the way.

Let’s check out a real example I’ve gone over with a client before.

You intend to come 3 x week and those days are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Monday is out by choice. Tuesday you get held up at work so you miss training. Wednesday you again choose not to come. Some bull$hit about hump day and needing to relax at home after work (with a glass of wine). Thursday you get to training, tick. Friday rolls around and you’re exhausted from the work week and running the kid around so you decide to skip training and tell yourself you’ll get up early (when you normally don’t) for the 7am Saturday Session. But you inevitably sleep in and so a week has disappeared and you’ve only managed to get here once.

Over the weekend, Saturday arvo comes around and you’re invited by friends to head out for a Dinner & a few drinks that night. This of course takes much more effort to get ready for a night out than to just get you daggy gym wear with messed up hair and no shower after work but, you manage. You order a Burger & Chips, knock off 5-10 drinks and although you’re not hungover the next morning, crave a greasy breakfast, so you indulge again. And you managed all that last night with minimal notice, you just moved your plans around to fit it in. You prioritized it.

That same level of priority needs to go into your mid week routine if you want results that last.

Challenge Week Series 18

We completed the 18th Series of our International Award-Winning Team Fitness Event, Oxygen Challenge Week during April. Over the course of 1 Week we challenged you to attend as many of the 10 Sessions on offer that week to earn points for your Team. Within each Session we used Barbells, Dumbbells, Rowers, Battle Ropes, Body weight & more in all sorts of different combinations.

Everyone battled soreness, tiredness, laziness and the odd bit of grumpiness to keep rising to the challenge for their Team.

The Finale coincided with my 37th Birthday and so we battled through a heap of 37 second Stations which proved tough. Just when a few people thought it was over we had to endure 37 Sled Laps…each! That took some time but we got there in the end and as usual, survived. Just.

At the end of week Presentation Night, Team Blue were awarded the Challenge Week Cup as the Winning Team. This was especially well deserved as they hadn’t won the Cup since Series 11 but had finished Runners Up many, many times. Special mention to Kraig Crowther who, after a lean few months leading up to Challenge Week, turned up to 8 Sessions and was crowned MVP.

Congrats Blues!

Festival of Sport

We kicked off the Oxygen Festival of Sport with an awesome game of Foot Golf out at Jamberoo. It was great to see so many people there having some fun and giving it a go. There were some great kicks, a few shocking mis-hits and plenty of laughs as well. That’s what it’s all about and that’s why we created a schedule with a different Sport or Activity on every week for the rest of the year!
 
The following week we took on a different challenge for our usual Weekend Warrior Session, tackling the 6km stretch from Kiama to Gerringong on the Kiama Coastal Track. It was such a beautiful morning for it, no wind, not too hot, not too cold, juuuuust right! The dozen or so Oxy Members who did it were glad they made the effort and a little surprised at how beneficial walking can be to their physical & mental health.
 
Throughout the Year, some events were popular, others not so much but we enjoyed challenging ourselves in different ways and having a bit of fun along the way. Tennis, Cricket, Squash, Soccer, Boxing, Touch Footy were all good fun. Keep an eye out in 2020 for historically one of the highlights of the Year, the Oxygen Olympics to coincide with Tokyo 2020.

Click here for Part 2

Oxygenfitnesskiama 2018 Year in Review – Part 2

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In case you missed Part 1 of our 2018 Year in Review, click here.

Jul/Aug/Sept

Precision Nutrition Coaching

Since 2012 when we first started offering Precision Nutrition Coaching in Kiama, we’ve delivered the info via Workshops, One on One Sessions, Group Sessions, Online Lessons, Food Diaries, Facebook posts and more. They’ve all had varying degrees of success but now we’ve got a Program where we keep you on track every day via Precision Nutrition’s successful 1 Year Curriculum

Here‘s one of the many reasons why PN is the world’s leading nutrition coaching company: (PS there are so many Success Stories here you will get sick of scrolling.)

Kicking off in July, was the next 12 Month intake of Precision Nutrition Coaching.

The entire thing is online including the actual learning of what Nutrition & Exercise stuff you need to know, Mindset shifts you need to make, understanding the deep down motivation behind what you want so you can stay on track when things get tough, how to create new habits, everything.

Their system has worked for over 200,000 people across 91 countries. BUT, completely online programs can be hard at times when you want to ask questions, troubleshoot areas you might be struggling with or just gain a deeper understanding of certain topics.

With their latest Program, we work together so Precision Nutrition deliver their world-class curriculum to you, and Oxygen oversees your journey through it. Every day, we get to see whether you did what you were supposed to do or not, what your answers to certain questions were, whether you feel like you’re going well or whether perhaps you’re struggling. We know where you’re supposed to be at any given time and what you should be focused on.

It’s the best of both world’s to have their successful Program and our Coaching to guide you towards better results. It only requires 10-20 minutes of your time each day to stay on track. If that sounds like too much effort you’re probably not in a position to transform right now anyway.

Each Year they give away $250,000 (US) to 10 people with the Best Transformations.

Mums Gone Strong

Throughout the middle part of the year we made a concerted push to attract more Mums into our community. We ran a great Series of Videos called the Super Mum Series which showcased some of the awesome Mums we had here already. This led to us offering our first Mums Gone Strong Makeover, a 4 Week Experience that empowers Mums to be strong inside & out, and boost their confidence. At ethe end of the 4 weeks the most deserving Mum would win an awesome 4 Week Makeover courtesy of the talented Alice Higgs Hairdressing.

We officially got on board with international movement Girls Gone Strong in 2017 after they launched their accreditation program for Pre & Post Natal fitness. My Sister in Law and Oxygen Member Rachel Henry had fallen pregnant with her Son Cooper and so we wanted to make sure she was guided safely through her Pregnancy and beyond. We’ve since guided other Mums through their Pre & Post Natal fitness and it’s become a very supportive community of Mums of all ages.

We’ll definitely be offering the Mums Gone Strong Makeovers again in 2019 as we look to continue building our awesome Mums Gone Strong Kiama community.

Check out the Awesome Super Mum Series Playlist below starting with our very own Coach Joy Briggs!

New Year’s Revolution Winner announced

Earlier this year in February we launched our longest ever Challenge, the New Year’s Revolution. The idea was very different to most fitness noise you see these days with 6 Minute Abs and 4 Week Body Transformation programs (really). This had a long term approach to getting the right Exercise Program in place, learning more about what healthy eating looks like based on your Goals, and realising these things will take time to learn, take even longer to create lasting change, and also that it’s perfectly normal for that to be the case.

Probably not that surprisingly, we didn’t pick up as many people as we would have liked from this marketing campaign, and unfortunately there were a few people who didn’t even finish it. Importantly though, a few Members we did attract and retain have turned out to be some pretty cool people with some great Results to boot.

In the Men’s, us Coaches gave a special mention to long term Member Val Perkovic, who’s progress in the big 3 Main Lifts (Squat/Bench Press/Deadlift) had never looked better or stronger. He also changed his look and shape and he’s generally healthy and happy looking every night he’s at the Gym. After enjoying a great holiday back in his homeland Croatia, Val and his family have since moved to Bondi to launch a great new business called Surf & Fries.

Also in the Men’s a shout out must go to Brian Guillaumier who managed to lose about 5kg and 5% Body Fat, change his body shape and massively improve his strength & fitness. Along the way Brian has worked around niggly injuries but has never let that stop him. He diligently rehabs his shoulder every morning he’s here waiting for his Wife Nardia to finish her session.

Moving onto the Women’s, and that is where we saw the most dramatic transformations.

Kyla Reeves started here in February not knowing anyone and having just had her first Bub, little daughter Bowie. These two have now become regular faces here at Oxygen. Before starting she wasn’t feeling very strong mentally or physically but the confidence she now exudes is very inspiring. She’s completely transformed her body and she’s happier, healthier and stronger in every way.

Ultimately though, the Winner of the New Year’s Revolution Challenge went to Nic Lewis who juggled an awesome Body Transformation with being a New Mum to Lachy, a Full Time Job (which for a number of months was in Sydney), writing some really cool blog posts about motherhood (check out her blog Young Wild Fred), being part of our Oxygen Mixed Touch Footy Team at Jamberoo and just being an all round gym bad-ass.

By demonstrating to us what she was eating on a regular basis, by focusing on improving her performance (getting stronger, faster, better), by making the time for herself, by being consistent and by committing completely, her body has made an awesome transformation. She lost 36cm in Girth Measurements including 6cm from her Chest, 10.5cm from her Upper Arms, 8cm from her Waist, 5cm off her Abs and 5cm from her Hips .Well done Nic, we hope you’re enjoying your awesome Prize Pack valued at almost $5000.

Testing Week #3

Once again Testing Week was upon us. This 1 Week, right in the middle of Winter was Stage 2 of the Winter Warrior Challenge. As usual, we tested the 1 Rep Max on the Squat, Deadlift & Bench Press, Maximum Reps on the Push Up & Pull Up, a 2 Minute Plank and a few different distances on the Rower. Most people chose the 500m and 1km distances. Some did a 2km & 5km as well. A couple of peeps tested the Power Clean. We also had InBody Scans available to test Body Composition.

Congratulations to a number of newbies who did their first Testing Week with us. They didn’t really know what they were in for but I reckon a few people surprised themselves and the support from many of our regular long term Members was awesome.

I predicted a number of PB’s would be broken and I was spot on. There were way too many to mention, and sometimes it wasn’t necessarily the biggest weight that impressed us but a few of the standouts for me were:

  • Squats: Grant Oliver progressed from 120kg-160kg! Jess Alaban was impressive in the Women’s with 85kg.
  • Deadlifts: 145kg from High School student Rowey Worner-Butcher. In the Men’s Tyler Smith shook the earth with 245kg.
  • Bench Press: Shout out to my mate Ryan Smith who has been stuck at 97.5kg since the Middle Ages and broke through finally for his 100kg. Jason Lynch knocked off his goal of 135kg.
  • Metronome Push ups: Joy with 40, Ryan Smith 35, Kev Mikiliewicz 33, Rach Henry 21, Carolynn Mackenzie 17.
  • Pull Ups: Nic Lewis 10, Liam Sheridan 10 after a long term elbow injury,  Nardia 7 after 5 weeks holiday, Carolynn Mackenzie with her FIRST!
  • Rowing: Grant Oliver 3:24.1 for a 1km, Nic Lewis 1:44.1 for a 500m, Jason Lynch 1:32 for a 500m, Ryan Smith 7:20 for a 2km, Geoff McIntyre 19:50 for a 5km on his Birthday!

Well done to everyone for having a go.

Winter Warrior Stage 3 – Shred

The Final installment covered the last 6 Weeks of Winter to carry us into Spring. It had a shift in focus towards, higher intensity via some of our typically classic Oxygen Full Body Strength & Conditioning Sessions. There were New Programs for both Fat Loss & Hypertrophy and Nutrition guidelines to match. In previous Programs we’ve offered 3 choices, with Strength being the 3rd option. What we’d figured out by this stage is the best formula throughout the Year will look something like this:

  • Testing (1 Week)
  • Hypertrophy or Fat Loss Program (4-6 Weeks)
  • Strength Program (4-6 Weeks)

Rinse, wash, repeat every 3 Months.

There will of course be other events in there like Challenge Week, the Oxygen Olympics and other Novelty Weeks to break up our year, but generally this format works best.

This is something called Periodisation. It’s a technique athletes, and weightlifters have used for decades but is equally if not more important for everyday people like you and I. The reason I say this is because, we have no major competition we’re planning for, no ultimate deadline we’re working towards, we’ve also got jobs and other responsibilities and we’re usually less motivated or talented than these professional athletes.

All that adds up to periods of our life where we’ll often be super motivated but also times when it all seems a bit too much. If there’s no plan towards your training then it’s harder to stay motivated and easier to fall completely off the wagon.

Conversely, if we plan out periods of heavier weights, moderate weights, high volume, recovery weeks, testing & other different challenges, you get to show up knowing we’ve got you covered.

This takes a LOT of planning on our part so rest assured we haven’t just slapped a bunch of random exercises together without thinking about it.

The One Percenters

Towards the end of Winter we put a focus on doing more of the One Percenters. Extra Exercises that everyone could use more work on. Things that’ll help you improve your Squat, Upper Back, Mobility & Shoulder Health.  Stuff you could do if you arrive to a Session early, or you finish early, or you’re freestyling on a Friday.

These sort of things are the One Percenters that make a huge difference towards your Results. Stuff to help you stay strong, stable & injury free. Other things on the list of One Percenters were improved Technique and strategies like Pause Reps and Time under Tension.

Quality over quantity, always. Get it right, squeeze the target muscles properly, and then, if it still feels easy, speed it up.

Look, slowing your weights down, suffering under what already feels like a heavy weight, pause-repping, none of that stuff is as sexy as saying you lifted more weight, I get that.  But you know what also isn’t sexy? Sloppy Reps. Going up in weight when you barely completed the weight you were on.

OWN YOUR REPS.

Members learnt to really dominate a weight by keeping it under control, under tension, for longer. When they could do that, it was time to try a heavier weight. It usually only needed to be the smallest increment too ie an extra 1.25kg on each end of the barbell.

We want you to push yourself we do. But we also want you to be able to keep pushing yourself, for weeks, months and years because that’s what it takes to get the results you’re after.

Oct/Nov/Dec

3 Year Anniversary of Oxygen HQ

This time three years ago we held the Grand Opening of Oxygen HQ with Member for Kiama Gareth Ward cutting the ribbon to officially open Oxygen Health & Fitness. It was great to have Gareth there as he was so helpful in speeding up the process between Kiama Council and Department of Planning. Yes, as much as it took 11 months for us to finally get in, it could have been longer had he not been cracking the whip. Gareth even hung around to push me on the Sled in a pair of jeans and blundstone boots, not an easy task.

On the day we took on a Conditioning Challenge, a seemingly simple short bout of 5 different exercises, all as fast as possible. A 250m Row, 4 x 12m Sled Runs, 2 x 12m Tyre Flips, 50 Battle Ropes and 5 Burpees. How hard could that be? I’ve never seen so much deep wheezing going on.

After that it was an afternoon of Strength Training with our signature Spartan Training Club and Fit Chicks Club sessions. The Olympic Lifting proved to be quite skill oriented for some (a great reminder to anyone struggling with the Power Clean at the moment) and afterwards we finished off with a few killer Tri-Sets that worked the whole body. A great day of training.

5/3/1 Program

For a number of Years now we’ve periodically done a Program called 5-3-1 created by legendary Strength Coach Jim Wendler. The idea is you do a couple of weeks of 5 Rep Sets to groove the right lifting patterns and fine-tune technique, then you up the ante with a Week of heavier 3 Rep Sets and then a Week where you do a 5 Rep,3 Rep & 1 Rep Set. Some people have asked if we’re trying to find your 1 Rep Max during Testing Week, then why don’t we just practice 1 Rep Sets more often?

It’s a fair question and the simple answer is, it’s just too taxing. The closer you push to your absolute limits, the more often you train to failure, the more fatigue is left in your body and not necessarily physical fatigue.

Your central nervous system (CNS) takes a huge hit on a daily basis from stuff like stress, lack of sleep, tight muscles, hormonal imbalance as well as the extra demands we place on it when lifting heavy weights. When that’s combined with a nutrition approach that’s not completely dialed in, your recovery takes a hit and your CNS suffers.When you repeatedly push your CNS, you’ll find you start to lack energy, drive & motivation and more easily pick up colds, flus & niggly injuries.This wasn’t just some make it up as we go, “this looks pretty cool, let’s give it a try” Program. It was an organised approach to training with heavier weights, learning the required technique and building your confidence leading into our last Testing Week of 2018.

Challenge Week Series 17

Oxygen Health & Fitness first began in October 2009. Since then we’ve hijacked the entire Month, renamed it Oxober and celebrated our Birthday each year in style.

Tuesday 2nd Oxober, it was Testing Week. For the final time in 2018, we tested the Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Pull Ups, Push Ups, Plank & 2 Rowing distances. A few people also tested the Power Clean. It as another great Testing Week with heaps of PBs.

The biggest part of Oxober though has always been Challenge Week, where all our clients split into Four Teams – BLUE, GREEN, RED & YELLOW. Over the course of ONE WEEK participants are put through a barrage of Team & Individual Fitness Challenges to see who can earn the most points and raise the Challenge Week Cup. It’s the fitness equivalent of Winning the Premiership in Sport and it’s our best week of the Year.

We truly appreciate how much effort some of you go to rearranging your normal weekly timetable of commitments, juggling newborn children, toddlers, teenagers and lots of other things to attend as many of our 6am & 6:30pm Sessions during Challenge Week.

We realise that not everyone normally trains at those times but it is just for one week so we can maximise attendance and put on a good show for you all. It just wouldn’t have the same effect if we asked you to do some of those things at an off-peak session of 7 people. It’s all part of the whole rise to the challenge motto.

So Series 17 remained a very close affair all week, with all 4 Teams in the hunt coming into the Finale.GREEN ended up taking out Series 17, which was their first Challenge Week in a while. They led going into the last Session, but then had a huge performance in the Finale to shoot further ahead on the leaderboard. They were short on numbers a few times in the week, but they were helped by a large contingent of guys each night and a couple of hard working chicks. Coach Nath did his first ever full Challenge Week, and was a beast at everything. He single handedly kept Green alive earlier in the week and kept up the morning & night heroics all week as well as organising with Joy and myself. By week’s end, he deserved the MVP and a Sunday sleep in.In the 6 days of Challenge Week, over 4 million kilograms of weight were lifted!!!

Member of the Year Awards

Over a 2 Course Dinner at Silica Restaurant on Surf Beach, we kicked off with some arrival Drinks and Entrees before announcing the Challenge Week Champions. It always sets the tone for a great night of Awards and this Year was no different. Dinner was delicious and topped off a great night with all the awards.

This Year we celebrated our 9th Birthday and I thanked a number of Members for their Long Term Loyalty, I praised a number of people on their dramatic Transformations and I filled a few people in on Oxygen‘s history.

Congratulations to all these Major Award Winners:

These Awards represent those Members who have demonstrated the best Strength, Technique and Performance. Not necessarily the heaviest lift, or most reps, but the best overall package. Most of them were very closely contested.

  • Squats – Joy Briggs & Dave Lambert
  • Deadlift – Rowey Worner Butcher & Tyler Smith
  • Bench Press – Jess Alaban & Jason Lynch
  • Power Clean – Kat Hayward & Myles Bradley
  • Pull Ups – Leanne Williams & Kraig Crowther
  • Push up – Nic Lewis & Kev Mikiliewicz
  • Plank – Kylie Strong & Liam Sheridan
  • Rower – Nardia Guillaumier & Nathan Hore

Spartan of the Year:

  • Jason Lynch

FitChick of the Year:

  • Nardia Guillaumier

Conditioning Queen:

  • Faye Worner

Conditioning King:

  • Ryan Smith

Rookie of the Year:

  • Kyla Reeves

Mums Gone Strong Award

  • Kelly Lynch

Oxygen MVP

  • Joy Briggs

The Member of the Year is something us Coaches get together and discuss in the weeks leading up to the event. A number of factors go into determining this Award and points are allocated for things like Consistency, Results, Attitude, Application, Effort, Referrals and more to determine what sort of asset that person is to have around our community.

The Top 10 Countdown to the Member of the Year was as follows:

10) Kev Mikiliewicz

9) Val Perkovic

8) Leanne Williams

7) Ryan Smith

6) Nardia Guillaumier

5) Jason Lynch

4) Kyla Reeves

3) Kat Hayward

2) Kelly Lynch

1) Nic Lewis

Nic has done it all this Year. Despite living in Albion Park and driving south to  Kiama to train consistently at 6am almost every day, she’d then turn around, head home feed herself, her man Luke and her little man Lachie (who recently turned 1) and then drive to Bankstown for work.

Just to keep that routine up would be worth a round of applause but she has bounced back from one of the longest labours you’ll ever hear about to become stronger & fitter than she’s ever been and transform her body in the process.

And that’s just it, IT IS A PROCESS. She’s followed our advice by turning up consistently, even when she’s tired and not feeling her best. She’s shown us what she eats, consistently sometimes Breakfast, sometimes Lunch sometimes Dinner to give us a snapshot of the other 23 hours a day when we don’t see you guys.

She’s committed to slowly getting better, sometimes by adding weight or reps, but other times by taking it back a notch because you’ve jumped ahead to quick and your form could use improvement.

Nic is already ell accomplished in the Gym but she listens intently every time we’ve got something to say and she applies herself consistently.

To top off a great week from Challenge Week and then winning the Member of the Year, Nic married her best friend Luke Smith on Tuesday at Seacliff House and Joy and I were invited to be there in attendance for the big day. As a side note, Seacliff House is where Jade and I got married in 2016 where Joy was a Bridesmaid so plenty of awesome Oxygen memories have now come out of that place!

2018 Finale Program

We worked hard putting together a Program that was gunna bring home 2018 with a bang and it certainly did. It’s not easy coming up with a Program that suits every Goal, with enough variety to keep things interesting but also enough continuity to be able to gauge some real improvements. We also have to factor in the available equipment, a vast array of experience levels and the general order of exercises in a Session.

At the start of a Program, we sometimes realise what we’ve designed may work well for a small number of people but we often need to make some subtle changes so that the Session flows better for a larger group. It is often hard to predict exactly how many people to expect at any given Timeslot. But we’ve made a few of those subtle changes and I think now we’re set.

Almost the entire Session was on the clock. On the 1 Minute, 2 Minute or 3 Minute Timer for the first half of each Session.

There’s a choice of Power exercises to kickstart your Session and get those Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibres ready for action. Those peeps who’ve been ripping into the Power Clean over the past month now get to continue practicing, only now there’s 4 straight days of it. For those not so interested in that, there’s some other great options so really make those Reps as explosive as possible.

Once those Fast-Twitch Fibres were ready, it was on to the Strength portion of the workout. Monday & Wednesday was Deadlifts, Tuesday & Thursday was Squats, with different workloads each time. The Strength portion of your workout is as slow as your Session gets so appreciate the Rest Breaks and own those Reps.

The next part of your Session was where the Tempo started to rise. Heart Rates started climbing a bit more and the sweat glands starting to work. That’s especially the case on days where the temperature &/or humidity was up.

At around this stage of the Session it’s into the second half of the Hour. This is where you need to think about what’s more important to you: Upper Body, Lower Body or a bit of both. 30 Seconds on & 30 Seconds off for the next 12 minutes. There’s a mix of Body Weight Exercises, Weights & Conditioning during this time and we saw people really going for it.

There were some great Finisher options too after all of that which  drained every ounce of Strength & Effort we had left each Session.

All up, us Coaches were happy with the design, and the feedback across the board was another popular Program to round out another Year of Oxygen Health & Fitness.

Oxygen Team expands

Charli Ava Lambert entered the world Tuesday 4th December at 12:38pm weighing 7lb 2 oz. Jade was induced at about 5:30am and although I’ve seen her complete some tough workouts, I couldn’t have been more proud of what she battled through to produce such a beautiful baby.

She was sucking that gas down like there was no tomorrow and actually tricked me at one point by saying “can you check if this gas is still working?“. So after a couple of little puffs on the gas I was delirious and it made me appreciate what pain she must have been in.

Charli has lots of dark brown hair and big blue eyes. She’s feeding and sleeping very well. Actually she’s feeding outstandingly well. Wonder where she gets that.

She’s got some proud Aunties, Uncles, Grandparents & Cousins. We’re obviously chuffed at our new family Member and slowly adapting to life as Parents. I know things will change. I know we don’t have it sorted by any means. One day you’ve got this parenting thing nailed. The next day you suck. Kinda like any challenge you take on but nothing like it at the same time. We’ll be right.

Oxygenfitnesskiama 2018 Year in Review – Part 1

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One of the Highlights of my Year is sending out the Oxygenfitnesskiama Yearly Wrap as it’s great to go back and reminisce over everything that has happened in the past 12 Months. I’d encourage you to do the same in your life as there is undoubtedly things you’ll have forgotten about and it’s great just to review what lessons you might have learnt and what things you have to be grateful for.

It takes a while to compile but it’s always worth it and it helps give you an attitude of gratitude. You don’t have to write a long Blog Post about it, but maybe like our 2 Time Member of the Year Leanne Williams, you could just write a letter and post it to relatives and friends at Xmas time. I know I really look forward to reading her letter.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to Oxygen Health & Fitness – Kiama’s Best Gym.

Here’s our 2018 Year in Review:

Jan/Feb/Mar

First Program of the Year

A few committed peeps started their 2018 training straight away, like January 2nd. For  only the 3rd time ever, we remained open during the Xmas/New year break and a few people joined us Coaches for a few Sessions. For most Members though, it all resumed January 8th with our 3 Week Back to Basics Program.

The Group Timetable was split into 30 Minute blocks in January with the options to come in for 30, 60 or even 90 Minutes of back to back Sessions. This gave everyone a bit of structure but also some flexibility. That time of year often sees people coming in with one of two mindsets:

  1. no idea what to do except for the fact that they need to burn off their Xmas calories
  2. a way too complicated routine involving advanced supersets, body part splits, intermittent fasting and 2 sessions a day programs of strength in the morning and cardio at night

This Program helped everyone focus on the basics again, re-establish some technique for 2 or 3 Main Lifts and finish with a short bout of Conditioning at the end.

We were setting everyone up for long term success. We knew a lot of people just wanted to get in and smash it out of the park, to get after those Goals. But this Program created something sustainable so they didn’t fall off the wagon come February when that initial motivation tapers off.

After a big wake up call for a few muscle groups in that first week, Week 2 of our Kiama Strength Program was kinder on the body. Getting back into the groove of lifting weights again was great with Members focused predominantly on Technique.

Kicking off that first Set with a manageable weight and really nailing the exercise technique is a great confidence builder. With each corresponding Set we encouraged everyone to add a little bit more weight, only if you are still in control. No ugly grinding Reps. By that 4th or 5th Set everyone was using a challenging weight and finishing off the exercise well.

It put everyone in a good frame of mind leading up to the first Testing Week of 2018  in Week 3.

New Year’s Revolution begins

Body Transformation Challenges are a dime a dozen these days. That’ s not to say it’ s a bad thing there’ s just multiple different options at your disposal and they certainly have become a great way for fitness companies (including ours) to market their services. Obviously you want to check out the Company, their track record of success, how long they’ve been in business and their methods. Plenty of them will get some great looking Before & After Photos but what sort of sustainable Results have they been able to achieve for people in the long term?

People often throw themselves into these 30 Day, 6 week, 10 Week & 12 Week Challenges with excessive Exercise Programs, they drastically reduce Calories, Carbs, Fats etc in a misguided attempt to lose weight and get ripped. It’ s not a sustainable approach and inevitably the fat soon returns and the metabolic damage is severe. This causes yo-yo type effects which people can be stuck in for years. Each failed attempt sapping away at their motivation that they will ever ” get it right”.

In 2018, Oxygen Fitness Kiama had the New Year’s Revolution Challenge with a Long Term Approach to help sustain those hard earned Results.

Challengers got Open Gym Access from 6am-8pm Monday-Friday. They could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted but each week we showed them the Program that full Oxygen Members were doing for best results. We also sent them the Conditioning and Workout of the Week via a Video to show them how it’s done. We created Programs each month for:

  • Strength
  • Muscle Gain
  • Fat Loss

Although it may seem easy to just create a new Program every few Months, a lot of thought has to go into what exercises to include, what exercises pairing work well together, what regressions or progressions can we include, what makes best use of the space, what will work based on the number of Members we expect will attend a given Session and many other factors. Throw in the fact that Programs caters to 3 different types of Goals (Fat Loss, Strength or Hypertrophy) and the variables are massive.

There was also plenty of activity in our Precision Nutrition Coaching group to guide people with healthy eating to meet their Goals. Sometimes we asked them to keep a food diary. Sometimes post a photo. Sometimes both. Sometimes, they were free from that responsibility all week BUT we might ask to see your weekend meals. Ah yes the famous weekend binge.

FitChicks Sessions return

Back in 2013 a brave group of Boot Campers took on my suggestion to try a 6 Week program of lifting heavy weights. We did that outside at Surf Beach in all weather conditions.

5 Years later, it’s transformed our business and with a well equipped Strength & Conditioning Gym, Fit Chicks Club is now our Signature Female Membership.

When we first opened the Gym in 2015 it was female only Sessions (Fit Chicks Club) or Male Only (Spartan Training Club).

Then we made Unisex Strength Sessions in mid 2016. Unisex Strength continued in 2018 but Fit Chicks Club Kiama, women’s only Sessions, made a comeback on the Timetable during February as a few new ladies come in for a 4 Week Intro Program.

The first 30 Minutes of the Session, FitChicks predominantly worked on their Main Lifts geared towards Strength, Fat Loss or Muscle Gain. Then, the second half hour the Coach took those girls off to work closely with them on targeted exercises for specific areas of the body those girls want to improve. It led to the introduction of some great New Members, one of which went on to become our Rookie of the Year (Kyla Reeves).

Community

During my 18 year career in fitness, I’ve been an Independent Sub Contractor doing 80 PT Sessions a week in a Gym, a Sole Trader, a Business Partner, a Boot Camp Trainer for over 250 people at a time, a PT Course provider, a Celebrity Trainer, a Gym Employee and now a Company Director of Oxygen Health & Fitness.

Why I am telling you this is that what I know for sure, is there is so much power in having a Coach take care of this stuff for you. Look at professional athletes. They’re fitter, stronger & faster than most people you’re ever likely to meet. Yet they still have Coaches taking care of this stuff for them. I’m not saying we know it all, but we kinda know a thing or two.

The other important thing I know, and I’ve structured my business accordingly, is Group Training is one of the best ways to achieve Results. Regardless of how experienced you are, training in a group of like minded people pushes you to continually improve yourself. Sure you might have periods of time where you’re focused and motivated but no successful person in any area of life ever got to the top on their own.

Sometimes being in a group of more experienced people is a great way to improve yourself. It forces you to aim up or you can feel like you get left behind.

Other times being in a group of less experienced people is also a great way to improve. You can be more of a leader. You can teach others what you know. You can be a mentor.

Oxygen has always been a great community of friendly personalities. We encourage everyone to get to know your training buddies. Introduce yourself. Ask questions. Encourage someone and give them a yahoo. It adds value to our community and everybody wins in the long run. Conversely, if you stick to yourself, don’t get to know anyone, don’t show much enthusiasm and only worry about yourself, well, that’s doing yourself & others a disservice.

Nutrition Habits

We ran a few different 21 Day Habit Challenges earlier in the Year for those wishing to improve their Nutrition. No huge commitment, and it wasn’t even mandatory, but anyone interested in fat loss or muscle gain benefited from focusing their effort for a few Months with our Kiama Nutrition Coaching.

The Challenge over the first 21 Days was to show the Protein you were eating once per Day. Breakfast one week. Lunches Week 2, and the last Week was Dinners. Those participating were asked to state what they believe was the Lean Protein in each Meal. Simple, but don’t overlook how important simple little things like this are.

Of all the people Precision Nutrition have worked with over the past 15 years (over 200,000 from all over the globe) 85% of them weren’t eating enough Protein. As the most important Macro nutrient, that’s where we started. Just the accountability to keep posting, showing us that you’re living up to your end of the deal is important for long term results.

You can’t make physique changes without changing nutrition habits and if posting a photo is too much work, then changing your body composition might be too. Congratulations to the people who committed to the process and showed great accountability.

It can seem like a waste of time, it can seem a bit tedious, it might annoy your friends, but it’s a simple task that everyone can do because we all have a camera.

It’s one thing to say “I’ve been eating healthy” – prove to me that you ate healthy.

It’s one thing to say, “I didn’t eat that much” prove to everyone what your portion sizes look like.

One of the best parts of this is just the ongoing accountability to keep proving it.

Anyone can be on their best behaviour for a couple of weeks.

That first up focus on Protein was great as it’s the most important Macronutrient in regards to improving your physique. However, it is also highly acidic and a chronically acidic diet can lead to negative health outcomes. The best way to counteract these issues is to focus on the Precision Nutrition rule:

“Eat Vegetables every time you eat”

Apart from all the obvious benefits like antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre, veggies are powerful acid-neutralizers so the Next 21 Day Habit Challenge people were asked to demonstrate what Veggies they eat.  No pressure to post ALL the time. Some people do, others don’t. We all forget here & there.

But if you want to tidy your diet up a bit, there is a certain accountability to sharing what you’re eating.

Those who got engaged, who shared what they were eating, ended up leaner than those who didn’t. Those who shared the odd thing here & there had some success too. But those who show us nothing in regards to that side of their health often didn’t progress as well as they’d like.

Apr/May/Jun

Awesome April

Over the first few months of 2018, we advertised a few different offers on Facebook that required people to comment on our post to get more information. It allowed us to attract some great new people into our community who tried out our 4 Week Fit Chicks Club offer or Learn to Lift Program. In April, it was the Kiama’s Greatest Athlete Challenge.

This was a Challenge we ran back in 2016 and although it was pretty successful, at the time I thought it was a tad too long (10 weeks). This time around, it was only 4 weeks and it really was a good all round athletic challenge again. Sport. Barbells. Body Weight. Indoors. Outdoors. It had the lot.

It all kicked off right after Easter (Tuesday 3rd April) and continued all April. In the middle of that I celebrated my Birthday which always involves a killer Workout Session.

It’s honestly one of the best packages we’ve ever put together that gives people a taste of what Oxygen is all about.

Over the 4 weeks, people took part in all sorts of different fitness & sports activities at our Group Sessions.This included things some people had never tried before. Fun was the name of the game but it was definitely still a great workout.

Week 1 tied in with the Commonwealth Games, which was on at the time. For the Oxywealth Games, Strength workouts consisted of Powerlifting, Gymnastics & Weightlifting Challenges. Conditioning came about from Boxing for the first time in ages and Rowing. Then on top of that we tried our hand at a heap of Sports such as Volleyball, Squash, Hockey, Basketball and Rugby 7s. My personal favourite was Squash but all of it was fun and a great way to kick off the month.

Week 2 was Testing Week. It’s something we do every Quarter to assess how everybody is going, whether they’re getting closer to or further away from their Goals.It’s always an inspiring week especially when you see the newbies surprising themselves with what they can do. Despite a few people being unsure, not too confident, nervous, we got in and gave it our best shot anyway. THAT is what it’s about. If you hide away from it, you get nowhere. Congrats to everyone for pushing themselves.

In Week 3 the Bi-annual Battle between Blue, Green, Red & Yellow was into it’s 16th Series of our International Award-Winning Team Fitness Event called Challenge Week. Over the course of 1 Week Members were challenged to attend as many Sessions as they could to earn points for their Team. Within each Session there were Barbells, Dumbbells, Rowers, Battle Ropes, Body weight & more in all sorts of different combinations.

After suffering from low numbers last Series, RED turned up in droves and performed strongly all week. Yellow were snapping at their heels, whilst Green, and especially Blue had the lower numbers this time around. There were some seriously tough sessions through the week but the Finale on Saturday morning was up their amongst the toughest workouts we’ve ever produced. Four 15 Minute Stations with ascending Reps. No finish line. Just keep going up. 72 tonnes later it was over and we all celebrated with a Beer and a laugh at the Blue Diamond. Red did just enough to keep their lead and were crowned Series 16 Champions.

Week 4, the final week of April, was Kiama Boot Camp, flew by with the ANZAC Day Public Holiday in the middle. As the original Boot Camp pioneers in Kiama, we know every square inch of this town and how to use it to get a great workout. This WAS our Gym from 2009 until late 2015 before we opened our own Facility. There were  some indoor workouts at the Gym that week as well but it was a nice change of scenery to get outdoors and sweat all whilst getting a different perspective of our beautiful town.

We brought out the Boxing gear  for a few good combos and a good tough workout. Boxing always produces a few laughs. Then came the cries. ANZAC Day was tough. The Hero WOD (Workout of the Day) called “Murph” was the order of the day with a 1 Mile Run, 100 Pull Ups, 200 Push Ups, 300 Squats and another 1 Mile Run on the agenda. I scaled it back a bit by cutting out the second run and I also switched the first 1 Mile Run to a few hill runs up & down Brown Street. But we still had those 600 Reps to contend with.

 

May brings changes

Off the back of our Awesome April Timetable, I made the decision to implement a few changes in May. April was all about high energy Group Training Sessions, something we’ve always been renown for at Oxygen. Just like we promoted it, April really was awesome. Lots of different events kept things interesting but the common theme was Group Training and everyone loved it. So we kept it going through May.

Earlier in the Year, our promotion was the New Year’s Revolution and the idea was to offer a Gym Membership on par with anywhere else in regards to price. Once we attracted people in, the plan was to over-deliver by actually caring about the people and their results. That meant assessing people, showing how to improve some of their weaknesses in warm ups, designing their programs, showing people what to do and then re-teaching them (nobody nails their technique straight away). We offered them the usual flexibility of a gym membership that meant you could come in at a time convenient to them.

Throughout February and March, this resulted in people coming in at all hours of the day and it dam near killed me. It’s really expensive paying Staff to man the Gym for that many hours each day, especially when you’re not sure if or when people turn up. Because of that I was literally at the Gym from 4/5/6am until 6/7/8pm and not getting much business work done. It is nothing personal against any of the people that I was with, it’s just not a smart way to operate. In a building which we’ve successfully run groups of 36 people I was helping 1 or 2 people an hour, every hour, all day some days.

Open Gym proved not to work for us or the Client. I suppose for larger Gyms with hundreds of Members at any one time it’s different. From our point of view, we can’t be that Gym that lets you figure it all out for yourself. We can’t be that Gym who doesn’t care or that watches you train with poor form but ignores it. Some gyms can, but we can’t.

If you do things with poor form, or no intensity, or too much intensity with poor form, you get no results, or worse you’ll end up injured. Then you won’t rave about the experience and you won’t refer anyone or renew your membership when it’s due. But if we do help you, we’re giving away our time for free, we’re selling ourselves short and de-valuing our regular Memberships.

Some might say, “I’m fine, I don’t need help” but every single Client we left to their own devices trained less consistently, with less intensity, with less structure to their training and guess what, less than average results.

The sweet spot is Small Group Training where we can offer a personalised service for a more affordable price to Members. You get the individual attention of Personal Training with the dynamics and energy of a Boot Camp Session. There’s also accountability to not just us, your Coaches, but your other training partners. Sessions are exciting and interactive instead of quiet and boring.

I’d like to think we’ve over-delivered tons of value in 2018 to justify these changes.

My most important Blog Post ever

I told everyone this one was dead serious, that they needed to set aside 10 minutes to read this with no distractions. Don’t skip ahead, don’t miss paragraphs, just read it properly from start to finish. I broke up the text with pictures and videos to make it more interesting.

It was raw, true and insightful.

It explained my journey through the fitness industry, the ups & downs, the challenges we were facing and the next exciting chapter of my life –  fatherhood.

It was nice to feel the love from Clients, Friends & Family that Jade and I had a Little Lamb due in December!

Winter Warrior Challenge 2018

Since 2012, we’ve come up with a promotion to keep things exciting during the Winter months. Obviously, it’s a time of year that can test anyone’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle so we’ve tried all sorts of different creative ways to make things a bit more exciting.

Last year was certainly a tough Winter Warrior Fitness Challenge in Kiama as we set about tackling some advanced Programs like the Ladder of Death 300 Workout. We had some massive Sessions with 36 people at a time pumping out the reps.

In 2018, we again tackled some similarly tough Sessions but the entire Winter was split into 3 Stages.

Stage 1 – STRONG, started in June.

It had a specific focus on improving the Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Power Clean, Push Ups, Pull Ups, Plank & Rower. Sound familiar? That’s right, it prepares you for… Testing Week which was coming up Mid-July.

Prior to Winter Warrior kicking off, I was slightly concerned. Attendance across every Timeslot had been low. A number of people had been sick, a few Members had been away here and there with work or holidays and a number of people will admit they’d been just plain slack. Most gyms don’t care whether you attend or not and plenty of people will tell you that’s why they stop – there’s no accountability. We’re not like that.

That’s one reason we split your Year up into different Programs & Challenges. It keeps people engaged and motivated, or gets people re-engaged and motivated.

Challenge Week, Commonwealth Games, Sports, Olympics, Testing Weeks, Outdoor Sessions, Road Trips, Events to train for, as well as different types of Gym Programs and Challenges. It makes training fun, enjoyable and challenges you in different ways.

The Winter Warrior Challenge has traditionally been one of our most popular and challenging Gym Programs over the past few years. But it doesn’t matter how good our Program is if nobody shows up.

Thankfully, everyone got re-engaged, ripped in, and it was an awesome lead-in to Testing Week.

Strength was twice per week and it worked on the Barbell Lifts like Squat, Deadlift & Bench Press. These are all BIG Exercises, and to do all THREE in one Session, and do it twice per week ain’t easy. We kicked off Week 1 with 6 Rep Sets and 2 Minute Rest Breaks. Each week we knocked a Rep off (so 5 Reps the next week, then 4, 3, 2 etc) but added more Weight and a longer Rest Break.

On alternate days, we tested everyone’s Muscular Endurance and Conditioning a bit more. We practiced the Body Weight movements like Push Ups, Pull Ups and Planks. We did a few quick little Tests at either the Push Ups or Pull Ups. We also got plenty of practice at both the 500m and 1km distance on the Rower.

Practicing all these things, all the tasks we do during Testing Week, gave everyone that little bit more faith in their abilities each week.

Congratulations to our Saturday crew that regularly attacked those brutal 300 Weekend Warrior Workouts. It was was exciting to see everybody complete the 300 Reps including the Advanced crew who did 100 Goblet Squats, 100 Incline Dumbbell Presses and 100 Ring Pull Ups in only 45 Minutes. I remember this took quite a number of attempts to complete it in 2017, so to knock it off in only our second attempt this year was very rewarding.

 

Click here to read Part 2

 

 

 

Kiama Gym’s Breaky MATES

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Today’s Friday Fuel Recipe is one we discovered back in 2016 at our Kiama Gym Oxygen Health & Fitness.

More than a Recipe,  it’s more like a nutrition concept we created for a healthy start to your day. It’s called Breaky MATES. That’s:

  • Mushrooms
  • Avocado
  • Tomato
  • Eggs
  • Spinach

It has Lean Protein with the Eggs, Healthy Fats from Avocado and a few Veggies which offer Fibre & some great Vitamins and Minerals. If you train before Breakfast or want to add Muscle you’d add in some Starchy Carbs as well.

You can do Breaky Mates sooooo many ways, like these photos show.

  • Scrambled Eggs 
  • Poached Eggs 
  • Quiche or Frittata 
  • Omelette 
  • On Toast (Starchy Carb) 
  • w Hash Brown (Starchy Carb) 
  • w Baked Beans (Starchy Carb) 

Enjoy!

Former Wallaby & Professional Rugby Player Matt Giteau knows MATES are a great Breaky choice!

Delicious High Protein Snack from your Kiama Gym

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Today’s Friday Fuel Recipe is one that we’ve shared before at our Kiama Gym Oxygen Health & Fitness but it actually comes from the Cook Book Anabolic Cooking.

I sort of forgot about this Recipe for a while until just recently when I decided I needed to add some Healthy Snacks back into my regime that satisfied my sweet tooth. This one ticks all the boxes.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Ingredients:

  • 8 Scoops Chocolate Protein Powder
  • 1 Cup Oatmeal
  • 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
  • 1/4 Cup Low Fat Milk
  • 4 Tbsp Honey
  • 3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
  • 3 Tbsp Slivered Almonds

Instructions:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine Protein Powder, Oatmeal, Peanut Butter, Honey, Milk & Cocoa Powder.
  2. Sprinkle almonds evenly across a large baking dish & then pour mixture on top. Use hands to spread mixture evenly across dish.
  3. Refrigerate for 1 Hour.
  4. Using a metal spatula (or a large knife) divide up into 10 portions.

Nutritional Information:

(Per Serving)

Calories 253
Protein 25g
Carbs 18g
Fat 9g

YUM!

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