Oxygenfitnesskiama 2019 Year in Review – Part 1

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

Kiama Precision Nutrition Coaching

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

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