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

Back to basics at Kiama Women’s Fitness

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Welcome to another FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter.

FitChicksClub Kiama is back in the groove of a regular training with a Program I’ve called Back to Basics. There’s only 4 exercises involved but they are four of the most important and useful in the Kiama Women’s Fitness repertoire.

Using just these four exercises, the girls will hit all of the major muscle groups and re-train their bodies on lifting with great technique. One of the “Big Four”, the Incline Press, is listed today as our Workout of the Week so keep a close eye on the description and don’t forget to watch the short video demonstration.

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

Incline Bench Press

inc press sequence

The Incline Bench Press is one of the main exercises for working the upper chest. Some people have a hard time getting results from this exercise…often getting tired triceps and sore shoulders. The good news is, there is an easy solution if you just make one simple adjustment to the setup before you perform the lift.

One problem I’ve encountered with clients over the years is the tendency for the chest and rib cage to flatten out during the exercise, which takes the tension off the chest and puts it on the shoulders and triceps instead.

In order for the chest muscles to work efficiently to get a good contraction, the shoulder blades need to be pulled together at the back to keep the chest/rib cage expanded.

To help you get that right…grip the bar and pull your torso just slightly UP off the bench like you’re doing a pull-up. When your torso is up off the bench, pull your shoulder blades together behind your back (just like with a row), puff and expand your rib cage up to meet the bar, then set your torso back down on the bench. You’ll notice how different it feels with your shoulders back and your chest tighter.

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Tighten up

Any sort of bench press is NOT just a chest and triceps movement. When performed corectly it is full-body in nature. The idea of ‘getting tight’ involves being completely rigid before the bar is even unhooked.We have already covered the upper body tightness by setting the shoulder blades but what about the lower body? How do you go about ‘tightening up’?

Your footwork plays a major role. If you allow your legs to merely dangle out while pressing, the amount you can lift is severely limited. When your feet are correctly set, you can utilize ‘leg drive’ to squeeze an extra rep or extra weight on each lift thus increasing strength.

There is no single ‘right’ place to set your feet. Some people like to tuck their feet underneath the bench and push off their toes while others spread their feet out wide and push off their heels.

Experiment and find what works best for you. What you ultimately want is to puff your chest up, keep your shoulder blades tight and push then your heels (or toes if that suits you) into the ground before you set off on your first rep.

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Back to basics

The first few weeks of the training year can be tough stuff. After a well earned Xmas break which has usually involved less than ideal food choices and the odd bit of alcohoI, your body can be behind the eight ball right from the outset. Then, it’s as though your body forgets what even the most basic exercises and movements feel like. That’s why we have eased FitChicks back into training so far despite the high motivation that comes with this time of year.

There was a thorough Assessment process and now these past few sessions the girls have returned to a more normal routine with a Back to Basics Program covering the Squat, Trap Bar Deadlift, Neutral Grip Chin Up and Incline Bench Press. Between these four compound movements, the girls have started back with a moderate to heavy workload. This has enabled them to re-learn technique for safety and efficiency but also to develop confidence in the ability to start lifting heavy again. It’s been a while since the girls have performed these exercises after rounding out 2014 with a Bodyweight Blitz Program and also some high energy CrossFit workouts.

These chicks are setting the foundations for a big year of improvement in performance levels and physique changes. Watch this space…

Rach Inc Press

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The silent assassin

Joy Briggs started FitChicks last April after my invitation to try it out. She took up the opportunity with her sister Alice and has since become one of our most improved FitChicks. For much of 2014, Joy could often only make the 2 FitChicks strength sessions but she has been able to make significant gains across all major exercises.

Her attention to detail on technique explains much of her improvement, never progressing too fast but ready to take on new challenges when she needs to. I’ve witnessed her improve at exercises like Deadlifts, Bench Presses and at one point complete a 78kg Squat. She has also progressed through the resistance bands to the point she can perform Chin Ups unassisted.

This year she has also been coming along to our Conditioning sessions and one of the BIG changes I notice is that she often leads the pack and finishes first before some pretty fit individuals. Joy has enjoying this change to her health & fitness so much that she has decided to undertake studies to become a Qualified Personal Trainer and FitChicks Coach!

Joy knows what it is like to not have your health in order after battling most of her life with Thyroid issues. However, after surgery late last year, Joy is enjoying a clean bill of health and wants to give back and help others. With some exciting plans at Oxygen set to be unveiled over the coming weeks, I can tell you now Joy will be an asset to the business!

Oxygen Challenge Week is nearly here…

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Welcome to another Oxygen Health & Fitness Weekly Wrap.

We’re well into OXOBER, the month where lots of exciting events occur at Oxygen Health & Fitness, and next week sees the start of our biannual competition – Oxygen Challenge Week.

Now into it’s 9th Series, Challenge Week this time around will be very different due to some major changes Oxygen has undergone the past 6 months. However, it will be very challenging as always and like every other Series, attendance is crucial. Get to as many sessions as you possibly can next week and we can all celebrate next Saturday night at the Oxygen Member of the Year Awards Night at Seabreeze Dining.

Please also join me in celebrating Oxygen’s 5th Birthday this coming Saturday 11th Oxober with a Super Saturday workout and delicious breakfast after at Kabari Bar.

Check out the latest Weekly Wrap below.

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

What’s Been Happening?

NPE Mega Training

Over the long weekend I attended the World’s Number One Event for Fitness Business Owners. This three week world tour held in Orlando USA, Sydney Australia and London England is a phenomenal event for fitness business owners and I’ve been lucky enough this past week to see exactly how much work goes on behind the scenes to make it happen.

The past few months I have been working as a Part Time Success Coach helping clients across the world implement systems and processes to help them run their business. NPE is not just a great company in the fitness industry, it’s an incredible company period with over 50 employees worldwide now and still growing.

It was great to meet a few coaching clients face to face for the first time as well as some of my long term colleagues from around Australia who are doing some wonderful things in an industry I am so passionate about. That’s me below with my idol Sean Greeley and Coaching Manager Dane Mitchell “Laser Coaching” a client on stage during the event.

It’s a cliche you hear a lot in fitness, “I’m passionate about fitness and helping people” and there’s a staggering amount of people graduating with fitness qualifications every year. However, the average career span of a Personal Trainer is 18 months and of the ones that last past that, there’s few and far between who know how to get clients results through both exercise and nutrition, keep clients injury free through ongoing education and proper programming and who know how to create a community that makes training fun and competitive to keeps clients accountable.

That’s what Oxygen is recognised for on a global scale. It comes from 14 years in the industry and 5 years running the best Kiama fitness business – Oxygen Health & Fitness. I’ve made lots of mistakes and I’ve done a lot of things really well too. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating some of those achievements next Saturday 18th Oxober at Seabreeze Dining.

Targets Smashed

FitChicks and Spartans are into the final week of their 6 week strength programs and there’s been some amazing progress made! Some things that spring to mind are some amazing Incline Presses from our FitChicks with the top being 53kg for 5 Sets of 5 reps as well as a 45.5kg and a few strong little chickies at 38kg. There’s also some incredibly strong Trap Bar Deadlifts with 70kg at a bodyweight of 51kg, as well as some 80, 90 and a few at the 100kg mark. Not one of these girls have become bulky either haha!

On the Spartan side of training there’s a few guys hitting Chin Ups with a whopping 15kg attached, there’s some One Legged Squats well over 50kg and the Trap Bar Deadlift which felt impossible a few weeks ago, has now reached the 155kg mark.

Sounds like everyone’s ready for this event!

There’s some programs coming up before the end of the year that will be based outdoors so keep an eye out for these over the warmer months.

Challenge Week Series 9

What is Challenge Week? Twice per year Oxygen Health & Fitness split all the clients into one of FOUR different Teams: BLUE, GREEN, RED and YELLOW.Over the course of ONE week, participants are challenged to rise up and attend as many sessions as they can in that week.

There’s 11 sessions through the week starting Monday 13^th October and then every 6am and 630pm session through the week.It all ends with a Mystery Finale on Saturday 18^th October starting at 7am. You’ll receive more info about that as the week progresses.

For most people, attending morning and night is the norm as everyone strives to attend as many sessions as they possibly can to earn points for their Challenge Week Team. There are Individual and Team challenges during the sessions but half the challenge is just getting to as many sessions as you can for the week.

Will you be sore? Yes.

Will you be tired? Probably.

But so will everyone else so just make a commitment to drop the excuses for a week and get there as often as possible. Don’t let your Team down!

The idea of Challenge Week is to put you outside of your comfort zone, to develop new friendships and an appreciation for your training partners, to unleash the competitive nature in everyone, to bring out your best.

There are some great new session plans, with a few tweaks to some old classic challenges and some brand new ones entirely. The sessions are based on smaller numbers per Team but having said that, this Series more than ever, will require consistently high attendance. No excuses.

Challenge Week will wrap up with Oxygen’s 5th Birthday at Seabreeze Dining on Saturday 18th Oxober. Contact me to secure your place.

Click below for your Challenge Week Info Pack.

Challenge Week Series 9 Info-Pack.pdf

Sheri Calverley

Sheri is an integral part of the Oxygen community helping create a great new culture and positive atmosphere these past 6 months.She is also one of the strongest people at Oxygen, showing some incredible relative strength ie weight lifted versus actual body weight. Not many people I know can Lunge or One Legged Squat more than their bodyweight! She also bench presses heavy and just this week, her Deadlift hit 70kg.

She’s always a competitor at Conditioning as well as being a valuable and enthusiastic Member of the Oxygen Mixed Touch Footy Team that starts back up for Summer Comp tomorrow night.

Sheri earns the Member of the Week tag this week after some consistent efforts pipped her above the rest of the pack. Well done Shezzy.

Weekly Wisdom

$5 off for EVERY month you pay upfront in Oxober

We’re celebrating Oxygen’s 5th Birthday with this amazing Special of a further $5 off every month of Membership that you pay upfront during the month of Oxober.

For example you can purchase 1 month for $240. 2 Months is $235 per month, 3 months is $230, 4 months is $225, 5 months is $220, 6 months is $215, 7 months is $210, 8 months is $205, 9 months is $200, 10 months is $195, 11 months is $190, 12 months is $185 per month.

Memberships must be paid upfront by the 31st October 2014. Get on it!

What’s Coming Up?

Friday 10th Oxober

OXYGEN MIXED TOUCH FOOTY

7pm

Jamberoo Summer Comp Begins

Saturday 11th Oxober

SUPER SATURDAY

BIRTHDAY BREAKIE

7:30am

Surf Beach

Monday 13th Oxober

OXYGEN’S 5TH BIRTHDAY

7pm

Seabreeze Dining

Saturday 15th November

TOUGH MUDDER SYDNEY

8am

Southern Highlands!

Join our Team here.

A great exercise for backless dress season

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Welcome to another FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter!

This week FitChicks are scaling down in volume, cutting back from 5 sets of 5 reps to only 3 Sets. While this may seem counterproductive, it’s actually a really great way to continue improving throughout the course of their 6 week program. The catch has been that the 3 Sets they are doing, where possible, are heavier than they’ve been lifting.

Certainly technique is still important and we don’t want anyone lifting with poor form. However, we’ve already found that with longer rest breaks than they’re used to and some great flexibility and mobility exercises between sets, these girls have been able to lift more weight and improve their strength heading towards their 6 week Targets.

That’s one of the real benefits of working with fitness professionals that know what they’re doing. If you truly want to improve you can’t just wing it in hope. You need to know the most effective exercises, how to perform them safely and effectively and then how to program it for best results.

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

Barbell Rows

As we enter Spring/Summer I always get a lot of questions about how women can shape up and tone to wear those backless dresses with confidence. For shaping the back, you don’t need to look any further than the Barbell Row. However, forget the idea that a barbell row is just a back exercise.

Before you even perform your first pull, the glutes, hamstrings, and hips are working to stabilize you. Oh, and don’t forget the abdominals, which keep your low back from crumbling. If they don’t fire efficiently, it could be the difference between a smoothly pulled row and one involving a lot of jerky momentum. When this subtle movement at the hip and glutes occurs,it takes them out of their stabilizing role, leading to a greater likelihood of a rounded lower back.

So while it’s a kick-ass full body exercise, the barbell row is also prone to a whole lot of butchering.

You should grip the bar for a barbell row like you would a bench press, tight. A tight grip will transmit force to the shoulder and make it stronger.
The position for the hands when rowing is just outside shoulder-width
Once you have a solid grip on the bar and we’re bent right over the barbell. You should be closer to 90 degrees than 45. If you can get closer to 90, and maintain a strong position, you should. If you can’t, you need to work on some flexibility and mobility exercises to improve your hip hinging ability.
Lift the chest up slightly, arch the low back a bit, and get your head in line with your spine.
Brace the abdominals to get as stable as possible.
Pull through your elbows to somewhere around the lower abs/navel. Pulling to your upper abdomen encourages shrugging the weight up rather than pulling it back, which can shift the entire focus of the exercise.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together hard at the top. After squeezing hard at the top it’s natural to want to send the weight crashing down to the floor, but stay strong and lower the bar under control.

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Squeeze the shoulder blades

At the top contracted position, focus on pulling your shoulder blades together hard at the top for a brief pause of 2 seconds, getting everything you can out of the actual contraction. If you can’t hold your reps for that long, you need to lower the weight slightly.

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FitChicks Secrets in demand

It always tends to get busier in the fitness industry this time of year as people come out of Winter hibernation and want to get “fit for Summer”. We’ve received a number of requests from potential Kiama Fit Chicks interested in our Free DVD and Info Pack titled “5 Secrets to a FitChick Body”.

This special 24 page report outlines everything you need to know to shed unwanted body fat and get fit and toned for Summer. The DVD demonstrates exercise techniques, tips and case studies from FitChicks in Kiama.

If you know someone who needs a Kiama Personal Trainer click here and we will mail out the Free DVD and Info Pack to her with a handwritten note on your behalf. If they sign up to FitChicks thanks to your referral, we’ll send you both to the movies for free!

Kel cuts the cardio

Carolyn Francis TRX Pull Up

Kelli Campbell is our reigning Oxygen Member of the Week and now also stars as our Transformation of the Week. Kel has only been training at Oxygen for about one month but already in that time has undergone a huge mental shift in how she approaches her training.

Having always been a keen cardio fan, Kel has shifted her mindset to now realise that strength training as well as shorter bursts of high intensity conditioning is the way to go.

Her efforts at FitChicks have seen her inch towards targets she thought were unachievable just 4 short weeks ago. Her focus on technique has seen her improve strength and posture and it’s already translating into more muscle definition in the arms especially.

She’s put in some strong efforts at Super Saturday recently including this 50kg Sled Push. Last Saturday was a particularly tough strength/cardio mix and although it took her to within an inch of her life, she never quit and kept pushing through the pain. She even swung a 20kg Kettlebell to take up the intensity, even if it was by mistake…

Kiama Fit Chicks know fat loss is 80/20

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Welcome to another FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter!

This week FitChicks enter Week 2 of their 6 week Program. They’ve had a practice at some new exercises and combinations and now the time has come to pump up the volume.

There’s also been a keen interest in our 21 Day Spring into Shape Nutrition Challenge which has seen the girls writing down all their food intake and posting to our private forum for accountability. After all Fat Loss is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise.

If you’d like to know more about FitChicksClub Kiama and how it can help you get the lean, toned body you’ve always wanted, click here and we’ll mail you out a Free DVD and eBook with our 5 Secrets to a Fit Chick Body.

If you know someone who needs a Kiama Personal Trainer click here and we will mail it out to her with a handwritten note on your behalf. If they sign up to FitChicks thanks to your referral, we’ll send you both to the movies for free!

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

One Legged Squat

Also known as Bulgarian Split Squats or Rear foot elevated Split Squats, these are a great exercise for strengthening the Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves. They are great for offering less spinal loading, greater hip stabilization requirements, and rear-leg hip flexor stretch-activation. This means that you can increase both strength and flexibility.

One Legged Squats are a very “user-friendly” exercise, meaning most people can do it well. Many lifters struggle for years learning how to squat correctly, and heaps of people never squat at all. The risk of getting hurt on one legged squats is far less.

In a regular squat, the limiting factor is typically the lower back. Ina front squat, it’s the upper back. In the rear foot elevated versions, you essentially eliminate those limiting factors and are able to hone in more directly on the legs. Moreover, because you’re not loading the spine as heavily, it doesn’t take as long to recover, so you’re able to do them with greater frequency, potentially leading to greater strength improvements.

Set up by placing a box or flat bench directly in front of a squat rack. Stand facing away from the bench. Determining how far you need to stand from the bench is somewhat individual and will take some trial and error to figure out.

Position the bar so that it is resting on the muscles on the top of your back, not on the back of your neck.
Take a small step back and stabilize yourself. Now carefully extend your right leg behind you and place the top of your foot securely on the bench. It’s usually best to plantar-flex the rear ankle and set “shoelaces down” on the box to avoid pushing through your toes.
Keeping your eyes facing forwards slowly squat down by flexing knee and hip of the front leg until knee of rear leg is almost in contact with floor. Make sure to keep the torso upright.
Return to original standing position by extending hip and knee of forward leg.
Do the reps in a slow and controlled fashion and focus on keeping your weight on the heel of the front foot.
Repeat for reps on the opposite leg.

Recruit those glutes

Always push up through your heels to recruit the glutes. Curling up your toes as you stand up can help you get the technique right.

Pump up the volume

After getting started with some lower volume work last week, FitChicks have now adjusted to the new exercises and combinations in their Spring program. That means this week the volume has increased from 3 Sets of 5 Reps to 5 Sets of 5 Reps and the girls are killing it!

There’s still another 4 weeks to go after this week and we’ll be adjusting the amount of weight lifted, the number of total sets and a few other variables to ensure these girls continue improving. With some lofty targets set and a real focus on Nutrition with our 21 Day Spring into Shape Challenge, these FitChicks are leading the way for women’s fitness in Kiama.

Traci leads by example

Traci Calverley is the hardest working, most passionate and truly loyal employees Oxygen has ever had. She is the only person I’ve ever employed with previous fitness industry experience and I know from that experience and her actions, she is committed to helping people improve, not for financial reward or accolades but because she truly loves helping people.

When she first came to Oxygen, she didn’t have much experience lifting heavy and training for strength. However her trust in me, willingness to learn and commitment to the cause has seen her transform her body shape as a 50+ year old FitChick.

She is a wonderful role model to not only her daughter Sheridan (who trains in our 7pm group) but to FitChicks everywhere. I’ve seen this woman Chin Up unassisted, Deadlift 90kg, Squat 88kg and she just so happens to have one of the best techniques for our Workout of the Week – the One Legged Squat, or as she likes to call it Bulgarian. She even makes up a valuable part of our female contingent of Oxygen Touch Footy Team and in general we just love having her around. I don’t know what we’d do without her. Love ya work Trace!

Spring training at the original Kiama Boot Camp

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Welcome to the first Oxygen Health & Fitness Weekly Wrap for Spring. Its a new Season of strength & conditioning programs here at Oxygen Kiama as we gear up for some big events in the final quarter of 2014. There’s some great challenges ahead of us and the only way to prepare for them is to put in some hard yards, something which the Oxygen crew are not afraid of.

Read on for all the latest news and updates.

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

What’s Been Happening?

Winter Warrior Winner’s Breakfast

The 13 Week Winter Warrior Challenge finished up last Saturday with a chilly Surf Beach session and a much warmer Breakfast at The Brooding Italian. Congratulations to Leanne Williams, Geoff McIntyre, Joy Briggs, Megan Casey and Jade Braun who all achieved their targets and posted their updates each week.

The concept of this challenge serves a valuable reminder on the importance of Process v Outcome Goals. Nearly everyone has an outcome goal they would like to achieve from training (ie lose 5kg or shape up arms etc) but these things are usually long term, down the track type goals. Whilst a worthy goal, and certainly a step further than many people that don’t set goals at all, what you also want to focus on is the process of getting there and the things you can control along the way.

Consistent exercise is a key factor in long term success and the Winter Warrior Challenge keeps you accountable to a challenging but achievable exercise target. Read on for a new challenge starting next week that also addresses your nutrition…

New Programs begin

New Season, new Programs across the board. FitChicks were the first to feel the brunt of a new 6 Week Program block. Spartans got their taste of a new Tri-Sets routine that will see that will see them complete a neat 200 reps per session as of next week. Both groups are on a lower volume week where they adjust to new exercises and combinations but next week the volume and weights will start to creep up in the quest for improved performance.

We also added some challenging new routines to our Conditioning sessions which have been very well attended these past few weeks. There’s a new Stretch routine that started last week which is proving to be a great way to finish off the week after some of the more grueling sessions we all endure Monday to Thursday.

Finally the next 4 Super Saturdays will feature some strength/cardio challenges that will test the mettle of everyone involved. You’ll see…

I ‘m looking forward to seeing the improvements everyone makes from these challenging Spring sessions.

Insider News

Check out the latest FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter below:

Check out the latest Spartan Insider VIP Newsletter below:

Rachel Braun

I’m very pleased to announce this week’s Member of the Week goes to Rachel Braun. Rach will admit she has been a little MIA through Winter, fighting long work hours that often see her miss both the 6am and 6pm sessions. She has also had hockey training commitments and probably the odd dose of the Winter blues.

However, she has hit back with a vengeance this past week pipping four other Members in a very closely contested week of Performance Points. Anyone who has worked alongside Rach at Super Saturday, FitChicks or Conditioning this past week will know she makes a great training partner. Well done Rach keep it up now!

Weekly Wisdom

What’s Coming Up?

Friday 5th September

STRETCH

6am

Kiama High School

Saturday 6th September

SUPER SATURDAY

7:30am

Kiama High School

SADDLEBACK SMASH INCREASES

Last day for Early Bird Registrations!

Monday 8th September

SPRING INTO SHAPE CHALLENGE

21 days to create some healthy new habits for Spring.

I’ll be taking you all through the principles of Precision Nutrition to improve health, body composition and performance. This is previously information and coaching I have charged for but I’m offering this to everyone so they can combine the best programming with the best nutrition for the best results.

The advice will differ for Spartans and FitChicks based on different goals and physiology but one thing is for sure, Precision Nutrition is the world leader in body transformations for both Men & Women, period.

You’ll be required to track your Exercise and Nutrition. I’ll help you set Short Term Goals and identify YOUR number 1 priority to improve results for the week ahead.

Saturday 15th November

Spotlight

We’re still looking for about 3-4 people to join our Team for the obstacle course described as “probably the toughest event on the planet”. 20km of obstacles, fire, ice water, electric shocks and lots of mud right here in the Southern Highlands! Join our Team here.

Kiama Fitness Group celebrate success

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Welcome to the final Oxygen Health & Fitness Weekly Wrap for Winter. I”ve been very impressed with the consistency shown by Oxygen clients over the coldest season of the year. At at time when most people go into hibernation, (described by Wikipedia as “a state of inactivity and metabolic depression“) the Oxygen crew have had consistently high attendances, improving their strength & conditioning and having a fun time doing it.

I’m looking forward to celebrating at our Winter Warrior Winner’s Breakfast tomorrow and getting stuck into some exciting new Spring programs starting next week. Read on for all the latest news and updates.

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

What’s Been Happening?

Winter Warrior Challenge winds up

Congrats go out to several Members who met their tallies in the last week! Leanne Williams, Geoff McIntyre & Joy Briggs all achieved the goals they set down way back on the 2nd June. I racked up 4 sessions this week from 2 x Spartans, 1 Conditioning and a Stretch session which means I’ve also joined the winners list hitting my personal tally of 77 sessions. Woohoo!

There’s a number of other Members who are only 1-2 sessions away from their goals and will be sweating it out over the next 24 hours to bring home the bacon (and eggs) for tomorrow’s Winners breakfast.

Super Saturday Strength Circuit

The variety continued for last week’s Super Saturday session, with Strength Training in Kiama High School. There were 6 different Superset stations with a tabata protocol of 20 sec work/10 sec rest and 8 sets in a row. TRX Pull Ups/Incline DB Presses, Box Jumps/Jump Lunges, Push Ups/Barbell Rows, Barbell Squats/DB Romanian Deadlifts, Med Ball Slams/DB Push Press and Diagonals/Med Ball Twists. Wow!

It was hard work and I was sore until Wednesday but the feedback from all attendees was very positive. It’s definitely something I like to program in because some great results can be achieved from getting that 3rd full body strength session in each week. Keep an eye out for more of these sessions over Spring.

Winter Strength programs complete

Our Spartan and FitChicks Strength programs wound up last night with the completion of our final 4 week strength & conditioning programs in Kiama. A number of performance targets were met as everyone kept inching their weights up in small increments each week. Along with the improvements in strength and performance, a number of people transferred those gains into some great physical improvements with Lorien Spooner-Hart losing an amazing 57cm in girth measurements and Geoff McInytre making muscle gains on the chest/arms and hips.

Check out the latest FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter below:

Check out the latest Spartan Insider VIP Newsletter below:

Kat Hayward

This week’s Member of the Week goes to long standing Member Kat Hayward. Kat has been a keen strength training participant since she first started at Oxygen a couple of years ago. She would always attend her boot camp Strength sessions as well as Boxing and the odd Stretch session. Kat has also been a valuable Member of our Nutrition coaching group helping herself and others to improve their eating habits for better results. Since she combined her nutrition habits with Fit Chicks Club Kiama and more recently Conditioning sessions, Kat has achieved some great results. She compiled an amazing 5 Performance Points this past week to take out our Member of the Week Award. Well done Kat!

Weekly Wisdom

What’s Coming Up?

Saturday 30th August

SUPER SATURDAY

Special Early Start Time 7am

Surf Beach

WINTER WARRIOR BREAKFAST

Celebrations for our Winter Warrior Award Winners.

8am The Brooding Italian Cafe

Monday 1st September

START OF SPRING PROGRAMS

FitChicksClub Kiama

Spartan Training Club Kiama

Conditioning

Stretch

SPRING INTO SHAPE CHALLENGE

21 days to create some healthy new habits for Spring. I’ll be taking you all through the process of Habit based Coaching helping you to track your Exercise, Nutrition and determine YOUR number 1 priority to improve results for the week ahead.

Saturday 6th September

Spotlight

SADDLEBACK SMASH INCREASES

Last day for Early Bird Registrations at $30.

Register for Saddleback Smash here

Saturday 15th November

Spotlight

Oxygen has entered the obstacle course described as “probably the toughest event on the planet”. This year’s Sydney event is right here in the Southern Highlands!

We’re looking to form a Team of about 10 and so far we have 6 on board. Join our Team here.

20km of obstacles, fire, ice water and electric shocks sounds fun right? Did I mention there’s A LOT of mud?

FitChicksClub Kiama gets results

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Welcome to the latest FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter. This Newsletter has been on a short hiatus as I was overseas on holiday but that doesn’t mean there’s been no news to report.

This week marks the end of the third 4 week microcycle of Winter Programming. Normally, the girls go through 6 week Program blocks but over the Winter Season we split it up into 3 smaller blocks to help change things up and stay motivated over the cooler months.Next week marks a new Season, Spring, and with that comes a new program and some fresh new challenges.

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

TRX Hamstring Curls

To set up the starting position,place your heels in the foot cradles directly underneath the anchor point. Lie on your back with arms by your sides and palms flat on ground. Use your glutes to lift hips off the ground and then draw the abs in tight. The movement involves drawing your heels as close towards your butt as possible, pausing briefly at that point to flex the hamstrings and extending the legs back out.

To advance this movement, you can try several progressions like a) trying to lift the hips as you curl the legs in, b) changing the position of your arms by crossing them on your chest or extending the hands overhead or c) try this exercise one leg at a time to really get the hamstrings burning. If you need to regress this movement, you can rest your butt on the ground whilst performing the movement.

Pause Reps

Try to avoid performing your reps too quickly, you will get more from the exercise if you execute them slowly with control. One way to ensure this is to hold the centre position for a 2-3 second pause on every rep. Ouch!

The FitChicks family is growing

It’s very exciting to see the FitChicks family growing these past few weeks. We have every group basically full and the atmosphere at training has been great as everyone pushes and encourages each other to the next level. Just this past month we’ve welcomed Carolyn to the 6am squad, Sarah to the 7pm night crew as well as Kylie and Kelli to the 4:30pm group.

If you have any friends/family members who are talking about getting fit for Spring/Summer/Wedding/Reunion/Zombie Apocalypse, click here and we’ll send them out a Free FitChicks Info Pack including a 2 Week Trial to come and see what all the fuss is about. If they sign up we’ll send you (and them) to the Movies for Free as our way of saying thanks!

Lorien’s lovin life

Lorien Spooner-Hart’s first day of training was Oxygen Challenge Week. She was quickly addicted to the Oxygen style of training and began FitChicks soon after with the 7pm crew. In the past 4 months she has broke numerous FitChicks records that have been standing since the inception of our women’s only strength training programs in Kiama began in January 2013. Some of these highlights include:

117.5kg Trap Bar Deadlift 3 Sets x 4 Reps
110kg 1RM Squat
17kg Incline Dumbbell Press 3 Sets x 10 reps.
70kg 1RM Incline Bench Press

Along with these impressive feats of strength, Lorien has managed to lose an amazing 56.5cm from her body including 16cm of her Abdominal measurement and 10.5cm off her Waist! Great work Lorien, you’re very inspiring and proof of one of the most powerful body transformation lessons any women can learn:

“Focus on your performance and your physique will follow.”

FitChicksClub Kiama producing Champions

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Welcome to this week’s FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter. This past week there’s been a break from the usual programming as FitChicks have been participating in the Oxywealth Games. These sports and activities have been selected from the event schedule for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a few of our FitChicks have shown they are more than just pretty faces,toned thighs and gorgeous guns.

There’s some great athletes in our bunch and some of the girls have excelled at sports they’ve hardly ever played before! There’s also been some serious workouts with Weightlifting and Powerlifting part of the events, so in amongst the fun the girls are still putting int some hard yards. Read on to see what these Champions have been up to.

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

Touch Footy

Being that we’re on a break from normal programming and also being the week of the Oxywealth Games I thought we would select a sport as our Workout of the Week. We have Rugby 7’s on tonight and we will probably modify the event to more of a Touch Footy style game. This weekend also marks the end of season Jamberoo Touch Football Grand Final Gala Day with the Oxygen Team a good shot at taking out the title of A Grade Champions.

So why Touch Football?

Touch Football is very fast paced and anaerobic in nature making it a perfect FitChick activity. It involves repeat short sprints which as described above is very anaerobic in nature (high intensity). Having to maintain that effort repeatedly can become quite aerobic. There’s plenty of agility work having to side-step defenders, bend down, pass left and right in attack, whilst defence often involves a fair bit of running backwards.

To be good at this sport requires certain skills passing and running in certain lines whilst learning to read the game will help decision making in both attack and defence. Above those sport skills the fitness side of things that can be developed through a FitChicks program involving Squats and Deadlifts, Box Jumps, Abdominal and Core exercises, Speed and Agility work.

With training like that and the uniforms they usually wear (see above) it’s no wonder a lot of the top female Touch Footy players across the world have smokin hot bodies with toned thighs/calves/glutes and flat stomachs.

“Good food choices will not make a mediocre athlete into a champion but poor food choices may prevent the potential champion from realising her potential.”

If you’ve never heard of Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, she was just this week crowned “Fittest Woman on Earth” at the CrossFit Games after several years in a row finishing in the Top 10. This year she can finally lay claim to being the Champion. Find out all about her below:

Gold Medal efforts!

This week’s highlights come from our recent Oxywealth Games events. Instead of the usual FitChicks training sessions we had both Weighlifting and Powerlifting. Last week with the Weightlifting it was the Clean & Jerk exercise and the Gold Medal Champion was Jade Braun with 52.5kg lift over the head. Young Jess Williams, Kayla Wrigley and Megan Casey were not far behind.

At our Powerlifting events, the aim has been to try and complete your heaviest weight that you can lift one time (1RM). We have had both a Bench Press and Squat competition. The Bench Press was won again by Jade Braun with a 58kg this time it was Traci Calverley and Leanne Williams closely in tow. In the Squat-off last night Lorien Spooner Hart was our Gold Medal Champion with a 105kg lift, Jade Braun in the medals again with 95kg and Traci Calverley in third place competing hard. Some inspiring stuff ladies well done!

Joy jumps 20+kg to a PB

One of our morning FitChicks Joy Briggs participated in the Powerlifting last night, having a crack at the 1RM Squat. She didn’t win any Medals (although if we split the event into weight divisions she definitely would have) however she overcame some big mental hurdles to prove to herself just what she is capable of. After Squatting around 45-55kg in previous programs for 4-5 reps she jumped at least 23kg to complete a 78kg 1RM Squat last night. What a little Champion!

FitChicks Kiama building Summer bodies in Winter

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Welcome to this week’s FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter. The girls are into Week 2 of their Power routine and progressing along nicely. Speaking of progress, today being the 15th July means we’ve reached the halfway mark of Winter so we’re now closer to warmer weather than ever! Don’t forget Summer bodies are built in Winter so when the going gets tough stay focused on that vision of your best body and you’ll be strutting along the beach in no time.

Read on for this week’s news…

Dave Lambert

Oxygen Health & Fitness

Box Jumps

The Box Jump is a compound, multi-joint exercise that can be performed a number of ways. One of the most obvious is the way CrossFit has popularized this exercise into a fast paced, repetitive movement. However, for the purposes of this article we’re talking about how to Box Jump for Power and the technique used is different than that of CrossFit fame. When training for explosive power, perform box jumps at a very challenging height for sets of 1–6 reps. This is an all-out-effort move, so recover fully between sets.

It’s important to know the differences to maximize the benefits and minimize the safety risks. To help you get started with box jumps the right way—and to develop explosive power quickly—follow these guidelines:

Stand in an athletic position, with your feet shoulder-width apart, at a comfortable distance from the box.
When you’re ready to jump, drop quickly into a quarter squat, then extend your hips, swing your arms, and push your feet through the floor to propel yourself onto the box.
Don’t “stick” your landing. Instead, envision the way cats land when they jump from something—you, too, should try to land this quietly.
With CrossFit style Box Jumps you would jump from the box back to the ground pretty quickly. For Power based Box Jumps, which are usually a lot higher, you should carefully step down one leg at a time.

Sync the arms with the Hips

Whilst you are on the ground preparing to jump, try to align or “sync” your arms with your hips. That is, when your push your hips back to start your quarter squat, swing the arms back. As you extend the hips forward (standing up from the quarter squat position), swing the arms forward. Getting these two links connected will help create the propulsion to get you high up on that box!

Leanne smashes Half Marathon!

We wished her well in a recent FitChicks Insider VIP Newsletter but now we know the end result. After months of dedication and long training runs, Leanne Williams completed her first Half Marathon on the Gold Coast recently in a brilliant time of 1 hour 53 minutes. Leanne was then able to spend a week on the Gold Coast catching up with family and friends to celebrate her achievements in style. Now that the post race adrenaline has worn off and she has had a nice recovery week her and daughter Jess are raring to go for another FitChicks Kiama Program. Leanne, you’re a champ!

Alice drops 10kg and tones up all over

Alice would have to be one of, if not the most, popular FitChicks we have. Her friendly, bubbly personality reflects her inner beauty and her dazzling looks and glamorous hair shows the beauty on the outside. She has taken on the challenge of Oxygen full steam despite a few health concerns and since stepping up to FitChicks in April has continued to get better.

The two photos above are 6 months apart reflecting a weight loss of about 10kg. Since starting FitChicks training her muscle tone, strength and self confidence has soared. With fierce determination I’m sure there will be more transformation photos to come from this girl. Love your work Alice!

Oxygen TV – the launch of Kiama Fitness

Oxygen Challenge Week is nearly here…

What’s Been Happening?

NPE Mega Training

Targets Smashed

Challenge Week Series 9

Sheri Calverley

Weekly Wisdom

$5 off for EVERY month you pay upfront in Oxober

What’s Coming Up?

Friday 10th Oxober

Saturday 11th Oxober

Monday 13th Oxober

Saturday 15th November

Squeeze the shoulder blades

FitChicks Secrets in demand

Kel cuts the cardio

Saturday 6th September

Register for Saddleback Smash here

Saturday 15th November

Food Prep Hacks – Lazy Chicken Salad

Find Us on Brown St.

Kiama Gym Results