Geelong's Gym

A sight to behold!  Geelong’s Gym Personal Trainers certainly know how to push to the max!

As a Personal Trainer, you get used to seeing other trainers working their clients hard, pushing them into uncomfortable head space, challenging their muscles and stamina in order to initiate change.

What you don’t see very often is two trainers pushing each other to the max.

Sure, they work along side each other, spot each other and share knowledge and stories, but going for broke is a rare sight.

Burning calories at that rate will have you fitting through the small door in a heart beat!

Recently, I witnessed the most intense training session ever! No stopping, giving up, wasting any precious time. Two Geelong’s Gym trainers, Adam Ryan and Nathan Moore, were trying to set new PB’s (Personal Best).

In what?  How many calories can be burnt in the shortest time.

And the best outcome to date is 672 calories in 38 minutes!

WOW!                             

And why?  Why not!

You would think the world’s top athletes would be pretty confident in their skills and abilities.  But apparently, there are some who feel their particular superstitious practice is what gives them the extra edge.  Some of these are a little weird but read on…

No wonder he was called Michael "Air" Jordan

10.  Michael Jordan.  The greatest professional basketball player of all time was known for a specific quirk.  He wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform in every game.  To cover them, he wore longer shorts, which inspired a new trend in the NBA.

9.  Bjorn Borg.  This Swedish tennis legend’s superstition related only to Wimbledon.  He would prepare for the annual tournament by growing a beard and wearing the same Fila shirt.  Maybe it helped, because he took out five straight Wimbledon titles from 1976 through to 1980.

8.  Kevin Rhomberg.  Rhomberg had a compulsion to touch someone if they touched him.  This made life difficult for him when word of it spread – players would touch him and run, sending him into a panic!  In fact, a game had to be halted when the Yankees players refused to stop touching Rhomberg.

7.  Serena Williams.  Despite being one of the most feared female tennis players of all time, Serena believes much of her winning is the result of closely followed routines.  These routines include, bringing her shower sandals to the court, tying her shoelaces a specific way and bouncing the ball five times before her first serve and twice before her second.

6.  Jason Terry.  Seriously superstitious, Terry wears five pairs of socks while playing and the night before a game goes to bed wearing the  shorts of the next day’s opposing team.

5.  Wade Boggs.  This All Star pro baseballer, known as The Chicken Man, ate chicken before every game, always took batting practice at 5:17 and running sprints at 7:17.  And that’s not all.  Before coming up to bat he would draw the word “Chai” (Hebrew for “life”) in the dirt.

4.  Patrick Roy.  Before every game, NHL Goaltender Roy would skate backwards towards the net before turning around at the last second, which be believed made the goal shrink.  During the game he would converse with the posts and thank them when a puck was deflected.

3.  Jason Giambi.  Whenever he hit a slump, this 6 foot 3, 240 pound first baseman would put on a golden thong/G-String.  So well did this work, his teammates would often borrow it to break out of their own slumps.  Yuck!

2.  Lyoto Machida.  I think this one definitely goes into the “What the…” realm, because this Brazilian Shotokan karate master drinks his own urine every morning.  He believes it is a natural medicine that cleanses his body.  Gross, yes, but he has yet to lose a round in his professional mixed martial arts career.

1.  Turk Wendell.  This New York Mets reliever really takes superstition to a new level.  His eccentricities include: leaping over the baselines when walking to the mound, chewing black licorice while pitching and brushing his teeth in between innings.  He also wore a necklace decorated with the sharp teeth of wild animals he had hunted and killed.  Not to stop there, he asked the New York Mets to make his contract for $9,999,999.99 in honour of his uniform number of 99!

Information in this blog is thanks to Men’s Fitness magazine.

The very first Zumba class at Geelong's Gym drew a huge crowd!

We are so excited!  We launched Zumba at Geelong’s Gym last week and we had 95 participants in our Group Fitness room!  It was incredible.  You would have thought it would be a little cozy with that many people but the atmosphere was electric and everyone was having the time of their life!

The feedback has been beyond positive – everyone loves it, so much so that we’ve had to add a third class to our timetable already!  It truly is exercise in disguise.

If you haven’t tried Zumba, come along and give it a go.  It’s the most fun you’ll have while exercising and you get an amazing workout.

Check out our timetable for Zumba class times.

A new challenge has been issued by the Cancer Council to men, to start looking at their lifestyles and the cancer risks they may be running as a result.

Why men in particular?  Well, according to an article in the Business Review, men are more fatalistic in their approach to health.  Bascially they think when their number’s up, it’s up.  So they don’t really make an effort to change.

But it’s not all bad news.  Smoking rates have been rapidly declining which instills confidence that men can change when they choose to.

Maintaining the correct body weight is a key factor in reducing cancer risk

And change is what men need to do.  Cancer Council research shows that 1 in 3 men’s cancer deaths are preventable through lifestyle choices – an important statistic considering men are 60% more likely to die from cancer than women.

Top 3 Tips For Reducing Cancer Risk:

• Quit smoking permanently
• Achieve and maintain normal body weight, i.e. take a good hard look at your diet and make the necessary changes, then get into a gym and start working on your fitness
• Moderate alcohol intake

No one knows if they’re going to get cancer or not.  So why not start working on your health and fitness now and put yourself in a better position to avoid this deadly disease.

My name is Thomas Henry and I am in Year 10 at St Joseph’s College in Geelong.  I chose to do Work Experience at Geelong’s Gym and was asked to write a Blog about fitness from a teenager’s perspective.

Thomas Henry, from St Joesph's College Geelong, doing Work Experience at Geelong's Gym

I have always enjoyed sport and it has had a big impact on my life.  For example, I have participated in many sports including Swimming, Diving, Hockey, Basketball, Athletics, Cricket and Football. I enjoyed most of them but my biggest passion was for Footy and Athletics.

I’ve played footy for about 10 years starting off with Auskick and am currently playing for St Mary’s Under 16’s.  My athletics started about 6 years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I have taken it to higher levels.

Two Years ago I won my first State Championships for High Jump at The Victoria Little Athletics Championships in Under 14’s and since then I have represented Victoria and have competed at a National Level in Tasmania and Sydney.

Recently, I competed at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships where I placed 3^rd in my High Jump and Triple Jump.  It was a great experience and has definitely helped me get noticed more with my sport.

But here’s how my success in Athletics opened the door to footy for me.  At the St Joseph’s College Athletics day I broke the High Jump record by 17 cms and broke all the other age group records too.  I was pretty happy with that, but what was special for me was that the Coach of our school footy team was there and watched me jump.  Straight away he rang up the other coach and insisted on putting me in the Ruck for the school footy team!

I may not be the tallest Kid in the team but all my training and hard work has paid off and has helped me achieve a goal I set a long time ago and worked so hard to reach.