Geelong's Gym

Sometimes it feels like you have to cut out all the good stuff to maintain a healthy eating plan.  But this doesn’t always have to be the case.  Today, I thought I’d share a recipe I stumbled across which is delicious but also full of antioxidants…

Berry Ricotta Pancakes

2 cups Self-raising Flour

Strawberries make a delicious variation - I'm salivating just looking at this picture!

2 teaspoons Sugar

3 Eggs, lightly beaten

1 3/4 cups Milk

50 grams Butter, melted

1 punnet Raspberries

250 gram Ricotta

Toasted Flaked Almonds, for serving

Maple Syrup, for drizzling

Icing Sugar, for dusting

1.  Place flour and sugar in a bowl.  Whisk eggs and milk together and add to dry ingredients with melted butter; mix until smooth.  Fold in half the raspberries.

2.  Pour 1/4 cup batter into a heated non-stick frypan, swirl 1 teaspoon of Ricotta through the mixture.  Cook until bubble form, turn and cook until golden.  Repeat with remaining mixture.

3.  Serve pancake stacks, dolloped with remaining Ricotta, raspberries and almonds.  Drizzle with maple syrup and a dusting of icing sugar.

Note: Blueberries, strawberries or a mixed berry selection make a great variation.

Enjoy!!

Sometimes (in fact quite a lot of the time) when people get older they do less exercise and less strength work because they think their bodies can’t handle as much any more.

Unfortunately, in making this decision they basically allow their bodies to deteriorate.  What do you mean?! I can hear you crying out.

Let me explain a bit more fully.

Firstly, all forms of aerobic/cardio exercise are beneficial for overall fitness and great for the heart and lungs and should definitely be maintained.  However, aerobic activity doesn’t seem to be able to stop the muscle shriveling that accompanies aging.

If you want a life full of strength and vitality, it's time to start a weights program!

In fact, a Danish study carried out in the 90s provided some startling results.  Male athletes with an average age of 69 who had been training for at least a dozen years were found, unsurprisingly, to be extremely fit.  But, and here’s the scary bit… they had no more muscle mass or strength than their peers who did no exercise at all!  Worse, they were steadily losing muscle.  Yikes!

An additional group of men were looked at who did weight lifting.  And here’s where the results get really interesting… Men in their late sixties who had been training with fairly heavy weights for a decade or more were not only stronger than swimmers or runners of the same age, they were actually stronger than the average 28 year old man.

Biopsies of the weight lifters’ muscles showed the mix of muscle fibres was essentially like that of younger men, a blend of both slow twitch and fast twitch fibres.  The other group of men, despite their fitness, had significantly reduced fast twitch fibres, i.e. the instant strength which allows you to dodge cars.

Please hear me in this, aerobic exercise is definitely important for a variety of health and fitness reasons.  But, top physiologists believe that by middle age weight training is at least as important as aerobic exercise.  And for the elderly it’s even more important as it deters the kind of injuries which most often cause an old body to fail.

So, if you’re in your middle or twilight years and aren’t doing any kind of weight or strength training, I can’t emphasise strongly enough how vital it is for you to start doing some NOW!  And if you’re not sure where to start, why not come on in to Geelong’s Gym and book an appointment with one of our qualified Personal Trainers who will put together a weights program suitable to your particular needs.

Ever wonder what we get up to at Geelong’s Gym on the odd occasion we’re not motivating everyone to improve their health, fitness and well-being?  A few of our members got a bit more than they bargained for this week when they found some of the familiar faces around the gym looking a little different than usual…

Germain Spriet and Gerard Spriet (Head Coach at Geelong's Gym) get in character

We love to mess around with new ideas and find different ways to connect and communicate with our members and those who we’ve had an association with in the past.

As you can imagine, due to changes in work and personal circumstances, from time to time our members have to leave us, sometimes for a short while and sometimes permanently, because they’ve moved away and the like.

We got to thinking about this and how we’d like to acknowledge those people leaving in a fun and cheeky way, so that they remember us and if they ever decide to join a gym again, it will be us they’ll think of.

The team express their sadness when a member leaves Geelong's Gym

So with a bit of face painting help from The Party Girl and some wonderful photography from Nitch Photography, we put together a fun, tongue in cheek card letting those people know we were sad they were leaving and they’d be missed.

We had such a good time on this project that we thought we’d share some of the photos with you.  Enjoy!!!

Heart breaking, isn't it?!

Yes indeedy, next week has the potential to be your fittest week EVER!  Why, I hear you ask, is next week more special than any other week?  I’m glad you asked.

Have you ever noticed when there’s a large sporting event happening in the world – like the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games or the Soccer World Cup – that there’s a surge in physical acitivity, both indoors and outdoors?

Choose cycling to get around town - it's fun, quick and you'll feel much fitter!

We certainly notice it at Geelong’s Gym.  Suddenly everyone gets inspired and people pour through our doors to take part in classes, workout in the gym and just generally get more active.  Maybe it’s because people start to recognise where a little physical activity and fitness can take them.

So, we are thrilled that Geelong is hosting the 2010 UCI Road World Championships next week. This event is the largest cycling competition Australia has ever hosted and it’s right here on our doorstep – literally! Many lucky residents will actually be able to look out their front windows and see world class cyclists racing by!

Some local residents may be wondering how they’re going to get around with so many road closures. And our suggestion is, make this upcoming week your fittest week ever, dust off your bike and join in the activity. You’ll be surprised at how fit you feel after a week of cycling to the gym, to work, even to get your groceries!

But whatever you do, make sure you enjoy being part of such an exciting event in Geelong.

More of what, you might ask?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

Over the weekend, I took a few of my team (Nick Ford, my Membership Coordinator, Jude Sharp, from the Reception Team and Kirsten Hanafin, my PA) to the Ultimate Success Summit, where we had the awesome opportunity to hear advanced success strategies from the All Stars – Anthony Robbins, the world’s #1 Peak Performance Coach, Sir Richard Branson, world famous entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, Mark Bouris, star of TV’s “The Apprentice“, and Siimon Reynolds, personal and business achievement guru, to name but a few…

Why is this so important?  I’m continuously looking to improve the value proposition of my gym, in other words, what can we do for our members and clients to make Geelong’s Gym stand out more than other health and fitness providers in our area and, well why not our state too, while I’m at it?!

Going to events like this one, and taking some of my team with me, is what helps us learn and grow as individuals, which in turn gets reflected in the workplace, in both our interaction with those around us and in terms of germinating new ideas to improve our service and facility.

I can say unequivocally that Tony Robbins is definitely my number one mentor, and despite having seen him speak numerous times, I continue to get new learnings and understandings from him.

As for Sir Richard Branson, well, he is totally outstanding in his approach to life and the world.  This is a man who uses his wealth and influence to impact the world.  Just one of the amazing things he’s done is form a group called The Elders, which has been working behind the scenes to preserve peace in our nations.

Check out the video below to hear a bit about what my team got out of the weekend…

Who would have thought that running backwards would actually be a competitive sport… and one that requires a great deal of skill?  Not only that, running backwards (or retro running) is an excellent rehabilitative tool in the management of various leg injuries.  So let’s have a look at some of the benefits of retro running…

• One of the major benefits of retro running is it counteracts the forces that produce musculoskeletal pain, largely because the leg muscles are required to move in coordination with the abdomen and lower back.
• Improved range of motion in the knee joint, which allows freer and more powerful movement in both running and jumping.
• It requires more energy than forward running so is an excellent cardio workout.
• Retro running stimulates the fast twitch fibres which are present in the quadricep, hamstring and calf muscles – which can reduce training injury rates.

Aside from all those benefits to your fitness, rehabilitation and general condition of your body, retro running has also become a sport in it’s own right.  And believe me, those who compete, can run faster backwards than most of us can run forwards.  Check out the video below:

Ann Cramp and Paula Kontelj on the night

One of the things we love best at Geelong’s Gym, is to support our various sporting activities in our community.  That’s why we sponsor the Geelong Supercats Basketball Team.

So we were thrilled when Ann Cramp, one of our Personal Trainers and our liaison with the Supercats, organised for us to play a special part in the South Conference SEABL Grand Final on 21st August.

During half time Paula Kontelj, from Bay FM and our Group Fitness Coordinator at Geelong’s Gym, took to the court with some fellow Geelong’s Gym Zumba enthusiasts to give the crowd a taste of what Zumba Fitness is all about.  And boy did they love it!  A great way to get the crowd revved up for the second half.

Paula Kontelj leads the Zumba demonstration during half time

And what do you know… the Supercats won the game and went on to take out the All Conference Grand Final at MSAC on Saturday night!  Well done boys!

If you haven’t tried Zumba yet, why not give it a go?  Check out our extensive timetable and choose the class which suits you best.