A Smashing End To The Week

What a week of intense effort, sweat and some tears!

Mel W did a punishing upperbody session and finished with the fastest 200 Sit Up time of 5 minutes 30 seconds. Excellent work Mel, your looking trim and terrific.

Jess as always pushing her body to the limit, got the second fastest 200 sit up time of 5:47. Well done Jess. Your pull ups are getting closer and closer to full ones. In two weeks you will be doing at least one full one. Quite an accomplishment this will be.

Ruthy, super Ruthy whose body is transforming as quick as the weather here in Melbourne. Consistent, hard working and passionate about getting results, Ruth is improving in leaps and bounds and nothing can get in her way...not even a trip to noosa for a week. Enjoy your time there and Ill be sending you your workouts while your away.

Erin, who in four months has gotten her row time down from 2:30 to 1:55 (the second fastest female time at GarageGym) is excelling in everything. Knee raises, pull ups and excellent bench press strength, Erin is a force not to be messed with.

Jackie is back in town, ultra lean Jackie who fortunately has super DNA to begin with, still pushes herself to the extreme and in a few weeks will be back up there on the leaders board.

Anna, who turns up on time every time is a trooper and together with the coach, achieves exceptional results. A hard worker both outside and in the gym, Anna is on her way to extraordinary - keep it up Anna, I look forward to a tough week next week.

Jen, never fail Jen, is back on board and putting in a tremendous amount of energy into her workouts. A solid performer at the Garage, Jen is always a pleasure to train. See you tomorrow Jen for even more punishment.

Robert is always keen for his weekly dose of Garage Fever. Not only his he the leader in rowing sprints, he displays great strength, tenacity and humour as he battles his way through the WODs dished out to him. Superb work Robert, see you next week.

Bob is still going strong, after more than eighteen months at the Garage, he has transformed humself into a true soldier of the Garage. never fearing anything thrown at him (at least he doesn't show it) and putting in every repetition, Bob is a true pleasure to train, and watch train as he finds his optimum output each and every session.

Sarah is not far behind. Another hanger on, Sarah has remained at the Garage for a long time, and always enjoys pushing herself. This would explain her promotions in career as well. Keep coming back Sarah, there is no limit to your success at GarageGym.

Anne always in top form mentally, keeps coming back for more despite the odd niggling injury. A star performer, Anne is another long time serving member of GarageGym and her toned, trim and strong body is evidence.

Sid feeling the effects of her first session back still came in for more. A 2000 metre row to get rid of any soreness and 200 ferocious sit ups saw her leave happy. . .and more sore. Good to have you back Sid.

All of you troopers are a pleasure to train and I look forward to next week.

Welcome Back to the old members!

Mel in the morning. We were allowed to tackle her
legs as well today so I gave her a full body smashing. Wall ball for
maximum repetitions followed by chin ups for maximum repetitions.
Unfortunately for Mel, she is so strong and fit that her max reps is a
lot so a lot of work had to be done.Im very proud of todays results Mel, you did exceptionally well. And top job on the 60 second knee raise and achieving a score of 36

Sid back from a long, long spell. She drags herself in all bandaged up. This is what happens when you have a month off from garagegym
- you get frail and soft. Let this be a warning to all of you. Although
Sid did just fine as her muscle memory recalled all her previous hard
work. Welcome back Sid

Jen in and determined. I have never seen
her so focused in a session before - lucky she was though, we did: 100
pull ups, 150 push ups, 200 sit ups. Go Jen. A really hard workout
completed gracefully.

Evening began with Anna and Jess. Jess the
soldier as always, and Anna, with a little pushing, kept up and did
well. Great going girls, your all getting fitter and stronger by the
day.

Seb and Mary in. Different workouts for the genders. Mary had multiple rows followed by db swings, thrusters and sumo deadlifts(our daily WOD) and Seb had a special surprise. First up, burpees
for max. time (he achieved 2:39) and then bench press(60kg) and chin
ups for maximum reps for five rounds. Avery worthy result was had, so I
rewarded him again. This time with 200 sit ups - it took Seb 9 minutes. Well done to both of you, still at it and going stronger than ever.

And Erin and Ruth finished
the night off. These two girls are really on a mission and it shows
every time they workout - Intense with 100% effort. Jackie rocked up a
few minutes later and joined in. Great to have you back, Jackie.

Tuesday's Trauma

Hardcore training day, a little different to our usual routines. Burpees for as long as possible with a maximum time of 5 minutes. The only performer to reach the 5 minute mark is Jess. But do not feel down if you do not get to even 2 minutes. This is probably the hardest exercise on earth. Also, chin ups for 60 seconds without letting go of the rings. The fact that you do not let go still works the muscle so you are literally under tension for a minute which is a long and difficult time. We then finished the WOD with various other exercises, ie. push ups, sit ups, knee raises. A great evenings session.

I was watching Oprah today and Dr Oz was on talking about the mini studies they do with various foods.

Test 1: fresh vegetables and fruit - 5kg of it daily for one week. This studied measured the cholesterol levels of the participants and after just ten days their levels had dropped 25%. This is more then any prescribed pill has ever achieved.

Test 2: Tomato paste eaten four times daily for a week while the body was exposed to infra red rays. And then a normal diet for a week and the same amount of infra-red radiation (sun). The tomato paste (which is just condensed tomatos, and the same can be gotten from tomatos) reduced skin damage by 20%.

Test 3: Twins, both drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day to preserve skin. For a week, one drank as much as possible while the other drank none. Both stayed on the same diet. After a week, there was no difference in either of their skins substance. The water did nothing for their skin. Water has lots of other benefits but it seems skin health is not one of them. Why was there no difference? Because of the amount of water in the foods we eat - watermelon 95% water; potatoes 75% water; hard cheese 50% water. Interesting!

Everyone's Number One

After Jess' blistering rowing time last night, everyone was in and challenging themselves to do better and they all did. Anne really powered from the word go and despite not getting a new PB her rowing average got down to 2:06 per 500m which is over 20 seconds below her old average. After hitting the brick wall at 370m, her next attempt will be even better and Iknow she is just a few weeks away from smashing her previous time of 2:27 down to a sub 2:20 time. Her chin ups are getting much stronger as well.

Mel W skippedthe rower dueto some leg fatigue but she still powered through a great upper body workout. Again, chin ups getting stronger and stronger as she can keep her self up for longer, and her push press technique is superb. I look forward to the fullbody workouts Mel. Oh yes, and great job and beating your old sit up challenge by 5 sit ups extra. Great!

Ruth in next complaining of no energy as it was the last day of the week, but with a little coaxing from the coach, she blew her old time out of the water and went from 2:12 seconds down to 2:07 seconds. Excellent. She did the wall ball challenge and sit up challenge as well for a tough twenty five minute workout.

Anna also not feeling up to a fast row time but her body was. From an old PB of 2:25 to a new one of 2:07. That's almost a 20 second improvement. See Anna, you can do it and you are strong and you are fit. Keep going.

Finally, Jen cappedoff the morning with an easy but very, very enjoyable session. Excellent Jen. Keep ongoing also. "Chin Up"

Watch out world...here comes Jess

Jess, one of our star athletes, along with the rest of you, performed a miracle feat on the rower with a blistering 500m time of. . .wait for it. . . 1 minute 50 seconds. Wow. And she even did a full workout after it.

Gulnaz in and slowly getting back into after a lay off. not a spring chicken, but a chick none the less, she can still do three full pull ups. Extraordinary.

Bob, great session, finished the WOD in super time, but instead of letting him walk out the door, we did more and more. Technique is getting better and strength is always there.

Robert, consistent Robert, despite a full days work and saying he was lacking in energy, he completed the WOD without a hitch. Proving why he is on top of the leaders board.

Hard days work deserves a good nights sleep.

I look forward to tomorrows sessions, see you all then.

Note: See the picture above of the wall ball exercise - now that is how you do it. Full way down into a squat...ouch!

And as for all your efforts in the eating department. I made a delicious pumpkin soup today, simple, tasty and healthy. Here it is:

olive oil heated on medium heat and put the diced onion in and cook for five minutes until it is soft. Quickly add one teaspoon of cummin, quarter of a teaspoon of cinammon, and a teaspoon of coriander or parsley finely chopped. Stir this for one minute to let the aroma out. Now add the diced pumpkin (about 2cm blocks) and cover them in the onion stew. Add the vegetable stock (I just boiled some corn together with carrot and asparagus - you can use any veges - and I added the water to the pumpkin - about 4 cups worth). Let it boil on medium low heat for half hour and then mash it all together. Add about 1/2 cup of cream, salt and pepper and eat, eat, eat. Eat the corn while you are waiting for the soup to be ready.

yesterdays feedback

Frank and Josephine P - Anna and Jess - Yvonne - Sebastian - Erin and Ruth; these are the names of the soldiers who so valiantly braved GarageGym last night. We had a combination of battles, the original WOD from yesterday which included deadlifts and thrusters in the same combination, and tabata intervals interrupted with chin ups.

All up it was a great night of victories, especially as all of the soldiers are experienced, well trained, and just as important, well lead by General (Coach) Michael.

Thank you all for the spectaculr display of strength, power, finesse and stamina. You make me proud to be your teacher.

Note: Seb brought in his daily food diary to get feedback on his progress. It was flawless. Seb is in great shape and it is due to his continuous effort in not just training but also things like the food diary, so he can monitor and adjust his diet if need be, to attain the results he desires. It is the small things like this that add up to the big things in life. "God is in the details"

See you all soon

Back By Popular Demand

After many request, inquisitions and orders about our daily Blog entries, I have decided to re-start the dribble from Coach Michael's mouth.

Starting with Mel W, who limped into training today. Waiting patiently as always for Coach Michael to arrive, we got stuck into her upperbody only. Tabata intervals of push ups, dips, push press, and bench press with 10 pull ups thrown in between. Mel blasted through the workout and destroyed her arms - good luck finding a new pair Mel!

A Special Note goes out to Jen whose mother passed yesterday. Although I did not know her personally, I know her daughter who is a spectacular human being who is nothing but giving and loving, and a human cannot be as great as Jen without a super mother. We are thinking of you all day Jen. Love from the GarageGym Family.

And that is all for this morning so far.

I'll keep writing as I see fit. I may miss the odd day. But oh well. Shit happens.

Follow Up

Following on from the last post on nutrition:

Here is a typical daily meal plan which will guarantee you to lose fat fast in the most healthiest way possible and not allow you to lose muscle either (its always a fine line between the two).

Breakfast:

fresh, plain yughurt (flavoured yoghurt adds sugar) with some fruit (passionfruit, banana, strawberries, and or apple) with either a quality protein rich muesli (found only at health food shops) or oats, wheatgerm, licethin and flax seeds (all bought separately for a couple of dollars each and you combine them as you need them.

or

two eggs fried with olive oil only. 1 strip of bacon and some wholemeal, wholegrain bread - 1 slice.

or

two eggs as an omelette with some veges in it (broccoli or capsicum or some other invention) served on one slice of the above bread and sprinkle it with some fetta or cottage cheese - not too much though.

These meals are full of everything you need to start the day and will keep you full for a longer time and keep your metabolism up.

Mid morning snack:

a little fruit and a handful of nuts (cashews, almonds etc)

or

a black coffee (no milk will really make a difference - and no sugar either) and some nuts

Lunch:

grilled chicken breast or fish or a quality piece of meat with a small serving of steamed veges (do not over do the veges to retain their nutrient content)

Maybe a sandwich but only wholemeal or rye bread and no flavour such as butter, or mayo. Add cold meat like chicken and have it with avacado, tomato, cucumber. Top with a vegetable juice of carrot, celerey, orange and aplle with a dash of ginger and lemon.

Mid afternoon snack:

If you didnt eat all of your lunch or if you made extra, have the rest now - either the other half of the sandwich or a few mouthfuls of the grilled meat and steamed veges you made earlier.

Black coffee is ok

Dinner:

Less carbs is good so stay away from pasta in the evening. When I am serious about losing fat I do not have pasta ever as much as I enjoy it. A wholemeal rice is fine but only a cup full. Again have grilled fish or chicken breast or meat - as little fat on all of them as possible.

If you have a salad have tuna with it.

Supper:

Again, have a few mouthfuls of the left over dinner - it is always good to cook extra and eat it as a snack as both lunch and dinner are well balanced meals, do not contain to much of any one thing, and will fill you up.

Eating like this all day will keep your nutrient levels up, which will stop all your cravings. It will also keep your energy levels constant which will stop cravings as well and keep you burning fat.

Yes, I know, black coffee isn't as nice as with milk but if you add up all the calories you aren't ingesting by doing these little alterations you will be having over 300-500 calories less each day and considering one kilogram of fat on your body is 1,700 calories, you will be sheding 1 kilogram of fat every four days. AMAZING. SIMPLE. Yet requires some planning and effort. But it is well worth it.

I'll add new and delicious meal ideas as I discover them.

Enjoy the fat melting away.