Let me tell you about my last month as Head trainer at Viva Fitness!

I am sitting here in Geelong with colleague and student but more importantly mate ‘Anthony Bynoe’, at breakfast who says to me “It’s been a big month or more hasn’t it”?

And it dawned on me that I suppose it has… I am the first person to set goals and move on to the next one but I also recognise it’s important to acknowledge completion of tasks. When Anthony said this, I realised that a big couple of months of competition is coming to an end and therefore, it would be remiss of me, if I were not to review.

Celebrating accomplishment is an important part of the process and so is debriefing. This helps us measure against our goals and plan for next time. I simply only worry about asking three questions as that is all that is needed for relevant action next time:

·         What was good?

·         What could have improved?

·         What/ how will you do it next time?

I don’t worry about ‘why’ things happened, as that is usually a negative. I believe the most important question to ask yourself in any debrief is ‘how’. Ask any successful business person like perhaps, ‘’Richard Brandson’ who states, “we learn from our mistakes. The urge to improve is what makes us win or fail… Build the urge”.

So you may or may not find it interesting to read about some successes of our members at Viva. However, I hope you read on and allow yourself to be inspired form their accomplishments as well as learn from their efforts.

Trip to Ukraine (My Preseason)

So before the mad month of September I decided to join my father on a two week trip to the Ukraine and learn about my heritage. It was just perfect timing….NOT! But like a friend of mine, Vito, has told me “Dion if you had 100 hours in the day, you still wouldn’t get it all done”…I do agree! I am super-glad I joined my father, 68, who had not visited his homeland since coming to Australia in 1952. I found that when in the Ukraine I used this time as a preseason for my own fitness! What can I say I love it and the Ukrainians are amongst the best boxers in the world so I did numerous 1-1 sessions to learn the Russian style of tall, strong and beautiful boxing.

You may have heard about this already but check out my two vids and my blog about the trip.

1                    Boxing in the Ukraine

2                    An outdoor gym like I have never seen

PUSH_ Body Transformation Starts September 7th

Since 2003 we have successfully changed over 5000 people’s lives with weight loss, confidence and energy and I just love it! Recently in 2012 we launched the online trainer at www.pushbodytransformation.com.au and it has been a huge success with hundreds of people participating from around Australia in a body/life transforming program where you receive;

·         A weekly nutrition plan with ‘real Australian’ recipes for weight loss and muscle gain.

·         A 12 week program. From beginner to advanced, which includes both fat loss and muscle gain programs, with videos and everything you need to follow it successfully.

·         The ‘Mindset Makeover Program’ addition, where I personally give life coaching video lessons that we use in the PUSH system.

The behind the scenes work is huge to arrange programs for participants, which is not only  a balancing act of correct movement but also applying enough intensity for physical change. The nutrition part of the program is what’s most sort after and we pride ourselves on ‘good food’ and this year we added 50% new recipes to the site, so there are more varieties for those on the run and with food intolerances.

All PUSH members and clients of Viva can have access to this site for less than $10 per week all year round and you can join the site based info at any time.

City to Bay, Adelaide, September 15th      

What a great day City to bay is! Each year the Viva crew gear up and participate and each year we have great success. Some of the stand-out efforts were Kane Jauntis and Michelle Rozee. Michelle who I believe is a ‘respiratory scientist’, has dropped over 20 kilograms since competing in the event 4 years ago. This time she decided to train for the event with our Saturday morning running team and dropped 5 minutes from her time, as well as stated that she actually enjoyed the whole process compared to her first event. Kane, local Landhaus winemaker, also trained for the event and unfortunately injured his calf 3 k’s in the race. The thing about Kane is he will always be successful in life! Why? Because he finishes what he starts. It took Kane approximately 30 seconds to stop, recognise his injury, assess the severity and then come up with a new solution, which was to slow his pace and go to a technique run rather than a fast run and then achieve his goal! This is what successful mindsets do in the face of every challenge.

For me, events like these are great as they are about encouraging our clients to find a goal, which is a key motivator. I personally like to lead by example, so instead of training for the event, I actually keep myself fit for running all year round with short intense runs as well as correct movement and strength training.

Running is an excellent form of exercise but I do preach the following caution and that is “get fit to run and not run to get fit”. Being such a strenuous movement for our body it is really important that you have assessed your physical readiness for running. You see people sit down a lot and over time, this takes a toll on your posture and therefore, your performance. Before you run ‘Max Martin’ from Corrective Exercise Australia say’s to follow this checklist;

·         Check that your Transverse Abdominals are firing correctly to enable core strength

·         Check the relationship of the Hip Flexors, Glutes and Hamstrings, to ensure there is no synergistic dominance.

·         Assess Calves and Gluteus Medius muscles, against one another and ensure performance is within 5% from left to right.

·         Assess Thoracic Spine Rotation and Mobility.

·         Get some advice on running technique and put a program together to address your running needs. Start small and build up over time as Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were your current postural and movement behaviours.

Therefore if you are running to get fit…. Don’t, without performing the above checks with a qualified trainer to ensure you are running for many years to come.

Mixed Martial Arts Down under, Adelaide, September 21st

Getting in the cage for a full combat fight is certainly a big deal and our frontline leader ‘Anthony Bynoe’ had been getting ready for this event, since his last bout in March. This was Anthony’s third professional bout and I had been helping him with his stand up kickboxing. Anthony is a great learner. He does question everything ‘yes’, but when something makes sense to him, he does everything he can to learn it, with the right timing and application.

Anthony’s training consisted of 6 days per week which included:

·         1 full body strength and power session. This includes all the large lifts like squats and presses, whilst also including jumps and throws as supersets for the strength lifts.

·         1 conditioning circuit made up of bodyweight exercises, ropes, bags and balls.

·         1 weekly heavy sparring session. This had Anthony compete weekly against others getting ready for the bout and he actually would do 3 x minute rounds with a fresh person every minute. Gruelling!!!

·         1 Boxing session learning skills and techniques

·         1 Jujitsu session

·         1 wrestling session

·         1 kickboxing session

This was the plan and it did vary week form week but that’s normal to cater for injuries, recovery and general life. However ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’!

Anthony performed sensationally looking very comfortable as well as composed and got a first round victory, after landing a well-timed right hand to the jaw of his opponent and then devastating him with a right body, shot which caused his opponent to buckle and not go on.

We look forward to getting Anthony ready for his next bout in March 2014 and will be paying close attention to his boxing defence, through movement drills and speed work. This will see him even more comfortable fighting on his feet, whilst he will work with his jujitsu coach and complete another grading.

For those of you who have not seen a cage event at ‘the powerhouse’ (home of the 36er’s) I highly recommend it as it is run extremely professionally with great music, food, beverage, security and is an awesome venue which attracts a much better crowd than the fight scene in hotels.

The South Australian INBA Titles, Adelaide, September 30th

This event is for those of you who really want to see how far you can take your body to look like a ‘superstar’! For the men it’s about getting ‘ripped’ and for the ladies it’s about getting super lean and sexy in the fitness model class.

I believe this would have to be the most disciplined sport in the world as bodybuilders and physique athletes not only have to do the training but in addition have to be disciplined enough to follow strict dieting.  This goes beyond the measures of most other athletes. It’s super disciplined and super tough. Just imagine being at your son’s birthday, your own birthday, numerous weekend barbecue’s as well as catch up’s with girlfriends and family and not being able to have even one alcoholic beverage, a piece of cake or not much else for that matter… Well that was my wife Kristy, who decided that after giving birth to our second son on April 15 this year, would compete only 5 months and two weeks after this. Your probably thinking she is crazy and so did I. Honestly, even I did not agree with her doing this at first but then I realised why it was so important for her to get her body back. It was about taking control of those post pregnancy emotions that were going wild through her body and doing something positive for herself so she would feel like a woman again.

Imagine being the husband of this ‘hormonally pepped up dieting nazy’. Imagine that you see her reach for something at a function and naturally, in doing what I believe to be the right thing, and remind her of her goal… Well let’s just say that I have been learning to keep my mouth shut the hard way of late… She was not very appreciative to say the least.

I found myself at the event, extremely proud as I sat with my son, cheering for my wife and see her come second in the ‘bikini momma’ division against other mums. Most of which, who had toddlers and there she was, only 5 months after giving birth, on stage with her womanly physique back. Great Job honey!

My part in all of this is coach and giving the guidelines for others to follow, as well as being the bouncing board for Jamie to discuss his approach to training. Jamie is very well resourced for bodybuilding and I just generally take a back step with his training and we chat about ideas and training methods to ensure he has picked the best for him.  For my wife, given we are both ‘Leo’s, I don’t train her as it generally gets fiery. I am the program author and find someone else to carry out the training with her. This also worked for us in 2008 when we won Miss Australia!

It’s very satisfying, making the adjustments to programs.  Changing the exercise selection, training days and diet is just some of what we look at and seeing the results that follow can be very rewarding and informative. It really is trial and error with every athlete as everyone has different needs and responses to both diet and training. Being objective and specific is paramount if you want to be accurate in your preparation and that is why all of these participants who want to get lean, healthy and sexy use a trainer to design programs and measure progress. It just makes sense!

Viva had another 4 competitors being head Trainer Jamie, Body combat instructor Meghan, long term PUSH_ member Susan and PUSH_ member Sasha.

They had been following a strict regime and most were working with Jamie to prepare for the event and they all did an outstanding job. This was Susan’s third event and she looked absolutely ‘majestic’ on stage. At age 53 she should feel like it too!  Susan changed her plan this time and came in really lean and narrowly missed out on first place in what can only be stated as a controversial decision…

For Jamie it was his second event and his legs were in a league of their own on stage with his bulging quads and thick gluts standing out amongst the crowd.  Coming in equal fourth Jamie, at first wasn’t too happy with the result but on reflection has addressed where he could have improved and I know that he will come back and learn from this next time. He had great size in his legs but was probably 2 weeks off with his dieting, so he was a bit softer than what he wanted on stage against the winner, who had striations in his muscles from head to toe and looked incredible.

To the other two girls Meghan and Sasha, well done on such a terrific accomplishment and achieving a milestone in your life that could be compared to very little else.

Australian Masters Games Boxing, Geelong, October 6th and 7th

These two guys are champions and have just competed in the ‘Australian Masters Boxing’ in Geelong, with Trainers Dion and Anthony. This is an incredible effort for Dale, a 47 year old boxer, who started only 2.5 years ago and is boxing against competitors who have boxed since their teens. Adam, a 35 year old, had never stepped in the ring before and did himself proud in a great bout, winding up second, he is still an enormous winner and lost 10 kilos over the lead up and gained just so much in learning about the person he really is and we are very proud of both of the guys. Through experience, given Adam has boxed for less than 12 months, he naturally will improve and we hope will continue at next year’s games

The atmosphere was overwhelming and nothing will ever take this experience away from the guys.

“Success is a Journey and not a destination”

You guys are WARRIORS!!!

There is a quite a good team at Viva in our ‘Warrior Martial Arts’ team, with about 6 first time fighters amongst us and just really good people. Both Anthony and I, love training with the guys/ girls and can only see this growing in future and encourage you to come and give it a shot. Remember you have to start somewhere and that’s exactly what we are experienced in. Helping you put your first foot forward in the right direction!

A philosophy we share with successful entrepreneur and millionaire ‘Robert Kiyosaki’ is;

You don’t have a right foot and a wrong foot but a right and a left. Each time you step forward you may make mistakes and ‘you will learn from these’! With the right guidance, support and training you can become more and gain the confidence you need to transfer this energy to ‘bigger rocks/ obstacles’ as well as successes in your life.

Good trainers encourage the learning process and understand that making mistakes will help you learn and develop, so if you want to find your ‘inner warrior’ then join us at Viva for beginner boxing Tuesdays and Thursday’s at 6pm or boxing for fitness on Wednesday at 6pm. Thursday at 5 is for those wanting a bit ore from the sport with more combat techniques used!

‘Inner Warrior Training’ is on now at Viva, teaching you how to release your inner warrior and be the best version you can be!

For the remainder of the year simply email dion@vivafitness.com.au and we will arrange one free trial per person till the end of 2013!

You guys are WARRIORS!!!

Make It Happen