Having already used the term 'busy' in our last blog I thought I'd better use a different adjective in the title this week! Take your pick as once again the gym has been a blur of vigorous activity and personal achievements. Let's take a look...
In no particular order...
Johanne Carr achieved her 50 unbroken squat target; Johanne had her eye on this goal for a while and with her long levers (biomechanics speak for being tall!) we knew she'd have to fight for every rep. Nice job Johanne!
We've have not one, but two Ramp-Up graduates to report; Lynn Bradford graduated with an excellent time of 7:16 (Winter Protocol) having joined us with an initial 11:25 for the same workout just 4 weeks earlier. Nuha Woolmington also graduates, narrowly missing a sub-ten minute round, with a time of 10:02. Nuha has seen solid progress and slashed a massive 4:31 off her original score come race day.
So whats a few minutes improvement between friends? Well, our rudimentary maths reveals that this is a 36% and 31% improvement respectively. If a recreational half-marathon runner made gains of this sort of magnitude they'd be crossing the finish line half-an-hour earlier! And that's in a mere 4 weeks of training. Nice job Lynn! Nice job Nuha!
New Skill Level Introduced (0.75% Classification; Senior Athlete):
Having attempted/achieved some of our Level 1 goals you will all know
that they are demanding tasks for anybody starting out in fitness let
alone senior athletes.
No rubber bands and swiss balls; here one if our senior athletes throws weights around like everybody else!
Despite the bar being set very high, some of our senior clients have made huge inroads into, and even achieved some of these Level 1 goals. However, we feel the need to introduce a new skill level to reward their hard work and maintain motivation, whilst acknowledging the impact of those advanced years (
this article is a mine field!)
2000m Row in 9mins26s: Speaking of Level 1 goals, a big well done to Laura with this impressive time. Easily within the female 9:50 goal.
The 2000m row is a test of our capacity to do work. More than endurance, it is the ability to work at a high level for a sustained period of time. Performance over 2,000m on a rowing ergometer is dependent upon the
functional capacity of both the aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways,
with the relative amount of energy derived from anaerobic
metabolism being 21-30%(1).
In tests designed to mirror the demands of a 2000m race, caloric
expenditure has been calculated as 36kcal per minute making it one of
the most energy demanding activities ever studied (Hagerman FC. Applied physiology of rowing.
Sports Med. 1984 Jul-Aug;1(4):303-26).
500m Row in under 1min55s (Male): Another away we can define our fitness on the rower is by testing speed rather than capacity. A different kind of 'hurt', this row demands working at your very top end albeit for a much shorter duration. Michael demonstrated plenty of speed when he crossed the finish line with seconds to spare on his successful 500m attempt. Nice job Michael!
We know that this is just a few of your personal achievements but rest assured we notice all of your gains (and the hard work that makes it happen)! Don't be shy, ask us to take your photo and we'll report your achievements to inspire others!
PS. Tell your friends to do the smart thing and get fit!!!