Trainee Paulo makes Schoolboys side

During the June/July holidays I went down to Sydney to compete in the National Schoolboys Championships. Going down as the QLD tight-head prop, I was excited for the tasks ahead. Our team had a lot on the line with QLD teams winning the previous 3 years and I didn’t want our team to be the ones losing the streak for our state. First day of rugby was against ACT and we ended up running away with 69 points to 7. Second day of rugby games we had to play QLD II where we were to face mates and boys from school and we ended up with 47-7. Third day we had a qualifying game for the finals and we played NSW II and won comfortable 37-15. On the final day we faced Combined States in the finals and we ran away with 43 points to 17. At the conclusion of the tournament two Australian sides were selected Australian Schools and Australia A. I was lucky enough to make Australian Schools with 5 other Brisbane State High players and 2 Brisbane State High boys making Australia A.

TAI JI:

It is great to see so many new faces regularly attending the TaiJi classes on Tuesday mornings and also the new session at 10:00 on Saturday mornings. Everyone is moving forwards. Just remember, the more you attend, the more technique you will acquire so that you can practice this amazing health/fitness/martial art/relaxation system at home as well as coming to the gym for more treats/more specific technical instruction. It hasn’t happened to anyone yet but there is an amazing neuro-physiological transformation to be found within this system of movement. Stay tuned, next month I will post a ton of links to medical studies showing how TaiJi training benefits Diabetes, various Cardio-Vascular diseases, treatment of Parkinsons disease and a heap of other ailments.

Remember, once you have nailed the basic techniques, there are a couple of really cool ‘forms’ to learn afterward: The gift that keeps on giving.

Thanks for your great efforts. Peace to all.

KFP

KUNG FU:

July has been a very fine month for the Fitnance ‘Top Bloke Top Bird Martial Arts’ Crew. Bob, Keno and Darcy all earned their yellow belts by displaying their practical knowledge of the techniques they have learned to date. All three are beginning to display their own style of movement now: Bob has a natural gift for the grappling side of the system and is exhibiting top class stability in his postures due to his immense core strength. Keno is developing very fast and high snap kicks which combine with his heavy hands to good effect. Darcy (The Mongoose) is developing some very, very fast and heavy hands. Congratulations to all three of them for their very hard work. Let’s hope Darcy recovers from the swine flu some time soon.

The other great news of the month is that Sword Master and Weapons Specialist Mr Nigel Poulton has now joined the crew. Nigel is already a senior in Jiu-Jitsu and Pancrase with a wealth of experience drawn from a life-time studying the martial arts and working in film and theatre as a fight choreographer. As well as bringing his advanced empty hand skills to the table, Nigel will take care of instruction in knife and sword play whenever his schedule allows.

More news is that Monday night training has now been replaced by Saturday Morning training: Big sessions on Saturday with lots of sparring and serious ground work!

Some others of the crew would benefit by making the training more regular. You know who you are and you have the potential. However, it won’t happen if you don’t push hard. Natural skill is nothing without application.

Once more, Congratulations to all. It’s great to see people moving forward.

Nick Pratt - Sydney’s strongest man 2009

On the 28th of June, I competed In Sydney’s strongest man competition.
This competition had 5 events.
- 285kg super yoke 25m
- 100kg log press for reps
- 250kg axel Dead lift for reps
- 135kg each hand farmers walk 25m
- 140kg atlas stone over 1.3m for reps
This show used a lot of cardio fitness and speed on top of overall strength and power.
On the 1st event the super yoke nerves were driving me wild once I fond out that we would be walking up an incline with the yoke and farmers. But once my turn came I had a clean run with only 1 drop clocking a time of 15.08secs winning this event over all. With my confidence going up I had two of my weakest events coming up the log clean and press and the axel dead lift. In the log I only managed to clean and press it 5 times which dropped me down the rankings and on the dead lift also got 5 reps taking me back to 8th place. At this stage I felt like death but next up was one of my favourite events the farmers walk with 135kg each hand I got a time of 13.02secs and won this event taking me up to 4th place. Stone for reps was next with the rain coming we had to rush through the middle and light weights in 75secs I only managed to get 4 reps witch kept me my 4th place and qualifies me for nationals so from now till the 4th and 5th of December it’s the road to Australia’s strongest man!!!

Trainee Jesse - Under 18s Basketball

The under 18’s basketball state classics was held at Toowoomba on the 29th of June to the 3rd of July. And it was an exciting week, many teams competed such as: Southern districts, Gold coast, Brisbane, Logan, Townsville, Bunderberg, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Mackay, Cairns, Gladstone, Maroochydore, Noosa, Redlands and Rockhampton. Of all these teams played hard to earn their spots in the state classics. I play for southern districts and my team won the div 2 state title playing against some really good teams along the way. Starting of the week on our Monday games we were up against Ipswich and Bunderberg, strongly taking out Ipswich 78-62, and smashing Bunderberg 115-40. Everyone played really well, and I was top scorer for round one averaging 20 points in the first round against Ipswich and Bunderberg. We were all excited for our next games on Tuesday, knowing that we will be up against two very good teams in the second round. On Tuesday we came up against Townsville and Toowoomba, both teams were strong but not strong enough to hold us back from beating both teams on that day, Townsville got up to a good start over us starting with their best shooter on the court scoring 4 three pointers in the first quarter, but our heads didn’t drop all we needed was to play hard defense and smart offense, and that was just the plan we needed to take over Townsville and beat them by 10 points in the final quarter 70-60. Toowoomba was our next team to verse they had a pretty good starting line up with some very athletic players on court, rebounding and strong defence, but with hard defense and offense Toowoomba could not stop us from taking them over and to win strongly with a 71-45 victory. We were undefeated and we had made the Quarter finals, and we were pumped to verse the next team which was Noosa and they also were undefeated in the competition, and we knew that Noosa would like to go undefeated throughout the competition. When it came to game time, both Noosa and my team were warming up hard and getting ready for a tough showdown, throughout the game Noosa put up some good shots and rebounding well in the first half, when it came to half time, we all came together and we all wanted to finish this game with a win, and that’s just what we did, Noosa couldn’t stop us from taking them out with another strong win 76-59. We had won 5 games to nil, and made the semi finals. Our semi final was against Logan, Logan has been our rivals since we have versed them in the southern cup competition, and we knew they would try and take us out of the competition. Logan had 4 very strong players that could shoot inside and out. But we weren’t going to go down without a fight, we managed to put their best three point shooter in foul trouble which cause their coach to take him off the court, short of risking him to foul out and sit out for the rest of the game, that gave us an advantage, with their strongest player out of the game, we could go ahead and take them out, and when the final siren went off for full time, we all jumped for joy, we beat Logan 83-76 and we had a chance of winning the state classics. Unfortunately Noosa beat Brisbane Silver in their semi, and we were against Noosa once again but this time for the state title, Final time was here, and we were all excited, and absolutely pumped for the final game. During the game Noosa come out strong beating us in quarter 1 2 and 3 by only 2 points, it was the final quarter, and our final chance to secure victory, Noosa was going to give us everything they got to make sure we don’t beat them in the final quarter, we both went out hard and strong in the final quarter, Noosa just holding on, until a time out was called by our coach with 5 minutes to go, and during those last 5 minutes we went all out, crashing boards running our offensive plays, and we passed Noosa and kept on playing hard even for the final minute, Noosa was down by 11 and they could not comeback at us in the final minute. As the clock ticked down to its final seconds our bench stood up and when the siren sounded we all jumped with happiness and joy beating Noosa 72-61, and we were all so happy with our results during the classics, we had won the state title and went the whole competition undefeated. We congratulated Noosa on their efforts and for a tough game. After the game, we received our medals and certificates and the trophy. It was an exciting week we all had fun and enjoyed playing against the teams we versed. we assure all the other teams will work hard for next year’s classics, and so will we, and hopefully we can take out next year’s title as state champions.

Wednesday Time Trials

6000m on Bike L4
3500m on Grinder L2
3000m on Rower L4

Between the 3 exercises you had to do 50 abs and 50 push up

Results were:
Jackson 35.46 mins
Tiff 38.32
Jess 41.21
Anthony 34.49
Harry 39.36
Phil 38.25
Adam 35.07
Tom 41.54
Matt 43.51
Cory 40.03
Sam 39.20
Justin 36.55

Fitnance Barby

DON'T FORGET

Friday 10th July

5.30pm Group workout

6.30pm Food, drink and music by LCG

The "Mackay" Machine - Bodybuilding

Having been told at the age of 20 that I had some potential for Natural Bodybuilding, I figured that since the friendly advice was given by Mr Natural Olympia Champion, Alfred Pitt, he may actually be onto something. So 15 years and three kids later, I decided to have a crack at it after going to my local gym to get some ‘me’ time.
Even though I had been physically active and casually doing laps at the local pool for a couple of years between having kids, this didn’t stop me feeling nervous when I walked into the gym on that first day. It didn’t take long before training and the social contact with other like minded people had me keen to add more days to my training schedule.

Although I was keen and had the strength to lift good weights, I had lousy form. So with the help of Personal Trainer, David Cook, we set about making a program that had me lifting decent weights, with added cardio, and thankfully reducing injury. Dave also gave me one great bit of advice which has definitely got me through those rough days when I would finish night shift, the kids were barking at my heels and the coffee just wasn’t working. When I first said I wanted to compete in a Natural Bodybuilding comp he said, ’The first thing to do is set the number of days you need to train (in my case it was six days) then simply turn up…no matter what.” So that’s what I did…and very soon it just became as natural as waking up. There were days, and still are, when I struggle to tie my laces let alone drive to the gym with three kids in tow, but I find if I ‘simply turn up’ then training just takes over now. I may only do a light session, but I know it is still better than doing nothing. (Thanks Dave)

In September, Alfie contacted Gavin Saron, another exceptional guy who Alf trained and competed with ten years prior, and we set about getting to my first Natural Bodybuilding Competition. Gavin and I decided that it would be best to ‘dip my toes’ in a regional competition so in January 2009 I told anyone who would listen that I was going to enter the Coral Coast Natural Bodybuilding Competition in Townsville on May 24th 2009.

The Results:
First – Overall Womens Figure Coral Coast Natural Bodybuilding Competition, Townsville QLD – 24th May, 2009.
First – Masters Womens Figure Coral Coast Natural Bodybuilding Competition, Townsville QLD – 24th May, 2009.

Hard Work pays off

Congrats to Joe and Browny for all their efforts over the past months.

News about Steve in UK

Steve Nance introduces wrestling and boxing at Leeds rugby
Leeds Carnegie are a month into a 19-week training programme which has been created by performance director Steve Nance. The variety within the programme has kept the players fresh and excited about pre-season. "Steve has a model that he has used successful with the Australian national team and the Brisbane Broncos in Rugby League and it is working well for us. There is a lot of variety within the training week, Steve has introduced wrestling and boxing into our schedule. It is tough work but you don't necessarily realise how much good it is doing you at the time.

Gym Renovations

The gym has seen many tradies over the weekend to finalise all the renovations. Check out the photos and see what you think.

Many thanks to Parra, Judy, Guido and Rocket for all their hard work.

Running Shoes

As all technical areas of running are accelerating in relation to research and performance the newly adapted running shoes seem to be causing more harm than good. The running shoe market is ever growing and changing in order to supply ‘a more natural and injury free run, as well as increasing performance’. It seems that the advanced running shoes are actually an inferior option then their previous counterparts, even as far back as 1939. Gordon Pirie makes these above statements in his book “ Running fast and Injury Free”. Pirie stated how many records were set and championships were won throughout history with athletes running barefoot. He believed, with sufficient evidence, that by making the running shoe more like bare foot running an athlete can increase performance and decrease the prevalence of injury substantially.

His main point is how the modern running shoe is too technical and not specific to the needs of a general runner, the basic needs of a runner need to be targeted and utilised appropriately. These basic areas are injury prevention, increasing performance and supplying a more natural run. Common running injuries such as blisters and Achilles tendon tenderness can be rectified by simple but overly effective methods that are not used by major shoe manufacturing companies, much to the dismay of Pirie. Pirie recommends obtaining lightweight snug shoes that fit like a glove, this accompanied with some DIY modifications will decrease the incidence of injury and increase performance substantially. By using these simple measures the natural technique of running can be performed. Today’s running shoes move away from natural running technique and therefore increase injury and decrease the effectiveness of athletes running.

By following the few helpful steps supplied by Pirie a safer and more complete running experience can be achieved easily, it will reduce the incidence of injury whilst increasing performance and ultimately gaining greater satisfaction from your running experience. All this simply by using the correct shoe.

Returning from injury

Almost all athletes encounter an injury throughout their life, the more intense and competitive exercise you complete the greater this prevalence becomes. Once an athlete becomes injured their chance of being re-injured in the future are increased by 20-50%. The susceptibility generally results from the following factors:
• Returning to exercise prematurely, with the injury not fully recovered.
• Not rehabilitating the injury correctly.
• Not strengthening the areas, which initially caused the injury.

So many people return to physical activity prematurely, whether it be peer pressure issues, motivational issues, mood or even mentality that you are fine, most of the time it leads to re-injury. The following two areas discuss issues involving getting injury back to full strength and even furthering strength, once this has been achieved then a return may be possible. A process should be followed in coming back to training, it will progress from easy, low intensity exercises (Jogging, sprinting, stretching etc) and progress to harder more intense activities (agility, contact, strength etc) and finally sport specific at match intensity. These levels shouldn’t be attempted until the previous level has be completed at 100%. Once all these stages have been completed repeatedly and thoroughly, with conjunction of completion of other two factors, the client can then return to normal activity

Obviously, rehabilitation is a vital issue. If the prescribed rehabilitation process is not followed thoroughly the injury will never heal, the area will never strengthen and return to its initial condition. The rehabilitation process normally involves getting the injury back to it normal strength before being injured. It typically incorporates increasing strength to a stage past pre Injury State, therefore leading on to the next topic, strengthening areas where injury occurred. Obviously there were some deficiencies before the injury occurred, hence it happening, so this indicates that the pre injury level must be increased before returning to activity. Strengthening of the injured area and surrounding muscles and tendons will minimise the occurrence of re injury, by increase stability and strength of surrounding areas it will increase the injured areas strength and stability also.

By incorporating the above three factors into the process of returning from injury, you can largely decrease the incidence of being re-injured, or even sustaining another total different injury.



Sports Injury Bulletin: Special Report. & Peak Performance #262.