How to Keep Your Cool with Fitness Training in Kiama

Being the last week of summer we’re obviously looking at lower temperatures over the next 6 months.  I’ve had a few clients, friends and even curious onlookers ask me what we do in the cooler conditions of autumn and winter.

Well I’m here to tell you, NOTHING CHANGES!  In the rain, we still train.  In the cool, let exercise rule.  If there’s a gale, we’re training, don’t bail.  If it gets cold, keep moving, don’t fold.  If there’s lightening, we may stop, that’s frightening.

But seriously, why would we do anything different?

For me personally, Autumn is my favourite time of year, especially for training.  Instead of humid, sweaty sessions we get fresh, crisp conditions.  It’s the time of year for some of the most spectacular sunrises you will ever see.  It’s not hot but it’s not cold either, it’s just right.

There are some great fitness related events coming up that we can focus our energies towards, including a number of  south coast 5km fun runs such as: Shellharbour Festival of Sport Shell Cove Fun Run (next Sunday), The Mother’s Day Classic (in May) and the Kiama Health, Sport & Fitness Expo.  There’s the very first Kiama Relay for Life on the 1st of May which is a great community event that raises money for the Cancer Council. Oxygen will have a big presence at the Relay for Life and we will be looking for your support on a day where we will be remembered, thats for sure. For distance and longer runs there’s the Sutherland to Surf, Bondi to Bronte, and City2Surf – the world’s largest running event.

Not long after that, I’ll be competing in my 3rd Sydney Tower Run-Up.  That’s a run up the stairs of Centrepoint Tower, all 1508 steps.  It sounds crazy and it probably is, but there’s nothing more rewarding than achieving a goal you have set for yourself.  All these are external events to Oxygen Kiama, but something we can train for collectively as a fitness group.

Internal events within Oxygen include our very first “Road Trip” at the end of March to a mystery location, as well as a local session with a couple of “special guest” Trainers that’s not to be missed.  There’s a very green St Patrick’s Day session, Dave’s Birthday Bash in April, an ANZAC themed training session and for Winter Solstice in June (the shortest day of the year) there are some super sessions we’ve put together titled “short and sweet”.  You’re gunna love ‘em.

We have some great info in the latest “Richly Rewarding Living” newsletter which you will all receive in the mail soon.  In there we share tips on how to avoid the blues and stick to your Winter training schedule.  Hydration, nutrition, recovery and the right clothing will all contribute to your performance levels.  Not only functional but also very trendy – check out the design of our Oxygen hoodies below.  These will sell fast so grab one of the first 20 by paying your $50 at class now. First in, best dressed!

Kiama’s Metabolic Jumpstart

This week a group of keen Kiama residents have taken on the challenge of a Metabolic Jumpstart to coincide with their 4 week Boot Camp Exercise Program. The Metabolic Jumpstart is a Nutrition program that offers you clear advice and a diet plan to re-wire your metabolism and discover a new level of wellbeing.

The Metabolic Jumpstart is created by Matt O’Neill, one of Australia’s top Nutritionists and a regular on Channel 7’s Sunrise and Morning Show Programs. He is also the Weight Loss Coach for Men’s Health Magazine (Aust). His trusted advice has helped millions of people enhance their diet, wellbeing and body shape. He has delivered over 1000 media interviews, hundreds of seminars and has presented in 8 countries.

Matt is on a mission- Mission Metabolism – to Jumpstart the nation (and the world) to eat well, be active and maintain a healthy metabolism. Please join in… it’s the Jumpstart we all need! If you’re not on board yet, I encourage you to visit www.metabolicjumpstart.com and quote OXYGEN as your referral code. It’ll be the best $30 you could spend! Oxygen Health & Fitness is privileged to be working with Matt O’Neill as an Official Partner in Mission Metabolism.

Why do we need it?

Because to truly get amazing results you NEED to combine a balanced exercise program with nutrient rich foods. How many people do you know that exercise all the time and have a fitness program but their shape and figure has barely changed? Conversely, how many people have you met that eat well or have been on this diet or that diet and still aren’t fit and healthy? The people who succeed at being fit, lean and healthy are those that combine both exercise and nutrition. If weight loss is your goal, it is NOT negotiable!

Effort and energy saving devices like remote controls, electric car windows and computer-bound jobs rob us of our calorie burning movement. Junk food fills us with nutrient-poor calories from bad fats, sugar and white, fluffy carbohydrates that don’t even fill you up.

And there’s information overload about health, nutrition and fitness. Eat this one day, drink that the next. Many diet and weight loss programs just add to the confusion, reduce your metabolic rate further and make matters worse. In fact, many so-called weight loss experts are simply lying to you about how your metabolism works.

Metabolic Jumpstart is different because your diet plan is metabolically matched for your needs. You choose if you want to lose weight fast, take your time to drop a few kilos, maintain your figure and fitness or bulk up.

Nutrient-rich eating targets show you the correct amount of each food group to eat each day, so you can be confident you are getting all the nutrients to optimise your metabolic function.

You can ‘Mix & Match’ your foods using the simple guide and Ready Reckoner. This gives you the flexibility and know-how to Tune-Up your plan.

I encourage anyone who has questions regarding their nutriton program to add their comments to the bottom of this blog post so we can all learn together. Chances are if you have a question to ask, someone else is thinking the same question? Post your diet and nutriton questions below.

Australia’s Healthy Weight Week in Kiama

This week, Jan 24-30 is ‘Australia’s Healthy Weight Week’, an initiative of Dietitians Association of Australia.  Given the time of year with New Year’s Eve Resolutions and aspirations of being fitter, stronger and healthier in 2010, the timing of this initiative is perfect.  Don’t forget it’s also Bring a Friend Fortnight so if you know someone in Kiama who needs weight loss, to get fit and be healthier in general then bring ‘em along.  For more info visit www.healthyweightweek.com.au plus look out for some great tips in our latest newsletter.

In the middle of Australia’s Healthy Weight Week we had Australia Day.  For many this represents a great chance to get together with family and friends and celebrate everything great about Australia.

Typically we are blessed with great weather for this day and this year was no different.  A beautiful sunny day meant plenty of people were outside enjoying themselves, swimming, playing games, cooking BBQ’s and having fun.

With that in mind, Oxygen Health & Fitness celebrated this great day in Kiama with an alternative session of fun and fitness games.  Our new Canadian connection of fitness professionals teamed up with some Oxygen members for the Australia v Canada Ultimate Frisbee Championship.  There were some wild throws, crazy catches and plenty of end to end action.  The Aussies, with one player short, were hammered 4 – 1.  But fear not, there was a game we knew we could challenge them with.

So next up, the Frisbee disappeared and the footy came out.  With two Cootamundra touch experts and two great wingers in Richard and Zane, the Aussies got their revenge winning 6 – 1.  Zane finished with a hattrick of tries including a diving effort in the corner right on fulltime.

Two great games, two different cultures, fun and friendship. It was a great way to start Australia Day where we are proud of our multiculturalism, our outdoor lifestyle and fun loving attitude.

That’s what fitness and exercise HAS to be about.  It has to be fun.  If it’s long, boring and monotonous – it’s not something you can integrate into your lifestyle long term. If you’re not exercising long term, it’s hard to gain any of the wonderful benefits attributed to improved health and fitness.  This is even more so the case with kids fitness.

Young Zane is a great example.  He first started coming along to Oxygen because his Mum is a Member.  Now Zane is dragging Mum along to sessions because he enjoys it so much.  If kids enjoy what they’re doing they forget they’re exercising in the first place because they’re ultimately just having FUN.

Oxygen Kidz is coming soon to Kiama and with the volume of enquiries we’ve received it’s going to be a sell out!  If your kids need to get out of the house, learn some new skills, make new friends or even excel to the next level in their chosen sport, REGISTER your interest today for Oxygen Kids Fitness and put your family on the path to a lifetime of health and fitness.  It’s a skill and habit they need for life and just remember this stat:  80% overweight kids become obese adults.

Important News for Oxygen Members

The latest news from Oxygen is the new sections on our website for Members and Business Associates.  Under Members you will find information about our Training Packages, Merchandise, Member of the Month and also Referral Rewards.

On the topic of Referral Rewards, Oxygen member Kylie Starling used her Gift-a-Friend Voucher from last month’s newsletter to introduce her friend Kerry Philp.  Kerry utilised her FREE trial week, joined up as a member and then as a reward Kylie was gifted with a $40 Fruit & Veg delivery from Naturally Fresh.  Thanks Kylie!!

Check out the Referral Rewards page right now because the latest news is that next week is Bring a Friend Fortnight at Oxygen (January 18-30).  For all you Personal Training clients, that means FREE Personal Training sessions for YOU for every session one of your friends completes in the fortnight.  If they join up as well, YOU get even more rewards.

For all our Group Training clients, refer 3 friends that sign up in the fortnight and YOU get an entire month of Group Training FREE!  Refer 6 friends that join and that’s 2 months of Group Training FREE.  It’s WIN/WIN all around!

Be sure to also check our Business Associates page to see all the greatest deals from local Kiama businesses and exclusive bonuses and discounts for Oxygen Members.  Your Membership Cards are now ready and will be posted to you tomorrow.  Present your card at participating businesses to receive your bonus or discount and help keep the local economy going strong. If you would like to nominate your business as an Associate and you can offer Members a good incentive to utilise your product or service contact us at 4233 2963 or email info@oxygenfit.com.au

Week 1 Bonuses at Oxygen

Happy New Year!  Welcome back to Oxygen Health & Fitness for 2010.

Training is underway again for both Group Training classes as well as Personal Training sessions and we are very excited about the year ahead. If you received our Newsletter in the mail at Xmas time don’t forget to utilise the Bring a Friend Gift Certificate before it expires 31st January. What a perfect way to get your friends started on a health & fitness program.

Most of our clients know of our Trainer Alix Henniker.  Alix is a multi talented young woman who amongst juggling a career as a Personal Trainer and Solicitor, has now qualified for training to become a Police Prosecutor.  Along with this Alix has been selected to appear in the upcoming TV series “The Recruits” which sees rookies entering the Police Academy in Goulburn.

The Recruits Production Manager has requested to film Alix at work doing what she does best for Oxygen.  So, with that in mind we have decided to put on a BONUS workout this Friday at 5:30pm – 6pm as our New Year gift to you.  It’s a good chance to get an extra session to start your year and you may even get your mug on TV!

It would be a huge favour to Alix and some great publicity for Oxygen if we could get as many people as possible for the session.  Members, non members, wives, husbands, friends, whoever – if they have any interest in doing a good deed and kickstarting their health and fitness for 2010 then please email or call us asap (4233 2963) to confirm your spot.

There has been a slight tweak to our Group Training Timetable this year with a re-arrangement of 6pm sessions and also the addition of a CORE class for our 6am Bootcampers.  Keep an eye out for additional classes being added at 7:30am for our Heart Health crew, 9:30am for the Mums and Shiftworkers and also afternoon classes for the Kids.  We’ll have Oxygen shirts running around all day long by the end of the year.

Just on that note, be sure to add your comments at the bottom of this blog post for anything you’d like to see added to our schedule for 2010 (be that timeslots, class types etc).

As for Week 1, we have seen some good numbers in attendance.  With a few people still on holidays and a tonne of people with New Year’s Resolutions to be fit, health and lose weight, January and February should mean busy times ahead.

On the topic of resolutions and being fit, did you know there are 5 key components to a successful exercise program?  One of those important steps is to assess where you are at right now.  It’s one thing to know where you want to go but if you don’t know where you are right now how can you measure your improvements?  Oxygen has the answer…

Fitness Age testing takes girth measurements all over your body – weight, strength testing, abdominal endurance, cardiovascular and flexibility assessments and calculates your Body Age, Strength Age, Cardio Age, Flexibility Age as well as an overall Fitness Age.  Oxygen conducts Group Fitness Age testing on the first Saturday of every month at 6:30am before Boxing.

For those of you who have already done Fitness Age testing before, you need to reassess to see if you have improved.  For those who have never completed Fitness Age testing, I highly recommend you participate.  It’s that perfect time of year to record your assessment so that you have a roadmap for where you need to get to in terms of fitness and health in 2010.

Good luck, train hard and may all your wishes come true in 2010.

Regards,

Dave Lambert

P.S – Don’t forget to leave your comments below to tell us what you’d like to see from Oxygen in 2010.  You may even want to publicly declare your health and fitness goals via this blog to keep yourself accountable.  Don’t laugh about it, it works!

Nestle Corporate Event

Over the weekend Oxygen had it’s first major Corporate Event with the Oxygen Outdoor Olympics.  Nestle Pacific Islands had their end of year Christmas getaway at the Sebel Harbourside Kiama and requested some afternoon activities that woudl be fun for the whole family.  After consultation with Nestle, The Sebel and Kiama Council the Oxygen Outdoor Olympics was born.

The Nestle employees plus partners and children totalled almost 40 people and they embraced the afternoon activites in true Olympic spirit.  They squared off against each other into Milo and Kit Kat teams and battled out an afternoon of touch footy, frisbee, handball and soccer games.

After a well earned drinks break the teams re-grouped into Boot Camp mode as they battled it out through an Oxygen Obstacle Course known as “Operation Water Torture”.  Each team member was given a plastic cup and had to run down to the rock pool, fill up their cup with water and trek through our course full of stairs, tyres, agility poles and markers to fill their team bucket.  The team that filled the most buckets would be declared the winner but when after 8 minutes the result ended in a tie, there was only one way to settle it – the final event of the day.

The final event was dubbed the Polly Waffle Team Relay.  Nestle has informed the world that the long serving Polly Waffle would be retiring in 2009 so Oxygen searched far and wide for a few of the remaining chocolate bars, purchased them and decided they would make a great team baton for such an event.

By the time these 2 fiercely competitive teams were done they Polly Waffles were trashed, the Kit Kat Team was declared Winners and the Oxygen Outdoor Olympics were over.

I would like to personally thank Alix and Clinton for giving up their time on a Saturday afternoon,  Cass and Tania for their photo and video expertise on the day and the Nestle Pacific Islands company for such a fun filled afternoon.

Oxygen Christmas Party

Friday 11^th December we rolled out the red carpet for the Inaugural Oxygen Health & Fitness Christmas Party.  This prestigious event was held at the Blue Diamond Bar at the Sebel Harbourside Kiama.

It was great to see everyone decked out in their best gear and enjoying themselves.  The girls looked glamorous, the guys looked brilliant and the menu was magnificent.  We enjoyed fresh prawns, steaks, snags, salads and beer battered chips.  There were a range of celebratory drinks and a few indulgent cocktails all in the name of Xmas and having a bit of fun.  Not to be mistaken for a regular occurrence!

Thanks to all in attendance for your business, support and friendship.  Thanks also to the trainers Alix, Clint and Jacqui for all your hard work so far in the business and its short history.  We have so many exciting projects planned for the next 12 month and we can’t wait to see you all again at the 2010 Oxygen Xmas Party and reminisce over the year that was.

Start of Summer

Summer is here! Can you believe it? Here we are in December already – almost another year gone. If your year has been anything like mine, it’s probably felt very quick and very busy at the same time. 2010 promises to be an exciting year, I can’t wait!

Before 2009 comes to an end there’s still plenty happening. Tomorrow we have our second instalment of Fitness Age Testing at 6:30am before Boxing at 7:30am. For all those members who participated last time, this is your chance to re-test yourself and see where you have improved. For some of our new members, or those that missed it last time, I highly recommend you participate. It is a powerful motivational tool that can help you stick to your training and improve your results. Fitness Age Testing will be conducted the first Saturday of every month.

Next week we will celebrate with the Oxygen Xmas Party on Friday 11th December. Held at the Blue Diamond Bar in the Sebel Hotel, the festivities will kick off at 7pm with beer, wine and soft drinks provided. A delicious menu will be served up to those in attendance. Cost is $28 pp and payable by Thursday 10th December. Please RSVP to cass@oxygenfit.com.au

The following day, Saturday 12th December, the Oxygen Team will be playing host to a division of the Nestle chocolate company. They have requested some family fun activities for the 40 staff and family members that are coming down to stay at The Sebel that weekend. With about 90 minutes worth of games, fitness and fun on the agenda all we need now is some sunshine on the day. With plenty of experience at these events with corporate businesses and sporting teams it should turn out to be a great day.

To finish off the year, our last official class will be Boxing at 7.30am on Saturday 19th December.
The day after, Sunday 20th December, Oxygen Health & Fitness will have a stall at the Kiama Seaside Markets on Black Beach. I encourage you to come down and check out the stalls on offer and stop in to say hi. The markets run from 9am-12pm. There are sure to be a couple of great last minute Xmas gifts on offer.

The week of December 21-24 I will be a doing a few casual exercise sessions and if anyone is interested and has the time please contact the office on 4233 2963 to come and join me for some fun.

Group Training Classes will resume on Monday 4th January 2010 with plenty of exciting initiatives for the year ahead. Bring it on!

Twitter Updates

SUNDAY 11th OCTOBER 2009

Oxygen Health & Fitness officially launches on Sunday 11th October to coincide with National Nutrition Week and the opening of the Kiama Gerringong Coastal Track. Oxygen Health & Fitness is then hosting a free boxing class. The itinerary is as follows:

8:00am: Breakfast from Gerringong Rotary Club Werri Lagoon
9:00am: Official opening of the Kiama Coastal Track walk/run
10:45am: Finish 6km Track
11:00am: Punch in the Park Boxing Class
12:00pm: Close