Health & Fitness

How long did it take you to make health a priority?

We recently conducted a random survey with our members as we were VERY interested in the answer to one question we were dying to ask.

Mind you, we have approximately 170 awesome members so getting great data was relatively easy and the feedback was very honest.

So, we asked the all-important question, “How long did you think about emailing us or popping in to see Jason or Brent at P360 for a chat and a look around the gym?”

And to our surprise, a staggering 76% of members took between 6-9 months to “work up the courage” to reach out to us for much needed coaching. Astounding statistics for us… but completely understandable at the same time. It can be daunting. And it can be completely out of your comfort zone. But it can also be the best decision of your life!

We must make mention as well, out the 76% that took 6-9 months to take action, they also WISH they did it much, much sooner. Of course… this element is no surprise to us and we wish they did too.

And guess what… going back through our potential member collection service, we are in fact seeing many people who enquired about training at Perform 360 this time 6 months ago (or even this time last year) enquiring once again.

We cannot help but think, DAMN IT! If ONLY we had the last 12 months to work with them and let them experience how good being fit, mobile, strong and energized actually feels.

But also, there’s ONE critical thing to remember. Maybe those 76% of members needed that time to figure out what they really wanted. Maybe they needed that time to reflect on what’s really important to them. Maybe they said, “Enough is enough, I NEED to change!” Whatever it was, we’re super glad they decided to take action and join our community.

So, I ask you this, how long have YOU been thinking about exercising and taking better care of your health? 3 months?  6 months? 12 months? 18 months? And I want you to truly think about this for a moment.

However, I urge you to ask yourself one more question. What if you started today? What if you weren’t part of the 76% who wish they started earlier? What if you didn’t throw away 6-9 months?

We don’t mind what you do – walking, cycling, swimming, lifting weights, boxing, kayaking, dancing… whatever it is… we just want you to get started! You only have one life!

Coach and Co-Founder Jason Clark

NEXT 10 WEEK CHALLENGE STARTS 2nd REB 

After completing the Stretch Therapy Workshop with Kit Laughlan in May, I thought I would share some insights from that weekend that I feel would be useful to everyone. I’d also like to get a bit ‘preachy’ and write about the importance of stretching.

Firstly, the workshop was amazing and I wouldn’t just recommend it for practitioners, coaches and yogis etc. I recommend it to everyone and if you have the opportunity to attend one of these workshops then it would be worth your time. If you are lucky enough to have a Stretch Class accessible to you and most of you readers do, I advise you all to go.

Kit talked about how important it is to breath during stretching, this was probably my biggest take away. The body loves to tense up when if feels discomfort. Breath and relax into your stretch, you won’t injury yourself if you are mindful. Listen to your body, if it doesn’t feel right then back it off, your body will stop you long before you hurt yourself as you long as you are present in that moment.

I didn’t walk away from this workshop with stretching being a new found importance because stretching is already apart of my training regime and it’s already a priority.

But why is it a priority…

1) I don’t want to just be strong, I want to move and feel better. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and be able to kick someone in the head if I needed to.

2) Injuries suck! I want to be able to train every day, I stay on the top of my flexibility and mobility to make this happen. Sh#t happens but I want to avoid injury as best I can.

3) When we are stressed, we tense up our bodies and our muscles become tight. By releasing this tension, we can in turn help to de-stress and get rid of that tension in your bodies. I look forward to my stretching days because of this. It’s a good way for me to be mindful and be aware of how my body is feeling.

I could rattle on about this as it’s a huge topic but the fact is this; If you want to become strong, fit, move better or feel better then you’ve got to stretch.

There are so many different ways to stretch and no one method is the be all and end all. If all you have time for is 15mins for a few static stretches then that’s great, you will be better off.

I’ll leave you with a little Dad joke…

I arrived late for a yoga class last week. The instructor told
me to get my asana mat 🙂

Coach Alex

Just google barefoot training and you will be inundated with both pros and cons of minimalist shoes and the whys and why nots of going barefoot. If you want to get all sciency and read up on the biomechanics of the foot then google is the place to go.

I decided to write about barefoot training because I get asked ‘Why I work and train in barefoot’ a lot and my response is usually ‘if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it’. What I mean is that our feet are like any other muscle in the body, If you don’t train them then they will become weak. When you wear shoes all the time, some of the muscles in the feet can become inactive. The arch of the foot is so use to resting on a nice cushion inside a shoe that they would rarely have a chance to work themselves.

I’m not suggesting that you throw away your shoes and start walking and training in barefoot straight away, as some of you might not be ready for it. That’s like telling someone who’s never done strength training before to go do some heavy back squats…the body just isn’t ready.

If you have flat feet, plantar fasciitis, bad knees (this list can go on) then this will certainly be the case. You would need to slowly introduce the feet to the idea of going barefoot and start switching on any dormant muscles.

My suggestion would be to spend just a few minutes each day barefoot and increase you’re tolerance, whilst also spending time on mobilising your feet and ankles, foam rolling your calves and activating your feet.

Going straight to barefoot might not be an issue for some people, however building up the tolerance for jumping, bounding and running might take some time.  You don’t want to end up straining ligaments or muscles because they’re not used to it. Again, build up to any high impact work and let the feet adjust, start small and work your way up

My reason for keeping those muscles in the feet active is that when the feet are weak and the arches collapse then other parts of the body have to adjust. Knees might collapse, ankles might tighten, hips then become tight, the back can gets sore and so on and so on. Having week feet can affect the entire kinetic chain in a negative way.

I am not a podiatrist, physio or a foot guru, so don’t take this blog as gospel. I would like to make note that this blog is purely anecdotal. I have trained in barefoot for many years and it has worked for me and many others. There are lots of other blogs on this subject and people more educated than me who have researched this topic so there is plenty of information out there on barefoot training, everyone is different so maybe give it a try and see what works for you.

Coach Alex

Most professional athletes, successful business people or individuals set on improving their life advocate the importance of a finely-tuned morning routine. They place enormous value on a morning routine that consists of a blend of meditation, breathing, gratitude journaling, reading books and saying positive affirmations.

There is no doubt this would make for an incredible start to your day, but how consistently find the time? And what about the people who get up early for work, how do they fit it in? The shift workers that need that extra sleep in the morning or at the end of their sleep cycle? Or your kids wake at 4:30 am and you miss the opportunity to have time to yourself!

I tried for 6 months to make morning routines stick but found myself frustrated and angry at the failed attempts. Which totally defeats the purpose right? The kids would always have this amazing ability to know if Daddy had set his alarm at 4:15am (20min earlier than it needed to be for work) and wake up at 4:10am and need mummy or daddy to comfort them. Or it was simply too freaking early that it seemed counter intuitive.

So, I decided to develop a new night time routine. And it has been the best thing I have done this year. I 100% believe that this new routine has enabled me to:

• Kick arse in the gym every day and regain my Mojo
• Improve our business 10-fold
• Form better and stronger connections with strangers, family or friends
• Better tolerance and have increased energy for my kids
• Better outlook on life. Appreciate my current life situation even more so
• More love for myself and others who I care about deeply and so on…

Seriously, look at that list of improvements! So here they are – The four things to do before bed if you want to kick arse the next day and life.

1. No blue screens or devices

Oh no…I might just get ridiculed and out casted for this one. But seriously…turn off the TV and put your phone on airplane mode. Just a couple of hours before sleep time. Not only will you eat less junk (BONUS) but you will fall into REM, stage 3 and 4 of deep sleep much quicker. Did you know that screens can delay deep sleep up to 3-4 hours – See some Mathew Walker research on this.

If you only sleep 6-7 hours because “you’re getting after it” AND use screens before bed, there is a fair chance you’re only achieving 3-4 hours of “quality sleep”. And no, blue light classes and dimmers don’t cut it.

Also, just as we’re conscious not to feed our bodies crap then let’s not feed our mind crap from all the antics on social media, war and murder in movies, theft, rape and deceit via mainstream news before bed.  Why do you think we don’t let children watch scary movies before bed? If you answered, “because it would give them nightmares” you’d be correct. Their powerful subconscious mind will be creating all sorts of nasties while they’re in deep sleep. Same goes for adults. Let’s start feeding our subconscious mind more positivity before bed.

2. Read positive self help and inspiring autobiography books

If you stop with the screen time at night, you’ll have an extra hour or two up your sleeve to get some positivity in before you rest. You may find that reading 1 or 2 pages is all you can manage initially because you’re so sleepy. And that’s a good thing. At least the last thing your mind absorbs before bed is positive. As mentioned above… your conscious mind laps up plenty of information and stores in the sub-conscience. Your subconscious mind comes into action during deep sleep. Particularly stage 3 and 4 of deep sleep.

3. Gratitude Journaling

If you’re reading this and you live in Australia then you have so much to be grateful for. I won’t go into details on the plethora of things, relationships, actions, circumstances you could be grateful for but keep gratitude journaling simple and easy. Even be grateful for things that may seem insignificant at first.

‘Sometimes the smallest things, take up the most room in our hearts’– Winnie the Pooh

4. Visualisation

We have three things in life that we have COMPLETE control over.

1. The thoughts you think
2. The images you visualise
3. The actions you take

Once again, by removing screen time before bed this is a massive step to a better visualization technique without actually “doing any visualisation”.  Simply removing the negative visuals from screens could be a nice place to start. As Napoleon Hill, author of ‘Think & Grow Rich’ put it, ‘If the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve’. Begin to visualise what the next day, week, month, year, decade looks like. If you visualise on something with deep focus and intent you’ll notice remarkable outer body experiences and start seeing it unfold in real time.

Consider this… why is virtual reality (VR) taking off so massively? Because during a VR experience your mind believes it to be real. And if you mind believes it real then you’ll experience the real sensations to the body. Powerful stuff right? So let’s start focusing and imagining what we do want and not what we don’t want. You’ll be surprised at the results.

All this may be a lot to take in and may seem overwhelming because you see some big adjustments that need to be taken. I have two views on this – If you’ve been reading this blog this far then your serious about making a better life for yourself…so just do it. “DO IT NOW” as Napoleon Hill puts it. DO IT NOW and start feeling amazing!

Or you can take bite size chunks at first. For example, you could go every second night with no screens. You could reduce the screen time in half each night. Or commit for 21 days with no screen and track your energy. Here’s another blog I wrote about this subject involving the TV series “Sons of Anarchy”

The key to success in this is to have enough self-awareness to notice and monitor the difference in performance the following day. If you’re present enough mentally and physically to be aware of this and witness the changes, then I’m positive you’ll make a commitment to this for the rest of your life.

Hope this helps bring on better sleep, a positive subconscious mind and better performance.

Coach and Co-Founder Jason Clark

Let’s face it. There’s nothing worse than going on an amazing holiday for 2 weeks, and going back to the gym to discover that somehow, in 2 short weeks, your body has basically decided to take your fitness back down to zero, and reduce your strength immensely!! Physiologically this is near impossible but doesn’t mean we don’t feel “blah” and not going to be stupidly sore on returning to training.

Here are 4 simple body weight workouts you can do while away, either outdoors or in your hotel room, that will be quick, effective and get the heart rate going.

WORKOUT 1 – Full Body

Even minute: 20 Air Squats (add weight if you want e.g. 2L water bottle, heavy backpack etc)
Odd minute: 20 Glute Bridges (use the same weight and sit it on your pelvis)
x 5

Even minute: 12 Pushups (increase by 1 rep every round)
Odd minute: 12 Superman Pulses (increase by 1 rep every round)
x 5

Finish with a quick heart pumper: 10 to 1: Burpees & V-Ups
10 Burpees, 10 V-Ups
9 Burpees, 9 V-Ups
8 Burpees, 8 V-Ups
etc until you reach 1 of each.

WORKOUT 2 – Legs

20 Reverse Lunges

40sec Wall Sit

20 Lateral Lunges

x3

Squat Hold at 90 degrees x 30s
Squat Pulses (so go from 90 degrees up a tiny bit, then back down) x 30s
Then explode as much as you can into squat jumps x 10 reps.
Rest 1 minute, then go again 3-4 rounds.

WORKOUT 3 – Upper Body PART (A)

10 x Wall Slides (sitting against a wall, with your back as flat as you can get it against the wall. Forearms and back of palms against the wall, slide up and down)

10 x Pushups

10 x Dips off bench or chair

x 4 rounds (increase by 1 rep each round)

PART (B)

10 x Rotating T Pushups

10 x Side Plank Pulses (elbow under shoulder)

6 x Inchworms

15 x Superman Arm Lifts (arms in a T, and squeeze between shoulder blades)

x 4 rounds

WORKOUT 4 – Full Body – HIIT

90 seconds of work, 120 seconds recovery. If you feel too rested, you aren’t working hard enough. Perform 4 rounds of this.
Complete: 30s max out burpees. Then in remaining time (60 secs) complete: 15 air squats, 20 skater hops, 30 mountain climbers (or 12 step ups if you have access to stairs/bench). If you don’t get it all in, try harder next round. If you do get it all in, bonus rest!

Enjoy

Coach Soni

• 150g pitted frozen cherries
• 50g frozen blueberries
• 15g pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 30g protein powder (natural or vanilla)
• 200ml unsweetened almond or rice milk
• 1 probiotic capsule (without the case!)
• Optional: add a ripe banana if you need extra energy, to have as a meal or post-training!