Christian Pedersen

Margaret has been training with me as a part of my 50 plus program for people over 50years old for about 7 months now. it has included pt sessions and group training with another 4 ladies over 50 who have been going extremely well. Margaret has reached some amazing goals already losing weight and improved her strength and flexibility massively. There were a lot of things we had to teach her to do again to make sure she would get the most out of her body.

She has set an amazing goal of completing an 8 week, long distance bike ride through Italy, France and England in February 2018 for her 70th birthday. Margaret has been training super hard on leg strength but also on flexibility as she is also doing some long bike rides which does make her leg muscles tight. We have talked a lot about recovery as this ride will be over multiple days and there will be a schedule to stick to to reach this impressive goal.

We have a long time to get things right so there has been a lot of experimenting as well as we need to make sure she has all bases covered before the trip begins.

Im incredibly proud of what Margaret has achieved already and she is well on her way. It has been a pleasure training her and I’m am very excited about the future and how strong and fit we can get her before her trip.

It will be a fantastic trip and looking forward to reading about it. Until then its back to work:)

Christian

Wednesday 21/12/16

WOD: Every 3 min for 21 min

1st: 40 Double Unders – 4 Burpee o/Box 24/20′

2nd: 4 Power Cleans 60/40kg – 5 Burpee o/Box

3rd: 14 Front Rack Reverse Lunges

– Then Straight into –

3 Rounds for Time:

40 Double Unders

4 Burpee o/Box 24/20′

4 Power Cleans 60/40kg

5 Burpee o/Box

14 Front Rack Reverse Lunges

First of all the Timetable on the website has been updated so make sure you check it out to find out what classes are running and when over the next 3 weeks. 

Remember Christmas Day WOD at 7am on 25/12. Its going to be a great way to start your Christmas. 

It is hard for a lot of people to stay motivated during the holidays when it comes to exercising. As always if you are on holiday with like-minded people who enjoy staying active it isn’t a big issue but if you are the only one who is keen to train but don’t have anyone around to train with you need to motivate yourself. Making sessions short in duration (10-20min most days) and early in the morning will work best as you can tell yourself its only a short session and no one will be around to distract you either. That way you have the whole day to do other things. 

When it comes to sessions there are many ways you can put things together which are both fun and hard at the same time. Follow the gyms philosophy in making your training constantly varied from day to day. Include running and body weight exercises for a full body workout. You don’t need a lot of equipment to get a good workout. Remember these sessions are mainly to maintain fitness as it will be hard to improve overall fitness during the holidays due to time and equipment constraints. 

Here are a few examples to get your own workout creativity going:)

Session 1: 20 min AMRAP: 10 Burpees – 20 Sit ups – 30 Squats

Session 2: 20 min Time Cap: Hard Run for 10 min – followed by 10 min AMRAP: 15 Push ups – 30 Walking Lunges 

Session 3: Max Burpees in 7min 🙂

Session 4: 10 min AMRAP: Ascending ladder 3-6-9-12 etc of: Squats & Push ups

As you can see there are unlimited options available for you to come up with workouts. Find exercises you like doing and put them together in a workout and try to stay fit over the holidays. 

Christian

Tuesday 20/12/16

Strength: 1RM Clean & Jerk

20 min Time Cap

WOD: 10 min EMOM:

7 Thrusters (AHAFA)

7 Pull ups

Core Finisher:

50 Hollow Rocks or Hold

50 Arch Rocks

I have had the pleasure of coaching Alice for a long time now and she has come a very long way over the last couple years. Seeing her improve steadily every year and especially see her get her first muscle ups a while back after focussing on them for a long time has been great to witness. There isn’t much she can’t do in the gym these days but if she finds something she can’t do, you can bet she will be in there working on it before and after class until she gets it. I have seen her work a lot on butterfly pull ups so when this rig of ours if finished I’m sure she will be straight up there practicing. Alice seems a lot more confident these days and can do most Wods RX but sometimes she does need a little push in the right direction.

One of the biggest compliments you can get as a coach is when a member brings their closest people into the gym to start working out. Alice has gotten both her partner Joe and her brother Alex into train to train with us which is fantastic to know that she trusts us to help them out too.

It will be fantastic to see what she can achieve over the next little while and since the Open is coming up I think we will see a huge spike in motivation especially from a girl like Alice.

Christian

Monday 19/12/16

Strength: Every 2 min for 10 min

2 Power Snatches – 2 Overhead Squats

build in weight

WOD: 5 min AMRAP

3-6-9-12 etc

Power Snatch 40/30kg

HSPU

2 min Rest

WOD: 5 min AMRAP

3-6-9-12 etc

KB Swings 24/16

Burpees

Accessory Work: 3 Rounds (AHAP)

15 DB Floor Press

10 BB Bent over rows

Christmas holidays are approaching which is pretty easy to see if you look at the whiteboard:)) Morning classes are still going strong and seem to be the most popular choice at the moment but Lunch time and Evening classes have started to get smaller. I understand it is getting easier to get your workout in most days but still try to make the most of the time table as it is now before we change things a little over the holiday period. Make sure to print out or save the revised time table so you don’t miss out.

We are having a small Christmas get-together at the gym today around 5pm. If you are free, stop by for a beer and pizza. (If you want pizza you have to get in early because you know how much I like pizza:)

looking forward to see as many of you as possible.

Christian

Saturday 17/12/16

WOD: For Time

1200m Run

25 Power cleans 60/40kg

25 Bar facing Burpees

800m Plate Run 20/10kg

15 Front Squats

15 Bar Facing Burpees

400m Farmers Carry 24/16kg

Craig started training with us a couple of months ago after Connie dragged him along to one of our GPP classes. It didn’t take much to convince him to stay as he was really enjoying it even though he did admit that the training was a bit harder than what he had done in the past. I recognized Craig when he came in mainly because he was wearing a boot camp t-shirt from way back. He mainly remembered me as the guy who walked around barking orders at people.

Craig has made tremendous improvements in the few weeks he has been training. He eventually convinced his lovely wife Sara to join in on a GPP session. She has picked up the exercises really well after being a little bit out of her comfort zone. She even threw the 25kg Deadball over her shoulder the other week:) Both Craig and Sara has committed to the community and are now both members and regulars in GPP or our normal Wod Classes. It is great to see when couples commit to training and getting fitter together. I am sure it strengthens the bond between them and it will be awesome to see how they improve over the next months. Great to have you both around the gym. Keep up the hard work and the goals will take care of themselves.

Christian

Friday 16/12/16

Strength: 4 Rounds of:

2 Tukish get-ups each Arm

10 KB Step ups each Leg

WOD: For Time

50 Sit Ups

40 Walking Lunges

30 DB Snatches 32.5/20kg

40 Sit Ups

30 Walking Lunges

20 DB Snatches

30 Sit Ups

20 Walking Lunges

10 DB Snatches

Jo has been training with us since the start in Vogel Street and he is a great guy to be around. He is leaving us to continue his business degree in Copenhagen, Denmark which is an absolutely fantastic place to be:) and I am sure he will love the city and country. Jo is the crazy guy who always runs to and from class to make it in time. And you can see it when he is training because he is a super fit guy and has improved heaps over the time he has been training in Dunedin.

It will be an incredible trip for him and since Danish people are so easy to get along with I am sure he will fit right in. Jo was also happy to lend a hand when there was work to be done or share a beer with us in the weekend.

You will be a big loss to our community but I wish you the best with your future overseas. Send a post card:)

Christian

Thursday 15/12/16

Skill: Every 2 min for 10 min

5 Strict HSPU

10 Kipping HSPU

Scale the reps or exercise to suit

WOD: 3 x 5 min AMRAP

First AMRAP:

40 Double Unders

20 Push Press 40/30kg

-1 min Rest-

Second AMRAP:

30 Air Squats

15 Hang Power Cleans 40/30kg

-1 min Rest-

Third AMRAP:

20 Push ups

10 Front Squats 40/30kg

The Pull up rig should be complete soon so we can get back to “hanging out” a bit but until then you will see a lot of other pulling exercises like Barbell, Dumbbell and Kettlebell rows. The simple reason is we need to keep working on pulling strength so when the rig is ready for use, most of you will be able to hit the ground running. It has been an important part of our accessory work and it will stay that way for a while yet. It is a great way of making sure you are activating your back muscles as much as your arms. When it comes to pull ups, being able to activating the lats, seems to be an issue so rowing movements will be an easier progression into that particular aspect of pulling strength. The coaches will make sure to reinforce that during class so everyone gets the most out of that movement.

You can practice this before you get to class. By driving you shoulder blades down towards the ground you should feel tension in your lats, then at the same time bring your shoulder blades together and squeeze. You should feel your upper and mid back tensing up. That is the feeling you what when doing rowing movements or pull ups. First after you have that feeling do you use your arms to pull the weight close or yourself up depending on the exercise. Funny enough this will automatically pull your shoulders back and chest up which gives you a lot better posture so something to think about. Now go out there and look proud:)

Christian

Wednesday 14/12/16

Strength: Every 2 min for 10 min

4 Overhead Squats from the ground

1-2 sec pause at the bottom

Build in weight

WOD: 3 Rounds for Time

400m Run

10 Power Snatches 80/55kg

400m Run

Finisher: 4 Rounds of

7 DB Shoulder press

7 BB Bentover Rows

Kate has been a member for about two months now. She started with a couple of GPP classes but now she is a regular during our daily Wod. She recently completed the Kepler Challenge in central Otago here is a short story from Kate about her experience.

My New Years resolution was to complete my first ultra marathon, the Kepler Challenge. The race is 60km of varying terrain, but involves 1350m of ascent and 1350m of descent. The longest I ever trained this year was 30km, but I spent a lot of time doing hill reps, single track mountain runs and some strength sessions towards the end of the year with Southern Peak.

Two weeks before the event, I went off into Central Otago and Mount Cook National Park, where I got some tramping in at altitudes up to 1850m. I was super nervous leading up to the Kepler, because I felt I hadn’t done enough long runs; I’d never run longer than 30km, and I’d never run for more than 3.5hours. I hadn’t trained with much food/electrolytes and I didn’t often train with a heavy pack. I was feeling a little under prepared!

The Kepler race kicked off and my nerves immediately vanished; the track is amazing, and the atmosphere was awesome. Once you get up onto the tops, the track takes you across ridges and through mountains. It feels like you’re in a movie. I hit 35km with surprise, as I felt pretty fresh. I remember thinking, ‘wow, you’ve just ran the longest distance in your life, and you feel great. You may actually be able to do the whole thing!’ Once I hit 45km, however, I was feeling it. The last 15km was the most physically and mentally grueling time of my life. I got through it by lying to myself, and saying ‘This is SO easy.’ My boyfriend, Sam, met me at the 10km mark and ran the last part with me. Without his support, I think it would have taken me at least 30min longer to finish. The Kepler was everything I had hoped and more. I can’t recommend that track enough! Looking forward to training up my leg and core strength now, so that my legs don’t die on me at 40km next time.

Amazing stuff Kate, congratulations on finishing this super impressive goal and hope you have a new goal in mind for next year:)

Christian

Tuesday 13/12/16

Every 10 min for 40 min

200m Run

10 deadlift 110/75kg

20 Wall Balls 9/6kg

20 Burpee Box Jump 24/20′

A huge thank you to all who gave a hand over the weekend. We got heaps done and it is starting to look like a gym now. Still a bit to be done but am hoping to get most of it out of the way this week. We will get a plumper in early next year to sort out our new showers and toilets. I can’t wait to see the gym finished or at least close to, because there will always be things to change or improve on.

The Rig should be ready for use later this week, just a couple of things to do to lock it in place. There is still a bit of tidying up to do but should be too much of a worry. The floor space will be clear to train on so make sure to still turn up to classes. Remember to check out the time table on Facebook or on last weeks posts. The easiest way to keep up to date is reading the daily blog.

Marcus is away on holiday for the week so I will be running the classes. I am sure he will have a good relaxing week and be fizzing to come back soon to get involved again.

Christian

Monday 12/12/16

Strength: 10 min EMOM:

3 Power Cleans  – 3 Front Squats – 3 Push jerks 80/50kg

WOD: For Time:

21-15-9

KB Swings 24/16

Burpees

*50 Double Unders after each round

Accessory Work:

Accumulate 3 min Prone Hold

Accumulate 2 min in the bottom of a Goblet Squat (AHAP)

Make sure as we hit the holiday mode than you don’t completely forget about the gym we will still be here to give you your daily fitness fix. Some of the classes are starting to shrink a little and I know there are still many of you around so make sure you use your membership as much as possible.

It is hard to motivate yourself when you have a lot of other stuff going on especially this time of year so make sure to give yourself a break to train most days to keep a clear head and a positive attitude. You will notice than there are many people like you and if you all make a small effort to come to the gym you will motivate each other to work hard, stay positive and enjoy this time of year.

Reminder:  We are putting up the pull up rig and painting a few walls today from 10am onwards, hope to see you here

Christian

Saturday 10/12/16

Partner WOD: For Time

Buy in 800m Run Together

Then 1:1 w/ partner for 20 rounds

12 DB Snatches

9 Burpees

6 Box Jumps

Cash Out 800m Run together