TRX CLASSES ARE COMING!!!

TRX Suspension training fitness classes are coming to HYBRID FITNESS.

Suspension training is a type of training that basically uses straps suspended from an overhead bar/bracket. It is bodyweight training which uses compound exercise movements in a multi-planar fashion. The benefits of Suspension training is the development of strength, balance, flexibility, joint stability, and cardio vascular fitness simultaneously. It is considered a type of resistance training which means it is great for muscles and burning fat. The movements are challenging and also work the all important core area.

Classes commence on 20th February 2012. Due to limited numbers available to participate a booking fee will accompnay this class.


Check out the video below to have a look at what TRX suspension training is all about. 



HYBRID FITNESS.... COME GET SOME!!!

Are you a Tough Mudder?

Tough Mudder is coming to Australia this year. You may ask what the hell is Tough Mudder? Well tough mudder is this from their own description; tough mudder is a brutal, extreme sport challenge that will test both physical and mental limitations and push you past what you ever imagined you could possibly accomplish. This hardcore challenge was designed by the British Special Forces with the purpose of testing a persons mental and physical abilities, strength, stamina, fellowship and morale.
The tough mudder is an obstacle course comprised of 20 kms of running, climbing, pulling and pushing through mud, ice, fire and electric volts. It is not for the faint of heart and is a true test of what a human being is really capable of. It also as a massive emphasis on team work and ensuring your fellow competitor makes it across the finish line.
Check out more on tough mudder and in particular the Sydney 2012 event at http://toughmudder.com.au/


HYBRID FITNESS wants to put a team in and we are inviting any keen people from Grafton to be apart of it. Please contact us or see Shaun at Gym as soon as possible to inform of your intensions to take this on.

And please do not doubt that you can do this, we will be putting on free specifc training events for the event to prepare everyone to be successful. If you join HYBRID FITNESS at the event we start as one and finish as one.

HYBRID.... come get some!!!

Cardio, is it really delivering you the results you want?

Exercise is great, exercise is the number one tool to great health, but are you exercising correctly to gain maximum benefit? What if your exercise routine could even be detrimental? maybe it is even making you fatter!!!

Now this post is not aiming to bag anyone doing some form of exercise, power to you all for trying to to the right thing for a better quality of life, but unfortunately due to the fitness myths out there a large percentage of people are just getting exercise all wrong.

Consider this, we all know someone who religiously goes to their daily aerobic class, or goes on a 10km run or sits on a bike/crosstrainer at a gym for an hour but they never really make any progress and always seem soft in appearance even if they are at a healthy weight range. But why do they do it, well its easy they have been mis-informed, they have been a victim of fitness myths, and this is probably the greatest myth out there. It is a MYTH that LOW INTENSITY CARDIO IS GREAT FOR BURNING FAT AND GETTING YOU RIPPED.

That hour long aerobic class, or the jogging for an hour, 2 of the most popular training methods used in modern society are actually a waste of time for fat loss. Any form of cardio that forces your body to do the same repetitive movement over and over is not great for fat loss. When your muscles contract continuosly in the same movement pattern at low intensity over and over the body will become stubborn, your metabolism will slow up and you wuill stop burning fat as an energy source and start burning muscle, killing you of muscle mass and strength. LOSING MUSCLE MASS IS A MISTAKE TO BE AVOIDED!

The key to fat loss is through doing workouts and exercises that will stimulate your metabolism all day long, even for as long as 72 hours after a workout. Increased metabolism equals greater fat loss. High Intensity training will help increase the metabolism and is significantly better then low intensity cardio as it forces the body to keep burning fat and calories after you have stopped training.

At Hybrid we focus on high intensity training and resistance training that will stimulate your metabolism all day long. All the ladies out there not doing high intensity training using resistance really need to change their outlook on fitness training, stop reaching for the running shoes, and reach for some dumbells.

NOTE: yes I realise many people do not run for fat loss, they love the challenge, they are training for competition. This is great, all the best in your endeavours, but if you want to be a better runner then the above does apply to you too, everyone can gain significant benefits from high intensity training and you all should be trying to increase muscle mass, it will bring better performance and a better quality of life in general.

                                         HYBRID FITNESS - COME GET SOME!!!

                                        
   



Research finds striking connections between nutrition and brain health.

The evidence for good nutritional habits and exercise just keep stacking up. Check out this article that links good nutrition and good cognitive (brain) function.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/01/the-connection-between-good-nutrition-and-good-cognition/251227/

Hybrid Fitness - COME GET SOME OF THE GOOD OIL!!!

Taking that First Step

That first step is the hardest to take when commiting to change, but once taken anything is possible. With the new season of Biggest Loser coming up it will inspire people, I know there will be plenty of you who want to take that first step to take control of your life again but are uncertain. Maybe you have taken that step previously and failed and you're scared to take it again. If you have thats ok you are only ever defeated if you give up, failure on the way should be embraced and not avoided, without failure there is no success. Taking that first step could be in many aspects of your life, maybe its career related, maybe relationship, maybe health related, wahtever it is remember this, if you don't attempt it and continuing to attempt it you can never conquer it.

Now Hybrid Fitness is a gym, a health and fitness centre so the first steps are ones leading to getting strong and fit, they can often be the most daunting, you may have many fears, fears like coming to Hybrid will be too hard, it will be too painful, too intense, too male dominated, too unfimiliar and out of my comfort zone. You may also be worried that you may make a fool of yourself, you may look stupid, you will not keep up, etc, bu

So as you can see the first steps are the hardest, if you are thinking any of the above it would be tough to take those first steps. But stop now, erase those fears, consider what we are, at Hybrid we are just normal people, we love helping others and want to see everyone gain better health. We expect only one thing at Hybrid, you come in and do you best, our number one rule is no egos, if you cannot do something this is not a problem, it just allows us to grow and to improve, I guarentee others in the gym and classes will help and encourage you, you will feel empowered.

If you want to take that first step all I can say is take it, to many people want without commiting, take that first step to commitment no matter how daunting it is. Whats the worst that can happen, you may fail? We'll if you are not willing to fail in your life you will never take your first step in anything, failure breads success.

At Hybrid Fitness we can't make promises and we won't, its up to you to promise yourself then we can and will love to help. Too many gyms and trainers promise the World to their clients to get them to join, they talk the talk to get people in and in reality while these people have heard what they want to hear from a trainer they haven't committed, they have been impressed by what they have been told, they get excited but they don't truely commit, they don't truely take that first step.

As I said at Hybrid we do not make promises, that's up to you, but we can tell you this:
  • Everyone is on your side, (nothing gives us more pleasure than watching people overcome challenges and succeed)
  • It can be scary, but remember it is the first steps to a new you
  • Within a very short space of time you will achieve things you never believed you were capable of
  • Remember – it’s FUN, we have a rule of no egos, we are all equals and treated that way.
Good luck with taking that first step, stop conteplating and just do it. Get amongst it, and be amazed at what you may truely be able to achieve.
Kate and Pete both have achieved truely amazing things since taking that FIRST STEP and its been awesome to be involved since they made this commitment to themselves.

Skinny-Fat, What am I talking about?

I mentioned skinny-fat in the last post, which can be the result of incorrect weight loss methods. Basically skinny-fat is what happens when people go on ridiculous diets, their muscle mass wastes away, they look skinny but they are anything but healthy. They still have a high body fat percentage and probably a large amount of fat around their vital organs, and in general unhealthy. The only way to do correct weight loss is by lossing the right type of body composition, you wan't to maintain and even increase lean muscle mass and loss body fat. Your weight on a set of scales is meaningless, measurements, pictures and monitors of good health indicate a healthy you, not a small number on a scale. Correct weight loss is a change in fat-muscle body composition, a decrease in fat and increase in muscle. We need to eat good quality foods, plenty of proteins and good sources of fats, and undertake an exercise regime that encourages fat loss, an exercise routine that includes weights and high intensity interval training.

Check out this link to read more on Skinny-fat and why you need to avoid being skinny fat.  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/skinny-fat/#axzz1jbyXmS56

Which Diets really Work

Diets, Diets, Diets, everywhere we look we are getting bombarded by ads, articles, and people promoting the next great thing in diets and weight loss. The real truth is this, if you cut the bullshit you will find that all diets work. Yep you read right, all diets work, regardless of what it is, whether its the smoothie diet, velocity diet, atkins diet, detox diet, cabbage soup, zone, paleo, weightwatchers etc they will all work. It's this simple, if calorie expenditure is higher then calorie intake you will lose weight. If you have ever tried a diet ask yourself this, did you see short term results, say up to 6 weeks normally regardless of what the diet actually was? Your answer is most likely yes. Heck I could give you an all chocolate diet and get you to loss weight as long as I restricted the calorie intake so it did not exceed calorie expenditure.

Now ask yourself another question, what normally happens to this diet after the initial period? Lets say it's 6 weeks again, you either quit or the weight stops coming off, and you slowly return to your old eating habits. Its ok if the answer to this is yes, most people are in this boat.

See any diet will work, but most diets are not good for you, many diets are unhealthy, many diets will leave you vitamin and mineral deficient and malnourished. Diets will even make you skinny-fat, which will leave you looking smaller but in reality no fat has been lost, what you have lost will be muscle mass which is the single biggest mistake we can make when dieting.

So whats the answer when it comes to healthy eating and losing weight or maintaining healthy weight? Want to know more about skinny-fat. Check back to the blog soon to find out.

2012 - You still got your resolutuion? Desire or Commitment

It is a fact that 90% of New Year resolutions are broken within the first month of the year. High on the lists of resolutions are health or fitness ones. We have all probably had one at least in our lives. Did you have a resolution to get fitter, loss weight or do something health related? If you did then thats great, but be honest, have you committed to it? See the problem is that we make resolutions without commitment, talking is easy, actions are hard.

Also around this time of year is the marketing period where fitness centres and diet companies will market hard, they know its going to be easy money as people are making resolutions on a desire not on a commitment, they promise you that they can help you change and have great marketing strategies to get you in, take your money whilst knowing the statistic that you will most likely be done within the month.

At Hybrid we will market yes, (eventually) and promote our gym, but we will not promise you anything, think of the fitness and health ads promising, promising a new you, promising you to drop dress sizes, promising 2012 to be your year etc, etc,. We will not promise you anything as it is not our place to, us promising is not you making a commitment, you may read an ad have desire, sign up but with no commitment and you will fail and be wasting your money. Companies thrive on this, they want you to spend but then not commit so it becomes easy money for them. Sound fimiliar?

We are different as we are not bussiness people we are fitness people, we want you to make the promise, we want you to make the commitment, once you have done this then come and see us and we will do our best to help you reach your goal, reach what you have committed too.

Don't even get me started on the diet issue this time of year, I will blog about that in the next few days, truth is most of these diets a bullshit, there is a massive trend in our society now of skinny-fat people due to some of these ridiculous diets. Diet does help lose weight yes, but it may not improve our health at all, it may in fact be very detrimental. Many people diet and do not exercise, this is a mistake, studies are now showing exercise is the most important component in good health, check out this great (but long) video looking at the benefits of just 30 minutes of exercise a day gives us. After viewing this video and seeing the positive effects on our lives exercise will have make yourself a commitment then come see us.

Hybrid Fitness Training Beginnings

Welcome to 2012 everyone, and welcome to Hybrid Fitness Training. Hybrid is a coming together of Functional Habits and Nat Sewell ( Nat is the owner of The kids play centre in town - The Grafton Jungle Gym). Hybrid Fitness was officially launched on the 1st of January 2012 changing over from Functional Habits Health and Fitness. We are excited about this venture, fitness and helping others are or passion and we look forward to being assistance to everyone and anyone in the Clarence Valley and beyond.

Why the name Hybrid? Yes we know there are other fitness facilities that also feature the name Hybrid but when we sat down and discussed what direction we wanted to take we decided Hybrid was a great fit. It is probably better then other suggestions, including Gym Jam which was Shaun's idea due to his love of the band Pearl Jam. However this name may not be lost all together, look for it to appear somewhere soon.

Hybrid describes what we want to do and what we want to offer. Hybrid Fitness will be a facility that offers a mixture of training modalities that will help you achieve true fitness and good health. As there a number of components that make up fitness we believe fitness training should too be made up of many components. We value modalities like weight training, bodyweight and calisthenic movements, gymnastics, strongman, power lifting, olympic lifting, bootcamp, cardiovascular specific training, suspension training, sport specific training etc. 

We want to grow, we want people to come experience what fitness is really about, we want people to enjoy their fitness regime and be offered great support. We have the most experienced trainers available in Grafton that are not only knowledgeable but also understand what it takes to deliver training that will achieve better fitness, better health and a utimately and better quality of life.