Get out your diary and mark in Monday 28th May folks! It’s GAME ON!

The Inter-Club Challenge is back for 2012. Are you a part of Australia’s Fittest EFM Club?

From Monday 28th may, EFM Clubs from across Australia will compete against each other in 6 challenges, held Monday-Thursday in week 1, and Mon-Wed in week 2 to accumulate points for their club.

EFM Noarlunga are reigning back-to-back champions – Can your club knock them off their perch?

EFMs Port Adelaide and Belair have been consistent top performing clubs, but have never quite been able to knock off the Champs from Adelaide’s South.

Last year saw a Victorian-based club onslaught with 4 Victorian clubs making the top 10. EFM Ferntree Gully claimed the 4th place overall. Can the FTG crew improve this year?

It’s going to be great fun, and whilst the Inter-Club Challenge always brings out a bit of a competitive streak in members and Coaches, the whole challenge is about having fun and doing your little bit is the way to help your club climb the leaderboard. Do the best you can, and above all else – enjoy the two weeks at your local EFM!

Below are the challenges:

Week 1:

• 3 Challenges to complete for the week.
• Individual clubs select which days to complete each challenge between Monday-Thursday
• Week 1 results will be revealed on Friday 1st June.

Challenge #1 Kings of the X Trainer: Which club can burn the most calories on the X Trainer in 4 hours? Your Coach will choose 4 hours from your daily timetable for the X Trainer to be active in the challenge (e.g. 2 hours morning and 2 hours evening session). The club with the most calories burnt in total from their 4 hours wins the challenge.

Challenge #2 Busy doing Burpees: Your aim is to do as many burpees as possible in 3 x 4 minute efforts throughout your workout (4 continuous minutes, so you’re simply doing as many burpees as possible, including rest time, in a 4 minute effort). Record your total burpees completed in total between the three efforts. The total burpees burnt by all members are divided by the total number of visits on the day to give an average number of burpees per member visit. E.g. 5000 burpees in total from 100 member visits gives an average of 50. The highest scoring club wins the challenge. These do not need to be full push-up burpees – just do your best.

Challenge #3 Brilliant Burners: Your aim for this challenge is to burn as many lots of 400 calories as possible in a single workout. Each 400 calories that is burnt scores 1 point. If you burn 800 calories for example, you score 2 points. You can attend on multiple times during the day. However, calories CAN NOT be carried over to a second session. For example if you burn 600 calories in the morning, you score 1 point. If you then attend again in the afternoon, you start at zero calories again (cannot carry over the 200 additional calories). At the end of the day the total points are divided by total member numbers to give a score. E.g. 120 points div by 150 members would give a score of .80. Highest scoring club wins the challenge.

Week 2:

• 3 Challenges to be completed again this week.
• Individual clubs select which days to complete challenges #5 and #6 between Monday and Wednesday (they can be completed on the same day as challenge #4).
• Challenge #4 must be completed on the Monday
• Final results and Australia’s Fittest EFM Club will be revealed on Friday 8th June.

Challenge #4 Monday Mahem: The club with the highest percentage of members that attend for the day wins. For example if 80 members attend from a club with 100 members, the visit percentage is 80%. Only 1 visit counts towards attendance. Visits must be at least 30 minutes in duration. So all you need to do on this day is do a 30 minute minimum workout!

Challenge #5 Remarkable Rowers: Which club can row the furthest in 4 hours? Your Coach will select one rower and 4 hours from throughout the day to record the total distance rowed in 4 hours. Minimum distance of 500m per person, per row (e.g. members can’t do 30 second sprints – they must remain on the rower until 500m is passed). You can perform multiple rows in each session.

Challenge #6 Push-up Pros: You perform as many push-ups as you can in 4 x 2 minute efforts during your session. As with the burpees challenge, the 2 minutes is continuous so ever second spent resting is a second wasted! The club with most push-ups per member visit for the day wins. Females can do knee push-ups. Females that do toe push-ups will score double – e.g. 20 toe push-ups are counted as 40! Chest must touch a boxing glove that is placed on the floor under the chest for the push-up to be counted. Do the best you can!

On Friday 8th June we are going to know Australia’s Fittest EFM for 2012!

Alarni from EFM health and fitness club gym Mt Gambier 18 months on from EFM 8 Week Challenge 2010

We are so excited to highlight Alarni Holmes’ (formerly Nunn) incredible health and fitness success.

Alarni started the EFM 8 Week Challenge in October 2010 with a goal to lose 4-5kgs and improve her eating and exercising habits.  Alarni exercise at EFM Mt Gambier 37 times during the 8 weeks and maintained healthy eating habits.

Starting the Challenge at at 72.8kgs, by the the completion she’d shed 9.7kgs, weighing just 63.1kgs! That’s a 13% weight reduction from someone that didn’t have much to lose in the first place!

The best news now though, 18 months on, is that Alarni has been able to maintain her healthy lifestyle.

EFM Personal Fitness Coach Richie Attiwill from EFM Health Club Mt Gambier was keen to point out that Alarni’s results are even more impressive when you consider that Mt Gambier is in the top 5% for per person take away food consumption in Australia.

Congratulations Alarni. You should be extremely proud of what you’ve been able to achieve over the past 18 months.

Congratulations also to EFM Health Club Fitness Coach Richie Attiwill for assisting Alarni to such tremendous results at EFM Health Club Mt Gambier.

Here’s the link to an article where we feaured Alarni’s success as a prize winner in our 8 Week Challenge.

Congratulations to Roger Kearns who recently celebrated his 1000th EFM training session at EFM Caulfield!

Roger joined EFM in March 2004, not long after EFM Caulfield opened.

His goals were “to keep up fitness for golf and increase overall strength”. With regular cycling and a black belt in karate, Roger already had a great fitness base to build on – and build on he has.

It was eventually clear to us all that Roger had a bit of a competitive streak when he partnered up with another lunchtime regular, Suhanya, and took out the first “Training Buddy” Challenge at EFM in the Summer of 04……….with a Team name ‘The Battlers’ who would have guessed?!

Roger has been a popular (and effective) team member ever since, often coming into the Fitness Club 2 or even 3 times a day if there were team points at stake.

Well done Roger for your perseverance and consistency. You have worked hard on your health and fitness, and deserve all the benefits of your efforts. The lunchtime sessions @ EFM Caulfield would not be the same without your regular presence.

- Coach Simone

Visit the EFM Caulfield Health and fitness club gym website

Roger Kearns (front middle in brown) celebrates 1000 EFM workouts with his EFM training buddies!

EFM McLaren Vale welcomes Ciaran Cryan to the 500 visits club – the first member from EFM McLaren Vale to reach the mark. Ciaran is 47 years old and joined EFM in November of 2010 – meaning that he’s taken just 17 months to achieve 500 EFM sessions!

Ciaran just loves the club, from starting at only 2 visits per week, who would have thought he would achieve 500 in such a quick window of 17 months. He now visits the club as regularly as twice per day!

Ciaran really pushes himself to a very high level, not only himself but he motivates other members to push themselves as well. I have never seen such a dedicated individual and a positive attitude towards training. Whatever I throw at him he does with a smile and a lot of sweat! His fitness levels are extremely high now and he often pushes the coach’s fitness to the max on challenges.

Results so far:

• Lost 14kgs
• Bio Age down to 40 from 48
• Beep Test result of 10.2!
• EFM Duathlon 2012 – Ciaran finished 1st  in his age group and 3^rd overall!
• 12km Cross Country Running Champs 2012…. 50th overall and 4th Age group 45-50
•  Ciaran also holds a number of club fitness records

“It was great having a personal fitness coach on hand for every one of my 500 visits. I am surprised to have discovered the extra time in my day to train and workout. Adrian crafts a variety of workouts that ensures boredom is never an issue. The social side of EFM McLaren Vale is an added bonus that Adrian has actively cultivated and which I enjoy immensely.

I feel fitter now than when I was in my 20′s . I just love training at EFM, it really has changed my views on fitness, nutrition and lifestyle. Thanks to Adrian and all the crew at McLaren Vale EFM. Now let’s get to 1000 visits!” – Ciaran Cryan.

Congratulations Ciaran on a fantastic effort!

Coach Adrian and the crew at EFM McLaren Vale!

Visit EFM health and fitness club gym McLaren Vale website

Thank you to all our EFMers that kindly contributed to the Coach the Coach session! Below is the list of exercises for your Coaches to complete.

This Friday 4th may, your Coaches will perform a 60 minute session, aiming to get as far through the program as possible (they’ll need to be super-human to get through the whole lot). The Coach that gets the furthest through will be crowned EFMs fittest Coach!

But of course, the whole point of the session is really just to allow all the members the chance to inflict some pain on the Coaches, which we believe WILL occur!!

We’ll post some videos of all the sweat and pain shortly after!!

Here’s the session:

1. Warm-up: 20, 15, 10, 5 burpees & 20 med ball twists (each side) in between
2. 400m rower sprint & 25 box jumps (squat before jumping) x 3. PENALTY of 1 squat per second over 8 minutes to complete the 3 rounds
3. 1km treadmill on 15 incline holding 3kg dumbells
4. 25 floors stepper holding fitball above head. PENALTY of 10 burpees for fitball touching head or if you drop the ball
5. 10 x Turkish getups with cup of water half full. PENALTY 10 static lunges each side, holding 10kg dumbells for each spill. Max penalty of 50 lunges each side.
6. 2km grinder in under 3.30 min. PENALTY of 1 x burpee per second over 3.30min (max 25 burpees)
7. 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 Dip Pyramid (e.g. 30 dips followed by 30 second hold at half height, 25 dips followed by 25 second hold etc.)  – using a bench, heels up on a Fitball. 5 full push-up burpees penalty per time caught cheating and anytime the full brace is not completed.
8. 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 Pushup Pyramid (e.g. 25 pushups followed by 25 second hold, 20 pushups followed by 20 second hold etc.) Boxing glove under chest. Chest must touch boxing glove on the way down during a pushup. 5 full push-up burpees penalty per time caught cheating and anytime the full brace is not completed.
9. 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 Squat Pyramid (e.g. 30 squats followed by 30 second brace at half squat height, 25 squats  followed by 20 second brace at half squat height etc.) – heels up on dumbells. 5 full push-up burpees penalty per time caught cheating and anytime the full brace is not completed.
10. 300 skips
11. 50 side jumps – 1.2m gap
12. 50 static lunges each side holding 10kg dumbells
13. 60 second prone brace – weight plate on back
14. 100 toe taps
15. 25 x walking lunges each side with 8 kg weights
16. 50 med ball twists each side
17. 60 second DB lateral raise brace (3kg weight)
18. Cooldown & Stretch

You know how sometimes your Fitness Coach gives you a really nasty exercise to do with that cheeky little self-satisfied grin on their face? Like they’ve somehow grown into smiling beasts that derive personal satisfaction from their ability to inflict pain on poor unsuspecting members… You know that grin well by now don’t you?!

You’d like to complain, and sometimes you do. But it’s a futile attempt. The moans and groans just seem to spur those nasty Fitness Coaches on. They’ll just say it’s all in the name of great results. In fact, half way through the daily program you’d like to argue the point, but you can’t muster the breath due to fatigue. So you solider on.

There comes a point where enough becomes enough though. A certain point in time where the masses must rise together as one. That time is now members. The time has come.

It’s PAYBACK TIME!

Like unsuspecting members setting foot in their local EFM blissfully unaware of the exercise program in store for the day, so too are your Fitness Coaches, the majority of who have volunteered for a “little 60 minute Coach the Coach session”… Little did they know…

EFMers, it’s time to turn those grins into chins – chin-ups that is…

Introducing EFMs first National Coach the Coach session!

Your chance to inflict some serious pain on your Fitness Coaches for every squat, lunge, hold, step, rep or skip you’ve ever been instructed to do – {insert hazy image of Fitness Coach flashing cheeky grin here}…

So EFMers from across Oz… Where should we start? All suggestions considered, and we might even throw in a few prizes for the best suggestions!!!

You can make your suggestions on the EFM Health Clubs Australia Page - http://www.facebook.com/efmhealthclubs right up until 9am Friday 27^th April.

We’ll let you know the end program early the following week, just before your Coaches from across Oz come together to complete their sessions on Friday 6^th May.

Do we have any opening suggestions for suitably painful exercises?

Connect with us at: http://www.facebook.com/efmhealthclubs to make a suggestion!

When attempting to make changes in terms of dietary variations you will undoubtedly run into challenges such as when friends or family visit or you visit them and food choice becomes an issue. Sometimes it is just easier not to tell anyone anything as they will often question or challenge you in one way or another.  Ask them to support you rather than questioning you.

I recommend you seek support elsewhere; you could start by discussing it with your coach and setting some goals and targets, allowing them to provide you with accountability, if you know what to do in terms of making the changes.

Otherwise seek professional help to assist you with the right dietary changes that will work foryou and not a celebrity crash diet.

Top Tips

1. Inform close family members that you want to change and tell them why, in details.
2. Talk to your coach about it and make him help you with a realistic plan
3. Get Professional dietary advice and get a custom made individual plan

- Soren Kristensen

You know, there are all kinds of weird and wonderful diets, meal plans and fads “out there”. I certainly agree with modifying eating habits that have not been well self regulated in the past. But sometimes, sticking to the basics is all that is required. And if you managed to shift a few kilos and are now trying to consolidate your good work, here’s some further simple nutrition advice to chew on…

Very few of us understand what real hunger is however, most of us know what overeating is. As we swallow our food in record time every night, we easily take too much food on board and the fact is we need to stop eating much earlier than we do.

My challenge to you is to stop when you are 80-85% full and leave a sense of hunger for later. It has been shown that we humans do better in terms of longevity if we are slightly underfed most of the time.

I have also seen many people experiencing serious issues digesting the massive volumes of food, resulting in bloating and discomfort.

Top Tips to help you Stop, Rest, Decide

1. If you normally use a large plate, change to a smaller plate size.
2. Eat until you have ¼ left on your plate and then ask yourself whether you really need the rest versus you would really like it?
3. Take your time to eat, allow satiety a chance to kick in and avoid the second serve.

- Soren Kristensen, EFM Nutrition

Yep, 20 minutes. How you ask?

Ok, so it’s 20 minutes PER MEAL, but hopefully now that we’ve got you reading this you’re going to get some value out of it!

Have you ever done the 20 minute eating test where you must eat your dinner in a minimum of 20 minutes? Or how about the 10 sultanas in 10 min – 1 every minute?

They are challenges for all of us because eating has become either a time wasting hassle for some where for others it is their life.

Science has shown that it takes up to 20 minutes before the brain receives the appropriate feedback from the entire endocrine system that you’re full. So in scoffing down our meal we’re running the real risk of over-consuming calories!

Top Tips to slow down:

1. Set a 20 minute timer, when the alarm goes you can have your last bite.
2. Put knife and fork down after each bite.
3. Do not eat in front of TV or while reading but talking is a good idea.
4. Chew every bite at least 10 times
5. Notice each bite, smell, taste and try to describe what you experience.

It may take a bit of adjusting to, but is it worth it?

- Soren Kristensen, EFM Nutrition