Christmas Party RSVP by this Friday!

Friday 4th November is the RSVP date for our Christmas Party.

 If you haven't added your name to our guest list at your Drive Fitness please do so during your next session. All boot camp trainers will be taking a guest list to boot camp sessions this week for boot campers to RSVP.

We are really looking forward to the night and we hope everyone can make it to our biggest Christmas Party ever! Click here to see the Christmas Party invitation.

Dead Lift Challenge 2011 Results & Re-cap

Congratulations to everyone, you did amazing! Everyone either equalled there best ever lift or achieved a personal best on the day. It is fantastic to see such great strength improvements from everyone. The atmosphere was very tense to begin with, the bar set up on a stage with the camera pointing at it was intimidating at first but the nerves soon settled and everyone appeared to relax. Everyone was very supportive - it was this group encouragement that helped everyone get the most out of themselves on the day.

Photos of the event will be available in the next couple days. A selection of these will be uploaded to facebook otherwise you can email us and we will send you your photos directly.

In the Men's division 1st place was won by Ian with a lift of 150kg and relative score of 2.443, 2nd place was won by Alan with a lift of 210kg and relative score of 2.439 and 3rd place was won by Mitch with an equal lift of 210kg and relative score of 2.378.

In the Lady's division 1st place was won by Narelle with a lift of 105kg and relative score of 1.992, 2nd place was won by Amanda with a lift of 110kg and relative score of 1.913 and 3rd place was won by Deanna with a lift of 95kg and relative score of 1.641.

Biggest lift in the Men's was tied between Alan and Mitch with 210kg and in the Lady's it was won by Callie with 120kg! Looking forward to  next year's event alreay. A full list of results are below sorted alphabetically.

David's 5 favourites: healthy snacks

nestle diet yogurt

For me snacking is a very important part of my training, if I don't snack regularly throughout the day I lack the energy to perform at my best during my training sessions and I don't recover as quickly following exercise. For a snack to work for me it has to meet the following convenience and nutritional requirements:

• easy and quick to prepare and portion
• able to take with me to work or training
• able to store for a couple days
• contains approximately 10g or more of protein
• contains unprocessed or minimally processed carbohydrate
• contains no or minimal saturated fat and sugar

Dead Lift Challenge this Saturday 29 October

Just a last minute reminder and update for the Drive Fitness Dead Lift Challenge taking place this Saturday 29 October, 8:30am at the Mt Gravatt Studio (64 Clausen St, Mt Gravatt - just off Logan Rd near the Zupps car yards). Could everyone participating please arrive early to ensure we get a good start on the weigh ins. All spectators are welcome and encouraged to attend and morning tea will be available.

We have approximately 40 participants registered for our first ever Dead Lift Challenge. This is well over what we expected. All participants have done really well to develop dead lift technique and the strength and power required to lift the starting weights on the day. The benefits of developing dead lift technique and strength extend far beyond just being able to participate in the dead lift challenge, this is one of the most functional training exercises with the most applications to daily tasks and sport movements.

We hope everyone lifts well on the day - this is a great way for us to get a baseline measure of leg and back strength for monitoring down the track. See you all there!

Not Long to Wait... Christmas Party

On Friday 18 November 2011, 7pm we will all get together for our 4th and biggest Christmas Party! The Drive Fitness Christmas Party has always been our most popular event (I wonder why?) and we can't wait for another fantastic night.

In 2008 we had our first Christmas Party at the Mt Gravatt Hotel with under 40 guests in attendance - it was a great night.

In 2009 we relocated the Christmas Party to Dicey Riley's at Mt Gravatt to accommodate growing guest numbers. We returned to Dicey Riley's in 2010 and had over 70 guests!

This year, we will meet at the Oxford 152, on Oxford St, Bulimba and we are expecting over 100 people to make it. The Christmas Party is a great opportunity to catch up with people you have crossed paths with in training, a chance to win FREE prizes just for being in attendance, enjoy some food and drinks with friends you have made and be a part of the certificate presentation that acknowledge the best results from throughout the year.

We look forward to seeing you there. Please RSVP by the 4th November by writing your name on the guest list at your Drive Fitness studio. All partners / friends are welcome of course!

To read the Christmas Party Invitation please click here. You're Invited to our Christmas Party

Free weight exercise alternatives to popular exercise machines (part 2): lat pull down

I'm not going to give any bad reviews about the lat pull down - in my opinion a free moving cable lat pull down is a good transitional movement on route to the chin up. What I will say is that there are better options available - free weight options. A lot of people simply don't progress or vary from the lat pull down because they are not aware of the benefits or they don't know which exercises are suitable replacements or progressions. Allow me to introduce the body row and chin up. I know I sing the praises of these exercises all the time but for good reason - let me tell you why!

Walk & Run Club 22 October Results | NO Walk & Run This Week

Everyone did well to make it to the top of Mt Gravatt Outlook from Drive Fitness Mt Gravatt studio on Saturday 22 October. All recorded times are listed below.

There will be NO Walk & Run Club session next Saturday due to the Dead Lift Challenge. The first ever Drive Fitness Dead Lift Challenge will be taking place at the Mt Gravatt studio from 8:30am. Any one who is not participating is welcome to come along for morning tea and to spectate.

Walk & Run Club will return Saturday5 November. We will be meeting at Mt Gravatt studio for interval training. See you all there!

Mt Gravatt studio - Mt Gravatt Outlook times:
Donna: Completed (no time recorded)
Matt: Completed (no time recorded)
John F: 36.06
Tania: 54.20
Grant: 32.25
Julia: 37.30
Jo T: 39.22
Jo H: Completed (no time recorded)
Richard: Completed (no time recorded)
Dave: 28.25
Tim: 35.00

Introducing ISOCOOL Protein Powder

We have introduced Ultimate Nutrition ISOCOOL protein powder to our studios. ISOCOOL contains:

• 23g whey protein isolate
• 0g carbohydrate
• 0g sugar
• 0g fat
• only 90cal (350kj) per serve
• less then $2 per serve (when purchasing 900g container)

It has become increasingly more difficult to choose a protein powder with all the different options available. We recommend ISOCOOL for recovering from training and building / maintaining lean muscle mass while controlling body weight. A lot of protein powders have high amounts of sugar, but not this one (contains 0g per serve).

Important things to look for when choosing a protein powder include.

• tastes good when mixed with water
• mixes well with water
• high in protein
• low in carbohydrate and sugar
• good cost value per serve

For more information about the best way to meet protein requirements read this article: Calculating and achieving daily protein requirements.

What foods are high in carbohydrate?

bread

One of the first and most important steps in controlling and losing weight is to recognise which foods are high in carbohydrate. If you don't know where the carbohydrate is coming from in your diet it's impossible to control your intake. Anyone who has read my articles or discussed nutrition with me will know and I'm definitely not an advocate of high protein - low carbohydrate diets for a variety of different reasons however I recognise the importance of identifying carbohydrate in foods to avoid excessively high intake. Excessive dietary carbohydrate leads to high energy intake which if not accompanied by an equally high energy expenditure will result in weight gain and obesity. Becoming familiar with the foods in each food group that are high in carbohydrate will help to keep carbohydrate intake under control.

New Drive Fitness Online Event Calendar

We have launched an online calendar to make it easier for you to look ahead at future events and group fitness session details. The calendar lists all Drive Fitness social and competitive event details (such as the upcoming Dead Lift Challenge & Christmas Party) and all boot camp and walk & run club session times and locations.

You can access the event calendar from our website: www.drivefitness.net, hover over the 'community' tab in the top navigation bar and then select 'event calendar' from the drop down menu. To visit directly and save as a bookmark you can follow this link: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=q6nn04k9t17rmphv7otoqa2rhc%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Australia/Brisbane.

The event calendar is the easiest way to double check walk & run club session locations, confirm boot camp session days & times and to date save for upcoming special events.