Octogen Strength Coach – Don Stevenson

Ok I thought I’d take a short break from posting training info to post up 3 videos that poke a bit of fun at strength training and the fitness industry.

Recently I’ve emerged from the windowless weightlifting gym they normally keep me locked in and have been doing a few workouts at a “normal” gym. After 4 years of nothing but CrossFit, hard core kettlebell coaching, military guys, strongman and serious athletes these places are almost like a foreign planet to me! People do strange stuff and look at me funny when i do things like squat and deadlift, everyone owns a pair of fingerless gloves and spends waaaaayyyyyy too much time looking at themselves in the mirror.

Anyway these three videos are meant to be comedy but to me they are particularly funny because they aren’t far from the truth!!!

If you’ve seen something funny in the gym recently please email me or leave a comment!

The first is from a US sitcom I’ve never really watched but someone linked this on another forum.

The next two are some slightly strange animations that perfectly capture the kind of stuff that goes on in my “normal” gym particularly on a friday evening!!!!

Warning, these two have some swearing

A quick announcement that ill be running a new Olympic Weightlifting class at CrossFit Norwest on Tuesday nights from 6pm until the end of the year (with a possibility of it becoming a more permanent class)

http://www.crossfitnorwest.com

At this stage it’s open to CF Norwest members but if anyone from the Hills district is interested in coming along please let me know and I’ll talk to Rob about opening it up to the public.

On saturday we hosted a very successful self defense workshop with Ray.

We had 8 people attend with a bunch more who have indicated interest but who couldn’t make it this time around so we’ll be running a couple more workshops in february and march next year.

Ray kicked off with his famous “leg of lamb” demo, showing the devastating effect that improvised and edged weapons can have.  I think he got everyones attention by putting a platic toothbrush straight through 4 inches of meat!

Ray then went on to demonstrate his universal shield technique for dealing with unarmed aggressors  and talked about his philosophy of civilian self defence.

After that it was time to break out Rays patented “boffas” (padded wooden practive knives) for everyone to run through unarmed defence against a knife attack.

Once defence had been covered Ray moved on to some really simple but very effective counter attacks designed to buy enough time to escape an attack.

I could go on and on about the workshop but I think i’ll save it for the videos we shot on the day which i’ll edit this week and get up over the next few days!

Ok here is the deal.

Due to working my ass off for the world masters games I didn’t get a chance to promote my final round of workshops for the year as much as I would have liked.

This has meant some of them have had to be cancelled but I’m still going to run one more Kettlebell instructors course in Sydney on the 5th and 6th of December

We’ve updated the content of the course to include info on bands, chains and a bunch of other new material and have split it into two modules for people who may not want to do the full course in one weekend.

Because it’s the last workshop for the year and I’m shooting off on holiday after it’s over I’m giving big discounts on this workshop but the discounted price is only available by contacting me directly on 0416 075 265 before the 15th of November.

You’ll also get a special preview of my new olympic lifting workshop at no added cost plus a bonus copy of my advanced Kettlebell DVD!

Trust me it will be worth the call!

Also I still have a few spots available for the Ray Floro Workshop this coming weekend . Ray is the real deal in practical self defence and this three hour workshop at Olympic Park is unbelievable value at just $150 per person.

Email me at fitness@octogen for the Floro workshop or call 0416 075 265 for the kettlebell course.