Zoe Hunter is so typical of many of the clients at New Level Personal Training in Newtown. In the short time she has been a personal training client at our studio, she has achieved so many things.

The mad keen Geelong AFL supporter and loyal Amateurs (a local footy/netball club) clubperson has already lost close to 10kgs and more than 25cms off her total body measurements since first joining New Level Newtown last year. At the time, she could never imagine running a decent distance on a treadmill – let alone taking part in a fun run.

Towards the end of last year, however, the self confessed ‘running hater’ decided to set a personal goal of running 3kms in 20 minutes on the studio treadmills. Not only did Zoe manage to achieve her desired target, but she absolutely smashed her time.

When asked how she felt after achieving her goal, the humble ‘Zo-Zo’ as she is affectionately known, replied, “Just please don’t make me do it again!” 

This was the exact same reply to the exact same question she uttered following the recent Great Ocean Road fun run in Apollo Bay, when she ran the 6km event in just over 49 minutes!

Following the Apollo Bay run, Zoe received many congratulatory messages, especially via Facebook after many friends, family and fellow New Level clients found out about her amazing achievement on the social media network.

In the days following the Great Ocean Road marathon weekend, a proud Zoe even updated her profile pic to the one taken immediately after the completion of the 6km run.

In acknowledging her amazing feat and the tremendous endeavour Zoe has shown in changing her lifestyle and relentlessly chasing her health and fitness goals, the extremely friendly and loveable 24-year-old was awarded the New Level Newtown ‘Client of the Month’ for the month of May!

From all of us here at New Level Personal Training in Newtown, a huge congratulations Zo-Zo! Well done!  

From left to right: Zoe Hunter, Alice Shaw, personal trainer Jen Etcell and Alison Sim

Jen McMahon (right) pictured with a friend after the race

Stephen McDonald ran 14kms in just over an hour

On the 19th-20th May 2012, New Level Newtown participated in their first fun run event. Seven members of the New Level Newtown family ventured down the coast to Apollo Bay to take part in this year’s Great Ocean Road Marathon fun run.

Three of the girls, Zoe Hunter, Alison Sim and Alice Shaw participated in the newly created 6km fun run on Saturday, while Stephen McDonald and Jen McMahon took part in Saturday’s 14km event.

On Sunday, meanwhile, our Head Personal Trainer Jen Etcell ran in support of a former client and her best friend Heidi Umstad in the 23km half-marathon. Another of Jen’s ex-clients, Scott Umstad, who happens to be Heidi’s husband, also took part in the 6km event. 

Alison, who is not only a long time personal training client, but a well respected osteopath who operates out of the Newtown studio’s consulting room, ran the 6km event in a remarkable time of just on 37 minutes.

Alice, another long time client at Newtown, was not too far behind completing the course in 39 minutes.

Zoe had never run on a treadmill for more than a few hundred metres before taking up personal training at New Level Newtown towards the end of last year. Taking that into account, her time of 49 minutes in the 6km event can only be regarded as nothing short of spectacular and truly inspirational. An amazing feat indeed!

In the 14km event, Stephen McDonald showed just why he is considered one of the fittest clients at New Level, running the entire course in a staggering time of 1 hour, 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

Jen McMahon, meanwhile, is a seasoned Fun Run campaigner. Prior to the Great Ocean Road weekend, however, she had never participated in a 14km event. 

Having only run a maximum 12 kms previously, just the day before she had expressed some doubt to Studio Owner Tonci Prusac that she would be able to compete the 14km course. She was reassured by Tonci, who said he had great faith she would do so.

Well, fast forward 24 hours and not only did Jen complete the picturesque coastal course, but she did it in style, running it in 77 minutes!

Head Personal Trainer Jen Etcell was in a jubilant mood after the race.

“We were blessed with absolutely perfect conditions for running and the performance of our clients was absolutely amazing. This is why I love my job and it is clients like these guys that inspire me to keep my running up!” said Jen. 

“They have spent several weeks in the studio preparing for the run and the results that came through were very well deserved. 

“Not only did they achieve PB’s over original distances previously run in their training, but they then added extra distance. I even heard that they ‘secretly enjoyed’ the much anticipated run.” 

Congratulations guys!!!

Special guest presenters Matt Golfis and Matt Moody from GNC Westfield Geelong had the intrigued audience captive for well over an hour as they discussed the importance of adding supplements to our daily diet in order to achieve optimum health.

Starting the day off with Multi-vitamins is a vital part of any healthy diet and the importance to both the immune system and increasing the intake of anti-oxidants was the first topic covered by the two Matts.

“You should start with taking good Multi-vitamins which will form the base of your supplementation, then you take it from there,” explained Matt Golfis.

“If you take Multi-vitamins in conjunction with protein powders, you aid the immune system but at the same time ensure optimum muscle recovery,” explained Matt Moody, then continued, “However, just taking protein powder to grow your muscles and leaving out the Multi-vitamins may result in compromising the health of your immune system.”

The two Matts then spoke about the importance of choosing the right Omega 3 fish oil supplement, by analysing the active ingredient in the supplement’s composition.

They then spoke about protein powders, addressing some of the myths surrounding this vital supplement as well as exploring the different types available on the market.

“Protein feeds nutrients to your muscles which leads to good muscle recovery and growth,” Moody explained.

“By repairing the muscle fibres, the protein can be used to help grow the damaged muscles,” continued Golfis.

They briefly discussed the three types of proteins, Whey Protein Isolate (WPI), Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) and Casein Protein, and what to look for when choosing protein powders.

Finally, there was an opportunity to do some taste testing, with the banana flavoured Whey Protein blend proving a popular choice alongside the tradition chocolate flavour.

There was also an opportunity for question time, with both Matts staying around to chat to the seminar participants following the conclusion of the event.

The next scheduled seminar in the monthly series will be in late June, with the date and topic to be confirmed

Although well attended, it’s nonetheless a shame that more people werenít in attendance to hear what New Level personal trainer Kelly Hill had to say about the importance of goal setting and how to best go about achieving it.

”Goals give you a target to aim for in life,” Kelly told the enthralled audience, ‘‘if you make goals on a subconsious level, you effectively become a passenger in life. If you concsciously go about setting your goals, however, you become the driver. The driver of your own destiny”.

Kelly explained how goal setting can be quite a daunting and overwhelming task, so that’s where short term and long term goals come into play.

It was at that stage that Kelly ripped out one of many clichees she would use during the course of the evening.

”By a yard it’s hard, by an inch it’s a cinch!”

Kelly went on to explain that before setting a goal, you need to tap into the ”why” – why you want to achieve what you have set out to achieve.

Towards the end of the short yet highly informative seminar, Kelly staged a short practical exercise which included setting a long term goal by in the process setting a series of short term goals.

To go about establishing and identifying a goal you would like to achieve, use Kelly’s ”SMART” philosophy of goal setting….

S – specific

M – measureable

A – achievable

R – relevant

T – timebound

The next instalment of the monthly seminar series will be held on Monday 14th of May at the studio at 7pm. The topic will be the importance of supplements in our everyday diet.

Special guest presenter will be John from GNC Westfield Geelong, who will talk about protein powders, male and female multi-vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids and will also stage a taste test and provide a few giveaways and specials.

To reserve a spot, call Jen or Tonci at the studio on 5298 2601.     

Harley joined New Level Personal Training Newtown in early December of last year and two and a half months later, during the last RESULTS WEEK held in early February, he had recorded some amazing results.

Since his last assessment, Harley had lost almost a full 5 kilograms of body weight, as well as a staggering 29cm in total measurements.

His waist and hips were the undoubted star performers, having lost 8.5cms and 11.5 cms respectively, but his chest (loss of 3cms) and thighs (loss of 4.5cms) were not far behind.

Harleyís secret is simple – he has applied himself fully to every Personal Training session he has attended. And he has managed a 100% attendance rate so far! Not bad for someone who is not normally a morning person, yet has scheduled his two weekly sessions on a Wednesday and Friday at 6.30am respectively.

Adding proof to the observation that if you put in that extra effort you will be rewarded, Harley recently started regularly attending the Monday night group boxing class, in order to ensure he was exercising at the studio on at least three occasions per week – the absolute bare minimum that New Level personal trainers recommend to their clients.

No doubt Harley, along with New Level Newtown’s other personal training clients, will be eagerly looking forward to the next RESULTS WEEK in early April, hoping to emulate the great results they recently achieved.

“Failed my test; no matter; I still rock this place”; but lame to get the highest grade or excel where others are falling short.

 “I got an A!” “NERD!”

This mentality still exists today believe it or not; except now it’s cool to fail at keeping your own body in check. You can be super fit or super unfit; but not anywhere in between; that’s just not cool. The funny thing is now that your friends are all adults they don’t use the word cool anymore; that’s kids stuff. Now they choose to see self improvement as a waste of time or a sign that you have had some kind of mental break. In other words; they’re not doing it so why are you?

How often would you say you’ve heard these words?

“You’re training; why? You’re not an athlete”

“Why aren’t you drinking? One drink won’t kill you”

“Pfft Diet; shut up and have some pizza with us”

This one is my personal favorites… “Go on; you can always work it off with your trainer tomorrow”.

These words of wisdom; or WOW statements from your friends can be the catalyst to you chucking in the towel or choosing to fail; and often that is exactly what happens. This doesn’t happen right away mind you; it is often a slow progressively destructive effect that occurs over weeks or months. 

First; you’ll eat something that you know doesn’t suit your eating plan. Second; you’ll cancel a training sessions to catch up with your mates that you haven’t seen for a whole 5 days; damn how do you go on? Third; you start back at the old bad habits. Fourth and final; you quit; and say it’s due to lack of time, results and money; when really its due to lack of self control, effort and dedication.

Now the easiest thing to do now would be to ditch all those tall poppy hating friends of yours; but of course you like them and they have stuck by you for other stuff; like shouting you a round at the pub; what a pal. So instead this means that once again the task falls back on you and your will power.  

There are two things you need in your arsenal to accomplish this task; that’s right; only two things to remember folks. One; you must learn to say no to your friends; you don’t have to go to every social gathering or drink every pint they shout you. Two; learn to no longer use their WOW statements as a scapegoats for your goal plan. If you stick these two simple things for 1 month your friends will learn to see you as the fitness nut of the group; instead of the kidding themselves nut they see every time you adhere to their WOW statements.

Do this; train hard; eat right and nothing will stop you from winning the results game.

Good luck; now go train. 

A Personal Trainer will provide you with Motivation to train and Accountability to stick to your goal. However, there are other very important reasons a Personal Trainer is beneficial whether you are a newbie to exercise or even a seasoned veteran. These are SAFETY and TECHNIQUE.

It is important that early in your progression from non-exerciser to fitness fanatic that you are taught the correct technique in all exercises. This will help prevent injuries (which can  lead to lengthy time off), it will ensure you are getting the most out of your exercise and educate you on how to look for correct form.

Training with bad technique can lead to imbalances in your posture, niggling or even serious injury and can lead to a plateau in your results. A good Personal Trainer should always assess and correct your technique in all exercises including the “easy ones”.

SAFETY is something a Personal Trainer can ensure during a workout for people of all fitness levels. Whether you are lifting heavy weights or using the treadmill for the first time. Exercising with someone who is knows how to “spot” your lifts and ensure you’re training environment is free of hazards allows you to free your mind, put your trust in them and just concentrate on the exercise.

If you are interested in learning more of the benefits of Personal Training feel free to call 1300 NEWLEVEL to talk to a trainer, or fill out our 3 FREE Session offer on this website.

As demonstrated by Tonci from New Level Personal Training (Newtown, Geelong) in the video above, the Kettlebell Swing is a fantastic exercise for strengthening and toning the legs. As this exercise is quite ballistic you need to ensure your form and technique is correct otherwise injury can occur. This is why having the direction and attention of a Personal Trainer is a must.

Once your Personal Trainer progresses you through your program and introduces kettlebells to your training you will start to notice the wide range of exercises that can be performed using the kettlebell. The kettlebell basically looks like a cannonball with a handle, but it is it’s simple design that allows it to have so many exercise options.

When performing the Kettlebell Swing (as demonstrated in the video above), you need to ensure you bend your knees, keep a neutral spine and only bring the kettlebell up to eye level (parallel to the ground). Use the momentum created by the swing to perform a high repetition count which will engage the anaerobic energy system.

Females are recommended to start with an 8kg kettlebell and male with a 16kg one. However, before performing any kettlebell exercises on your own, please get advice from a Personal Trainer on correct technique to prevent any injury.

If you would like to know more about Kettlebell training, please call us on 1300 NEWLEVEL or contact us via our 3 FREE Session offer on this website.

As Tonci nicely demonstrates in the video clip above, Tabata Training can give you maximum results in minimum time. Tabata training is a typically used with Resistance Exercises using weights building muscle endurance, and increasing the anaerobic capacity.

The Tabata Training formula for success is:

Push hard for 20 seconds
Rest for 10 seconds
Repeat this 8 times!

Total workout time = 4 minutes!!

In the video above Tonci ditches the weights and resistance exercises and instead applies the Tabata formula to his cardio workout on the spin bike. Basically this is another form of interval training when done on the bike, and as you can see the intensity of the hard 20 seconds needs to be high to be effective.

Traditional Tabata Training as mentioned earlier uses resistance exercises (weights) with the most effective being compound exercises such as squats. The use of Kettlebells is also very popular when performing a Tabata Workout.

Tabata Training should not be used as a daily workout rather scheduled in as a fortnightly or monthly addition to your program.

Simon was in the cooking industry for 10 years and decided to make a career change to Personal Training. His former career as a chef gives him a great advantage when designing nutrition plans for his clients. Simon knows what works and what doesn’t, how to prepare food quickly, and has lots of tips for cooking the healthy way!

New Level Personal Training founder Trav Bell talks to Simon in the video above about some of the ‘most asked’ questions from clients about nutrition, and along the way Simon reveals some handy cooking advice.

Some of the key points are:

• Prepare your lunch and snacks the night before so you are not rushed in the morning and decide to just buy your lunch.
• Prepare some soups (especially during winter) on the weekend and put them the freezer in containers ready to go when you need them.
• Use the palm of your hand as a guide for the correct portion of the ‘protein’ in your meal. eg: Red Meat, Fish, Chicken.
• When cooking on a pan, get the surface really HOT first. This helps seal the food quickly and hold in the nutrients.
• A light spray of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on pan is better than dripping it in oil.
• Sealing your chicken breast in a pan first then allowing it to continue cooking in the oven is a good way of cooking the chicken without frying it in oil.
• Poaching and steaming are healthy cooking techniques that need to be mastered.
• Try not to overcook your vegetables. Keep them crisp. Overcooking them will release too much of their goodness.

Simon will be back with some more cooking and nutrition tips in future videos. If you have any questions you would like to ask him, just comment below this post or simple call 1300 NEWLEVEL.

Personally, I think in the next video he should wear a ‘Chef’s Hat’, be in the kitchen and give us a ‘Master Class’… What do you think?