If you have a body, you’re an athlete.
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Committing for the long haul: the case for sticking with the programme
Athletes that gym with aesthetic goals in mind (let’s face it, that’s a lot of us) have a tendency to jump from programme to programme, constantly in search of better results or bigger gains, much like those they experience within their first 3 months of training. In those first three months, your body reacts to weight training like it never will again in your life. For those just starting to exercise, you witness a transformation in your body that is addictive. Your muscles have never had the chance to hypertrophy, and as such the gains you experience, together with the incredible feeling you get as people notice the change in your body shape, leave you feeling invincible. If you can do this, you think, then you can do anything. Then you hit the plateau.
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“…these days I feel a shit load better about myself. And isn’t that all that really counts?” Roark member Schalk Jonker writes about his experience training at Roark
“So I’m guess what I’m saying is I don’t want to be puking my guts out after my first session. I know myself and that will just deter me from returning unfortunately.” That was the last paragraph in my very first email exchange with James White of Roark. In the preceding paragraphs I used words like “amped” and “stoked” and more specifically “can’t wait to start exercising again”. At this point I need to make a confession. A few actually… I wasn’t stoked or amped. In fact I was skeptical of the whole business. Not of James and what he was trying to do at Roark, but rather of myself and whether or not I would be able to push through.
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What does it take to train at Roark? The ability to pitch up and work hard.
I receive questions or comments about our gym and our training on a daily basis. Perhaps it’s time to clear a few things up. We do not exclusively coach athletes. We do, of course, have some great athletes training at our gym, but we are unconcerned with your CV at Roark. The only thing we respect is the ability to pitch up and work hard while you’re in the gym.
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Walking into darkness
Mark Twight, the founder of Gym Jones, is an inspirational guy. His gym’s address can’t be found, you have to apply to train at their gym, and one member wrote in 2009 that ‘although I can’t list who trains at Gym Jones, let’s just say that because of these people you can sleep better at night.’ Twight states that the common characteristic of the Gym Jones community ‘is the will to suffer, to throw former selves on the fire, to overcome and to change.’
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Photographer Damien Schumann shoots Roark Gyms owner for a documentary on masculinity in South Africa
So we weren’t at all sure what would come out of photographer Damien Schumann’s request to shoot Roark Gyms owner James White during a workout, but this picture is certainly worth passing on. Damien is shooting a documentary about masculinity in South Africa and he came through to Roark Gyms for a chat a couple of weeks ago. Then he set up his lights and went about trying to catch James “in the moment”. We think he did a pretty amazing job!
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ROARK TV: Schalk Jonker & Gareth Rosslee chat to Warren Brosnihan after this morning’s session
We snuck in a sneaky moment on camera after this morning’s workout. Schalk Jonker and Gareth Rosslee from Sports Illustrated got behind the camera to chat to ex Springbok Warren Brosnihan.
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The comeback game: James writes about making his decision to start playing rugby again after a knee injury left him sidelined for most of last year
It was my comeback game (after 16 months on the sidelines and a knee reconstruction) on Friday night for UCT, and pretty much all I had been thinking about for the week preceding it. I use the term ‘thinking about’ loosely here, as these thoughts fluctuated between terror and a feeling that I can only describe as heart-bursting excitement. On Thursday, the panic got too much for me and so I decided to see my knee specialist at The Sports Science Institute, Dr Willem van der Merwe.
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The ROARK GYMS D.E.S. Gains competition: calling all power athletes
The inaugural DES Gains will start on the 10th of April 2012. The competition will run for a period of five weeks during which a workout will be released on the Monday of each week. Competitors will have three days to come into the gym and complete the challenge. After each challenge the participants will be placed on the leader board, with the average leader reflecting through the weeks. At the end of the first five week phase the top competitor in each of the divisions (professional, intermediate and beginner) will receive a prize.
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Strength4Players: Thank you to all who took part
The inaugural Strength4Players challenge took place on the 31st of March with a number of people coming to give our workout a go, but more importantly to donate money to The Petro Jackson Chris Burger Players Fund.
Honours in the intermediate division were shared between Jason Brown and Alistair Davis, while Kenrick Brown won the professional division with an astounding performance falling just short of 8 rounds. Brett Roux finished second, with Andrew Martin finishing third. -
Injuries will happen, and they will make you angry. Here’s how to deal with them.
Nothing makes me angrier than when I’m injured. I can’t handle the fact that my body has failed me. I feel useless and weak, while also feeling that with each passing day of not exercising the strength I have spent months building up is seeping out of my muscles, while my muscles are atrophying before my eyes. What frustrates me more is when people tell me that, ‘your body is trying to tell you something.’ Oh really?! What’s that? That’s it’s useless and all injured and stuff?! I basically become a petulant child. It’s not a good situation.
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ROARK RECOMMENDS: Body maintenance, supplements & nutrition
Last year before I went to the States I woke up early one morning to train. Being tired and in a busy commercial gym (this was before Roark had opened, ie: before the world changed for the better) I didn’t warm up properly. It’s no excuse, but at the time I just wanted to get the exercises done and get out of there. I started doing some pretty heavy cleans, and with most of the gym watching me I felt my back tweak, dropped the weight, and walked out sulking like an upset schoolgirl.
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On Crossfit as a sport, natural talent vs persistence, and Rich Froning Junior.
I’ve written a number of times that Roark is in the business of building athletes who get better at their chosen sport/hobby, as opposed to just building athletes who get better at the exercise we practice here. With that said, there is no denying that the Crossfit athletes who practice Crossfit specifically to get better at the sport, are very impressive athletes.
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