We have recently been approved to use the fitlink.edu.au, and are one of the few fitness training providers allowed to do so. It is yet another indicator that Fitlink is still regarded highly as a national training provider.

We have just launched a new website to better handle the way that you will be able to structure your education course the way YOU want. We will be launching that in the new year.

Have a look at it, it is at www.fitlink.edu.au

Michael is very active within the fitness industry. This is an excerpt of the thread he started currently on LinkedIn

Its quite amazing how one’s perception can change, as one’s role changes.
As a gym owner, I was constantly frustrated about how I would get approached by so many graduates from fitness rto’s that really were not job ready.
As a Fitness Queensland and Fitness Australia director, I was constantly amazed by the apathy from the fitness industry. It seemed that so many were too busy running that space in their catchment zone to even care about PPCA, training packages, etc.
Now that I am with an RTO, I am disappointed by the perception from our enquiries that the courses should be cheap, quick and easy to complete, and that everyone walks out into a 6 figure PT career.
My view about the role and place of the Diploma has changed. It has come about, not because it is on my RTO’s scope, but because I think that it is a necessary raising of the standards if we want to bridge that gap with allied health, offer a route to a degree course, or even just stand out from the current “oh, we didnt do that on our course” personal trainer.
One of the reasons that I put my hand up for various boards, it that I have always believed that if you’re not happy about the status quo, get involved! So I do urge fitness professionals out there to do the same – or stop complaining!
BTW, I am eagerly looking forward to see what happens with the accreditation system for fitness business too. This will make some grumpy, but we have to raise the bar.

Just a quick update,

Things have been very hectic at FITLINK headquarters however we’re very excited to inform you that we are now located in our fantastic new premise’s at J F O’Grady Park, 119 Brougham Street, FAIRFIELD, just a stone’s throw away from Brisbane CBD.  Our new facilities provide a fully equipped Indoor/Outdoor Personal Training studio where workshops are available to fulfill the practical elements of your course.  The facility is located close to shops and comes with plenty of parking available for those of you who can drive, alternatively the Fairfield train and bus service’s are just a quick two minutes walk from our campus.  Change of contact details have been updated on our website www.fitlink.com.au, so use these should you need to get in contact with us.  We wil still be experiencing some changes over the next few months however this is just to ensure that FITLINK will continue to provide you with professional service and support so that you get the most out of your course because after all we want our Personal Trainers trained properly.

Yours in Fitness

The team at FITLINK

We regularly update our page with great hints, tips, photo’s, video’s, promotions, so come on over and tell us what you think!

Add your favourite fitness photo’s and videos, tell us about your experience with Fitlink, or just let us know where you are, who you’re with and what you are up to as you go about your fitness training or excel in your career!

We will look forward to hearing from you soon!

One of the biggest myths about strength training is that you have to spend hours lifting heavy weights in order to achieve results. For the majority of us who don’t want to have as many muscles as Schwarzenegger, a 15-minute strength training programme, 2 to 3 times per week is more than sufficient to achieve gains in muscle growth, strength, endurance and weight loss.

It’s not how long you spend training that counts; it’s the quality of training. Put the following components together and you have the makings of an effective, time-efficient programme that can be adapted to suit either the beginner, intermediate or advanced exerciser.

One set of 8 to 12 reps

In the past you would have been told to lift weights for three sets of around 20 repetitions (reps), but sports scientists have realised the same results can be achieved in a lot less time. It is now accepted wisdom that you need only perform one set of 8 to12 reps to cover all health related benefits of weight training, making sure you work the muscle to the point of fatigue on the last rep (see below). There’s nothing wrong with weight training that involves more sets and repetitions, but it’s normally advanced weight trainers who choose this as a form of training.

Constant progress

If you don’t challenge your muscles, you won’t benefit from strength training, so it’s important to always aim for an increase in the amount of weight you lift. Start your strength training programme with a weight that you can lift only 8 times and keep using that weight until you become strong enough to lift it 12 times. When you’re able to perform 12 repetitions correctly (without  cheating!), progress by adding more weight.

Slow and controlled

You’re cheating your muscles if you speed through each repetition or use momentum to move the weight. Lift with a slow controlled movement to a count of two, and then lower to a count of three to four. It’s important to concentrate not only on the contraction that occurs during the lifting phase, but also on the contraction that occurs as you’re returning the weight to the starting point.

2 to 3 times a week

Try to train 2 to 3 times a week, and leave a day free between sessions -your muscles need at least 48 hours recovery between workouts. For complete healing and rest they may need up to 7 days!!  Insufficient rest is a sure route to muscle strain because muscle fibres need time to rejuvenate in order to grow bigger and stronger. If your muscles ache for more than a few days after your workout it means you’ve overdone it, so give yourself some extra time to recover and ease back into your programme with a lighter weight. As you build muscles from strength training, your metabolic rate increases, so you’ll burn more calories all day long. Even when you’re standing around or sleeping, your muscle cells stay busy eating up calories. Don’t lift weights without first warming up. Hop on the bike or treadmill for 5 to 10 minutes to warm up your muscles before weight training.

You will notice the results and not spend so much time at the gym!! Focus on the large muscles for results and the rest of the body will come…lift hard, strong, and proper and you will be able to spend more time doing other stuff you love!!

We are very excited to announce that the new Fitlink Australia website has gone live!

Please take some time to view the site and tell us your thoughts, we would love to hear your feedback!

Fitlink Australia website goes live!

www.fitlink.com.au

Thanks and see you online soon!

Tim Boman | Fitlink Australia

There is no such thing as a 5-minute workout.  However, I’ll give you a way to add 5 tough minutes to any workout that will help to improve your overall level of fitness…

Simplicity is the key to designing and implementing effective and efficient workout programs; save the complicated stuff for work!

We’re going bare bones, old-school simple here with nothing more than 100 push ups and a 5-minute time limit to give you a great way to end your workout, something I call “a finisher.”   Women are shooting for 60 push ups in 5 minutes.

And ladies, don’t be intimidated by the push up.  The push up is your friend, and should be your friend.  If you can do push ups, you’ll have a better chance to have the upper body that you want than if you don’t, no matter how much time you spend on the bench.

The “5-Minute Push Up Finisher” goes like this.  Do as many push ups as you can in 5 minutes. The clock starts ticking when you dive into your first push up, and 5 minutes later tally them up and see how many you did.

If you want to try to blow out 40 push ups with your first set, knock yourself out, but be aware of this one rule; guys cannot do any less than 10 push ups – 6 for the women – in a set or the number of push ups that you do don’t count towards the final total.  So if you go big in your first set you need to be sure that you get enough rest before you start your next set so that you can get the minimum.  The only exception to this rule is when the clock runs out before you can finish the minimum amount in a set.

On the other side of the strategy coin, if you start banging out sets of 10 push ups and go with short rest periods you still need to make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to recover in between sets.

You might think getting 10 sets of 10 push ups done in 300 seconds is easy, but the reality is that doing 10 push ups in 10 seconds with only 20 seconds to rest is one of the tougher things that you can do.

Give it a shot and let us know how it goes.