Will Grant is the founder and owner of Ghetto Movement, an epic small gym in Wollongong (a couple of hours south of Sydney, for the overseas fam) that combines the best of many areas of training.
Will and I have known each other for years. We first met at a Yuri Marmerstein workshop at the old Lift gym in Redfern (incidentally, another gym that’s no longer with us). We’ve been mates ever since and his growth as a coach and gym owner has been more or less parallel to that of ours ever since.
I recently spent a morning with Will down at Ghetto. Here’s 3 things I learned from that time:
Less Can Be More
Will’s chasing goals across many areas – BJJ, surfing, handstands, mobility and strength. On this morning we had 30 mins to do some handstand and front split practice, followed by 60-90 mins for some some strength work. Will is one of those guys that seems to train all the time. The dude has a one arm handstand, and no one achieves that without training all the time.
However, I was surprised at the relatively low-volume approach he took to the training that morning. We did around 3 sets of handstands and stretches, and then 8-9 sets of strength work for 4 different exercises. He mentioned that with everything else he has going on, 2-3 sessions like this makes up his weekly strength practice, which is very low volume when compared to the standard ‘movement’ prescription of gruelling 2-4 hour strength sessions performed 5-6 days per week.
This low volume approach is something I have been leaning towards a lot lately. It spoke to me.
It Won’t Be Perfect. Do It Anyway
Will has 3 kids under 3. With his parter looking after the latest addition, the two eldest were in the gym with him that morning – they were running rampant while we were training. Will made his best effort to keep them entertained and not kill each other. Though it was far from ideal – they fought, they ran through other peoples sessions, they made off with my phone and tripod. Generally they were a massive distraction, more so for Will than anyone else.
Further to that, one of them had been up crying since around 2am which meant that Will had not had very much sleep.
Far from an ideal morning to train really. But Will did it anyway (with a little help from caffeine).
We do our best to make things perfect, but sometimes our best efforts are completely derailed by something outside of our control. Roll with it.
Note – you can’t train under these circumstances all the time. But I think it’s fine every now and again (and necessary when you have kids)
Structure is Everything
Will’s morning was packed out. 630am admin, 8am training, 10am team meeting, 11am BJJ, 1230pm lunch then an afternoon coaching (if you’re a gym owner, I know you can attest to this). I was able to hang out with the guy by slotting in at 8am and riding it through with him until lunch time. In his words “if it’s not in the calendar it’s not happening”.
As a gym owner myself, I know how hectic our schedules can get. See how tight Will ran his and how closely he stuck to it – for the most part – only reminded me how important structure is for anyone who needs to get a lot done.
I hope you got something from reading this.
Will and I recorded a podcast recently about chasing big goals in your training. It was a classic. Give it a listen here
Joey
