​The Army, Navy and Airforce cadets are a fantastic opportunity for young people to get involved with something that will help to develop their minds and improve their fitness. 

Joining the Army Reserve is an exciting way of contributing to Australia's defence system, provides excellent adventures and experiences while naturally helping you to stay on top of your fitness game.

​If you want to join the ADF, you’ll first be required to meet the PFA test requirements. Without that, your aims of joining the Australian Defence Force will remain unfulfilled. Applicants often fall into the trap of doing nothing else in their training sessions but doing sit-ups and push-ups like there was no tomorrow. Want to find out why that may not be enough to get enrolled? Read on. 

​We’d all like to be stronger, better, faster, but it’s an on-running scientific quest to find the optimal way of doing so, especially when it comes to the somewhat thorny issue of how long you should rest between sets. There are many aspects to consider, and the optimal rest between sets will depend on your fitness goal. 

​If you’ve got your training regime nailed down to the very last detail, holidays can throw a real spanner in the works. The food is decadent, the climate different, and, of course, you’re away from your usual gym.

If you've been into running training for a while you probably know already that shin splints can cause severe discomfort. The pain, common along the front edge of the shin is usually the result of intense, repetitive running training that involves hard impacts on the feet and lower legs.

The latest hype in the nutrition space is going vegetarian, vegan or plant based. Many celebs are promoting a version of veganism or vegetarianism and they claim the change in their diet has resulted in better health and fitness. If you are considering cutting back on animal products partly or completely you will need to educate yourself about the potential implications of your choice and have a deeper understanding of micronutrients to ensure you don't risk your health by accidentally missing out on essential nutrients.

If you already have your Physical Fitness Assessment scheduled, you will have heard of the beep test, also called multistage fitness test. It is a beast of a test designed to test your aerobic capacity (VO2 Max); you will keep going until you can't anymore and at what level you stop will determine if you passed the test or not.

If you would like to find out more about the actual test, read our previous blog on how to master the beep test. This article will go into details on how you can improve your VO2 Max so you don't need to worry about passing your PFA for the Australian Defence Force.

​The majority of female applicants for the ADF face the same problem; their grip strength is far from what is ideal for the demands of the Army. If your forearms are always on fire and preventing you from picking heavy weights up, then this blog post will definitely help you out. 

Many women who are looking to get into the ADF and need to pass the physical fitness assessment come to our gym for advice and help with their workouts. Often we spot common weaknesses at the beginning that could cause serious problems down the line if we just gave them sample workouts to follow focused on the goal only. One of the most critical issues we see is poor posture. It doesn't only increase the chances of injury, but you can't improve beyond a certain level, may that be strength or speed if your posture doesn't support those activities.