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Very interesting at his mornings boot camp with the high winds, I instructed everyone to stay away from trees.

One fitmate in particular said “what is with all the safety precautions”, then 20 minutes later a loud crack and crunch sound was followed by a large branch falling to the ground.

Unfortunately many of Melbourne’s parks have suffered from our severe 10 year drought as a result of the “El Niño” weather patterns, trees have experienced stress related to the low levels of moisture in the soil.

When ever there are high/gale force winds Fitstyler either avoids any areas within close proximity to trees or cancel the session all together. Fortunately Edinbugh Gardens in Melbourne has many open areas set back from the many magnificent oak trees of this Victorian park.

This has led to a situation where many of our fine oak trees have been left in a vulnerable state and with our high winds these trees have not fully recovered from the years of drought.

Over the past six months we have however experienced above average rainfall and in some instances recorded the highest precipitation for that period.

Generally the arborists have been keeping track of the condition of the trees however the unpredictable nature of limbs falling precipitates the need to unfortunately avoid staying underneath the canopy of these magnificent living creatures.

This begs the question how these trees will fare with future droughts as their future will be directly prortionate to the money that the local councils invest in saving these trees from an uncertain future. Many of these trees go back to the turn-of-the-century when the seasons were more predictable and we had the usual rainfall over winter followed by the drier summers as opposed to having dry winters year after year.

At the boot camp last night there were numerous people out taking advantage of the balmy weather conditions and walking their dogs.

Given the inclement weather, we were training under a veranda facing the oval when we noticed one dog running past and without warning made a big leap forward into the puddle taking advantage of the freshly created puddles on the boundary of the oval.

This was proceeded by 2 rolls in quick succession and a deep lunge which left the owner a little flummoxed however dogs do what dogs have to do.

A few minutes later another freshly groomed dog came past that was impeccably washed and combed.

Well after the Fitmates watched the first dog dive bomb into the puddle, Debbie K came up with for stellar comment “if the fluffy dog went rolling in the mud, that would be awesome”.

Now this would have to be a contender for the funniest quote of the year prize.

Fortunately Melbourne has been experiencing above average rainfall, with the humidity being at a high 88%.

Unfortunately high humidity equals balmy conditions, including something that resembles rain which is more akin to mist. These weather conditions produce ideal growing conditions for grass which has led to high levels of hay fever. This has been exacerbated by the pollen being released from the extensive grass growth around Melbourne and the polle grains bursting with the high levels of humidity.

I overheard that one way of counteracting the effects of hay fever was to consume honey produced in the local area will. The idea being is that the histamines in the honey counteract the effects of pollen which is inhaled and ingested.

Somehow I can’t imagine that there are many beehives beekeepers for that matter that reside in inner Melbourne.

Well with more rain The predicted this weekend, there will be an abundance of more puddles and more fun times ahead for the local fraternity of dogs.

Funny Fitness quote, our Fitmate Louise who was bitten by mozzies at Monday night’s session was commenting at last nights session that her ankle swelled after boot camp, straight away JP said “if you are worried about the mozzie bite then wait until the locusts come”.

Well I have seen it all at the parks but with the baby locusts hatching in Northern Victoria, there are fears that the swarms will hit Melbourne with even the possibility of affecting the Melbourne Cup.

So unless the locusts are planning on being selective about where they migrate to, you can only assume that the locusts will infest large tracks of our city during their migration to source more abundant food supplies.

So added to the trainer manual will be a section on insect swarms, luckily we don’t have earthquakes or cyclones in Melbourne.

Well something to look forward to in the coming months, LOCUSTS:))

While there was patchy showers across Victoria, a massive hail storm moved across over Melbourne last night. There was no mention of hail storms on the weather forecasts as this storm seemed to originate from nowhere.
While I always joke about it never rains at Boot camp, I think breaking the record with hail is going a little too far:))

The temperature dropped and while I was waiting at the Rotunda with a new Fitmate, the winds increased from 15-20knots to 35-40 knots with pea sized hail voraciously dawning upon us. Well boot camp was now officially over as we ran back to our cars.

Within minutes the ground was covered in a layer of sleet and the fallen hail collecting on the windscreens like we were up at the snow. Once the epicentre of the storm based, the skies cleared and the rain subsided.

With the cool 7º temperature, the hail was in no hurry to melt with piles of hail still visible after 20 minutes.

Well done to the 8 Fitmates who braved the rainy weather to venture out. While we do have sheltered areas at our parks, it’s game over when either it hails or there is a warning for one of these extremely nasty storms.

We had a similar storm in April this year with loads of lightening and thunder, once again we canceled the session as lightening and Fitmates don’t mix.

During the stretching component of our boot camp last night a few Fitmates were commenting on how much better they feel after a bit of exercise following a hard day at the office.

These days unfortunately the stresses of work are compounded by additional financial pressures with meeting mortgages and the costs of living in our modern society. Quite often we are time poor and we have limited opportunities for physical exertion with longer working days and balancing the home/family life. Australia actually is in the top 10 for the highest average hours worked per week.

The great thing that our Fitmates noted was while they were exercising they forgot about work and could begin to unwind from the days work activities. Even one Fitmate in particular had an amazing amount of energy that was redirecting captured energy from a heavy day at the office. Even the other Fitmate’s were suitably impressed by her awesome energy at knocking out punch after punch.

Unfortunately there is a rising number of people consuming an excessive amount of alcohol in many instances as way to “unwind” from the days work activities.

This increased alcohol consumption has attracted the attention of the government to introduce educational programs recommending that people have 2 alcohol free days per week. This is really saying that there is a proportion of the population that is drinking above the recommended daily intake of 2 standard drinks on a daily basis. What may surprise people that that big goblet of a wine glass may be well over a standard drink which is 100ml for red wine.

Another by product is insomnia for some people who cannot “switch off” and keep churning through the days activities and stresses.

So maybe try fitting in some exercise after work, even if it means going for a walk around the block or parking the car a little further from the railway station or office car park. You may be surprised how much better you feel:))