Phil Rice, Shaker of the Month, April ’16

As a trainer at the Shake UP, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing a brother take back the body confidence, determination and vitality that sometimes get obscured though the responsibilities of life. Phil Rice is our Palm Beach – April Shaker of the month and his success story really is one that makes you smile!

It is the 24th April 2016 and at about 8.00am Phil Rice is half way up his 3rd ascent of Mt Warning in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. This is a 4km hike up to to 1150 meters elevation. Phil and his mates are in training for the Kokoda Challenge and have been going since 2.00am in the morning! What impressed us the most was that charging up the steep hill for the 3rd time, Phil was in high spirits,smiling and joking around as usual. You could see this sense of achievement, determination and confidence on his face. There was no stopping him!

6 months prior to this, Phil began training at the Shake UP and at that point,although smiling and as comical as ever, he was lacking fitness and at the beginning of a pretty epic journey back to his best.
The self belief and resilience that is achieved through regularly testing yourself is something that we all need to discover. Phil worked his ass of for 6 months and is now in the best shape of his life. Well…Maybe the best shape of his life? Phil loves to reflect upon the 80’s as his golden era!
We recently caught up with Phil to chat about adventure racing and how good it feels to get back into a team training environment

So Phil, tell us a bit about yourself?

Um…I’m 43 years old and have always been pretty sporty and probably fell out of the training habit about 10 years ago. I just got real busy, building businesses and being a parent. It never occurred to me that I had forgotten to stay fit and to be honest, I thought was still pretty fit until I decided to go for a run one day and found out that I couldn’t even run far enough to sweat before I got puffed! So that was interesting.Ha..Ha..
What else….I have two little girls, a 6 year old called Sahna and a 2 year old called Taleah. Maz and I have been married about tweeeeeeeelve years? (Phil says with that same look of uncertainty that every dude we interview has).
Maz and I run two businesses out of our home. Print Monster which has been running for over 10 years and Buzzword which is a website business that Jodi and I have been working on for 3 years. It’s great to be able to work from home and have plenty of time with Maz and the kids.


How long have you been training at The Shake UP?

Since September I am pretty sure. Dean Kenway got me here initially and I am glad he was so persistent. I had heard so much positive feedback from him and others.

Why do you train Phil?
I came to get strong and find my fitness again. I have never had weight loss goals. I knew that if I could build strength and improve my conditioning, I would naturally lose the weight. That’s going pretty good too really. I reckon I have lost somewhere around 10kg’s.
Currently a few of us are training for the Kokoda Challenge. That’s great to focus on for the minute. We all did the Spartan Race a couple of months ago. It’s good to have little challenges like these to train towards. It really gives you a great sense of what you are physically and mentally capable of.

What gets you through a session? What’s your motivator?
Just knowing that it’s a relatively short period of discomfort makes it easier to block out the hurt and push through. Having a good crew to train with also makes you keep yourself accountable to help keep the training dynamic high.

What keeps you coming back to the Shake UP Phil?
I was thinking about this the other day and I think that it’s because this training environment is so much like a soccer or footy training session. I have always been into team sports and this reminds me of going to training, catching up with mates and getting your ass kicked.

Worst exercise?
Definitely something around burpees ha…ha!

Phil is the kind of guy who is perpetually smiling and cracking jokes. A pleasure to have as a valuable part of the Shake UP community. For all his hard work and commitment, Phil has scored himself a remedial massage with the Guru Sports massage therapist Peter Griffin from Palm Beach Chiropractic. Thanks so much to Pete for the continued support to the Shake UP

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Phil Rice, Shaker of the Month, April ’16

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