The Virtus blog
Training, mindset and the long game.
Essays, stories and weekly wraps from the Virtus coaching team. Written for our members, useful for everyone.
Latest
Recent writing.
20 August 2026
Mental models, part 1: the thinking tools hiding in your training
Five mental models that show up every single week on the gym floor, whether you know their names or not. Learn to see them and your training gets easier to stick to and harder to derail.
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28 July 2026
How to Choose a Gym in Mornington
Compare gym access, group fitness, personal training and coached S&C in Mornington, including coaching levels, total costs and who each model suits.
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28 July 2026
Is Strength Training Safe for Teenagers?
A practical guide for parents on safe teenage strength training, including supervision, technique, loading, warning signs and what to ask a coach.
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15 March 2026
Growth doesn't happen all at once
For a long time, I was waiting for a moment. A ball to drop. A big, grand change. An exciting "before and after" transformation.
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5 March 2026
Challenging what you (think you) know
At Virtus we talk a lot about getting better every day. (it's on the wall so it must be important)
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17 December 2025
Writing is a superpower
Most of you will know Jacqui Coughlan. She's our head coach here at Virtus and one of the more capable humans you'll ever meet. She also has outrageously high standards in pretty much every aspect...
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4 December 2025
Human First, Athlete Second
You can’t build a high performing athlete on top of a stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out human. You can try. You might even get a few good weeks out of them. But it won’t last. It never does and...
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26 November 2025
Don't have to, Get to.
A quick one from me. I’m in Perth this week, spending time with my business coach (yes, my belief in coaching extends well beyond the gym) and catching up with a great mate who runs a world class...
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16 October 2025
How to Access Mental Health Support (and Why It’s Easier Than You Think)
At Virtus, we believe that looking after your mind is just as important as looking after your body. Whether you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, anxious, or simply want someone to talk to, getting...
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12 October 2025
The Power of Negative Space: Why Growth Happens in the Quiet Moments
TL;DR: Training and stress create the stimulus for growth, but rest, recovery, and reflection, the negative space, are where adaptation happens. The goal is not endless effort, but finding the...
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8 October 2025
BDNF: Brain Food for your...Brain
I was seeing Greg for treatment the other day, and like most sessions with him, I left with some brain food.
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8 October 2025
The Voice Inside Your Head
The quiet voice that talks you through a session, a meeting, or a moment of doubt. Sometimes it pushes. Sometimes it criticises. Either way, it shapes how you perform. How you progress. How you...
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6 October 2025
Psychology at the Virtus Address: Meet Nina Keller
Meet psychologist Nina Keller and learn how to book directly with her independent practice at the Virtus address in Mornington.
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27 September 2025
Don't chase goals, build a way of life
At Virtus, we often talk about goals. Lose weight. Get stronger. Build muscle. Run faster. Compete harder. These are all worthwhile, but Hunter S. Thompson once wrote something that cuts deeper:...
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23 September 2025
Squats Will Make You Swim Faster... Maybe...
I love a good paradox. There’s something playful and mind-bending about holding two seemingly opposite truths in your head at once and realising… both are right.
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9 September 2025
Good, Better, Best: The Secret to Consistent Progress
At Virtus, we know the hardest part of training isn’t the session itself, it’s showing up consistently.
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Start here
Six ways into a decade of writing.
Start here: the Virtus way
The ideas underneath everything we do on the floor.
Training smart
Get more from every session, from technique to tempo.
- Five Mistakes People Make When Training
- The 10 ways to get the most out of your training sessions
- Good, Better, Best: The Secret to Consistent Progress
- The Forgotten Training Variable – Tempo
- Bulgarian Split Squats – Why we Should do More of Them
- Hands Up if You Want Healthy Shoulders!
- 5 Steps to Fall in Love With Running
- Squats Will Make You Swim Faster... Maybe...
Habits & consistency
Showing up is a skill. Here's how to build it.
Mindset
The six inches between your ears, trained.
Health & the long game
Stress, sleep, food and the next 50 years.
- Good things take time. Great things take a lifetime.
- BDNF: Brain Food for your...Brain
- Mastering Stress: Nervous System Hygiene for Modern Life
- Simplify Your Nutrition: Fuelling High Performance for Busy Lives
- 3 Ways to overcome stress
- Filling Your Cup To Be Your Best Self
- How to Access Mental Health Support (and Why It’s Easier Than You Think)
Life & perspective
The writing people forward to their mates.
From the archive
338 historical articles.
These pieces were migrated from the former site without reliable original publication dates. Programs, people, prices, links and health information may have changed.
- Strength Training & Menopause: A Natural Way to Thrive
- Enjoyment. Consistency. Progress. The Foundations of Virtus
- Virtus: More Than a Gym. Your New Home for High Performance in Mornington.
- What's really important?
- Are you a role model?
- I'm going streaking
- The Secrets of Enthusiasm
- The ultimate freedom
- What are you entitled to?
- 28 Things I (Think I) Know To Be True
- Big Rocks
- New Year, Same Me
- Wallace's Yearly Wrap
- No ordinary moments
- Something wonderful
- Why are you working so hard?
- Wallace's list of goodness
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Good things take time. Great things take a lifetime.
- A case study for human decision making and habit creation.
- I'm retiring
- You're Human
- Psyche and The Self
- The Pareto Principle
- You either win, or you learn.
- Time flies...
- Self awareness is like great sex...
- Go placidly amid the noise and the haste.
- If you want things to be better, make it so.
- I need a holiday'
- Willingness to change
- Take the pebble out of your shoe
- Who do you want to be?
- Suicide and Mental Health, A conversation that needs to be had
- When your eyes are tired, the whole world looks tired
- Make the right decisions
- Experience Overlap
- Trees, Elections and Game of Thrones
- Percieve vs Observe
- What stands in the way, becomes the way.
- Change & Uncertainty
- Open Loops
- Choice
- Authenticity
- You are far less fragile than you think
- Have you had 'One of those Weeks'?
- In Pursuit
- True North
- Energy & Values
- Life By Design
- True North & Transferable Skills
- Let my Hindsight be your Foresight
- Positive pressure
- The beauty of the In Between.
- 27 things I believe
- Shoshin - The Beginners Mind
- This one is for you
- You're in charge of your life, act like it.
- 2018, A year in review
- What are you becoming?
- Wallace's 2018 reading list.
- Embrace the grey
- Time to plant a tree...and listen to Buble
- Just Show Up
- You don't know what you want...
- Time: Protect or lose
- Why I write...
- Overwhelm
- Be where your feet are
- Belonging: The importance of tribe
- Habits
- 3 years of Virtus
- Intention + Action = Winning
- Success: What does it mean? Who am i meant to be?
- Meditation
- Environment
- What do you believe in?
- Why I ran a Marathon with no training & 10 Things I learnt from it
- Mantra
- Achievement
- The only 10 quotes you'll ever need
- Silence
- Suicide
- Pats on the back
- Lots going on, not a lot of progress.
- FUN
- Emotions
- What are you chasing?
- The 10 ways to get the most out of your training sessions
- Doing less, to achieve more.
- Welcome to Virtus
- Social Media: Is it the devil we make it out to be?
- Virtus Daily Blog #89 - Setbacks
- Virtus Daily Blog #90 - What do you believe?
- Virtus Daily Blog #90 - What the world needs.
- Virtus Daily Blog #92 - Being a good teammate
- Virtus Daily Blog #94 - I Believe
- Virtus Daily Blog #91 - The badge of busy.
- Virtus Daily Blog #93 - What is the Functional Movement Screen (FMS)
- Virtus daily blog #95 - Its all made up
- Virtus Daily Blog #96 - Blog Hiatus
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: May
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - June
- How to Enjoy Our Onboarding Sessions
- 3 FAQs of Newcomers
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - Rhys Baillie
- Five Mistakes People Make When Training
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - Kathryn Swanborough
- What's going on at Virtus Performance...
- Virtus Family XHolistic Hikes
- Moo's Momentary Musing (Weekly Wrap Takeover)
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - Charlotte Inkster
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - Caz Donovan
- Mentorship Spotlight: Molly Slater
- Quarantine Client of the Week 20/4
- Quarantine Client of the Week 27/4
- Cultivating Happiness; A 6 Step Guide.
- Doing the thing; A means within itself
- Who's Up For A Renaissance?
- The COVID Loop
- The Marathon for Mental Health
- Want to Reduce Your 3km Time in Weeks?
- Casual gym goer realises that ignorance truly is bliss.
- Weekly Correspondence - Monday 7th September
- MENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: TYLER FROST
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: KYLE MACKAY
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: SARAH O'GRADY
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: REBECCA MCMILLAN
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: NAT CARTWRIGHT
- INTERN SPOTIGHT: MEG HOOD
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: TOM PANICH
- 3 Ways to overcome stress
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: BREANNA COZZIO
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: REIDE MULHOLLAND
- There is Never a Right Time - Clare Power
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: STEPH LEE
- Virtus Daily Blog # - The Beauty of a Bretzell
- Virtus Daily Blog # - Self Awareness
- Virtus daily blog # - No clue what we are doing
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: August
- Virtus daily blog # - What Coxy tEaches us aboUt relationshiPs
- Virtus Daily Blog # 69 - Follow me
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight - Chris McCullough
- The Good Stuff: Celebrating Weekly Wins at Virtus
- Mastering Stress: Nervous System Hygiene for Modern Life
- Simplify Your Nutrition: Fuelling High Performance for Busy Lives
- How to Get More out of Training: What Dogs Can Teach Us About Training and Life.
- Strength & Conditioning: Chapter One
- The End of an Era, the Start of Something Better: Introducing Strength & Conditioning, Goodbye VGT
- A plan will only take you so far...
- Dreams
- Happiness
- I Believe.
- Success and Failure: 13 Months as Sole Director at Virtus Performance
- Environment is king.
- Priorities.
- Standards.
- What you can learn from a week in Japan
- The way you start, is the way you finish.
- Week 1, 2018.
- Mentorship Spotlight: Lane Meyer
- From the Couch to 1km
- What do we do when the power goes out?
- Why you should Never Miss a Monday
- The wonderful Process of a Home Brewed Coffee
- The Forgotten Training Variable – Tempo
- Quarantine Client of the Week 11/5
- Quarantine Client of the Week 4/5
- Overwhelmed? Me too. Here's what to do about it...
- Wallace's Weekly Wrap - A different kind of Marathon
- The Red Pill or The Blue Pill, It's your choice...
- Quarantine Client of the Week 18/05
- Bulgarian Split Squats – Why we Should do More of Them
- Quarantine Client of the Week 25/05
- Meet the Team: Jasmine Birch
- Meet the Team: Mitchell Rowe
- Meet the Team: Simon Cooper
- The Masterclass Summit 2020
- Virtus COVID Games
- Never Miss a Monday & Ginyasa!
- Never Miss a Monday: Week 4 of the COVID Games
- The Virtus Podcast: My 10 Most Memorable Episodes
- Never Miss a Monday 10/8
- Introducing, The Winter Olympics
- Back in Business - November 9th at 6am.
- Virtus Reopening Update
- 5 Steps to Fall in Love With Running
- We have a NEW coach! And we are very, very excited about it.
- Moo's Movember Musings #2 - Suicide & Mental Health
- MENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: JUSTIN BEACH
- MENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: JAMES BARNARD
- Snap Lockdown Update
- Sports Physiotherapy at Virtus
- It's New Team Member Time
- Lockdown extended, let's make the most of it.
- “The Smooth Handle” (2 Minute Read)
- FREE Systems to Success Webinar
- Virtus Update: Outdoor Training & More Good-Ness
- We're back (for the 6th and final time)
- Finish Strong Challenge - 6 Weeks to finish the year
- INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT: GEORGIA MIDDLETON
- INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT: MADELYN DOHERTY
- Welcome Jazz!
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: MATT HARRINGTON
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: KAI PEARSON
- Covid, Flu, Covid, Flu: The Dreaded Winter Illness Loop (& What to do about it)
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: SETH MELOURY
- INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT: OLIVER MATTERSON
- TRAINEE SPOTLIGHT: GEORGIA TEMPLETON
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: JASMINE KARISSON
- Time for Clarity ... Inspired By Miley
- Intern Spotlight: Steph Geyer
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: RENEE SAULITIS
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: NAT McGRATH
- Join the Virtus Team!
- Better Every Day
- Virtus Daily Blog # - Are you thinking too small?
- Virtus Daily Blog # - What are you becoming?
- Virtus Daily Blog # - Process or Outcome
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: December
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: September
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: October
- Virtus Daily Blog # - Freedom
- Meet the Team: Greg Dea
- Meet the Team: Lachlan Wallace
- Meet the Team: Annette Wallace
- 100 Quotes For When You Need a Nudge
- Hands Up if You Want Healthy Shoulders!
- The Good Stuff #3 - Introspection, Fading Away, Things You Love & The Word Antithesis
- What Do you Genuinely Care About?
- A Mindful Christmas
- To add value
- Take Responsibility
- Optimism 101
- Play the game
- Information Overload
- Serendipity
- 26 things I know to be true
- Setting your Intention
- 44 Days in South America: Experience and Connection
- The 20 things I’m most proud of...
- Welcome to Lachiewallace.com
- Filling Your Cup To Be Your Best Self
- The Virtus 168 Hour Rule.
- Why I try to never have a bad day
- You Do You.
- Virtus Daily Blog #1 - Welcome
- Virtus Daily Blog #5 - How are you getting in your own way?
- Virtus Daily Blog #2 - Are you happy?
- Virtus Daily Blog #3 - How can we move the needle?
- Virtus Daily Blog #6 - Two opposing beliefs
- Virtus Daily Blog #4 - I am dissatisfied…
- Virtus Daily Blog #7 - From The Eyes of an Intern
- Virtus Daily Blog #8 - Play your guitar
- Virtus Daily Blog #20 - Break it down
- Virtus daily blog #19 - Everyone is Doing their Best
- Virtus Daily Blog #9 - Transcend and Include
- Virtus Daily Blog #13 - The Social Media Paradox
- Virtus Daily Blog #11 - The Worry Box
- Virtus Daily Blog #22 - What do you love to do?
- Virtus Daily Blog #10 - Change is hard
- Virtus Daily Blog #51 - Desiderata
- Virtus Daily Blog #12 - The Cracked Pot
- Virtus Daily Blog #17 - Comfort Zone
- Virtus Daily Blog #18 - Self Fulfilling Prophecies
- Virtus Daily Blog #34 - You have more than you need
- Virtus Daily Blog #40 - Understanding the Comparison Trap
- Virtus Daily Blog #14 - Losing My Grace Was Hard; Finding It Again Was Harder
- Virtus Daily Blog #16 - The law of diminishing intent
- Virtus Daily Blog #15 - Positive Pressure 2.0
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: January
- Virtus Daily Blog #23 - Peak Performance Pt1: Control
- Virtus Daily Blog #21 - What are your values?
- Virtus Daily Blog #27 - Peak Performance (Pt2): Process vs Result
- Virtus Daily Blog #29 - Integrity
- Virtus daily blog # 24 - Why Do You Train?
- Virtus Daily Blog # 79- Let go of the little things
- Virtus Daily Blog #28 - Choose To Be good Enough… I Dare You.
- Virtus Daily Blog #26 - Be the janitor
- Virtus Daily Blog #25 - Tribe
- Virtus Daily Blog #36 - Never stifle a generous impulse
- Virtus Blog #31 - Choice and Obligation.
- Virtus Blog #35 - Happiness is overrated, seek adaptation.
- Virtus Daily Blog #30 - You are not rare
- Virtus Daily Blog #32 - When are you in flow?
- Virtus Blog #33 - The Pendulum Effect
- Virtus Daily Blog #43 - Judging a book by it's cover
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: February
- Virtus Daily Blog #38 - Which way do you want to go?
- Virtus Blog #37- "I don't have time"
- Virtus Blog #39 - Celebrate The Wins
- Virtus daily blog #72 - Follow your dreams
- Virtus Daily Blog #41 - Don’t Stop
- Virtus Daily Blog #42 - Urgency vs Importance
- Virtus Daily Blog #47 - When are you going to show up?
- Virtus Daily Blog #44 - Deliberate Practice
- Virtus Daily Blog #45 Win - Win
- Virtus Daily Blog #46 - Teach to learn
- Virtus Daily Blog #50 - Schadenfreude
- Virtus Daily Blog #48 - Go on, make someone's day
- Virtus Daily Blog #49 - Our parents were wrong
- Virtus daily blog #53 - The best day of the year
- Virtus Daily Blog #55 - Health is Wealth
- Virtus daily blog # 54 - This is me
- Virtus Daily Blog #52 - Critical Factors for Success
- Virtus Daily Blog #58 - Start now, not later
- Virtus Daily Blog #59 - How to get a lot
- Virtus Daily Blog #56 - Journal entry #190
- Virtus Daily Blog #57 - Your best resource
- Virtus Daily Blog #62 - Your 'thing' is enough
- Virtus Daily Blog #60 - 60 Minutes for yourself
- Virtus Family Member Spotlight: March
- Virtus Daily Blog #61 - Protect your sanity
- Virtus Daily Blog #63 - When you're on top, change.
- Virtus Blog #67 - Don't be shit.
- Virtus Daily Blog #68 - Quiet.
- Virtus daily blog #65 - Setbacks are not dead ends
- Virtus Daily Blog #66 - Appreciation
- Virtus Daily Blog #64 - Ubuntu
- Virtus Daily Blog #70 - Are we ever ready?
- Virtus Daily Blog #71 - Never Again
- Virtus Daily Blog #69 - When things become too much.
- Virtus Daily Blog #77 - It's Risky.
- Virtus daily blog #73 - Noise
- Virtus Daily Blog #75 - Dear Complainers
- Virtus Daily Blog #74 - Vulnerability is Strength
- Virtus Daily Blog #76 - Future Proof
- Virtus Daily blog #78 - What do you need most?
- Virtus Daily Blog #80 - Stay Light
- Virtus Daily Blog #83 - This is virtus
- Virtus Daily blog #81 - How do you enter a room?
- Virtus Daily of #82 - Use your imagination
- Virtus Daily Blog #85 - The one you feed.
- Virtus Daily Blog #84 - A blip in time
- Virtus daily blog #86 - Laughter
- Virtus Daily Blog #87 - anticipation
- INTERN SPOTLIGHT: LAUREN FELL
- Virtus January Kickstart - Healthy Habits Challenge
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