My first day at work!

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Malin

Today was the day when everything changed because when I got up this morning Freddie had to send the kids off to school while I was teaching my first class over at the Warehouse…wohoo!

I will admit that I was very nervous but I guess it is like whenever you start a new job, you do not really know what to expect even if you know what you are doing. I know my business and I came prepared, I had put together a cracking total body workout with focus on legs. I have a feeling that the girls will be sore tomorrow and the reason I know this is because I did the workout myself yesterday and my legs are just getting more and more sore as the hours are moving along 😉 But like to old saying, you have to lead from the front, right?!

I hope the girls liked it because I really enjoyed myself and what better job can you have if it is your passion and I am really looking forward to our next session?! So get ready girls… I have already tried out your next workout…ouch 😉

For all of you lot who missed out on a kick ass workout!

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Malin

Yesterday we had a great workout session that was a combination between legs and upper body, almost like a combination between last weeks leg and arm workout and let me tell you I am in pain today!

We started out with warming up the hips by walking sideways with a rubber band between the legs and a medicine ball in the hands.

When the 10 steps was completed we did the “truck driver”… and no I did not scratch my belly or reached for a giant soda but twisting the medicine ball 180 degrees with the hands straight in front. The warm up continued with 10 single leg squats to warm up the rest of the leg…

The serious business started with leg extensions and I don’t think I ever will enjoy them because they are so unbelievable painful and this was combined with shoulder presses. My last set I picked up the 25 pound dumbbells and it was heavy… but be damned if you give up even though when the shoulders are screaming!

The next exercise we did was the leg press and with the combination of the leg extension we worked the entire upper leg so when we moved on to the next circuit the legs was very pre-exhausted. With the barbell we did a sumo squat with an upright row and as always when it is heavy I always count by five to make it more manageable and I think all the gals I workout with know how to count to 15 in swedish…haha.

As figured it was not only the legs that was working it was also the arms and shoulders so the combination with push up from the TRX with 2 hip abductors in-between each push up. The last set I did I completed the push ups on pure will!

But the workout did not finish here we still had a long way to go as we moved back working the hamstrings while doing the romanian dead lift (RDL) with a very, very heavy barbell (at least for me).

The RDL was mix up with reverse flies and I like to mix them up sometimes using the dumbbells and sometimes using the machine as the mechanic of the movement changes as well as how I actually work the same muscle group.

The last and final circuit of the day was hamstring curls combined with weighted walking lunges and it was a challenge just trying to stay up right and not losing the balance.

The legs were wobbly when I left the gym and I do feel sorry for my friend Heidi who had to go into an important business meeting and was probably walking a little bit funny but I bet her head was clear, bright and sharp as a knife!

Gymless…

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Malin

No, I didn’t wake up at 2am I actually slept until 11am and for be exact 16 hours and when my sister got me out of bed I was still tired and I had no time to go for a run as we had the entire afternoon planed. So when we got home I went for a 40 minutes run, I couldn’t use my run app so I went for time. It is very hilly here compare to Illinois but that is alright as it is more of a challenge and when I googled the distant I ran it turned out to be 8k.

When I came up on the driveway I met my sister she was taking the kids down to the beach for an evening swim so I came with to do a couple of body weighted circuits. I will say this is probably the most beautiful and peaceful “gym” I ever have exercised at!

I started out doing 20 crunches, 15 leg raises, 50 bicycle crunches, 60 sec plank, 30 sec extended plank.

I didn’t have much time as my sister was going back to the house to start dinner so I finished off with 15 push ups, 15 dips, 15 pull-ups.

Knut waited for me until I was done as he wanted to jump off the pier and when we were walking up the back to house I thought I would get some sprint intervals in so I finished off 6 sprints up this steep hill before I called it a day.

The naked truth…

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Malin

I’m crinching over the fact it is time for the embarrassing pics again but here we go…

January February

March

April

Not sure if there is any difference on the pictures but I have always “suffered” from the flared out thighs and now I actually feel and see less “flare”, this is something I always been conscious about and it is an awesome felling.

The other thing I did today before my cardio session was to check in on my monthly body composition and when I stepped on the scale I had actually gained 2 pounds since the last time! But as soon as I got the results of my body composition I relaxed instantly as my body fat had decreased from 20.1% to 18.7% and now I am just like an 18-year old because who want’s to be 19 years and 10 months…This is just like a time machine…Wohoo!

…so who cares about the pounds, it’s all about the muscles baby 🙂

A tough end to a tough week!

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Malin

Good Morning, my house is really quite because everyone is still fast a sleep and I’m sitting in my favorite chair browsing the internet and drinking my coffee in pain! Yesterdays workout was no joke, it was as though as the rest of my workouts been and now my arms, shoulder and core can join the club of pain.

Yesterday I got to the gym early because I had to drop Freddie off at the train station, kids to school and so on, so I thought I would do a long and nice walk on an incline. As soon as we started our proper session it was hardcore straight away and when the first circuit was done and we looked at each other knowing we were going to be crushed!

After the warmup we went on heavy weights and the only thing we could do was to put our heads down and push for it because the clock was not going to tick any faster just because it was hurting!

This two circuits were not cardio based at all, we were focusing more on the slow movements and the contractions of the muscles. The following two we stepped it up and started slowly to mix in some cardio training. I will say that lately Jonathan have changed up our workouts with new movements and I think this is a great way to “chock” the system so you will become stronger, faster or just simply better.

mage ruissan

The final 5-10 minutes were brutal and I after my first sprint I ran with my head first into a wall, I totally ran out of juice! We started banging the 12 pound ball into the wall followed by sprinting back and forth twice before picking up the ball again for another 2 sets. The other and final variation we slammed the ball from overhead into the floor followed by the very same sprints. When we were done I had worked out for one hour and 50 minutes and I was shaking when I was driving back home.

This was a great workout to finish off the week and I am looking forward to next week. I will do my best to improve myself but for today I having a rest day but will go for a nice walk up in the forest preserve before the rain gets here.

Today was a good day!

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Malin

I don’t know what happened to the spring but the last two days has just been awfully cold so today I thought I would go to Lifetime Fitness for a nice cardio session without freezing my ass off.

I always have a plan in mind on what I am going to do when I going to workout (except when I am going to the warehouse, then I have Jonathan who is doing all the planning 🙂 ) it helps me to be more efficient and I tend to stick to my goal. Today was no difference and it’s been a while since I did any interval training and reading other peoples blogs I’ve seen a lot of them doing HIIT training so I thought I give it a go. I googled HIIT and it seems like there is a lot of different versions but I decided to do 60 seconds on, 60 seconds off for about 10-20 minutes. The thing is with HIIT it supposedly should help lower your total body fat as well as it should improve your athletic performance (Wikipedia).

So I walked over to the gym and got started on the treadmill, I initially thought I would do a warmup run for 15 minutes before I was going to start my HIIT. The thing was it felt so go so I ended up going faster and faster and I all of a sudden I thought; “What the heck, lets see how fast I can get three miles” and I actually ended up doing a personal best 22.57.

HIIT

When I was done I walked it out for about 5 minutes and the I got back on in again for another 15 minutes, sprinting at 10.2 for a minute and resting the next. The last two sprints I was really fighting for it and I honestly thought I would puked during the final 30 seconds and that would have been a fine sight, right!

I knew I was going to work hard today but not that hard! But hey, I’m not complaining…I feel so good!

Sometimes Tiger Balm can be your best friend…

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Malin

Guess if I was happy not having to work those poor leg of mine today because they are in even more pain today compare to yesterday! I came in early to the warehouse all smelly of tiger balm to get a long warm-up to loosen up the legs. On a positive note I could focus all the agony my legs were feeling and put in into my upper body.

So when the workout started I had that nice feeling that I could push it today and I was going for heavy weights and less reps.

It was not far into the workout when I started to feel the blood was going into my arms and they became like rocks or at least like limestone. I do love that sensation when the muscles are really working hard and it is almost an instant ratification on the hard work you putting in!

We kept focusing on the upper body the entire workout with a couple of exercises for the core to let the arms get a quick rest. The last thing we did for this week was to finish off on the big ropes moving them as fast as we could for 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off for a total of 3 minutes (not counting the rest). They might look easy when someone else is doing them but don’t be fooled because when you are done your heart is pounding and you wish you could swap out those arms to new fresh ones!

This week has been very intense and lets see what Jonathan have in store for us next week as spring break is moving in fast!!!

Oh boy, did I have fun working arms today!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Malin

I had rescheduled my Friday appointment till today because Jonathan is out of town tomorrow but as I was rushing into Mira’s classroom this morning I get a text from Jonathan saying that he needs to cancel. I was bummed because I really was looking forward working my arms after yesterday’s killer leg workout but he was kind enough and sends me the routine he had in mind for me.

I figured I had to get over to Life Time Fitness and was planing to do so after lunch when it’s normally fewer people. At the same time MsT calls and tells me that she has finally made her mind up on which gym to join (and it is mine, yay) so we decide to meet up at noon. She was dying to get back to “work” as she missed out yesterday.

When we meet MsT was ebullient and ready to go even though she was still feeling a little bit rundown. We started 15 minutes on the Stairmaster, a nice warm-up and Jeez my backside was not to pleased with me!!

All the circuits Jonathan put togehter was built up with two excises, this was because if you would have to use more machines than one it would be too much waiting around. This was perfect since me and MsT was taking turns doing our three sets on every circuit.

I know I mentioned this before that I don’t always know what weights I lifting especially on the machines and barbells, yes I know I’m spoiled ;). I asked Jonathan and he gave me a ballpark estimate where to start but he also told me to make sure I was pushing it…and I did!

It was a blast working out like this as non of us was allowing ourselves of doing any less than the other and we kept on cheering on each other to push that little bit extra. When we finished our four circuits we had worked heavy weights for exactly 50 minutes.

This really shows Jonathan’s experience with brilliant routines that was working what needed to be worked on. The last thing we were told to do was 10 minutes on the rowing machine to completely exhaust the arms and then the hour was completed…

Spring break is just around the corner and who wants a saggy ass then???

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Malin

Today it was only half the group as T and L was sick. I really felt sorry for them, not only for being sick but also for missing out on a fierce workout! It was no core warm-up today; we went straight on hitting the legs hard doing squats with a weighted barbell by pyramiding the weights starting at 65 lbs. working up to 105 lbs. I am not a big fan of squats because I just don’t have the technique. One of the reason why is because that my calves are overdeveloped from my years of being a gymnast and standing on my toes.

When we were done with the quads we started working the hamstrings doing Romanian deadlifts and curls and it was now when the “real butt workout” really started! So Jonathan’s idea was to exhaust the hammies so when we started doing our 40 walking launches with 2x15lbs kettle bells then 30 WL 2×35 lbs. followed 20 WL 2×30 lbs. to finish without weights for the entire length of the gym, a roughly guess would be 60-70 WL we were really focusing on that ass of ours!

Walking back to get my water bottle I was joking that I was not having any blood left in my head because it was all in my legs and I was walking like a 80 year-old…lol. After a short rest not thinking I could crank anything more out of the legs we worked the leg extensions and the leg press.

The last and final two exercise we did we put the focus back on the glut again and all of a sudden it felt like I was back in the that old stinking gymnastic hall kicking my leg up behind my head but now not so high and with a weight attached to my leg.

I am actually not going anywhere on spring break but I will be thinking of all of you who are. Meanwhile I keep on focusing on that behind of mine because although the summer feels like it is far away, it will be here before we know it and I will then be squeezing it into bikini for sure!

I died the burpee death today!

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Malin

It may just be me but no matter how psyched I am, it is not flying on Mondays! You now when the alarm is going off in the morning and your bed is nice and warm maybe the kids are cuddling up to you and the smell of them are just yummy and the last thing you want to do is to get up, that is how every Mondays feels like. The thing is though; Jonathan doesn’t give a flying shit. His expectations are always that you should perform like you are going to compete in the Olympics the following week and today was no different.

So we went out working the core hard and when we were done we brought out 25 lbs. kettlebell and moved on to the shoulders and legs. The sweat was dripping and the heart rate was beating for sure because touching the kettlebell to the floor and then pull it up under you chin together with the rest of the exercises in the circuit you might as well be running sprints.

As the hour moved on nothing got easier and we kept on working the shoulders with the kettlebell and pre exhausting the legs with squats before Jonathan sent us to our graves doing burpees and mountain climbers in a 4 circuit exercise. I finished my last set and not only did it hurt but I felt lightheaded and it felt like I was going to pass out.

Somehow I managed to crawl out of the “burpee grave” and we finished off the hour with weighted split-stand-squats with high knee, shoulder press with the kettlebell, jumping spilt-stand-squat with dumbbells and lateral shoulder raises. It was an awesome workout yet I am glad that this Monday is almost over and hopefully Tuesday will feel more like when you have just finished your morning coffee and you are ready to take on the challenges that stand in front of you.