Sometimes we need a little magic!

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Malin

I sleep really well last night but I woke up a few times because my lower back was killing me, not in a bad way but from yesterdays sweet workout with Frank. Soreness from a workout will never stop me so with 2 Advil later and some tiger balm rubbed into my back and I was as good as new.

I knew what I had to do today because Megan told and I am sticking to the game plan. So with 5 miles to run today I started as planned but in the middle of the run the treadmill came to a stop and I had to start all over and some personal stuff came up that was completely out of my control and all the sudden it felt like I was running in a storm.

Everything was hurting and I had one mile to go and I was going to crank the speed up from 8.06 minute mile to 7.54 minute mile and with the darkness in my mind it felt…hmmm, not impossible but close.

So when Tarik, a fellow trainer walked through the doors I begged him to stand next to me and help me push and so he did. He made sure I did not give up and when I told him I was puking he just told me to keep running and stop making a mess. I came in on 24.14 at three miles and then I already had over two miles under my belt.

Sometime we just need to use some magic to turn the negative into something positive and the storm that might have been ahead is all of a sudden less threatening!

Thank you Tarik for pushing me to the end!

A new week with new possibilities

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Malin

Finally I think spring is coming our way and what more do you need to get inspired to push that little bit extra and I know for sure that the ladies used it at their advantage.

It was meant to be a total body workout but sometimes it feels like we always working against the clock trying to squeeze in as much as possible in 60 minutes. So first out today was walking lunges with shoulder a press and tubing while “driving” with a medicine ball also working the shoulders. The girls really cracked me up because they were so unsynchronized that Anna was almost squashed between Elli and Lynne. This two moves are very good for the obvious reasons, working the legs (and shoulders) but the tubing is so good for toning the outer thigh.

These two moves was accompanied by single leg squats and bridge keeping the feet on the medicine ball for a more challenge and I will confess as soon as i went outside today I knew they had to run for the first time this year in the cul-de-sac!

As much as I wanted to stay outside we are not really there yet so we went back inside and worked the upper part of the body. We focused on biceps, triceps, lats and the pecs doing drop sets to build some muscles. Starting at the heaviest weight they did 10 reps, dropped the weight and did another 10 and then dropped the weight one last time and finished off another 10 reps.

I hear this all the time that “I don’t want to get bulky” but girls don’t have to worry about it because we don’t produce that much testosterone that is required to start looking like the incredible hulk. I believe that the stronger you are the better you will feel so start lifting and get strong girls!

What are you bringing to the beach this summer?

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Malin

Sometimes I ask my clients if they have any request before the workout and lately I’ve been asked to focus on the core. I am a strong believer that you can never have to much of it and I always incorporate some into every workout. So as a good listener I did what I was told and started the day with some vicious work to the abs, focusing on the strength instead of endurance.

So the ladies started with 10×3 crunches (front and oblique both sides 10 each) followed by 15 back extensions with a 10 lb. weight. As most of us we all have our weakness and strengths so the weight added was ranging from 10-45 lb and with no rest we moved on to 15 cable crunches. Sometimes it can be tricky to engage the abs and you end up hinging from the hip instead of drawing the navel in. This was followed by the Romanian chair with 15 high knees with added weight to the wrists and by now I think most of them stated to have a nice burn going for them.

But we didn’t stop because we all have a decision to make on what kind of six-pack you’ll bringing to the beach this summer…

is it this…

…or this??

So we kept going doing situps with 15 Russian twists on an incline bench and just for fun we finished it off with 30 sliding mountain climbers.

I don’t think any of the ladies thought it was a breeze but weight training is not supposed to be comfortable because if it is, you should work harder! The girls kept on kicking ass and finished the day off with some heavy lifting to the legs.

I need some sanity in my life!!!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Malin

Ok, so we have finally had the schedules for the kids and in all honestly I think it is a full-time job just to keep up! So I am very glad that I am back with Rebecca for my Pilates sessions last Wednesday as I think this might bring some sanity to my life 😉

It has been a while since I did Pilates and I could really feel it too because it is so very different compared to what I am doing myself over at the gym. At the moment I am focusing building strength and endurance with a lot of stable strength exercises combined with movements in a more unstable environment. So it is very nice to mix it up with the weights and the spinning as well as I really need to work on my flexibility because I am tight like crazy…

A hot Monday Morning

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Malin

After another fun weekend it feels like a need another one just to recover from the one that just ended. Unfortunately this is not the case because today it was just a regular Monday and I have a ton of things that needs to be done this week. I got into the gym unusually late and I really had to hurry because the ladies was coming in at 10 am ready to kick some ass 😉

After a quick warm up on the treadmill I started out with some core strength exercises. I thought I would this week with a mix between upper and lower body just to get it going on this very hot day.

When the core was over and done with we moved on to the upper body. I am trying to focus on strength and endurance so at the moment I am trying to put together exercise that will enhance the outcome. So with a superset that contained Dumbbell Bench Press and Cable Shoulder Press you start with the isolated movement first and then when hitting the cable you need recruit more muscles to perform the “same type of exercise”.

When this two movements was done we went straight into Shoulder Presses, Shoulder Raises and T- push ups. The girls did really well but I have some trouble in my upper back and after seeing the Chiropractor today he told me to stay off these exercises as I have a pinched nerve… 😦

After finishing the three sets we moved on to the legs and they could still feel the aftermath from Fridays workout when they did really heavy lifting/pushing but this was a bit different. With only two exercises on the TRX we combined this with a fast run around the cul-de-sac (approx. 2-3 min) in the scorching sunshine but it was a nice build up to what it yet to come later on this week because I will ensure that Wednesday will be much more intense…

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 😉

Lunch with the girlfriends…naaaw!!!

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Malin

So today I had the pleasure to hang with my girlfriend (as I do) over at the gym where we cranked out a workout from insanity but before we got into the nitty gritty parts we did a nice warmup with a nice chat.

The workout was pretty straight forward, it was built up into three circuits which was perfect because Laura had already been at the gym for half an hour when me and Tania rocked up and she had some business to attend to.

First out was 15 wood chops. Now, the thing is over at Lifetime Fitness they don’t always have a lot of medicine balls around so we ended up using kettle bells that had “sand” in them. This made the workout a little bit more interesting because the five first exercises we used the kettle bell and the sand kept on moving around and shifted the weight.

(pics taken in between the circuits I used 20 lbs blue kettle bell)

The movement number two was sumo squat jumps into and overhead press and although it was hot today the air conditioning was on but I was sweating like a p…lady that works hard 😉

So it was almost a relief when we got down on the mats to complete 15 jack knifes and 50 russian twist but this was nothing compare when we finally could let the “ball” go and give the shoulders some when we finished our 20 superman extension.

After completed the three sets we took a little longer break to recover our muscles before got back at it again. This time we switched the kettle bell out to a dumbbell just because I could not find the weight I wanted. I did end up with 20 lbs at the end when I realized 15 lbs was to light. Anyhow, second circuit started with 10 reverse lunge with a twist coming into a high knee with a twist. And I think it was Tania who mentioned that this movement was so hard and it is so true. But I guess the thing is, it is always the things you find hard that is your weak link and you have to get better at!

(used the ball for the pics)

Back down on the mats we finished out 20 spiderman climbers, 50 bicycle crunches and 15 push ups before we finished out 1 minute on the bike with high resistance going as fast as we could.

They only have two bikes over at the “floor” at lifetime so we moved over closer to them so we could occupy them during the last and final set. With 10 single arm rows with pulling int the knee in between each rep we jumped back on the bike and cranked out 2 minutes medium resistant as fast as we could followed by 1 minute fast run/sprint.

I guess you get a lot more said during a lunch with your girlfriend compare to what you get during a workout with them because when Tania asked me a question I couldn’t answer as I had a enough of just trying to breath…lol

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!

Let’s do some arms to match the crazy leg workout

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Malin

Ok, I’ll admit…I’ve been lazy with the updates but it seems like the days only begins before they come to an end and here am I thinking I would have more time during the summer vacation…yeah, right!

So last week Wednesday we did this crazy leg workout that left me sore for days so by the time Friday came around Jonathan thought we should do the same workout but for the upper body and it was absolutely awesome!

We started out with doing to sets of 25 scarecrow…

… and 10 shoulder raiser from the side moving the dumbbells to the front and down. Every time we came back to the side we counted one so even though it was only two exercises in this little warm up it took a little bit of time.

As soon as we were nicely warmed up we moved straight to the barbell for some presses and they were done exactly the same way as we did the squats. We started out by doing 8 presses (I can’t remember the exact weight) again because we were doing less rep counts we did four rounds. At the end of the last round we dropped two plates and took it to exhaustion then we dropped all the weight only working with the barbell and once again worked to exhaustion. I guess it’s good not working this alone as it is great to have someone to spot you just in case 😉

We weren’t given much rest till the next circuit that was built up between two movements chest flies on an incline using between 12-15 pounds and push up from a bench.

When Jonathan told me that we were using the bench I thought it was going to be easy but I was so wrong because the arms, shoulders and pecks was really tired at this point!

As we moved on we gave the muscles a bit of a break because we moved on to the pulldowns focusing on the lats. This was built up by building up the weight and at the last set we dropped back the weight and took it to exhaustion every time.

We moved straight from the lats working the triceps and shoulders doing triceps extension from a bench using one dumbbell and with the lats already being tired I could feel I was helping out using my core…

This was combined with rows using the TRX…

When we moved into our last and final circuit I started to feel real pumped, I get the feeling that my skin doesn’t fit and I then know I worked to max! Like I said we finished out the day with priestess curls, dips and hammer curls…

2013-08-02 11.11.44

What is a leg day without barbell squats….

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Malin

Wednesday leg day was no joke, it was not a lot of high intensity but we were lifting heavy weights and yesterday at spinning I could really feel it was paying off…lol

So we started out with some light warm up exercises and at this point neither me or MrsL knew what was coming our way. First out was warming up the hips by doing side walks in with a rubber band between our feet, 10 down and 10 back and I will admit I could still feel last Wednesdays leg day.

Anyhow when the walks was completed we carried out two a set of dumbbells and did 10 single leg romanian dead-lifts before we finished out on slow single leg squats.

We only did two sets of these before we started the real deal of the day…because it was very heavy weights and we kept on challenging it every at set with a rep count of 12-15 we had to take longer breaks in order to before the next set. I believe that every one have their least favorite machine to workout and mine is leg extensions but there is nothing to do about than to push through the pain and get it over and done with!

The following exercise followed in the same foot steps as the leg extensions but this time around it was the leg press and at every set Jonathan added another plate.

Although the workout started though we still had the “worst” to come and I guess a leg day without the barbell squats will leave you painless but that is not what we are paying for 😉 When we were only doing 8 reps per set we ended up doing for 4 rounds of it but when the last set was finished we took off some weight and kept on squatting until the legs could take no more. At that point we shredded some more weight and was back on it again until exhaustion and when we were finally done the legs were trembling!

It had been a lot of single exercises and I think this was the first real circuit except the warm up. we kept on working with the barbell and did back wards lunges from a box combined with hamstrings curls.

It’s funny how the sweat was dripping like I was running intervals and my heartbeat was way up high but I guess sometimes you will work the cardio in a different kind of way. We finished out this crazy leg day the same way as we started it…Romanian dead-lifts from a box taking them deep down low…