Jump baby Jump!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Malin

Yesterday started with me riding the bike over to the Lifestyle Fitness, which is a good 5 mile bike ride from my house. And by know I guess you know when I exercises I don’t often do it half hearted, especially not after my own disappointment from Tuesday (which turned out to be harder than what I thought it was because my legs were a bit sore) so by the time I arrived I still had a good 15 minutes to carry on walking on an incline on the treadmill before Jonathan put us through some serious work.

I don’t know why but for some reason I thought we were doing total body this week but I was so wrong and when I saw the hurdles I knew I was in trouble:). We were split into two groups, me and mrsT started with 30 power steps switching in midair while the other person was doing high jumps over the hurdles 3 times through.

Meanwhile the other group was doing 15 weighted squats and 20 lunges to press before we took a 30 seconds break and started from the top again.

We did not do many circuits this particular morning but they were intense as we worked both the quads and the hamstrings. The next circuit we did 4 times but with two different variations. Fist we did 10 single leg Romanian deadlifts and at the last one we popped back into a lunge and pumped out another 10 before we swapped leg. The last exercise was a 20 lunges to the side with one 15 pound dumbbell almost touching the floor when reaching the dumbbell to the outside of the bent leg.

The next variation was a regular 15 deadlift followed by 20 jumping lunges and 1 minute wall sit.

The thing is with Jonathan is that the hour is not over until he says so and with about 10 minutes left on his watch we went outside and did sprints. We combined this with skipping rope before I threw myself on my bike and peddled as fast as I could on my bike the 6 miles to Mira’s school and believe it or not I was actually on time!

I am not lying when it was with much hesitation I decided to go for a run up in the woods this morning but I did it even though I thought my legs were about to fall off along the way…lol

Fast and furious

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Malin

If I didn’t knew better I would have thought it was winter all over again when I stepped outside this morning to send the kids off to school. I guess this is the ind of days when you are happy you actually have a gym membership because running outside in wind, rain and cold is never appealing. When I came into to lifetime fitness I thought I would give it a try to see how long of a distance I could run in an hour. The thing was that my hamstring was about as tight as they come after the kick as workout from yesterday. After running two miles in a decent tempo my legs had it but I managed to push myself for another 2.3 miles before I gave in and gave them a 7 minutes rest. The last 10 minutes of my cardio I did a sprint interval at a speed of 10.5 30 sec on and 30 sec off and when I was done I was finished!

After I picked Mira up from school we went to an old friend of mine for lunch and a good long chat while Mira was playing with the cuties Maltese puppy!

And now we waaaaaant one 😉

Don’t go chasing waterfalls…sometimes they just find you anyway!

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Malin

I did a big mistake this morning when I sent the kids to school in long pants because as soon as I got outside the door I realized it was 100% humidity in the air and as soon as I started on the warmup on the treadmill I started to “leak” like a waterfall and the workout itself was not a joke!

First out me and MrsL started doing step ups on the bench at the entrance that works as a bag rack, tying your shoes or just another piece of equipment we can use in our exercise. Next up was lunging across the gym, I think I counted to 28 then straight into a 30 sec wall-sit followed by 15 leg-extensions and hold on it’s not over yet because we lunged back across the gym then did 15 box-squats X2…phu this was just a crazy long circuit!

We were all prepared of doing a third set but Jonathan settled on two and none of us was complaining because when we started to think about the quads they where fairly tired. It is amazing how you mentally can push you further than what you really normally would do as long as you are prepared for it. This being said we kept on working the legs but now it was the hamstrings we attacked and we started this circuit with the Pilates ball doing 15 reps.

I will never forget the first time I did this in Jonathan’s “boot camp” class back in the days and I was dying after 15. The thing is now I have done it for a “while” but they still killing me because as soon you think you master a movement Jonathan will be there adjusting you so it becomes as hard as if it was the first time you ever put your foot in a gym 😉

After this I picked up the 16 kg kettlebell and after 5 reps of single leg romanian deadlift my hammies start whispering to me to ditch the weight but I knew better and was holding on to it for five more and 30 plank with leg lift 😉

Even though this was our “leg day” Jonathan had promised that he would make this week more of a “total body” week and he kept that promise. Not sure if I was too happy when he had us doing the overhead press, just like the one we did the on Monday because I knew they were killers!

With 5 minutes left of our session and coming into the last set I had to go down in weight because once again my back started to compensate and I was totally shaking doing my final squats with biceps curls and push-ups. It was a relief stretching out all the muscles we worked for the day especially the gluts as I had not spent too much attention stretching them out from yesterdays 10k run.

You need to live a little…

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Malin

I have spent the last nine days with my brother and sister and we have had the most amazing time here in Chicago. I have not had much time to blog but I have tried to kept my routines as much as possible, lifting weights and running. Something I have not done to much of this past week is cook and I have eaten things I don’t normally eat and I will tell you I can totally feel it. But as always all good things must come to an end and yesterday my siblings flew back home to Sweden 😦 and I am back to my proper routines and “diet”.

I didn’t workout the girls last week so it was nice to be back and Jonathan had put together a conditioning session for us. We started with slow contraction type of movements and first out was the superman extension, modified side plank with a leg raise, spiderman climbers and slow climbers. Every movement was done very slowly with a pause to really tighten every muscle.

The circuit was a long and once we were done we got up on our feet and picked up 5 pounds dumbbells doing 20 scarecrows, 20 shoulder raised and 15 squats. The weight was light but with the high rep-count and the shoulder stabilization on the mat it is fair to say that the shoulders were screaming at the end of the circuit.

The following routine we picked up the pace and jumped rope for 2 minutes and then the following exercises was done in 30 seconds intervals nonstop…woodchoppers (30 sec each side), jumping jacks with 16 pounds medicine ball, russian twist, weighted leg raises and an extended plank.

Surprisingly the last circuit we did not go outside considering the weather is warming up again instead we finished out on 30 seconds intervals on the rope with 3 different variations.

It was an intense workout that I very much needed and now when I have lived a little it is time to get back to work and I am really looking forward to it 🙂

Lets have a rest day….Nah, I don’t think so

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Malin

I will admit that after tuesdays sprints and Pilates training I did not feel so great when I got into the Lifestyle Fitness. I only just stepped through the doors before Jonathan told us to go outside and running laps around the cul-de-sac. The weather was lovely but when we got into the sprinting… yes again, I thought he was having a laugh because I was honestly about to pass out, not only were my legs dead but it also felt like I was breathing through a straw. After a few sprints we finally went inside to start our upper body workout.

We started by doing rows and bicep curls over at the TRX, then into a jack-knife followed by push ups, it was so hard any and every movement I did felt twice as hard as normal. When we were done with the TRX we moved over to the weights and the first circuit we did push and pulls starting with single arms row and chest presses using the 25 pounds dumbbells. We were told what ever weight we picked we had to stick with for both exercises and the last movement was pulldown using the machine…(I’m still working on my pull-ups challenge 🙂 )

This was heavy pushing and when it was over we started to pick up on the “cardio’ intensity again. Throwing the medicine ball into the twisting the midsection of the core I could really feel the oblique working as they were already sore from Rebecca’s workout and it was a relief when we slammed the ball from overhead instead.

If you never tried it I do recommended it because it is not only tiring the arms and the core but it is also great for endurance training especially when used as part of an interval like we did. Jonathan always pair the exercises with other exercises that takes approximately the same amount of time to complete so the barbell press and bicep curls was our “recovery” before we started all over again.

After finishing off the workout on the ropes I had it and when Jonathan told me and MrsL to have a day off (today) I thought that sounded like a great idea.

When I woke up this morning not only had the summer turned into winter again but I was both tired and achy, the only thing that was on the positive note is that my cold is much better. So with little motivation I was debating with myself if I should run or not and I came to the conclusion that I should. It was not a pretty run and it was very windy but I did it and it felt sooo good afterwards!

I hate not feeling a 100%

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Malin

I didn’t realize how bad my cold was until I parked on the parking lot and Jonathan told us to do two laps around the cul-de-sac before we started lunging and sprinting for the first 10-15 minutes of the workout. When we were done it was really hard to breath and even though I’ve been looking forward to take the workout outside I was happy when we went inside to carry on.

We went to the very back of the gym to the TRX and carried on where we left off from the last time and increased the intensity of the “pike’ by balancing on a bosu ball followed by every other rep crunching the legs underneath the body of a total 20. This carried on to a double crunch to exhaust the abs before getting up to our feet doing 15 sumo squat straight into a pull and then finish the circuit with 25 kettlebell swings.

The second circuit built off on the first one but instead of piking we were biking like no tomorrow then we dropped straight into a plank still off from the bosu ball. This not only working the abs but your shoulder also really getting a good workout. This time around we did a 15 squat to press followed by the 25 kettlebell swings.

The last kettlebell circuit we did started with the medicine ball, doing 15 jackknifes and without dropping the feet, 50 russian twists and 50 bicycle crunches. You might think that the arm is getting a little rest but that was not the case because moving the 20 pound medicine ball after all the other moves is fairly challenging. The last and final movement we did we put the previous two kettlebell circuits together and did a sumo squat to a press. This entire workout was very intense and I was sweating like crazy so doing the last move the kettlebell slipped and I hit my tooth and luckily it didn’t chip!

On my way home I picked up 20 bags of mulch from Lowe’s and by the time I pulled in on my driveway the car absolutely stunk so I had to hurry up getting them out of the car. My intension was not to carry on working out but the 20 bags was not only heavy unloading but I carried them around the yard trying to make it look a little bit more summery.

The love story continues…

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Malin

I am sitting on the deck sipping my afternoon coffee in the sun trying to ignore the leg pain that is slowly creeping up on me. I’m wondering how I am going to be able to walk in any kind of heels tomorrow when we are going down town for a girls night out.

Todays workout was all about the legs and we started off with 120 step up with a high knee to get the blood flowing before we brought out the weights. We were working with the TRX as well as we were using the machine and free weights and the first circuits we hit the backside really hard.

I hate doing weighted squats because my technique is far from good. I think it has to do with my calves because every time I’m practicing and doing it perfect I tilt backwards and I almost end up on my behind. I will say that mrsT is a great motivation to work legs with because even if she is very petit she is strong as an ox and the only thing I can do is try to keep up. She constantly raising the bar and I tell, you she squats heavy! So at the end of the second circuit after finishing the leg press, squat, walking lunges, kettlebell swing and leg extensions my legs wobbled when I once again walked over to the TRX for our last and final circuit.

And who would have thought that TRX would surprise once again and s**t it was hard but so much fun. We started with putting one foot through the loop and then we did “mountain climbers” sort of but the free leg is going up high while the restrained leg is going underneath you. Everything hurts… legs, abs, arms you name it… this most be my absolutely favorite TRX exercise ever!

After 15 reps we went into hip raises and squat jumps that completed this kick ass workout.

Now I am waiting for Freddie to come back from San Diego so we can celebrate our green card…Happy friday to your all!

I can run when I am happy too

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Malin

So last week I wrote about my awful experience trying to rebook my airfare to Sweden and I spoke to a horrible woman who thought she was god and wanted me to pay $300 in order to change my ticket. I don’t normally complain but for 300 bucks I put a letter together and sent it to someone at customer relations in Sweden and before lunch the following day my ticket was rebooked, they also arranged so the kids and my mom are flying together and no charge….That is what I call Customer Service, Thank you Scandinavian Airline!

So feeling like I won over the horrible woman I went to the Life Time Fitness and completed a 6 mile run in 46.02 a new personal best! I guess you can use negative as well as positive energy and turn it into to something constructive because I have 1 minute and 2 seconds to catch up before I reach one of my goals!

This is a love story….

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Malin

Today we completed an awesome workout over at Lifestyle Fitness that Jonathan had put together for us. Being somewhat sore on backside we decided to work upper body and first out was the abs and the TRX that turned into a beautiful love story.

First exercise we were putting the feet through the straps of the TRX, standing in a pushup position and piking the hips into the air.

Now this is not unmanageable the first 10 reps, it is the last 5 that will get you as you are not only feeling it in your abs but also in your shoulders and arms. This was just the first movement out of 4 consecutive exercises, the second one we stayed in the TRX, piked up and did push ups! Don’t say I know…both the abs and the arms are burning like they are on fire and them the goal is to touch your head to the floor…challenging…

After completed at least 10 push ups (I managed 12-14) we dropped straight into a plank, feet still in the TRX…and if you not feeling it at this point you must be the incredible Hulk or something not from this world! We stayed in plank for 30 seconds then we jumped up to our feet and finished out with 15 rows.

Coming into the third set my arms and shoulders really did hit failure, you know when your trainer say do as many as you can. You do what you’re told but yet you don’t because if you dig deep you have at least 3-4 reps left. Well, this time I didn’t because I ended up on my head, haha.

When our “warmup” was completed we moved on to lifting some weights and we started off with 20 pounds dumbbells rowing into a scull-crusher moved across the gym and did 10 heavy triceps pulldowns followed by 10 lightweight.

I did mentioned before that I have a goal of wanting to be able to do “real” pull-ups just like Linda Hamilton did in the Terminator 2. I’ve never been a big Terminator fan but wow that was something and I guess 22 years later!!! it stuck with me…i’m really starting to get old…haha. So anyhow I’m far from doing anything like it but I’ve promised myself to practice and Jonathan was kind enough to through the movement into the circuit together with triceps extension and weighted dips with legs on a bench.

The last 10-15 minutes we did rope intervals and at this point the only thing we could do was to put the head down and count the seconds until it was over…painful…

I loved this workout especially the crazy “warmup” because every time I do different movements or something I have not done in a while I chock the body. I believe that is when I also improve the most….so Thank you Jonathan and happy birthday!

I love it even if it turns me into a frog…

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Malin

One week ago my legs were light and I was running like I never done anything else, today on the other hand was a completely different story. I only had about 20 minutes before I was going to meet Rebecca for my thirds Pilates session and even though my legs felt like they were made out of rocks I push through my quick run and managed to squeeze in 3 miles in exactly 23 minutes.

Very sweaty I walked into the Pilates room exactly at 10 am, Rebecca was already there ready to pick up where we left off last week. Being new to this type of exercise it is very hard to explain what we were doing and for me it takes a lot of focus to concentrate on the breathing and it is really a luxury to have Rebecca there to coach me through the exercise.

It was only me today, so I got even more attention (L normally comes with me) and there was no room for cheating. I have to say some of the movements are both very hard and very challenging so even if my intention was not to “cheat” I ended up doing it anyway and as soon as I did Rebecca was there to correct me.

I do believe that I am fairly strong and although the resistance was not like doing a 120 pound deadlift it was really doing the trick in a totally different way and I am now officially hooked.

Being a former gymnast I was very agile but the more I have been lifting weights and since I started to run I have become stiff as an elephant. So the combination of working the muscle and actually stretching effectively hopefully will help me to get back the my former flexibility.