Practise what you preach

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Malin

Today we had a guest appearance from the City. It was Laura’s friend and I’ve been told she is just like me “a gym junky” so the pressure was totally on. I knew the girls was going to be sore from the drop sets we did on Monday so arms was more or less off-limits. So coming in I had to try the workout to see if it was descent or not. As I did Frank, on of the trainers at Lifestyle Fitness decided to join in. It is so much more fun when you have a workout pal because if I every thought about giving up when working alone, having a partner it never even crosses my mind.

So there we were, Frank and I slightly rushed for time when we started to crank out the first set of wood chops, body weighted side bridge, burpee with push up and last but not least shoulder extensions from a medicine ball. Although this was a core circuit the shoulders had to stabilize a fair bit so coming into the last move me and my shoulders had a very private conversation 😉

As we are having a bit of a drop-set week this week what would be more appropriate than carry it over to the legs as well. So with a barbell squats, dropping the weight twice followed by 20 walking lunges with at least 20 lbs weight did the trick…

…but to every frontside there is also a backside. This time around we did the drop set last and started with 15 Barbell “good mornings” followed by Romanian deadlifts. I was coming into my third set and I was glad I was seeing the silver lining of the workout. We topped the day off combining the weight training into 6 minutes cardio blast. I could with an ease to my mind let the girls do the same because I knew I pushed myself and how could I ever give them a workout that would not be challenging enough?!!

Thanks for coming Michelle!

Sometimes you think you will die…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Malin

Slowly but surly I’m preparing for the 1/2 marathon that is coming up in May and I have the best coach one can wish for. Not only is she great to hang with but she also won the iron man and has run a numerous marathons and I am all about learning from the best. Every monday at the bus stop we plan my week ahead and now it is starting to get intense or I am more out of shape than what I like to admit!

Anyhow I made into the gym not realizing it was actually still nice outside but I had my mind-set on running my first 4 miles of the week on the treadmill and had already planned on increasing the speed by 0.1 every minute for 6 minutes then to bring it back down to 7.0.

Sometimes when I wake up I just know that the body is not how I would like it to be and today was that day. My legs were heavy almost like I had added extra weight to my wrists and it was a 33.41 agonizing minutes of pounding but I knew I was not going to die so I pushed and I pushed and you know what…I was right, I did not die this time either!

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.

Super Tuesday

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Malin

I am not a big fan of spinning but I do it anyway because I have to get my cardio in somehow and I am not really sure if my knee is up for getting back to running yet. So the class I do on Tuesday the instructor is amazing as he is very energetic and gets everyone going and it was no difference today.

I am always very focused on what I am doing and don’t really pay much attention of the people around me. I am also a firm believer that it is “your exercise” and you push yourself wherever you want to take it but at some point during the class I looked around and saw this woman riding along almost like the sun was shining down on her and the birds was singing. Now the room we workout in is always very dark and most of the people around her were so breathless and I’ll tell you there was no pretty sounds coming out of them as they were chipping for air. At this point the woman was riding her bike without holding on to the handles, she started to look at her self in the mirror and start fixing her hair! I’m telling you, my hair is the least of my concerns when I am in a dark room trying to kick my own ass…lol

Like I said people can do what every they want in the gym but I don’t get it when you clearly don’t even trying to make an effort. It is almost like they’re thinking “If I am sitting on the bike I’ll lose weight, increase my cardiovascular fitness” or whatever the reason might be. I think it is a waste of time but if it makes them feel good about themselves I guess it’s ok but that is not the way I roll. I rather put a 100% effort into what I do and go home and feel like I did my best and that is what I did today!

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…

Fifteen is the magic number!

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Malin

Now a days when I am on a tight schedule I really have to manage my time more efficiently so with no time to spare I shot straight over to the gym as soon as I dropped the kids at the bus so I could get my workout in before Laura and Lynne came in for their 10 a clock workout. And what a leg session I managed to get in, I was completely drenched by the end of it and as I have been walking up and down the stairs in the house this evening I slowly start feeling it’s paying off 😉

I started out with some “heavyish” weights to get my legs working, the plan is to shape them or tone them if you will. I was working with a heavier load aiming for 15 reps with not a lot of rest between the exercises, I’m hoping my legs will look good for our next vacation (you can’t start 2 weeks prior to the trip, right!)

I mixed both stable and more of an unstable environment to execute the exercises so hopefully this will pay off in the end. I finished off with high intensity for the last 5-10 minutes. I did squat jumps, sumo squat jump, jumping lunges and speed skaters

I will admit I do feel a little stupid timing the intervals as I am jumping away all alone! It sort of feels better doing it with other people but I guess I just have to get over it as my “people” came in when my hour was over and cranked out one h**l of a workout of their own and I had the pleasure of hanging with them every single minute….nicely done girls!

Grilled Salmon and a funny spinning class

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Malin

I am so glad this day is finally coming to its end because it has just been one of those days when everything is not going your way! Mira has started first grade this week and it is very exciting but also includes very long days and much more academic work compared to what she did in K. She can’t understand why there is no playtime in the classroom like it was last year in kindergarten and all frustration is released at home (like it should) or this morning before the bus arrived and another round when she came home.

Anyhow I had a funny incident on Tuesday when I did a spinning class over at lifetime. Without offending anyone I do believe the Americans are a little more prude than the swedes 😉 As we were spinning away to a pretty good rhythm of a song I thought I recognized words but couldn’t make any sense of them but all of a sudden I released they were singing in swedish! I did not really except any lyrics in swedish being played in a more or less public spinning class and certainly not that type of lyrics they where singing. It was about running around and shagging and I burst out laughing trying to do an interval at the same time trying to breathe! I had to go up to the instructor and ask about the song and I was pretty sure I heard right as it was “Basshunter” but the instructor had no clue what they were singing about as she only thought it was a good spinning song…lol.

Today is also my second day for my fast of the week and I did not have much time on making dinner so I needed a “quick fix” so I threw together grilled salmon with a touch of tomatoes and it was filling and delish…So here we go…

I used a pice of salmon that was 270 grams (181 cal/100 grams) 488 calories.

salt

lemon pepper

chili flakes

I threw it on the grill and meanwhile I made a “tomato mix”

1/2 cup of crushed tomato

chopped tarragon

splash of lobster stock

salt and pepper

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 😉

The last and final workout with my girls!!!

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Malin

Wow, I think the summer finally arrived just in time for school to start tomorrow! I really feel sorry for all the kids that has to sit in the classrooms with no air conditioning when temperatures are expected to climb into the mid 90th! Another thing that starts tomorrow is my first class over at the warehouse and I am so excited that the time has finally come but that also means that I did my final workout with the girls this past friday!

Unfortunately I was not able to make in over at the warehouse so we meet up over at Lifetime and cranked out an awesome leg workout.

We started out with by warming up the gluts with bridge, glut kickback and walking butt lifts. I know this exercises looks really silly but with a high rep count you get a nice burn going on the backside 😉

Non of us had a lot of time to spare so we hurried into the next circuit where we started out with some stabilization movements and I decided to go heavy on the weights when I started the single leg romanian deadlift followed straight into a reverse lunge with a high knee.

This super set was in combination with some core work where we completed 15 leg raises and Leg pulls from a Pilates ball continuing both working the hamstring and the glut as well the shoulders and the abs.

I would not say this was a walk in the park by any means but we stepped it up another notch and moved over to the leg press and leg extension machine. I decided that we were going to do drop set on both machines and it work well because when we were doing the step up with a jump I really had to fight through the last 5 repetitions. The legs were wobbling as I was walking back towards the machines to take my well deserved rest 😉

This picture was that sharp but you get the gesture 🙂

When the hour was almost up we still had our last circuit for the day and I thought I would end it where I started it. So again I picked up the 25 pound kettlebells and lunged it over the floor and it worked out to be about 30 very hard and heavy steps before I finished it out with pikes and hip abductors on the TRX.

When I woke up yesterday morning my hammies wore quite sore but I can not say this enough, Knut is my true inspiration as he is working his butt off getting ready for the hockey season and I guess I can’t complain cos my bones weren’t sticking out…lol