Helle Nielsen's training for Wipeout 2010

Leaving for Argentina today!

2010-01-06T22:14:00.000-08:00

I’m leaving for the airport in a few hours. I can’t believe how fast this past month has flown by. Today is the day I’ll be leaving for Argentina. I’m tasting the words as I say them out loud. The butterflies in my belly are flying all over the place! LOL I’m so excited. I hardly slept last night. I was thinking about the trip and the obstacle course and how I will do. I love to travel and I love to have a challenge so it can’t get any more exciting for me!

I want to thank everyone for your support. It means the world to me. Thank you for reading my blog, following along and cheering me on. I have been overwhelmed by how much everyone has taken interest in my participation in Wipeout and how everybody has been willing to help me with my training and given me his or her words of encouragement.

I do not know if our hotel in Buenos Aires has a wireless internet connection, but I’ll bring my laptop and if everything works out, I’ll be blogging while I’m there about my experiences. If not, you’ll have to wait until I’m back home in a week to get an update :)

However I place in the competition, I feel that I have already won. I have tried so many new things in the past month and I have achieved so much more than I thought was possible.

I would never have thought that I could run for an entire hour!
I would never have thought that I could jump 7 Reebok boxes!
I would never have thought that I could survive a spin class!

I have improved my core strength a great deal as well. My love for the stability ball has become even greater and I will continue to work more with it after my return from Argentina.

My cardio vascular conditioning has rapidly improved.

My speed and explosiveness have improved.

I’ve lost 5kg/11 lb in one month.

Today I made some photos as evidence of the great shape I have achieved in just one month:

Evolutionhotel athlete Veronique Nataf made me a wonderful present: This beautiful bikini I’m wearing. Thank you Veronique!

Thank you all!!! I can’t wait to tell you how everything goes! I’m off! :)

Your friend,

Helle

Countdown: 2 1/2 day to departure

2010-01-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

I’m sitting in the train writing this blog entry. I’m on my way back to the hustling and bustling city of Copenhagen. It’s a 4 1/2 hour drive.

The next two days are completely planned out. Tomorrow I need to be unpacking and packing again. I want to be prepared well ahead of time. There’s always something missing that you need to buy. If that’s the case I’ll still have time to get it.

I have a work-out appointment with my best friend Fenja and another appointment for the hairdresser as well. Oh, and I need to pass by the exchange bureau as well. The currency there is Argentinian pesos, but I’ve been advised to bring US dollars.

When I was at the Military training facility most of my nails broke, but I’m definitely not going to get artificial nails. They look pretty but they will be in the way on the obstacle course and most likely break. I came to think of that because I just watched a Wipeout clip on youtube of a go-go dancer who had a very nice french manicure. When she was at the end of the course she screamed: “I lost my nail”. I thought that was hilarious. She was so bummed about it!

Wednesday I’m going to see my massage therapist and finish the packing. I plan on taking wednesday and thursday off from training as I want to be rested for friday on the obstacle course.

I didn’t do any weight training today. I felt my body was overtrained and decided just to do some cardio. I did 15min of running on the treadmill in a good pace(12,5). Then 3 sprint intervals. 1min on 20, 1min on 20 and 1min. 15sec on 18. Then stretching for 30 min and some stability exercises. Now I can stand on the ball with no problems... when will I have the guts to jump up on it from the floor? I want to be able to do that!!

Surprise!

2010-01-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

Today was shoulder day with Anders. We had a great workout as usual. Not the greatest strength today, but my energy is slowly returning.

After the workout, I joined a Pilates class. The class today was more challenging than last time. There were a lot of the same exercises but we finished off by doing some really difficult ab and hip flexor moves. I enjoyed the extra challenge.

After class, I did some stability ball exercises with my friend Lars. I enjoyed tormenting him LOL. Last Tuesday he tormented me on the military training facility and this was my chance to pay him back! LOL.

We did a few of the tough Pilates exercises that I just learned in class and the full program of stability exercises. I finished off by free standing on the ball for about 30 sec. I may have been able to stand longer but I felt that my stabilizer muscles were fatigued. I have been feeling a pain in my lower back and a bit in the knees today from all the jumping yesterday so I didn’t want to push myself too hard today.

I was happy that my super skilled massage therapist Pierre was able to fit me in on Wednesday. Ever since I fell down from the “Irish bench” on the Military training facility I’ve had a bad pain in my neck. Whatever problems I’ve had, Pierre is the guy. I have to drive 1,5 hours to see him and 1,5 hours back, but you know what… he’s worth all the effort. There is a difference between a great massage that’s only great because it’s relaxing and a man with magic fingers. I can’t wait to go!

I have a surprise for you today! I’ve been talking a lot about box jumping and I also promised you a video at some point. I haven’t forgotten! I’ve finally made one for you. Now you can see what the heck I’ve been talking about all this time!

Get Flash to see this player.

I want to thank my programmer for creating the box jumping and balance board video. Thank you André

Don’t try this at home unless you’ve practiced!

Have a great day,

Helle

I made a new record!!

2010-01-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Today was bi’s and tri’s. I know, I write that a lot!
I train in circuits. I focus on different muscles at different times. At the moment it’s arms. Had a great workout with my buddy Anders:-)

After the workout I played around with the stability ball and the balance board. And now comes the FUN stuff!!

I was going to do some box jumping in the gym. Luckily there was no classes so I had access to the gym all afternoon. I was in the works of stacking some Reebok benches when a friend of mine Lars popped in - that’s the guy I went on the Military training facility with - he LOVES obstacle courses and wanted to help me train. 1-2-3 ... instead of box jumping we had built a FULL obstacle course and we were sprinting around the gym LOL. It was really fun!

We tried to imitate the topple towers(first obstacle in the video on Evolutionhotel HOME). We placed two reebok benches on top of each other, covered it with a blanket and then put two barbells on top of it, another blanket and another reebok bench. The whole thing was done to make the benches unstable like the topple towers. It actually made it quite difficult to jump from bench to bench because too much speed on the jump made everything crash - just like the topple towers!

Then we did the sweeper with a broom. Fun stuff! I jumped 107cm! I fell “in the water”(off the Reebok bench) a few times, I hope I wont do that next week in Argentina!

Box jumping was next. New record: 7 boxes(imagine I started with 4 LOL!!! I was the proudest girl in the gym!

I ended up spending 5 hours in the gym but it was so fun today!! I had more energy. The flu is on it's way out. Still not feeling 100% but I'm getting there! Yay!!

Take care till next update!

Your friend,

Helle

The Balance Board..

2010-01-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

The past two days were very light training days. I'm still affected by the flu. Unfortunately.

Trained Back yesterday and some balance training, no cardio. Today was legs and 30 min of cross-trainer. It was really tough to train legs. I had zero energy in my body because of the flu. I did what I could. My training partner was affected by New Years Eve drinking so we were on the same level LOL, which was nice because I wasn't able to pull much out of myself. It would have been pretty counter productive to strain myself too much as well. Just annoying that I can't hit it hard - only 5 days till departure. It's super bad timing.

Anyways, I can't do any high intensity cardio training but what I can do is balance training. It's not straining on my immune system. I will focus more on that the following days.

To give you guys an idea of what kind of exercises I do to practice my balance, I've created this video for you.

Get Flash to see this player.

These are some of the moves I do on the balance board. They are super tough yet super effective at training all the little stabilizing muscles.

This video was shot about 2 weeks ago. I was pleased when I noticed that I had lost weight over the past two weeks, especially around my waist :-)

I want to give a shout out to my friend Ricky. He opened the gym today for Anders and me so we could work out. Normally, they're closed today. Thank you my friend!

New Years Eve was quietly spent with my Mom and some sushi yum! Later I went by some friends house to wish them a happy New Year. We watched the fireworks and had a good time talking and watching some New Years shows on Tv :-)

I'm wishing you all a successful year 2010. Go for your dreams!

Helle

Doing the right thing..

2009-12-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

...Sometimes feels hard. Some people wish they could stay home in the warm couch and skip the gym... Others wish they could leave the couch and run to the gym.

The Flu has decided to stay even though I have urged him to find another hotel. The Flu's thrive when you feel really bad, depressed and stressed out. It's extremely tempting to have a major freak about being snotty, feverish and flacid 7 days before my departure to Argentina.

The devil & the angel

My inner devil is hissing:

"You're throwing all your hard work away"
"You'll loose your cardiovascular conditioning"
"You won't be able to do a good job on the obstacle course"
"Have some goodies and you'll feel better"
"Go to the gym(and weaken your immune-defense even more hehehe..)"

My good Angel is saying:

"Don't listen to that fool. You know better. Listen to your body"
"Take care of yourself now: Relax on the couch with a blanket, hot tea and a good movie"
"Give your body rest to fight the flu and you will recover much faster"
"You will not loose your performance in two days"
"Eat healthy and good foods and drink plenty of fluids"

I am not going to have a Freakout! I'm going to fight the Flu with Angel-weapons. I'm going to do everything in my power to make the Flu's stay as uncomfortable and unpleasant as possible.

So far I've been drinking all the green tea(anti-oxidants) I could and made sure to take vitamins and minerals and even found some homeopathic medicine my mom had in her cabinet(I'm still home on Christmas vacation). I had to force feed myself as I had zero appetite, but the giant didn't become a giant from eating nothing... My body needs energy to fight the ugly Flu.

Didn't go outside today. Stayed inside, relaxed and played yatzy with my mom. I have this magic bean bag which you heat in the micro for a few minutes. You can put it anywhere on your body to keep you warm. Good for sore muscles :) I tucked it under my sweater around the neck and was sweating massive. I'll let you know tomorrow if the "tricks" worked.

Ok, I've got a date with the couch now... sneeze... body needs peace to fight of the Flu bugs... I want the Flu to check out before tomorrow morning!

Please take care of Flu's and Fireworks!!!

Your friend,

Helle

Overkill, Repair and some new Asics.

2009-12-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

Today, I felt horrible. Totally my own fault, no one to blame. Woke up with the flu and every bone, muscle and tendon was aching.

Yesterday, I started the day at 900 hours sharp at the military training facility. A friend of mine, Lars has been working in the army and ran the through the different obstacles with me. We couldn't run the track which you normally do because everything was over iced and very slippery. We walked carefully around and climbed the obstacles. They were not for the soft! Underneath many of the obstacles was asphalt, not water or mud like in Wipeout! ...And the asphalt WILL hit you back if you try to hit it with your body! I concurred most of the obstacles, even some that I didn't expect... There was this deep hole in the ground - they call it Bull's ass LOL - that you had to jump into and then jump up and grab the rim and pull yourself out... I was quite proud that I was able to get out of there by myself! If I hadn't had Lars with me I would never have jumped down there!

Defeat

There was one obstacle that was giving me serious trouble. Number 10: "The irish bench". Don't ask me why they call it that. I would have called it "The bench from hell!".

As the name implies, it's like a bench but a VERY tall one. I was supposed to run and jump up and grab the plank at the top but at the backside. The plank was pretty wide, as it turned out too wide for me... After two failed tries and two very hard falls, I was like a mad and wounded bull. I hate to give up! But on other hand, I hurt my elbow, my knee, my hip and my shoulder. I was holding back my tears and felt like such a girl and it was pissing me off! I didn't want to let the plank win and I was ready for a rendezvous with the asphalt again. I was driven by pure anger and a sneaking feeling of defeat... And I knew that if the plank defeated me that it would affect me psychologically, possibly effect me on the track in Argentina.

My military friend Lars dragged me away from the Irish bench, which was a really clever move at the time because I was tired, frustrated and started to fear number 10. We moved on to the Bull's ass. My confidence was low and the hole deep. At first, I said I wouldn't do it. I was afraid I would never get out. Lars assured me that he would help me out if I failed. I jumped in. Took a deep breath, ran across the hole and jumped right out. First try. I was so relieved and happy that it went so smooth. My confidence returned. We did a few more obstacles that went well and returned to Mr. Irish. Lars jumped up on his back and took off his t-shirt like a gentleman and started to rub Mr. Irish's back and made sure that it was dry and free of frost. I started to jump a little up and down to sort of built up my confidence and one last try... I jumped... and my hands caught the edge of the back of the plank. I couldn't believe it. I defeated Mr. Irish!

No.10 The Irish bench (looks pretty in the sunshine but wasn't pretty in 5 degrees frost!)

Here's a few pics of some of the other obstacles. There were 20 in total:

At 3pm I started my shoulder workout. I really felt the effects of the strict diet. My strength had taken a serious drop. I was fine with that. I do not care about the poundages I lift I care about the feel that I have when I lift. I do precision training. I like to hit a specific muscle where I want it when I want it. It's very carefully planned.The workout was a success. Afterwards I threw in 30min of cardio: stairmaster. We are becoming good friends. Stepping down from the stairmaster I glanced at the clock and remembered that a spinning class would be starting in 15min. I just had time for a shake and a banana. Full blast on the music and 30 intervals later I was pretty beat up.

I had 60min to get home, eat, change my sweat-drenched clothes and get back to the gym! Last week I promised one of the instructors that I would come to her class... and as I hate to break a promise... I had to drag myself in again for a FUNK dance class... 20.45 I finished my last class of the day... had I been a dog then my ears would have been as flat as the floor... I went home and went to bed without a word. LOL. Very exhausting day but fun! I think I am crazy!

...Woke up this morning and felt horrible. Totally my own fault, no one to blame. Woke up with the flu and every bone, muscle and tendon was aching. Could I have over-done it? My body said "yes". My mind said "yes", but my willpower said "No". I did the only right and sensible thing to do that I preach to my athletes all the time: I stayed in bed. Rest is the only way that the body will heal. I pushed my body too far and now I have to take care of it and repair. I booked a session at a massage therapist and enjoyed every second of it. Just what I needed. I choked down 13hours of sleep, too.

On my way home from the therapist I thought I'd give myself a treat. I went by the sports store and purchased a new pair of Asics and a few tops to wear at the obstacle course in Argentina. On my way to the car and with the loot in my hand I almost didn't feel sick anymore. It's amazing how shopping can cure anything!! :-)

The Christmas workout!

2009-12-27T09:22:00.001-08:00

Today was a great day in the gym. I joined a Pilates class and it was a great experience. My transversus really got challenged, but I was in good shape because of the many ball exercises I've been doing.

After the class I did bi's and tri's with my training partner Anders. Finished off on the stairmaster 30min. I wonder if you can trust those calorie counters.. It said that I had burned off 485 calories in 30min!!! I want to believe! LOL

Yesterday was off-day from training. Yesterday I also promised to share some pics of my crazy Christmas workout with you today. I haven't forgotten!

Alright, on the 24^th Anders and I got into a crazy Christmas Day groove.It all started very serious with some stability exercises. You saw those pics yesterday. Then we moved on to chest. There was a great atmosphere in the gym. All the instructors were wearing Christmas hats. They were joking around and taking photos of everybody. I thought: "Hey, let's take a few pics for the blog." Anders was on. The instructors came with Christmas hats because it was Christmas Day and the pics had to be Christmassy!

The workout started out hardcore with dumbell presses, incline smith machine presses, a tri-set of cable crossovers and finished off in the pec deck.

A few smiles at the beginning of the workout...

...And then to the hardcore stuff...

...this is where things started to get... a little weird...

...and even weirder...

LOL... we are goofballs I know... we had this competition: "Who could look the ugliest on camera." And as I love a good competition I'm in of course. I'll let you be the judge! I think I'm a pretty good candidate for 1^st prize though! LOL

After our pretty goofy workout I attacked the rowing ergometer - Rowed 2.5 km / 1.6 miles. Averaged 2min per 500 m / 547 yards. Then 2 sprint sessions of 2min each. Then 20min on the stairmaster and finished off with 20min on the cross trainer. That was it - ready to go home. I was pretty quiet the rest of the evening lol.

Hitting the ergometer...

Christmas dinner was great. Had some duck and turkey without skin, potatoes and red cabbage. After, a small rice pudding w cherry sauce and some chocolates. Was all I wanted. Could have gone for more but I was good.

The next day, 25^th I had great energy. Went to a pump class(weight training with music - lots of reps) it was pretty cool. My friend Ricky, who owns the gym, did the class and he did a great job! 1.5 hours of crazy high rep full body workout! Afterwards I did my back workout. Had a real good feel and contact to the muscles I wanted to hit.

That was my Christmas training guys:) Very happy with it... got to do some more cardio and shedded off some more pounds. Weight is down to 81,5kg / 179.3 lbs!

Take care till next update!

Helle

I'm improving on the stability ball...

2009-12-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

Hi guys & girls! I'm sorry for letting you wait for the update. I just needed to relax with the family the past days. No computer, no phones - just the family and the gym lol.

I've been getting in a lot of cardio in the past days. On the 24th and 25th I spent 4hours in the gym each day.

The gym here in my hometown is open every day - even during the holidays. It's swell! They've got so many classes here it's too cool. Every day I'm like: "Hmm.. do I wanna do spin class, pilates, body combat or body pump..."

On the 24th I did a lot of boxjumping and core exercises. I also built up an obstacle course in the gym. I had a friend use a broomstick as "The sweeper". It was fun!

I'm really improving on the balance plate and the stability ball. My balance just keep getting better and better. In the pics below you can see some of the exercises I'm doing.

On the balance board catching and throwing the blue ball to a partner while remaining in balance on the board is the challenge.

Standing on my knees on the ball rotating my lower body from side to side.

This one I'm really proud off:) I can stand on the ball now without being clingy to the rib! lol. I've never been able to do this. I'm still too chicken to try it without my "safety-rib":D

Another "move" which I've become good at. I doubt that my head stand will benefit me in Wipeout though lol

I do stability ball exercises year round but I have been doing a lot more exercises since I started my training for the Wipeout Challenge. I think that my most important "tools" I have to have in my toolbox is balance, co-ordination and speed. After the stability ball exercises and the box-jumping I moved on to "The Christmas workout". I will tell you more about that tomorrow. It all started great! ...but turned into something CRAZY! I'll show you some pics of some crazy people too.. Now it's bedtime for me.. I have to be fit for working out, Pilates and cardio tomorrow:D

Nite nite, Helle

I don't feel like having Christmas food

2009-12-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

Today was traveling day. I took the train home to my mom to spend the Christmas with her and the rest of the family. Luckily there were no delays. Theres been so many delays because of snow. I arrived in time to go to the gym before we had a family dinner at my sisters. We have a tradition in our family to celebrate the 23rd with rice budding topped with cinnamon and sugar. Afterwards we drink gloeg(hot redwine with spices, raisins and chopped almonds) and enjoy bakery and sweets. Everyone will have one present. It's all very traditional. I managed to have my sister cook the rice pudding on just non-fat milk and rice. I brought my own cinnamon/sugar mix made of cinnamon and artificial sweetener(the powdered). Traditionally you put butter on top too but I skipped it. I had one cup of the gloeg and that was it. It was fine for me. I felt like being sociable but still eating healthy.

I have made an agreement with myself that I would have cheat days on the 23rd, 24th and 31st. Nothing more. But I didn't feel like having a cheat day today, I'll wait until tomorrow. I'm quite sure that I'll only have the Christmas dinner tomorrow evening. When I'm really motivated for something I just enter some kinda zone and don't want to break my rhythm.

I've lost a good deal of weight and it motivates me. I haven't been on the scale yet but I can see it in the mirror and thats what is most important. I think I'll jump on the scale tomorrow morning just to see.

I'm also improving on my stamina, sprints, balance and high jumps. I'm pretty impressed with the human body. I have improved on everything I've started in the past 2 weeks I've been training for the Wipeout Challenge.

Gym was great today. I met up with my training partner Anders whom I always train with when I'm here. I love to work out with him. He is so enthusiastic about training! I love it!

We did shoulders today. They got bashed good! And then I did a number of core exercises and balance moves. I can stand up on the stability ball now without holding onto the rib for my dear life as I usually do! 30 sec with no hands made my friend and gym owner Ricky gasp and try for himself LOL with little success:D I gained some respect there! LOL. I didn't have time to do cardio which sucks because I know I'm not doing enough. Tomorrow I'll definitely do cardio. I took brochure at the gym today with all the classes and hours. I met two of the instructors who I know well and promised them to join their class. It's good for me to make appointments because then I have to stick to them! I HATE to break an appointment so I know I'll be there. One class was FUNK and the other one was PULSE(which is pure intervals and max pulse!) I'll prolly die but that's ok :)

Ok, I have to get to bed now but I'll give you guys an update tomorrow!

Merry Christmas to you all,

Helle

Iceskating today.

2009-12-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

Today I went ice skating with my nephew. I thought it would be good practice for my balance.

OMG it was so much harder than I can remember from when I was a child. I tried to skate most of the hour we had rented the skates for. I found out that the skating was quite hard on the ankles and I had to sit down a few times to recuperate. I was happy that I've been doing my stability training frequently, skating demands a LOT from your balance. I was proud that I didn't fall even once :)

Afterwards I headed out to the gym and did bi's and tri's. I wanted to do a spin class but was told there was none before next year. Oh well. I did some sprint sessions on the treadmill but I was pretty much toast after the ice skating. My muscles in my legs were tired and I had some blisters from the skates so it wasn't the greatest sprinting but I did it.

Tomorrow I will travel home for Christmas. It's about 4 hours south east of Copenhagen in the country. I'm looking forward to go and spend some time with the family. It looks like we will have a white Christmas this year. It was snowing quite heavily today. I love the snow :)

One of my best friends owns a gym in my home town I can't wait to train there. It's a great place with a great atmosphere. I'm planning to take a LOT of classes during my stay there. They've got everything! I can't wait!

Happy Holidays,

Helle

Three big announcements!

2009-12-21T14:43:00.000-08:00

Update:

I was so busy last week that I didn't have much time to post. Sorry!!
I was hardcore in the gym. Lots of weight training, core training, box jumping and balance training. I was pleased with that part. The cardiovascular training was a disaster! All I did was 1 hour of power walk and some sprinting on the treadmill yesterday. No spin class! I'm not happy with that! I made 3 attempts and all 3 failed.

Monday the instructor was sick and class was cancelled, wednesday the police sealed off the Central station because some people decided to demonstrate against the Climate conference on the tracks! I was caught in the train for 2 hours and arrived at the gym exactly when my spin class finished grr.. Friday I got to know there had been a break in at the gym during the night(horrible) so classes were cancelled.

This week is Christmas and I'm going home to my parents this week I'm not sure how the gym there is open during the holidays but if I can't get my cardio in then I've decided to go sprint outside. No matter if the snow is still there or not!

I have three announcements to make though:

One: I've signed the contract so there's no backing out now!

Two: I've been filming the box jumping video for you guys! And there's a 3rd announcement attached to this one:

LOL I have been pretty mad, because I have been bragging about that I could jump 6 boxes. I was so proud of myself! Because when I started I couldn't jump anything and within a week I jumped 6 - or so I thought! I was floating around happy with my thought of my 6 and I persuated a friend to video tape my jumping.
I proudly stacked up the boxes and proudly announced with a big smile that I could jump 6!! He took a quick look at the boxes and said: "That's only 5" ..Ok.. this was the moment where the music stops in the movie and complete silence enters.. After that I jumped like a mad woman I WANTED my 6 back! 5.. phffff..

I was so mad and determined because I wanted my 6 boxes back(which I theoretically never had but I felt they were mine) that I jumped 6 boxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!! Personal record!! I jumped 105 centimeters or 41.3 inches! I'm only 165cm or 5'5 tall so I was very happy with that result!

Good day for me :)

____

Today spinning was cancelled!

2009-12-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Today spinning was cancelled! Did some box jumping. I found out I had mis counted them. I think I said in an earlier post that I could jump 6 but it was only 5. Five is tall though! I'll do a video of it one of these days. Promise.

I did a lot of core moves. Practised my balance. I was standing on a balance plate and had someone to throw me a ball which I had to catch of course and throw back. Was a really cool exercise. After that I did bi's and tri's.

The contract for Wipeout came today. I gotta read it through tomorrow. I'm too tired now. It's almost midnight here. I will say goodnight for today.

No training for me today or tomorrow.

2009-12-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

No training for me today or tomorrow. I'm too busy with work and can't make it. Monday I'll hit it hard.

Today I went to the movies with the disabled man I take care of. I'm absolutely crazy with Stieg Larsson's movies. Last weekend I watched: “Men who hates women” and today I watched the last two movies in the Millenium series: Stieg Larson – The Movies

Two movies in a row... but the time went so fast... I didn't even want to leave 2 minutes to go to the toilet. I just didn't want to miss a thing. So I was sitting in the theater with two squeezed butt cheeks half of the time lol

Now where I just started to diet and cut my carbs I pee all the time. I'm sure you know it!

Well... that just illustrates how good these movies are. If you haven't watched them... Watch them!

Spin class again!

2009-12-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Took another spin class again today! 2nd one in my life time!

I started off with some stability ball training. I think I will need a good balance for this Wipeout thing!

Well... I met Martin (owner of my gym, friend and client) “Hi Helle, are you joining in on my spin class in 10 minutes?” My first impulse: “No! Hell no!” He kept on and on teasing me and provoking me... “Ok!”. “Ok I will”.

Grrr '*!77%&*@Grrr.

I had 10 minutes to get used to the thought. It's just 2 days ago since I took a spin class and I thought I was going to die! Well, my conscience forbid me to stick to my first “No”... I thought to myself: “Ok, I'll show them. I can do it again even though I trained quads, hams and calves yesterday. I'll show him!” LOL

I made one mistake though... A woman in the changing room told me that Martin's classes wasn't as tough as his wife's...

“Martin, I heard that your wife's classes are much harder than yours! That's great then I can relax today!”

Ohhh my! All I can say is: My bad! LOL

The spin class started with Martin saying: “I heard that someone said my classes aren't as hard as my wife's, I feel provoked!”

You can imagine the rest... endless sprint intervals, standing up, sitting down, up, down, up, down... I'll let the photos speak for themselves (Martin thought it was funny that I looked like I just took a shower so he took a few snap shots.)

After the dreadful spin class I trained back with very little intensity:

4xunderhand narrowgrip pulldowns
4xt-bar rows
5xdumbbell rows
4xone arm upper rows
4xupper row in cables w a straight bar superset with rope pullovers
3xdumbbell pullovers 1/2 rep

Tricep:

4xdips superset with push-ups

Now: Done, toast, finito, flat, killed, finished...

I started dieting monday this week!

2009-12-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

I started dieting monday this week. I think I was around 84 kg / 185.0 lb.

I would like to become leaner and lighter during this next month.

It will be an advantage for me to be lighter on the obstacle course. I've been going very low carb this week. I don't really care if I loose some muscle since I'm not in competition anymore. And I know once I'll stop the cardio and eat more again everything will come back

Right now my main focus is to become the best and most versatile athlete I can be in order to concur the obstacle course!!!

Today was tough...

2009-12-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

Today was tough... I was feeling yesterdays spinning class... there was nothing to do about it though because I had a training appointment with a really cool guy called Johannes. We work out once in a while and give eachother max pressure. Today was legs...

Since I don't want to train quads too much I do hams and quads in the same session. I used to split it into two when I was gaining.

I started off with some core training on the Swiss ball. Then box jumping like yesterday. 6 boxes.

Then...

5xlegcurl machine
4xlunges in smith
4x superset legcurl w a dumbbell and stiff leg deadlift w dumbells
5xfree squats
4xsingle leg legpress
4xdropsets standing calf machine fx. 300lbs, 200lbs, 100lbs equals 1 set.

I like to train high volume by the way...

I do this kinda routine about once every 6weeks just to maintain. On some workouts I'll cut out the exercises for quads.

I started my training for the Wipeout competition 2010 today!

2009-12-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

started my training with different stability ball exercises to strengthen my core. Then I moved on to some jumps. I watched this youtube video that inspired me:

I was able to jump 6 stacked Reebok aerobic step benches. I was pretty proud of that! Cause they are quite tall. I will do a video of it one of these days.

Then I moved on to working my shoulders:

5xfull raise side cable laterals
4xIncline high rows with dumbbells
4xIncline rear delt dumbbell laterals
4xrear delt machine

Focus on the rear part today. Other days I'll do mostly presses or side laterals. I like to mix it up.

then:

50min spinning class! Lots of intervals. Sprints etc.

I've never participated in a spinning class in my life!

Needless to say after the class I was toast!

It was funny... they were so surprised at the gym that I was taking a spinning class that the owner Martin (and former athlete of mine) came into the class and started to take photos of me to post on facebook! LOL