NIKE BLAST Oslo Day 1

MO:

The NIKE Oslo event has over the years felt a bit like the younger baby sister to NIKE Stockholm. Not so anymore.

The change was electric.

I think it was a good thing to keep the train on track from last weekend.

Like bands on tour, the WHOLE stage, plus lightning, sound system, even staff and dancers (not to forget the presenters) were packaged and flown (well, some....none named none forgotten... ;)) over to Norway.

I taught my kettlebell class at noon. It´s lucky I´m "flexible" (and I´m not talking bendy here), because 5min before the class, I didn´t know how many KBs there were, or which weight, how many people would turn up to class and how many of them would have done KB training before???...

...well, thankfully the class turned out great!

80 people who went on swinging, lifting, squatting, cleaning, like they´d never done anything else in their lives! :)

Thanks to Pontus (Sportlife Gbg), Åsa (blog reader from Sthlm!) and of course JO, who graced the class with their energetic presence!

Dorre and Per doing their Disco thang

REAL men do HUG - Show me some love - Fredrik Andersson & Pontus Wärnestål during Pure Training

Wonderful friend and talented rider Bruno Sardella

WHOPPA! Jonathan Monks rolling, rockin and jivin´in his beautiful yogaMONKS class.

I HAD to tease him about the beard though!

Reminds me about my dad.

And LOOK what we FOUND!!! In the year 2000 - Magnus "Mango" Ringberg taught SPINNING at an event at Domus Athletica!!! I thought I was going to faint! Mango - you NEVER told me, you secret biker, you!

Fotnot på svenska:

24h på Clarion Royal Christiania i Oslo.

Rum 1: rum in mot ljusgården utan möjlighet att öppna fönstren med tokdålig luft runt 30 grader. Nej tack. Efter många om och men i receptionen (..vi har verkligen FULLT den här helgen...) flyttar jag till:

Rum nr 2: Allt ljud från gatan hörs. Stor reva i örngottet (slänger man inte det då???) + Hårtorken fungerar ej. Ber om ny hårtork i receptionen. Ringer 1h senare och frågar vart den nya hårtorken tog vägen? Svar: "på väg"

Ringer efter ytterligare 45min och förklarar att jag kan inte duscha förrän jag vet att jag kan torka håret. Svar: "Vilket rum bor du på? Vi skickar upp en"

Ringer efter YTTERLIGARE 30min. Svar: "Vi har inga hårtorkar kvar - alla är utlånade, men du kan ringa tillbaks imorgon efter 12.00." ???

Jag blir arg=nytt rum trollas fram i den renoverade delen av hotellet.

Rum nr 3: nu kör vi!

Up and rollin'

MO:

THANK YOU every single one of you, who came to our open house to mingle, chat and plan for future classes at MyrbergBjörn!!!

Photograph: Linda Jonsson

...and wow, thank you for bearing gifts, such as flowers, candles, chocolate, home made müseli, and other sweetness!

We should be doing this more often. ;)

Our waiting area outside the studio

Photograph: Linda Jonsson

The changing room

Gorgeous photographs shot by Alana.

The cash registrar wouldn´t fit, because of all the wonderful gifts.

An improptu Glögg-table with MORE gorgeous flowers in the studio.

The good, the bad and the crazy

MO:

What a DAY!

It´s been good (work) and bad (traffic jams and SLOW moving traffic all over) and crazy (not enough hours in a day) - all at the same time.

Is it just me, or does everyone seem to have a super-busy time right now?

I LOVE my PT-clients! They are such fab, hardworking people. I can´t wait to welcome them at MyrbergBjörn instead of having them driving all over the city.

It´s starting to come together. The planning of the studio that is.

Next week we´re off to the printers to make invitations, schedules, price lists + the December schedule and stuff.

You´ll be able to come and play 6-23 December for 595SEK ONLY

(or 100SEK/class).

The full December Schedule will soon be revealed.

We want you to check us out in full force before you make the decision to join us come January 2011... :)

Mark Sunday 12 December in your calendars now,

there´ll be an Open house 12.00-16.00 with GLÖGG and PEPPARKAKOR for anyone who wants to stop by, say hello and have a look around.

A Saturday in October...

MO:

My body is starting to feel it.

Yesterday consisted of a high reps session:

Pull-ups 5x10 (3 breaths in between each rep, resting on step)

Row with bar 4xmax reps 35kg

Overhead squats 5x10 20kg

Hanging knee lifts 5x10

TRX Facepulls 3x15

Did some kettlebell training this afternoon to ease off the lurking training soreness, a total of:

100 swings 16kg

108 cleans 16kg

80 snatches 12kg

followed by 15 min of yoga...

Now: a movie and a beer. So there.

Mission accomplished

MO:
Day 2 of the ITS Convention.
When you look at the photographs below, you would think I´ve done nothing but pose today...which could not be further from the truth.

I taught a MOJO yoga class at 10.40. I stripped it down to the very bare essentials, since the students´ English is quite shaky here. It worked out well! There was a nice flow to the class and everyone could follow.

I´m actually pleased with both my classes today.
My second being a kettlebell class.

Try to prepare for a class with 24 kettlebells instead of 50, with half of the kettlebells being the wrong weight...

I made a workshop type class and had the participants working in pairs throughout the whole session. I´m satisfied with the outcome and I had lots of good feedback after the session - so happiness all around!

We´re having an early dinner tonight and tomorrow at 6.00am we´re heading off to the airport. After travelling all day, we´ll land in Sweden tomorrow night.

How much do you think I´m looking forward to going home right now?

Oh, and we got to judge an "Instructor of the year"-competition.
The relentless judges: Marcus, Lionel, Julio, Mango & me.

POSING with some of my kettlebell students after class

Mission accomplished:
I´ve now officially taught girya/kettlebell in its homeland Russia!
Whooppa!

Live preparations for SIBERIA...

MO:
Live preparations for Siberia here.

Spread the LOVE

MO:
I love my colleagues at Gymnasium Sisjön!
Thanks to Madeleine & Stina who joined my classes tonight, spreading heaps of energy and power around themselves!

Then when I got back to the changing room after class number 3, I find the following in my high heel:

I mean, what can you say? From one toddler mum to another:
Thank you for your love, Malin!

The last, but not least THANK you goes out to the crew from Filborna Arena, who hired a minibus to travel all the way from Helsingborg to join the awesome triple: Spinning, Kettlebell, Hot MOJO.

Love you, guys!

Watch Canada get MOJO:ed

MO:

Canada gets MOJO:ed!
Watch part 1 & part 2...

Live from Filborna Arena

MO:
Kettlebell education day 2 at Filborna Arena.
What a lovely group of people! And again - what a great place for training this will be when they open on October 9.

You can watch the facility on Mojolifestyle´s Web TV here.

Had a nice surprise when I ran in to lifting champ/coach no 1 in the lunch room: Anders Lindsjö.
Which was more than convenient since I´ve wanted to get in touch with him for ages. More synchronicity, I guess. :)

THANKS to the Filborna Arena crew - the place where everyone is called Sara ;) - with a special Thank you to Kattiz & Pelle, looking forward to seeing you all very SOON again!

Monica & Sara

Sara, Anna & Kattiz

Anders, Karin, Sandra & Sara

Pelle, Sara, Anders, Sandra & Sara

Anna, Monica, Sara, Kattiz & Karin

- Blinged from my iPhone

Helsinborg/Skåne rules

MO:

I´m in Helsingborg doing a 2-day kettlebell education for Filborna Arena.

What a beautiful place!

It will definitely be THE place to go to for great training in this city.

The venue is airy, light, functional and kick-ass - all at the same time. They will host Hot MOJO, kettlebell classes, indoor walking, spinning, some Les Mills classes, a new competition swimming pool, a room only for Swissball training, a full size handball court, a juice bar, etc, etc.

I´m in LOVE with their running track - in the gym!!! They also have a phenomenal ceiling height for gymnastic rings/TRX/Red Cord/Anti-gravity yoga/etc.

Why don´t more gyms/clubs play around with these things???

Such amazing training for a fraction of the cost of a bog standard gym machine!

Imagine being able to do sprinting training with your private clients... I drool just thinking about it.

Innovative and forward thinking - 10 out of 10 points to Filborna Arena.

Halmstad Part 1

MO:
With amazing Linda J in Halmstad getting ready for The Academy event Part 1.
I am SOOOO grateful to have fab company all the way through this busy weekend!

I had a crazily busy day today. Really. More than usual.
After 2 nights of hardly no sleep (Robin has a cold), I drove little one out to grandma´s and grandpa´s. JUST avoided being caught speeding. The nice policeman decided to stop the car next to me. Taught a semi-private for a group of Norweigan physiotherapists. Had an initial meeting with a new (and very exciting) PT-client, followed by a stand-up coffee meeting with Magnus. Almost threw my computer out of the window, when pdf-client refused to work.
Had to drive to printers to manually hand over the material (soooo 90s). Rushed home to not have my clean laundry thrown out of the machines. Answered supadupa important e-mail. Checked out a daycare facility. Checked out an office space. Packed my suitcase. Pulled up at Linda´s only 5 minutes late. Phew!

Starting off with MOJO Yoga at 9.30am tomorrow morning, followed by B.A.D-ride no.1 on the bike - driving down to Denmark immediately after class to teach at NIKE Denmark in Hilleröd - B.A.D-ride no.2 and Kettlebell Challenge...

We should be back in Halmstad around 20.00... Getting ready to do the first 2 classes all over again... :)

Good luck to "our own" Magnus Gårdmark, who is teaching Millennium Exclusive-Periodisera Mera tomorrow together with talented Mattias Reck.

Linda and I chillin´in our room

Mad as a hatter

MO:
I´m looking for an office space.
From January 2010 I will definitely have grown out of my home office and if I find something great before then, I´ll take it.
I´m looking forward to getting out of the house and actually having to go to work.

It´s been more than convenient. During the last 14 months I could not have worked anywhere else with a baby at home, but I think it´s fair for Robin to start having his own room very soon. (Not to mention his toys).
The office should be located either in the area where I live or maximum a 10min bike ride away.
Close to P´s clinic would also be convenient, since it would simplify our life once Robin starts daycare.

With my schedule this autumn, I´m not even sure WHEN I´ll find the time to scout an office, let alone move into new premises.

Take this weekend for example:
Friday: leaving for Halmstad.
Saturday: teaching the 2 first classes (MOJO Yoga & Spinning) at The Academy´s event in the morning - then driving to Denmark, for 2 classes (Spinning & Kettlebells) at NIKE Denmark - and then driving back to Sweden and Halmstad to sleep, because on
Sunday: I´m teaching the 2 first classes (MOJO Yoga & Spinning) at the Academy´s event - again. :)

Mad as a hatter - that´s me...lucky I´m young (hahahahaha!) and energetic, eh?

A good laugh...

MO:

...will surely make your life longer!
So after a smashing double date nite with P, R & M, I will live until I´m at least 125 - that´s how much I laughed during tonight´s dinner!
Back on track with my tripple-supa-dupa-wammy: spinning/kettlebell/hot MOJO - it was delicious to meet all my fab regulars again after the summer vacation.
Smiles all around, and maybe, just maybe, one or two sore bodies tomorrow?

Tomorrow is a day of working, training, meetings, pulling my last wisdom tooth (I promise, this time there will be no picture evidence on MOJO...) and the filming of this autumn´s Hot MOJO-sequence!

Sweet dreams, Mojos!

Time wasting

MO:
After spending ALL of last night recovering my whole picture library from computer obscurity (more than 6.000 files, anyone got a question on that?) I'm very much looking forward to day 2 of kettlebell mania.

In the morning, sporting some new NIKE gear...

...with the shoes and the bag to go with it...

..and then some serious business - OUTSIDE - today.
Toddler mums RULE.
Stina & Isabel in action.

-Blinged from my iPhone

Go Got!

MO:
Some days I love my city more than most days.
Today was one of those days.
First of all, an impromptu morning coffee with JO at our new fav hangout, Doppio.
I LOVE the fact that we are now literally only 2min away from each other, which is handy both on good days and not-so-very-shiny-days, right JoJo?

When I went on a slightly longer walk in the afternoon (I never venture too far from my "hood") I discovered the following:

They are finally here! The GRAB-and-GO bikes!
And they come with a bike basket!
Which gives a total score of 10 out of 10 in the world of MO.

WHAT?! A good looking bin??? And how surprised was I, when I realized that there are many, many, many bins like this in the center of the city!
Well done, City of GO:TEBORG
I´m proud of you.

Rounded off the late afternoon with a buggy run in Skatås, where I met representatives from all the big gym chains in the city.
(And yes, every single one of them was running and looking GOOD)

I even saw my old friend Bjarne galopping past in a blur (because he IS that fast), but it all went so quickly that it could also have been my imagination... :)

Early bed tonight, teaching a 2-day Kettlebell Seminar Saturday and Sunday.

Have a smashing weekend, friends, enjoy Way out West if you are there.
Personally, I´m hoping to hear Chemical Brothers all the way to my kitchen like I did with Lily Allen last year...

Kill me slowly

MO:
Sometimes I wonder if I´m sane.
Like this morning, I woke Robin up at 8am to be at the gym at 8.45 for a true "GRISpass"...
Thank you again, Björn, for bringing all your gear and pushing us through a fantastic, awfully WONDERFUL, bloody, damn HARD circuit session!

My body will certainly feel it for the next 48h and I´ll treasure every moment of it...so totally NOT sane...

JO showing the ropes

FULL focus

SuperSTRONG Stina (wo)man - handling a Bulgarian

SNYGGE-Marie and a sandbag

Björn snatching that Bulgarian

Christine - not only flexible, but also POWERFUL

GO JOOOOOO!
(She´s so hot!)

For the last round I gave the heavy sandbag a try. And yes. It was heavy.

Thanks also to Tobbe & Meher for joining, and Martin B for the photos.

Pssst...It´s a secret...

MO:

Except from JOJOs amazing new space, there will be another exciting new venture opening up come September. One that will be able to offer ALL the things I´ve been missing in a training environment in Gothenburg so far...

BUT, it´s a bit of a secret for another few weeks, so don´t go telling anyone...

What you ARE allowed to tell and even shout out loud, is word about the new Incycle Newsletter.

Especially if you are into RUNNING, SPINNING or KETTLEBELL-training.

You want a newsletter? Click here or email monika@incycle.se

Because I...

MO:
...was so definitely worth it today!
Lejonet & Björnen ice-cream in the sun at Belgiska Pralinboden/Järntorget after a lovely lunch on Mango´s terrace.


Thanks to everyone who brightened up my evening by joining the Kettlebell Intensive class at Gymnasium tonight! Can´t believe how fast that hour passed!
I was so inspired by you guys, that I went straight home to work out for 40 minutes... Swings, double cleans, presses, push ups and pull ups. Yummy!

Kettlebell Nerd

MO:

Friday night and it´s gonna be alright...

An exciting day with a very interesting meeting, which could lead to a great collaboration.

Also, with 2 big projects on the go for the 1st quarter of 2011, let´s just say the next few months will be EXCITING! :)

Heading into the weekend, there´s training on the agenda, hopefully both running and some lifting...

Did a great KB-session at home tonight consisting of:

120 swings - 12kg,

55 cleans - 16kg,

20 presses -12kg,

70 push ups,

15 pull-ups

- all done as ladder work - and then finished off with some wall work.

I´ve become a true KB-nerd. And I´m happy. :)

Have a rockin´, smokin´ hot weekend, folks!

News for autumn/winter 2010-11

MO:

YES, JoJo knows me too well!

Skinny yogis really doesn´t do it for me... ;)

Busy day today starting with PT-yoga in the morning (me teaching) followed by a yoga class at 9am (me teaching), PT-lifting session (me doing) with press-focus (ouch!) at 11am and then running around doing errands until my 3pm meeting with my accountant.

17.30 I taught my spinning class and then I coached a coaching session at 18.45...

Setting the new horizons for autumn/winter 2010-11.

It´s starting to come together with a few new cool projects:

* From September I will take on 10 private clients in the city.

I´ll happily train the truly dedicated men and women out there who are ready to put in the effort to have results, whether that is a more muscular body, a stronger body, a faster body, a healthier body, a more powerful body, a more flexible body, a slimmer body - with a wicked mind to go with it.

Nordic walkers need not to apply...

Anyone else can e-mail any questions/queries to monika@incycle.se

* From September (I´m hoping) I´ll have a business mentor!

Finally I´ve found her and she is AMAZING. We are meeting up in September to discuss a possible mentorship and I am SO EXCITED!

* I´m bringing Kettlebell grouptraining to Russia and one more Eastern European country (to be announced once it´s in the bag).

Weird and wicked!

* My own new training thing for the autumn will be Bulgarian Bag- and rope training. I promise to keep you posted...

By the way: training goals revisited together with Martin today....

By Christmas I´ll do:

* 10 strict pull-ups

* Pressing the 20kg KB

* 1 pistol squat (with the weight of choice)