Category: Dreams

Nexus Stockholm in Alvik, where the course was taking place during the weekend
Waiting for the seminars to start

During our lunch hour both days the seminar staff would train. It was really inspiring to see them train.

Our workout on day 1 was tough!

I was sweaty after that!

Thank you guys for making this weekend so much fun! I learnt loads!

The awesome crew from the weekend

Hello guys! Wow the miracle of food and sleep has made me feel like a person again! I redid my workouts yesterday in class and I did a lot better. What a relief. I just didn’t want to leave those workouts feeling bad and associating it with a bad feeling so I’m happier now. It’s funny how you take sleep and food for granted when you’re at home with the same routine more or less everyday, you make sure you eat enough and sleep enough. When you’re busy and away it’s easy to forget these things and the routine falls a part. It’s even more important to be conscious of this and prepare for it. Next time I’ll do better! You always learn and grow.

I wanted to share a little bit about my Crossfit Level 1 weekend because I haven’t actually written that much about it! It’s two very full on days where you start 8.30am on the Saturday and finish around five. On the Saturday we even had a little social after we finished the course for the day, so I didn’t get home until just after 7pm. On the Sunday we started at 9am and finished around 5.30 or so. The seminars and workshops were back-to-back with an hour lunch break.

It was a great weekend but mentally exhausting getting a lot of information thrown at you and trying to remember it all. The same in the workshops when we went through movements. It was really fun taking part and a challenge at the same time trying remember all the great pointers they were giving us! You wanted to note down everything and even film it so you could remember (but memory just had to do, when you were standing in an overhead squat there wasn’t much space to write notes!). We did loads of adjustments and progressions. For instance I’ve now learnt the progressions for muscle ups. Now I only need to build up the strength to do one hehe. We only pretty much used wooden sticks as bars the entire weekend and who would’ve thought you’d get tired from just lifting a wooden stick? You do! And you get very warm. I learnt a lot about my own technique and small things I didn’t realise I was even doing and also how look for points to improve on others.

In preparation for the course they tell you to read through the Crossfit manual and familiarise yourself with it. I’m really glad I did a proper read of it and took notes because there’s only so much they can go through with you in the time that we had. I heard a couple of people say they never opened it before the course! It also helped with the information overload, you already had an understanding of what they were talking about so it wasn’t all brand new information, you got points you were unsure of clarified and a lot of information repeated to you. Instead it becomes sort of like a revision session, you’ve heard it before. i’d definitely recommend ready it all through thoroughly at least once before you go. It’ll help you loads!

As with everything new, I was a bit nervous showing up on my own not knowing anyone. There was quite a few people who clearly knew each other from before but there were also plenty of loners like me! I met some very lovely people and the seminar staff were amazing. The seminar staff were a mix of people from Spain, Sweden, Wales and Russia and made the learning so much fun. The guy from Wales, Davs, had even been to Glasgow loads to do the seminars so we had a lot to talk about which was fun!

Overall I enjoyed my time away. Obviously because of it being a Crossfit course, this was all about learning how to best teach Crossfit. It’s all to help people perform the best they can in this form of exercise. There’ll be a lot of stuff you take to heart and take away with you and other things you perhaps won’t. Even Nats, one of the coaches said so in the seminar when we were talking about nutrition, take the things that resonate with you and apply them.

The nutrition seminar was an interesting one because I eat mainly plant-based so what they said and suggested I couldn’t really relate to. It was still interesting to hear it and learn about it. Obviously when I coach in the future I’ll work with a mix of people with different dietary preferences and want to know all kinds of different approaches to nutrition. I think that’s always going to be the case when you do a course, you’ll agree and disagree on some points but that’s what makes each coach and their approach unique. Everyone has a different take.

Other than that we also did two small workouts during the weekend. They were quite tough but really fun! I did my first ever medicine ball cleans and boy, if anything they were a workout for the brain. I couldn’t get my head around the technique. It’s an odd movement if you hadn’t done it before. I was fine doing it during the run through of the movement but them piecing them together in a workout at a faster pace, let’s just say it got complicated!

Now looking back on my experience I’m really happy I went. I wish the course had been a bit longer because I feel like there’s still so much to be learnt! If I pass this text I am allowed to start teaching, they do recommend you starting with assisting and small groups and then build up your experience. It’s an exciting but scary thought! We’ll see how the test goes, I find out the results in a couple of days.

The test felt quite difficult so I’m not really sure how it went at all. Apparently quite a lot of people fail. It is multiple choice the exam and a lot of the answers seemed quite similar so I almost feel like you need a bit of luck as well. I think I had a slight advantage having lived in an English speaking country for so long because some of the questions had quite difficult language in them. It’s a shame because obviously the majority of the people on the course will be teaching in Swedish and perhaps they knew all the information but didn’t quite get the language.

We’ll see how it goes! The next question is, what now? Where do I go from here? I have no idea. Well I have some ideas. I need to figure out lots of things but I feel like this course was the start of something. It made me realise even more how much I love functional training and it’s something I really believe in. The community around Crossfit and all these smaller gyms it was makes it so special and why people get the results they want. These gyms make you want to go because you get a life around them, friends and people you love. I’ve met the most amazing people in they gym. That’s why I want to help others find this joy. I think this is the beginning of it! I’m so excited, we’ll see where it leads me next.

If you guys have any questions about the course please let me know, either send me an email at madeleinemoves@gmail.com or just comment below. Always happy to help out if I can.

 

This photo just shows the joy fitness brings to me and why I want others to understand how life changing it is.

Sorry this post never went up yesterday but I wanted to write it properly. I actually can’t believe I’m writing this!

As you probably would have gathered from the title of the post, I’m doing my Crossfit Level 1 trainer course! Yup I’m taking my first step towards one day hopefully training people. It’s all very surreal and scares the life out of me but at the same time I’m really excited. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to share it now as I don’t even know if I’ll pass or not. Hopefully I will, that’s what I’m aiming for anyway!!

This entire journey has terrified me, going from first thinking about it, booking the course, flights, reading the manual and now flying over to Stockholm to do the two day course and test. It’s been tough and there’s been a couple of times when this little voice inside my head has said, what makes you think you could be a good trainer? I don’t feel ready and I’m scared of what comes next after this step. I know for sure I won’t feel ready to just throw myself in there and teach massive classes but I do know it’s a step in the right direction. The planner inside of me is having a huge meltdown, not knowing what to plan for and what’s happening next!

The reason for me wanting to do the course is because I want to help people realise how amazing and life changing exercise is. You don’t have to go everyday or want to spend your entire life dedicated to it but it does help you in life if you do it on a regular basis. So I thought, what better way to help others (other than just writing here and sharing my thoughts online) than to maybe one day be able to actually support and actually physically help in real life? My philosophy and belief has increasingly become that fitness, health and wellbeing can change the world. By taking care of yourself and being happier in yourself you can then focus on how you can make change in the world with what you’re doing. I look at all the incredible people in G5 who work as doctors, lecturers, dentists, teachers, policemen/women and so many more incredible jobs or studying, all contributing to society in their own way, all important no matter the job they’re doing. The strength they get from the gym powers them to perform at work and make their impact on the world.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many incredible and inspiring coaches through the jobs I’ve had and the impact they’ve had on me and my life has been massive. I can’t even explain with words how grateful I am to have met them and learn from them and even call some of them really good friends of mine. I hope to one day even have a fraction of their experience and knowledge.

It’s scary because I constantly fight with the thoughts of not being good enough to help, but as I said to my lovely Marija I was speaking to on a Facebook call on Thursday. Yes this is true, I know I might not be good enough right now but if I don’t start somewhere and give myself the chance to be good then I’ll stand no chance ever.

I need to try and see where it takes me. You need explore your passions and what you love to do in life, otherwise you’ll live with regrets for not even trying and that’s one of my biggest fears in life, not even trying because I was too scared. I can’t let fear stop me and I won’t. The same way you shouldn’t either. I don’t know where this road is going to take me by opening this door to coaching but I’m excited and I hope it’s the start of something really great. The reason for doing it now is because I am between jobs and I thought, when else will I have the time to fully commit and immerse myself in this? It was time take action and start working on all these hopes and dreams I have.

I just want to say thank you to my absolutely incredible friends (you know who you are), family and Jamie who have all been just saying hell yes since from the moment I started thinking about it. They’ve just been the most supportive people. Thank you for believing in me and always being so optimistic.

I’ll of course be sharing my experience about the course and how it goes. Fingers crossed I’ll pass the test on Sunday. In worst case I’ll just have to retake the test. It’s not the end of the world! However, I hope the preparation I’ve been doing will be enough. Wish me luck this weekend, I think this will me one of the most interesting ones yet. Hopefully you guys are excited to join me on this journey!

The reason I’m doing it in Stockholm and Glasgow or in the UK is just because there happened to be a course this weekend and I figured that it was a chance to see my family and some friends whilst I’m here. If I’ve got time! It’s two full on days and I’m flying back on Monday. Hectic to say the least!

I’ll try my best to update you during this weekend but it could get busy so I’m sorry in advance if I’m not on here as much as usual. I hope you understand.

So now my secrete’s out. Let’s get this adventure started.

Love, M xxx