Marion Freijsen » Sports & Fitness

Fuel Band Nike+…. the holy grail?

Marion — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:23:33 +0000

So Nike is at it again – combining existing technologies and software into a new application for sports minded people. The Fuel Band is not even out yet – but it will be soon! And it promises some fun new things.

None of what the Fuel Band promises is actually new – it uses the iPhone apps to set your goals, it has the ability to track your heart rate, monitor calories burned, steps taken, all existings items of course. But I have to say – they have managed to ... Read More

5 Principles of Healthy Living Assessment

Marion — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:00:25 +0000

Courtesy of Dr Brad Jacobs (bradlyjacobs@gmail.com), I am able to present you here with a great questionnaire that will give you an insight into your HEALTH! Take 5 minutes out of your busy busy life and score the questions below – then you can devote a little time over the busy holidays coming up on YOU and improving that score ... Read More

Corporate Athletes

Marion — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:02:09 +0000

Last week at the EFactor attend in SF, Dr. Brad Jacobs made a great point. He compared the effort and strains of being a business man or woman with those of an athlete calling the latter “Corporate Athletes”. How very true that is!!

Both have a ton of determination, are singularly focused on results and achievements, visualise the finish line and aim to get there first and both force their bodies and minds to heights that “mere mortals” don’t think ... Read More

Fit to be an Entrepreneur

Marion — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:36:44 +0000

I have to tell you about this great event I have coming up in San Francisco on the 6th December. I am bringing together a number of my favourite people to share thoughts and ideas with you about your fitness, best nutrition and general well-being. As Entrepreneurship is my OTHER passion – we are combining these two that evening although you don’t have to be a business owner to care about achieving your very best personal health of course ... Read More

Correcting your behaviour – NOW

Marion — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:22:02 +0000

As I share in my introduction and many of my blogs – I am one of those nuts that has always exercised, for as long as I can remember. Which memory btw, unfortunately gets shorter every day as conversely the time I have been exercising gets longer (maybe that is a good think) ;-(

This week I had a great run with Chris Dovale – my personal trainer – along one of my favourite routes. We run along and then go up the steps to the Coit Tower in SF and back down the streets ... Read More

2011

Marion — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:57:59 +0000

I wish all of you a happy, energetic, healthy 2011…..
From next week, this blog will pick up where it left off last month. The reason I didn’t write? Around me, people got sick, had to take time off, were unable to work so more and more of my time was spent working (they are better now…thank goodness).

In those kind of stressful times – it is sports that keep me going. Literally. If I can ... Read More

Wheel of Energy

Marion — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:45:55 +0000

I have to share this with you all – another great example of how sports is a way of uniting strangers, of building new relationships, of helping each other and do things that you never dreamt were possible.

In this case, a great initiative has just launched in Amsterdam, right outside Schiphol airport – The Wheel of Energy. A massive wheel that will turn for 365 days non-stop powered by up to 3 runners at a time.

Originated by Richard Botram, marathon runner and man ... Read More

Simple and very effective

Marion — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 01:10:00 +0000

I like these new tools that you find now and again. Particularly if they are very simple and can work for anyone.

Here’s one I just discovered – a combination between a Bosu ball (one of those half balls on a platform) and a Step (you should all know what that is, even you only know the one your mother uses to grab something from the top shelf).

It’s called a Step 360 Pro and not cheap at US$150 but great to work into your workouts both for cardio and strength ... Read More

Safe Riding?

Marion — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:38:02 +0000

Yesterday I experienced once again how you never know what will happen when riding. As I was happily out mountainbiking and enjoying the great weather, a “normal person” came the other way, tried to move to the side of the path as my buddy and I came towards her, and slid off the mossy side of the path, she fell and her bike skidded across the path blocking it. Trying to avoid it I thought I had managed to pass, but unfortunately the sliding bike hit my rear tyre and blocked ... Read More

How to freeze an athlete…

Marion — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 22:34:47 +0000

It’s a simple ingredient to any training – ICE. We have all been there, you train hard, you go for it as much as you can and then you have to hurry up, get changed and go to work (or something). The next day, you wonder why your body is in agony and remember in misery that you didn’t cool down sufficiently after your training, and therefore all the waste produce of the hard training is still rumbling around your body and stiffening up those muscles. As you robotically try ... Read More

New Bikes

Marion — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:43:56 +0000

I love the way the fitness industry is never static. Changes in knowledge, scientific breakthroughs and simply ever fasting changing fashion are leading to lighter, better, quicker and easier to use materials all the time. For absolute eons, cyclists felt they had to keep up the “I am a tough guy” image. Whilst in triathlon new bikes were being brought out with different angles in the frame (for speed and comfort) and three gears instead of two, the purist amongst cyclists ... Read More

The Travelling Warrior

Marion — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:06:03 +0000

Apart from the tips on how to eat when you are totally busy travelling around, be it for holiday or pleasure – it is obviously harder for us weak-willed individuals to work out whilst we are on the road. So here’s some ideas of things you CAN easily do, just send spouse and kids off to the buffet, whilst you buff your body!

In a hotel:

You really can do a ton of different exercises in a hotel, here’s a favourite selection of mine…find a radiostation you ... Read More

Swim Equipment

Marion — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:57:50 +0000

Swimming is a great activity and obviously for us on the Western Hemisphere, a very attractive one, now that summer has more or less arrived! For serious swimming, i.e. doing laps or swimming in open water at a reasonable pace, you can use a number of things that will be useful in your training.

Funnily enough I was reading a blog on another site recently about swimming where they started out with reminding people that you needed a swimsuit… that is going one too far I think, I ... Read More

ALS – the rest of your life

Marion — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:22:17 +0000

I write about health, fitness and sports – that is my passion and an intrinsical part of my life. I write about things you can do to train, to get the most out of your life, to stay healthy and most of all, to LIVE your life with passion and joy.

But occasionally I have to veer to another topic and look at the other side of health, fitness and feeling great – one of my sporting buddies, the fittest guy of the troop on the bike – just got diagnosed with ALS. ALS ... Read More

Fuel your body

Marion — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:41:52 +0000

What I have noticed, and definitely like to see, is that there is a growing awareness of the need to feed your body the fuel it needs to perform. I know, it’s been around forever – sportsnutrition is definitely not a new phenomenon and no, I am not so old that I have forgotten that! But even though I have been around in the sports world for 25 years (and a bit more), it strikes me that now, finally, even the average person is starting to understand that food does make a huge ... Read More

Zurich2Venice

Marion — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:26:34 +0000

So from time to time, I am inspired to write not just about my own love of sports and keeping fit and healthy, but about the journey someone else takes.

I have this great friend, Roddy, that when we used to work together, would always be on the verge of starting a fitness regime. We’d travel around Europe together on business and he would “maybe” join me in the gym in the morning, or “almost” go on a run with me at 5am..but never quite make it. So we joked ... Read More

Swimming

Marion — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:35:27 +0000

As a (former) triathlete, swimming is 30% of the race. Not so much in time, but definitely in effort I never knew how to do freestyle, and started out doing my triathlons swimming my 1500 metres or even 3km doing breaststroke instead of freestyle. But although I was a fast breast-stroker, I realised soon enough that I simply would never improve my speed out of the water until I ... Read More

Running Schedule

Marion — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:55:27 +0000

It’s Spring… finally! Spring means you wanna get outside again, (well if it isn’t raining too much

Spring also means that you start looking at that bathing suit or trunks and wonder how it’s going to look this year. Or rather more pertinently – how YOU are going to look. So Spring is the time a lot of people try and make good on those resolutions ... Read More

Running, shoes and good advice

Marion — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:35:35 +0000

Got an interesting question today from one of my frequent readers (I do have them it seems, quite nice to hear…) She has started to run and is enjoying it but just recently started to get an odd feeling in her groin after running. Nothing too painful, but just a twinge that is annoying.

Whenever you start running (or any new sport) it’s good to keep a check on yourself. I mean that in two different ways – 1. Don’t overdo it, build it up and go slow! and 2. ... Read More

Age

Marion — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:26:32 +0000

Bet this title got your attention!
Age seems to be the new mass obsession. We have had smoking, and banned it – drinking, banned that too – coffee, diminished our intake but what to do about Aging? We seem to want to control everything these days, we seem to want to be healthy and look young until we are about to step into our coffins…but aren’t we ... Read More