I’d like to introduce you to one of my regular hangouts in my hometown, Malmo. This is a spot where I come to burn off all my energy as well as sweat out toxins and get my fitness in. I always tell my friends that a big butt comes with a big responsibility, haha!
With no further ado, let me introduce you to the real #ladyboss behind HiitBaseCamp Malmö.
What are the benefits from HIIT workouts?
There are so many, but one of the most important ones in my opinion is how the intense training improve the oxygen and blood flow in your body and how it strengthens your heart.
The intensity of the workout, and how we combine cardio and weight training, makes each class super efficient.
So if your lifestyle is very busy you don’t have to spend a huge amount of time at the gym in order to get all the health benefits.
How long have you had this interest?
I have personaly always liked any kind of excersise that makes me puke. I love pushing myself to the limit and to a point where I’m starting to question my existence. I also found that very few workouts could push me that far and that most gyms are too careful and don’t challenge their members. We all can do soo much more than we think, we just need some help to break the pain barrier.
What has been your biggest challenges in starting this company?
Whenever you introduce something new to a market you set yourself up for a challenge, but luckily for me I like challenges. My main challenge was to get people to discover HIIT Basecamp and get them to try a class. After that retention was quite easy. Most people in Sweden don’t like to spend a whole lot on their memberships and as Basecamp is a boutique fitness studio we charge more that a regular full service gym, which some find hard to understand. At the same time our members get a more personal experience from us.
Our members are family, they are never just a number in the statistics.
Another challenge is to get people to invest more time and money in their health.
If you can afford to spend 100 dollars in a bar every weekend then you can afford to spend 60 dollars for a gym membership each month.
You have succeeded in creating a very inclusive environment with clients from different nationalities, fitness levels and ages. How did you manage do to this?
Ah good question. I think it is mainly by treating everyone as individuals. We are all different with different experiences and backgrounds.
Our members come to us for different reasons and our job is not to judge, it’s to see them, love them, train them and help them reach their goals.
We see them and we make it our job to get to know them because we care and because it’s important. We belive in tough love where we push them hard but we also make sure they are in a safe space and that we are there for them.
The idea with Basecamp was always to create a space the removed common obstacles that keep people from working out. The training is efficient and short for those who don’t have a lot of time. Each class can be suited to fit each fitness level and age. We encourage all members to focus on them selves and to compete with themselves instead of the people around them.
We never talk about weight loss och weight gain, we talk about health.
We try not to focus on physical appearance but I am sure it helps that I am ”shaply” and overweight, it makes people relax 😊. Forget about ego. Non of us are really all that important.
How many times a week do you think is ideal to workout?
It really depends of who you are, your training experience, over all health, how much you eat/dring and the purpose of your workout. When it comes to HIIT specifically you should have at least 48 hours between classes as the intencity takes a toll on the body and it needs time to recover. If 2 times a week is all you can fit in your schedule then that’s perfect. If you want to run a marathon of do a triathlon, then you have to invest more time.
Is it true that the more time you spend in the gym, the better results you get?
No!!
You can spend 4 hours in the gym where 3,5 hours is spent taking breaks and posting on instagram and be worse off than some one who’s spent 8 minutes in total on two Tabata’s. It’s not the time that matters, it’s what you do during your time at the gym.
Any exciting plans for the future of hiit Basecamp?
Yes! The brand is expanding and we will shortly introduce Basecamp Workout Spaces, a studio that will include all our favorite workouts ans challenges.
What are your top three tips on how to be a green eco warrior?
- Like working out, start small, a little is better than nothing. Re-cycle, re-use and don’t waste.
- Educate yourself. What is fact and what is politics? No, they are not always the same thing…
- You are not the center of the universe but what you do and how you act has an effect on earth.