#i usually have the ethos of junk food is better than no food

[acanthemp3]

hate when i have to pay the price for treating my body like shit.... i should not have to put up with this

[charmingcentry]

Bechloe - Variety Show

HS AU Bechloe where Beca and Jesse are fans of Bo Burnham. It’ll be a 4-parter going through each year of the Variety Show their school holds. This one is mainly Beca and Jesse BROTP with a hint of Bechloe.

----

Freshman Year

“Aw come on Becaw it’ll be fun!” 

Beca did her signature eye-roll towards her friend, looking straight into his puppy-dog eyes with a glare; Jesse always did have the appearance of a kicked poodle. “No dude, fuck off with it already… I’m not performing in the variety show with you!” She smacks Jesse lightly with her pencil, although it did cause him to wince, and continues on with her mathematics homework - surprisingly one of her favorite subjects. Jesse lets out a sigh and continues on with his own math homework, the duo laying down on the hardwood floors of Beca’s house.

As she shuts the rings in her math binder, Beca still feels two small holes, drilling into the top of her head. The brunette glances up and sees Jesse, quickly lowering his head down and refocuses his mind on the math problem in front of him; the male always did have trouble with factoring. The brunette shakes her head and rummages through her backpack, pulling out her English binder - her least favorite subject.

She never could focus during her English class even if it was right after lunch. Her teacher’s voice is incredibly monotone and robot-like, Beca constantly has to force her head up throughout the long lecture. The lack of decorations in the classroom contributed to the lack of exuberance amongst the class and the teacher didn’t seem to care. Unluckily for Beca, her father had forced her to partake in the Honors English class rather than the regular, one of the many cons of having a Literature Professor as your parent. For an honors class, the teacher seemed to lack the enthusiasm and ability to care.

If there was one thing Beca did care for in English class, it would be the redhead that sits diagonally from her. She would be the main energy source of the class - Beca presumes that English is her favorite subject - and would participate nearly every day. For 14-year-old usually oblivious Beca, she was surprisingly quite aware of how her stomach became a butterfly cage when the redhead would say hi to her or how her mouth went dry during group work and how her hands would become clammier. Some days, Chloe - Beca peered over at the redhead’s binder second day of school to learn her name - would shoot a smile at Beca whenever the brunette got caught dazing off in class. There were other days where Chloe offered Beca water or even gummy worms to keep her energy up - how did this girl not have cavities? I guess you could say Beca has a crush on Chloe but the brunette denies any part of it. 

The brunette continues working on her worksheet about rhetoric terminologies when she hears a rustle come from Jesse. She glances up and notices he’s pulling out a blue pill speaker Beca had gifted him for his birthday and his narrowing of eyes as he selects music. The brunette couldn’t help but sing along to the song chosen.

I am the left brain I am the left brain

I work really hard till my inevitable death brain

You got a job to do you better do it right in the right way with the left brain’s might…

Beca is startled when Jesse enters in with the next part; the brunette admits, Jesse did have a nice voice.

I like Oreos and pu- puppies! (“Nice censorship there.”) yes in that order!

And I cried for at least an hour after watching Toy Story 3… WOODY!

I am the right brain~ I have feelings

I’m a little all over the place but I’m lustful trustful and I’m looking for somebody to love

….do do do do do do

Beca playfully rolls her eyes once again at Jesse’s hilarious attempt at censorship as she answers a question about the definitions of ethos, pathos, and logos. She continues singing along to the song when Jesse pokes the top of her head. “Come on Beca, we have amazing voices! We can perform this for the variety show together.” The brunette’s face went pale as she sat up, her jaw slightly dropping.

“That’s a lot of censorship we have to do there Swanson…” Beca states, knowing how many dirty jokes there are within the song, but it would be fun to perform it she has to admit.

“We’ll work on that! You can like do the instrumental since you have that program and we can change the lyrics together.” Beca ponders and narrows her eyes slightly. “Please Becsss!” Jesse drones, clamping his hands together while shaking them. The brunette lets out a sigh.

“Fine.” 

Jesse lets out a deafening cheer as he works out the details of what would happen with their performance. Beca was surprised at his planning and organization skills, considering the 14-year-old can’t even locate his pencil case and listens to her friend’s ideas. The brunette would be taking the part of “Left Brain” of course and Jesse “Right Brain.” Beca would organize the instrumental behind the song and voice the beginning part. To settle who would be playing “Bo,” they settled with Benji who is a mutual friend of the duo - he enjoys performing on stage. Their outfits with just be Beca in blue and Jesse in red, inspiration taken off of the lighting Bo Burnham - writer and singer of the song - from his show. 

“Honestly, thank god you said yes. I signed us up before telling you.”

“Oh, I mea- wait you did what!”

---

The day before the Variety Show, Beca’s English class held a party to celebrate the end of the school semester. The brunette sat in her desk, she didn’t have friends in the class other than Chloe - the redhead was in the stage between acquaintance and friend. She scrolled through her phone, listening to a Bo Burnham playlist she had created back in seventh grade. As she chucks a brownie into her mouth, she feels a slight tap on her left ear. She looks and notices it’s Chloe, smiling brightly at Beca. The brunette widens her eyes slightly as she pulls her earbuds out. “I heard you’re in the Variety show Becs.”

Beca goes red as she rubs the back of her neck. “Oh, uh yeah. Jesse, he’s my friend, made me do it.” She puts a chip in her mouth, only worsening her dry mouth situation.

“I know him, he’s in my Biology class! He’s really nice and funny.” Beca could feel a bitter taste in her mouth as she slightly pouts. “I probably taught him all the humor he knows y’know.” The brunette bites her lip, was she jealous? “I- I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that…” Chloe only smiles politely at Beca

“Nah, you’re alright Becs…” There’s dead air between them for a while. “Can I listen to your music? Don’t really have anyone else here to be with and I wanna hang out more with you.” 

Beca feels slightly touched and offers the left earbud to Chloe. The redhead smiles when she inserts the device in her ear and suddenly, Beca remembers she’s listening to “Eff” by Bo Burnham. Chloe gives Beca a shocked look as the brunette grimaces “Aw don’t be nervous Becs, it’s actually really good… who is this guy?”

Chloe scoots her chair closer to Beca as they both eat a platter of junk food and talk about Bo Burnham. Lucky for Beca, Chloe seems to enjoy his music and sense of humor. The two don’t notice the spreading blush on each other’s faces.

---

Of all of the places their performance could be in, Beca and her group had to be last. Last of all places! Expectations are already high and the brunette is nervous seeing that right before them was a comedy bit by a hilarious girl in their grade who goes by Fat Amy. Beca begins to pick at her nails as she sees the host walk on stage.

“Oh my god, I’m dying! That was so hilarious. Thank you, Fat Amy, for her wonderful stand-up and also stories of crocodile wrestling.” He clears his throat. “Now, give it up for Beca Mitchell, Jesse Swanson, and Benjamin Applebaum who will be performing Left Brain, Right Brain by Bo Burnham! The final act of tonight… good luck you three!”

Beca gulps as Jesse rushes to the right side of the stage as Benji goes on, starting off with a pretend magic trick. The audience laughs as Benji releases a fake dove that plops onto the ground, the brunette smiles as she nervously tugs on her blue-collared long sleeve. Then, she hears her voice. 

Hello, Patient 24602. How are you feeling?

Benji goes back and forth with Beca’s pre-recorded voice, quietly laughing at her friend’s improvisation with the dialogue. To her surprise, the audience is slowly erupting with quiet giggles and laughter as well!

“Real mature of you disembodied voice, calling me a loser.”

I was just joking you dumbass. (Thank God for the principal who allowed cuss words for this performance)

Beca stops her giggling fit when she hears the song is slowly approaching her cue. She glances across the stage and makes eye contact with Jesse. He gives Beca a thumbs up and the brunette smiles widely at him.

Splitting your neurological functions in 3, 2, 1.

The lights go out as Benji runs off stage, pretending to scream in pain. When the lights go off, Beca emerges from the side of the stage and stands with arms folded across her chest, standing tall and straight, appearing to be confident. The lights go on as her own voice introduces herself

This is Benji’s left brain, objective, logical, cold, analytical, aware of patterns, aware of trends. He’s efficient... and a prick.

The way Beca raises her hands gives the implication of the middle finger about to be raised. Then, the lights go off, causing the audience to erupt with laughter once more. The laid-back and steady beat transforms into a lively keyboard melody as the spotlight focuses on Jesse who is jumping with joy. This is Benji’s right brain. Subjective, creative, sensory, aware of feelings, aware of people. He’s emotional. And an idiot. He skips around himself and waves excitedly at the audience, pretending to be hurt by the last part of Beca’s voice.

Alright, you two.

All of the light appears on stage as Beca darts her head towards Jesse and vice versa.

Play nice.

Beca starts singing the first verse, making calm collected hand gestures towards herself as the focus of the light is directed on her. She appears to be extremely less bouncy and excited compared to Jesse’s character - or just himself if we’re being honest here - and yet on the inside, her heart is pumping dramatically. Just about when finishes her verse, she catches the eye of a specific audience member, Chloe Beale who is grinning brightly and raised her shoulders playfully when she noticed Beca staring right at her. The brunette fights back a smile when the lively keyboard melody begins once again, the focus of light on Jesse this time.

The light is now everywhere on stage, focusing on both Jesse and Beca. The audience begins to die down from laughter after a little bit between the friends, revolving around the right brain teasing the left brain about playing with Rubix Cubes.

Well, at least I did my freakin’ job, alright? I kept him working, I kept him productive. You were supposed to look after him, you were supposed to keep him emotionally stable for all this. 

The audience is silent as Beca pretends to be furious with Jesse. The brunette is throwing her hands up frustratedly as the taller of the two appears to be on the verge of tears. 

Now you’re trying to blame me for how he’s feeling, how he’s feeling! If he’s feeling unhappy it’s because you failed him! 

Beca pushes Jesse once, causing him to fall on the ground.

You did this to him he hates you I know he does! He freakin’ hates you!

Jesse begins bawling over-dramatically as the audience lets out a collective chuckle by the male’s performance. 

Beca pretends to feel bad and kneels down to Jesse, singing the next part of the song. The Left Brain apologizes to the right brain as she holds her hand out and helps the male stand up. Left Brain suggests an idea of how the two can work together, Beca playfully pushes Jesse’s shoulder.

Do you know what it is? JUGGLING! WE CAN JUGGLE AND JUGGLE OUR CARES AWAY.

The audience cackles as Beca looks towards an excited Jesse who is jumping in place, dumbfounded. The brunette rubs the bridge of her nose and lets out a sigh of frustration.

It- it was comedy. We can do comedy together.

Beca’s pre-recorded voice appears once again, stating the reassembly of the two halves of Benji’s brain.

Left brain! Left brain I love you!

Beca says with a blank slate on her face. I know.

The lights go out once again with only Benji reappearing on stage once Beca’s pre-recorded voice says the final line. The crowd cheers and hoots for the group and Beca and Jesse emerge from the wings, bowing and bowing when the crowd cheers them on. They eventually make their way down as the host concludes the Variety Show with a couple of school-related announcements. 

Out of Beca’s peripheral vision, she notices a patient redhead, looking at the brunette. She turns to Jesse’s parents and excuses herself, walking over to Chloe. Beca smiles as she tugs on the black necktie she wore for the performance, swaying side to side.

“Becs that was amazing! I didn’t know you can sing so well.” Chloe reaches out to grab Beca’s hand, the brunette notices and gulps a bit loudly, hoping Chloe didn’t hear. The brunette lets out a nervous chuckle and shrugs.”You also look pretty c-cute with that whole tie and collared polo thing...”

“I- I guess. I mean, I don’t sing really often…” Their hands pull away, Chloe still smiling as bright as ever. “Thank you by the way… Jesse gave me it.”

“Well, you look and performed great!” A voice abruptly calls Chloe from the entrance of the auditorium. The redhead snaps her head back towards Beca. “Well, I hope to hang out with you more Becs!” Chloe wraps her arms around the brunette, nearly causing the two to tumble over. The redhead pulls away and winks at Beca. “See you around!”

As the brunette walks back towards Jesse with an astonished expression and a great blush on her face, Chloe walks over to her best friends Aubrey and Stacie who have their eyebrows raised to their hairline. “I thought you didn’t like her?” Stacie asks, waggling her eyebrows

Chloe rolls her eyes and leads the two to her parent’s car. “Well, maybe I do now… hopefully, she does the Variety Show again next year.” The redhead plugs in her earbuds into the audio jack of her phone as she slides into the black leather seats of her mother’s car. “She did pretty great.”

Chloe’s mother begins the drive to a nearby restaurant as the redhead hits a familiar playlist from the day before, it was labeled “Bo Burnham Shit.” A smile washes over 14-year-old Chloe’s face as she imagines Beca singing along to the songs.

[healthylifepage]

INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON!

Last month, I was incredibly fortunate to meet some of my country’s top Alpine athletes at the HQ of Ski Team Sweden in Åre. Amongst them, I spent some time with Matts Olsson, a World Championship medalist and one of the top male FIS World Cup competitors from Sweden, with a specialization in Giant Slalom. He’s an ultra-experienced hand on the circuit, powering through 9 seasons, and has just had one of his best in 2016/17 with two podium finishes. It struck me that the younger members of the team really look up to those who’ve given battle alongside the international legends of the sport, and Matts wears his experience with great wisdom and humility. It was with great pleasure that I sat down to ask him about his training, his mental approach, his diet, and his ethos on competition! Here’s what I learned…

F.O.T:  Can you say how you get into skiing, your background?

MO: I don’t remember the moment I started to ski but I’ve seen photos, my parents told me I was 3 years old. That wasn’t in Are, I was from way more South, the slopes aren’t that fantastic! I grew up close to Karlstad, which was the main reason I started to ski because it was convenient! My parents weren’t into skiing so much – they knew about it, they followed Ingmar Stenmark for sure, but they didn’t have any skiing background. I just started, and then I started to like it!

F.O.T: Do you remember when you realized you loved skiing?

MO: At an early age, I knew that I wanted to be an athlete. I didn’t know skiing was my biggest passion. I played soccer, hockey, and skiing. It started to become obvious at the age of 11 or 12. I did all the training with gates, but I used to do free skiing in woods with friends. That was the biggest love, the feeling of being free! When I chose skiing 100%, that was because, in the hockey arena, I wasn’t as free as I was on skis!

F.O.T: It’s much more a solo sport, vs a team sport in hockey. Is that how you see it?

MO: Yes absolutely, that fitted my personality better, to do it alone. I don’t know why but that’s the way I am! Now, when we’re in Ski Team Sweden, to be out with the guys, that’s 80% of the fun. I’m super lucky to have team mates I really like and like to spend time with them.

F.O.T: How much of an athlete do you have to be?

MO: It’s hard for people to know. What you see is that you start on the top of a mountain and you ski down! And if you’re used to skiing on easy slopes for your ski holiday, it doesn’t feel like a big deal. But when you start to ski World Cup slopes when it’s actually not snow that you’re skiing on, but rather ice… And then you in the turns, you can generate 3-400kg of pressure loaded onto your legs, mixed with bumps that you don’t see and an uneven surface that takes a lot of balance to correct… Alpine Ski Racers won’t be best in any single discipline of physical abilities, but in the big picture, an alpine skier will do really well overall.

F.O.T: How do you train for that. How does a week look like in training?

MO: That’s different from person to person. For me, I train hard for 2 days, then I rest one day, and I train hard for 2 days again, and then I rest one day again. I don’t work out for the whole week and take the weekend off; I’m more two-and-one. If I work on a weekend, so I work a weekend. I focus on endurance, strength, agility, a bunch of different competencies. The main focus is often core and legs. In the past, I used to separate the body part that I wanted to train and focus on that for the day. Now I mix it up more; I can’t explain why, my physical trainer knows why I do that, I trust him and I follow the program.

F.O.T: How do you fuel that, in terms of nutrition?

MO: I don’t break things down by macros and measure them by grams. I eat a lot, I try to eat healthily, I try to get the right amounts of food, but I eat what I eat. If I train hard, I try to eat a lot, and I see how I feel. If I’m losing kilograms, I need to do something about it; I solve to a body weight. You need to be good in a lot of different areas, but you only have so much focus, so I like to keep some parts a little simpler and focus on the things that I feel are more important to my training.

F.O.T: What’s your guilty pleasure?

MO: I don’t know if I want to say, but I like snus every now and again, and I drink too much coffee I think. But that’s pretty much it. I don’t have to drink beer or eat junk food – I’m fine without that.

F.O.T: Mental focus; when you’re at the top of the starter gate, how do you fire yourself up to give it the most?

MO: Now I’m almost 29; I’ve done ski racing for a while. In the beginning, you try to find your way to see what’s working. You might think ‘it was a good race, what did I do differently?’. For many years, I learned how I wanted to approach a race mentally. Now my first step is to decide the day before that it will be war tomorrow, i have to go out there and be ready.  At the start, you have to get it fired up. I talk to myself with a few words, BEAST MODE!

F.O.T: Do you feel fear?

MO: Not now. I ski only Giant Slalom. I Don’t see that as such a high-speed discipline. When i was a junior and started to compete in World Cup, I did a few downhills. I was a good speed skier, but then I definitely felt the fear. The speed was fine, but the jumps were a nightmare, as I never felt so comfortable in the air. I never crashed in a jump, but I didn’t know how to do it! Then you start to ski too soon on the super tough hills with jumps that are too big. With a different gradual approach, it might have worked. But some of the downhill guys have a mental approach that’s slightly unhinged, and you need that to tackle some of those runs. They don’t see what could happen, they just go for it. They love the adrenaline.

F.O.T: Which slope was it that made you wonder…

MO: A couple of the big jumps in Val Gardena, Italy. There’s a huge jump, not the one by the finish, but the one further up (See video about that HERE). It’s not just a jump where things fall away, that’s normal; it then goes up again, so it’s a gap jump which requires a 60-80m jump. At the inspection, I didn’t fancy my chances on that. I only did one training run. I didn’t really ‘ski’ the top part, I was just mentally preparing for the jump and it was pretty exhausting!

F.O.T: Have you had any struggles in your ski career, and how have you overcome those?

MO: As a kid, it was no trouble; I won races, and everything was fine. But then, later on, you have more difficult years where results aren’t there. After a few bad races, you get pretty down. For me though, I always have a day after a race where I’m disappointed, but then you keep on going and you believe in yourself for the next race. After a bad season – I had those for sure – I actually feel more motivated then, because I know I can do better.

F.O.T: A lot of people want to be healthy and to train, but struggle with motivation; Do you ever feel you just want to go back to bed?

MO: I never had a problem going to the gym. I kind of like it. I had an ACL injury a few years back, and before the surgery, I went to the gym, because that’s what I do. Then I suddenly felt ‘what am I doing here – I have no motivation because everything is so far away from skiing’. It didn’t matter whether I trained because I’d lose it all after surgery. I realized at that point that what gets me to the gym is that I have a goal. It’s the goal that gets me there. I want to compete in skiing, I want to do that well, that’s the goal, and that’s actually why it’s no problem to go to the gym. I didn’t realize that before the injury, but I knew it afterward. If you start to go to the gym and push yourself, at the end of the day, you have a great feeling at the gym that you’ve done something great today!

F.O.T: You mention the importance of rest. What do you do on a rest day?

MO: Sometimes I lie on the sofa and watch TV! Those are very few indeed though. In summer if I’m pre-season training, mobility takes precedent. If I go to the gym and do normal training, it’ll take me 2-2.5 hours. After that, I don’t really want to stretch, so I try to do that as its own session. I get plenty of sleep. I wake up and take an easy breakfast. Then I stretch, I do some foam rolling, focus on some trigger points with physio balls… I do that for more than an hour. Possibly 90 minutes. As an athlete that’s so important for me.

F.O.T: How about sleep?

MO: When we go into pre-season mode, we get out really early onto the glaciers, we need to wake up early in the morning. 22:00 is late for me to go to bed. Also, I usually sleep for an hour in the afternoon before a physical session, sometimes 2 hours! You feel a little weird, a bit lost after you wake up from that, but it’s great in terms of extra energy for the next session.

F.O.T: And what do you do at the gym for 2 whole hours?!

MO: Since my injury, the warm up protocol is LONG! That’s why I stay there for so long, and is why after the session, I do stretching on the following morning, or I’d be there all day!

F.O.T: Your favorite course on the World Cup?

MO: Well, I scored my first podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so that’s up there! When I started World Cup, it was Alta Badia in Italy, then it switched to Kranjska Gora, and then Beaver Creek in the States! I love Colorado, I love the snow, that kind of slope they have there, it’s so much fun to ski. If I were a regular ski tourist, I’d go there for sure!

F.O.T: Do you ski for pleasure these days?!

MO: Not so much. I still enjoy it certainly; if we have some powder skiing when we’re out, I love it. Then you get that wave of emotion and think ‘oh man, skiing is fantastic!’. When you ski red and blue gates all the time, that’s work. The reward is absolutely the results, and that’s fantastic too!

Follow Matts on his pre-season journey thru his Insta HERE and keep up with all the FIS World Cup online HERE.

The post INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON! appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON! posted first on yummylooksbest.blogspot.com

[rebeccaflaneus]

INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON!

Last month, I was incredibly fortunate to meet some of my country’s top Alpine athletes at the HQ of Ski Team Sweden in Åre. Amongst them, I spent some time with Matts Olsson, a World Championship medalist and one of the top male FIS World Cup competitors from Sweden, with a specialization in Giant Slalom. He’s an ultra-experienced hand on the circuit, powering through 9 seasons, and has just had one of his best in 2016/17 with two podium finishes. It struck me that the younger members of the team really look up to those who’ve given battle alongside the international legends of the sport, and Matts wears his experience with great wisdom and humility. It was with great pleasure that I sat down to ask him about his training, his mental approach, his diet, and his ethos on competition! Here’s what I learned…

F.O.T:  Can you say how you get into skiing, your background?

MO: I don’t remember the moment I started to ski but I’ve seen photos, my parents told me I was 3 years old. That wasn’t in Are, I was from way more South, the slopes aren’t that fantastic! I grew up close to Karlstad, which was the main reason I started to ski because it was convenient! My parents weren’t into skiing so much – they knew about it, they followed Ingmar Stenmark for sure, but they didn’t have any skiing background. I just started, and then I started to like it!

F.O.T: Do you remember when you realized you loved skiing?

MO: At an early age, I knew that I wanted to be an athlete. I didn’t know skiing was my biggest passion. I played soccer, hockey, and skiing. It started to become obvious at the age of 11 or 12. I did all the training with gates, but I used to do free skiing in woods with friends. That was the biggest love, the feeling of being free! When I chose skiing 100%, that was because, in the hockey arena, I wasn’t as free as I was on skis!

F.O.T: It’s much more a solo sport, vs a team sport in hockey. Is that how you see it?

MO: Yes absolutely, that fitted my personality better, to do it alone. I don’t know why but that’s the way I am! Now, when we’re in Ski Team Sweden, to be out with the guys, that’s 80% of the fun. I’m super lucky to have team mates I really like and like to spend time with them.

F.O.T: How much of an athlete do you have to be?

MO: It’s hard for people to know. What you see is that you start on the top of a mountain and you ski down! And if you’re used to skiing on easy slopes for your ski holiday, it doesn’t feel like a big deal. But when you start to ski World Cup slopes when it’s actually not snow that you’re skiing on, but rather ice… And then you in the turns, you can generate 3-400kg of pressure loaded onto your legs, mixed with bumps that you don’t see and an uneven surface that takes a lot of balance to correct… Alpine Ski Racers won’t be best in any single discipline of physical abilities, but in the big picture, an alpine skier will do really well overall.

F.O.T: How do you train for that. How does a week look like in training?

MO: That’s different from person to person. For me, I train hard for 2 days, then I rest one day, and I train hard for 2 days again, and then I rest one day again. I don’t work out for the whole week and take the weekend off; I’m more two-and-one. If I work on a weekend, so I work a weekend. I focus on endurance, strength, agility, a bunch of different competencies. The main focus is often core and legs. In the past, I used to separate the body part that I wanted to train and focus on that for the day. Now I mix it up more; I can’t explain why, my physical trainer knows why I do that, I trust him and I follow the program.

F.O.T: How do you fuel that, in terms of nutrition?

MO: I don’t break things down by macros and measure them by grams. I eat a lot, I try to eat healthily, I try to get the right amounts of food, but I eat what I eat. If I train hard, I try to eat a lot, and I see how I feel. If I’m losing kilograms, I need to do something about it; I solve to a body weight. You need to be good in a lot of different areas, but you only have so much focus, so I like to keep some parts a little simpler and focus on the things that I feel are more important to my training.

F.O.T: What’s your guilty pleasure?

MO: I don’t know if I want to say, but I like snus every now and again, and I drink too much coffee I think. But that’s pretty much it. I don’t have to drink beer or eat junk food – I’m fine without that.

F.O.T: Mental focus; when you’re at the top of the starter gate, how do you fire yourself up to give it the most?

MO: Now I’m almost 29; I’ve done ski racing for a while. In the beginning, you try to find your way to see what’s working. You might think ‘it was a good race, what did I do differently?’. For many years, I learned how I wanted to approach a race mentally. Now my first step is to decide the day before that it will be war tomorrow, i have to go out there and be ready.  At the start, you have to get it fired up. I talk to myself with a few words, BEAST MODE!

F.O.T: Do you feel fear?

MO: Not now. I ski only Giant Slalom. I Don’t see that as such a high-speed discipline. When i was a junior and started to compete in World Cup, I did a few downhills. I was a good speed skier, but then I definitely felt the fear. The speed was fine, but the jumps were a nightmare, as I never felt so comfortable in the air. I never crashed in a jump, but I didn’t know how to do it! Then you start to ski too soon on the super tough hills with jumps that are too big. With a different gradual approach, it might have worked. But some of the downhill guys have a mental approach that’s slightly unhinged, and you need that to tackle some of those runs. They don’t see what could happen, they just go for it. They love the adrenaline.

F.O.T: Which slope was it that made you wonder…

MO: A couple of the big jumps in Val Gardena, Italy. There’s a huge jump, not the one by the finish, but the one further up (See video about that HERE). It’s not just a jump where things fall away, that’s normal; it then goes up again, so it’s a gap jump which requires a 60-80m jump. At the inspection, I didn’t fancy my chances on that. I only did one training run. I didn’t really ‘ski’ the top part, I was just mentally preparing for the jump and it was pretty exhausting!

F.O.T: Have you had any struggles in your ski career, and how have you overcome those?

MO: As a kid, it was no trouble; I won races, and everything was fine. But then, later on, you have more difficult years where results aren’t there. After a few bad races, you get pretty down. For me though, I always have a day after a race where I’m disappointed, but then you keep on going and you believe in yourself for the next race. After a bad season – I had those for sure – I actually feel more motivated then, because I know I can do better.

F.O.T: A lot of people want to be healthy and to train, but struggle with motivation; Do you ever feel you just want to go back to bed?

MO: I never had a problem going to the gym. I kind of like it. I had an ACL injury a few years back, and before the surgery, I went to the gym, because that’s what I do. Then I suddenly felt ‘what am I doing here – I have no motivation because everything is so far away from skiing’. It didn’t matter whether I trained because I’d lose it all after surgery. I realized at that point that what gets me to the gym is that I have a goal. It’s the goal that gets me there. I want to compete in skiing, I want to do that well, that’s the goal, and that’s actually why it’s no problem to go to the gym. I didn’t realize that before the injury, but I knew it afterward. If you start to go to the gym and push yourself, at the end of the day, you have a great feeling at the gym that you’ve done something great today!

F.O.T: You mention the importance of rest. What do you do on a rest day?

MO: Sometimes I lie on the sofa and watch TV! Those are very few indeed though. In summer if I’m pre-season training, mobility takes precedent. If I go to the gym and do normal training, it’ll take me 2-2.5 hours. After that, I don’t really want to stretch, so I try to do that as its own session. I get plenty of sleep. I wake up and take an easy breakfast. Then I stretch, I do some foam rolling, focus on some trigger points with physio balls… I do that for more than an hour. Possibly 90 minutes. As an athlete that’s so important for me.

F.O.T: How about sleep?

MO: When we go into pre-season mode, we get out really early onto the glaciers, we need to wake up early in the morning. 22:00 is late for me to go to bed. Also, I usually sleep for an hour in the afternoon before a physical session, sometimes 2 hours! You feel a little weird, a bit lost after you wake up from that, but it’s great in terms of extra energy for the next session.

F.O.T: And what do you do at the gym for 2 whole hours?!

MO: Since my injury, the warm up protocol is LONG! That’s why I stay there for so long, and is why after the session, I do stretching on the following morning, or I’d be there all day!

F.O.T: Your favorite course on the World Cup?

MO: Well, I scored my first podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so that’s up there! When I started World Cup, it was Alta Badia in Italy, then it switched to Kranjska Gora, and then Beaver Creek in the States! I love Colorado, I love the snow, that kind of slope they have there, it’s so much fun to ski. If I were a regular ski tourist, I’d go there for sure!

F.O.T: Do you ski for pleasure these days?!

MO: Not so much. I still enjoy it certainly; if we have some powder skiing when we’re out, I love it. Then you get that wave of emotion and think ‘oh man, skiing is fantastic!’. When you ski red and blue gates all the time, that’s work. The reward is absolutely the results, and that’s fantastic too!

Follow Matts on his pre-season journey thru his Insta HERE and keep up with all the FIS World Cup online HERE.

The post INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON! appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

from Donald Fitness Tips http://fitnessontoast.com/2017/09/04/interview-with-top-swedish-ski-team-athlete-matts-olsson/

[yolandadsims]

INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON!

Last month, I was incredibly fortunate to meet some of my country’s top Alpine athletes at the HQ of Ski Team Sweden in Åre. Amongst them, I spent some time with Matts Olsson, a World Championship medalist and one of the top male FIS World Cup competitors from Sweden, with a specialization in Giant Slalom. He’s an ultra-experienced hand on the circuit, powering through 9 seasons, and has just had one of his best in 2016/17 with two podium finishes. It struck me that the younger members of the team really look up to those who’ve given battle alongside the international legends of the sport, and Matts wears his experience with great wisdom and humility. It was with great pleasure that I sat down to ask him about his training, his mental approach, his diet, and his ethos on competition! Here’s what I learned…

F.O.T:  Can you say how you get into skiing, your background?

MO: I don’t remember the moment I started to ski but I’ve seen photos, my parents told me I was 3 years old. That wasn’t in Are, I was from way more South, the slopes aren’t that fantastic! I grew up close to Karlstad, which was the main reason I started to ski because it was convenient! My parents weren’t into skiing so much – they knew about it, they followed Ingmar Stenmark for sure, but they didn’t have any skiing background. I just started, and then I started to like it!

F.O.T: Do you remember when you realized you loved skiing?

MO: At an early age, I knew that I wanted to be an athlete. I didn’t know skiing was my biggest passion. I played soccer, hockey, and skiing. It started to become obvious at the age of 11 or 12. I did all the training with gates, but I used to do free skiing in woods with friends. That was the biggest love, the feeling of being free! When I chose skiing 100%, that was because, in the hockey arena, I wasn’t as free as I was on skis!

F.O.T: It’s much more a solo sport, vs a team sport in hockey. Is that how you see it?

MO: Yes absolutely, that fitted my personality better, to do it alone. I don’t know why but that’s the way I am! Now, when we’re in Ski Team Sweden, to be out with the guys, that’s 80% of the fun. I’m super lucky to have team mates I really like and like to spend time with them.

F.O.T: How much of an athlete do you have to be?

MO: It’s hard for people to know. What you see is that you start on the top of a mountain and you ski down! And if you’re used to skiing on easy slopes for your ski holiday, it doesn’t feel like a big deal. But when you start to ski World Cup slopes when it’s actually not snow that you’re skiing on, but rather ice… And then you in the turns, you can generate 3-400kg of pressure loaded onto your legs, mixed with bumps that you don’t see and an uneven surface that takes a lot of balance to correct… Alpine Ski Racers won’t be best in any single discipline of physical abilities, but in the big picture, an alpine skier will do really well overall.

F.O.T: How do you train for that. How does a week look like in training?

MO: That’s different from person to person. For me, I train hard for 2 days, then I rest one day, and I train hard for 2 days again, and then I rest one day again. I don’t work out for the whole week and take the weekend off; I’m more two-and-one. If I work on a weekend, so I work a weekend. I focus on endurance, strength, agility, a bunch of different competencies. The main focus is often core and legs. In the past, I used to separate the body part that I wanted to train and focus on that for the day. Now I mix it up more; I can’t explain why, my physical trainer knows why I do that, I trust him and I follow the program.

F.O.T: How do you fuel that, in terms of nutrition?

MO: I don’t break things down by macros and measure them by grams. I eat a lot, I try to eat healthily, I try to get the right amounts of food, but I eat what I eat. If I train hard, I try to eat a lot, and I see how I feel. If I’m losing kilograms, I need to do something about it; I solve to a body weight. You need to be good in a lot of different areas, but you only have so much focus, so I like to keep some parts a little simpler and focus on the things that I feel are more important to my training.

F.O.T: What’s your guilty pleasure?

MO: I don’t know if I want to say, but I like snus every now and again, and I drink too much coffee I think. But that’s pretty much it. I don’t have to drink beer or eat junk food – I’m fine without that.

F.O.T: Mental focus; when you’re at the top of the starter gate, how do you fire yourself up to give it the most?

MO: Now I’m almost 29; I’ve done ski racing for a while. In the beginning, you try to find your way to see what’s working. You might think ‘it was a good race, what did I do differently?’. For many years, I learned how I wanted to approach a race mentally. Now my first step is to decide the day before that it will be war tomorrow, i have to go out there and be ready.  At the start, you have to get it fired up. I talk to myself with a few words, BEAST MODE!

F.O.T: Do you feel fear?

MO: Not now. I ski only Giant Slalom. I Don’t see that as such a high-speed discipline. When i was a junior and started to compete in World Cup, I did a few downhills. I was a good speed skier, but then I definitely felt the fear. The speed was fine, but the jumps were a nightmare, as I never felt so comfortable in the air. I never crashed in a jump, but I didn’t know how to do it! Then you start to ski too soon on the super tough hills with jumps that are too big. With a different gradual approach, it might have worked. But some of the downhill guys have a mental approach that’s slightly unhinged, and you need that to tackle some of those runs. They don’t see what could happen, they just go for it. They love the adrenaline.

F.O.T: Which slope was it that made you wonder…

MO: A couple of the big jumps in Val Gardena, Italy. There’s a huge jump, not the one by the finish, but the one further up (See video about that HERE). It’s not just a jump where things fall away, that’s normal; it then goes up again, so it’s a gap jump which requires a 60-80m jump. At the inspection, I didn’t fancy my chances on that. I only did one training run. I didn’t really ‘ski’ the top part, I was just mentally preparing for the jump and it was pretty exhausting!

F.O.T: Have you had any struggles in your ski career, and how have you overcome those?

MO: As a kid, it was no trouble; I won races, and everything was fine. But then, later on, you have more difficult years where results aren’t there. After a few bad races, you get pretty down. For me though, I always have a day after a race where I’m disappointed, but then you keep on going and you believe in yourself for the next race. After a bad season – I had those for sure – I actually feel more motivated then, because I know I can do better.

F.O.T: A lot of people want to be healthy and to train, but struggle with motivation; Do you ever feel you just want to go back to bed?

MO: I never had a problem going to the gym. I kind of like it. I had an ACL injury a few years back, and before the surgery, I went to the gym, because that’s what I do. Then I suddenly felt ‘what am I doing here – I have no motivation because everything is so far away from skiing’. It didn’t matter whether I trained because I’d lose it all after surgery. I realized at that point that what gets me to the gym is that I have a goal. It’s the goal that gets me there. I want to compete in skiing, I want to do that well, that’s the goal, and that’s actually why it’s no problem to go to the gym. I didn’t realize that before the injury, but I knew it afterward. If you start to go to the gym and push yourself, at the end of the day, you have a great feeling at the gym that you’ve done something great today!

F.O.T: You mention the importance of rest. What do you do on a rest day?

MO: Sometimes I lie on the sofa and watch TV! Those are very few indeed though. In summer if I’m pre-season training, mobility takes precedent. If I go to the gym and do normal training, it’ll take me 2-2.5 hours. After that, I don’t really want to stretch, so I try to do that as its own session. I get plenty of sleep. I wake up and take an easy breakfast. Then I stretch, I do some foam rolling, focus on some trigger points with physio balls… I do that for more than an hour. Possibly 90 minutes. As an athlete that’s so important for me.

F.O.T: How about sleep?

MO: When we go into pre-season mode, we get out really early onto the glaciers, we need to wake up early in the morning. 22:00 is late for me to go to bed. Also, I usually sleep for an hour in the afternoon before a physical session, sometimes 2 hours! You feel a little weird, a bit lost after you wake up from that, but it’s great in terms of extra energy for the next session.

F.O.T: And what do you do at the gym for 2 whole hours?!

MO: Since my injury, the warm up protocol is LONG! That’s why I stay there for so long, and is why after the session, I do stretching on the following morning, or I’d be there all day!

F.O.T: Your favorite course on the World Cup?

MO: Well, I scored my first podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so that’s up there! When I started World Cup, it was Alta Badia in Italy, then it switched to Kranjska Gora, and then Beaver Creek in the States! I love Colorado, I love the snow, that kind of slope they have there, it’s so much fun to ski. If I were a regular ski tourist, I’d go there for sure!

F.O.T: Do you ski for pleasure these days?!

MO: Not so much. I still enjoy it certainly; if we have some powder skiing when we’re out, I love it. Then you get that wave of emotion and think ‘oh man, skiing is fantastic!’. When you ski red and blue gates all the time, that’s work. The reward is absolutely the results, and that’s fantastic too!

Follow Matts on his pre-season journey thru his Insta HERE and keep up with all the FIS World Cup online HERE.

The post INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON! appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

from Health And Fitness Updates http://fitnessontoast.com/2017/09/04/interview-with-top-swedish-ski-team-athlete-matts-olsson/

[muscledemandsrespect]

INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON!

Last month, I was incredibly fortunate to meet some of my country’s top Alpine athletes at the HQ of Ski Team Sweden in Åre. Amongst them, I spent some time with Matts Olsson, a World Championship medalist and one of the top male FIS World Cup competitors from Sweden, with a specialization in Giant Slalom. He’s an ultra-experienced hand on the circuit, powering through 9 seasons, and has just had one of his best in 2016/17 with two podium finishes. It struck me that the younger members of the team really look up to those who’ve given battle alongside the international legends of the sport, and Matts wears his experience with great wisdom and humility. It was with great pleasure that I sat down to ask him about his training, his mental approach, his diet, and his ethos on competition! Here’s what I learned…

F.O.T:  Can you say how you get into skiing, your background?

MO: I don’t remember the moment I started to ski but I’ve seen photos, my parents told me I was 3 years old. That wasn’t in Are, I was from way more South, the slopes aren’t that fantastic! I grew up close to Karlstad, which was the main reason I started to ski because it was convenient! My parents weren’t into skiing so much – they knew about it, they followed Ingmar Stenmark for sure, but they didn’t have any skiing background. I just started, and then I started to like it!

F.O.T: Do you remember when you realized you loved skiing?

MO: At an early age, I knew that I wanted to be an athlete. I didn’t know skiing was my biggest passion. I played soccer, hockey, and skiing. It started to become obvious at the age of 11 or 12. I did all the training with gates, but I used to do free skiing in woods with friends. That was the biggest love, the feeling of being free! When I chose skiing 100%, that was because, in the hockey arena, I wasn’t as free as I was on skis!

F.O.T: It’s much more a solo sport, vs a team sport in hockey. Is that how you see it?

MO: Yes absolutely, that fitted my personality better, to do it alone. I don’t know why but that’s the way I am! Now, when we’re in Ski Team Sweden, to be out with the guys, that’s 80% of the fun. I’m super lucky to have team mates I really like and like to spend time with them.

F.O.T: How much of an athlete do you have to be?

MO: It’s hard for people to know. What you see is that you start on the top of a mountain and you ski down! And if you’re used to skiing on easy slopes for your ski holiday, it doesn’t feel like a big deal. But when you start to ski World Cup slopes when it’s actually not snow that you’re skiing on, but rather ice… And then you in the turns, you can generate 3-400kg of pressure loaded onto your legs, mixed with bumps that you don’t see and an uneven surface that takes a lot of balance to correct… Alpine Ski Racers won’t be best in any single discipline of physical abilities, but in the big picture, an alpine skier will do really well overall.

F.O.T: How do you train for that. How does a week look like in training?

MO: That’s different from person to person. For me, I train hard for 2 days, then I rest one day, and I train hard for 2 days again, and then I rest one day again. I don’t work out for the whole week and take the weekend off; I’m more two-and-one. If I work on a weekend, so I work a weekend. I focus on endurance, strength, agility, a bunch of different competencies. The main focus is often core and legs. In the past, I used to separate the body part that I wanted to train and focus on that for the day. Now I mix it up more; I can’t explain why, my physical trainer knows why I do that, I trust him and I follow the program.

F.O.T: How do you fuel that, in terms of nutrition?

MO: I don’t break things down by macros and measure them by grams. I eat a lot, I try to eat healthily, I try to get the right amounts of food, but I eat what I eat. If I train hard, I try to eat a lot, and I see how I feel. If I’m losing kilograms, I need to do something about it; I solve to a body weight. You need to be good in a lot of different areas, but you only have so much focus, so I like to keep some parts a little simpler and focus on the things that I feel are more important to my training.

F.O.T: What’s your guilty pleasure?

MO: I don’t know if I want to say, but I like snus every now and again, and I drink too much coffee I think. But that’s pretty much it. I don’t have to drink beer or eat junk food – I’m fine without that.

F.O.T: Mental focus; when you’re at the top of the starter gate, how do you fire yourself up to give it the most?

MO: Now I’m almost 29; I’ve done ski racing for a while. In the beginning, you try to find your way to see what’s working. You might think ‘it was a good race, what did I do differently?’. For many years, I learned how I wanted to approach a race mentally. Now my first step is to decide the day before that it will be war tomorrow, i have to go out there and be ready.  At the start, you have to get it fired up. I talk to myself with a few words, BEAST MODE!

F.O.T: Do you feel fear?

MO: Not now. I ski only Giant Slalom. I Don’t see that as such a high-speed discipline. When i was a junior and started to compete in World Cup, I did a few downhills. I was a good speed skier, but then I definitely felt the fear. The speed was fine, but the jumps were a nightmare, as I never felt so comfortable in the air. I never crashed in a jump, but I didn’t know how to do it! Then you start to ski too soon on the super tough hills with jumps that are too big. With a different gradual approach, it might have worked. But some of the downhill guys have a mental approach that’s slightly unhinged, and you need that to tackle some of those runs. They don’t see what could happen, they just go for it. They love the adrenaline.

F.O.T: Which slope was it that made you wonder…

MO: A couple of the big jumps in Val Gardena, Italy. There’s a huge jump, not the one by the finish, but the one further up (See video about that HERE). It’s not just a jump where things fall away, that’s normal; it then goes up again, so it’s a gap jump which requires a 60-80m jump. At the inspection, I didn’t fancy my chances on that. I only did one training run. I didn’t really ‘ski’ the top part, I was just mentally preparing for the jump and it was pretty exhausting!

F.O.T: Have you had any struggles in your ski career, and how have you overcome those?

MO: As a kid, it was no trouble; I won races, and everything was fine. But then, later on, you have more difficult years where results aren’t there. After a few bad races, you get pretty down. For me though, I always have a day after a race where I’m disappointed, but then you keep on going and you believe in yourself for the next race. After a bad season – I had those for sure – I actually feel more motivated then, because I know I can do better.

F.O.T: A lot of people want to be healthy and to train, but struggle with motivation; Do you ever feel you just want to go back to bed?

MO: I never had a problem going to the gym. I kind of like it. I had an ACL injury a few years back, and before the surgery, I went to the gym, because that’s what I do. Then I suddenly felt ‘what am I doing here – I have no motivation because everything is so far away from skiing’. It didn’t matter whether I trained because I’d lose it all after surgery. I realized at that point that what gets me to the gym is that I have a goal. It’s the goal that gets me there. I want to compete in skiing, I want to do that well, that’s the goal, and that’s actually why it’s no problem to go to the gym. I didn’t realize that before the injury, but I knew it afterward. If you start to go to the gym and push yourself, at the end of the day, you have a great feeling at the gym that you’ve done something great today!

F.O.T: You mention the importance of rest. What do you do on a rest day?

MO: Sometimes I lie on the sofa and watch TV! Those are very few indeed though. In summer if I’m pre-season training, mobility takes precedent. If I go to the gym and do normal training, it’ll take me 2-2.5 hours. After that, I don’t really want to stretch, so I try to do that as its own session. I get plenty of sleep. I wake up and take an easy breakfast. Then I stretch, I do some foam rolling, focus on some trigger points with physio balls… I do that for more than an hour. Possibly 90 minutes. As an athlete that’s so important for me.

F.O.T: How about sleep?

MO: When we go into pre-season mode, we get out really early onto the glaciers, we need to wake up early in the morning. 22:00 is late for me to go to bed. Also, I usually sleep for an hour in the afternoon before a physical session, sometimes 2 hours! You feel a little weird, a bit lost after you wake up from that, but it’s great in terms of extra energy for the next session.

F.O.T: And what do you do at the gym for 2 whole hours?!

MO: Since my injury, the warm up protocol is LONG! That’s why I stay there for so long, and is why after the session, I do stretching on the following morning, or I’d be there all day!

F.O.T: Your favorite course on the World Cup?

MO: Well, I scored my first podium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, so that’s up there! When I started World Cup, it was Alta Badia in Italy, then it switched to Kranjska Gora, and then Beaver Creek in the States! I love Colorado, I love the snow, that kind of slope they have there, it’s so much fun to ski. If I were a regular ski tourist, I’d go there for sure!

F.O.T: Do you ski for pleasure these days?!

MO: Not so much. I still enjoy it certainly; if we have some powder skiing when we’re out, I love it. Then you get that wave of emotion and think ‘oh man, skiing is fantastic!’. When you ski red and blue gates all the time, that’s work. The reward is absolutely the results, and that’s fantastic too!

Follow Matts on his pre-season journey thru his Insta HERE and keep up with all the FIS World Cup online HERE.

The post INTERVIEW W/ TOP SKI ATHLETE, MATTS OLSSON! appeared first on Fitness on Toast.

from Fitness on Toast http://ift.tt/2wzzQu1 via IFTTT