Posts tagged Monkey Ninja Bootcamp
Marne's Fuse Fitness Success Story!

Hi Fusers!

It’s a new year, and we’ve got our first client success story of 2018! This month we’re giving recognition and praise to Fuse member Marne Sussman. A member since June 2017, Marne has been a force to reckon with, unwavering in her consistency. And guess what consistency gets you? The badge of getting fit, strong, kicking ass and taking names. Boom.

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While Marne has just been here less than a year so far, she has been an awesome addition to Fuse, bringing a healthy dose of determination, power and fortitude, especially when tackling tough to master exercises. Having been a successful, competitive rugby player in her earlier years proves her mental and physical prowess. If you know anything about rugby, it is freaking tough. And Marne applies that same toughness to her workouts. 

After having two kids and holding down a demanding career as a lawyer, Marne was ready to get back into shape. Training hard was nothing new to her, and Marne came in knowing what it takes push herself and hit her goals. Just goes to show, you can take the person out of the competitive athlete, but you can’t take the athlete out of the person. 

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I’ve been lucky, as Marne has been a regular at my 8am Monkey Ninja Bootcamp classes since she started. She has brought a healthy dose of power and hard work to shake up the classes. In just about 7 months, Marne has really tackled her goals, getting fit, lean, and super strong—back into fighting shape! And, a bonus for me—almost every morning she’s taking class, we get a short visit from her adorable daughter with the best dimples you ever did see. So really, it’s a win win ;)

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Here are a few words from Marne herself. Enjoy! :)

I had been thinking about joining Fuse for over a year as I’d been by there many times since my daughter was born. I just finally made the choice to do it and get back into shape. I had gained about 10 lbs after stopping breastfeeding my daughter and my clothes weren’t fitting right so I wanted to try to lose weight, but mostly I wanted to get fit.

The biggest challenge I have encountered has been fitting working out into my schedule. With two young kids and a job as a partner at a law firm in SF it is really hard to make time for classes. I’ve resorted to two 6am classes a week and given up sleep for fitness, but it is infinitely worth it. Continuing to come back is not a problem as the group of people, instructors, and results make continuing a no brainer.

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I’m proud that I can do a pistol squat [single-leg squat]! (on one side only) ☺ Seriously though, my inner athlete is finally coming back after about an 8 year hiatus. I have always been an athlete and pretty fit and one of the fastest/strongest on every team I was ever on, so to start to get back to that level of strength and fitness and remember that my body is strong and that athlete is still there is awesome. I’m proud that I committed to 3 days/week for over 6 months now and I’m trying to figure out ways to get to class more times in the week. The change in my fitness is incredible. I could barely do burpees when I started and could only do maybe 1 pushup from my feet. Now I can rip off a set of 10 pushups and do multiple sets of them in one class. It’s a pretty amazing change and feels great!

My only regret is that I didn’t join sooner! I seriously considered it 3 years ago when my daughter was 6 months old and was just too afraid of the unknown and how out of shape I was to pull the trigger. I should have done it then! So for anyone thinking about joining or considering a new fitness regime, just do it! I wish I hadn’t wasted 2.5 years of fitness!!! It’s not going to get any easier the more time goes by, that’s for sure.

Like I said before, Marne is kicking ass and taking names. Better watch out for this one, it sounds like anything she puts her mind to, she’s not afraid to jump right in, work her butt off, and attack her goals. We love having you Marne, you truly make a great addition to our gym!

Yours in health,

Kristin at Fuse Fitness

P.S. As always, please feel free to contact us by filling out the form below if you have any questions or if you would like to sign up for a free consultation.

Catching up and welcoming in 2015 at The Fuse!

Hi Fusers! We've been out of touch a bit here on the blog, but looking forward to more blogging this year! We hope 2015 is off to a good start for everyone! Here's a bit about what we've been up to at The Fuse in the last few months....

Classes have been awesome, lots of dedicated clients working their booties off, continuing to amaze us with their hard work, dedication to their health, and continuous gains in strength.

We had an awesome turnout and beautiful day for our Annual Outdoor Thanksgiving Bootcamp:

Check out those beautiful fall leaves!

"After" group shot!

We had a fun, dedicated group get after our Annual Outdoor Christmas Eve "12 Days of Xmas" Workout:

Love the doggies!

Clients getting at it in bootcamp in January:

Go Dagi!

Nice pike Andrea!

Yeah Gail!!

We decided to do a Wall Ball Challenge for the month of February, where you complete the max amount of wall ball shots in one minute. Competition has been fierce, and the winner at the end of the month will win a Fit Bit Flex. Who's going to take the prize?!

Lastly, we had a great Valentine's Day Outdoor Bootcamp last weekend. We did a fun, challenging partner workout.

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The weather was amazing (hello 75 degree weather in February) and our clients worked so hard to complete this challenge. Started out with a game of freeze tag...

Frank was "it" because he was late :)

There were box jumps:

100 box jumps per team

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Burpees and planks:

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Partner leg throws:

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High five squat jumps:

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Wall ball partner pass:

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And of course, adorable kiddos:

How cute is he?!

Love!!

And with that, I'm going to wrap it up. Be sure to follow us on Facebook for daily health tips, recipes, workouts and fun!  It's been a great few months, and we're looking forward to entering into the spring and summer months with more outdoor weekend bootcamps.

Keep up the great work Fusers!!

Much love,

Kristin at The Fuse

Saturday Monkey Ninjas

Hi Fusers! Hope the weekend has been treating you well. It's been so beautiful outside! Hope you were able to get outside and enjoy the weather. We headed out for a hike in the El Cerrito hills and it was so lovely to have the warm sun on my back, see the early signs of spring, and breathe in the fresh air.

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Just wanted to quickly share a few photos and short video clip of my Saturday morning Monkey Ninjas. This is a fiercely hard-working group I tell ya.

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And the video clip....

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Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening! Great week of classes and training sessions last week, looking forward to another!

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness

What's Your Body Worth to You?

Hi Fusers! Happy Friday to all of you!! Hope you guys have some fun plans this weekend. Don't forget that we're having our Valentine's Day Outdoor Bootcamp tomorrow (Sat. Feb. 9th) at 10:45am at the Albany Veteran's Memorial Park, which is located behind Albany High. Sign up online or just show up! Free for everyone, so bring your Valentine.

Just wanted to remind everyone of what motivated us this week....

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Important words to live by I tell ya. Easy to forget this and take our bodies for granted....

Anyway, happy weekending to you!

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness

Good Times

Hi everyone! I know, I know, it's been a while.....all kinds of crazy have been going on over here. Crazy good though! And definitely good times :)

For those of you who don't know, my husband's brand spanking new bar just opened!! It's called The Night Light, located at 311 Broadway in Oakland, Jack London Square. It is gorgeous! He's been working on this project for over a year, and the final results are amazing. There you have it, my shameless shout-out. Come down and check it out!

Happy Spring! I can't tell you how happy I am that it's spring! (although it doesn't quite look like spring out there today) Doesn't matter though, summer is on it's way!! Hip hip hooray!

So let's see...a few things that have been going on this month at The Fuse. At the beginning of the month we hosted a group of St. Mary's high schoolers for a yoga class with Cynthea Denise. Here they are after class:

All month long we've been doing a tuck jump challenge. Whoever does the most tuck jumps in 1 minute wins a $100 gift certificate to Nike. The race is on! There's only 1 day left, and there are a few women who are neck and neck, in the 100+ range....tomorrow they'll both be in do defend their jumps and compete for the prize. Have you tried doing tuck jumps lately? Over 100 in a minute is just down right crazy!! And more importantly, everyone has been improving and crushing their previous scores! Making Pascha and I so proud!

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And that, my friends, is my Monkey Ninja. Yes, they really do exist. Isn't that pretty bad-ass? I think so. And here's my Iron Work's Monkey Ninjas in action, the last few seconds of a really intense workout.

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And lastly, here's a quick video of this morning's TRX Power class getting worked by Pacha in this intense, TRX circuit!

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Happy Friday to you all! And, if you're around Oakland tonight, come have a drink with me at The Night Light! I'll be there for a bit!

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness, www.thefusefitnessstudio.com

Thankful

Hi friends :) First off, I want to wish my wonderful friend and business partner Pascha a very happy birthday! This has been a wonderful and crazy last few months, and I'm so very grateful to be doing this with you :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did :)

Mine started with an awesome morning Monkey Ninja Bootcamp--shout out to Beverly, Damon, Josh, Kristin, Lashunda, Kattt, Beth, Noa, Rebecca, Joanne, Daniela, and Samantha. We jumped, lunged, chopped, crawled and sweated our way through an intense calorie and fat burning workout--no guilt eating later for us :)

Afterward, I joined my family at my parents' house--we had a small gathering this year, my parents, my husband Doug, my lil' bro Jase, and my step-daughter Ava. Major props to my mom who had been cooking and preparing food for a couple days. I joined in helping her as soon as I arrived. My main contributions were a pumpkin pie and preparing and cooking the green beans and brussel sprouts.

A few pics of some of our food....

Lastly, I'd like to share a few things I'm thankful for, as well as some of the things my family is thankful for (we shared what we were thankful for during dinner)....

1. My family--there is nothing more important to me than my family. I appreciate how close we all our and how accepting everyone is. We are notorious for always having a good time, filled with laughter, joking around, lots of food and drinks.....my friends love coming over for celebrations because my family is just that fun.

2. According to Ava, my 10 year old step-daughter--"I'm thankful for my family, my friends, my pets and the planet Earth." Well said little one, and well rehearsed. Her response, "I know, we had to recite this in class."

Luckily for her, when she recited what she's thankful for, she had no idea what was coming. Something else to add to the list--dessert :)

3. My mom told a touching story about seeing a woman at the grocery store helping her daughter out of the car. She said the litte girl was probably about Ava's age and had cerebal palsy. Seeing this woman made her feel very grateful for everything we have. It's not perfect, but it's plenty.

4. "Margaritas!" A little out of character, but that was my dad's response. He spoke the truth though, maybe even what we were all thinking in the back of our heads, margaritas are something to be very grateful for.

See that bottle of tequilla behind the turkey...um yeah, so we have a thing for  margaritas. We'll keep working on that bottle the rest of the weekend :)

All joking aside, I'm truly grateful for the love and support of my family and friends, for the amazing oppportunities I've had thus far in my life, for my health, and for being able to do what I love--share my views on fitness and health with all of you. Thank you for being a part of my life :)

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness, www.thefusefitnessstudio.com

Focusing on the Positive...

Hey everyone! Happy almost Friday to you! Probably will be Friday by the time you read this :)

So this week has been kinda up and down for me. There's been a lot of great things, but I've felt pretty run down all week. I think I hit a wall....and really needed some extra rest. Thankfully, I had a free hour yesterday due to a client being out of town, and I was able to hit the sauna at Iron Works...yeah, I totally fell asleep. But I woke up feeling really rejuvenated...sometimes a little extra rest does the trick ;)

But I'd rather focus on the positive things....so here's a recap in photos and videos.

We have a new studio mascot, first discovered last Saturday. She's stayed around all week, hanging out by our front door. And yes, she's still alive, she was crawling around just earlier this evening.

Awesome Sunday sunset, captured from my living room:

This never gets old :)

I had to take a photo of my second favorite cat (1st favorite being my own of course :) ). Her name is Kit and I'm pretty sure she's having a love affair with my gym bag. For 3 years I have been going to my clients' home to train them, and Kit just can't get enough of my bag. She loves to rub herself all over it, get in and hang out. She gets a bit embarrassed when I try to take her picture, so I have to be covert about it :)

I wouldn't want to hurt my kitty's feelings, so I've gotta post a pic of her too. She is not as sweet as Kit, she bites and scratches....but I love her anyway :)

Cute, huh?

I also wanted to give a huge shout out to all our students and clients! We have been so impressed with everyone's pushups this week! It's been really awesome seeing you all break your records day after day....lovin' it!

Here's an awesome clip from this evening's Monkey Ninja Bootcamp, you guys killed it!

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We're finishing getting ready for a Halloween party for my daughter and her girlfriends this weekend. She's very excited....and I've got a lot of baking left to do! Call me crazy, but I couldn't bear buying her a whole bunch of junky, processed candy for the goody bags. Instead, I signed myself up for making homemade Halloween treats to put in the bags....you know, in all my spare time :) It's a win win--I feel better about knowing that the homemade treats have quality ingredients. She's happy because even though she would love a bunch of candy, she knows that homemade treats always taste better in the end. I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow evening :)

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Happy Weekend and Happy Halloween!

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness

Inspirational Words

Hi everyone :) Here we are again, successfully made it through the mid-week hump. Which means the weekend is on the horizon :) I hope your week has been great so far. Mine has been pretty rockin'--some great workouts, funny conversations, inspiring words and healthy food. Not too shabby :) Here's what my Monkey Ninja Bootcamp at Iron Works did today, pretty tough, definitely awesome.

As you know, our winner for last month's "Highest Class Attendance" challenge was the awesome Rebecca Merino, with a whopping total of 28 classes. That's right, 28 solid hours of hard-core exercise....pretty inspiring, wouldn't you say? It was a very tight race, and while we could only give away one prize (a gift certificate to the awesome masseuse Adrienne of Mend in downtown Berkeley, website http://www.adriennesaltzbergcmt.com/), I also wanted to give a shout out to Kattt Atchley, our runner-up, attending 27 classes!

In the spirit of letting these fabulous women inspire you, we invited them both to do a quick interview to share with the rest of our students/clients. Thankfully, they both agreed :)

Here are the questions we asked, along with their answers. Be inspired ;)

1. How long have you been coming to The Fuse Fitness?

Rebecca: "Since it opened, but before that, I was going to Kristin's Saturday Monkey Ninja Bootcamp at the park."

Kattt: "I have attended classes since the last week of June."

2. What are your favorite classes and why?

R: "I take TRX, Bootcamp, and Metabolic Surge regularly.  But my favorite class has to be Yoga Tune Up.  After a week of doing all the other classes, it feels like heaven to massage and stretch the muscles.  However, I love Yoga Tune Up because of the other classes.  So if I could only take one class a week, I'd have to go with where it all began for me, Saturday Bootcamp."

K: "My favorite classes are power yoga, pilates fusion, monkey ninja, slow flow yoga - from intense to subtle. I like the classes because I always feel better *afterward* and I like the feeling of accomplishment. I like the "I did it!" feeling. As I've developed stamina and feel more secure in the poses and movements, I am learning (and enjoying) how to increase the intensity. Also, through doing these exercises, I am learning anatomy, and beginning to understand my body in new ways through these exercises (e.g., incorporating breathing, and using core muscles, especially my gluteal muscles)."

3. What Fitness goals have you set for yourself if any and have you achieved any of them?

R:  "I don't really have any specific fitness goal. I primarily workout because I love the feeling of being in shape and the adrenaline rush after a tough workout.  Also, to be honest, I like to eat.  I love Little Star Pizza, onion rings, and pretty much anything sweet.  I don't go crazy everyday, but come Friday or Saturday evening, I definitely don't stick to any diet that The Fuse would recommend.  I guess my fitness goal would be to keep working out so I don't feel guilty about some of my nutritional choices."  Rebecca, don't worry, we love to eat too :) A cheat day is always welcome after a week of hard work, sweat and discipline.

K: "I achieved my early goals: my clothing fitting and increased energy. My long term goals are strength, increasing intensity, and learning how to relax after working out."  Kattt, just what we love to hear, clients/members/students ninja-kicking one goal after another...keep up the good work!!

4. Tell us something interesting about yourself.

R: "In the spirit of Halloween, I read Bram Stoker's Dracula at a much too early age and have been scared of vampires ever since.  Most people have fears of spiders, heights, or things like that, but I'm just afraid of a vampire floating into my window while I sleep.  Aly likes to sneak up behind me with fake fangs and freak me out.  Lesson learned, never tell a 9 year old what you're afraid of."  Alright, now I know what to dress like for class on Halloween! Thanks for the idea ;)

K: "I am a visual artist working with pen and ink on paper. I am an experimental vocalist, composer, keyboardist, and combine disciplines into performance, which means I have my own artistic language. I also have an electronic pop laptop band called "The Atchleys", with my husband Kenneth; and "Kattt and Ron" with vocalist Ron Heglin, which is more meditative. I have performed work in art galleries, dance lofts and bars."  Wow Kattt, so cool! Very impressive :)

Well there you have it friends, the words of our two most dedicated and very inspiring members. Let it be motivation to push yourselves in your workouts, today and everyday. Whether it's going to that next level of intensity in Metabolic Surge or letting your mind/body center itself and calm in Slow Flow Yoga, work hard! Nothing in life is worth it if you don't give it your all. Know what I'm sayin'? :)

Yours in Health,

Kristin @ The Fuse Fitness, www.thefusefitnessstudio.com