Friskis & Svettis Borlänge

Friskis&Svettis gym has been mentioned a lot in my previous posts. It is not only my favourite place for working out in Borlänge, but also very popular among Dalarna students, who spend their free time training there.

Friskis&Svettis is a non-profit organizaion aiming at offering fun and easily accessible exercise to the general public (their website: http://borlange.friskissvettis.se/english ). In the gym I always see people of different ages, backgrounds, and fitness levels. I think everyone can find something suitable there, according to their abilities and preferences.

My favorite type of training is aerobics and moving to music, which is offered in Jympa group trainings. There are many different Jympa types: basic, medium, intensive, puls, and soft. There are also HIT (with weights), step, aerobics, dancing, core (for the spine, abdominal and back muscles), boxing, and yoga. It is possible to start training at any level. After going to the gym for over half a year, I feel I have advanced a lot. Jympa medium and Jympa intensive are my favorites at the moment. I also like yoga, especially in combination with a more active Jympa. In this case you first warm up and then stretch in yoga. HIT is a more demanding training and involves lifting weights.

The gym also has a Spinning room, where you cycle to music, and a Cirkelgym, where you use different training machines one after another in a circle. The main gym is equipped with bicycles, running tracks, ellipticals, upper body and core exercise equipment, different kinds of weights and barbells, wellness balls, etc. Everything is new, modern, and user friendly; you can check your heart rate and choose different exercise modes on the training machines.

Swedish people are well-known for their love for sports in general, and in Friskis, besides training, I’ve also got some cultural insights. For example, I’ve been amazed at how many elderly people are exercising in Sweden, and they are sometimes even stronger than me! I was also quite surprised that men are attending jympas and aerobics, which would be considered a women’s type of training in my country. And vice versa, I see many Swedish girls pumping iron and looking quite muscular as a result. During Yoga it is also possible to practise Swedish, because everyone is following the leader, who is commenting on all the moves in Swedish.  

An interesting fact is that Friskis&Svettis in Borlänge has 6347 members, which is 12.7% of the population of Borlänge. Another good thing to know is that most of the employees, including the training instructors, are volunteers and aren’t paid for their work. In Friskis&Svettis Borlänge there are currently around 230 volunteers (http://borlange.friskissvettis.se/om-oss/snabbfakta). It is also possible to apply for a volunteer position at Friskis.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea of what’s going on in Friskis&Svetis: