Ex-Olympian Michael Klim’s love of fitness began from a very young age: “I think I actually learnt to swim around the same time that I learnt to walk,” said Klim who grew up in Melbourne, Australia. “ I had a very transient lifestyle growing up and while our family moved around all of the time, swimming and sport were the constant, consistent and stable part of my life that I could always rely on.”

Hanging up his goggles 9 years ago, the professional swimmer turned his focus to creating a new line of unisex beauty and lifestyle products, Milk & Co. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, Klim gives us a glimpse of the fitness routine he swears by.

ROUTINE
I try to have 3 to 4 structured exercise sessions such as boot camp, circuit training (Cross Fit) or a personal training class and 2 to 3 incidental exercise sessions such as surfing, swimming and cycling each week. My key is to move my body every day and to mix it up a lot so I never get stale and this way my body has to continually adapt to the constant changes in my exercise routine. Most importantly, I feel that this routine keeps things interesting and I never lose interest in what I’m doing and keeping it social always helps too.

GEAR
As my workouts vary dramatically I don’t have set equipment or gear that I consistently use and because I travel a lot and use different gyms and workout spaces, it is important for me to be adaptable to whatever is available. It is actually very easy to have a great complete body work-out without any equipment at all and to only use your own body weight. My favourite bits of equipment are the Olympic bar for Olympic lifting such as dead lifts, cleans and power cleans, chin up bar, kettlebells, medicine balls, TRX (great while in transit!), battle ropes and of course swimming goggles are crucial! As important are my products from my Milk by Michael Klim skincare range – important for post-workout to feel clean and reinvigorated!

SPECIFICS
I try to make sure I cover all body parts in every workout from legs, core, back and shoulders. Most of my sessions are HIIT sessions, so I also include a lot of cardio such as rowing, running, skipping, burpees and cycling in each session or high-intensity exercises such as sled pushes, battle ropes, power cleans etc…

THE GOAL
My goal is to feel like I am constantly challenging myself no matter how fit I am. I don’t have a specific goal except for the occasional ocean swim or fun ride or run. I try to listen to my body to make sure I don’t get injured and have to miss out on training. I try to leave each session knowing I’ve worked hard and ultimately feel good from it.

DIET
I believe it’s important to eat a well-balanced diet from all different food groups. I don’t have any allergies, so I make sure I consume plenty of dairy, protein – beef, chicken and fish and also plenty of greens. With so many different opinions and theories, I think it can be very confusing these days to know what is best to consume, so I try to apply these simple rules; control portion sizes, drink plenty of water, eat within an hour post exercise to improve recovery, eat all food groups, consume a minimal amount of processed food, alcohol/sweets/junk like everything in life a little bit in moderation is a-ok. It’s all about balance!

By Oliver Grand