Radioactive

Every time I hear the song “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons come on the radio I get super pumped for my next show. This is probably the most overused song for bodybuilding routines in 2013 but I’ve yet to get sick of it. I think it’s a combination of the instrumental portion which sounds totally different than the other songs so widely played these days in addition to the repeated lines; “I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones. Enough to make my system blow…I’m radioactive”. If I’m lucky and it comes on Pandora when I’m lifting, I definitely get in an extra few reps!

Right now I’m shooting for the Cape Cod Classic which is a pro-qualifier on October 12^th but I may do one other show depending on my progress over the next few weeks. I put myself on a super strict cleaner-than-usual diet starting this week which in combination with continued intense weight training sessions and increased cardio, I’m hoping gets me to where I need to be in time. Not that my diet was bad before or anything, I’m just taking it to the next level by eating more similarly to peak week (without the carb depletion) going forward. It’s going to be a very boring month or so of eating but I’m extremely focused and energized right now so it’s worth it to me!

As far as physique progress goes right now, I don’t quite have the end-of-August grapefruits for ass cheeks I was hoping for (more like those softish sand-filled medicine balls LOL) but I do see improvement and think that as I keep shedding the top layer of fat off I’ll be happy with the results. I’m going to keep doing the 2x leg days per week for the next month because it’s clearly helping! I have to be careful though because this in combination with the Stairmaster is causing mild shin splints which I know will seriously hinder my performance if they get any worse :/  I realize I could do a different, less stressful form of cardio but all the other machines just bore me to tears! I’ve recruited a new occasional lifting partner as well lately which definitely helps to get me to push harder than usual and gives me some good ideas for ways to alter my exercises for a different effect. Last week we did legs and I was honestly crippled for 4 days afterward. Refusing to skip my 2^nd leg workout that week when I wasn’t fully recovered is probably the main cause of my shin issues but oh well, I’ll work through it! After all, that’s what Ibuprophen is for LOL. Last night we did shoulders. I thought I got a great workout in but I’m still waiting to feel any DOMS L

Today is my mid-week leg day; total coincidence that it falls on hump day, I swear! I’ve been hitting new PRs a lot lately as far as how heavy I can go on basic exercises like squats and deadlifts and I think keeping these moves simple (no added stability aspect) so I can increase the weight is the primary reason for my glute and hamstring improvement. My goal over the next few months is to get to the point where I can walk by someone and hear them say; “Dude, she squats!” Hehehe ;)

Anyway, I suppose I should get back to work here. I’ve been slacking on the blog posts lately so I figured a nice mid-week check-in was in order. Today will luckily be an early exit out of here as I am meeting with a sports agent to discuss potential fitness modeling jobs. I have absolutely no idea if this will pan out or not as I got the contact from a random older guy who approached me in the gym a few weeks back but he appears to run a legit company so I figured it was worth looking into since I would kill to get some paying modeling gigs and have no clue how to break into the industry on my own. Wish me luck and keep training hard, gym rats! xo

What Fitness Means To Me

Hi Gym Rats! Today's confession was written for maXtreme Fitness and can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.maxtremefitness.com/what-fitness-means-to-me/

I hope everyone's week is going well. Please take a moment to comment either below or in the comments section on the maXtreme page and let me know what fitness means to you. There are so many ways to approach this question and I'd love to hear yours. Happy gymming! xo

Skinny Is A Swear Word

Bodybuilding is an individual art form. You go about your training with the goal of building your view of the ideal physique for you. When you are a competitive bodybuilder you take it a step further, using judge feedback from past competitions to help you focus on making improvements for your next competition. When you put so much effort into building yourself day-in and day-out, making diet, social, and lifestyle sacrifices as required to reach your goals, the last thing you want to be told is that you are "skinny".

Skinny is a swear word. Prior to my July show I was feeling pretty good about my progress and was confident that I had made serious improvements over the 3 months since my last competition. One day I asked someone close to me if they thought I had put on some muscle in the time that had passed. The response I got was; "well, you look skinnier". Now, this person not being very familiar with the world of bodybuilding undoubtedly thought they were giving me a compliment. After all, doesn't every girl want to be called skinny? However, I couldn't help but feel down about myself for the rest of the afternoon. Why did I bother asking them in the first place? I was certainly looking for validation in the wrong place!

Call me lean, toned, fit, strong, muscular, ripped, shredded, built, athletic,conditioned, hell, call me a fat fucking pig for all I care (I obviously know that isn't true), just please do not call me skinny! Unless of course you want to seriously piss me off in which case now you know how to do it. Now that I think of it, "thin" and "slender" kind of irk me too.

Another unrelated pet peeve of mine lately is people who just love to offer their nutrition and training advice without being asked for it. Specifically those who are not representative of the goals I am striving for. If you are not a mighty fine physical specimen living a healthy, balanced lifestyle then please keep your comments to yourself. Said differently, if I wouldn't want to look like you then why on earth would you think I would want to follow your advice? I wouldn't.

Okay, it's Saturday night and I realize I should be out on the town enjoying the Summer while it lasts but after spending my morning training my back and bi's with a few Team Maximum members and then soaking up the rays all afternoon at the beach, I am spent. Basically I talked bodybuilding all day long with a variety of people so I came home with a few things on my mind (hence this blog post).

Moving on here. When I look back at the pics from my shows I am always disappointed with how my back looks completely flat, void of all muscle. Somehow, building my back muscles has never been a topic the judges have recommended. Well, apparently I just need to improve on my back flexing while facing away from them because based on these pics I had one of my teammates takes today, my back is looking rock solid!

Lastly, I have now chosen my next (and possibly last) show this year! I'm not announcing it just yet but I've already planned out my new diet plan, returning to my more structured schedule 7 weeks out, and tapering it down further at the 5 week mark. I'm making a couple of minor changes this time around including eliminating all dairy a week earlier and not cutting my starchy carbs back so much during peak week. Like I always say; it's all just a game, and these small tweaks could be just what make the difference! I can't wait to get back on the plan. My month of relaxation is not as exciting as it once sounded LOL. Well, that's all for tonight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and remember, a skinny comment is deserving of a serious beat down.  

When Life Gives You Lemons

It’s no secret that I’ve wanted out of Maine for a while now and since the start of 2013 I’ve been patiently waiting for an amazing opportunity that presented itself at the time to pull through. It was something that would get me out of the state for at least a few months, all travel expenses paid, and possibly open up a lot of doors in the future. Over the past 8 months, feeling very confident that all would work out, I decided to put my social life (in particular dating life) on hold so I could focus on competing. After all, what would be the point of getting too involved with anyone if I was just going to leave after a few months? It was also the main reason I put myself through summer dieting hell, assuming that it was my last chance to compete this year. Well, after all this waiting, I finally got my response late last night. Not going to happen.

So, after a night of nearly no sleep due to severe DOMS brought on by last night’s deadly leg routine as well as thoughts racing through my head like; “Okay, time to write-out a new life plan at 3:30 am because clearly sleep is not an option tonight”, I am left trying to figure out my next step. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and when I look at the big picture this is probably the best case scenario as leaving would not only put a serious dent in my already depleted finances but having to put Mugsy in a kennel for a substantial amount of time would make me really sad. I am of course extremely disappointed but rather than wallow in my defeat I am going to ramp up the intensity with which I pursue my goals and come out of it stronger than ever.

I am now, without a doubt, doing another show this year. And I’m going to crush the competition. I don’t know which one I’ll do yet (there are a few options) but I will be bringing my best physique yet to the stage, you can count on that.

I am now 3 days into my newly designed August training plan and it’s definitely my most intense one yet! Yesterday’s leg routine didn’t include anything all that creative but rather involved a bunch of traditional exercises…done very heavy. This was the breakdown:

-Smith machine squats

-Standing calf raises

-45° leg presses

-Static 2-KB lunges

-BB Romanian deadlifts

-Prone hamstring curls

Owie! A typical successful leg routine will leave me with DOMS for a day or two afterward but a deadly routine will keep me up all night. Not so good for muscle recovery but I’ll surely make up for it tonight by crashing early. Today I will be hitting shoulders, still my favourite muscle group to train, and a little bit of abs. Here’s today’s breakdown:

-Dual cable shoulder raises

-Sitting Arnold presses

-DB standing front raises

-DB snow angels

-SB pikes

-SB MB pullovers

Around New Year’s last year, instead of making resolutions, I had written out a month-to-month list of goals that I wanted to achieve. Of course I blew through them all by the time my April shows came around. I feel that I’ve really accomplished a lot so far this year but in my mind, I’m never 100% satisfied. There’s always room for improvement! Now I’m thinking I need to create a stage 2 version for the rest of 2013. There’s just too many thoughts going through my head right now and I need to focus! This morning I got to work super early and created 4 months worth of new nutrition logs so as soon as I figure out which show(s) I’m doing, I’ll be jumping back on the structured plan. For now it’s just BUILD BUILD BUILD and keep tracking the macros!

So, the moral of this story is that when life gives you lemons, squeeze the shit out of them! Then use the juice to top your tilapia and veggies J

It's Not A Matter Of IF, It's A Matter of WHEN

What a relaxing weekend it has been! I've needed a weekend like this for a long time. Other than my usual routine of early morning training sessions, I had absolutely nothing I had to get done these past few days. No chores, no long ass drives, no competitions, nothing!

After a nice shoulder routine and weekly grocery shop, yesterday was spent doing absolutely nothing other than lounging out in the sun reading a good book and of course taking a couple breaks to walk the Mugs! I hit a wall mid-afternoon and needed a pick-me-up in order to stay awake for the girls dinner out I had planned at my favourite local Mexican restaurant so I brewed a pot of coffee and whipped up a fantastic clean version of the frappes you get in Greece. Chilled frothy goodness! And a perfect non-alcoholic use for a cocktail shaker!

Fast-forward to this morning and I awoke refreshed and ready to take on the day! I have to say, I've been in an almost annoyingly good mood lately. I think it's due to the return of my favourite foods into my diet LOL. My workouts have been fantastic post competition, yes ALL of them, and I just feel super motivated to make improvements and come back stronger than ever. Of course, I'm still a miserable biatch 8-5 Monday to Friday but I'm working on that...

I started the day by taking a stab at a recipe for sweet potato oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. Beyond delicious! I posted the recipe under the Eat Clean Get Lean recipes tab so be sure to try them out. I scrambled up some eggs on the side and between that and my coffee I was ready to go! On this morning's agenda was a combined leg and core routine. I busted some serious literal ass and left in a greatly satisfied mood. On my way out my Dad called and said "be at my house in 30 mins and come boating with us today". Ahhh how was I supposed to get home, shower, make lunch, pack my bag, and be there w/in 30 mins?! Well, I Negotiated 45 and somehow made it in 40. I think I might be the fastest female ever in terms of getting ready and a seriously expert packer!

So, off we went around 9:45 am headed to Sebago Lake for the day. It was a gorgeous sunny morning despite the gloomy weather forecast. I'm really happy I made it as the boat was equipped with two brand new paddle boards that I got to test out. So much fun!

I think after 10 months of practicing clean eating, my family has finally accepted my ways. No one made a comment about me eating my own grilled chicken salad while they grilled up their own lunches. Finally! It's not like the food they brought was unhealthy or anything (it wasn't), it just wouldn't have fit into my plan (carbs, carbs, and more carbs!) so I just feel better doing my own thing, knowing that I'm not offsetting the work I'm doing in the gym.

We packed up and scooted across the lake headed back toward the launch mid-afternoon, perfect timing as the forecasted rain started to come down just as the boat was being dragged out of the water. Torrential downpour as we drove out of the lot!

Once home, I rushed to close all the open windows as the east-moving rainstorm was just hitting my neighborhood. While I waited for the storm to pass I did a few household chores and then took Mugsy for a pre-dinner walk. When I signed online I found that the bikini stage walks and all other pictures from the Yankee Classic have finally been posted online on the photographer's website. Here's the link:
http://www.jjsphotodesign.com/f527321791
I'm #4, the 2nd one in. The girl who won her pro card is #10 and the girl who beat me out of my open class to battle it out for the card was #2. You can see how #10 definitely had me beat in the quads and glutes (and other *ahem* "enhanced" areas...). Anyway, I'm very analytical so it's nice to be able to analyze the differences between the two of us for improvement purposes. I know I sound somewhat crazy but to me, it's not a matter of IF I can do it, it's simply a matter of WHEN I will do it!

After walking Mugsy I came back and prepared the most delicious dinner of grilled steak & peach kabobs, asparagus, and a sweet potato cranberry quinoa cake (a fantastic find at Whole Foods). Oh, and a glass of Pinot Grigio! Definitely off plan but hey, I opened a bottle the other day and I couldn't just have one glass and let the rest go to waste! Bodybuilders are not wasteful people LOL.

The perfect dinner to end this weekend of relaxation!

Now it's back to work tomorrow. I don't even want to think about what that's going to entail. All I'm going to focus on is that tomorrow begins my August training regimen; 4 weeks of newly designed workouts with a strong focus on improving the booty. If all goes as planned, 4 weeks from now I should have two firm grapefruits for ass cheeks LOL! Tomorrow however is an all-core routine that I copied out of a recent Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine. It looked interesting so we'll see how I like it and if I need to make modifications for next week. Anyway, time to prep my meals for tomorrow and wind down for the evening. 'Til next time, happy gymming!