TGIF!

Hey y'all! Happy Friday! Just a quickie post as I sit here sipping a glass of delicious Barefoot Refresh Summer Red wine. I've never been a red drinker but I was recently in a position of compromise and decided to give this sweet version a try. Guess what? I LOVE it! This could get dangerous LOL!

Anyway, it's the start of the long Labor Day weekend and I was happy to work from home today to make for a semi 4-day weekend. Being plugged in all day isn't so bad when you are in the comfort of your own home, not being frozen to death by the arctic A/C and in comfy gym clothes to boot!

Despite not having to get up as early as usual I decided to rise at 5:00 am today to do legs. This month I am changing my rest day to Saturday (from Friday) so since I didn't want to have 2 rest days in a row I did a little switch-up. Sunday will basically be an ad-hoc day since I won't want to do legs again and since my sister is coming to visit I am going to take her to the gym for an introductory lift sesh. She's either going to love it or hate it; I'm so excited! I think I'm going to do a total body circuit of my favorite exercises for each muscle group so she can get a feel for what lifting is like.

So anyway, today was the start of my September lifting plan which I created a few days ago. I've been having some success with keeping the shin pain at bay lately so I'm going to try to hit legs 2x per week again and see how it goes. Today's plan consisted of the following:

BB front squats
Romanian DLs
Hack squats
BB stationary lunges
Calve raises

I was ticked when I arrived at the gym and found all of the squat racks taken (seriously, taken at 5:30 am? FML!) so I started with the hack squats. Luckily one of the racks opened up quickly so I was able to stay put and get the squats, DLs, and lunges all done in the same spot. It actually made for a much more efficient workout, not having to move around all that much. When I was through with my planned lifts, I finished-up with some hanging leg raises and some stretching and foam-rolling on shins and quads. No matter what I do I just cannot loosen-up those areas but some stretching/rolling is better than none! I think it might be time to splurge on a serious deep tissue massage in the near future.

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm being a total anti-socialite as I have to get up early tomorrow to attend a course I am taking (details at a later date). It's the reason Saturday is now rest day! Alas, I'm signing off now to go prep for tomorrow and finish my wine :)

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Be safe and stay active! xo

August Update

Good Morning! I realize it’s been a while since my last post but I promise I haven’t been slacking in life; I’ve just been outrageously busy (in a good way)! First things first; yesterday I officially became an ISSA certified Sports Nutrition Specialist! I crammed through my studies in order to finish the 8 month course in just over two. In all I found most of the material quite easy since I already had a pretty solid base of knowledge but I definitely learned a lot. I got a 94% on my exam so I guess that leaves a little more learning to be had in my future J

I don’t even know where to begin with my workout / life / competing updates so I’ll start on the competition front. After going back-and-forth for a stressful few weeks on whether or not I should compete one more time this year I’ve pretty much decided to hold off for now, continue to build, and return to the stage in 2015 bigger than ever! It’s not that I don’t want to get back on stage right now (I’m dying to!) but I know that in reality it makes more sense to keep building since I will inevitably lose some muscle mass the next time I cut and I want to be sure I can take that risk and still show visible improvement on stage. The main reason I am putting it off though is because my schedule this fall is going to be nothing short of a crazy hectic whirlwind (more on that at a later date) and I’m just not sure I’ll have the time to devote to expanding my existing training schedule with increased cardio sessions and posing practice. It could be done; I’m just not convinced it should be.

Physique-wise I have seen and felt great improvement ever since I changed my macros a month or so ago by decreasing the added fats in my diet. By doing so, I’ve leaned out a little bit due to a small caloric decrease. While I haven’t made an effort to take in extra carbs, the decrease in fats has caused my diet to consist of a larger percentage of carbs which I think is a better ratio for my mostly anaerobic training. I have been a little more lenient on my fruit intake though which hasn’t seemed to hurt me and definitely makes me a happier camper LOL. Macros over the past week have been 42% carbs / 36% protein / 22% fat. Definitely not 100% consistent day-to-day but I feel good so it’s all good. The funny (sad) thing is that while my fats are at 22% (kind of high for a bodybuilder) I am barely taking in any additional fats other than a few almonds or avocado in my salads and a teeny tiny bit of olive oil when sautéing veggies. Most of the fat is just what is inherent in other food sources like eggs and meats. Kind of a pisser if you ask me!

On the training front, it’s safe to say that I am now an official morning gym rat. My body just decided that it was going to continue to get up at the crack-of-dawn whether I wanted it to or not so I’ve been hitting the gym by 5:00 am most weekdays. Training before work means that I’ve got to get in-and-out in about an hour / hour-and-a-half so I do the occasional double-session when I need more time to fit in cardio. Most days the early morning is very enjoyable with few distractions, equipment-hoggers, tools or chatty Kathy’s so when I do return to the 5:00 pm time slot I am easily irritated and leave more overwhelmed and angry than when I got there. That’s not what’s supposed to happen at the gym!  

Injury-wise I haven’t been in too much pain lately. I’m sure this is mostly from not doing a lot of cardio but even when I have done it, I’ve managed to keep the swelling at bay by sitting in a bathtub full of cold water and ice for 10 minutes post-workout. It’s actually not as torturous as it sounds and being able to walk and go about the rest of my day without constant pain makes it worth it. I haven’t been back to the PT in a few weeks because even with insurance it was costing me an arm and a leg but I have been doing my recommended exercises at least a few days per week and while I’m still skeptical of their necessity I can’t deny my improvement. I’m also no longer popping Ibuprophen like they’re Skittles so that’s definitely a plus!

Anyway, it’s time for me to scoot off to work here. I was up way too late last night so I’m not looking forward to the inevitable mid-morning head-bobbing and mid-afternoon brain drain that will most definitely require an extra strong coffee to battle through. Looking forward to an early bedtime tonight! I hope all you gym rats are enjoying these last few weeks of Summer (or extended Spring here in Maine). ‘Til next time, happy gymming! xo