Good Morning gym rats! Risin' & grindin' as usual here in Miami. Woke up early as usual and fueled-up with a healthy dose of carbs & caffeine with a delicious bowl of banana-almond protein oatmeal (pictured below). It was so good I might have to make it again this weekend. Recipe is on Insta @ariellenicolefit
My core is on FIRE today so I wanted to share with you a post about the workout I did yesterday. This month I scheduled an entire day of core-only moves since I feel like I've been slacking on those muscles lately. Here was the breakdown:
-DB pullovers/leg lifts on a bench with a 20 lb DB in my hands and a 10 lb DB held by my feet. This is an extremely advanced move which I do not recommend unless you are fully comfortable doing them weight-free. It worked fantastically though and I'm pretty sure its the main cause of my [good] pain today! 3x12
-Decline bench weighted crunches 3x12
-Cable rope crunches 3x15
-Standing chair leg lifts while supporting my weight with my hands (arms straight) on the dip bars 3x12
-SB knee-ins side-to-side 3x12
I highly recommend this routine if you need a day off from the weights but don't want a true rest day. You can always simplify these moves by doing them weight-free. Here's a video clip of what my first exercise looked like except that I added the extra weight between my feet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r687q0UiwKw
In other fitness and health related news, today makes 4 weeks since I stopped my spring cut and decided not to do a show this year (or at least this spring as I do change my mind often LOL) and instead go back to "bulking" for a while. Long story short, I really wanted to do a show but after thinking long and hard about NPC and deciding I was too small to compete against the monster-sized "bikini" girls here in Florida, I then decided to do NGA (similar to OCB natural organization). I cut from the end of January to the beginning of April at which point I had barely lost any weight and was losing my mind over the stress of my seeming lack of physique progress combined with lowered carbs in my diet. I know I looked leaner but I think it was just water weight due to low carbs and minimal fat loss. The straw that broke the camel's back was the day I took a Chemistry lab test and left feeling like I bombed it due to a complete inability to focus (I actually got a B so no biggie afterall LOL). So the next day I increased my calories by 300/day, decreased cardio days from 3 to 2 (now only 1) and upped my carb intake to a minimum of 40% of my macros. I haven't been following strict macros for the past month but I have still been tracking all my food intake and I average 42% carbs, 25% fats, and 33% protein. Ideally I would be at 45% carbs, 20% fats, and 35% protein but I am suffering from a love of healthy fats lately LOL!
Anyway, the reason I tell you all this diet and competing news is that when I did my weekly weigh-in this morning I was 118.2 lbs......and I was 119.2 lbs when I stopped cutting! You figure that math out! My body just reacts in the strangest of ways. Who on earth increases calories, decreases cardio, and loses weight?! I don't get it but I'll take it! My current goal is to increase my calories by as much as possible while staying lean and building muscle. I had the most amazing hydrostatic body fat test done a few weeks ago by www.BodyFatTest.com (check them out!) and found that I was 19.9% body fat. A little higher than I thought I would come in at but it's the most accurate way to test body fat so I can't argue it. The guy who tested me gave me a whole printout with tons of useful information and I think my calorie target (assuming my metabolism is in a healthy state) was roughly 2,400 for muscle building. That makes me sOOooOoO happy! Who wouldn't want to eat more and not get fat LOL?! I plan to increase my calories by another 100 starting tomorrow, continue my weekly-ins, and see how it goes. I just love the experimentation and I'm feeling so strong and healthy lately! Here's a pic of me on body test day:
One last thing I'll note is that Florida is such a great place for improved skin, nails and hair! I don't take any added vitamins other than my daily multi and my skin is glowing (not in my head - people have said this to me!), and my hair and nails grow insanely fast! The sunshine state is truly an amazing place for your body. Alright, it's lunch time and I have work to do so I'm signing off. Have a great day everyone!
P.S. I still have my Facebook page for Fit Fierce Fun personalized training plans https://www.facebook.com/FitFierceFun?ref=aymt_homepage_panel so please become a fan by "liking" and spreading the word of fitness! xo
-DB pullovers/leg lifts on a bench with a 20 lb DB in my hands and a 10 lb DB held by my feet. This is an extremely advanced move which I do not recommend unless you are fully comfortable doing them weight-free. It worked fantastically though and I'm pretty sure its the main cause of my [good] pain today! 3x12
-Decline bench weighted crunches 3x12
-Cable rope crunches 3x15
-Standing chair leg lifts while supporting my weight with my hands (arms straight) on the dip bars 3x12
-SB knee-ins side-to-side 3x12
I highly recommend this routine if you need a day off from the weights but don't want a true rest day. You can always simplify these moves by doing them weight-free. Here's a video clip of what my first exercise looked like except that I added the extra weight between my feet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r687q0UiwKw
In other fitness and health related news, today makes 4 weeks since I stopped my spring cut and decided not to do a show this year (or at least this spring as I do change my mind often LOL) and instead go back to "bulking" for a while. Long story short, I really wanted to do a show but after thinking long and hard about NPC and deciding I was too small to compete against the monster-sized "bikini" girls here in Florida, I then decided to do NGA (similar to OCB natural organization). I cut from the end of January to the beginning of April at which point I had barely lost any weight and was losing my mind over the stress of my seeming lack of physique progress combined with lowered carbs in my diet. I know I looked leaner but I think it was just water weight due to low carbs and minimal fat loss. The straw that broke the camel's back was the day I took a Chemistry lab test and left feeling like I bombed it due to a complete inability to focus (I actually got a B so no biggie afterall LOL). So the next day I increased my calories by 300/day, decreased cardio days from 3 to 2 (now only 1) and upped my carb intake to a minimum of 40% of my macros. I haven't been following strict macros for the past month but I have still been tracking all my food intake and I average 42% carbs, 25% fats, and 33% protein. Ideally I would be at 45% carbs, 20% fats, and 35% protein but I am suffering from a love of healthy fats lately LOL!
Anyway, the reason I tell you all this diet and competing news is that when I did my weekly weigh-in this morning I was 118.2 lbs......and I was 119.2 lbs when I stopped cutting! You figure that math out! My body just reacts in the strangest of ways. Who on earth increases calories, decreases cardio, and loses weight?! I don't get it but I'll take it! My current goal is to increase my calories by as much as possible while staying lean and building muscle. I had the most amazing hydrostatic body fat test done a few weeks ago by www.BodyFatTest.com (check them out!) and found that I was 19.9% body fat. A little higher than I thought I would come in at but it's the most accurate way to test body fat so I can't argue it. The guy who tested me gave me a whole printout with tons of useful information and I think my calorie target (assuming my metabolism is in a healthy state) was roughly 2,400 for muscle building. That makes me sOOooOoO happy! Who wouldn't want to eat more and not get fat LOL?! I plan to increase my calories by another 100 starting tomorrow, continue my weekly-ins, and see how it goes. I just love the experimentation and I'm feeling so strong and healthy lately! Here's a pic of me on body test day:
One last thing I'll note is that Florida is such a great place for improved skin, nails and hair! I don't take any added vitamins other than my daily multi and my skin is glowing (not in my head - people have said this to me!), and my hair and nails grow insanely fast! The sunshine state is truly an amazing place for your body. Alright, it's lunch time and I have work to do so I'm signing off. Have a great day everyone!
P.S. I still have my Facebook page for Fit Fierce Fun personalized training plans https://www.facebook.com/FitFierceFun?ref=aymt_homepage_panel so please become a fan by "liking" and spreading the word of fitness! xo
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