Hitting the hundred!

Well I'm happy to say yesterday was a day of celebration for me! 

It was a public holiday here in New Zealand, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get some good, solid trainings in.

My morning session was cardio, did 40 minutes on the elliptical. I have been avoiding cardio like the plague this year, but now I've been doing it again for a few weeks it feels less like an absolute chore.

After getting out in the sun and getting a couple more meals in me, I hit the gym again for session number two. Normally I would train deadlifts on Saturdays and squats on Sundays, but because I was at an event all day Saturday I couldn't deadlift. So it was squats on Sunday, deadlift Monday. 

The order I train in really impacts on my training, so I was worried about changing things up. Squats help make my back feel better, so I went into this session feeling good, with no DOMS and no back pain.

I warmed up quickly, hitting 60, 70, 80 kgs all really easily. Then I slowed and went for 85, 90 and 95kgs with no problems. I haven't hit 95kgs (209lbs) in a while and at the time this was my personal best. I don't lift with a suit or belt, and only used the straps on my gloves at the last minute.

So, feeling good, I decided to go for the 100.

When I took the smaller plates off and replaced it with the other 20's I felt like I was crazy. and felt like everyone around me was looking at me like I was crazy... 4 plates... Attempting a 100kg (220lb) deadlift when I only weigh 55kg (122lb)...what was I thinking...

My ipod had died, so I sat with my phone and psyched myself up, before trying to tune out the horrible gym music. My friend Tim was there and helped with my straps, but left quickly and didn't stand and watch (although I'm guessing he was watching in the mirror he did turn around later haha!). I really appreciated that, if someone had been standing there I'm not sure it would have gone up.

When lifting I kind of have a "pre-flight" checklist in my head. I go through each thing making sure that all the steps are in place and my body, breathing and brain are where they should be before my lift. I don't know why, I just feel it really helps me connect my mind with my body... so once everything was in place... I lifted...

AND IT WENT UP!

100kg (220lb) DEADLIFT PR FOR ME!

I went bright red, I must have looked insane, but I did it! I was so ecstatic I couldn't help myself, I grinned the rest of my session! I have to admit I've told EVERYONE I had done it.

Now I can cross my New Year's resolutions off my list, my 5 pull ups in a set (heh pretty normal for me now) and 100kg deadlift. I've come a long way in a year, it feels so great to get here, and I'm going to celebrate a little before setting my next goals!

Results time!

Soooo... had my fat test on Thursday night... and the news was all good!

I've dropped from 24% body fat when I started, to 21% in 5 weeks :)

So in the spirit of celebrating this, I thought I should probably post a progress pic...

Photo update! Taken 27/10/2013

The Boss says I've dropped around 3kgs of fat and gained 3kgs of muscle, leaving me around the same weight as when I started. So when The Boss has done all the official numbers and sent them to me I'll put them up here as well!

That's left me feeling pretty good about the whole situation. While it was hard to tell purely from weight how I'm going, I was right in thinking that I was looking a little tighter than I was before, but I didn't want to get my hopes up!

Had a bit of a confidence boost yesterday when some older guys I don't know and don't know I'm training commented on the size of my biceps. They seemed suitably impressed to make me feel quite good about my progress so far!

 It's a little hard getting used to being a woman with noticeable muscles. Many people don't think women with muscles are particularly attractive, but I guess I'm still carrying enough body fat at this stage to counteract that, and I haven't had anything negative said about the way I look. I'm still very aware of people's opinions though, and realise it will be a little harder to avoid the more muscle and less body fat I have.

The next few weeks are going to be important, pushing myself even harder to gain a bit more before the next test. I am trying to do more cardio too to get the fat % down, but gains are a little more important at the moment.

I did squats today, got to 72.5kg (159lbs) for 2 so I'm pretty happy about that. Going to go back and do some more accessory lifting later today.

 I'm happy it's the long weekend and I can get more lifting in!

In 3, 2, 1....

The countdown is on…3 more sleeps until my first body composition and fat test since I started all this!! I have to admit this has been quite the nerve wracking build up… it’s so hard to see changes in yourself, and how I feel varies day by day in terms of what I think my body is doing. 

Judging by weight is no help, since it fluctuates all the time. I think my clothes are fitting looser but in some parts, that’s not the case, then I'm not sure if it’s a good or bad thing. Since I haven’t been doing this for that long, it’s still hard to say.

However there was a teeny bit of light in all of the dark and scary… I saw The Boss on Friday for the first time since I started the program, and to say he was enthusiastic about my progress was a little bit of an understatement! First, I got a hug, then a overall look at my progress, and I have to say he seemed pretty pleased with how I was doing. Warranted or not, his enthusiasm made this looming body composition and fat test not seem like something I was going to fail drastically, and that indeed I was making some progress. 

The Boss says we won’t know until much closer to the time (he says about 6 weeks out from comp!) what class I'll be aiming to compete in, but he seems to agree that figure will probably be the best fit for me :D After a group hug from him to finish, I left the gym feeling a lot more upbeat about the situation and can't wait to see my results on Thursday.

As far as my strength is concerned, while my back is still sore, my lifting overall has been much more solid and I'm making some gains in unexpected places. I definitely didn't expect to be able to do 14kg (30lb) dumbbell bicep curls, but I've managed to hit them which has been pretty cool.

I had an average deadlift day on Saturday, only went up to 90kgs (209lbs) (ONLY!!) but yesterday I had a really good day on squats. In terms of weight and volume it wasn't amazing, but I got some form tips from a friend and by the end I was getting some really good solid lifts with good depth. I look forward to practising a lot more of this and really trying to activate my glutes and hammies more when I squat.

So, on Thursday I'll be getting my fat test done… Then guess what?! It’s progress pic time! Hopefully I will have some comparisons to make! I know it won’t be drastic, but a tiny bit of change would be nice :)

Missing breakfast

It's funny how fast you can fall into habits and forget old ones if you really try. Today we ran out of oats, so I had to run out and get some. I got back too late to make them before I walked to work, so I grabbed some to take to work and make them there.

I got busy and forgot to make breakfast, and by the time I realised what had happened I was hungry, grumpy, and not much fun to deal with. Then I realised - Oops! Forgot breakfast!

Before I started this diet, missing breakfast wouldn't have bothered me and I would have continued on my day with no problems. Now my body has got used to being fuelled first thing, and wasn't afraid to let me know something was missing! I'm hoping that’s a good thing!

I’m a bit sore this morning, had a big day of training yesterday, but I'm glad I did it. I trained arms at lunchtime, the gym close to my work is getting all new machines and weights, so it’s a bit of a mess. Didn’t stop me though, went to try out the new dip station… I don’t use the assist, and it’s a standing one, so once I’d put the assist down it felt like it was an extremely long way to fall if I missed a rep haha! Oh the joys of being small and training on real person sized machines ;)

I worked hard on my triceps though and really pushed them right to the end of my workout. I think I've been slacking on biceps a little, I managed to curl 14kg dumbbells, the heaviest I've done so far! Might have to skip the 10’s and go straight for 12’s next time!

Evening was a leg session; I'm really working on my legs and glutes at the moment, trying to make up some ground on my upper body. I started with front squats and pushed hard back into my heels, I could definitely feel this helped with my back squats later.

I finished up with lots and lots of lunges, and some Romanian deadlifts for my hammies. I'm really enjoying these and hope to put a bit more definition through the backs of my legs as I drop some more body fat.

Heyhey it's leg day!

I love leg day!! I train legs twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays, using a combination of squats, lunges, hip thrusts, leg extensions and leg curls.

Only deadlifts outshine my love for squats. 

Much attention has been paid to the female derriere in the media recently, with Miley Cyrus' unfortunate MTV performance costume making more than one meme, and making many more girls hit the squats!

I remember being so nervous when I first started squats, they seemed so scary... once I started though, it was a match made in heaven. I love hitting the rack, even just with light weight, but the deeper and heavier the better. I like pushing myself on both volume and weight, to see how far I can go.

So, here's where I am at the moment. I can definitely tell fixing up my diet has helped my muscular development, but really want to push a bit further. 

My quads are definitely leading the charge, but I think my glutes are keeping up. I'm adding more glute work, really trying to push through and engage them when I'm training squats and lunges.

My favourite style of squats are classic high bar barbell back squats. I pushed myself to a 1RM of 100kgs (220lbs) last year, but at the moment, without a spotter I'm working at around 70kgs (155lbs). There's nothing more satisfying than being able to put more than your body weight on your back and lift it... delicious.

I'm also trying a few other squat variations to mix it up and train different parts of my glutes and quads. I like barbell front squats, the difficulty of hanging onto the bar is outweighed by how well it pushes my weight onto the back of my heels. 

I gave goblet and dumbbell squats a try, but find that unless there is really no rack available, they aren't something I like to do so much.

I tried overhead squats on Wednesday... I first tried with be bar only, thinking this wouldn't be too much of a stretch... After my first attempt nearly faceplanting, I swapped to a wooden pole to practice the balance thing before I try any sort of weight! Challenge accepted!

In terms of accessory leg work, I'm trying to help get some more definition in my legs. I do know this will come with lower body fat, but I feel I should push a little harder.

Watching the Pros

Olympia weekend 2013 has come and gone, and for my first time watching the pros at work, I really picked a good year. It was an amazing chance to watch those who are really at the top of this sport and see what the different classes and poses look like on stage. 

Aside from all the fantastic physiques on show, I really enjoyed the showmanship and pageantry that went into making it enjoyable to watch. How the competitors were able to pose and perform so naturally was an absolute marvel, considering any attempt I make at even looking at myself in the mirror at home looks clumsy. 

The hours of training , eating and preparing were so clearly obvious in all the competitors, it was incredibly inspiring. 

And a little terrifying too though, I'm going to be up on stage (in my local comp obviously) next year no matter what, so I better be in some kind of shape for it!! Kicked my into gear a little more and have me something extra to remind myself to work hard.

I've stuck to my diet easily so far, even temptations of pizza, chocolate, cake, bagels and chips at work couldn't sway me. Meals are easy to prepare and my workmates seem to be used to my full meal at morning tea time! I am missing the red meat in my diet and have noticed I've been a bit tired recently (could be the extra training though!) so I might add an iron supplement to my stack to see if that helps.

I've been focusing hard on training while still minding my back, and including my half hour walk to work each morning I'm averaging 3 hours training a day, 2 and a half in the gym. I've also stuck to doing core two full hours a week, one hour Tuesday, one hour Thursday so I hope to get some reward from that. The yoga stretches for my back seem to be helping and I should be back up to 100% soon.

How are things going?

Well, it has been an interesting two weeks, I'm getting used to eating the same food over and over!

Meal prep has become much quicker, taking just over an hour to sort the food for the week. I went to the local farmers market on Sunday and picked up a whole lot of fresh vegetables. It was a lot cheaper than the supermarket so while it meant two trips it was worth it. It is more expensive to eat this way, but I am seeing changes in my body already!

I had an interesting experience with a supp I took on Saturday. While I’m fine now,  it did remind me to take care with my supplements and that everyone reacts differently to them. 20 minutes after taking this particular fatburner, my whole body went read from my head to my toes. It had caused my blood pressure to skyrocket. I watered it down with litres of cold water and my breakfast, had a cold shower and covered myself in cold towels, and about 30 minutes later the effects subsided. So, I won’t be taking that one again!

We’ve switched from Giant Delicious Protein to Myofusion this week (seems the boys at Gymeez Wellington have been busy because they were all sold out!) so we’ll see how that compares. I like the chocolate Giant Delicious because it tastes like chocolate mousse haha. Always the way to get a girl to drink her protein!

As for training, my back seems to be coming right and I’ve been able to get back into lifting a little heavier again. It felt good to get back into squats again and I hit 67.5kg for one rep on Sunday. Was nice to shake off some of the cobwebs. I tested out how lunges would go and I found my left side was quite a lot weaker than my right. Part of this could be psychosomatic though so I will keep working on it.

I have started doing a lot more stretching and incorporating a little yoga into my life at night before I go to bed. While I know it’s important to stretch, I don’t do it often, but the results I've had from doing some simple back stretches at night has been worth it. I just do a few simple poses I found online (I’ll put the link here when I get home) and found that even something so simple has greatly reduced the pressure in my lower back.  I'll definitely keep up with this.

Incorporating more bicep/tricep work into my training seems to be going well, I definitely feel stronger on exercises for both. I’m working hard on core as well, I’m hoping this will translate to some heavier lifts elsewhere (and some nice abs for summer ;).

I find core quite boring so decided to set myself a program today. Looking online I went to bodybuilding.com, grabbed like 5 of their core workouts and added them all together into one. There are some repeats, but I do them in order, and will go back and do more of. It looks a little something like this:

Cable Crunches: 3 sets of 8-12 reps (30-45 seconds of rest)

Weighted Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 12 reps each side (30 seconds of rest)

Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Reverse Crunches: 3 sets of 12-15 reps (45 seconds of rest)

Air Bike Crunches: 3 sets of 12 reps (30-45 seconds of rest)

Crunches: 3 sets of 25 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Lying Leg Raises: 3 sets of 8 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Frog Sit Ups: 3 sets of 12-15 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Jackknife Sit Ups: 3 sets of 12-15 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Weighted Oblique Crunches: 3 sets of 20 reps each side (30 seconds of rest)

Reverse Crunch: 3 sets of 12 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Weighted Russian Twist: 3 sets of 20 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Barbell Side Bends: 3 sets of 8 reps on each side (30 seconds of rest)

Crunch - Legs On Exercise Ball: 3 sets of 8-12 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Decline Crunch: 3 sets of 8-12 reps (30-45 seconds of rest)

Dumbbell Side Bends: 3 sets of 8 reps (30 seconds of rest)

Flat Bench Leg Pull-In: 3 sets of 12 reps (30 seconds of rest)

I'll be off to do this in my lunch break, takes about an hour :) Maybe next post I'll be brave enough to put some progress pics! In the meantime don’t forget you can find me on Fitocracy https://www.fitocracy.com/profile/xoxAJVxox/?feed