In Between Trainers (2007)

Once I realized I was on my own, and wouldn't have a trainer, I actually developed my own routine quite quickly.

The gym opened at 4:30 am and I was there 5 days a week before they opened. The gal who worked the front actually gave me the code to the key box in case she was late for some reason, so I could enter the code, get the key and open the door.

I would wake up at 3:30 am (yeah I got kind of fanatical) and then run to the gym! It was 4 miles each way. I would put on one of those silly orange reflective vests, and off I went to the gym. Once I got there I lifted weights, then I put my cute little vest back on and ran the 4 miles home again. People teased me, people laughed, but who’s laughing now?

I started to read a lot, so I could understand what to do and what not to do. I read all the magazines but then I bought books. Most of them were about strength development, how the muscles worked, definitely not bodybuilding that was the furthest thing from my mind at the time.

I looked mainly at men’s strength training; I don’t believe women should train any differently than men should. I bought e-books, I bought videos, and I taught myself everything I didn’t learn from Baz.

I got very comfortable and felt I started to really know a lot. The diet was not anything I concentrated on, I just tended to eat a lot healthier than before and I gradually ate better, but it was not a focus of my life as it is now.

As you can see in the picture above, I was lean and fairly muscular, but not in a Figure competitor way, that takes a different type of training.

Then I had a problem, my gym was going to be sold yet again. I freaked out, as they said they would be remodeling and you know what that means! I also researched the company taking over who had one other gym and I was not impressed. Plus the name of the place was not very inspiring "Anastasia's Club Fit" what on earth was that?! I set out to find a new gym before they changed hands.

After locating all of the gyms within the distance from my home I would consider, I narrowed it down to the ones that opened no later than 5:00 am, which was really the latest I could train.

I then set out to visit them, there were only 4 of them and unfortunately since I live in a fairly upscale community, only one was a low cost “chain".

I ended up at the most expensive one, Courtside Club, but it really is a great place and I have come to call it home, I have been here now since 2007.

I can tell you all about why I didn’t choose the others but that isn’t the point.

I arrived at Courtside strutting in like I knew everything, but quickly felt out of place. This was no bodybuilders gym, in fact, most people didn’t even venture into the weight rooms, this a a club and the folks here like cardio best, or tennis.

I slowly developed friends among the morning crowd, a very friendly group of people indeed.

I started reading about kettlebells; I got several books by Pavel. Who is he? Here is a bit from Dragon Door:  Pavel Tsatsouline Master of Sports, is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor who has been called "the modern king of kettlebells" for starting the Russian kettlebell revolution in the West.

In 1998 Pavel introduced the ancient Russian strength and conditioning tool to the American public in his subversive article, Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes. The article was published by MILO, a magazine for tough hombres who bend steel and lift rocks. When Pavel started getting mail from guys with busted noses, cauliflower ears, scars, or at least Hell's Angels tattoos his publisher took notice.

Several years later Dragon Door published Pavel's book Enter the Kettlebell! which became the golden standard in kettlebell instruction. It was followed by Return of the Kettlebell which introduced the most advanced Russian strength and muscle building techniques.

Pavel is a subject matter expert to the US Marine Corps, the US Secret Service, and the US Navy SEALs. A kettlebell in his fist, he was voted the 'Hot Trainer' by Rolling Stone and appeared in media ranging from Pravdato Fox News. Dr. Randall Strossen, one of the most respected names in the strength world, stated, "In our eyes, Pavel Tsatsouline will always reign as the modern king of kettlebells since it was he who popularized them to the point where you could almost found a country filled with his converts…"

I also have books by the above mentioned Dr. Randall Strossen…Anyway, Courtside didn’t have any kettlebells, I thought this was crazy! So I decided to buy some of my own and teach myself.

Well, if you have ever seen anyone try to use KB’s that hasn’t, you know they are not as easy as they appear. I asked the Fitness Director at Courtside if I could keep my KB’s there, in the trainer’s room and use them when I was at the gym. That’s was fine and worked well until they sometimes locked the door and I couldn’t get to my own equipment! I also decided I needed a trainer so I asked who in their huge cadre of trainers knew about KB’s. I was steered toward a woman (no longer there) and purchased 10 very expensive sessions with her.

“KB Trainer” said she knew what she was doing, well, she wasn’t certified, had never had any formal training and basically taught herself KB’s…the wrong way.

After that expensive lesson I started searching for a qualified instructor. I went to the Dragon Door website and emailed every RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certified) in San Jose. The conversations went back and forth quite a bit and I finally arrived at a choice: SC (Strength Coach) who would go on to train me for about three years.

Soon: My second trainer, “SC”

Oh, Courtside now has two full sets of kettlebells including "the beast"

Glutes and Kettlebells

 

My training has been really interesting to me lately, and the switch has made a dramatic change in my physique.

This picture was taken on Thursday morning at 6:30 am right after I returned from the gym. I am pretty pumped up, but the thing is, that is how I am looking all the time! It was GLUTE day for god sakes!

I know that the dietary change is helping a lot for me too, I am eating more fats and I can see that the lean mass is definitely increasing and the body fat is getting lower, I can easily see it in the abdominal area.

I seem to have found the perfect diet for my body, it has taken me two years.

Glute day involves the use of my Gymboss more than any other day. This is an interval timer that is indispensable for those who do not have a trainer.

I was performing what SC called a bench reverse iso hyper, a mainstay of my glute training. You lay face down on a flat bench, with the crease of the hips at the very edge, you will be raising your straight legs up so they are parallel with your prone body, and this will be held for a period of time. You are basically straight, or with your legs slightly higher than your body (ideal but difficult), contracting the glutes to keep it all in position and the only part of you on the bench is your body from the hips up.

An added dimension is I do this with a 25 pound free weight clamped between my ankles and I hold it for 30 seconds, timed by the Gymboss. 30 second hold, 30 second rest, three times. It's pretty difficult.

I finished and collapsed to my knees on the floor, and one of the regulars, an attorney, nice but not a serious lifter starts this conversation:

Attorney: "ha another one of your oddball made up moves!"
Me: "What? This is not made up, this is a serious lift!"

Then a trainer walking by says "Old school buddy, she is old school, everyone knows that move"

Me: "Yeah, look at my butt and look at yours then tell me if the move is that oddball!"
Trainer "Yeah, and she isn't here to exercise her mandible like you"

Attorney: "Do you have a competition coming up or something?"
Me: "Yup, can't you tell by the way I look!?"
Attorney: "No, I just notice when your intensity level is kicked up a few notches!"

Laughter all around and I go back to my odd ball, but highly effective moves and he goes back to his little plastic ab rolly thingy.

Next is swings, I have started back with my kettlebells, I love them so much and had all but abandoned them. There is so much to do, it's easy to leave something behind, but in the quest for low body fat, I completely forgot that this is what really melts it away for me. As you know, I am not a real fan of lots of cardio, I have not seen many physiques that I feel benefit from a lot, unless it is one that has copious amounts of bodyfat to lose, or one on drugs. Steroid users can do a lot more cardio without looking haggard than a natural athlete can.

I find tabata interval style training or kettlebells work best for me, so high intensity intervals basically.

Monday was 5 sets of 20 with a 20 kilo kettlebell, today I switched it up to be 7 sets of 15. I perform a two handed swing, set the bell down, walk around the gym to lower my heart rate and get right back into the next set.

That's the end of the training day, and a good end. As I put the bell away, a woman who was training with the guy I consider to be the most knowledgeable trainer in the place (the only trainer there who is RKC - Russian Kettlebell Certified by Pavel), and the only one I have seen actually swing bells in the gym correctly says "Your back looks really good. I have been wanting to see you do those for a long time"

I thanked her and pointed to her trainer and said "He's the expert right there" and she said "Yes I know, that's why I hired him"

I showed her my white hands and told her about the great Liquid Grip I started using, it really helps when swinging kettlebells. I am not a fan of gloves, I think for three reasons, I like to feel the weights in my hands; I think you can actually get a better, more functional grip without them; and SC used to tell me I wouldn't be allowed in the weight room if I even attempted to walk in wearing wimpy gloves. "No real man wears gloves" he would tell me, and the hell if I wanted to be treated like a woman!
 
The trainer walked up, looked at my white messy hands and said he loves the stuff too, he uses it with his high school football team he coaches at a private school.

The fact that she had been wanting to see me perform swings is a great moral booster, and I can never see my back so I do rely on my pictures and comments from others. Funny how people watch and I never realize it. I think I am in a zone.



David? One look at me this morning and he said I needed a cheeseburger. That's what happens when I start losing fat too quickly, and I need to "arrest" the fat loss, I have a real cheeseburger, white bun and all and it halts the process for a while. I told him I think he may be a week premature, check with me next Friday!

Right now I am thinking I might be able to sport a Dana Linn Bailey shirt soon, and look like I belong in it!

Strong Mind Stronger Body

I like to read T-Nation. They bill themselves as Testoterone Nation: The intelligent and relentless pursuit of muscle.

I also like a style of training that most women do not enjoy. I like loud rock and roll, very loud. I like big warehouse style gyms, where there is a lot of iron, iron that needs to be pushed, lifted, pulled or somehow moved by a person, in other words, not machines. I like chalk (I sneak in my own, the gym doesn't allow it)

Give me prowlers, ropes, free weights, chin up bars, leather slam balls, kettlebells and I am happy. When I am happy I am productive.

Happy in the gym = success in the gym

I was happiest training with SC in his facility just like this, but we can't do that any longer. My gym is about as far away from this style as it could be, but it is very convenient, has everything I need and I am kind of entrenched there now. It does have areas like this though, so I stick to those areas and avoid all of the socializing on the weight machines and cardio areas.

I just read an article called Strong Mind, Stronger Body: Lessons from a Warehouse Gym by Joe DeFranco

It discusses how your mind effects your training, I say that all the time. Here is a piece of that article, and it sums it all up for me.

Coach Yourself


How do you make these mental strategies work for you? Simple:

Find music that motivates you. Crank it up.

Don't adopt a training program you don't believe in or you'll half-ass it, even if it's a good plan. Find a program that gets you excited and you'll put out the effort that it takes to get results.

Set the stage for the zone state. You do this through practice and preparation for your sport, be it football, powerlifting, or bodybuilding.


Mental toughness is born from facing tough situations or environments and surviving them. Don't baby yourself. Don't coddle yourself. Stop being such a prima donna.

Realize that sometimes the thing that motivated you to train hard yesterday won't be the same thing you need today to optimize your mental state. Be "bi-polar." Be versatile. Flip the switch and adjust. Do what works for you that day.


You can read the entire article here.