Competition Time

My competition day is here! I am happy to be at the end, while I love the preparation and anticipation, it is a lot of work, stress, and time. Like any goal in life that is important, the work achieving it is long, arduous and stressful.

These pictures were taken on Thursday, two days prior to the show. I started my dehydration process, but the days where my body will really make dramatic changes are Friday afternoon and Saturday as everything tightens up.

I am pleased that I weigh one pound more (Friday) than I did last year at the same time, I felt I was too lean and looked it. The guidelines in Physique do not call for super ripped, super lean like Bodybuilding, although there will certainly be competitors there who are. it will be interesting to see if they are the ones who place (meaning the judges won't follow the guidelines established by the NPC), or the less ripped ones will. Only time will tell!

I never lost all the fat in my face as I usually do, don't get me wrong  it's still very lean but not gaunt as it was in the past. And my glutes, they still have ample padding, which is another odd thing. 

I took Thursday and Friday off to pack, shop, cook, and rest. When you are heading into the show it is exhausting. You have reached saturation point, you are tired, truly fatigued, hungry, thirsty, and in need of coffee. Tuesday at work I had a caffeine withdrawal headache all day, so I took 400 mg of caffeine the following days to ease that. I am looking forward to a really hot, black cup of coffee on Sunday morning. I will get up before anyone else and have my coffee and some sourdough toast with melted sharp cheddar cheese. Or maybe cheesecake.

Cooper is home for the weekend, so he and David have boys-night Friday while I am in my hotel with Sakura. Then on Sunday, Mother's Day I will be home with the family again.

Friday afternoon I will be heading to the hotel and will get my spray tan, this is what makes all of the definition show in the muscles. Then Sakura and I will hang out and just talk and rest. Resting is important for a few days leading up as it reduces cortisol levels.

Thursday and Friday there was no training allowed (rest is needed) so I went into the gym at opening each day and practiced posing and my routine. It's amazing how tired all that flexing makes you!

Below is a video of my posing on Thursday. The body fat is in check, low yet not too low, I am not hard enough yet but the dehydration will take care of that, but I think I am on track.

 

Thursday I did a little baking. I made my traditional cheesecake that I eat Friday night and Saturday morning and I made some Paleo brownies. David tried them and said they were good, not super chocolaty and lighter, more cake like than usual. The flour is replaced with blanched almond flour and the sugar is replaced with fresh dates. 

I dropped some brownies and cheesecake off for Roy about 12:30 on Friday and went home to finish packing and rest a bit before I head out.

Roy is coming to pre-judging to see me, so is one guy from work. David will be coming to finals and several of the guys from the gym will be there too.

No matter what happens, what the outcome is, I saw a quote today that sums it all up:

You see, I am already a champion.

Body Composition Analysis (Hydrostatic BodyFat Testing)

Cute butt huh? LOL! I love butts! The thing is, they can be really beautiful...or really not so beautiful!

This is just prior to my Hydrostatic Bodyfat Test, I had to take the pictures at home as the mobile truck was 40 miles away (mobile but not in my direction!) and it was a cold and blustery day!

I am not flexing in any of these photos, in the top photo I am standing with my arms out, my husband teases me all the time because it's automatic. 

I have testing done every year and Mike maintains the records so when I get a test it also shows all my previous tests. 

He has a large truck with a huge stainless steel tank inside, filled with nice warm water. You wear the least amount of clothing possible, hence the small swim suit. I don't know why I say it's small, I have many that are much, much smaller. I collect them you see, and in fact may post a blog with me in each of them. They are a designer called Pin Up Stars from Italy, typically "one of a kind", meaning that you will not see someone else wearing one, I guarantee it! Except maybe one like this, I had one exactly like this stolen one year on vacation. I was "pissed" to put it very mildly.  It has a target design on the front, rear and the triangle top cups.

So, I am weighed to get my overall weight first, then I lay in the tank and a weight belt is placed on my lower hips, all air is expelled then I plunge underwater and continue to expel all air until I feel as though I shall die. When Mike pounds on the tank for me to come up, I shoot up like the water is on fire.

Then...I do it two more times!

I need to do this to get an idea of how much I need to lose, which means this will determine my diet, my cardio and my general life for the next couple months. Oh, it will let me know how much I can enjoy vacation in Mexico too!

I have been good, sticking to my diet, but I was a little "too good". I didn't gain as much muscle as I had hoped, which would mean I didn't eat enough excess calories. 

I have searched on the Internet to find how much muscle a person can expect to gain in a year, but the answers are all over the board. That's because there are huge factors at play. A young person will gain more than an older person. A male, more than a female. An un-trained person more than a trained person. The list goes on and on. So all the "studies" that say you can gain 20 pounds in one year are performed with very young, untrained males. Easy as pie. All they gotta do is pick up a heavy pie and eat it and they gain muscle. Me? I am old, I am female and I am very well trained. So, it will be slow going for me!

When I tell people how low my bodyfat gets, most don't believe me. I doubt they think I am lying, they probably think I am being duped or something. But I am not. Below is my latest results. 

Age 51; height 63.5 (5' 3"); weight 127 pounds; bodyfat 9.9 pounds; lean mass 117.1 pounds; bodyfat percentage 7.8%

It's been much lower, take a look at the previous tests. Once it was way too low, and I had to see several doctor's until that got straightened out! 

I haven't even started my diet yet. Let me quantify that. I always adhere to a super clean diet, but I "stray" a lot when I am not prepping for a competition. So...I haven't stopped "straying" yet! In fact, only five days before this, was siting in a bar enjoying a glass of French champagne and  a bowl of spicy chicken wings with blue cheese dip. Only to learn that I cannot eat their blue cheese, it must be made with a powdered milk product. I am lactose intolerant and this played a number on me for hours. You know it's bad when your husband looks at you and says "how long will this last?" LOL!

I have gained lean body mass every year though, that is a good thing.  Mike asked how low I wanted my bodyfat for my competition and I said "5% or 6%" so he calculate this for me:

I have to lose 2.4 pounds of fat to get to 6%. Easy!

According to Wikipedia, the percentage of essential body fat for women is greater than that for men, due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions. The percentage of essential fat is 3–5% in men, and 10-16% in women. Storage body fat consists of fat accumulation in adipose tissue, part of which protects internal organs in the chest and abdomen. The minimum recommended total body fat percentage exceeds the essential fat percentage value reported above.

The body fat percentage is a measure of fitness level, since it is the only body measurement which directly calculates a person's relative body composition without regard to height or weight. 

Description	Women	Men
Essential fat	10–13%	2–5%
Athletes	14–20%	6–13%
Fitness	21–24%	14–17%
Average	25–31%	18–24%
Obese	32%+	25%+

So, It's not really healthy for me to be this low, but I do tend to hover right around here, maybe 2% more, year round. 

I felt good when I drove home, good and hungry! I made a nice meal of flank steak, soo-foo, spinach, cauliflower and horseradish. Yum!!!

Below is a Vblog explaining my bodyfat test and the emotions I felt when I heard the results. Email readers must navigate to the log link at the top of the email to view the video directly from my blog. 

Back and Glute Training for Women's Physique

I spend a lot of time training every single part of my body, but the back view is what will make or break a competitor. 

I realized today as I left the gym, that I have only four months to go until my Women's Physique debut, I am just feeling some twinges of nervousness. That subsided quickly, but then other thoughts started running through my head about the upcoming preparations.

I am training, and I never stop. People always ask (trying to be polite) "Are you in training now?"....The training never stops folks! Ever! I have been practicing my posing and it is so much more difficult than Figure ever was. Everything needs to be flexed and tight, everything, it is strenuous.  So not only will the back win the competition, but if it's a tie between the backs- then the best Poser wins!

What does change is the eating!!! That's the hard and the fun part.

Soon I will need to start a diet. It really won't be too bad, but it tends to go on and on and I just get tired of eating the same old thing without much variation. I think, I am like most people. If there is something that is "illegal, immoral, or not within my reach", I want it! So, when dieting I want big spoons of peanut butter and thick, rare cheeseburgers.

But I am jumping ahead, I haven't started my diet yet and I have a whole month before I need to really buckle under, and then January is a slight "ease into it" so I can enjoy a week in Mexico in February- then all shit hits the fan.

I will soon start to take weekly pictures in my suit, so I get a better idea of where I am. I will modify my training slightly, but I am not sure how yet, I have to wait and see how things "look"

In the past I would start training my back twice a week instead of the usual once; but I am not so sure I need to this time. I believe that all of my pull ups and chin ups in the last several months have really paid off. My lats are huge, and have reminded me almost everyday of how much I am pushing them. I frequently need assistance undressing due to the soreness. 

I think my back looks stellar and I haven't even started dieting! Maybe you are wondering why a back would look different with a diet? Most women tend to hold a great deal of fat in their upper backs, along with their glutes and hips. As you can see, I am fairly "fat free" in those areas, I hold it in the abdominal area, so that's my area to concentrate on and there is no amount of crunching or exercising that I can do for the fat in my abdomen, it's completely DIET!

The glutes look great too- the "smileys" (the folds of skin where the glute meets the hamstring) are not too pronounced, and that will indeed disappear when I diet down too. 

My glutes tend to recruit with all of my leg training, I suppose I am lucky there. Unfortunately it means my quads won't grow as large as I would like, but there are trade offs in every physique. If I had to choose, I would choose better glutes over bigger quads. A flat butt is just an absolute eyesore! I can see a wonderful physique but if they have flat glutes, it just ruins the entire thing.

So what's the plan? Keep training and eating the same for the next month, through January, then assess where I am. I plan to enjoy the rest of my time off as I have been. This means sticking to a clean diet most of the time, but enjoying "normal" food on occasion (a couple nights a week).

I am going to track down Mike the BodyFat Test Guy and have hydrostatic body fat testing, I am not really sure how much I need to lose, but I know where I need to get to! If I know my starting point, then I can plan my dieting accordingly. 

I am (the day these pictures were taken) at 129 pounds. I aimed for 120 at my last competition but dropped to 118 due to water dehydration. I don't think I need to lose that much this time, I have added some muscle, it has been 6 months after all!

Oh, yeah. I need to start doing the dreaded cardio next year too! I did buy a treadmill so that makes it easy to knock out 20 minutes while watching a movie on Netflix (please send some suggestions, I only watch TV when I do this, so I know nothing about what's good on streaming these days).

I will probably start running stairs again at work, after vacation, so that means the last week of February.

Guess I better plan some great food for the next few weeks! 

How big is "big"?

I stepped on the scale on Monday morning and was surprised at my weight, I am heavier than I can remember being in several years.


I weigh 131 pounds. The most I can recall being in the last 10 years or so was 132 and that was at Christmas time when I was training with SC, and I was pretty chubby. He wanted me to get up to 150...no way!


I don't think I look too bad at 131 but it is hard to be here, and I am really interested in seeing what will happen with my diet change.


I am trying to add as much lean mass as possible, and that means heavy lifting and a surplus of calories, unless I start taking steroids or Human Growth Hormone (which ain't gonna happen), I don't really see how I could get much bigger without getting just plain fat, but I will keep trying, it's sort of an interesting experiment.


I am enjoying it in part because all I ever hear women say is how they are trying to lose weight. I think they confuse it with losing fat, because in the grand scheme of things, your weight shouldn't matter- the fat should.


Being heavy indicates a lot of muscle mass, muscle weighs more than fat. 

Ok, well not always, but I mean, really, you can just look at someone and tell if they have a lot of fat or a lot of muscle right? 

I will keep up the training and the calories, and of course a bit of cardio but not much, the reason I would be doing cardio is to increase my enegry expenditure and that is just not the goal right now.

I am excited to see how the change in my diet will affect all of this. Will I still maintain the muscle mass, and grow the way I want, while reducing the bodyfat? Only time will tell. I haven't haven't had any starches now all week, it hasn't been difficult at all.

10 Week Transformation

I have a "movie" of my weekly pictures below, so you can see what took place during my 10 weeks of dieting for my last competition. 


What I find so interesting is how a body can change so much week to week!


If you followed my blog you would know that every weekend, for 10 weeks leading up to my last competition I would haul out the hooker heels and competition suit and take progress pictures. These pictures really help me to see what I look like and how I am moving along. 


Some weeks I would look soft, some weeks I would look flat. Others I looked absolutely tight and full, and then the next week it was all gone.


The interesting thing is throughout all this I maintained a very regimented diet, eating the same thing over and over, everyday at the same time. But the sleep and rest may have been different, then the time the pictures were taken would vary, perhaps I had coffee before one and not the other.


I started at 127 pounds and ended at 119, so this is only an 8 pound difference, but I lost all fat, and no muscle! It was a great diet for me!


What I should have done, and I plan to do next competition- is take this in reverse! I am going to take pictures starting on competition day and then every week after so you can see how I add bodyfat back on, and get back to a normal, healthy weight.


Email subscribers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view this movie.

It's all about the damn diet!

It’s all about the diet- seriously. Think about it. You bust your butt in the gym and you feel like you don’t get anywhere, or maybe you just don’t get the results as you expect.  You figure its your training so you add more cardio in, or maybe change the lifting a bit and add more cardio in yet again Pretty soon you are tired feeling and tired looking, and just as fat. So you meet your friends at the bar after work on Friday night and complain about your lack of progress. 

You order a couple beers, or maybe a few glasses of wine, share an appetizer and you all talk about how hard you work and just aren’t seeing results. It must be due to getting older and your metabolism is slowing down; or work is so stressful and busy that you cannot concentrate on your workout and sometimes cannot make it to the gym.

But it's about what you eat and drink- totally.

When you drink alcohol, your body must start and finish processing that before it can process anything else. People also tend to make poor food choices when they indulge in alcohol (myself included) so it's a double whammy.

Even if you don't drink alcohol, you really need to be conscious of your food and everything you put into your mouth if you are trying to lean out or gain muscle mass. 

I was at a party recently for 4 1/2 hours, I had one glass of white wine and then water the rest of the evening. I ate the food, and there was a catered taco bar and all sorts of side dishes. I ate one corn tortilla, a lot of chicken and beef and vegetables. I ate a quarter of a brownie.

It was the same old story, over and over I heard "Oh it's so nice to finally see you eating!" or "My goodness! I have never seen you eat!" "No diet tonight eh? Mu ha ha ha ha"

Really? I eat constantly, in fact 6 or 7 times a day, twice as often as other people do. But I make good choices most of the time.  That's why I look so fit and healthy, I eat the right foods.

Now, I am up in weight, you can see it in these pictures. I am eating more food and have expanded the choices to include some things I wouldn't typically eat. I prefer my lean body but  it's not practical to maintain year round.

I have people come up to me quite often and tell me they have been struggling to lose, and they want to ask me some questions, usually it is "What do you eat?" and I usually say:

"Chicken or turkey breast, fish, lean beef, egg whites, brown rice , sweet potatoes, yams, oatmeal, vegetables, lots and lots of vegetables."

"No bread? What about dairy? Do you eat fruit? Pasta? Have you heard of the <fill in the blank fad> diet?"

" I do eat fruit, after training. I am lactose intolerant so I don't eat much dairy. I rarely eat bread and then its usually Alvarado Bakery Essential Flax Seed bread, pasta is once in a blue moon and then it's a real serving- which is 2 ounces....not enough to fill you up so you need meat and vegetables too."

And I don't believe in fad diets. I also don't believe in hours of cardio. You should let the diet do the work. Bodies are designed to be lean, efficient machines, primed and ready to move and  function as the amazing works of art they are. Fuel your body so it can be what it was designed to be.

And drink water. Lots and lots of water.

When I diet to lose bodyfat, it is just a stricter version of what I currently eat year round. So I don't go on a fad diet but I do cut way back, it's easy really although not necessarily the most enjoyable thing in the world.

I have lots of people ask me questions and I am happy to answer them- Go ahead and ask away, but please remember, I am basing my answers on what has worked for me, I have years of experience and you gotta stick to the diet to see results, simple as that. You cannot expect to see results in a couple weeks.

Post Competition

Here I am in all my glory, it's about as big as I let myself get. I am trying to get bigger- more muscle that is, but not much fatter. And as long as I am diligent I should be able to maintain this level of bodyfat and still add some lean mass.


I am at 126 pounds, I was up to 128 a few days ago, and three weeks ago I was at 119. Now before you go all wonky on me, you must understand that pre-competition the body is depleted and dehydrated. When you eat carbohydrates, your body fills the muscles and liver with glycogen, and when you have glycogen in your body it holds onto water. 2.6 grams of water for every gram of glycogen....Instant weight gain!


Eliminate starches (or most of them) and water and zilch, you have nothing in the body to add weight.


After a competition, your body is primed for nutrients and fuel since it has been so depleted. Many people blow up from eating excessively and some do just getting back to normal foods, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself for the last few weeks and have eaten almost anything I wanted. Yes it shows, I an change that.


But, I have had my fill and am back to my clean eating (mostly) with a treat here and again. When I say treat this is typically savory foods for me. A pork chop, a lamb chop, cheeseburger, Caesar salad....wine.


My diet stays the same, I just allow myself more food. I eat at least one rice cake a day, with peanut or almond butter. I add a whole hard cooked  (well almost) egg to my salad. I allow myself to have my favorite thick spelt toast instead of oatmeal and I don't fret about tasting things here and there.


My lifting is heavy, I don't change it too much post competition. I am trying to add mass so I will lift heavy and focus on volume, I respond well to volume. That's where the German Volume Training comes in. It's hard to do it on a calorie restricted diet, so this is the time!


Wednesdays Roy and I do squats (10 sets of 10) and on Fridays we do barbell shoulder press (10 sets of 10). I repeat them both on my own, squats again on Saturday and shoulders on Tuesday. 


I did shoulders today on my own and was laughing to myself. I had to keep getting off the bench as I was sweating so much from the presses that the seat was wet and uncomfortable...As I always say - I know a good workout when I sweat and my feet aren't even moving.


I was talking to a woman in the locker room afterward and she made a comment about it, I said I was trying to add muscle and she got a look of surprise on her face. "Add more muscle?!" I forget that I am considered quite big and muscular to many other women.


I am back to running my stairs and jumping rope at lunch, so I get two workouts in almost everyday. I gave it up at the end as my competition got closer because I was too fatigued and I didn't want to lose too much more bodyweight. I am at the gym every single morning, and then running every lunch except Wednesday and Friday. Wednesdays I have GVT squats and I would be foolish to run and jump at lunch before that, and on Fridays I lift with Roy at noon so I really cannot fit it in. I do some form of cardio on weekends, either at the gym or on my treadmill.


So while I loved my svelte, lean competition body, It's not a good idea to try to maintain a level of bodyfat that makes an Olympic gymnast jealous, and I don't want to go through life like that anyway. I cannot stay so low all the time.


I will be starting to have more time for cooking and should be posting some great clean and healthy recipes soon.


I will be continuing to take photos, so you can see the changes in my physique and bodyfat, and let you know about dietary changes and my training. 

Positive Energy

I have been waking up early, in fact, the last two weeks I have been waking earlier than my alarm (and that's pretty impressive when the alarm is set for 4:00 a.m.)


I feel good, most of the time. Physically I feel wonderful, it's the emotional and mental state that are a bit questionable every now and then. 


I am second guessing myself, and that is unfortunately part of the "competition" game. I did not want to get as lean as last competition, I think I started to lose lean mass, I didn't like the look, nor was it healthy for me, so I have deliberately maintained a higher weight. 


Every once in a while I wonder if I overdid it. I could have lost one more pound, and that would make a big difference on a small frame such as mine. But then again, according to both David and Roy, I am bigger, not fatter, but more muscular.


Wednesday I had my bodyfat checked and it came in low, 5.2% which is more than "respectable" it's phenomenal. It really helped me to wrap my head around what's going on and made me realize that I should be fine, who the hell should complain about bodyfat of 5.2%?! I was sure I would drop at least one more maybe two more pounds and hopefully it will all drop right off my butt! 


I stopped in at Courtside to meet with Monique, she took a half hour out of her day again to review my posing, talk to me about stage presence and gave me a great talk, she is quite the motivational stud muffin! 


She gave me some great tips and reinforced what we had previously discussed, made me promise to chant my "saying" in my head as I am standing on stage, looking directly at the line of judges all staring up at me. It's what ever I want to say to myself, but it needs to convince ME that THEY want me to win; it's designed to pull them into me. It's another head trip. I am not going to tell you what I am saying over and over in my head but anyone who cares to guess can send me an email or a reply to this post. It's a little risque...


I walked out feeling good, feeling strong, feeling capable. I needed her motivational talk, it really helped me. I think it is very important to surround yourself with the right people, people who are supportive and positive. People who make you feel GOOD! I know a lot of people like that, I tend to cut loose those who don't fit that criteria, my life is too short to keep an albatross around my neck. I don't try to "make them come around", I just... walk away.


The sport of Figure is as much a psychological sport as much as a physical sport, maybe even more. Your head will get in your way every time. I know my head stops me from heavy, heavy squats, just as it tells me I am too "fat" when I am close to competition time.


Friday I was training with Roy and not feeling a great deal of energy, this is not typical for me. I told him that I thought I was just "done" ready to be over with the preparation for the competition. He said he could tell, it wasn't like me to cut my set short (one rep! Geez!!)


I was also down one pound from Wednesday, just as I suspected, and I will probably drop another soon.


I tried to finish strong, we discussed the upcoming days training, it must be modified due to depletion, fatigue and the fact that I am doing mostly circuits now as I always do just prior to showtime. It throws his stats off, but oh well, we have plenty of time to make new ones.


After we finished, I started thinking about the new training we would embark on, my goal to gain even more muscle, at least another 2 pounds! I told Roy I would be back the Monday after the competition, I am not taking any time off. "None?" he asked. I said that I would probably skip the gym Monday morning, and just train one that day for a change. He kinda shook his head and smiled, I think he said something about German Volume Training....

Hydrostatic Bodyfat Testing

I had hydrostatic bodyfat testing Wednesday at Courtside, they have Mike's mobile truck come every six months, so this was perfect since my membership officially ends at the end of April!


I had a good visit, saw a lot of the trainers I hadn't seen in a while, one wanted to know what I was competing in this time, Figure or Physique!


So, if you have been reading a while, you know I have been trying to gain muscle, and not get as lean as last competition when I was down to 2.5%, I didn't like the look and it wasn't healthy.


Although I am a little worried that I may not be just quite low enough, I am low, lower than most males ever get (and they get leaner than females). I am at 5.2%


To read all the details I will add links at the bottom here, I have done this three times so I don't want to go into all the details again. I will briefly explain it though. 


Mike has a big truck, like a huge taco truck, with no tacos. Inside is a changing room, scale, computer and a huge stainless steel tank half full of lukewarm water.


You need to get in the tank, weight belt on your hips and exhale all your air, then plunge underwater and keep pushing out all your air until you feel you shall die. No coming up for air until Mike bangs on the side of the tank.


Then you do it two more times. Ugh.


So my stats:


123 pounds (funny at Gold's at 5:00am I was 121)


Lean Body Mass:
Lean body mass percentage 94.75%
Weight of Lean body mass 116.55 pounds


Body Fat:
Body fat percentage 5.2%
Weight of body fat 6.45 pounds (it's all in my butt)


Mike remembered me, he had never tested a female as low as I was last time. When we were done, he said he thinks after the next week, and dropping water, I should look perfect. We had a good chat as I dried off and changed.


But the most significant detail is my increase in lean body mass. I have gained almost 2.5 POUNDS of lean mass in 7 months! Now that is significant for a natural (no steroids), trained female! Remember that you will see gains quickly in untrained athletes, just as a very sedentary person who starts an exercise regime will quickly lose weight the first few weeks.


I have been training a long time, in fact, you can see my bodyfat test done by Mike in June of 2010, almost two years ago and I weighed almost exactly the same, with 2 pounds less lean mass and 1 percent more bodyfat!


It takes a serious, rigorous weight training program, proper and adequate nutrition and supplementation and rest.


And, a good trainer. I owe all this to Roy Ganju, my trainer and owner of BodyComp Personal Training Gym. I have been training with him now for one year (I think we started April 29, but he knows, he has it written down on his charts). 


Roy took bodyfat measurements with his calipers in the afternoon, so we can compare them to the hydrostatic. As we discussed the results we were talking about my smileys that seem to have stayed longer than I want, and he mentioned that my glutes didn't shrink like they typically do when I lose so much fat, in fact, he said he thinks they got larger!  


Roy also wanted to know if any fellow competitors had seen me since October, I am much bigger, more muscular, he says I look completely different. I think he might be as excited as I am this time!


Below are the results you will get from Mike, and at the bottom is my history with him, all in his database. 

You can go to his website bodyfattest.com and check out his schedule to see when he might be in your area. If the schedule indicates Members Only, you need to be a member of that facility. If it doesn't, then anyone can do it! The fee is $49.00 for the first test and $39.00 thereafter. Courtside charged me $70.00!

My blog about my test in June 2010

My blog about my test in September 2011

If you have not yet completed my reader survey, please take a moment to do so, I appreciate it!

Ready In 5 (Weeks) survey

Glutes

You know what I really worry about when I am dieting for a competition? 

My Butt!

This is my typical "hit the treadmill" attire when I am at home, and I can keep an eye on the butt in the full wall mirror in the guest room.

There are two things to worry about and they are complete opposites so that's why I always worry.  I want a tight set of glutes, and a large set of glutes. 

I am lucky, I have a nice butt, I mean genetically. It's round, full, rides pretty darn high and I don't have saddlebags. Of course, I have practically no hips to speak of and I suppose this all goes hand in hand, but I am happy with my "gift"

In Figure, you want a nice, tight, smooth, hard transition from the hamstring to the glute, no "cheeks" , no "smileys", no "saggy skin". Your glutes really don't end up looking like real glutes, but one long muscle.

So this means you need to lose pretty much all your fat, and.....butts are typically "fat". I do realize that glutes are the biggest muscle on the body, but they seems to be covered in a  nice layer of fat.

My goal: Lose the 'smileys" and make one tight transition, while keeping the size and roundness of the glutes...see? Lose fat and keep size...

Fat and no fat. Not quite sure why I think it's possible, but I see other women do it so why can't I?            

SC used to check my bodyfat all the time, usually once a month but when I was getting close to a competition, we went to once a week. My lower glute would range form a high of 20 cm all the way down to 6 cm! The typical bodyfat was at a reading of 8 cm when I competed. 

I have no idea where it is now, I don't really need to check it constantly, as I always get way too lean anyway.  I do think checking it on a regular basis is important for folks who are making big changes and need to see the results, see some improvement, but in my case, I just chug along on the same track I have been on many times before. 

How are the glutes coming? We are not at 10 cm yet! ha ha

Still working on it!

Hydrostatic Bodyfat Testing

2.5%

2.5% what? Bodyfat. Do I look like I am at 2.5%? No, I don't think so, but this picture was taken on Wednesday morning after I got back from the gym and that's what my bodyfat was at the time. On Tuesday I had hydrostatic bodyfat testing and I came out to be at 2.5%

How does it all work? I did it last year, and it is quite interesting to go through, even if I feel like I am going to die in the process.

Odd that I would pay for such a thing but I do.

Mike pulls his mobile testing truck up at the gym, folds down the metal stairs and sets up shop. He will be there all day long.


Tuesday afternoon I walked up the stairs and greeted him. I said I was his next appointment and I was ready!

I told him that I did it last year so I was familiar with the process and I took off my clothes (I had a swimsuit on) and stood on his scale.

118 pounds. Damn! My weight had dropped a couple days prior, and this was not good, I didn't want to drop anymore. But, as I said yesterday, it is a very fine balancing act and at the end, things can get sticky.

Below you see Mike standing by the tank explaining to me again what to do. I will sit on the edge and then swing my feet over and dangle them in the water. He then takes a reading after a minute, not sure what it is. The water is warm, 90 degrees and smells slightly of chlorine.


He says "You getting ready for a competition?" "Yes" I tell him, "4 days away." "Bodybuilding?" he asks. "No, I am competing in Figure, but at 118 pounds may just be too hard for that now."


"You are lean. I can tell just by looking at you now." he says.


I am told to get in, lay down, stomach down, resting on my forearms so my head is above the water. We will run through the actual measurement process three times to get an average reading.


Mike lays a heavy weight belt on my lower hips to hold me down. I have become a very tiny person. I will take a deep breath and exhale slowly, then another deep breath, exhale fast and when he tells me, plunge under water and keep pushing all the air out of my lungs, I will sink as I do this. He will keep shouting at me to continue blowing out my air and I must not stop.

 He said I have to keep pushing the air out, while I am under water, till no more bubbles are escaping. I feel like I shall die, I need air, I want to come up but I was instructed not to until I hear him pound on the side of the stainless steel tank. I push the air out from my abdomen as he instructed, keep pushing!, keep pushing!. Crap, It's like giving birth all over again! I start to panic a little then Mike finally pounds on the side. I come shooting up like a fish being chased by a shark, gasping for air.

 He says "You ok?" "Yes" I tell him, "I am fine". pant, pant, pant......


We do the same thing a second time, and then a third. OK, I have had enough "fun" for the day, send me home dammit!

Mike tosses me a big towel and I dry off as he works on his computer. It has stored my data from last time, we can compare everything. 


"You are low." Mike says. "In fact, I have never tested a woman lower than this, and only one man lower. You are at 2.5%."


'That has to be a mistake!" I tell him. "There is no way I am that low. I get to 4%, I know that, but 2.5%, wouldn't I be dead or something? What is the margin for error?"


"1%, so if this is as off as it can be, you are at 3.5%, or you could be lower couldn't you? You probably don't have a lot of energy lately and don't feel super good either."


He has hit the nail on the head, very low energy and I waver in and out of "feeling good" but I have been able to successfully function I think. At least I have been working full time, and training three times a day...

I explain to him that when competing it is so easy to develop body dysmorphia, even for a while. You stare at yourself for so long, critiquing all the time, it is hard to see what you really look like. My family and friends get so tired of me walking up to them and saying "Do I look skinny? Do I look fat? Are my shoulders flat? Is my stomach pudgy?"  You honestly cannot tell on your own, or your mind plays games on you and you see something that doesn't really exist. 


He nods and understands. We chat a bit about sports and bodyfat and athletes. 


Here is the report, I have 2.5% bodyfat percentage and I weigh 118 pounds so...


I have 3.05 pounds of fat on my entire body. I think that is how much my head weighs.....My lean mass is 114.95 pounds.


My percentage from last year is below, and I have slightly more lean mass over last year with 4% less bodyfat. But last year I did this 22 days prior to a competition, and I dropped more weight afterward, I suspect some lean mass too. This means I did indeed gain lean mass, to be able to lose that much more fat and still have a lean mass increase is great, although I need to shoot for more lean mass after this.

I realize that it is rather unusual to have bodyfat so low, especially for a woman. And it still doesn't look that low to me, but it is what it is. I very well may be marked down in the competition for being too low, "too hard" but there really isn't much I can do now. 

I remember one other time my body was like a train without brakes, running out of control, the same thing happened to me and Kim advised me to "EAT MORE STARCH!" so that's what I am doing now. I ate when I got home, I ate again, and again. Starches at every meal, beef, bread, peanut butter too. Right before bed I had a chicken breast and 4 ounces of sweet potato, unheard of previously at bed time!

I woke up at 2:00 a.m and ate starch. At 4:00 a.m. I ate my cream of rice and chicken and a sandwich.

I have halted the loss I hope, lets' see how I look in the next few days! 

You can find out where Mike will be next, he may be coming to your gym! Check out his site BodyFatTest

One Week Out

One week from today (when the pictures were taken on Saturday), I will be on stage competing at the San Francisco.


I am pleased, but nervous too. I cannot see the trees through the forest. I know I look great, my shoulders are huge and round, the way I like them. My bodyfat is low, Roy checked it again on Friday and it has all dropped, except the damn knees! We gotta figure out what that all means.


Actually my delts really just now rounded out, it's Roys dedication to tracking the rate of the inclines and weights and reps, and the time under tension. 

My weight has been holding steady at 119, and that is good I don't want to lose any more, but I don't want to gain, I need to eat just enough starches to stay full so my muscles look healthy and I don't look like a skinny cardio queen.


I am pleased with the abs, I have never been one to get a six pack, but at 50, I think they look pretty darn good!

See the shoulders? Nice huh? I can see I am smiling, a real smile, I am happy I have gotten to this point, it is quite a bit of work you know.

The back- broad and well developed, and the glutes look good. The tan, all I need is the tan!