Head Games and Hamstrings

Sunday I was exhausted, I literally felt like every ounce of energy had been sucked from my body. This is isn't like me, not at all. I hadn't stayed up late Saturday, it didn't make sense. I even attempted to take a nap in the afternoon, that's how fatigued I felt.


I was a little worried, I didn't feel sick, just like I couldn't move, it all required way too much energy. We stopped by Mark and Virginia's, I stuck to water and they had sparkling wine. Virginia though maybe it was due to the fact that I over indulged in the food area on Saturday.


That's nice she thinks that, but this temple has been violated many times before, it wasn't the food. We didn't stay long, I had dinner then I ended up going to bed at 7:15 p.m. it was still light out for hours.


I fell right asleep then tossed and turned, Cooper got home from work at about 8:45 and quietly opened my door to say hello. "Hi mummy! I'm home!" He may be 18 but he will always be my little boy. David made him dinner, I fell back asleep.


I woke at 4:50 a.m. and Gold's didn't open until 6:00 a.m. so I didn't get up yet. I was a little worried about my head, I mean if I am not sick why am I feeling this way? I was worried I may be over training, I feel like am just beating myself into the ground.


I got up at 5:10 a.m and resolved to go hard at the gym, Sunday had to have been a fluke.


It was hamstring day and Roy was taking the day off, normally I would train with him at night but I was on my own and would see him on Tuesday for shoulders instead.


I was to do deadlifts at 200 pounds, on Friday he reminded me to warm up with several sets. I need lots of warm up sets whenever I lift heavy.

I set two 45 pound plates as a platform and warmed up with 95 pounds, then 115 pounds, then 185 pounds and set up at 200.


I started in, I would do 4 or 5 sets of 5 reps. I felt good, I felt strong. I guess I just needed some rest. I see the guy next to me staring. I look over and he is about 6' 3", a fairly big guy.  I quickly add up the weights he is using for his RDL's, he has 175 pounds. He looks at me a bit shocked and I take my earbuds out. "You have more weight than I do!" he exclaims. "Yea, 200 pounds" I reply. "I guess it's good for your back" he says and I pat my hamstrings "I'm trying to get my legs bigger". He just sorta shakes his head and strips his bar and walks away. He had only done three sets of about 4 or 5, not very good but maybe he has some back issues. He shouldn't be doing RDL's if he does though.


I finish all of my sets, I am feeling my old self again. I strip the bar and then sit a while, I need to rest.


Over to the Glute Ham Raise, I have 5 sets to do on this, slow raises with a 5 pound plate held to my chest. It takes a long time.


I look at the clock, it has been almost one hour and I did only two exercises, just the way Roy and I would have done it!


I wander up to the locker room and stop at the stairmill. I want to walk. I know I shouldn't, the educated part of me knows that working out longer than an hour really is more detrimental than beneficial, but I haven't done any cardio in so long, I need to, for my head. I do honestly think that most cardio addicts do it for their head- they have stuff they are battling there and the cardio helps them. At least they think it does, it mostly makes them look emaciated and tired though. My head needs it now because I am bigger than ever, I know I need to add weight to add size but's it's still hard to deal with. It's a daily struggle for me.


I climb on and climb for 20 minutes, I zone out.


I leave the gym feeling more like myself, I will need to get a bit more rest, David is always telling me I never relax, I never rest enough, I don't get enough sleep, it's true.


Home for my shake and coffee, I have a party to attend. I will sit in the sun, I will eat the meat and my salad, no starches, no alcohol, It feels too good when I feel good.


I plan to keep it that way.

Change of Pace

I go through this every year, and you would think I would have it under control by now but I still do not. I am feeling Big with a capital "B". Yeah, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad, I know I am not BIG, but I am big for me. The funny thing is, I am trying to get bigger! It's just hard to accept it. I work so hard to get small, then I turn around and try to get big...go figure (no pun intended).

As you know, I am thinking of competing on Womens' Physique instead of Figure, but that means a lot more muscle, a lot more weight. Putting it on invariably causes some fat gain too, and realistically you don't want to maintain a stage ready physique year round, it's not practical or emotionally advised.

My weight went from 118 on October 1 up to a high of 133 and I have maintained at about 130, 131 for quite some time. I look pretty good but when I see photos of myself at competition time it's hard to accept my newer "softer" look, although I do really like the bigger arms , legs and butt. I guess it's just the soft belly I don't like. Get rid of that and I am a happy camper! 

I always change up my training, that includes what I do with Roy and on my own. As much as possible, I will keep with his current protocol, for instance, I train shoulders twice a week, but only once with Roy. The second day is on my own and I try to re-create what we did. Ideally I would increase weights or reps but sometimes it's just not possible (I need a spotter, physically or emotionally), so I stick to the same. I try to stick to the same for legs too. Back is always on my own, but I try to follow the protocol, if we are doing fewer reps on everything else, I will do the same for back.

What I do vary is my mornings when I am at the gym and not lifting, because I will train with him that evening or afternoon. For quite some time I was hitting the stairmill and then training abs, I would do this Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings since those are the days I train with Roy later, and I would also throw in stairmill on weekends too after lifting.

He and I both agree (as did SC) that abs really pop when you have super low bodyfat, so crunching away day after day isn't what will make a difference. Abs come with squats, deadlifts, pull ups, full body moves, not all those ab exercises everyone toils away at day after day. I do plenty of squats, believe me!

At my last competition I was encouraged to "bring up" my quads and calves, that means make them bigger, and I have been diligently working on them and my quads look tremendously better. We train my quads and hams so hard that some days I don't know who enjoys it more, me, or Roy! 

A couple weeks ago I stopped my stairmill and and abs. I changed it up to train my calves and do the same type of conditioning I learned from Jerome at kickboxing. 

So I train calves then hit the basketball court and recreate the conditioning routine that Jerome taught me. It includes running, jumping, squats, burpees, push ups, crunches, boxing, jump rope and whatever else I feel like throwing in. It's hard, much more difficult than any old stairmill!

We will see how it all goes, I don't want to create too much of a calorie deficit or I won't gain muscle, I have to find that sweet balance we are all looking for, and then hold on tight!

Hams from Hell

We are now working on my hamstrings once a week, Monday evenings is the selected day of torture.

I enjoy training hamstrings, but then there are some things that once I start, I decide they are really, really difficult.

SC always told me I was built to deadlift. I guess that's better than being told I am strong like a Russian tractor, he meant it as a compliment I am sure. 

Monday we did deadlifts, Romanian Dedalifts (RDL's). We started with my ending weight from last week- 155 and Roy just kept piling on the weight. He said as long as I could do 10 reps, I could do more weight.

He added more, then the chains. We were up to 195 I think, and I had done four sets. He wanted more. He added more weight, it couldn't have been much, maybe we were up to 200 or 205, and I did 5 reps and on the 5th, just let it drop it on the ground, I couldn't pull it up any longer. 

I was breathing hard, sweating, the kind of training I like, you see, my feet barely moved! ha ha

Then it was on to unilateral work on the extension bench, with a weight. This one is done very slowly, it hits the top of the glutes and my lower back begins to feel it.

We went longer than usual. Roy wanted to hit the calves too. I got home, had a ground beef patty, brown rice, mushrooms and zucchini. I thought I would be sore the following day.

I woke at 4:00 am, ate egg whites and off to the gym for shoulders, nothing was sore, nothing hurt, odd. I made sure I rolled and stretched my legs a little but concentrated on the shoulders more.

I emailed Roy and told him "nothing! no soreness!"

At lunch I changed and grabbed my jump rope, it was off to run the steps and jump. Jogging to the event center was fine, but as I took the first stairs (two at a time), I could feel the slowness in my legs, the muscles were still fatigued.

I managed to run my steps and jump rope, but it was slow going. I slowly jogged back to the office when I was done. By the time I got home from work at 5:30, my calves were killing me, my hamstrings were staring to feel tight, and I knew I was in for a long night of tossing and turning. I would have hamstrings from hell in the morning.

And Wednesday night Roy and I train Quads. Quads means squats. No way to rest the hams when doing squats.


Give me strength, I am going to need it Wednesday night!

Butts and Backs

Backs and Butts

I think that those two parts of a woman's body are stunning, absolutely beautiful. I mean look at this view, pretty nice huh?

I am on the left (in case you couldn't tell). This is the top four in the Unlimited "C" division of the 2011 NPC San Francisco Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, Men's Physique and Bikini Championships. I placed third.

So many people only concentrate on the muscles they can see, the "mirror muscles". I have always loved to train glutes and back, part of this may be because my back gets wide and impressive  and I love to see the results.

My glutes? I have always had a good, round butt. Genetics. However, I still have to train it and train hard. Those little leg pulley things that people call "kick backs" might feel good, and in fact I do it sometimes too, but it won't make your glutes ride high and hard. I don't think it does anything actually. You need to perform exercises with a lot of heavy weight, just like you would for any other muscle you are trying to grow.

And, not much looks worse than a dimply, saggy, loose, fat butt.

What do I do? There is lots to do!

Wide stance squats, plie or sumo squats (stand on two raised blocks so you can go deep), hip thrusts, barbell glute bridge, sprints, reverse hypers, Good mornings, ball ham roll outs, Glute Ham Raise, kettlebell swings, running stairs, lunges, RDL's, deadlifts (all the major lifts and all squats will hit the glutes too). 

Hey! Thats' serious weigh training isn't it? And hard stuff too! You bet. You cannot grow big, beautiful muscles without lifting heavy and working hard! The cute little colored weights with the powder coating are not your friend!

I usually train back once a week and glutes once a week. Then, as I am getting closer to a competition, I will train back twice a week and incorporate the glutes into other days.

Having a strong back and strong glutes is not only pleasing to the eye, but it will help you in life.