Friday's Training with Roy

I think I must have been born with an Olympic bar on my back! I do honestly think my favorite exercise is anything with that big, long, cold, 45 pound bar!

These pictures were taken Saturday morning, immediately after training, before food and coffee. You can compare them to the pictures I posted on Sunday to see what a dramatic difference the food makes.

In these I look tight and really lean, whereas the pictures after eating I look pretty soft. Keep that in mind when you are getting your body "beach ready" as they say.

I know when I really start losing the body fat because people at the club comment. Today I saw Tom, he said "You must be getting ready for something, you are looking really lean"...yup, he's right.  He looked me up and down and said "You are really vascular, this is new, not like you usually look. What's different this time?" I find it interesting that this man, and many others feel comfortable enough around me to do that. I mean they actually look up and down and comment. I encourage it, I want them to tell me, it's not personal nor is is sexual, it is constructive criticism on the progress of "The Body". It just happens to be my body. I need the feedback, I stare it it so much, I lose sight of reality. My vision gets skewed.

We talked a bit about training and diet, what I am doing differently, he is going to Hawaii soon and is trying to tighten up and he explained his current diet.

I told him to ditch the fruit. No fruit when dropping body fat, fructose is probably one of the worst things for it!

I have maintained at the 2 pound drop, and had three meals that are not "competition prep approved". One more at the wedding (or maybe the rehearsal dinner too) and then I am officially killin' it!

Friday Roy and I worked on Good Mornings first then back squats. He took some video I think, or pictures, I guess when he sends them to me you will see them too!

We then tried his modified Glute Ham Raise, I told David about it and he was horrified. I will try anything once though, and if it doesn't kill me and I like it, I will do it over and over again. Life is too damn short to worry about getting hurt. I have a better chance of getting hit by a bus than hurting myself training, and I already broke a rib doing it so I used up my quota.

I couldn't even do the exercise and he says with a bit of enthusiasm "We got our exercise for next week!"....I am looking forward to it.

Squats are great for the whole body and not enough women do them. Most women I see squatting don't go heavy enough or low enough. And I am learning that they aren't doing them with proper form either! Actually, most people don't use proper form as they are so intent on loading on the weight, they sacrifice form for weight, then the exercise is basically useless. Well, it is a good way to hurt yourself I guess.

And women are the ones so stressed about their big 'ol butts! Squatting will only make that flabby butt into a tight butt. Nothing worse than a flabby, flat butt...

And Good Mornings? For the hamstrings....when you stand sideways, you really want to see a nice big bulge in the back of the leg, above the knee, and then a bigger one when you get to the glutes...You gotta work the hammies!

I have really enjoyed training with Roy and feel fortunate to have found him. He listens to what I want and then makes sure I do it right! Couldn't be better huh? I also like the fact that he respects my opinion and experiences and doesn't have an air of "I am the Trainer, you are the Trainee"...we are in it together. I think I can always learn from others, and I know I have a lot to offer too. People learn from me everyday!

Check out the back! The "back fat" is dwindling away...very quickly too. I guess it's the curse of the 50 year old body or something. I always said I look best at 123 pounds and I am at 125 now.

Lets' compare pictures when I lose 2 more pounds shall we? I will wear the exact same clothes too!

Observations of a Dog

  

July, David and Cooper are off so I am along for the ride a lot! This is our road to Santa Rosa to pick up grapevines. This is also my "Last Meal"......before "The Diet".

Actually I lie, David will be performing a wedding at the end of the month, and as the spouse of the "guy performing the wedding", I get to go along! I love weddings! David is not a minister or anything like that, we call him "Deacon Dave" because anyone can perform weddings, you just need a license. Apparently the teachers who work for him like him to do this, so I go to the weddings as his cute sidekick.

Anyway, today stared with leg day, it was back squats with proper form...not very impressive as far as weight but I sure looked like I knew what I was doing! 

I warmed up with 2 sets of 10, Olympic bar only then did 8 sets of 10 at 95 pounds, slowly...I think I really should move up a bit, we will see how the form looks Friday. Seems to me that I shouldn't have been able to do that many sets if it was heavy enough. Then 10 sets of 10 Good Mornings. 

I was a sight! I had my gymboss set at 50 seconds strapped to my top on the left, ipod strapped to my top on the right, and made sure my time under tension was about 50 seconds. Hit the stopwatch for a 90 second rest in between, and realized I had the power rack for 45 minutes. A guy walks up as I am resting on my itty bitty stool and says "mind if I use your equipment a minute?" oops....

Rowed 10 minutes, stairmill 20 minutes then off for the road trip!

First stop, as David has learned...bathroom. I am not a very good traveler, always need to stop. But we discovered a great taco truck as we searched out a bathroom for me.

David loves taco trucks, I do too, but not now...I was a voyeur this morning. 

The next stop (after yet another bathroom break) was Willi's Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. We haven't picked up the vines yet, we needed to eat first! It was a beautiful setting, reminded me of Provence. 

So what does "Observations of a Dog" mean anyway? That's what I call the passenger on a road trip. One person drives, and the other is "The Dog", they just sit and stare out the window, like a dog!

I was "The Dog" today. We took MyRedRocket (my car) because it's an automatic and convertible, so this dog had fun in the sun. I observed some interesting billboards and they resonated with me.


Here is David's first course, grilled Monterey Bay sardines, salsa verde and homemade chips. He loves this stuff...

Back to the billboards. I saw two from Prudential that I really like.

Tomorrow Starts Today

What that says to me, is why wait until tomorrow when you can do it today? Anything! A diet, a book, a phone call, a new training program, anything. Think about it. Why wait? It's easy to keep saying "tomorrow, tomorrow".


I started with Ahi tuna tartare..raw fish with fish eggs and some herbs. Yum!

The other billboard was this:

With Progress Come Challenges

Yes, I am quite familiar with this, but I am not a person who fears a challenge, I welcome challenges! Do you? It's easy to be safe and unfazed and challenge free, if you don't do anything new. How boring...

If you want to progress you will need to face a challenge or two! That comes with the territory.

David then had Moroccan lamb with mint pesto and preserved lemon couscous. 

We have a joke: "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean"....yup, I ate the bones clean! After David ate the meat off the chops that is.

Real clean.....

The last billboard that this dog observed?

Don't Be Afraid To Ask

For advise, help, anything. Reach out to people you think can mentor you, people whose opinion you value, whose knowledge you trust. It might be a co-worker, a person in the gym, a nutritionist, an online coach.

Feel free to ask me anything...

Tomorrow Starts Today

With Progress Come Challenges

Don't Be Afraid To Ask

German Volume Training Final Week

I think this is my last week with the front squats, at least for a while. I have adapted, I am not sore, not tight, it's time to hit the legs with something else. Even Saturday after training with Roy at BodyComp Personal Training Gym the previous day, I woke and felt fine. 


Today was 10 sets of 10 front squats @ 105 pounds , resting 90 seconds in between each set. Then I did 10 sets of 10 Good Mornings at 70 pounds, again resting 90 seconds in between.


I don't know what Roy will have me do this coming Friday, but I love surprises! I don't recall ever doing any weight training that I didn't like anyway. I mean, I have experienced a lot of crazy, tough, difficult, heavy, exhaustive stuff, but in the end I loved every minute of it. 

I absolutely love this, my entire body is slick with sweat before I am even halfway through.

It's almost like running a marathon (yes I have done that too), I  wonder "what the hell am I doing??" as I  continue on, I want to stop, but I dare not. I haven't come this far to be a quitter. I will triumph! 




I took these pictures on Tuesday, July 12 right after training. I can see the improvement just by cleaning up my diet for a few days. No snacking, no PEANUT BUTTER, no bread, everything is precisely measured out (except, as I promised David I wouldn't start "The Diet" till the end of the month, I did do a bit of wine tasting with him on the weekend and went out to dinner (steak and vegetables, no potato).

I still amaze myself though at how quickly my body responds to my diet, any diet, good or bad. The pictures I posted on the weekend of me in my competition suit show me as bloated and looking soft, all over. I can easily see the difference here, just by laying off the "extras".

Training log, well I never got around to doing a new one, it's still penciled in with the changes. I have been enjoying my week off from work and have been super busy visiting folks.

I timed the training at 44 minutes and 52 seconds, that does not include my long rest in between the front squats and the good mornings. The week before I didn't think to exclude that. 

These are PLATEmates not PLAYmates...I know what you were thinking! Roy gave me these to add a little weight to my sets, each one weighs a mere 1 1/4 pounds, so one magnet smacked on each side would have made me go up to 107.5 and 72.5 but they didn't adhere to my plates. Courtside's are powder coated, so they just didn't stay as they would on plain cold steel.

I thought of going up with the small 2.5 pound plates instead, but I was suffering from a corneal ulcer, my eye was rather sore and the previous day extremely painful. The whole event always saps my energy (I have an eye condition, so I get these frequently). Anyway, I chose to stick with the lower weights as most people wouldn't have even come in that day. I wanted to feel successful and I was.

I am getting into the grove, my food is back where it needs to be. I am so excited to wake up every single day! 

German Volume Training Day 2

I did it! Tuesday was to be German Volume Training- Front Squats on my own. 




I recently talked about my session on Friday with Roy at BodyComp Personal Training Gym, Tuesday I was supposed to repeat the session, with increased weight, on my own.

In the picture above I have just finished, I look pretty slammed, the veins are popping out of my arms!

Above is my favorite rack or "cage" - call it what you will, it is the one I like, old, rickety, but has good safety bars and I like the way I fit in it.

I warmed up, leg stretching, my hams and quads are very, very tight. Then took a look at the clock, if I time this right, it will take about 50 minutes. That means I will not perform the exercises too quickly, as most weight trainers do, and I won't rest too long.

My training log and stopwatch. You can see the hash marks for the sets, I would lose count if I tried to keep it in my head, my body will be exhausted before I reach the goal.

I was to do 10 sets of 10 reps, at a tempo of 4-1 which means lower (eccentric) at the count of 4, and then raise (concentric) up as fast as possible (count of 1), no rest in between reps. I will rest 90 seconds in between sets.


Roy alluded to the fact that Friday we will be cutting the rest down, to 60 seconds I think, and increasing weight a little more. Bring it on I say.

As low as I can go (yes, that means ass to ground) and knees out forward, I tend to forget that part, Roy keep reminding me.

I was dripping in sweat, talking to myself, grunting, shaking my head. As I would reach the bottom I would think about my glutes and quads and chant over and over 'power, power, power, power" till I shot back up.

You do know that is 100 FRONT squats right?

I then did 4 sets of 10 Good Mornings at 85 pounds. Sat on my little stool, looked up at the clock and it had been:

50 minutes.

I am pretty pleased with myself, I just killed that one!

German Volume Training and Moby

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Friday! I arrived at BodyComp Gym and Roy was there waiting. I asked what the plan was today. I knew it would be legs, quads or hams, but not sure exactly what we would do.

German Volume Training. The best for adding mass, just what I like.

Some stretching and chatting, I told him I would be helping a friend move some stuff afterward, I think it was lumber but not quite sure. He said "hmmm, good luck after this!"

Front squats 60% one rep max, 10 sets of 10 with a 90 second rest period in between.

Sounds fairly easy, only gets harder as you go though. 

I was sweating after the first few sets, my top was getting soaked and I was breathing hard. These are front squats, as low as I can go, ass to ground, knees out in front, slowly descending, concentrating on the "time under tension", then shooting up, thrusting the hips forward.

Nice.....

Roy said I would get a burst of energy near the end, I told him they said the same thing to me during childbirth and that's about when I screamed "give me drugs!" and they said "no, you said you wanted natural child birth". Jerks, how dare they remind me of what I said days and days ago!

I was doing 95 pounds, he said Tuesday I should be able to do 100. OK!

A long nice rest then we went into Good Mornings to hit the abs, lower back and hams.

70 pounds, lower to almost parallel with the ground, keeping the abs pulled in tight, slight curve to the back and then come up, but not all the way, never lose the tension on the weight, coming all the way up to a standing position is simply allowing a rest period, we don't want rest we want as much "time under tension" as possible. 

4 sets of 10, again, I could feel the muscles straining as I slowly lowered the weight, it was pulling on my hamstrings. Widen the stance and go duck foot to hit the lower back a little more.

50 minutes, that's all it took, but those 50 minutes flew by like I just got there, it seemed like 10.

I quickly drank my R4 and took supplements, and off to help Mark move the lumber.

Moby?

My 1 ton 30 year old Chevy. My son got in it yesterday, hooked a U turn in front of the house and it broke down, right in front of the house but across the street, pretty convenient place to stall huh?

I needed to have AAA tow it to the end of the street, to the Chevron station so Michael could check it out. David said it was way too heavy to push and it is  an automatic so it just needed  a short tow.

The tow truck driver easily pushed it up on the harness, I told him had I known it was that light I could have pushed the darn thing. He looked at me and said "Well from the looks of you I would say, yes, you probably could have".

The driver hooked up Moby, and we drove the 10 houses down to the Chevron station. As he finished backing up, he said "Kristy" and stuck his hand out to shake mine. "It has been a pleasure! My name is Glen, If you can wait while I unhook the truck I can give you a lift home". 

"Thanks Glen, but I think I can use the exercise, I will just walk".

I walked back, it took me all of 2 minutes and I was thinking how difficult this short walk might be tomorrow. I might just be re-enacting the child birth scene "give me drugs!!"  ha ha ha


As a follow up- I wrote this at about 3:30 and later, at about 6:00, I sat at the kitchen table with David and our friend Jay having a glass of wine. The exhaustion just washed over me, a feeling that I don't recall ever having after weight training, at least not in a long time. 


My body felt relaxed, but as though every ounce of energy had been used and there was nothing left in my stores to help me move my arms, my legs, my head. I had refueled with a carb- protein drink (4-1 ratio) and then a full meal, with dinner still to come, so it wasn't that the glycogen stores were empty, it was the sheer volume of the session.


The thought of repeating this with a slightly heavier weight on Tuesday is exciting and daunting at the same time. Exciting because I know I can do it and it is pushing my body to the limit, daunting because I know I can easily stop and tell myself that I have had enough, I cannot possibly continue.


But I remind myself that it only took me 50 minutes, I can't use time as an excuse. 


Tuesday weighs on my mind.