Accomplishments and Believing in Yourself

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me, getting back to my "normal" routine. Any sane person would tell you there is nothing normal about my routine, but it's normal for me!

I'm back to my usual schedule, training at Gold's Gym every single morning at opening  and training with Roy at Bodycomp Gym 3 days a week after work. 

Guys still stop me at the gym, almost everyday and say something like "Don't you have a competition coming up soon?" Friday I was telling this to Roy and I laughed just thinking about the irony of it all. I weigh a lot more than I did three weeks ago, I fluctuate between 7 to 9 pounds more. It's my normal weight, but can't these guys see that I am not the mean, lean machine I was only a short while ago?!

I like to think I still look bangin' even if I have some soft fat surrounding my hips and abs.....It's still a lot less than most women. I noticed today, on one of my Quad days that I am looking like a very muscular gal right now, strong, not dainty in any way, shape or form! I suppose I need to get a picture, I have neglected to do so, maybe on Sunday I will.

Part of the joy of getting back to my "normal" routine is lifting because I like to lift, not because I have to lift. It was Front Squats today, 5 sets of 8. Roy told me to do as many at 135# as possible. I had to warm up with many sets, I am still having tightness in my hips, it comes and goes but lots of stretching, rolling and warm ups help.

I did my first set it 125#, then I did the remaining at 135#, all four remaining sets! Folks, these are front squats, at more than my bodyweight! My buddy for the morning, before I went on to walking lunges, with a 40# dumbbell in each hand!

I am still basking in my accomplishments, I am proud of myself. When the division of Women's Physique was first introduced, I immediately wanted to switch over, but I didn't think I was ready. Oh, I had the self confidence, that is never a problem for me (sometimes I can come off as quite arrogant due to my confidence), it was my physique, I wasn't quite as muscular as I would need to be. I'm still not, I want to add a bit more but that takes time.

I waited a couple years and trained hard, I kept competing in Figure but I tried to get as big and as muscular as possible. It's not easy when you are a female, you are not young, and and when you are natural - I rely on good food, sleep, and heavy weights. 

Consistency. Dedication. Desire. Passion. Love.

So many of us go through life afraid of what others may say or think about us. I know that I have many people shaking their heads. What is a woman her age doing dressed (or not dressed) like that!? Who does she think she is?!

But do I care? No. I live my life for me. For my pleasure, my pursuit of my own happiness. While I want my family and friends to be proud of me, I can only do what I feel I need to do in the one life I have been given.

I feel fortunate to have found what makes me feel young, makes me feel healthy and alive, what makes me want to jump out of bed every morning. I don't roll over and look at the alarm clock, dreading the start of another day, ever.

Look at your life, think about what you are doing, what you are accomplishing. Are you proud of yourself? Can you walk through life with your head held high, shoulders back, laughing out loud? I hope so, we should all be doing just that.

I have a motivational video below, one of the most moving I have seen in quite some time. Email readers will need to navigate directly to the blog by clicking on the Ready In 5 Weeks link at the top of the page.

 

Feeling Confident

I have always marveled at how a woman's confidence level increases the more she lifts weights.  And I do mean weights not cardio. You will see a dramatic difference in your body when you start on a weight lifting regime, you will not see the same thing with cardio. 

I have seen it in many friends, I have seen it in myself. My "transformation" took place a very long tine ago. It wasn't overnight, it wasn't for an event, it was for....

LIFE

I was never super heavy, but I could be something more, something attractive, sexy, strong, fit and healthy. That's what I wanted, and that's what I got.

I have been watching my friend Sakura change, in such a short period of time. I say short because although it has been anything but short to her, the progress she has made in the last several months is amazing. She looks younger, happier, and more confident. You will see lots of pictures of the two of us, we will be almost inseparable at the competition. I will go on first, and she will go on later in the Figure division. But I will be watching like a mother hen, watching on the closed circuit TV in the pump up room, ready to hug her when she comes off stage.

My friend "R" from Courtside just emailed me to wish me luck at the competition. She and I don't see each other much any longer since I changed gyms, we both work full time, have families and very busy lives. But when we first met, she had just recently started training and we became fast friends talking about our diets and food all the time. She made an amazing transformation, people even started asking her if she was going to start competing! Today she told me she is ready to take the test to become a Certified Personal Trainer! 

I speak to women all the time who want to make changes in the right direction, and they all feel somewhat lost at first, unsure of what to do, who to turn to. It can be very overwhelming indeed. Everyone is an expert right?  So they ask me. 

Even some men at the gym will ask me about diet and training. The interesting thing to me is this, the men all seem to understand very quickly that it's the diet that will make or break you; it's the women who think it's the training. 

The men lift in the gym, although many don't necessarily lift properly or heavy enough, but they are there lifting, so they get it. They know that if they cleaned up their diet, they will get ripped.

Most women seem to focus on cardio, they think they are eating healthy and all they need to do is a whole lot of cardio and avoid weights. They seem to think that lifting weights makes you big and bulky. I lift weights as heavy as I possibly can, and while some people might say I am big, I am certainly not bulky. I am lean as can be.

I encourage you to seek out anyone who looks the way you want to, make friends, get to know them. They will not always have time to give you everything you need to succeed, but remember that each bit of knowledge is that much more than you had previously. 

So many people have connected with me through my blog, I often wonder how they are doing, how is the program going. Some email me frequently, and others pop in with updates every few months or so. I do like hearing how it's going. 

Confidence comes when you feel good about yourself, when you feel successful and happy. If you lack confidence in yourself, go out and get some! Seek out a trainer who has like minded goals, someone positive to help you. Hire a Nutritionist, it's not a life time commitment, it can be a few sessions just as I had. Join a gym, start slowly, then proceed with gusto! Join a group, I once belonged to a marathon training group called San Jose Fit, we ran together almost everyday, I really got to know my running team and looked forward to it every time we met.

Read, read, read! I have more books on training an nutrition that you can imagine. I go back to them over and over again.

Visualize yourself as the physical being you want to be, believe in yourself.

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” 

― Mahatma Gandhi

Supporting Fellow Competitors

I have noticed that things can get ugly in the world of competitions. I am not quite sure why I never felt this way before, but I am seeing a lot more of the sides of things that I don't particularly care for. 

I remember when I first started, I was given this advice for backstage: "Keep your headphones in, just sit, listen to some music and chill. They can get catty".

I didn't take that advice, because I was too nervous, too anxious, too wound up. I ended up talking to many different women, some I have developed lasting friendships with.

I never really noticed it too much before, although there was always a "group" that would hang out together,  and they would all stare at anyone they thought might be competition to them, but I never paid attention, they could be in their own "small" world as far as I was concerned. 

I have always sought the friendship of fellow competitors  even though we are competing against each other, it really doesn't matter, because everything depends on me. On how I look, how I have trained and dieted, how I present myself at the competition. Ultimately there will always be someone who places better than me. I have been in competitions where one gal placed ahead of me, and the next year I placed ahead of her. It's very fluid and all of our life's events will mold our look for that one day.

I think that we should all encourage each other, support each other and offer help where we can. Really, it's "us" against the rest of the world isn't it? And it's a lot easier when you have someone on your side to commiserate with. 

Recently I saw a fellow competitor say something very negative about another competitor on Facebook. I was shocked, how could she do that? 

I realized that I look at the competitions differently than she does. I look at it as competing against myself, to be better each time, to be better than I was before, to be better than ever. She looks at it to win, pure and simple, and at any cost.
 
I think their motivation for competing will tell all. I compete because I train. I train hard and I want a way to showcase all of my hard work and effort, someplace outside of the gym. Training is my passion.

Many people train only to compete, the training is not their love, but the result is. They don't enjoy training, would prefer to do other things, complain about it and the diet all the time and if they could compete without training, that's probably what they would do.

Of course, placing above someone else, and winning is fantastic, it makes all the hard work a bit easier to accept. But not placing does not mean I have failed. I was still the best I could be at that time. I still have the knowledge that I look absolutely stunning, ripped, healthy, fit and amazing and am very proud of it. I work hard everyday to maintain this, and no plastic trophy (or lack of) is really going to change anything about that.

If I had ever gone into a competition and hadn't prepped my very hardest, that may change the way I feel about it all, but I have never done that. My attitude has changed a bit about them all, I know that. I think I am more easy going, less stressed, less worried about it  all, but that doesn't mean I am not busting my butt day in and day out still. I am just doing it without all the whining and complaining! I am still doing everything I should be to create the physique that I want, and hopefully, that the judges want too.

But my own interests are most important, that's why I decided to go into Physique. The Figure look was becoming softer, more feminine, less muscular.  Although I do not want to look like a Bodybuilder, I also decided that I wanted more than the Figure competitor look, I wanted more muscle and to be leaner. 

I do it for myself. I also do it for the interaction and wonderful people I meet. I have developed many friendships with women I have met at competitions, or because of competitions. 

I love helping others reach their potential, or at least believe that they can. I want to surround myself with happy, successful, beautiful friends who are proud of their accomplishments. I don't want to be standing on an island, alone  holding my plastic trophy. 

It's all winding down, or winding up! I guess it all depends on how you look at it! I feel like I have gotten a second wind, I have a new found energy that had been lacking for several weeks. I am sure it's the strain of the diet, the two a day training, the constant wondering about how I am doing, how am I looking now? Am I getting too old for this? (NEVER!!) ha ha ha 

It's 11 days till my competition, I am looking forward to some good, quality food. Once a day at the gym, and mostly, training just for the fun of it! Roy, if you are reading, I want to push the sled! Or use the battle ropes. Chains, oh we did that, and they were hard, but I will have more calories soon, I will have more energy. Hmmmm, the heavy bag is gone, maybe we should just spar? 

I know going into it that I will meet many new faces, some I will connect with and continue the friendship, others I may only see again at another competition. 

I know going out of it that I will be stronger, have more confidence, feel accomplishment and quite a bit of happiness. The feeling of sticking through something so demanding and strenuous, something that has a definite ending date, a final chapter, is difficult to describe. 

And then, then the cooking and recipes shall begin!

Training Motivation

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

~ Maria Robinson

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.
~ Victor Hugo

For success, attitude is equally as important as ability. 

~ Harry F. Banks

The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.

~ Napoleon Hill

Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future. 

~ Denis Waitley

"Experience has taught me that there is one chief reason why some people succeed and others fail. The difference is not one of knowing, but of doing. The successful man is not so superior in ability as in action. So far as success can be reduced to a formula, it consists of this: doing what you know you should do."

~ Roger Babson

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Training Motivation

"Our entire life consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are."

~ Jean Anouilh

"Great minds have purposes; others have wishes."

~ Washington Irving

"Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing."

~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

"It is a sign of strength, not of weakness, to admit that you don't 

know all the answers."

~ John P. Loughrane

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which 

is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding 

will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: 

what is soft is strong"

~ Lao-Tzu

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they 

can't lose."

~ Bill Gates

"I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his 

dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet 

with a success unexpected in common hours."

~ Henry Thoreau

"Better to live one year as a tiger, then a hundred as sheep."

~ Madonna Ciccone

Motivation

It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself,  you can’t be comfortable with others.

~Sydney J. Harris

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.

~ Pamela Vaull Starr 

I am in competition with no one. I run my own race. I have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone, in any way, shape or form. I just aim to improve, to be better that I was before. That’s me and I am free.

~ Unknown

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.

~ Ella Fitzgerald 

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

~ Bruce Feirstein

Your life will be no better than the plans you make and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, destiny.

~ Alfred A. Montapert 

Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives:

where we focus our attention.

~ Greg Anderson 

As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Motivation

"Happiness is the result of my decision to be happy. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. In other words, happiness is a feeling I tap into, not an outcome of events. I can be happy without changing anything in my life except my relationship to my own thinking. I decide to be happy and commit myself to making happiness my state of mind, rather than relying on 

a set of circumstances to do it for me." 

~Richard Carlson

"You are free to experience life negatively or positively, and the choice you make determines whether you are at cause, or at effect, of the life you are living."
~Marianne Williamson

“People love others not for who they are but for how they make them feel”

~Irwin Federman

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins."

~Bob Moawad

“Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can  be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else  will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good  and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think  someone else wants you to be different.”

~Stacey Charter

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

~Albert Schweitzer

“You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life.”

~Ethan Embry

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

~George Bernard Shaw

"Above all, to thine own self be true."

~William Shakespeare

Motivation

“There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.”

~Aldous Huxley 

“To achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”

~Tom Robbins

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”

~William G.T. Shedd 

“If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing.” 

~Coco Chanel

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.”

~Napoleon Hill 

“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

"I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them." 

~Pablo Picasso

“Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”

~Ayn Rand

Motivation

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."

"I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine."

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind."

"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done."

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."

"The possession of anything begins in the mind."

~ Bruce Lee

Motivation

NEVER GIVE-UP: “So many people can be responsible for your Success.

but only you are responsible for your failure.” 

~Unknown

”You are afraid to die, and you’re afraid to live. What a way to exist.” 

~Neale Donald Walsch

”The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” …so remember: great achievements take time, there is no overnight success.

~Leo Tolstoy

"Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Bill Gates, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

~Unknown

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

~Aristotle

“Don’t count the days; make the days count”

~Muhammad Ali

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”

~Aristotle

"The cowards never started and the weak died along the way."

~Unknown

"We’re all born small and weak. We all grow old and weak. What you do in between is up to you."

~Unknown

“It’s very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.”

~George Sheehan

Motivation

Today my motivational message is a bit different than usual. I usually share a lot of quotes; quotes with a theme (at least I always feel there is a theme), but there's a lot more pictures of me this time and a personal note of motivation!

I am on vacation in Mexico as you read this, and am probably struggling between feeling guilty ( because I am not sticking to my diet and I am drinking alcohol..during the day too!); along with eating more food and fattening food at that.

We all go through that - and the self sabotage is not healthy. We should all have a chance to enjoy, to relax, to just cut loose and feel hedonistic and free without worry of consequences.

I think that I have an extra burden, knowing that I have a competition soon  and many of my peers have already started their strict diets, but I tend to remain lean. Much leaner than most, so my diet shouldn't be too bad,  and actually if I diet too long I will start to look haggard since I am starting out lean already. I mean, I think I have three pounds to lose pre-vacation, so a pound more post vacation?

The thing most people don't understand is that it's not just the scale - but it's how your body looks, how it has been consistently treated. How the muscle and the fat rest within the confines of the skin, the tightness, the elasticity, the smoothness.  This all changes based on the small things ingested, and how the body has been treated on a regular basis. So you really cannot party hard and eat like crap and then "buckle down" for a few weeks and make it all OK. It's just not that easy. If it were, then everyone would do it wouldn't they?

So while a competitor may not gain weight, they may may look fatter, puffier, softer and all around out of shape based on one or two meals, now compound that to several, basically my week in Mexico....and you see my point?

Today I have pictures of me the day before vacation, with my un-tanned skin, trying on suits I have not worn in a year, not since last February when I was in Mexico.

Some women would kill to look like me, yet I found all sorts of things to improve. But I won't repeat them because it won't do anyone any good will it? I still had fun, and I will continue to have fun, rocking my fun suits.

My point today? Celebrate your accomplishments,  celebrate your drive, spirit, energy, enthusiasm, happiness, playfulness, energy, tenacity, stubbornness  the list is endless. Celebrate each baby step you have taken to get to your goal.

Celebrate YOU, and what you have molded ourself into.

Change takes place when you decide. So the power is in our hands. Take the steps necessary, reach out for help, appreciate those who give and support.

These suits are all "Pin Up Stars" from Italy. They all have beads, sequins, ruffles, rhinestones, pleats, beads, embroidery, or some interesting pattern. Most have a super detailed top and a much less fancy bottom, i have found most of the bottoms are still too large for my taste. Probably the fact that my competition suit is so small, these seem huge.

I (or David) have named some of them. We have Nemo; Sprinkles, Target, Jungle Book, Rose, Mermaid, Stripper, Kitty Kat. Guess which is which!  Oh the black one? I love the bottoms and cannot find the top! 

Motivation

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you."

~ William Arthur

“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.”

~Unknown~

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

~Henry David Thoreau~

“Encourage those around you by never giving up on your dreams.”

~Unknown~

“Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.“

~Earl Gray Stevens~

“You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.“

~Jim Stovall~

“...there are persons who seem to have overcome obstacles and by character and perseverance to have risen to the top. But we have no record of the numbers of able persons who fall by the wayside, persons who, with enough encouragement and opportunity, might make great contributions.“

~Mary Barnett Gilson~

“If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknesses, as unlimited rather that dull and unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities.“

~Barbara Bush~

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.”

Karen Ravn

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.”

William Allen White

Motivation

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer”

~Albert Camus  "While we are postponing, life speeds by."  ~Lucius Annaeus Seneca  "Whenever I hear, "It can't be done," I know I'm close to success." ~Michael Flatley

“It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that men makes invincible”

~Henry Ward Beecher

"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person,
"Always do what you are  afraid to do."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture.
It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult." 

~Lucius Annaeus Seneca 

"I will work on Invincible until I am made to quit."

~Robert Kirkman 

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness." 

~Lucius Annaeus Seneca 

"Motivation is a fire from within. If
someone else tries to light that fire under you, 
chances are it will burn very briefly."

~Stephen R. Covey

Inspiration, Motivation and Leg Day Training

Saturday was leg day, I lift weights 7 days a week (twice on Wednesdays) and I train most body parts twice a week, once with Roy and then once on my own. Weekends I spend a long time at the gym, I take my time stretching and warming up, I would like to be able to do this on weekdays but I have a thing I have to get to called a "job". 

One of the stretches I have found very useful is this stretch for my hip flexors. If you have been reading my blog you know that I have been having hip issues since June of 2012, so I have learned to do an awful lot of stretches and roll a lot. I do have to laugh about why it took so long to shut the video recorder off, I kept getting messages from several people at once on Facebook and they just popped up over and over as soon as I could dismiss them! (email readers will need to navigate to the blog to see this and another video below.)

 

I had gone out the night before and had three glasses of wine, I am not yet in full blown competition prep yet, and I tend to get way too lean, so I could afford to do this once in a while. I was in bed by 9:00 pm and could feel the affect the alcohol had on my body the next day anyway. That's why I rarely drink, I am not as vibrant and alive the following day, even with just one glass. I think because I expect so much of my body, I just need to learn to treat it well all the time.

I started to get the squat rack ready, adjusting the hooks for the Olympic bar when a guy walks up to talk to me. I don't know his name, I have never spoken with him, but I see him there all the time, he is a regular morning lifter and trains with another guy, they are both in their late 20s or early 30s, they carry big waters and training books, recording their reps and sets as any dedicated lifter does.

He walked up close to me and this is the conversation:

Guy: "I don't want to interrupt you when you were lifting, but I wanted to talk to you. Everyone has heard about those people who inspire others, who push them to keep going when they don't want to. You inspire me and you have for a long time."

Kristy: "I do?! Really?! Wow! I'm not sure what to say.....Thank you for telling me!"

Guy: "There are so many days I don't feel like coming in here, I want to skip it, then I think how I see you everyday, your workouts are all so intense, you train harder each day than the day before, you never stop, you are so focused and never give up, ever. I wanted to tell you this yesterday, but I didn't, then I knew I would see you here today."

I was floored. He wasn't trying to pick up on me, he wasn't being rude, he was sincere. A big, strong alpha male, who is serious about his training said I inspire him.

It motivated me to push on, I didn't have as much energy as usual, but I would never dream of skipping the gym, ever.

Roy had just changed my program, I was doing a different type of squat, one where there is no rest at the top, it's easy to shoot up and stand there "resting", but these are a lighter load, a very long "time under tension" on the eccentric portion, and then as soon as I straighten up, right back down again. They become almost aerobic. I warm up with 95 pounds, lighter than I will use for the squats.

I have my phone attached to the mirror and I set it on the timer. I am to aim for 44 seconds time under tension for 10 reps. It's much harder than it sounds. I am using 115 pounds, my legs are under tension the entire time. I finished my sets, and rested before going on to step ups. My left hamstring is still weaker than the right after my injury, it's taking a long time to rebuild that strength.

For the step ups I have to have a box 25 inches high, so I have stacked two here and they are perfect! I will hold a 25 pound bar in front, on my clavicle, front squat style and slowly push up, re-setting at the bottom with each rep. 10 on each leg, three sets. I carry this little tape measure in my gym sack with my training log, lifting straps and fingernail file! I cannot stand having a nail with a snag....

I use the leg press on Saturdays, I don't when I train with Roy but I have extra time on Saturdays so I do just to totally exhaust my legs. I don't use a lot of weight, as it starts to hurt my knees, so I keep it light. Here I have 450 pounds added to the machine. 

That's Aaron in the background, to put things into perspective the day before he was pushing 1,500 pounds on this same machine. He's a beast! He also has some added advantages, he's male (lots of testosterone), he's very young (I have been married longer than he has been alive and....still more testosterone) and he used to be a Power Lifter and wrestler. He's still a beast though!

We met because I went up to him one day and told him that he looked just like my previous trainer (SC), it's uncanny how much they look alike!

Aaron stops to help me and advises how to place my feet for quad development, he lifts his long shorts and displays some very impressive quads! Nothing worse than skinny legs on a big guy....(think most Male Physique Competitors). 

Aaron asks if I have ever competed in a National level show and I tell him, "No, although I have qualified several times". "Why??!!" He asks. "You look great- you could get your Pro-Card!" He went on to say that I look as good as several others he knows, I would be successful if I did it. 

I explain that I have no desire to, what would I do with a Pro-Card? I do this because I love to lift, I love the training.  He walks away, saying "You would win, but if you do it just cause you like it, that's really cool!"

I love to lift. I cannot say the same thing about competing.

His comments floored me again. He was genuine in them, he thinks I have developed a physique worthy of Pro status! 

Two males, motivating me now.

I do my sets, it take time as I do 5 sets of 20 reps. So a total of 100 reps. I have my timer for rest periods, and the same funny guy from the previous week interrupts me and asks to work in. He did the same thing last week, There are four machines, the only one being used is the one I am on and he taps me on the shoulder and asks if he can "work in". I wasn't  sure if he he was trying to hit on me, or just was lazy and didn't want to load plates on the machine or what. This week I found out, I was finished so turned it over to him and he was asking all sorts of questions about weight training. I think it's odd he would be asking me when guys like Aaron are right there, but maybe I am less intimidating.

I have inspired and I am motivated. And I am lifting, it's a great day at the gym.

Think about your days in the gym. Try to inspire others. Try to motivate others. And please, please...help the world stamp out "chicken legs", train your legs!