Thursday, September 27, 2012

Living, Lifting, and Loving


Sometimes life reaches out and slaps you, and I don't mean a nice fun slap on the rear end, I mean a cold, hard, stinging slap across the cheek that leaves a red mark. I have felt like that for a while now and am starting to recover.

I am not one who likes to complain, in fact, when I see people only complain about issues on Facebook, I just take them off my feed, I don't want or need to see their downers.

I have had a few injuries for a while and I tried to keep people updated but I tried to avoid whining, I detest whiners.

I had a contracted glute muscle, then a hamstring strain, and two strained hip flexors. This all started back in June. Here we are, September 27 and I think I am healed, finally.

I never stopped training, I just modified my lifting. In the course of that I discovered that I was neglecting a few areas so I have now added them into my regular days. The problem is, there aren't enough days to fit everything in! So I am cutting back on cardio and adding in more weight lifting. I think that's a grand idea, too much cardio does not create the look I like.

Last week I started in with hamstrings at BodyComp Gym. We did RDL's but went "light". Now light is relative, right? Hamstrings need to be trained with heavy weight if you want to grow them, those little light weights really won't do much for these massive muscle fibers. We ended up doing 170 pounds for sets of 10 reps, then on the second session moved to more reps but left the weight the same because I could feel a "pull" a little and was afraid I would tear the muscle..... 

On Saturday I tried squats. My last day squatting prior to this was August 25, so it was almost a month to the day and I was apprehensive. Roy said not to lower my weight from what I was doing a month ago. He said do lots of warm ups till you feel good, then start with the same weight. Drop the reps if you need, but never, ever lower the weight.

So I didn't. I did 5 sets of 8 reps with 135 pounds, below parallel. I felt great, squatting is real weight training, in my book if you don't squat, you don't lift.

So now that I am back on track I had to change my split a little, when I couldn't train quads I started training triceps and biceps, boy my arms looked great after a couple weeks of doing this twice a week. Now I want to keep them looking like that, so what's a girl to do? Here is my split for a while now:

Monday 5:00 am Gold's: Calves, Posing, Cardio
Monday noon San Jose State: Stairs, jump rope
Monday 5:30 pm BodyComp Gym: Hamstrings

Tuesday 5:00 am Gold's: Shoulders
Tuesday noon San Jose State: Stairs, jump rope


Wednesday 5:00 am Gold's: Biceps and Triceps
Wednesday noon San Jose State: Stairs, jump rope
Wednesday 5:30 pm BodyComp Gym: Quads


Thursday 5:00 am Gold's: Hamstrings
Thursday noon San Jose State: Stairs, jump rope

Friday 5:00 am Gold's: Calves, Posing, Cardio
Friday noon BodyComp Gym: Shoulders
Every other Friday 4:30 pm 24 Hour Fitness: posing with Kristy Enos

Saturday 6:00 am Gold's: Quads, Posing

Sunday 6:00 am Gold's: Back, Posing

I am adjusting the calories down slightly (slightly!!) by reducing the fats and increasing the lean proteins, starches are staying the same but very little as usual. That's a nice way of saying I am keeping my paws out of the nut butters!

I am missing my son more than ever. He's been away at school now for five weeks, so not only was my passion in life taken from me (the lifting) but my son also. I will get to see him soon, and then once again life will be completely back to where it should be.

Living, Lifting, and Loving.


4 comments:

  1. ugh sorry about all those injuries! what a bummer. I'm glad you're back in the gym kicking butt though!

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    1. Sable- Boy am I back! I am sore all over, but its muscle soreness not pain/injury soreness. In fact, I am sitting with ice on my hamstring right now, just as a precaution for a while. I did RDL's today, 5 sets of 10 at 180#, my whole backside is really going to be tight tomorrow!

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  2. This article is perfect for me right now! Started with the glute pain and went straight to my hamstring. Haven't been able to shake it off within the last month. Any advice for what I should do would be very helpful! See you at Golds this week.

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    Replies
    1. Jamie- I think we need to talk so I can get a good idea of exactly where it is. Mine started with the glute, and I could not sit at all, more than 10 minutes or the pain was incredible. The docs think that because of the compensation, and my heavy hamstring training combined, I strained the hammie. They take a while to heal and really, if that is what it is, you need to allow it time and train other things. Sowhen i see you we can talk and I can get a better idea.

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