Different Words

I weighed myself today and was totally blown away, I am at 123 pounds which means my weight is about the same. I feel softer, and my shoulders are not what they used to be, but I am guessing after a week of training they may look like they used to!

I have been walking on the stairmill for 60 minutes every morning, and I have made a new friend doing it! You know how  much I detest cardio, but you see, every cloud has a sliver lining!

I have spoken to "S" on a few other occasions, just briefly. She trains with the fellow I know, the one who is the trainer I would train with if I had one, he used to train my son and was also a trainer for the 49ers for a time. I value and respect his knowledge.

Apparently she had asked him about me a few times, and he explained how we knew each other, she likes the look of my physique and we are just about the same age.

Lately we have been talking about what we enjoy with lifting, how we each stay on track with busy careers and seem to manage our food and training quite successfully. I have the added stress of a family to juggle, she has a hectic travel schedule.

She has been very encouraging about my injury, she has experienced quite a few herself and it's just part of being a serious lifter she says, and I agree. Today she told me I stand out because there really are not many women in the gym who train seriously, that's why she noticed me.

It has been 15 days, and I have seen how my words and responses to people can affect them. Earlier as they asked me "Kristy, how's your rib feeling?" I might respond with "Oh , it is so sore when I sleep, it aches when I roll over" (which is true), but then they would get a scrunched up, pained look on their face and wish me well and walk away...Now, my response is "Better and better everyday! Soon I will be swinging weights around! ha ha" and they smile, give me a hug, talk about other things in life and generally stay engaged.

I relayed somewhat the same information in both responses, but in a different way, I used different words. It was received much differently.

Today I received this video from a competitor, Nancy Georges. It really hit home for me.

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Compliments

It's Sunday morning, one of my favorite days at the gym. I enjoy Saturday and Sunday because I don't have to rush to get to work, so as usual, I get to the gym as soon as they open and it's quiet, the weight room is pretty much mine and I can do everything I want, throw in some cardio, take time to chat with friends, or the gal in the cafe as I get my coffee.

I stick to a regular schedule all week long, with the exception of waking one hour later on weekends because the gym opens one hour later. This means I may stay up a half hour to one hour later too.

I am a firm believer in sleep, lots of it and regularly scheduled. It is as important as nutrition and weight training, one piece of the triad.

I trained shoulders today, they look pretty nice here in the picture don't they?  I am not flexing or posing, I am totally relaxed. Shoulder day is my favorite! 

I was really pushing hard, I can tell because people start to watch, I am sure I am making all sorts of painful sounding noises, but I cannot hear a thing, I have my music on way too loud.

As I gathered my things in the locker room a woman looked at me and said "You have a stunning physique". I thanked her and told her I work very hard at it.

So she asked what I do - what type of training and how often. I explained I train with weights, 7 days a week and I don't do much cardio.

She said she thought I looked like I lift weights, and asked if I was a bodybuilder. No, I explained I compete in Figure, and told her I was a poser!

She wasn't familiar with the sport, and that isn't unusual, most people aren't.

I hit a pose and laughed and said "That's what I do!" ha ha ha

We both had a laugh, she said "I don't usually comment on peoples physiques, but those arms, they are absolutely amazing!"

Again, I thanked her and explained I just trained shoulders, so they looked especially good at that moment.

Turns out she is no slouch herself, she is training for her first triathlon! She was in her suit and was going to swim for several miles (I can't recall how many), but I asked how long that would take her and she said a half hour.

Then she would go on a 27 mile bike ride. She said she still had 100 days left for training, her event is in Idaho.

I told her I ran a marathon once, when I was 40 and I would never do it again. I told her I was impressed with any woman who had the determination to tackle a triathlon.

That put everything into perspective for me. While I do believe I am an athlete, the sport I compete in is not athletic, it is physique based. I honestly don't think I have the passion for it that many of my peers do, It keeps me on track for weight management, keeps my body fat low and allows me to interact with others who have similar interests. 

I often consider  stopping, the competitions only, I love to weight train and would never consider limiting that part. In fact, I don't particularly like the look they want for Figure competitions, I much prefer a more androgynous, muscular physique. There is a new division in the NPC called Women's Physique that I am interested in, it's for more muscular women who don't want to look like bodybuilders, in fact, they will be marked down if they are over muscular, I am keeping my eye on this new division to see if I might fit in better there.

But  the culmination of all of my training? A walk in the park compared to her triathlon. Except maybe the fact that I have to do mine in 5 inch Lucite heels!

I wished her luck and went out to the cafe for a cup of coffee, thinking about how much bigger I want to grow my arms and quads.

Training Goals

Sunday morning at the gym I stopped to talk to Allan about Ricardo Ricco. Allan was a runner in the 1974 Olympics, so he and I occasionally chat about Olympic athletes pitfalls and stupid moves. I met him shortly after I joined the club, someone was saying something about me in a joking way, and he looked right at them and said "Kristy? She's the fittest woman in this place!"

We have been friends ever since!

He was telling me how many of the German and Bulgarian women athletes were obviously on steroids, and we talked about all the drugs in the cycling world.

A woman walked by and he shook his head and laughed saying "Now that's something I just don't get!"

He didn't have to tell me what he "didn't get" because I don't get it either. She has cultivated a look that many women, unfortunately strive for. These women think that men like the look, and while I know a few men that do, I honestly question their integrity for actually wanting a woman to look this way.

And what is this way? "Anorexic Barbie with lots of surgery" is the best I can say to describe it.

The woman in question is thin, painfully thin. Her legs are so thin, my upper arms are just slightly smaller in circumference than her thighs (OK, I am exaggerating but only a tiny bit).

Her arms are straight and thin, wispy looking, and she has no fat on her body.

Her face has had much work done, the lips protrude out from some sort of plumper or filler, they look rather "duck-like".

Then, the breasts. The huge, round, full breasts that are proportionally incorrect, they are way too big for her small, 12 year old sized body.

Allan told me with a laugh that one day this woman was giving him some lip as he used one of the machines. He looked straight at her, pointed his finger at her chest and said "Tell me! Could you not have done something better than THAT with $6,000.00!?"

I about fell over laughing when he told me this. Needless to say, they aren't good buddies.

"And the make-up!" he said, "why is she wearing make-up?" It was 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I am not sure why she had a full face of make-up on either.

Although I think this woman looks comical, and ridiculous, she probably thinks the same thing about me with all my muscularity.

What is my point anyway? What does this have to do with training goals?

Everything.

You need to know what you want your body to look like before you can embark on a training program.

Now if you are just plain too fat and want to lose weight all over, by all means stick with that trainer who has you doing all the cardio circuits and dynamic training, the ones who make you sweat so you think you are getting a work out.

Keep balancing on that bosu ball and using those little round purple plastic things so your feet slide about (???)

But when you have lost a lot of excess weight and you want to see changes, you need to tailor your training to your goals.

In the picture above I am enjoying my dinner and I have my training binder and papers and some books spread out all over. I am writing up my new workout, I change it every three to four weeks, it varies depending on the program I am on. I never do the same program over and over, the human body adapts very quickly, you will not show gains if you continue on the same path every single day. I think about what I need to change, what my goals are, I add different grips in or reduce weight and increase volume.

What I never do is spend a lot of time doing cardio and playing with tiny little weights, you will never gain any strength or muscle this way, ever.

That woman? She does lots of cardio everyday, and then she lifts weights that never go over 25 pounds (and I am talking lat pull downs here).

She will remain skinny and emaciated, with no muscle to speak of.

My goals? Muscle hypertrophy. That means lifting weights, heavy weights. There are two types of hypertrophy, there is sarcoplasmic or myofibrillar.

Typically the bodybuilder trains for the sarcoplasmic, muscle size but no corresponding strength gains. Smoke and mirrors, that's all they care about. This is usually weights in the higher rep range (say 10 to 15) , less resting in between and sub maximal load.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy is characterized by strength gains with small increase in muscle size. This involves less reps (usually no more than 6) with longer rest periods. Weights as heavy as you can go.

In both cases, you always use heavy weights, when you are training for sarcoplasmic hypertophy, your weights should still be so heavy that your really cannot lift them more than your 10 to 15 reps.

Long story short, I incorporate both into my training, and it depends on the time of year and what my upcoming competitions are.

Think about your goals when you plan your training. Just because something works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for you.

Just like investing and anything else you want to become good at, you need to read, study and research. You need to understand.

Pick your personality

Another fun motivating story from the book "Winning Ways: How to succeed in the gym and out"

This is how to build a winning personality.

Go in a gym and you'll see people who you just know are going to make great progress: they attack their workouts; they don't coast through the tough exercises; they make each set count. And they have an air about themselves- it's as if they expect to succeed and you can almost feel it. They talk about how these people are winners, attributing all manner of good things to them and summing it up by saying they have terrific personalities.

You know the other half of this story: the people who seem destined to lose at everything they try; the people for whom failure seems to be a required result no matter what they are doing. Building biceps, taking a test, handling a job: it's always the same and it isn't good. Once again, others mark them as perennial bottom feeders.


The truth is that what we often take for permanent personality characteristics are extremely malleable; these are usually things that can change with the social situation we're in; things that we can help control. This means that what your are isn't what you have to be. You can change who you are and become what you want.......

The first step in your transformation is to pick the the type of personality you want to have. In our example, you would want to be someone who isn't just enthusiastic about training when he's lying on a couch watching his favorite muscle video. You would want to be the type of person whose deep-rooted enthusiasm motivates and sustains each workout. You look forward to training and can't wait to get started when it's time to do your first set.

You can't wait to get to your heavy sets and you welcome the chance to set a new PR, no matter how hard the required effort or how small the step forward. After training it's an automatic, natural reaction to get the nutrition and rest required for optimum recovery and progress. You're brimming with energy and it seems as if the harder you train, the harder still you want to train. It's great- you've become a self-sustaining automatic training machine.

To reach this state you need to cultivate the right thoughts and behaviors. Gone are the people who liked to tell you that lifting weights was a waste of time. Gone are the people who tell you that you're genetically suited to be a wimp. Gone are the people who say that they never built more than a 16" arm so why should you expect any more. Gone are the people who always say "no," "can't," "never." Gone are the thoughts of everything that could possibly go wrong along the way. Gone are the late night binges that cripple the next day's training. Gone are the junk food diets that can undo the best efforts in the gym.

In the places of all these downers are the elements you need to build the successful you. What are some of the pieces you'll find helpful? Here are the people who have always believed that you can do what you dream about. Here are the people who are in charge of their own lives. Here are the people who like to challenge themselves and never settle for yesterday's best. Here are the people who do the things that others said were impossible. Here are the thoughts of how to make the next step forward, to make the next round of progress. Here is the discipline to eat, sleep, and think in a way that almost guarantees success.

As you can see, building a winning personality isn't just a bunch of emotional cheer leading or fanciful visualization- it's serious work. Along the way, you have to keep your eyes and ears open, trying to learn things that will help you reach your goal, many of them hard facts, and you have to keep your sleeves rolled up to do the work that will get you there. It's a challenge, but look at what you stand to gain.

It's your choice, winner or loser; pick your personality.