Abs and Veins

I am dropping the fat, I ate a half hour on Saturday afternoon before this was taken, and look how vascular my stomach is. I have more fat to lose though, and hopefully some of the muscle will show after I drop all the fat!


I like veins, I  like vascularity, but the judges don't like it in Figure. They want it for Bodybuilding, but not my sport. I don't care, I like the look year round!


Seriously though, if you are new to this competition thing, just know that vascularity is a much sought after look for the Bodybuilders, but too much on a  Figure gal and you get scored lower. 


How do you stop it? Well, I think more people struggle just to get some vascularity than struggle to get rid of it. To get vascular you need to have the right combination of super low body fat; you cannot be retaining or "holding" water under the skin and...genetics.


You must be consuming the right diet, which is high protein, low complex carbs and low fat. So once you achieve your body fat goal, you need to stick to this diet to stay vascular.


Training is very important, you need to lift heavy to develop vascularity and some say that your blood pressure will increase vascularity so many people take nitric oxide supplements when they train, this engorges the veins with blood. 


When competing, you will see many women with vascular arms, particularly the shoulder and deltoid area, I think and this looks great. I like it on the abs too, and the calves.


I tend to be fairly vascular and I think that is because I have year round low body fat, I maintain the diet I described above most of the time and I stay away from foods that cause me to retain water. I drink a lot of water too, water in, water out!


I am still looking for the ever elusive 6 pack, but for now, these (almost- in two weeks) 51 year old abs look pretty darn good I think!

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!

Dragon Flags

You may not have heard of Dragon Flags before, but I didn't make them up, I assure, you. SC first taught me these several years ago and as he showed me and then helped me do them, all I could think is he made this crap up!


But I went home and searched on the Internet and discovered, no indeed, they are real and not only real, but probably the most difficult ab exercise you can attempt to do.


Dragon Flags were introduced to us by Bruce Lee and later by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV. They are also called Bruce Lee sit ups and Rocky sit ups.


You lay on a bench, and grasp the bench behind your neck, and will perform a reverse crunch- sort of. This makes the reverse crunch a piece of cake! You will bring your legs up, keeping them straight and then slowly lower them, again keeping them straight, never  allowing anything but your upper back and shoulders to touch the bench.


I used to be able to do three sets of five, oh maybe two years ago and had completely forgotten about them until the other day. How many can I do now? Two sets of three, and they aren't even straight legged anymore. I will need lots and lots of practice again!


They are a great way to impress people, because when performed properly these are pretty awe inspiring. Every time I do these I always sit up and find someone staring at me with their mouth agape. 


My abs are sore and it's all due to my Dragon Flags. I will be practicing again every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the mornings, those are the nights I train with Roy, so mornings are my own to play with, cardio, stretching, abs and boxing.


Maybe soon I will bring my camera to the gym and get myself on video for you!


Take a look at this fellows video, he does a good job explaining how to start learning and progressing. (Email readers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view the video)