Hamstrings

As I explained last week, I am training hamstrings twice a week and quads twice a week. Volume is my friend and this seems to be the only way I can add size to these legs. Don't get me wrong, they look tremendously better than they used to, but still not where I want them. In fact, I have noticed that my legs have gotten much bigger! Yahoo!


But...not big enough. So I keep on keepin' on!

It's funny how so many women say they like my legs. I think what they actually like is the fact that I don't have saddle bags or cellulite, so that's all they notice, they neglect to notice that they are too thin for my shoulders, they are not in proportion. 

Above is the kneeling leg curl. This is one of the machines I am using on my own hamstring day, when I am not training with Roy. When I train hams with him on Mondays, right now we are doing Glute Ham Raise (lots and lots) and then single leg deadlifts. That's it, it has ensured I am sore all week long.

So on the hamstring day on my own I am using all the machines. I am using the lying leg curl, the seated leg curl and the kneeling leg curl (above). This should target the areas of the hamstring that Roy and I are not targeting on Mondays.

I see a lot of people using all of these machines incorrectly. They use momentum to swing the weights up. You should never use momentum as it defeats the purpose of the exercise. Everything should be controlled and smooth. 

On the lying leg curl I am using a 2/1 method- both legs to lift the weight (concentric movement) and one leg to lower the weight (eccentric movement). Making sure I keep the foot and calf relaxed so the effort comes from the hamstring. It is important to keep the weight low enough so the hips don't shoot up, thus using the glutes to pull up the weight.

The seated leg curl, I am going heavy. So heavy I really can only do 8 reps, I can tell I am too noisy, all the folks lined up on the stairmills turn to look in my direction, it's the grunting I know. 

The kneeling leg curl (above): I have struggled with this, my left hamstring is significantly weaker than the right, so the same weight on the right leg is easy while on the left is quite difficult. I do an extra set on the left to help build it up. Again, it is important to concentrate on the hamstring area, it is quite easy to get sloppy and use the glute and calf to pull up the weight. I go heavy with low reps as in all the hamstring exercises.

Last, I end with my friend the Glute Ham Raise (below), the most wonderful machine on earth. In this picture, it is not set up for me. I lower the front rollers all the way as low as they go (here they are as high as they go), and the back is pushed forward more for my height.

I do as many sets of 10 as I can, but after the curls I did before, it is hard, really hard. I can usually get 4 sets in on a good day.

The hams are responding and so are the quads, but I am a very, very demanding person.

Mondays Hamstrings

Monday is hamstrings and it was time to change the training. There are several exercises that can be done, but there are a few that prove over and over to be the most effective, so we do those. Just changing the reps, sets, rest periods and/or weights can be enough to prevent adaptation.

I think we have learned that my body responds best to volume, so lots and lots of reps seem to be what I need to do. Now that doesn't mean that I am doing light weight, on the contrary, I am doing at much as I can, but realistically, when performing 10 to 20 reps the weight won't be as heavy as if I were doing only 4 to 8 reps.

We start with the Glute Ham Raise and Roy has it elevated in the back, high up on a bench. This puts the emphasis on a different area of the hamstring and its quite a bit more difficult to do. We tried it like this several weeks ago and I could only perform 3 reps, I failed miserably.

Monday I not only did 10 reps, but I did three sets with body weight and another two sets holding a weight plate. I think it was only 5 pounds, but it made a difference, believe me. My hamstrings have gotten stronger! We will celebrate by doing the Tootsee Roll! (Email readers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view this video, turn up the speakers!)





Yes, I do have this on my iPod...ha ha I love it!


So the GHR took quite some time, then we moved onto the second exercise, Single Leg Deadlift with a barbell.

I have never done this with a barbell, I have always used dumbbells, so I was excited, I love trying new things.

I warmed up and after the second set of 10 I think we were up to 75 pounds. All the way down until a good stretch is felt in the hamstring, maintain a slight curve in the back, keep looking up, then pull up with the hamstring and the glutes, not the back!

Its easy to round the back and start pulling up that way, and its wrong. It is less effective as you won't hit the hamstrings and its also a good way to cause back pain or tweaks.  I cannot emphasize how important it is to "lift with your head". You must put your mind into the task at hand and concentrate. It's serious business.

Many people think that weight lifters are a daft bunch, and I agree that there are plenty out there, but no more than in any other sport. A successful lifter is serious and quite knowledgeable. Find someone in your gym who looks really good, and watch them. See how they train. Do they chit chat while lifting? Do they read in between sets? I doubt it.


Are they concentrating and almost oblivious to those around them? Perhaps they time their sets and rest periods? I bet they do.

You can learn a lot just by observing. Heck, you can probably even do the "Tootsee Roll" after watching the video a couple times!

Back to the hams. Since they are so connected to the glutes, they will obviously get a good workout too. When we started this one Roy looked at me and said "Sorry, but I think this is going to make your glutes bigger" (or something like that). I laughed and said "Great! I love a good set of glutes!"

Wednesday when we met for Quads, my glutes were still sore. Today, Thursday when I write this? Still feeling it! Maybe I need to stretch them out a bit by cranking up the music in the gymnasium tomorrow and dancing. 

to left. to the left. to the right. to the right.

Saturday's Leg Workout

Some days when I get to the gym I feel so alive it's really hard to contain myself. This past Saturday was one of those mornings. I had slept well, I was awake before the alarm sounded.

I watch people in the gym, and I know most of them are not lifting right. They may be swinging their weights around, using weights that are too light or too heavy, not performing the move correctly, you name it. Most people just go through the motions to get it over with. It is supposed to be difficult you know!


I am making an effort to time my sets, it's easy when I train with Roy because he can stand there with the stopwatch, it's harder by myself, but I did a good job this Saturday.


Roy said for hypertrophy I need to aim for sets with a time under tension of 40 to 70 seconds, and to do that I need to lift explosively and lower very, very slowly. It's exactly opposite of what most people do.


Try it. Take whatever exercise you are doing and do 8 to 10 reps, but make each set last a minimum of 40 seconds. It's freaking hard!


You do that with squats, with bench press, with military press, you name it. You may find that you have to lower the weight you are using. My weights went down when I started training with Roy, but I look a hell of a lot better!


Here's my morning:


Stretching
Seated leg Curl 5 sets of 8 @ 100 pounds (time under tension ~36 (I was trying) (60 second rest in between sets)
Unilateral Kneeling Leg Curl 5 sets of 8 @ 20 pounds (time under tension ~32) (60 second rest)
RDL's 4 sets of 6 @ 195 pounds (time under tension 32, 31, 32, 32) (90 second rest)
Front Squats 5 sets of 8 @ 95 pounds (time under tension 48,47,48,51,51) YAHOO! (90 second rest)
Walking Lunges with 20 pound dumbbells 3 sets on each leg (10 per leg) (30 second rest)
Glute Ham Raise 4 sets of 10 body weight (60 second rest)
20 minutes on the stairmill


Protein and carb shake afterward and coffee, coffee, coffee.

Butts and Backs

Backs and Butts

I think that those two parts of a woman's body are stunning, absolutely beautiful. I mean look at this view, pretty nice huh?

I am on the left (in case you couldn't tell). This is the top four in the Unlimited "C" division of the 2011 NPC San Francisco Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure, Men's Physique and Bikini Championships. I placed third.

So many people only concentrate on the muscles they can see, the "mirror muscles". I have always loved to train glutes and back, part of this may be because my back gets wide and impressive  and I love to see the results.

My glutes? I have always had a good, round butt. Genetics. However, I still have to train it and train hard. Those little leg pulley things that people call "kick backs" might feel good, and in fact I do it sometimes too, but it won't make your glutes ride high and hard. I don't think it does anything actually. You need to perform exercises with a lot of heavy weight, just like you would for any other muscle you are trying to grow.

And, not much looks worse than a dimply, saggy, loose, fat butt.

What do I do? There is lots to do!

Wide stance squats, plie or sumo squats (stand on two raised blocks so you can go deep), hip thrusts, barbell glute bridge, sprints, reverse hypers, Good mornings, ball ham roll outs, Glute Ham Raise, kettlebell swings, running stairs, lunges, RDL's, deadlifts (all the major lifts and all squats will hit the glutes too). 

Hey! Thats' serious weigh training isn't it? And hard stuff too! You bet. You cannot grow big, beautiful muscles without lifting heavy and working hard! The cute little colored weights with the powder coating are not your friend!

I usually train back once a week and glutes once a week. Then, as I am getting closer to a competition, I will train back twice a week and incorporate the glutes into other days.

Having a strong back and strong glutes is not only pleasing to the eye, but it will help you in life. 

Leg Day

Saturday, Legs. I used to love training shoulders most, and now I am starting to really love training legs, maybe even more than shoulders.


I trained with Roy on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, hamstrings on Wednesday and shoulders on Thursday. Saturday I would hit the legs on my own, quads and hams.


Lately I have been sleeping better, I am not up as much as I had been previously so I feel more rested when I wake. In fact, I have been getting up before the alarm everyday. Today, I turned it off so the alarm wouldn't wake up David later and I got up early.  I get excited when I get to go to the gym, and luckily that is everyday!


I walked a few minutes on the treadmill, stretched then started in on my squats. I warmed up with 10 reps @ 45 pounds; then 10 @ 65; 10 @ 85; then I used 115 for the rest. I did 4 sets of 115 with a 60 second rest in between. Except when Mike came up to tell me a joke, then I rested several minutes. Oh well.


Lunges, unilateral with 20 pound dumbbells, 4 sets on each leg.


Kneeling leg curl (hamstrings), 3 sets on each leg at35 pounds.


Seated leg curl (hamstrings) 4 sets at 70 pounds.


Leg extensions, unilateral 10 @ 30 pounds each, then bilateral 10 @ 70 pounds. 3 sets of each.


I finished with 5 sets of 10 on the Glute Ham Raise.


I felt GOOD! I still had energy. It was too much, I really shouldn't have done it all as the session lasted an hour and a half. Everything tells me not to train that long but sometimes when I am in the "zone" I cannot stop, I am on a high that feels so good I just keep going, today was one of those days.


I climbed up on a stairmill and walked (intervals) for 30 minutes, sweat didn't start dripping on the machine until 20 minutes into it. Cardio, still gotta do it!


I practiced posing for about 10 minutes, I should be doing more but that's all I felt like doing today. Into the meditation room to stretch my hamstrings and roll my quads, I have some very sore spots on my legs.


8:45am I am done. I got there at 6:00am. I sat in the cafe and drank my post training drink and took supplements. Grabbed a cup of coffee and home for a good muscle building breakfast.  1 cup egg whites scrambled with 1 whole egg (fried) on top, and a bowl of steel cut oats.

Doing What I Love

Yes I think I do love weight training. I don't have any sort of love for cardio, I see it as a means of breaking down the body and expending energy, so, although it is necessary, I certainly do not enjoy cardio much and I don't think most people are doing the right "type" of cardio. I have written about the "cardio queens" before, the ones who always look the same year after year after year.


I am making the point because a lot of people think I just do "fit" things, and I run, skip, jump, weight train, cycle, I surely must do all of it and love every minute of it.


But I don't, not really.


I do what I love to do, and that is weight train (I will often say weight lifting and I try to catch myself as I am not a weight lifter, although I have toyed with the idea. A weight lifter is one who lifts weights competitively, whereas a weight trainer does it for the conditioning aspect).


I am a competitive poser, not a weight lifter! 


But the competitions are only a piece of it, a little slice of fun and hard work to reassure myself that everything is paying off, I am on track and doing it right.


I do incorporate some cardio, but I primarily train with weights, I think that is the most effective way to get the body I want, lean, but muscular, strong and tight.


What I love to do more than anything is the difficult, strenuous, heavy lifting or sessions with so much volume, I sweat and breathe hard without ever moving my feet at times.


It makes me feel accomplished, alive and invincible. 


The Glute Ham raise if one of my favorites. Below is a video of me using it similar to a back extension, there are different variations that can be done. This may look easy, well it is anything but easy. Especially after doing 30 or more minutes of hamstring or quad work. (As a reminder, email subscribers will need to navigate directly to my blog to view these and all videos).

And another favorite, the Sled Dawg. Now this looks fairly easy and not very interesting nor particularly difficult, but consider a couple things: 1) The sheer weight of this. I imagine the sled itself weighs at minimum 45 pounds. So add the three 45 pound plates and the one 35 pound plate and you have 215 pounds! I weigh 125 here.


2) I have just spent 45 minutes training legs, this is the culmination of my workout and I will do this (down and back) three times probably. I suspect this was my last set too since I usually start out a lot faster. I am tired right now, let me tell you. Yes, I am moving slowly, I am breathing hard too, try it!





These are exercises sure to whip any body into shape.

Living and Loving Legs!

Saturday morning and I am ready to kill the legs! I am feeling lean and mean, and bursting with power.


Today I will be doing Back Squats, Glute Ham Raise and Lunges. I talked a woman into taking my picture, she hadn't started her workout yet so I didn't think it was too much of an interruption.


She snapped it before I could really get set up, but I have my heels on two 10 pound plates, I needed to get the foot placement correct, I am squatting with a narrow stance, feet straight out, I am targeting the quads. 

I warmed up with the bar only (45 pounds), 10 reps. Then 1 set of 10 at 65, 1 set at 85 and then moved into 115 for 5 sets. So this was 8 sets.

I rested 90 seconds in between each set.

Something clicked! It was like water, a fluid motion, it was perfect, like I was a machine. Roy keeps telling me "knees out front" and somehow my head told me to only move my knees, where in the past my powerful glutes always started the motion, I moved silently down, keeping a straight back, and then up with a thrust of the hips. I wish I was filming it! 

I found myself in my own world as I rested, waiting for my timer to vibrate and set me in motion again. I was floating on a cloud!

Then on to my friend, the GHR. We have a love hate relationship. This majestic piece of equipment is one of the most coveted by everyone and one of the most hated.

Why? If you do it right it's hard as hell! Most people break at the hips, and I know when I am getting fatigued I do the same. You should be pulling your body up with your glutes, and the upper part of the hamstring, imagining they are one solid mass (at least that's how I envision it in my head). If you bend at the hips and stick your butt out, anyone can do it, and it's basically useless.

I did 10 sets of 10, only bodyweight. Try it. 10 sets, slowly, no momentum, no swinging, slow on the eccentric and as explosive as I could get on the concentric, but that wasn't much! I started to waver at the end, I didn't break at the hips, but the  movements got oh so slow. I was quite vocal, I could tell as the guys looked over their shoulder, wondering if I was going to make it. I did.

Lunges. I grabbed the 20 pound dumbbells and walked. Left leg first, it's the weak one. Slowly, all the way down, stretching back at the lowest point, maintaining a straight back, pushing off with the heel. 10 on the left, then 10 on the right, rest. 5 sets on each leg. I should have done more, I was toast though.

I still had cardio to do. It was Saturday, when all the weekend warriors come in, the cardio room would be crowded. All the pretty women in their fancy yoga outfits, I wonder what they think of me in my Underarmour underwear and bra top, not that I really care.

The stairmills were all taken, and there are 8 of them! Damn, I had to use the stair stepper. 20 minutes was enough. I kept myself entertained, sometimes laughing out loud by listening to Big Nation Radio , a rather silly but entertaining podcast which bills itself as "talk of Bodybuilding, Steroids and Porn". I was finishing up the episode about Johnny Montanta, legendary pickup artist from New York.

When you see me laughing out loud on my stairmill, you will know why!

Soul Food

Today when I came home there was an envelope on the counter from the British Embassy. I knew what it was but I didn't open it, it was for my 17 year old son, Cooper.

It was his official certificate of his British Citizenship! We applied last year, it is quite a lengthy process. Now we just need to go through the entire process again to get a passport!


We spend a lot of time with our son, and I believe that is why he has grown to be a successful, caring young man.  He has great friends too who also seem to enjoy spending time here with us!


Today, his friend Adam came busting through the door with a prize in his hand. He presented it with a flourish: a package of Iberico ham from Spain.

He also had some Manchego cheese and chorizo. He and his Spanish father had visited the Spanish table in Berkeley the day before and he wanted to share this with us!

David and Cooper had LOOKED at the ham last time they were there, but it seemed way too expensive, and now here was Adam bringing it to share with us!

Here are three friends in our kitchen celebrating and having a great time. Adam, Cooper and Timothy. They have olive oil, bread, ham, cheese, and sausage.

For dinner we all had "soul food", a farm raised, organic chicken from Soul Food Farms which I had purchased from the farmers market.

I  brine it overnight in sugar, salt, water, peppercorns, clove, allspice, thyme and red pepper flakes. 

It is a Chez Panisse recipe and I always make my chicken this way. We then put it on the rotisserie and it will slowly spin over grape wood fire (from the yard out front) for almost 2 hours until the meat is falling off the bone

We had it with roasted new potatoes from our CSA delivery, artichokes and homemade aioli (garlic mayonnaise). 


For dessert Adam and Cooper had a new treat that Adam just introduced Cooper to. It is a whole milk artisinal yogurt called Saint Benoit. I don't normally eat yogurt and if I do I stick to low fat, but this stuff is alike candy. 

It comes in plain, strawberry, meyer lemon and honey. I bought several today at Whole Foods, it comes in these great crocks, which have a deposit of $1.50 on them, or you can use them as cups!

The boys all say the honey is the best.

I think that we are lucky to have 16 and 17 year olds who want to hang around with us, who appreciate fine foods and the joy of sharing them at the table.

The dinner can be tailored to a "dieter". I had only one tablespoon of aioli (120 calories), chicken breast, artichoke and half a new potato. Washed down with copious amounts of water, it was wonderful sitting outside and talking with the men. 

We have yet another 7 foot table outside, so that's where we are in the summer. They all had lots of chicken, bread dipped in the aioli and talked about all the ham they will eat as they travel through Spain together next summer, on their European Union passports...

It is important to spend quality time to teach young people to appreciate the importance of good, natural whole foods and travel. These guys all appreciate the homemade mayonnaise I made them, they know they cannot get it at the store and they know I made it just for them, not myself.


Just because I shouldn't be eating it all doesn't mean they have to diet too. Be adventuresome with your foods, invite the kids to try new things, open up a world of wonder for them.

Oh Happy Day....Glute Ham Raise

Oh Happy day! Oh Happy Day! When Jesus washed, oh when he washed, he washed my sins away....

Don't worry, this post is exercise related.


Do you remember that song by the Edwin Hawkins Singers? This song makes me feel oh, so alive! Here is a fantastic version:

(Email readers- there are two videos so you must navigate directly to the blog to view them.)



So what am I so excited about?

A Glute Ham Raise also known as  GHR.

My gym got one on Friday night, I have been asking for it for three years now. I came in Saturday and something was different in the weight room. A new leg press, looked nice, but not the hack squat I had asked for (it's all about me, see?). I looked further, and there it was, in all it's glory taking up a huge footprint in the very back room.

Most commercial gyms don't have one of these, they are found in professional athletic facilities, colleges and hard core gyms, ones that allow chalk and grunting!

But Courtside just got one and it is all mine....(because I doubt anyone else knows what to do with the thing).

So what the heck is GHR? What is it for?

It helped developed this wonderful butt of mine, it is the best piece of equipment available for your posterior chain: lower back, glutes, hamstrings, calves.

It's also one of the toughest workouts you will ever mess with. I am a little scared about what I shall feel like tomorrow, I haven't been on one of these in about 9 months, since I was training with SC, and we had quite a long session Saturday morning.

Here is a short video that shows a few variations of exercises that can be done on the GHR.






My training has just taken on a whole new life....I am so excited, I cannot wait to use the GHR every week, the bands are killer, I have done those, and SC taught me several variations, sometimes my entire body would be shaking as I stepped out of the machine.

He used to laugh and laugh and laugh, it was always a great source of entertainment.

If your gym doesn't have one, ask for it!