6 Weeks to a Better Back

Ha ha Sounds like a commercial huh? But it's true- take a look at these pictures!

Above (the impressive picture) is my back on Sunday, April 8, 2012. 

Below (the slacker picture) is my back six weeks earlier. Quite a difference huh? Changes like this really excite me!

I am four weeks from a competition, so in the next month, my back will become even more defined, I will have less fat and my waist will come in a bit more. When I saw the first picture, I was kind of shocked, it just didn't look like my back, how could that be my back? 


The erector spinae muscles are so thick, almost like wide ropes running down my back, I don't remember those. But I have always loved backs, and especially that nice deep indent that runs straight up the middle, and you only get that with well developed muscles running up the sides.


I remember a few years ago, I had stopped training on a regular basis with SC, and I went in to see him, we must have been training that one day because when he looked at me (I had a bra top on, no shirt), he got this shocked sound in his voice and said "What the hell happened to your back?!"


My back...was gone, no well developed muscles, no thick like ropes running down the sides, no big indent, I had slacked off on my training. I don't do that any longer.


So what have I done?

Year round I train my back once a week, one whole morning is devoted to back, and a bit of biceps as they naturally get worked when I train my back (I won't be reviewing bicep training now). When I start dieting for a competition, then I start training my back twice a week. 

So...I double my training, I cut rest periods and I add more sets. I suppose its almost like quadrupling my workouts then! 

I vary the training, and I will change what I am doing every 3 or 4 weeks. I do not do the exact same thing on my twice a week back days, although I do some of the same things. Here is an example:

Sunday is my long day, I have more time.

Chin ups/pull ups

I will do 4 sets of 4 different hand grips. I typically do 6 to 10 of each depending on the grip. I super set these with dips, body weight 10 reps. So I do my chin ups then move to the dip station, do those then rest.


Lat Pull Down
6 sets of 12 60 second rest in between
2 sets wide grip
2 sets narrow grip (palms facing me)
2 sets triangle grip


Low Row on a Cable
6 sets of 12 60 second rest in between
2 sets wide grip
2 sets narrow grip (palms facing me)
2 sets triangle grip

Barbell Bent Over Row
4 sets of 10, (palms can be changed, supinated will hit the biceps more, pronated will hit the back more...I like supinated best)


On the shorter days I will eliminate the BB Bent Over Row and the Low Row and I will add this instead:


T-Bar Row
4 sets of 10 (squeeze those shoulder blades).


FacePulls
4 sets of 12


Always, always, always do chin ups and pull ups! They are one of the best things for your whole body. Keep your core tight, do NOT "kip" them up, you are completely defeating the purpose of doing them then. Don't neglect your back, not only are strong backs stunning, they are vital to your overall physical health. 


My back also gets worked when I perform the Glute Ham raise, Squats, and Good Mornings, since they require a strong, tight focused core, it just all fits. So, if you are not doing any of these big compound exercises, and then fail to do much of the back training that I described and rely solely on the lat pull down as most people do, you will probably never had these nice thick ropes. 


But! It's never too late to start- cause see what I did in only 6 weeks?

Reader Survey

I get a lot of feedback, some great, some not so great. I am interested in everything you have to say, really!


I have been writing this for two years now, I have published 750 blog posts! The very first was on April 6, 2010. I have between 400 to 500 hits a day, with a very low bounce rate.


My blog has morphed, it has changed, I have changed. 


I am considering making some changes but really wanted to gather some feedback first.


I started writing for myself, but I have met so many wonderful people through my blog and it has offered many opportunities to me. Although I will always write for myself, I would like to make sure I am giving people what they want to read about too.


I started out writing about how to lose body fat, but it really has become more of living life  in a healthy, physically demanding, competitive and fun loving way. It's about incorporating the "norm" while accomplishing the outrageous. 


It's about being happy, proud, demanding, hedonistic and confident.


I suppose, it's about me.


But I know I have helped many people accomplish their goals, or at least I have helped to kick start them. I want to keep doing that, I want to see more and more people strutting around feeling good!


I have a very short, 8 question survey that I would really love for you to complete, with all honesty and openness (as much as you can with multiple choice! ha ha) 


There are a few questions you can type away to your hearts content though!

Thank you!


Survey will close Friday, April 27, 2012

Ready In 5 Weeks survey

Gym Lock

I remember years ago when I saw a van driving around and it sad "Blind Cleaning" on the side. I asked David  "Wow- how can they come in and clean an unfamiliar house when they are blind?" duh....he explained they cleaned BLINDS, window blinds, boy that was a blond moment.


I have a new gym lock that could be used by a blind person, a sight impaired person, or someone like me, who needs reading glasses.

I will never be without a lock like this again!

Gold's has lockers and you need to bring your own lock, so I had to go buy one. I was troubled, I cannot see those itty-bitty teeny tiny numbers without my contact in. Yes, I wear only one. I have what is called mono-vision. I need glasses or contacts for reading only, so I have a contact in the left eye (the reader) and nothing in the right eye (the distance viewer), and together, I can see far and read! ha ha!

I don't wear my contact to the gym though, I don't want to have it in for 14 hours a day, so fumbling with a regular combination lock doesn't work well, and I don't want to have a key to drop and lose.

Enter the Master Speed Dial lock!

Notice it has no numbers? You can program it to do whatever you like to make it open, and you can operate it in the dark or with your eyes closed (I tried) . You simply push the middle round center ball up, down, to the left or to the right. Your "combination could be 4 right, 5 left, 4 up, 5 down and voila! Opens!


I recommend this for anyone who has trouble with small things, older folks (gosh, I am 51 now), or just someone who wants something fun!


It's red to match MyRedRocket (my car), but it comes in black and blue. 


If you want to read what lock geeks have to say about it, here is Lock Picking 101 on these locks.  

Hello Movie Star

"Hello Movie Star!" That's what David said to me the other night when I walked in the door from training with Roy and he handed these to me. The flowers were not for any special occasion.


But, today is a special occasion, it is my birthday, I am 51 years old, and some days I really do feel like a movie star.


And others...well we won't talk about those!


I look back and realize that I started my "fitness" journey when I was just turning 40, I wanted to change how I looked, and I sure did. Nothing happened overnight, nothing was easy, I slowly lost some of the fat I wanted to rid myself of, and I just as slowly learned what form of exercise I liked. 

Weights

Weight training can and will transform your body and your mind. Running will too, but you won't have arms like mine! 

It is important to decide what you want your physique to look like, and then train for that. Wanna be straight, lean and skinny looking? Run non stop.

Want solid, firm, feminine muscles? Then lift weights. And don't tell me you are worried about getting "too big and bulky"...Do you know how hard I try to get bigger? It is not easy, not easy at all. You cannot get "big" without massive amounts of proper food and drugs, you do not have the testosterone necessary to do that. 

Sure, I know many people who believe I am way too muscular, and they are certainly entitled to their opinion. (wrong as it may be)

Maybe you want muscles but not as big as mine? Well that should be fairly easy, I am in the gym 7 days a week, and three of those days I am there twice a day. So....maybe you can lift 5 days a week? 3? It will make a difference, I guarantee it.

Nutrition- that is a huge part of this metamorphosis. Proper nutrition, along with learning nutrient timing is key, in fact, I lifted for a very long time and never made it over that hump until I started eating properly. It takes time to become second nature though, it takes years.

I have been lifting now for 10 years, and eating properly for about half that length of time, and I am very happy I have embarked on this, it has become my life, it's part of my everyday routine and always will be. 

I look better than I did at 40, maybe even 30. And I plan to keep lifting and learning for as long as I am able.

Find your passion, you are never too old to start!

Week 4 to Competition (week 6 of diet)

It's all coming together! I have 4 weeks left until the competition, I have been dieting for 6, and I am at 121 pounds, I lost 2 last week and 1 this week. I need to be careful as too much more and it will just dip into the muscle, I really don't have a lot of fat on my body.

See the bikini line, where the suit rides on the hips? That fat is finally starting to leave, it's always there as the suit kinda squishes everything around! But finally, it's not as prominent as it has been. Quads look awesome too!

The glutes are coming in too! The tie in still needs some tightening up, and when I drop my water intake everything will tighten up. I notice that my erector spinae seems much thicker     than before, and I am not sure if I like this or not. I need to discuss it with Roy, I am not sure what it is that may be causing this, I haven't changed Back training much. 

Ribs are even starting to show through here. Shoulders need a bit of work, they look a little flat, not full; but these pictures were taken at 7:00 p.m. and my last starch meal was at 11:00 a.m. so I look fairly flat all over.

I have made a promise to myself to start practicing my posing, I need to find a good side view. 

I am standing a bit straighter in both of these "model" poses. It is important, but difficult to keep the hands looking relaxed instead of "claw like"

Legs look good, I would like to see more definition, but again, after I am not drinking a gallon of water a day, all of the muscle will show through. 

That's the goal! When you can bend over and not have rolls of fat, you have succeeded!

Monday Morning Motivation

"Individuality is either the mark of genius or the reverse. Mediocrity finds safety in standardization."
~ Frederick E. Crane

You are not in this world to live up to other people’s expectations, nor should you feel the world must live up to yours.

 – F Perl. 

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

~Ethan Embry

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”

~Malcolm Muggeridge

"Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality."

~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." 

-e. e. (Edward Estlin) cummings

“Be yourself, don't take anyone's shit, and never let them take you alive.”

~Gerard Way

My New Home - Gold's Gym

Yes, I changed Gym's and I couldn't be happier! Courtside sent me a letter (along with everyone else) that the monthly fees would go up again, just as they do every single year. Now I have no problem paying for quality, but this place is a "club", they call themselves a "Pacific Sports Resort" and frankly I was not using the amenities.


I never used the three pools, or the 16 tennis courts, or took the Zumba class, or employed a Personal Trainer there. I did have one massage in the spa, I shopped a couple times at "the shop", and I will miss the steam room; however, the occasional steam I took was not worth the hundreds of dollars a month I was paying.


So the Friday that I got the letter happened to be an afternoon I stood in line at Kaiser for 45 minutes waiting to get morphine and Fentanyl for Emily, I stood there fuming. On my way home with the meds, I stopped at Gold's Gym, told the guy "I don't care what classes you have, I am not interested, show me the weights" and I signed up on the spot.


Gold's is a huge, warehouse style gym, exactly the kind I love! Big, open, super high ceilings, no paintings or fancy materials. 


I never even considered Gold's because it is further away from my home, but I couldn't justify the outrageous expense any longer so I figured I would cut my training short by five minutes, that would do it. Much to my surprise, it doesn't take any longer than getting to and from Courtside because I take the expressway instead of residential roads, so the speed limit is twice as high!


Gold's has more than twice the number of stairmills, and every conceivable piece of weight training machinery you could imagine. I have never seen so many neck machines! Too bad I don't want a thick neck....they have 5 power racks, and more benches and barbells for every form of pressing than you can imagine. Calve machines, every kind! Hack squats (4), several different leg presses, Glute Ham Raise, a great pull up tower that looks like a big electrical station, I could go on and on.


My first week, at least one person came up and welcomed me to Gold's every single day. I learned more names in one week than I did in one year at Courtside!


One day, a couple young college guys were training, obviously brothers and I asked them if they were using something. They replied "no" then one looked at me and said "When I grow up I want to look like you!" and a big smile broke out on his face. I thanked him and said "Well, thanks, it doesn't really get much better than this, and I will be 51 in two weeks, so you have plenty of time to practice" His eyes got wide and he stood there, then said "Wow, you never would have known!"


It's not that I am there to socialize, but the crowd is like minded, they all have a goal to create a physical specimen, and they are on a mission. It's a much younger crowd, more working class (I don't think there are any Ladies Who Lunch working out there), many, many tattoos, lot's of gallon water jugs, and a lot of smiles.


The parking lot is full of economy cars, trucks and work vans instead of BMW's, Porsche's and Mercedes (did I mention Courtside has free valet parking too?). 


There is no free coffee at Golds, nor free towels; but there are weights, and after all, isn't that the only reason I am coming to the gym? Fixed barbells, fixed e-z bar curls, lots of free weights, racks and racks, rowing apparatus, and a lot of like minded people.


The crowd lifts, I mean they LIFT. They all do, the young, the old. And when they do cardio, its a warm up or after they lift weights, I have only seen two "cardio queens" there (and one was a guy).


The signs make me laugh, instead of something that Courtside had such as:

"Cell phone usage is welcome in the lobby or sub-lobby, please refrain from cell phone usage on the fitness floor"

Gold's has signs like this:

I like Gold's so much I upgraded to the 5 club package, and it allows me to have 72 guest passes a year! Yes, that's 72 of the same person, or 72 different people, they don't care! And it set me back $29.00 a month. Roy said he will come train with me, and help me figure out some of the stuff I have never seen, I said I would take him out to The Counter for cheeseburgers after! 


I enjoyed Courtside, I was there for three years. I met many wonderful people and had some great experiences. I enjoyed a lot of coffee in the Cafe, but it really wasn't "free" was it? Some of the people I met, I will continue to socialize with, most I won't. 

I remember years ago "the Doc" at Courtside was talking to me and he said "What are you doing here? You belong at Gold's". I thought that was a very snooty thing to say, that he intended it as a derogatory remark, but I think he knew, he knew I would be happier there. 

I drove home from Gold's one morning, wondering why on earth I waited, what kept me at Courtside? The gym is a huge part of my life, it's a very important place for me.  I should have changed years ago. I will miss some of the people, but I won't miss Courtside, you see,

I'm home now.