Linda Cusmano ‘OUT FOR BLOOD 2011′

You are all so awesome and I am sitting here smiling at the love you all have shown, you have no idea how priceless that is!!!!!! Again with lacking support in the rest of my life, its nice to have some here and it really fills the need for that!!

Okay so I got a bit depressed. I have been ignoring the computer, and now again have a bunch of articles to catch up on writing, projects waiting for me, and am just keeping up with clients only right now.

I did get a touch of pnemonia but am better and working for a week now and my lungs are almost cleared out.

I have an inbox full of forum posts so I will be back on again, and posting and have a ton of stuff, extras just sitting to post for everyone.

I lost a bit of motivation and just needed time to collect myself, re plan and think.

I don’t want to stop competing but now am not sure the level I can achieve, which basically just shakes up my confidence a tad but I am determined……DETERMINED to do the best I can to the fullest of my ability.
I am going to press on with my goals and work around my back. I AM GOING TO MAKE THE SURROUNDING MUSCLES STRONGER, enough so that they can compensate for this thin narrow disc of mine.

I did however insist on more xrays which my dr did not want to do but he said if I have chronic neck paid he would do my c spine…….well I do have chronic neck pain, I just ignore and work through it, like everything else, like my back….hint, hint so we went ahead with those, I know I have scoliosis there but now I can know my full condition. He says to me ’so what if we do find out something is wrong?’ and I said then I can work with awareness and do the best I can otherwise I will work through pain and not knowing my boundaries means you can BET I WILL HURT MYSELF.

So I have acupuncture dated for Feb 8th and will be looking into IMS as well.
Deep tissue every 2 weeks or every month, same with acupuncture and chiro every month or 2.

Now the training. I have to get over the losses of the exercises I love. If my body lets me do them pain free then praise the lord……….if not then I have no choice and have to live with this, face it and submit to the ‘lesser’ exercises, or so I see them as!! The mourning of this is over now. I guess its my little ego hang up that I love squats and deads and see leg press / ext and hypers as easy alternatives. In a resounding echo lets all repeat ‘get over it Linda!’

Now forward
Contest venues are up as follows:

*Western Canadians (Tested)
May 3rd 2008 Kelowna Community Theatre, Kelowna, BC
I may do the figure here if it qualifies for the BCs

*Northern Classic
June 7th 2008 North Peace Cultural Centre, Fort St John, BC
I may do this if I do not do Kelowna above, for figure.

*BC Provincial Championships
July 19th 2008 Cenntenial Theatre, North Vancouver, BC
I am doing the Fitness here, I qualified for this, if I do one of the above and get top 3 in figure then I will do both fitness and figure here, otherwise just fitness.

*Sandra Wickham Fall Classic
November 8th 2008 Massey Theatre, New Westminster, BC
If I do not do Figure in Kelowna or Northern then I will do it here at end of year.

*2008 CBBF Canadian Figure & Fitness Championships
Saturday, August 9th, 2008 New Westminster, British Columbia
Co-Promoted by Ms. Sandra Wickham & Mr. Ross Webb
Host hotel: Inn At Westminster Quay, New Westminster, BC
I would hope to do this if I get top 3 at the BCs.

Diet
I am a PVL sponsored athlete and am trying a bunch of new supps. I will review them as I go along in my blog and journal, in my bodyspace supp review section and in the Discussbodybuilding.com supp testing journal areas. The new supps and plan are as follows:

PVL 2Good Bars which can be for snack or meal replacement, they are like a 40/50/10 bar. Prob won’t have these daily.

PVL Greens 1 - will have a serving of 3 tsp per day sometime early in the day.

PVL MCT Oil 1 Tbs with 2-3 main meals.

Extendavol taken 45 mins pre w/o then asap post w/o
NoxStac 15 mins pre w/o
Vextrago during w/o

Daily - 2 tbs mangosteen, 5-10gm PVL creatine per day, 5-15 gm GLT3 PVL glutamine per day, 1 Multimaxx PVL vitamin, 2 colleus, 2 tsp lung tea, possibly extra vit c or magnesium or potassium as needed.

Food Plan
Fruits - a pc or 2 fruit per day or goji and amazon berries or acai in a shake or on rare occasion juice.

Proteins - fish like tilapia, canned tuna, dry cottage cheese, PVL protein powder, oysters, salmon occasionally or tuna tataki.

Fats - olives and oil, PVL mct, nuts like almonds or filberts and diary like milk or cheese or butter but sparce.

Starch carbs - tubers like potato, sweet potato, and carrots, peas, corn, beans and legumes as well as grains like quinoa, kamut pasta or occasional ww bread.

Other Carbs - no fat plain yogurt usually probiotic, greens, broc, green beans, celery, onion and family, garlic, parsley, asparagus occasionally cabbage or brussel sprouts

I have been off for awhile so now I have re enter easy. I will do most of my cardio at home with 15-20 mins on my recumbent bike or treadmill.
I will jog 4-5 mph at a 2% incline if my back is okay with it, gotta test it out. If not, then 0 incline.
If I warm up at the gym for a training day there I would prob do the upright there for 15-20 mins at 3-7 intensity.

5 day training as so:
Back/Chest/Shoulders/Arms & Abs/Legs
3×10 75% max or as back allows.

Picking from these exercises for size but adjusted as needed so if I cannot do any deads, I do hypers for example.

Barbell Squat atg
Inv. Leg Press
Lying and seated leg press
Seated or single standing calves with bent knee
Add/abd on machine for now or bands at home
Pullups
Chins
Mid Back machine seated plate load
deads, singles and or hypers
DB chest press flat for now, may have to use seated machine or plate load flat if back complains during set up or finish
Incline chest plate load machine
decline fly light, back hates this position if heavy
OH press machine for now
Side delt machine
DB or cable rear delt
vsits if back allows
ab bench
side angle bench obl
hang obl
bi machine
ez preacher
tri machine
db kickback
rotator cuff work
stretches
any lower back rehab work needed additionally for conditioning.

Today started late as it was a day off for me from training clients so I had a shake late at like 10am with all my supps.
noon was my fruit, greens, rest of my natural supps like mangosteen etc.
I have some curry fish for lunch with some mashed pototo, normally I would try to split these into 2 meals but I have to combo them with a small salad or cooked greens as a late lunch.
I am making salad pizza for dinner, its a light thin dough home made, with a simple greens n vinaigrette on top! I will prob then have another shake later after dinner for my protein which puts me low of protein today, low on meals but I am just getting back into it so no biggies.

Linda

well…….I don’t even want to write this as I just may cry, whic is uncommon for me.
I had to go into the dr. today to make sure I don’t need prednisone. I had doubled up my meds and had to get more antibiotics on wednesday, larger and longer dose. I cannot do much, walking to one room gets me wheezy. My lungs are pissed off and very flared and I was going to hit the ER this morning but called the dr instead. has some pepsi and it helped with the caffiene to help me breath.
Well while there he brought up my xrays which I figured were fine since I had not heard back……..
I am devastated………..and i know that sounds harsh, compared to some people I should be happy I can walk, see, hear, have family…..you know grateful for things I have in life etc. But I could not help it, my heart just sank when he told me I had permanent damage to one of my back discs. I have prided myself on having a strong invincible back for years…….

To someone like me who was held back my whole life by health, and now have tasted some normalcy in life and he tells me I cannot hyper extend……..hullooo, fitness competitor, gymnastics………..

he said the weights and exercise is prob why I am not disabled.

apparently my disc between L5 and S1 is very narrow. He said it is probably also herniated already and that the extreme pain I had the days I could not walk, or stand straight meant I pinched a nerve. so he goes on to say, I wll feel pain, I may pinch again and not to hyper extend or lift so heavy with stuff like deads or squats……………………….****in shit, I hate life, I want to kill someone…….so I put my fist through a wall and now I sit here…..

I am willing to replace it, surgery, anything to keep up my goals………but he said there is nothing unless or until my legs get affected, disabled.

I asked for the cause, my asthma, was it the steriod meds for all my life or the lifts I did getting my mom up off the floor, the car accident I had 8 yrs ago, poor exercise form……which I doubt………..he said could be any or all or a combo of some.
And here I sit…………………………….:(

This is all tentative since the dates I am going by are assumed dates based on the 2007 show dates, but this federation seems pretty consistent in keeping show days each year around the same times.

I have decided to try to get top 3 in another city level Figure with BCABBA so I can do Figure AND Fitness at the 2008 BCs.  I am qualified for the Fitness and I will be reusing the same suits, music and routine which saves me a ton of money.  I am going to get Amy to adjust the suits I have now for a better fit and maybe see if I can heal my back enough to nail my aerial and add it back into the routine.  So my 2 choices for the Figure at Kelowna in April or Fort St. John in June.  I am waiting to see if Kelowna is a BC qualifier, if so it is closer to me than the later show so I just may go out and do that one for Figure and this time I will enter my height class and masters (mid 30s class) and I may even enter the lightweight bodybuilding while there for fun!!!!  I can use my old copper suit for bodybuilding or maybe get a new one, will see.

If I don’t make top 3 in Figure then I still have the option to enter Fort St. John or I can just wait and do it in Nov. 08.

July or Aug will be the BCs which is only Fitness so far, unless I manage a top 3 in Figure beforehand as mentioned above, then I would be doing both at the BC’s.  (Assuming the BCs are in July or Aug 08)

<em />Without definate dates my diet and training plan is rough for the year outline and will be tentative outlines.  I will only be able to see a month or 2 ahead which makes long term periodization hard but I will manage.

I will be reviewing PVL products along the way too.

I won’t be able to do any major bulking but for now I am going to work on conditioning my injury and a fine balance of slight leaning, mainly maintaining with some lean muscle gains as possible on a mod cal diet.

2500 is the avg calorie intake I am aiming for with an avg of 200gm protein per day.

Daily exercise:

15-20 mins on treadmill at 2% incline, 4-5 mph then next day recumbent bike, alternating both to 6 days per week, done at home.

-weights can be at home or gym

5 days - Back / Chest / Shoulders / Abs + Arms / Legs

3×10 at 75 - 80%  load or as back allows

Pick exercises for size, compound but replace as needed for pain.  IE - if deads hurt that day, do single deads which brings weight down or can Exercise choices will be:  Barbell Squats ATG, Inverted Leg Press, Lying and Seated Ham, Seated or Single Calves with bent knee, Add/Abd machine, Pullups, Chins, Mid Back machine or plate load, Deadlifts, DB Chest flat press, Incline Chest plate load, Decline Fly, Overhead Press machine, Side Delt Machine, DB Rear Delt, VSits, Ab Bench, Side Obl on angle bench, hanging obl, Bicep machine, EZ preacher, Tri machine, DB Kickback, Rotator and stretches.

Meal Plan in general 

Daily:  mangosteen, goji and golden amazon berries and or pc of fruit, vits n mins, colleus, lung tea, protein drinks, gluamine, creatine, greens, efas, and a few more PVL products I will list as I get.

my protein choices are dry cottage cheese, fish, canned or tuna tataki, oysters, salmon

fats choices - other than the mct oil I am going to start on with pvl, olive oil in cooking both normal and extra virgin, nuts, occasional butter or milk, cheese
Carbs - starches - tubers, grains, beans, carrots and peas, ww bread.

Carbs - other - nonfat plain yogurt, broc, green beans, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, dark leafy greens, asparagus

Been sick and off for what feels like ages, but about a month I guess or so.  I am starting tomorrow as I feel a well enough now to try.