~Michele~’s BodyBlog

My goal for this meet was to total 1,000 lbs. Months ago, some of my teammates told me, "Don’t underestimate yourself, I bet you will total 1,050." I thought they were nuts at the time, since that would have been a 120 lb PR total.

But it turns out there were right… I totaled 1,050.5 lbs!

This whole meet was much more of a challenge than than my first one. It was in Florida, for one, so I had to travel to get there. I had a horrible travel experience, almost didn’t even make it to West Palm, but by a miracle of God I made it. Also, this was Nationals, so I was much more nervous. I really didn’t want to go through such a nightmare to get there and then bomb.

I weighed in 5 lbs lighter than I did at my first meet, and then spent the rest of the day after weigh-ins stuffing my face. I ate so much I swear I will never be hungry again.

On Saturday, the girls and lightweight men competed. I got my opener squat at 402, then jumped to 434 for my second attempt. I missed that one. The judges said I didn’t have control of the bar, but the good thing was it didn’t feel too heavy. So I did 434 again on my third and got it. 32 lb PR on squat.

I don’t know what all of my bench attempts were because while I was lifting, I didn’t want to know. I got all three attempts, and my third was 253. This training cycle, I finally got comfortable benching. It was really hard for me at first, as it is a very technical lift. Rick, my coach, and my teammates helped me a ton with learning how to bring my elbows in and use my lats more to press the bar. This was a 66 lb PR on bench.

Deadlifts were fun. I got my opener at 342 and jumped to 363 on my second. Got 363 and it was easy. Rick gave me 385 on my third. I ALMOST got it! Now, I have never even tried anything more than 375 in my life. I psyched myself up and went for it. I got the bar 1 inch from lock-out, and all I had to do was get my knees locked. I was too far back on my heels and I felt like I was standing there forever trying to lock my knees. Well I did get my knees locked, but at that moment I was too far back on my heels and I dropped the bar and fell backwards. I didn’t even realize what happened till I was on the ground! It was pretty funny, I wasn’t upset because I had already gotten a 21 lb PR and that third attempt was for fun. Later, Rick told me he knew I wouldn’t get it but wanted to see me try.

At the end of the weekend, I beat my goal, placed 3rd, and qualified for WPC Worlds in England! Big Iron won Best Team, and all of my teammates also qualified for Worlds. Congrats to all of the BIG team who competed, Mandy Bennet, Krystal Cary, Al Caslow, Mick Manley, Mike Cartinian, and Aaron Wilson.

I had such a great experience at my first powerlifting meet, it was awesome! I meant to update this blog sooner but I have had so much to do since then! I manage Big Iron Gym’s YouTube channel and the content of our website, so making sure that all of the videos, photos, and results were posted was my first priority.

When I first started training for this meet I was just going to do the Push/Pull. Well, one of the girls I train with asked me to squat with her one night and then I started squatting every week after that! I only have about 8 weeks of squat training getting ready for this meet and it became my strongest lift!

I wasn’t too nervous at the meet, except for right before my first squat. Rick opened me with a light weight so I would get comfortable on the platform. I don’t even know what my first two attempts were because they were in kilos and I didn’t want to know! I thought if I just knew I had done it in training then I would be able to just get under the bar and do it! I got all three attempts on my squat, with my third attempt being 402 lbs.

My bench is my weakest lift, I never have felt as comfortable benching as I do squatting and deadlifting. I opened with 187.5 lbs and it was easy. Rick gave me 209 on my second and I beat the press command, so no lift. On my third I tried 209 again and almost dumped it on my face! Thank you, spotters! So I ended up with 187 on my bench and I was happy with that.

I really like deadifting, so I was having a ton of fun on the platform when it came time to pull. I got my first attempt at 319 and it was way to easy! I was so excited though because it meant I didn’t bomb! My first goal was to not bomb! My next attempt was 342 and that one came up really fast, it felt just as light as the first attempt. On my third I went for 363 and I hitched it at the top, so no lift. I wasn’t upset though because the most I have EVER attempted in the gym is 350.

So all in all, I totalled 931 lbs at my first meet. I set AAPF Junior national records for my squat, bench, deadlift, and total. I didn’t even realize that until the meet was over! I made my goal of qualifying for APF Senior Nationals, so now I am back in the gym training for that. It is now just less than 10 weeks away. Training for powerlifting is way more fun than training for figure! Not gonna lie!

I miss being an athlete. Back when I used to snowboard, I remember the rush of dropping into the halfpipe, hitting the rails, and flying off the big kickers. My friends and I would hike a jump over and over, trying to perfect a 360 or a new grab. Sometimes I would land on my face and get a bloody nose or black eye, but that was just a part of the game. Watching someone else land an insane trick was motivation to try it too, and if you couldn’t land it the first time that just meant you would be trying it until you did!

I moved away from the mountains a few years ago, which is when I started competing in figure competitions. Figure was fun, but it didn’t have that same athletic spirit to it. Not that I am saying Figure isn’t athletic (it definately takes a true athlete to make it to the stage!!), but when you are on stage you don’t have to perform in the same regard. Instead you spend weeks and months dialing in your physique for the moment on stage to show off your hard work. The athletic part of figure occurs off-stage, in all of the preparations. After doing that for a few years, I started craving that spirit of competition where you get up for your turn, all eyes are on you, and you have to perform what you have been training so hard to do.

Soooo… Since I train at the best powerlifting gym in the country, and have access to the knowledge and help of the best coach, Rick Hussey, I decided that I wanted to take advantage of that and compete in a powerlifting meet. Most of the team are elite lifters, and many of them hold world record totals and world record lifts. I know that I can’t expect to be at that level, but the feeling of training for this type of competition is awesome! It’s very different from Figure training, but a nice change of pace.

My first meet is the APF Spring Open, held on March 21 in Omaha, NE. I am going to be doing push/pull (bench and deadlift) for this one, because Rick said jumping right into full power (bench, deadlift and squat) is going to be too much right off the bat. My starting lifts were 160 bench and 225 deadlift, so I am hoping to increase those a bunch by the time March gets here! I am so sore after every workout but as I like to say, "It hurts so good!"

I think it is safe to say that most people have a love/hate relationship with cardio. We love what it does for our physiques, but hate spending so much time on those machines with nothing to do but count down the minutes until we are done. I am lucky that I am pretty coordinated, so I don’t need to focus very much energy on what I am doing. When I am on the stepmill (my preferred cardio machine), I will do anything I can to distract myself from watching the clock: reading trashy magazines, reading books, texting anyone and everyone, listening to music, glancing at the tvs in the gym, talking to myself…. okay kidding on the last one, but you get my point!

Recently I made an investment that is so awesome when it comes to cardio that I just had to share. I bought a portable DVD player and a subscription to Netflix. It sits right on the magazine rack, and with the headphones on I can zone out everything else and just keep moving my feet up those stairs while watching a movie. I always end up doing more minutes than I planned because I just wanna see one more scene…. okay one more scene. Really, this is the last scene then I gotta go!

I don’t see a lot of people with these at the gyms I go to, which is why I wanted to share. The DVD players are actually pretty cheap (under $100!) and you can use it when traveling too.

The only downside is that people might not understand why you may burst out in laughter in the middle of a silent gym. I think its funny when people think I am nuts so I just roll with it. So if you happen to be in Omaha and see a little blond girl climbing the stepmill with a goofy smile on her face and randomly giggling, don’t make fun of her… cause she is having way more fun doing cardio than you are!

Thanks for the laughs, Will!

I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately - thinking about where I have been and where I am headed. My fitness journey has not been as glamorous as it may seem from the outside, looking at a few photos posted on a website. It has been about five years since I first started lifting weights, and although I am not proud of every moment along the way, the things I have learned in the process are extremely valuable to me, and I would not change anything that I have gone through.

I want to talk a little about the beginning. I hope my story can help others that might be going through something similar, or who have a friend that is. I am so proud that I was able to overcome this obstacle and turn it into something positive in my life, and it hurts to see others who are experiencing and feeling the same things I went through five years ago.

I started lifting weights because I needed to strengthen my arm after a snowboarding injury. The more I learned about training, the more I wanted to learn about everything involved in fitness. I read books and magazines that said protein was good for you, but carbs and fats were bad. So my solution? Eat nothing but protein. I ate tons of tuna and cottage cheese, getting really lean in the process. It started as simply not knowing enough about nutrition, but it turned into a genuine eating disorder. The big problem was that I wasn’t fueling myself for my lifestyle, let alone my workouts. It was to the point where I became afraid of calories and all I could think about all day long was training and trying to avoid food, unless it was tuna or cottage cheese, of course. I hit a low of 104 pounds, and although I had muscle from training, it looked like muscle on a skeleton.

I knew I had taken it too far, but was so caught up in seeing changes that I couldn’t stop. It wasn’t until a guy at the gym took me aside and said, "Michele, I know what you are trying to achieve and you won’t be able to get there if you don’t eat more." I needed someone to say something, and it was the right time to hear it. I remember he made me a weight gainer shake and I drank it without feeling like I did something bad. That was a huge turning point for me and I am so thankful.

I set a new goal to add muscle to my physique, and to not be afraid of gaining weight back. It took about a year for me to fully change my attitude about food, and it was a tough fight, but I am so thankful that I made the committment to do it. This year my goal is to get on stage at 128-130 pounds. That will be about the same or lower body fat pecentage than I was at 104. Anyone can lose fat, that is the easy part, but this kind of progress is what you KNOW you had to work your ass off for! Oh, and remember the guy who made me the weight gainer shake? Well, he saw me at the Emerald Cup in 2006 where I was 122 pounds on stage, and he said he almost cried he was so proud of me!

In another blog I will talk about rebounding post-contest. I owe a lot of my muscle gain to it, but it sure isn’t fun feeling thick in the off-season!

I’m back! Some of my bodyspace friends may have noticed that I haven’t been posting or replying to comments lately. So this blog is to let all of you know that no, I haven’t fallen of the face of the earth, I have just been a little distracted. I think we all can relate to a time when we really need to focus on getting our life in order, which is exactly what I’ve been up to. But the good news is, I have missed this place! I am sorry to everyone who I haven’t responded to, please know that it’s not that I don’t care! I really do!

A lot of you have asked how training is going, and I can honestly say that it is not going as well as I would like it to. We all seem to suffer from a lack of motivation every once in awhile, and how work and responsibilties can distract from our best intentions in the gym. I have definately been training, but it hasn’t been on the same level that I am used to. So if anyone has any advice for me, I would love to hear it!

Today I went to the gym on my lunch break. I don’t usually go in at noon, but I needed to get out of the office and felt like it would be a nice way to break up the day. I didn’t really have a game plan on what my workout was going to be, because today was kind of an "extra" day in my routine. So without any set workout, I randomly walked up to the squat rack, threw on some plates, and decided it was going to be leg day.

Here is some advice: If you are doing a "workout on a whim," and have to get back to work in 45 minutes, don’t train your legs! I learned a little lesson today. If you want to assume that you won’t get sweaty because you aren’t going to do any cardio or circuits in this session, then lay off the lunges! I probably would have been better off doing a shoulder workout, or arms, chest, and abs, for that matter. But no, I was smart and squatted my way into a rather uncomfortable afternoon. It took me about an hour to cool down enough to put my suit jacket back on.

And the other funny thing about my workout today is that I saw some of the same people that I see every day, yet I swear I see them in the mornings, or nights, or both. It seems like there is always one person I see EVERY single day, no matter what time I go. Either they work out a LOT, or they just have a random schedule like I do. I wonder if they think the same thing about me…

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this is quite possibly the worst question you can ask a girl. I don’t mind answering most questions, but come on, be original! Actually, this hasn’t been an issue here on Bodyspace (which I am very thankful for), but it is out in my day-to-day interactions with people that this seems to get asked quite frequently.

Just because I lift weights does not mean I am trying to break any strength records. This kind of relates back to that earlier blog that I wrote. But the interesting thing is that I really don’t bench press at all. I train in a way that works the muscles that I want to develop, because my goal is purely aesthetic. Correct me if I am wrong, but pectoral muscles don’t seem to be the main factor in figure judging. And I am talking about MUSCLES here, not anything else that may be a part of a woman’s chest.

My chest workout usually is just a few sets of incline dumbbell presses, with moderate weights. I actually set the incline up pretty steep so I still get quite a bit of front delt work as well. The way I see it, doing flat barbell presses will do nothing to enhance my physique in a way that will accomplish my personal goals. So I don’t do it. So if you ask me how much I can bench, I will not answer you.

I feel like I am being compared to one of the guys when you ask me a question like that, and that is the last thing I want! I work out to feel fit and feminine, so don’t be cheesy and ask me something original. I would be happy to answer any question but that one.

As many of you may know, preparing for a contest takes a lot of sacrifice and commitment. I have found that for me to feel like I am on the right track, I have to just get in the zone, tune out any distractions, and do my thing. Day in and day out I live for my goals. Wake up, cardio, eat, lift, cardio, eat, work, eat, cardio, eat, pack meals, sleep, repeat.

One the positive side, I know that I am completely prepared by the time I step on stage. I can stand up there, feeling confident that I did everything in my control to present the best package that I can naturally achieve. There is no second guessing my preparation, I am ready and it shows.

But on the negative side, during prep I become so focused on my goals that I neglect many other important things in my life. I have been called out by my friends for blowing them off, my relationships suffer, and I turn into a little hermit. I don’t go out much because I have to make sure that I get in all of my workouts, or that I don’t miss a single meal. Even my best friend, who is also a figure competitor, was upset with how much I shut myself off from life outside of prep.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this, trying to figure out if there was a way for me to prepare for a show without becoming so wrapped up in it that I blow off the people and events that I care about. I wouldn’t want to feel any less ready when the time comes to step out on stage, so I am still struggling with the meaning of balance. The people I love mean more to me than any trophy, yet I still have trouble doing anything that makes me feel like I am not going after my full potential in achieving a goal.

I have gotten asked this question enough times that I thought it would be helpful to write about it here. Let me start off by saying that when I started training, I had an incredibly flat backside. So it’s NOT genetics, trust me on this.

I went through a period when I first started training where I wanted to be able to lift the heaviest weights possible. I wanted to make the guys in the gym embarrassed to get on the leg press after me because they had to unload the plates for their own sets. I was doing low reps, heavy weights, and lots of compound movements. My leg workouts were usually squats, lunges, stiff-legged deadlifts, and some leg extentions to top it all off. My legs grew, but my glutes did not develop as much during this time as they did when I first started competing.

During competition prep, I found myself doing a lot more cardio than I ever had before. It was at this time when I discovered the StepMill, which is the number one factor that I can owe to the development of the booty. Now, lifting heavy is one thing, but climbing stairs for at least an hour, day in and day out, is quite the workout in more than just cardiovascular terms! If you have one of these in your gym, USE IT! It seems that this is the one machine that there is never people waiting for, so it is always open for you to utilize in your quest to sculpt those masterpiece glutes.

This does not mean neglect your leg workouts, though. It is important to keep those all important compound movements in your routine as well. Always use proper form to make sure that you are actually getting the benefits from the exercises that you are doing. And try some of my glute-y-licious moves:

• Walking lunges, carrying 25-45 pound dumbbells in each hand
• Stiff-legged deadlifts (make sure your form is PERFECT)
• Step-ups with a barbell across your shoulders
• One-legged leg press
• Traditional squats
• Ball squats (put a swiss ball between your lower back and a wall, hold heavy dumbbells)

I hope this helps answer those questions! I would love to hear what has helped other people as well!