Detours BODY

Well it’s been a while since I decided to stop the weight training in order to lose some mass, and I have.. my legs and back have come down so I am pleased, still want a bit more but I am happy I have gotten smaller

I have been doing gymnastics practice and I always thought I was strong because I could squat about 220lbs for reps and deadlift even more, but doing static training only makes you strong in a static sense, plus I say it makes you strong in an ‘external’ way because you are lifting an object whereas the training I have been doing is all about ‘internal’ strength because I am lifting my own body weight and during motion. I find that more challenging and more rewarding when I can say hey look I can do a straddle press or yes today I managed to do a straddle handstand. That is more of an achievement to me then when I discovered I could squat an excess of 200lb with these long limbs of mine..lol!

My whole body is sore everyday especially my upper back, chest, shoulders, hip flexors and abs. I would say those are the major players in what I have been doing. I train for hours sometimes so I pile in the carbs (another upside to it). The one thing about the bodybuilding lifestyle is that people are afraid of eating carbs for fear of getting fat, but it is our primary energy source so eat them, just make sure to not eat too much of it because it’s not carbs that make you fat..eating too much of anything makes you fat - even protein. There are some people who think that if you eat too much protein your body just pees out the rest, but no, it is food just like everything else so you do store the excess. If you eat a little over then yes your body tries to get rid, but when it is a lot over then you place a lot of stress on your liver and kidneys and can damage them due to the overload. But this industry is appearance driven more than health driven so each to their own. If you know the risks you’re taking when you do something then you have to deal with the consequences and live with your decisions.

I’ve drifted from the real purpose of my blog! I just wanted to say that I actually feel stronger than ever due to the gymnastics conditioning and training and I am eating very little protein to boot. Makes me reassess the whole protein thing - is it a marketing ploy so that we spend our money on these products. For bodybuilding it is essential no doubt, but for fitness I’m not so sure. My strength is increasing hugely and I am on less than half the amount of protein I was on pre-contest. I know that was for a different purpose but, I am almost still as lean as when I was eating more protein. I just have my focus on something different now - or maybe I just don’t care about how lean I am anymore and the less I worry the less cortisol I produce…who knows?

Happy strength training everybody

This weekend was an eating shambles - I ate crap all weekend and a lot of sugar today. I think I have a lot of cardio activity coming this week..LOL! I feel that having an ok I don’t care attitude is better than stressing about it and feeling guilty. At the end of the day as long as I have a sensible week and stay active I’ll be ok. Pangs of guilt can come in but, the fact is there are people who eat loads of **** and still have lean bodies (Michael Phelps - ok an olympic swimmer but my point being energy in versus energy out is the name of the game) If I sat on my arse the whole time this coming week man it will get huuuuuge! But if I make a concious effort to stay active and push hard at every opportunity then I will be good. All about being what humans are designed to be, moving, working, LIVING.

I was reading a girls blog just now about her wanting advice about fat burners because she wants to lose fat. This is what clever marketing has done, makes millions believe that unless they use fat burners they are destined to stay fat! I disagree. People have been slim for years without them, OK they can work but it’s certainly not wise to take them everyday indefinitely. We live in a world where if something hasn’t happened "NOW", then it’s just too long! no one is prepared to wait for the results, or put in the necessary work. I don’t just mean the exercise, but the eating a decent balanced diet for your desired physique and your daily living activities. i think a lot of people are under the impression that as long as you exercise for 1 hour a day you’ll be fine to sit down the other hours you’re awake. Of course fat wont shift if thats your attitude! We are designed to move. My daughter is 3 and she never sits down! Always on to the next thing running here and running there, singing stomping her feet, finding the next game to play or thing to do, all up until bed time. She never walks somewhere but runs, she never sits if she can stand and she never sits still when she is sitting. If you look at her body it is long and lean, she has noticeable muscle tone and she is 3 people. She doesn’t take or need fat burners she just moves constantly. OK she is a growing girl so her metabolism is different but there are kids of the same age who are seriously overweight and to watch them for a few hours they don’t move that much, they don’t go outdoors and they certainly sit very still!

Get my point? We create heat by moving around that will use calories, we are designed to move and be active and do things. no excuses, exercise is the easy part it’s just one hour. Keep up the activity by staying on your feet, moving around, walk faster, or jog from A to B, only sit for meals, ride a bike to work, take a kite out with friends and family, take a frisbee to the park..endless things. JUST DO IT!!

But what about your insides? Most people think that having low body fat and having your abs showing means that you’re healthy, but if you take supplement after supplement overloading your system with chemicals that man made in a lab, then, is that healthy? Is sweetening your food with splenda healthy? It is a chemical after all..

Most people are happy if they have a low body fat level and are conditioned to train, but what about someone who ingests natural foods but has a slightly higher body fat %? Are they not as healthy because their abs are not as defined?

I read quite a few blogs with people preaching the eat healthy message and the I don’t eat any crap because I eat healthy with no sugar and blah blah blah..but you eat a shed load of splenda, sugar free this and that, all chemicals so is that healthy? We are conditioned like robots, following the crowds instead of using instinct and our inner thoughts about ourselves. Yes a low fat body is a healthy one when given healthy nutrients. Eating to live is very different from living to eat. True health would see you eliminate all the artificial sweeteners and junk..may not cause a spike in your system like table sugar but we are the early generations of this type of chemical sh*t and the illnesses and cancers that are rife today could be the chemicals we eat..

I’m no saint though, outside of competition, if I want to eat a sweet treat then I eat the real deal, my mind is clear because it is so occasional that it wont do lasting damage. The splenda addicts and other supplements laced with sweeteners - which is most of them by the way - consume this stuff on a daily basis.. your liver has to process this stuff, all the chemicals which aren’t recognised as real food puts stress on your liver. The build up over time can become toxic and the damage it can create long term doesn’t bear thinking about..

but your healthy if you can see your abs though right?!!!

and will be even tougher to follow through with but I’m going to stop weight training for about 6 months. I feel increasingly more uncomfortable with my current physique, my back broadens in a heart beat and my thighs stay quite bigger than I intend. My problem is even with light weights I punish myself to the point where my volume is still causing hypertrophy. Being a junkie for the burn (even though most days I dread doing the workout!!) I have come to the conclusion that I need to stop altogether. It’s a hard decision, but one I feel that is necessary.

So what will I do? Pure bodyweight resistance, yoga, pilates and gymnastics practice. If I miss it too much I may do they odd full body weights session, but not regularly. I have dropped my protein and my eating frequency will be dropped too. Need to lose the mass and when I am at a more comfortable size I will return back to the iron.

My boyfriend loves me in any state and doesn’t mind the way I’m built, but I am the person who has to walk around everyday like this, in this body. I feel so paranoid about my back, it feels like the width of a barn, my waist is so small in comparison that it highlights it. Plus, my clothes feel hard to get on because of the width of my back…oh the struggle - AND it looks silly having a tight top which sags in the middle because my waist is so narrow!!

So there you have it, it has been a weird journey, but I have decided that I will feel more comfortable being smaller again. Just keep it tight, this experience has taught me that light weight is what I need to do or I will be on stage with Iris Kyle..lol!

I will miss the workouts, knowing that I could once squat over 200lbs for reps was amazing to me and leg press about 5 - 6 plates a side at my strongest. I was doing walking lunges with dumbbells of 20kg in each hand going for 30 reps and supersetting with another exercise etc.. I would do pull overs in the machine and use the whole stack because my back is my strongest, I loved back day. My deadlift was heavier than my squat. The feeling of that kind of strength was second to none, you get caught up in it, but when you’re away from the gym and the big boys, going shopping was hard, I’m not a big size just a bodybuilder shape which a lot of clothes do not do. I know there is no guarantee that the muscle loss will come from back first because that would be too easy, but I feel I have achieved something great in my quest, and am in transition to the next phase. I like standing out in a crowd, but I feel a slightly more mainstream look for me will be nicer for me to maintain, I’ll still have muscle, I am a mesomorph without doubt, but I just want to have a shaved down version of my current status.

It could just be because it is my TOM but I really want to change my shape. I feel I have bodybuilder genetics, I can pick up a weight and my muscles expand like you wouldn’t believe (I mean - more than what I desire..) Especially my back, naturally wide I think and coupled with my strength and love for back training come back day, it grows further more I just want more detail not size.

I have changed my training dramatically to very light weight, higher sets and reps - going for the pump, even eating less protein down to roughly 0.8/lb of body weight and guess what..I’m growing again! My lats, quads (inner and outer) so for those of you who think you can’t grow on light weight and less calories think again! I do know the body responds to change and especially if it’s been on the same routine for a  while, but I change my routine quite regularly. I don’t use any supplements at the moment, not even protein powder - all natural food sources. So I have come to the conclusion that I am just one of those people who can grow muscle no matter how I train, because I tap into the mind muscle connection - once you have that you can achieve amazing things. So I’m chopping down protein because my aim is to lose some muscle and get better balance, I’ll also have to do less exercise to stimulate less muscle fibres and change the angles every other exercise for variety. I know its odd that I want to lose muscle, I’m not that big in the grand scheme of things, I’m 5′8" and a UK size 10, below the national average - which I think is a US size 6. I’d prefer to be a size 8 which I think would make me a US size 4?? But anywho, that is where I’m at. Diet wise I try to get a healthy variety of foods, I’m not caring about being this body fat% or that one simply because I need to just look at myself to know if I’m happy with it or not, and right now I’m OK. Still want to be less but because I’m trying to lose overall size MY focus is just that..overall.

Pictures never show a true representation of how anyone looks unless there are other people in the shot to give an idea in relation. My focus always changes but that is what keeps me active and aiming for something, I know one day I will just want to maintain, but not there yet..

Being into bodybuilding and fitness there are certain things that have become mainstream and the norm and a lot of people stick to them because it seems to work. But what if you stick to a diet sheet to the T and just because it works for some people, if it doesn’t work for you then you think you’re doing something wrong..you may not be!

We all have very different bodies and I think everyone has to learn to listen to their bodies and tap into what it is trying to tell you - somedays you need to eat more carbs..listen to that, some days you need more protein..listen to that too, if you don’t know it’s simple, if you are real sore then you may need a little extra ( I mean prolonged soreness) Sometimes your body craves more fat and you may need to just eat more of it (especially women and TOM), there has to be reason but all the conventional ideas do not work with everyone and shouldn’t have to.

The eating every 2 - 3 hours doesn’t work for everyone either.. I don’t always feel like eating that often but have forced myself to. The end result is an overloaded stomach and slowed digestion which is not good for your system..the liver has to cope with the influx of all this food, if my body needed it that often then it would get broken down quicker (notice how breakfast always seems to go down fast?) Your body has fasted all night and needs the food, so the digestion process is not as sluggish. A lot of people have 4 meals a day, 5 to 6 some even 10, I just don’t think that is always needed - listen to your body, it sends signals for a reason! I do believe some people need to be real frequent, but if your body is fighting against it so much and it is all very uncomfortable then why force yourself to live that way everyday - I don’t have the time to eat that much or the need.

There are other schools of thought that even if you have a huge buffet meal - you still need to eat again in the next 2 - 3 hours or you run the risk of muscle break down. I say you still run the risk of gaining fat, simply because the fact is if you eat more than you burn, fat will occur over your hard earned muscle..also your body will be working hard to be breaking down the last meal which will put your liver under a lot of stress, if you then eat again you slow your liver down even more and make things even harder and slower. If the whole point is to increase your metabolism then eating lots of food in this manner is actually doing the opposite.

It can get confusing because most people want to stick to a diet sheet even if it is obvious that things are not working for them.
Lots of people will jump on the low carb craze but I know plenty of people who have plenty of carbs even during competition prep. Low carb works for some people but if you notice that you just can’t function and the weight doesn’t seem to drop off as quickly as some people, maybe that system isn’t meant for you.

Other factors can have an impact obviously like genetics and activity levels outside of the gym, exercise form, etc etc…

Workouts too doesn’t have to be like everyone else, some people believe that in order to get big you have to lift big, but I have seen people who are hugely muscled and they use light weight but high volume. Looking at what your body does, being your own judge is more important that just listening to a trainer who says you must do this and eat that because I do blah blah blah..

There are so many different methods out there because they work for different people, my take home advice is that you have to take responsibility for yourself, you have to pay attention to what your body does and you have to listen to the signals.. your training log tells you to train today but you are so tired and can’t even keep your eyes open. Take a rest and know that you can go to the gym tomorrow with more grit and determination because you are more refreshed and ready to do battle.

I’ve learnt to listen to my body to understand what works for it, through trial and error I assure you, and from there I can devise my own plans to achieve what my body can achieve. I know I’m not there quite yet because I have gone through doing what other people have told me to, only to be disappointed with the results to realising what works for ME and that is high volume training, lots of sets and reps. Getting a good pump, short rest breaks between and really working hard. Eating adequate amounts of food to refuel is real important and I also believe that it is better to eat what the world produced rather than what someone produced in a lab (don’t get me wrong, these things have their place but not needed everyday)  I understand that when you really don’t know, start with basic training ideas, but after a while start to pay attention to your body, how it recovers, if you notice certain effects about doing certain systems - use your instincts we have them for a reason. I don’t think I have to conform to what is considered the norm because it never worked for me the way I wanted, doing endless low intensity cardio never really made me leaner, I just lost muscle, low carb and real high protein didn’t make me ripped, still was high calorie, being sensible in my training methods has been the only real thing for me and by that I mean learning to understand what my body tells me. It’s helped to control my anxieties somewhat and in 2 weeks I have sculpted in a way that might take some people one month, listen to your own system, use your inner voice and pay yourself back with good real nutrition!

Peace xox

Noticing a problem I seem to have.. ladies you may know what I mean..

Just before that time of the month I get real hungry, I crave fatty foods and chocolate so I sometimes give in. The problem is for 2 weeks in a month I can be disciplined and work real hard and then my hormones shift and I get real tired and just need to eat - my brain says eat protein but my body says no eat peanut butter and chocolate. The yo-yoing has me losing weight for 2 weeks, then piling it back on when my cycle kicks in or just before. I know our hormones make us hold more water during that time etc but with my diet going wrong for a good week I know that is adding to blurring my definition..
It’s getting to me because I see gains and then they disappear, maybe I’m looking too hard, my man says I look the same but I’m not sure.

What I want is to be able to maintain an eating plan through my cycle so it doesn’t mess up my energy or make me over-indulge when my body gets tired. Is it a mum thing, a woman thing or that I just work so hard that my body is screaming for nutrients so I burn out??? Or, all three…HELP!

I’ve only gone and torn a muscle in my back

I was doing some barbell shoulder presses "heavy" when I heard my back muscle rip - it sounded like cloth tearing. I was like oh f*****g hell!!!

I abandoned any overhead movements and heavy weight, but still did two biceps exercises at light weight and light weight side laterals. I’m so pissed, wanted to go running afterwards but I decided to call it a day. Man, my training was awesome this week, but hey PMA right! POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE.. Just means I have to calm things down for a couple of weeks, get some nutritious food, train other things that get neglected and thank my luck stars for being in good health and having my unbelievable family and friends.

toodles

This is something that I have had to deal with a long time and don’t always deal with it well. I suffer with terrible anxiety   it is a mental health issue and my type is health anxiety. I am actually for all my sins healthy, low blood pressure - but normal ranges for athletic people, low resting pulse and normal blood tests. It causes me to feel fatigued at times and that in itself can get my mind thinking absurd things which can ramp up the anxiety, self feeding condition..

I seem to work real hard on my body and give my mind a second thought or half arsed attempt. I will train everyday but only do the mental exercises I need to when the anxiety hits me hard. I know it is a common problem, I have pressures of study and trying to find more work, being a mum and trying to be a good wife and do my training, my social life isn’t really there and my time is very regimented because of having a child and other commitments. I don’t mind though, I like my life - I just need to learn to control my feelings of panick and to stop over thinking things which is my biggest problem. I have great friends here who are very sweet and give me reasons to smile and stick to my goals. Being able to open up about such things is what helps to diminish the problem somewhat so I’d just like to thank the people who have given me the time of day and made me happier

I am obviously someone who cares about getting my body into a certain shape and am more than just the average gym goer - I try to really push myself with intensity in every workout. After competing in my first show, it left me asking myself a lot of questions - although I know this fitness lifestyle will stay with me for a long time, why do I really train how I train, I mean why do I want muscle other than the possible health aspects and the beauty of it.. Made me think!

I know what I want, my goals and aims change all the time and I recognise that, right now I want functional muscle, I don’t just want great looking abs, I want them to function for a purpose, I want my shapely shoulders to be a product of hard work - yes - but also some form of function. This is why my goal has switched to fitness, it will be a new challenge and for me will hold a purpose for doing what I do, wanting a lean strong looking body for the sake of it isn’t quite enough for me. People build their bodies and look great but how many can do strength holds like a planche or planche push ups?? L-sit which really engages your core or a moving L-sit where you walk your hands forwards whilst maintaing dead straight legs and bum off the floor - that is functional muscle and all body weight, which is harder than any lifting routine. For me, lifting in itself is a good thing and needed in any health and fitness program, but for my needs and where I want to be I need a challenge. Plus I’ve always loved gymnastics and have never had any formal training. I’m lucky enough to have some ability which is why I have some chance of doing a decent job, but the main thing I need is the confidence to do the new more challenging moves and lots of practice.

Setting new goals is important in life because when you have achieved one goal sometimes it’s impossible to know where to go next. After having my child my goal was to compete, just to see what it would take to achieve a competition body, now I know!

I also know that I am totally crazy to embark on something as demanding as fitness, but I guess I’m crazy!