TLC: Trust, Love, Consistency

There was only so long I could have these amazing workouts go on for. Today’s wasn’t one of them.

Today I worked chest, quads and triceps. After the past weeks successes with my shoulder healing I thought I might be able to pull something amazing for my chest workout. No such luck. I managed to shift a whole 5kg without being totally beaten by pain. It felt way too light but I just couldn’t move anything heavier. Between sets my sad shriveled left pec taunted me, but I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted.

In retrospect I hadn’t even planned to train my left-side of my chest for another 2 weeks or so. so I shouldn’t really complain. In more positive news I felt very comfortable squating, with no shoulder pain at all, though I did have this story (letter to the ed) in my brain as I did quick, light, hi-rep sets. No snap, thank god!

In the end I busted through enough calories and felt a good burn in my tris and feel my legs making good progress too.

Last night’s cardio session was so good it was eurphoric. I did as planned, 20 mins solid state and 20 minutes of intervals (20/40s@210/120spm) on the elliptical, with a quick cool down. For some reason my calories burnt on my HRM was much lower than I expected but I averaged a heart-rate of 159, higher if you just count the intervals. I was feeling so sleepy beforehand and even forgot to go get my cofee, but by the time I stepped out the gym I was buzzing. I got home and showered, did chores I had no intention of doing, packed all my meals and cooked dinner with a huge grin on my face. By 10 o’clock I was pretty ready to curl up in bed.

I looked at my diet quickly yesterday and decided I could afford to add a few more carbs to my high-days. My new plan is on high days 140g total with 35g either side of my workout and the rest divided amongst 3 other meals (23g/meal). Even on my ‘high’ days I only had about 80g total carbs, so no wonder I’m feeling wiped. I don’t need that yet!

I’m also feeling confused about which is the best organisation to compete in. INBA or WNBF. Both titles are within a few weeks of each other and I’ve been chatting with the guys who organise the INBA. There appear to be more manditory poses in the WNBF and a clear set of guidelines as to what the judges are after. I’ve still got time to decide so it’s time to start asking (more) questions.

You can’t break me down at the moment. I’m feeling so good.

Yesterday I did walking lunges, cable rows, single leg deadlifts (I really want to master these), cable pulldowns (can’t think of the real name, using the cable flye station), db military press, hammer curls and a enough ab work to feel it this morning! I blew my mind with how strong my shoulder was. The rows were at 90%, the cable pulldowns were at about 70% of full strength and I shoulder pressed at about 60% (both compared to my right side). By the time I got around to biceps I was starting to loose strength a bit.  I was getting some weird looks both from regulars. who know about my injury and must think I’m mad to be training so hard and from strangers who don’t quite understand why (a girl) with such muscular arms is lifting one 4kg dumbell and one 12.5kg one.

The one thing I’ve found is that if my form is even remotely off my shoulder will let me know. If I really get in there, visualise the movement and then focus on recruiting the right muscles and try to hit my breathing just right I can pretty much lift without even a twinge of pain. I was thinking as I was going, through my workout, there’s nothing wrong with the muscles so as long as I use them right I shouldn’t be having problems at all; I broke a bone after all.
Mornings are getting too cold and wet to both walk the dog and get to the gym before work. The dog’s non-negotiable for now (as it gets closer to comp time I’m going to have to do some bargaining on this one with ‘the boy’) so I’m going to try to get to work half an hour early, halve my lunch break and leave work early so that I can train in the evenings before the weights room gets too crowded. I’ve never like working out in the evenings as I tend to find excuses to skip workout, like I’m too tired, so I’ll have to make sure I run and grab a coffee at 4 o’clock to help me power through.
I know I’m not meant to be consuming extra caffeine (or sudafed, or ibiprofen) while on the iSatori LS7’s but for the 1st week I’m on a half dose and I severely crashed by lunchtime without my coffee hit. I can put aside the other two but the caffeine is a must. I’ve put the L-carnatine to the side for now, does anyone know if this is OK and beneficial with the LS7’s?
While talking supps I’ve also been a lot more dillegant in taking my creatine. I tsp on waking and one in my Xtend for my workout. Blargh! That orange Xtend is nasty chalky stuff, I may order the lemonade flavour next time. I was looking at Biotest’s Surge as a during workout BCAA drink but I just can’t drink milk flavoured stuff while I’m training, it makes me puke. Anyone  got any other good tasting alternatives?

Cardio tonight. I’m aiming for 40 minutes, 20 minutes of intervals and 20 of solid state. If I’m feeling hot I might join the RPM class afterwards, though I doubt it.

Have a good day.

159 days to go!

Today was ’super Saturday’ at the muscle shop (discount day)  I looked at different protein powders but I do loved Vital Strength’s Ripped Vanilla and have had such a bad experience with the Balance Lean protein that I’m kinda scared to try other flavours and brands, though something like cookies and cream sounds divine. I bought some fat burners, Isatori Lean System 7, to test out. The packet full of warnings were a little freaky, but the guys in the shop said they were the most popular… we’ll see.  Just as I was leaving one of the owners asked if I was competing. He’d seen me in the gym and thought I was leaning out well and looking good for it. I rode that buzz for several hours! It really boosted my belief I could do it and it was also nice that ‘the boy’ was with me to hear it so he doesn’t think I’m as mad.All this put together is helping cement my commitment to competing.Last night I planned all my meals for the week. They still look interesting (not just 20 tuna salads), lots of hardboiled eggs, beans, chickpeas and oats for both protein and fibre. We also bought a slow-cooker which will make things like shanks and even beans easier. ‘The boy’ love casseroles and that kind of thing so it’ll keep us both happy. Overall my diet’s looking 30% fat, 30% carbs, 40% protein at the moment with a minimum of 25g fiber. I think I’ll stick this out for a month and see where I’m at. I’ve got mid-June marked as when I get nasty on the carbs and go back 20%.

Today and tomorrow off to give the shoulder a rest, I’ll just keep my calories as low as I can and then back to the gym on Monday. I’m working a 2 day upper/lower split for the next 2 weeks, hoping that’ll be a decent time to get full motion back in my shoulder. I’m leaning away from lots of cardio, towards intervals and active recoveries instead, because I’m lazy and have set my calories intake low instead. I’ll see how my diet goes and add more cardio in if I’m snacking badly.

I also watched Pumping Iron for the first time yesterday, very funny in bits, but also inspired me to get in the gym and work on my back and just generally on my form. Those guys lifted smoother than anything I see day to day.

It’s also almost time to enlist some help. So I’m going to have to start chatting to the guys in the gym a bit more and find out who’s what. I’m not sure about the PT’s there, but some of the male BB’s seem keen to help (what else they’re keen for is sometimes suspect; sorry boys). Anyone with any suggestions of finding help to figure out my posing and get me back up to 100% please let me know.

Now i must stop procrastinating and mark assignments.

Happy training!

Until an hour ago I had the threat of surgery on my shoulder looming large in my mind. However, after getting the dreaded second opinion I have been given the go ahead to ease back into training and have been told I don’t need surgery. The advantages would have been my shoulders would have been the same length (rather than 1-2cm shorter on the left side), I would have had no lump and the surgery may reduce the chance of fatigue due to the length of my shoulders being different. The disadvantages would have been a big f-off scare and 4 month (!!!) out of the gym. They offered me the choice and I said I’ll be in the gym tomorrow thanks! As an added bonus, if I find I am having trouble down the track they’re more than willing to cut me open and reassemble me. It’s win, win.

Also, just after I wrote my last post I got an email from a friend who was seeking some diet advice regarding her low-carb (curves) diet and the energy slump she was in. To make things more complicated for her she’s vego! Low carb, low-fat, vego sounds like a prison sentence to me. Instantly I suggested she might get the results she was getting without the drain by switching to carb-cycling. And their I had it, that was my solution too. I’d planned out my cycling month back and then got lost somewhere, I’m back on it and am watching the water weight drop off and am looking forward to a big cardio session tommorrow evening followed by a sensible sized pasta meal. Yum!! I even made it through yesterday’s ‘no-carb’ day without a problem.

Now I’m off to Chinatown to resist the temptation of BBQ duck while I do a photoshoot at what i like to call a china-dinner for work. I wasn’t thinking when I wrote out this week’s diet plan and now have no real room for BBQ duck. I have got a tasty tuna salad in my bag though.

For the first year of training I was doing it to loose weight. I wasn’t huge but I’d never been thin and always found buying pants a pain and clothes shopping was never much fun. So I lost the weight and then I started really getting into lfting and became fascinated by the muscles which were growing on me. I was my own science exerperiment. Somewhere along the way I started to think I’d compete, then last year I didn’t get it together in time. By the begining of this year I was so on track I felt unstoppable, until I was…. So what am I training for now? I find out on Monday.

Monday I have an appointment with the upper limbs surgeon to find out whether they want to re-break my shoulder and fit me out with metal and a fancy scar. I’m in 2 minds about the appointment as I have a fair amount of mobility already but I can feel that it’s set really weirdly. I’ve decided I’ll take whatever is going to get me lifting the quickest.

In the meantime I’ve become good friends with the elliptical machine to make up for the cardio I’m missing by not biking everywhere. My hamstrings have never complained more. I’ve managed a unilateral upper body workout and have been doing lots of walking lunges of different kinds for my lower body as I prefer this to just using machines.

My diet has been a bit all over the place and I haven’t really seen any weight drop off. I know when I ditch most of my carbs it all comes off but I think it’s really only water weight so I’ve been arguing with myself over whether to go back to using the gameover diet or just keep to a higher fibre based more carby diet. I stopped with gameover because I was feeling blocked up from the codine I was on. Now I’m off the codine I’m kinda hooked on things being a bit more ‘regular’. I’m leaning towards the scivation lifestyle cut diet as it’s easier than being back doing calories and allows for a bit of flexibility.

This post has seemed pretty rambly but I guess I need to go back to my science experiment approach. I need to be more scientific about things though. I need to work out a time frame and the expected results and then stick to the experiment guidelines. Forget competing.. this is science. Time to get down to it, record daily results thoroughly whether I’m happy with them or not and check my hypothesis at the end of the experiment period.