So, a new plan of action has been put into place for my next show. 

1.  I will practice posing daily, and take pictures periodically so that I can make corrections to crappy posing form, rather than practicing the wrong form over and over.

2. I will do more cardio, no matter how much I hate it.  I like intervals and sprints, so I will definitely add in as much of these as my body can handle.

Mark my words… my legs will be lean and hard for my next contest, and I will have rock hard glutes!!

I haven’t been an athlete for very long.  During school, academics was stressed by my family much more than athletics. The closest I came to a participating in sports was as a cheerleader.  In my 20’s, I wanted to look like Cory Everson and Rachel McLish, but lacked the motivation to train hard and eat right.  It wasn’t until after I had my kids that I discovered my "inner athlete".  Once I unleashed her, though, there was no going back. It didn’t take me long to build a decent physique and step onto a stage to compete. 

During competition prep, I went balls-out.  I was focused, determined.  Obsessive really. Then each and every time the contest was over, I would go back to my old ways and gorge myself on all of the shitty foods I had been "depriving" myself of during the previous months. Pizza, ice cream, burgers. Inevitably, I would easliy gain 15 pounds back in no time.

My training always changed, too.  During contest prep I would do extra cardio, track and sprint workouts, stairs, high-volume with short rest periods. In the off-season I did almost no cardio and nothing but heavy weight-training with long rest periods.  But that’s what bodybuilders do, right? We want to gain muscle, so we lift heavier and eat more in the off-season, then diet all of the fat off for contests.

After my contest season ending this summer, I did this same old thing. This time my weight crept up to a whopping 145 pounds. My clothes didn’t fit. I felt disgusting. I knew I needed to try something different.  I had no idea what to do about it though. I couldn’t live my life eating bland chicken and broccoli day-in and day-out.

It has been 3 months since I began training at KOR Fitness with Russian Kettlebells and trainer KC Reiter.  In the beginning, I was just enjoying learning new things and training with new people. It took me a while to approach KC with my issues and ask for help.  Once I did, he suggested a "paradigm shift from a bodybuilding mentality to an athlete mentality".  Still, I didn’t really get it until I started to describe some of my on-season regimens. That’s when the epiphany came.  Why, when I want to look and perform like an athlete every day, wouldn’t I train and eat like an athlete every day? Why change my eating habits and training habits so drastically throughout the year? I was yo-yo dieting and yo-yo training, and it was wreaking havok on my body.

So, in turn, I have changed my lifestyle for good. No more New Year’s Resolutions, or starting a new diet on Monday.  I will no longer need to set a date for a contest to get myself to eat right. My training has changed, too, with the goal of functional strength, endurance, stamina, agility, flexibility, and cardiovascular health. I know that consistency will be the key to becoming a better athlete year round, and will therefore help me improve my placing in future contests.

So, I went to Nationals with much higher hopes than I should have, and admittedly came home quite dissappointed. The worst part is that we were given instructions to email certain judges for critiques, and I have gotten no response at all. So, I’m basing my whole off-season work on what I think I need to work on… really just an educated guess.

I wanted to try something new for my workouts this off-season.  The change stems from those post-competition blues that inevitably hit when you bloat up from starting to eat like a normal person again.  I know in my heart of hearts that one cannot maintain competition shape for any length of time and still remain healthy and strong.  But, at the same time, it’s pretty hard to look in the mirror some days.  At any rate, I had been hearing great things about Russian Kettlebell training.  I found a very knowlegeable and qualified instructor, and signed up for three months, along with my husband and my friend Brianne.

We started Monday afternoon.  I’ve done three days in a row, and I love it so far.  Each day has been a different focus, and my whole body is sore again.  Good sore, though, not "I can’t even sit down on the toilet" sore. I’m really hoping that this kind of training will allow me to stay lean while having a bit more variety in my diet.  I can’t stand the thought of having to eat chicken and asparagus every meal for quite a while.

I’m not sure what my future competition plans will be at this point, but I’ll keep ya posted.

Giant set #1: 4 sets of 20 reps on each exercise, in a circuit fashion with no rest between exercises

Cybex Leg Press 290lbs

Reverse Hack Squats 50 lbs

Stiff-legged deadlifts 65 lbs

Sumo squat with heels elevated holding a 40 lb DB

Giant set #2: 4 sets 15-20 reps each, circuit style with no rest

Horizontal Squat Press machine. Wide stance, toes out, lifting & squeezing glutes at the bottom of the movement. 80 lbs

Single leg 45 degree Leg Press, heels high to focus on the glute-ham tie-in. 90 lbs

Seated hamstring curls. 70 lbs.

Glute press machine. 90 lbs.

Smith Sumo Squats. 90 lbs.

Then I did abs for about 15 minutes.  I did another 60 minutes of cardio after putting my kids to bed that night.

Saturday morning I drug my kids to the gym with me. They love to go to childcare, so I’m lucky there. I did a heavy back/chest day, followed by 60 minutes of cardio. That afternoon I took the kids to the track at the community college and ran:

8 x 25yd sprints

4 sets of suicides (10, 20, 30, 40 yd lines, sprinting back each time)

4 sets of side shuffles in a low squat position (20yds each side, sprint back)

4 sets of stadiums (singles up, run back down, doubles up, run back down, triples up, run back down = one set)

Pushed out another 60 minutes of cardio that night after putting the kids to bed, although I was exhausted.  The sweat was dripping off of me though!

Sunday morning I met my friend Brianne at the gym and we did a good shoulder, bis, and tris workout. Another grueling 60 minutes of cardio followed.  I was so sore in my hamstrings that I could hardly walk, but I managed to be distracted enough with our gossiping!  Wish I’d had her around that night to help motivate me to do another cardio session, but I was just too tired and sore to do it.

My soreness in my hamstrings is tolerable today, so I’ll either try to do another track workout this afternoon or go for a long run in the park.  I was down about 3 pounds this morning, but still not where I need to be at 7.5 weeks from my show.  I just hope I don’t blow all of my hard-earned muscle gains with all of this extra cardio I’m having to do.

I tried to eat right and exercise as much as possible over there, but I still put on a couple of extra pounds. I’m just eight weeks out from competition, so its not good timing. I haven’t lifted weights in two weeks, so I’m looking forward to getting back into the gym this afternoon.

I was up at 4:30am this morning doing cardio.  Logged 60 minutes on my Treadclimber with a weighted vest. I will do a brutal leg workout at the gym today… giant sets!  Kicks my ass.  Then I’ll do another 60 minutes on the Treadclimber after my kids go to bed.  Gotta burn off the vacation! 

I am still soliciting for votes in the Ms. World Exclusive Spokesmodel Search, so if you haven’t voted yet… please check it out and place your vote for me at www.WorldofAP.com.  I promise that I will put that competition sponsorship to good use!!