sbogard08’s BodyBlog

This morning I woke up bright and early with the intention of doing sprints for AM cardio (HIIT).  Unfortunately, it was raining and continued to do so all day.

I made it to the gym this evening to do Back and biceps.  My enery wasn’t the best, as today is first day of TOM.  I made it through all of my lifts though and did soem intervals on stairmill with weighted vest afterward.   There are a couple of girls at the gym who atre training for upcoming local OCB show in October.  Everyone assumes that I must be training for the show because I tend to go pretty hard in the gym and I am very focused.  I don’t really do a lot of conversing.  I go to the gym to workout, not socialize.    I usually keep my hat pulled low over my eyes to decrease the chance of making any eye contact that might invite someone to start a converstion.  Well I forgot my hat today, so got pulled into a few conversations.  A few asked if I was training for a show.  One girl (whose physique I totally admire) asked if I was training for a show because she sees how hard I work.  I told her that I actually didn’t plan on competing again until next year because I am trying to put on some size.  She said that remembers seeing me train for the show that I did earlier this year and how lean I was.  The funny thing is she said that I am her motivation because she thinks my physique is awesome; yet , I look at her and get motivated to work harder because I think her body is amazing.  It’s just funny how we as women are never quite satisfied with ourselves, yet there is always someone else who wishes they could be in our shoes. 

With that, my training went like this today:

Back/Biceps

Pull-ups 4×2 (un-assisted)/2 sets assisted

Bent Over BB Row 4 sets (superset w/)

Straight Leg Dead Lifts 4 sets

One Arm DB Row 3 sets  (superset w/)

Lying Bicep Cable Curls 3 sets

Wide Grip Pull-Down 4 sets  (superset w/)

Close Grip Pull-Down 4 sets

One-arm Seated Row 4 x 15/12/10/8

Double Seated Rows 3 x 15

BB Bicep Curls 4 x 15/12/10/8

Hammer Strength Bicep Curls 3 x 15 (superset w/)

DB Hammer Curls 3 x 10

Leaning Bicep Cable Curls 3 x 10-12  (superset w/)

Bench Push-Ups 3×15

Cardio:

12 minutes Incline Treadmill w/weighted vest (machine stopped working)

25 minutes Stairmill Intervals (30:90 seconds)

 Completely wiped out by the end, but I still feel good.  There is something about that post-workout burn that just gets me hyped up.  Maybe I’m crazy, but I love it!

Had a pretty good work-out today.  Lifted very heavy, so completely wiped out at the end.  Unfortunately, when I arrived at the gym I realized that I had forgotten my training instructions from my trainer so I had to do my own routine.  I tend to be alot harder on myself than he does, so I’m sure that I did more than I was supposed to.  I didn’t however make it to the stairs.  I forgot that I promised my daughter and one of my friends that I would go to Skinny Dip (a local frozen yogurt place). I also was a little sore in the glutes from the heavy wide leg sqauts from the morning, so decided to wait til tomorrow morning to do the stairs.  Tomorrow is supposed to be my "rest" day from training, but I still find it difficult to buy into that concept, so I usually try to do something everyday that I can.  Therefore, tomorrow I will "rest" from the weights, but run the stairs and do some sprints and mountain walking.

Training went like this today:

Abs:

Ball Crunches 3 x25

Side Ball Crunches 3 x 20

Ball V-ups   3-12

Pole Twists 3 x 50

Legs

Squats 7 sets (shoes off/feet 2 inches wider each set)

Extensions 5 sets, superset w/

Lying Leg Curls 5 sets

Leg Press 5 sets (wide legs)

Barbell Bench Step-ups 4×15 (each side), superset w/

DB Squats 4 x 15

Deadlifts 4 x 8-10, superset w/

Standing Single Leg Curls 4 x 10

Cardio:

30 minutes on Incline Treadmill - Level 20 (alt forward walk and backward run)

Running backwards on an incline really put the burn in my legs!

After all of that I’m not quite sure my legs would have been up to hitting the stairs. I usually try not to do them when I do legs in the gym anyway.  I try to do them after back or shoulders once per week and then a 2nd day when I donot train in the gym.  On that day, I take my bands and do some upper body circuits to get a little pump and get my blood flowing before running. 

Having been a distance runner my entire life, I really do miss the long runs.  I was able to really relax and clear my mind during those times.  Since I’m trying desparately to put some size on my legs, the long runs are out.  Stairs and sprints are good, but I really have to get myself all hyped up and “ready to fight” in order to give my all.  Definitely not a time to clear my mind.  In fact, Christina Aquilera’s “Fighter” is the song that I play when I need to get a second wind and find the motivation to keep going when my legs want to quit.  Yea, Christina has been that little bug in my ear many a day when I thought I had nothing else to give.  Time and time again, those words have chimed in my ear, energized my muscles, and motivated my will to succeed……….”Makes me that much stronger, Makes me work a little bit harder, It makes me that much wiser, So thanks for making me a fighter“.

Woke a little late this morning, but I think that I needed it.  I don’t tend to sleep more than 3-4 hours at a time during the regular work week, so every now and then it catches it up with me.  I think that is why I have been so exhausted this entire week.  Yesterday I was struggling to stay awake and then developed a horrible headache and some nausea.  So I finally just gave in to my bodies scream for some rest and went bed (instead of going out for kareoke with my friends), and slept until the sun woke me up.  So, all in all, it looks like I got a full 8+ hours of sleep last night. 

So I am rested up, full of energy, and ready to hit these legs…..HARD.  No mercy today!  And if my day goes as planned, Mt. Trashmore and those 72 stairs and hilly mountainside will be waiting for me and my weighted vest this evening. Oh yea, I can already fill the burn!

Today I had an all out gruesome shoulder work-out.  I’m trying to getthose caps, so I show them no mercy.  I also figured out how to do HIIT on the stairmill…..now we are in business! I absolutely HATE the bike and I’m not a big fan of running on the treadmill.  I love the stairmill, but up til now haven’t been able to do HIIT on it because it takes so long to manually change the speed of the revolving stairs.  But a little playing around with the console and I figured out how to program my own intervals and not use the pre-programmed ones.  YEAH!!!  I want complain about doing HIIT anymore.

So todays training went like this:

Abs: 

 Hanging knee raises 3×20,

Overhead DB Sidebends 3×15 each side,

Reverse Incline Crunch 2×12

Shoulders

Standing Overhead BB Press 5 sets

Arnold Presses 4 sets

Cable Shoulder Raise Combo 4 setsx 24 reps

Bent Over Reverse DB Flyes 4 sets

Seated DB Lateral Raise 4 sets

DB Front Raise 4 sets

Upright Rows 4 sets

Reverse BB Shrugs 4 sets

Cardio:

HIIT on Stairmill x 20 minutes

Incline Treadmill x 15 minutes (alternating forward and reverse)

I really would like to go back to the gym tonight, but I think I am going to stay in and get some rest.  I plan to do heavy legs tomorrow, and then go run the stairs and do some sprints afterward.  It always takes everything I have to charge up those 72 stairs with all that I have, but I absolutely love it.  I usually can’t feel my legs by the time I get to the 10th run, but sometimes I am able to eek out and extra 2-3 sets.  Whatever little bit of energy I have left to move my legs I tap into to do sprints.  That’s when I get the real rush.  A funny thing is that I have charged up those stairs so aggressivley that I actually broke my Nike Shox in half.  The front part of the shoe is in no way connected to the back half.  Oh well, guess I’ll being heading to Nike outlet this weekend…….I need some more workout shorts anyway.

Happy training!

So I am officially back to strict/clean diet and structured training.  I have been eating high carbs (about 200g/day) since late June.  I really wanted to see if I would be able to put on some muscle and not worry too much about staying lean.  While I will admit that I loved every minute of it, I also had to stay away from the scale and the measuring tape or I would have had a cow and drop my calories and carbs so that I could get my weight down.  It’s really difficult to see myself in the mirror at the gym with my thick mid-section, but I know that in about 8 weeks I will be able to see some definition in my abs.  The funny thing is that everyone else who looks at me thinks that I am crazy because  what they see when they look at me is completely different from what my eyes see.  They don’t understand that just because I am relatively small, that doesn’t mean that I am lean.  So I say that I am "fatty".  I really have to focus on my overall goal to stay encouraged sometimes because I just don’t like being "fat".

So, here i am, ready to start the lean-out process again.  The difference this time is I am in no hurry.  I want to maximize fat loss without sacrificing any of my hard-earned muscle. My trainer and I are trying some new supplements. I want go into what we are using right now, but I do plan to keep a journal to record how my body responds.  I will attempt to take regular photos and post so that I can truely see how my body composition changes ove rtime.  Hopefully, everything will go as planned and in about 16 weeks I will be lean and chiseled, but still feminine and sexy . 

At this point I am not going to comit myself to a show. I have things going on in my professional life that I absolutely must focus on ove rthe next few months. Once those things are resolved and my body is where I think it should be to step on stage, I will chose a competition.  The 2 prior competitions that I have done were OCB. I really think that I am going to try NPC for the next show.  I was a little apprehesive to do so in the past because I know that some of the girls who compete in NPC use steroids, and I’m not interested in competing against that.  I desire to stay natural and only wan tto compete against those who have made the same decision.  Howver, over the past year I have seen that NPC is starting to reward the conditioned and toned, yet feminine figure and shying away form the hard mini-bodybuilder look.  That is somewhat more promising. I think that there should be a distinct difference between female bodybuilders and figure competitors.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the muscular-developed female physique, but also value the natural curves of being a woman.  So I guess I will see where my physique goes over the next few months, and then try to find the appropriate show to compete in.