www.size10chronicles.com

I am sick with the stomach flu. Started yesterday. Not surprising since my son had it last week. The funny part about it is I am all annoyed because I can’t workout (I had to skip training today–chest, bis and tris…damnit) and I have had to eat carbs (BRAT diet) to get this under control. I’m all irritated because I didn’t eat any protein today and am worried about my muscles. I don’t want to lose them (I couldn’t feed them today and I’m working so hard to build them up). Sick sucks. Gotta rest to get better to get back it. Took a walk this evening though…had to keep moving a bit this evening after staying in bed all day.
I trained yesterday even though I was begining to be sick, back and delts. I did an hour of cardio in the morning and 45 minutes after training. It felt good to workout, but trying to avoid throwing up while lifting is not cool. Not to be recommended.

So day two of my career as a bodybuilder (in terms of workouts in) is now complete. It was yesterday I trained with Dwayne. Legs. Yay! Legs, if you know about working out, hurt. A lot. For me especially my quads are a problem. When they start burning I want to stop. But I was looking forward to my workout, after my brief hiatus with workout induced head cold, I was READY to KILL some legs on Monday.

I had been psyching myself up for days for this. Visualizing my squats (ass to ankles please), exploding up with power, focusing on my form, practicing small muscle movemements (glutes squeeze now! hamstrings squeeze now!, quads press now!), and such. I was READY, as noted. I had all squats, lunges and deadlifts in my head. Dwayne had other ideas, Squeeze, Tuck and Pump, Leg Extension, single leg hammie curls, and squats. I got my head where he was and knocked the sets the fu*k out! We went heavy and I felt fine. Go Alissa.

Here’s the secret. Psyching and Tums. I took two Tums EX before my workout and I didn’t have any acid burn in my legs and could just rep it out! Dwayne even thought I did an excellent job (he’s the one who gave me the Tums secret).

so last night was a training session, my second as a bodybuilder (woo). it was upper body, as legs were what we did last time. the pain from that Saturday workout was gone by Tuesday, so i wasn’t in pain on Wednesday when this workout came around. i went in anticipating that Dwayne would be all business (I had come into the gym in the afternoon as he was training himself and he told me to leave because I was distracting "you can’t watch me train"), and predictably he was, and so was I.

anyway i was psyching myself up all afternoon. i expected upper body, but wasn’t sure…he could have called for full body…so while most of my visualization was around my pushing heavy weight with my arms, chest and back, I also did a bit of work, mentally on the legs just in case they came in. i forgot the abs though…and it showed at the end of the workout…those last 5 to 10 reverse crunches barely got executed. he asked as he always does . "what did we work on last?" legs. "we’re going to do two exercises per body part, except arms." ok. so we did 2 things for chest, and two for delts, and two for upper back, bicep curls and tricep push downs and finished off with abs. heavy weights, good form (except for abs, as noted), i was satisfied with the workout. my focus, with the help of my baseball cap and hoodie, was quite high. i stayed in the moment with the weights and reps and pushed through when it was hard. "excellent job." was his conclusion, "now an hour of cardio."

off i went for an HOUR of cardio. i had already done 45 minutes that morning. i felt a little weird going up the stairs to the cardio room…as i’ve said i don’t anticipate throwing up, but passing out is certainly a possibility, and that was a tough workout, so i decided to treadmill…i was the least likely to fall off of that in case things went south. i did 40 minutes of walking with running intervals. i did need to take off my hoodie and hat up there as i was already soaking wet and didn’t want to give the yeast a head start for another attack. despite that i stayed damp during the cardio despite drymax! i then did 20 more minutes on the same treadmill. i couldn’t work up enthusiasm for any other machine. on the drive home i noted to myself that was the end of my 3rd hour in Diamond that day. if that’s what it takes. cheers!

Cool Muscle Development Story in my spot…Diamond Gym, Maplewood, NJ

http://mdtv.musculardevelopment.com/content/view/2014/225/

(post from my website www.size10chronicles.com)

There is something kinky about this bodybuilding stuff. Think about those other types of people who modify their bodies–with tattoos, piercings, branding, etc. There is an aspect of the pain of it and the reshaping and controlling of the body–decoration of the physical–that lies within these movements. Bodybuilding is a variation of it. Bodybuilding is particularly interesting and a deeper level of kink in some ways, in that there is the pain associated with the moments of physical training, getting through a set, rep by rep, sweating, grunting, experiencing the burn in your muscles in the moments of lifting or pushing, squeezing and contracting (hot?) and THEN you get a second dose a day or so later when the lactic acid settles in and you get another taste of your workout–aching muscles, sore parts, stiff joints, etc. Yum!
There is domination and submission in the relationship with the trainer. How many bb blogs have I read of someone getting ready for a competition where others supporting the person preparing for the show say "Just listen to your trainer! Do what he/she says!" How many times have I been told that about listening to Dwayne? A thousand? I’ve been doing it all of one day and it’s totally clear to me how much of a mental game it is (like 95%). I just wrote yesterday about "submitting" to him, and it’s true, I have…for my purposes. I will submit to get what I want. Is there a sweetness there. Yup.

Maybe I need a safe word.

Cheers!

The other day at the gym one of the guys was teasing me, saying that our trainer (and the owner of the gym) was getting ready to get on the gym microphone to announce that "you’re the next up and coming" bodybuilder. Now until two days ago and after this incident, I hadn’t even decided to compete let alone be "up and coming". He was being nice, but it struck me as funny to think of the transformation I have gone through this past year from near morbidly obese to regular and on the way to bodybuilder. I can’t decide what to do figure (which is hotter looking but sort of boring to me as a stage presentation…to ME…my opinion clearly) or bodybuilding (harder look, less hottie, but more interesting to watch on the stage TO ME). Who knows? I still have a lot of fat to get rid of as I begin this road. We’ll see what my trainer and I come up with. Wish me luck!