My different kind of leg workout!

Operation GROW HAMMIES

I like to have fun on my Friday workouts. Since I come from an athletic background, this is my day to throw in some activities I love. Now, my focus today is my hamstrings, and my glute-ham tie-ins. You know who has great hamstrings? Gymnasts and Sprinters…both of which I used to be in a past life. So I decided to work it out old school style, incorporating things I did while active in those sports, while still doing some new stuff too.

Circuit 1 - 3 sets

15 TRX Lying Hip Lift (KILLER on the hamstrings. We’re talking insta-cramp good)

10 Depth Drops (30inches) to squat, rebound to jump. These are great for eccentrically loading those hammies. No recommended for beginners.

25 Walking Lunges with 80 lb barbell

10 Med Ball (20lbs) slams combined with jumping lunges

Circuit 2 - 3 sets

15 TRX Hamstring Curls (still ouchie!)

12 Depth Drop to immediate 10yd sprint

10 each leg TRX Single leg squat jumps

Circuit 3 - 4 sets

15 TRX Squat Jumps

30 jumping lunges

25 deadlifts with 80lb barbell.

This is a sweaty messy workout and I burned 400 calories, so have fun!

Back and Rear Deltoid Workout

One of my judges critiques was to make my waist look teenier by widening my upper back, middle and rear delts. 

I usually work my back and shoudlers in the same workout, but I decided to really focus on back and rear delts today, and I will hit middle and front delts tomorrow. Enjoy!

Set 1:

• 20, 15, 12 Wide seated rows with a lat pull bar (to focus on the rear-delts), Added 10 lbs per set
• 3x15 straight arm cable pulldowns with Rope

Set 2:

• 20, 15, 10 Wide Grip Lat Pulldown (added 10 lbs per set)
• 3x15 Cable High Rope Pull

Set 3:

• 3x12 T-Bar Row
• 3x15 High cable reverse flys
• 20,15,10 Close grip seated rows

Set 4:

• 3x10 Assisted Pull ups narrow neutral grip
• 3x15 Rear Pec Dec Machine

Video Coming Soon! 

:)

Personal Update

I am just over 2 weeks out from NPC Gold Coast. Tried on my suit today, and I am already at my last stage weight (128) Although I feel a bit bloated today. I still hate my glute/hams, but they look better than they ever have before. When I water deplete, thats where it comes from, so I hope that I can get more off. With only 1 functional week left of training, I dont know how much more I can lose. I am definitely nervous. I have put more time and effort into this prep than any other one. I want to make my friends, family and coaches proud. No matter where I place, I hope I can bring my best. Trying to keep my spirits up, my energy up and bring my A game. Here is to the first show of the year, and hopefully a few more! I want to do March and April as well. I want an overall win, but after seeing my pics, I am losing confidence. I just got to keep on going. And NO I am not posting them :) Not yet anyway.

Vent session complete :)

It's been awhile. Let's catch up! How have you been?

My last blog post was in January, 2 months after the October Border States show, and 3 months before I started prepping for the June Armed Forces show. I fell off the blogging wagon! In a nutshell, I tore both my hamstrings at their insertion point just under the glutes and was sidelined from any sort of lower body activity for 2 months. Well, my biggest area of improvement is my glute/ham tie in, so I was pretty discouraged. Discouraged enough to stop training? NO! I just put all my efforts into my upper body! Let’s grow them delts! I did some PT for my hamstrings (useless if you ask me) and started lightly stretching. My problem isn’t tight hamstrings, it’s hyper-mobility and over stretching. Combine that with too-fast lower body progressions and my hams just gradually started to tear. But I got better, I now maintain a good easy stretching routine, and I don’t go too hard.
I competed June 9th in the San Diego Armed Forces/So Cal Championships, my one year anniversary show! I placed 2nd in the Armed Forces category, and 4th (again!) in the open. Now, as you may recall from my post “Winning,” I am ALWAYS fourth. But that’s ok. One year ago, I was 4th out of 5th, then in Oct I was 4th out of 7, now I am 4th out of 11. So even though my actual placing has remained the same, I am actually improving! I have always maintained that your toughest competition. And I still fully believe that. I made even more improvements from October 2011 to June 2012 (even with the bum hams). So I cannot be happier. Strive to always bring a better you! That being said, I am NOW READY to focus on bringing home a class win.

My next competition will be Excalibur in San Diego on Dec 1st. It is a rather large show, but I am ready for the challenge. My main goal is to remain in first call outs; however I am training like I want a class win! I officially started my off-season (improvement season) diet and training. Time to fill out the delts, work on biceps and triceps definition, and slim down the legs. The judges told me that my lats were wide enough, so that is one area I can just focus on maintaining.
My training will be moderate to heavy on the upper body, with shoulder training twice per week, emphasizing the rear delts. Lower body will be all bodyweight stuff for now. Cardio will be running, and I HATE HATE HATE running (did I mention I am not a fan?). Official prep will start immediately following Olympia Weekend. I am hoping to get to Vegas to watch the Olympia and that will be my last hurrah! That is 10 weeks away from Excalibur.
In other AMAZING news, I decided that if I ever wanted to be anyone and go anywhere in this industry that I love and am so invested in, I needed to start taking some risks. You have to put yourself out there to be known, and sometimes you will succeed and sometimes you will fail. Its life, deal with it (talking to myself here). I entered a Facebook contest with Myotropics Physique Nutrition, a company that recently sponsored my friend Francine Sablan (you may have heard of her? Overall Figure champ at USAs? New IFBB Pro?) Well, long story short, I won this photo contest, and with it a one year sponsorship, protein and a trip to USAs in Vegas and a photoshoot with Myotropics and renown photographer George Kontaxis. (Squee!)
The beginning of this year started really rough, catastrophic even. I bore you with the details, but there were deaths, illnesses, and financial heartaches, blah blah blah. The last 3 months have been so amazing, new experiences, dreams starting to come true, etc. I am grateful that after so much hard work, it is all finally coming together. I have so many more blogs to post about these experiences, and they will be up shortly (within the week!). Anyway, thanks for reading and being a part of my life and experiences, and I hope I can inspire you to live your dreams as well.
Happy Training!!

Elliptical Workouts: For Total Body Toning!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE the ellptical...mostly becuase I hate running, but also because it burns a lot of calories, but can also activate so many different muscles!

Ellipticals are those machines in the gym that burn a lot of calories, save the joints, and are not as tasking as running. They are practically the perfect cardio. However, sometimes that repetitive arm and leg circular movement can get boring, especially if the elliptical has been your cardio of choice for months and years. Boring means no longer challenging. In order to keep experiencing health gains from exercise it has to challenge you. Here are a few ways to change up your elliptical workout to keep it challenging, interesting, and work your whole body.

The Moves

Use just the arms. Relax the legs a little (not so much that you fall off of course) and only use your arms to propel the elliptical. Try to keep a fast pace. If this is not challenging enough, increase the resistance so your arms really feel the burn.

Push with your arms only. With your legs still relaxed, lean forward slightly, open your palms and only push on the handlebars, do not pull. You will target your triceps and chest muscles.

Pull with your arms only. Hook your hand behind the handlebars and pull on them only, still not using your legs. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull back. This will work your biceps and your back.  All three of these moves will help tone the upper body and spike your heart rate for added cardiovascular gains.

Single arm isolation. For the ultimate arm challenge, let go of one of the handles so you are now just holding on with one hand. Still keeping the legs relaxed, propel the elliptical with only one arm.

Legs only pedal forward. This time focus on only using your legs. Your arms are simply there for balance control. Remember to increase the resistance, especially if you do this following isolation of the upper body. The lower body is typically stronger and can withstand greater resistance.

Legs only pedal backward. Same concept, but now reverse the elliptical so you are pedaling backwards. This puts a greater emphasis on the glutes and hamstrings.

Squat low backwards. Take your hands off the moving handlebars and put them on the stationary handles. Squat low and push your hips and butt backwards so that as you pedal, your knees stay behind your toes. This will really work your glutes.

The balance challenge. Take both hands off the elliptical and balance while pedaling both forward and backward. This will engage your core and help with general coordination too. 

Alternate these 8 moves during your workout and you will get an awesome workout for your biceps, triceps, chest, back, abs, quads, hamstrings and glutes.