Holy cow! I know it’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and catch everybody up on my progress, what’s going on, how my diet is going, etc. Summer classes and my research project on top of my employment schedule keep me pretty much living out of my car on a daily basis; in other words, when I leave my house in the morning every single thing I need for the entire day (food, wardrobe changes, etc.) comes with me.

So, what’s the title about, right? Well… A few weeks ago, my trainers and I decided that rather than continue with the intention of competing in bikini at my next two shows I should give competing in figure a shot. My body seems to have a natural tendency to WANT to keep packing on muscle while still losing fat (no matter how slow). Also, My quads are just too big to allow me to be competitive in bikini, unfortunately. I have a lot of retraining to do, especially on my lats and delts. For those of you who may not know what the difference between these two divisions, here’s a break down:

Ashley Kaltwasser is the #1 bikini competitor in the nation, if not the world.

Ashley Kaltwasser is the woman to beat in bikini. Bikini is said to be won “from the waist down”. She’s the top of the top. In bikini, the judges are concerned with leanness without seeing striations in the muscles, defined ham-gluts tie-ins, and a feminine package to boot.

NW3

Nicole Wilkins is the woman to beat in figure. While to me these women look vastly different from one another, they both look incredibly similar in the off season. In figure, the judges are concerned with the width of your “lat spread” and the size of your delts, specifically desiring “cap delts”. Some striation is acceptable, but not necessary.

See? Very similar side by side!

Currently, my training consists of three day cycles:

  • Day 1: Lats/back, delts with cardio and abs
  • Day 2: Triceps, a tiny bit of biceps, delts with cardio and abs
  • Day 3: Leeeeeeeegs, cardio +/- abs

I’ve been working on doing 3 x 10 x 10 work outs, three lifts per muscle group doing 10 sets of 10 reps each lift with 30 seconds of rest between sets. With lat pull downs, my lats are usually on fiyah by the time I’m done! I’m doing everything I can to get my lats and delts to REALLY grow in these next few weeks. My new leg work out is a little different. Remember how I was doing 8 giant sets of walking lunges for 1 minute, 15 reps SLDL, and 8 slow negative leg curls topped off with 5×20 leg extensions? NOW, its:

  • 30 leg extensions
  • 30 step ups per leg alternating
  • 30 hyperextensions
  • 20 leg curls

… For 45 minutes. And yes, I still do 45 minutes on the stair stepper beforehand.

Oh yea, did I mention I’m now less than four weeks out? FOUR WEEKS PEOPLE! GAH! And yes, my freezer is already full of ice cream for the food coma I will put myself in afterwards. This workout method transition has been challenging, but in a week I lost 2.4 lbs! I’m hoping to get down to 110 lbs by show day in 4 weeks, which means I have to lose about 8 lbs between now and then (2 lbs per week). I’m being good about drinking my distilled water, eating every 2-3 hours on the dot, getting my fasted cardio in in the morning no matter what, and doing my absolute best at avoiding temptation.

I’ll hopefully be getting my figure suit soon, and I should be working on my posing routine this coming weekend with my posing coach. She moved from bikini to figure, also, so I’m in good hands!

I’ve also started a new pre workout supplement. I WAS taking Noxipro, but I wanted to try a pre workout with little to no creatine to limit water retention. Now, I’m taking Nitraflex, a supplement made by German American Technologies. In comparison to Noxipro, I’d say it’s a mild stimulant. I was taking a scoop and a half of Noxipro (because 2 scoops gave me heart palpitations) and could get the pump and go-getter mentality I needed to conquer my work outs. Nitraflex specifically states not to exceed 1 scoop, and so far I have not and I don’t intend to after my experience with Nitraflex. If you’ve been taking C4 by Cellucor, I can promise you these supplements are far more potent than C4 so be cautious before testing your limits.

I’ve also started making a diet and exercise plan for my mom. She said she really wants to get healthier and fitter. She’s always been pretty good about her diet and exercise, but she’s never been a weight lifter (which I think would be a huge help for her). I’m hoping to get my dad into lifting, too.

In the meantime, I’m going to go find my motivation again to go do round 2 of cardio before/after I go feed research yearlings since I missed my AM fasted cardio due to my alarm not going off on time this morning (I seriously think I turned it off in the middle of the night).

 

Happy Lifting!