Archive for February 11, 2010

Lawng day

Today feels like it has been going…and going….and going…

and my legs feel like they were sliced and diced with a butter knife, BUT anyways…

I started out my morning at 4:30 today. I didn’t need to be up until 5:30, but I accidentally left my phone alarm on. Oh well, I went to bed at around 8:30pm, so no sweat.

I headed to boxing, and got a hell of a workout. Lots of pushup drills, mountain climbers, burpees, side shuffles, squats(kill me…my legs are SO sore.) and of course, boxing.

Afterwards, I had to work at that gym for a few hours. It must have been my lucky day, because since they got all new equipment, I got to vacuum and scrub the rust off of the mats that were underneath all of the old equipment. I felt like Cinderella. I told that to my friend George and he responded “except not pretty.” Haha gotta love him!

After my shift ended, I headed to the other gym and got a quick shoulder/ab workout in.

I did 3 sets of each exercise. I did supersets, but never really took a break throughout the workout. My reps were from 20-25.

I did:

Barbell Military Presses/Hanging Leg Raise, DB Lateral Raises/Lying Leg Raises, DB Rear Delt Raises/Decline Sit Ups, Blue Band Military Presses/Russian Twists

Twas a good workout. No other cardio was had. I still am not running(until Saturday) and the elliptical was not appealing. My legs are also SO sore today. Tomorrow will have plenty of cardio, so I’m not worried about it.

I am at work at the other gym now, and get off in a little over an hour. I can’t wait to get home, get stuff ready for tomorrow and go to sleeeep.

Tomorrows agenda:

5:30 am-6:30am Yoga,

6:45am-7:45ish  Chest

7:45-8:15am Cardio-probably incline walking, maybe ellipticize it up, depending how my legs feel.

10am-10:30am Boxing

11am  Hair Appointment

2pm-5pm Work.

Holy Legs

Yesterday’s leg workout was one for the books…and I’m still not sure why….

Workout

I’m taking the week off of plyos and running/sprints because I think the combo of the two were giving me shin splints.

So yesterday’s leg workout with bi’s/tri’s incorporated in was:

4 sets of Deadlifts

4 sets of Full Squats

4 sets Quadrupled Hip Extensions under the reverse hyper

3 sets Single Leg Hip Thrusts

3 sets Swiss ball Ham Curls

4 sets Preacher curls

4 sets kink bar push downs

3 sets concentration curls

3 sets bench dips

3 sets cable side arm curls

3 sets one arm pull downs

I was going to do a set of smith split squats, but after the full squats, my quads literally gave out. I tried to do a split squat and my legs were all wobbly. It was crazy! I don’t know if it’s because i haven’t squatted in a few weeks or the fact that I’m not used to higher reps, or a combo?? Who knows, all I know is that my legs were starting to get sore WHILE I was working out, which was weird.

Either way, I’m sitting here today with sore quads and getting ready for boxing! Should be interesting.

After boxing, I’m working for a few hours at that gym, then heading to the other gym for some Shoulders and cardio, and then working there.

I literally spend my entire days at a gym haha. Sad, but true. I’m not complaining, I actually love it.(most of the time.)

“The stars will never align, and the circumstances will never all be in your favor. You will never have all your ducks in a row, so get out there and get at it NOW.”

Lake Season is approaching

Lake season is coming up, and I am seriously having withdrawals!!

If you’ve been following for a while, you know that last year I was at the lake at least once a week between March and July. Rough life huh?

Reminisce with me….

Relaxing after a long day at the lake….this is the best time of day to be at the lake by far……..

I WILL clear the wake this year!!! it is one of my goals!!

Some of the regular crew, minus Danny and Rick.

All I have to say is there are not many things in the world that make me happier than hanging out at the lake with good friends,  Laughing, wakeboarding, and enjoying the scenery and weather.

March is only a month away!! Here’s to a great 2010 lake season!!!!

Help+Workout+I’m sore+ Balance!

Hola peeps!(did I really just say peeps??) Hope everyone had a good start to the week after the Superbowl.

I ended up not going to any Superbowl parties and just crashed after work. I am such a partier 😉

The funny thing is, I used to go out every single weekend. If I didn’t go out all weekend, it was because I had the flu. I never get sick(don’t tell my teachers that. According to them, I get sick every other week. :-o) so I basically went out every weekend. Going out doesn’t mean I was out drinking, though. I’ve never been a big drinker and I get questioned a lot about how I’m able to hang until 4am without an ounce of alcohol in me. Maybe I’m magical. 🙂 When I get really into my training though, it’s not worth it to lose out on that much sleep. I still go out every once in a while, but lately I just want my sleep!

Okay soo anyways…

Help

Holy hell, I am SO SICK OF: Chicken and Ground Turkey. I am in desperate need of some contest prep recipes or protein alternatives. I still love my egg whites, but they aren’t very portable. I don’t really like beef. I tried bison, and nutritionally it’s great, but it’s expensive and it tastes like: Beef. I think if I could find a way to make ground turkey another way, i wouldn’t be so sick of it. Does anyone else have that problem? I find a way that I like a food and I eat it like that for every meal until I hate it. I’ve been living off of ground turkey, avocado and hot sauce for the past few months. Ugh, please find me something new!!! I’m  try to eat as cleanly as possible(the majority of the time) so if you have any ideas throw them my way! I don’t eat dairy, but I did used to have greek yogurt as a protein source. I’m getting so desperate that I am thinking about bringing that back to my life. That is both expensive, and I don’t know that I want that much casein protein, but on the other hand if I have to eat another piece of cold, plain chicken this week, I might just stop eating all together.

Good thing I still love my veggies and fats though 🙂 OH, and by the way. I am on a walnut kick. You can’t eat very many of them (95 calories in 1/2 oz.) but they are F.D. as my mom would say.(f*&kin delicious). I might even get crazy and put some on a baking sheet, spray them with a little Pam, sprinkle some cinnamon and stevia on them and call it dessert. I don’t know though, sounds dangerous. 😉

Workout

Today’s workout was a good one! I didn’t do an over-kill of cardio today(shockingly). I warmed up on the treadmill with 10 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of jogging. I didn’t do my normal 20 minute jog because my legs a) felt like lead b) could be getting shin splints? more on that in a hot minute.(yeah, i just said hot minute. sue me.)

Afterwards, I met Dae on the “other side”(the weight room) for some backtion. Haha i just made that up, and I like it.(back action). So, my backtion work out consisted of multiple sets of cable rows, pull downs, straight arm pull downs, some band reverse flys, band rows, face pulls etc. We did drop sets, super sets, and he threw in a bunch of ab exercises too: different variations of crunches on the bench, hanging leg raises, and band crunches. He also had me do some sprints, side shuffles, and step up/jumping jacks in between sets. I sweated. A lot.

Afterwards, my leads(hahhaa i like that one too. lead+legs=leads) were so dead, so I just did a light 25 minute session on the arc trainer. Enough to get me a little sweaty, but by no means a tough cardio sesh.

I’m Sore!!!

Ok, so i am ridiculously sore. The track workout from yesterday was apparently harder than I thought. Yeah, it felt hard yesterday, but I didn’t expect my quads to be so dead today. My glutes and hams are a little sore as well. Jogging felt like I had taped lead pipes to my legs. I’m sure that my dearest friend George would tell me, nope, that is just because your legs are so massive, but today they felt heavier than ever! (no worries, we are good enough friends that he can joke with me and not hurt my feelings. except he isn’t joking, and he is very open about that haha…moving on…)

My shins are tender today and I think I may be doing a little to much sprinting. I am jogging M,W,F mornings and between plyo days on wednesday, and at least one boot camp and/or track workout on the weekends, plus usually a sprint work out during the week as well, it is absolutely NO surprise. In my attempt to try to find some balance(more in a moment) I am going to skip the plyo workout on Wednesday and just do a normal leg workout. No running tomorrow and I will see how I feel on Wednesday or Thursday. Incline walking and stair mill until then.

Balance

The difference between training hard and over training. I seem to get caught up in this and tend to do the latter. I LOVE to train hard. Some people think I’m sick and twisted for it, but others understand it. I like to not be able to move, and to feel a workout for the entire day. Overtraining, however, just hinders progress. I have an extremely hard time finding the happy medium. I am REALLY trying to work on listening to my body and not overtraining. I am capable of training a lot and sometimes people think I am overtraining, but in fact, my body feels wonderful. I have a lot of endurance and it takes a little extra to put me over the top. With that being said, I am going to do my best to train HARD, but not overtrain. Today is a perfect example. My legs were dead, so instead of forcing myself to do incline walking for an hour, I stuck to light cardio for 25 minutes. It’s little things like that, that will eventually help me to move forward. These marathon workouts are NOT going to necessarily make me a better athlete. Being an athlete means pushing yourself hard, but being smart about it too. My bummed wrist, knee, and shins are my body telling me to slow it down, so I’m doing just that: Listening.

Ya know what else I’m doing to listen to my body? If you follow me on twitter, you know that I am going to attempt contest prep without calorie counting. I have been counting calories for about 2 years now, and I have noticed a few things.

1) I don’t listen to my body. I eat based on calorie allotment, and timing.

2) If I have leftover calories and I’m not hungry, I eat. If I have used up all my calories and I AM hungry, I don’t eat.

I know what my portion sizes are. I’ve been counting calories long enough and making meals long enough that I know how much I should be eating at each meal. The difference is that I am not going to add up my calories. I am going to make my meals for the day. Some days I may come up short on calories and be satisfied, other days I may need that extra meal at night. I’m going to listen to my body and see what its telling me. A healthy body begins with a healthy mind, and right now, my mind is reading a Sparkpeople calorie chart to decide if I should eat or not.

It’s a scary thing for me, because not knowing how many calories I’m eating is something I’m not used to, but at the same time, I feel like it will help me get a better mind/body connection regarding getting my training habits and eating habits in sync.

Okay, if you are still reading, you must really have no  life. I mean seriously, go do something. 😉 JUSTTTTT kidding. I appreciate it if you read this whole post! It was a long one. I am thankful for all of my readers who continuously support me!!

Have a great evening girls and guys. I need my rest. I’ve got boxing, bi’s and tri’s and some ‘light’ cardio on the agenda for tomorrow along with work, class and cleaning! Later!

Great Track Workout

Hola!!

I just got back from Tucson yesterday. I went to watch the NPC Desert Muscle Classic. It was a very small show…only 50 total competitors.

Let’s see.

Friday was a toughhhhhh day for workouts. I woke up early and went to yoga. It stretched me out well, and then I hit up the treadmill for an hour. I did a half hour of sprint intervals and jogging, and then 30 minutes of incline walking. I alternated between 3.3mph-4.0mph and 10-15% incline. I was a sweaty mess afterwards. I then spent an hour and a half with a trainer doing shoulders, chest and triceps. It left me absolutely dead. It didn’t stop there though. I had a 30 minute session doing one on one boxing. He absolutely killed me. At the very end of the workout he had me do 15 sledge hammers, 15 pushups, 20 jack knifes, 2 sled pushes and a lap around the building. Normally, running a lap is my recovery and I can just jog out all the lactic acid. This lap around the building made me feel like it was Day 1 on the Biggest Loser. No joke, I have never felt so completely winded in my life haha. Good times.

No workout Saturday, other than a short hike with my sister.

The Track Workout

I reccomend this! Try it and let me know what you think.

-Jog 4 laps(1 mile)

-Do two laps. Sprint the straightaways, and walk the corners.

-Do side shuffles back and forth 4 times (about 25 meters worth each way). Do 10 jumping lunges in between each leg of the shuffles.(So side shuffle down, 10 jumping lunges, side shuffle back, 10 jumping lunges, etc.)

-Do 1 set of star pushups. Get in a pushup position, do 2 pushups, then walk your hands around and do 2 more pushups. (think of yourself as the hand on a clock. You do 2 pushups at 12 o clock, 2 pushups at 3 o clock, 2 pushups at 6 o clock, etc.)

-100 jump ropes

-Suicides. Pick 4 marks about 20 meters apart. Start at one end, run to the first marker and run back to the beginning. Then run to the second marker and then back to the beginning, etc.

We did this 3 times through. It was great! We finished up the workout with frog leaps up the bleachers, then side lunges up the bleachers and a few ab moves to finish it off.

Have a great Superbowl Sunday! I’ll be at work until 6pm. I am almost positive I will be the only person here, but it’s okay. I’ve got some homework to do, and might squeeze in a leg workout. Then I’m heading to a Superbowl Party with the guys! Should be a good time, I Haven’t seen them in a few weeks!

Laytah!

Who do you look like?

Like this beautiful girl, I decided to do a post based on the Facebook “phenomenon” going on right now called Doppelganger week. Many people are getting annoyed by it, but I think it’s kinda cool. So many people look RIDICULOUSLY similar to celebrities.

I’ve never really thought I looked like anyone…..

But then I came across this picture and realized, I do have a celebrity twin!!

or two

Who is your celebrity twin?

This week+ What I’m doing

Hola!! Hope everyone has enjoyed the motivational posts this week. They help me, so I hope they help you as well.

Workouts

This week seems like such a weird week to me! I don’t know what it is about it, but I feel like I’m on vacation or something.

Monday: This was a weird day. I met with a new trainer who I was referred to by Dae who was going to help me out with some flexibility stuff. Long story short, although he is really great trainer, we don’t necessarily meet eye to eye when it comes to training philosophy. So I did the stretching session with him, along with a small amount of shoulders. Before this, I jogged for 20 minutes(2.15 miles)

Afterwards, I worked on some boxing technique for about a half hour with a trainer/friend and then hit up the treadmill for 30 minutes of incline walking: 3.3 mph at 15% incline. I was a sweaty mess by the end. Success.

Tuesday: Somehow last week I must have done something during boxing, because my left wrist was all jacked up this week. I skipped boxing on Tuesday because I’m trying to be smarter about my training(i.e. NOT over training, and not doing something when i injure myself.). Instead, I got in a back/bicep workout. I did high reps which is so weird to me. I am not used to it and it is such a different feeling to get used to. I am used to doing 8-12 reps and being completely fatigued by the end, so doing 15-20 reps is something outside of my realm.

My workout was double supersets. It looked like this:

-back exercise superset with bicep exercise (20 reps each, 2 times in a row, then rested for 1 minute and repeat two more times doing 15 reps each)

Again, something i’m not used to, but I will get more comfortable with it as I go along. I guess I am just not used to feeling like my muscles are going to pop on that last rep.

I finished up the back/bicep workout with 30 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill. 15% at 3.3mph.

Wednesday: Leg Day!!! So no more heavy lifting for my legs either(details below.) I jogged for 20 minutes(2.15 miles) and then did legs with Ernie. This was a plyo/quad circuit consisting of….(doubt i will be able to remember it all but i’ll try…)

3 sets total of:

Leg extensions, sled pushes(more like 6 sets of this), Walking lunges(no DB’s for me), Up and overs, more walking lunges, box jump ups, Cable squat, burpees, mountain climbers, bench jump overs, frog leaps, more walking lunges, seated leg press(horizontal), decline leg press, hack squat, scissor jumps, plyo step ups, smith squats, more sled pushes

This took me over an hour and as always, left me sweating like a nun in the red light district.

No cardio on leg days, other than my warm up jog.

Thursday: NOTHING. Yeah, you read that right. This morning was a very weird day, and I was so out of routine and decided to make it my rest day. I was stressed out trying to do a bunch of things and get things ready for the weekend, so I just decided to rest. Probably a good thing. My boxing instructor has made sure to leave me plenty of nasty facebook posts reminding me that I am a lazy ass for missing BOTH classes this week, but I called him old so I think we’re even. 🙂 This week feels very easy to me, but I’ve been overtraining the past few weeks, so I am trying to get it through my thick skull that it is O.K. Too bad there isn’t a giant brain underneath that thick skull. In fact, I think it’s filled with gummy bears, but that’s just a personal opinion, not a scientific fact.

Friday:It isn’t Friday yet, but the plan is yoga, shoulders/chest/triceps, and then some light cardio. I am boxing one on one tomorrow too. Just have to be careful of the wrist, so I’m assuming it will be mostly kickboxing.

I am working tomorrow afternoon and then heading to Tucson to watch friends compete in the Desert Classic! I will also be helping out back stage if anyone needs help.

What I’m Doing

So you may be wondering what all of this light weight high rep stuff is about?? Well I’ve decided(which means nothing because I change my mind all the time…) that I am happy with the muscle I have put on and I do NOT want to put on anymore. My trainer Dae, who had not seen me workout in a few months, was really impressed by it. His exact words were “When you were competing last time, you had sort of teenager muscle, and now you have real fleshy muscle. ” We both agreed that we are really excited to see what it looks like after I am leaned out.

How I’m doing with Leaning out

This basically means how I’m doing with my eating haha. I am consistent with my workouts, and love them to death, so that is never an issue for me. A lazy week just means I don’t feel like gumby by the end of the week.

So onto the goods……Since January 1st, I would say I’ve been 80% committed. I was 100% solid for a few weeks, but have had some slip ups here and there the past few weeks. I’m going to try a stricter more intense approach for a few weeks. I am the first to say to ease into something, but I am an extremist. I’m on or I’m off, and I wanna be on. So I’m turning up the heat. I’m seeing results s.l.o.w.l.y, but I want to speed things up a little bit. I am very critical of myself and I don’t feel like I’m giving it my all, when I know I should be and when deep down I want to be. I’ll be the first to admit, that sometimes I let outside stressors get in the way of things. All I can say is that I’m learning and I won’t ever be perfect, but I can definitely be a lot better than I have been.

Hope everyone has a great night! Stay tuned for some exciting news 🙂

And if you haven’t already, become a fan of Ultimate Fitness Events on Facebook and comment “vote” underneath my picture. I am in the running to become their 2010 spokesmodel and would REALLY appreciate all of the votes I can get. I believe I would be a good fit for their organization and would love your help! Thanks again!!

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Step OUT of your comfort zone and into the unknown.

If you want to BE what you have never BEEN before, you will have to DO what you’ve never DONE before.

If it scares you, move towards it. In fact, break through it and leave it in your trails.

Every obstacle is a chance to overcome. To dig deep inside yourself and find your strength. If you don’t beat it the first time, re-assess, stand back up, and attack it again with a stronger force.

The only things that we cannot do, are the things that we believe we cannot do.

BECOME ONE with the things you are most afraid of. You will only regret NOT doing things.

Train your MIND and your body will follow.

Watch the video below. It’s kind of long, but worth watching.

Help me Become UFE’s next Spokesmodel!!

Hey guys I am 1 of 12 in the running to be UFE’s next Spokesmodel!!

I would really appreciate you all voting for me!! Ulftimate Fitness Events (UFE) is an awesome organization and their competitions are full of FUN and PRIZES. So if you are looking for a fun show to compete in, check them out!!

Visit this link, and leave a comment that says “vote” underneath my picture.

I will love you all forever!! (notthat i don’t already ;-))

Failure

Failure is a GOOD THING.

I’ve talked about this topic before. Every single one of us(myself included) has gotten down on ourselves due to a failure. Whether it was failing to make it to a workout, failing to keep up with a goal, or failing to stick to a commitment, it has happened to all of us, MANY TIMES.

People think of failure as a bad thing. It is frowned upon, and it is something that most of us fear. The truth is, failure is a GOOD THING.

If you never failed, you wouldn’t know how good it feels to succeed.

If you never failed, you wouldn’t appreciate the journey you have been on.

If you never failed, you would never have the chance to get back up again.

Often times a failure is followed by a rebound that is better than anyone could have ever expected. Failure can light a fire under your ass, and before you know it, you are on the pathway to success yet again, only this time more resiliant and with a greater passion.

I’ve posted this video before, but I’m doing it again.

I’ll leave you with another poem by Dr. Christopher Neck(this is the professor I raved about last semester…)

The Climb to The Top

There is a myth in this world.

In fact, it’s more of a tale.

It argues that successful people

Don’t ever really fail.

It’s time to destroy this point of view

Because it’s totally untrue.

The truth is that ambitious people

Fail just like me and you.

If you show me a multi-millionaire

With cash flowing all the time.

I bet at some point in her life,

She was destitute, without a dime.

And show me a renowned scientist,

One of the world’s best.

Probably during his education,

Failed to pass a test.

And finally, the world class athlete,

Wearing the gold medal that he dreamt,

Was once told he wasn’t good enough

To even make the attempt.

The point to all these examples

Is that successful people do fall.

They confront their share of obstacles

As they strive to attain it all.

Individuals who seek to live their dreams

Know what its like to hit the ground.

But they know that if they persevere,

Nothing can keep them down.

The key is not in never failing,

But the action that follows next.

Successful people get right back up.

They don’t stay down perplexed.

So as you strive to reach your ultimate peak,

Remember this little rhyme,

“If there were not any valleys,

There would be no mountains to climb.”

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