Showing posts with label cutting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cutting. Show all posts

March 3, 2011

Cutting for Competition (2011)

DISCUSSION

I've been blessed enough to team up with Performance Enhancing Supplements (Phases I and II), Genomyx (Phase I), and Taurus Nutrition (Phase II) for my 2011 competition season.



Phase I of my competition preparation is complete.
Now it's onto Phase II! I have FIVE weeks left until competition.


GOALS

CUTTING mode for the next five weeks (I don't count the week immediately pre-competition, since that will be the "peak" week, specific for me re 7-day "diet-down" re competition), with the goal to get to 7% bodyfat (or as low as physiologically possible - and this time I AM going to do it!)

Re physique, I need to:
* Maintain the muscle mass gained over the last ~7 weeks in my back and especially my deltoids and arms
* Lose the 4-5 inches gained in my glutes and thighs (I can afford to lose muscle mass here)

Re competition, I need to work on:
* Posing, so that my Quarter Turns and T-Walk are the best possible to highlight my physique
* Stage Presence and being confident, acting like I am the sexiest thing there and know it (being a tomboy by nature, this - next to dieting - is going to be the hardest thing for me to do)


This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 640x480.

Image courtesy of Ray Scott


BODY STATISTICS

* Body Composition of 11.7% bodyfat
* Body Mass of 126.6 pounds


TRAINING

Monday**: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 min + Shoulders/Hamstrings

Tuesday**: Cardio 20 min + Stretch 20-30 min + Arms

Wednesday**: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 min + Chest/Abs

Thursday**: Cardio 20 min + Stretch 20-30 min + Back

Friday**: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 min + Full-Body

Saturday or Sunday***: HIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 min

** 2-a-day trainings on 4-5 of these days, with the second session at least 20 minutes - posing practice (to start when I get under 10% bodyfat) at the end of that session.
*** Either Saturday or Sunday to be my Day Off.

However, it is also highly likely that I will label my days as Day 1 to day 6 and NOT schedule in my weekly Day Off, but take it once a week when required, and continue on with training from where I left off before it.

With resistance training, I use lower reps - not just so that I can lift heavier, but because lower reps at a heavy weight for me personally means improved strength, maintenance mass, and more ease with fat loss. I always lift as heavy as I can for the reps I set out to do each session, and I use 30 seconds to 1 minute recovery between sets/supersets/trisets/giant sets.

I generally do not do any specific work for my legs as my lower body overwhelms my upper body - if I train legs, I gain muscle mass despite what I do and more muscle in my legs is NOT what I want or need. ANY Legs work (i.e. Full-Body days) I deliberately use lighter weights for.

As much of my cardio as possible is going to be done RUNNING, since my body responds best re fat loss to high running (or cycling) mileage.


This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 640x480.

Image courtesy of Ray Scott


NUTRITION

My nutrition does not play as much of a role as my training does in my conditioning. However, I know what works for my body, what I am sensitive to, and what I feel better eating, and I HAVE to stop or minimize the foods that I am sensitive and have intolerances to, since my body can no longer handle the weekly fluctuations of 10-15 pounds gain and then loss - sometimes over only a few days - in scale weight. I am working on making it better, so that my nutrition COMPLIMENTS my training and works WITH my body, instead of constantly making everything more difficult. I AM going to conquer my issues with nutrition by the end of my competition preparation!

Even though I will be calorie cycling, with 5-6 meals daily, 2-3 hours apart, LISTENING to my body on a daily basis and adjusting my nutrition (as I do my training) as required, I am going to be following my own modification of Ryan's modified Paleo Style Diet with no dairy, wheat, oats, soy, corn, peanuts, or legumes. Basmati rice, kumara (i.e. sweet potato), and fruits are going to be my sources of carbohydrates, alongside good fats of Naturally More peanut butter, and protein primarily from chicken, liquid egg whites, fish, and my Muscle Gels.

I drink 1-2 UK galleons (a UK galleon is 4.54 litres) of water a day, with the only other liquid that I consume re drinks being herbal or green tea.


SUPPLEMENTS

(in alphabetical order):

Alpha-T2: 2 caps first thing and 2 caps ~8 hours post-Dose 1 (when more arrives).

Assault (Raspberry Lemonade flavour) 1 serving ~30 min pre-am training and 1 serving ~30 min pre-pm training.

BC+EAA (Grape flavour): 21 grams post-Meal 1, 10.5 grams post-Meal 3, and 21 grams post-Meal 5.

Erase: 2 caps first thing, 2 caps 6-8 hours post-Dose 1, and 1 cap pre-bed.

IGF-2: 3 caps first thing.

Lipotrophin-PM: 2 caps first thing and 2 caps pre-bed.

MuscleGels (Tropical Mango and Key Lime flavours): 1-2 packets daily.

Organic VitaBerry: 5 grams post-Meal 1 or post-Meal 5.

Shift: 2 caps first thing, 2 caps ~8 hours post-Dose 1, and 1 cap pre-bed (when Alpha-T2 arrives, this will only be dosed pre-bed).

Shred Matrix: 3 caps immediately post-training and 3 caps either ~30 min pre-Meal 5 or pre-bed.

Topicals: LipoBURN applied post-post-training/morning shower and pre-bed (when 7-KE Topical Spray arrives, this will be used pre-LipoBURN application).

Vitamin C: 1 gram first thing, 1 gram immediately post-training, and 1 gram pre-bed.

February 27, 2011

2010: Day 58

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! . . . Cause if you're willing to go through all the battling you got to go through to get where you want to get, who's got the right to stop you? . . . It's your right to listen to your gut, it ain't nobody's right to say no after you earned the right to be where you want to be and do what you want to do!" - Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa


MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

Motivation - "Be Great, Powerful Beyond Measure"



POWERFUL, POWERFUL words!


TRAINING

V-Burn Challenge Circuit (no recovery between exercises; 1 minute recovery between rounds):
4 x rounds -
1. Jumping Split Squat x 10
2. Hand Walkout (from toes) x 10
3. Single-Leg Deadlift (with twist and lateral reach) x 10 per side
4. Push-Up (with alternate side rotation) x 10
5. Jumping Jacks x 10
6. Side Lunges (with over head reach) x 10 per side
7. Handstand Push-Up x 10
8. Squat Thrust (jump and reach) x 10

Stretch 20 min.


COMMENTS

Sleep - Time and Quality: ~8 hours. Still NOT cool. I AM going to get my body BACK INTO SCHEDULE AS I WANT IT, no matter what it takes!

Energy: Not bouncing off the walls, but not completely dead, either.

Stress: Just went up a few notches after seeing this week's body statistics, but it's nothing that can't be worked out through hard work and discipline!

Joints: Erase has FINALLY kicked in!

Endurance: Ok.

Strength: The V-Burn Challenge Circuit is not about strength.

Pump: High.

Vascularity: Blue on top of my skin.

Quality of Training: If today is any indication of my fitness level, then I am DEFINITELY going to have to take it UP quite a few notches to get my body back to where I can train for hours and hours again without batting an eyelid.

Body Composition and Look: 126.6 pounds at 11.7% bodyfat. GAINED 0.7% bodyfat over the last week! WTF?! Nutrition definitely needs to be tightened up, and I AM going to be cutting like anyone else this time around - I can't afford NOT to! Training with high volume and even MORE intensity is definitely the way to go as well!

Other Notes: Last day of my current stash of Alpha-T2 tomorrow, so will be dosing Shift instead of Alpha-T2 from 1 March.


FIT TIP OF THE DAY

If you want fat loss, carbohydrates are NOT the enemy! You NEED at least 50-100 grams of CHO per day for your body to burn fat effectively and to provide the energy requirements of your brain and central nervous system (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007). A good guideline is to have at least 1 gram of CHO per kg of body mass per day as a MINIMUM (Burke, 2006).

February 13, 2011

Day 44: Becoming! War Face On!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Life is not having and getting, but being and becoming." - Matthew Arnold


MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

My Darkest Days - The World Belongs To Me



A Warrior is a Survivor. You never know what Life is going to throw at you, and a Warrior deals with it, even when no one else has faith that they can make it. Be strong. Hold to that inner strength. Be a Warrior.


TRAINING

Cardio 20 min.

Stretch 20 min.


COMMENTS

Mood/Aggression: Battle ready! I fight against myself on a daily basis, but the next eight weeks is going to be something else altogether!

Energy: Still feeling drained, but working on ignoring it and just DOING.

Libido: HIGH.

Endurance: Ok.

Quality of Training: Seems like my body is wanting 'recovery' this week

Body Composition and Look: 123.2 pounds at 11.2% bodyfat. My body composition has been 11.2% for the last three weeks - whilst maintaining it is ok, it's not really acceptable. Training the last two weeks has not been very high, with only two resistance sessions a week, which is definitely affecting my progress.

Other Notes: I ended up doing a 4-week recomp as initially planned because of training over the last week or so, but from now, it is all CUTTING! It's time to get LEAN!

Competition Notes: I was going to wait until I got below 10% bodyfat until I started posing practice, but I am going to start this tomorrow, for 5-10 minutes a day.


FIT TIP OF THE DAY

"Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz

February 8, 2011

Day 39: The Next 8 Weeks

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." - Cecil Beaton


MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

Rise Against - Survive


TRAINING

Cardio - Rollers:
20 min in 39x18 @ 108-110 rpm

Stretch 20 min.


COMMENTS

Sleep - Time and Quality: ~8 hours. Bit later falling asleep this morning, so got up later.

Mood/Aggression: Moving FORWARD!

Energy: Today is an 'easy' day (see changes to training under "Competition Notes").

Mental Focus and Clarity: Going to be a few changes to my website over the coming months - starting them now.

Endurance: Fine.

Quality of Training: Just a recovery session on the rollers. My body has changed over the last few months, and noticing the difference when on the rollers.

Appetite: There will be NO more slip-ups, no matter how minor, for the next eight weeks - this is for ME!

Other Notes: My Eviscerate Smolder arrived today, making my competition stack complete - will be applying my first application of that tonight.

Competition Notes: Recomping is being cut short a week, to allow me an extra week to get back into the condition I want to be in. Along with this adjustment is a quick change to my training schedule - going back to more volume and slightly longer resistance sessions, making sure to get that post-weights cardio in. Some weeks I may also do Arms on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, but no biggie. All stops have been pulled out. It's time to get this - like I said yesterday, there is a LOT riding on this competition!


FIT TIP OF THE DAY

Eric Lizotte, an acquaintance of mine recently said that, "Working from reality is the way you get your desired results, not working from fantasy." He is right - whilst it is important to have a goal, it is ESSENTIAL that you work towards achieving that goal from where you are at NOW. For example, if you're 200 pounds and want to be 180 pounds, your nutrition plan should be for fat loss for a 200-pound individual, not an 180-pound individual; if you have never trained a day in your life and suddenly decide to run a marathon, you gradually build up your training and do not immediately start out on a training programme for an elite athlete; etc.

January 28, 2011

Day 28: Cutting starts next week

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw


MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

Cold - Wasted Years




TRAINING

Cardio - ~3 mile Run.

Stretch 10 min.

Full-Body (45 sec recovery between sets):
1. Wide-Grip Lat-Pulldown 5 x 8RM
2. Incline DB Bench Press 5 x 8-9RM
3. BB Romanian Deadlift 5 x 8
4. Close-Grip BB Bicep Curl 5 x 8RM
5. Hanging Straight-Legs Raises (toes touch bar) 5 x 8

Post-Weights Cardio - Stepper:
10 min @ 11 floors/min

Stretch 10 min.


COMMENTS

Sleep - Time and Quality: ~5 hours.

Mood/Aggression: Aggressive as hell heading to the gym. Not happy in the gym. Kind of flat about now.

Energy: My body feels heavy and sluggish today.

Mental Focus and Clarity: This can never let up now.

Stress: Where do you draw the line between beneficial and detrimental?

Libido: Maybe later . . .

Joints: PAIN in wrists!

Endurance: Ok.

Strength: Added yet a further 5-10 pounds on all exercises from last week (ignoring the pain in my wrists).

Pump: Strong.

Vascularity: Very strong.

Quality of Training: Since running seems to help me re fat loss, decided to run. Running on an indoor track is definitely not as much fun as running outside, and the time passes much slower. However, did it, even with lateral left knee seizing up after eight minutes and stitch in right side towards the end . . . Resistance training was straight PAIN from the beginning. I honestly felt throughout almost the entire session that my wrists were being wrenched from their sockets, and the pain was - PAIN! . . . Only did 10 minutes of Post-Weights Cardio, but from next week, I am going to have to make sure that I do 20 minutes of cardio pre-weights daily and 20-minutes of post-weights cardio at least 3-4 days . . .

Recovery: I'll feel it later no doubt.

Appetite: DCP should get here early next week, which is good, because I need something to SUPPRESS my appetite (if I could have New Year's week back re this, I would!)

Body Composition and Look: This is all going to CHANGE!

Other Effects: Call me a wuss, but I canNOT handle using Eviscerate any more - my skin is just far too sensitive now (I think the hard water in the US has a lot to do with it, since it has been bad since I've been over here). The burn is never-ending and it's still as fresh >12 hours after application as it was when I applied it, and if it so much as gets wet re sweat (training) or in another shower (anything not cold water), it burns MORE. Honestly, I would rather literally crash from the top of the 45-degree bank of a wooden velodrome and slide down to the bottom than endure this 'I'm burning alive' feeling daily. So, I am stopping Eviscerate and just going to wait until the Eviscerate Smolder arrives.

Other Notes: I haven't had IGF-2 for two days now, so I was interested in seeing if Assault would work as well as it has been with the addition of the Rhodiola Rosea. If yesterday is anything to go by, then it is ok - guess we'll see until more IGF-2 arrives how things go.

Competition Notes: I was going to recomp for another two weeks. However, given where I am now and where I want to be for competition, I am going to adjust that and start cutting from NEXT week. At a rate of 0.5% bodyfat loss per week (give or take, but usually it averages out to this, regardless), it will take me ~8 weeks to get as lean as I can - this gives me an additional two weeks to tweak things, and a further week for the competition diet preparation. Since I AM serious about this, and want to win my Pro card at THIS competition, doing this the right way for results is what I HAVE to do - no more screwing around and letting life interfere with things!


FIT TIP OF THE DAY

I keep seeing and having people ask how to train females with weights, thinking that there are separate distinctions between "male" and "female" training. There is NO difference in training a female than training a male - they should be doing the same exercises re resistance training (albeit most will be lifting less than a male would - this is the ONLY difference). As with everything else, the resistance training programme should be tailored to the individual specific for their goals AND needs.

October 11, 2010

Back to Brutal!

BACK TO BRUTAL

My week off is now officially over. It's time to kick some ass and put my body through its paces again. This is how it's going to happen . . .


TRAINING


Monday: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 minutes + Full-Body + 20 min Post-Weights Cardio

Tuesday: 20 min Cardio + Stretch 20-30 minutes + Full-Body + 20 min Post-Weights Cardio

Wednesday: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 minutes + Upper Body + 20 min Post-Weights Cardio

Thursday: 20 min Cardio + Stretch 20-30 minutes

Friday: HIIT Cardio + Stretch 20-30 minutes + Shoulders/Arms/Abs + 20 min Post-Weights Cardio

Saturday: HIT + Stretch 20-30 minutes

Sunday: Day OFF

Plus 2-4 days including a lighter 20-minute PM Cardio session.


NUTRITION

Monday to Friday: Less than 50g of carbohydrates daily

Saturday and Sunday: No limit of carbohydrates

Yes, very not like me re nutrition, but I am going for a difference approach, with what I learned during the two weeks pre-competition.


This time I AM actually going to be CUTTING, and I AM going to do this RIGHT!