I’ve debated whether or not to start a thread for my contest prep because (1) I’m not (YET… I hope!) a super successful physique competitor like many of the thread starters on this board are, and (2) I have no idea who will find me interesting enough to read about my journey! But my hubby and friends seem to get so much support and constructive feedback that I see a huge value in posting - so I’m hoping to get the same support and honest feedback.

Alright – here we go. Since I’m new to the boards I’ll give you a quick synopsis about who I am. I am an engineer by schooling, an IT project manager by training, and a wedding planner and nutrition consultant “on the side”. I’ve been an athlete my entire life – mostly running – and am fairly new to the body building world. I was a distance runner until a foot surgery sidelined me a few years back, then to keep from packing on the pounds I got into weights. I’ve been lifting now for 4 years and am officially ADDICTED to weight training. I’ll spare you the details that led up to it, but in Oct. of last year I competed in my very first figure competition (Monster Mash) and finished 6th in my class in both the novice and the open divisions. I then followed it up with the KY Muscle in Nov. and don’t even remember where I placed – I just know it wasn’t great… the competition was fierce and I was definitely out of my league. And although I didn’t finish as well as I’d hoped going into it, that first competition journey was perhaps one of the best experiences I’ve ever had – and I’m seriously hooked! So, I’ve been eager to do another show to redeem myself for not placing last year - even though people try to tell me “6th is good for your first time”, I don’t want to hear it… I want a trophy! Oh yeah – did I mention I’m sort of competitive?

So now to this year’s prep... The show I’ve chosen is the KY State and Central on Aug. 1, 2009. I’ve chosen that for many reasons – but the big one is timing. I have a vacation planned towards the end of Aug. and refuse to be dieting then. Since my last show I’ve added muscle and stayed around 16% bf (according to the 9-site test). My goal was to start out leaner than I did last year and give myself more time. Last year I started at over 20% and dieted for 13 weeks for the Mash. This year I’m starting at 16% and giving myself 15 weeks. Last year I came in around 10% (again, according to the 9-site test) but in my opinion 10% on me looks so different than 10% on other figure girls – I think I need to be leaner to be competitive. I’m not blessed with the perfect genes for figure – I don’t have that tiny waist – so I’ve worked hard to build my lats and shoulders to give the illusion of a small waist. Hopefully that along with the conditioning I’m hoping to bring this time will allow me to be more competitive.

I’ve started my diet at 1550 cal on training days (128P/198C/26F) and 1350 cal on non-train days (128P/148C/22F). My LBM is 102 and carrying about 20 lbs fat. I’m doing my own diet, but of course having Jason keep an eye on me. My protein sources are eggs, 99% lean ground turkey, top round, and MP – carb sources are oats, blueberries, brown rice, and white potato – fats from egg yolk and almonds. My training is as follows:

Sun: 30min morning LISS, chest/tri, 30min LISS pwo
Mon: 30min morning LISS, 30min evening LISS
Tues: 30min morning LISS, shoulders/abs/calves, 30min LISS pwo
Wed: 30min morning LISS, quads/hamis, 30min LISS pwo
Thu: 30min morning LISS, 30min evening LISS
Fri: 30min morning LISS, 30min evening LISS
Sat: 30min morning LISS, back/bi, 30min LISS pwo

The supps I’m using are Glutamine, Muscle Synergy, 7-Keto, Creatine, Joint Care, BCAAs during wo, MP (meals 2,4,6), multivitamin, suma root and relora, fiber caps, and Slin-trol (meals 1,2,5,6). And of course I use stevia as my sweetener of choice

That’s enough for now. This is the first thread I’ve ever done – so I apologize if there’s too much or too little info on here. I’ll figure it out as I go

OK...interesting and informative...looks like a good thread to follow and see how far it takes you. I think I see a trophy in your future!!!

Great to see you posting. You're so thorough, I'll have to add more to my prep thread. It will be exciting to cheer you on also.
I have vacation after my June contest as well-I don't want to be training during mine this year either. I've done that too many times.

Also, thanks for all your help, my sis is doing great!

Steph, so glad to see you getting involved on the board.

NattyGirl,

What types of LISS cardio do you do? (Treadmill, elliptical?) If you were using an elliptical for LISS cardio, would you use a high resistance or low?

Thanks
Lisa

quote:

Originally posted by HealthNut:
Great to see you posting. You're so thorough, I'll have to add more to my prep thread. It will be exciting to cheer you on also.
I have vacation after my June contest as well-I don't want to be training during mine this year either. I've done that too many times.

Also, thanks for all your help, my sis is doing great!

Dieting on vacation just seems so wrong :-).

And yes your sis is doing great - not nearly as difficult as she described herself (at least not yet!) She's got such a positive attitude about it right now, which is KEY! Plus she's got your support which is also very helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by LAW:
NattyGirl,

What types of LISS cardio do you do? (Treadmill, elliptical?) If you were using an elliptical for LISS cardio, would you use a high resistance or low?

Thanks
Lisa

Morning LISS (and LISS on non-train days) is typically ellitical since that's what I've got at home - I keep it on the lowest setting and pedal at a rate of about 50rpm. This keeps my heart rate around 110. I'm hoping to soon switch to walking outside now that it's getting nicer.

pwo LISS I like to switch up - sometimes elliptical, sometimes bike... yesterday I did half stairstepper and half elliptical. I usually have the resistance up to 6 on the gym elliptical at 4-5rpm and keep my heart rate at 115-120

quote:

Originally posted by NattyGirl:

quote:

Originally posted by LAW:
NattyGirl,

What types of LISS cardio do you do? (Treadmill, elliptical?) If you were using an elliptical for LISS cardio, would you use a high resistance or low?

Thanks
Lisa

Morning LISS (and LISS on non-train days) is typically ellitical since that's what I've got at home - I keep it on the lowest setting and pedal at a rate of about 50rpm. This keeps my heart rate around 110. I'm hoping to soon switch to walking outside now that it's getting nicer.

pwo LISS I like to switch up - sometimes elliptical, sometimes bike... yesterday I did half stairstepper and half elliptical. I usually have the resistance up to 6 on the gym elliptical at 4-5rpm and keep my heart rate at 115-120

Its actually good to use different machines as the body adjusts to cardio easily, so I also switch up my pwo LISS. Anything from bike, treadmill, eliptical to the stair climber.

I like to switch up too. I have an elliptical, treadmill,bike, recumbent bike and stairmaster at home.. I just think I am pushing too hard on them, especially the elliptical.... My thighs tend to bulk up with high resistance. I like having muscle in my legs, butI have to be carefull not to over do it, so I have backed off the resistance to try and tone them down some. What I do need is to tone the back of my legs and glutes. What cardio and weight excercies are good for this?

Thanks
Lisa
Lisa

Squats, squats and more squats will build up the hamstrings and keep (or get) the glutes high and tight. Walking lunges, weighted step ups onto a bench. Also, skipping every other step on the stepmill. Lying hamstring curls. If the elliptical at the gym has an incline, crank that sucker up. That's my advice for you because that is what I do to try to fix those same problem areas.

Thanks. I actually do all those. Maybe my weights are not heavy enough on my squats. How much do you lift? For squats, I do 5 sets of 20 reps. I've been using an incline on the elliptical but just seem to be buiding up my thighs. For walking lunges, I do 4 sets of 50 front lunges and then 4 sets of 50 back lunges. I also do jump squats and jump lunges, but I do not seem to be targeting my glutes. Today, I also added Yoga. I can't believe how hard it is to do some of the moves. I felt pretty good afterwards though. To add to the difficulty, I had my two boys trying to tackle me while I was on the floor.

Lisa

PM me and we can discuss further. I don't want to get too far off point since this is Steph's contest prep thread.

AF Chiq,

I will PM you when I get back with my son from the Little Gym. I was just thinking the same thing, that I invaded Steph's post when I clicked on it. I apologize Steph.

Lisa

quote:

Originally posted by LAW:
AF Chiq,

I will PM you when I get back with my son from the Little Gym. I was just thinking the same thing, that I invaded Steph's post when I clicked on it. I apologize Steph.

Lisa

No worries! I agree with Robbi's advice - but there is one more important factor (perhaps the MOST important) to getting the toned look. Your diet needs to be on point. So yes you have to build the muscle but then you need the right diet to shed the fat and expose those muscles you worked hard to build. I'm probably stating the obvious - but better to give too much info in this case.

As for your squats - I recommend that you do 4 sets of 8-12 reps. If you can do more than 12 reps then the weight is too light. As a general rule of thumb, if you can't get at least 6 (with good form) then your weight is too heavy. By rep # 12 you should seriously be failing out - struggling to get all the way up. At least this is the way I do my squats and it's done wonders for my backside!

Nattygirl,

Thanks for responding. Diet is really clean. I did take out the peanut butter. I wasn't using much of it, but I took it out in case it was hurting my diet. As Jtheo pointed out to me, I started cutting carbs too soon and I probably should not have added the 7-keto as soon as I did. The approach he recommended is going really well for me.
I did not indicate the weight I was using with my squats because I did not want you to laugh, but yes I am not using enough weight. 20 reps is easy with the weight I am using. So I will change that. If you don't mind me asking, how much to you lift doing squats? Also, how many days/week should I train legs?

Thanks
Lisa

quote:

Originally posted by LAW:

I did not indicate the weight I was using with my squats because I did not want you to laugh, but yes I am not using enough weight. 20 reps is easy with the weight I am using. So I will change that. If you don't mind me asking, how much to you lift doing squats? Also, how many days/week should I train legs?

Thanks
Lisa

I personally only train legs once a week - but I go hard and heavy. Typically I will do squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, stiff-leg deads, then finish up with ad/abductors. I save my calves for another day (combine with shoulders). But I do every set to failure.

As for the weight on squats, usually I do squats with the olympic bar - my first set I put a plate on each side, then increase weight each set. I generally finish up my last set around 205lbs total, but try to push myself harder if I have a spot. It definitely took some time to build up to this. I really just try to do as much weight as I can so that I can safely get 4-6 reps with good form but that I fail out before I get past 12 reps. So there's no need for you to worry about being embarrassed about the weights you lift - just really focus on lifting heavy enough so that you fail out at or before 12 reps. Hope that helps!

So I've officially been dieting for one week - and I'm loving it! Although I am thinking about switching out one of my white potatoes to a sweet. Don't know why but I have a hard time looking forward to white potatoes the way I used to. I am definitely keeping the white in for pwo though.

I'm feeling leaner every day, and although the scale hasn't gone down as much as expected, my skin folds have gone down. I actually looked at last year's prep and noticed that at 15 weeks out right now I'm where I was at 10 weeks out last year - so I think I'll be in good shape. I did try posing last night, which I hadn't done in a while, and I can definitely see I still have a LONG way to go - but that's why I've given myself time!

I've decided I'm going to look into massage. I've considered it in the past but made up my mind when posing last night - my lats were getting all locked up and throwing off my symmetry. Jason was actually having the same issue last night, so we decided we're making an appointment this week! If I like it then I might make it a regular part of my training for this prep.

Yes, get a massage! I just started having them the past 2 months and feel much better. For me it's my shoulders and lats and hamstrings...She usually does deep tissue.

Wow-proud of you for posing already. I'm 8 wks out and I just now want to look in the mirror to hit them.

Get a couples massage!

quote:

Originally posted by NattyGirl:
So I've officially been dieting for one week - and I'm loving it! Although I am thinking about switching out one of my white potatoes to a sweet. Don't know why but I have a hard time looking forward to white potatoes the way I used to. I am definitely keeping the white in for pwo though.

I'm feeling leaner every day, and although the scale hasn't gone down as much as expected, my skin folds have gone down. I actually looked at last year's prep and noticed that at 15 weeks out right now I'm where I was at 10 weeks out last year - so I think I'll be in good shape. I did try posing last night, which I hadn't done in a while, and I can definitely see I still have a LONG way to go - but that's why I've given myself time!

I've decided I'm going to look into massage. I've considered it in the past but made up my mind when posing last night - my lats were getting all locked up and throwing off my symmetry. Jason was actually having the same issue last night, so we decided we're making an appointment this week! If I like it then I might make it a regular part of my training for this prep.

this is what ive been sayin!!! get a massage

I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop my carbs this weekend a tad - I'm not feeling nearly as lean as I expected to this week. I feel more watery than I think I should, plus the scale is not going down (although I swear our scale is broken! That's what everybody says, right? ) I'm going to take a few skin folds first, but I'm pretty certain the carbs will be reduced by 25. But I will replace those carb calories with protein calories. So my calories will stay the same but I'll up the protein and down the carbs. Since I'm still so far out I want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while still leaning out - plus in the offseason I seemed to do better on slightly higher protein anyway.

I worked legs last night and am SO SORE today! I've been doing one-leg extensions for the past few weeks and have really noticed a difference in my quads. I've also started incorporating the 100-rep leg press that Jason introduced me to - man, that is a killer! I start with 4 plates on each side and do 25 reps, then go down to 3 plates for 25 reps, then 2 plates 25 reps and finally 1 plate 25 reps. I try not to rest at all during the 100 reps - but that's about IMPOSSIBLE - so my goal is to rest less each time I do it!

I'm hoping to get some pics this weekend if we can find some time - if I do I'll post them here so people can see where I am 14 weeks out.