Category Archives: Workouts

The Best Exercises to Build a Booty!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , , ,

Hi friends!  If you’re like 90% + of women out there, you want a nice, round, perky butt!  Believe it or not, the glutes (butt) are one of the hardest muscle groups to work, and one of the top body areas both men and women want to change in their physiques!  Most of us have either a.) alot of fat in the butt area or b.) have really underdeveloped glute muscles leading to a pancake or flat butt!  When I first started training several years ago, my booty was really lacking muscle development, and was one of my weakest body parts on stage.  I’ve spent the last few years training glutes at least twice a week, and they have improved SO much thanks to alot of repetitions of these exercises below.  Here are my favorite exercises to train my glutes that will help you build that booty just in time for summer!

1.) SQUATS!! Bottom line (Ha! Pun definitely intended!) this movement is the KEY to really developing that round, booty shelf look that comes with a great butt!   There are SO many types of squats!!  Mix these up every time you train legs– plie squats (feet wide toes out, using either a dumbbell or body weight– these will target your inner thighs more), jump squats, hack squats, front squats, sissy squats, Bulgarian split squats, pistol squats, air squats, bosu ball squats, heavy barbell squats at the squat rack or on the Smith Machine, and high rep lighter weight squats too!  The great thing about squats is that there are so many variations with equipment, foot placement, intensity, etc., that you can incorporate several versions of them into every leg workout.  Here’s a great link to a bodybuilding.com article on different versions of squats.

Squat Variations from Bodybuilding.com

2.) Leg Press-  Leg Press, ooohhhhhh Leg Press.  I have a love hate relationship with this machine.  It literally kicks your ass.  And hams, and quads, and can get your heart pumping SUPER fast when you go really heavy with it.  It’s one of the oldest machines around, and looks really intimidating, but it’s not.  Most gyms have both a plate loading version and a pin weight version.  Personally, I prefer the plate loading type.  Foot placement can really change which muscles are doing the work in the movement.  If your feet are higher on the platform, you’ll feel it more in your upper hamstrings and glutes.  Wider feet will incorporate more inner thigh, narrow feet more outer thigh, and lower feet more quads.  Easy, right?  Try moving your feet around next time you’re on the Leg Press.  Be CAREFUL not to lock your knees out when you’re pushing the sled back up–you can break a knee that way dude!!

A traditional Leg Press

3.) Glute Kickbacks- These are AWESOME.  Personally, I love to do high volume repetition sets of these at the end of a workout as a finisher.  They’ll give you a great pump!  You can do them on either the glute kickback machine, or on a cable with an ankle band.  If you go the cable route, be sure to keep the weight low enough to keep good form.

One of my very first progress pictures taken in October 2014! No butt at all here!!
Took this last week after a crazy leg day!

4.) Lunges!!! I’ve done a bazillion of these over the years.  They’re not easy, but I’m convinced that next to squats, they are the building blocks of a great ass!  Like with squats, there are so many variations of these that you can really change it up.  Some of my favorites– weighted walking lunges with a barbell or dumbbells, uphill lunges (outside on a hill or ramp), lunge jumps, split lunges with foot on a bench and dumbells, curtsy lunges, and reverse lunges.  Change it up and do a few different versions in your next workout!   A tabata (HIIT session–try the tabata timer app; 20 seconds all out effort, 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds) of lunge jumps and squat jumps will definitely work your legs!  Try it as a finisher!

5.) Glute bridges.  You can do these with our without weight, banded, etc.  I prefer them with a barbell and a squeeze/hold at the top.  You’re gonna feel the burn for sure!

Amanda Latona- She’s the “Booty Queen” and is known world wide as the Queen of booty moves and glutes! #glutegoals

I hope that these exercises and ideas encourage you to experiment more with your typical workout routines.  Remember that muscles take YEARS to develop.  If you keep working hard, and you eat a clean diet consistently, you WILL see results!

I’m always here to answer questions, help, and encourage you, so feel free to email me at meredithlynchfitness@gmail.com, or DM me.

Till next time!

-Mere

Boulder Shoulders!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , , ,

Hi friends!

I hope this finds you all healthy and happy!  I don’t know about all of you, but I am definitely ready for the holidays!  I love this time of year—so many things to be thankful for, fun activities, and Christmas cheer.  It will be 2017 before we know it! Between studying for my upcoming NASM personal training test and decorating our new home, things have been pretty busy.

I wanted to make today’s post about my favorite moves for one of my favorite parts to train.  You may not know this, but your shoulder is an extremely complex joint.  Not only is it connected to several muscles in the arm, chest, neck, and back, but it also houses the rotator cuff!  Your rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles (here’s my NASM studying coming through), the Teres Minor, the Infraspinatus, the Supraspinatus, and the Subscapularis.  These muscles work together to allow for the wide range of motion and movements that make your shoulder so unique.  Your shoulders are utilized in several upper body exercises when you train chest and back, but because of their structural complexity, they are also easily susceptible to injury.

See? So many muscles!
Lots of bones connect at your shoulder too!

 

Be careful with your form!   When you’re training shoulders, it’s really important to make sure that you are training all angles of them, the front, rear, and side delts.  Again, this is a complex muscle/joint group!  Broader shoulders also make your waist appear smaller!  A total shortcut to getting every girl’s dream “hourglass” curves!  Here are a few of my go- to moves for awesome shoulders.

  • Overhead Dumbbell Shoulder Press: This is the standard shoulder movement in weight training.  To perform this movement, you hold a dumbbell (moderate weight, something you can keep good form with for 12-15 reps) in each hand, and make almost like a field goal with your arms as you extend and press the dumbbells overhead.  Be careful to keep your head up and core tight.  Here is a link from Bodybuilding.com explaining the movement.  You can also do these with a Shoulder Press machine, just make sure you are lined up correctly with it before you begin, and start out a lower weight to make sure you’re using the correct one.
  • Lateral Raises: You can do these with dumbbells (my favorite!) or cables. Typically I like to do a lighter weight and go higher in volume.  You can keep a slight bend in the elbow if needed, but don’t bend it too much.  You can also change the tempo to really get a good pump!  I never do shoulders without these!! 
  • Angled Shoulder Press: These are super fun! We have a butt blaster machine in our gym that works great for these, but you can also use a barbell for them as well.  They’re easier on the front part of your deltoid muscle (front delt), than a traditional front raise, but are a great finisher, or to do a drop set with.  Here’s a picture. 
Angled Shoulder Press
Angled Shoulder Press
  • Reverse Peck Deck: Using the pec deck or chest fly machine, face the pad and move the arms out to either side of you, similar to if you were opening a cabinet. You should really feel these at the back of your shoulders.  Keep your head and spine neutral, and don’t lock your elbows.  Start with a lower weight if needed until you get the form figured out.
  • Front Raises: Personally, I like to get crazy and superset these with my lateral raises at the end of a shoulder workout.  Go lighter with these, and really focus on NOT swinging your arms to move the weight.  For added benefit, you can pause and squeeze at the top of the movement, or take them really slow.  Those are killer!

There you have it y’all!  Remember, summer bodies are made in the winter!  If you want those hot sexy shoulders come tank top season in a few months, NOW is the time to work on them!  Let me know if you have any questions—I love answering them!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!!

 

Till next time,

-Mere

Easy Ways to Change Up Your Workouts!

General Fitness, Workouts, , , ,

One of my favorite things about training is that you can constantly change up your workouts!  Since I’m in offseason, I have really been changing things up with my weightlifting split and routine to push myself in the gym.  Here are some of my favorite ways to mix things up!

  • Drop Sets—these can be super challenging, and can be used for almost every muscle group. I particularly love these for lat pull-downs, leg extensions, shoulder presses, and leg press.  But really, use your imagination because they can be used for pretty much every move.  The idea is that you start with a heavier weight doing less reps, and then decrease (“drop”) your weight and increase your number of reps each set.  The idea is to get a lot of blood flow to your muscle.  Your first set should be challenging and heavy!  Sometimes I like to go until failure each set, dropping the weight each time.  Also, make sure you’re not resting very long between sets.  30-45 seconds is plenty of time.

For lat pull downs, it might look something like this:

  • Set 1– 10 reps at 110 pounds
  • Set 2– 15 reps at 90 or 100 pounds
  • Set 3– 20 reps at 80 or 90 pounds

 

  • Pyramid Sets—similar to drop sets, pyramid sets involve increasing the weight and decreasing the number of reps, but you also come back up in weight, so typically you’re doing 5-7 sets. These are tough!  I love to do them for Bicep curls and squats!  Keep your rest periods short, and make sure you are only using a weight that you can safely move with good form.  Try it like this with dumbbell bicep curls:
    • Set 1- 12 reps at 20 pounds
    • Set 2- 15 reps at 15 pounds
    • Set 3- 20 reps at 10 pounds
    • Set 4- 15 reps at 15 pounds
    • Set 5- 10-12 reps or to failure at 20 pounds.

 

  • Super Sets—these are one of my all time FAVORITE things to incorporate into a workout! In fact, I superset something pretty much every day I’m in the gym.  They’re time savers, and a great way to really get a muscle group to hypertrophy, which will encourage muscle growth!  Supersetting means that you preform two exercises (using the same or opposing muscle groups) back to back with no rest in between.  They are really great for legs, and arm workouts (supersetting bis and tris).  Remember, no rest in between exercises.  Done correctly, these will really get your heart rate up, and get a lot of blood flow into your muscle.  Give these supersets a try:
    • Leg Press supersetted with plie squats or squat jumps
    • Bicep curls supersetted with tricep extensions or skull crushers.

You can even go crazy and add on a third exercise for a GIANT set!

  • FST-7s. FST stands for Fascia Stretch Training.  This training concept was created by Nicole Wilkins and Phil Heath’s trainer, the legendary Hany Rambod.  Basically it involves doing 7 sets of the same exercise with roughly 8-10 reps each set and very little rest in between sets.  Like 15-20 seconds between sets.  They need to be done as a finisher at the end of your workout, or at the end of training the particular body part you are using them on.  They get a great “pump” to the muscle, because all those reps really build up bloodflow.  These are tough but soooo much fun!  I like to do them for shoulder presses, lateral raises, bicep curls, typically smaller muscle groups, but you can use them for back and legs as well.  The basic formula for an FST looks like this:
    • 7 sets of 10 reps at the same weight, with 15-20 seconds between sets. *Note—you may have to drop weight.  Sets 5-7 are particularly challenging, and you will likely go to failure J

So there you have it!  4 easy ways to really mix things up and challenge yourself in the gym.  Be creative with your workouts—I can promise you that you will enjoy your workouts even more!

 

Till next time,

-Mere

My Favorite Cardio Workouts

General Fitness, Workouts, , , ,

Hi friends!  It’s hard to believe Fall is already here!  This summer absolutely flew by!  Between the move and vacationing, things have been a little nuts around here, but things are FINALLY starting to settle down a bit.  In my last post, I mentioned planning to start prep in August for a November show.  We all know how life throws curveballs, and I got a bit of an unexpected surprise when I ended up getting a small stress fracture in my foot that required rest and a boot for several weeks throwing my plans completely off course.  I basically had what felt like a sprain at the top of my right foot for several weeks.  I thought between the move and my usual running, plyo, crazy workouts that it was nothing.  It kept getting more annoying and the pain got worse.  I hobbled around for about a month before finally caving and seeing a sports orthopedic doctor on the advice of both my coach and MAT therapist.  The treatment—anti-inflammatory prescriptions, rest, and a boot for at least 3 weeks.  There was no way I’d be able to get ready for a show by November—I saw the doctor the week I was supposed to start prep!  Fortunately, I was still able to work out, I just didn’t put much weight on my foot, and had to modify my leg workouts.  I also stopped doing cardio—thankfully my weight has maintained this whole time, despite not being perfect with my eating!  Some days were easier than others, but it slowly got better!  Honestly though, if wearing a boot for 3 weeks and postponing a figure competition are my only major problems in life, then I’m really doing okay.  Hey—at least since I’m not in Prep I can enjoy pumpkin spice everything season, right?!  Thankfully I just had my follow up appointment and things are looking and feeling better, so I can slowly get back into training legs as usual and cardio as I feel like it.  Other than that, it’s just been fun to enjoy our beautiful new home, and go through my normal routine.

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In other news- I’m happy to report that I have officially started preparing to take my NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine—they’re the leader in personal training certification) CPT exam!  My book and studying materials are en route, so I will be able to start studying next week, and plan to take the exam in February.  You have six months to study, which is great because there is a TON of material to cover.  The test covers everything from anatomy and physiology, to exercise science, client assessment and evaluation, nutrition, supplementation, and a ton more.  I’m so excited to take my passion for fitness and nutrition to the next level, and use it to help others on their journeys too.  Here’s to a new adventure and learning ALL of the things!

Since I’m building up my client base, I really wanted to give you guys some ideas for cardio workouts.  An important thing to keep in mind when doing cardio is that interval training is best to really get the highest calorie burn in the shortest amount of time.  HIIT is where it’s at to get the most bang for your buck!  To be honest, I’ve kind of missed cardio these last few weeks!  I’ve done all of these—give them a whirl the next time you’re up for a sweat!  I guarantee you’ll get a great calorie burn!!

Tabata Workouts—these are some of my favorite forms of HIIT training!  Basically the idea is that you have all out intensity for a “work” period, followed by a brief “rest” period. You can download the Tabata Timer app, and set it to any split of the two that you’d like, but aim for about a 2:1 ratio of rest to work.  Trust me—you want a timer! Typically I do tabatas for 10-15 minutes.  When done correctly, that’s about all you can handle of these guys.  These are great for finishers on top of say 20 minutes of an incline walk, jog, or stairs.  Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Set your tabata timer to 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest for 10 rounds, and do the following 5 exercises 2x through: squat jumps, mountain climbers, jump rope (in place is fine), butt kickers, burpees.   This should take you 10 minutes to do, or you could do a third time through for 15 minutes.
  • Battle ropes! Most gyms have these—set your timer to 30 seconds of work, 1 minute of rest—aim for 10 rounds.  I LOVE to do these as a finisher on an upper body day—especially arms and shoulders!  Hit the ropes HARD as fast as you can, you can even alternate or make waves with the ropes.  Your shoulders should burn and your heart rate should be UP!
  • Sled pushes—most larger gyms have these. Load that puppy up and push for 20 seconds with a 40 second rest.  After leg day it’s particularly good!!!
  • 8 rounds of burpees on the 20 sec work/ 10 sec rest split is BRUTAL, but you feel like a BOSS after finishing it!
  • For my lower body days, I love to do a split of lower body exercises with HIIT training—try the 30 sec work/ 1 min rest split again, but with squat jumps during the work period and body weight squats during the “rest” period, or lunge jumps/ lunges.
  • Sometimes I’ll even challenge myself to do 50 reps of 5 different exercises 5 times—this can be pretty difficult, but it’s fun—do whatever you want, jumping jacks, high knees, skater hops, frog jumps, pop squats, you name it!

Treadmill Workouts:

Poor treadmills get a bad rap!  Honestly, they are a multi-purpose MACHINE and can be used for more than just running.

  • Incline Walk—set the incline for a 13-15 and walk at a 2.8-3.0. You will feel this in your hams and calves.  I PROMISE.  Don’t hang onto the hand rails unless you absolutely need to, and then only for short periods of time.  Work your way up to 20-30 minute sessions.
  • Sprint intervals—You can do these with or without a timer. Sprint for 20-30 seconds, followed by a minute to minute and a half of rest.  A sprint should be a speed of at least 8.0 on the treadmill.  During your rest periods, just hop up and put your feet to the sides of the belt.  I like to crank up the inline to about a 4 to make them extra difficult.
  • Jogging intervals—you can walk (3.8-4.0) for 1 minute, then jog or run at a 5.0 – 7.0 for 2 minutes, this one’s much easier to do for longer periods of time. 10 rounds of it for 30 minutes, and 15 for 45 minutes respectively.

I also LOVE the stairmill for cardio!  It really works your lower body and glutes like no other.  Try the interval programs on the machines, or make your own intervals at high and low speeds.  I like to make my own, and skip steps on the lower speeds to really work those glutes!!!  The elliptical is also beneficial, but it’s not my preferred poison of choice.

Also—cardio is more fun when it’s nice outside!  Take your tabatas outside, or go for a jog around your neighborhood instead of on the treadmill.  It’s good for your soul!!!

Track Workouts:

When it’s not 100+ degrees outside here in Texas, I LOVE to hit the track with my girlfriends for a crazy cardio session.  Here are some of our go to workouts—most of these we’ll combine for a total time of 45 minutes to an hour.

  • 15 minutes of stairs (run up the bleachers, walk down), 15 minutes of sprinting the straits along the track and walking the curves/endzones, 15 minutes of plyos consisting of the following: 1 min squat jumps, 1 min rest, 1 min jump rope, 1 min rest, 1 min burpees—3 rounds, with one minute between each round. THIS IS KILLER!!!!
  • Suicide sprints– Sprint to the 10, jog back, sprint to the 20, jog back, etc. all the way to the other end zone.
  • Jog a lap around the track, 50 jacks/ 50 squats/ 50 mountain climbers. Repeat 5 times.
  • Running the stairs on one side of the field, sprint to the other side, do those stairs, then run around the track.

track

I hope y’all enjoyed these ideas—can’t wait to hear your feedback!  I’m working on putting more blog posts together, especially as I learn more these next few months as I’m studying.  Stay safe and stay fit!

 

Xo,

-Mere

I’m in the Gym – Now What?

General Fitness, Workouts, , , ,

One of the questions I get asked most often is how I figured out how to train.  How many reps?  How many exercises?  How often for each body part? How much weight?  How will I know if I’m doing it right?  Trust me when I say there really is no perfect answer.  What I’m learning on my journey is that you really learn as you go.  We all are—even the most experienced trainers and bodybuilders I know are still learning, experimenting, and still changing their workouts up.  Isn’t that cool?  It’s one of my favorite things about training—you’re never an expert, and you can always keep learning and trying new things.  Like I’ve mentioned so many times before, it’s important that you try to educate yourself as much as possible.  Use different resources.  Bodybuilding.com and Oxygen magazine are two of my FAVORITES, and they’re so easy to access.  Not sure how to use a piece of equipment?  Ask trainers and other fitness professionals in your gym.  Health and fitness can be a part of everyone’s life, but not everyone chooses for it to be.  I hope that I can give some insight into some of these “how” questions I mentioned earlier so you too can start to structure your own workouts and gain more confidence with all this weight lifting stuff!

How should I structure my workout split each week?

A lot of this really depends on the time you have.  Aim for at least 4-5 workouts a week if you want to really build muscle and see results.  That should really just be weight training NOT CARDIO.  Cardio is a whole other post!  Remember that muscle will burn fat, so you want to focus on building muscle.  Of course any time in the gym is better than none at all, but I would aim to be there an hour or so.  Your major body parts/ muscle groups are: legs, back, chest, arms, and shoulders.  Abs and calves need to be thrown in there too, but you can just add those onto whatever other parts you’re training.  Depending on where you are lagging and what areas you really want to grow, you can train them as many as 2-3x a week.  You ideally want to have 1-2 days of rest between training sessions.  Try to just focus on 1 or 2 muscle groups each workout and train them HARD.  The idea is to make your muscles do more work, getting to hypertrophy (or muscle failure—we’ll talk more about that in a sec.), so that they repair and grow.  Doing so will yield more results than doing a total body workout 4-5x a week , I promise!  A good split could work like this—Monday—legs, Tuesday—arms and shoulders, Wednesday—OFF, Thursday—back, Friday—chest and shoulders, Saturday—yoga or a spin class.  SUNDAY—off.  There are ton of other examples out there though—find what works for you!

Meet Mr. Smith, my meanest friend.
Meet Mr. Smith, my meanest friend.

How many exercises and how many reps?

Here’s the fun part.  You can get creative with this.  When I first started, believe it or not I didn’t know that difference between a rep and a set!  I’ll share— a repetition or “rep” is how many times you will do each exercise or motion in a “set” which is really just a set of reps.  For example, you can do 3 sets of pushups, with 10-15 pushups or (“reps”) each set.  You would do 10-15 pushups, rest for a minute or so, another set of 10-15, rest, and then do your least set.  For beginners, I would focus on form and technique.  Building out higher volume sets into your workout routine will help you get to hypertrophy, but your workout should include a mix of both.  I started with using workouts I found online, and would sometimes build out my own.  Once I started working with my coach, he designed my workouts during Prep, but now I am back to using those as a framework and getting creative on my own as well.  I would shoot for 7-8 exercises each workout, doing 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps each.  That will give you a pretty good place to start.

Spreading my wings!
Spreading my wings!

How much weight?

It’s called working out because it takes WORK!  Your training sessions should not feel like a walk in the park—you need to push yourself!  This is different for everyone.  Here’s a good rule of thumb:  if you can knock out all of your reps easily and not feel your heart rate increase or your breathing change, you need to add more weight.  Your last 2-3 reps should be somewhat of a struggle.  The key here though is to keep good form.  If you lose your form, you can hurt yourself and that’s no bueno.   You will need to try different dumbbells and amounts of weight out to see work works for you.  A good starting weight for shoulder presses should be around 10-15 pounds for arms, and likely the same for bicep curls, but again see how many you can do.  You can do more reps with less weight and fewer reps with more weight.  If it’s heavy, you’re doing it right!  You will be surprised how quickly your strength increases.

Make sure it's heavy. AND YOU HAVE PROPER FORM!
Make sure it’s heavy. AND YOU HAVE PROPER FORM!

How will I know if I’m doing it right?

If you’re sore (not hurting—just sore!) the next day, that’s a good sign.  Sweat is good too!  Keep pushing yourself every workout, every day, and eating the right foods, and you will see results.  You will know when you’ve pushed yourself.  Consistency is key.  Make this a priority and it will pay off.  We all start somewhere.  The great thing is that there are a ton of resources out there that can show you proper form and technique, you just have to seek that information out.  I’m here to help too!

Thank you all so much again for your support and interest in my site!  I know things aren’t as exciting now that I’m not prepping for a show, but my hope is that this platform can help and encourage others to live a healthy lifestyle.  I have a special place in my heart for women who are scared of the gym and clueless as to where to start, because I was one of those girls.  You can do this!  If I can, anyone can.

Till next time,

-Mere

Are you going to look like the Hulk??

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I “went public” in October with my decision to compete and become a figure competitor, you can imagine that I got some mixed feedback.  Unless you really know the sport, you have no idea what the NPC is, what “Figure” really means, or what the different categories are for women.  Most people, quite frankly, just assume that bodybuilders (especially female ones) must take steroids and that they are all super jacked with mega-muscles.  For women, there are 5 categories in the NPC or “National Physique Committee”, and they increase in muscularity beginning with Bikini which has the least muscle, then Figure, Fitness (which has the same judging criteria as Figure, but with a gymnastics routine), Women’s Physique, and finally Women’s Bodybuilding.  They all, however, fall into the sport of “competitive bodybuilding”.  There are a lot of misconceptions about women who compete, but I definitely got some raised eyebrows from friends and colleagues who thought that I was going to essentially end up looking like, well, a cute hulk.  My really good friends and family, however, were very supportive and were thrilled with my decision.  I’m so thankful that I’ve had their support and encouragement, and I can’t wait to make them proud when I strut across that stage in just a couple of weeks!

In my last post, I mentioned that after attending that first show, I knew that I wanted to compete, but I also knew the next step would be to find someone who could coach me, teach me, and train me to bring my best possible physique to the stage.  I did some research, asked around at that show, and pretty much all roads led to the coach who I ended up working with.  He’s extremely knowledgeable in the sport, an  award-winning bodybuilder, and has also judged many shows, so he’s a guru.  Many of his clients have placed very well at shows, and several have gone on to compete at a national level and won IFBB Pro cards as well.  After our first meeting with him, Shane and I knew we had found the right fit for me, and were pumped (haha!  Arnold joke there!) to get the process going.

October 2014 - Just Getting Started
October 2014 – Just Getting Started

Most of you may not know that I am pretty petite.  I’m all of 5’4, and weighed about 120 pounds when I started training with my coach in October of 2014.  At my highest recorded weight in 2012, I was in the low 140s and about 26% bodyfat.  That being said, I was never fat or obese, and I had a good foundation of weight training from the 10 months or so that I had been training on my own before I started working with my coach.  I still had a long way to go before I would be ready to get up on that stage.  Especially in a figure competition suit—have you SEEN how small they are?!?

November 2014 - Growing the Guns
November 2014 – Growing the Guns

After I started working with my coach, I spent October, November, and December of 2014 “bulking”, which means that I was eating more calories, carbs, protein and fat than I had before to help my body put on muscle.  My coach designed all of my workouts, so I just followed the plan, trained HARD six days a week (5 lifting, 1 free day to do yoga, or whatever) and did moderate cardio.  My diet was very structured—I carefully weighed and measured all of my food, and was extremely cognizant to eat my six meals a day.  Alcohol became limited, and I was a lot more aware of what I was eating for “cheat” meals.  I was doing more than just eating clean; I was eating with the purpose of FUELING my body.  If there is one thing I could tell girls who want to lose weight or tone up, it would be that proper nutrition is key to reaching your goals You can’t out train a bad diet, but you also need the RIGHT combination and ENOUGH protein, carbs, and fat to really reap the full benefits of the training you do in the gym.  Nutrition is where I had fallen short, and  poor nutrition (I wasn’t eating “bad” food, I just wasn’t eating the right combination of macro nutrients to fuel my body) is why I wasn’t seeing the best results that I could have for so many months.  I was eating a TON under my “plan”—hooray for bulking and “offseason”!  Needless to say, I could tell a huge difference in my progress within a matter of weeks, and others started taking notice too.  My clothes were fitting better, and I kept getting stronger and stronger in the gym. I’ll admit, the compliments that I was getting certainly helped motivate me to keep going!  I’m so glad that I have progress pictures and workout and food logs to look back to and see the path that helped shape me into where I am today.  With my coach’s guidance, I became even more hooked on what we competitors and gymrats call “the lifestyle”!

In November, my coach and I picked a show—the Phil Heath Classic.  Phil Heath won Mr. Olympia every year from 2011 – 2014.  When my coach first suggested that show, I probably had that deer in the headlights look.  I didn’t know a lot about the sport, but I knew that show is HUGE!  It’s one of the biggest in the entire NPC.  Held in Houston, it’s the first major show of the Season in Texas (which runs March through September or so), and draws a ton of spectators and people in the industry.  I had a trip planned for my 30th birthday on April 1st, so we had to be careful to keep that in mind when figuring out a contest prep plan, but ultimately the decision came down to my coach believing that I had the foundation, genetics, and motivation to do well at the Phil Heath Classic.  We were set—March, 28th, 2015!

December 2014 - Headed Into Prep
December 2014 – Headed Into Prep

That was just over 5 months ago.  I’m about two weeks out from the show, and yes, I have put on quite a bit of muscle, but I’m not green, and I’m not going around smashing things like the Hulk.  It would be pretty cool to be She Hulk for Halloween though, so that’s an option.

Till next time!

-Mere

From Clueless to Confident

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

We left off on the last post about what ultimately led me to compete.  To be honest, once I started learning how to build muscle by lifting weights and doing resistance training in the gym, and more importantly once I started seeing the changes in my body, I was hooked!  To me, lifting as a woman is empowering.  It builds more than just muscles.  It brings confidence, and relieves stress.  When I’m in the gym, everything else good and bad in my life or day fades away.  It’s just me and my tunes, and my rep, and the mind / muscle connection.  I discovered quickly what “failing out on a rep” meant and fell in love.  The feeling of pushing myself to get through a tough set challenged me like nothing else had before.  I could feel myself getting stronger, and since I was recording and logging my workouts (I just used a journal, but Shane has a cool app called Fitocracy), I could see my improvements week by week too.

A lot of people ask me how I started, how I figured out how to work out, how I went from being clueless to being able to confidently walk into a gym (we joined LA Fitness Memorial Day weekend 2014, which was really my FIRST gym membership ever) and know what I was doing.  I’m kind of a nerd at heart, and to be honest, I started researching online and just kept Googling, reading, Youtubing, and Pinteresting.  There is a TON of great information and numerous articles  available to you online.  As I mentioned in my last post, Bodybuilding.com is a great place to start.  The sources are credible, and there are awesome videos for form, training plans, etc. all right there at the click of a mouse.  I credit Jamie Eason’s Live Fit program on the site for really laying my foundation of weight training.

Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness.
Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness. Spring 2014.

The more I trained (that’s what we gymrats call working out), the more I absolutely grew to crave it.  I wanted to know more and learn more about this whole new world.  Beginning around January of 2014, and continuing through the spring and summer, I was eating clean 90% of the time and training 5-6 days a week.  I dropped my bootcamp membership in May, and dropped 10 pounds in 10 weeks when I began lifting 5 days a week instead of 3.  The bootcamp was fantastic, but I built more muscle by lifting heavy and often.  I now know that the muscle was burning fat, hence the weight loss.  I really wasn’t doing a lot of cardio at that point.  As far as nutrition goes, I was eating 6 meals a day, but wasn’t sure that I was getting the right macros, etc.  I was aiming for a lot of protein, and clean, “whole” foods, but I also now know I wasn’t really eating the right combination of macros to really build muscle.  Don’t worry, I’ll do several posts later on what I eat and what “clean eating” really means.

Now, back to the question of what made me decide to compete…  As of late summer of 2014, I had been reading Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines for about a year (I started reading them before I got serious about lifting), and I had seen girls in those magazines that just looked amazing.  They had the toned, muscular yet feminine look I was after!  I started seeing a trend that most of them were “competitors”, and I began to research things like the NPC (National Physique Committee—the largest and “grand daddy” of all Bodybuilding Federations), Figure, Bikini, Competition Prep, and I got very curious about the process and the whole competition experience.  I loved clean eating and working out, and had made it a lifestyle at this point, and competing would be the pinnacle of putting those two pieces together into a pretty extreme form, getting in peak physical condition, while competing against myself and fellow women to ultimately do something few others can say that they have done.  I was excited and nervous as hell at the mere THOUGHT of doing this.  Me, a BODYBUILDER?!?!?  I had only been lifting for six months!

Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.
Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.

I did more research, read more articles, talked to an acquaintance of mine (now a good friend, teammate, and mentor, Tonya!) who was also getting ready to compete and decided that I needed to see this in action.  Because I would be turning 30 soon, I wanted a goal to work towards, a challenge, something that could push me out of my comfort zone.  I loved this lifestyle and wanted to take it to the next level.  And to look AMAZING after a 12-week process, well, that would just be the icing on the cake!  Shane was totally on board, too.  We went to our first Bodybuilding competition in September of 2014, and I knew the second that I walked in and saw the tables of Quest Bars, friendly people with protein shakers in hand, supplement reps, meal preppers, sparkles, tans, and smiles, that I had found a crowd who “got” my obsession with this lifestyle.  I was surrounded by girly-girls who loved to lift too. Before I went to the show, I knew that one of two things was going to happen—either I would run towards the hills, or I would think to myself, dammit give me some stripper heels, some more muscle, and put me on that stage! As you all know, I obviously chose to get up on that stage and to rock it!

Till next time!

-Mere