9 weeks out from competition
Oh blimey just 9 weeks to go now - I'm in single figures with my competition count down which is a scary thought, but exciting too!
So this week my focus has been on the last phase of bulking before I start the final cutting phase through to competition. The plan is to continue bulking for the next week or so and then do an 8 week fat strip to get me as lean as possible for competing. Many competitors will do a much longer, slower cutting phase but after weighing up my options my trainer Christian and I decided that I don't need quite as long to get to a desirable level of body fat and need to focus a little more on keeping my muscles full. So this week I'm feeling particularly nervous as I am following other people who are in full blown competition prep and are looking exceptionally lean, whereas I am still holding on to that excess body fat while I finish bulking. The thing is, I lose muscle really easily so a long cutting phase might be detrimental for me in terms of holding on to my lean mass.
Nutrition wise I am eating a lot of calories (approx 2,900) and lots more carbohydrates this week to encourage muscle growth. Being a hard gainer, I need to make sure I'm taking in 300g of carbs each day now. Even though I'm eating a lot of food, I'm finding it quite hard to hit my target especially when I'm eating really clean foods. Some people opt for just eating junk foods to get their calories up, but this is a slippery slope to getting fat! Not that I wouldn't kill for a bowl of waffles and ice cream right now (I really would!) it's not worth the risk.
My training has switched up this week too and I have reverted back to a previous phase of training where I carry out split body part training sessions, which looks something like this:
Day 1 - Legs and glutes
Day 2 - Chest, with cardio finisher
Day 3 - Back and biceps, with cardio finisher
Day 4 - Legs, glutes and shoulders
Day 5 - Triceps, abs and calves, with cardio finisher
Day 6 - Shoulders, with cardio finisher
Day 7 - Rest
The aim of split body part training is to cause enough stress on a particular muscle group to create tears in the muscle tissue, which encourages the muscle fibres to rebuild stronger and bigger. Of course 45 minutes of work on one particular muscle group is tough work on your body and causes a serious amount of soreness aka DOMS the day after (and the day after that too if you're really lucky!) I often finish 4 heavy sets of an exercise with a 'pump' set, where you drop the weights really light and complete high reps to the point where even a 2kg dumbbell feels like lifting an elephant. This causes a huge amount of blood flow to the muscles, known as 'the pump', which encourages protein synthesis and muscle building in the working muscle. Boy these sets sting!!
And the big news of this week - the spangly bikini has arrived at long last!! So here's some pics of me practicing my posing in my gear this week. Obviously I won't have my post workout sweaty glow and pastey skin for the real thing but it feels good to start seeing how I might look on the day. Still finding the posing really tricky and need to remember to smile too!!Oh blimey just 9 weeks to go now - I'm in single figures with my competition count down which is a scary thought, but exciting too!
So this week my focus has been on the last phase of bulking before I start the final cutting phase through to competition. The plan is to continue bulking for the next week or so and then do an 8 week fat strip to get me as lean as possible for competing. Many competitors will do a much longer, slower cutting phase but after weighing up my options my trainer Christian and I decided that I don't need quite as long to get to a desirable level of body fat and need to focus a little more on keeping my muscles full. So this week I'm feeling particularly nervous as I am following other people who are in full blown competition prep and are looking exceptionally lean, whereas I am still holding on to that excess body fat while I finish bulking. The thing is, I lose muscle really easily so a long cutting phase might be detrimental for me in terms of holding on to my lean mass.
Nutrition wise I am eating a lot of calories (approx 2,900) and lots more carbohydrates this week to encourage muscle growth. Being a hard gainer, I need to make sure I'm taking in 300g of carbs each day now. Even though I'm eating a lot of food, I'm finding it quite hard to hit my target especially when I'm eating really clean foods. Some people opt for just eating junk foods to get their calories up, but this is a slippery slope to getting fat! Not that I wouldn't kill for a bowl of waffles and ice cream right now (I really would!) it's not worth the risk.
My training has switched up this week too and I have reverted back to a previous phase of training where I carry out split body part training sessions, which looks something like this:
Day 1 - Legs and glutes
Day 2 - Chest, with cardio finisher
Day 3 - Back and biceps, with cardio finisher
Day 4 - Legs, glutes and shoulders
Day 5 - Triceps, abs and calves, with cardio finisher
Day 6 - Shoulders, with cardio finisher
Day 7 - Rest
The aim of split body part training is to cause enough stress on a particular muscle group to create tears in the muscle tissue, which encourages the muscle fibres to rebuild stronger and bigger. Of course 45 minutes of work on one particular muscle group is tough work on your body and causes a serious amount of soreness aka DOMS the day after (and the day after that too if you're really lucky!) I often finish 4 heavy sets of an exercise with a 'pump' set, where you drop the weights really light and complete high reps to the point where even a 2kg dumbbell feels like lifting an elephant. This causes a huge amount of blood flow to the muscles, known as 'the pump', which encourages protein synthesis and muscle building in the working muscle. Boy these sets sting!!
And the big news of this week - the spangly bikini has arrived at long last!! So here's some pics of me practicing my posing in my gear this week. Obviously I won't have my post workout sweaty glow and pastey skin for the real thing but it feels good o start seeing how I might look on the day. Still finding the posing really tricky and need to remember to smile too!!
