Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Bye Bye June!

I had a good workout at the gym today. I did a couple of pulling exercises then some little stuff for quads and hamstrings.

My forearms are KILLING me. They're throbbing so bad right now. I think I might go to physio if it doesn't improve by the end of the week. I've found a way to self massage them - oil them up and massage the muscle over my knee. Matt keeps telling me to stop being a baby and that injuries are normal, but I'm not used to having injuries!!!

I had my first day in a long time of decent food. For breakfast I had low fat cottage cheese with muscle milk mixed in. Lunch was tuna salad and a non fat latte. Dinner was baked lamb leg steaks with roasted pumpkin and red onion. I had some almond nut butter and baked corn chips as snacks.

I went to the pet shop today to get some stuff for Daisy and saw some bunnies there. Man, they were huge compared to Daisy and they were supposed to be young-uns. Makes me realise how little she is. She won't grow much bigger than she is now.

That's all I have to say for now!! :-D

Monday, June 29, 2009

Monday Monday...

Yay! We joined up at the new gym today; it feels good to finally have a regular gym to go to. I did an upper body workout which got cut short by an excruciating headache. I'm sure I looked like a weirdo; it was so bad my eyes started tearing. I must have looked like I was crying haha... in the end Nurofen and a short nap saved the day.

I received my protein powder order from bodybuilding.com today. I got 2 pots of Muscle Milk - Orange Creme and White Chocolate Mousse and Syntrax Nectar Strawberry Kiwi and Fuzzy Navel. Daisy had a great time with the box; she was digging, biting and scratching at it. She loves tearing shit up.




I finally got to use my new food processor which I bought last week. I made Vanilla Almond butter... nom nom. It does a much better job than the blender. Sooo much cheaper to make your own nut butter than to buy it and you can make different combinations and flavours. I might try making a nutella type nut butter next!

So I think I'm finally ready to get some structure in my training and diet. It comes at a funny time because I decided over the past week that I am not going to be competing in bodybuilding this year. Probably not ever again actually, but I never say never because I never know what will happen. It's a huge relief to finally make a decision, and I'm comfortable with it. Now I can just concentrate on eating for health (like I have been) and just enjoying life and training. Bodybuilding is fun in it's own way, but in the end it is basically torture... LOL. Anyway, my plan is to figure out a regular training routine, get stronger, figure out a "diet" so I can shed a few kilos and feel more comfortable in my clothing.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Weekly Workouts - Week 5

* Monday June 22nd

No Weight Training

Cardio: 55 min Step Class
Practiced some L holds on some elevated bars. My forearms feel like they've got shin splints or something!

* Tuesday June 23rd - Off Day

* Wednesday June 24th

1 hour aerobics class
20 minutes easy cardio on stationary bike

* Thursday June 25th - Off Day

* Friday 26th June

Mini depletion workout
Abs
Jump Rope 10 mins
Kicked the shit out of a bag for 25 minutes

My forearms are still really sore :-/

* Saturday 27th June - Off Day

* Sunday 28th June

55 minute Step Class.

So it's been over a week any my forearms are STILL really sore. I tried to lift something heavy at work a few days ago and they hurt like hell. I hope they heal soon cos it makes it hard to do any pressing movements. It's the reason why I haven't done any decent weights this week.

Our trial at the gym ended today. We are going to join up to tomorrow so we will finally have a regular gym to go to. I still miss my old gym in Australia.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Too Tired To Go To Bed

I find this ridiculous, but the past couple of weeks I've literally been too tired to go to bed some nights. I get home, get ready and go to the gym, make and eat dinner, let Daisy run about and then sit down to my computer (about 11:30pm). Half an hour later I am falling asleep on the couch and just feel way too tired to get up and get ready to go to bed. So I end up getting a poor nights sleep and get even more tired. It's a vicious circle *sigh*

Back to work tomorrow. I had a really good weekend with the Strong Woman competition and just getting stuff done. I actually got an email from someone at the local paper who wants to do a story on me winning the Strong Woman competition.... how about that LOL.

For dinner tonight we had Basil Pesto Chicken. I cut up some vegetables: sweet potato, carrot, zucchini, red onion, yellow sweet pepper and seasoned it all with olive oil, rock salt and cracked pepper. I lay the vegetables in a roasting pan. I then coated 2 chicken breasts with a couple of tablespoons of basil pesto and then placed them on top of the veggies and roasted the lot in the oven @ 400 degrees F for 45 minutes. VERY nice.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Workouts - Week 4

I think I'm going to start logging my workouts weekly. It's actually easier to follow this way I think.

* Tuesday 16th June

Squats

warmup, then

87.5kg x 5, 4 sets

These felt so easy I actually had to double check the weights to make sure I had put on that much. Awesome.

Split Squats
3 x 10 x 60kg

Seated Leg Curls
4 x 10

Single Legged Press
3 x 10 x 30kg aside

Cardio: 20 minutes incline walking on treadmill 6.5km/hr @ 6% incline.

* Wednesday 17th June

Bench Press
70kg x 5, 3 sets

DB Press (Neutral Grip)
27.5kg x 8, 3 sets

DB Row
35kg x 10, 3 sets

Bench Row
40kg x 8, 2 sets
45kg x 8, 2 sets

Tricep Pushdowns (V Bar) 3 x 10
Bicep Curls (Machine) 2 x 10

* Thursday 18th June

Off Day

* Friday 19th June

Rower - Intervals for 20 minutes
Treadmill - Incline walking 20 minutes, 6.0-6.2km/hr @ 10%

* Saturday 20th June

Strong Woman Competition

* Sunday 21st June

No weight training

Cardio: 50 minute Body Combat class + 20 minutes SS cardio on recumbent bike @ 100 watts.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Workouts for the week

Tuesday 9th
Squats
85kg x 5, 4 sets

Split Squats
50kg x 10, 3 sets

Seated Leg Curls
4 x 12

Reverse Crunches
4 x 15


Wednesday 10th
DB Press (Neutral Grip)
29kg x 8, 3 sets

DB Row
34kg x 8, 3 sets

Pullups
BW x 5, 2 sets

Lat Pulldown
4 x 6

Concentration Curls
3 x 10 x 9kg

BB Curl
3 x 10 x 20kg

Lateral Raises
2 x 10 x 7kgs
1 x 10 x 9kgs


Friday 12th
2 Board
warmup then
80kg x 5, 3 sets
These felt HARD. Considering I was going to go for a top set of 87.5kg x 5 today, this was a shit workout.

Scap Shrugs with T Bar
3 x 10 x 20kg

Face Pulls
3 x 10

Cardio this week was dismal. I did a total of about 15 minutes walking on the treadmill.

Monday, June 8, 2009

A Day in the Life of Daisy Bunny

Here are a collection of clips I took of Daisy. She loves to race up and down the hallway like a racehorse - especially if I'm in the other room; she'll race down the hallway then back into the kitchen to see me. Rabbits are awesome.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Training News!

I had a great training session today. Short 'n Sweet.

2 board
warmup benching then
80kg x 5
82.5kg x 5
85kg x 5
60kg x 10 (regular flat bench)

I'm pleased with my 2 board, it's feeling pretty damn good right now. Maybe I will get my 100kg bench by the end of the year :-D

Romanian Deadlifts
4 x 6 x 90kg

YTWL drills

Concentration Curls 3 x 10 x 10.5kgs

As usual no cardio!

So! I have some news. I have entered myself into a Strongwoman competition which is in 2 weeks time. I've emailed the guy that's organizing it asking if they have any training days so I can practice some of the events. I've only done a couple of the events before when I visited Shannon's Strongman crew in Sydney. Anyway, I'm excited about it - it should be a lot of fun!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

I am back! Finally!

My god.

Finally got internet after 3 weeks! Bloody hell, I didn't expect it to take that long, I was thinking like 3 days :-/

It's been a hassle trying to find a gym here. There's the university gym which I initially planned on joining but there is just no parking. They've redone all the roads since I was last here and got rid of a shitload of the street parking so if there is no where to park, there is no gym. At the mo we're going to a gym which is pretty good near my Mum's place - but it's like 20km away, so it's a bit of a drive and with gas so expensive it won't be worth it in the long run. We just joined for a month, so when that's up we're going to try another gym closer to us for a week to see how that goes. Gosh I hope we find one soon.... I haven't had much luck with gyms this year :-/

Daisy is great. She is fully toilet trained now!! Unless she gets on the couch - for some reason she thinks it's her second toilet so we don't let her on it now. When we let her out in the kitchen and lounge - no problems. She follows me around, comes when I call her and she jumps on my lap and eats salad out of my hand - she is an adorable pet. I just love her!

We also got a cat, which I'm not very fond of. It's Matt's pet. Her name is Freddie (we got her from the SPCA, an animal shelter here and they had already named her). I've never had a cat in my life and I've always been in the situation where I've hung around them for a little and liked them but could always give them back (kinda like kids.... LOL). Living with one is hard though, it would be better if we could let her outside but we live on a main street with busy traffic. Nevermind!

I've just gotten into training in the last week. I basically had a 3 week break after we moved. I've been feeling strong though. Here are my workouts for the last week and today:

Workout Tuesday 26 May
Squats 70x5, 80x5x3
Lunges 3x10x40kg - R leg a little funny near coccyx
Leg Curls (seated) 4x10


Workout Wednesday 27 May
Bench 60x8, 70x5x2
Pendlay Row 60x5x3
DB Row 3x8x32.5kg
Rolling Tricep Extensions 3x8x12kgs
Bicep Curls 4x10

Cardio: rower, 3km 15 mins


Workout Friday 29th
2 board 75kgx8, 77.5kgx8, 80kgx8: I think this is the most reps I've done at this weight!
RDLs 80kgx8, 100kgx8, 100kgx6x2, 80kgx10
YTWL Drills 3x10
Bulgarian Squats 3x10x14.5kgs
2 sets of machine rows with a light weight concentrating on contracting scapulae.

No cardio.


Workout Tues 2nd June
Squats 82.5kg x 5 x 4 sets
Split Squats 50kg x 10 x 3 sets
Seated Leg Curls 4 x 10
One Legged Leg Press 3P x 10 x 3
Rolling Tricep Extensions 4 x 10 x 9kg
Dips (heels elevated) 3 x 15


Workout Wed 3rd June
Neutral Grip DB Press 23kg x 8, 29kg x 8, 6, 5, 25kg x 8
DB Row 32.5kg x 8, 3 sets
Lat Pulldown 3 x 10
Machine Row 3 x 10
Concentration Curls 3 x 10 x 10.5kg

That's all my training for now. Apart from the 15 minutes on the rower, I've done basically NO cardio since I got here. I'm thinking of getting up early tomorrow and going for a run... don't know if that will happen... I want to though!

Work is going pretty good - a lot more relaxed than my old job which is great!

I think that's all for now! Good to be back :-)