March 21, 2010 |
| Physical Therapy...I Believe! |
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So, I started with a new physical therapist last week. Coming from a perspective of numerous failed attempts at physical therapy, I have to admit I was very skeptical!
See, I've been dealing with three injuries, two of them chronic and over two years old and one that recently joined the party but equally reluctant to go away.
The muscle spasm in my right trapezius muscle (neck/shoulder region) has been with me since September 2008. The thing deep in my right butt cheek...bone deep...could be anything and has been with me since December 2008. I've self-diagnosed it as an ischial tuberosity injury and piriformis syndrome, neither of which have been confirmed. The recent addition to my family of injuries is a groin pull on the right that arrived in February of this year right after a I set a personal record on heavy squats. I didn't actually feel it till after I racked the weight on my third heavy set and I haven't squatted, lunged or leg pressed since. I refuse to let it become chronic like the other two hangers-on.
Anwyay, anyone notice the trend of all three issues being on my right side? There's obviously something wrong there right?!
Well, the first physcial therapist gave me heat therapy, some massage therapy and silly exercises to do...waste of time. The second one told me to take six weeks off from weight training to which I replied "fat chance romance" and never went back. This third attempt however bodes very well so far, I might even become a convert...
So, Will spent five minutes talking to me, five minutes assessing me visually and manually and then he laid me on my left side and worked me over for 20 minutes. He manipulated, moved, pressed, pulled, massaged, trigger pointed and all around beat me up. I was so impressed with how hard he was working it totally made me feel like he had to be fixing something. Lo and behold when it was all over I got up and walked out feeling great!! It was amazing! And, I've felt really good for the two days since.
Granted, I was already three weeks into of a self-imposed time out from weight training but for any of you who read my workout journal you know I've been hitting the cardio hard and heavy for double sessions on most days to make up for not lifting weights. I know I was already feeling better because of that, especially in the neck and groin areas from not working out with weights but I really feel like whatever Will did for me has made it better still!!
I go for my second appointment next week. I'm really looking forward to it, I hope, now that the consult formalities are out of the way, I'll get the full force of Will's might for all my remaining sessions and be back to 100% before I know it!
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March 9, 2010 |
| Wheels are spinnin' |
OK, if there are any faithful blog readers please accept my regrets! I know it's been a while since my last post. An influx of clients (thanks to the website) and a few involved projects have kept me a bit busy lately. Plus, we've found out where we are headed next. Within a few months we will be headed to Tampa Florida!
We will be there for three years with Jason pulling duty as a Central Command international affairs staff officer. We'll see what I'll be up to, but my standard MO is to check out a few of the local gyms and pick up some classes, which allows me to see which direction I want to head in. There's also the possibility of starting up some beach boot camp classes... from what I can tell, the area has some great sand!
We are looking to rent a bigish house in Clearwater or St. Pete so we can be close to the water. Jason is really looking forward to doing some warm water kitesurfing, and beaches are good with me too! With this assignment we are sort of completing a circle since we began our Air Force career in Florida back in 1998 when we were in Pensacola Florida for Jason's flight school.
From a personal fitness standpoint, I've given myself a bit of time off from weights, and I've ramped up my cardio sessions along with moving right along with my spring diet. The break from weights mostly comes from some lagging injuries I need to attend to, which include another try with a physical therapist.
Besides that, I've got two clients getting ready to hit the bodybuilding stage in May, and I'm very excited to see how it all comes together for them. I'm starting to get my calendar out and thinking about a show in the fall myself.
I'm winding down my studio here, and expect to be done training clients around the beginning of April... so I'll keep the site updated as far as the transition goes, and be ready to hit the ground running with whatever I get into once we are in Tampa.
If anyone has any insights into Tampa please drop me a line!
Yours in Sweat,
Lisa
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January 31, 2010 |
| Spring cleaning and summer prep |
The rains have hit California recently, which has given us a lot of time to catch up on "indoor stuff." One of those chores has been to organize our plan for the standard spring/summer cutting phase.
If you don't know, most bodybuilders spend a good part of the year intentionally putting on more weight as we try to get stronger and build more muscle. Then, at some point, we change our focus and try to burn off our excess body fat in order to reveal that newly acquired muscle underneath. On March 1st our transition from gaining to cutting phase begins. Our lifting partner, Eileen, has picked a show in the middle of May for her stage debut, and we are all set to tag along with her. Many of our other friends and clients are also looking at the show season and begining to pick their dates, and for the rest of us, we all know warmer weather is coming soon, and now is a great time to start thinking about bathing suit season.
In order to make it easier to embark on this cutting phase we've created some nice checklists and procedures for nearly foolproof guidance. Here's an outline of what we've come up with. If you have any questions or are interested in any aspect of this program, let me know.
Goal: To lose body fat slowly and preserve muscle.
1. Get your data: weight, bodyfat %, body fat as pounds, LBM as pounds. Record and track these numbers as you go.
2. Run your numbers: use a caloric calculator to determine your targets, and also your macronutrient breakdown. Here's a link to one we like to use:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm#
3. Build your meals to meet your macros. We've developed a "Contest Prep. Food List" for those looking towards the stage, but for less extreme goals simply putting together healthy meals will do.
4. Track your food intake and calorie burn from exercise.
5. Assess your progress each week. As you lose weight you'll have to re-run your numbers and adjust your caloric intake.
6. Make adjustments. Based on your progress use the variables of variable calorie days, macro ratio adjustments, macro timing, caloric adjustments, or cardio intensity/duration.
This is essentially the process I use to get stage or bikini ready. There are a lot of details that go into activating this plan, but this is the overall outline of the process. We are typically shooting for an average of 1-2 lbs. of weight loss per week. Anything more that that and there's a good chance we'd be losing some of that hard earned muscle!
Are you ready to start your spring cleaning? If you need some help let me know.
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January 25, 2010 |
| Gym Rant |
Gyms can be a funny place. I was reminded of this fact last weekend when I enjoyed a special dance performance being held on the Stairmaster at my local gym. A youngish 20something cardio queen was rocking out to her ipod in such a way that attention to herself was the least she was drawing. Honestly, it was like a train wreck – and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. As you know, the Stairmaster has its own special rhythm, depending on what speed setting and length of stride you have. I’m not sure that mattered to our little dancer one bit. Her particular dance style can only be described as a bizarre cross between crunking and strip tease… (google “crunk dance” to get an idea). But there was so much herky-jerkiness to it that she was literally falling off the machine on more than one occasion. It was all I could do to not go find out what she was listening to that actually made her body move in such a fashion. – Yes, I checked for a medical bracelet, it was not a seizure.
From there, my memory wandered to other characters I’ve seen over the years. There was the notorious “Naked Shaver” at my college gym. He was a guy who would shave his whole body while standing in the middle of the men’s locker room. I never personally saw him in action… but the stories of him are legendary. Then there was the guy lifting in Tevas (no socks) that dropped a 45 lb. plate on his toe, from four feet! Another, “Junk Flosser” had a special technique for performing cable upright rows with his back to the weight stack… I’m sure you can get the visual. Then there was the guy who smashed a 90 lb. dumbbell on his own cell phone – shattered!
Lately, clowns can be found in every gym texting during workouts – very intense. Then there’s grunters, screamers, loud talkers, posers, partner assisted lifters, and scantily clad gym goers in every gym I’ve ever been in, some of these things I’ve even been accused of myself!
The point of this reflection is to point out that: Gyms should not be, not for anyone, ever, an intimidating place. Granted, some dope might drop a dumbbell near you, risking harm to your foot, or worse. But that’s the point; the dumbbell dropper is a dope! Not you! No matter what your fitness level, your gym is your place to do your thing. If some meathead next to you is putting you in danger, call him out on it! If he’s not putting you in danger, but only amusing you with his antics, feel free to laugh (inside or out). Try not to stare… but know that I can’t help it either!
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of people essentially wasting their time in the gym. Not because they don’t want to work out hard, but often because they just don’t feel comfortable. Most don’t do real harm to themselves, but many are not doing much good either. If you are one of those people that are sometimes uncomfortable in a gym, there’s no reason you can’t do something to make a change. For starters, make the front desk folks or floor trainers earn their money. Ask them for some help, or make them deal with any uncomfortable situations as they arise. Ask a fellow member for some help or advice… but don’t assume their word is gospel. Do some research on your own, and one of the best techniques is to find people who look the way you want to, and ask them how they got that way. Heck - ask the dancing queen what she’s listening to. Maybe her music is just that good!
If you have any funny gym stories I’d love to hear them in the comments section!
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January 9, 2010 |
| Livestrong Daily Plate |
Last year one of my clients turned me on to a website associated with Lance Armstrong, www.livestrong.com, that has a great daily nutritional tracker called "Daily Plate." There's a free version that's definitely good enough, and a paid subscription option that has more memory and nice additional features.
The site has more than just the food log, but that's what we use the most. You can start by finding out your basal metabolic rate (BMR), then input a weight loss goal, and a time frame, and it will set up a daily caloric target for you to reach your goal. Then you record your daily caloric intake using search features that pull the nutritional profile for thousands of food items. The search feature is very powerful, which makes this very accurate and exact. The search recognizes brands and calculates whatever serving size you actually eat.
There are a few techniques we use to make the log very efficient, including building standard meals like "breakfast 1, 2, 3" so that we don't have to input each item every time, we just click on "breakfast 1" and it includes our previously loaded: oatmeal, rasins, scoop of protein, coffee, two creamers, and sweetener. Each meal you create would also have it's own specifically loaded profile.
At the end of the day it's easy to see the totals of your calories, fat, carbs, protein. Plus you can upload your workouts and calorie burn.
If you want more information about this let me know. If you want to use this program in conjunction with what we are doing that would be great too. There's a feature that allows you to grant someone else (like your trainer) access into your log to review and assist.
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January 2, 2010 |
| Jillian vs. Bob? |
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The new year brings us another season of NBC's, The Biggest Loser, season 9. I can't get enough of this show, and I'm always amazed at the transformations made by these contestants. Both of the featured trainers are awesome, but to me, Jillian really stands out as both motivational and hilarious. I love her personality and often feel we must be twins seperated at birth. I am so jealous that she gets to train clients with a full blown medical support staff just off camera. If I could have an emergency response team at arm's length there would be even more screaming in my studio!
If you are a fan of the show you'll see that TBL stresses supplemental protein and the contestants are not starving themselves to lose weight. The basics remain the same, even in their extreme circumstances: nutrition, cardio, and resistance training. If I could make one change to TBL format it would be to focus on body composition changes as well, not just the weight loss percentages. Pounds of muscle built via resistance training should not be held against them, and I think this would be an important distinction for the broader public to be exposed to.
What do you think of the show? What about the training techniques? I'm interested to hear your comments.
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2010
Physical Ther...
January (4)