Quick clip from yesterday. Cat’s her own worst critic, so I figured I’d let her see how her taper, and delts are shaping up.
S
She must be…, Id be totally stoked to have her legs!!
Love the taper, definitely one of my fav body parts on a female. I usually do the PBN with a BB (when I remember to work them in), thanks
for reminding me I can do them with the pull down machine. Where do you usually put them in ? Or is it always different?
tweet
[quote]Up wrote:
So speaking of diet, what are your thoughts on the saying I seem to be hearing more, “If it fits your macros”, maybe Stu could chime in here?
Not sure if it works during prep but just curious.[/quote]
I think a lot of people have the need to either grade an approach as good, or bad, with no degrees in between. To me, every prep has a certain amount of versatility in terms of food selections, and of course, from a strictly chemically based view, it is always arguable about all carbohydrate sources converting to sugar in the very end.
Still, what is of utmost concern when planning food choices, is satiety, variety, and of course, convenience. I doubt anyone will argue the approach of giving your body the best possible fuel sources and building blocks (the car analogy always pops up), but if you think about it, it’s not that the chicken in, say, a McDonalds sandwich is of any less value in terms of final protein once it’s broken down on a molecular level, it’s that it contains other ‘crap’, and usually less protein than you would get in a store bought, and home cooked chicken breast. As such, the cleaner choice would give you more nutrient bang for your caloric buck.
When I plan diets for people, I always try to keep in some bit of ‘fun’ stuff for as long as I can. I’d never plan an entire contest diet on junk food, even though I could (I’ve made diet plans for businessmen who can only eat at Chipotle and various chain restaurants before!), not if the goal was to get in the best possible condition. The small little ‘unclean’ stuff does provide a usually needed influx of carbs, but even more important; it provides such a psychological boost that you’d be surprised how much people look forward to a simple pop-tart 
S
[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Cat, the pics from your last contest are inspiring! You should be so proud.
Glad to hear you are still going at it. Eating at a deficit for 10 weeks is no joke. A lot of people have never stuck with a diet that long, much less doing it while training hard. I usually hit the “I’m hungry” point in about 3 weeks, so I’m impressed that it’s taken this long for you to feel it. Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing you as you get closer to goal.
Oh, and I wanted to mention something I just picked up about single leg glute bridges. This will work if your gym isn’t too busy, since you need two benches next to each other. Your upper back rests on one bench. Lay on it sideways, and hold on to the ends of the bench with your hands. The arch of one foot goes on the edge of the other bench, with the other leg up. Now you can get a nice full stretch at the bottom of each rep, dropping your booty below bench level then bridge up. [/quote]
Thank you! Once my contest prep ends, I’m interested to see the differences from the last contest, hopefully there will be improvements. Thanks for the glute bridge info, I’m going to try it out tomorrow (hamstring & glute day)!
The last two days have been tough - didn’t get to the gym yesterday (I had an event at school which lasted until 8, then had to pick up laundry by my parents house), didn’t get home until 9:30, I should have gone to the gym but was just so exhausted, so I missed an interval and abs day. Today I went to the diner with a friend ( I had grilled chicken and salad), within 40 minutes I felt horribly sick (it must have been food poisoning). As I write this I’m feeling a little better, just had some Ezekiel toast and a protein shake and will get to sleep within an hour… but it’s the second day in a row I didn’t get to the gym - not good 
just thinking about missing 2 days makes me feel like I took a step back this week…
In a meat-headed effort to cheer me up, Stu mentioned that Jay Cutler had food poisoning before one of his Olympias… which made me laugh… maybe the food poisoning will help my weight loss & make me shredded! LOL, Wishful thinking
@ Bird - thanks for the Thunder Cat clip! The old cartoon was so good and brings back memories! 
@ Up - thank you, I’m working hard on my legs and we’ve started to see some definition already at 9 weeks out. Even though I hate leg day I’m thinking I should continue focusing on them once contest prep is over, I would love to keep muscle definition there without the fat gain. I usually do scapular retractions with the cables, as my first exercise for back & biceps. The last 2 weeks I have been working out with a friend who is new to the gym, she wasn’t feeling the scap retractions the way I usually do it, so I asked Stu for advice on how to adapt the exercise so that my friend could feel her mid upper back muscles working - which is why I started doing the pull downs behind the neck.
Also, the cables were in use… It took me a long time to actually feel scapular retractions where I should (with the cables), and now I happen to love that particular exercise. I really like the pull downs behind the neck as well, and you feel it working immediately. Back/biceps is my favorite workout day, I always look forward to it!
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
[quote]Up wrote:
So speaking of diet, what are your thoughts on the saying I seem to be hearing more, “If it fits your macros”, maybe Stu could chime in here?
Not sure if it works during prep but just curious.[/quote]
I think a lot of people have the need to either grade an approach as good, or bad, with no degrees in between. To me, every prep has a certain amount of versatility in terms of food selections, and of course, from a strictly chemically based view, it is always arguable about all carbohydrate sources converting to sugar in the very end.
Still, what is of utmost concern when planning food choices, is satiety, variety, and of course, convenience. I doubt anyone will argue the approach of giving your body the best possible fuel sources and building blocks (the car analogy always pops up), but if you think about it, it’s not that the chicken in, say, a McDonalds sandwich is of any less value in terms of final protein once it’s broken down on a molecular level, it’s that it contains other ‘crap’, and usually less protein than you would get in a store bought, and home cooked chicken breast. As such, the cleaner choice would give you more nutrient bang for your caloric buck.
When I plan diets for people, I always try to keep in some bit of ‘fun’ stuff for as long as I can. I’d never plan an entire contest diet on junk food, even though I could (I’ve made diet plans for businessmen who can only eat at Chipotle and various chain restaurants before!), not if the goal was to get in the best possible condition. The small little ‘unclean’ stuff does provide a usually needed influx of carbs, but even more important; it provides such a psychological boost that you’d be surprised how much people look forward to a simple pop-tart
S[/quote]
Thanks Stu, I should have made my question a little more clear, wasnt rurally talking about all junk food, i assumed it meant that you could get carb from say potatoes or pasta, not always from brown rice/yam. But maybe when some use that expression they really are eating whatever they want , as long as it “fits” their macros. Thanks for chiming in.
2 days off from the gym…Ill bet you killed it today! Hang in there!!
Yes, it will be cool to see the changes, looking forward to it.
…Is the “fun” stuff that Stu mentioned above the black velvet PT? Thanks to you, I keep searching for them, no luck so far. My daughter had to hear me whining about them, so she picked me up a box of frosted cherry pomegranate. Hopefully they are tasty 
[quote]Up wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
[quote]Up wrote:
So speaking of diet, what are your thoughts on the saying I seem to be hearing more, “If it fits your macros”, maybe Stu could chime in here?
Not sure if it works during prep but just curious.[/quote]
I think a lot of people have the need to either grade an approach as good, or bad, with no degrees in between. To me, every prep has a certain amount of versatility in terms of food selections, and of course, from a strictly chemically based view, it is always arguable about all carbohydrate sources converting to sugar in the very end.
Still, what is of utmost concern when planning food choices, is satiety, variety, and of course, convenience. I doubt anyone will argue the approach of giving your body the best possible fuel sources and building blocks (the car analogy always pops up), but if you think about it, it’s not that the chicken in, say, a McDonalds sandwich is of any less value in terms of final protein once it’s broken down on a molecular level, it’s that it contains other ‘crap’, and usually less protein than you would get in a store bought, and home cooked chicken breast. As such, the cleaner choice would give you more nutrient bang for your caloric buck.
When I plan diets for people, I always try to keep in some bit of ‘fun’ stuff for as long as I can. I’d never plan an entire contest diet on junk food, even though I could (I’ve made diet plans for businessmen who can only eat at Chipotle and various chain restaurants before!), not if the goal was to get in the best possible condition. The small little ‘unclean’ stuff does provide a usually needed influx of carbs, but even more important; it provides such a psychological boost that you’d be surprised how much people look forward to a simple pop-tart
S[/quote]
Thanks Stu, I should have made my question a little more clear, wasnt rurally talking about all junk food, i assumed it meant that you could get carb from say potatoes or pasta, not always from brown rice/yam. But maybe when some use that expression they really are eating whatever they want , as long as it “fits” their macros. Thanks for chiming in.[/quote]
No worries. What I’ve always done myself, and I guess I naturally do this for my clients (Cat included) without even thinking about it, is to keep things simple. By that, I mean using a limited number of foods. This not only makes shopping, and preparing easy, but you never get that real tempting taste of something that you can only have in small amounts. Some people just can’t deal and end up binging after such a little tease.
Brown Rice, Yams, Potatoes,… it’s all going to come down to personal preference, and how full you feel after certain foods (ie. oatmeal is certainly more filling than a calorically equivalent serving of Quinoia). Of course both are ‘clean’ foods, but when you’re dieting, whatever fills you up better is going to have an edge in my book.
S
It’s been an interesting week. But first a funny little gym story.
There’s a woman (probably late 20s or early 30s) at the gym we go to, she is in AMAZING shape… everyone at the gym looks at her. She carries a lot of muscle, work out hard, and seems to be there everyday. Stu and I nicknamed her “Drago” (from Rocky IV) - because when I was sizing her up, Stu and I agreed that she would DESTROY me if we were competing in the same figure show. Also, she is very serious about her workouts and never talks to anyone… Well, a friend of ours (one of Stu’s clients, competitor, and SUPER NICE) happened to see “Drago” in the locker room and complimented her shoulders … Drago’s reply “I work very hard for this body” - no humility, gratitude, or kindness there… our friend was shocked and instantly regreted complimenting her. Whenever we see her in the gym now, Stu refers to me as Rocky (little, with a lot of heart), LOL… my goal is to look better than “Drago.”
Another interesing tidbit - I’ve been dieting for about 10 weeks and I’m constantly hungry and wanting to snack. I found a healthy apple pie a la mode! We have an apple pie protien bar that tastes like appple pie cookie dough in the microwave. Then we have vanilla maple Artic Zone ice cream (I had it during the holidays and thought it was pretty bad, however, after dieting for 10 weeks it is amazing - half a cup is 37 calories, 3 protien, and 6 carbs (not bad at all)… put the two together and you have apple pie a la mode, it’s healthy and fits into my daily numbers!
My weight loss stalled for this week and Stu had to drop my numbers (which he felt terrible about - I think things hurt Stu more than they do me), and he added 20 minutes of cardio after every weight work out (which sucks) - this means I’m in the gym for a minimum of two hours every day… The next 9 weeks are going to be loooooooong.
…Too bad on “Drago”. Not sure if there is any excuse for her comment, hopefully she regretted it later.
What does your training look like these days?
You mentioned earlier showing someone that had a hard time with that mind/muscle connection, how to make the connection.
Im not sure you can put it into words, like you can in person, but is there some analogy that you use for delts ? Yours are perfect.
Great on the leg definition !!!
How many calories are you taking in at this point and could you give a breakdown of the macro’s? (if you’re allowed to disclose this info of course
I ask because my wife is currently dieting and she is having 1400 training days and 1100 non-training days and the weight isn’t coming off as fast as she’d hoped although these calories seem on the low side to me but I am no expert. I’m trying to give as much input as I can on her diet but I feel like I’m starving her sometimes!! It would be nice to compare.
Thanks
EDIT OOPs wrong log HOPE ALL IS GREAT.
[quote]Up wrote:
…Too bad on “Drago”. Not sure if there is any excuse for her comment, hopefully she regretted it later.
What does your training look like these days?
You mentioned earlier showing someone that had a hard time with that mind/muscle connection, how to make the connection.
Im not sure you can put it into words, like you can in person, but is there some analogy that you use for delts ? Yours are perfect.
Great on the leg definition !!!
With 7 weeks left to go to the first contest, I'm really starting to feel it. I'm always tired, and just don't have enough time in a day to fit everything in, some days I just want to cry, there is so much to do (full time job, part time job, 2 grad classes, and a contest prep) - next week is spring break and I feel like I can finally catch up on sleep, work, and life. Stu mentioned possibly increasing my cardio - which I replied "I can't spend any more time on cardio, I'd rather drop my calories" - Stu kind of hesitates with dropping calories though since I'm still making progress, but the progress has slowed a bit, we hoped my weight would be a little lower at this point.... so we will see where I am this weekend.
Here's my workout split:
I wake up at 5am and do half an hour of cadio everyday
monday - chest/delt/tri
tuesday - abs/intervals
wednesday - back/bis (at home on the pull up bar - since I get home at 9:30ish)
thursday - hamstrings/glutes - a little delt & tri at end of workout
friday - abs/intervals
saturday - back/bis
sunday - legs
Stu tailored this workout to fit around my work scheduled and to address my weaknesses. The last few weeks we've added about 30 minutes of cardio after my weight workouts.
Thank you about my delts! I do laterals, front raises, and shoulder press. For my last contest prep I think they looked better 7 weeks out than they do now, however at 7 weeks out last time I also weighted quite a bit less... so maybe I put on some muscle, but I still need to lose weight. I really am worried I won't be ready for the first contest :(
For hamstrings - romanian deadlifts - I lowered the weight to 35 lbs dbs and feel it more as far as mind/muscle connection - although I can lift 50lbs, I think my back comes into play a lot more then. With the lower weight I can really concentrate on my hams & glutes, although I can do more reps too, but I try to milk every rep.
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
How many calories are you taking in at this point and could you give a breakdown of the macro’s? (if you’re allowed to disclose this info of course
I ask because my wife is currently dieting and she is having 1400 training days and 1100 non-training days and the weight isn’t coming off as fast as she’d hoped although these calories seem on the low side to me but I am no expert. I’m trying to give as much input as I can on her diet but I feel like I’m starving her sometimes!! It would be nice to compare.
Thanks[/quote]
On an average day I take in about 1700 calories, then I have higher and lower days for a weekly re-feed or days that only entail cardio. But Stu constantly stresses that it’s not just calories in vs. calories out. Most of my carbs come from my morning oatmeal and my after workout pop tart. I started this contest prep with lower carbs, we realized last time that I’m carb sensitive. Stu on the other hand increases his carbs when dieting, bastard!!! 
We are happy with just 1 pound per week weight loss. Some of Stu’s clients lose more weight per week at the beginning, however they start out with more weight to lose, and they usually complain that they can’t eat that much. Eating enough food is also a challenge, the first 10 weeks I had to force myself to eat, even though I wasn’t hungry. Now I’m at the point where I’m constantly hunger, all I want to do is eat!!! This time around I’m able to diet on more calories than I did last time. Stu constantly reminds me that I don’t want to lose too much weight at the expense of losing muscle.
Hang in there…lots can happen in 7 weeks! You are probably being harder on yourself than need be.
No rest day at all? Not even 1?
Any progress pics?
Keep killin it!
I cant believe your schedule…, that in itself makes you a winner!
Thanks on the MMC, was referring mainly to your shoulders, that cap, although I *think Im feeling it more where I should, time will tell.
I agree with CG, that still is whole lota time. ENJOY your spring break!
[quote]Thunder Cat wrote:
For hamstrings - romanian deadlifts - I lowered the weight to 35 lbs dbs and feel it more as far as mind/muscle connection - although I can lift 50lbs, I think my back comes into play a lot more then. With the lower weight I can really concentrate on my hams & glutes, although I can do more reps too, but I try to milk every rep.
[/quote]
Still going stong I see! You’re so busy with all the working and classes. I’m so impressed that you have taken this on! HARDCORE - like the diva chick in your gym, only nicer.
About RDL’s, I’ve noticed the exact same thing. I like to to them in the rack with a BB, but I can often feel my hams more with just the 25’s on the bar. If I load the weight up a lot, I will recruit the low back, and sometimes can’t seem to even activate my hamstrings. I suppose whatever weight lets you really make the connection and control the muscles you want to control is the effective weight.
Public Service Announcement -
Some of you have mentioned your wives or GF’s training. I just put up a Directory of Women’s Logs thread in the Powerful Women Forum. If you know of other logs scattered about, or if there are other women following along but not logging now, please sign in so we can network with each other.
Best!
Puff
@coyotegal - LOL, No rest for the weary… Stu doesn’t give me any breaks!! Not even 1 day every other week… I have a lot more work to do this contest prep and I started out at about 9 lbs heavier than last time (so I can understand no breaks, I don’t like it - but I get it).
This week was really nice, being that we are teahers Stu and I had off this week for spring break - we were both able to catch up on sleep and get important things done (like finally picking out our wedding pictures! YAY!).Training is going well, dieting is going ok too. My weight loss was beginning to stall, so we tweaked my diet - I now have 3 low (calorie/carb) days in a row, and it has kept my weight loss at a steady pace.
@Up - Thanks! Although my schedule is hectic, the more I look around I think everyone has their own crazy, hectic, schedules… There was a woman with her little daughter in the locker room at the gym, the daughter was giving her a hard time about being there - I overheard the the mother telling her little girl that “mommy only asks for 1 hour a day to train for her race, it’s very important to me” - it was inspiring to hear - made me feel like I really don’t have an excuse for missing a workout.
Also, on the shoulder laterals - I go really slow on the decline and try not to pause after each rep.
@Powerpuff - I’m glad to hear that you also feel your hams more with a lower weight! I felt guilty going with the lower weight, until I came to the realization that my back comes into play more more weight. Thanks for the Public Service Announcement!! I’m headed over to that forum now!