Getting ready for Spider Games II

I am still getting ready for Spider Games. I am mentally ready, especially after the seeing the guys qualify on Sunday.

Two things I have improved on:
airborne lunges - I can do 30 per leg, with pleasure
push ups - while I still don't kick ass, I am so much better, I can get 16 with great form and 20 with some compromises in depth
My bench is growing, which will affect my performance.
L-sit - 30 seconds, not that hard anymore, are you?

Nov 18 is close! These last few weeks have been very demanding, both physically and emotionally! The sources of strength are abundant! Nature is kind, and so it my music :)

Writing vs. lecturing

I've just had a week of heavy writing, that is not yet over. Being a fitness editor for a pregnancy magazine is lots of fun. I have the freedom to take whatever photos I like and include whatever exercises I choose provided I do not go overboard with nutritional strictness. My job also includes lecturing at the motherhood school that some of the readers attend. Today I was talking about postnatal recovery and the need to take charge of your own body just hours after you gave birth.

Here are some random thoughts on observing and talking to the 60 women that attended today:

1. Pizza, ice-cream and juice were the main staples eaten at the lecture. Every time I mentioned clean eating I got a lot of understanding looks and no one seemed to connect what I was talking about to what they had chosen to eat while listening. Waiters were still bringing cake and ice-cream at the end of the lecture. Knowing vs. doing is a powerful opposition.

2. Women care more about weight loss that about lower back health.

3. They will carry a growing baby around and will walk upstairs with a stroller under their arm, but they will refuse to join a gym because weights are not good for them.

4. They would rather take supplements and use anti-cellulite lotion than do a set of lunges, because it takes less time.

5. They will postpone starting an exercise program until they are done breastfeeding. I find that is the same type of women that procrastinated before they got pregnant, found a reason not to exercise while they were pregnant and will look for more after birth.

6. They will eat olive oil, but they won't eat lamb. Did you know that half the fat in lamb is monounsaturated?

7. They will not face the fact that taking care for a baby is hard physical labor, and they need to be prepared. I am thinking of starting a prenatal strength and conditioning program, where deadlifting, barbell rowing and snatching are staples.

8. Doctors fail to give adequate advice and will err on the wrong side. At least Americans have ACOG. We have nothing like that.

9. 100% of the mothers that attended love my articles and recipes. None of them ever tried the exercises or the recipes.

I am working on a large multimedia presentation that I have to show in 12 towns in a month. I will meet over 1000 women. I will repeat the phrase " take responsibility" over 200 times.

Have an apple!

It's Sunday night. I've had a hard medium length workout, two small protein rich meals, a long and fun dinner with friends and a sweet tooth. Why we humans want sweets is not a mystery. Beyond satisfying immediate energy needs through fast sugar pathways we need it to feel loved and comforted. I would be the last person on Earth to urge someone toward eating sweets or have unnecessary carbs, however at the end of my week, my friends, an apple feels just fine! 20 grams of sugar, some fiber and all the satisfaction I need, all rolled up into a premade serving size! 1 apple to rule them all:)

Getting ready for Spider Games

Once a year we have a competition that is entered by some of our trainers, clients, friends and other people who train and want to participate. The main goal is to give trainees something to train for, rather than just going to work out. It also allows us to compare how people have developed through the year. I am doing it this year first because there are only a handful of women competing and also because I want to have fun lifting with and around other people.

I am given a few days break between cycles with Bill and I am working on some of the main lifts.

Here are my numbers so far, and I have three weeks till the competition, which is on Nov 18.

Pull up 1 - I have lost a lot of my pull up strength, first because I am carrying more bodyweight in my lower body and second because I haven't been doing them since we started realigning my back. I use my muscles in new patterns that I am not used to.

Conventional Deadlift - 87.5kg 1RM - I can do more but I don't want to do maximum attempts right now

Lunge 60kg 1RM - knee should touch floor so I am not pushing for higher loads now

Push ups 15 - I know I can do better, maybe shoot for 25 for the competition

Airborne lunge 20 per leg - it's not hard to get them with the knee hitting the floor, but it's hard on my sensitive knee, so I train those rarely

L-sit on push up handles off the floor - 30 seconds

military press 32.5 kg 1RM

I am going to use this entry as a workout diary, so I can follow my progress till the competition! I have never competed in anything, so this is exciting!

Setting me straight

When you have worked out for a few years, there are goals upon goals of history, some achieved, some not, but having goals is a major drive in the game of training. My goals were always to be healthy, strong and leaner. Strong was going fine, healthy and lean were not. I had some chronic aches and pains, and body fat would not come off. I trained too hard, payed too much attention to diet and missed a major point: my body was not built to do what I wanted it to do.

Back in April, fate was kind to me. I met Bill Hartman, for an assessment of a number of problems that had been ailing me for years.

1. Shoulder pain
2. Anterior Pelvic tilt and low back pain
3. Knee pain (left)
4. Foot pain (left)
5. Difficulty losing fat

After a long and interesting session, most of my fears were confirmed and a few new training goals emerged. We needed to realign my posture, fix the anterior pelvic tilt, loosen the anterior hips, work on ab strength and upper back mobility. My glutes and upper back were happily asleep and needed to be woken up. Interestingly, while my body wasn't functioning properly, I could happily do 10 pull ups and do a 1RM deadlift of 203 lbs. Thinking back, the scary part is I could actually do that weight with half of my muscles not even taking part.

Bill put me on a program as soon as I came back to Bulgaria and we are currently finishing the fifth cycle of it. It involves a lot of mobility work, activation, targeted stretching, strength training, self release and EST training.

Between May and June I dropped 2% body fat, a rate I had never witnessed before. I felt better, lost most of my pain, especially the lower back and shoulder pain. I continued on that path, getting a bit leaner and building muscle. I never wrote about my experience until now, I wanted to wait, but I got very excited by my recent progress shots! At the end of each month I take progress pictures so he can assess my progress. I usually only compare the last month to this month's progress, but I chose a picture from the end of my first month and the difference in posture was truly obvious. I am feeling a mixed cocktail of joy, reward and anticipation for more hard work and results. I have always worried that I never looked athletic, and for the first time in my life I feel like I am working towards a base of developing a body that I would totally enjoy having and working with!

So how do you measure progress: 1)how you look 2) how you feel

If you are working toward a goal of your own, don't forget that pictures are a powerful means of tracking progress! Take them often and compare, but also be prepared that it will take months and months of added effort before you can say wow! I did it. That feeling, my friends, is worth waiting for and working for.

Sometimes I wonder what to say to Bill about how I feel when I run, or lift or stand or get out of bed in the morning. Stability and mobility can be very emotionally empowering. Being able to DO is so much different than wishing or thinking you are ABLE TO DO. Without knowledge no hard work will help you find the difference between the two!

IT

Women that come to me, often point to a soft triceps and say : "I want IT to be firmer, but I don't want to build muscle". IT is an interesting substance in the minds of people who have never exercised. On one hand we have the unwanted fat, the loose skin and the shaky looks, on the other we have the absolute fear of growing muscle and a deep voice. IT is what women want - that sexy substance that's not fat and not muscle, but shines with health and feels hard to the touch!

Thinking vs. Doing

thoughts on training smart people

I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients today. She's in her early 30s, a successful university professor and thriving architect. Wе were discussing how results in the gym are very much related to other results in other spheres of life. If one is successful and responsible as a business person, they usually apply the same qualities that got them where they are in business, to training and nutrition. They will invest their money, time and effort wisely and walk out in better shape and better health. However, there is a catch. A vast majority of successful and intelligent individuals will transfer their habit of thinking to become successful instead of doing to become successful to their training. And this is where they'll fail. Changing and improving your body has a lot more to do with doing than with just thinking about it. I know people that overanalyze, weigh in plans, approaches and more and never get to actually acting out the plan. In business this would be fatal, and since there is no punishment for lack of immediate action in the gym, most people practice this forever and that takes them to me. Now I can act on their plans.

To sum up:

Thinking + Action = sucesss

Brilliant Idea + No Action = possible success in a future moment

Act more on things related to your body! Whatever ideas and plans you have, start putting in the time today. There's no tomorrow when it comes to you!