I love training shoulders....

Today's workout:

Seated DB shoulder press- did 5 working sets total, 4 with 35's 9-12 reps, and managed to get the 40's up without a spotter for 6 or 7 reps on the second set

Upright rows with EZ bar- 4 sets, 8 reps wide grip plus 6 reps shoulder width grip

High cable rear delt crossovers- 4 sets, 10-12 reps

DB lateral raises- 4 sets with 20's, 15 reps each...last 3-5 reps were forced with a spotter
-double drop set on the last one- 20's, 15's, 10's to burn them out

Abs: 4 sets each of 2 exercises: weighted straight leg double crunch on edge of bench and ball crunches

One of my favorite ways to eat oatmeal:

1/3 cup uncooked oats
1/4 scoop protein powder
1 Tbsp. chia or flaxseeds
1/4 cup Walden Farms calorie free maple syrup
1 packet stevia
6oz. container plain lowfat greek yogurt
1/4 cup frozen raspberries

Basically I mix all these ingredient together until the raspberries are mashed up (you can also use fresh fruit instead) and I let it sit over night or for a couple of hours before I eat it.  Chia seeds are a thickener, so the less liquid you add the thicker the consistency will be after it absorbs.  If you want it thinner, add some water or coconut/almond milk when you make it.

You can play with this recipe in so many ways.  Try adding different spices like cinnamon, or jazz it up with some canned pumpkin, natural peanut butter, walnuts or pecans, shredded coconut.  I've eaten it many different ways, just make sure you account for all the stuff you add!

Train hard!

8 Weeks Out

It's been way too long since my last blog post, so I thought I should give you an update about where I'm at.  Since then, I did my first two competitions of the season with success.  In Burlington I placed 2nd and in Boston I placed 4th.  Even though I was already qualified for Team Universe from last year, I requalified by placing 4th at the Jay Cutler Classic.  I was not as lean as I need to be for the stage, but now I have 8 weeks until the big show to tighten up while keeping my muscles full, it's all about balance.

After the Jay Cutler Classic in Boston, I had a fabulous meal at the Cheesecake factory, but didn't go crazy.  I had a small greek salad and crab cake bites as an appetizer...

tuna carpaccio for an entree...

and of course cheesecake for dessert...YUM!  

I was perfectly full and satisfied without completely gorging myself and eating everything I "couldn't" have for last few months leading up to the show.  Flashback to a few years ago, I was so deprived before my show I would stock up on junk food to bring with me to binge on after it was over.  This opened the flood gates for weeks of endless eating anything and everything I wanted.  Along with it came 20-30 extra pounds that seemed to stick to me like glue.  My whole approach is totally different now.  It's healthy, long term, a true lifestyle.  I am not hyper focused on food like I used to be.  I actually enjoy the clean foods I eat every day and focus on making the small changes and improvements I need to get better for the stage.  I don't have cravings, I don't feel deprived, I don't feel like I will lose complete control after a competition.  My whole experience with metabolic burnout, weight fluctuations, and recovering from it is a story for another time, but I thank my coach Kevin Myles for helping me through it and getting me to where I am now.

Right now my cardio is lowered to four 20 minute sessions per week to reset my metabolism, and I'm hitting the weights hard as usual, allowing more rest time between sets.  Diet is the same with slightly lowered carbs since I'm not expending as much energy with cardio.

I did a heavy back workout yesterday and this morning I am SORE!!  I love it!  I really focused on going as heavy as possible, while also doing very slow, controlled reps.  Wide grip lat pulldowns, single arm DB rows with 60lbs, underhand pulldowns, straight arm pulldown, finishing with a couple sets of a cable lat isolation wide pull in and some external rotations for healthy rotator cuffs, since I had some time to kill.

On Monday during my chest workout, I managed to lift the 50lb dumbbells for 6 reps by myself, no spotter, which I have never done before, so that was a new record for me, next week I'll go for 7!

I've got my sights set on Team Universe...less than 8 weeks out!