I woke up to a huge revelation today, so I wanted to come back here and share this with you ladies because some of you may have or will experience it, and if you are going through it, it may help you to have a better view on what YOU need to do for YOU. Ladies always follow your instincts and listen to your body. When people see something that has potential written all over it, they sometimes want to claim it, mold it, better it (or so they think), have a hand in taking it to the next level etc, and they insist THEY know, and of course you’re not doing what it takes because it’s not what they have come to believe effective.
So prior to working with the trainer at Gold’s, I was doing very very well. Even with the running, which I in actuality was only doing 1-2x/week, I had energy, my body, as you all have witnessed was progressing very nicely. I kept it simple, in the gym it was low volume/high intensity. So my weights were heavy, and I was doing btw 8-12 reps per exercise, performed as a circuit, with about 90s +/- rest between the circuits. I WROTE IN MY WORKOUT JOURNAL THAT THE GOAL WAS TO PRESERVE MUSCLE IN MY UPPER BODY, AND FOR LOWER BODY I’D FOCUS ON STRENGTH/HYPERTROPHY AND POWER. So that would always keep me in the 8-12 rep range in the upper, and 8-10 range for lower body with a mix of plyo training and if I ran it would be all sprinting/power kind of work. I was doing just that. Even with the running coach, the runs are all just that even now.
Enter the trainer. He had me doing ULTRA HIGH VOLUME REPS. So I’d do sets of 25-30 reps, isometric hold, then another set of 25-30 reps right away. The weights were moderate, they weren’t always super light, but I’d push through, and he’d assist where I was failing out. But it was always super high volume, always moving moving moving. He told me this is how he trained other girls to get conditioned and show ready, and he trained himself this way in prep for shows and he was known as having the best conditioning on the stage. So me willing to try a new approach said ok, I’ll try it. The protocol was basic enough to do on my own as well. After he got asked to leave the gym, I continued on the path of what he suggested, but now enter my running, and a contest prep diet. This was a formula for disaster. And my body reacted STRONGLY and QUICKLY to it. Yesterday, well not even, SUNDAY I hit the wall. I’m already PMS-ing, and this week I’m supposed to start my period, so my emotions are already everywhere, and I’m retaining water. But enter this program, and my body just started shutting down. Yesterday, I worked out, trained chest and back, in the way the trainer suggested. Kicked my ass. That morning I did 20 mins of SS low intensity cardio. Then I was supposed to meet my running group. Now the running isn’t too hard. I do it in place of cardio. I don’t do cardio so this is my time to hit that. We do hill sprints, stairs, timed short duration runs. But we always have lots of rest periods to recover. So if I meet with them for an hour, I’m probably actually doing full out running (at high intensities mind you) for about 30 mins or so. But yesterday I could barely run a 1 mile warm up. That’s all I did yesterday. My energy was low, I felt out of touch, out of control. I was exhausted. And I realized this shit really is NOT working. Right now my shoulders and calves are so sore that I can’t even work on posing. I am retaining water as well. So in a heap of helplessness, I reached out to Erik Ledin.
So I emailed him yesterday, and I went over all of this info when I opened up my notebook to back track where things started going downhill. And it was all right there. Where there were no more specific detailed entries when I was working with the trainer. It was just a super short period of time. But enough for my body to react to the change. I’m not saying that his approach was wrong, but just not right for me. Then I read on Erik’s site yesterday exactly what I already knew. To keep the muscle while in a catabolic state you have to do what PUT IT ON in the first place. So the low volume/high intensity work that I was doing prior to all this other stuff should never have changed. I knew at that point I needed someone in my corner who knows exactly what they’re doing. Someone who not only trains competitors, but also trains athletes and has a huge base of knowledge rooted in science. Not “this is what I used to do and what I do with others.”
I sent him pics last night so I’m waiting for a response back. I’m going to talk to him to figure out what the next step needs to be for me. He’s going to be taking care of at the very least my diet, and I will talk to him about how much I may or may not need the coaching in the aspect of trainiing. I may just give him the reigns 100% and then decide what’s best to do for Team U which is the most important show for me coming up.
So that’s what’s been going on. I wanted to share this low point for me because I think it’s important to tell the whole story. What I’ve learned from this experience is that I need to trust my instincts. Of course yesterday I had yet another bodybuilder approach me about training and coaching for competing… Needless to say, he won’t be doing ANYTHING with me in relation to contest prep.
Today I am going to just rest, I’m staying in bed all day, I’m going to soak in a hot bath with some epsom salts. I’m going to continue to eat clean, as I don’t really eat junk anyway. I haven’t had an urge to binge, I don’t have binge kind of food in my house anyways. So no self sabotage stuff going on. Just getting back on track. That’s all. Just getting back on track.
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