
It didn’t take the entire weekend to get my brain straight as I thought it would. Friday, I fasted for half the day, meditated, worked out a bit, then started on the plan that Erik had just sent to me. By the end of the day, I was feeling refreshed and grounded. I felt I was getting my footing back.
I’m not sure what lifted the burden off of my shoulders. I think it was the realization that with everything comes change. That now I have the opportunity to come at this game with a new approach. I have an opportunity to take my body in a completely NEW direction which in actuality is really challenging and brutal for me. I finally saw that this crossroad that I’m at, and I can continue to go in the direction I was going, or go in a new one and change it up. I’d get bored if I had nowhere to grow toward.
So what’s been new training wise… Well for one, I’m doing cardio now. LOL. I’m hitting some AM cardio either in the gym or by way of a run outdoors. Then my workouts. Let me tell you… I’m SO happy to be back in the gym again. My workouts are all circuits now. A combination of bodyweight, TRX/Suspension Training, high reps/light weights, etc. I’ve got 2 insane workouts a week — a 500 Rep Full Bodyweight Workout, and at the end of the week a 1000 Rep Full Bodyweight Workout. Then there’s a normal low weight/high rep day, one strength day (low volume/heavy weights), and one light power day for mostly the upper body so that I can maintain that as I tend to lose everthing up top when I am smaller. Well everything now EXCEPT my boobs! lol Which get BIGGER when you get smaller when you get them done. I digress…
I finish off the day with one more session of cardio at night. Which is either a hill run (40 mins) or a dance class. Which leads to the next portion of my workout…
DANCING!
You know what, I had to decide to go back to my ORIGINAL sport. The sport that has given me this body in the first place. The one that shaped me for the last 15+ years. I turned more to true athletic training, power training, sprinting, etc this year as a means to step it up and present new challenges. But in actuality, it wasn’t the right move for what the current look of figure is. Last season, all I did was dance, dance, dance. Then I did workouts in the weight room as I described above. So going back to that will get me back to where I was, but just more improved since muscularly and structurally, I’m starting from a much more developed and refined point.
I already feel like I’m starting to lengthen out quite a bit:
and this is a comparison btw last week and this week:
So it’s coming along.
I had to tie a new goal into this. For me, I am ALL about training for performance. So I now have goals that are endurance and distance related as opposed to strength and power. This helps me to keep everything in line with what will bring about the aesthetic goals I need to reach. As I told Erik, I’m not hooked on the actual amount of weight I lose, as I am more concerned with the LOOK that’s presented on the stage.
As you can see, I softened by posing A LOT. And I’m continuing to tweak it. I think the dancing is helping much more with the arms and positioning of my torso etc. Notice how my shoulders aren’t all funky, or that I’m not leaning over like the Tower of Piza.
Along the way of this journey, I lost myself. This show, I wasn’t me. I was so much in my head about what to do, what NOT to do, flex, don’t flex, spread the toes, suck in your gutt… Too much shit in my head basically. Now all I want to do is just trust myself for once and do what looks and feels good for ME. At the end of the day, that’s all that I can control and improve upon.
I don’t want to make this too long. I have so much more I want to share and express, but I’ll save it for later entries. Just wanted to follow up that I’m ok, on track, and back to kick some butt!
Oh I also put this video on my YouTube channel because I have a number of subscribers who started sending me emails and FB messages wondering if I was still alive lol. In the video you can see me on stage at Team U briefly (the night show), and at The Cals (night show too). I also threw in a few clips of my 1000 Rep Full Body Burn Out Workout that I did today lol. KILLER! That was after an early morning 2.6 mile run! But I feel amazing.