I missed Ruthy!!

Hurrah!! My awesome PT is back from her Hols, with a NEW programme :). One of the new exercises is the Good Morning, which is great for core stability, lower back and hamstrings. On a not so fun note I keep aggravating an injury in my lower traps :S, whenever I attempt a sport or class that seems to involve fast executions of movement with my right shoulder, I end up in burning pain meh. I really, really want to get back to my dead lifts.It really makes me pissed off when I can't accomplish what I want to do, and this recurring injury is really starting to get to me :(.  

This was my face in training this morning!! Thinking Ruth most likely wanted to go back on hols after dealing with me :P 

 

Stand to attention!

Stage two, lesson two for handstand push-ups complete!! After finding a very cool you tube vid we discovered that we could hook up the TRK in Daves gym with bands to help support ourselves in the next stage for learning to do the mighty push-up :D.

Unfortunately you will have to watch the result sideways as Bec filmed it at that angle and I have no idea how to change it round!! :D  

Ouch!!

So yesterday had major DOMS still sore today arggg and  finished a nine hour shift as a massage practitioner last night so it hurt :P. I totally over trained the day before, you see I randomly met an awesome yoga teacher. I say awesome because as a rule I can't stand yoga, it does nothing for me. Anyway we decided to do a trade, one on one yoga for massage, Beccy will teach me anything I want to learn and I will give her massage in return, brilliant!  So, I decided I want to learn to do Handstand push-ups, I mean come on, who doesn't want to be able to do that :P. So that morning we went to the gym and did an hour training in handstand push-ups, it was pain but soooo much fun and I managed to do a few but using the kipping technique. After we did this I then did my training programme and later that evening I did one of Beckys Yoga classes, so I total over trained :P and still feel it two days later, oh well back off to the gym, we have a bit more practice to do and I am getting Becks on the weights today ha ha revenge!!

This is Becky, she does combat yoga Rwarrrr!!

Todays breakfast is.....green

                          Morning breakfast today is below, oats with Spirulina powder yummy :P

Have a nine hour day in work today so have packed a lunch of a small steak, spinach, cherry toms and a small handful of nuts. Have also taken a protein shake for about 5pm till last me till I get home at 7.30 pm will also take a banana...not sure if this is enough food mind :P.  
Today is a non-training day so carbs need to be kept lower then if I was training, I try and take two rest days a week mostly a Wednesday and Sunday, however if I am not working on a Sunday I tend to find myself wandering down to the gym :P. 

In the beginning there was...flab :S

I have decided to start a blog to keep myself motivated for the task ahead, it is going to be real hard, but I have worked hard to get to this point already, so I think this blog will help..Well I am not about to pussy out now I have posted it for all to see :P.

This blog will follow my progress as I reshape my body, you see I am about to start getting ripped :D or at least that is the plan. 

So what's the story!

Well I was always sporty in school, track, cross country and netball, but things happened in my teens that put stop to all that, and I never really got it back. Any way many, many years later and two children I find I am 33 and I look like this......

....and I am not happy in the least, to be honest I was going to delete this photo so no one would see it :S. OK so it is not hideous, it is not like I was obese, but I was miserable I felt like a flabby thirty-something and I just thanked god clothes covered it! So I start dieting, I cut carbs, I counted calories and I stepped on the scales alot...never a good idea. 

Then in the January of this year I joined my local gym Daves Gym, now I have been in gyms before and all I can say is..arggg. Gyms are scary places, there is so much shit that I do not know how to use so for the next 3 months I go on the bike, the rowing machine (badly) and the cross trainer.

 I have no idea what the hell I am doing, so I pluck up enough courage to ask a PT in the gym for help. She was lovely and not scary at all and she started me on lifting weights, then she introduced me to the Deadlifts which I fell in love with! Follow link to checkout Dave owner of Daves gym doing 150kg reps easy as pie, I started on 30kg. 

Anyway shorty after  I decided to throw myself down the stair and give my coccyx enough of a crack that I couldn't walk for three days, and then spent the next 4 weeks in one hell of a lot of pain. I finally drag bruised arse back into the gym, only this time I am also dragging with me Ruth from S.M.A.R.T. Training .

Now Ruth is pretty on the ball when it comes to injury rehabilitation and as far as personal trainers goes she was perfect for me. Finding a personal trainer that suits your needs is paramount if you are serious about training, you can not just walk into a gym and do it yourself. You need someone to hold your hand and show you what is what and what not to do, I had spent enough time already doing what I was not supposed to do.  


I had a new programme every month from Ruth, which changed with me, as well as my training days with her I knew what I had to do when training on my own, she really set out my whole schedule. I trained four days a week, before that I was only doing three cardio days a week, no wonder I didn't get anywhere. 

My Aims in the beginning were to decrease body fat and increase lean muscle, to train at least three times a week and to FEEL THE BURN.

That progressed to increasing lean muscle mass, still decrease body fat and building running fitness (I suck at running)....(I also hate running a bit)....( a lot). And improving muscle tone and definition. I had EDT for resistance work, that is escalating density training to you and me, I had a sqaut, push, pull program, the push and pull being the EDT. Then two running days on top a long run of 5k and a short conditioning session of maximal sprints. 

So I went from looking flabby and being pretty peeved off with myself to below

 

 I can honestly say that even though I am really proud of what I have achieved to date, I am still mortified about putting these up :S I think the face says it all really . But not flabby any more as least and I achieved my original aims. 

OK, so one fab personal trainer and several programmes following and moving on with progression and I have dropped from a size 12 to a size 8, from 60kg to 56kg. I can do a one rep max deadlift of 90kg and squat 80kg all in four mounths.

So girls forget cardio everyday till you spew, forget calorie counting. You want to lose weight then you have to lift weight, and I do not mean bicep curling a 4kg dumbbell. You have to lift heavy now this is when a PT is essential, they will build your weight progressively as well as introduce core strength weight training, kettle bells, deadlifts, squats etc.
 
So I look far better then the scary beach picture from two years ago and am most likely the strongest and healthiest I have ever been! But....it is not enough for me I want to achieve a more defined body physique, so I am going to cut, this basically means cutting away body fat while increasing muscle mass in other words..lets get ripped!
That is were this blog steps in, you see my poor facebook friends have recently been inundated with pics of my food prep as well as status update constantly telling them my exercise schedule of the day (today's was: Handstand push-up training has began!! Painful but extremely good fun and amazing when I actually manage to pull one off!)...Followed my a picture of my dinner...

Yum! :P. 

It's not that I am showing off, it is just writing has always helped me do stuff, I write as it just helps me empty my head and keep track of what I need to do. 

So to achieve my goals and keep me on track I will update this blog with what training I am doing, my diet and progression pictures. I didn't do it for the first half of my training and that is a shame but I think the most difficult bit is coming up, this is the part that will see how much I really want this, this will be the test, how strict can I be with my diet, how much can I push my training to get optimal results, how far can I really change my lifestyle to achieve what I didn't think was possible two years ago.