14 weeks out from competition
Here goes my second blog addition as I track my journey up to competition day, so I thought I'd talk a bit about what I've been up to training wise for the last few weeks. I'm just finishing up a 4 week cutting phase right now, aiming to strip off as much fat as possible while maintaining the muscle I've built up. Needless to say it has been intense! I've dropped 2.4kg and feeling leaner but waiting for a skin fold test to see how much of that weight loss is pure fat. I've been training 8 sessions a week and although it varies slightly from week to week, here's what my training schedule is currently looking like:
Monday - 1 hr weights and high intensity interval training (HIIT)
Tuesday - AM 1 hr weights and PM 20 mins HIIT
Wednesday - AM 1 hr weights and HIIT
Thursday - AM 20 mins fasted HIIT and PM 1 hr weights and HIIT
Friday - 1 hr weights and HIIT
Saturday - Rest day
Sunday - 1 hr weights and/or HIIT
The twice daily sessions are tough on my energy levels, especially trying to fit it around a busy work schedule, but I squeeze them in as I know this is what it's going to take if I want to get myself to the next level. Some days I can't wait to get stuck in to my workouts and others I don't feel like training at all, but my focus of hitting that stage in great shape gets me through every time. Nothing quite like the thought of being semi nude in front of hundreds of people to keep you motivated. It helps even more when I have my trainer Christian egging me on!!
I'm doing lots of sessions at the moment where I combine weight training and cardio in a superset, which might look something like this. 10 reps barbell squat, followed by 1 minute rowing, repeated 5 times without rest. I'll then take a short breather of a couple minutes before switching exercises, so the next superset might look like this. 10 reps barbell bench press, 1 minute boxing, repeated 5 times. I'll do this with a variety of big compound exercises like lunges, deadlifts and pull ups, so I'm stimulating as many muscles as possible while keep my heart rate up with the cardio intervals. The whole time I'm keeping the weights as heavy as possible to remind my muscle mass that I need to keep hold of it. After 1 hour of this stuff I am literally a trembling pile of sweat on the floor. It feels good though and I'm leaving my workouts tired but full of energy at the same time.
I made a little video last week to give you a peak at one of my training sessions, which you can view on YouTube. This workout is called The Seven. It's a benchmark Crossfit workout which works the full body as you relentlessly plough through 7 reps of 7 exercises for 7 rounds, in the fasted time possible. Round 1-3 are tough but not so bad, by round 4 and 5 you really want to give up and then by round 6 the home straight is in sight! This one took me 24:01 but I did it again more recently and I beat my time by 2 minutes, as well as putting my weights up, so was pretty happy with that. I hope you enjoy my video - please excuse my cluelessness as I stumble around the first round trying to figure out which exercise comes next and my fluff up on the first thruster as I throw it off my back instead of my front!
I'm off to train some clients now and then get in my second workout of the day. Looking forward to training my glutes hard this afternoon! This area is really key for bikini competitors.
Later this week I'm going to post about my nutrition and how I'm finding the changes in my diet. Keep reading!
