Core Challenge

One of the areas I really want to progress in is core.  With incorporating 2 pilates and 1 yoga session per week into my training regime this will over time give me a good core... However I really want to be one of those people who can do ridiculous amounts of hanging leg / body raises!!! 

I couldn't resist a challenge made by a work colleague today!! I have been complaining to JV at work the past few weeks how I lack core strength, he gave me a few core progression programmes he used to get to where he is now.  His core strength is crazy!

He is on holiday for 2.5 weeks and on his return I have to be able to perform 

💪 20 Hanging Weighted Leg Raises

💪 20 Hanfing Weighted Ab Crunches

💪 5 Full Hanging leg raises without weights 

The gentleman he is even dropped off the ankle weights at my desk before he left!!!

Sooooo... Progression....

Although he is on holiday for 2.5 weeks give and take the weekend of his return it actually gives me a day less of 3 weeks.

This is how am going to attempt it fast tracking one of his programmes, by taking into consideration I can do 3 sets of arounf 8 reps handing leg raises and crunches at the moment anyway!

3 sessions per week

Week 1; 

Session 1

4 sets x 8 reps Hanging Leg Raises

4 sets x 8 reps Hanging Leg Crunches

2 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 2

4 sets x 10 reps Hanging Leg Raises

4 sets x 10 reps Hanging Leg Crunches

2 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 3

4 sets x 12 reps Hanging Leg Raises

4 sets x 12 reps Hanging Leg Crunches

2 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Week 2;

Session 1

4 sets x 6 reps Hanging Leg Raises with weight 

4 sets x 6 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weight

3 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 2

4 sets x 8 reps Hanging Leg Raises with weights

4 sets x 8 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weights

3 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 3

3 sets x 10 reps Hanging a Leg Raises with weights

3 sets x 10 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weights

3 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Week 3;

Session 1

3 sets x 10 reps Hanging Leg Raises with weight 

3 sets x 10 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weight

3 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 2

2 sets x 15 reps Hanging Leg Raises with weights

2 sets x 15 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weights

3 sets x AMAP full leg Raises

Session 3

1 sets x 20 reps Hanging a Leg Raises with weights

1 sets x 20 reps Hanging Leg Crunches with weights

5 x full leg Raises

End of Week 3 - Phase 1 - Block 1

This week has been somewhat of a living nightmare!!! 

I have battled a small head cold, I am allergic to something in the new office and to top it off I got a severe case of food poisoning!

Luckily training hasn't been compromised but my diet fri/sat was... Due to being ill I wasn't fussy what I put in my body more to get food in there hat wouldnt make me be sick again!

The scales crept up all week but due to my ill health went back down again.

Harry is keep my macros the same this week due to last week, but I still feel am responding to my reverse well!

My measurements are up in the right places and in others around my stage weight.

Last week I also passed my first 2 Nutrition and Weight Management Assessments last week! Final exam this week whooooo!

Had both my consultations for my BA this weekend and I am just waiting for the theatre dates to be released for November but I want to go for the last week.  Unfortunatly I have been recommended to go behind the muscle as Infront have enough tissue... But I also have to get a larger implant due to me have more tissue underneath (down to me once being a GG!).  When I asked around the girls I knew who had it done I must admit I was scared at the size they have recommended but that was surgeons recommendation.

Nutella & Go Review

I am a huge nutella fan... and I finally stumbled upon these in Sainsburys yesterday (amazing breakfast) 😂.

Here is my review...

🍫 You get soo much more chocolate and sticks than the KP chocolate ones.

🍫after your have used the sticks there is still plenty of chocolate left to get your finger in and absorb every remaining trace of Nutella

🍫 Surprisingly with the thinness of the sticks they don't bloody break like the KP ones 

🍫 The chocolate sauce is actually soft and not hard like KP which causes stick breakage

10/10 defo incorporated on my "aunt flo" days!  

Flex Friday

Tag me in your flex friday pics on Instagram!!! @laineystrath 

3 Weeks into Reverse Diet

Even in off season I am monitoring everything on a spreadsheet religiously... The goal of my reverse diet and off season is too make as much gains as possible and keeping my Bodyfat under 15%.  

The first week of my reverse saw me dropping below my stage weight, this could be down to the stress of the comp and my exams being finished within Afew weeks of one another, the 2nd week my weight crept up a fraction but stayed constant throughout the week.  This week has seen my weight creep up daily!!!

Scale readings no longer bother me at all!! Which is an amazing achievement for me as I use to be so wrapped up

In the readings!!!  The mirror and the tape measure rule!  I took some selfies tonight this was after all 6 meals were consumed!!!

Anyone who knows me knows I am extremely critical of myself, and i do have a tendency to over analyse as well!  At first U thought the weight increase could be down to my afternoon tea cheat on Saturday but as the week has progressed I have been getting stronger in the gym and harry has also upped both my carbs and fats.

Next week I am going to make Afew adjustments to training days...

Sunday - Legs Strength

Monday - HIIT (step class)

Tuesday - Upperbody Strength & PWO HIIT

Wednesday - Active Rest Day & Yoga

Thursday - Lower Body Hypertrophy & PWO HIIT

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - Upperbody Hypertrophy & PWO HIIT

I am loving pilates and now incorporate some of the movements during my warm up and cool down stretches!  I am hoping to build a good strong core in my off season and to improve my flexibility which will assist me with my posing.

Studying & Rest Day

I always find rest day a struggle.... my carbs and calories are up and my metabolism is firing! However if I am not doing anything all I think about is food!!!!

Rest Day involves a long lie in (starting work at 9am), lunchtime pilates, and staying back at work to study!

I am in the process of studying for my Level 3 Nutrition & Weight Management and sat my 2nd last assessment this evening with a pass of 87% 😁

It's totally true what they say when your genuinely interested in a subject you do well in it!

I am hoping to sit my final assessment next week and then I can start concentrating on my Level 3 Personal Training!

The aim is to complete my Level 3 by Christmas so I can then book on the Matwork course and start to study towards becoming a pilates instructor.

Big Girl Weights

Loving my gym programme at the moment, and already in my 2nd week and I am noticing differences!  My legs have really come on! With the introduction of more deadlifts and my plyometric HIIT training I have seen some good inner sweep definition!

Today I did upper body strength... With the added carbs I am full of energy and feel super strong... Tonight I did working sets with a 2kg incline for 8 reps working from 10 to 20kg, I just managed to press out 20kg without compromising form or requiring a spot for 8 reps then deloased to 18kg and managed a further 3 sets at 8 reps!

To too it off I then hit a Les Mills Body Step Class after it,... The heart monitor stated well over 1000kcals burned!

End of Week 2 - Phase 1 - Block 1

The reverse dieting is certainly working! Not only is my carbs increasing, my weight is also staying consistant! Infact am actually a tad bit lighter than my stage weight! 

I have to admit I am finding it hard to factor in the increased carbs it just feels like am consuming far too much food!  I am still looking lean and my abs are still there and pop out every so often to remind me there still here😂.

Training is going well enjoying my new training plan and strength is really coming on, this past week quite Afew people have came up to me and told me how fab I look... Either the carbs are making me look abit more pumped or perhaps I just look a lot more calmer😂

This week I have battled a wee mini head cold as well and a few things going on in my personal life which has got me down, but as always I soldier on through my training!  It's the only thing that keeps my mind off everything and my head in a good place.

Some update progress pics below!

My Food Diary

A lot of people question me on how much food, the biggest mistake people make is cutting calories thus slowing down their metabolism making you retain weight!  The secret to weight loss is to eat little and often!

At the moment I am reverse dieting but still in defecit, but thought I would share today's diary with you!

Set Macros today

Protein 150g

Carbohydrates 190g

Fat 40g

Today I have consumed....

Breakfast

1 x 25g Protein Pancake

1 x 40g Quaker Rolled Oats

150ml Almond Milk

Tea Spoon of Light & Mild Honey

Snack 1 

170g Fage 0% Greek Yoghurt

100g Rasberries

15g Blueberries

20g Ezekiel Wholegrain Almond Cearl

Lunch

100g Cucumber Tomato & Green Leaf Salad

1 tbsp Salsa

100g Chicken Breast

2 Dark Rye Ryvita 

10g Cashew Butter

Pre Workout

1 Banana

100g Cucumber Tomato & Grean Leaf Salad

100g Jamie Oliver Morrocan Grains

100g Chicken

1/2 Warburtons Pitta

Post Workout

3 Home Made BBQ Turkey Meatballs

150g Sweet Potato

100g Cucumber and Tomato Salad

2 Unsalted Rice Cakes

10g Cashew Butter

Bedtime Snack

25g Protein pancake

Tea Spoon of Light and Mild Honey

10g Blueberries

End of Week 1 - Phase 1 - Block 1

Well that's the end of Week 1!!!  I didn't start my new training programme until the Thursday, but did my old training programme until Harry sent through my new programme.

Unfortunaly Aunt Flo has made an appearance so I am looking abit bloated and fuller, but by the end of the week I will get a better idea of how I am looking.

I am enjoying all the extra carbs! They are going up again this week by 10g and I have also seen the re introduction of a re feed as well. 

My new programme is taking abit of getting use to and I am having DOMS.

My weight has also dropped progressively throughout the week! But Harry assures me it is the stress relief of the comp being over.

We all know what I looked like last Sunday so here's this weeks photos!

I miss my tan 🙈😂😂

Almond & Vanilla Gluten Free Protein Fruit Scones

I am a huge Scone fan!!! so I decided to make an attempt at baking some clean healthy Fruit Scones.  The fat content is obviously high with subsidising out flour for ground almonds and having some mixed dried fruit in there too, but I look it as being good fats.

They taste amazing! and a very good tasting substitute to the real thing.  I must admit I am still not 100% happy with this recipe and feel that perhaps with some apple sauce added to the mixture it will give it more moisture.... again its all trial and error as with everything in the fitness industry!!!

Makes 20 Scones

300G of Sainsbury's Ground Almonds
2 tsp of Gluten Free Baking Powder Dr Oetker
60ml Sainsburys Almond Oil
15g Rowse Light & Mild Honey
2 Asda Free Range Eggs
1 Asda Free Range Egg White
1 teaspoon Dr Oetker Vanilla Flavouring
50g My Protein Vanilla Impact Whey
25g Sainsbury Pre Soaked Mixed Frut

1. Pre Heat Oven to 150
2. In a bowl mix the ground almonds and baking powder
3. add the remaining ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until into a dough
4. Roll into 20 even dough balls then pat down with the back of a fork
5. Put in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes
6. Put on a wiring rack and leave to cool.

Based on my ingredients the macros are as follows

Kcals per Scone 149

12g Fat (1.1g Saturated, 1.6g Polyunsaturated & 5.8g monounsaturated)

2.7g Carbs

1.2g Fibre

6.8g Protein

Video from Competition

An overview video from Sundays Comp of all classes

UKBFF Midlands Championship - 2014

Day 1 - Phase 1

Today I start my new training programme which Harry sent me through yesterday evening.

It's a completely different approach to training to what I am use to but I love a challenge!  

I am doing the same type of training for 12 weeks with a slight change out of some excersizes at week 6.  

Can't wait! Roll on 6pm!

Comparisons

I thought it would be interesting to make some comparisons on my statistics from both comps. 

As you all know I originally spent the first 6 months of this year training for Bikini.  Feedback from the judges was that I was too muscular and had posed myself out of bikini and that I would be better suited to the Body Fitness category.  I had a look at the remaining qualifiers and decided to hit the Birmingham show on the 7^th of September.  It was the most accessible show from Aberdeen with direct flights to Birmingham, in reality it probably would have been more beneficial to hit the last qualifier and give myself more time!

I only had 13 weeks to train for Body Fitness.  I somehow managed to make a 1.5kg Muscle Mass gain even on a deficit?!! I also managed to drop my body fat by 0.4%.  Although I weighed more than at the end of my Bikini comp, I came in leaner, and looked better! – PROOF the scales don’t do the talking and the mirror does!

In regards to my Body Fat Percentage…. The stats above are based on In Body Readings as oppose to my calliper readings.  When I stepped up on stage in May my calliper reading came in at 10.2%, and on Saturday it came in at 10.1%.  Body Fat readings are never 100% accurate and you should track progress using the same method all the time!! This allows you to monitor progress accurately.  I tend to get both an InBody and calliper reading done at the same time and then I do an average between the 2 figures.

15 to 2 Days Out!!!

Well this is common proof about my rant on progress pics being taken in the same light, same place and same angle!!!

I decided to do a daily "selfie" pic time line to show my progressive pre and during peak week... (Ps apologies my butt is out!!)

Somedays it was sunshine, Somedays fog or rain! Sometimes I stood 1metre away from mirror, sometimes 2! Sometimes the angle was the same, sometimes different... 

My point is regardless of the pictures I knew myself each day I was getting that little bit more shredded and pictures sometimes just don't do anyone justice!!!! 

Pictures are good for monitoring progress to an extent but they can give u a complex due to the lighting etc nothing beats just standing in the mirror seeing the reflection and trusting your instincts!

Post comp day thoughts...

For anyone who doesn't know me, I am a forward planner... everything I do I plan!

Initial thoughts post comp....

▶️  I need to work on Shoulders & Delts as main priority.

▶️ Although I feel this time I nailed my compulsaries... I need to work on stage prescence for next year! Posing was my weak point in May I felt and I worked so hard with posing this time round which did pay off but my prescence sucked and transitioning into poses wasn't the greatest.  I am not a naturally smiley person and I feel when I over smile I look like some grinning un natural clown! 😂

So what's next?????

Well after 4 years of my fitness journey loosing weight, reducing my Bodyfat... I miss my big bust (it's the only thing I miss from when I was bigger) and something a lot of people comment on when they see me now 😂. I plan to have the surgery end of November, resting and recovering over the Christmas period.  

The next 12 weeks involves reverse dieting and building hypertrophy with a good foundation on the lead up to my op!

At the moment the Scottish Championship is what il train for but the main priority is coming back to stage with a better package, but I can't commit to which comp for next year until I see how well I recover from my op and assess how I look.

One step at a time Project 1 - Hypertrophy and passing my Level 3 PT!

Show Day - 07 September 2014

The un expected always generates nerves and fears, and this time round they didn't exist & I knew what to expect.

All the girls in my category looked amazing! We all had quite similar frames and I didn't feel out of place at all! Everyone trained hard and the results showed!!!!  Two ladies did stand out for me as defiantly the top 2 when we were all waiting to go on... and they did place top 2!

 I genuinely couldn't pick out back stage who I thought would be 3rd because we all looked so similar! 

I went on stage super happy how I looked! bearing in mind I trained for 6 months of this year for bikini category and at end of May when I got my judges feedback was I told that I was more suited to Body Fitness! This gave me only 12 weeks to prep for fitness and hit one if the last qualifiers!  

I think what I achieved in 12 weeks is amazing! and I did it this time round with abit more of a flexible dieting approach too and enjoyed prep... However i did have a brill foundation to work from which Andy helped me achieve!

Well done to everyone who entered Body Fitness today all looked amazing!!! 

Congrats to Lindsay Benson... You looked fab!... 1st show, 3rd place and invite to the British! Well done!!!!!💪👙🏆

Curling the 4kgs

It's a well known fact I have zero arm strength... It's my weakest area in regards of weight lifted!  Due to this I concentrate on the eccentric and squeeze with my (4kilo DBS) 🙈.

Thing is weight isn't everything.... Focusing on contractions and squeeze is everything.  I trained arms on Monday 25th, and this selfie was taken on Friday 29th 💪 am super happy!  

It's strange it's only been in the past month people have commented on my arms! And there all shocked to learn what I curl! (With low reps I can manage an 8 and we are speaking 6 reps!!) 😂😂

EFN Photoshoot July 2014

As promised here is some pics from my Photoshoot in July with EFN! 

Big thanks to Banks O Dee Gym for letting us use their facilities and being fab hosts.... Banks O Dee are in the process of getting a huge new extension too! www.banksodee.co.uk

These are just afew pics il add the rest later!

3 Days Out

3 Days Out.

Bit of an update, as I have a feeling I will be quite busy the next couple of days.

As mentioned my peak week protocol  went with front loading carbs on Sunday eveningand then reducing my carbs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sticking with the same macros and observing the results.  I took daily “selfies”, front & rear poses (although lighting differed), I also wrote down my observations and feelings on the day. 

I felt on Monday mid-section I looked ripped, and I was happy with the results all over.  Tuesday I felt everywhere I looked more ripped and hard but felt my mid-section didn’t look as good.  On Wednesday I did feel I still looked lean but slightly more soft looking.  When I compared all the pictures again, I re compared Monday and Tuesday and felt Tuesday I defiantly looked the best.  So with that in mind, my carb load for comp will be Friday.  I have raised my carbs slightly today and will stick to the same macros I am on today, on Saturday as well.  Then carb up again on the morning of the comp.

The great thing about this comp is it starts at 11am and I am the 3^rd category on (its also a run through show), I estimate give and take if the show starts abit later that I should be on stage anytime between 12 noon and 1pm, which is amazing because the last comp I didn’t step on stage until around 6pm and it was such a long day.

I start my first coat of tan this evening so that will help me feel ‘normal’ again and give me an idea how I am looking as well.  This morning was the last of my LISS Cardio, and this evening its my rest day from the gym.  I have a pump through circuit tomorrow early afternoon and then a further pump through circuit on Sunday.

Overall am feeling positive and excited about Sunday, the nerves haven’t really kicked in yet to be honest but am sure they will!