The workouts

It may be difficult to stop starring at the picture on the side of the screen over there...But focus! I will introduce you in a second.

Whenever I tell anyone what I am training for they are always most curious about what my workouts consist of. However, before I start I want to preface by saying that my biggest pet peeve is when people brag about how hard their workouts are. There is no need for that, it doesn’t make you sound cool and workouts are completely relative… as in I am willing to bet that what is hard for you is probably what my mother does on her off day (gettttttttt it mom!!!). So do not expect any bragging here. However, what I will tell you is that change is hard and changing your body is no easy task. No matter what level you are at, raising the bar requires you to be physically and mentally uncomfortable.

For the first two weeks, I have been working out 6 days a week. Twice a day on most days. This includes a 45 minute cardio session in the morning and either another cardio session and/or a lift in the evening. My cardio is either running or stairmaster and a few times I have added a swim to give my feet a break. My lifting schedule consists of two days of legs, two days of back, two days of shoulders, three days of abs and one day of arms. This is all subject to change depending on how my body changes. Actually, this week I have just been upgraded to 50 min cardio sessions and told to increase my ab workouts.

You may be wondering how I know thet level of intensity and frequency of my workouts? That is where Al comes in. Al is a pro bodybuilder, a personal trainer, and has led other female figure competitors to victory. When I asked him if I could write about him in my blog he said of course only if I stay away from words like “slave driver, asshole, dungeon master, and prick." Don't worry Al, I had no intention of saying any of those things about you because after all, you write up my workouts and my meal plan. As you may have guessed, that is a photo of Al after winning his show last year. All you need to do is take a good look at him and you can imagine the hard work and dedication he not only lives by but demands from his clients.

Just this past week my mom and I trained legs together with Al. Sounds fun right? One of our sets consisted of me doing the leg press until my mom finished doing two set of walking lunges across the gym floor. I could not stop until she was done, no matter how long it took her to finish. After, we rotated and completed this circuit twice. You know how you hear about those mothers who miraculously lift cars to free there trapped enfants?...That is kind of what I hoped was going to happen. In a desperate attempt to tap into her motherly instinct of doing anything to avoid pain inflicted on one of her children, I managed to get out, “mom…think of me!” I would like to think I was not heard rather than ignored…