Hey everyone!! Thanks for following my progress. I am now 5 weeks away from getting on stage at Mohegan Sun!! I can’t even believe it. I’m so freaking excited.. you have no idea.
Everyone asks me how training is going. I assume by this people mean how the actual PHYSICAL part is going. So I always say that is going AWESOME but I miss eating certain foods.
You can read about Week 8 Here
The training portion for this really isn’t much different from what I did before. I hired Cathy Savage as my coach through all of this, and her girl (and mine) Julie Costa is my actual coach, with whom I check in weekly, harass for info and curse whenever I get a chocolate craving! (Still love ya girl!) So let me fill you guys in a bit on what the training schedule is like through CSF…
First of all we go onto her website Cathy Savage Fitness where we print off our monthly training schedule. March has looked like this for me and the other bikini girls..
Monday – Chest & Triceps
Tuesday – Legs & abs
Wednesday – Functional
Thursday – Back & Biceps
Friday – Shoulders & Core
Saturday – OFF
Sunday – Functional
When we get our monthly training schedule the exercises stay the same for four weeks, but we have different reps each session, have a different amount of time between sets of each circuit and could possibly use a different weight (depending on your strength) each week to keep our muscles guessing.
These type of concentrated days on certain muscle groups is something I have not done in a while in my workouts. I got so used to going to CATZ all the time where we do full body, functional workouts in circuits.
There’s also 3 days of HIIT cardio involved, and a total of 6 days of cardio altogether, which should be switched up. This is what a week of MY training schedule looked like..
Monday – Chest/ Triceps ST from 9 to 10am. I have gotten stronger this month. At the beginning of March I was using 15 lb DB’s for my chest flyes, now I’m pushing 20’s and could possibly go higher if the reps didn’t go up to 15 the last week.
CATZ from 12 to 1. I know that more ST probably shouldn’t be done and to some would be considered overtraining. But when left to my own device to do HIIT cardio on a dreadmill, I probably won’t do it (because I too, lack some motivation.) Also, when I do sprints on a dreadmill I crank it up to 9.0 or 9.5 mph for 60 seconds and go all out, but I can only get my HR up into the 140 range.
I can’t run much faster than that because my legs can’t keep up, and the dreadmill is doing a lot of the work because the belt moves, I am not. When I perform certain circuits at CATZ my heart rate will go into the 160’s just going from broad jumps to pull ups to clean/ front squat/ push press.
One thing I am very aware of however, is the possibility of overtraining. I do get tired by the end of the week, but I blame that on lack of sleep. I know my body well enough to know what not to push when I shouldn’t. I know if I’ve just done shoulders the day before to cool it with shoulders the following day if I go to CATZ.
My going to frequently could turn out to be a bad thing, but I’m LOVING the results I’m seeing these days from leaning out at CATZ, yet putting on a little muscle from doing the CSF workouts.
Tuesday – Leg day around 7 or 8am. Leg day is usually the toughest. I mean, you have to figure legs are made up by some of the largest muscle groups in the body (hamstrings, quadraceps, glutes) so on leg day we tend to go really heavy and the exercises are tough because of that. Leg day is usually the biggest calorie burning day of all too for the same reason as why it’s the toughest. But we all want a couple of nice stems, right? So we suck it up and we feel the burn from the lactic acid flushing our muscles while we go from squat jumps to a nice iso-hold or from doing walking lunges with 40# DB’s in each hand.
I also do yoga on this day. Yoga is so important for me personally, but also great for a competitor or an athlete of any sort. Cathy likes us doing yoga because it gives us a really good connection between our mind and bodies. We know how to hold our shoulders back very well and it really teaches the figure girls how to spread their lats. In yoga a lot of moves are held for a long time and we could certainly be doing just that on stage. For me, however, yoga just feels good. It feels so rejuvenating to get into a 95+ degree room and sweat it out! It flushes the toxins from my body, keeps my skin clear (I’ve been complimented by a makeup artist on my complexion at the mall after heading straight there after class once), keeps my digestive track rinsed with the twisting poses… it keeps me flexible, strong, lean, balanced, and stable. It helps me slow down and just be, not thinking about anything except being right there on my mat for 60–90 minutes. This practice helps me restore, renew, and relax—plus, it’s my secret for that natural glow, even before I add any makeup. I know some beauty professionals, including an eyeshadow manufacturer, who value these wellness habits for skin prep, which I think makes the world of difference for a flawless application!
Wednesday – Functional/ HIIT day… Insert CATZ!! Or last week I actually went to a cycling class and to another hot yoga class to change it up. Change is very good.. you’ve got to keep the body guessing.
Thursday – Back/ Biceps around 7am.. I have to say this is a very good day to have a friend around. The back part is fine.. I can push myself when it comes to my back, but my biceps need serious strengthening and it’s nice to have a friend there to help motivate me by saying “just… one… more!” or to have them there for a tiny bit of help when I can’t get that last full flexion in on my 21’s.
I try to go to yoga on Thursdays too, but lately I have not been in love with my class options because of the teachers teaching at my studio. It’s so disappointing. So I’ll do some form of light cardio like walking on the dreadmill with an incline between 5.0 – 10.0 at about 3.0 mph to work on my booty! This isn’t so bad because I’ll usually read Oxygen while I’m doing this.
Friday – SHOULDER DAY… MY FAVORITE!! I think shoulders is a lot of girls’ fav because we get insta-results. It’s like.. HELLO CAPS within moments of that first shoulder press.
CATZ for more intense cardio and some fun.
Saturday – I sometimes go back to CATZ, depending on how many times I’ve been the last week, I only do it 3 times a week as I’m pretty sure with all the extra lifting my body would shrivel up.
Either way I always go to my intermediate yoga class. This week sucked however. I chose my yoga studio because the room is heated to 95 degrees, plus humidity added. Once we get going the heat, humidity and the heat generated by bodies moving will get up beyond 95, more like 105 degrees. This is vital as it helps to open me up so I can do twists, back bends, and sometimes even splits. When a teacher decides that they don’t like the heat anymore it should not be up to them to change the way of the studio and NOT HEAT THE ROOM. If we sign up to go to a hot studio, then we should have class in a hot studio. If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen studio. I really liked this instructor too, but I won’t be practicing when that person teaches again because I need the heat. Besides, it just gets me mad and that completely nullifies the whole purpose for being there. Usually the intermediate class is super fun because it’s so small it’s casual and we get to learn new arm balances and practice poses we don’t always practice in a regular flow class.
Sunday – I use this as my day off, but the last two Sundays I’ve been to Sunday Session at the CSF studio in Norwood, MA. The first 45 min is a bootcamp style cardio/ functional workout which I happen to think I excel at (thanks to CATZ) then an hour of posing, which I certainly need lots of practice at!!! I’ve really got to get this whole turn & drag thing down. When someone says “this foot goes this way, then step right, then turn left…” I’m just lost! I’ll record this sometime so you guys can all laugh at me. It’s still good to get around like-minded ladies with the same goal in mind! This most recent Sunday I knew my body had had enough so I just went for posing. My back STILL is sore from back extensions on the roman chair!
So that kind of sums up what training is like for me, which I know for most seems like a lot.
I’m craving a lot of sweets but I’m gaining control. I am learning a lot since I began reading this book.
I’ll tell you guys more about it later because this blog is getting to be too long! So here are my progress pics!!
Your Coach,
Kyra
P.S. Wanna know how to lose weight fast, but keep it off? Get workout routines and a meal plan to lose weight by signing up for online personal training with me here:
KyraWilliamsFitness.com/signup