Just a little background information on me! This may be a long one, but I promise this will be the last long post! :) I'm going to use this blog to track my workouts and occasionally post videos from my workouts as well. So, to get started....
Well, first off, I guess I should mention that I played softball since I was 9 years old, through high school.
I started weight training when I was 12 or 13 years old. My dad gave me a set of little 3lb pink dumbbells, and ever since then I was hooked! He showed me a few exercises to do to strengthen my arms for softball(I was a pitcher), and it just progressed from there. I instantly fell in love with lifting weights, and I haven't stopped since.
As I got stronger, my dad got me heavier dumbbells. I would go through a full body routine with those weights in my bedroom all through middle school and high school. After a while of doing this, I slowly started seeing physical changes. I was starting to grow some muscle on my skinny little body, and I loved it! I remember being so proud of my little biceps!
Now, 14 years later, I am just as in love with lifting weights as ever. Well, that's not really true-I love it even MORE! My love for fitness led me to get a degree in exercise science from the University of Louisville, and I have currently been a personal trainer for almost 5 years now. Health and fitness is truly my passion.
I absolutely LOVE lifting heavy, and my goal is to show women that they can lift heavy weights without the fear of getting "huge" or looking like a man. It's time for that myth to go away already! I mean, I've been doing this for 14 years, and I don't think I look like a man yet!
Strength training is one of the BEST things you can do for youself as a woman, in my opinion. Not only for health reasons(and there are SO many), but also for the confidence it gives you and the way it transforms your body. Nothing is better than being strong, feeling good, and having confidence. So ditch the 5lb barbie weights, please!
So anyways, when I was 18, I met my current husband, who was also an athlete and very into lifting. Meeting him just furthered my love for fitness, and he taught me a lot of new things about training and nutrition. We started going to the gym together, and he put me on a training "split" where I was training one or two muscle groups each day(back one day, chest one day, legs one day, etc). I continued this bodybuilding routine for about 8 years, with good results. I got stronger, increased my weights and was slowly building more muscle. I was determined to look like a fitness model one day! I became obsessed with bodybuilding and read everything about it that I could.
When I got my nutrition on track, that is when I really started seeing results. For so many years I thought I was eating right and was wondering why I wasn't seeing results fast enough as far as muscle growth. In the last few years, I have focused on eating mostly real, quality food and less processed food. I increased my protein intake, as well as my healthy fats and have seen a huge difference in my body composition. I gained muscle and lost body fat. I also started focusing on the big, compound lifts like squats, rows, shoulder presses, and pullups, using more weight for less reps.
Then about a year ago, I discovered CrossFit. I had heard of it before, but wasn't really sure what it was all about. After some convincing by others at my gym, I decided to give it a try. I'm always up for a challenge! I'm not one to do something half way, so I stopped my bodybuilding workouts completely and started following the WODs(workout of the day) listed on the CrossFit mainsite(Crossfit.com).
My workouts went from just working one or two muscle groups a day, to pretty much working my full body in every single workout. The WODs were completely different every day and lasted anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes! They consisted of things like box jumps, pullups, power cleans, kettlebell swings, thrusters, situps, push presses, and handstand pushups, and so many other things! The workouts were always a race against the clock, which made them super challenging. The goal was to try to complete the workout in the fastest time possible.
I really fell in love with CrossFit because it was something new, exciting and challenging. It brought out my inner athlete and my competitive side. It made me realize just how much I missed training like an athlete, and I also realized how out of shape I was!! So many years of lifting weights and doing no cardio had made me pretty strong...but my conditioning, however, was NOT so good.
So I did CrossFit for a a little over a year and am still including some aspects of it into my current program. It was nice to have a break from the way I had been training for so long and to try something new-it was just fun! I also loved that I didn't have to worry about planning out my workouts!
A few months ago, I decided I wanted to focus more on my strength, so I cut back on the CrossFit WODs and started doing Jim Wendler's 5-3-1 powerliftng program. On this program, you do the 4 major lifts-military presses, deadlifts, squats, and bench press, with some assistance work and conditioning in there, too. The focus is mostly on the main lifts and getting stronger on those with each cycle.
I have done 2 cycles of that program so far, and next week I will be starting my 3rd. I have not seen as much progress as I would have liked with this program as far as strength goes. In fact, some of my lifts seemed to have gotten weaker(SQUATS!). This is no good, since the main reason I started the program was to get stronger! I'm going to do one more cycle, and then after that I am going to try a new upper/lower split. I will still be doing all the main lifts and try to get stronger on those, but my main focus will be hypertrophy. I want more muscle!
Even though building muscle is my main goal, I am never going to go back to a bodybuilding routine. After doing CrossFit and powerlifting, I just don't think I could go to the gym and do some of the things I used to do, like lateral raises, leg extensions, or tricep kickbacks! I am going to incorporate things I learned from doing CrossFit into my workouts, such as muscle ups, double unders, power cleans/snatches, kettlebell swings, and handstand pushups. For conditioning, I'm going to run sprints and start doing some stuff with the Prowler, which I've never done before. I'm excited to try some new things!
Okay, so now that I have written a BOOK, I think I will stop now! I hope I didn't bore you to death...those who have been reading my other blog know most of this stuff already, so I'm sorry you had to suffer through this...if you read it all!
I will start posting my workouts next week!
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