I’m still loving the new off season program I’m on. I’ve been able to increase the weight I’m lifting every single week, which is an incredible feeling. I was starting to feel a bit hungry between my 2^nd afternoon snack and dinner so we’re adding a banana to my afternoon shake to help hold me til dinner. Plus I’m now having steak twice a week – gotta feed those growing muscles!

I’m lifting heavy and have been babying a pulled tendon in my left elbow and finally got one of those braces with the little bubble that puts pressure on the tendon.  I’ve worn it during two workouts so far and it’s helping a lot. That plus ice and Motrin seem to be doing the trick.

I’ve got an overnight business trip this week so I’m already trying to plan my food and figure out what I might be able to take with me so I’m not scrambling to find the right food while I’m there.  I also need to fit in a workout while I’m there. The hotel supposedly has a gym and from the pictures I’ve seen it looks like there are free weights and a few machines as well as cardio equipment. It’ll be arms day when I’m there so that shouldn’t be too hard to do even if the gym is subpar.

I just finished the first week on my program. It went great!  I think it’s just the change up my body needed.  My right shoulder, tricep and lat were all suffering from overtraining. Gosh, to be honest, all of me was suffering from overtraining. But the rest did me good and this week all the little nagging strains were gone. I felt great and super strong.  The only injury that’s still a bit of a problem is my lower right hip/back area. This is an injury that’s several years old and it continues to flare up on legs day and for 1 to 2 days following legs training.  Since I’m training legs twice a week my hip is sore pretty much constantly.  It definitely means I have to lift lighter than I’d like, but at least I can still lift.  Maybe I need to do some lower back strengthening.  I’ll have to consider that.

 My body is slowly getting used to eating the extra lean ground beef in the early morning with my egg whites and oatmeal.  I definitely have more energy now that I’ve added a little red meat to my diet.  I’m also eating turkey, chicken and white fish for protein so my day is full of variety. I’m starting to notice that I’m a bit hungry between my afternoon snacks. That means my metabolism is revving up and within a week or so I’ll need to add more food.

Today was my one day of rest from the gym for the week. I've never done 6 days on/1 day off before. So far, so good. Tomorrow starts another week!   

I met with my trainer/nutritionist, Kim Oddo, today to go over my new training program, supplements and nutrition plan.  We’re changing it up a quite a bit. 

For my new program I’m working one body part per day on a 6 day split – legs get two days since that’s an area I need to focus on. Sunday is rest day. Cardio is a mere 15 minutes per day, 5 days per week at a warm up or cool down tempo, just enough to keep my metabolism running, not so much to ruin my hard earned new muscle. My weight training program is based on Hany Rambod’s FST program. It’s great! I did one variation of it last year and I really grew some muscle from it. This is a new variation – gotta keep the muscles guessing!

Although I will definitely keep my blog here - I love the GrowHuge.com family! - I want to invite you to also visit me at http://barbaramencer.blogspot.com/ I've just started to a personal website - it's still iln the formation stages so don't laugh - and a blog is part of the site. There's a lot left to do the site (add more photos; write more text, etc.) but at least the blog is started.  Hope to see you there.

Hey there,

 I’m just three weeks away from completing my 12-week lean building program.  I can’t wait to take measurements and figure out my muscle gains.  All I know is that I’m starting to need new sports bras and t-shirts cuz my lats are getting HUGE!  Lol.  :o)

My biggest challenge is trusting the process. I’m working with the absolute best person (IMHO) so I trust him/the process as much as I possibly could.  Still, the old body dismorphia creeps in now and then, especially now that the scale has tipped over 120 lbs.  Logically I know I should be going for 125 or even more ON STAGE but that probably realistically means 130 or so off season and that’s scary to me.

What happens is once my weight creeps to about 122 I sorta sabotage my efforts by skipping one of my meals or working a little harder on my cardio than I should be right now.  I know I’m doing it, but it’s hard to stop.  And yet, I want to grow more muscle and to do that I have to weigh more.  Such a weird thing.

Anyway, my tentative plan is to finish this program and go on a 2 week rest. I’m starting to have lots of achy muscles and old injuries are flaring up.  I’m also fatigued.  This tells me I’m probably entering into the dreaded over training arena.  After my two week rest I want to do another lean muscle building program. That’ll take me up to the Christmas holiday.  I’ll break again so I can enjoy holiday goodies and then most likely after the first of the year go into contest prep.  Mind you, this may all change after my end of August strategy meeting with my trainer.  But for now, this is what I’m thinking. 

Welp, gotta go to the gym and work legs now.  Bye.

I can't believe it's August already!  My 3 month building program will be finished in a month. Where does the time go? Anyway, it's going great. I've gained about 5 pounds of lean muscle so far. It's noticeable all over but especially so in my lats.  I'm going to have to buy bigger t-shirts and sports bras at this rate!  What I love about this program is that it's lean gains so I've kept my 6-pack and overall conditioning. That's key to me. I hate having fat over my muscle. It's a look I just don't like.

I relaxed my diet just a bit this weekend to enjoy a few glasses of wine and some bread and cheese.  Very little, though. I don't want to throw off all my hard work. I'm back on it 100% on Monday.

Last week I was a guest on a radio show talking about women's health and fitness. I had alot of fun.  Here's a link if anybody's interested: http://www.co-creatornetwork.com/guests/Mencer_Barbara/thinkingabout20090730.htm

July 5, 2009

I have been delinquent in my blog updates.  No excuses, just crazy busy with work and working out.

I developed airplane ear after a business trip to Arizona last week and my ears have been driving me nuts.  I think it’s starting to get better.  I was still able to work out, but it did affect the strength of my workouts for about 2 days cuz I was getting vertigo.  I’m going to my acupuncturist this week. She’s amazing and I’m sure she can help.

I also got stuck at an airport with my plane delayed for 6 hours.  It was night so there were no food stations open at the airport.  All I had with me was 2 protein bars and a liter of water.  I though I was going to starve to death.  They almost cancelled the flight and I would’ve had to either find a hotel or stay the night at the airport but we finally made it out that night and I got home after midnight, starving and very, very tired.  Lesson learned:  Always keep extra food / bars /shakes in my purse when travelling.

My off season program is going well.  In fact, it’s going great!  I’ve put on a few pounds of muscle while keeping my 6 pack so I’m happy with that and will continue with what’s working.  I added a post workout zero sugar carb supplement. It’s Vitargo S2 by Genr8.  Between that and the Evogen, my muscles are full and growing and yet I’m staying lean, which is how I like it since I hate cardio and want to do as little as possible.  I’ve gained 3.5 inches overall in the last month with the majority in my back and quads.

I’m still doing a 5 day split and I’m working back two days a week and hammys two day per week.  Those are my focal points for now.  I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do any shows this fall/winter or just wait til 2010.  Finances are a tad tight right now so the decision may be made for me!

I’ve been Twittering (you can follow me @6PakGirl) and through that met someone who has a fitness business and blog.  She asked to interview me and will be posting my interview to her blog next week. I was also asked to do a health & fitness Internet radio show so that’ll happen at the end of July.  How fun is that?! 

So, because Saturday was the 4^th of July, I gave myself a little break from my nutrition plan and splurged by drinking a little white wine.  I didn’t cheat food-wise, though.  The wine was enough of a splurge for me.

Can't wait til tomorrow's workout!

I'm 2 weeks into my off season program.  Lifting 5 days per week (back twice per week) and doing 5 days of cardio @ 20 minutes each - just enough to keep me honest. :o)

I turned 50 on Friday so I took that day off of training and went to Disneyland with my hubby. We had a great time. I indulged in a few cheats: pita chips, ice cream, a cupcake, champagne and a couple glasses of wine. We must've walked a trillion miles so I doubt I did any damage. We spent the night and came home on Saturday and I was exhausted. I had planned on working out (to make up for Friday's day off) but just couldn't do it. I did manage to get up enough energy go out to dinner with friends but stayed on course by ordering grilled salmon and steamed veggies.

Today I was back at the gym, killing my shoulders and biceps. It felt great.  I may not be able to lift my arms tomorrow, though ... 

Hello!  I found out that I placed 6th in Open at the Cal.  I'm super thrilled with that since it was such as tough big show.  That's almost sweeter than my win in Masters!

I tried to start a photo album but my photos were too large. Part of one photo appeared but I deleted it cuz I couldn't get the whole thing to load. I'll try again at some point. (I'm not that great with this thing called technology, can you tell?)

I decided not to do the photoshoot. I was way too stressed. It was coming together easily and one would think that would've made me happy but I'm such a planner and even though my photographer, hair and makeup artists were all squared away I didn't have time to concentrate on getting my outfits figured out. I decided I'd rather do the shoot when I have more time to figure out the look I'm going for and then to plan my outfits accordingly.

I’m excited to officially start my off season program!  I’m training a 5-day split, two days of back for now. This may change to two days of legs down the line.  My cardio will be minimal – just 20 min 5x a week at a moderate pace.  My nutrition plan is in place to help me grow some muscle so I’m all set.  Taking a week off from the gym was hard but very smart.  When I started back this week I was STRONG!  Of course, every body part I’ve worked out is sore. Guess that’s to be expected. 

Today I did legs, which I really don't like to work. For calves I did three different exercises, 100 reps each.  It was brutal but a nice change. I'm already feeling it.

I'm going to try some green tea extract when I need an energy boost.  Anyone ever try that?  If so, I'd love to get your thoughts.

So ... here's how I did at The Cal:  I won Masters 45+!!!! :D  I also did very well in Open Class D but I'm not quite sure how I placed. I know it was top 10. My trainer thinks I placed 6 ot 7 since that's how I was called out but musculardevelopment doesn't have any placings listed other than the top 5. Hopefully, they'll have that soon. I'd like to know.

I'm super happy with how I did. It was a huge, very competitive show.  My trainer, Kim Oddo, had 21 girls in it - 9 were pros and the rest amateurs. His pros won 4 out of the top 5 spots. Geez. How nice is that?

Anyway, we brainstormed my next steps today.  Here's the goal:  Masters Nationals in July 2010!!!! 

How do I get there?  Here's the plan: I'm going to go off season for the next 12 weeks, at least. At that time (around Sept 5) I need to decide if I want to do The Sac and maybe Excalibur and then go off season until it's time to prep for Masters Nationals or stay off season for the rest of 2009 and then do the Emerald Cup in April and Masters Nationals in July 2010.

I'm trying to decide if I'd rather have a very long off season period right now and really use it to get some muscle gains or if I'm not going to be happy with not competing until next April and should go ahead and do a show or two this fall.  I guess I'll wait to see how the first 12 weeks of off season goes.  Any suggestions/thoughs from ya'll are very welcome.

So, I was going to post a couple photos but I don't see how to do it if the photos are stored in my computer rather than on the web.  Any suggestions?

It’s Wednesday night, 3 days til The Cal.  My weight is at a good place today – 117.8.  I’m having a bit of a tough time keeping my muscles full but so far, so good.  They're hanging in there.  Having the best trainer/nutritionist in the world helps.  I just let him tell me what to do and then I do it. Simple.  I can tell my body is getting tired. Two shows in two weeks was perhaps a bit of an aggressive goal but hey, it sounded good at the time I registered!  :o)

 We’re doing a couple things differently this show because my muscles are trying to decide whether they are going to stay full and tight or not.  We’re feeding me more, earlier on (had steak this past Sunday and then had it again Tues night) and I'll begin taking a diuretic a little sooner to cut more water to counterbalance. I’ve already been told to be ready to go for a steak and yam dinner Friday night. No problem! 

I’ll spend Thursday evening grilling steak, chicken, and salmon and will also cook up asparagus and yams to take with me. I’ll also pack almonds, oatmeal, rice cakes and peanut butter.  All the staples so I’ll be pretty set no matter what my trainer tells me I need to eat.

Because this show is held in conjunction with the pros, it’ll be a big one.  I like how they’re handling the athletes meeting/check in.  The figure girls are meeting on Friday evening and then bodybuilding checks in on Saturday morning. That’s so much better than trying to check everyone in on Saturday morning.  It also means that we don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn.  I’m planning on getting to the venue about 9:00 am on Saturday morning. I’ll get my hair and makeup done there.  I actually prefer having my makeup and hair done earlier but since the figure girls probably won’t begin prejudging til noon or so, I think it’ll be fine.  Who knows, maybe instead of having hours where we just sit and wait, the time will move by more quickly because it’ll be filled with make up, hair, tanning touch ups, bikini bite and posing oil within a shorter timeframe than usual.

Today was my last workout before the show. I worked shoulders heavy but did back and biceps lightly. I also did 20 min of stairs at an easy pace of 7 on the stair master. Tomorrow I’ll do some light cardio but that’ll be it.  As much as I enjoy working out, I’m ready to take a few days off. My body is tired. I’ll probably take all – or at least most of – next week off to recuperate and plan my next competition strategy.  More on that after this weekend!

Whew!  It's been crazy the last two days. Taking off time to do a competition means that my work suffers so now that I'm back I'm up to my ears trying to catch up which is kinda futile because I'll be competing again in 11 days and I'll just fall behind again while I'm gone doing that show!  Oh well, that's the sacrifice I have to make in order to keep up with my hobby.

This week it's back to the grindstone. I did chest, triceps and calves yesterday along with 20 min of moderate cardio. Today was back and abs and again 20 min of cardio. Tomorrow is legs day (yuck) and then I'll rest Thursday. Friday is shoulders, biceps and abs and then I may do a second day of glutes/hamstrings on the weekend.  Next week I'll just workout lightly on Mon, Tues and Wed. and that'll be it before the next show. 

I'm feeling very strong this week in my workouts which is a nice surprise. I thought I'd be weak/tired but even though I'm physically fatigued I'm still lifting almost my heaviest so that's very cool indeed.

I'm toying with the idea of doing a photoshoot the day or two after my next competition.  I haven't decided yet but I'll be talking with the photographer this week and will probably make up my mind soon. 

Wow, where to start? I had the best time ever. I think this was the most fun I’ve ever had at a competition. I thought the Contra was going to be a small show. Boy was I wrong. It was big. Lots of body building, bikini and figure competitors and one fitness competitor. Jay Cutler was the guest poser and boy was that a treat. He really has a lot of charisma and jumped on empty seats in the auditorium to pose and take photos with the fans. Very cool.

Whew!  Finally got a chance to get to the computer.  I'm sitting in my hotel room waiting to eat again. I'll eat about 9 pm and again right before sleep. My body is holding up well but I am definitely tired.  In between spray tan appointments we went to the grocery store and bought chicken, steak and salmon and then cooked it all up in a George Foreman grill in our hotel room.  You can totally smell the salmon down the hall. I'm glad we didn't get busted for cooking in the room! 

Met a couple other figure competitors and a bodybuilder. We're going to drive over to the venue together in the am.  Atheletes meeting at 8 am, then makeup at 9:15 and prejudging at 11 am.  My new suit is gorgeous and my trainer thinks I look better than I have in past shows.  That's really all I wanted.  It's such a subjective sport that I don't ever really feel like I'm competing against other women. I'm competing against myself, period.  If the judges like the package I bring to the stage, then that's a bonus, But, if they like someone better that's okay too as long as I feel I brought my personal best. 

I'll be tweeting as I can throughout the competition tomorrow.  Good night!

Okay, so I'm almost there.  It's Thursday night and I've just finished packing as much as I could pack ahead of time.  I'll pack my personal items and food tomorrow morning before I leave for the airport.  All is well. My weight is 116.4 today. The muscle bellies are full and tight. I'm not doing much water depletion - just a touch - and so far it's working. I'll take a herbal diuretic on Friday in case the flight causes me to hold water but I'll still keep on drinking so I don't shred.My new top inserts came in and I think they are perfect so no worries there. 

When we land in Oakland we are renting a car and going straight to the event hotel. Hopefully, we'll get to check in early. I have a tanning appointment at 1:15 and after that it's off to the grocery store to buy all the food items I'll need for Friday and Saturday. My trainer will arrive later Friday afternoon and he will look at me and determine what changes I need to make in my food and whether I need to cut more water. Another tanning session at night and then I get to sleep with all that wonderful, stinky tanning stuff all over me and hope I don't sweat during the night. I hate that part!

The atheletes meeting is at 8:00 am on Saturday and then I have make up and hair appts. Prejuding starts at 11:00 am; Finals at 6:30 pm

I doubt I'll get to a computer tomorrow but if I do, I'll post an update.  Otherwise, I'll tweet what's going on.

Wish me luck!

So, today was my last legs day before the comp on Saturday.  It went surprisingly well.  My strength was up a bit from last week so that was nice.  Personally, I hate working legs so I'm glad I'm done with those for a week.  I'll split my upper body workout between Tues and Wed and then no more workouts before the show. 

I'm still doing 20 min of cardio @ 5 days just to keep things spinning - but not lose anything.  I'm at 116.2 pounds today. I wish I was at 117 but I'm still okay at 116.2 so I won't sweat it yet.  I may need to eat some steak or salmon before Saturday in order to keep the muscle bellies full. That's the worry about being stage ready early!

My new posing suit should arrive tomorrow. I'm so excited.  Merry Christine designed it and she emailed me today that she couldn't help herself, she added porcelain flowers to both the top and bottom.  It sounds gorgeous.  Of course porcelain is glass so I'll have to be extra careful storing, cleaning and wearing it so I don't break the adornments!  That baby is going with me in my handbag on the plane.  :o)

I see my trainer/nutritionist tomorrow. He'll tweak my food and supplements for the rest of the week as well as make any adjustments in my cardio for the next two days.

Even though I’m in the middle of preparation for the 2009 figure competitive season, I thought I’d journal the journey!