young but determined!! My "off season" thread

[TGandsey]

Hi everyone, My name is Taylor Gandsey and I currently live in Vancover Canada, but am originally from Portkand Oregon. I have been following on here for quite some time and finally decided it was my turn to share with you all what I have gone through and how my "off season" is going. I am definetly looking for some new ideas and some input on my training as well, so any advice and help is greatly appreciated!! So I am pretty young and new to this sport, I have been seriously training for about 4 years and have done 3 shows so far, all in the figure category. I am tossing around the idea of switching over to physique because i am definetly a fan of the harder more muscular look. I am currently 5'1 and weigh about 128. I have always kept myself lean no matter what, I love my cardio and train very intense. But just recently i am noticing that there is a fine line when it comes to being too obsessed and trying to always try and keep your body in a place where you are 2 weeks out from a show, and still build muscle at the same time. So needless to say i am slowly learning it is OK to give into my cravings every once in awhile. I live with my boyfriend here in Canada who has been competing and training for over 15 years so he has been very helpfull in getting me more comfortable with my body and learning to trust myself. For the first few years i was so strict, i overtrained and under eat, which got me no where. I was spinning my wheels trying to build muscle, but not allowing myself to eat. Long story short here I am in my off-season, trying to stay as lean as possible but put on some good quality muscle and relax a little with my diet. Right now I still do 7 days a week of fasted cardio for 45 min, I train 5 days a week and my workouts are split up like this. Chest, arms, shoulders, glutes, back, and legs. I try to hit abs 3 times a week, but to be totally honest I am not a big fan of training them!! My legs are very very develpoed and dont need much training at all, I dont carry my bodyfat like a typical woman, I hold it mostly around my midsection. I might play with training legs every other week and see how that goes, they grow so quickly and i really need to bring up my upper body! Wow sorry for the long winded story but I wanted you all to know as much about me as possible. I will try and post my workouts and diet on a daily basis and if anyone has and questions they want to ask more personally you can email me at [email protected]!!! I am so excited to finally share my journey with everyone!!

[The Prodigy]

Welcome to RX Girl! Make yourself at home!

[TGandsey]

Thank you Gail I cant wait to get my journal going!!

[juiceinator3000]

Good luck this offseason :) its always hard for women to be ok with not being in onstage condition once they compete. My ex has never been the same and I won't let my fiancé compete because she is the same way. Gets overly obsessed with how she looks to the point it puts too much strain on her life.

[TGandsey]

Yes it can definetly mess with your head to say the least!!! I am lucky that I have supportive people around me helping me transition from pre contest to off season, or as i like to call it building season!!!

[The Prodigy]

Good luck this offseason :) its always hard for women to be ok with not being in onstage condition once they compete. My ex has never been the same and I won't let my fiancé compete because she is the same way. Gets overly obsessed with how she looks to the point it puts too much strain on her life.

I am a HUGE fattie in the offseason! I powerlift and enjoy life!

[TGandsey]

So here is my first update!! each week i usually have two "Cheat meals" That end up more or less turning into cheat nights lol so yesterday was a weird day. I didnt do cardio or train, which already messes with my head, but to top it all off I was totally off of my diet. It started at a place called the salad loop where it is basically a buffet style restaurant where you load up you plate with all kinds of goodies and than they weigh it and charge accordingly. After that I went to a local coffee shop and got some goodies there, An almond butter bar, peanut butter flax cookie, and an energy bar. I came home and decided to have some oatmeal mixed with protein powder and peanut butter. After that I got super creative and made some oatmeal cookies with chocolate peanut butter cups!!! oh and to top it all of me and my boyfriend Duane went to a dinner at midnight and i had a club sandwhich and fries!!! needless to say I am more than ready for my morning cardio and fulled up for a great chest workout later. I was planning on training legs today but need to be carefull with training them after a cheat, they do NOT need to grow anymore thats for sure!!! I will update you on the diet and my workout later on today.

[curvygirl]

Hiya Taylor! And welcome!

This is my first official off season and yes I can totally relate to how hard it is to let go of the hard earned conditioning I've had for about 5 months. My "freakiness" is going undercover! /: *tear*

I have two trains of thought that are guiding me right now. First, some great advice I got from a fellow competitor - She said "stay withing striking distance!" Meaning I should not put on an excessive amount of weight because it will be that much harder to lose in prep.

Second my coach has said something similar to you...this is the time to build some muscle ("building season.") To do that we have to eat a bit more to feed our bodies and take away doing too much cardio. He is saying I should not be too strict in "off-season" so that when it is prep time again...my body will respond to the changes. Meaning when we take some food away and add cardio back in my body will respond the way we want it too.

So the real trick is to keep everything in balance while in "off season." So I continure to be "mindful" of what I am eating and continue to give my all when I am training. But when it is time to rest to rest and when a special treat is on tap, to really enjoy it without guilt.

Looking forward to hearing more about your training :D Peace!

[The Prodigy]

Balance in the offseason is very hard! I have metabolic damage so my weight jumps up, I have no thyroid function so that doesn't help..so I get BIG in the offseason....

I think until you stop competing you will never truly find balance....

[Katia]

Welcome to the board, Taylor! Looking forward to reading your journal! I like your cheat meal/ day post - wow! mine usually turn into some kind of disaster, where i keep wanting to have some more of this and add that on top and then mix those few together, lol. my cheat meals are done till my next show though... and to tell you the truth i'm kind of glad, because it's always like an insatiable cookie-monster inside of me who's just waiting for a single bite of sugar to start an uncontrollable feast, and then i always feel like crap after that. so once i know there's no more "treats" allowed, that cookie-monster just goes into hybernation and i'm a happy body!


Balance in the offseason is very hard! I have metabolic damage so my weight jumps up, I have no thyroid function so that doesn't help..so I get BIG in the offseason....

I think until you stop competing you will never truly find balance....
maybe it's because we go to such extremes with our bodies, our minds also go to extreme places - from being absolutely 100% disciplined to 0% ability to control our "emotional" eating...

[The Prodigy]

Welcome to the board, Taylor! Looking forward to reading your journal! I like your cheat meal/ day post - wow! mine usually turn into some kind of disaster, where i keep wanting to have some more of this and add that on top and then mix those few together, lol. my cheat meals are done till my next show though... and to tell you the truth i'm kind of glad, because it's always like an insatiable cookie-monster inside of me who's just waiting for a single bite of sugar to start an uncontrollable feast, and then i always feel like crap after that. so once i know there's no more "treats" allowed, that cookie-monster just goes into hybernation and i'm a happy body!


maybe it's because we go to such extremes with our bodies, our minds also go to extreme places - from being absolutely 100% disciplined to 0% ability to control our "emotional" eating...

YES! Emotional eating...see my journal for further details...lol....

[TGandsey]

Thank you so much for everyones responses!! So today was Chest day! suprising i love love love to train chest and today I had a super pump due to my boost of calories yesterday! I am definetly feeling a little puffy today and am a little uncomfortable to say the least, but I had a great workout non the less. I started off by warming up on the pec dec machine, I really need to warm up all my joints since I just recently dislocated my should and need to be extra carfefull! I started off with incline D.B press, I prefer using dumbelss because I like to make sure that the weight is evenly balanced! After incline press I went over to the Hammer strength wide press and did 4 sets with the last set being a drop and rest pausing until I couldnt bust out any more reps. I then went and did what I call a flat D.B twist press, it is a mix of a press and a fly. Next I went over to the life fitness flat press and did 4 heavy sets with the last set again being a drop set to failure. Finally i ended with a superset of pec flu and rear delt fly''s on the same machine!! needless to say my chest is fried. I am doing another round of steady cardio tonight to try and get rid of some of this excess water. Hope everyone has a wonderfull night and I will update more tomarrow!

[Sunnyday]

Welcome, Taylor! Glad you decided to finally start a journal here. :)

Great chest training there! Love chest day myself. Looking forward to reading more!

[Sarah =)]

Welcome to the journals and good luck with your offseason journey!

[ENV]

I am a HUGE fattie in the offseason! I powerlift and enjoy life!

......and this is why i can't WAIT for offseason!

[curvygirl]

......and this is why i can't WAIT for offseason!

Hahahahaha :D

[TGandsey]

alright!!! So today is back day, and im looking for any good workout ideas. I really need to add some size to my upper body and back so any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated!

[Sunnyday]

Pullups, pullups, and more pullups...different grips. I like to superset pullups and rows of the same grip.

[TGandsey]

Hey everyone!! So yesterday I trained back, One of my favorite body parts!!! I am somewhat anal about writing everything down and have about 4 workout journals filled with all kinds of notes about cardio and my workouts. But, my boyfriend has convinced me to try and just "go with the flow" and not worry about writing every little detail down about my workouts, since the weights are just tools to build muscle, and to many factors go into each workout so its really pointless. So needless to say I did my back workout yesterday without writing anything down!!! I really try to focus on the streach and squezze when i train back to get the most out of each rep! So here is the just of what i did...

Wide grip pull ups: 4 sets 8-10 reps, last set i rest paused to failure
Wide grip pull downs super setted with wide gip press downs: 4 sets working up in weight, last set of pull downs i did a drop set
2 arm low hammer row: 4 sets 10-12 reps, last set I dropped the weight and di single arm to really focus of my lower lat!
Seated close grip cable row super seted with low cable rope rows( I set the cable to the very bottown and use the rope to row to my belly button and flare my elbows out)
Close grip v handle pull downs: 4 sets of 10-12
.......and finally I ended with rop face puls to hit my rear delts a bit more!!!

Needless to say I was spent after this workout!! I decided to have a higher carb/cheat day as well. I had a few protein bars, some cookies, a 6' sub, a granola bar, some carmel rice cakes with peanut butter, and some chocolate macaroons. I am playing with what works best for my body as far as cheat meals/ cheat days/ higher carbs go. I usually eat 3 normal meals, train, go out for dinner and have some snacks afterwards that are usually higher carb and sugar. My cheats usually turn into cheat nights lol if anyone has any suggestions on what has worked best or what they like I would love to hear! My boyfriends trainer reccomends higher protein like red meat, not so much the sugary carbs.


Today is arms and I am expecting a very good pump from all the food I had yesterday!!

[darrtiss]

Pullups, pullups, and more pullups...different grips. I like to superset pullups and rows of the same grip.

i second that! pull ups are the best way to grow your back and you don't have to worry about adding/changing weight! just go until failure each set and you'll see results fast!!!

[darrtiss]

Hey everyone!! So yesterday I trained back, One of my favorite body parts!!! I am somewhat anal about writing everything down and have about 4 workout journals filled with all kinds of notes about cardio and my workouts. But, my boyfriend has convinced me to try and just "go with the flow" and not worry about writing every little detail down about my workouts, since the weights are just tools to build muscle, and to many factors go into each workout so its really pointless. So needless to say I did my back workout yesterday without writing anything down!!! I really try to focus on the streach and squezze when i train back to get the most out of each rep! So here is the just of what i did...

Wide grip pull ups: 4 sets 8-10 reps, last set i rest paused to failure
Wide grip pull downs super setted with wide gip press downs: 4 sets working up in weight, last set of pull downs i did a drop set
2 arm low hammer row: 4 sets 10-12 reps, last set I dropped the weight and di single arm to really focus of my lower lat!
Seated close grip cable row super seted with low cable rope rows( I set the cable to the very bottown and use the rope to row to my belly button and flare my elbows out)
Close grip v handle pull downs: 4 sets of 10-12
.......and finally I ended with rop face puls to hit my rear delts a bit more!!!

Needless to say I was spent after this workout!! I decided to have a higher carb/cheat day as well. I had a few protein bars, some cookies, a 6' sub, a granola bar, some carmel rice cakes with peanut butter, and some chocolate macaroons. I am playing with what works best for my body as far as cheat meals/ cheat days/ higher carbs go. I usually eat 3 normal meals, train, go out for dinner and have some snacks afterwards that are usually higher carb and sugar. My cheats usually turn into cheat nights lol if anyone has any suggestions on what has worked best or what they like I would love to hear! My boyfriends trainer reccomends higher protein like red meat, not so much the sugary carbs.


Today is arms and I am expecting a very good pump from all the food I had yesterday!!

Sometimes for cheat days for me it helps to plan THE DAYs BEFORE what you want to eat and what you'll cheat with. It helps me to decide ahead of time what i want my cheat to be and then look forward to it! because it's definitely hard when the day of that cheat rolls around every twenty minutes you think of something different you might want! then before you know it you're eating anything and everything!

so try to plan ahead so you can look forward and enjoy your cheats a bit more! =)

[TGandsey]

Sorry for being MIA for awhile!! I have been super busy with going to various bodybuilding competitions here in canada, doing some traveling and re asseing my own prep! two weekends ago me and my boyfriend went to the canadian nationals here in vancouver for bikini, figure, mens physique, and elite mens bb. Last weekend we went to edmonton, which is a 12 hour drive, for the other half of the canadian nationals!! both shows were great! it was fun to see some of the new canadian pros!! we made a little mini vaca out of our trip to edmonton and stayed with duanes cousin. It was fun to be in a new gym, gets my blood goin!! I met with my coach and had him look at me to see where i need to make improvements!! I plant on competiting at the Emerald cup this year in physique which is the first weekend in may. Basically my coach said i am already 3/4 of the way there. The few things i need to work on are building some more muscle on my upper body, specifically my arms!! so if anyone has any reccomendations i would really appreciate it! and last but not least I have finally decided to get BOOBIES!!! I am young, only 23, so i figure now is the best time to get them. I have a consult scheduled on the 31 and surgery on the 5th! I am a little nervous but very excited. if anyone has some experiences or helpful advice in regards to the surgery i would love to hear! its totally going to kill me to not be able to train at all but i know in the big picture it is so worth it!! I will start posting my workouts more often and keep you all up to date on whats going on!!