Round 2 as a Bodybuilder...My Roller Coaster Ride to Eastern USA's and Nationals

[Melissa]

Ok, so normally I tend to prep in a bubble. I usually keep to myself and just do my own thing and cruise along...creating my own determination and motivation has never been a problem for me. But as I continue on in this sport, there's no doubt that having the support of other competitors fuels the fire.

And that leads me here. I decided that this year, I'm going to do some things different, and I figured why not share that on here with anyone who has some spare time and has even a remote interest to follow along. I've always found it interesting to hear/read other competitors thoughts, feelings, or whatever as they go through prep....makes you feel like you're not the only crazy one. And a crazy one I am, for sure.

So a little background on my craziness....I'm a figure girl turned bodybuilder and have absolutely found my niche in bodybuilding. For the most part, I have loved the transition, though I continue to struggle with the offseason look of a bodybuilder (but that's another story for another time). I competed in my first bodybuilding show last year and while I was barely given a second look by the judges, I accomplished my personal goals and was ultimately very happy with my first showing as a bodybuilder. My biggest problem right now is trying to fill out my frame, which was my focus this offseason. At 5'3 (5'4 on a good day), I was too tall to be a lightweight, having weighed in at 114.6 last year. The goal this year is 120 on stage, and I'm fairly confident that I've put on 5 lbs of muscle over the past 7 months.

And so it's begun. I'm just over 15 weeks out from Easterns and just over 16 weeks out from Nationals. I decided to start my prep at 18 weeks out from Easterns because I wanted to try to give myself a little extra time to lose the weight. I'm doing some experimenting with things this year with regards to cardio and diet, so I want to have some time to play around a bit. Right now I'm doing a lot of cardio for it being so early on in the diet, but my calories are higher in an effort to keep my training balls to the wall (that's a scientific term, you know). So far, it seems to be working really well in all aspects. The weight is coming off, and my training has continued to be great. I started at 149 and am now down to 142 after two weeks. It feels so good to start getting rid of some of the fat....talk to me in about 10 weeks, and I probably won't be so cheery. But for now, it's game on and I'm ready to roll

[2hot4u]

awesome!! I met you at the arnold and will love to watch your progess!!! Do you do your own diet?

[stephaniewicked]

I always use the term 'balls to the wall'. It's like, you know, hardcore and stuff!

I've enjoyed following your blog since last year, so you know I'll be here for the ride...

[tammyp]

im in mel!

[Melissa]

Yay, glad you girls are here!

awesome!! I met you at the arnold and will love to watch your progess!!! Do you do your own diet?

Hey Lisa...how have you been? If I remember correctly, at the Arnold you mentioned you were just getting back in the gym after surgery or a major injury. I hope you're training's finally back on track. What are your contest plans for this year?

I don't do my own diet. I don't trust myself enough. The last two years, Dave did my contest prep, and Sean Andros did my offseasons. Finally this year, I decided to let Sean do my prep as well, since we established a solid base while working together through two offseasons.

I always use the term 'balls to the wall'. It's like, you know, hardcore and stuff!

I've enjoyed following your blog since last year, so you know I'll be here for the ride...

Thanks Steph! You know me and my "hardcore-ness" lol.

[shankuan]

I'm subscribed!

[Melissa]

WANTED: Clavicle extensions or implants

Seriously though, I've always wondered if it's possible to get collar bone extensions. I have such a narrow frame up top, so I don't have a very good V-taper. Fortunately for me, my shoulders are a strong body part and I have a relatively tiny waist, so that helps to create that illusion. But it has made it incredibly difficult for me to build a wider back. I've definitely managed to improve my back width this year, but it seems that I'm always going to be a little limited with displaying much width because of my narrow structure. Unfortunately, I'm reminded of this every time I practice my posing (as I was doing tonight after my back workout).

I did have a great back workout tonight, even though I was practically falling asleep on my way up to the gym. Somehow I managed to wake myself up and got into a groove early on and hammered out some good sets. Fortunately for me, my training partner knows when I need to just shut up and train and when I'm open for conversation. Today was a shut up and train day after having long, frustrating day at work.

One thing about my job (for those of you that don't know, I'm a Probation Officer) is that it can be mentally exhausting. It's not that I work rediculously long hours, though I do sometimes, but the population I work with really keeps me on my toes. I have a caseload specifically of people who are alcoholics and addicts, and by the nature of addiction, they are incredibly manipulative....that means I have to be on the ball and very aware of when I'm being lied to, which is pretty much all the time. And it's not just my probationers that are frustrating. "The System" isn't perfect and can make doing my job very difficult sometimes when I don't have the support of certain other entities of the criminal justice system.

Anyway, tomorrow is hams and calves and then it's carido only on Friday. That's my own little way of tricking myself into feeling like the weeks are shorter because tomorrow is really my Friday as far as training goes Now if only I can trick my boss into thinking that Thursday is really Friday...

[Melissa]

So, I weighed in this morning and only lost .6 lbs which was a little disappointing....until I took my progress pictures. I am much tighter than I was last week, and it's clear that there was good progress this past week, so I'm not too upset. We'll see what changes, if any, Sean has planned for me. Tonight is my cheat meal, for which I have a special "cheat meal crew" that I go out to eat with lol. Since I've had a non-stop craving for a burger and fries, we're headed to Five Guys, as I hear they have killer burgers. I'm trying something a little different this year with my cheat meals, too. The past two years, I have always had clean cheat meals (oatmeal, protein pudding, cashews, etc), but I found that I overate that way because I wasn't actually eating a meal, so to speak. It was more like grazing. I had my first cheat meal last week and found that having an actual meal kept me from overeating, and I didn't feel like complete poop afterwards. I'm actually hoping that not eating clean will be more productive, since the intent of the cheat meal is to shock the body anyway. So, we'll see how that goes.

Workouts continue to be going very well. I had a great arm workout yesterday at Bev Francis's gym on Long Island and followed up with a sick leg workout this morning. I swear, there's nothing like the feeling you get after a great leg workout, especially when you're dieting. It's like this great feeling of accomplishment...well, at least for me it is. Plus, it makes me even hungrier for my cheat meal later in the day!

Now, speaking of being on the Island that is Long yesterday....yes, I somehow wound up at the Bros vs. Pros challenge, and then found myself belted up, straps in hand, standing above 185 lbs. I had absolutely no intention of even going to the event. I had my biweekly PT appointment with Mike Camp and was planning to do my usual stuff when I go down there (which is to see him, train, and then do some shopping at Trader Joes, since there isn't one by me). Well, Kat and Jillian were there shooting their IA training video and convinced me to join them at the dead lift challenge....and let me tell you, I was really dead set on not going because I didn't have all my food with me for the day, and I was planning on coming home early last night and just relaxing. When I finally got there, the women had just started, so I settled in with the girls and started to watch.

Then the peer pressure started. Now, I used to love (and I mean LOOOOOOVE) dead lifting, but even when I was dead lifting, I wasn't exactly what you would call strong, I just loved to do them. For anyone that hasn't been following my blog, I have a tear in my left hamstring as well as problems with my sciatic nerve that are a result of trying to train around the tear. After years of not dealing with the problem, it finally got to a point where I couldn't do certain things, like dead lift. I have now been getting treatments on the injury for a few months. Anyway, I finally caved under the pressure, and well, it's on video lol. The girls that all went before me were just crazy strong and obviously had great endurance to knock out 30, 40, and 50 reps. So, huge props to them. The day was fun, and I'm glad I went and got to see everybody there. Plus, we had great seats, especially for when the guys went. Let's just say there were a few powerlifters/strongmen that were nice to watch from where we were sitting

Alright, enough of my epic novel (I know, I'm a rambler lol). It's off for round two of cardio!

[tammyp]

good job mel! are you sore today?

i hear you with that effing scale. i am 10 lbs down from when you saw me but its a dramatic change in my LOOK. i am trying to not freak about the scale anymore...but old habits die hard. just keep at it~

[PJ BRAUN]

With 5lbs more muscle I think you will look great. I thought you looked awesome last year... You have a very pretty shape.

[stephaniewicked]

Workouts continue to be going very well. I had a great arm workout yesterday at Bev Francis's gym on Long Island and followed up with a sick leg workout this morning. I swear, there's nothing like the feeling you get after a great leg workout, especially when you're dieting. It's like this great feeling of accomplishment...well, at least for me it is. Plus, it makes me even hungrier for my cheat meal later in the day!

I couldn't agree more! I was tearing legs up in the off-season so bad that even though I was trying to work them 2x/week, sometimes it would be 5 days between sessions because I would be limping around for the first 2-3 days. Once the diet started, all that seemed to stop... every so often though, I have a kick ass leg day and it makes me feel like I'm on top of the world!

I've never been to Five Guys and they're popping up all over the place around here! I definitely want to hit that up when my diet allows me to do so. Enjoy!!

[Suzanne]

I want clavicle extensions too! I thought I would NEVER have a wide back but it is the part that has improved the most and might be my best part now So just keep working it hard even with narrow structure can get wide back

At least you have small waist i have HUGE waist

[musclemilf]

I have a wide clavicle, small waist w/wide hip bones fckinghourglass. A wide clavicle isn't all that it's cracked up to be, for me at least - my little muscles get lost around the wide parts of my bone structure. My lats are very slow to grow too. Gotta love genetics.

Melissa - It's so cool you got to compete with Tazzie yesterday

[Melissa]

good job mel! are you sore today?

i hear you with that effing scale. i am 10 lbs down from when you saw me but its a dramatic change in my LOOK. i am trying to not freak about the scale anymore...but old habits die hard. just keep at it~

My back's not sore from the dl's, but my left ham/glute that Mike worked on is sore as hell! I'm icing it as we speak.

Yeah, it seems like no matter how much you say you know you shouldn't freak about the scale, it happens anyway. I'm a little more relaxed about it this year because I refuse to be a lw again lol. I'm pretty confident that I'll fall easily into the mw class and be in good condition, albeit on the low end of the weight class.

With 5lbs more muscle I think you will look great. I thought you looked awesome last year... You have a very pretty shape.

Thanks, PJ That means a lot coming from you.

I couldn't agree more! I was tearing legs up in the off-season so bad that even though I was trying to work them 2x/week, sometimes it would be 5 days between sessions because I would be limping around for the first 2-3 days. Once the diet started, all that seemed to stop... every so often though, I have a kick ass leg day and it makes me feel like I'm on top of the world!

I've never been to Five Guys and they're popping up all over the place around here! I definitely want to hit that up when my diet allows me to do so. Enjoy!!

Steph, Five Guys totally gets my approval! It's a little on the greasy side, but definitely worth trying. Oh, and they have cajun spiced fries....mmmmm!

I want clavicle extensions too! I thought I would NEVER have a wide back but it is the part that has improved the most and might be my best part now So just keep working it hard even with narrow structure can get wide back

At least you have small waist i have HUGE waist

Ha! Suzanne, you're the last person I would say has narrow clavicles! Have you looked at your avatar lately? lol Even in those old pics you posted in your journal from when you were doing figure, you can see that you have a decently wide structure up top. But yeah, I feel you on struggling to build back width. I know that, for me at least, it's mostly been trying to find the mind/muscle connection when doing pull downs and chins.

And yeah, having a smaller waist does have it's advantages. But you do an awesome job of creating an illusion of a tiny waist on stage, and that illusion is all that matters to the judges.

I have a wide clavicle, small waist w/wide hip bones fckinghourglass. A wide clavicle isn't all that it's cracked up to be, for me at least - my little muscles get lost around the wide parts of my bone structure. My lats are very slow to grow too. Gotta love genetics.

Melissa - It's so cool you got to compete with Tazzie yesterday

I actually had no idea who she was until the contest, and when I saw her in person, I have to admit, I was a little scared. And then when I heard her tell Dave that she's weighing in around 190 a few weeks out from her show, I was like, ummm, she probably takes poops bigger than me

[Suzanne]

Ha! Suzanne, you're the last person I would say has narrow clavicles! Have you looked at your avatar lately? lol Even in those old pics you posted in your journal from when you were doing figure, you can see that you have a decently wide structure up top. But yeah, I feel you on struggling to build back width. I know that, for me at least, it's mostly been trying to find the mind/muscle connection when doing pull downs and chins.

And yeah, having a smaller waist does have it's advantages. But you do an awesome job of creating an illusion of a tiny waist on stage, and that illusion is all that matters to the judges.

check out post #350 http://forums.rxmuscle.com/showthrea...=25415&page=12
Structure doesn't get much worse than mine!!! :-( NO taper at all

If not feeling it in back (i did for long time) maybe you need to lighten weight, stop gripping (don't wrap thumb around) use hands as just hooks, think of pulling elbows downs try not to use any bicep - these were some of the things i changed, using something like noXplode helps to feel the pump in back