Hi everyone! My name is Renee and Im competing in the OCB Cape Cod show in Ocober. Im currently just under 17 weeks out. I might also do another show 2 weeks before this one as a warm up show but Im unsure at this point. Last year I placed first in the figure novice tall class and 4th in the open class at the cape show. I feel like Im starting to make some progress and Im already looking better now at 17 weeks out than I did last year at 12 weeks out. so I feel that I should be able to bring an all time best for me. which is the main goal for me to bring the best ME possible. sure I would love to get a top three or even a win but this sport is so subjective and you never know what the judges are thinking or even sometimes looking for. so I dont want to base all my hard work on someone elses opinion. As long as I beat the me from last year that I will be very happy

ok, training. I have a new split that I started 3 weeks ago.
its more of a voulme/ hypertrophy split. I work every body part twice a week. as for cardio im doing 4 days of steadystate at 45 mins and 3 days of HIIT of 18 intervals and 20 min cooldown. I have also started doing fasted cardio mon-fri as I dont have enough time to get the weights and cardio all in in one session. plus I tend to find that I get better fat loss this way. my split is set up like this:

mon-hiit/abs
tues-upperbody/ cardio
wed-lower body/cardio/calves
thurs-hiit/abs
fri-back/chest/cardio
sat-lowerbody/hiit/calves
sun-shoulders/arms/cardio

diet wise im doing a carb cycling diet right now. I have 5 low days and 2 refeed days. My refeed days fall on the days that I train back. Asfar as supplements go here is what Im using

Recreate--2 before fasted cardio and 2 before training
AP-2 times on low carb days and 1 time on refeed days
bulk p-slin-300mg before pre and pwo(will be trying this tommorrow for the first time)
jacked- 1 scoop pre wo
powerfull- 2 pre wo and 2 pre bed( 5 days a week)
prime-- 2 x 3 times a day(7 days a week)
sesamin-1x3times a day
cla-1x 3 times a day
ALcar- 1 gram pre and pwo and before fasted cardio
multi
super cissus-4 pills a day

. Im going on my third week of Prime and 4th week of powerfull, recreate, AP. My strenght is going up and Im getting PR's left and right either by reps or weight with each workout! this is while dieting too which is always a plus! My recovery is awsome not only between workouts but between sets as well. Its like I almost dont evne have to stop during a workout. I have to remind myslef to stick to my workouts as they are written and no go adding in more just since I feel like I can keep going!


so, there you have it!! Im so excited to see the progress im going to make over the next 17 weeks! I really think that the Usplabs products that i have been usiing are really making the difference in this prep. I mean dont get me wrong if you dont have your diet and training in place no supplements in the world are going to get you results. supplements are meant to do just that "supplement" and already good diet and training protocal. but the products that I have jsut made my diet and and training that much more effective!

I also want to thank snag and Casey for helping me set up my stack and anwer any all questions that I have had about dosing and when and what to use. Thanks guys!

and as steph said in her journal "let the games begin"..lol

Today was a HIIT cardio only day. I did 18 intervals on the stairstepper and a 20 min cooldown on the inc. treadmill. I also did various sets of abs. It was a nice sweatfest..lol

Subbed, I took my trainee to her first show as a spectator. She seemed to be most interested in the Figure competition. I don't have a lot of expereince but from what I could see it seems pretty similar to bodybuilding just the look is a bit different and the posing also. Just looks like there is a different emphasis and the women were not as hyper-lean. I will be following along as I have some of the same supps planned for her when she is ready.

Currently her and her husband act as training partners so they do the same type of training as I do. Given the similarities of the 2 sports I don't see a need to change this yet. Later we may need to get some extra help.

I was good to go with my 2 powerfull, 2 recreate, 1 scoop jacked and 2 prime pre wo!!I had an upper body bashing today!! I got a PR fro reps and sets on bb rows and cable rows! I also did rack chins and underhand pulldowns. I moved on to shoulders next. I did arnold presses with a Pr on reps and one arm db lat raises ss bent over raises. For chest I did db flat presses and peck deck. I finished up with arm supersets of ex bar curls ss with over head ext, cable hammer curls ss rope press downs, con curls ss db kickbacks. I worked up a good sweat and moved at a pretty decent pace.

Today it was crowded in the gym today so I had to ask guy if i could work in on the cable row machine with him . He said "sure do you want me to lower the weight for you?". I said "no thanks I actually need to add some weight.For some reason He didnt come back to finish his sets ...lol
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Originally Posted by renkev88

Today it was crowded in the gym today so I had to ask guy if i could work in on the cable row machine with him . He said "sure do you want me to lower the weight for you?". I said "no thanks I actually need to add some weight.For some reason He didnt come back to finish his sets ...lol

hahahah nice!!!!!!!!

I dont know what was wrong with me today.Im usually fired up to workout but today I was dragging and felt really tired. I really felt like skipping today but I said to myself "what are the other girls that I will be on stage with doing?? are they staying home??probably not ". So I took my pre workout ****tail and headed to the gym. I trained legs today and I had a pretty decent workout regardless of how felt. thanks to the PRime I was still able to manage a few PR"S! I did squats with a PR for reps, one leg leg press Pr for weight, leg extensions, one leg curls PR for reps, db pile squats, cable leg raises, inner and out thigh. I was glad that I went and pushed thru the workout.

I also did 45 mins of cardio this morning on the arc trainer. Im thinking that I might need a total rest day and this could explain why I didnt feel like working out today. I have been getting up everyday m-f at 4 am to get my cardio in before my husband leaves for work so that I can be home with the kids. I dont have time to do all the cardio and weights in one session and this is my only option right now. this plus, dieting , plus I have been training full force these past weeks might be starting to take a toll. So tommorrow is supposed to be cardio only I just might move it to fri and take tommorrow to recharge. . I might also do a deload week of weights after I finigh this current cycle that im on in two weeks.
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Scheduled deloads are vastly important. You will come back bigger, stronger and ready to rock...

Nice to see you brought your log over here Renee! Seems like you are making great progress before your show and enjoy the deload week, I am sure it will be a welcome break. Doing a bit of one myself to give the body/joints a break this week as well.

Originally Posted by oufinny

Nice to see you brought your log over here Renee! Seems like you are making great progress before your show and enjoy the deload week, I am sure it will be a welcome break. Doing a bit of one myself to give the body/joints a break this week as well.

Thanks oufinny! I feel that I am making great progress compared to last year at this time. I cant wait for the deload week. I certainly need it just to recharge a bit and give the joints a break.

Why cant I take a rest day??

I was all set to take today off and just make up todays HIIT tommorrow after my weights. But I must be on automatic since even though I didnt set my alarm for 4am I woke up then anyways. So now im awake and trying to go back to sleep but I cant. After tossing and turning for 15 mins I decided to just get up and go to the gym since I wasnt going to be able to go back to sleep anyways. I ended up doing 18 intervals on the bike and a 20 min cooldown on the eliptical. I have to adimit that Im glad that I went though so now I dont have to make it up tommorrow and my legs were sore from yesterdays workout and doing the cardio and actually makes my legs feel better when they are sore.

Originally Posted by renkev88

Why cant I take a rest day??

I was all set to take today off and just make up todays HIIT tommorrow after my weights. But I must be on automatic since even though I didnt set my alarm for 4am I woke up then anyways. So now im awake and trying to go back to sleep but I cant. After tossing and turning for 15 mins I decided to just get up and go to the gym since I wasnt going to be able to go back to sleep anyways. I ended up doing 18 intervals on the bike and a 20 min cooldown on the eliptical. I have to adimit that Im glad that I went though so now I dont have to make it up tommorrow and my legs were sore from yesterdays workout and doing the cardio and actually makes my legs feel better when they are sore.

When I do work in the a.m. I am always primed for the day. Much more productive. (Jacob likes it when I do am cardio... haha)

Originally Posted by renkev88

Why cant I take a rest day??

I was all set to take today off and just make up todays HIIT tommorrow after my weights. But I must be on automatic since even though I didnt set my alarm for 4am I woke up then anyways. So now im awake and trying to go back to sleep but I cant. After tossing and turning for 15 mins I decided to just get up and go to the gym since I wasnt going to be able to go back to sleep anyways. I ended up doing 18 intervals on the bike and a 20 min cooldown on the eliptical. I have to adimit that Im glad that I went though so now I dont have to make it up tommorrow and my legs were sore from yesterdays workout and doing the cardio and actually makes my legs feel better when they are sore.

lol just be glad you got it done... I did the same thing this morning at around 5am. If I get up early I do morning cardio.. now I don't have to do it this afternoon and I can get a little rest for tonights brutal assault. I'm going to see how deadlifts feel with two screaming legs ... should be interesting ... who the fug thought this feak stuff up!!

Originally Posted by DreamWeaver

lol just be glad you got it done... I did the same thing this morning at around 5am. If I get up early I do morning cardio.. now I don't have to do it this afternoon and I can get a little rest for tonights brutal assault. I'm going to see how deadlifts feel with two screaming legs ... should be interesting ... who the fug thought this feak stuff up!!

I am gald that I got it done! It probably would have bothered me all day anyways if I didnt do it.

You are right who did think this freak stuff up?!?! GOTTA LOVE IT though!!!

Originally Posted by renkev88

I am gald that I got it done! It probably would have bothered me all day anyways if I didnt do it.

You are right who did think this freak stuff up?!?! GOTTA LOVE IT though!!!

Definite love hate relationship...

Today I trained back and chest. I did slightly wider than shouder grip pullups. I was able to get 7 on my first set which is 2 more than last week. and then got 5 each for 2 more sets!! I was so happy with these as I couldnt even get a half of one rep last year at this time!! I moved on to close grip pulldowns, one arm rows, wide grip pulldowns, mach rows, cable pullovers. I followed up with inc chest pressses with a PR for reps, cable flies, mach decline presses,and fl db flies. I fininshed with a few sets of abs just for fun. I also did my AM cardio fof 45 mins on the stepmill. I felt ready to go today and had alot more energy than the other day. I felt so agressive and my intensity was back to where is has been! I do still plan on taking that deload week the week after next though as I still think that I could use the break from the constant crushing that I have been giving myself.

Im 16 week out today!! I Trained shoulders and arms today. I started with cable lat raises ss cable rear raises. next was db shoudler presses ss db ft raises, db side lat drop sets, rear peck deck ss db shrugs, seated mach raises ss mach presses. next was arms. I did inc db curls ss db hammer curls, ex bar skulls ss close grip bench presses, cable curls drop sets ss cable reverse grip pressdown drop sets, finished off with one arm mach ext. I had a great workout and a great pump going on even as I type this my arms are still pumped and my workout was over hours ago!! Another thing that I noticed was that during my HIIT cardio on the bike my quads where pumped to the point that it was almost painfull to do the interval..lol. This has never happened before. I mean HIIT is always hard and exhausting but I have never got leg pumps from doing it. IT was like I was doing hundreds of leg extensions. It was so weird. I wonder if that is the Prime doing that? I am going on my 4th week and I also started the 800mg pills yesterday. I was taking 6 of the 600mg and now im taking 5 of the 800mg so there is a slight increase in the dosage there. not sure if its enough of an increase to notice any difference though.

I punished my legs today!!! I decided to go with some higer reps supersets and go for the burn and burn it did..lol. I did leg press ss with feet way out in front and together on the smith machine after 3 sets of those I did a couple of sets of one leg presses, then I did leg ext ss static bb lunges, seated leg curl ss ball roll ins, sldl ss rope pull throughs, I finished off with a giant set of inner/outer thigh and glute mach. I followed up with 45 mins on the Arc trainier. needless to say I was a sweaty mess after all was said and done!! I think I might be having some booty pain tommorrow for sure

HIIT cardio today. I did 18 intervals 9 15 sec intervals on the bike and 9 20 sec intervals on the stairmaste followed by a 20 min cooldown on the treadmill.

I woke up today with a very tight and sore upper back. Not sure as to why. It hurts right between my shoulder blades. I made an appt with the chriopractor since maybe I need an adjustment or some ART. I also think that I might get a massage sometime this week as well. Im thinking that I have jsut been pushing myself week after week since I have started the prime and my body is just trying to tell me it needs a bit of a break. so if it is still bothering me tommorrow I will just take a rest day and pick things back up on wed.
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Good luck with your recovery day Renee!

Originally Posted by renkev88

HIIT cardio today. I did 18 intervals 9 15 sec intervals on the bike and 9 20 sec intervals on the stairmaste followed by a 20 min cooldown on the treadmill.

I woke up today with a very tight and sore upper back. Not sure as to why. It hurts right between my shoulder blades. I made an appt with the chriopractor since maybe I need an adjustment or some ART. I also think that I might get a massage sometime this week as well. Im thinking that I have jsut been pushing myself week after week since I have started the prime and my body is just trying to tell me it needs a bit of a break. so if it is still bothering me tommorrow I will just take a rest day and pick things back up on wed.
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Take care of yourself Renee. Way to listen to your body I was thinking about getting a massage this week too!!! Have a good week.

Originally Posted by ptsteph1

Take care of yourself Renee. Way to listen to your body I was thinking about getting a massage this week too!!! Have a good week.

Thanks steph!!

I went to the chriopractor yesterday and he did and adjustment and some ART. HE really got good into my upper back and siad that I was really tight up there. He also worked my hip flexors and IT band(OUCH!!!) as they were extemly tight as well. I do feel better in the upper back but my hips and IT band are sore today due to being stimulated yesterday. Im going to see him atleast once a week maybe twice so that he can continue to work on my hipflexors and IT band as well as keeping my upper back loose. I get unlimited visits with my health insurance so I might as well take advantage! Im also going to get a deep tissue massage some time this week as well. Im trying to be smart and listen to my body as I have put toomuch work into my offseason.(If I can even call it an offseason...lol)that being said I took it easy today in the gym. I did train my upper body but I did more reps with less weight and really slowed down my movements and had great mind and muscle connection. I did incline braced DB rows, rack chins, calble rows, wide grip pulldowns, arnold presses, mach laterals,db flat press, peck deck, mach bi curls ss cable overhead ext, one arm cable curls ss one arm pressdowns. even though I didnt push myself to my limit with the weight and belive me I WANTED to( damn prime..lol)I held back and still got a great pump and good workout since I still kept the intensity high!

Im not sure about training legs tommorrow or if I will do them on thurs instead. I will have to decied that tommorrow and see how they feel. I probalby will do the same type of workout today with my legs tommorrow if I do train them as I felt this was a real nice change of pace and safe at the same time.

I got a deep tissue massage yesterday! My back feels so much better but my hip is now sore. It is real sore today even painful it didnt even start hurting till the chriopractor worked on it. I only had cardio this morning and did HIIT on the bike. I felt ok while doing the cardio but now its painful. Im hoping its just from the massage yesterday and nothing too serious. I feel like im falling apart latley. I tried to do legs yesterday but was only able to get some sets of leg ext and curls as squats wa making my hip sore and I didnt want to push it. Im just going to ice the area today and keep up with the advil. tommorrow is back and chest so I should be good to go for that. I will keep the cardio low intensity for a couple of days.Im not going to train my legs again till wed to really give them a break.Im praying that this gets better soon as I only have 15 weeks left to my show and I cant afford to take too much time off.

My hips are still a bit sore but are improving but I woke up with a tight back again. Im getting so aggravated with this!!! I did train my back and chest today but I went really light high reps again as to not do any more damage but in hopes of loosing up my back some. Its so weird since it doesnt hurt my muscle are just really tight and It feels like I could pullsomething at any moment. the workout did seem to help a bit while I was doing it but now its tight again. Im going to the chriopractor again this afternoon so hopefully he can loosen me up again. I think that Im just going to take the next 3 days off from training and just do my low intensity cardio and see what happens. I have been training around all this and have yet to rest competly to see if that will help. I will be starting a new plan on tues anyways so It might be a good time to rest up and start fresh on tues.

I have some catching up to do here. I was going to take sat off from training but woke up and felt a little better so I decided to go in atleast try. I did shoulders and arms and kept the weight lighter than usual and did more supersets and more reps. I felt pretty good during the workout. I made sure that I streched out really well at the end of the workout. I also did 50 mins of incline treadmill.

Yesterday I tookcompletly off. We dedcided to take my kids to storyland in Glen, NH. Which is an amusment park based on the themes of kids storys and nursery rhymes.. I did alot of walking yesterday so atleast I was sort of active. I think the day off is just what I needed as I feel really good today and (knock on wood) it will continue!Today is a cardio day only and I was going to do hiit but i didnt want to push it. So I did mod cardio for 50 mins split beteween the stepmill and arctrainer. I hope tommorrow when I go to lift I will still feel good(fingers crossed!!..lol). I also took a weight this morning and im down a 1.5!! I didnt get a chance to take measurements but plan on it sometime this week.

Great workout today!! I started a new training program as well. I felt really good during the workout no back issues what so ever so Im hoping im on the mend!!Im still having some hip and glute pain which I think I aggravated by doing the stepmill. I think that Im going to lay off that machine and see how things feel.Im going to go the chriopractor for some ART on my hip flexor and It band twice a week for a coulple of weeks too to keep things loose in that area as well as foam rolling and alot of streching too.

ok, so back to the new workout. Im doing a power/hypertrophy set up. I pick a power movment for each body part and that will be what I focus on for the next 6 weeks Im too progress in weight over the next 6 weeks. this is great for me right now as the first 2-3 weeks are "easy" so to speak and will be sort of a deload for me which I really will benifit from. during week one Im only to use 50% of my 5 rep max for each of my power movments.then it progresses like this:
week2-60%x5 repsx 5 sets
week3-70%x5 repsx4 sets
week4-80%x5 repsx3 sets
week5-90%5 repsx 3 sets
week6-100%5 repsx3 sets
week7-try to break my PR

im also have 1-3 aux. exercises per body part as well on my power days. Im not supposed to go to failure on these at all on my power day. Im to stay 1-2 reps shy of that. on my hypertrophy days I start with my power movement but only do 65% of my 10 rep max for 10 reps and then do 3-5 aux exercises for each body part.
my split is still the same
mon-HIIT
tues-power upperbody
wed-power legs
thurs-HIIT
fri- back and chest hypertrophy
sat legs hpyertrophy
sun- shoulders and arms hypertrophy

so, that made today power upperbody. Im doing braced DB rows as my power movement as I didnt want to much strain on my hip stabilizers trying to do bent over rows. then did pullups, widegrip pulldowns, hammer high rows, mach pullovers. shoulders im doing DB presses, then I did seated lat, cable upright rows, face pulls,. chest- ft DB presses, peck deck, arms ex bar curls, cable curls, cable overhead ext, dips. It was really hard holding back as I really wanted to up the weights and go all out. but I know that I need this break as well as my body and hopfully in a few weeks I will busting out some new PRs while dieting. Im on week 5 of the Prime, powerfull, and recreate and will probably go the full 12 weeks with it which will bring me to my PR week. then I will cycle off them for a few weeks.

Sounds good Renee! Keep up the great job and setting some PRs!

yesterday I had to take a complete rest day. Im still having a bit of pain in my hip area which get aggravated when I try to do legs and any type of incline cardio like stairs or incline tread. I figured to rest yesterday and I also got anothre deep tissue massage.I did go in today and train my chest and back and had a great workout! I did pullups, braced incline db rows, rack chins, bb rows,close grip pulldowns ss cable pullovers, mach rows ss high cable rows, db flat presses, inc db presses, cable flies. I did nothing to failure excpet pullups and everything was in the 10-15 reps range as this is the instructions of the new workout plan that Im following. I was able to move pretty quickly since I wasnt going to faliure and didnt have to rest much. I was also trying to keep my hearrate fairly high since I wasnt sure how much cardio I was going to be able to do. After my workout I did do 45 mins of cardio and my hip felt ok till about 40 mins in. I wanted to get 60 mins today since I missed yesterday but I figured to listen to my hip instead of my insane mind which wanted to keep going. I just dont want to do something that puts me completly out of the game and with only 14 weeks to go 45 mins is better than nothing. I am going to the chriopracter again today and hopfully some ART on my hip will help loosen it up some.

As for my supplements right now I going to break for 2 weeks off the recreate, powerfull and Prime and start then back up when im 12 weeks out that way I can run them to the end of my prep. I will keep the AP and bulk P-slin. I will also switch to another fatburner for the next two weeks as I need some sort of stim in the AM when I get up at 4am to do cardio.

Happy 4th of july!

Hey Renee! I hope you and your family have a fun 4th!!!

I wanted to chime in about your hip issue. I am having hip issues as well, primarily my right side. I think it's due to the Stairmill. I'm laying off of that. My ART dr said to stay away from that. I've been having my ART stretch my hips out as well and my upper back. I carry all of my stress and weight on my shoulders and upper back unfortunately. I hope you feel better soon. Great posts by the way!! Happy Training. I can't wait to see you in the Fall!!!

Originally Posted by ptsteph1

Hey Renee! I hope you and your family have a fun 4th!!!

I wanted to chime in about your hip issue. I am having hip issues as well, primarily my right side. I think it's due to the Stairmill. I'm laying off of that. My ART dr said to stay away from that. I've been having my ART stretch my hips out as well and my upper back. I carry all of my stress and weight on my shoulders and upper back unfortunately. I hope you feel better soon. Great posts by the way!! Happy Training. I can't wait to see you in the Fall!!!

Thanks steph!!! I had some ART and stretching done to my left hip yesterday and it is feeling a bit better. Im also trying to strech, foamroll, and im going to keep up with the ART and lay off the stepmill and hope for the best!