Bodypower 2012

This weekend just gone was one of the big fitness festivals of the year, Bodypower Expo. I went to the first one (maybe in 2009?) and haven’t been back since, mainly due to the fact it’s in Birmingham and I don’t drive.

On a spur of the moment idea, and a bid to keep on-track; I managed to hatch a plan to get friend and DFAC Pro Natural Bodybuilder Lawrence King to come with me. We went on the Sunday and set off from mine at 7am and are awesome travelling companions, both have to eat every 2-3 hours, both stink out the car with broccolli, and both understand the need for numerous loo stops whilst dieting!

Bodypower has everything – Nutritional stands, supplements, MMA, Boxing, fitness stands, motivational speakers and a bodybuilding competition. If you’re into fitness and you didn’t go, you missed out.

The main reason I wanted to go (behind numero uno of catching up with my buddies from all corners of the UK), was to watch the ladies Powerlifting. I’m getting a little obsessed with my own 1-rep maxes as of late and wanted to look to Powerlifting to see if it might be a viable competing option for the future.

Powerlifting has 3 lifts – Bench, Deadlift and Squat. You get 3 nominated lifts, where you pick the weight you push for. Once you go up a weight, you can’t go back down so you have to be strategic with your choices. The Powerlifting community is a really friendly one. Most of the female competitors know each other and have helped each other out from time to time. When they’re not ‘in the zone’ there’s lots of laughter and moments shared between them.

On Sunday, I got to see 3 heroines of mine lift. Tania George ran a seminar when I first started Bodybuilding which massively helped me and other women access the sport; and has since set up her own PT company based in Eccles called NoDumbelles which encourages women to lift. Her motto is “Strong is the new skinny” and I love her enthusiasm for iron. On Sunday I watched her do a 130kg Bench (and just about hold in the tears) and then pull a 200kg Deadlift. Watching her get so psyched up then the elation really got me buzzing.

Speaking of being psyched up, that leads me nicely onto Emma James. Emma runs Iron Psyche and is a former bodybuilder turned Strongwoman turned Powerlifter – she spoke at the seminar Tania ran years ago and was very motivational for me. She runs an NLP Practice (although it’s a little more than that!) focusing on sports performance in lifting sports. On Sunday I watched her attempt a 200kg Bench; she had to settle for 192.5kgs which was a new British record! (Ladies if I’ve got any of my figures wrong, please correct me). Lawrence, who was watching with me was amazed  and said she benches more than he does!

Finally, I got see give some big woop woop’s to my friend Hanne Bingle. I’ve known Hanne the longest as I used to compete against her in Strongwoman in 2008. She was a really great help back in those days and encouraged me endlessly, giving me hints and tips. She now only does Powerlifting, but hasn’t competed in a while so Bodypower was her first comp back. She competed in the 75kgs category and got 2 PB’s of 125kg Bench and 150kg Deadlift. Well done! I spoke to her after the Bench competition and her passion for powerlifting totally awed me and made me want to have a crack.

For most people; I think Bodypower was about meeting their heroes and to quote a friend “stand and have their photo taken with them without many clothes on”! Only 2 months after the Arnold Classic and I didn’t feel the need to do that side of things. I did get to catch up with some lovely friends – Dawn and Dave, Anita Albrecht, Pete Chown, Scott Galton, Nick Openshaw, Mick Bell and a load more I’m sure I’ve omitted here! Plus I got to spend the day with the ultimate motivator in Mr King. I can talk to him about anything bodybuilding and get a really good, honest opinion. Prep wouldn’t be the same without him. It turned out the Powerlifting was an excellent motivator for me – I left Bodypower feeling revved up, revitalised and ready to lift! Thanks ladies!

What was your Bodypower highlight? Who did you meet? What did/didn’t you like?

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Tags: Bodypower 2012, powerlifting, Tania George

Climbing Mount Snowdon

I wanted some prophetic title for this blog; but nothing came to mind so I ended up with exactly what I did – this past weekend, I climbed Mount Snowdon!

I’ve never walked up a mountain before, infact those of you who know me personally know that; unless there’s a goal involved, I HATE walking. I have for a long time however, wanted to climb Mount Kilamanjaro (ever since I trained a client to do so). A plan evolved some months ago between myself and Diane from http://flickfit.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/brighton-half-marathon-walk-part-1/ blog and we decided to plan a weekend away to Snowdon.

We arrived at the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel on Saturday afternoon and popped out for a little walk; then literally watched the sunset over the lake there which literally reminded me of Otis Redding ‘Sitting on the dock of the bay’ as we sat in the sun, with the little jetty in front of us.

Sunday, we were up bright and early. I was fuelled by porridge, banana and protein powder; as well as some branch-chain-amino-acids to get me through the hard task ahead; Diane had a full fry-up (note she is NOT dieting for a bodybuilding competition!)

Mount Snowdon is in Wales and is 1085m high. We took the Snowdon Ranger track, which is an average of 3 1/2 miles each way and one of the middling routes in terms of difficulty. I didn’t actually think I was going to make it to the top, I’m not miss fitness fanatic, I just like lifting heavy weights and doing the odd crazy thing like running a half marathon – I’m pretty normal otherwise. On the first 20 minutes, this feeling was re-inforced by the feeling of the steepness of the hill. Neither of us vocalised it, but there was no high spirited chatter either!

Then the winds began. The forecast the night before said to expect 60-70mph winds at the peak – they weren’t kidding! The North-Westerly wind was combatable, as long as you walked at an angle. We were tanking our lucky stars there was no rain, but I wish I’d wrapped up more as it was just below freezing at the peak. Two-thirds of the way up we were overtaken by some crazy men on a mission who absolutely stomped it up there! But it felt like we were getting there.

The views all the way up kept me going. I walk up mountains exactly the same way I run half-marathons – go full pelt for as long as I can, then stop and take a breather. I’m clearly an all or nothing girl and like to get things done quickly.

Then, all of a sudden, we’d made it! Near the peak is a glorious spot where you meet up with hikers from all the other routes. The view was breathtaking. Then a final 100 steps until we were at the peak, in 2 hours 15 minutes! Pretty good going!

Excuse the gloved thumb obscuring the view!

I wish I could say I was overjoyed, but the winds really freaked me out. There’s a sundial on the peak that you can stand up and hold on to, I literally crawled up there, didn’t stand up and quickly crawled back down again! In the warmth of the cafe was where I felt proudest, upon thinking of my accomplishment. The route down was much more fun, I enjoyed being taken by the wind, and running down the craggy rocks in places – it was utterly exhilarating!

I did learn a few things on my Snowdon walk:

• Believe in yourself, you can do it!
• Wear appropriate clothing. Bearing in mind it was freezing at the peak, I really could’ve done with a face protector or at least something for my ears.
• Take a hat (see above note).
• Have a compass, you never know when you’re going to get lost. We didn’t, but the elements were scary so that if the clouds had descended, we wouldn’t have been able to see much!

I’ve been back nearly a week now, and have totally got the bug for Mountains! I’ve just booked to walk up Ben Nevis and do a walk in Loch Lomond for my next adventure!

 

Are you into Mountains? Do you love walking? Have you got any tips for my future adventures?

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Reblog: Why I do what I do

Sorry I’ve been off the radar, sometimes it’s hard to be inspirational when you feel a little down in yourself. I’m nearly 6 weeks out from my BNBF qualifier but just having a hard time with it at the moment – I’m not really sure why, but I’ll figure it out.

In my morning motivation hunt, I came across this blog by NPC Bodybuilder Gail Auerbach, I had to re-post it as I love the last paragraph and I wanted to share it with you all:

“My dad used to always tell me that the most broken drum beats the loudest…. So I ask you…..are you the broken drum or the person who displays quiet confidence?”

You can read the full blog here, it’s just a short one but there’s lots of inspiration!
http://gailauerbach.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/why-do-i-do-this.html

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An ABsolutely amazing workout!

I thought I’d post up a few of my fave ab exercises as my blog posts have been relatively quiet for the past few weeks…

http://youtu.be/GaHKYSRHHZc

An easy, you can do it anywhere exercise, Naomi puts her legs in the air in a v-sit position, keeps her back slightly rounded and twists from side to side, touching the medicine ball down as she goes.

http://youtu.be/tr2miwz6csU

Just when you thought the stability ball wasn’t useful! One of my fave pieces of kit, can be used to stabilize the core to do a standard ab crunch, or if you like a challenge, hold a medicine ball overhead (for increased difficulty) and crunch. You’ll feel your core working through stabilizing the weight of the medicine ball and you should get a little lat ache from the pullover-like movement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNGxvnlNqo&feature=youtu.be

One of my favey exercises! Also posted as I thought I should prove I actually do exercise sometimes!
I don’t like a kneeling crunch because it’s easy to lose emphasis off the Abdominals. I love this because it’s a crunch with the utmost resistance, just don’t cheat by moving your arms! Always keep your neck lengthened throughout the exercise as opposed to straining it onto your chest.

What are your favourite ab exercises? Have you tried any of the above?

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Tags: ab workout, core workout

Sunday Roast doesn’t have to be unhealthy

I decided to write this blog as my brother came over yesterday for Sunday lunch. Recently, he’s been diagnosed with high cholesterol and I didn’t want to contribute to him eating unhealthily so I did one of my standard roast dinners – which isn’t how ‘normal’ people would do it apparently, so I thought I’d share with you tips to make your roast dinner a little healthier:

1) Stock up on veg

Take the opportunity to load up on veggies – these will fill you up and stop you eating too much protein, potatoes or excess fat. Yesterday, I filled my own plate with 3/4 broccolli (note I am on a bodybuilding diet) – my brother’s plate was about half full with sweetcorn, petit pois and broccolli.

2) Roast potatoes don’t have to be fattening!

Apparently ‘normal’ people roast their potatoes in goose fat (so my mum tells me). I didn’t know this, so ever since the beginning of time I’ve always used spray oil to roast my potatoes – nothing else! Not crispy enough? You may need to use a little low-sodium salt to help crisp them up.

3) Remove the salt

Roast dinners don’t have to be salt-laden fests! Yesterday I didn’t put salt on the table (we don’t have any in the house so it wasn’t an option), and I used low-sodium gravy. The saltiest thing we would’ve used, would’ve been Chicken Season All on the skin of the chicken.

4) Potatoes, OR stuffing, OR Yorkshire puddings

Consider that potato, stuffing and Yorkies are, in essence all the same thing – carbohydrate. You wouldn’t eat chips and potato for dinner so why have all 3 of these? Yesterday, I was due sweet potato as my carb source in my meal. I decided to treat myself and switch this for the equivalent carbs from stuffing. So for me, 110g Sweet potato gave me 3 stuffing balls – I was in HEAVEN!
Also ponder the question – do you need Yorkies unless you’re eating Beef? Yes, I know they’re nice but again, life is about balance, not excess.

5) Basting the chicken

You don’t need to put ANYTHING on your chicken! When I fist learnt to prepare a Chicken my mother (who thinks she’s Delia I’m sure), advised me to put butter under the skin of the chicken “It makes it go nice and crispy”, she shouldn’ve also added the disclaimer “This may be harmful to your health”. Instead, start cooking your chicken, then spoon over the juices that naturally come out through cooking to baste your bird later.

Did my brother like my roast dinner as much as his own version? Possibly not, be did he like not feeling stuffed after? Yes. Did he like feeling healthy after and not full of fat and too many carbs? Yes. Will he appreciate me helping him to find a healthier way to do something? Maybe not now, but when he goes for his Cholesterol check-up in a few months – maybe

 

What healthy short cuts do you have? Did I miss anything r.e. roast dinner? Do you have any other great culinary tips to share?

 

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Guest Post! Exercise and Cancer

I got an email last week from a gentleman called David Haas from the Mesothelioma Alliance asking if he could write a guest blog on nutrition and exercise after diagnosis of any form of cancer, David says “Each different cancer has its limitations, but if one can keep a healthy body, they can have a better chance to overcome this awful disease”, so why wouldn’t you want to read this blog! This is a subject particularly close to my own heart so I jumped at the chance, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did:

 

4 Ways To Start Exercising After A Cancer Diagnosis

Studies have shown that exercise after a cancer diagnosis can improve chances of survival and remission. Survivors have written detailed memoirs crediting exercise as a vital tool to get them through this daunting illness. Regardless of what stage of treatment you are in, exercise can help you live life to its fullest.

Decide What Your Strengths Are

Fitness should be a journey. It should be enjoyable, fun and somewhat challenging. Decide what you like to do for exercise, and then make a short list. If you prefer stretching, yoga is a wonderful choice. If you would rather do something involving cardio, then take a spin class or start running. Choose a routine that you will love and can incorporate into your daily routine.

Start Slowly

After evaluating your interests in exercise, start something new. Whether you have mesothelioma or another type of cancer, starting sooner rather than later will benefit you in the long run. Don’t expect to jump into a challenging routine. Join a beginner yoga class, or invest in a personal trainer. Having someone beside you to motivate you along will make all the difference. In the beginning, don’t worry about training hard. Focus on increasing your energy levels, and everything else will follow suit.

Always Stretch

Cancer medications can cause muscle soreness and weakness. Stretching alleviates soreness that patients may feel during treatment. Stretch daily to increase flexibility and muscle strength. The hamstrings control the entire body, including your posture. With weak hamstrings you will notice poor posture and less strength through your entire body. Stretching those hamstrings alone will provide a world of difference for your body.

Join A Group Class

A group class is motivating, supportive and much more fun than solo workouts. Working out with like-minded individuals provides a healthier outlook on life. You can bond with others while improving your quality of life and health. Group classes are a great way to get started with regular exercise after your cancer diagnosis.

Getting started is the hardest part. Consult your doctor and find a plan that best suits you and your illness. Once you begin exercising, you will indefinitely notice multiple improvements in your outlook and health.

 

Please visit the Mesothelioma website for more information. If you know of anyone who wants training or nutrition advice and is going through this, please refer them to this article and tell them I am happy to help.

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A Poll! Outdoor Circuits time again!

If you haven’t voted yet, please do so here: