Seeing Red...

OMG!  I forgot how much I loved red bell peppers.  I am a raw veggie person at heart, and I decided to buy some red bell peppers at the grocery store the other day because they were on sale and looked beautiful.  They were drop dead amazing...ESPECIALLY when I dipped them in smashed up avocados. 

I'm out of avocados right now though...poo.

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More Chest...

I had a really good workout yesterday.  I really like Mondays because they are arm days.  I know this sounds bad, but I just like seeing myself pumping iron in the mirror.  Once your body starts to pump, your muscles show and I'm really proud of what I've accomplished.  Sometimes people at work or friends ask me to flex, and I feel so embarassed because you're asking me to flex cold muscles which won't look as awesome as they do when they are warm.  I also think it's weird in general when people ask you to flex. 

Anyways...so, I'm adding in chest exercises to my Tuesday program so I hit those muscles twice in one week.  I will say, I am still a little sore after Sunday's "disappointing" chest routine.  I don't know if I should call it disappointing or not since I'm still sore lol.  So, I've been doing some research on bodybuilding.com and found these: Around the World.

I'm also going to add in the usual suspect:  Incline Dumbell Presses.

My breakfast and lunch was boring today!  I had PLAIN OATMEAL!  That's right, folks!  I said PLAIN!  It did not taste very good.  I think I'll finish off the box, and then continue with my Cinnamon Roll ones (which seem to be the only one I like).  I'll try adding cinnamon powder into the plain oatmeal, but I don't think it's going to help.  Mmmm.  Warm Cinnamon Rolls sound so good right now.  I better add it to my list!

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Chestivus For The Rest Of Us

Article: A Girl's Gotta Bench!

 

"When most women approach their trainers with their results wish list, they hope for a firmer stomach, shapelier glutes and thinner thighs. Trainers almost never hear a woman say, "I want a firmer chest." In fact, most females are under the impression that chest training should be left out of the picture!

To these women, chest development should be left to the men. They're afraid chest training will make them less feminine. Ladies, that thought process is junk! Just trash it. If you want a complete program and a body to be proud of, you need to include chest training."

That statement is 100% true!  This article goes through the difference myths associated with chest training for women. 

Myth 1:
Chest Exercises Will Make My Boobs Smaller.

 

This is definitely something I've heard from others when I first told others about my training.  First of all, I've come from big boobs.  This past March, marked my 5 year boobiversary!!  I had a breast reduction, so I welcome smaller boobs.  What I liked most about the article regarding this myth was that it said, "It's not the muscle that makes their [female bodybuilder's] breasts smaller; it's the extreme diet."  I whole heartedly agree with this statement.  I know when I was begging my doctors for a breast reduction (since the age of 12--haha...for real!), my doctor would tell me that I just need more exercise to decrease the size of my boobs.  I will say that when I lost 70 lbs from running and working out, I did lose in my boobs.  The article states that, "Breasts are primarily fatty tissue, so when body fat levels go way down, so do breasts."  This makes complete sense. 

 

Myth 3:

Just Do Push-Ups.

This is something I definitely need to get in my head.  I tend to think that doing a bunch of push-ups is going to improve my chest muscles.  Push ups are really good for you, but they aren't the end-all-be-all of chest exercises. 

 

"Unless you put a plate on your back or find some other way to add resistance to push-ups, they're not going to help you get stronger."

 

After reading this article, I think I need to add more chest exercises into my week.  I could add them in on a Tuesday (Leg Day), so that they are completely rested by the time Saturday rolls around.  I find that I am very, very weak in my chest area.  The push ups that I did yesterday (4 sets of 10) were extremely hard.  After the 2nd set, I had to rest for a minute after doing 5 push ups and then finish the last 5. 

 

The article finished off with some tips for chest training that I thought were good to know:

 

 

I wish I could just blog and read articles all day for the rest of my life.  There's so much to learn out there, and not enough time to digest it all.  Oh, life...

 

I wish I could learn to live my life in correspondence to this Confucius quote. 

 



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CHESTICLES...AND 2 MONTHS UNTIL SHOWTIME!

So, since I took a rest day on Saturday to enjoy my girl time, I got my workout in yesterday for my chest.  This was actually the first time I've done my new program for my chest because I ran out of days due to Memorial Day.  I was not happy with my program.  I didn't feel like I had very many good chest exercises written down.  I got done with my workout early, and just felt unimpressed with myself. 

So, I started looking up chest exercises to incorporate and make myself feel like I'm hitting the maximum amount of muscles in my chest.  I found this article that was just a collage of chest pictures, and MAN!  Some of these women are so impressive!

I NEED TO BE EXACTLY LIKE THIS!  These women are amazing.  I am so amazed at what the female body can do.  I was telling Sheena and Jennifer on Saturday that I think it's going to be hard, after my show is over, to break the routine that I've been following since January (and April for the diet). 

So, yesterday at the gym, one of the exercises that I liked was a barbell decline bench press.  I'm almost positive that I was using the decline bench wrong, but it worked for what I was doing...

I couldn't figure out if my legs are supposed to go over and then under or what!  I felt more comfortable with hanging my knees rest under the first padded part.  After googling pictures, I was definitely doing it wrong.  Haha...I looked like one of those people at the gym.  Grrr...

So, here's my workout that I setup for myself (I should add that this is for chest and a little bit of arms):

A few notes about some of these:

• Ext. Range One Arm Kettlebell Floor Press:  TERRIBLE!  It was so hard to do.  I didn't use nearly enough weight to feel any kind of a difference.  I used a 4 kg kettlebell which is probably my problem, but the angle was awkward.  I might try to adjust these to using a bench instead of the floor. 



• Reverse Grip Plate Curls:  I exchanged these for some standing barbell bicep curls.  The plates at my gym are not just iron.  They have a plastic casing over it which makes it hard to grip and I felt completely stupid doing these.  I had these built into my Monday routine, and so they are definitely coming off of both days. 

More on changing my chest routine to come...I have to announce that today is exactly 2 MONTHS OUT FROM MY SHOW!  I'm so excited and scared at the same time!  Today starts a more plain meal plan in order to start leaning out more. 

I was supposed to go over to my grandpa's house on Sunday night, but I didn't make it over there.  I was exhausted after my softball game (which we lost in the last inning because some jacked dude hit a homerun!)  I hate when that happens!  I wasn't in a good mood because I didn't want to play, but once I got out there, I was better.  My teammates know that I'm training for a competition and so, they don't harp on me too bad for my downer kind of attitude.

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