The Experiment Continues Part I: Leg Day Shenanigans and that One Time I Stumped Trainer

I wrote this post a couple of months ago. I think many of us need a momentary distraction right now with so much heavy going on IRL between politics, natural disasters, threats to civil rights...pick one...so I'm sharing this with you guys because I had a lot of fun writing it at the time. Plus, so many of you enjoyed my workout/bodybuilding posts, so here will be a few more for y'all. :)

To get you guys up to speed: I was going to do another Figure show on October 14, this time with an organization called OCB (Organization of Competition Bodies). Their main focus is competing naturally, as in no drugs like anabolic steroids, which are not really regulated in NPC, the organization that ran my first show back in July. I was curious to see how I would pan out placement-wise against a more level playing field. It was also the organization in which Trainer has competed himself, so he was 100% familiar with the rules, and it motivated him to start training for the same show too. He hadn't competed himself in 1.5 years and he decided we should go as a team. I was really excited about this: it's one thing to do this all by yourself but it's completely different when you have someone preparing for it alongside you who is going through the exact same things physically, mentally, and nutritionally. It's even better when that person prepping with you also happens to be your trainer, the person you're actively learning from, because you get the opportunity of seeing how they handle the same scenarios.

The last week of September I cancelled my plans to go to the October show due to some very necessary and costly truck repairs that we caught in time. As it would turn out Trainer also had some life complications on his end that required he cancel his plans too at the last minute, so apparently this just wasn't in the cards for either of us. I'll go into more of that later on in these posts.

But I thoroughly enjoyed this prep, even more so than the previous one, because this time I was familiar with the process, Trainer knew how my body responded to it, and there was an ongoing dialogue on what could work better to give me even more of an edge. It ended up being a little more experimental. Trainer was trying new things with his own training which I ended up benefitting from in my own training, and I also played with the diet at Trainer's prompting a helluva lot more. Results were slower because my baseline was different (more advanced) from my first show's, but I would end up thrilled with my progress at the end.

I'll publish the couple of training posts I wrote over the next couple of days; they lead into where we are at now training-wise. This continues to be uncharted territory for me writing-wise: I don't know how to write these posts out in any other way that will be entertaining for the reader, other than including conversations so the training dynamic can be better appreciated. I think they would be mind-numbingly boring if I just talked about the exercises done and nothing else. My problem is that I'm afraid these posts will probably sound "braggy" because I'm going on and on about whatever new physical achievement I've discovered I can do, and going into detail about getting to better know my body's capabilities. But isn't that the way we write about our horses and their successes in competition and/or training? I think it's the same thing.

I continue to discover some really cool and formerly unfathomable capabilities in this body I was born with, and it continues to be just as exciting to learn more about it! I am officially addicted to iron.

*Note: the girls are still here and I am still riding them, just in a much more recreational fashion at the moment, which isn't very exciting reading material. I'll get you guys caught up on them eventually. 

Progress pics from this second prep. 3 weeks out from the show, I was sitting at a whopping 11.7% body fat, which meant I was super vascular, had a visible 6-pack 24/7 (can't see it in the lighting of the photo above, but you can appreciate the newfound flatness) and shoulder striations even at rest. I also managed to gain 3 lbs of muscle in 3 months: my show weight was going to be 3 lbs heavier than last time despite the lower body fat %. That's pretty impressive guys! O_o

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I walk into a warzone.

There are people strewn about the floor, all of them red-faced and breathing hard.

Heavy metal is playing in the background, as one of the guys from the group session sprints one last time down the long side of the gym pushing the sled with more weight plates than I care to count on it.

In the center of the chaos stands Trainer, arms crossed in front of his chest, with a huge victorious grin across his face.

I roll my eyes, laughing to myself, as I figure out where to place my stuff and start warming up out of the way of the carnage. Even if I hadn't been able to see the group's struggles, the heavy metal playing over the speakers was the giveaway all by itself: Trainer is in a sadistic mood today.

Elsa, the only woman in the group, catches my eye as I'm finishing warming up. Her hair hangs in damp tendrils around her face as she is stretching but she has already caught her breath well before anyone else. Trainer will proudly tell you she is the most bad-ass of the group, and it shows. "How was your run yesterday?" she asks with a bright smile.

I had gone for a 4-mile run the previous day in downtown and run right past Elsa as she was walking out of one of the restaurants. We had exchanged huge grins as I flew by. The run had been glorious. I had started out super stiff and sore...I'd walk a few minutes, jog a few minutes, covering the first mile in a dismal 12:02 minutes while patiently trying to work the lactic acid out of my hamstrings. Going into mile #2, I had been able to pick up the pace and jog more consistently. I was pleased when Endomondo called out 11:42 for the second mile..still horrendous time, but at least faster than the first mile! By mile #3 I was starting to fly: it felt effortless. The aches and pains forgotten. I completed it in 10:54. Since I was already doing negative splits without having intended to, I thought, "Okay, now I have to complete mile #4 in less time than I did #3!" It was 85 degrees and 80% humidity that day, which meant I was breathing harder than I normally would, but halfway through that fourth mile I hit that spot where it was just easier to continue running than to slow down to a walk. My heart rate hit 160, but I flew on regardless and succeeded in completing the fourth mile in 10:24.

This was only the third time in 5 years that I ran more than 3 miles outdoors, and it was the first time ever that I completed 4 miles in negative splits. I may have done a victory leap into the air when Endomondo called my time for that last mile...while still right in the middle of downtown!

I grinned now, remembering. "It was great!" I said. "This one right here," I gestured at Trainer, who was standing by listening, "had given me Leg Day homework earlier in the week and I was still sore yesterday, so I figured I should probably flush it out before he tries to kill me today."

"I felt so bad," Elsa said to Trainer grinning, "She was out running in the heat and I had just finished stuffing my face with pizza!"

Trainer and I laughed.

Elsa then turns to me, "I'm sorry for what he's going to make you do today," she says in a stage whisper. "He's in a mood."

"I wouldn't expect any less," I said, glancing at Trainer, who just grinned. That mischievous grin that he only gets when he has something major up his sleeve.

Once everyone has left, Trainer turns to me, "Ready?" he asks.

"Sure," I say.

We start with 10 reps of back squats supersetted with 10 reps of good mornings. Of all the movements Trainer has shown me, good mornings are the only thing that is 100% completely new. I have only recently started feeling brave enough to do them on my own after creating muscle memory with supervision to make sure my form is correct: one wrong move can really hurt your lower back. When done correctly, they isolate hamstrings and also glutes to a degree.

You start out standing up straight, and then sort of fold your body up in this manner.  You then push back up to standing up straight by engaging only your hamstrings and glutes. Good mornings are sort of the bastard child of the deadlift and squat. Photo from here. 

I get through the first superset with fair ease.

"More weight?" Trainer asks.

"For the squats, yes. But not for the good mornings." I'm right at the limit where I'm going to start feeling the good mornings in my lower back no matter how much I engage my abs and hamstrings.

"Then we'll leave it as it is," he says as I get under the bar again to start the next superset. I glance at him because I hear that grin in his voice.

"But you're going to squat lower," he adds.

So I squat low, to parallel.

"Lower."

He's actually been gradually working me up to this throughout the past month by having me do exercises that had me dropping lower and lower while squatting. So now I shift my weight onto my heels, thinking "Heels down," and go down until my hamstrings touch my calves. "Like that?" I ask.

"Yup."

About this low. Photo from here. Low squats also isolate hamstrings and glutes. This is a great article explaining the biomechanics of it.

It's easy to get down. Not so much to push back up. I try to not let the effort show: he gets way too much joy out of working clients hard and I feel obligated to challenge him. I finish all 10 reps, move on into the good mornings and am about to re-rack the barbell when he says, "Hold on."

I wait expectantly, the 115 lb barbell + plates still across my shoulders. "You're going to do calf raises now," he tells me.

I laugh. He's really trying to make this as difficult as possible. He wants them completed with the barbell still across my shoulders and my heels are supposed to never touch the ground so my calves are engaged throughout all 15 reps. It takes me a minute to initially shift my weight from heels to toes with the additional weight across my shoulders, but I nail all reps.

Two more sets of all three exercises and I'm done with this series. I am positively dripping already. I look at my heart rate monitor..125. Not bad for Leg Day!

Next up: glute bridges. Trainer unracks the barbell I've been using and places it on the floor in front of a bench. "You're going to use this."

I stare blankly at the barbell. What?

Trainer thinks I'm confused about the exercise.

"No, I know what you want me to do...I've just never done it with that much weight! Nor with a barbell!" 115 lbs. The last time I did these was with a 40 lb dumbbell!

"Ah, you can do it," Trainer says airily. He looks at me expectantly, waiting. I decide to believe him.
So I get into position sitting on the floor with my upper back against the edge of the bench, slide my feet under the barbell and roll the bar up until it's even with my hips. I shift my weight onto my upper back and feet, which are the only parts of my body touching surfaces as I lift my hips straight up, taking the barbell with them.

This is the movement. Photo from the internet.

Okay, so I'm surprised: I am very much able to do it. It's challenging, but doable.

"Lift your toes!" Trainer barks as I'm halfway through the set. That means having only my heels touching the floor and it makes it a bazillion times harder because then everything is engaged, from calves to glutes...I cannot get past 8 reps. Trainer teases me lightly, I roll my eyes at him with a grin, get up and walk around for a minute (it's the amount of time I get to rest between sets and I insist on NOT sitting still! That's when you'll stiffen up) and then return to the barbell to get into position again.

I know what's coming, but he doesn't: I nail all ensuing reps and sets.

"So you threw away that first set..." Trainer points out later in a joking manner, but he is surprised. I didn't throw it away though, and I'm not surprised at all: it's the same thing as during my first prep, but it is now a lot more frequent: even in my solo sessions, I'm starting out lifting heavier than ever and it feels challenging initially...but then halfway through the assigned sets it suddenly gets easy and I have to bump up the weight further or increase the difficulty by slowing down even more. This was all while carb cycling my way, to boot!

During the first two weeks after my last show, I had ramped up carbs and decreased cardio as directed by Trainer but it had been too much too soon for my body: despite continuing to eat clean and in reasonable amounts, I immediately gained 6 lbs, a good portion of it water. While initially I felt awesome on a higher amount of carbs, it wasn't long before I started to feel sluggish and struggled with sugar cravings. It was mentally frustrating. I brought this up to Trainer at the time to see what his advice was. If I had not been gearing up for another show in 3 months at the time, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I didn't like that I seemed to be in the middle of some sort of rebound and wanted to nip it in the bud before it continued. I was terrified of having to do insane amounts of cardio again towards the end of the cutting phase. Trainer had suggested just going back to the initial carb cycling program from my first prep. He seemed hesitant to suggest it (I think he was afraid I would lose too much too quickly) but I jumped into it and modified according to my body's preferences now: target macros were the same at this point as when starting prep last time, except that for my low carb days I was aiming for 50 grams of carbs, especially if working out; moderate carb days I was shooting for 100-150 grams, and for my high carb day my goal was 200-250 grams. My body was singing on this program and positively radiated on the low carb days especially, now that I had the fats dialed in. I wasn't desperately ravenous all the time and was able to do a significant amount of physical work throughout all days of the cycle while avoiding the "Atkins flu" symptoms and still seeing differences in my body over time (daily changes were not as dramatic as previously). I don't think the way my body reacts to specific macros will ever be 100% predictable, but at this point I had a general idea of what to expect and it was fantastic to give my body what it asked for and feel it respond accordingly. Of course, as would later be discussed with Trainer as well: my body adapts to anything within two weeks. It takes two weeks to really know how a new workout routine or dietary adjustment is going to affect me, and so all of this would soon change again.

As was the norm for these sessions at the beginning of this second prep, Trainer methodically took apart every muscle down the rear portion of my body from the waist down, first working hamstrings and glutes together with exercises that allowed me to use other supporting muscles for assistance (like quads) and then moving on into isolations.

He switched the heavy metal station to Pitbull without any request from me, which made me laugh...because I knew it meant I was in  for an even bigger challenge.

I was absolutely right: we finished with hamstring curl drop sets. What is the purpose of a drop set? This article explains it well, and this is exactly how it's used during my sessions. But basically all you guys need to know is this:

I have yet to meet a drop set that this didn't apply to...

Trainer's hamstring curl machine is my nemesis. I do hamstring curls when training by myself. I do all sorts of creative painful stuff that Trainer has shown me: the more I hate it in training, the more likely I'm going to do it on my own so as to make myself stop hating it. The hamstring curl machines at the gyms I go to are a little friendlier for my particular conformation than Trainer's machine, so I always really struggle with his. It's a flat bench, for starters, which means my hamstrings get a much harder workout than the slightly inclined bench at my regular gym because I have to use this group of muscles more to pull my legs up without engaging my lower back.

Trainer's machine is a flat bench like this.
It is super awkward for my particular leg conformation and I'm not sure why.
I have a really hard time with even just 50 lbs on this.

This is what I get to use at my gym.
Still super hard, but I can lift SO much more weight on this machine than Trainer's. I'm currently at 85 lbs + super slow reps with this exercise on this type of hamstring curl machine.

He had me do 3 sets of regular reps of hamstring curls, then I had to do 10 reps with the current weight, he removed a plate, I continued with another 15 reps without pause, he removed another plate, and I finished with 20 reps without pause.

I hate this. I had been doing my homework but hamstring drop sets just kill me every time anyway. "You are SO quad-dominant!" he observed as I'm finishing.

"It's from riding," I responded. It is.

He is actually familiar with this phenomenon because he has worked with other equestrians (#marylandishorsecountry). And he had noticed the same thing: super strong quads but weak hamstrings. Except some women are very self-conscious about their legs being "big" and he would have a hard time convincing them to do any kind of leg work. I shook my head, "Yes, we're quad dominant, but balancing it out by working hamstrings and glutes makes your riding SO much better! You have so much more control of your lower body on the horse!" I wouldn't have been able to spend the entire summer riding sans saddle otherwise.

And then it was time for the sled.

There were two 45 lb plates on it. I watched as Trainer went to get another 25 lb plate to add to it. I gave him a mock reproachful look when he caught my eye and he just gave me a sideways grin. He was really upping the ante today: the most I've ever pushed is the sled loaded with one 45 lb plate. But, at my gym I do a lot more reps with it than at Trainer's, and he had finally figured that out thanks to my reports on the homework he has me do.

Again: he wasn't going to have me do anything he didn't really think I couldn't do.

So I cockily walked over to the sled and got into position.

I felt the same thrill again, the one I used to feel when my trainer Ron would raise the jumps. It was a feeling of invincibility created by a combination of trust in your trainer and in the horse underneath you. I felt the same way now, except there was no horse: it was my body. Do I trust my trainer? Yes. Do I trust my body? Heck yes.

I bent my legs, lifting my heels and shifting my weight onto my toes like a sprinter.

"GO!" Trainer says.

I take off. Or rather, I take off as fast as I can given that I'm pushing the weight of the sled + an extra 115 lbs. I rapidly march my way from one end of the gym to the other and stop at the far end, breathing hard. My heart rate is at 145.

My sneakers had been threatening to slide off of my feet during this ordeal, so I now sit down to tighten my laces as fast as possible. Trainer is waiting.
"The old 'tie the shoelaces' trick?" he asks with a smirk. He thinks I'm trying to buy time.
"Huh? No. They were about to come off."
"Yeah right."
"Well, I had to tighten my shoelaces or do it barefoot. Socks slide," I say brightly. It's true. And I really wasn't trying to extend my break.
He continues teasing me as I get up to get back into position with the sled.
"Oh shush," I retort. "That wasn't a break. My heart rate is still 125."
He laughs.

I take off. 3 more times.

The thing with these sled runs is that the more reps I do, the longer it takes for my recoveries because my heart rate spikes higher with each go. By the fourth rep, my heart rate is consistently jumping up to 155. Trainer notices that I'm more out of breath with each run, so he is actually giving me a longer time to recover. I pace after the third run, working on getting my heart rate down because it doesn't want to obey. 15 seconds into pacing, I glance at my heart rate monitor. 144. I slow my breathing more and watch the numbers drop. I want to be at 130 before I have to sprint again.

"You're not walking funny yet," he points out as I pace like some sort of restless big cat, back and forth. He actually takes pride in working people hard enough that they have "leg day hangover."

I laugh. I want to say, "If you act broken, you get eaten in the wild," but I just shake my head. My hamstrings are protesting every stride but as long as I'm moving, it's not an issue.

"Well, for now at least..." he adds.

"Yeah, tomorrow is going to be a different story," I concede. "HIIT is going to be a challenge this afternoon."

He just grins: my rest time is up. I slowly get into position, sliding my hands down the sled posts until my shoulders and back are one straight line parallel to the floor. As I do so, I see my heart rate drop to 128. I take off.

I am officially exhausted after the fourth run. Trainer is beaming.

Regardless, I always feel like I have superpowers towards the end of these Leg Day sessions because I survived them. As the time ticks by in these sessions, I want things to get harder than they end up being but am always afraid to ask for it.

Not this time though. This time, I open my mouth...because we were literally out of time, so he wasn't going to add something crazy to this session. I was just asking for it in advance for the next session...

"You haven't made this beep yet," I say breathlessly as I point at my heart rate monitor while walking past Trainer.

"Beep??"

"Yes," I say, "I have it set so it beeps when my heart rate reaches 160." The monitor sounds like a bomb about to go off when I hit 160. Beep-beep-beep-beep... to the beat of my heart. It doesn't happen very often nowadays. Only when running all-out for an extended period.

I have successfully erased his victorious grin. :D I win.

"Well..." he says. "We're not supposed to do cardio but..." He leaves the sentence hanging, but his answer is there: challenge accepted. He gives me that mischievous grin.

I just smile. He doesn't know I can pretty much drop my heart rate at will. This is going to be interesting for sure.

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Trainer does not forget any part of this over the weekend. When I return to train the following Tuesday, he's ready.

No playing with the barbell on this day, which I was bummed about. Instead he had me supersetting straight-legged dumbbell deadlifts with two 30 lb dumbbells, alternating with goblet squats using a single 30 lb dumbbell. I breezed through the first superset, rested and started the next one. He stopped me when I went to begin the goblet squats though, and brought over a dumbbell that even he had trouble carrying one-handed. My eyes widened involuntarily when he handed it to me: it was a 50 lb dumbbell. He didn't jump up to 35 or 40...he bumped the weight up by an extra 20 lbs!

This was a game-changer. Not necessarily because it was harder for my legs, but because it challenged my grip so much. My hands and the little muscles in my forearms rapidly became exhausted way before my legs did. I refused to drop the dumbbell though, but it was tortuous. By the time I was done with the last set, my shirt was soaked through and I was panting...but with my mouth closed. I was stubbornly trying to hide that I was, in fact, being worked hard. And you can't really hide that from your trainer. Maybe during a first session to a degree, but not when you've been working together for months and he can read you better than you yourself can.

I glanced at him as I set down the 50 lb dumbbell. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, observing silently. He gave me a smirk and pointedly dropped his eyes down to the heart rate monitor on my wrist.

It wasn't beeping so I knew it wasn't at 160. But based on the fact that I could feel my heart pounding at the base of my throat and that I couldn't really talk right then, I knew it was close.

I looked down at the monitor. 155. I just grinned and shook my head. I knew what he had wordlessly said: I can get your heart rate as high as I want as fast as I want. Sans cardio. 

I was still determined to prove some sort of imaginary point here though. I disagree! I thought but didn't say. I still bet you can't get it to 160! Remember all this, guys.

He had me do box step-ups next. With a 10-lb dumbbell in each hand. That was too easy so he then swapped out for 15 lb dumbbells.

Uh-oh

Box step-ups are one of those things that I hate with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. It is also one of those things that used to make my heart rate soar within seconds of beginning when I trained with Tony and Carlos. Trainer has not had me do these until now. I bite my lip as I begin. He might just succeed after all.

Jamie Eason demonstrates step-ups with dumbbells on a bench instead of a box.
It's the same exact exercise though.

Left foot on box. Keep it there.
Right foot on box. Stomp.
Step down with right leg only.
Right foot back on box. Stomp.

My heart rate does indeed climb and I am breathing hard again within seconds. But again, with my mouth closed, which forces me to breathe slower...which in turn limits how high my heart rate can go.

As I finish the reps with my right foot on top of the box, I glance at my heart rate monitor. 148. HA!

By the third set my heart rate is reaching 157 no matter what I do...but by then we are also done with this exercise.

Trainer basically proceeds to take apart my hamstrings again with the next groups of exercises. (I'm starting to call Leg Days "Death by Hamstrings"...I will say that it's working: I have baby hamstrings starting to show  nowadays!) More glute bridges, this time with sliders that are finished with a drop set.

Yup, your butt is not supposed to touch the floor when you slide your legs out.
This also is a tremendous core exercise.

And then Trainer pulls out the hamstring curl bench again. See previous part of this post for illustrations.

We're doing a hamstring burnout: I am to do 30 reps of curls which are then immediately followed by the burnout portion with legs suspended in mid-air while holding the weighted portion of the machine. I am to hold it until I can't hold it anymore...and then continue for an additional 10 seconds.

I get through the 30 reps with one 25 lb plate on the machine and then hold the position as described. I press my forehead against the bench, close my eyes and try to focus on my breathing while waiting for the burn to start. A song begins. I can't remember what song it was, but I just remember it starting. I wait. My legs slowly start tremoring from the effort, but there is no excruciating burn sweeping up through them. This is actually surprisingly tolerable...and I'm not sure what to do. It is an infinite impasse: my muscles are exhausted but I weirdly feel like I could hold this forever. It is a first, and I can't explain it.

Trainer is standing there, observing and waiting. I glance at him. He looks...amused? Maybe a titch confused? That's certainly how I feel.
"Are you feeling it yet?" he asks.
"My legs are trembling," I point out. "What do you think?" I'm grinning though. Of course he could see it. But he could also see that I could continue.

"Finish this song," he says, as I put my forehead against the bench again and close my eyes. It's not that far from ending.

I lasted an entire fucking song! O_o Holy Jesus.

It's an enormous relief to finally drop the weighted portion of the machine...and as I extricate my legs from it I know that I am going to be walking really funny if I stand up right then. So for once, I don't. Instead, I swing my legs around and bring my feet up onto the bench in front of me and wrap my arms around my knees. I grin up at Trainer innocently and he bursts out laughing. He gets the message: Yup, I'm holding out on giving you the satisfaction of seeing that this worked.

I do finally stand up as it is only to my detriment to remain seated as I'll just rapidly stiffen up if I do. And I figure there's going to be at least one more set of this: I should remain limber. I hear Trainer snort trying to contain his laughter behind me as I walk stiltedly away to grab my water bottle. I ignore him.

I am right about another set.

With a grin, Trainer adds another 25 lb weight plate to the machine and has me repeat the exercise. (Remember when I said I struggled with 50 lbs on this particular machine?) The last ten reps of the 30 are nearly impossible. For the burnout portion, I last half a song this time around. I kind of melt off the bench and straight into stretching: we are done for the day. Thankfully: I don't think I could have pushed the sled after having my hamstrings slayed!

While stretching I expressed to Trainer that even with all of this crazy insane super hard nearly impossible lower body work,  I still felt like overall I was running into the same issues as before: my upper body responds really fast to training, my lower body not so much. As in, I knew the muscles were there, but carving them out from what lies over them was proving to be just as difficult as before. I'd rather get a head start on it this time around than wait until the last minute like during my last prep.

We discussed carb timing, which involved eating your day's allotment of carbs around workouts, vs continuing carb cycling. I had been happy with carb cycling this time around, but starting the week of this specific session my body had just decided it had become accustomed to cycling: I found I actually really looked forward to my low carb days (50 g/day) while dreading my high carb days (200 g/day)...I was just beginning to get mad sugar cravings on the high carb days, despite keeping all foods clean. My biggest carb sources on these days were sweet potatoes, squash, whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and fruit. If I was running short on carbs, I'd eat a banana or a peach or a cup of raspberries. You shouldn't get big sugar spikes and crashes with complex carbs, but I would end up with horrible sugar cravings by the end of the day anyway on my high carb days. I'm nothing if not disciplined but it annoyed me monumentally. The catch with carb cycling this time around was that my body had been changing yes, but nowhere near as fast as it was in the beginning of my first prep. Granted, my body looks very different now from how it did at the beginning of my last prep...

One month into first prep, with 4 weeks carb cycling + training. Also: I was flexing here.

One month into the second prep, after 2 weeks of high carb and 2 weeks of "regular" carb cycling, in addition to a shit ton of heavy lifting and less cardio. I was not flexing in this photo.
(My waist is sooo tiny!!! It's still 27" like it was at the end of last prep!)

Carb timing as discussed with Trainer involved eating 80-150 grams of carbs during the 3 hour window before, during and after your workout, with no other carbs for the rest of the day (per Trainer.) I later did more research on this and you can actually stretch out your carbs for the rest of the day if you're not working out a second time in the day. If you are a freak like me and working out a second time later, you do want to have the rest of your carbs post first workout so you've replenished glycogen stores (for energy) for your second workout. My one concern about this plan was with having to eat the majority of my carbs at the beginning of the day (when I usually work out) as I feared I'd get sugar cravings later and I didn't want to have to deal with that every day. I said I'd give it a whirl though. I was going to be the guinea pig: Trainer is going to try this method himself for our upcoming competition when it's closer to showtime (because men and their faster metabolisms #envy). Yes, I said "our". He had not competed himself for a year and a half, and had not taken a client to a show for two years prior to me showing up at his gym. He was re-bit by the bodybuilding bug hard when he went to my show, just from being back in the environment. His entire face had lit up when he saw the stage. So he's aiming to compete himself again at the same show I'm aiming for so we can go as a team. I was pretty excited to have someone else to just share the experience with: it's tough to get through these preps solo, but it's nice to know you're working with someone else who is going through exactly the same thing.

Anyway. Cardio was also discussed in this conversation. I had been doing more high intensity for longer periods: 4 miles running, often completed in 45 minutes, while maintaining my heart rate between 144-155 bpm  at least two times a week, with HIIT at least two other days a week. I had been so sore from Leg Days lately that HIIT, which I preferred to do in the form of full-on sprinting, had been near impossible on some weeks. The longer runs had been so much friendlier for flushing out the lactic acid in my muscles that I had been leaning more towards those. I don't explain the catch of this to him though: even my runs are done in interval format because I run/walk. I run until my heart rate hits 155-160 (this often takes about a minute, sometimes more if I'm keeping a slower pace. It just depends on how my body feels, which can be affected by heat and humidity, hormones, how rested I am or not, if I'm sore, etc) and then walk until it drops down to 144, at which point I run again. I like to RUN, not jog, so this allows me to pick up speed while still maintaining a decent average pace (around a 10 minute mile.)  During this conversation,Trainer suggests adding glutamine as a supplement, as it helps with muscle soreness, and to ditch the long (for me) runs and only do HIIT four times a week.

I ask if I should still do the 20 second intervals with 40 seconds of rest for 20 minutes like I was doing at the beginning of my first prep. Lately I've been doing longer intervals with shorter periods of rest (30/30) because I'm just fitter than I was the first time around: it is a helluva lot harder to get my heart rate up to my target of 160 bpm than it used to be 4 months ago.

Trainer says I can mix it up: that I should even be able to do a 10 second work interval with a 60 or even 90 second rest interval.

"90 seconds???" I honestly thought I had heard him wrong. "As in, a minute and a half?"
"Yeah."
"There is nothing I can do for 10 seconds that will require a 90 second recovery. It takes me 30-40 seconds to recover from 20 seconds of hard work if I'm hitting target. It takes me longer than 10 seconds to hit target."
Trainer looks at me with some mild disbelief. "Maybe we should do an HIIT session to make sure you're working hard enough then."
I laugh. "That would be something to dread..." I'm challenging him though: if I hint at not wanting to do something or at severely disliking something, it just means I'm going to get to do more of it.

I decide to do a test run that same day (might as well, since the next day I'm going to be sore AF from DOMS)...is there really a way for me to get my heart rate up to 160 in 10 seconds? There is outdoor seating in downtown by Carroll Creek, where Alive @ Five is held every Thursday during the summer. These aren't your regular bleachers: these "seats" are lined in brick and each is around 2' high, tall enough to require leaping if you want to go up them at speed. It is also hot as balls (100 degrees before the heat index) with high humidity (80%) on this particular day, which are variables that should help make my experiment more difficult.

So you can picture what I was playing with.
Seats on either side of the center steps were leaped (I could fit 2 strides on the grassy portions before jumping up the next "bank") and then sprint down the steps to jump up the seats again.

After the session with Trainer, I drive straight into downtown, where I park. I jog for a mile to both warm up and get my starting heart rate for intervals up to 135 bpm, timing it so that I arrive at the auditorium area by the end of that mile. Once there, I start my HIIT app (I use BitTimer) and proceed to leap up the seats and sprint down the stairs as fast as possible for 20 seconds. I'm able to go up and down seats and stairs 3 times in the allotted time.

I make my rest time 30 seconds, and it still takes three rounds before I'm hitting 150 bpm. Towards the end of the 20 minutes, I'm consistently hitting 159 bpm during the work portion of the intervals but I never get above it, not when I shorten my rest period nor lengthen the work period. 158 or 159 each and every single time. I am legit dripping sweat and starting to feel overheated, and am still not hitting 160. If I let my heart rate drop below 148 bpm during the rest portion, I only get up to 155 during the work portion. Which means I have to keep my heart rate at 150 during the rest part of these intervals in order to barely scrape the target of 160. Which in turn kind of defeats the purpose of it being intervals: your heart rate is supposed to truly drop during the rest period before truly spiking it during the work period. If I have to keep it at 148-150 during the rest portion regardless, I might as well just do my long runs and benefit from a longer interval workout.

Monumentally frustrated, I jog half a mile and then walk the remaining half mile back to where I parked my car.

I later text Trainer:

"Ok, so I'm officially putting in a request for a HIIT session with you because I'm super frustrated now."
"Why?"
"I am incapable of working so hard for 10 seconds that it takes me 90 seconds to recover. I recover faster than that. If I let my heart rate drop below 148 during the rest period, it takes way longer than 10 seconds to get it to 160+ no matter how hard/fast I'm going. I'm adding in sun, heat and humidity as factors to make it more challenging and still. In order to get my HR above 160 during a 10-20 second spurt, my heart rate during rest time has to stay around 150. So my question is then: doesn't that defeat the purpose of it being HIIT? Not complaining; I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. How low is my heart rate supposed to get during the rest period in order for it to still be considered HIIT? Is a longer work interval (30 sec minimum) ok in order to get my HR up to 160+? 160 is the "magical" number where I can't sustain activity for more than a few seconds."

You see, I was able to consistently hit 160 bpm as my target when doing HIIT at the beginning of my last prep. I would have gladly done a longer recovery back then too, but I was given the 20/40 times to work with, so I just did as I was told. Being fitter means I have to work a helluva lot harder and/or longer to achieve the same type of result.

Trainer doesn't answer so I wonder if he didn't understand my questioning. The majority of people would ask to break the rules to make it easier. I was asking if it was okay to break the rules to make it more difficult!

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I get my answer at our next training session: he didn't quite understand my questions so I explain in person what I said via text. I can tell he still thinks I must not be working hard enough, but he concedes in giving me an interval workout at the end of the session to see for himself what I'm talking about.

"I'm pretty sure I can get your heart rate up to 160," he says.
"I don't doubt that you can," I say. "I just don't think you can do it in 10 seconds." I wasn't being a smart-ass; I really was having a hard time imagining doing anything that would make my heart rate spike that high in such a short period of time. (Again: this from the girl that used to feel like dying just from running 1/4 of the way around the middle school track. Sheesh.)
"Challenge accepted," he grins.

It's Shoulder Day this time, which involves a few new exercises, including the barbell (to my absolute joy, and I'm not being sarcastic. Of course this was the toughest portion of the workout too). Bodybuilding sessions, even for already-fit people, are challenging because you aren't working a specific body part as a component of a general workout. For example: the average person does a couple of shoulder exercises as part of an upper body strength workout. For bodybuilding purposes, you are choosing a specific body part, like shoulders in this case, and slowly and methodically hitting them from every single possible angle for 45-60 minutes. You literally take that body part apart: that's how you carve out a new body for yourself. Carlos did a Shoulder Day with me at the gym one time, a la Trainer style, and he was sore for a week after, if that gives you an idea. If I work hard enough, I'm usually sore for 24-48 hrs tops. (I also take BCAAs 3-4 times/day, which makes a big difference in recovery.)

Halfway into this session, I burst into laughter when I go drink water from my bottle because it's suddenly become a conscious effort to lift the bottle to my mouth due to my shoulders already being spent.

Trainer leaves 15 minutes at the end for my HIIT experiment. The first thing he pulls out are the battle ropes and a weighted vest.

I haven't played with battle ropes since training with Tony. The first time I used them, I made the mistake of thinking, "Flinging ropes around can't be that hard..." and was promptly put in my place by the weight of the ropes alone. They are heavy. The thicker they are, the heavier they are, and the longer they are, the tougher it is to move them in the correct pattern. The patterns are supposed to look clean and symmetrical, like in the photo above. Battle ropes are a brutal upper body and core workout, and you can turn them into a full-body workout by adding jumps, squats, lunges, or even just standing on a Bosu ball while moving the ropes with your arms.

I will remind you that I had just had my shoulders torn into tiny little pieces during my training session.

Trainer passes me the weighted vest to strap into while he slides the battle ropes around one of the barbell cage support beams. He demonstrates what he wants me to do: fling the ropes in stagecoach style (like the photo below) while jumping up and down. Remember I have a weighted vest on.

Stagecoach style of battle rope movement

I do as I'm told. The vest is annoying because it's too big but I do my best. Trainer times 10 seconds. When he says, "Ten!" I slam the ropes down one last time and step back. I look down at my heart rate monitor.

"144," I call out as I start to pace. Yes, I am breathless. But that is about to change fast.

"Give it a second," Trainer says.

I do. I give it two seconds. "146."

Two more seconds. "And now?" Trainer asks. With interval work, your heart rate usually will continue to spike for a few seconds after ceasing activity.

Mine is the exception. "142. Already dropping," I say to Trainer, making eye contact: See? This is what I mean. My breathing has already slowed down as well.

Trainer gives me a full minute of rest, which I think is too long. My heart rate drops to 108 during that time without me doing anything to assist it in dropping faster. He wants me to do the battle ropes again, sans vest and alternating with burpees instead of jumps. Of course this is brutal and I fucking hate burpees too, but I still know I'm not going to hit 160 in 10 seconds, especially when the starting point for my heart rate is 108.

I am right: my max is 144 this time.

Trainer abandons the battle ropes and pulls out a harness and both sleds. He places 90 lbs on the big sled and 45 lbs on the small sled. The harness is attached to the small sled and then passed to me to strap into. I am to push the big sled while simultaneously pulling the small sled.

I know this is not going to work either, but again I do as I'm told. (I am getting used to the new capacities of my body, but just typing this all out leaves me in awe all over again!)

"Just fyi," I tell him, "I'm starting at 112." He is still convinced this is going to do it.

I lean all my weight into the harness and push/pull both sleds across the gym floor as hard and fast as I can for 10 seconds. I really wish he had gotten a picture of it. It was quite the sight.

"148!"

I turn both sleds around, rest because I'm told to, and once my heart rate is 128 (a more reasonable number as a starting point than 112...) I push/pull both sleds back to the starting point.

"150!"

Trainer doesn't look at me. He is thinking. He pushes the big sled to one side and removes the harness from the small sled.

"Let's try speed only," he says. I am simply to push the small sled with its single 45 lb plate all the way down the length of the gym, going as fast as I can, which ends up taking exactly 10 seconds.

I zoom away. This, now, feels better.

"155!"

Rest, and then do it again.

"152!"

He then has me do medicine ball slams with a 15 lb ball: I hold the ball with my arms above my head and bring them down to slam the ball onto the floor as hard as I can. I then squat to pick the ball up and swing it back above my head, then slam it down again. Repeat for 10 seconds, going as fast as I can.

Again: this could most certainly have gotten my heart rate up to 160. But not in 10 seconds!

"148."

Rest.

"Lift your arms higher," Trainer says before I begin the second round. I had been struggling to bring the ball all the way above my head while performing the slams with speed.

"You do remember the part where you worked my shoulders today, right?" I asked with a grin. Because that ball felt like it weighed 50 lbs by this point. But I focused on lifting my arms higher.

"...eight...nine...and ten!"

I slammed the ball down one last time and walked away, waiting for my heart rate monitor to catch up to my pulse.

"150!"

"Okay, so you can do your intervals for 15 seconds," he declares at the end of this session. He gave up on the 10-second goal.

Want to know how hard I have to work in order to get my heart rate up to 160+? Here is a short video clip of my treadmill sprint intervals that I later had Carlos film for Trainer. If you pay attention, you can hear the beeping of my heart rate monitor at the very end. I do flash my heart rate monitor at the camera: it shows 164 right before cutting out.

Again, I am not used to being this person, and as I will point out later: this is the direct result of training consistently with a good trainer for a sport that is criticized for not offering functional fitness.

I beg to differ!

And that is where we're at a the moment. :)

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This would change just a week later! Continued here.