Posing Suit and Costume Inspo!

Everyone knows the only reason to compete is so that you can choose the prettiest sparkliest posing suit and have bangin' hair and tonnes of makeup and everyone has to pay attention to you right?

My favourite thing to do is make little inspo boards to gather my thoughts and put together the look I'm trying to achieve on stage.

Obviously the left side is for my posing suit, and the right if for my performance costume. I am absolutely dead set on the beautiful deep burgandy red colour for my suit. I know its the right colour for me  because when I showed my coach, he replied "Thats is such a you colour!". I've also popped in there a couple of hair, makeup and shoe examples, as well as the exceptional Oksana Grishina, the current Ms Fitness Olympia. Because why not aim to emulate the best.

The sports bra pictures represent what I want the top of my performance costume to look like. They are both from Victoria's Secret. I think I will opt for a deep eggplant-y colour like the little swatch I have there in my picture and swap the straps out with a contrasting colour, maybe black or grey. The costume inset here is a beautiful example made by Flexiwear, who are based in Cambridge.

As a qualified makeup artist, I will be doing my own hair and makeup, but I've been watching tonnes of tutorials to make sure I know how all my favourite everyday products will react to the intense stage lights.

As this post goes to show, bodybuilding competitons are actually incredibly girly and feminine. I'm putting more effort into planning these looks than I did into planning the look for my 21st birthday. The only thing I have to do now is actually diet for 18  more weeks and get on stage!

Arnold Australia 2k15

So this year I was luck enough to attend the first ever Arnold Classic in Australia. This Event was previously the FitX, however it has been taken under Arnie's toned 65 year old wing. I only attended the Expo due to time constraints, so here is my brief review.

I arrived at the Expo bright and early on Saturday Morning. I was given a sick armband with a silhouette of Arnie on it and I waited in the longest line right next to the toilets which was charming. Once I got into the expo, my plan of attach was to do a lap and see what I could find. I found a lot.














First of all I  stopped at the Optimum Nutrition booth and had a chat to Kiwi MPD athlete Kurt Dell, who had placed 2nd in his class at the Arnold Amateur, and won his pro card the following weekend at the NZIFBB Pro/Am. I also stopped every 5 minutes to sample Quest bars.

The amateur stage was right at the back of the expo hall. While I was there, the figure, fitness and physique ladies were strutting their stuff. Included in the lineup were Elysha Sos, Carissa Ludlow, Vanessa Bartley, Janna O'Malley, Annabell Driscoll, Ella Farell and Asheley Gluchowski in Figure, and Bronte Coluccio & Hayley Freeman in the fitness division.

I also decided it would be a really cool idea to wait in a line for upwards of an hour to see Dana Linn Bailey and then I had to leave, however, to my extreme relief, Rob carried Dana on his shoulders to hi-5 all the poor sods waiting in line... like me.

This is mere seconds before she Hi-5s my literal hand

Overall the event was really cool. Like the NZ Fitness Expo except way more pros and way longer lines. In my travels I saw Dana, B-Pak, Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Steve Cook being ushered by a brigade of orange vest clad helpers, Branch Warren, Brandon Curry, Jose Raymond who I actually talked to because there wasn't an enormous line and a whole slew of other jacked orange people I aspire to look like.

Jose was chill and nice. We talked about his dog and before he talked to me he was holding a baby which was a bit strange I'll admit.

I also got some sick loot, which I left in Australia. But don't worry, my mum is sending it to me.

The Loot. Samples galooore!

My prep for the 2015 NZIFBB Auckland Champs has started! I am 1 week down out of 20, which is exciting and yet terrifying at the same time. I am competing in the fitness division because its not simply enough for me to train and diet, I had to throw in a bit of dancing and acrobatics at the same time!

WEEK 1

Life as a whole.

Leading into this prep my life was tumultuous to say the least. I got back from a holiday in Bali with my family the week before the prep started so at least I went into it feeling nice and relaxed. However, several personal and work problems kind of threw the relaxed vibe out the window. In truth I was excited to start prepping just because it meant no more instability, just same old day in day out. Does that make me weird?

Training.
Training is a big deal for me at this point.  Not only am I trying to train my weak points, namely shoulders and legs twice a week but I'm also trying to find time to train my routine 3x per week which is HELL ON EARTH. Nothing makes you realise how unfit you are like trying to dance at a hellish 150 bpm for two minutes. Also there are several elements of the routine which are still proving problematic, such as, all of them.

See what I mean about problematic? Split leaps are still 38 degrees off!!

Diet.
I LOVE my diet. I'm always full. Full credit to my Coach, Jordan Earl, for putting this together. Its easy to prepare, relatively cheap and I'm literally never hungry. The 6-7 meals a day are a bit new to deal with but luckily I adjust quickly and I feel great. I know as the weeks grind on I wont feel as great, and the cravings for cookies with start to cloud my brain but for the minute, I feel great.

My Beautiful diet

So thats a wrap on Week 1, I'm off to buy pumpkin  :D

Gratuitous selfie time!

Workout Log; 23rd December 2013 + An Adventure

Shoulders and Arms to start off my week. Decided to start with arms this workout since they kind of get neglected always being at the end of my shoulder workout. Aiming for 6-9 sets for arms and 12-14 sets for shoulders.

Here's the Workout!

• Close Grip Bench Press: 20kg x 12, 30kg x 12, 30kg x 10
• Cable Tricep Pushdowns: 14kg x 15, 20kg x 12, 26kg x 12 ->14kg x 12 ->11kg x 12 (Drop set)
• Barbell Curl: 15kg x 12, 15kg x 12, 19kg x 12
• Shoulder Press: (10kg x 10, 12.5 kg x 8) x3
• Face Pulls Supersetted with Lateral Raises: 20kg x 15 ss/w 4kg x 12, 26kg x 12 ss/w 4kg x 12, 32kg x 15 ss/w 5kg x 12
• 5kg Plate Raises: 10 Full ROM reps, 10 Bottom half reps, 10 Top half reps x 3 sets

So far I'm really enjoying the training frequency of this split, but doing multiple body parts in one session makes it hard for me to really focus in on each body part. I'm not really used to training with a lot of intensity, coming from a powerlifting background I tend to rest a tad too long between sets, so I think that is just something I need to be mindful of during my training.

Sunday Adventure

After my workout I went round to my boyfriends house to exchange Christmas gifts and we went for a walk to Okura Bay. It turned out to be slightly more of a hike than  I was anticipating but the end result was beautiful and it was great to spend some quality time with my boy!

Okura Bay, Stairs, My sweaty face and M on a bridge

He got me a pony necklace!

Workout Log; 22nd December 2013

I made it to the gym both weekend days this week, for the first time in I cant remember how long. Everything felt really good and light today, I think I'm getting stronger!

Here's the Workout!

• Barbell Rows: 20kg x 12, 30kg x 12, 40kg x 12, 50kg x 8
• Lat Pulldown: 24kg x 15, 36kg x 12, 42kg x 8, 24kg x 15
• One Armed Rows: 12.5kg x 12, 15kg x 12, 17.5kg x 12, 20kg x 8 (PB!!)
• DB Bench Press: 12.5kg x 2 x 12, 13.5kg x 2 x 12
• Cable Flyes: 3x12

Christmas Fitness Wishlist

Not surprisingly, most of my Christmas wishlists consists of fitness and gym related stuff, since the gym/ training seems to be where I spend most of my time/money.

First up, I really want a 6 Pack Bag. I'm convinced that a 6 Pack Bag will solve all my dieting problems because it would just make me so organized. The Pink ones are my fave.

 

I also really want a watch that has a built in calorie counter function. Once again I just think it would be really handy for dieting to have a rough approximation of how many calories I use during a lifting session and whether I'm reaching my desired level of intensity during training. These Polar ones are pretty darn cute.

Last but not least, Im desperate to get my hands on some more Flag Nor Fail gear. Dana Linn Bailey is my absolute idol and I already have one FNF t shirt, now I really want some of their compression shorts.

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to wait til after Chrsitmas to get any of these guys because every year I fail to tell my parents what I want and I end up getting mugs and thermal sets, but hey, it's the thought that counts right?

Happy Holidays everyone!

Workout Log; 21st December 2013

Saturday's workout was legs. I'm currently running a 3 day split of; Back & Chest, Shoulders & Arms and Legs so tomorrow will be a rest day, meaning I will probably try to go for a run and train some abs! Going to do a strength based workout tonight focusing on low reps but higher weights, just to see where my strength is at right now.

Here's How it Went;

• Squat: 20kg x 10, 40kg xS 6, 50 kg x 6, 60 kg x 3 x 3, 30 kg x 10
• Stiff Legged Deadlift: 30 kg x 15, 40 kg x 3x10
• Leg Extentions supersetted with BW Walking lunges: 4x12/20
• Yoga Ball Hamstring Roll ins: 3x12
• Standing Calf Raises: 4x10

Abs

• Lying leg lifts: 3x10
• Upright toe touching crunches: 3x15

My 60kg squats were high bar which I was proud of because I've never done that weight high bar before! Hurrah!