1-10-10 140.2

Following meal plan today.
Weight training ~ LEGS! Yay...ovah!
Cardio ~ post work-out. 20 mins. elliptical
Supplements ~ TAKEN! I KNOW!!
Water ~ so far so good.
Mood ~ Good.

1-11-10 139

Following same meal plan as yesterday...well sorta, I don't have any eggs this morning...so not sure what I'm going to do about breakfast.
This morning I did:
abs and cardio.
Chest and biceps ~ Good.

1-12-10 ~ off day. Eating could have been better.

1-13-10 139.2

Empty cardio 20 mins.
Back ~ felt good.

1-14-10 139.8

Empty cardio 20 mins.
ate peanut butter.

1-15-10 140.2

shoulders, tris., abs

Did a carb-up yesterday. It was a very mild carb-up. Right now I'm planning to carb up on Saturday and low carb the rest of the week.

1-17-10 139.4

Planned to do legs, but...didn't feel like it. Sooo...

Empty cardio 20 mins.
Chest (inc. bb press, inc. flyes, machine press)
Biceps (cable preachers, standing alt., side curls)
Work-out was good. Stronger than last week. I think the tens unit is helping my arm. I did wrap it, but didn't feel any pain. I'm hopeful.

1-18-10 140

a.m. empty cardio and abs
legs (squats, more squats, good mornings, calves)
Good work-out. As always...SO glad it's over.

1-19-10 138.4

And then I ate badly today.
2 cardios, no weights.

1-20-10 140

empty cardio
back (pull-ups, pull-downs, long rows, rack-pulls, shrugs, etc.)

1-21-10 138

No exercise

1-22-10 138.4

shoulders overhead presses, side laterals
triceps pushdown, overhead extensions, high chair dips
abs, cardio

1-24-10 139.4

Empty cardio and abs
Legs ~ DONE, done, done, done, done...

1-25-10 139.6

Empty cardio


1-26-10 139.8

Empty cardio
Chest/biceps


1-27-10 139.2

Morning "aerobics"/ hyperextension

1-28-10 138.8

Morning "aerobics"
Back
Muscle cocktail


1-29-10 138.6

Morning aerobics
abs
shoulders and triceps


Good week.

2-11-10 138.2


Edits:
2-16-10 136.2 ~ 66 push-ups.

“You can have anything you want”. Is that really true? For real, is it? Well, yes, but it does not come without terms and agreements.

You look at pictures in magazines, you see ripped bodies one after another, you see advertisements for supplements that promise you will achieve all that within three months and bla bla bla.

You have a vision of what you want to look like, but what that vision is, is nothing but a finished product. What you should ask yourself is how willing are you to commit the whole journey UP to that finished product…? When it comes to achieving a physique drug free and without sacrificing your health, there is a long road of discipline, sacrifice, choices, commitment you need to travel to get there. Unless you are 100% in acceptance that YES I DO WANT ALL THIS you won’t get there.

You see, building a master piece physique is truly a committing relationship to yourself. It’s an inner journey which just happens to be visible on the surface. Bodybuilding is toughening the mind just as it is about strengthening the muscles.

Bodybuilding is a never ending story, that is why you must love to train, love to eat the way you need to get your results. If you don’t love it it is not worth the effort. seriously!

“How long you’ve been lifting” I was asked several times this weekend. I say 11 years. You should see the eyes of the person asking, it looks like they got a shock treatment. They cannot grasp it is not a three month project.

Or “how much do you lift?” you ask. Well, for a decade and more I trained super heavy and hard. The last months I have not. Women usually translate or interpret this as “I should train high rep or not that much weight to look like Pauline” when that is the last thing I recommend. You can not copy cat a routine I do NOW, you must take a look at what I’ve done for the last 10 years to get a good picture of what it takes….

As you can see there are many thoughts and reflections that are brought up after meeting new people….

One I talked to Jeff Willet about is the confusion between looking healthy and BEING healthy. The whole fitness industry is selling you a lie or a dream: being shredded is not the healthiest state of being for you. When you want to be super lean you are working against ALL body mechanics and the brain because the human body does not want to be on the edge of starvation. And that is what being super ripped really is! Very very few are SHREDDED with striations allover etc without being genetically that way. And those are few. That is not to say you cannot achieve it: You CAN. but you must realize and accept you will not have super energy levels, feel like a king, be all ON and rocking rolla all the time.

Looking like a million dollar is not the same as feeling like it.

You can not have it all, well, yes you can, but you gotta except the terms and agreements and all the amendments to those!
http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_i...4_n-400x237.jpg

The Challenges ~ Pauline Nordin

Staying consistent with a fat loss encouraging diet does not take much effort.

Pushing through cardio sessions does not take much discipline.

Being patient with progress is not that difficult.

Finding motivation to strive for a better body is as easy as picking up a fitness mag.

Picking the lean foods at the grocery store takes nothing but some common sense and knowledge.

Lifting heavier weights than usual takes nothing but repetition.

To say no to cheat meals is easy if you are determined.

Achieving your version of your perfect body takes nothing but hard work.

Now….. What is truly challenging and what truly is what one should work on in life is

Staying patient when you feel frustrated

Trusting your feelings when everyone else says you are wrong

Not letting people’s idea of what and who you are BECOME what and who you are

Forgiving everyone who hurt you in the past without feeling like you lost or need revenge

Ending endless blaming others for your situation, your choices or your way of life

Having faith in yourself

Focusing on being happy and not just content

Strengthening your mind so nothing can set you off your path

Finding your path and being daring enough to go for it

Being strong and confident to follow your heart and not just follow your mind

Turning away from fear of failing

Seeing the best in you instead of the worst of you.

Being happy you are who you are and become the best version of you and not a bad copy cat of someone else no matter how “wonderful” the person you want to be like is. No one is as wonderful as YOU and you know what? You are stuck with yourself all life so you better enjoy that company!

From another of Pauline's blogs:
If you have stubborn fat deposits, it does not matter if you are shredded every where else: those fat cells will NOT empty themselves with constant feeding. If you want them gone for good, you will need to try a lot of different regimens and routines to decipher your genetic code. It’s like looking for the perfect solution for your body: it can not be bought, you cannot buy the experience from someone else to hand it over, YOU need to find YOUR way of reading YOUR body.

That is one reason why I think it is so dumb that a lot of competitors follow their “trainers” or coaches 100% blindly. They don’t ask why they don’t try to see patterns, don’t try to find solutions. They JUST follow. YOu learn nothing from doing that. How the heck should those trainers know exactly what you need? They are not your body! Yeah they have experience, but they have not the recipe to your body.

I do not mean having a trainer is useless, usually it helps you to reach your goals and faster than if you were to do trial and error from day 1… But all I encourage is THINK and REASON so you get the concept!

Pauline Nordin:
When skinny fat people now want to get in shape, we get some problems: dieting for fat loss or going for muscle gain? Well, here is the low down, and I thought you wanted my opinion because I get questions from skinny fat french fries people daily…:

You have no muscle, you need to build it.

Since you are new to training you will build muscle quickly.

Train like you are going to build massive muscle (hard and heavy), but diet like you want to lose fat.

Realize you don’t have enough muscle to support a super hard cardio program AND serious dieting.

Accept that just because you don’t weigh much does not mean you can eat cookies, crackers, cheese. Those calories might end up easier in your fat cells due to a less perfect nutrient partitioning. This means more calories end up in your fat cells than in your muscle cells. You can change this to be the other way around with a sound weight training routine and consistency in a sound diet plan.

You might need to get a bit bigger first (jeans get tighter etc) because muscle growth comes first, fat loss later. It is ok.

If you are skinny, get it, you cannot overdo cardio to burn the fat off: you need more muscle mass to support your metabolism.

Don’t compare yourself to seasoned, well trained fitness models/athletes. Just because you weight the same or have the same height you cannot follow the same routine in the gym or at the table.

Skinny fat people, you might not gain much from eating junk, but you won’t see any muscle definition if you keep on eating crap.

Remember you ate and did not exercise for a LONG time. Now don’t expect miracles in a month… It takes time.

There is only one solution to a firm body: weight training.

THAT is an EXCELLENT post!

Hi Lena. You know I love Pauline's writings.

Here is a little something I took from something she wrote recently. Something good to remember when we veer off our path.
"You sail a boat and when you do you keep steering it towards the right harbor and when the winds pushes the boat off track, you keep pushing back with the eyes on the target, right?"~ Pauline Nordin

Thanks for your visit to my new gym log Galatia. Your kind wishes are much appreciated.

How Building Muscle Is Like Digging A Hole

The late Mike Mentzer had a great analogy for this…He would say that working out was like digging a hole as far as making an inroad into your recovery ability is concerned. Larger muscles make a deeper hole. In order to grow you must fill the hole back in (recover) and then add a little mound on top (overcompensate).

"Sufficient rest or recovery between stresses, or training sessions, must be allowed for adaptation to occur. Adaptation will only occur during the inter-training recovery periods."

http://www.musclehack.com/how-to-ov...uscle-and-grow/

Mark McManus

PAIN~ Pauline Nordin:

Pain is not suffering, pain is an overpass leading to greater achievements. Discipline is mental toughening. Yes, it can be painful. But it’s a good kind of pain. It’s the “how much you want it” question. How well you tolerate whatever pain you are sensing is a sign of how great your desire is to reach your goals.

Sacrificing for a higher cause is required when you want to perfect your physique. In doing it you improve your mental strength and patience. Nobody gets anywhere by being impatient. You need to be wise, use your intelligence.

Don’t be afraid of pain. It’s just a feeling. How you respond to the feeling is what makes you a winner or a failure. You can control it by embracing it. Don’t try to stay way from it because then you miss that overpass. There are no shortcuts. You need to travel the long road.

Pain is the barrier you must break through to get over your plateaus. It’s very powerful that barrier, it efficiently keeps the non-determined individuals knocking on the door. You cannot doubt, you cannot question, you cannot ask why, why, why would YOU make it. You will make it because you are set on it.

When you have your mind focused straight ahead, forward, somewhere in the horizon, you are up for victory. Do not let your mind doubt you. There is nothing, nothing, NOTHING but YOU which can stop you or hold you back. It’s all about your control.

Pain is positive. It is a sign you are on the way. If you were not trying and pushing you would not feel it. You would be in comfort zone.

When you feel the struggle coming, do not get scared. Do not panic. See it and recognize it. take up the challenge. If you are up for the challenge you will win it.

Self-doubt takes you nowhere. Everyone else might doubt you. It does not matter. Remember you are in charge of your life, YOU are the center of attention in YOUR life. Create your own movie about your life. How do you want it to end? Think about that and then execute the plan to make it happen.


Me talking: I think this can be used in overcoming other things in life too, when we are dealing with mental pain.

Training advice

Pauline Nordin | Pauline's Ramble... | Monday, 05 April 2010
Nothing bores me as writing about training recommendations and advice… It drains my creativity to write up programs, execution form, techniques etc. This is stuff for in real life training, in face to face situations. You never know how the reader interprets what I write and since I am a control freak about some areas, I am no fan of giving advice without seeing what that piece of advice translates to in reality. But, with this being said, I will just ramble a few guidelines… Remember there are no bad or good or forbidden or one way is the only way training regimens. This is just MY opinion on it….

Pullups

Every time a client tells me she or he is doing pullups I ask “oh do you?….hm, let me see your form….”. I don’t mean to be rude or underestimating strength etc, but honestly, most people’s idea of a perfect pullup is not what I consider a pullup at all. REAL pullups are not about pulling yourself over the bar letting arms and shoulder doing all the work. It’s not a “who gets over the bar fastest” or a “swing bop session”…

You want to keep your traps down, shoulders pulled back and elbows moving right down and slightly back. They should not be in front of your body.

Shoulder presses

One way to really create shoulder imbalances and recruit more pecs than shoulders is doing presses on a slight inclined bench. Add arching your back as it gets heavier and you turn it into an upper pec movement more than a set for round shoulders…. If you stand up instead you will need to keep your posture, your whole body engages more, you cannot cheat by leaning back, well you CAN, but if you do you can really damage your back!

Squats for women

OK Ladies, you are squatting to build rounder glutes more than getting oak tree legs right? Then, stop going only to parallell and widen up the stance! The butt works its magic in the bottom position, but without rounding your lower back EVER. If you are never down in the bottom, well, you are not really firing those glutes…..

Deadlifts

Oh, my love, the deadlifts. so abused by many, including myself for years. Deadlifts is like squats: you drive the power through your hip joint’s muscles. I think it gotta be the most abused exercise of all: just because you CAN lift a much heavier weight if you let your spine break (rounding your back like a cat) you should not do it on a regular basis unless you are a powerlifter and training for max lifts…. Deadlifts pack on muscle in the right areas if you do them correctly and they turn you into an awkward piece of muscle-bouquet if you don’t pay attention to form… It’s dangerous to abuse the spine over and over. One day one disc gets a strain. And then deadlifting is over for a while if not for good. Doing it with a belt is even worse: you inhibit the core muscles to work properly so you don’t really protect anything at all!

Biceps curls

yes you can grow big guns with swinging the weights, doing heavy negatives etc. However, just because you CAN, once again, you cannot do it without knowing and maybe paying the consequences. When you overload the muscle you also overload the tendons and joints. The two latter ones take longer time to heal when they get injured. If you get your biceps angry by inflaming them with too much too soon, that pain usually travels to your elbow and shoulder. Stop it in time, take proper care of the antagonist (triceps) and the forearms as well. Letting your shoulders do all work is another stupid behavior when working biceps. The shoulders should not be hunched forward. Posture up for god’s sake!

Dumbbell rows, cable rows, ALL rows in general

When you train back with focus on the meaty portion between your shoulder blades the whole key to the rowing exercises is CONTRACT the shoulder blades together. You see, that is what the muscles there do! If you don’t there is not much action going on at all. Yeah, sure, in the outer portions like the wings (lats and teres major) but those muscles you can work better with some overhead work like pulldowns and pullups too…. Rowing means get those shoulder and arms squeezed together until there is no space between the two blades. Do the finger test: have your partner stick a finger betweeen the middle of the shoulder blades and then row. Pinched that sucker? NO, well, then improve your form. Most likely the weight is too heavy.

Stiff-legged deadlifts

You want to do this without hurting your lower back. That means don’t round the lower back in order to go all the way down to the floor…. You want to feel a stretch in the back of your legs. That’s it. No need to take the load off the hams and glutes by rounding your lower back.

Leg curls

When you curl, don’t let there be space between your hips and bench. You want the thighs to be in contact with the bench. Yes you get stronger when you flex your hips but it loads off the hamstrings and can cause more pain in the lower back.

Dips

When you do dips you want to go deep but not to the point you hurt your shoulders. If the shoulder come forward, like rounding and hunching, it’s too heavy for your body to stabilize the shoulder girdle. Once again, it is not about just getting up, you want to load the right muscles and stay out of injury.

Leg presses

Range of motion is key. Let the knees travel to outside your chest, not into the chest. And don’t be scared of doing one leg at a time. Much more efficient. For women, unless you have super good quads, you want to focus getting more muscle on the butt rather on your thighs.

About pain

ok, Folks, good pain is when you feel the burn or the “I don’t want to do another rep” kind of feeling IN THE MUSCLE BELLY. It’s BAD pain when you get sore in your joints, in tendons or in areas you are not working out! For me it’s NOT a good workout if I cannot walk the next day or my shoulders are hurting or arms cannot hold my phone etc. You don’t want JOINT pain. It’s not a good sign. You don’t want sore knees, sore elbows. You want soreness in your muscles ONLY if you now go by the old belief muscle soreness is a certain proof you had a productive workout…. Just think about this though…. When you stay out of the gym a week or two you get super sore from any work at all. Did that mean you had a great productive workout? No… Right?;-)

That’s all I want to comment on right now!

discipline~ Pauline Nordin

To discipline is not to punish. To discipline is to analyze what caused you to derail from your plan and then take proper actions in order to prevent it from reoccurring. If you go off your diet plan it’s not because you have no willpower, but willpower is not reliable. You can have a lot of willpower, but what happens those moments you simply don’t really want to win the urge to cheat?

You let yourself cheat or go off your diet because you condition yourself into believing this will be the last time ever. It never is though, is it. You are always very strong and have high motivation right after a slip, it’s because you feel bad OR you are on a sugar high and think you actually gonna make it this time. All is great til you binge again.

Successful dieting and fat loss come from conscious thinking and reasoning. When the urge to eat appears in your mind ask yourself why. What will eating do for you? What will that chocolate candy bar do for you beyond the pleasure of eating it that lasts for a minute or so? If you choose not to follow the mind’s wish to eat it, what do you gain? You gain the first victory. You must gain many consecutive victories before your brain realizes it’s how it works.

When you cheat you condition your brain into knowing you will give in. If the urge is just strong enough you will give in. Every time you cheat you give the brain history information about how you tackle triggers…

Just like alcoholics are pretty much doomed to hang around other alcoholics if they want to quit drinking, you will have a tough time managing cravings if you some times give in, some times not. You must be consistent. When you are consistent you know that there is no way in the whole world you will derail from your plan of action and in knowing that you find strength. When you are not your own worst enemy you find strength. You must build trust in yourself. You should not be scared of being left alone with the cookie box!

Throughout my years being into fitness I’ve disciplined myself daily. I used to have chocolate bars, cookies, ice cream, yes all my triggers around me just to prove to myself they would not affect me. I was close sometimes to give in of course. But it was practice, like being in school. I had all this junk food lying around until they became “normal things” in my house. When I was not “scared” of them they lost their magic. Every day I told myself “Pauline, you go ahead, you can have it all, but remember there is a consequence and don’t tell yourself you have no idea why you are not as lean as you want”.

Since I could not justify to myself to eat and blame “bad genetics” or “don’t know why I don’t get leaner, I do everything right, EVERYTHING” I just did not eat. I even tried to find reasons for giving in and enjoying some candy, I put up 10 arguments about it to see if I wanted it:

1. It tastes sooo good. 2. It’s perfect time now when it’s friday and all. 3. It’s comfy. 4. I love chocolate melting in my mouth. 5. So good when you watch tv. 6. now is the perfect time, I have shoot in a few weeks so if I want to have it I must act NOW. 7. Tastes wonderfully.

Then I ran out of arguments…. Why should I eat that bar? It’s only good for a little while, then what? I had trained myself off enjoying things that are momentarily. I was interested in long term beneficial enjoyments. The bar did not benefit me. And I realized that no food can help me if I use it for pleasure or to make me feel better.

It sickened me to know that giving into cravings was self-medicating. what was I medicating myself from: boredom? Hunger? If it was hunger, I knew what to eat and that would not be sweets. Boredom: well get a life, eating for the fun factor? well that does not go well with my body ideals!

I still practice discipline. Every day. But now I don’t need to work at it hard, it’s second nature to me. When someone asks me “but why not just have a bite of this tasty treat, it won’t really affect you”. No, they are right, it won’t damage my body at all, but what’s in it for me? What do I gain? Why should I? And when the person’s answer is “well, because it tastes good!” I just cannot accept lol… I mean, I am not an animal that just gives in to whatever urge or desire I feel right now, here and now… I am a thinking human being. I make decisions and commitments. And I am committed to myself and that I reassure every day by discipline my dedication 100%.

Body Building Grandma Ernestine Shepherd Bench Presses, Runs Marathons At 73




http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mess-e...ory?id=10480184


Ernestine Shepherd began working out at 56. Now 73, she runs 80 miles per week and can bench press 150 pounds. She was named to the Guinness Book of World Records ast the oldest female body builder.