Training Legs (aka glutes) With My Boyfriend

Well... not WITH my boyfriend, he trained me. I told him to kill my legs and glutes and he did! He even showed me some things I haven't done before (wierd, I know!) which is awesome! For those who don't know, I'm a personal trainer and my boyfriend is as well. We both have different approaches of training with our clients and often times we bounce ideas off of each other to stay inspired. As a trainer or seasoned athlete, you can learn a lot from other trainers and athletes. It's always good to surround yourself with knowledge and be open to learning new things. I'm totally that stubborn person who always thinks my apporach is the best, but I have to stop and remind myself that there's always more to learn. I saw something the other day that said "If you're the smartest person in the room then you're standing in the wrong room". I love this! Surround yourself with like minded people as well as those you want to learn from in order to excel and expand your knowledge in life.

The training video is below, I hope you enjoy! Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more fun videos!

Mel

BodiesbyMel.com <--- Live in SoCal? Need a Personal Trainer? 

Fall Challenges (Workout and Diet)

Hello guys! It's been a while. I took a little break, but I'm back and I'll be posting more. Especially for my clients and people who want to see workouts and clean eating recipes. I'd love to help! So what's new with me? Well I've taken the fall season off from competing so I can have a life and not have to be so strict on myself. It's fall! Time for pumpkin flavored everything, cuddling with hot chocolate, maybe some bonfires, and relaxing without worrying about being so strict. Well... that was the plan. Last week Bodybuilding.com released a new challenge called Shred vs Bulk challenge by BSN Supplements. Contestants have 6 weeks to either present the best bulk or the best shred. Both winners will win $10,000! So yes I have started that. I just can't stay away! From the end of August until now, I have been having cheat days more frequently however, my diet was about 80% clean. My brain and willpower won't let me overindulge. I have goals for next year and I'm not trying to gain weight and ruin my chances. My goal is to kill it next year! I have a great chance, I just need to tighten my glutes even more (I'll get into that later with coverage of the Tahoe Show).

So I started this shred at 130lbs, 7 pounds up from competition weight August 23rd. No big! Nothing I can't handle. The great thing about competing this year and doing prep on my own is that I have gotten to know my body so well and how it reacts to every little thing that goes in it. I know exactly what to do to get rid of my extra water weight. I know exactly what foods make me bloated and what foods flatten me out. I know what not to eat the day of a shoot, event, or show. So I'm excited and I know I'm going to look amazing by November 30th (the end date of competition), but wish me luck! $10,000 would be freaking amazing right now! Especially when supplementing my business Lifting Ladies. I have a lot planned and am super excited about it. Money would help kick start it a lot!

Anyway, I've been doing more of a balanced diet style for this cut so I can enjoy the fall while keeping my bikini diet. It's more of a 90% clean, 10% cheat diet. My days look something like this:

Meal 1: 1 cup of oatmeal (half of my carbs for the day except Wednesdays which is no carb day and rest day)
Meal 2: Chicken, 2tbs avocado, baby carrots, mozzarella cheese (I don't cut dairy because I don't cut things I love :) )
Meal 3: Chicken, half sweet potato (2 eggs on Wednesday instead), 1tbs Peanut Butter
Meal 4: Shrimp, 2 cups broccoli
Meal 5: Ground turkey tacos, 2-3 eggs,(on Wednesday I make a GT bowl with eggs, cilantro, and salsa)

Calories: 1430-1600 Friday: 2000+

Friday I have a cheat meal because it's my super cardio day and I have to load up on calories, Saturday and Sunday are the same as Monday-Thursday. This is important guys! ONE cheat day a week, not the whole weekend because you're "rewarding" yourself for the hectic week you had. You have a week every week, do you think you need to be "rewarded" EVERY week? Reward yourself with an awesome body! :)

For my workouts I'm trying a new circuit style training by Ashley Conrad on Bodybuilding.com  (click link for complete plan). It's a 21 day cut, which I'm following the workout but not the diet. The diet is a little boring for my taste. If you want to survive in eating clean all the time, you need to be able to customize it to your liking. You don't need to eat bland boring food everyday to be fit, that's silly. This doesn't mean having cheat meals of course, it simply mean find a healthy alternative for each undesirable factor in the plan. If you enjoy following diet plans, then by all means, follow the plan word for word. Anyway, the workout plan looks like this:

Monday: Lift
Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Lift
Friday: Cardio
Saturday: Lift
Sunday: Rest


Lift days are a circuit in which you repeat the workouts below in a row with a 30 second rest in between. Once done, repeat the circuit 3-6 times depending on physical abilities.

1. Clean and press
2. Overhead medicine ball throws
3. Dumbbell rear lunge
4. Push ups
5. Bench dips
6. Sprint in place
7. Body weight squats
8. Wide grip lat pull down
9. Medicine ball jumping jacks
10. Incline push ups
11. Dumbbell bicep curl
12. Lateral dumbbell raises
13. One arm dumbbell row

Do each workout for 12-15 reps and repeat cycle for desired times. It's a great workout! I would definitely try it, especially if you're in need of something new. That's why I'm doing it instead of writing my own workout for the cut. I put in my own workouts to better fit my needs. For instance, instead of the medicine ball throws, I do kettle bell swings, Instead of rear lunge, I do walking lunges. I replace the incline push ups (because there is a ridiculous amount of push ups in this circuit) with stiff leg dead lifts or hanging leg raises for abs. I try to put more leg stuff in singe my goals are in my legs.

For cardio day: 
Interval training on treadmill:
Walk (level 5) 60 seconds
Jog (level 7) 30 seconds
Sprint (level 10) 60 seconds (dead sprint as hard as you can!
Repeat 10 times (25 minutes total)

Cool down: Incline walk 5 minutes.

If you only do one thing in this blog, do the cardio! It's great! I'm in week 2 now of 6 of the shred. It's going well and I think I look great so far. cleaning up my diet from 80 to 90% has done wonders in just a week. It's awesome! I think it's cool that Bodybuilding.com can release a challenge with 3-4 days to register pretty much saying "hey everyone, I know it's the fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming up but we'll give you $10,000 if you drop everything and lean out or bulk up for the next 6 weeks!" And everyone drops whatever they're doing, joins the challenge, and starts cutting (or bulking). It's crazy to me, awesome, and inspiring. Good luck to everyone who joined!

As always, thanks for reading!


Mel
BodiesbyMel.com <--- Live in SoCal? Need personal training?

12 Days Until Tahoe Show!

I'm super excited for my next show! I look better than ever and have improved SO much since my first show it's crazy. I know I haven't posted in a while, but here I am :) I'm so much more lean than I have ever been ans it's crazy! I wish I knew EXACTLY what it is that has gotten me here. You know what I mean? Like I've tried everything! So many things, so I don't know if it was a certain combination of things I did or one specific thing. For instance: for my first prep, as a fat burner I used raspberry keytones, for this prep I used Liposide by Evogen which is a caffeine based pill. I took fish oil pills three times a day for all three preps. I did fasted cardio for five weeks this prep, none on my first and second. I did way more cardio this time around in general. It would just be great to know what to give the credit to for my fat loss lol. Oh well! In April I was 14% body fat, now I'm 11% and ridiculously vascular. I'm happy, 2014 has been an awesome year for me!

I've been doing show preps since February 1st of this year. So crazy! I took a couple weeks off after taking 6th at the NorCal Championships in Sacramento in June. I just ate clean and worked out normally with random cheat meals and maintain my physique until 5-6 weeks out from the Tahoe Show. Now I'm a little less than 2 weeks out and I just look great. It's awesome, I feel awesome, and I really don't know what I'm going to do mentally if I don't place in this show. seriously. WTF. I'm so sick of "losing" next to girls who don't even look like they spend any time in the gym. They just get on a treadmill and run until they're ridiculously skinny, put on a bikini, and call it day. Okay that's mean, but I'm venting. I just feel like the judges love the higher body fat girls in the amateur shows, but the pros are freaking 10% or less body fat. It's hard to keep up. Somehow I have stayed positive and I'm going to do MY best and kill it on stage. I know in my first show my hips and but were so much bigger than they are. It's crazy! I'm going to post my measurement changes and differences from April 12th show, to June 7th, to now. I'll do that in the post tomorrow! Minus all the water, this is what I'll look like on stage. And I'm happy with how I look. SO happy! :D

I've also improved my posing a little. I've learned to manipulate the stances to make my butt look better with different angles. One thing that I learned at the posing seminar at the NorCal show is to NEVER turn your back to the judges when walking (unless they tell you of course). So walk in sideways to hide that jiggle, and walk off sideways. Sounds so silly! lol My butt looks amazing, but it still jiggles when I walk. One sad thing about losing so many inches and so much body fat in this short amount of time is STRETCH MARKS!!! Ugh. So annoying. I'm not a self conscious person in the slightest, but man I'm noticing them more and more. I've been using the Frank body scrub along with Palmer's Cocoa Butter lotion for stretch marks hoping the combination of the two would fast track them away. I know I have to be patient... but be gone stretch marks! Haha anyway I've posted some new photos in the progress tab, check them out!

For the next two weeks, I'm going to continue carb cycling with a high carb day on Friday and moderate on Saturday, Monday-Thursday are low carb days. I still do the "eat a different meat every meal" thing to keep my meals interesting. It usually goes: morning carbs: oatmeal + 1/2 scoop protein, 2 hours later: 2-3 eggs, then chicken and bell peppers, then shrimp and broccoli, then swai fish and asparagus, then workout and shake, then dinner which is ground turkey and egg whites. On low carb days I have a rice cake with peanut butter on it before the chicken meal and before the shrimp meal. Low carb day is 60 carbs or less. I'm not going to switch it up on peak week, just going to do the same thing with asparagus to get rid of that water weight, take dandelion root, hit the sauna, and rock it! So no water depleting, no real sodium depleting since I don't use salt that much anyway, just what's in food. Can't wait, I'm excited! On a side note: I have not had a Quest Bar in like three weeks... so weird.

Thanks so much for reading! You rock! Feel free tom comment below :)

Mel

Three Weeks Out!

Oh em gee guys! My competition is actually less than three weeks out! I can't even believe it. It's awesome, exciting, amazing, CRAZY! I heard that this is the biggest competition of the year or season. So that means there are going to be TONS of people and competitors there. It kind of makes me nervous! At the same time, I'm a very confident person and don't get scared easily. Don't get me wrong, I WILL be feeling those butterflies, but not enough to scare me away from the competition. I can't wait to meet all of the girls who have been training these past few weeks as well. We're all going through the same thing, we all prepped, we all gave it our all, and we're all doing it together. It should be pretty awesome.

So, update on my body. I look great! I LOVE my body so much. However, for the competition I want to lean my legs out mooooore. That ass man. It just doesn't want to get hard lol. So I've intensified my leg day workout and leg pretty much is full glutes day. I add in hamstrings as well and quads are worked inevitably. Hopefully it goes well, I'll still look good on stage either way. Just not perfect in my eyes in the butt area. For the next 3 weeks I'm doing morning cardio pretty much everyday. I wasn't doing it every day before, but I need to now to clean my legs out. I have also decided to keep my calories around 1550-1600 despite my workout calories burned. This will help to lean out a little more. I have to be careful with my abs because they're definitely coming in full six pack. I love it! But the judges won't love it lol. My mid section is pretty much perfect right now. I'd rather go up there with a six pack than nothing at all. Ugh I sound so cocky. Don't take it that way, it's just something I do. You have to love yourself and be confident and just hope for the best. I have no idea what the other girls look like and how I will compare to them. All I can do is try my best and go up there looking my best and hope for the best! There's no point ever in being self conscious.

I practice in my heels and they hurt my feet so much! Ugh I hate them. Believe me, I broke them in! They just squeeze my toes in together so much lol it sucks. After going through the previous two competitions, EVERYONE is wearing red bikinis. If you know me, you know I HATE being like everyone else. I can't do it. I went and bought some fabric to make a new one. It's going to be amazing. I'll have to surprise you with the color. Guess what color it is!

You can always comment below, follow me on Twitter, Instagram, ask questions, whatever you'd like! Thanks for reading!!

Mel

Loving The Process

Hey everyone! Things are going so great, I love it. I feel like I'm not even prepping for anything because it's become such a lifestyle. I don't even think twice when it comes to eating healthy food. Going to the gym isn't even a second though. The thought of skipping the gym is so far from my mind it's crazy! I can't even imagine a day without going tot he gym. My rest day last weekend consisted of practicing in my heels and googling fitness info. There are a lot of warnings and precautions about cheat day after the competition. It's so funny because I cannot even see myself not living this lifestyle. I love it!

So yesterday was back day and I made a video of me squatting 205 for three reps, yay yay! Watch, like, enjoy! Yesterday morning I also did 30 minutes of running when I woke up. I had a banana and a half a cup of coffee so it wasn't completely fasted cardio. I feel like my lungs are getting better and my stamina is increasing. I can run for longer without getting super tired which makes running more fun and doable. When I first woke up and did cardio I felt like shit all day, no joke. It was so tiring and just daunting on my whole day. Now I feel like I can conquer the world! lol So I will continue doing the morning cardio every other day, opposite of night kickboxing cardio. I'm hoping cardio will get rid of the fat in my lower back. My ass is so ridiculous it's going up my back lol. I know a lot of you will be like, what fat? It's there, I see it and know it's there! So I'm going to run it all off. Speaking of things I need to work on, my ass. Again, a lot of you will be like "whaaat? I love your ass!". Yeah it's great, but I'm disappointed. It still jiggles and it's annoying, it's just not where I want it to be at all. So commence "butt day" twice a week for the next five weeks. That should do it! Other than that, I'm very confident about my physique, I love my body, and cannot freaking wait for the competition.

A recent discovery: Egg whites are amazing! By themselves: blah, with other things as a main or secondary ingredient: amazing! Omg. I have been making egg whites and salsa for the past couple of days. That's it, no other ingredients! Try it, it tastes way too good :) I eat it as a brown rice replacement on low carb day.

Today I did three tricep super sets before my hour kickboxing class. 

Tricep and cardio Day 

1. Tricep cable push down (light weight)
35lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

Tricep reverse grip cable push down
25lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

2. Dumbbell overhead extension
30lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

One arm overhead sideways tricep extension 
10lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

3. Machine Tricep dips
50lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Body weight tricep dips
12 dips x 4 sets

1 hour cardio 

Thanks for reading guys! If you're not following me on Twitter yet, please do so, that would be awesome :)

Mel

Glutes Glutes Glutes!

Hey everyone! So I've been obsessed with competition stuff ALL day today, it's ridiculous The Arnold Classic really inspired me, A LOT. Today was leg day and I could not have been more motivated to work out my glutes after watching those bikini pros. SO excited that I mixed up my leg day a little. In my mind, I for sure thought today was glutes and hamstrings day. Sound weird to you? I don't have a glutes and hamstring day! lol I have quads and inner thigh day VS hamstrings, glutes, and outer thigh day. I was totally set on glutes and hamstrings until after my first super set of stiff leg dead lifts with barbell and one leg stigg legs with dumbbell. Then I was like, "wait, I did this recently" lol. So after that I did my quads and inner thighs as planned. I think I am going to just do glutes on all days. Why not? Yes, so it's decided, glutes on all leg days. I kind of already did that by committing to do lunges on all leg days and deadlifts on all back days so my glutes were getting their attention, don't worry :) .

Alright so I looked into my show a little more and had come to the"problem" I ran into at the beginning. The reason I haven't registered for my show yet is because I couldn't decide whether to sign up for the "Novice" class or "open" class. Seriously, for the past hour I have been googling for answers and sifting through blocs to get an opinion on this. My conclusion is that apparently a lot (or some, I don't know) of girls sign up for both on their first show. The pro of this is that not only can you be judged with all first timers like you, you can see how you place against people who have been doing this or are aged in the event. I need this. I also read about a show that only had 2-4 people in the novice category so they one second place by default. There is no way in hell that I am doing all of this work to be second place by default. Fuck that (excuse my french). I'd rather be judged with 20 girls and place than 5 girls. Am I crazy? I just want to be the best. And to be the best, you have to beat the best. So what's my decision? I'm doing both. I can see how I stand with the newbies and then how I stand with the "veterans" so to speak and work from there for me following show. The only downside to this is that each entry fee is $120 per class. That's okay though, it will be worth it.

My workout today was crippling and tomorrow is going to suck ass. That's all I have to say about that one!

Leg Day: Hamstrings  Quads, Inner thighs, Glutes

Super Set
Stiff leg deadlifts with barbell (lightweight)
60lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

One leg stiff leg deadlifts with dumbbell
22.5lbs (was the only reasonable one open lol) x 10 reps x 4 sets

SQUATS SQUATS SQUATS
I really focused on getting low on every rep making sure to squeeze my butt at the top to engage those muscles. I also did light weight, high reps. I warmed up with the bar for 20 reps to perfect form.
135lbs x 10 reps x 4 sets

Super Set
One leg leg extensions
25lbs x 12 reps (straight reps on one side then switch to other) x 4 sets

Super wide sumo squats with dumbbell between legs
25lbs x 15 reps x 4 sets

Wide stance 45 degree angled leg press
90 lbs x 8 reps x 4 sets

Walking lunges with barbell (total killer! Omg)
I only used 30 pounds. Do a super wide and exaggerated walk for best results, make your back knee touch the ground every time. It really gets deep in your butt. Doing the wide stance also helps your inner thighs. Walk ten steps forward, turn around walk ten steps. Repeat with no break. Then take a break. Repeat. Done! With lunges anyway.

Super Set
Close stance (legs pretty much touching) leg press machine
100lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Machine butt kicks
30 lbs x 10 reps per side x 4 sets (this was SO hard to do after leg press. Those quads were on FIRE!)

Abductor machine
40lbs x 25 reps x 4 sets

After this hell I ran a mile on the treadmill. I'm not sure what I was thinking, it's going to hurt tomorrow. I guess that's what I get for watching the Arnold Classic. Such inspiration! In turn, I hope I've inspired you. Thanks for reading!

Mel

Dun Dun Dun...LEG DAAAAY!

Today was leg day and I have been looking forward to it all weekend. Finally, it has arrived! I know, I'm crazy lol I just really want to see results in my legs. My leg workouts are split in two days: day one is quads and glutes (and outer thighs). Day two is hamstrings and inner thighs (maybe calves depending on how I feel. I usually do calves with back day though since I took out biceps). Today was "day one" and it was a good one.

PEOPLE! Have you done the hip thrusters with a barbell at the gym? Seriously, DO IT. Who cares if it's awkward and if people look. It has to be the best butt workout. It just burns the entire time omg. Great!

Leg Day

Okay so I had a plan and it all went out the window (well not ALL) when I go to the gym. It was PACKED! No squat racks open, nothing open for me to work legs, and no machines. Except the hack squat which I don't usually do, but I did it today so here we go! Also, I did "low weight" high reps today to change it up a bit from the norm which is lifting super heavy starting with 10 reps and adding the weight and lowering reps.

Hack Squat
90lbs x 15 reps x 5 sets

Step Ups w/ dumbbells
Step up on high "stool", this stool went up to just below my bellybutton. My butt and quads were on fire! Do one leg consecutively then switch to other.
0lbs x 10 steps one leg then 10 steps on other leg x 4 (add 15lb dumbbells for sets 2-4)

Leg Extensions
25lbs x 12 reps x 4 sets

Lunges
50lbs (+whatever the smith machine bar is) x 8 reps on one leg then 8 on other x 4 sets

Hip Thrusters w/Smith Machine (DO THESE!!)
50lbs (+whatever SM bar weighs) x 10 reps
70lbs (+bar) x 10 reps x 3 sets

One Leg Leg Press
100 lbs per leg x 12 reps x 4 sets

Abductor Machine
60lbs x 15 x 4 sets

I ended with some functional body exercises. I always try to add a body weight exercise workout at the end whether it be push ups for chest day or dips for triceps. Today I did butt kicks and side leg raises. You're on all fours on the ground, kick one leg back with either leg straight or bent at the knee at a 90 degree angle. I did the bent knee. Do this for 25 reps. Go right into the side leg raises. In cheerleading we called these "dog peeing" because that's exactly what it looks like lol. On all fours still, bend leg o the side with knee bent at 90 degrees. Do this for 25 reps. Your butt will be burning, it should be the opposite leg you're swinging that is burning. You can do these at home any time! Even right before bed to get that butt nice and toned. Very effective!

That's it! Thanks for reading! BTW my abs are SOOOORE! :)

Mel

Wednesday- Cardio Day

Wow is all I can say about todays workout. But of course I will just have to say more! Seriously, what just happened? Today, instead of kickboxing at 6:30, I had to go to the earlier. Why, oh why would you miss kickboxing class?! Well because tonight was my second tattoo appointment to finish my rib piece. Ah! So amazing, I love it! So early gym session and a make shift hour cardio session. Have I mentioned how long it's been since I've done cardio on a machine for an hour? It's been forever! Let me tell you about me and cardio. I hate it. It's boring and all I think about when I'm doing cardio is when I'll be lifting next. It's essential so I must do it! So here I am at the gym, no plan really, just playing by ear and how I feel along the way. So here's what I did:

Treadmill: 
5 Minute warm up
20 Minute workout: Intervals on incline, every 30 seconds running and the next 30 seconds "speed walking" for 20 minutes straight. No rest.
5 Minute speed walking (catching breath), then adding more incline every minute.
10 minute incline walking (to get that booty!) Nice slow burn on the glutes

HIIT: 
Same concept as Tuesday's HIIT, only this time it's 4 workouts done 5 times. I'm crazy I know. It was intense! I wanted to die afterwards, no joke.

1. Kettle bell swings (down into squats and back up)- 1 minute
2. Lateral box shuffles- 1 minute

3.Exercise Ball sit-ups- 1 minute

4. Jumping Jacks- 1 minute

*30 second break*
Set 2- repeat
Set 3- repeat
Set 4- repeat
Set 5- repeat- Full out! Give it all you've got!!

And die.

Just kidding, please don't die. Please don't do this workout if you don't feel you are conditioned enough for it. You can also adjust the rest period to be longer if you need to. I burned about 600+ calories with this workout. I have a heart rate monitor (and you should get one too if you're serious about anything involving calories, aka life) and when doing cardio, I always make sure my heart rate is at or above 140 rpm the whole time. As long as I do that, every minute of my cardio time is worth it. With that said, have a great workout! Comment below, tell me how it went :)

Thanks for reading!

Mel