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Louise discusses her competitive plans for 2012
Hi Everyone!
Wow, I have to say thanks for all the responses I’ve had from ladies since my first introduction blog. It’s been very interesting to read from others about their experiences as international competitors. I might write a blog soon about competing in the IFBB if you’re from outside the states ... seems like a lot of ladies are interested in what route they would have to take to try for a pro card!
In the meantime, I will give you all the low down on my training so far. Well, I have decided to compete in the summer time, this time ensuring it’s all planned really well. So, at the moment, I am in the final few weeks before I begin the hardcore diet ... ugh!
My training right now is still moderately heavy, and I’ve been utilizing rest pause, reverse pyramid training and drop sets to really smash my muscles. I guess the last few weeks my body has been aching all over as it’s been a while since I trained with such intensity.
My current split looks like this:
Day 1 –Quads/Calfs
Day 2 – Back/Biceps
Day 3 – Rest
Day 4 – Chest/Triceps
Day 5 – Hamstrings/Glutes (Although I often hit glutes during quads)
Day 6 – Shoulders
I put abs in if and when. I’m fairly lucky in the abs department because I don’t have to work them too much, and what’s the saying, “abs are built in the kitchen”... that's a very true statement!
Anyway, for ladies you have been training a while and are looking to spice up their workouts I’ll give you the run down on the rest pause technique. Note that if you do research into rest pause there are many variations. Traditionally, with rest pause training you take very short 10-15 second breaks in between each rep of a given exercise. Yes, that's right -- breaks in between each rep, not each set. I’ve tried Mike Mentzer’s version before, but he recommends using weights which are close to your 1RM (rep max). I found this didn’t work so well for me, and it became rather draining once I had tried it during a few workouts. Instead, I’ll tell you about an adapted version in which you start your first exercise/set with a weight in which you can perform about 8-10 reps. After you’ve done the set, you'll rest for about 5 seconds, and then try repeating the set (if you can push out the reps!). As you can see this makes your sets quite long. And you’re collectively doing about 20 reps per set, so ensure you have adequate rest before doing the next set. The heavier I train the more rest I take!
This sort of training can’t be used for every exercise or every work out. Some exercises are safer than others. For example, can you imagine doing this whilst benching with an Olympic bar using moderate to heavy weight? Well, I guess you might end up stuck underneath the bar ... or maybe not! But for me, I’m quite a clumsy person so I tend to use this method of training with dumbbells, or smith machines etc. So, in case, if I do fail I won’t cause myself injury.
As the weeks go on I’ll go through other techniques I use during my workouts. Also, as mentioned i’ll give a bit of a low down about competing in the IFBB as an international amateur.
All the best,
