Chalk, Pain and Personal Bests

The past few weeks with Jarrod at Evo Fitness have been an odd mixture of all of the above.

My fear of the chalk has been lifted and I am starting to love the stuff… I find white marks on everything and anything, clothing, weights, bars and sometimes even on Jarrod himself (shame)

Instead of feeling embarrassed about the mess I am leaving behind on the weight plates and my clothing, I am actually starting to feel a level of accomplishment. When Jarrod told me he prefers that I don’t use my gloves and rather the chalk I was very apprehensive and did not quite know how I was going to handle the pain that I knew was coming with using my bare hands, but I was totally wrong! The chalk has saved my hands from the pain that I was feeling with my callouses that kept growing while I was using gloves (very feminine, I know). Now I dig my hands in and love the feeling of the chalk on my hands.

With every passing week I can feel my strength growing, my squats are getting deeper, even when the weights are getting heavier, my deadlifts and my chest presses are getting heavier and I am taking my PB’s to the next level! I am loving the feeling of knowing that I can now do things that I never thought possible after my operation almost a year ago. This is not to say that I am without pain, yes my hands are still very weak and my grip is not great and funny enough I do feel DOMS in my injured finger, but I am still doing more now then I ever thought possible. The small tweaks in technique and the way that our training has been structured, I can honestly say that I never even felt it coming. When I lifted that 105kg deadlift, or squated that 70kg and benched that 50kg, I honestly didn’t know I could do it, and with such ease.

We have been warned that our training is taking a turn, it will be higher intensity and more endurance based, which will help build up our fitness levels but at the same time not forgetting to keep up our strength.

I am also going to start incorporating more HIIT cardio into my training as I want to get my cardio fitness up before the competition. This is going to be fun! Now I need to get my eating under control again and all will be well with the world!

3 weeks till game day! Oh man! Let’s just say I am a tad bit nervous!

Week 4 – BRING IT ON!

Today marks the beginning of my fourth week training with Jarrod at Evo. It may seem silly to most people that 2 sessions of 40 minutes of muscle activation and strengthening can make such a difference, but its true.

Before this training I would struggle with my shoulders and I could not even do one hamstring cirl without my hammies cramping. Now with a combination of my usual training and the training that I get from Jarrod I can see such a difference and feel my hammies and my shoulders getting stronger.

Now that my training at 360 has calmed down for a bit and the weights are not as heavy I am eager to see what Jarrod throws at me.

On another note, I started my Sleek Geek coaching this week, I am one of 5 guinea pigs for a new product that they want to incorporate into the community. Will update soonest on my progress!

 

Week 2 (well almost)

So Tuesday last week I went and saw Jarrod, I am finding that although my training with him has been short, I can already feel a difference, and not being able to make my Thursday session was a total bummer for me! 

Can’t wait to see what he has planned for me for this week! Hopefully it involves some pull ups! Need to get those right… and soon!

A new challenge… once again

As most of you may know, or have gathered from reading my blog, I have an obsession with challenging myself, it feels as if it is the only way I can push myself beyond myself an get anything done. This time, believe it or not, it is NOT a weightloss challenge, rather a fitness one!

For those of us who live in South Africa, crossfit and the “crossfit revolution” is still in its baby stages, but we seem to be picking the trend up pretty fast and one of the events that has triggered this growth is the introduction of the Fittest in Cape Town competition (FiCT). This is the 3rd year running that this competition is happening and after watching my trainer compete last year, the itch has started and I have embarked on the journey to scratch it.

I have been entered as part of a 6 person team (3 guys and 3 girls) and we have been working our asses off (quite literally) for the last few weeks doing strength training and some endurance training, now I may not be losing weight and I may start looking and lifting like a man, but this training has been awesome! A draw back to it has been that I feel like I have fallen behind the other team mates as I am still overweight and somewhat unfit and in turn I am letting them down by not being at my strongest both physically and mentally. I felt that not only did my training need a bit of a boost, but I needed a change of scenery and a different perspective and I am afraid to say a trainer who doesn’t know me and does notice my weak areas and not just assume that I am fine.

Enter Jarrod Firmani, of Evo Fitness, this young man was brave enough to post on the SleekGeek Facebook page that he is willing to train any of the SleekGeek members who have entered the competition, for MAHALA! Seriously, free, nada, nothing…. all he asked is that we blog about the training!

Seeing as I feel that I have fallen behind and that I needed a change in my training, I basically jumped at this opportunity, don’t get me wrong, I was scared to go, to tell him my weaknesses and where I need help, I mean who wants to tell someone that they are weak. But I needed this and he was awesome about it! After telling him what I needed help with you could just see the wheels in his head turning, trying to figure out a way to help me out.

Two sessions later starting off with some conditioning, working on my core, my shoulders and my ever failing hamstrings and I can honestly say I do feel a little bit of a difference. Even my team mates are a little jealous of my extra training!

I can’t wait to see what he has planned for me for this week, to see how far he will push me and to see how far I will push myself.

In love and in health

OG

Long overdue

I can not even remember what my last post was even about! (yes I am that lazy that I don’t feel like checking!) So far I have been throught the SG challenge, with the help of my trainer and my dietician, my result was I am down 4% in body fat! Which is good, and I am pleased, but its not great and I could have done better if my mind was in it.

I can give you all the excuses in the book, yes I was sick, yes I hurt myself, yes I went away for the weekend, but there is no real excuse for falling off the wagon the way I did… I could have done much better and I should have, but I am not going to beat myself down for this, it’s all about mental and physical health and they both have to be in line for me to get to where I need and want to be, weightloss and health wise.

I am sure you have heard it all before, fat girl decides she wants to go thin, yo yo diets and after ups and downs she finally makes it to her goal weight, well if you know me then you know I am that girl and I won’t bore you again with how well I am doing and how well I am not doing… all I can say is well I am getting there, but not there yet!

By now you would have read my post about where I started, now that I am reaching my last stretch and I am 15kgs away from my final goal weight, I decided to try something different (AGAIN!) this time though I have a support system in place of like minded people with the same or similar goals as me, I need to REBOOT my system… That is where the Sleek Geek Reboot is taking me. It is a tough challenge, but then again who am I to shy away from that. It is based on the Primal diet or Paleo as most of you know it that way. 30 days of protein, veg, nuts and good fats. No processed food, no dairy and no white potatoes. Sounds rough, but I have seen the results on Mr Sleekgeek himself and I am dying for the same.

So here goes nothing… Join me and my friends. I know you can do it, check out the guidelines here! or if you on twitter you can follow our posts/rants and progress with the hashtag: #SleekgeekREBOOT

Join me as once again I push my body through its limits to get myself to the ultimate me!

In love and health

OG