![]() This is Michelle Ellis. She's gone from a size 11 to a size 3, through hard work, diet, and discipline. Add to the fact she has a full time job and three kids and it's almost impossible to believe she accomplished this but that's what focus will do for you. |
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This is Mary Teasly. After going thru pure hell Mary not only placed in her first contest, she took 1st in the middleweight and masters class. Even though times felt very hard for her, she carried on and wound up being rewarded quite well at the Cornerstone Classic down in McAllen. Before anyone thinks bodybuilding is a youngster sport and maybe they should've done it when they were a teenager, this as I said was her first contest and she did it at age 41. She's not getting older, she's getting better. Way to go Mary, That's how we get down in the House of Reds. |
Christina Wolniewitz placed 1st middleweight and won the overall at the State show in the novice class in her very first competition. |
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| Barbi Beiger won (get this) 1st place Short class figure, Masters Figure, Overall Figure, 1st place lightweight, 1st place Masters, and overall women's bodybuilding champion at the Lackland Classic (her very first competition!). | ![]() |
Personalized
Workout Programs:
Example of 3-day alternating workout routine:
Legs/Week 1:
leg extensions
leg curls
hack squats
stiff-legged deadlifts
standing calf raisers
Back and Chest/Week 1:
pulldowns to the back
seated rows
bent rows
pec-deck flyes
incline press
dumbell press
Shoulders, Bi's and Tri's/Week 1:
side laterals
front presses
pressdowns
nose breakers
barbell curls
dumbell curls
Legs/Week 2:
single leg curls
feet high leg press
1-legged extensions
squats
seated calf raisers
Back and Chest/Week 2:
pullsdowns to the front
deadlifts
1-arm rows
dumbell flyes
bench press
decline press
Shoulders, Bi's and Tri's/Week 2
front laterals
dumbell presses
reverse pressdowns
close grips
preacher bench curls
cable curls
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There seems to be only 2 kinds of people, those that have great abs, and those who want them. For the bodybuilder, rock-hard, fat-free abdominals are not only desirable, they are essential in order to place well come contest time. Other athletes use their abdominal development as a barometer of their conditioning. For those noncompetitive types, a well-defined stomach commands attention at the beach.
Benefits
of exercising abs: Well-developed abdominals are not only aesthetically pleasing
- they act as a support system for most exercises. For example, when performing
heavy shoulder presses, strong abs help protect the back. While great abs are
no substitute for a weight belt during heavy lifts, they do go a long way in
helping prevent injury.
Importance of diet: Unless you eat right, you can do hundreds of reps of every ab exercise ever invented without seeing any significant results. Nine times out of ten, the reason why most people don't have great abs is because of their diet. You must adhere to a sensible diet with low fat, moderate carbohydrates and high protein in order to get results.
Cardiovascular exercise: A few lucky individuals can develop great abs without having to do any cardio, but this is the exception rather than the rule. Cardio plays a big role in helping shed the fat covering the abdominals. I would advise doing your cardiovascular workout first thing in the morning before any meals, because your body is more apt to burn fat at that time. Bear in mind that the first 20 minutes of cardio, you are only burning sugar. You will not even begin to touch your fat cells until after the 20-minute mark, so try to make your aerobic exercise session last more than 20 minutes. You can do any cardiovascular exercise, although personally, I prefer the stair climber. It is low impact so I don't put any undue stress on my joints. A high-impact exercise such as running puts quite a bit of stress on the joints. As you get older, your joints will be able to tolerate less and less stress - which makes high-impact exercises less desirable. I also use the stationary bike, especially on days I train legs. I find that biking is not as taxing on the legs as the stair climber, so it allows me to fully recover from tough leg training sessions.
Training frequency: You can incorporate ab training in every exercise session. I, myself have been genetically blessed with good abdominal development so I only train them 1-2 times a week during the off season. I train them more often as it gets closer to competition time. However, I have to stress that quality is much better than quantity. One intense, all-out abdominal workout is definitely better than a weeks worth of daily lackluster sessions.
Rock solid abdominal workout:
Hanging leg raise-3 sets, 20 reps
Cable crunch-3 sets 20 reps
Three-in-ones-1 set 10-15 reps
Machine crunch-3 sets 25 reps
(For picture demos of these exercises, and other exercises go to
Steel Fitness.Com)
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Legs are, in my opinion, the hardest bodypart to train. That is probably the biggest reason why you see a lot of men with big upper bodies, but small legs. I have heard lots of excuses why men avoid heavy leg training. Some claim that they might hurt their back by doing heavy leg exercises. Let me tell you this - you won't hurt your back if you do the exercises right. I've heard people talk about their bad knees being a deterrent to leg training. My answer to them is that leg training is actually helpful in the rehabilitation of bad knees.
Leg training is hard, so I suggest making them the first bodypart you exercise at the beginning of the week, This way, you don't have to dread it because it is already out of the way.
Benefits
of exercising legs: Proper leg training can help increase
your running and jumping capabilities, which equates to better performance in
most sports. In the sport of bodybuilding, big, muscular legs are essential.
The thighs are the most massive muscle group in the body, so there is no way
to hide weak thigh development from the bodybuilding judges.
Putting forth an all-out effort in leg training also has positive effects on the rest of your body. Power exercises such as squats and deadlifts put demands on your upper body, forcing it to grow as well.
Importance of diet: You can perform leg exercises with all the intensity in the world, but unless you pay special attention to your diet, you will not get well-defined legs. You will want to follow a diet that is very low in fat, high in protein, and low in carbohydrates. This, along with regular cardiovascular exercise, will go a long way in ridding the fat layers over your leg muscles.
Training frequency: For best results, try to train your legs only once a week. Note that this is only a guideline - if you train your legs once a week as hard as you can and you still don't see satisfactory results, you might have to resort to training them twice (or perhaps even more) per week.
Personally, I like to split my leg training sessions into 2 parts - one for quadriceps, and the other for hamstrings. I find that if I try to work out both parts in the same session, one will get more attention than the other. I then devote a whole training session to each part in order to get equal attention.
Warming up: Prior to your leg workout, try to go on a treadmill, stationary bike, or stair climber for 5 minutes to get the blood pumping. Then do some knee and hamstring stretches. I then advise warming up with some light leg extensions prior to exercising quads, light leg curls before training hamstrings.
Here is my quad training routine (hamstrings routine will be published next month):
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| leg extensions | 3 | 12 |
| squats | 3 | 12 |
| hack squats | 3 | 12 |
| leg press | 3 | 12 |
The sample diet plan I am presenting here is designed for the individual trying to gain weight, yet remain as fat free as possible. It's a combination of complex carbohydrates (for long term energy) and simple carbohydrates (for short term energy). even though we'd generally double the protein intake, this high intake of carbohydrates in this combination will produce a protein sparing effect, so extra protein is unneccesary (it would be excreted from the body and wasted). This diet will give the individual at least a ten pound weight increase. A strenuous weight training program would be most advantageous as well.
Regarding the supplementation: the vitamin B should stimulate the appetite. The thermogenic agent will help burn fat (it should be accompanied by a cardiovascular program). The creatine will attract water to the muscles, adding leverage to the muscles so more weight can be lifted. This will allow more damage to muscle fibers which will build more muscle as it repairs itself. The multi-vitamin is for other body functions to perform optimally. The meal replacement will help keep from being hungry. The amino acids and vitamin C will repair muscle tissue optimally.
This is the Lean Muscle/Weight Gain sample program (half portions can be used inititally until body adjusts to the serving sizes):
Meal 1:
4 oz hot cereal
3 boiled eggs
1/2 potato
1/4 melon
1 kiwi
Meal 2:
12 oz protein drink
3 oz rice
1 box raisins
1 kiwi
1/2 potato
Meal 3:
3 oz sweet potato
2 oz rice
1 tangerine
1/2 banana
5 oz beef patty
Meal 4:
5 oz chicken breast
1/2 muffin
3 oz rice
1 small apple
1/2 banana
Meal 5:
4 oz broccoli
4 oz cauliflower
4 oz beef patty
Supplements:
B-complex (two with each meal)
Multi vitamin (one in morning and one at night)
Meal replacement drink (only if necessary in place of one meal)
Thermogenic Agent (one, 30 minutes prior to cardiovascular work
out)
Amino Acids (four, pre workout; four, post workout)
Vitamin C (one, 500 mg with amino acids)
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