As April is literally right around the corner, I am soon coming to the realization….I am 13 months away from my deployment to Afghanistan. Reality is setting in, I have less than 12 months to make myself known. To put my name out there in the fitness world. For 2011, I have to wrap up this year with smart choices and smart competitions.
I’ve made a choice to participate in at least three national qualifying competitions: Oregon Ironman Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships, Seven Feathers Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships and Las Vegas Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness, Figure & Bikini Championships. Seems almost redundant to post all of them. You get the point. The first two are in Oregon and the reason I chose Las Vegas is because of the possible exposure.
With hard work, dedication and diligence, I am sure that I will place well within my height class. As far as I’m concerned, I’m sticking to bikini. That way I don’t have to change up my routine too much and I can work on my own for a few weeks after my first competition without real guidance.
Then I see women like Erin Stern. I absolutely love the way her body looks. Figure. One of the few Figure competitors that I see and I say to myself, “That’s what I want.”. The one thing that would make me completely change to Figure would be how I placed in 7 weeks. If I totally bomb it, then fine, I’ll take my awesome muscles somewhere else!
It’s one of the few things I truly worry about myself in this process, is getting too hard. My body reacts so well to exercise, weights and diet that it builds. If you saw the latest progress pics of my legs, it just WHAM in the face, hey quads…how are you doing today? I keep telling myself and with encouragement from my team members, stick to the work outs prescribed. It’s better to be too hard two weeks out instead of too soft and having to diet hard right before the competition.
Right now I’m strictly doing maintenance on my lower body. No weights, a lot of lunges. Currently my “problem” area is my glutes. My glutes are much smaller and tighter than they were back in January. I’ve made progress but there is still more to go. To continue to tighten them I do piston squats on the smith machine no weight, one-legged bench step ups and sprint/jog intervals on the treadmill. This is part of my work out regime including my weekly kettle-bell class, two days with my personal trainer and a lot of cardio on my own.
I’m very excited to do some progress pics on Friday with my ever favorite, Bob.
Wish me luck! I’m excited. :)
-Brittany
