Finally, I saw some serious progress today in the backside of my legs and glutes. I can now see separation in the hamstrings themselves, and clean lines between the hamstring insertion to the glutes. Everything feels much smaller, and I notice I’m carrying myself differently. I didn’t gain as much size on my glutes as I had hoped. Even though I kept up a heavy protocol hitting my glutes on the dial, I lost most of the extra size. Luckily I have the whole winter to improve.
Abs have come in, including the side obliques and the tightening up of the serratus muslces as well. It’s not easy cutting calories like this and still training hard but I’ve kept my meals delicious so I don’t feel too deprived that way, and I time my meals so that when I hit the weights, it’s on a full tank. (As full as you can get on a cup or two of food!)
The middle and lower bac
k (my problem area) have also tightened up nicely, and with 5 days left to go, I’m not worried about this area anymore. Water depletion and the remaining days of dieting will take care of the rest.
I actually increased the size of my forearms!!! My arms were like sticks at the WBFF show last summer, after 3 months of training and dieting, and I’m hoping that with a little more volume on my lower arms and shoulders, my arms will look more balanced when I step on stage this summer.
All in all, the dial-in has been a success. It was the most aggressive dial-in I’ve ever done. My body composition must have changed by about 4 – 5% Body Fat from start to finish. I was very nervous the first 2 weeks, whether or not I would be ready for the shoot, but in the end it all worked itself out. I’m so grateful for all the food and training logs that I kept from the summer’s shows, they really helped me with meal planning, and also to give me a solid perspective on diet. And I’m also really grateful that I have a coach who knows me well, and knows what athletes go through mentally and physically during the dieting phase. Jean-Jacques kept my head on straight, especially in the beginning when I was thinking about over-training and being too drastic with my diet…Although this dial-in was for a magazine, I would have scheduled a photoshoot in the mid-season anyway, just to practice techniques, and to really check on progress, (you can tell best when you are conditioned and all the fat has melted away), making any adjustments to training based on what is revealed.
Can’t wait to get home and hit the Inside Fitness Magazine “Hot and Fit 100” launch party with my friends!!!
