Been a bit slack the last few days…life just get’s in the way sometimes doesn’t it?!…So, here is the last 4 days in a nut shell… Day 6 (Rest) Ahh…rest day! To be completely honest it was a good time for it to come. I ended up having a few glasses of vino last night and surprisingly felt rather rough this morning. Why is it that as we get older the hangovers get worse?! I also seem to be finding the harder/more One works out the worse One’s hangovers are…(even only with a few cheeky ones!), horrendous! Today coincides with the first day of the Olympics, which was brilliant! Most of the day was spent lazing around watching the Olympian’s “doing the hard work” for me. Was great! Although must admit watching all these sporty people on the tele really has made me proper raring to go for the final day of the 1st week tomorrow….Chest & Tri’s I am coming for ya! Day 7 (Chest & Tri’s) YES YES YES YES!!!! I really feel like I have worked my flat little butt off this morning in Chez Antoniades gym/garage… Again, completely fasted and fuelled by motivation and determination of bettering last week’s workout in terms of weight, I did it! Well, for the most part… All chest exercises and sets were upped to my next available weight, in the majority of cases this was at least 2.5kg/5lbs more per set! This is a phenomenal achievement for puny lil old me considering sometimes going up by just 1kg tuckers me out. Being a woman and therefore fairly weak (to be completely honest with you); an increase of just 0.5kg sometimes between set’s see’s me [...]
Pre-The Beast: Stats and Figures (Han A)
So, before I begin my “Very Mini Beastie Journey”… I want to document where I am currently at so I have something to compare with at 30, 60 and 90 days, plus…Notice ‘plus’; to me this is not going to be a 90 day programme, this is about changing the way I exercise and adding more heavy weight training to my arsenal in order for me to change my body and be where I want to be… So, where do I want to be? For me it’s not about the number on the scales (although I sometimes do get hung up about this, which is wrong I know), and it’s not really about the inches or dress size either. What would be great is if I could get some re-composition going, that being increasing my lean body mass (muscle mass) and decreasing my body fat (but only slightly). Therefore, I do not really want my ‘weight’ to go down. I want to be toned, look like I workout (if that makes sense) and feel comfortable in my own skin. I want to feel confident to wear that pair of shorts and I want to enjoy a healthier, fitter and more energetic ‘me’! I should also probably mention that I’ve been on my beach body journey for just over 18 months now and although looking at my current stats I’ve only lost around 11lbs I’ve dropped my body fat down from 27%. It’s taken a lot of work so far to get where I currently am, but I’m defo in it for the long run and as they say “it’s a marathon not a sprint”… Current stats (dun dun duuuuuunnnn!!!)… Weight: [...]
BB Day 5: Shoulders (Han A)
Nothing like a good ol’ morning beasting of shoulders! After seeing Anne Hatherway in Dark Knight Rises last night (which I would highly recommend FYI!) and her amazing bum, I was raring to go this morning. No food, no protein shake, no craze, just good old fashioned internal drive and determination. Once again, this workout did not disappoint me and I really liked it. Again, I did feel like a bit of a weed in some of the exercises with my 2kg dumbells. This is a massive drop on the weights I’ve used recently for shoulders and P90X shoulder routines, but hey, I aint getting hung up on the numbers, my shoulders were on fire and I defo felt the burn! FIRE FRIDAY ANYONE?! At one point I did seem to have every weight under the sun around me and almost went flying across the garage stumbling over them (note to self: I am not Superman and cannot fly so must be safe and tidy up after myself after each move!). Feeling pretty strong today and not as bloated, so I think my body is getting used to the extra carbs. Some of you know I’m proper paranoid about piling on the pounds by eating more carbs, so sneaked onto the scales this morning and they haven’t shifted up or down from beginning of week. But!…I feel tighter, stronger, perhaps a little leaner (espesh in the legs) and a lil bit beastie! I know I’m only 5 days in but this workout is defo not just for boys, ladies will love this too! The DOMS isn’t doing too badly, which I am pleasantly surprise with. I think Nick’s preparation programme (aka Roxstedii) of upping our weights [...]
BB Days 3 (Back/Bi’s) and 4 (Cardio/Abs)
The last 36 hours have been a mix of…bhug, eghhh, owwwccchhh, owww…. By this I mean I think I gave Nick and I a touch of food poisoning from our lunch yesterday so neither of us were on top form last night for Back & Bi’s. However, took some craze (I know I crumbled under my stomach cramps…I wanted to go without!) we powered on through…O M flipping G!!!! Was by far my fav workout so far. After the first single set of deadlifts I though I was actually gonna pass out! This workout is hard…but oh so awesome. Come the end of the back section (and managing to squeeze out only 5 chin-ups, one leg assisted – I can usually get to about 20), I was ready to collapse. I dont think the crazy sauna that is our garage/gym added to the equation…this gal is not made for 80% humidity…HELLO!!! Have you seen my casper skin?! Any who…the bicep section was a killer! Bloody love it and agree with everyone from TiM who’d already done the workout, I felt super pumped and amazing! I did feel like a bit of a weed though, espesh with watching Sagi and chums lifting ridic heavy iron. I know I know, I’m a girl and I shouldn’t expect to get anywhere near them (of course), was just a tad intimidating at first. Sagi’s motivation and screeching made me just get on with it, concentrate on my form and my reps. Intense! Sorry, I digress… by the time we got to the 1,1,2 hammers my biceps were screaming and the lactic acid was flowing through me. I just love it! And, I dont think I’ve made such noises in any workout [...]
BB Day 2: Legs (Han A)
Ahhh….I’m done and I’m still alive (just!)… That was one tough workout and sitting down typing this my legs feel, well…completely numb! I must admit I am not the biggest fan of leg workouts for the pure reason I just feel so weak, but I actually really enjoyed it. I didn’t find myself looking at the clock until there was only 11 minutes left, it really did fly by and felt awesome every step of the way. I’m not going to lie it was frigging murder on my calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes and inner thighs…me thinks I’m going to have some serious DOMS tomorrow in my entire legs (and the rest of the week!). I really felt like Sagi was pushing me every step of the way too and I did not feel like dogging it and opting for less weights…I just powered through…was intense! On the flip side, the nutrition is going ok and think the additional carbs in my diet are really helping the energy levels during my workouts. I hasten to add that so far I have not taken any pre-workout supps…although I am feeling like a blowfish for most of the day. I’m sure this feeling will pass. It’s a really horrible feeling thinking that eating all these carbs is going to make me fat! I kind of feel I want to curse at the media world for making us feel that they are not good for us, when in actual fact I think if I hadnt upped my carbs for the last few days I would have not been able to get through the workouts. Today I’ve managed to get my ratio’s up to 46% carbs, 31% protein and 23% fats [...]
BB – Day 1: Chest and Tri’s (Han A)
The best workout you could do is the workout you WILL do…. Well, holy frigging moly…I defo did that workout! And LOVED every moment of it I might add, my arms are still slightly shaking and I finished 3 hours ago. Day 1 of “Lean Beast” in the bag! YESSSSSS!!!! It’s always tricky when doing a workout for the first time, lots of trial and error with weight selection, watching what’s going on to make sure you do it right etc etc. And, with Sagi going at a fairly speedy pace (obv’s as he’s doing super and giant sets) I did have to pause a few times so I didn’t get myself into a flap! So what did I like and not like… The Good… It’s a great speed, although not too fast and I felt I generally had enough time to sort myself out. I also think I’ve slightly fallen in love with Sagi Ok, I do love Mr Horton but Sagi is comic in a very different way. Slightly confused me at first when he was referring to himself in the 3rd person, but I defo felt he was motivating me to push on through and eak out that extra rep (even though I thought my arm was gonna fall off!). The Bad… My form! I did the workout on a stability ball as the bench we bought (so Nick and I could have one each) does not have an adjustable back rest…doh! It will be going back tomorrow and we will be purchasing one that I can move up and down as needed. I was wobbling left right and centre, seriously I was swaying around like I was out at sea! (Ok, [...]
Pre-THE BEAST!
So…tomorrow I begin my beastie adventure…to say that I’m excited is a complete understatement. Just a wee bit about me before I start to ramble on…my name is Hannah. I’m 26 (27 in a few weeks), originally from Cambridge (UK) and been living in Bristol since I went to uni here in 2003 and married to the beautiful Nicky (8 months ago). My passion/dream as a kid was to be a dancer, until that dream was shattered when I was 16 and developed chronic tendinitis around my pelvic girdle, basically causing me to give up my dreams of the West End, I was devastated. Anyhow, I continued to go to uni, where I rowed for some time in a lightweight 4 which was immensely fun, although just got out of touch when I left uni. Nick and I began our fitness journey some years ago, with visits to the gym and in 2010 investing in transforming our garage into our personal gym. My weight has always yo yo’d since stopping dancing (at my heaviest at 10st 3lb…a fair amount for a 5 ft 4in gal!), probably not helped with all the lovely fad and crash diets that I’ve subjected my body to over the years. In January 2011 we began our beachbody journey, being introduced to it by my brother who had been bought P90X for his birthday. To say that I was skeptical about doing a home workout like this is an understatement, although at the 30 day mark we were already seeing results, kept us pushing play! Since then we have dabbled in numerous programmes; insanity, asylum, turbofire, P90X2 and brazil butt lift. We’ve loved all of them (some more than others!)…. Since Ihearing beachbody were releasing a weight lifting [...]
