Easter Weekend & a Whole Long Giant Recap

I'm back!! I was honestly in shock when I realized I hadn't posted in 11 days, and I'm so sorry about my bad blogging! I hurried up and got my post about form posted so at least there'd be something new haha! I've had a lot of other stuff going on, and just didn't realize I had been absent for so long. So today is basically going to be a giant recap post!

Let's start with the important part: CHIPOTLE <3

Amanda stopped last Thursday and picked me up a leetle treat, and as always it was my go-to: chicken salad (no dressing), fajita veggies, mild salsa, and extra lettuce on top! I swear they always think I'm crazy when I ask for lettuce because it's like "you want extra lettuce...on a salad?" Yes, yes I do.

I also finally began making zoats! For those of you who don't know, you can add zucchini to your oats (I know, sounds so weird) for some added volume. It's amazing for two reason: 1. it works and 2. you can't even taste the zucchini! I'll do a post about how I made it and the recipe. 

Then, Friday we went to a friend's church for a Good Friday service. We went to dinner beforehand but I didn't get any pictures. The service was really good, though, and I really like going to their church. My mom even tagged along so it was nice to get her out and about.

Saturday morning Amanda had the day off from her usual Bible study meeting, which meant I had a gym buddy! She's been coming more to the gym with me, and I'm super excited about it because I love having a lifting buddy. I also put her through some killer workouts :)

I spent the morning per usual: Jesus + coffee. Amanda was sleeping in so I was waiting for her lazy butt to get out of bed so we could go squat. My Bible study is reading Revelation this year but I also read on my own. I randomly started with Galatians and I've been working my way through Paul's stuff. Right now I'm just about to finish up 1 Thessalonians, and once I get to Revelation I think I'll read some of Old Testament since I think that's just as important to study as well. I haven't read a lot of the minor prophets in awhile so I'll probably start there.

We got our Saturday sister squats done! My lower back has been doing great these past couple weeks, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. I'm squatting and deadlifting a few times a week now at this point in addition to bench and hip thrusts with accessory days. And of course some cardio thrown in! My new programming (designed by myself) focuses a lot more on athletic training and I have since dubbed myself an OlyPowerBuilder haha! I do a mix of Olympic lifts, power lifting, and bodybuilding. I absolutely love it and I'll write a post about it later on. My main focus right now is just build a heck lot of strength and not worry about aesthetics. Of course, ironically, the less I focus on aesthetics, the better my muscles respond! 

I woke up on Friday with a sore throat which is always my warning sign of a cold coming. As usual, I ignored it and went about my workouts as usual on Friday and Saturday. Well, come Saturday afternoon I was knocked off my feet. I even took a nap (gasp) which if you know me is UNHEARD of. I actually hate taking naps and when I tell people this they question if I'm human. But I do. I hate naps and only take them when I'm sick, which is how you know if I'm truly sick or not. And since I was sick, what turned into a 20 minute power nap lead to me not getting out of bed for about 2 hours haha. 

I had some cute company though...

If you've been following my Instagram then you know all about how I gave up peanut butter for Lent. I thought it'd be impossible and a lot harder than it actually was to be honest. I'd say the last week was probably the hardest as the cravings began to set in. I got my fix though Sunday morning! I dug into a fresh jar of salted caramel Jif Whips (#2 bae as Layla is #1 lolz), and then enjoyed a Reese's egg with my coffee! 

During the afternoon, we had a lazy day. Amanda gave up TV for Lent so we had a movie marathon and caught up on some shows that she had missed. My friend from work came over to join us, which Layla was thrilled about! 

We went to a friend's house for dinner since my grandma had dinner on Saturday (I didn't go since I was sick) and my dad had dinner on Monday. They cooked us a feast and it was delicious! There was pork tenderloin, green beans with almonds, sweet potatoes, baked pineapple (I need to get that recipe from her), fresh fruits, and I can't even remember what else since it was all so amazing. I had some leftovers on a salad Monday for lunch. 

 And of course peanut butter oats made their comeback!

That's it for now! And this time I PROMISE I will get better at blogging and posting more stuff on here! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Tips On Cleaning Up Your Form

So this is sort of piggy-backing off my post about deadlifts but I wanted to do a post in general about how to clean up your form when lifting. The first thing, obviously, is to educate yourself about proper form. This can be difficult as a lot of different sites and people will tell you different things but my recommendation is shop around and find trustworthy people. Two of my favorite sites are: Bodybuilding.com and Stronglifts.com as I have found both super helpful in learning about proper form for exercises. I also listed some people I like to follow/learn from in my post about deadlift tips :)

1. Videotape your sets

My second piece of advice is again to videotape yourself. In my opinion, this is important for several reasons. First, I don't like anything messing up my concentration while I'm lifting. I don't want to constantly be checking the mirror to check form because it'll break my focus on the mind-muscle connection. As I'm lifting, I like to FEEL the exercise. I mentally check how my body is moving and try to incorporate internal feedback so that my body is learning proper movement patterns. My main goal is to rely on internal feedback to tell me how I'm executing a lift and the video (external feedback) is a secondary source of information that will let me know whether my internal feedback was correct or not. 

Secondly, checking your form in the mirror can actually compromise your form. For example with deadlifts you want to keep a neutral neck which won't happen if you keep looking up in the mirror to watch yourself. With squatting, you have a lot of weight on your traps so turning your head left or right can not only mess up your neck but also affect your balance. So I stick with videos as they'll tell me a lot of things I might not be able to spot in the mirror. 

Thirdly, taking videos enables you to really break down your form. I can't tell you the number of times I will watch my videos because I focus on a lot of different aspects. I check my bar path, my back, my knees, my rep tempo, check for any weak muscle spots etc. This allows me to give proper focus to each area and allow me to make any necessary adjustments for the next time. 

Fourth, videos will tell you if the weight is truly right or not. If your form consistently seems off and you just can't seem to get it right, lower the weight. No buts about it. Form > weight every single darn time. Feeding your ego is not worth the injury risk. I had to swallow my pride and begin at square one with squats at 115lbs because of my lower back when I was squatting about 185 this time last year. Life happens. 

I don't tape all my sets but I will usually tape at least the first set and the last set. I do this so that I can check and see where I lag once I'm getting tired. It helps me identify my weak spots so I know what to work on in the future. Once I know where I need work when I start to get tired, I can mentally focus on not doing that during my end sets. If I have to, I will do additional accessory work in order to strengthen those weak spots. For example, my lower back can be a big weak spot so I do a lot of accessory work like hyperextensions and core work to help build it up. Whatever your weakness is, work on it until it becomes a strength.

When watching your videos, some general areas that you want to check are your back, your knees, foot placement, and the alignment of your neck. That will tell you a lot of where you are keeping the weight, body mechanics, any potential risks for injury, and if you're keeping proper form or not.

2. Breathing

Another thing that I have found which can truly impact form is the way you are breathing. When I first started lifting, I paid no attention to my breathing patterns but now it's something I am very intentional with each rep. Especially for my heavier compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, and bench (those are my main three lifts). Before each rep I take a big deep breath and hold it out until I'm done with the rep. This is important for a very big reason: it will activate your core which will protect your back. The deeper the breath, the more it will expand your abdomen which will remain tight and you will be able to better stabilize your core and back.

 I do not breathe at the top of a rep because deflating my stomach will put my lower back in a more vulnerable position-- with deadlifts that would be when you're standing up and about to start the eccentric movement down, for squats that's when you're squatting at the bottom about to begin the concentric movement up, and for bench that's when you bring the bar to your chest (please note: there is a HUGE debate between whether or not arch in your back during the bench press. I personally do not like to arch my back as it aggravates my lower back so I keep mine flat against the bench. Breathing this way helps me to do so but if you prefer benching with an arch then by all means be my guest. It varies from person to person.). All of those are very crucial moments where your back could become injured so do all you can to protect it! I keep holding my breath the whole rep and release it at the end of each one.

3. Accessory work is key

As I said before, I use my videos to show me my weak spots. A lot of people do not consider any other muscles during the lift besides the prime mover (the main muscle doing the work). In isolation work (ex: bicep curls) it may not be such a huge deal to overlook synergistic muscles but in compound lifts you are using multiple muscle groups in conjunction. This means that accessory work can really help you clean up your form by strengthening any weak muscle groups.

Take me for example: my hamstrings are the weakest part of my legs. I didn't really like working hamstrings, I didn't really care if they grew or not, and I hardly paid them any attention. But, I wanted to deadlift. And I wanted to deadlift well. I know that I am a quad dominant lifter and that I can also have lower back problems, which meant it was important that I really nailed my form and got my hamstrings strong. I didn't want to risk any lower back injuries or my quads trying to compensate for my weaker hamstrings. So I worked and worked and worked my hamstrings in TONS of accessory work. My hamstrings have grown an insane amount over the past few months because of it but the cool thing is it only happened once I focused on strength. I told myself that I was going to work on building them up strength-wise because I knew I'd need all parts of my legs to be strong for the upcoming programming I had in mind. I didn't want to squat and deadlift multiple days a week with weak parts of my legs.

4. Practice, practice, practice

This one seems like another no-brainer: the more you practice, the better you get. Some days I'll literally just do squats on squats on squats to practice my form. Last week I did 10 sets of 10 (at a lighter but still challenging weight) to simply practice. I taped each set, would analyze over my rest period, and then make any necessary adjustments. I also like to compare old practice videos with my newer ones to see what overall changes I have made.

5. Leave your ego at the door

Now this has been a difficult one for me #realtalk because like I said this time last year I was squatting about 50 pounds more, and now I stick to 135 MAX. Usually for most of my working sets I use 115-120lbs and then will occasionally test out 135 just to see where I am strength-wise. It honestly all depends on my volume of training for the day and what percentage of my max I'm working with. However, form is oh so much more important than the weight you are lifting. Sometimes you just gotta suck up your pride and work with a lighter weight. It's not worth the injury, and you'll thank yourself in the long run. Instead of feeding your ego, feed your quads muahahaha. But really, feed your muscles.

So there you have it! Just a few simple tips that I have found effective while improving my form. As always, it's a work in progress but I promise you that if you put in the time and work, you'll get the results. 

Strawberry Snickerdoodle Smoothie

I haven't made a smoothie in awhile but this one is one of my favorites! I wasn't sure at first if I'd like the combination of strawberries and snickerdoodle protein powder but I am oh so glad that I made it anyway. The first words out of my mouth were "oh my gosh" because it was that good and left me speechless haha! 

So here's what was in it: 

31g PEScience Snickerdoodle protein powder (it's 1 serving)

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk 

100g strawberries

1/2 tablespoon almond butter

Then blend it all together and enjoy! I topped mine off with whipped cream. 

And I may or may not have already had one of these every single morning this week already, and don't plan on stopping! 

If you try it out, let me know :)