The Backstage Slapper

Finally beginning to recover from the weekend! Saturday was huge. This ANB show definitely had a different feel from last year's show- I think it may have been that it was at Southport, not at the Tivoli. There were some outstanding competitors and excellent routines( I have to mention Raechelle's routine here which was amazing ), but there were also many competitors there who weren't "quite ready". To know when you're ready is a tough call, particularly if you don't have an experienced coach or mentor - hats off to everyone though who did make the effort to get up there and compete!

Next weekend I am looking forward to the INBA show on Saturday ( Tara and Gil) and then flying down to Melbourne for the ANB (Kerryn, Charlotte and Miss C who as far as I am aware isn't a blogger which is why she shall remain anonymous for now. Shall we say I am looking forward to a big weekend of backstage booty slapping....hee hee.

Love this shot too!

Love this shot too and those forearm veins are showing that our dosage of jelly snakes was spot on!

Why I do what I do

I've got such a cushy job - yeah, I get to help my clients look this good! Congratulations Tara, you did your ol Coach proud today - 3rd Figure Open - awesome effort. It's been a great day and more to tell but just had to get in here and post up this photo for you all to see.

Feeding the pony!

Checking in to let everyone know that hungry ponies enjoy chopped up veggies and hommus!

After blogging about my little balance conundrum yesterday, I am pleased to report I've had a much better day. BTW, thank you for all the supportive comments - helps me to know I'm not alone!
Here's how it went:
0600am: Train preg client - enjoyed training her and will help her throughout the duration of her preg.
0630am: Train Client 2 who has long history of shoulder/neck issues. Our term was for a month and was delighted to hear how much more mobile and better she is feeling..a win!
7.15am: Train Client 3 who is a gorgeous Uni Student - gave her a great workout .
8.00am: Regular 8am client cancelled, is under the weather. Had a talk to one of the other trainers about overseeing his client for a comp prep. Should be good fun.
8.45am: Triple Pack Client who is a cyclist - did lots of Core/lower body stuff and she bought an 8 week training program and PT session from me.
9.30am: Client cancellation due to docs appointment. Happy because that meant I could train-
DO a sweaty walk (due to quad soreness no running) and shoulder rehab/upper body - NAIL a push up on my TOES (on a slight incline, but nevertheless...a pushing exercise that doesn't cause pain)
10.55am - Dash across to Lorna Jane where I meet Maryanne (see sidebar) for the first time - she's buying clothes for her photo shoot with Dallas and she's better looking than her blogger profile suggests - and is sporting a lean and mean body!
11am: Quad/glute massage with Kim - loosened a bit more, but still some to go!
12.30pm: Second TP with male client who is looking to build muscle - had an excellent session working posterior chain -client signed up as a regular.
1.15pm: Last client of day - regular who I have been working with for a few weeks - good stuff.
2.00pm: walk out the door, buy some groceries for dinner and veggies for tomorrow and wisely have a Slim Secrets bar before coming home to square off with the pony.
3.00pm onwards - try to catch up with everyone's emails, read blogs and admire Tara's legs - if you haven't been over to her blog - go and send her a compliment.

Keep on coming back to it

Finding the balance and what works for you... and hesitating to post on this blog because sometimes I feel as if I have to uphold a reputation as the most balanced one of all....which isn't true as I have been finding out.

First of all there has been the major surgery, then the shoulder injury, now the knee and added to that, starting a pretty much full time job, managing my business and looking after my family. There's been no time for myself in there whatsoever. Added to that has been my illfated carb cycling experience (unfortunately rather than paddling the right way, I've been going around in circles. I've done some goofy things like go to my coaching appointment two weeks early. When I write down what I've been doing and look at it, I want to hang my head in shame because I can't believe I've been uh...so dumb. If I was giving the moron above some advice it would be to step back and reprioritize what is important to them. I don't expect anyone to adhere to such a ridiculous timetable, so why am I doing it to myself? My day starts at 4.45am and finishes at 9.30pm where I collapse into bed and can't sleep because I'm so darned wired that I'm going to forget something important.

However what this whole debarcle is teaching me is what is working and what is not. I *think* I know which direction I want to head in, but I'm not giving too much away in case I change my mind. I'm not giving up my coaching however, just working on making a few changes to make life a bit easier.

My first goal is to turn the canoe back in the right direction for a start. I have done well with prepping all of my meals but the trouble starts for me when I come home and I could devour a small pony. Prepping a big salad in advance helps but I don't always feel like salad - so nailing the pony situation is my first step in getting the canoe back in order. Second step is to keep persisting with the shoulder rehab and to do my best and forget the rest. Third step is booking that long overdue pilates assessment to help me get my ab function back.

My next step is bed :)

Potential Payback!

It turns out that my sore knee is possibly a quad tear, so I've been relegated to being a big bad dial faker tomorrow when I'm teaching RPM. I am pretty sure that I've perhaps overused my quads adding some massive load in my classes so time to dial it back and let it heal. My physio (who I've added as a friend on Facebook as I see her more than I see some of my mates!) tells me it's common to injure something else when recovering from something more major eg my shoulder/abdominoplasty. I had scheduled an hour plus for my training this morning and it consisted of a cruisy 20 minute walk and lots of shoulder rehab type stuff - best news is that today I did lat pull downs without any pain and I demonstrated a bench press today with the Olympic bar - a bit yucky, but I didn't have that "I'm going to go through the roof" type of pain.

Today I got to train Shelley and as usual I spent my time delighting in the the torture I was inflicting upon her and grumbling about my injuries in between sets. I made the comment that maybe I should come to her for a training session when I was healed and the first thing I saw on her face was a sly grin and her imagining how much she was going to punish me. Yeeeouch! Then I got to thinking about all of the programs I send to my clients and wondering how much they'd enjoy telling me what to do. It sounds like "Rule of 3's" and "Whose That Nutter on the Treadmill?" have top billing followed by a gruelling session of squats and deadlifts....

I'm getting more and more excited about the INBA and ANB Comps - this Saturday is of course the ANB and I have Tara competing in that one. I'm probably just as excited as she is so we're going to be quite the combination on Saturday. I also get to holler with Doris down the front! I also will have the pleasure of Irene in RPM on Saturday so it's all systems go up here.

Then I will be in Melbourne on the following weekend to help out clients in the ANB show down there and I can't wait. I will be hanging around for a few days afterwards and if anyone wants a training session please feel free to contact me via the store email contact or in Lindy's forum.

Hmmm

Busy busy busy and still trying to find that balance! I am sitting here with my diary marking out the time that I will be able to train myself next week and icing a tender left knee (don't know where that came from!) .

I think I may have mentioned before but that is what I am finding the hardest part of this job. I cannot believe how quickly my week fills with appointments - I've found myself booking over my training times but that is going to stop as of next week. My training is still pretty limited with my shoulder injury but I've been able to rehab it to the point now where I can do push ups on my knees which is pretty exciting and I'm even doing some cable work with the Paramount trainer. So instead of feeling despondent about things, I should actually focus on the fact that three weeks ago I could not do a push up without being in excruciating pain. I've demoed exercises to Shelley and been blown away when I haven't had any pain.

I can still run, bike but not swim....I will get better, I will stay positive!

On a completely different note, I've been back on the asparagus train - it's super cheap here and today I had two bunches with chicken breast for morning and arvo tea.

And on another completely different note - it's definitely competition time for a few of my clients with talk of Contest Colour, bikinis, posing and routine figuring in a lot of our emails. I just love doing the coaching thing and being a backstage slapper at a comp - I just don't like how I go out in sympathy with some of the girls and go for one jelly snake too many!

Oh, that's right...I keep a blog!

I can't believe I haven't written a thing since last Friday!

More shall be forthcoming!

Simply Stunning!

Crikey! Check out these photos of the stunning Tara and her equally good looking hubby Mr R! This is just a small sneak peek of the photos Dallas Olsen took in addition to our squatting workout ones for the UltraFit article which unfortunately may have to keep under wraps until closer to article publishing date. I really wanted some pics of Tara in some "lifestyle gear" to celebrate her achievements and the journey she's undertaken on her way to Figure Athlete.

I have to say that I feel very privileged that so many people place their trust in me as their Coach and watching the transformation process unfold is one of the best experiences ever! However I must also say that because I am dealing with people on a very intimate level that I shoulder a huge responsibility in ensuring that my clients get the most accurate and scientifically based information possible. I believe that the best coaches in the world are very open about their coaching methods - I have to single out Alwyn Cosgrove here. I don't know the man personally, don't use/do any of his programs but read his blog every now and again - I am impressed that he backs up his methods and reasoning with scientific journal publications and case studies. From these sorts of blog posts and information, it's a real opportunity for growth and development. I also place the blogs of Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson in this category - if you're looking to learn more about strength training, these blogs are an excellent place to look.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their birthday wishes. This is going to sound rather sad, but I decided to crack open a tub of Metabolic Drive that I ordered with our last batch of Surge. If Surge tastes good, then Metabolic Drive tastes so good that I could quite happily sit on a desert island with a tub of the Chocolate variety, some peanut butter and a spoon.

Getting There!

Wow, it's been a busy, but productive week so far - I've had my share of ups and downs, but on the whole it's been pretty interesting. As I blogged about at the beginning of the week, I had 10 clients booked today - luckily two had to cancel which made things much easier and I was able to set back into cruise mode a bit more today. The worst part of the day was my phone alarm not going off. I have a new HTC Touch Diamond PDA which is very fancy but does a few things I don't understand - but I'm getting there with that too. I woke up with a start at 5.30am and had to be out the door by 5.40 am to see my 6.00am appointment. Needless to say, this morning was a very "cockadoodle don't " type of affair. I managed to slam down breakfast in between clients and get back on an even keel. The other downside was not having my workout gear packed - I've managed to work out every day this week - maybe for not as long as I would like -but I have still done something. Tomorrow I have a 45 minute break and I'm going to give myself a thorough workout in 35 minutes - watch this space! I've been focusing on my shoulder rehab this week, keeping my goal of even-steven shoulders in the top of my mind as well as giving my legs a bit of a blast with some deadlifts, which I have not done since before the surgery. I think that my shoulder is getting some "natural" rehab by me picking up and racking weights all the time and demonstrating push ups. They're a bit tender, but I'll see what Louise thinks when I see her next week.

Got to teach the 9.30am RPM class yesterday - I not only caned the participants but made a silent promise to myself to go "to max" and there was definitely no dial faking going on in Track 7 this week!

Hmm, what else? Training Miss Shelley tomorrow - gotta give her triceps a pasting! Then we're going to have lunch..yum yum.. this week in honour of my birthday tomorrow (but really we never need an excuse to have lunch :) I'm going to recommend any type of deveined prawn to Miss Shelley - you gotta eat the prawn, not the poop :) ) I can't quite believe that I'm one year shy of being 40! Next year is going to be big ;)

I write!!

Today I can announce that I've been really fortunate in meeting one of my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year - I'm going to be a published writer! I have written an article for UltraFit magazine about squatting and today I filmed the workout with Tara S, Lindy Olsen and Dallas Olsen.

Clothing was supplied by Lorna Jane and the facilities provided by Fitness First, Jindalee - which is a beautiful new Fitness First, just down the road from good old Indro. It was really fun getting Tara all ready for her moment in front of the camera, from the pre shoot instructions (eat some jelly snakes!) to suggesting all these poses. This has got to be the part about coaching that I love the best - taking someone on who wants to do well and helping them to reach their full potential through sound, science based nutrition and training methodology. Not that Tara's quite finished yet, but the changes she's made to her physique in the past year have been nothing short of amazing. Plus she came and did my RPM Hi Performance and survived, which makes her pretty special in my book!

Celebrating hubby's birthday tonight and checking out the diary for tomorrow - slight improvement, only NINE booked appointments!

Feeling Better!

Taught my RPM class this morning and thrashed it for Father's Day. I was able to stop and have breakfast with Hubs and the girls which was really nice - the best part about Father's Day is seeing the homemade gifts that the girls make for Hubs - really very beautiful.

Feeling much better as I've done a bit of organizing, some writing (I am writing an article about squatting for Ultrafit magazine) and some general housekeeping. Better than nothing. Have scheduled my workouts for the week - am still trying to do something about the TEN appointments I have on Thursday - I will work out, no matter what!

One of those days!

Am having one of those days where I'm completely and utterly exhausted, where it feels like nothing is going right and I'm about to lose the plot. I know that underneath it all, I'm still trying to negotiate the balance between working, running my online business, doing my own workouts (sanity savers) and being a wife and mother (oh and having some down time in there as well).

I'm going to spend the day tomorrow working and getting organized. I had thought of ditching RPM but if I do that I am ditching my one sanity saver. But my plan is to do something else afterwards, have a steam and recover.

And the boots with the fur....

SHE HAD THE WHOLE CLUB LOOKING AT HER...

SHE HIT THE FLOOR.....

NEXT THING YOU KNOW....

SHE WAS GOING LOW LOW LOW LOW.

AWESOME JOB WITH THE BACK SQUATS TODAY SHELLEY! CANED IT! NAILED IT!

HOPE YOU HAVE DOMS IN THE MORNING!

small progress

Busy day here in my world - six clients and an RPM all before 1pm - no wonder I'm tired! I made the commitment to train today - my big goal at the moment is to put back all the muscle I've lost on my right shoulder - so today I tackled my physio exercises with gusto and really tried to do what I can. I can do push ups on a bench almost pain free which is pretty exciting, but I had to demonstrate a bench press today and pretty much winced in pain. I'll have to forgo the old Olympic bar for a broomstick for awhile.

I have had a productive day - although I did have a few moments of rummaging in my bag at Lorna Jane today - I bought myself a new gym bag, so hopefully with this one it won't be as much of an issue. I got my training in and I've scheduled my own training in tomorrow. Legs!