6-Pak Girl's Figure Competitions 2008

[vanessa40]

I'm so happy that you are feeling better.
I just joined here so i look foward to reading more about you..
Take care..

[6-Pak Girl]

Hi Vanessa - thanks so much for posting and welcome to EF!

Well, I've been back in the gym about 3 weeks now since I had my surgery. This past week went well. I'm still lifting light - well - it's probably more light to medium. I'm actually surprised that in some exercises I can lift almost back to my normal weights. In other exercises I'm still at baby steps. I did do a little bit of ab work yesterday, being very careful, of course. I did crunches on the ball and isoabs. It felt good. I'm lucky to still have my full six-pack although I do have a protruding muscle along my incision line. I'm told that could take 6 months or even longer to go away. I can't really do lower abs yet but hopefully in a week or so I'll be healed enough to try ab straps or the Roman chair.

I did tweak something in my neck last week. I don't know how I did it - especially since I've been so careful getting back into it. Whenever I lift over my head - shoulder press, incline chest press, pull ups, at the last few reps of a set, the base of my head would just start pounding and shooting pain would go up from my neck across the top of my head and into my face. Then the headache would continue for hours. It was really weird. I went to the acupunturist yesterday and she pretty much fixed it. It's still a little stiff but I didn't shoulders yesterday and I didn't get the pain so I think I should be ok by next week (taking the weekend off).

My weight is slowly creeping back up to where it should be. I'm at 115 now. Got about 4 pounds to go. Even at a mere 115 I feel much fuller than I did 3 weeks ago when I was a scrawn 113 and hadn't worked out in 5 weeks.

I've added a post workout meal of whey protein and baked potato and I'm eating fairly clean for all my meals, although I gotta admit I've been enjoying chips and wine two or three days a week. It's easy to allow yourself to cheat a bit when you're underweight!! But, I really don't want to gain the weight back as fat so I gotta watch that!

[wil]

Great to hear you're getting back in the swing of things. Your hard work and dedication is very inspirational.

[Italianangel]

hey girl, well fall is around the corner we all gotta keep in touch and stay on each others asses about keeping up our fitness!!
Linda

[6-Pak Girl]

Thanks, Linda, for peeking in on me. I tried to post a few days ago but somehow I couldn't make it work. Cyber gremlins of some sort, I guess. Here's what I wanted to post:

I’m still in recovery mode. The good news is I’ve put back on three/four of the pounds I lost from surgery. I’m looking fuller again, no ribs showing. Yay! I’m in this weird place of being so happy to be back in they gym and feeling that sometimes I’m almost back to where I was and then there are other days where I can totally tell I still have quite a ways to go before I’m lifting as heavy as before and ready to do another program. I really, really want to do a building program but it just doesn’t make sense until I’m lifting back to normal. I must be totally healed before I punish my body in a building phase. Hopefully I can do it starting in October. That’s my plan right now.

The paragraph above I wrote on the weekend. This week I believe I turned the corner. I've been lifting almost as heavy as usual all week! Yippee! I even did abs today and it didn't hurt or stretch weird or anything. I finally feel as though I'm back. It won't be long now and I'll be 100%. I swear the acupuncture has made a HUGE difference in my healing.

[wil]

Great news!! Keep up the good work and you'll be back on stage before you know it.

[vanessa40]

I'm happy to hear you are feeling better
Take care

[6-Pak Girl]

I can't believe it's half way through Sept. I've been awful about posting. Since I'm not on a program seems I don't know what to do with myself. I'm lifting 4 days a week and doing 4 days of cardio. I'm finally back to my regular weight - about 118 pounds. My muscles are full again and I'm feeling pretty darn good. I'm still not lifting as heavy as I was pre-surgery, but my workouts are strong and I'm feeling good. I did notice that abductor work kills. Must be because of the strain on my low ab/groin area which of course makes sense since that's where the surgery was. I guess that'll take a little longer to rehab.

Trying to decide whether to compete in the spring or next fall. Right now I'm leaning to next fall since that'll give me more time to fully recover and even gain muscle. It's hard to wait, though. There's a show in March here in my home town and it'd be awful to miss it. Still, I'm not healed enough yet ... Oh well, there's time yet before I have to decide.

[6-Pak Girl]

I can't believe how horrible I've been about posting. I'm still working out - 4 days a week and feeling great. I've still not decided about doing a program - either muscle building or a show cuz it looks like we might be selling our house and buying a new one and I know I won't be able to handle working, dealing with house selling and buying AND doing a program. So, I'm waiting to see what we ultimately decide to do with the house before I decide on my next fitness goal. It's a bit of a bummer, though, cuz I miss not having a goal to work toward. At the same time, I'm enjoying doing my maintenance routine. I'm finding it easy to stay between 115 - 119 pounds, the fluctuation is water since I'm having a cheat day each week where I drink wine and eat chips so I weigh a bit more after those days.

There are a couple ladies at my gym who are doing their first ever figure comp in March. I'm excited for them. I remember that nervousness and excitement of prepping for my first show. I feel like such an old hand now that I've been competing for a couple years. The next show I do I'm going to get new suits. I'm already thinking of colors. Can you tell I've just gotta compete in 2009? I think it's in my blood!

[wil]

Great to hear that you're workouts are going well. It will be great to see you progress toward your next contest as well.

[lizzyb]

Hey 'Girl!! Thanks for popping in on me! I'm an inspiration?! Unh-unh, no way!! YOU are!! Look at you go!

Mmmm....chips and wine are amazing aren't they, lol!!

[gYmgIrL]

hey 6!

You are so awesome! I'm so glad that you're so strong about getting back into it and it sounds like you're being really smart about it. You make it all seem so easy and possible!

You're the best xxx