A big goal of mine right now is to get PUMPED UP (said in the voice of our fave (or not so fave, depending on who you ask) governator here in California, Mr. Schwarzenegger). I currently run an average of 30-35+ miles a week, and cross train three days. Tell me to run 13+ miles and no problemo, man, I am your girl. Tell me to do five push-ups and um, yeah, I’m walking away with my tail between my legs. So, in an effort to improve my running (Stronger runner = faster runner) and to just feel more macho in general 😉 I’m on a mission, a mission to get strong. I don’t want to lose weight, but I do want to change my body composition to more muscular, build some more defined abbies and just get stronger in general. How am I going to do this? Here’s my Plan:
A good plan includes diet and exercise. Without both, you aren’t really setting yourself up to fully succeed. So here’s my breakdown:
Exercise: I’m training for various races throughout the year, (most currently a half marathon on February 14), and trying to get faster right now, so cutting down my cardio is not an option. Instead I plan on keeping my cardio/interval/etc. workouts in the morning and then weight lifting for 35-40 minutes in the afternoon three times a week, doing a total body circuit workout. This week I am using a modified version of the int/adv workout on Mrs. Fitnessista’s website (http://fitnessista.com/?p=5003) , i’ll post my specific routine for this week at a later post. I also plan on upping my interval training from two times a week to three. This will accomplish two goals, one is to get faster and also interval training about three times a week will increase my body’s ability to burn fat and then leave it open and more ready to adapt to building muscle and re-shaping my muscles, so my interval workouts will be the same mornings of my weight lifting days. (For ideas of a good interval workourt, see the post below)
(the diet plan includes specific numbers, so if you are recovering from an eating disorder and think it will trigger anything, please do not continue reading)
Diet: All the exercise in the world will not do much if your diet is not also up to par. I have a pretty clean diet and eat primarily whole foods. However, I am upping my calorie intake because currently I do not think I’m eating enough. When you don’t eat enough while keeping a high activity level, your body will do one of two things: 1) lose weight (muscle) 2) plateau but eat your muscle to find energy, leaving you the same weight but softer. I am currently eating about 1600 calories a day, however, I’m 22 years old and 5’9, and burn anywhere from 500-900 calories almost every day. Even with my small frame and a desk job/student lifestyle, I should be eating about 1670 calories a day just to maintain. So clearly, I’m not eating enough. In order to sculpt those sexy muscles I want, I need to give my body what it needs. I train like an athlete, I need to eat like one. I’m going to start with upping my calories to 1800-2000 a day for the next week (I started yesterday). I know this may seem low to some people still, but I’m upping it slowly to get my body used to it. Also, this is actually a bit scary for me, as, like so many other women (Especially runners) out there, I underestimate my caloric needs and have a history of under-fueling so I am taking it one step at a time. I eat a lot of healthy, low calories foods, so it’s also hard for me to reach this number. In order to fit in the extra calories, I plan on re-shaping my meals to mini-meals to add more calories and also drinking lots of water to decrease the possibility of bloat I’ve read can come from upping your calories. I also plan on including one high day, and one low day (1500), in other words, calorie cycling to shock my body. This site includes a great calculator for calorie cycling if you’re interested: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
So, there you have it, my plan to pump up the program for me strength wise. I’ll post re-caps of how it is going and my weekly routines. Is there anything else you’d be interested in hearing about from me regarding this? Also, feel free to join in on me with the plan to Pump It Up!
What are your fitness goals right now?
‘Till Later, Hasta La Vista Baby!
Just found your blog and I just recently moved from San Diego to Phoenix. Like 5 months ago but we are trying to get back…and soon! I miss SD sooo much! We were living in the Banker’s Hill area/Balboa Park area. I just saw on a comment you mentioned youre studying for your ACE and you’re a runner. I run, used to run TONS but am a yoga teacher who’s always wondered if I should get my ACE 🙂
Anywhoo,howdy 🙂
Thanks for saying howdy! I love Balboa Park! I live in North Park/Kensington area, so it’s pretty close to me. I’ve lived here my whole life, it’d be hard to leave. Hope you make it back soon 🙂
[…] in on Saturday. Depending on what my body thinks about the circuit tomorrow That being said, my pump up the calories plan is going well too. I’ve been between 1800-2000 calories for the last two days. It’s […]