I love the good hurt, otherwise known as DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). I’ve long been an exercise lover, but my first exposure to weightlifting was just last summer (July 2010). I joined Gold’s Gym and fell absolutely in love with Body Pump classes. Since then I have branched out and begun to learn about designing my own free weight programs to target specific muscle groups. I love lifting so much that I wanted to transform my body into that of a Women’s Figure class bodybuilding competitor.
As can be read in detail in the early archives (January-April 2011) of this blog, I did just that. I began by entering The Gold’s Gym Total Body Transformation Challenge and then less than a month in I grew some figurative balls and registered for an NPC figure competition. My posing wasn’t what it needed to be and there were some weaknesses in my physique compared to the other women up on that stage, but I gained muscle and took myself down to a lean 13.1% body fat composition. I did it while being a mom to a preschooler, a fulltime college student, and running a small bookkeeping business.
I want to compete again one day, but the diet impacts the rest of my life more than I can justify. I’m heading into my senior year of a B.A. in Accounting and planning to immediately follow that up with a one year Accelerated MBA program. Right now my tentative dream / plan is to train for a competition during the last quarter of graduate school. Perhaps it will prevent me from catching senioritis ;)
My immediate goals are to build new muscle and to continue to prioritize lifting despite the lack of a competition “carrot” to motivate me to find time I don’t have =)
