Bikini Guide Version 3

So a year ago in January, I blogged about having bought the LDN Muscle Bikini guide version 2. I'd hit a nasty plateau (both mentally and physically) and needed some new motivation.

I completed the guide but due to my lack of consistency and hectic work schedule my results weren't so great. My strength definitely improved and is still improving but my diet still needs some serious work and my hatred for cardio means I'm not burning much fat. My butt has lifted and my shoulders have a good definition but the troublesome bits in between have made very little change.

Still being an active member of the LDNMLadies and LDNMFamily on Twitter, the next natural step was to move onto the Bikini Guide V3.

I'm three weeks into the Bikini Guide. It's an 18 week plan. It's got a 4 week rotational training programme that keeps things really mixed up and targets all the right types of movements in a contact cycle and, so far, it's not been even a little bit dull. The great thing is that there's a huge emphasis on weightlifting, which I absolutely love. The amount of cardio you do is recommended in the guide but dictated by you. Naturally, your results show which you pick. If you're not looking to cut fat but just to add muscle tone, then you can scale the cardio down, and vice versa.

I've done plenty more research on body types and discovered that of the somatotypes, my body is definitely an endomorph. This means I gain muscle easily but I also retain fat. Endomorphs tend to have long torsos (check), short limbs (check) and gain fat easily (check). Lots of reading (and stressing) has helped me to discover that carbs are not my friend.

I realised that I need to work a lot more on my diet and I need to learn a lot more about macronutrients and what to eat and when. I've reached out to a couple of absolute gems that I've met on Twitter and they're helping me slowly figure this macro business out. My nearest and dearest will all tell you that it's ridiculous how bad I am at maths for a supposed intelligent person; this food maths is going to take me some time to crack but I'm sure it's a big piece in this puzzle so I must be determined and get through.


My learnings over the last few months, mixed with this guide, mixed with common sense has lead me to conclude that I definitely need to incorporate more cardio into my training regimen. Luckily, the guide gives you a ton of options so it doesn't only have to come in the form of an hour bashing away on a treadmill, thankfully!

So, I have my 6 week, 12 week and 18 week alarms set to take progress pictures. I don't expect a huge amount of difference at the 6 week mark due to my diet but I'm hoping to make up for it by week 12.

Wish me luck!

Workout Wednesday... Weekly update

I thought I'd give you a little update about the events of my week, mostly fitness related but also some fun too!

Last week I started my new workout plan. I missed Thursday's workout due to gorging on food and entertainment at Kingston's night StocktMarkt and then an open mic night at the Rose Theatre.

 

My housemate (Conny) and I went on a little gourmet adventure. To start we devoured a mixed cheese and meat plate from the Social Club van. For mains, we had the world's most beautiful burger from the lovely lads at RareStr'eat and naturally for dessert we simply had to share some churros from these lovely Spaniards.

 

We then went to Mosaic at The Rose Theatre Cafe where we were thoroughly entertained by the brilliant Bits & Box lads and of course the ever beautifully crazy Tankus the Henge gracing us with their eclectic mix of gypsy funk jazz!

 

From the fun to the hard work...

 



As I had the day off on Friday, I went on a mega gym session and did Thursday and Friday's workout back to back. I then discovered that after the two of those, both washing my hair and walking down the stairs were nearly impossible!

I also discovered that I simply cannot do tricep dips due to a wrist injury so I had to modify a lateral pull-down to work my triceps but it went OK. Additionally, watching me attempt to do an incline crunch is about as hilarious as watching a fish try to climb a mountain; I failed miserably. So I got a trainer to show me how to do some ab exercises on the TRX equipment and definitely felt the burn on Saturday!

As I said before, this workout regime is going to be a work in progress and hopefully each week I'll be able to tweak it to make it harder for me and challenge myself.

I'm feeling under the weather this week (read - man flu of death) so may not make it to the gym as much as I'd like but such is life.

And also it's my BIRTHDAY this week so I'll definitely be overindulging in too much food and booze at the end of the week!