Competing, My Injury and a Physique Update!

Competing, My Injury and Physique Update Video

I made this extra long and extra awkward video talking about competing in my first bikini show in November of this last year, my injury and how I’m handling it, and how I’m working through a plateau. Enjoy!

SoFitSoPretty

I’ve been putting off making an “intro” video for my new YouTube channel for quite some time…surprise surprise! I think I’ve tried to make it more than 10 different times, but ultimately just didn’t like any of them – listening to yourself talk is awkward!

I apologize for the video length, but bear with me because I know SO many people can relate, and I wanted to include all of the details! I promise not all of them will be this long.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLq947JYPys”]

Hooooookay so…

I competed in my first bikini competition this last November. Originally, I decided that I wanted to compete in 2015 and had my sights set on the April 2015 show. Needless to say, I ended up postponing it because I didn’t feel like I was “ready” (that’s my perfectionism coming out). I decided that the August show was more within reach and hired a coach and began prep for that show. I followed my diet, did my cardio, but something was missing. Everyone around me could see my body progressively changing, except myself. I would get off of the StairMaster every morning after my 45-minute fasted cardio session and look in the mirror and be so completely upset that I looked the “same”. I would even cry on my way home from the gym every single day. About six weeks out from the August show, I decided to pull out from doing it. My mindset wasn’t right. I was doing my body more harm than good and I decided to stop my prep altogether.

Many of my other teammates were also planning to compete in the August show, so I went to watch (I’d never even been to a show before). Going and watching that show fired me up so much to compete – that I knew I had to do it…that I wanted to do it. There was one last show after the August show for that year and it was in November. I signed with a new coach that very next day and began prep for the November Show (The Rocky Mountain).

I had 10 weeks to prepare for the Rocky, which, in real life, seems like a long time, but for a competitor, it might as well have been two weeks away! Typically a 16-week competition prep is ideal, but I had made a promise to myself that I would compete in 2015, so I was going for it. Balls-to-the-wall so to speak.

8 weeks out I found out that I was hypoglycemic. Hypoglycemia is having a below normal blood glucose level, the opposite of diabetes. In a typical competition prep, sugar and carbohydrate levels are pretty low to aid in more rapid fat loss during the time leading up to a show. Due to the fact that I already had such low levels, dropping the sugar and carb load significantly wasn’t an option because it would create weakness, shaking and fainting spells. I needed to maintain adequate amounts of sugar and higher carbs in my diet for a longer period of time to combat these symptoms. Doing so would slow down my prep, and I was prompted to drink twice as much water (two gallons a day as opposed to one), and do twice as much cardio as anyone else on my team to be able to reach my goal in ten weeks time. I also had two jobs and was in school full-time, so I found myself completing my morning cardio at 5am, then returning after working long days at 10pm to lift and finish my second (sometimes third) round of cardio.

THE SHOW12299313_10153293727900003_81576767361866302_n

I competed in The Rocky in November of 2015, but didn’t place as well as I’d hoped – the class was HUGE (typical for the bikini category in the last show of the year). I looked GOOD, don’t get me wrong, but with a longer prep, I could’ve looked better.

Immediately following the show was finals week in school. It was my senior year and I had SO much to complete in hopes of walking in my graduation. I did not follow a reverse diet – which is CRUCIAL when competing. I went back to eating “normal”, and worked out minimally due to studying for finals for 15+ hours of the day. I gained around 15 pounds and was incredibly unhappy. After finals were over, I put myself back on a prep diet and early morning fasted cardio sessions in hopes of getting back to where I was prior to the show. 6 weeks of clean eating and intense workouts produced very minimal results and I couldn’t figure out why my body wasn’t changing.

I had damaged my metabolism without reverse dieting and my hormones were so out-of-whack that no matter how clean I ate, or how much I worked out, my body wouldn’t change. I was STUCK.

TAKING TIME OFF

A little over a month ago I moved into a new apartment and decided to just take some time off from clean eating and going to the gym altogether. I spent time building this blog and working on some new classes and didn’t stress out about not working out or eating “clean”. Now, I wasn’t eating horribly, I just wasn’t counting my macros, I wasn’t meal-prepping like how I did for my competition prep – I was eating carbs and going out to dinner like a normal human being and I was happier and not as stressed out. Did I gain some fluff? Yes I did. But I really took this time to let my entire body reset.

REGRETTING COMPETING

People ask me often if I regret competing because of the after effects it had on my body. I don’t at all. I loved the experience and would do it again – the RIGHT way.

This brings me to:

MY INJURY

I was hoping to compete again in August – the show I never got to do last year – but I unfortunately found out that I’m injured. I was experiencing a lot of hip and lower back pan and decided to see a chiropractor. Upon looking at my x-rays, I realized I had more issues than I first thought. My hips are completely twisted to the left, which creates an issue for lifting heavy weights (squatting and deadlifting), which puts immense strain on this area. From continually lifting and not addressing this issue, my hips became jammed in this twisted state, further decreasing my range of motion and flexibility. My lower back and hips were moving the weight rather than my glutes and all of the muscles surrounding my sacrum (the end of your lumbar spine), had completely turned off. No wonder my hips and back were so sore!

I have since been working with a physical therapist to get things back in line and strengthen my pelvis and activate my glute muscles.

MY CURRENT PHYSIQUE

I wasn’t able to workout or lift for about a month, but now I’m getting back into it! Thank goodness! I have decided to start another cut for the summer and stepped on the InBody scan to do a starting physique weigh in.

I took a picture of my stats that it printed out because, as the video explains – I lose EVERYTHING.

InBody Scan Stats

I go into more depth in the video about how I feel about my body fat percentage and my weight, but I’m looking forward to getting back in shape!

I am only focusing my attention on my body fat percentage, body fat mass, lean body mass, and muscle mass.

Sorry again that the video was SO long but I felt like it was something good to talk about that others could relate to and possibly benefit from hearing my story. If you made it through the entire video then GO YOU! Can’t wait to take you along for the ride on this journey.

 

See more of me and my awkwardness here.

Thanks for reading (or watching)!

What kinds of fitness or lifestyle videos do you like to see? Let me know! Leave a comment, e-mail me, or hit me up on social media!

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Alex Mahoney

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