The OCB Body Sculpt Open is only 2 weeks away! I can’t believe time has gone by so fast! We’ve both been extremely busy with work, personal endeavors (contest prep/belly dancing), and preparing for the new addition to the family (6 weeks out for that!) and it feels like every day has about 5 too few hours in it! I’m getting excited for my show and have only to push through these last 13 days before it is upon me! I’ve changed up my training by following a protocol called Y3T, developed by British bodybuilding guru Neil Hill – and I’m really enjoying it! It involves a three week cycle where week 1 consists of low volume, high intensity training (heavy weights), week 2 is more of a standard bodybuilding week, and week 3 is high-rep muscle annihilation! The theory is that varying your training prevents plateaus, and by only training heavy once per 3 weeks you allow your joints to recover and prevent injury. So far it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten into progressively heavier weights with no limitations from my injuries! You can follow my training journal on veganbodybuilding.com to see the specifics!

Another change I made during this contest prep was seeking out a chiropractor to treat my injuries, specifically my left knee and my abdominal strain. At 8 weeks out my abdominal strain flared up again and I took two weeks off from hard training, and very nearly decided to cancel this contest. I’m really glad I didn’t! Instead I went to local chiropractor Dr. Milan Lassiter who specializes in working with athletes and uses two soft tissue techniques – Active Release and Grasten. What a tremendous difference! Both injuries almost immediately felt better than they had since I injured them ( about 2 ago years now), and that’s with very heavy and intense training on them! I’d never been to a chiropractor prior to this, and now I swear by it!

Nutritionally, I’m using the same high carb/low fat strategy I used for my last contest – but I’ve gained almost 10lbs since then, so I’ve tried to keep the calories and protein a bit higher this time. I’m starting to feel pretty dialed in, so I look forward to what this show brings, and all the excitement in my life thereafter!