From Figure Dream to Dream Figure: Day 3

Today is Day 3 of my journey to my first ever figure (bodybuilding) competition, and so far, things have been pretty plain sailing, although I appreciate it's early days! I'm fortunate in that my colleagues at Phoenix Pro have all undertaken a whole variety of weird and wonderful diet strategies in the past, so my rather basic but plentiful food regime has barely raised an eyebrow at work. My friends also seem rather intrigued by the whole endeavour, and my school mates, who are a rowdy bunch at the best of times, are adament they want to come and support on the day... although I'm not sure whether I'd find the heckling game raising or not!!

Having lifted for the past three days, today I had a break, although my morning power walk with my training partner Ludo (who actually sustained an injury on said walk!) was still in place. Fortunately by this afternoon Ludo had made a complete recovery, having milked whatever it was that stung/ pricked/ left no mark whatsoever on him for all that it was worth...



I'm actually really enjoying doing steady state exercise for a change, and whilst it isn't the best mode of exercise for people with limited training time on their hands, it is low impact, great for burning calories whilst avoiding catabolism (muscle breakdown)and in my case loosening off DOMs (delayed onset muscular soreness) hampered quads following a heavy squat session on Monday!

I also went to visit my awesome massage therapist Philippa today, who ironed out my quads, ITBs and adductors (which, having ridden professionally for many years, have an iron rod type quality and a fascial structure that is fairly unique to riders). It's important to stay on top of this, as such adhesions and facilitations in the fascia can adversely affect biomechanics, which isn't ideal when the aim is a well balanced musculature.

This evening I did a hot yoga class at my brother and his girlfriend's Red Hot Yoga studio in Guildford, which I actually found pretty challenging.. I'm not the most flexible person in the world (although I did recently win the cornflake box game on a hen party in Ibiza!), so I should sleep well tonight :)

Overall, I'm finding the process so far easier than expected, and am totally loving having a serious goal to aim for again. I hope I continue to enjoy it as much over the next 7 weeks!