Jill Gets Fit

[jilleh13]

One thing that I've learned from these 4+ years of taking nutrition and my fitness seriously is there's just so many unnecessary "noise." You have people trying to convince you that so-and-so diet is the Best Thing Ever, that certain food is Very Bad and should be avoided at all costs, that this exercise is the best and you should avoid this exercise because it's bad, etc.

You know what they never say? That every individual is different and responds differently. Just because intermittent fasting has worked for me doesn't mean it's going to work for you. Heck, I thought carbs were evil until I realised that, welp, my body responded waaaaaay better with moderate carbs in my system. Doesn't mean it's going to work for you, though.

Someone's journey to health and fitness is highly individual and honestly, it's sort of a trial and error. Sure, there are general rules to follow: Make protein a priority if you want to build muscle, eat whole food 80% of the time, drink enough water, follow the recommended guidelines for physical activity. But the nitty-gritty details such as meal timing, exercise selection, etc? It's all on you. A lot of is experimentation.

[jilleh13]

Today and yesterday's workouts are officially two of the most difficult I've done so far. ;A;

Thing is, these workouts were the exact same ones I did last week. Nothing new; I even had to regress with some of my weights yesterday and I had to remove an entire set from my cardio today because I was just so drained. ._.

It's really a combination of lack of sleep and my monthly period. I rarely experience period cramps anymore, but I still feel the effects of hormonal changes haha. And I know that I get more easily fatigued when I'm in the middle of my period. I was really so exhausted it took a lot of willpower just to finish my workout. X_x

And honestly, that's one reason why exercise can do wonders on your self-esteem. It's not just seeing the changes and improvement to your body composition and overall wellness. It's being able to overcome those mental barriers. Sure, I didn't do my best in my workout today and yesterday, but I was able to mentally talk down that voice inside me who kept going "GIVE UP YOU CAN'T DO THIS WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS JUST GIVE UP." I proved that I didn't need to be 100% to accomplish something. 50% is still better than 0%. Anything is better than 0%.

This is especially important if you want to start working out but feel like committing to 1 hour workouts, 6 days a week is too overwhelming. You don't need to do that. Be realistic. What's your free time? 10 minutes? 5 minutes? Then do a 5-minute workout. If you can just walk for 5 minutes, that's still better than not doing anything at all. o/

[jilleh13]

I'm about to finish a lower/upper body split routine from Redefining Strength and while I still have other exciting new routines to try, I wish to program my own routine for a change.

When I first started working out my routine was pretty much whole body, 3x a week. I kept adding more and more exercises until I found myself spending 3 hours in the gym XD; I'm not sure when I decided to do upper/lower body splits but.... well, it didn't really cut my time. Sure, I wasn't spending 3++ hours anymore.... just 2++ hours. XD; I've been using the Strong app for more than 3 years now to record my workouts and progress so I'm pretty sure if I look back far enough I'd find just how messy and redundant my first workout routines were.

For the routine I want to design, I'd like to do a split I've never seriously considered before: Full body push/pull AKA anterior/posterior splits. It's basically still full body but I'm separating muscle groups according to which side of the body. Like so:

Anterior (front) muscle groups: Chest, front and lateral delts, biceps, abs, quads

Posterior (rear) muscle groups: Back, rear delts, triceps, glutes, hamstrings, calves

I wish to do these 4 times a week because my body responds best when I hit the same muscle groups twice. But since it's technically still a full body routine I need to be very careful and intentional with my exercise selection. I can't just throw in exercises just because I like them, you know?

One thing's for sure, though: I need to FINALLY do some skill work. I want to train to do pistol squats and one arm push ups. I'm not sure if I'd be able to also add training to do a handstand in there, but at the very least I need to add a lot of shoulder mobility work. I also wish to increase my pull up volume so I'm definitely going to do pull up exercises twice a week.

[jilleh13]

The face of someone who just went through one of the most difficult cardio workouts of her life 🤣 Who needs running when you've got 30 second intervals with very little rest in between? XD

The graph very clearly shows the workout design. Four sets of four different exercises, three circuits. Here's the entire routine (with video links for demonstration):

Circuit #1 Squat Skiers: 30 seconds Half Burpee with Push up: 30 seconds Diagonal Skater Hops to High Knees: 30 seconds Donkey Kick Sit Thru: 30 seconds (30 seconds rest then repeat 3 more times)

- 90 seconds rest -

Circuit #2 Squat Jump Bulldog: 30 seconds Climber Jacks: 30 seconds Line Twists: 30 seconds Dancing Crab: 30 seconds (30 seconds rest then repeat 3 more times)

- 90 seconds rest -

Circuit #3 Lunge Burpees: 30 seconds Inchworm Mountain Climbers (no push up): 30 seconds Squat Twists: 30 seconds Bulldog Side to Side Hops: 30 seconds (30 seconds rest then repeat 3 more times)

Believe it or not I actually have favourite moves. I looove doing those squat jump bulldogs, mostly because I know my jump height has improved drastically. I love doing those donkey sit thrus because I love being able to twist my body like that, even though I have fallen on my side when the exhaustion becomes too much haha. I especially love doing those dancing crabs because they enable me to rest enough in between rounds LOL.

I have a huge love-hate relationship with those squat skiers, squat twists and bulldog side to side hops. My quads burn so much whenever I do them, especially when my energy reserves are at, like, 20% I always have to stop for a few seconds just to shake off the burning sensation ._.

So, yeah. Here's a good representation of what my cardio day is like. I still do runs, don't get me wrong, but they're not my go-to cardio exercise anymore. I much prefer doing interval work because they enable me to do all sorts of movements. o/

[jilleh13]

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I just discovered this awesome man via The Six Pack Chef (a high-protein food delivery service that I occasionally use when I'm in the Philippines) and what he says about the healthy at any size and body acceptance/body positive movements is exactly what I think.

[jilleh13]

Picture on left was taken nearly 5 years ago. I took it roughly a month after I signed up at my gym. I was 125 pounds at this time (give or take).

Picture on the right was taken just yesterday just before I was about to do my workout. My weight? Also 125 pounds.

Body recomposition is an amazing thing! And no, contrary to popular belief muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. It's a huge misconception. A pound of muscle equals to a pound of fat. That's it. It just so happens that that pound of muscle takes up a lot less space. So you look smaller, your clothes fit better, but when you step on the scale - your weight is the same.

Don't get me wrong. I lost weight during the first half of my journey. Heck, I lost a majority it during my first year. By November 2017 I was down to 108 pounds. Then I very slowly gained it all back. I definitely don't think it's all muscle gain. I'd like to think that it is but nahhhh 😆Although I definitely want to think that much of it is muscle AND bone density gain. I love thinking that I'm not only building muscle but I'm also making my bones thicker, too.

I actually have days when I can actually go as high as 130 pounds depending on water retention and/or where I am during my monthly cycle (I retain a lot more water during PMS). It initially gave me anxiety to see just how wildly my weight could fluctuate, but I learned to accept it. I learned to understand that what I see in the weighing scale is just another form of data, mostly to see how my body is doing. I look for trends and study them, and because of this I learned that I could gain as much as 5 pounds not only from my menstrual cycle but also if I'm especially sore from my previous workout! I didn't know that muscle soreness would also cause my body to retain more water, so it was a true learning experience.

[jilleh13]

Today's workout. Monday is ALWAYS leg day for me. Granted, I'm following a routine from the amazing Cori of Redefining Strength but even when I design my own routine I always have Mondays (and Thursdays!) as my leg days. Gotta start the week with the strongest and most energy-demanding muscle group.

The first three exercises are part of my warm-up. My main lift for the day was the sumo deadlift. Four sets of varying rep ranges, with a minute of rest in between. The first set was 10 reps so I decided to do 125 pounds. Second set was 8 reps so I increased it to 135. Third set was 6 and at this point I debated how heavy I should go.

My 135 pounds for 8 reps felt really strong but I didn't want to mindlessly push myself. This exercise is actually still fairly new for me. It was actually just 3 months ago that I FINALLY figured out what my optimal stance was! So I'm still building my strength with this exercise.

I decided to do 150 pounds for 6 reps and oh boy, I felt really strong. In retrospect, I think I could've pushed it to 165 but ah well. There's always next week. Besides, the 4th and final set was a drop set type so I immediately removed the plates and went back to pulling 125 pounds for 10 reps. I have a love-hate relationship with drop sets on compound exercises like the deadlift because while the weight is light it's usually done immediately after you did a really heavy one, so you're most likely nearing your max heart rate X_x Still, I finished this exercise strong.

By the time I got to my supersets (B-Stance Romanian Deadlift + Step Up to Reverse Lunge) and trisets (Goblet Squat + Alternating Front Lunges + Single Leg Hip Thrusts) though.... yeahhh. 😫 The exhaustion was starting to sink in. I was OK until I started doing those Step Up to Reverse Lunges. I pretty much did the same thing in that video (even the height of the step is similar)... except I was holding a pair of 25 pound dumbbells and I couldn't really stand on my toe at the top of the movement. It was simply taking up too much of my concentration and energy just to actually lift and balance those weights up 😱It's got to a point where I had to pause and take mini-rests in between reps because I was simply breathing too hard.

I still love doing supersets/tri-sets/giant sets though even if they kick my ass. 😆

[jilleh13]

I made this blog mostly to document and share my workouts. I probably should've done this years ago but oh well, better late than never! 😅 I may eventually share videos or even GIFs but for now you'll see images of my routines plus explanations and some musings. Every now and then I'll likely reblog good information from other blogs too, and share useful videos or articles I found online.