PoW PoW - Gun Show!

This is a sponsored post and part of a campaign with Under Armour and FitFluential

photo credit

photo credit

I have always been a fan of women with biceps. I remember watching "What's Love Got To Do With It" and being fascinated by Angela Bassett's arms. She was so beautiful as Tina Turner and so ripped! What about Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in the Terminator movies?!?! I remember wanting to have her arms soooo bad and I'm pretty sure that this is when my obsession with bicep veins started!

As part of my participation in the Under Armour What's Beautiful campaign, I have been completing various challenges on my journey to crushing the goal that I have set for myself! One of these challenges was sheer PERFECTION and I couldn't wait to share it with you guys!

The Up in Arms Challenge is about sharing what exercise best shows off your arms! Now, I'm not being a showoff or jerk here but my arms are one of the best parts of my body. Some time back, I did a Things I Like About Me post and I wrote

"5. My arms. *I lift hard and I lift heavy.

 My arms can wrap themselves around The Princess 

and show her that I love her to the moon & back. 

My arms can lift my daughter's wheelchair in & out 

of the car without assistance. 

My arms can carry multiple bags of groceries in 

one trip from the car to the house. 

My arms look great in sleeveless clothing. #yeahisaidit" 

We can blame it on my never-ending quest to have arms like Angela or Linda! I couldn't decide on just ONE exercise so I'm going to share with you one of my bicep & tricep workouts!

Superset:

Standing cable rope curls

5 sets of 10

Standing tricep extension

5 sets of 15

Superset:

Seated incline bicep curls

5 sets of 12

Lying tricep pullover

5 sets of 10

Superset:

Hammerstrength bicep curl

5 sets of 10

Standing tricep kickbacks

5 sets of 8

LifeFitness dips

5 sets of 6

If you are interested in other arm workouts, you can check out the workout video Tom & I shared in my How I Get It Done post or head over to Muscle and Fitness Hers. IFBB Figure Pro Jelena Abbou shares her "bare bones" approach to arms training in her Better Bi's and Tri's article.

Feel free to check out the other challenges I've completed on my profile page! You can tweet or pin any of my images if you so desire! And if you're still dragging your feet, just join the competition! Stop stalling! I know you wanna! Head over to the What's Beautiful website and create your profile!

New Release Tuesday

New music from Jessie J?!?! 

YES PLEASE!!!

There Are No Words

Very rarely am I speechless.

There are very few times when I don't have some type of comment to make.

However, this is one of those rare times.

For now, I will let the picture do all of the talking. And yes, I will do a follow-up post once I can wrap my head around what I'm seeing.

Excuse my wedgie in the picture on the right :)

As Good As It Seems..?

First, I would like to say thank you for your awesome comments on my Light 'Em Up post. For some reason, Blogger is being a total jerk and won't let me comment to each person individually...ugh! But I want to thank those of you who commented (Melissa, Crystal, Sable, Liz, and Donloree) to know that you ladies rock & I appreciate you (I mean it!).

The Boss #2 and I at the 2012 AZ Open

For those of you who have been following my blog for some time or know me in "real life", you know that my husband Tom aka The Boss #2 is my trainer. Genie aka The Boss aka the Yellow in "Black & Yellow's Excellent Adventure" is the nutrition/food component of this team but it's Tom who puts together the majority of my workouts, bosses me around assists me in the gym, and so on.

When most people find out that my husband is my trainer, their first response is usually "That must be awesome. I would love for my __ to be my trainer". I will then smile, nod, and give some generic response about how it's nice that my significant other is knowledgeable about training and helps me as I work towards my competition goals, stay healthy, and get stronger.

Another trophy for his our collection ;)

Most of the times I mean this when I say it and other times I want to look them in their face and say "Trust me, this set-up is crazy" or as Genie & I often say "#thatshitcray".

Urban Chick Foto

Before you start getting huffy, giving me the stank eye, or commenting on how ungrateful I am - let me explain. Now, you're probably looking at the picture above and thinking to yourself that it's so sweet of Tom to be helping me with my shoe but that's not the true story. True story is he was telling me how crusty my feet looked and asking what was going on with one of my toes!!

I'm kidding! He was actually helping me change shoes in between shots so I wouldn't fall over because he knows how much of a klutz I am :)

Back to what I was saying about having my husband as my trainer....

At times it is incredibly wonderful to have my partner-in-crime as the person "in charge" of designing workouts and keeping an eye on me in the gym. Tom knows me (or at least he better after almost 13 years together...lol!) and he can tell when I'm not "living up to my potential".

He knows when I say that I can't do another rep, whether I'm saying that because I'm lazy or because I really have reached my stopping point. The man knows, by looking at me, what adjustments need to be made. He knows whether I've been getting enough sleep, drinking my water, eating my meals, or if I'm starting to get sick. In short, the man seems to know everything.

Puttin' it down in our hometown - 2011 NPC Terminator

Sometimes, this is wonderful and other times it sucketh much. There are times when I just want to forget about finishing my daily allotment of water and just guzzle a beer. Or I have no desire to get up early to do my cardio and I just want to use that time to get more sleep. You know what happens during these times?? Tom is there to tell me "Nope. Do what you need to do." He's there to tell me to stop being emotional, stop whining, and yes, even to tell that I'm not making progress but I'm not doing 100% the work.

This can be hard because I know he is telling me these things as my "Trainer" and not my "Husband". I know when he looks at my weekly progress pictures and points out the weak areas, he's not doing it to be hurtful but to be helpful. My mind knows it but sometimes, my heart & feelings don't. He also knows that when he tells me to do something and I ask why,  it might not be about me trying to be difficult or question his ability to train me (I'm a librarian! We're information hoarders...lol!).

We have been doing this thang for almost three years and have come to the agreement that we HAVE to talk or even scream it out, if necessary. When he is providing feedback, I will ask him if I'm getting the feedback from Tom the Trainer or Tom the Husband because honestly, that can affect how I will receive it. It's a work in progress but we are learning what works for us and what doesn't. In the end, our relationship as husband & wife is more important than our relationship as trainer & trainee.

With that said, I better go do my cardio before Tom the Trainer scolds me ;)

Question --> Are any of you trained by your significant other? 

Any insight you would like to share? Nuggets of advice to give?

New Release Tuesday

I have this secret crush (well...I guess it's not a secret anymore) crush on Ne-Yo. I tend to like songs that have him on it, even if I don't like the other featured artists #strange

I'm not a big fan of Wiz Khalifa but DJ Felli Fel...well...I can get down with him. Are you familiar with his music? If not, check out his songs Boomerang and Get Buck in Here. I have both in my workout playlist.

Speaking of my workout playlist, I'm in need of some new tunes!!! Any suggestions?? 

Light 'em Up!

Tom was awesome enough to put together a video of
one of my recent back workouts. 

Operation Build-a-Back is still in effect!

This workout was composed of:

Wide grip lat pulldowns

105 x 12 (2 sets)  120 x 10 (2 sets)

Close grip pulldown

90 x 14 (4 sets)

Bent over row (Smith machine)

25/25 x 10 (2 sets)  35/35 x 8 (2 sets)  45/45 x 6 (2 sets)

Hammer Strength MTS Row machine

40/40 x 10 (2 sets)  50/50 x 10 (2 sets)

Superset:

Cable high rows

65 x 10 (4 sets)

Straight arm cable pulldown

65 x 10 (2 sets)   90 x 10 (2 sets)

I hope you enjoy what Tom has created with a dash of my goofy behavior & atrocious posing!

Challenge Accepted!

As I shared with y'all in my "What's Beautiful? I'll Show You!!" post, I am participating in the Under Armour What's Beautiful campaign! I have begun looking at the list of challenges and since Sunday, I have completed 3! Can a girl get a "woot woot" up in here?!? :)

One of the challenges I'm working on is the "Give It Up" challenge. The challenge is simple - post a photo of something youʼre willing to sacrifice in order to meet your goal.

At first I wasn't sure what I could post...I mean....I'm in prep (Black and Yellow's Excellent Adventure sound familiar to anyone??) so I've pretty much given up everything...lol! I've given up carbs, sweets, booze, even coffee so what else is there to give?!?!

Then it hit me.

I have slowly been giving something up over the course of the last 12 weeks. It wasn't a food item, or a beverage, or the love of my life green olives. No....it was something else....something B-I-G!

If you want to know what I let go in pursuit of my goals and for the sake of my sanity, check out my Give It Up challenge post on my What's Beautiful page!

There's still time to join the challenge so if you've been debating about whether you should join in the fun or not, stop thinking and just do it! Christine over at Oatmeal in My Bowl put together a great post entitled "@UAWomen #WhatsBeautiful Navigation Site Tutorial" to help you create a profile and navigate the site!