I met Ashley at Anytime Fitness about a year and a half ago. She began attending my 6:00 am Boot Camp classes with a friend. She was already well on her way to being healthy and fit. She had recently lost around 65 pounds on her own, and was looking to take her workouts to the next level. She was a faithful student, and within a few months, had built quite a bit of lean muscle.
A health issue caused her to stop working out for several months. She had to have her gall bladder removed. Her docs said it had gone bad as a result of all the weight that she had lost. After her recovery, she called me about personal training. She had enjoyed my Boot Camp classes, but felt that she gained muscle mass too easily, and wanted a more personalized workout plan.
I prescribed exercises that would increase her muscular endurance, and help her burn fat, without adding too much bulk. We did resistance training with low weight and high repetitions, and little or no rest in between sets of exercises. We worked opposing muscle groups on the same day so that she was able to go immediately from one exercise to another without tiring. For example, chest and back are on opposite sides of the spine; chest performs pushing movements while the back primarily pulls. Ashley could alternate between exercises focusing on these two muscle groups without too much fatigue in one area.
Her body started responding the way that she wanted it to, and, in January, she decided to set a new goal. She wanted to strut her stuff at a bikini competition! She enlisted the help of other fitness professionals for her nutrition plan and posing practice, and I planned the workouts that would get her body where it needed to be.
We continued to focus on muscular endurance workouts, adding some circuit training and plyometrics to the mix. She needed to add a little muscle in her lower body and abs, so I gave her heavier weights with less repetitions when she worked those areas. As we neared the competition, and her diet became more strict, I changed her exercise prescription to all heavy weights and more interval cardio so that she could maintain her muscle mass while simultaneously burning fat.
I'm feeling awesome about her progress. She looks amazing! I have no doubt in my mind that she has given all she could to prepare for this competition. Even though this is my first experience training a bikini competitor, I know I presented her with the appropriate workout plan to give her exactly what she needed. She's going to rock that stage on Saturday!
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