Fitspiration: Misty Copeland and those legs!!

I have about 4 girl crushes; Michelle Obama (although I'm not a fan of her new bangs), Jane "FitKenyanGirl" Mukami, India Paulino and Misty Copeland.  Wait let me back up, girl crushes, for me are women who have already achieved the levels of success or fitness, that I hope to one day achieve as well, for the purposes of this blog I'm focusing on my 4 fitness girl crushes. My biggest girl crush at the moment is Misty Copeland.  Her physique is AMAZING, she's gorgeous and she's a professional ballerina, with a never ending cache of amazing photos showcasing her talent, as a ballerina, and her physique, like these. Additionally, her story is amazing. she started dancing at 13 at the recommendation of one of  (non-ballet) school teachers.  Within 3 months, she was dancing en-pointe, and 4 years after she ever started dancing, she was dancing at the American Ballet Theater. 

Obviously, as a ballerina her legs are amazing. Those legs are a definite source of envy for me. As I've stated before, that's where I carry most of my weight, and, sadly, seems to be the hardest area for me to get definition.

Loving her quads and hams in this pic! Werk boo!!

I've been taking ballet classes, in addition to trying to lift heavier on leg days in the gym., and have made great progress but still lack definition in my legs.  Again that's my problem area, there's still a lot of fat down there, that will probably benefit greatly from a good cardio day or 2.  However, if you already have great legs and just want to tone or add a little definition.   You can either do my leg day work out,

Exercise	Weight in lbs	Sets	Repitions
Leg press	270	1	15
	320	1	12
	360	2	11
V-squats	75	1	15
	90	2	12
Leg ext	35	3	12
Ham curls	35	3	12
Circuit
Lunges	20lb dumb bells	3	15
Step ups	n/a	3	15/each leg

or if weights aren't your thing yet (although if you're reading this blog you should already know I'm a strong advocate of weight lifting), but I understand how scary the weights section of the gym can be, so you can always try this ballet work out video until you're ready to find a ballet class or start lifting with weights.  However, if you're already gym rat and not afraid of the weights feel free to use this video to supplement your regular leg work out.

Day dreaming of professional ballerina legs,
Candydiva04

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My Journey: Why I lift weights and why you should too

A friend of mine, whom I'll call "JBoogie" has decided she needs to start working on her health and fitness and asked to workout with RR and I. Seeing her initial struggles this week, reminded me of where I started, and made me realize that I've never really discussed the importance of weight lifting here in my blog.  As you may or may not know, I believe in lifting and lifting heavy. I lift weights every day, I do more lifting than cardio (although I do need to do more cardio), but I did not start here, getting here was a loong process. Although, I bet it feels like dog years to RR, because I was... uh, how shall I put this... less than cooperative in the beginning. 

 Two years ago when I first started working out with RR, I fought him tooth and nail about not wanting to lift. I only wanted to do the elliptical, attend a few fitness classes and maybe run on the treadmill, while he lifted weights. Weights were not for girls, in my opinion.  I just knew that if I lifted weights, I'd wind up looking like this.  

What I was afraid of

The body I wanted

And I did NOT want to look anything like that.  So we fought, for a few months, and I don't remember how he got me to do it, but finally he convinced me to try it his way.  I actually think he bombarded me with info on how just doing cardio wouldn't get me the body I wanted, then he compromised with me, the main terms of my surrender being that if I tried it his way, I could quit whenever I felt I was getting too bodybuilder-esque.

So I started lifting with RR.  At first it hurt (a lot) and it was intimidating (as hell).  I'd go home sore, I'd be sore the next day and even though I didn't believe it was even possible, I was even more sore the 2nd day! I should have bought stock in Icy hot, epsom salt and Bengay I was so sore. I couldn't tell if it was killing me or making me stronger! When it finally started to get easy, he'd start adding more weight or more reps, or both.  Most days, I just thought RR was torturing me. 

After a few months, I noticed my clothes felt bigger, despite the fact that the number on the scale hadn't changed too dramatically. I complained to RR about not seeing a difference on the scale.  He bombarded me with info about the "myth" of muscle weighing more than fat. The myth stems from the fact that muscle is denser than fat and it takes less volume of muscle to be the same weight. 

 It took him a while to learn that if he gave me too much info, I'd just tune him out, but eventually he got it through my thick skull that technically, an equal volume (not mass) of muscle will weigh more than an equal volume of fat, but that's not how your body works.  It won't immediately replace 5lbs of fat with.. say 15lbs of muscle.  Unless, of course, you're on steroids, otherwise it takes a long time and a lot of hard work.  However, if we make the comparison solely on mass, (as shown) a 5lb piece of muscle looks smaller than the 5lbs of fat. Which is why two people can be the exact same height and weight and look completely different.  

Moral of the story, 

So

 So ladies, I implore you go pick up some weights, maybe skip the Zumba or Cardio kickboxing class a few days a week and pick up some weights instead.  Oh and learn to not only embrace the soreness, but learn how to work through it, as well!

Hoping my story will inspire you,

Candydiva04

P.S - RR insists I put emphasis on the fact that I do both cardio and weights.  Your workout routines should include both, because neither weights nor cardio alone, will get you where you want to be. Also, while I say I'm eating poorly, my "poor" dietary choices are sporadic, the majority of my diet isn't that bad.  I try not to eat too much sugar and focus on eating the right amount of Protein, Carbs and Fats everyday.  I generally don't eat processed food, and almost never eat fast food. But I'll get deeper into that another day, probably whenever I do my BMI post.  :)

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One day soon this will be me!

Putting you ladies on notice, some day soon I *will* be on your level!

Candydiva04

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