Even though today was a bank holiday I was still up at 6am and off to the gym. Fasted cardio for half an hour on the treadmill and ab attack for 20 minutes which made me realise that I have no abs what so ever. Back home for my porridge and protein powder and straight to bed for a nap! It seems I can’t cope without a power nap at some point during the day.

A quick food shop ready for the week and then I was off to Gym Unity in Burton in Trent to see my trainer Sandi Birkett. As it took me 2 and a half hours to get to the gym, a toilet visit was required when I arrived as I had drunk a lot of coffee and water on the way down. In I go placing my bags behind the door (which was a clever and lucky thing that I did), I sit down and away I go. The door opens and a guy starts to walk in so the first thing I do is scream and this poor man shouts and quickly shuts the door. I don’t think he saw anything and I didn’t really see him but I left the toilet like nothing had happened and that I was still the cool girl with the millions of bags who has just entered the gym and not the idiot who didn’t lock the toilet door and nearly gave some poor guy a heart attack by screaming at the top of her lungs.

We went through my new diet and training plan and then went on to complete our legs session. Sandi is very clever in how she explain things and it turns out I wasn’t squatting properly and was working my quads instead of my glutes and hamstrings. After 4 sets I could feel the difference and my legs were shaking even though I was only squatting 40kg. On to a single leg press on the leg press machine and once I had mastered the angle and learnt to push properly through my glutes, I could really feel it. I have never sweated so much squatting and on the leg press machine. We moved on to the individual leg curl machine on a light weight working on concentrating and controlling the movement. Final exercise was hip thrusters on a hip thruster machine which I have never seen before. For those of you who like me have never seen one, it’s a metal frame with a raised end which you rest your shoulders on and then tie resistance bands onto the frame which go over your knees and over your hips and adds resistance when you raise your hips. To top it all off a 10kg plate is placed on top of our hips and stomach area and off you go, clenching until you can’t clench anymore. Now to help you picture this set up the following comment was made by another gym member who’s thighs were the same width as me so I daren’t  look too disgusted. As he passes he says ‘is this how Sandi shows you how to have sex?’ followed by a little chuckle. I reply telling him I am far too innocent for that kind of stuff and carry on clenching and grunting at the same time. Sandi just laughs and leaves me to it.

We run through some shoulder exercises on my new training plan and concentrate on activating the rear delts and building the shoulder a bit more. Sandi then checks me over looking at me whilst I do my quarter turns and she is happy with how I am looking she even notices that my glute flutter a bit when tensed and thinks that a bit of filling out and my glutes should look better in time for the final. I felt really motivated as Sandi is really excited for the final but thinks that I will look mega next year – I can’t wait.

Didn’t get home till quite late, so a quick food prep for the next day and off to bed. I feel really motivated after training with Sandi, I am ready tomorrow to attach this new training plan and get my head into my new diet. I really want to improve ready for the finals. I can do this (especially with Sandi’s support).