#pumpingfairy

I had so many things to do this week, and it seems like you guys have been very busy as well. When looking for this week's favorites, I couldn't find as many fitspirational pictures as the past weeks. 

Have you become a little lazy people? To be honest, I can totally understand you...

Christmas is almost knocking on the door and there's still so much left to do before the big day, right? Luckily, I'm already done with all that christmas-gift-shopping, phheww. On the one hand I'm very looking forward to Christmas , but on the other hand I don't feel like sitting in restaurants the entire afternoon or a whole evening, even if I love spending time with my family. How about you? 

Another good thing about Christmas? The food! As always I want to be a 100% honest with you. I will try to enjoy these festive days to the fullest, as it's my favorite season of the year, but still without indulging too much. 

I will stick to my eating-plan as far as possible, but I am definitely not going to give up all the delicious christmas-cookies, yule log or waffles. If you indulge in moderation, you don't have to worry about anything at all. Enjoy the festive days and the quality time with your beloved ones and get back on track afterwards. 2015 is also the perfect occasion to start from the beginning, but don't set your goals too high (more about new year's resolutions after christmas) 

Oh, and before I forget... I thought about making a special #pumpingfairy Christmas-edition for next week. As the merry days will be over by friday, hashtag all your yummy and delicious christmas-food with #pumpingfairy too, even if it's not healthy at all.
I want us to get united for the feast of love as we are all part of a huge fit family. 

Enjoy your weekend.

1. urbanvalyou has some delicious Powerfood's J-M.B Pancakes for breakfast
2. pia_fit03 is gett tougher slowly but surely
3. dowhatyoulove_loveyourlife was happy that she finally made it to her training session
4. carolegoerend takes a post workout selfie, doesn't she look cute?
5. b_lume enjoys her veggies with some whole wheat pasta after a great swimming workout
6. caro_rouge training on the stair-master with a pretty pair of sneakers
7. the.lovely.four and laura told us in a great post how to stay motivated during the winter season
8. aline_janie just got her package from MyProtein
9. alexscastle having a pre-workout snack before hitting a great arms and shoulder session

Size vs. Strength Training

You know how much I praise lifting weights, don't you? But don't get me wrong when I tell you that lifting heavy weights isn't always good for you. I know this sounds confusing, but there is a difference between healthy weight-lifting and retarded weight-lifting. There are even two main categories of lifting, size training and strength training...

• Strength Training: 

If you are looking for strength-training, you want to increase force production. Size-training, on the contrary, is about getting a pump and creating little damages to your muscles so they can repair themselves and grow bigger. (The reason why you get muscle-soreness).

Strength training should consist of few reps but heavier weights instead, but don't forget the proper form,trying to still control the movement. So, real low-rep strength-training is primarily neuromuscular. Meaning that you teach your body to bring more muscle into the game to increase your power.

• Size Training: 

Size training is more physiological. This means that you give your body a little upgrade in its size. You are forcing your body to develop tissues and grow stronger AND bigger. This may sounds exactly like strength-training , but your main focus is to build bigger muscles, not stronger ones.

Therefor, you don't have to worry about losing your strength when you want to increase your muscles' size. All types of training can have neurological benefits, it's just a matter of the right balance between reps and weights.

A lot of people misunderstand bodybuilders by thinking that bodybuilding is about lifting heavy-ass weights, right? But, it is about using your weights as a tool to increase your muscle tissue. If you are throwing as much weight on the bar, whether to boost your ego or to impress the people around you, you are completely on the wrong way.

Now what happens when you go too heavy?

• You decrease the time under tensions because you are too busy cheating on your form to lift your weights.
• You can't control the movement because it's way too heavy and you look stupid because you are trying to lift it up again. (maybe looking like a 'about-to-explode' tomato haha)
• You have no 'brain-muscle-connection' , because (again) you have struggle to do the movement right.
• You are using too many other muscles to lift your weights, meaning you can't train your muscle isolated.

To get to the point: No one cares how much you lift in the gym, unless they are doing the same mistake...

Nevertheless, if you don't manage to lift for sets of at least 6 reps, you are more likely to train for strength, if you keep proper form. Otherwise it's just bad lifting and you won't make yourself stronger nor 'bigger, you are simply risking injuries.

To improve muscle size you should:

• Have a strict and proper form
• Control the lowering movement for at least 3 seconds.
• Have a sane and healthy muscle-brain-connection and feel the movement in your muscles. 
• Avoid to lock completely out, meaning that your muscles should be under tensions throughout the whole movement, for every rep. (e.g if you do a dumbbell-curl always try to have your biceps under tension even if you lower the movement , and don't pause between each rep )

So once again, if you love lifting-weights, like me, always keep in mind WHY you are lifting weights and HOW you are lifting heavy weights. Control every movement, feel your muscle, feel the burn and always keep your muscle under tension. You will achieve better results if you lift lighter weights and control the movement, than if you lift heavy and look like a retarded ego-driven wanna-be lifter. 

With that said, enjoy your next pump. xX

Me doing close-grip lat-pulldowns

Shred Program

Good evening sweethearts.

Today my lovely boyfriend and I had our first ''shred-check-up'' at our coach's. Well to start with, I didn't made any big progress as we haven't changed that much concerning my diet plan and my training plan. But... my form improved a wee bit more. Sometimes it's better to get a little butt-kick that reminds you that only hard work pays off and that you can't make something out of nothing.

'' No pain, no gain'', right? 

So, concerning my diet-plan... We reduced my protein- & carb-intake a little on low-carb days because we have to decrease my calories a tiny weeny bit to get rid of the last water retentions and body-fat. As far as my carb-days go, we also cut down the carb-&protein-intake, meaning that we replaced the spelt bread with quinoa-puffed-rice-crackers and less quinoa for lunch. 

In terms of training.. pheeww... That's going to be rough for me. I will tell you why: 

Usually I hit a 40-min-HIIT workout after every gym-session, which was already exhausting to be honest. NOW, I have to do a 30-min-HIIT workout right after getting up and BEFORE having breakfast. I don't like that kind of stuff haha. I am such a grouch when it comes to cardio, especially in the morning, and on an empty stomach. So I absolutely have to pull myself together and get through those morning cardio sessions. 

And as if this wasn't enough already, I have to hit a 10-minute warm-up before every gym session (fortunately we reduced the warm-up by 5-minutes) and additionally a 20-min-HIIT after my gym-session. Pooh... Things are getting pretty tough from now on. 

I am already looking forward to the next check-up. I am convinced that I will show better results again now that my program has become even stricter. I will keep you up to date of course. 

Have a great new week and make it big. xX 

Competition Date

The time has come... only 7 weeks and 3 days left until my Bikini-competition, and still so many things to do...

First of all the competition takes place the 2nd of November in Rheinbach, Germany. This means a 2 and 1/2 hours car ride before we can actually sign-in in for the competition itself, and then we will still have to wait until it starts... arghhh. 

Second I don't even own my competition-heels, I will tell you why: 

Since we started the whole diet 3 months ago, my feet shrunk from size 39 to 38... And now that we hit the real shredding-phase, I am afraid that by the 2nd of November I will even fit in size 37 (a new reason to buy some shoes hehe). Therefore I will wait until October to see if I can order size 38 or 37. This shouldn't be a problem as I found a retailer on Amazon in Germany who sells exactly the pair of heels I want, plus they only take 1 week to arrive, so that's perfect. (Picture below the post)

Furthermore, as we are allowed to wear jewels, expect necklaces, I will wear something more decent as I want the judges to focus more on my body rather than on details like jewelery. I still have a beautiful set of +Swarovski  jewels at home, including earrings, bracelet and a ring, so maybe it will just be that... We will see, surprise surprise.

And last but not least, my BIKINI...

I thought about ordering it online at +Angel Competition Bikinis. I am following them on Instagram for a long time now and I simply love their work. I think the fabrics, connectors and cuts are simply heavenly and I am sure that I will look like an angel on stage with such a bikini. By now, I have contemplated about its looks; of course I will take the Brazilian cut... It doesn't show too much nor too little. The fabric will be the Hologram Jade/Mint as I am convinced that this color will perfectly match my tan and my hair. I am still not sure about the crystal-design, whether I should take the Crystal Explosion , Crystal Firework or simply the Angel Bliss as the fabric already sparkles a lot. What do you think? I don't want my bikini to outshine my form...

Those are the connectors I would like to add: Top Connector #1 , Middle Connector #2 and Bottom Connector #3 . The problem is now that I have no clue how many centimeters I will lose until the competition, as it's my first competition. So I have to make a guess... I really hope it works... 

What about make-up,hairstyle,lashes,nails and tan? Well, as far as that goes I decided to write a separate post. I already assailed you with so many details regarding my bikini, heels and jewels... 

I wish you all a nice and relaxing evening my loves, talk to you soon