In June 2017, I committed to competing in the PSO Gateway Pole competition here in St. Louis Mo. I had just finished competing in my body building show , UFE Fury and decided to work on a project that would allow me to be judged on skills and not simply my physique.
This is not a pole blog but I want to explain to you in this post how my diet has changed based on my sport of choice. I will include my training schedule and how I fuel.
This is how I”m looking now. I’m pretty happy with my off season physique.
Post Show reverse diet was completed and I went back up to about 2000 calories a day. I’m 52 now and frankly.. that’s a lot of food for me. Even in my off season normally, I don’t need much more than that. I hover around 1800-2000 average.
How I train
My training schedule is frankly harder than I can even explain. I am probably a big whiner but my body is on fire constantly and the work I’m doing is extremely challenging. I am competing in Level 2 Exotic which is pretty low on the skill set but it’s still a big jump for me.
I meet my coach once a week for an hour but I also train each day on something pole related. I do flexibility and floor work 2-3x a week. I do actual pole time with spins and climbs 3x a week. I also include core, and 2/3 leg days and 2 upper body days. I have cardio as well.
How do I fit it in.. ?
Sunday: Pole, floor work, flexibility, upper body work.
Monday: Cardio + Big Leg day with compound moves like deads and squats
Tuesday: Pole, floor work, flexibility, core some upper body weights and bands
Wednesday: booty work and train clients. Probably cardio and core too.
Thursday 1 hour warming up pole/floor. 1 hour pole with my coach, 1 hour practicing what we learned.
Friday: bands booty.. it’s not a lot..cables booty extensions. maybe some plyo, cardio.
Saturday: rest or cardio with my bikini team.
I take rest days as I need to. On non pole days I train for about an hour.
It looks like a lot, but I’m in competition prep. I’m used to this pace.
I cannot pole everyday and I try to do legs on the days before I pole so my upper has time to recover. Pole is a lot of core and upper body work too. Floor work is total body and legs are on fire. I add in the big leg day to help me maintain the muscle I have. I’m experimenting with my program so it may change!!
Ok.. so I am also doing a photoshoot and presenting on stage at Halloween Mayhem. I have to be in shape and while not stage lean, I need to look good. I also know that when I fluff it out, it’s harder for me to pull myself up on the pole.
This is next level IIFYM for me. My first priority is to keep my calories high enough for my day that I can have energy to train. Normally in my body building workouts I would use 20-30% of my daily carbs pre and also post workout to fuel and for muscle recovery.
In pole though, I find that that simply isn’t enough. For this project what works for me is
about 100 carbs pre workout with 1 scoop Isolate. I also have C4 pre workout and drink a Bang throughout. Holy mama. I have experimented with different ratios of carbs and cannot perform without at least 100g Carbs. I always follow with recovery carbs and Iso.
I take creatine and BA daily too. Hells yes!!
I did a 3 hour pole workout yesterday and used about 135g carbs pre and 60g post.
I felt amazing. The normal food I train with does not work with me any longer. I can’t eat actual food because the spinning makes me nauseous so I use dextrose. I have used Phorm 1 Ignition and it works well.
The rest of my day will be used to increase my veggies and protein. I have fats later in the day as well. I’m not ending my day with couch carbs or lots of snacks and I’m basically doing intuitive dieting for now. I’m looking leaner and while it’s a different look, I like it.
I’m not scared about doing this intuitive version of my plan simply because I’m so focused on fueling right now or I cannot give my best to practice. I know I must keep my protein at 150-180 as normal but I might need more carbs for some days. I can use the flexiblity of those other macros to eat the best way for my sport.
I am always open to the idea of going back to tracking if need be but I’ve had no need to right now. Everything is working!! What a journey to learn even more!!
Follow my pole journey to competition here!!
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