Back in the gym and getting back into my routine of doing heavier and heavier lifting especially for leg day. The goal for me right now is to grow my lower body, maintain and cut my upper body and reduce overall body fat % in a healthy, slow process so that I can see my new muscle as I grow it. It’s a multi faceted approach but it all comes down to how I train. I focus on upper and lower body splits, heavier for lower body days and more reps for upper and then combine in 2 days of plyometric circuit training and 2-3 days of 25 minutes or less HIIT (high intensity interval training) cardio.

While I love to lift heavy for legs it is crucial to warm up before you jump right into picking 100+ pounds up off the floor. I have pretty tight hips so for me I like to focus on doing some warm ups that open up my hip flexors and also warm up my knees too. First I do 5 minutes on the bicycle to warm up my overall body. You can also do that on the treadmill or do 3 minutes of jumping jacks. After that I go right into a few exercises you will see below. I spend about 5-10 minutes doing these and they always make me feel so much better before moving on to dead lifts, squats and hip thrusters. My 3 current favorite leg day exercises are front squats, dead lifts and hip thrusters. These are bigger, compound movements and I do 5×5 training with these; five sets of five reps as heavy as I can do with proper form.

I suffer from a hamstring tear that I had since high school cheerleading, so I have to always stretch out my hamstrings. I will feel the pull on heavier lifting, so I make sure to listen to my body and not cause more damage. I’ve had cortisone shots in the hamstring but nothing ever helped, it just is a chronic tear and even physical therapy didn’t fix it all completely though I did do a ton of ART therapy to remove scar tissue.

When it comes to what I take before, during and after my workout I am always testing out new brands and products. Currently I am taking Cellucor C4 Ripped in Raspberry Lemonade before and throughout my workout and then I take Cellucor Alpha Aminos in Icy Blue Razz after. I use one scoop of each and add to a water bottle and make sure to sip it before, during and after workout out. I like C4 Ripped because it isn’t too bitter or sugary, has no creatine and does not give me the jitters. It gives me just enough to get through a tough workout without making me feel like I’m all jacked up. The taste is really good and so far it’s my go-to for pre workout. Unlike original C4 which was a bit more strong and did have creatine in it. I also like the aminos because the flavor reminds me of the juice from a blue ice pop that I used to eat as a kid.

One thing I never mentioned before but I find to be important is that you should make sure your water is natural spring or mineral water and NOT purified water. I don’t think anyone pays attention to this but brands like Dasani are purified water, which basically means tap water that has been run through a filter. Did you ever take the time to read the case and notice the difference. Companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola realized that there was a huge market for bottled water and jumped on the band wagon, but what they did is just purify regular water and sell it to you – which is just crazy to me. I never buy purified water, I always go for spring water or mineral water and Trader Joe’s has great cases of this at a good price ($4 a case). We go through 2-3 cases a week in my house between me and my husband. I use the water for protein shakes, to make our coffee or cappuccinos, and we drink a ton of water daily.

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