Hi Everyone,
This is the first post to a new blog I have started where I will share my progress over the next several months as I build new muscle! I am really excited for you to be a part of this journey with me.  As you may have seen in my previous blog http://kdcalabrese.blogspot.com/, I recently competed in my first Figure Bodybuilding Competition in Liberty, MO.  I came away from this experience with a desire to further improve and build more muscle, I was very lean for this show but did not have the size that the judges were looking for.

So now the fun begins, I have been on a reverse diet for the last 8 weeks and have slowly added calories back into my eating plan each week under the guidance of my coach and so it begins, the muscle building process! During this process, I will share my eating, exercise plan and mental strategies that will bring me to the physique I am aiming for.You may be asking what does Figure Bodybuilding look like? Here is a link to the NANBF (North American Natural Bodybuilding Federation) which I am a member, in this link is a gallery of Professional level Figure competitors .http://nanbf.org/?gallery=ifpa-pro-figure.  

My coach recently changed my eating plan so that my calories are evenly distributed throughout the week rather than having a high "refeed" day which I typically ate a significantly higher level of carbohydrates than the other days, on this day I would perform heavy sets of exercise for my legs.  However, now the calories are the same each day, which I am enjoying more food each day, you will find out soon enough that I love to eat and I always look forward to when my coach increases my calories.

 I am currently 7 lbs over my contest weight right now and would like to bring it down a few pounds if possible so that I can continue to build muscle but keep lean while doing it, and that is possible! There are so many people who feel that building muscle means getting "big and bulky" but that doesn't have to be the case.  I will be performing my leg workout tomorrow for the first time without the refeed calories, I will keep you posted how that goes and if I notice any difference in my performance during the workout and my recovery following the workout.  For the most part, I like to do leg workouts, but they are taxing and my left side in the SI joint tends to get out of place which causes some discomfort when doing squats, leg presses and lying leg curls.  I have started doing bar front squats which places more emphasis on the quadricep muscle and that seems to work better for that issue.

 Today is my active rest day so my cardio is a LISS (Low intensity steady state) workout, it will be a short workout but I want to get a good sweat out of this workout so I will do it on the Arc Trainer at my local YMCA.  I like to switch my cardio up between the Arc Trainer, the step mill and spin bike.  What is your favorite cardio equipment do you like to use?