Build Muscle Plan for Women
I am just so proud of today’s transformation, Kelli. This little lady, who is a mother of 2, has been a part of the Hitch Fit family for a couple years now, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with her through a variety of stages of her fitness journey! I remember back in the beginning, Kelli was a “skinny girl”, her body fat was low, but she was naturally thin with not a lot of shape to her body and very little muscle. She wanted that to change, and so the journey began! Kelli is what we call a “Hardgainer”, she has a very fast and high metabolism that makes it tougher for her to build and maintain lean muscle tissue, a lo of people think that they would love to have this problem, but it is actually not so easy to eat all that food in a day! But Kelli was determined, and what was even better was she had the support of her hubby, and also Hitch Fit transformation, Jason, right there with her through everything. As Kelli went through her stages of transformation which included getting lean and also doing build muscle programs with Micah, one of the coolest things I was able to witness was her growing confidence levels. There was a point where the idea of competing in the WBFF Kansas City show was brought up, this thought originally terrified her! But as time went on, and she thought about it more and more, Kelli determined that she was going to do it!!! Over the course of her 12 week Competition Prep, I saw her confidence grow little by little each week, by the tail end of her prep this girl was on FIRE!! Every day I would see pictures of her training up on her Facebook, she was so excited for the show, practiced her posing every day, and was training so hard and inspiring everyone around her on the way!! She stepped on stage for her first time ever in May 2013 at the WBFF Central US Championships in the Bikini Model division, and she ROCKED it!! I couldn’t have been more proud!!! I can’t wait to see what the future holds for Kelli, she has now embraced the fitness lifestyle and is becoming a certified trainer herself, so you have not seen the last of her!! Congratulations Kelli!
Kelli’s Story:
“As I was sitting here typing my transformation, I felt like I was awake inside a dream. Never in my whole life would I have imagined stepping on stage among the most talented, the best of the best in the fitness industry…… It was the manifestation of much hard work, dedication, not giving up and BELIEVING! Believing in ME, which I struggled with and put on the back burner for many years. My transformation falls on the other side of the spectrum than most…I am a HARDGAINER or ectomorph body type, lacking shape because of low muscle mass with an exceptionally fast metabolism, resulting in being extremely skinny aka bag of bones, skinny as a rail, beanpole no matter how many milkshakes I pounded…. even though I was skinny, my perspective of my body image was distorted, negative, hating being called SKINNY. Some people would even mistake my being “skinny” as she must have an eating disorder, oh bet she is anorexia or she looks sick, wonder what is wrong? Then you have others who would tell me how lucky and blessed I am for being so skinny…. This girl sure didn’t feel lucky!!! And blessed??? Far from it, more like cursed. I felt like I was being pulled from both directions and constantly thinking “What is wrong with me?!?”
So I started working out with my husband, frustrated from the get go on how easy it was for him to see results even though he hadn’t worked out in a couple years, but for me, I was starting from scratch, “newbie” and needless to say it WASN’T easy, it was right down hard. It was something I had never done so I had no muscle memory to fall back on like my husband. I had to build my foundation and felt like I was failing before I even started. I thought working out would be easy and results would be instant…MAN WAS I WRONG!!! After months of working out in our basement with the bare minimum, we went to check out a gym close to our house and ended up signing up for a membership and getting two personal training sessions thinking this would help us reach our goals. My husband and I were both excited about working with a professional personal trainer that could help us reach our goals, but we came to find out very quickly that the trainers motto is more of a “rent a friend” motto than it is helping the client reach their own personal goals and when you looked around it was a cookie cutter program, you could point out who was working with a trainer because they were all doing the same thing, they didn’t take each individuals goals into mind. Frustrated once again, I started exploring the web on local trainers and came across Hitchfit and that is where all the magic began for me and my life would NEVER be the same because my husband believed in me and surprised me out of the blue with the Bikini Model program after he saw amazing results from his program Build Muscle.
After talking with Diana about my goals, she advised that the only way I was going to get the results I was wanting was by bulking instead of the doing the Bikini program, I was shocked! Thinking what on earth have I gotten myself into…no wait my husband gotten me into! ME bulk, I didn’t think so, that was for boys…..I didn’t want to be a bodybuilder! Uneducated me thought lifting more than 20 pounds I would magically turn skinny into a manly shell! My husband reassured me this wasn’t a cookie cutter program, that they actually know what they were talking about and I wasn’t getting anywhere with what I had been doing, so I had nothing to lose, but gain. I took a leap of faith and went with it. I had to learn to overfeed my body. I was eating clean and balanced, what felt like 24/7 and then some! And lifting HEAVY. Results for gaining muscle is a much much slower process, more like “turtle speed” than losing fat and that was difficult at times to swallow, mentally challenging, making you second guess yourself and if you were doing things right. But then little by little, I started seeing some gains. Whether it was getting five unassisted pull-ups, increasing my weight by five pounds for a set or seeing the scale go up two pounds…… it was slowly happening, but it was happening! I was getting stronger and stronger after months and months of bulking. By the end of the bulking phase, I was blown away by my strength…. I was able to do three sets of ten pull ups unassisted without a second thought, flat bench press 135 pounds for at least 6 reps, curl 50 pounds and bust out push-ups like they were cake. Strong was the new skinny! and the feeling was amazing.
I was excited to keep going and see where Diana was going to take my body next, so we switched gears and started the Bikini Model program and started to see all the hard work of bulking paying off, I was beginning to see lines in my legs that I didn’t know existed and definition in my arms. At this point in my transformation, the 2012 WBFF Central US Fitness Show was right around the corner and I toyed with the idea of stepping on the stage, but still didn’t think I had what it took to step on stage, I still felt SKINNY and believed that was the view everyone else must have also, which was a still a constant struggle for me even with my gains from bulking. With all my questions about competing, Diana added me to the Competition Ladies of KC on facebook and that is where I first met Sara Sutherland (Click here to see Sara’s Hitch Fit transformation). She was prepping for the show and I reached out to her and got the honor to meet this stunning lady for a workout. WOW this girl was amazing and such an inspiration!! She added me the KC Divas and since that moment my life has been filled with such strong, wonderful, positive women for the first time in my life and it is such an amazing feeling being surround by such remarkable women who all share the same passions for fitness and health. The sense of belonging was priceless. I have been truly blessed and very thankful for my KC Divas! You are all wonderful and I wouldn’t be where I am without you!!
Through the Divas workouts, I met the Fabulous, one of a kind, Amy Gipson (click here to see Amy’s Hitch Fit Transformation) who from the get-go connected with like a sister. She inspired, pushed and believed in me and everyone!!! Her energy was contagious and makes everyone feel on top of the world. Her positive drive pushed me to take the leap to step on stage and compete. I had finished the Bikini program and was still working with Diana on reaching my goals so we switched gears once again. Since I was still very lean, she wanted me to bulk again before prepping for the competition. I was eating a ton while most of the other competition girls were starting their leaning phase which was hard at time and made me second guess what I was doing at times, but I have come to find out the program WORKS, you just have to follow it. Each of us is different and have different plans. They aren’t cookie cutter programs, but designed to work for each individual! And after working with Diana for so long, she knows my body and how it reacts, I had to BELIEVE and trust the program.
There were so many times that I wanted to throw in the towel and just give up…I wasn’t as strong as everyone thought or believe I was…I didn’t BELIEVE I had what it took, but my husband believed in me and kept pushing and pushing me to keep going and kept reminding me that this is what I had been working so hard for so long for. He was my rock and his unconditional support was amazing! I am truly grateful for him.
The day of the show was life changing for me and I haven’t been the same since stepping out onto that stage. It must have been the mental switch I needed to BELIEVE in me.
After seeing what I’ve accomplished in the last several weeks, months, year, I want more; not only within competing, but more out of life. My transformation has changed my whole outlook on how I see me, my world around me and my future. I’m not afraid to go after the impossible, or what I thought was impossible. I’ve never been happier and more positive about life…. I AM LIVING ON CLOUD NINE!
During my transformation the most challenging for me personally has been learning to be patient and “accomplish” failure, because if you haven’t experienced it, you haven’t pushed yourself hard enough. When you do hit it though, you want to sucker punch it in the face and it drives you to go harder and push to be the best version of yourself. This journey isn’t about anyone else but yourself, you vs. you and I found that to be very important in achieving, feeling and seeing any kind of results. Negative thought produce negative outcomes and positive thinking you can move mountains.
I am starting my next phase of my continuing transformation and kicking into HIGH GEAR and going to start bulking once again with the one and only Hitch Fit Micah Lacerte. I can’t wait to see what comes from all of this. It is going to be tough, challenging and I will struggle and maybe even shed a couple tears, but I know I can and will conquer it by giving it my all and as a result be a better version of me …I’m in control of my future and I’m loving it! I am so thankful for stumbling upon Hitch Fit two years ago it has truly been a blessing to me and has been life changing for our entire family….Our family is Hitch Fit for life!!!
Check out Kelli’s husband Jason’s transformation!
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