Sunnyday is Rx Muscle’s Member of the Month for March 2015!
Sunny has been an Rx Muscle member since August 2010. The 5'2" mother of three has a fantastic training journal located @ http://forums.rxmuscle.com/showthrea...ining-Journal/
The first entry (11/16/2010) includes:
“I'm a 42-year-old mom of 3, ages 10, 3, and 2. I'm a chemist by training but haven't worked since the birth of my second child. I've always loved the gym, but it's only in the last few years of marital bliss that funds have been available for a gym membership. I've always eaten pretty clean, but I never paid enough attention to my macros to realize the reason I wasn't making the gains I wanted in the gym: insufficient protein! I met a trainer at my gym who has helped me revamp my nutrition and I've been eating roughly 50% p, 20% c, 30% f pretty consistently over the last 6 months. I eat one or two cheat meals per week. I've been encouraged by two of the trainers in my gym to try competition, and I would LOVE to get my body competition-worthy (figure), but right now there are two things limiting me: time and MONEY. So for now, I'll call this my indefinite off-season and see what gains I can make. Any words of wisdom and/or encouragement are greatly appreciated!”
Intelligent, intense, dedicated, and encouraging are words I’d use to describe Sunny and her journal. Check it out!
Your first post in your training journal offered:
“Training Split. I mentioned I'm limited on time, so I try to spread things out over a 5- or 6-day training split.
Monday - back
Tuesday - chest & calves
Wednesday - legs
Thursday - shoulders
Friday - abs
Saturday – arms”
Q: What’s your split like now?
A: My split has changed a few times since 2011. Minus life getting in the way it looks like this
Monday – legs (heavy)
Tuesday – chest & shoulders
Wednesday – abs & “rehab”
Thursday – legs (light)
Friday – arms
Saturday – back
My training really depends on the family’s schedule, so the above split changes frequently from week to week.
Q: The first person to reply to your journal was GirlyMuscle. You’ve met her in real life. Who else have you met from the forums?
A: I also met Muscgrows on the same day I met GirlyMuscle. They drove all the way down from PA to cheer me on at my first show. In late 2011 I met Gigglepony as we shared the same coach back then. In 2013 on what would have been the day of my 4th show (and WP debut), I almost met Nic902 and LisaRD23. But life got in the way our plans fell through at the last minute.
Q: How were you introduced to the Rx Muscle Forums?
A: I couldn’t afford a trainer for more than a few sessions. He had given me some good basic info but I wanted more. The magazines weren’t much help, there were no other serious gym rats at my gym, and the other popular sites for women seemed to be rehashing the same old thing (and the same old thing wasn’t working for me). I was surfing the internet for training inspiration and stumbled across the site. I thought the site was the inspiration I needed. The members seemed genuine and approachable and their training styles seemed to fit what I thought I was after. I felt that even as a newbie, some of the seasoned gym rats and competitors would take me seriously when I asked them a question instead of putting me down and calling me an idiot for asking at all. I noticed that a lot on other hardcore forums.
You wrote:
“Wow, I've been in MD about that long but for some really odd reason, I haven't made it out to OC yet. Maybe it's because my husband hates sand: too many years stationed in the Middle East, I guess.”
Q: I’m a romantic. How did you meet your Green Beret?
A: He had already retired from the military when I met him in 2004. He was my boss. We hit it off as coworkers from my first day and became instant friends. There was a mutual attraction which we both tried to conceal. Two weeks after my starting with the company (a DOD/government contractor), there was a major reorg and he was no longer my boss; we were no longer in the same department. We still saw each other every day as our desks were in the same area and we sometimes sat together at lunch in the cafeteria. But that was it, we never saw each other outside of work.
Two years after the reorg, we were having lunch and he asked me out of the blue, “So how do I get to know you better?” I nearly fell over backwards, then looked over my shoulder to see which lucky lady he was talking to. I took a deep breath and said, “You don’t.” He said, “No really, how do I get to know you better?” I said, “No, REALLY, you DON’T.” I explained I didn’t date coworkers, I had had some horrible experiences with relationships, and wanted to remain alone.
He persisted over several months. In a final attempt to scare him away, I asked him to a church picnic and explained that if he wanted to date me he’d first have to get the approval of my friends, because I felt I wasn’t any good at relationships. I felt they were better than I was at deciding objectively whether someone was good for me. If my friends gave him the green light, then I’d love to go out with him. This would have scared ANY man away. Not him. He could tell I was terrified at the thought of ever dating again and he never laughed at my request to get the approval of my friends. He scored big points there. The friends met him and to my amazement he hit it off with them.
Over the next few weeks they got to know him, with and without me around, and gave him the thumbs up. The first time he called me on the phone to talk about a first date I was trembling so badly I nearly dropped the phone! The night he came to pick me up for that first date, I invited him in and the first thing he said was, “If you could ask for ANYTHING right now, what would it be?” I shook my head and said, “Don’t play with me.” He reached in his pocket, pulled out a ring, and dropped down on one knee right there in my kitchen with his coat still on. We were married two months later, never having actually “dated” before we were engaged. We’ve been happily married for 9 years. That “How do I get to know you better” dialog is something we still use on each other jokingly whenever things get too serious or tense between us.
Q: You grew up in NJ and live close to the Delaware border? Where else have you lived? What’s your favorite vacation spot? And where is somewhere you’d like to travel?
A: Birth to age 18 – Westfield, NJ
College 1986-90 in Springfield, MA
Grad school 1990-93 in Burlington, VT
Grad school 94-95 in Baltimore, MD
Been living in parts of Maryland ever since leaving grad school in ’95.
My husband and I were married in 2006 and lived in Maryland near the Delaware border until 2013, when we moved to our current home about 30 minutes outside of Baltimore.
I have traveled a couple of times to Germany to visit family in 1980 and again for college graduation in 1990 (my parents are both right off the boat). I caught a nasty respiratory infection that turned into pneumonia during the 1980 visit so I don’t remember much other than feeling horrible the whole six weeks. The second trip I was 22 and got to travel with just my dad, sightseeing and visiting family, and it was awesome.
My parents were blue collar workers and didn’t have the budget for frequent fancy vacations. We took many day trips to the Jersey shore. As a kid I spent extended vacations nearly every summer camping on the Delaware River and also near Lake Placid, NY (hi Tammy!). Although my parents didn’t have a lot of money they instilled in me and my sister a love for camping, hiking, fishing, and having a good time on a limited budget. Good thing, because it’s something my husband and I have in common. His parents spend their summers on a 2.5-acre island (complete with several primitive cabins) on a large lake in northern Ontario, about a 20-minute boat ride plus a 1-hour drive from the nearest major city. We make the 2-day drive every summer. My husband is from Buffalo and still has family there, so on the drive up we stop in the Niagara Falls area and visit with them before making the rest of the trek up to Canada.
I went to Bermuda with my first husband and loved it there. I think that would be my favorite vacation spot and a place I’d like to take my family on a vacation once the kids are more independent. At the top of my list of places to see is the Grand Canyon. I’ve been fascinated with pictures of it since I was in kindergarten.
Q:
"Height: 5'2"
Weight: 110
Shoulders: 39
Bust: 34
Waist: 25
Hips: 34
Need to take arm & leg measurements as I've never tracked these."
What are your current goals, short and long term?
A: Wow, those numbers are funny as I look at them! I couldn’t even see my abs then and I had an 18” leg with more fat than muscle! Not long after those measurements were taken I began working with Dave Pulcinella. He clipped me at just under 15% BF! While I looked somewhat fit I was totally smooth with not a single cut anywhere.
After working with him through two preps, these were my measurements in the fall of 2011:
Weight on show day: 103, clipped at 6.2% BF
Neck: 12.5”
Shoulders: 39”
Arm: 11.5”
Bust: 33”
Waist: 24”
Hips: 33”
Leg: 18”
Calf: 12.5”
These are my current offseason measurements:
Weight: 110 lbs.
Neck: 12.5”
Shoulders: 41.5”
Arm: 12.5”
Wrist: 5”
Bust: 35” (not implants, that’s how much my chest and lats have grown! I was a C cup in early 2011 and am currently an A/B cup!)
Waist: 24”
Hips: 35”
Leg: 21.5”
Calf: 13.5”
Although I have no idea what my BF is, I know I’m still quite lean. There are lines all over my back and delts with obvious veins on my arms, plus a few faint lines in the upper pecs. I still have visible abs with a few veins and some faint lines in the obliques. Although I’m considerably softer than I was when I was competing, I’ve never completely lost my quad separation or my glute ham tie-ins.
Current goals:
Continue making gradual improvements in my physique, strength, and health. Getting more organized and reducing my day to day stress wouldn’t hurt either.
I have my sights set on competing in the fall but that all depends on time, family demands, and money. I’ll train, diet, and practice posing leading up to the show (as I always have the last few years) and if all goes well with my resources, I’ll throw my hat in the ring at the last minute.
There are some home improvement projects that need to be addressed this spring and summer and I’m hoping my husband and I can actually BUILD some cool stuff together.
Long term, I’d love to get my certification in sports nutrition and work with masters athletes, another goal that all depends on time, money, and family demands. Once my younger kids are more independent I’d really like to go back to work. I have missed working full-time since I left the work force in 2007!
Of course, I’d say that I hope to earn my IFPA pro card some day but at this point I’d just be thrilled to get back on stage at a pro qualifier, having made amazing improvements in my physique and presentation since the last time I stepped on stage, and let the chips fall where they may.
Q: Have you been able to convince your mom to hit the gym with you?
Haha! Not a chance. She’s completely creeped out by the way I look and my lifestyle choices and has never been into exercise beyond walking 2 blocks to the community pool and swimming slow motion for a few laps in the summer. She’s been overweight ever since the birth of my younger sister in 1970 (at 78, she is currently 5’4” and close to 200 lbs. of all fat and no muscle). Her eating habits make any fit person cringe as she is a constant nibbler on anything processed that isn’t nailed down. Her beverage choices aren’t much better. Diabetes runs in her family but she is not willing to make any positive changes to her health.
My 45-y.o. sister follows similar lifestyle choices as my mom but her food choices are much worse, and she is a heavy smoker (as my mom once was). My sister looks about 10 years OLDER than me and at the same height she outweighs me by at least 50 lbs.
Q:
“Understand that marshmallows and candy corns are like kryptonite for me 'cause I can't eat just one of them little things 'cause they're so little and the next thing I know I've eaten the WHOLE BAG!”
What else is Kryptonite for you besides popcorn balls, Sunny?
A: That was a long time ago! I’ve since gotten over popcorn balls and most sugary things. Pizza has been Kryptonite for as long as I can remember and will probably always be my biggest weakness. I was never a peanut butter lover until my first show. Since then, Crazy Richard’s Crunchy peanut butter is now on the Kryptonite list. I can easily down a full jar in one sitting. Another thing that suddenly became Kryptonite after my first show was fresh fruit. In fact, the first thing I wanted after my show was a fruit salad (even before my pizza). To this day it’s hard for me to pass up fruit.
Q: Your big girl is in gymnastics (2010). What other sports is your family involved in?
A: The time demands for competitive gymnastics were so huge that my big girl had to give it up. However, as she was giving it up there were summer swim team opportunities for her. The little ones watched big sister at the beginning of last summer and immediately expressed an interest. To my surprise the coach was willing to take my little ones even though they could barely swim across the pool. I was thankful to spend last summer having all three of them on the same team so we spent a lot of time together as a family, instead of being spread across the county on various soccer fields. My oldest daughter now swims for her high school and the little ones are on the year-round team through our gym. I’m about to sign them all up for their second summer season.
I’m a former runner and swimmer. I did softball, swimming, track and long jump as a kid but was never really any good at any of them – never very fast or agile to hang with the competitive bunch. But I loved running outdoors. Never liked competing in races because I ran for the solitude. I preferred short runs and sprinting but as I got older I got more into endurance. In 2004 I even trained for a half marathon that I ran on my own. When the doc told me I couldn’t run anymore, I sulked for a while then tried to take up swimming. I swam up to a mile a day during my second and third pregnancies. I took up bodybuilding somewhat by accident, while out of the pool, rehabbing from carpal tunnel surgery.
My husband was also a runner and skier but a parachuting accident and spine injury prevents him from enjoying either of those anymore. He was also quite accomplished at martial arts when he was younger. I believe he had earned a 3rd degree black belt before he finished college.
Q: You wrote:
“I have a pretty respectable case of scoliosis and I've been feeling the effects more and more as I get older.”
When were you diagnosed with scoliosis and is there treatment for it?
A: I was diagnosed in 7th grade in a school physical. In addition to seeing the pediatrician, my parents had me seeing a chiropractor almost immediately. I had what was considered a mild-moderate case. In the late 70s/early 80s not much was done for mild to moderate cases of scoliosis. No one really knew what to do back then. In severe cases, docs recommended wearing a brace or even surgery. In my case the docs told my parents that a brace wouldn’t necessarily correct the problem and we would just “wait and see”.
I was given pullups as a corrective exercise, but that was it. Who knows whether a brace or any real intervention would have helped. But by the time I finished growing, it had worsened. I was told once the body stops growing there isn’t much to be done except in extreme cases. Over the years I have been seen by various spine experts and all of them have told me that surgery in my case would not necessarily correct my problem, and that it might even make it worse. Best odds they could give me was 50/50. I’m not interested if those are the best odds.
Q: Awesome quote from 2010:
“If I were a guy, I would've invented a way to ricochet the pee stream from the bed straight into the toilet while lying down, LOL! I just hate losing my sleep buzz every time my bare feet hit that cold tile floor!”
LOL Nice. What other inventions have you pondered?
A: When in elementary school I was in an advanced learning program. It was a small group and frequently we would be expected to work independently. There were several of us who used to dream up some pretty awesome inventions after our work was done. Our school was a very old turn of the century building and the library was on the 3rd floor with gorgeous skylights, with bathrooms on every landing in the stairwells leading up to the library. One invention we dreamt up was turning the school into an indoor water park by flooding the bathrooms and making slides going from the 3rd floor down to the music room in the basement which we figured we could turn into a huge pool.
When Blockbuster was still the rage and Pay-per-view and Redbox weren’t even a thought in someone’s mind, I came up with the Movie Mobile. Think the ice cream truck that comes around in the summer but carrying movies, freshly popped popcorn, and all the movie candy and soft drink faves. I figured why not issue a sort of library card and offer movie rentals out of the truck, going around to the neighborhoods. Netflix and Redbox got in the way of me ever launching it.
Q: Encouragement from 2011:
“I really hope I see the swim instructor again tomorrow and the next day and the next. I can't say I've ever looked forward to seeing just one of the resolutioners and now that I think about it, shame on me for thinking that way! If even one of them such as this woman would follow through and make a MAJOR lifestyle change AND become a regular gym rat (even if it means I have to wait for yet another piece of equipment), then I think that's cause for celebration.”
Did she join you in the gym? You do have a talent for encouragement and positivity.
A: She was actually an employee, and had a free membership. Not long after that, the aquatics director resigned and she got his job. I still saw her every weekend while my kids took swim lessons, but with the new job demands she wasn’t able to train in the mornings anymore.
Q: Another awesome quote:
“Competition prep is a lot like wedding planning, IMO.”
What do you like most about contest prep?
A: I love the goal setting, the structure, the diet, and training… basically everything that has to do with prep itself. Each time I learn something new about every part of the process and about myself. I also love showing my kids that I challenge myself to improve personally and want to inspire other people, that I have more goals besides being a homemaker, mom, and wife.
Q: What do you like least?
A: The expense in general and having to work without a coach (due to my limited budget). I also don’t like the sacrifices my husband has to make to take over the household as I get close to a show, and that it pulls me away from spending time with my kids. For my every show I’ve done, my husband has had to take at least a week off throughout my prep so that I can go to appointments and make sure I don’t miss a single training or cardio session.
For peak week, he has taken several vacation days so that I can go to appointments – check in, spray tan, polygraph, etc. When I worked with a coach it was a full week of vacation time because I was checking in with him several times in addition to the other appointments. Our special needs child is especially affected by my absence toward the end and it takes days to get him back to baseline.
Q: You wrote:
“I've had to go the super-prepared route because I know how my oldest daughter's school gets in late April through June - awards ceremonies, spring concert, band competition, etc. Not to mention my other kids are starting to get a social calendar, my son has some medical concerns and now needs regular visits to a specialist, church groups, AND my dear husband still needs to see me once in a while, LOL!”
How do you keep it all organized? Are you naturally disciplined or have you had to ingrain the habit or practice of maintaining order or a schedule?
A: I’m the least disciplined person I know and I’m also very easily distracted. I’ve had to consciously train myself into a schedule and if I’m out of my routine for any length of time there’s no telling what I’ll forget. It took me a lot of practice and many years to get to this level of organization but I knew I needed to get here if I wanted to set a good example for my kids, and keep my husband from having a heart attack.
While I’m not very disciplined by nature, I am extremely resourceful. Several years ago I stumbled across “the Flylady” (http://flylady.net/). She’s an organizational genius and has the talent to teach her methods to anyone willing to learn. In a nutshell, her method involves taking “baby steps” and she teaches that changing poor habits into lasting good ones doesn’t happen overnight.
I followed her program and made it my own. I have a binder called, “Mommy’s Brain” where I keep lists of my routines in page protectors and cross them off with a dry erase marker. For example, my cleaning routine is set up much like a training split, with my home broken into zones that I concentrate on one week out of every month. At the end of the week/month, I wipe them clean and start over. I have a dry erase calendar with all the family’s activities so everyone knows what’s going on.
Q: Your in-laws own an island???
A: Yes, they do! It’s a beautiful and secluded place and the fishing is awesome. There are some very wealthy people vacationing there, but my in-laws aren’t wealthy. As it was explained to me, my husband’s grandmother was the caretaker of an ill but very wealthy woman who owned THREE islands on the lake since the 1950s. When the woman died around the 1970s, she left one of the islands to my husband’s grandmother, and when she passed she left it to my mother-in-law.
My husband has been going there since he was in elementary school. It’s not huge, only 2.5 acres and has four small log cabins and a boathouse. Three of the cabins are relatively primitive with only electricity. But the main cabin where my in-laws live during the summer has hot water, a shower, flush toilet, and heated only with a wood burning stove. Recently they added cable and Wi-Fi. Not exactly a place to vacation if your idea of roughing it is when the ceiling fan in your home won’t work. During the hottest part of the summer the lake never gets above 74 degrees near the surface. But we love it.
Q: Can you speak on routine formulation? How do you choose the exercises you perform? Your journal seems very technical and – like your daily life – extremely planned out.
A: I have a science and math background and, yes, I do prefer to plan things out, more so because if I didn’t plan carefully, I would get too distracted with people around me in the gym and never get anything accomplished. I get too confused and lose track of my goals with lots of variety so I guess it’s good that I don’t get bored easily. My back and hip issues prevent me from doing many variations of exercises, too. So I’ve had to get creative with work-arounds. I’ve found by experience that I need to make very gradual changes in my routine. If I change things up too drastically it usually causes my hip or back muscles to spasm to the point that I end up sidelined. So I look for early signs of a plateau and plan in gradual changes over a few days or weeks.
After about a year of training I decided that the general 3-4 sets of 8-12 for 2 to 4 movements per workout (that was taught to me by a trainer) just wasn’t working for me, both for stress relief as well as making any gains. So being the resourceful person I am, I looked to other RX members’ journals for inspiration. What I tried and liked, I kept and made it my own. Without really knowing what I was doing, I guess you could say that in time I became a volume and intensity junkie. One night while looking for training inspiration I stumbled across some articles by John Meadows and I’ve been a follower of his training and nutrition philosophy ever since. I’ve pulled whatever I can from his methods into my own training and diet.
Q: How were you introduced to Dave Pulcinella?
A: My first posing coach, IFPA figure pro Lisa Reale, recommended him. They worked at the same gym.
Q: Do you still incorporate massage into your lifestyle? What other maintenance do you utilize – chiropractic, acupuncture, other?
A: I see a chiropractor regularly who has a lot of experience working with athletes. He’s experienced with ART, Graston technique, and dry needling. ART and Graston have worked very well for me. Dry needling would probably be helpful but I faint and puke at needles so I’ll wait until the pain is unbearable and/or the other techniques aren’t working anymore. About 20 years ago I had tried cortisone injections to try to manage my symptoms, but the fainting and puking got old after a while, for both me and the doc. I had a great massage therapist who I saw regularly from 2011-2012. Unfortunately, she moved out of the area and I haven’t found anyone worthwhile since then.
Besides regular visits to the chiropractor, I do a lot of stretching, SMR, and self massage techniques that I’ve either taught myself or learned from the chiro. I also have an inversion table that I use whenever I get the chance to help take the pressure off my spine.
Q:
“2nd place in both masters short & open!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!”
That was the 2011 OCB Yorton Cup, right? Congratulations! (Uh, belated.)
A: Thank you! Yes, that was the Yorton Cup.
2011 OCB Yorton Cup, 2nd place, Masters Short and Open class
Q: 2012 split:
Changes in the family's schedule is forcing me to rearrange my training split. I'm thinking this is what I'll do:
Sun - Off
Mon - Legs
Tue - Back
Wed - Off
Thu - Chest & delts
Fri - Legs
Sat – Arms
A: Was there a question here?
[D’OH! Exceptional interviewer is exceptional. O.o]
Gonna venture a guess the Q was why my split changed from this to what it is today. My back has always been my best body part. I would say my legs, although proportionate, were my weakest. They just had no wow-factor. I wanted to change that. So I put legs on the first training day of the week and moved back training to the end of the week. It seems to be paying off.
Q: You are one prepared mom!
“I had a rough day today. Had 2 kids at school and was on my way to bring the 3rd to her school and head to the gym, when I got a call from kid #2's school that he had thrown up the moment he walked into his classroom. Noiiiicccce! So much for my gym time. Dropped off kid #3 and headed back to kid #2's school. Brought boy back home and he tossed the rest of his breakfast. At least he made it to the toilet, LOL! He spent the rest of the morning on the sofa while I knocked out a home chest WO as best as I could with a pair of 15s, a pair of 25s, and a Swiss ball used as an incline bench. By the end of my WO, it felt like my chest was on fire, so I guess that's a good sign. Now I'm just praying the rest of us don't get this bug. Two weeks ago it was a kid with a fever, this week it's the stomach bug...ugh! So glad I'm not in the middle of prep right now and having to do cardio because there's no way I'd be able to pull it off!”
What other exercise equipment do you have at home? (And I hope everyone is in 100% health at this time!)
A: I have very little exercise equipment at home and so I rely heavily on my gym for all of that. I still have the 15s and 25s and the stability ball. Besides that I have a pair of 10-pound leg weights. That’s it. Not even a piece of cardio equipment. So it’s really essential for me to keep my family as healthy as possible so I can get to the gym, otherwise it means I have yet another forced day off.
Q: How do you maintain your warrior attitude?
From 2012…
“Funkin' killed it today. I was warming up on leg extensions and noticed a tool bag beside our busted leg press. I was like...hmmmm.... So I kept my eye on the tech who was working on the leg press, cut my rest periods to basically nothing, just enough to catch my breath. Just as I was finishing up on Hacks, the tech finishes his repairs and I raced over (beating out my two friends who were eyeing the tech the whole time just as I was, LOL! This is my time-limited day with one of my kids getting out an hour earlier, but still I knocked out as many sets as I could with only enough rest between sets to load on another pair of plates! Almost threw up a couple times. Happy to report my quads got hammered in the process!”
Awesome. ALPHA SUNNY! “YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY LEG PRESS!” :-D
A: That was an awful year for me as I was taking the diagnosis of my son’s autism really hard. I relied heavily on those training days to keep me from losing my sanity. Waiting for equipment wasn’t an option. That leg press had been broken for weeks, and on that particular day, schools let out early (in that district they do every Wednesday). I had barely 40 minutes for my workouts back then, including cardio. It was really a hard time.
There were many years before then that I’d make excuses why I couldn’t get things done and when my circumstances got tough, I usually backed down and chose to fail, blaming everyone else but myself and take responsibility for my own actions. Becoming a mom and then six months later finding myself a single parent was my big wake up call. Suddenly failure and ducking responsibility weren’t reasonable options anymore with a little person depending on me.
I started looking to people I thought of as champions, tried to emulate their habits and attitudes, and kept pushing myself to improve one step at a time. During that time I also lost my job and was on public assistance. I just kept plugging along as best I could because I refused to let my kid down. She’s my biggest fan to this day. There are plenty of people from my past (including my mom) who still view me as the excuse maker and a failure at life and would never believe that a bunch of people see me as having a warrior attitude. So thanks. :-)