Photoshoot with Mike Sirén

Howdy,

Like the topic says, I had a lil japanese mangastyle themed photoshoot few days ago, with the famous and awesome Finnish photographer, Mike Sirén.
Awesome experience, it was really great to have this shoot with him!

Here's all four pics from the set ! Enjoy~

All mangastyle pics © Mike Sirén






Soo, anyways,,, nothing really new to tell. My workouts are going great ! I've gained 11-13lbs (like a bit over 5kg) since january... So it means muscles are getting more fuller etc. Cos i really didn't work out with weights in the beginning of the year, just did cardio.


So yes,, steady and slow weight gain, don't wanna gain fat. Just wanna get muscle gains :) So i'm doing it more slowly this time ! Upping my calories reaaaally slowly... still around 1700kcals right now,, i know that's not much, actually it's very little for a girl my size, but i gotta work around my metabolism, to get it back on track :) without gaining fat.
Weight is about 63.3kg/139.5lbs now.


Alrighty, i'm off to the gym now, to train my biceps and triceps! Hell yeah, i love training my arms! :)

Take care !!

Love,

Eva

lil photo update

Hola!

Midsummer's here, and the weather's finally getting better.
It sucked so badly for awhile, cos it was like raining and cloudy all the time, and not that warm either, ugh...

Oh well, I've been training and training (which i'm loving, of course) Nowadays 5 times a week.
5 gym workouts, and 4 cardio sessions after workouts, which i do on a treadmill at the moment- running and intervals.

last time i told you guys about my hip flexor, which started to hurt again, but i realized it was probably cos i was doing too much cardio on a crosstrainer, so i quit doing that, and changed to a treadmill, and i'm feeling sooo much better right now, and i hope it won't start bothering me again.

Here's some condition pics from today & yesterday (sorry, no pump in the pics cos didn't train upper body today, ha ha).




So ya, motivation's on track, let's see how quickly the muscle memory will start remembering ;-)

Now i'm upping my calorie intake bit by bit, to get my metabolism back on track... So hopefully i'd start getting improvements in my physique the same time as well,cos i've been going with pretty low calories for too long -> metabolism problems -> no improvements at all.
(i know, not wise, but luckily everything's going better now and especially cos i have the same kind of training motivation which i used to have before :))

So yeah, nothing really special to tell you guys about, just enjoying the summer.

And i hope you guys are too :)

Take care and lots of love !!

XoXo,
Eva

Yo guys,
what's up?


I've been training and training... not really wrote anything up to be able tell you guys, sorry! haha! And last week I also had this one really cool "photoshoot" thing, i'll probably let you guys know about it later on.. :)


I've also been out for the past two weekends (driving though), and had a blast, so i've kinda like spent the whole weekend(s) with my friends :) Cos the weather was so great like for a week, we've wanted to make the most out of it and enjoyed it ,for example, by going to a park for a picnic and all that sortsa stuff. I've enjoyed the time i've spent with my friends so much.
I've really needed this sorta stuff in my life now, to balance training and everything.






It's a bit pity that some of my closest friends live in other cities, but luckily one of them is moving here pretty soon, so yay!


Here's a pic from last weekend, when me and my friend are comparing our biceps, haha..! still a lil road to go until i'd have biceps as big as he does, LOL!



and few days ago, I started to train at the other gym as well, cos I really liked it the last time i had a chance to go and try it out. And it really boosted my motivation, cos the gym has better equipment than my older one, and there's a lot less ppl using the gym , which i love about. It's way too crowded in my previous gym.

I especially love these techogym's weighted plate machines, which i've posted some pics of in my previous entries. And here's one pic from yesterday's leg workout, when i was finishing it by doing weighted plate one leg leg presses.


Oki, i'm out !

toodles~


XoXo,
Eva

past week's workouts and Q & A

OH YEAH ! It feels like the summer's finally arriving! It's been reaallly warm for the past couple of days!
Really brings you in a good mood :)


Last weekend i still trained at the other gym. The have some great equipment there!




Trained my back on saturday:

deadlifts,
barbell rows,
lat pulldowns
seated rows
weighted plate rows and pulldowns pumping supersets.


Then did cardio for 30 min on a crosstrainer

Sunday i trained chest and triceps:

smith incline chest press ,
smith close grip press,
weighted plate incline and basic chest presses,
seated dumbbell tricep extensions,
cable crossovers,
pushdowns,
pec deck.

And cardio for 45 min with a crosstrainer and treadmill.

On Tuesday I did my legs, which are now killing me,lol. Also been doing cardio for almost every day now. Still should try to get myself up in the morning to be able to do the cardio in that time, but i'm just not a morning person, so it's reaaally hard for me to get up and go do cardio !

Yesterday I went to a hair salon to cut my hair and afterwards just spent my day in the city enjoying the warm weather and checking out stores. Later in the evening me and my friends went to a terrace and had couple of ciders/wineglasses and just enjoyed each other's company :)

In the morning before leaving to the city i went to train my shoulders and biceps to my gym, and i did the basic exercises i've done for awhile:


smith shoulder press,
ez-bar bicep curls,
lateral raises with dbs,
dumbbell curls,
lateral raises in a machine,
scott db curls


reverse pec deck for rear delts,
upright rows and
seated shoulder presses face towards the seat with really slow pace (man what a greaaaat pump in my shoulders)

Today is off day for everyone, and the great weather continues. I went to do +50min cardio outside and maan it was REALLY warm, I could do my cardio in a sleeveless. :)

So anyways, I told you guys in my last post, that i had someone to ask me some questions, so here they are with my answers:

Do you enjoy other sports besides bodybuilding?

-Actually nowadays (for the past +6yrs) I've kinda put all my effort into bodybuilding and gymworkouts + cardio. Sometimes i do cardio in some kind of spinning class, but nowadays mostly with crosstrainer or treadmill. I've been really iterested in trying out CrossFit for some time now, but still haven't managed to go on that free try-out class, which they have every sat MORNING (didn't i just say i ain't a morning person ,lol?!)
Basketball's one other sport which i'd enjoy. And no, i never watch sports on tv. I'd rather spend that time exercising myself. ;)


What's your history with sports since childhood, did you ever compete etc?

I used to do lotsa different kind of sports younger. when i was like 5-6, i used to figure skate, but that didn't last for long. Then i didn't do any sports for years, but in junior high i started to play Tennis, but the team i was in had kids so much younger than i was, so that didn't last for long either, even if tennis was really cool. Then when i was 13 yo, i joined to a Cheerleading squad, and i competed in the nationals with the team for few times. First time we won gold and 2nd time we were probably 3rd or 2nd (gosh, i cannot even remember anymore, haha)

(i'm a base in the pic, but unfortunately you cannot see me there..i couldn't find any good pictures from my squad :( )

So in my cheer career, i was a base, and i was one of the strongest chicks in the squad. Unfortunately I had several injuries, first spread my knee, then my wrist and then my lower back started to hurt....
so even if i was one of the best ones in the team, they couldn't choose me to the A-team, cos they were worried about my lower back. so that's when i had it and i quit, cos they told me i really didn't have any "future" in the sport.

Later on, i started taekwondo and did that for awhile, but unfortunately didn't have a driver's licence back then, and the training place was a bit far away, so if i couldn't get someone to drive me there, i couldn't go to the practices... But i really loved taekwondo though! Got only yellow belt though, haha.

When did you first discover you like lifting heavy and how quickly did you find out you were gifted in packing serious muscle mass? And how did that discovery feel? :)

In high school i wanted to start dropping weight and i joined to a gym. First i started going to spinning classes and like BodyPump and BodyCombat classes... did crazy amounts of those classes. Sometimes 3hours of spinning in a day !! TALK ABOUT CRAZY! LOL.

So yea, i managed to drop my weight, but then i hit a plateau when i dropped like 15kg, and i was 56kg. I couldn't get any leaner, even if i tried to do more cardio etc.. I really didn't know much about diets, just knew that i should eat protein and lots. I also trained at the gym,and then a bit later on one of the gym/spinning instructors made a gym workout for me and showed me more exercises i could do, and i was hooked.

(when i was starting out training and then less than one month after. sorry the pics got my face censored!)

I then also found a friend who shared the same interest with me. I trained with this guy for awhile, until this one Personal Trainer at my gym approached at me and asked me if i've ever heard of the fitness/bbing comps. She told me she sees a huge potential in me, and wanted to train me for a competition. Needless to say, i was super excited about the fact that someone thought i was potential in what i loved doing!

So i started training with her, and learned a lots about training and dieting.
I noticed improvements in my physique in just one month, so you can tell that i got really excited and wanted to achieve more and more. As they say, you start craving for more and more. The feeling of being able to change your physique so much, is outstanding.
And just the feeling of getting more powerful day by day and seeing improvements and veins popping out... You could say i'm addicted to the feeling!

After few months i changed gym and met other fbbers. Their physiques looked really fascinating and then a friend of mine showed me some pics of Cindy Phillips and Britt Miller and i was sold: I was like "WOW how beautiful they look even though they've got huge muscles!!" "They look so powerful and confident " "that's what i wanna look like". And there ya go... Hahaha, from that day i wanted to be like them :)

Lotsa stuff has happened since....I was like 20kg bigger few yrs back, but then the back accident happened in fall 2008 and all... but everything's better now, and i'm having the same kind of motivation as i used to, which i'm really happy about. But just doing things slower, i mean, i ain't gonna bulk anymore, not ever again! LOL!!

(may 2010)

I have to say i'm blessed that i've had such a good and inspirational people around me, ever since from the beginning. That's been a huge help for me, so i didn't have to train years without knowing what the hell i'm doing. :) And of course you guys supporting me with all your e-mails, comments to my blog, etc.... I'm truly blessed for having so many ppl supporting me! :)

Love,
Eva
xoxo

helloooo...

Hey,

So yeaa, on friday we went to celebrate the upcoming 1st of may to my friends place with dozen of ppl, and then we went to a club for few hours. Fun night i had !
Had a blast with my friends !!

Stayed the night at my friends place so it was cool to start my birthday among friends. I spent the whole day with them. Went to hang out in the city, ate in a restaurant, went for a lil b-day cake (mm, yummy ! ) and just enjoyed the time together :)

(haha, it always goes in to this when someone starts taking pictures... POSING!!)

Got home late, and the next morning when i woke up, i started to feel really sick... i could barely eat my breakfast, when i just had to go lie down on my sofa... and then i had to spend my whole day there.... geez.. I lyed on that sofa for over 13hours , unable to really move, just to go to the bathroom and hug the toilet at times ( lol).... So i couldn't eat at all that day.

The next morning i was feeling a bit better, so I went to train with my friend to another gym. Trained chest and triceps, It was great to have a training buddy with me, so we could push each other to work harder!
Did smith incline bench press, smith close grip bench press, pullover with db, seated dumbbell tricep extensions, pec deck and pushdowns.

and here's a pic of me doing pec deck. (HAHA i know, not the prettiest pic of me , but HEY, i BET you guys don't look pretty either when u're training hard ;))

So yea, after i got home and ate, i started to feel nauseous again.... and i really couldn't sleep that night. So i woke up,I went to do morning cardio, but suddenly i started to feel really weak and sick and i just had to go home quikckly.. and it was exactly same kind of day as sunday was... So i just lyed on the sofa again the whole day, unable to do anything else than just watch my Angel season 5 dvds and play Final Fantasy XIII. Well don't get me wrong, i love watching my dvd's and playing vid games, but UGH can't do that whole day long, unable to do anything else! LOL , i think you guys know what i mean, eh?

so yeaa,,, next morning, wednesday i felt a bit better, but still weak, cos i wasn't able to eat anything on tuesday either...I went to train legs with my friends after my breakfast. And we went to a new gym again. Some pretty cool equipment there !
Did this cool horizontal hack machine, then sldl with dumbbells, leg press wide and close stance, leg extensions and seated curls. Great workout !

After i got home and ate, i felt like doing a lil cardio session outside cos the weather was so pretty. Felt great afterwards, even the weather was a bit windy !

So today i luckily felt pretty good still, when i woke up, so i sent my friends a msg that i'd be able to go train with them. And today was shoulders and biceps.
We did smith shoulder press, weighted plate shoulder press really slowly, lateral raises, ez-bar bicep curls, dumbbell curls, rear delts in a back row machine, and rear delt row in a cable machine.
Great workout again !

I was asked questions about my childhood's sports etc , so i will answer to the q's in my next post! If you have any questions you want me to answer, just lemme know :)

Take care and thank you for your b-day wishes !!! And special thanks to someone !!! :)


Lots of love,
Eva
xoxo

Great workouts !

This week's workouts started with a nice morning cardio on monday and later that day I went to do a leg workout:

Leg extensions as first to exhaust my quads a bit :
about 65kg for 9-10 reps for 4 sets and one drop set

SLDL:
up to 80kg for 8-9 reps for 3 sets and one drop set


Hack squats:
40 kg + machine weight for 4 sets of 9-12 reps and 2 drop sets.





Leg presses, close stance for exercising more quads, and wide stance legs in the upper corner of the plate for exercising more hams and glutes.

After leg presses I did walking lunges with dumbbells, and did them until I was so exhausted and collapsed on the floor and felt like I couldn't do anymore reps, haha !

After i got myself to stand again (lol), i went to do some seated calf raises as well as couple of sets standing calf raises.

I was finished after the workout, and felt GREAT afterwards! what an awesome workout! :)

On tuesday I received a lil package of supps, that I am going to test out ! Even if i'm pretty sceptical about most of the supps, I'm always really eager to try out new ones and see if they work for me or not. So thanks a lot to Force for these !


GH-stack, Green Tea and Beta-Alanine products I've used before, and liked all of them. Beta-alanine usually gives me huge tingling feeling all over my body, sometimes it gets really "worse" though and I'm like "AAAAAH My whole body is tingling!!make it stop ! " , haha. GH-stack has L-argininepyroglutamate-L-lysine in it as well as niacin and piperin. It should be taken on an empty stomach twice a day, and like I tried this product again last week in a long time; I took 3 tabs before breakfast, and when i started to eat my oatmeal, my whole body turned to totally red and my heartbeat went to roof! lmao.. you should have seen me ! After 15-20 min i was back to normal "human color" hahaha. But those funny side effects usually "tell me" as well, that the stuff works.

So now i got some other "new" stuff for testing and of course I wanted to try out Animal Pump immediately, which is kinda like a really good pre-workout loading product with different kind of creatines in it, like tricreatine malate, creatine ethyl ester, (but no monohydrate, which is a plus for me, cos I don't wanna gain water weight at the moment), NO-products like Arginine-AKG, Ornithine-AKG, Citrulline Malate etc, caffeine, taurine, K-R ALA, Bioperine etc etc.. haha the list would go on and on. But i was really interested in the ingredients list, cos I used to use some of the stuff before and really found em helpful, like AAKG, Citrulline Malate. Really gave heavy pumps at that time when i used them before !

So I throwed AP, GH-stack and Phire in my mouth and went to train Shoulders and biceps:

I started with smith shoulder presses:
40-42kg for 7-9 reps for 3 sets with one drop set

Ez-bar curls:
up to 30kg for 8-9 reps for 3 sets with one drop set

Lateral raises with dumbbells:

up to 12,5kg for 12-15 reps for 4 sets, with 2 drop sets. Really feeling the burn in my lat delts !

Dumbbell curls:
13kg for 9-10 reps for 4 sets

Then did upright rows, machine lateral raises, rear delts and seated incline bicep curls with dumbells, and my arms were really pumped !
Another awesome workout !

The stuff probably started working immediately , cos it was also hard for me to go sleep that night. haha. So yea, I continue using these supplements and see the effects of them, and will let you guys know. And I will tell honestly if I like them or not.

On wednesday I did morning cardio and later in the evening went to an indoor cycling class. Buncha cardio for me that day!

Thursday was a total off day for me, so i just rested the whole day and did other stuff.. :)

Now i'm about to head to do my back workout to the gym, and just tried out that BSN's Syntha-6 protein! Chocolate mint taste, and dayum, it was good ! I mean i've tasted bunch of dif proteins, but this is far one of the best ones.
Ok it can be used as pre/after workout meal, and just as a regular meal etc.. Cos it has some carbs as well, and some fats (maybe that's why it tastes so good, with just water in it !! haha)

After my workout i'm gonna meet up some friends and celebrate a bit (national party day here, 1st of may, which is actually tomorrow) :) .. and yess,,, 1st of may tomorrow and it's actually my birthday as well! I'm gonna be 23 yo! wow, time just flyes by.... Hopefully it will be a great day for me :) !

Ok i'm off to the gym now you guys!!

Take care and I'll try to reply to your e-mails ASAP!

Love,
Eva

Ps. btw, what do you guys think about the new layout for my blog? I tried to be a lil geek and made a new one on my own! haha. I'd need to learn more about HTML/CSS to be able to make a great looking site ;)

:)

Hola !

Been having a nice full week with training and other stuff which have kept me pretty busy.


On wednesday I trained legs, went really nicely, even if weights were a bit lighter, but it's cool, cos i could TOTALLY feel my workout for the next 3 days. I think you guys know what i'm talking about, if I say it hurt like hell to go sit on a toilet ! LOL!


From what I've noticed, that the weights (i mean dumbells) at my current gym weigh A LOT more than in my previous gym... I went to train once to this other gym as well, and the weights were a lot lighter there as well. What's up with that? I thought 10kg should be 10kg everywhere, lol !



Thursday I did shoulders and biceps.

Smith shoulder presses 45kg/99.2lbs + smith weight (I have no idea how much it weights!) x 9 for 3 sets with last one as drop set for 15 reps.


Ez-bar curls : 32kg/70.5lbs x 8 for 3 sets and one drop set.

Lateral raises with 11-12,5kg/24-27.5lbs dumbbells for 12-15 reps for 4 sets

dumbbell curls, really focusing, with 13kg dumbbells for 9-10reps for 3 sets

Then did supersets with the next exercises: upright rows in a cable machine, lateral raises in a machine and rear delts in a reverse pec deck machine

After i was done with the weights, i went to walk on an incline treadmill for over 30 mins.


Then on Friday I went to train my back.
Lat pulldowns: 3 x 8-10 with 1 drop set
Deadlifts: 3 x 8, with 2 drop sets
Barbell rows: 3 x 8-9, with one drop set
seated rows: 3 x 8 with one drop set






After I was ready, I got quickly home and got myself ready to welcome few of my friends to my place, cos we had made plans that we would go out that night. I had a blast with my friends, and the night was fun, even though came home pretty late and didn't sleep much that night ! But anyways, my friend stayed at my place and we just had fun the next day and went to eat to a restaurant with other friends. I had a great weekend :)

I have to say that I really don't party that much, cos I really kinda prefer the feeling of waking up fresh in the next morning and like going to the gym or doing other activities.
Of course it's cool to go every now and then though :) meeting new people and hanging out with older friends is always fun!




Today I trained chest and triceps.
Incline smith bench press: 47kg/103.6lbs + smith weight 3 x 8 with one drop set
Close grip smith bench press: 45kg/99.2lbs + smith weight 3 x 8 with one drop set
Pullover with dumbbell: 25kg/55lbs dumbbell, 3 x 8
seated tricep dumbell extension: 22kg/48.5lbs dumbbell x 3 x 8-9
pec dec and pushdows as supersets.
overhead cable tricep extensions for few pump sets.

Then 25 min incline treadmill, and 20 min running on a treadmill.


And yeah,,, this is one thing which i've been doing pretty much lately as well :) Really wanting to improve my artistic skills in drawing, cos i love to draw.


ok, toodles my friends!

*Mwah*!

Love,
Eva