Training so far....

Having been a figure competitor for 6 years now as well as working as a Personal Trainer for over 10 years, I must confess I often forget that what I see as a lifestyle and simply 'what I do' must seem quite extreme and very strange to others.
My training tapers up and down constantly all year round, I don't like taking weeks off training at a time so prefer to listen to my body and take an extra day off when I feel I need it to assist in the recovery process. Because I cycle and 'periodize' my training my body gets plenty of opportunity to restore/recover and above all avoid injury. The last 2 weeks, despite depleting 'energy in' and significantly increasing my output for the upcoming competition, I have been reaching personal bests in the gym:

Legs: 200 walking lunges weights, 50kg full depth squats
Chest: 25kg DB incline press, 20kg incline flies
Back: 60kg wide lat pulldown, 40kg Deadlifts
Biceps: 20kg DB curls

I have found there to be a few common misconception regarding dieting and training, which in my opinion are a bit misleading to those wanting to achieve amazing results. Misconception 1:When you are dieting for a show your strength tappers off and you 'should' lift light weights....I find this a bit silly as the only way to preserve any of your hard earn't muscle is to work the darn things and hard too. Your strength does drop off, but I usually find personally this is in the last 2 weeks and when this happens you need to listen to your body because this is the time that injuries happen.
Misconception 2: That women should lift little weights...ladies and gents this is baloney....if you want to have flowing, sweeping curves on stage and you want to burn all the fat up so that the muscle actually looks like a trained muscle rather than a bag of bones up there, then you need to lift heavy weights consistently. For the girls out there who say they grow really quickly when they lift weights, congratulations, you are lucky...I too have decent enough genetics that when I train properly I can grow efficiently....but unless you are a man(ie have large production of testosterone, which us girls just don't have) or have special supplements in your cupboard, you will not grow like a balloon by lifting heavy weights, I promise. You will however get a leaner, harder, more flexible, fitter body than you ever thought possible. So unless you are doing a functional workout, please put the 2g weights away and start challenging yourselves, you will be surprised how strong you really are and how mentally tough you are too.

Mental stamina and strength to produce results for this sport and training in general is something I have learned over the years and now enjoy training regularly through gym sessions. It has actually become a bit of a game....that PB lunge session I mentioned, was achieved only because I could see and hear Arnold Schwarzenegger(circa Terminator) standing there at the end of the room(yes I did 50 lunges per set) shouting at me in his accent 'Come oooon PocketRocket YOooU CAN DO EEET'...well it got me through the session and made me giggle, so whatever floats your boat right....When I first started training I certainly never considered that 80% of what happens physically starts with what goes on upstairs....these days I make sure I never have an 'off day', I might have a 'not so strong today' day, but training is never a waste with lack of focus and chit-chat.

I can honestly confess to having very, very sore legs today and am enjoying a little less intensity to my training today (just a cardio day) weights tomorrow and although sore all over to varying degrees I cant wait to hit shoulders and triceps.
So I leave you with a challenge...when it gets tough in the gym/life etc what thoughts do you have that get you through or if you don't get through it and give up, what can you change in your thought process to change the outcome?

Good luck...you can do eeeet!