Today’s blog post is going to be all about the upcoming Mr. Olympia Expo! I want to talk to you about how I’ve been preparing for it, where you can find me, and what the Olympia is all about! This is day 16 of my 30 Days of Blogging challenge (you can click here to learn all about that challenge). I can’t believe I am halfway through already!
In case you haven’t heard of the Mr. Olympia event before, it is one of the biggest events in the world of bodybuilding competitions. I am not a fitness or figure competitor and don’t really have a desire to compete, but am so amazed to see the dedication that these athletes and the ability to form and shape their bodies is amazing!
Earlier this year I teamed up with MRM and agreed to work at their booth for four shows a year. The Olympia is the first show I will be working with them and I am so excited! The Olympia has a huge Expo inside the Las Vegas Convention center. There are 40,000+ attendees that come through in just two days! The room is always packed and it is a lot of fun.
I mentioned earlier this month that I will be traveling there with my husband and both kids. Unfortunately, my husband found out today that they are having an internal audit in his office and so he won’t be able to take the days off 🙁 So, instead I am flying my awesome sister and her 11-month old son out to meet me in Las Vegas so that she can help with the baby while I am working at the expo. Baby girl just turned six months old this week! We started solids and she is really loving it, but because I am still nursing her I will just take breaks from the booth while my sister comes down so I can meet them out of the expo and feed the baby.
If you are in the Las Vegas area I would LOVE to meet you!! For those of you already planning to go to the Olympia, you need to make sure to stop by our booth! Here is a layout of the floor plan (click on photo to zoom in). We are booth number 1646! I think we have an awesome spot – we are just a few booths down from the 6-Pack Bags booth and kiddie corned to the fitness challenge area.
All the booths at the event give a ton of free samples out. You usually leave these types of events with so much cool, free stuff! I know the MRM booth is going to be handing out free samples of All Natural Whey, All Natural Driven (Pre-Workout), Metabolic Whey, Reload (BCAA+G), and Cram just to name a few!
I have gotten a lot of questions about what I am doing differently to prepare for the expo. Like I mentioned above, I’m not competing, but when you are at the expo you are surrounded by all the top people in the fitness industry, and everyone around you is in amazing shape!
The truth is, I really haven’t changed much. I know a lot of people will carb cycle when they are getting ready for a big event like this, but because I am breastfeeding my 6-month old still I am really cautious not to cut my carbs or calories too low. So, I have just continued my normal training routine (I am working with Matt Jansen right now, and online coach at Inov8 Elite Performance). Right now I am working out three days on, one day off, three days on, one day off, etc. My workouts are gym-based focusing on lifting heavy weights and time under tension (meaning the pace/tempo you perform each exercise), and I am just doing three short cardio sessions a week. By short, I mean 4×20 second incline sprints with a warmup, cool down, and 2:30 recovery in between each sprint. This is a lot less cardio than I have done in the past (I ran cross country in college and have finished a bunch of marathons, half marathons, etc). Last week I dropped my carbs and fats just a tiny bit, just dropping my calories by about 180 calories (I usually eat around 2,000 calories).
So, not really many changes have been made to my training or diet, but just tweaking things a little bit so that I feel confident while I am there. After the expo on Saturday I will bump my calories back up a tiny bit.
I hope you get a chance to stop by the MRM booth and say hi! I am so excited to meet so many of you in person! It’s funny how I feel like I ‘know’ a lot of the people who interact often on my FB page and Instagram but it will be so fun to meet in real life and get a picture! Maybe you will stop by when I have my little munchkin with me too. Here are some pictures we took the other day goofing off in the bathroom. She loves looking at herself in the mirror!
‘See’ you guys tomorrow!
Your Friend,
Natalie
4 Comments
Have so much fun at the Olympia! Your daughter is just precious!!!
Natalie, I WISH I was going. So many JW “friends” that I’d love to meet!! & I’m really considering buying the new stack you’re promoting too! You look fantastic.
It is so nice to follow someone who is more balanced..ie, in great shape but not a competitor. Walking in a competitors shoes is not something I want to do. I think they look amazing and have admirable dedication, but within my life it is not a priority of mine with everything going on. I have other competitive hobbies I chose to put time into, and a very long commute to work each day. I can get in a great work out daily but that’s it.
Thank you for putting yourself out there in an honest and inspirational way and sharing your knowledge.
Natalie, I LOVE all of your posts on here and facebook! You are a great inspiration. I do a lot of yoga and did some light weight training pre pregnancy and bounced back very quickly too, so I know how important it is to be healthy, in all aspects of your life. More recently I have started doing more strength training. I really love the challenge of it. I know that you workout three days on, one day off, and so on. How many times a week do you work out legs, arms, etc? I am just curious what works for you? Typically, I was only focusing on legs once a week, but I am wondering if I should increase that? Thanks so much!! Looking forward to more posts!