I finally had my "aah-ha" moment in July 2005 - a co-worker asked me what I was waiting for, it all just clicked for me then! I hired my personal trainer Jonathan Uphoff (www.jonathanuphoff.com) that day and shortly after started working with my nutritionist Justin Harris (www.troponinnutrition.com). After busting my butt for a grueling 19 weeks, I won my first show and now I'm hooked! I also now have my own personal web site www.dianachaloux.com where you can get to know me a little better and keep track of me as a prepare for my upcoming year of competing!

As far as strength training goes, I like doing a six day split and doing my strength training in the late morning between my second and third meals of the day. My rotation goes something like this shoulders, back, chest/abs, biceps, triceps, legs and repeat. Sunday is always legs day. I mix up my strength training workouts all the time, I don't do the same routine twice. My trainer and I focus on a lot of core strength as well, really trying to incorporate core into every exercise that we do.

We also put a lot of emphasis on the mind and muscle connection. When I am strength training, I usually focus as much as possible on what muscle group I am working, I try not to let other muscle groups take over; we work my muscles in as many different angles as possible, this has added some great development to all of my muscles especially shoulders, biceps and triceps!

Here is a quick sample of what my workouts might look like, because my trainer and I focus so much on form and keeping a constant contraction in the muscle group that I am working I usually only need to strength train for about 20 minutes per day!

Sample Workout:

Shoulders: Overhead Shoulder Press, Lateral Raise (usually drop sets starting heavy and dropping down by 5-10 pound intervals), Reverse Fly. I like to keep moving as much as possible so I usually get through about 3 sets of a circuit like this.

Back: Lat Pulldowns, Rows (from many different angles, high, low, middle and lots of focus on keeping my core tight and squeezing my back muscles as tight as possible!), and Cable Crossovers.

Chest: Pushups on exercise ball, Incline Chest Press, Chest Fly, and abs usually on an exercise ball feet up on the wall, or crunches on a dynadisk (When we do ab work we really focus on slow exaggerated movements, holding the abs tight the entire time, never releasing tension. My abs burn out sooooo quickly! It makes such a huge difference and the development that you can get from training like this is crazy!).

Biceps: Usually three or four different types of curls, from all different angles, again a lot of focus on the negative phase and on holding the contraction in your biceps the whole time as opposed to letting the muscle relax and then contract.

Triceps: I love doing dips and pressdowns for my triceps. I will also do tricep extension on the cable machine, or one of my trainers inventions, overhead tricep extension with a rope attachment while balancing an exercise ball (you are facing the floor, ball under your hips). For biceps and triceps sets are the same as with shoulders - usually about 3 sets of a circuit.

Legs: Aaaah my favorite. I love to leg press; one of my favorite things to do is drop sets on the leg press, starting heavy and dropping down till they just can't move anymore. I like to do a couple of sets and I usually do different leg positions, again I'm all about the different angles. Feet together, feet wide apart and feet shoulder to hip width apart. I also love to do squats on a hack squat machine one leg at a time (cross the opposite ankle up over your knee to do one leg at a time). Also leg extensions and hamstring curls, I usually do drop sets of these exercises and the same as my other training sessions always focus on forcing that specific muscle group to really do thework.

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The calories are ridiculously low as this veggie is mostly water and it makes me feel full and not deprived. I highly recommend hiring a nutritionist though if you are serious about competing. There are so many things to think about when it comes to competing and when you have someone worrying about the diet for you it takes so much of the guesswork and pressure out of contest prep! It made a huge difference for me, and those last couple of days before a show are so crucial, you've done all this hard work and you don't want to screw up your diet in the final countdown!

I love how it reduces the stress in life, comes with so many health benefits, and I also love the way that I can motivate and inspire others by staying fit myself!

I recently started my own small business Transformation Fitness LLC. I am having some fitness dvd's made that will entail an in home strength training routine targeted towards people who have a fitness deadline in mind. I think that people are their most motivated when they have a date in mind that they want to achieve their goals by. I am going to be offering fitness coaching online as well in order to work with people online, help them to recognize what is holding them back from achieving their fitness goals and then overcoming these obstacles! My new web site www.d2bfit.com will be up and running soon.

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