Jaime Filer is 16 weeks out from competition and she is aiming for the stars: her pro card! Discover how Jaime builds the perfect workout to get ready to compete and how you can too in part 3 of her contest prep series - Flying With The Phoenix!
Everyone says that "Nutrition is 80%", implying that while working out is in the equation, it certainly doesn't account for the majority of your progress during contest prep. I've learned recently that this isn't necessarily always true.

From the end of January (when I came home from college) until the end of June, I was working two jobs; one of which ran from 6:30 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, and the second ran from 4 until 9. I was assistant general manager of a high end personal training studio during the days (while taking a few clients prior to 8am most mornings), and then in the afternoon/evening, I headed over to a different commercial facility and was a personal trainer there. The average day was 12 hours, but there were 'special' times where I went straight through for almost 14 hours.

I know people will probably tell me "Where there's a will, there's a way", but I don't know if those people have actually tried personal training and/or helping to manage a gym for 14 hours straight. It's not only extremely emotionally draining, but it's also physically draining to work hands-on with clients all day. The problem with the lack of energy though, is that the whole process of being too tired to train and subsequently not training is that it becomes a vicious cycle.

I wouldn't train because I didn't have the time, but then I would become lethargic when I did have the time because I didn't have the energy (due to not training). You can see how this type of pattern would get me in trouble and affect contest prep.

Finding The Time To Train


Things turned around July 22 though, because my bosses realized that as a certified personal trainer and exercise physiologist, I'd probably be better off working the floor as a trainer than the desk as an administrator. So I was off the hook and free to train myself whenever I wasn't training clients as of the last week in July (thankfully, it coincided with being 16 weeks out).

As for the actually training protocol, prior to the last week in July, my "protocol" was just "Train WHAT you can, WHEN you can." So some days, if I only had 30 minutes free I'd train shoulders or just do HIIT. If I had a solid hour straight because of a cancellation, then I would hit legs. But I was inconsistent and haphazardly going through the motions. Once I became a full-time trainer though, I actually wrote out a routine for myself.

For the first 12 weeks of my prep, I'll be using an Upper/Lower split. My legs are my weakness, so I'll be training my lower body on Monday and Thursday, and my upper body on Tuesday and Friday. I find that the upper/lower split is what's best for me in terms of maximizing my time in the gym (given how little it is) from both a quality and quantity perspective.


What I mean by that is that 4 days in the gym per week isn't too much for me to handle with my schedule (whereas a 5x/week body part split would be), and WHAT I do in the time I have will be productive and efficient. Combining your entire upper body into one workout will take advantage of the maximum calorie burn you can get.

Think about it, you can train your arms on Monday, and do 3-4 sets each for biceps and triceps (anything more would probably be overkill), and then do the same thing for shoulders, arms, back and chest the other days of the week - hitting each part once per week. OR, you could combine them all and chose 1- 2 exercises per body part and end up hitting your entire upper body twice per week, for double the stimulation. Doesn't the latter option sound the best?

In addition to dividing my workouts into upper and lower halves, I also divide them into "Strength" and "Hypertrophy" days - a concept I got from Layne Norton, with my own spin.