NPC Competitor, Christina Adler, Talks With Genetic WAR

How long have you been training?

I have been an athlete for most of my life and have always enjoyed sports. But I have only been lifting heavy weight for about 18 months now.

What/Who got you motivated to start training?

I ended up suffering severe postpartum psychosis after the birth of my second daughter. I was put on several medications and started drinking. I ended up being a very overweight overmedicated lardbutt. After almost a year and a half of putting my body and my family through a lot of trauma and abuse my oldest daughter begged me to do something to make me feel better.

That’s when we signed up for mother daughter yoga. I was hooked. I then started taking pilates classes, then bodypump, and then came the mountainbiking. When I hit a plateau with my body that’s when I decided to hire a trainer and start lifting some serious weight.

What are you short / long-term fitness goals?

I plan to keep on competing as long as my body lets me. I have three NPC shows on my schedule at the end of the summer and I hope to make it to Nationals in Cleveland in September. I’ve already qualified to compete as a national open figure competitor and as a masters competitor but I’d really like to win a qualifier before I move on. I know that I haven’t paid my dues yet and it will take a long time before I earn my pro card but ultimately that is what I would love to do. I plan to finish a book about my fitness and mental health journey
that I’ve already started. I also plan to continue blogging at www.redheadlaw7.com where I hope to inspire men and women alike to get their groove’s back. And keep an eye out for some health and fitness articles that
I’ll be writing soon!

What workout routine has given you the best results?

Oh this is a toughy. I have a personal trainer that I have been working with for almost a year now and he can’t believe how my body reacts or doesn’t react to things. Somehow we got the top half of me to grow much quicker than the bottom half so we have been coming up with all kinds of crazy things that we do for my legs now.

For the past few months I’ve only been doing occasional light weight workouts for my arms and shoulders but we have been going crazy on the legs. Usually we’ll start off with legpresses which I’m proud to say I’ve gotten up to 625, and then we have been doing split lunges on the smith machine where I actually straddle the bar and lunge with fairly heavy weight. This takes all of the stabilizing muscles out of the exercise and spares the v taper. Then I’ll do some single legged deadlifts, and then some partial deadlifts that I only take down to my knees.

Next comes our newest secret weapon, the ankle weights and weighted vest. I basically have 60 pounds strapped onto me and my trainer has me run through some bootcamp exercises and has me jumping, climping, bouncing, dangling off of everything we can throw together. Then we do stairs with all of the weight
strapped on and then the exercise I hate the most, creeper walking lunges. If it’s not leg day in the gym then I am usually out mountainbiking or bouncing on my mini trampoline. It may sound silly but it does wonders for the core muscles.

What is your favorite form of cardio to cut body fat?

I personally despise cardio. I refuse to do it in a gym. This may be the reason I never get as cut as I would like. When I do decide that I’m getting down to the wire with contest prep I will only do some mountainbiking in the morning, usually fasted and with a shot of caffeine and yohimbine.

Could you outline your basic daily diet for cutting or building muscle?

Well I’m bulking right now and I’m ashamed to say that it hasn’t been pretty. I did three consecutive figure shows in a row and I killed off a ton of muscle and right now I am trying to get it back as quickly as possible so in the morning I have a few egg sandwiches and for lunch I’ll have my new fave protein source, Bubba burgers with a big bowl of brown rice.

For dinner it will be whatever meat the rest of the family is eating and two veggies, usually broccoli or cauliflower. I try to get in some grapefruit juice with every meal. I have also been turning ice cream and cafe lattes into a very bad habit as of late.

When it comes to cutting my diet is just about as basic as it gets because I am insulin resistant and I’m fairly sure I am mildly allergic to everything. I can’t have sugar, soy, or milk. So pretty much the only things can eat and really lose weight are lean proteins and tons of avocados. I’ll have brown rice and grapefruit near my workouts though.

What are your favorite pre and post workout meals?

My favorite preworkout meal is a banana and peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk and post workout would be a big handful of jellybeans with a nice big steak and a sweet potato.

What supplements do you take or recommend?

Right now I’m not taking anything because I’m bulking but I truly believe that if you tweak your diet to include antiestrogenic foods and to bump up your intake of testosterone boosting foods and include tons of quality protein sources and veggies you don’t really need to add in too much more.

I know around contest time I’ll start throwing in some thermogenics, potassium supplements, a B complex and some glutamine but that’s about it.

What has the biggest impact, in your opinion, on muscle growth and recovery?

The thing I tell most women whop are trying to put on muscle is that they really need to be getting in enough protein. That’s by far the biggest mistake I see women making. I also believe that trying to hit PRs in the gym all the time is extremely important.

If you aren’t growing muscle you either aren’t eating enough or pushing yourself hard enough. You have to let your body know that you mean business and that you’re not going to let up. I don’t think there is any magic formula though. You have to find what works for you. And I guess most importantly, if a program or diet is not working than find one that does.

Who inspires/motivates you the most.

I go down to posing class with IFBB pro Julie Palmer and trainer Mike Davies on a regular basis and I am always surrounded by national competitors and pros and these women are simply majestic. If I ever need motivation I just type in IFBB figure pro into a Google search and Boom! Instant motivation.