and you better do what works best for your own body.
" Get the heavy stuff out of the way," Christina says about her morning sessions. " Doing this sets my intention for the whole day, and if I can do this( workout), then I can do anything!”
Alexis?
She waits until the world quiets down: " I just am a night person. My brain starts going at night. Also, I feel that if I do something active in the evening, it helps me wind down. I think that ' s a leftover from dance, as all those years of dance- classes were always at night. Mornings, I focus on the day ahead. At night, I do more of my physical activity.” Currently, as they are ramping up for the VDC contest and they are following a 5 days a week training split.
Favorite Exercises / Body Parts
Alexis:“ Leg extensions. I love to kill it on those. For a favorite body part overall, probably back.”
Christina:“ Back day is my favorite. I don’ t love pull-ups, but pulldowns are definitely my thing. And I’ m always pumped for a good chest day.”
For Alexis, it boils down to basics. Lots of pulldowns and rows.“ I like the basic stuff,” she chimed in:
“ Seated cable rows with a triangle bar, close-grip pulldowns. Regular pulldowns and lots of rows.”
For Christina, her focus now is on really digging deep into that mind-muscle connection:
“ Sometimes I will do a single arm pulldown with a D handle instead of a straight bar to really isolate the lats one side at a time. Hold at the bottom, really squeeze. Even do an isometric hold.” Both cite legs as their most challenging body part to develop.
Alexis focuses on heavy weights followed by high-rep burnouts to maximize muscle fatigue. When going heavy, her reps drop lower but never below 4.
“ I take most sets to failure, and generally do 3-4 working sets,” says Christina.“ But as I progress through a workout, I’ ll scale back the number of sets while keeping the intensity high. On the last exercise, I may only do two working sets as I ' m already warmed up and ready to go, so just kill it.”
As Christina navigates prep while managing Lupus, adapting is key.“ There are days I have no grip strength. Numbness is a huge issue. I refuse to let my diagnosis set my limits. Training with Lupus is a challenge, but it ' s not going to beat me. The more people say I shouldn ' t be able to do something, the more I want to do it. Things like that motivate me. We all have challenges, and this one isn ' t going to stop me.”
Her philosophy?
“ We know our bodies better than anyone else. Don’ t let someone else’ s limits hold you back. Keep pushing yourself. Use common sense, don ' t get hurt, but remember no one knows your body like you do. You know what you can handle.”
Cardio: Fasted or Fed?
Morning fasted cardio has become a staple for Christina.
“ I just won’ t do it if I’ ve eaten before. I feel terrible doing cardio on a full stomach,” she explains.
Is there an ideal time to do your cardio? Christina’ s advice?
Find what you’ ll stick with long term. As she explains,“ I feel you should do what works for you and stick to it. For example, if you hate doing the step mill, don ' t do it. Even if it ' s effective, you need to find an activity you will stick with long term. So that ' s my theory about fasted cardio. Whether or not it ' s more effective at fat burning might be debatable, but it is how I like to do it, and doing it fasted keeps me on track. I wake up and do it and it is done, and I don ' t have to worry about it later on.”
Dialing In the Diet As the show approaches, both women have tightened their nutrition plans. Christina follows a primarily plant-based, gluten-free diet. Due to her Lupus diagnosis, she has had to