[Kiera]

So today Max and I signed up to a new food meal prep service, we tried some of their meals earlier this week and they were so good! We also worked out how much we were spending on food a week which was near £300 and the meal prep is around £30/40 more. That is crazy to me as the meals are prepped they taste so much better, the variation of protein sources are pretty endless and without sounding lazy, it’s so convenient. Max will get 5 meals a day and i will get 4 with the meals varying from 380-700cals per meal. I have averaged out my meals to around 500 calories a meal and will add a protein shake in in the morning.

Pretty excited to see how it goes for this next week, we have ordered them to be delivered Monday so will keep everyone updated on how they go down!

[Kiera]

You’ll only really know if something works for you by trying it for a significant amount of time. Like Marc said progress can come from form, increased weight or increased rep ranges. There are many different exercises and ways to execute them, there isn’t really a wrong way as long as you keep an eye on your form. Do something /do a stye you enjoy, record your results visually with checkins and go from there.

[Kiera]

Got the car back this morning which is one big job done and dusted, now the breaks are perfect which is what we need on the roads round here 😂 I think I said yesterday we break more than we accelerate here with how crazy the driving is.
We took Mr (our chow chow pup) out for a bit of a longer walk this morning. It was only 23 degrees so he was pretty happy in the heat but he’s slept all day, got up for some dinner and now wide awake because he’s slept all day 😅

Binous has now also got some deadlift bars in and some power bars too which Is pretty cool about but I know they’re going to be battered within a few weeks so I won’t get too excited about using them.

Tomorrow is glutes 💯

[Kiera]

We took the car to get its break pads redone today, so have been car – less for the whole day which has been pretty irritating but we got through it haha. We would have probably left the breaks if we were in the U.K. but here we use the breaks more then we use the accelerator due to the awful driving standards.

I trained legs today and I’m in love with the new pieces of equipment at Binous. Love the new hamstring curl and I am quite fond of the new swing squat which is a weird one for me because usually I don’t know them. I’m going to give it a go on one of my quad rotations and see if I still like it after i increase the weight and intensity. Awesome pump today though, next session I’m going to get into some high rep squats again.

[Kiera]

Yep I tend to have more complete days off, maximum 3 days in a row, and that seems to get rid of any degree of fatigue and cns burnout for me.

[Kiera]

Really does depend on your current situation. For example someone who is heavily overweight and doesn’t have much muscle mass to begin with, I’d suggest cutting the weight fast to get to a clean slate type scenario to begin from again the quickest

Someone who has significant muscle mass is worthwhile preserving then I’d opt for a slower approach.

Also depends on timeframe that you want to achieve a result by, future plans and so on.

[Kiera]

Rest day for us today, I went and got my monthly pamper session in which includes my nails/toes, face threading and hair wash with hair care treatment. Probably not anything anyone is interested in but I really look forward to it every month, it’s a little bit of TLC and me time I have away from everything work and fitness related and I find it really important to have that. Whether it be that or something else!

We also booked our tickets to see avatar on the 15th 😍 I know it’s the same day as the Olympia but luckily we are so far forward here we won’t miss any of the it. Super excited for both of those, me and max have been waiting for the avatar movie for years haha.

[Kiera]

Yep keep going, make the most of being in this tidy up phase, as it will mean the difference between being able to have a long off season and maximise your runway for growth.

[Kiera]

Nice, productive day today! Up a lot earlier, walked the dog while it was still cool (mind 20s). Worked, trianing and had some friends come over for a few hours this ending to meet Mr chow and catch up which was really nice. I didn’t end up training legs today as I thought I’d get better session tomorrow which is when my new squat shoes arrive. Which I will review as they arnt Nike Rs like my last pairs so will be interested to see if their hype is justified.

[Kiera]

In terms of muscle building accutane isn’t great for that. Leads to degradation of connective tissue – so more chance of injuries. Throws off nutrients in the body hugely (as expected as you’re literally ingesting huge quantities of a form of vitamin A)

If you’re going to use it, use a low dose 10mg or so a day for a longer period of time.

[Kiera]

Such a nice day back in routine, honestly can’t express how much I like structure and routine in my life 😅 a little bit of chaos is always nice now and then but for the best part I love being in routine.
We were up at 7am still not our preferred time but still suffering a little from the 4 hour time difference. Breakfast, cardio, work and then off to the gym before the rush hour traffic starts.
We always try and get to the gym before 2 because it’s mental anytime after. On the road, in the car park and in the gym gets way too busy.

I trained a lighter leg session to get a good pump and will get back into progressing my lifts as of this week 💯

[Kiera]

Have you received your judges feedback yet? That is a very important starting point before you start looking at your training split. You need to understand why you placed where you did and it could be to do with multiple factors including: conditioning, posing, stage presence, tan,, the list is endless unfortunately. I’d make sure you get their feedback first too as they may believe you’re lacking in certain body parts. ‘If’ they mentioned your quads needed to be bigger – for example. Then your training ideally should mirror that and you should factor in more quad focused training days.

[Kiera]

Absolutely wiped out today, night flights are not the one haha. We got into the apartment at 9.30am which was 5:30 am for us and neither of us slept on the flight so we went to bed and got up at 2pm. Still felt very tired but we pulled it together and went food shopping so we can start everything off well tomorrow and not prolong getting back into a good routine by another day.

It’s pretty late for us now but my brain is still on U.K. time. Im going to be taking both the halcyon and dream sleep tonight which is a killer combo but one that I don’t use together very often as I find it hard to wake up haha.

[Kiera]

7mm is perfect for most people. Even with those you’re still not getting a huge amount of rebound from them. The knee sleeve game has changed dramatically last year or so, with ones from inzer or iron rebel coming out with very stiff ones, which make SBD feel flimsy in comparison.

[Kiera]

Day of traveling today, currently sat in the airport waiting for our flight which is at 9:40pm. I’m not a fan of night flights but there didn’t seem to have many options. We should get in at 7/8am so I reckon I’ll need to sleep for the first half of tomorrow as I don’t usually sleep on planes. Hopefully it shouldn’t take more than a few days to get back into a routine and we will be in Dubai until February then and we can stay put and get some good work in.