[Kiera]

Push is one of the main things that gets affected more so by drops in body weight as opposed to other bodyparts. Similarly in powerlifting, when dropping weight bench is the first to suffer for majority of powerlifters, the fact you’be dropped 13lbs very quickly is a big reason.

[Kiera]

Such a busy day today but has been great! Headed back to golds gym Venice beach because we couldn’t resist not getting another session in there. Trained legs and felt awesome, mainly quads but threw in two hamstring exercises too.

Training wasnt going to be a massive priority to me this week but I’ve trained 3/4 days I’ve been here so far and love the vibe of all of them I’ve been too.

After the gym we walked nearly the full length of Venice beach .. which if you’ve been you know how long that is! Perhaps not the best idea after training legs very hard but it was such a lovely sunset and the weather is so perfect out here. Around 24/26 during the day and drops to around 20 degrees in the evening. Warmer than the U.K. and cooler than dubai haha.

We then traveled 1.5 hours south and we are currently staying in a hotel for the next few nights to be nearer the festival we are going to this weekend. It’s nice up here and there are some really cool places to check out tomorrow that are walking distance so I think I’ll do that in the AM and find a gym to train at in the afternoon.

[Kiera]

Most important factor for hypertrophy is peak tension strain on the muscle fibres I.E. the weight the muscle is subjected to when lifting. Therefore don’t focus on increases TUT just ensure the reps are nice and controlled and the weight is increasing as time goes on.

[Kiera]

Such a wicked day today, probably the most draining day I’ve had in a while but it was super awesome! Headed to golds gym this morning to train and film my workout. The gym is awesome, the vibe is completely different to anything I’ve experienced before and it’s definitely somewhere I will training again.

I then headed to shoot with Sean Nelson who shoots a load of well known fitness athletes and pros. We shot at 3 different locations and the shoot was specific to my off season look and embracing what we as athletes look like the majority of the year. It was really cool and I really like the content, can’t wait to post some pics from it 💯

I have no clue what I’m doing tomorrow, my friends have now arrived so I think we’ll have a spontaneous day out somewhere with a gym session in the afternoon! I want to take them back to golds gym but it’s a little while away so will see on timings and traffic.

[Kiera]

For muscle building it’s not optimal at all, having extended periods of time with no input in nutrition doesn’t lend well to bodybuilding goal. – however for other health benefits it does have some merit.

[Kiera]

Another lovely day today, hit legs earlier this morning at the same golds gym in Hollywood and had a wicked session. Awesome pump and my high bar squat is improving and each session.

I’ve only been got from Dubai 3 days and apparently there is a ton of new equipment in. Including a load of leg equipment. Which is awesome but also so frustrating because as you know I’d just sorted my split out and now I have even more kit to choose from 😂

I went the Hollywood walk of fame and Westfield shopping centre this afternoon, the shopping centre was a complete let down but in fairness Dubai is home to the biggest shopping mall in the world. So not many places are going to live up to that!

My friends from Toronto arrive in a few hours and I’m spending the rest of my trip with them. Tomorrow I have a fitness shoot with Sean Nelson. He does a lot of the photography for the Olympia athletes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. I’m not lean and I don’t feel amazing about my physique right now but I’d like to think this will allow me to embrace the body I live 80% of the year in.

[Kiera]

I was hit so hard with jet lag today it was on another level. Something very weird with being completely awake when you should be asleep. 11hour time difference, basically night and day flipped but i got through it 💯

Woke up pretty early around 6am. Caught up on a lot of work that I missed while flying for 16 hours. Then headed to golds gym hollywood. It’s not the iconic one on Venice beach because I didn’t feel like the 50minute drive today but it was still a very sick gym and would highly recommend it to people staying in Hollywood.

Then decided to take in the scenery and walked an hour to the Grove, stopping by a few shops I’ve wanted to go to for a while and ending up in the farmers market which was pretty amazing. So far LA is exactly how I pictured it 😅 which is neither bad nor good, it’s an experience and I suppose like most places has its highs and lows.

Day 2 here tomorrow, will fire myself up for a good quads session and see where the day takes me after that 🙂

[Kiera]

At some point during dieting you may find that you have no options but to run fats a bit lower than optimal in order to meet your caloric deficit requirements! However in this instance they are still in a position where they are low on training days but not to a point where it will cause any issues.

[Kiera]

Rogue fitness have come up with these cool weights that you can add onto dumbbells https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-add-on-change-plate-pair

[Kiera]

Greetings from 40’000ft in the sky and 11 hours into my 16 hour plane journey to LA.

Apologies if my logs are a little all over the place the next week or so as i will be 11 hours behind dubai. I will be writing up all of my whereabouts while I’m there and what I get up to fitness/non fitness.

Today has and will be a long day as I was up at 4am and land at 1am which will be 12pm in LA. reckon it will take me a good day to adjust to the jet lag but I’m hoping to get a good sleep after being awake for 24+ hours.

[Kiera]

Put my glutes through a workout from hell today, adding in all the new pieces and kit that I wanted to try and connected well with all of them but that is probably due to bartering then during my first exercise on glute bridges.

Really happy with my lower split now and until my shoulder and hand is sorted it’s pretty much going to be this with deadlifts and some back thrown in. It shouldn’t be for too long though as I have a call with my surgeon soon to book my operation for November.

I’m having an early night as I’m up at 4:45 to catch a taxi to the airport. Heading to LA ✈️

[Kiera]

Whether I see a specialist or not depends on rate of improvement. If there has been no improvement to the injury over the last couple of weeks then go and see one. If there has been improvement then likely it just needs time to heal. People forget that seeing a specialist doesn’t heal an injury just identifies the issue, it doesn’t take away the time needed to heal it.

[Kiera]

I highly recommend going to a variety of different gym and testing out the various pieces of equipment and go with a notebook. It’s hard to recommend one brand, because difffent brands have different pieces that they excel at.

[Kiera]

Finally got round to squaring off a perfect leg day. For me I like to connect well with every exercise, so having 10 different types of one machine for every type of machine in B1 makes it a lot harder to find the perfect one.

I have an awesome hack squat which is the startrack hack, it’s so smooth, perfect angle and have full stability throughout the whole movement. I really wanted to like the gymleco hack because it’s pretty up right and mimics my squat stance the best but it pushes my lower back out too much and didn’t good when I started loading weight.

I’m going to spend a few weeks getting used to these machines and building the numbers too. Right now I’ve got a combination of weight and rep ranges to work with which also makes it a lot more enjoyable too.

I’ve got a glute and hamstring session tomorrow and think I’ve got that program down to a T as well. So will be back with the verdict 💯

[Kiera]

Busy day today, I feel like this whole first week back had been double effort to get our routine and normality back in check. Max felt loads better today so I ordered him some nice breakfast and made sure he ate because loosing 8kg over a few days of being Ill is not good for anyone.
We trained later than usual around 4pm which meant we got stuck in the worst traffic. It’s not as bad as London traffic but it’s getting there for sure, give it a few more years 😂

We both had deadlifts today and after a long deload from them i thought It would feel great to get back into them ❌. Nope, they were really hard and honestly 180kg felt taxing. I also tweaked something in my lower back/piriformas (story of my life) Tuesday while doing split squats so I think this had a part to play in them not feeling quite as nice as I hoped.

I got the work done, however I am in a bit of a low place with training right now, knowing I have a shoulder operation next month and hand operation coming up it does put me in a bit of a low mood. I do keep telling myself one step forward and two steps back is better than just stepping backwards altogether. It’s a very short time frame to be out of training in the grand scheme of things so I will just continue to do what I can while I can.

Tomorrow is a full quads day which I’m really looking forward to!