[Kiera]

I was meant to squat today but my legs didn’t feel 100% and squats are getting pretty heavy now so thought it be best to leave them one more day.
I trained upper body today which was really nice. I benched a few days ago for the first time in a month and today was my first programmed upper day.

Worked up to 100kg for 4 sets x 5 on bench. They felt ok, shoulder was a bit unsettled after but glad to get the work done.
Followed by:
Lateral raises, rear delts, incline chest press and some tricep work. Still keeping it moderately light on the accessories but glad be back doing bits.

I will train squats tomorrow and hopefully smash 170kg high bar for some working sets of 5 reps.

[Kiera]

I use wrist wraps when benching. I add them in after 80kg because like the others have stated above they add stability to the joint and i personally wouldn’t do any heavy bench press without them now. However, i don’t use them for anything else. You don’t want to become too reliant on them because the connective tissue around the wrist will weaken if you use them for every pushing movement. I suggest using them for one or two key pushing exercises at most or even just your top sets/working sets on those exercises.

[Kiera]

Really lovely day today. Woke up early to get some work done and check in with my American clients who are mostly 12 hours behind me right now. Then i took the afternoon off to do completely nothing which is not like me at all. I have been in Dubai for nearly 3 months and today was the first time i went to the beach and chilled by a pool with some friends. It was a planned rest day for me as i trained legs yesterday so a really relaxing day. We went to a pretty well known beach club called train beach club that has a pretty sick gym too, the atmosphere is really chilled and they have protein shakes, meal prep and ‘healthy’ meals there that you can order which is pretty cool. I went for a protein smoothie and a prawn, chicken pasta.

Tomorrow i’ve got squats and some upper body including bench.

[Kiera]

The best diet is the one you can stick to, so if you can’t do long dieting phases then this would be the natural path to go down. – with the addition of anabolics and ensuring your training intensity is maintained then muscle wastage shouldn’t be something to worry about. I would recommend doing these after a short 3/4 week maintenance phase after you’ve pushed up in bodyweight – once you’ve really spent a little bit of time at your peak weight, to get your body to acclimatise and embed the new muscularity you’ve put on.

[Kiera]

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I had a pretty good Saturday, was meant to be a rest day but my legs and back felt good after yesterdays deadlift session so thought i would train legs today as i’ve got quite a busy rest day tomorrow.

I mentioned in a previous log update that i’m training legs quite a bit at the minute so im squatting every other session. Today was a higher volume leg session and decided to leg press instead of hack squat. I like both and connect well with both so centre my higher volume quad workout around one or the other. Personally i prefer to focus on one main quad exercise that i connect really well with rather than multiple exercises i don’t.

Todays session also included hamstrings as well:

lying hamstring curl

seated hamstring curl

leg press

leg extension

sissy squats

adductor

calves

[Kiera]

Yeah I’d remove it completely, – as it’s really not worth potentially causing more pain, – for an exercise that when it comes down to it, isn’t actually that rewarding, there are much better alternatives for the target muscles.

[Kiera]

Day of the deadlifts and some bench press..

Surgeon wants me to keep up with some upper body movements even bench. His words ‘we will be fixing you anyway so there isn’t much you can do between now or then that will alter the surgery’. With that being said i went straight back to some upper body training today. I wanted to see how bench felt after 2/3 weeks of rest. I got up to 100kg for 3 sets of 5 reps before it started to wake up and get grumpy but i was happy with that. I will now incorporate a chest and shoulder day into my training until my surgery.

Deadlifts were awesome, warmups felt a little heavy but i had a small girl gang join me today who insisted on filming all my pulls so i made an effort to make them as smooth as possible haha.

225kg x 5 (3 sets)

205kg x 10 reps (final set).

They felt good though and i’m confident i have a few more 5kg jumps left in me too.

[Kiera]

So for sure as mentioned, rapid increases in bw increase the likelihood of occurrence. Keeping up a baseline level of cardio will help massively, – and ensuring your electrolyte balance is in check is also really important.

[Kiera]

Finally some answers from my MRI on my shoulder. Looks like there were quite a few things causing problems in my shoulder which makes sense as to why some of the best guys back in the UK couldn’t pin point the issue.

First was a partial SLAP tear, which we initially thought was the problem. Second, is a bone spur causing an impingement (which is most likely what is causing the pain). Third is some bicep tendinitis but its not severe so with a course of PRP treatment it should be ok.

There was also still clear inflammation (despite the MRI being taken 10 days after i stopped training upper body) and some wear and tear but nothing the surgeon found to be uncommon with how much i lift and the frequency.

An operation is required if i want to continue benching and progressing in the sport. The bone need to be shaved down to stop the impingement and a small metal rod needs to be inserted to prevent the SLAP tear from getting worse. I have also asked for the first round of PRP to be done during the operation and while i am asleep.

It’s really not ideal but it comes with the territory and im always up for a new challenge. This doesn’t change my plans to compete this year. I have a meet in July and November both locked in and it gives me enough time to recover, regain and even build to a whole new level of power and strength that i haven’t seen yet.

We all face set backs but it’s how we bounce back from them that counts.

[Kiera]

Pretty good session today. It was hamstring and glute focused with some calves and cardio thrown in too.

I ordered Nordtic track S22i for the apartment. I have wanted it’s rival the Peloton bike for a while and I’ve used it before and it’s awesome. So competitive and fun and an awesome way to stay healthy and have fun doing cardio. The Nordic Track S22i is really cool, you can take virtual classes where the bike will automatically increase and decrease In resistance in time with the instructors commands.

I love all those kind of gimmicks and overall just love staying fit! So I’ll let you know how I find this one as I’ve not used it before.

Tomorrow I get my MRI results and I just want to know what’s going on now so I can plan accordingly. This week I’ve been in a bit of limbo wanting to plan for the future few months and this entire year. I will let you guys know what the verdict is when I receive the results but I’m hoping it’s good news and something better than a SLAP tear as my shoulder/bicep has been feeling better these past 10 days.

[Kiera]

So as body fat rises you aromatise estrogen more readily. This is likely what’s happening here. In the meantime until we get your test results back, supplementing with Calcium D-Glucarate will help manage your estrogen in the meantime – until bloods come back and we can assess whether a stronger approach is needed.

[Kiera]

Busy day today – leg session was pushed back to later afternoon which is always a bit annoying as the gym is SOO busy. Was able to get on a squat rack pretty quickly though, before my pre stim kicked in, so that was a win haha.

Squats went really well. I moved up from 160kg to 165kg for 4 sets of 5 reps to depth with a slight pause in the hole. I was actually pretty happy with the depth in all the sets and I film from the harshest angle being to the side and slightly to the back which shows the angle and hip and knee creese clearly.

I’d like to move these up-to 170kg for 4 x 5 next squats session and that would be a pretty good point to be at.

I’ve decided to stay high bar now, even for my competitions. I personally get along with high bar much more, don’t fold forward or struggle to push my knees forwards or hips down. I also don’t get any arm/shoulder or elbow pain and the set up feels much more natural. So it will be exciting to see how that progresses.

Rest of the session consisted of leg press, abductor, leg extension and calves.

[Kiera]

A broken wrist really is a Massive set back. Best thing you can do, is try to do unilateral work on the side that you can train effectively – as studies have shown that muscle mass can be maintained better when one side is trained when the other is injured.

I’d also look into using cuffed exercises around your elbow as much as possible. And perhaps moving onto a lower body specialisation block whilst it heals

PED wise, for sure some peptides will come in handy bpc 157 and tb500

Growth hormone – also but be wary of using a dosage that causes excessive water retention particularly with your wrist as you don’t want to cause any carpal tunnel symptoms whilst it’s healing

It’s very important to do lots of mobility work as likely the main issue you will have will be scar tissue and mobility of the wrist when it’s healed – so start some mobility drills early on

[Kiera]

Quiet rest day for me today. Although a trip to the supermarket here feels like a day out as our nearest hyper-mart is 15/20 mins away. Its quite common to get shopping delivered here but each time we have done it it hasn’t gone to plan. I remember ordering 3 bottles of sugar free squash and receiving 4 packs of chocolate fingers and a pack of dark chocolate digestive thins as an ‘acceptable’ alternative ?

Ive been off PED’s for over 2 weeks now. It ended up being a 6 weeks cycle after all with little to no side affects. The main two side affects i notice are increase in spots but not enough to call acne and increase in hair growth, both of which subside when i come off cycle.

Tomorrow I’m squatting and taking the high bar up by 5kg again! will update on how it goes 🙂

[Kiera]

Completely agree with Clare on this one and it is quite subjective to your lifestyle and your goals.

I’m not sure if you specified if you were cutting/maintaining/bulking but I’d only be looking to lower or eliminate carbs on not training days if you are in prep for a show or trying to lose a lot of weight. I’d also personally opt for more cardio before decreasing food.

A few things for you to look at before deciding:

how quickly are you losing weight?
How much cardio are you doing?
How is your recovery?

Personally I eat the same on rest days as I do on training days and like Clare mentioned a lot people keep it fairly consistent across both days to help with recovery but it is very person dependent and relies on a few different variables.