[Kiera]

Happy New Year Guys! Hope you all had a great NYE! We were meant to get a nice cheat meal but all the delivery services were closed due to the rain here in Dubai so we settled for our usual chicken and rice and walked to this really sweet cake shop that luckily was still open and got some really good cheesecake (probably the best I’ve tried) so that was a win at least haha. We watched the fireworks display of the Burj from the rooftop of our building which was incredible and pretty much went to sleep after that because we are not late night people and felt it this morning haha.

The rain is still pouring here in Dubai which sounds silly to mention but Dubai is not built for the rain and with that all the roads and 2/3 of the gym are still flooded. I managed to get my squat bar from one of the flooded rooms and after waiting 40 minutes for the single squat rack that wasn’t in a pool of water managed to get squatting haha.

Squats today:

210kg x 5 (low bar)

160kg 3 x 6 (high bar)

100kg x 20 reps (high bar)

Leg extension. Hamstring curl, hack squat, calves and abs.

[Kiera]

The rain has been crazy and quite a big problem for drivers, workers and businesses but it shouldn’t last for too much longer and t<font face=”inherit”>hank you very much! will be updating this log daily so you can follow my </font>journey<font face=”inherit”> if you wish too 🙂 </font>

Saw your post on Insta, that is wild with the rain.
You’re an amazing athlete, wishing you all the success you deserve

[Kiera]

So using the least fat possible is the wrong way to go about this entirely. Fats are really important for skin hydration, strength, and cholesterol. / how much fat to use, is individual, some do well on low fats others need it a bit higher.

Digestion will play a role as well as your energy balance needs. / I don’t like people to dip below 40g a day at a bare minimum. Most males I find perform best at 60-70g and above. It’s important to also think about what fats to use, make up the majority of your sources from pufa, then mono then Saturated in that order. With pufa the vast majority.

[Kiera]

Hey Guys, Happy New Years Eve!

Today was a pretty crazy day, it rained here in Dubai for the first time this year (and the last haha) but with that the whole of Dubai kinda went into melt down. All the roads flooded, our apartment leaked and 2/3 of the gym was flooded so it was shut off. With that i couldn’t squat as i needed to be in one of the rooms that was closed off so i had a mega bench session and trained grip and cardio too.

Was a pretty cool bench session as Kirill Sarychev was training next me and helped me with some bench technique which was pretty awesome! For those of you who don’t know who he is, He held the world bench press record of 335kg RAW.

Today was 8 sets x 4 paused reps @110kg – it was a lot harder than it sounds haha.

Tomorrow i will squat instead of resting to make up for not being able to do it today.

[Kiera]

Rest day for me today. Thought i would need it after yesterdays deadlifts but actually feeling pretty good and would like to train but the programme and coach says otherwise so a rest day it is.

I may pop in later to do some grip training and some cardio depending on how much i walk today. I plan to take my family to see a really cool market here in Dubai and before ive walked roughly 15k steps getting around it so if thats the case i won’t do any extra cardio as tomorrow i have a very heavy squat day.

[Kiera]

It’s all to do with energy balance. Id assume that standing for such a long period of time would for sure mean expenditure is higher than before. So trial reducing your direct cardio down first and see whether your energy balance deficit is enough to produce the results. From there you can gradually increase it to your optimal level.

[Kiera]

Today 2 wrongs actually made a right haha.
Firstly I miss loaded my deadlift bar, I had a 5kg on one side and a 2.5kg on the other. God knows how I didn’t feel the difference as usually I can tell if there is a collar missing but it meant that todays sets were actually 247.5kg instead of 245kg. Then second mistake was thinking my coach had programmed me to do 2 x 3 when in actual fact it was 2 x 2 on 245kg.

So ended up with a nice triple on 247.5kg and a second set of 247.5kg for 2 followed by 210kg for a set of 8.

It’s been over 10 days since I’ve pulled anything heavy as last week was my deload but today felt really good. I also did 225kg 2 x 2 bare handed before my strapped work and some heavy 8rm bent over rows after it.

Working hard on my grip this next 6 weeks because no doubt I have the deadlift world record in me with straps but unfortunately In powerlifting you can’t use them. I have been grinding away in silence working on my grip as my left hand is a lot weaker due to an operation I had 4 years ago but fingers crossed we will get there and has improved massively already.

[Kiera]

After a chat with my powerlifting coach on the weekend we decided on a pretty cool and new way of training for the next 5.5 weeks leading up to my comp.

I know my body well and I know my body responds the best to being ‘beaten up’. Basically high volume / frequency and a pretty significant weight too. My recovery off cycle is pretty crazy which is primarily down to genetics but on cycle it’s another level. I can go the entire prep and really push weights, 1RMs, reps ect and only get DOM’s or feel like I need a rest day once or twice in the whole prep period.

We also looked at how my last prep (before I got injured) went and we noticed that when the volume in my squats decreased my strength plateaued.

So this time round we have planned to train every other day, allowing for recovery but training bench and squat every session and deadlift every other session. This means I get 2 SBD sessions a week and an extra 10 bench/squat sessions in leading up to my comp.

They are not all max work, in fact most of it isn’t. 3 out of 4 squat/bench sessions a week are 85% < work but a hell of a lot of volume.

We plan to keep a close eye on progress and recovery throughout every session and Shane has programmed 10kg jumps each week for squat and deadlift and 5/10kg jumps for bench.

Pretty excited to see how it goes and will of course keep you updated.

[Kiera]

First Christmas Day off training in 4 years and thoroughly enjoyed it. My family arrived in Dubai on Christmas eve and Max and I spent Christmas eating sushi, wasting too much money trying to win stuffed toys at fair ground in Global Village (still didn’t win haha) and relaxing on the beach. It was a very different type of Christmas to the one’s i’ve had before but was so so lovely and i really enjoyed it.

Today was back in the gym for a bench and squat session with some accessories thrown in. My bicep tendon gets very aggravated during meet prep especially when low bar is introduced. It effects bench the most and has a small carry over to deadlift too but nothing i can’t grit my teeth and get through. I have started doing shoulder dislocations with a wooden stick everyday to increase mobility and stop impingements and it seems to be working quite nicely.

Bench:

115kg x 6 reps

115kg x 5 reps

105kg x 6 reps

105k x 6 reps

95kg x 8 reps

95kg x 8 reps

Squat:

4 x 8 @160kg (ATG squats – squat is still on a deload until my next session which should be tues/wed).

followed this with some Hack squat, leg extension, adductor and abs.

[Kiera]

Do you deadlift or do any pulling variations with a mixed grip at all, One hand over one hand under?

[Kiera]

Lovely case of food poisoning for me last night, woke up 3kg lighter and boy did it show in my training today.

Yes i should have rested but with it being Christmas and wanting to celebrate with my family, who are flying out to Dubai, i wanted to try and get my sessions in before the weekend. It was not a good idea even on deload work i struggled to feel comfortable with 150kg deadlift so i called it a day and will revisit them again tomorrow.

On a brighter note i can feel the PED’s working for me now 🙂 I don’t suffer with many side affects. Hair growth for me is the main one but that doesn’t bother me. Occasionally i get the odd break out in spots on my face but i get them off cycle too and never bad enough to call it ‘ache’. Starting to get a bit of a more 3D look which i love haha and my bench is the first indicator that the PED’s have kicked in. 100kg is a good base weight for me to judge how much my strength has improved.

[Kiera]

Deload week for me this week on squat and deadlift.
Only training 4 days of the week and the weight I’m using is a lot lighter but the volume is still quite high.

This deload is quite exciting though as I like to see it as the final charge up before the 6 week push towards my meet, which is where the fun begins.

Have been in a double iso phase for squats and bench this far and deadlifts have been pretty fun but no big numbers yet so I’m really looking forward to the next month and a half.

Today was bench and squat.

Bench:

115kg x 6

115kg x 5

100kg x 12

100kg x 8

Squat:

4 x 5 @ 140kg. (1.5 reps).

– I strongly urge anyone who hasn’t tried 1.5 rep squats to give them a go. They are very humbling haha.

Quite simply squat below parallel, come half way up, squat back down to parallel and then come up to lock out. I’ve worked up to 170kg on this method and they’re ridiculously hard especially on sets of 5/6 reps.

[Kiera]

Here is Wonder Woman ?

Give me a few more weeks ???

[Kiera]

Legs session today.
Once I start incorporating low bar into my lifting I struggle to have a good session with high bar for the main reason that it’s weaker and harder haha.

Todays session was high bar session:

185kg x 5

165kg x 5

160kg x 5

160kg x 5

140kg x 5

They moved well but felt heavy after a pretty full on week of training. I don’t usually look forward to a deload but I think this one has come bang on time and I will spend next week working on technique and volume with a lower weight.

Rest of the session consisted of hack squat, hamstring curl, leg extension and abs.

[Kiera]

Another really productive session today hitting a 130kg bench with a comp pause and 2 sets of 110kg for 6. i attempted 140kg but didn’t give it enough rest time as i was filming for Larry Wheels youtube and he likes to move at the speed of light haha.

I’m pretty certain that 140kg will be there in no time though and i was very pleased with the working sets.

The rest of the session consisted of some prime incline bench, flat dumbbell press, behind back rear delt raises and dips.

BW right now is sitting at 80.7kg (just over 5kg above comp weight) have added a KG from starting my cycle which seems to be the norm for me. Most competitive girls in my class sit around 82/83kg and water cut into the meet so i am in a pretty good position, being any lighter for me wouldn’t be beneficial.