Danni's 2019 Improvement Season

Bloodwork update:

- Oestrogen came back within a normal range which I am SO happy with

- TSH however has gotten higher, indicative of an under-active thyroid.

I'm currently waiting for a phone call from my doctor Monday to discuss things further. However, after asking advice from some knowledgable people I trust I am most likely going to go down the private healthcare route when it comes to medicating in order to get my thyroid hormones back into a physiological range.

The reason for this is that going down a GP route they will usually give a very generic treatment of T3 only, when there could be benefits to a combination therapy depending on what is going wrong where with my thyroid hormones. Therefore, I'm most likely going to go private to ensure I'm doing everything properly to get my hormone health in tact. (thank you to the helpful individuals who gave me advise on this).

Nothing is set in stone yet, but I'll keep this up to date for those interested (let me know if you are and I'll carry on posting)

I'm also going to be coaching myself again for the foreseeable whilst I get my hormones sorted. I'm going to continue training 3X per week for now, and then hopefully progress to training 4X per week in a few weeks time :)

Danni x

So this week is the last (sixth) week of my current mesocycle which I have used as a recovery period with reduced training frequency (3x per week). I'm finishing really strong with a massive improvement on most of my compound movements.

Today was a lower focused session, starting with conventional deadlifts

Set 1 - 110kg X 8

Set 2 - 110kg X 6

Set 3 - 100kg X 8

(0-1RIR)

The first week of this mesocycle my starting performance on the conventional deadlift was:

Set 1 - 100kg X 6

Set 2 - 100kg X 6

Set 3 - 100kg X 7

(~2RIR)

So I've really pleased with how I've progressed, especially considering we've had a busy weekend of work and travelling with the UKDFBA show which was a fantastic day, and a huge success with my client Amy placing 2nd in her first show and AJ's clients all doing extremely well!

I have my blood test Thursday so will post the results on here when I get them. I'm hoping to progress my training and increase frequency to 4X per week if all goes well

Hope you're all having a great week so far!

It's been a while ha!

So, me and AJ are now settled at our new home around the corner from Ultra Flex (Rotherham). I feel extremely grateful to be able to have Ultra Flex as our home gym and we have both agreed we much prefer living away from the city centre and out of a flat. We've been extremely busy over the past couple of weeks but are finally down to the last piece of Ikea furniture to unpack!

I'm still training 3X per week during my recovery phase whilst doing 30 minutes of cardio over the week, and I'm not currently tracking my macros as it doesn't really serve me a purpose at the moment. I'm just eating to hunger and of course hitting the usual fundamentals (I'm not eating like an ass hole, just not tracking on myfitnesspal).

My next blood test is on Thursday 12th September so we'll see if things have improved by then and if they have gradually start creeping training frequency etc back up again, whilst staying out of a deficit. I'll post on here when I know, but I already feel so much better. Energy levels have increased and I'm feeling way less sluggish in general, training performance is improving, recovery is great and I'm currently sat at 140lbs. My last stage weight was 120.8lbs.

Really looking forward to going to the BNBF show this weekend, if anyones planning on going I'll see you there! :)

So this update is probably going to be on the longer side as a lot has been going on and my fat loss plans are on hold for now.

Whilst fat loss was proving to be very slow and I felt like I was having to push pretty hard for it, I also felt pretty fatigued/draggy (more than usual, I'm not complaining about dieting). I had a blood test with Medichecks on Monday 24th June as I was eager to learn more about where I'm currently at. I have been diagnosed with PCOS in the past so partly wanted to look into that in more detail, and for anyone that doesn't know I have an irregular menstrual cycle and have done for a while now. I have regained my cycle during every improvement season, but until now my improvement seasons have been <7 months.

I got the blood test results back and my oestrogen is low (outside of the normal range), and my TSH was high which can be a sign of a potential under-active thyroid.

Interestingly, my testosterone and androgens were not high either (they are usually higher than usual in people that have PCOS) which adds to my doubts about having true PCOS as I am aware it can be incorrectly diagnosed..This isn't a concern to my health as they were within a normal range, just not high like you would expect someone with PCOS to have.

Due to my oestrogen & TSH being out of range and therefore my health not being quite where I want it to be, I've stopped trying to pursue fat loss and I'm currently going through a bit of a recovery phase over the next few months to try and get myself into a better place.

The last thing I want to do during my improvement seasons when I have the opportunity to prioritise health is make things worse..so my aim is to try and do what I cab to improve my hormonal status and get myself into a position where I can push again in future and my body be able to bounce back from it, rather than causing long-term damage.

After doing some digging it turns out both of my nan's on both sides of my family have an under-active thyroid and take thyroxine to treat it, so the likelihood is that I may have inherited that side of things and made it a little worse through dieting to extremes over the past few years during my competition preps.

I'm also going through my GP and seeing what they have to say. I had a phone call with them last week and I'm taking my blood tests in to them this week so that they can have a look at them and potentially do some further tests.

So to take action, I've reduced my training frequency to 4X per week and I'm ensuring not to kill myself off in the gym (not taking things quite to failure, unfortunately).

I am no longer doing any formal cardio other than an optional 30 minutes per week at a low intensity, and I have increased my calorie intake as my priority is to remove the stress of a deficit. I'm going on holiday on 23rd July with AJ where I'll be taking a week off, we'll reassess post holiday and potentially reduce training frequency further.

I couldn't thank my coach Luke enough for helping me through this as he's been a fantastic support and help.

I have also contacted Victoria Felkar as she's extremely knowledgable in this area of things, so may be going through with a consult call from her to get her advice. (for those of you who don't know her, search her on the Podcasts app or on Instagram..she's knowledge goals)

Body composition wise, I'd like to stay within a range of where I'm currently at and maintain the muscle tissue I have worked so hard to build during this phase..so we are aiming to stick around my minimum effective volume. I will attach my most recent check in pictures from Friday! :)

Apologies for the lack of updates, as you can imagine a lot has been going on and I wanted to get a clearer picture of where I am actually at before throwing updates out there!

Danni x

These are Friday's check in pictures - a bit flat through my muscle bellies (to be expected), but feel a little leaner..

So I did try to attach my pictures to the above update whilst on the train, which failed..and then my phone pretty much died on me and I had to take it to the apple store Tuesday & have it factory reset so lost all of my data (including previous progress pictures).

It's been a pretty hectic week hence the lack of updates so sorry guys! I'm going to make a conscious effort to get better at updating my log on here.

I've now been in this short fat loss phase for 3 weeks. Scale weight has been a bit up and down but is very slowly trending down so we'll see how the next few weeks go. I took Yohimbine on Sunday (yesterday) for the last time during this fat loss phase, as I'm now pulling it to ensure I am not retaining any water as a result of it.

Current macros are as follows...

Training Day: 140P 190C 48F

Non Training Day: 140P 120C 48F

(including sauces and veg)

Cardio is 130 minutes over the week, which I split into 40 mins fasted on a Tuesday (Push Day), 50 minutes fasted on a Thursday (rest day), and 40 minutes fasted on a Sunday (second rest day). I am also hitting a minimum of 10,000 steps every day (usually around 12,000).

Training performance last week was very good. Highlight of the week was Incline DB Bench Pressing the 20's for 10 reps (set 1) followed by 9 reps (Set 2) which I was over the moon with..beat my previous personal best with the 20's by 4 reps, so my deload the previous week definitely did the trick! :)

BB Back Squats have been removed as I felt as though I had hit a bit of a brick wall with the amount of lower back loading I had throughout the week

This week has been a deload for me, so a really boring week of training - nothing exciting to report! Just a week of reduced training volume and no concentric failure

cardio has been:

40 mins Tuesday

50 mins Thursday

40 mins Sunday

all fasted with Yohimbine taken pre cardio

it‘s the time of the month for me (sorry lads) 😂 so scale weight has been fluctuating and I’ve been experiencing a degree of water retention. This is a little frustrating at the start of a fat loss phase as my progress is masked on the scale (it’s currently higher than when I entered a deficit), but it’s something we all have to deal with so I’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks :)

training day food has been

150P

210C

43F

rest day food has been

140P

140C

55F

i’ll attach this mornings check in pictures following this..

So the fat loss phase started Monday, and my food has been as follows:

Training Day Macros:

150P

210C

42F

Rest Day Macros:

140P

140C

55F

Fasted Cardio 2 X per week

1 X 50 minute session

and 1 X 40 minute session

Fasted due to using yohimbine to see if it's something I could consider using in my 2020 contest prep :)

Training has been decent this week, got my snatch grip RDL back up to 100kg for 2 X 8 which I'm extremely happy with!

No major PB's but maintenance of most lifts, some sessions have been slightly different than my usual due to training with different people :)

So tomorrow marks the start of a 6-week fat loss phase for me before a photoshoot I'm doing which I'd like to be a little leaner for. These are my check in pictures from Friday which will mark the start of this phase.

Friday I hit a PB on my Seated BB OHP of 40kg X 7 which I was SO happy with as I finally have 10ES on the bar haha

It's been a really good weekend at the Muscle Mentors practical workshop which I would recommend to anyone interested

Today is a rest day for me ft 10,000 steps & 50 minutes cardio (20 stairs, 30 treadmill).

This week of training definitely hasn't been a record breaker, I haven't improved on last weeks loads but we've done a lot of travelling from Brighton to Birmingham and lets face it progress is not linear..not every session can be our best. Some of my sessions have also been at different gyms due to travelling.

As usual my split has been as follows:

Monday - Pull (with some lower top up work)

Tuesday - Push

Wednesday - Legs

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Upper

Saturday - Lower

Sunday - Rest

Saturday & Sunday I'll be at Luke & Cal's (the Muscle Mentors) practical weekend in Birmingham so Saturday's session will be later than usual and probably at Pure Gym due to Ultimate not being open when the practical workshop finishes.

Tomorrow is my check in day, so I'll post my check in shots on here :)

These are my most recent check ins from Friday sat at 139/140lbs. Food has increased slightly:

Training Day:

160P

280C

58F

Rest Day:

160P

180C

65F

10,000 steps per day

70 minutes cardio over the week this week

This week will be my last week at maintenance before running a 6-week fat loss phase before the Kompak photoshoot at the end of July. After this we will aim to stay out of a deficit for as long as possible before starting prep next season. Can't believe we're half way through 2019 ha, already starting to plan out my 2020 competitive season..with it being my last year in Junior Bikini with both PCA & 2Bros I'm aiming to make the most of that and get a few shows under my belt.

Hi Danni, loved your leg video! I had a questions, setting up your volume with 2 sets then 1 back of set do you feel that going forward when you look to reduce that to one top set one back off or do you think that you can manage the volume better if so do you think this is a gender difference or individual? Hope that makes sense! x

This week of training has been a really good one so far, and we've been training out of Ultra Flex again this week!

Monday was pull for me, where I hit an all time personal best with my snatch grip RDL's

Set 1: 100kg X 8

Set 2: 100kg X 8

Set 3: 100kg X 6

Tuesday my main compound movement was my Standing BB OHP where I performed the best I ever have at 32.5kg

Set 1: 32.5 X 8

Set 2: 32.5 X 8

Back off: 27.5 X 12

Tuesday I also did 20 minutes on the stairs post workout

Wednesday I had lower body where my back squats took a bit of a hit due to the RDL PB on Monday combined with the large amount of lower back loading I have in my program at the minute (therefore I will reduce this to help recovery and performance)

However, where my lower back was supported on the pendulum I hit a PB of

40kg for 2 sets of 8 (Banded)

followed by a back off of 35kg X 10

Today (Thursday) is my rest day consisting of 40 minutes CV, split into 20 mins stairs + 20 treadmill

So a really solid week of training so far, I have my check in tomorrow so will upload my pictures..then an upper body session followed by posing with Emma Hyndman before me & AJ head to Brighton for the weekend to stay with his family :)

So yesterday was my last lower body session of the week, which is a little more glute/ham focused than Wednesday's session. Full session was as follows:

A1) BB Hip Thrust 3 X 8-10 (iso hold on last rep)

B1) DB Walking Lunge 3 X 8-10ES (Quad dominant)

C1) DB Sumo Pick Up 2 X 8-10

D1) RDL on Plate Loaded Trap/Shrug 2 X 10-12

E1) Standing Calf Raise 2 X 10-12 with a double drop set

F1) Hip Extension 3 X 15-20

G1) Seated Abduction 2 X 8-10

No cardio, 10,000 steps.

Today is a rest day, and a day of studying for me as I have a deadline for my ISSN Diploma Case Study on Monday. Will still get my usual 10,000 steps in

So this week as I previously mentioned we've been training out of Ultra Flex, Rotherham. The new prime kit is insane. Wednesday I had my leg session filmed for the site so that should be with you all within the next couple of days!

Wednesdays highlights:

BB Back Squat - 85kg X 6

(at UF where the plates are heavier than Ultimate)

Banded Pendulum (so the resistance of the band kicks in on the concentric, to emphasise the use of my VMO) 40kg X 8

Smith Machine Split Squat 60kg X 10 reps each side

Wednesdays session was absolutely solid, these are just the highlights but the footage of the full session will be up shortly in video format :)

Thursday was a rest day ft. 40 mins cardio (20 stairmaster, 20 treadmill incline walk)

Today I trained upper body, again at Ultra Flex.

My full session

A1) Seated BB OHP 2 X 6-8 / 1 X 10-12

Top set was 35kg X 8

B1) Prime Lat Pulldown (pin loaded) 2 X 10-12 with a drop set on the last set

C1) DB High Incline Shoulder Press 3 X 10-12

D1) Prime Plate Loaded Seated Row 3 X 10-12

E1) Prime Plate Loaded Bicep Curl 3 X 12-15 followed by a drop set

F1) DB Upright Row (Alternate arm) 2 X 8-10 each side

G1) Tricep Extension Machine 3 X 10-12ES

no cardio, 10,000 steps.

Today was my check in day so I'll also post my progress pictures following this :)

Hope you're all having a fab week!

Danni x

Yesterday was pull (without deadlifts due to doing them Saturday) at Flex N Tone, Manchester. I've never trained at Flex N Tone before but loved it! Will hopefully be heading back again soon :)

Training day food has been increased slightly, to:

160P

270C

58F

(slight increase in CHO & Fats)

Cardio still at 60 minutes over the week (40 mins rest day, 20 mins post push)

Steps around 10,000

Today I'll be training push at Ultra Flex, Rotherham followed by 20 minutes post workout cardio. Will post today's session this evening.