👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
My name is Kiana Nirvana Loomis and I am a San Diego-based fitness professional and bikini competitor.
I recently won my pro card as a WBFF Bikini Diva and have a true passion for fitness and helping others. I love the process of always striving to improve myself and I love helping others do the same as much or more as I love doing it for myself.
I spend most of my spare time when I am not working with clients either in person or online, either working out or scouring the latest fitness and nutrition research. Not only do I find it truly engaging and fascinating, but also I believe that the more I know, the better I can help others and potentially reach greater heights with my own fitness goals.
Outside of fitness, I love spending time with friends, family and animals (lol) and I am a huge music lover. One of my favorite things to do is go see good live music! I am adventurous but also thoroughly enjoy chill time and relaxing when I can.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
I don’t do any traditional cardio besides walking
Most of my training is rooted in physique changes, but in order to create those changes I also enjoy implementing strength goals and design my training programs based on methods and principles that have been proven to be effective in the research.
I typically lift weights for one to two hours, five to six times per week. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how I am feeling and overall life stress or demands. I train with an upper/lower body split, training upper body twice per week and lower body three times per week on most days.
I don’t do any traditional cardio besides walking, but I do lead a very active life where I am on my feet all day and aim to hit 12-15K steps each day.
I write my own programs and monitor progress so that I am able to make adjustments as needed, but I typically will follow one program for four to eight weeks before changing things up based on what’s needed and how I am progressing.
I truly love training and improving not only my physique but also my strength and performance in the gym. I am a huge advocate of people following a training and progression method that they truly enjoy and can stick to while following some base underlying principles to experience the best results.
However, there is actually a lot of flexibility within those parameters and I don’t believe anyone should be pushed into training any certain way (regardless of their goals) if they don’t truly enjoy it (most days, anyways).
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
At this point in my training career, I have built a pretty solid habit out of training and I think that is key. Motivation waxes and wanes, but because I have a daily routine and have made the gym a habit over the years, I always get in the gym and get what I can done.
I always keep my future self in mind when training. I ask myself, how great can I be? How will I know if I never push myself to be that person? I have a mission and a goal to get closer to that person every day, every week and every month that I spend in the gym. If I am not going to push to improve upon my last program/session/etc., then why am I even wasting my time?
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
At the current moment, I am starting up with a new program and working on technique and execution (coupled with strength IF possible) to enhance the results of my training and allow myself to continue making progress without injuries in the long run. I would love to improve upon my strength as well as build some more muscle in certain areas.
I may or may not compete in a WBFF pro show in 2020, but either way, I want to train to have a physique that I am proud of and feel is a ‘winning’ physique by my own standards and in my own way.
I am also spending a lot of time right now on building my business, tending to my clients and being the best coach possible, and expanding business opportunities beyond the scope of just training.
I have a few projects that I am currently a part of including enhancing my own business and clients’ experience, and working on a new and upcoming training platform to bring personal training to those who can’t make it to the gym via virtual reality.
It’s some really exciting stuff, and if you’re interested you can follow us on Instagram (@vrpersonaltrainer) and/or view the promo video here:
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
I was a foolish member of the ‘No Days Off’ team
When I first began training, I was a foolish member of the ‘No Days Off’ team. Luckily, I have since come a long way in appreciating the important role of rest and recovery on physical, mental and emotional well-being.
I always make sure to take at least one (if not two) full day off from intense/gym training every week, and try to only incorporate light activity on these days such as walking.
I am a firm believer that the best tools for recovery are the simplest and most overlooked: Good sleep, good nutrition and managing stress levels.
For this reason, I have a set sleep schedule that I do my best to stick to every night, aiming for seven to eight hours of shut-eye.
I make sure to eat adequately for my training and goals and have become much better at tending to injuries as they come up as opposed to pushing through pain so that I can avoid long-term nagging injuries.
I also love a good massage, but schedule them more-so for the mental relaxation and recovery than the physical as the research doesn’t support that massage is really that beneficial for physical recovery (though it can have a huge mental benefit that may carry over to your training).
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I have been tracking macros and implementing what many know to be flexible dieting for years now. I adjust my own calorie and macros based on my goals, but I typically stick to roughly tracking regardless of whether or not I am in show prep or trying to lean out.
It helps me to stay on track and not let myself stray too far from good nutrition such as that I may not be nourishing my body with the nutrients it needs. I try to base my diet on whole foods regardless of my calorie intake, though I never feel guilty about eating anything and do my best to keep it within my macro targets for the day and move on with my life.
I eat a wide variety of foods from day to day and switch it up periodically based on what I want, but I always aim to base my main meals around vegetable and protein sources and make adjustments from there.
I supplement with a daily multivitamin, 2-3 grams of Bulk Supplements creatine because it’s affordable and doesn’t contain any fillers, and occasionally use a pre-workout if I am in need of a little bit more energy for my training.
The pre-workout will vary but I always make sure it is clinically dosed with ingredients that have been proven effective in the research such as beta alanine, citrulline malate and caffeine.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
Action leads to results over time.
That is quite a loaded question! I have had many sources of inspiration throughout the years from my own motivation to change (I have a fairly self-motivated personality) to others who I look up to in the fitness industry to family members that I want to be strong for and more.
Motivation is a little bit of a different story. Motivation usually starts strong for anyone, but can die off pretty quickly and even if it doesn’t, it will surely fluctuate from day to day and week to week. Motivation isn’t really what has kept me in the game for this long, but rather actions are.
Many people think of motivation as leading to action, but for me and my clients it’s typically the other way around. ACTION leads to results over time. Once you see the results of your action, you become motivated to continue with the action and so the cycle continues.
Eventually, the action part of the equation starts to become a habit if we stick with it long enough (even through times of low motivation). Once that happens, what needs to be done gets done day in and day out, whether we feel like it or not because that’s now just ‘what we do’. It’s that whole ‘it’s a lifestyle at this point’ concept but in a bit more detail.
Beyond that, I love listening to motivational speeches and podcasts. Some of my favorite speakers are Eric Thomas, Les Brown, Tony Robins, Mel Robbins, Arnold Schwarzenegger (of course), Gary Vee, etc. You can find some pretty great stuff from all of them on Spotify and/or Netflix.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Start small and build upon that. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to be motivated at first. So much so, that you will want to set some hefty goals for yourself right away.
The ambition is great, but maybe start with one small change per week so that you give yourself time to build up good habits. If you try to change too much at once without allowing habits to form, it will be really easy to ‘fall off’ and slip back to old ways.
For beginners and advanced trainees alike, remember that nothing changes if nothing changes. Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable or do things you’re not used to doing/seem unnatural for you in order to make progress. This might mean trying a different training split, experimenting with different exercises, or maybe just showing up to the gym and getting a workout in even though you’re intimidated by other gym members or trainers/trainees. We all start somewhere.
I actually wrote an article about this a while back because it’s such a common problem for people who want to get in shape. It covers some basic ways that you can combat intimidation in the gym and start working out more comfortably. You can read it here.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
Yes, I am! I train clients both in person in San Diego and online from all over the world. I have experience working with many different goals from overall improvements in quality of life all the way to competing in physique shows and everywhere in between.
From fat loss to muscle gain to body-recomposition to improving health and sustainability, I am happy to work with it all and find a program that works for each of my clients individually.
I don’t implement cookie cutter programs, which means all of my coaching (both in person and online) is customized to the individual. Because of this, I do have to limit the number of clients I can take on at any given time to ensure the best quality of coaching and results to all of my clients.
So spots are typically pretty limited but it is always worth reaching out to see if I have any spots available if you’re interested.
My training and coaching philosophy is based on helping my clients achieve the best results possible and pinpoint problem areas/areas to improve WHILE maintaining a high quality of life and helping them to make sustainable changes that will allow them to achieve results that last for weeks, months and years to come.
Because who cares how good you can look in one month if six months from now you are going to be right back where you started?
Strong. Sexy. Sustainable. That’s my motto and I live by this.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
You can find me on Instagram @nirvanafit or contact me on my website nirvanafittraining.com.
I am always happy to hear from you and answer any questions and will typically get back to you within a day!
