Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Mmmmmm !!!!!

_________________
1st Place Raw Champs 2011, 2012 (3 raw records)
Training for my first 100 mile running race

WEB: http://jimsty.wix.com/strength-vs-size
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mini-Forklift/161273440616736?ref=hl
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/user/kiwilifter?feature=mhee

Well I know how I'm spending my lunch break today...haha I love pancakes!

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

I found a delicious sounding vegan pancake recipe yesterday - thanks Karen!
I won't get to try it out until...weekend after this one, I guess. I can't do it this weekend because I'm going out to Pizza Hut for my best friend's birthday on saturday...I really need to eat clean other than that! lol Carbing up with pancakes will have to wait..

Today's workout went pretty similar to monday's, except for the order of things...and I added in a little.
The bench presses and gravitron were occupied when I was starting, so I began with biceps, then did chest, then back. I went to the gym by work today, and I've never lifted as well there compared to my other gym, but today I REALLY noticed it. For bench I had to take breaks just doing 3 sets of 12 with 65lb. There was no way I could have lifted the 85lbs that I did on monday. Is it possible that the BBs are different weights?? I've always been under the impression that they are always 45lb.

For shoulders I added in a bit..
Arnold Press 15lb/hand 3 sets x 12, 10, 10
Combo lateral/front raise 10lb/hand 3 sets x 10 (each side went both forward/sideways 10 times, so 20 raises altogether/set)
DB shoulder press 15lb/hand to failure (11), 10lb/hand to failure (8), 7.5lb/hand to failure (4)
Upright row 20lb BB 3 sets x 20

After I was done everything but a bit of oblique work, I decided I wanted the pump back in my biceps lol so I did 2 sets of 10 of preacher hammer curls. I saw the vein in my right bicep for the first time ever while doing this...pretty much made my day haha

I did some baking again tonight! Turns out I'm not terrible at it, after all. I made another batch of raspberry truffle brownies, and I found a new recipe that I wanted to try...Blueberry protein muffins..they're really good! I shouldn't have made them...lol

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Raspberry truffle brownies????? Um, yes please! Do share the recipe!

Really light leg workout yesterday..my leg was uncomfortable, but I made it through the workout just fine, and it wasn't any worse when I woke up.

Standing one-legged hamstring curls 20lb x 20 for 3 sets
One legged leg extensions 20lb x 20 for 3 sets
One-legged Glute kickbacks (hammerstrength machine) 40lb x 12 for 3 sets
Stationary lunges w/ 15lb DB 1 set, 20/side
Deadlifts (Love deadlifts...I missed them!) 115lb x 10 for 3 sets
Standing calf raises w/ 17.5lb DB x 30 for 3 sets

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Jeepers, I can't remember the last time I did any direct oblique work. Hmmmm.

Hope you have a great weekend, any plans?

_________________
1st Place Raw Champs 2011, 2012 (3 raw records)
Training for my first 100 mile running race

WEB: http://jimsty.wix.com/strength-vs-size
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mini-Forklift/161273440616736?ref=hl
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/user/kiwilifter?feature=mhee

Haha I love that you just said jeepers.
I strongly dislike doing direct lower ab work and love working obliques..so I work obliques in a way that indirectly hits lower abs lol I cheat.

I'm going to my best friend's place for her birthday tomorrow Very excited. I don't get to see her much since I moved away from my parents'. Though going away for the weekend means no gym = ( I'm gunna have to figure something out, cause I ate a ridiculous amount of cookies tonight, we're having amazingly fattening pizza tomorrow, then mothers day dinner sunday...I'm going to be able to roll home sunday night! haha
How about you? Anything exciting this weekend?

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

I love the second day sore feeling! I must have done some serious work on my glutes on thursday, cause I'm sure feeling it now!

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Definitely did some serious damage this weekend.. I look huge! I ate an absurd amount of food both saturday and sunday, like to the point where my friends/family were staring at me in awe could do nothing but shake their heads.
Gym was painful today..I definitely wanted to go, but my muscles didn't appreciate it.
I dropped calories to 1000 today, which if I had to guess, is about 1/3 of what I ate the last 2 days...probably not even that! lol Extremely minimal carbs today, and tomorrow. I need to get rid of this soft layer I accumulated!
Day off tomorrow, hitting upper body again on wednesday.

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Well, I hope you had a fun time this weekend, nonetheless!

AWESOME workout today!
I guess I just have more stength earlier in the day, cause I pumped out my 4 sets of bench, 2 x 12 w/ 65, 1 x 8 w/ 75, and 1 x 4 w/ 85...and I could have kept going (but had no spot and was getting close to my limit).
I tried real pull ups for the first time ever and holy shit! They're my new favourite exercise. They make me use everything I've got and they just hurt so good!
I attempted a type of drop set called the halving method with DB shoulder press and kinda failed..lol I was supposed to pick a weight that I could do 6 reps with, then drop the weight in half and do 20 reps. I can do 20lb DB for 6, but I definitely cannot follow that with 20 reps of 10lb haha I got to 10 and that was my failure point...in the first set! Getting 2 more sets of that was incredibly difficult...it felt awesome!

Also, my body is [essentially] back to a decent look after dropping my calories and carbs the last 2 days. My arms looked quite shredded, and my shoulders looked really well toned while I was in the gym...but today I let myself have a cookie lol

For anyone else that calculates macronutrients..how many grams of carbs do you consume per pound bodyweight? The last 2 days I took in 60 on each, which is roughly 0.5g/lb. That's purposely really low, but rarely ever will I go up to 1g/lb, which is what intake supposedly should be. Actually, I only take in that much on days I carb up, and in those cases I'm way beyond it.

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Thursday held a decent, quick leg workout for me. Ever since I added reps to my deadlift I usually feel it for a couple days after, so that's encouraging. Yesterday was supposed to be upper body, but I ended up being with a friend of mine from 8am till 10pm..so that didn't happen. I had to keep reminding myself not to stress about it lol we were doing a lot of running around and gardening n such...I was her hired muscle haha lifting all the bags of mulch and soil.
Today it's back to legs, and I think I might take a swim as well...all this gorgeous weather has given me an itch to swim. It's an indoor pool at the gym, but better than nothing, and it'll be a little extra workout since I didn't do much yesterday.

Hope everyone's weekend is going well!

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Workout was lacking today...not sure why. It could just be the mental effect of knowing that I'm purposely lifting light so I can increase reps...I just like lifting heavy.
Nice swim afterwards.
Seated leg extensions 25lb x 20 x 3
Seated leg curls 25lb x 25, 30lb x 25, 40lb x 25 x 2
Lying leg curls 30lb x 20 x 3
Lunges w/ 17.5lb DB, 20 reps per leg, 1 set
Deadlift 115lb x 10 x 3
Standing calf raises w/ 40lb x 30 x 3 (1 set toes straight, 1 toes in, 1 toes out)


I started a new fat burner last week...I don't like it. Ever since I started it I've had less drive than usual, and it's definitely having zero effect on my body. I kinda feel like I did when I was taking the Garden of Life vitamins...I'm just really blah all the time. I'm wondering if the two pills have something in common that my body doesn't like?? Not too sure how to investigate that, though...I can't find anything similar on the label.

Here's hoping tomorrow's workout goes a little better.

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

After months of telling myself to switch up rep ranges, today I'm finally going to do it. I always do reps around 8 - 12, the odd exception being bent over BB rows (dunno why, but I do 15), so I'm dropping to 6 - 8 reps for the next 3 - 4 weeks. It's going to be both heaven and hell lol lifting heavy will make me happy, but it's going to hurt!
Following this, reps are going down to 4 - 6.
Planning this is making me realize how much of a routine I've really gotten into. I've regularly switched up exercises, but never rep ranges. No wonder my progress stopped.
As far as legs are concerned, I'm going to stick with my recently increased reps..I really need to tone them up. I can't bring myself to decrease weight on deadlifts though, so I may follow the above pattern with those...

_________________
Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Good plan, I like the sound of the change in reps. Quite a good thing to do ~ keeps the training fresh and your body ha to readapt to a different situation. You might even be pleasantly surprised and like it haha ?! Anything 6 reps and below is starting to train your muscles, CNS and neural pathways for strength based results... and there's nothing wrong with that. I wish more girls would do this and leave the pink dumbbells on the rack !!

How was your weekend, did you get up to much?

_________________
1st Place Raw Champs 2011, 2012 (3 raw records)
Training for my first 100 mile running race

WEB: http://jimsty.wix.com/strength-vs-size
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mini-Forklift/161273440616736?ref=hl
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/user/kiwilifter?feature=mhee