Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Just thinking about prowler sprints make me wanna be sick, nice job!

Do you have any carb-free BCAA at your store? Im gonna order glutamine from you very soon, and the vegan BCAA i got from trueprotein.com is out of stock so im hoping to order BCAA currently cutting, carbs restricted, can you help? I think when i was looking the other day i only saw bcaa that had added flavor so it had some carbs...gracias..

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Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Yeah, Prowler sprints are rough, I think they're made worse by the fact I only have 50 feet of runway to work with indoors, and having to race to turn 180 degrees multiple times really puts it to the test!

For BCAA supplements, we've got one by NutraSumma, which has only 2g carbs per serving and can be found here on our site:

http://store.veganessentials.com/amino-clear-vegan-bcaa-supplement-by-nutrasumma-p3386.aspx

Unfortunately, not completely carb-free, but close. Not sure how many doses per day you plan to take, but if it's a handful throughout, then that might still be too much for you. I'm checking on some alternate brands for spring, and of course, if you come across anything that you think is worth us bringing in, just say the word and I'll work on it!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

probably too many carbs, i only get 130 a day and its gonna be less. i noticed that my OL pea protein has the three BCAAs, would that be adequate or does protein powder have them at much lower levels than the straight up BCAAs from ajipure?? it doesnt really say the amount of the jar as far as i could tell... thank u...you are awesome...

_________________
Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

My trainer just told me that the BCAA's found in my pea protein will suffice for all my BCAA needs, ryan do you agree? still gonna order the glutamine...

_________________
Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Ryan, before i order can you confirm that there is no added sugar to this:

http://store.veganessentials.com/vegan- ... p1129.aspx

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Darth Vader from Sandlot once said, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Then he later died.
https://www.facebook.com/BigMeeeeech

Hey!

Sorry that the NutraSumma BCAA won't work, but glad to hear that the Pea Protein has adequate BCAAs for your needs (unless you need to take in a ton extra, I'd think that a few servings of pea protein per day will get you what you need).

The NOW L-Glutamine is just a pure powder, pretty bitter if I recall correctly with no added sweeteners or anything else. Label only lists free-form L-Glutamine in the contents, so it should be good for whatever you need for being carb restricted!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Knee bothering me a bit this week, so I kept it upper body last night with chest/upper back work -

Flat bench press w/ 2" diameter axle -
1x10 @ empty axle (55 lbs.)
1x5 @ 145 lbs.
1x3 @ 195
1x2 @ 235
1x1 @ 265
1x1 @ 275
1x1 @ 285
1x1 @ 290, lost it a bit back, struggled to finish
1x1 @ 295, wasn't too bad, but worn out from the last bad rep, figured 300 will happen again next time.
5x3 @ 250
Capped off benching with close grip 3x20 @ 145 + orange bands (felt like about 150 lbs. at bottom with almost no tension, close to 200 at lockout, triceps dead after this one.

Weighted pull-ups -
1x3 @ bodyweight (250 lbs. clothed)
1x1 @ 25 lbs. strapped on
1x1 @ 45 " "
1x1 @ 65 " "
1x1 @ 75 " "
1x1 @ 85 " "
1x1 @ 90 " ", sloppy rep, dropped the weight back down
3x3 @ 65 lbs. strapped on

Hammer Strength plate-loaded pulldowns -
3x8 @ 230 lbs. + green bands (felt like about 250 at start of rep, around 300 at finish of pull)
3x20 @ 200 lbs., plates only, no bands

Wide-grip 45 degree pulldowns to collar, hard scapular retraction to hit middle back -
3x30 @ 140 lbs.

Alternated the pulldowns with banded horizontal bench machine -
2x50 w/ light duty bands (felt like about 30 lbs. at start, around 60-70 at finish)

Finished by experimenting with some front squat shrugs I'd seen featured on the T-Mag site a while back, looking for something different and less compressing on the spine that can still get some decent trapezius work in. We've got a front squat harness (which, unfortunately, for squatting it is at the perfect height to stab me in the crotch every time I go deep, making it useless for squats), but it worked well for the shrugs -
3x20 @ 175 lbs. (155 plus 20 lb. harness)
Felt about as tough as it does to be shrugging almost double that weight regularly, so I might have to work these in from time to time.

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Legs and shoulders last night!

Found some more additions to the facility, a new 45 degree leg press and a new pulldown station (one of our members finds great deals on used equipment and keeps buying it up to donate to the facility!), so I decided to try some light leg pressing to see how it would impact the lower back. Didn't feel any compression stress, so that was a good thing (but definitely kept it light!)

Standing overhead strict press w/ 2" diameter axle -
1x8 w/ empty 55 lb. axle
1x5 @ 145 lbs.
1x3 @ 175
1x1 @ 195
3x1 @ 220, just a few singles to get used to some decent weight
3x5 @ 200
3x10 @ 150

Leg press -
1x20 @ 270, 300, 340, 360

Single-leg leg press -
3x25 @ 150 lbs. each leg

Glute/ham raises -
3x25 @ bodyweight

Kept it simple so I could be out in about an hour flat, decent little session with minimal rest periods to keep to flowing at a good pace.

About an hour after getting home, I was relaxing on the couch, and had a massive ab cramp come out of nowhere, which was REALLY painful. Haven't had that happen in ages, but I realized that there's still a lot of ab support needed even with light leg pressing, so going deep on them must have worked my midsection more than I expected. It hurt like hell but was funny in the end, I had to practically throw my iPad into my wife's lap as I fell off the couch, nearly scared her to death with her thinking that I was having a heart attack until I could croak out that I was fine, just that my abs were locked up. Hopefully that won't happen again any time too soon!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

I'm super jealous of your overhead press. It's one of the lifts I respect the most, yet I just can't get it to catch up.

220lb press, Boom this is awesome. Can't
Believe it took me so long to see the importance of these! Log press in mind obviously!!!

Farmers walks wkend passed, hands still aching

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

Well, I'm jealous of your great deadlifting, so I guess we'll have to envy each other!

Honestly, I HATED overhead pressing for a long, long time. I think I probably did overhead pressing about once a month for my first 7-8 years of training, it was the absolute last lift I ever wanted to do. Spent my time doing machine work and lateral raises instead, which did ZERO to increase my overhead strength. Only once my interest in strongman got sparked did I realize that I'd need to really get over how much I hated it, and once that happened and I started hitting heavy power cleans to push presses every week (a nice way to make sure that those power cleans stay strong, too!) did things get any better. Went from a max of about 165 for a single to over 200 in just a few months, then for the next year the weight just kept going up more and more easily until I was an inch away from hitting 300, then my mind kept getting the best of me. Got stuck there, then the injuries piled on, and it's back to working my way up. Thankfully, it's one of the only lifts I don't seem to lose strength on even when I have to take a longer hiatus from training.

If you ever seem to get stuck in a rut with overheads, the magic keys for me were:

- Clean and push press for singles or doubles (clean once only regardless of rep count)

- Push presses in the power rack for sets of 5-8 max reps, always going 15-25% over my strict press max weight

- 1-arm heavy dumbbell clean and presses, allowing some side bend when necessary

- Standing partial presses in the rack, anywhere form bar starting just grazing the top of the head up through REALLY short ROM overhead lockouts that were just 1.5"-3" of movement (it feels pretty impressive just to have 400+ lbs. locked out, even if you barely moved it, and there's a unique strength carryover just from supporting that much weight!)

I credit those four things with being how I nealy doubled my overhead strength in just about 2 years, as light to moderate work of repping out with 10+ per set just didn't give me any bang for my buck.

Good stuff, give it a shot in your program some time and see how it works for you!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Gotta love overhead work! I'm hoping to eventually meet my old strict press PR of 250, and then whenever my back and knee get around to cooperating with me, I'll be returning to push pressing and working to eventually crack the 300 lb. barrier that I never quite reached at my prime!

I miss doing farmer's walks Been too long since I've been able to carry any weight like that, fingers crossed I'll know that joy again sometime down the line!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Got in for a quick upper back session tonight (didn't want to slack!)

Only had 55 minutes total to warm up and lift, so I got right on it the moment I walked in the door -

Hammer Strength plate-loaded pulldown machine -
1x5 @ 180 lbs.
1x5 @ 230
1x12 @ 290
1x12 @ 310
1x10 @ 330
1x8 @ 360
No idea how this clicked so well tonight (thought I'd have to stay under 300 originally, but the first set was so damned easy!), usually I'm pretty tapped out early on these, but I felt like I was born to use this setup tonight. Some days, things just work out right!

In between, did some front squat harness shrugs. Someone amputated the bottom half of the harness that's notorious for stabbing people in the crotch, so it was definitely easier to wear and much more comfortable -
1x20 @ 185 lbs (170 plus 15 lb. harness)
1x20 @ 235
1x20 @ 275

Hammer Strength plate-loaded high row -
1x12 @ 390 lbs.
1x12 @ 420
1x12 @ 460
Again, usually once I get to the mid 400s, I start to crash fast and can't get more than 8-10 reps. No idea why things were feelig this easy, but I'll take it! Maybe it was the new custom orthotics I started wearing for my flat feet, sending some extra strength from the soles on up!

V-handle pulldowns to top of chest, slight lean back -
2x20 @ 180 lbs.

Did some dip shrugs between the V-handles, just 2x25 @ bodyweight and I was good.

Should be back in on Saturday for a light leg session and some chest work!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

Ha! Thanks man. For some reason deadlifting always came pretty naturally to me. I just love the idea of it; it's such a primal exercise.

I really do need to start including more Olympic work in my lifting. I lift in an Olympic gym. We have 10 platforms packed with bumper plates, which is where I do all of my squatting, deadlifting, military press, etc. I used to do it a bit in my late teens until I tore my rotator cuff doing heavy behind the neck snatch grip push presses. I need to get back to it though. Thanks for the advice.

Deadlifts were definitely my first love when it came to finally enjoying training heavy. It makes me sad to not currently be able to do them at this time, but fingers crossed I can get back after them next month again!

Cool that you lift somewhere with good platforms and bumpers where you don't have to worry about people being upset if you actually drop an overhead lift. That was always my issue at my old gyms, I'm just glad that I don't have to worry about that any longer!

Got in for some light leg work and chest stuff last night, had a good time with it -

Flat bench press w/ axle -
1x5 @ 145 lbs.
1x3 @ 195
1x2 @ 235
1x1 @ 265
1x1 @ 285,, felt easy, but not going to go 300+ for another week or two
Put on Slingshot
5x3 @ 300
2x15 @ 235, first set straight through, 2nd set got 13, had to rack and take a few breaths, then finished last 2 reps, but triceps were fried as I did both sets close-grip on these. Finding that, even though I've widened my grip on a lot of my benching, my torso width close grip position is stil my strongest.

IronMind hip belt squats, using EZ bar, standing on two boxes for adequate ROM. Started REALLY light to learn the balance on these, it was tricky at first for sure -
1x5 @ 65 lbs.
1x5 @ 85
1x5 @ 125
1x5 @ 145
1x5 @ 165
1x5 @ 185
1x5 @ 205
3x10 @ 225, this was more of a learning experience than anything else in getting used to the EZ bar for these, but it wasn't bad after a while. Hardest part is getting the bar off my bench setup once I was strapped in and getting it straddled back over the bench after the sets were done. Only problem I really have with these that makes it more challenging is, I realized that all the lack of lower body work has caused my ass to vanish (it was the one thing that, no matter how large I got, my butt never seemed to get any bigger), now that I've had so much time of lower body injury/neglect/rehab/etc. I find that I barely have the glutes left to keep the belt from slipping down the back during the squats. So, I have to double-belt it on with a Valeo velcro belt over it to keep it from slipping, seems to work, but as things get closer to 300+ in time, I think it's going to be tough unless my glutes start growing!

Leg press to get a bit more leg work in -
3x20 @ 410 lbs., still keeping it light

Got one set in for the horizontal bench setup with bands, just 1x25 with a bunch of small bands looped around it, then I felt like I was about to pass out and decided to cut it short in just about an hour. Was planning on two more sets of banded bench and some glute/ham raises, but that'll have to wait a few days. Plan now is, leg work twice weekly, not going all-out but working to re-acclimate the lower body to doing SOMETHING again, hopefully I can start focusing on lower back work in a few weeks and start my recovery phase back into normal training again.

Hitting upper back tonight, will post afterward!

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"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous