Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

haven't been on in a while. just dropping a line. not sure that this is the most appropriate place for this post but whatever.

since last posting i have met with a personal trainer twice.
heres where im at.

at the first meeting i did a body fat percentage test (pounds mean nothing to me at this point) and found out that i was 30% fat. wow.

we discussed my goals, and decided what would work best for me, would be to set up a schedule, and work out no less then 4 days a week, preferably 5 days a week.

i also have tried to eliminate all junk foods and soda, (as veganism becomes more mainstream, these vices become more accesible) ive increased my raw fruits and vegetables, and for now, cut back on my protein and carb intake to help me get down to a diserable body fat percentage..

my plan now, is to work out 5 days a week, and get my body fat down to a reasonable level, then start taking in large amounts of proteins, and reduced amounts of carbs to help me increase size and lean muscle mass.

does this seem like a healthy plan?

so, one week into my new schedule my body fat dropped to 23 % allready. which seems like an awful lot, but is very encouraging.

i havent memorized all the muscles yet. so this is my very rough, tentative schedule.

sunday:
chest, upper arm, forearms, shoulders, upper back.
monday:
rest
tuesday:
half hour of cardio followed by,
upper legs, butt, thighs. (legs are hard for me because my knees and ankles are completly destroyed from years of skateboarding. ) i find legs for me, have the longest recovery time as well.
wed:
chest, mid back, upper arms.
thursday:
half hour of cardio.
then, chest, lower back, lower legs.
friday.
upper legs, upper arms.
saturday:
rest.

my days of rest are all screwy because im in two different bands, and having two consecutive days off isnt really possible.

does this seem like a reasonable game plan?


hope your all doing well, thanks for all the encouragement.

anthony

Im a bit confused what you mean by upper arms. Is it both triceps and biceps?

Also it seems like your trainer wants you to focus more on your chest than the rest of the body parts. I would go against this but then again, I dont know where you need improvements. Probably your chest was lacking compared to the other body parts so he put it three times per week.

I also see that on sunday, you are working out 5 body parts! How did this come into play?

Also what I noticed was that shoulders were almost neglected while abdominals were completely left out.

All in all, I think that this type of workout isnt the best possible regime. Its just my opinion, and hopefully others can add insight to this. Normally when you start off in weight lifting, you do full body exercises at 1 to 2 sets each exercise. Is this the first time you have engaged in weight lifting?

yeah, this is the first time i have ever really had an interest in weight training. i think the reason the trainer wants me to foccus so much on my chest, is my personal embarsment with my 'man boobs' so to speak.

can you point me towards some work outs that might be more effecient?

best regards,
anthony

Its all fat there, so you will need to burn it off. You cannot turn fat into muscle, but you can have the muscle mask it sort of so its not that obvious. Sooner or later however, you will need to burn that off. Seeing that he is the personal trainer and you are paying him, its better to take his advice. However, I really dont understand how he came up with that type of program. Normally you start off with full body workouts with beginners. Plus, I dont understand why some days it has like 5 muscles to work on and others 2. Plus the shoulders is a big thing I dont understand either.

Hey Anthony,

Cool that you are getting into the training and weight lifting thing! Awesome dude.

Your program does seem a little bouncy all over the place. I tend to stick to a very basic program that involves only about 2 muscle groups per day. But I will say that I had excellent results from the Body-for-LIFE program I did 5 years ago and that was basically something like this:

Monday
Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back

Tuesday
Legs and Abs

Wednesday
Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back

Thursday
Legs and Abs

Friday
Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back

Saturday
Rest

Sunday
Rest

It may have been a bit different and I know there was some cardio mixed in as well.

But NOW I do something like this:

Monday
Chest and Shoulders

Tuesday
Back and Abs

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Legs and Abs

Friday
Arms and some mixed exercises (a bit of back and shoulders)

Saturday
Rest

Sunday
Rest

I also play some basketball once a week for intense cardio.

These days I like to give my muscle groups an entire week to rest because I hit them hard and heavy and for a full hour.

Doing the Body-for-LIFE program I only did 2 exercises per muscle group so it was ok to train the same muscle group 2 or 3 times per week. Something similar to what you are doing. But if you thrash Arms for a full hour, there is no way they'll be ready again in 2 or 3 days.

Make sure you don't overtrain the chest. Work it hard, but give it rest.

It's great that you're in the gym, and be sure to ask a lot of questions since you've got a trainer there. Don't be afraid to ask, "Why?" Or "How?" Those are good questions to learn more and more about why you are doing certain exercises and how long you should rest in between, how many reps, etc.

Best of luck man,

Robert

Rob, Im just asking but how is:


Monday
Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back

2 muscle groups per day? That is more like 5 (Chest, Shoulder, Back, Triceps, Biceps). Im not saying that you didnt get results, Im just asking how did you come up with 2 groups with that regime? Also, since you did chest, isnt it going to overtrain the triceps since you are doing them the same day? Same as shoulders as shoulders come into play A LOT when doing chest exercises.

What I do is do one Major multi-joint Body part exercises (Chest, Back, etc) and one small single joint body part exercise (tricep, bicep, etc). Thats just the way I do things.

Oh Sorry,

I meant NOW I do two muscle groups per day.

Back with BFL program it was ALL upper body one day, then Lower body the next day, just two exercises for each muscle group. I don't do it anymore, but it worked.

So it was like this:

Chest
Flat Bench 3 sets
Incline Dumbbell press 1 set (superset)

Back
Lat pull downs 3 sets
Cable rows 1 set (superset)

Shoulders
Military Press 3 sets
Lateral raises 1 set (superset)

Arms
Standing Barbell bicep curls 3 sets
Dumbbell hammer curls 1 set (superset)
Triceps rope extensions 3 sets
Overhead extentions 1 set (superset)

So the BFL program was set up like that.

Now I do something totally differently and focus on 2 muscle groups a day and it might look like this:

Monday (Chest and Shoulders)

Chest
Flat Bench 3-5 sets 8-12 reps
Incline Bench 3-4 sets 8-12 reps
Decline Bench 3-4 sets 8-12 reps
Cable cross-overs 3-4 sets 8-12 reps

Shoulders
Overhead press 3-5 sets 8-12 reps
Lateral raises 3-4 sets 8-12 reps
Shrugs 3-4 sets 8-12 reps

I do a variety of combinations but the list I put up last night of what I do NOW is pretty much what I've been doing for a few months Chest and shoulders, Back and Abs, etc.

Ok bro, that makes a lot of sense. The lower and upper body workouts are good as well especially for beginners (not saying you are, of course you arent! but like full body workouts are good for beginners). But then you always need variety so you dont hit a plateau.

As for your current schedule, I do it like that as well.

hi robert,

i pulled up the body for life program, and it seems to make sense. I think im going to give it a go. seems really balanced, and covers everything i want. just currious, how long were you on the program, and what were your results like time wise? im not in any rush whatsoever, just currious.

anthony

Hey Anthony,

The Body-For-LIFE program was a 12-week program I did starting in April of 2000. In 12 weeks I went from 157 pounds with somewhat considerable amount of bodyfat to 176 pounds with very little bodyfat. I gained 19 pounds and got really lean with muscle definition, veins, and a much better overall shape. I got stronger as well.

Now I do more "bodybuilding specific" training, but to be honest, the BFL Program worked really well!

I had some great results from it and have some pretty cool before and after photos.

Let me know if you have more questions about it. It has been 5 years since I followed that program, but I'm sure I can recall some of the specifics.

Take care, best of luck!