Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi everyone -

I have been vegan for 25 years. Working out for about 20 years, but only seriously trying to build mass for about a year or two. My questions are about number of exercises to do per body part. I really enjoy working out. When I am doing back, there is probably 9 or more exercises I like to do. My concern is I don't want to overdo it. I want to put on muscle mass, but not planning to compete. Just get bigger. I try to limit my workout to 60 - 90 minutes.

My current routine for back:

3 sets bodyweight overhand pull-ups
Cable or machine rows
Cable or dumbbell reverse flys or rear delt rows (any advice on one over the other?)
Bicep curls (cables or barbells or dumbells)
Cable pushdowns
Close grip neutral pullups
Chinups
Lat Pull Downs
Close Grip Rows

On Chest/Tricep/Leg day, I do

Bench Press
Flys
Tricep pushdowns
Leg press or squats
Leg curls
Leg extensions
Calf raises

On shoulder day,

Overhead press
Lateral raises
Front raises

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hey buddy, well if your main goal is to get bigger I wouldn't be looking at spending 90mins at a time in the gym (even more so if you are a natural lifter). You should be able to get a great session done in 40-50mins, 60mins tops if you keep the intensity up and train with focus and purpose.

Back looks really overcooked if I'm honest !! I would pick three exercises, four at the most and three to four sets of each. Stick to compound exercises for the main bulk of the workout, the last exercises can be more of a 'finishing' touch so to speak such as a flye movement for chest, concentration curls for biceps etc. A couple of sets for that one is more than enough. If these are the exercises that you like or you feel they're the best, just pick three or four out for a session and hit different combinations of them each time you train that bodypart. Cable pushdowns probably should be in with chest and triceps as it isn't a back or bicep movement (or maybe you're thinking of a different exercise but wrote the wrong description)?

I'd be doing something like this if I were to keep your grouping of the bodyparts the same:

BACK/BICEPS
Deadlifts ~ the #1 exercise for back. Learn good technique, it's tough so do this one first
Chinups OR pullups
Seated rows (alternate between close grip and wide grip)
Rear delts (alternate between reverse pec deck, cables etc)
Barbell curls
Hammer curls

CHEST/TRICEPS
Bench press/Incline bench
Flat/incline Dumbbell chest press
Dumbbell flyes
Close grip bench press
Dips

LEGS
Leg extension (as a warmup, lighter weight with higher reps)
Squats/Box squats
Leg press (mix up your foot positioning)
Barbell Good mornings
2-3 sets of calf work

SHOULDERS
OHP
1 x arm dumbbell shoulder press
Side OR front raises (alternate between a plate or dumbbells)

Other points to consider:

a) make sure you are meeting your caloric needs
b) eating consistently/never feeling hungry
c) quality of food is high
d) you're training optimally with enough rest between sessions

If you're doing all of the above as well as hydrating well and getting enough sleep, the rest will soon start to take care of itself. Maybe you could start up a training log in the 'Online Journals' section of this site, I'm sure you would get a lot of useful and invaluable feedback. All the best and welcome to the forum buddy MF.

Wow! Thanks so much MF. This is great info.

I have a couple of follow-up questions.

1) I have lower back issues so have stayed away from deadlifts and good mornings. Heavy squats would be risky. I realize those are better than the more isolation exercises, but that is the situation at this time. If those were removed from your recommendations, would you add or change anything?

2) You list both Chest Press and Dumbbell chest press. How do they work the muscles differently?

3) What is 1 x arm shoulder press?

4) Cable pushdowns are similar to dumbbell pullovers (high cable, arms straight, push down to thigh level). Is that better on chest day? I thought it worked back more.

5) From the back/bicep day, it looks like there are no bicep specifics. I am guessing this is because they are worked sufficiently with pull-ups and rows?

6) This wasn't in my earlier post, but something I wanted to check out with you....what are your thoughts about BCAAs and creatine for someone at my level of training and for my goals?

I will look at the logs and consider starting one.


Thanks!

I'll answer in red...



I will look at the logs and consider starting one.


Thanks!

VwganZak- thanks for posting this question!

Mini Forklift, thanks so much for your responses- I am new to the forum and I thought this was really helpful!!

Great advice MF, thank you, ill take this onboard.

I like to do two or three heavy compound exercises for any given day, then exercises to individually target each muscle, then another compound lift to finish. So back day for me is pull ups, bent over rows, one arm dumbbell rows, reverse flys, deadlift. chest and tris day is incline dumbbell press, tricep dips, decline bench press, reverse tricep pressdowns, incline flys (for weak point training), one arm cable pressdowns (for weak point training), one arm incline cable crosseovers (for weak point training) and push up-plus (shoulder rotation at the end of the pushup for serratus activation.)