Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi all,

I've just joined this fantastic community and would like your advice. I've been a vegan for 8 months and been training for just over 2. I've been helped a great deal by Pete from veganbodybuilding.org; he's the coolest vegan I've met so far! He suggested a new routine which I'm doing twice a week for about 90 minutes per session. I'd like to train more but, due to my job, is sometimes difficult. However I've just joined a new company which has a gym so I'll be hopefully be able to squeeze in extra sessions.
I sometimes worry that I'm not eating enough to grow, so I'll write my typical day and would like your opinion.

Breakfast: wholemeal cereals with soy milk, jam on wheatbread
10-11am: 1 banana 60 grams of cashew nut & almonds
Lunch: this can obviously vary: if I'm working I'm limited with what's on offer at the canteen; usually I have plate of mixed beans, veg curry or nut burger, potatoes and broccoli on the side. At home I may have some pasta, rice, cous-cous or quinoa
3-4pm: wholemeal pitta/bread stuffed with tofu, carrots and peanut butter, 1-2 pieces of fruit
Dinner: mock meat (nut cutlets, pies etc.) veggie on the side some houmous, 1-2 pieces of fruit
10-11pm: Isolate soya protein shake mixed with 200ml (0.05 fl oz) and a banana.
I aim at drinking at least 3-4 litres (0.8-1 fl oz) of water each day. I've put on about 2kgs (4.4 lbs) in just over 2 months and it shows a bit; however I'm not sure if I should have improved more. My weight is now 80 kg (176lbs) and I'm 6ft tall.
I'd very much appreciate any suggestion regarding my diet and training...thanks!

your diet is excellent. i wish that i could get that kind of consistency with mine!

two 90minute training sessions isnt ideal. better would be 3 60minute sessions, as 3 sessions is great for slapping on muscle and a 90minute session is generally too long.

what kind of exercises are you doing?

jonathan

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Squat
Press
Eat
Repeat

thanks Jonathan! I must admit is difficult to stick to a diet but I'm doing the best I can!

My routine is divided in 2 days with 9 exercises each; I guess they're your usuals: squats, deadlifts, shoulder press etc.
At the end of the session I do calves, heavy on day 1 and light on day 2.

I think I'm doing ok so far, but as you pointed out, it occurred to me that 90 mins may be too long. I takes me a while to do negative chins but my session also includes warm-up and some abs.

I agree, you diet looks very good

But i think 90min workout is not too long. 3 times per week might be better, but 2 times should bring results, also.

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No one said it would be easy.

Do you reckon is good enough to develop muscles or do I need to add other food/supplements?

I think you don't need any supplements to build muscles.
The only supplement i take is a multivitamin/mineral per day, just to be on the safe side.
Another good supplement would be brewer's yeast, it's quite cheap and effective.
The soy protein powder you use is a supplement, one i sometimes use but not at the moment (out of cash ).

Other things like creatine or amino acids have only very small effect, if any.

Now all you need is patience and consistency

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No one said it would be easy.

Daywalker wrote:



Thanks for the encouragement, I've trained for almost 3 months and I'm beginning to see improvements.
I do find it difficult to increase weight on some excercises, for example biceps curls, while I've managed to increase on others. Is there any reason to it?

I found with bicep curls that I wasn't aiming high enough for a long time. I was lifting a weight that I was doing 10-12 reps with, but really if I pushed myself, I could have done about 17 reps. The next weight up in the gym seemed too heavy, so I just didn't use it. But recently, I have gone up rapidly in the weights for bicep curl, because I just starting lifting heavier, doing only 2 or 3 reps with the heavier weight. And that has gone up to 6 reps now, with the same weight in a short space of time. I don't know your specific situation though. Maybe you are lifting a heavy weight and only getting 2 reps out of it? In which case, I dunno what you're doing wrong to be able to get stronger with it.

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Hey Richard,

my situation is probably similar to yours. I'm lifting 20 kg 10-12 reps x3, trying to perform it with good form. I would probably be able to lift more but not for 10-12 reps. I might try lowering my reps but I don't think it would make a huge difference. My aim is to lift more, same reps, good form.
Well, hopefully I'll get there in due time, it just seems hard as I've been lifting the same weight for a while.