Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I know there are some great physiques on this site, but in terms of bodybuilding I've seen no vegans that could compete with the likes of cutler and coleman... yet! Do they exist?

So what I like to know is...

Who is the biggest vegan bb you know? Pics please...

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I'm taking a break from the internet (for as much as possible)... Gone 'till november

Considering neither cutler or coleman are natural, that's not a very fair comparison.

I don't know of any vegans that are not natural.

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Lifts:
250 Bench
445 Deadlift
335 Squat

I don't think one could compare anyone to Coleman or Cutler, they are not average but the exception.

One can't actually even compare the best natural bodybuilders in the world to the best unnatural bodybuilders in the world.

In fact, sub-par unnatural bodybuilders who don't have any kind of fame, are in most cases, all bigger and "more impressive in bodybuilding terms) than the very best in the natural world.

I understand completely what you are searching for though, and I seek the same. I'd love to see huge vegan bodybuilders who look like IFBB Pro Bodybuilders, just as I'd love to see vegan NBA Basketball players and vegan NFL players as well as other athletes.

There have been some great vegan athletes of the past, but they are few and far between and that is frustrating.

To answer your question directly, I don't know who the biggest vegan bodybuilder in the world is and I am certain they could not compare on any level to Ronnie Coleman or Jay Cutler, but than again, neither can anyone else on the planet, with the exception of Victor Martinez and half a dozen other top unnatural IFBB Pro Bodybuilders.

There are some impressive vegan physiques out there, but none who exemplify what you desire, that I know of.

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

I do realize that natural bodybuilders are never gonna compare to the pro's... But nevertheless I'd like to know how vegan bb compare to nonvegan natural bb. For example, has anyone ever gotten over 100kg-mark?

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I'm taking a break from the internet (for as much as possible)... Gone 'till november

This still remains to be seen. I don't know how the "best" vegan bodybuilders compare to the "best" natural non-vegan bodybuilders but I know the numbers they have to pull from are something like:

20,000 Natural non-vegan bodybuilders

20 vegan bodybuilders

It will take some time to bring out pool up in numbers to really have a good comparison. The lifestyle is very new and I anticipate that it will take some time to produce some top vegan bodybuilders, but in the same thought, I think we'll get more and more elite bodybuilders to move over to a plant-based diet as time goes on.

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

Avi Lehyani's quite big, although he's not a bodybuilder .

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Become vegan, and enjoy better health.

Yep, I would also say, that Leyhani might be the biggest vegan, who's also in shape - though he is a powerlifter. He is at least the biggest one I've seen so far!

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The thing is its very likely Coleman and Cutler would have also been the best Natural Bodybuilders in the world. The best clean athletes make the best dirty athletes. As for a vegan doing the same it can happen and I'm sure it will eventually. If someone could get a hold of a strong steroid thats made in an illegal lab and not tested on animals then there is no reason why that vegan couldn't become the best...thing is he'd also have to be one of the best natural bodybuilders before hand.

Aren't there "vegan steroids" at the moment? I know of multiple "vegan" athletes who take steroids, just checking.

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

I think there are very likely steroids with no animal products(I can nearly guarantee it)...however I doubt there are any that haven't been tested on animals that are MEDICAL GRADE...if they aren't MEDICAL GRADE then its stupid to risk taking them.

Many people believe so, but i disagree. It's an argument often used to trivialize drug abuse.
One of the most important factors for a world class athlete is talent, or genetics.
If you train naturally, you need good genetics for being big and strong, for recovery, utilizing food etc.
But if you juice, you need good genetics for responding to the juice and resisting the side effects as well. Some people take drugs and respond mainly with side effects, others get away with comparatively small side effetcs. Some get huge with little doses, others need more. You need a healthy liver for sure to become a bodybuilding champ
You cannot know how good Jay, Ronnie and the other pros would be as naturals. Better than most probably, but it wouldn't be the same athletes on top if there was no juice.

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No one said it would be easy.

Oh for sure genetics and talent have a lot to do with it. You won't be the best at anything in life when it comes to physical tests without genetics and talent....but them mix that with drugs and you have something inhuman and incredible.

I agree with genetics and talent. But what I do not understand (or am I interpreting this incorrectly) why are all the pro bodybuilders or other athletes from various sports placed on such a high pedestal (not only in this forum). Please don't misunbderstand me, this is probably the best forum for discussion and pleasant people.
Granted, it takes a hell of a lot of desire, motivation, will, discipline, etc. to reach what many have accomplished, but in my opinion they are as juiced as they come. I mean how different is it when a cyclist, or a swimmer, etc. (whether it be in the Tour de France, or Giro d' Italia, or any other race in this world) tests positive for an illegal substance and basks in the glory when another clean rider or riders finish (say 5th or 20th) and are not even recognized.
Take the sprinter Ben Johnson, who was caught in the olympics for using illegal substances. He was banned and left the sport in disgrace. Or baseballers, why do the media and many, many sports enthusiasts condone such actions and shun a left eye. Going back to BB, nobody can even remotely get as big and ripped as these guys w/o juicing. It's impossible. I am not taking anything away from their desire and willpower to succeed, but at what price, and how can we as a people appreciate their achievements knowing that it's artificially induced?

The problem with those other sports is the mostly everyone that doesn't get caught is juicing too. Its obvious in bodybuilding but not in cycling or baseball. Sure some are obviously bigger than others but if you look at cycling...many of the dopers are the smallest guys in the pack...and they too don't just get caught with endurance drugs...sometimes they too get caught with steroids. The big problem I have is that when the winner gets caught...they give the medal to the person in second who is also dirty as sin. They get respect they don't deserve. Trust me...in the Tour de France maybe only half the riders are clean during the race and they were doping in the off season. The other half has better drugs and can take them all year without testing positive because they have more money and team support. Now its getting harder but there are still dopers out there...and if everyone stopped doping now the present dopers would still be the best pros...that means they got to that level because they were dirty. They don't even deserve to be there after cleaning up their acts because they wouldn't have been there to begin with...but you'd have to go way far down to find non dopers...a lot of these guys start taking drugs in their MID TEENS.
So I say appreciate their hard work and wish it were a different situation. Plain and simple you can't be one of the best pros if your clean...its impossible. If others are preventing your dream then I don't blame people for feeling the need to dope. I myself will not dope but I'm just trying to get to the Olympic level in cycling. I don't plan on being competitive to win because I know what it would take...heck...it may even take drugs to make it to the bottom but I'd rather fail if thats what I have to do to get there.

I was listening to the podcast "Pro Bodybuilding Weekly", the episode "Tribute to Ronnie Coleman", and they had an interview with one of Ronnie's workout buddies from from when he first started. In the middle of the interview, one of the hosts asked him why Ronnie made such huge gains in '96 (or it might have been '95), did he change his nutrition? Training style? Rest? What? The guy said that he did change up his nutrition, and he also said something like, "one thing people just don't believe is that Ronnie was natural for the longest time".

So, it might be the case that Ronnie was a natural and able to make it to the IFBB as a natural. I think his genetics and raw strength are second to none.

As far as steroids, personally, I don't use them and never would, for fear of long-term side effects. But I really don't care if other people want to use them. There's no life-destroying side effects that you see with crack or heroine. They don't impair people's driving abilities, like with
booze. If people are willing to take them knowing the possible risks, it causes no harm to me, and I don't really think the government should criminalize the use of steroids.

Similarly, I kind of like that aspect about the IFBB, in the sense that its an known fact that evrybody is juicing. Thus, nobody is cheating. That's way different from other sports that theoretically ban 'roids but have extremelly lax enforcement, putting clean athletes at a disadvantage.