Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Thursday: Started my day by sleeping in since I got back from Key West, FL last night around 1:30 AM. I woke up to say hi to my sons as they headed off to school around 6 AM, but then I went back to bed to about 8:30 AM. I headed off to the gym around 9 AM with some green tea in me to do treadmill cardio (30 minutes for 2.5 miles). I came home and cleaned up the car and started to "find" the house after leaving it with my husband and the "boys" for a little less than a week. Actually it was pretty clean! So I just did my stuff and my daughter's (as she had a project due Friday and had her head in the laptop pretty much all day). Picked up the kids from school, but none of them wanted to go to the gym with me, so I went all by myself.

So around 4:30 PM at the gym I did Chest and Biceps. I did my 4 sets of 25 reps at weights that I can handle at this amount of reps. I do this to switch my body over to fat burning while lifting weights, and it is a shake up for my muscles. It also is great to work the ligaments and tendons correctly and get them nice and strong. I usually do this for all the body parts that week, and I only do it at the beginning of the month.

Chest Wide Press was 90 lbs, supersetted with the Cybex Flyes at 60 lbs. My chest was burning! I felt funny doing such small "pinky" weights as I call them, but they were kicking my pecs at those reps! I then supersetted Hammer Curls at 15 lbs with just the EZ bar for the bicep curl! I then did Dumbbell Grip Chest Press at a low weight of 67.5 lbs, and supersetted with Incline Smith Chest Press at a total of 45 lbs. I was shaking alot of the time with the last set at the 20 to 25 rep mark. It is weird to feel your muscles shake with such small weights. I was going to do some more bicep isolation muscles, but I couldn't even lift my hand to grab the handle of the cable for overhead bicep cable curl! So I called it a day and headed back out into the snow covered parking lot and thought of Key West. Mmmmmm, 80 degree weather........

My one stat is that my starting weight is 172 lbs. I only want to lose about 5 to 7 lbs this month. I already am doing the oatmeal in the morning for breakfast with hemp protein, EFA oils, powdered Greens, and am keeping the agave nectar for now. Doing Peaceful Planet shakes with water in between meals, and meals are only one portion. It is now 9 PM and I am not really hungry, but I do want to eat! I am cutting out juice for water, and keep fruits down to a minimum. I went and stocked up on carrots, sugar snap peas, and celery (my favs for vegetables) for munching on when it gets bad. Not going to count all the info on my food. . . . yet. Going on instinct and experience from the last time I dieted down to contest weight. Oh boy....here I go. Can't wait for spring to get here and go out trail running again! (Grand Rapids has a half marathon coming up the beginning of May that I am thinking of doing).

Hey, nice to see we are both cutting now- I ll be definitely looking for some ideas around here Are you going to cut a month only, or what is your final goal?

Good luck for the marathon training, if you decide to go!

_________________
Having the time of my life.

It's not how many times you fall down that counts - it's how many you stand back up that matters.

Hiya Skotx! I usually cut for 3 to 4 months. That way I loose fat more, and less muscle mass, which is only 2 lbs a week loss usually. This is from my experience of cutting too quickly for my first contest in which I got down to a stick thin 112 lbs! I looked like I just dieted down and had no muscle mass left to show! So I don't want to massively loose weight real fast anymore. So I give myself 12 weeks out from peaking as my starting point and go from there. I am giving myself 16 weeks this time because it has been a couple of years (OK five years) since I got into peak contest shape, and may have a couple of extra fat in between the muscles to loose to get the striations to pop out.

The marathon training is just a little hobby on the side. I love to run outdoors, and with my slow and steady pace, I have found that I am marathon material (I don't go for getting a medal, but just to do it. I love being around people who love to run too. Great energy during a race to run in). But I will have to see how much energy I have to push it to the 13 mile mark, and then a full 26 mile run. My focus this season is bodybuilding, so I have to keep that in my mind first. But who knows, I may just go for it and run, run, run, run!

(Then again I have to remind myself of the last two years of going to the gym and working out heavy to build, just to let it all go? Don't think so).

Friday: I couldn't believe the amount of soreness I had. And of course it was the eye of my elbows and the anterior delt tie-in to the pecs. So the tendons and the ligaments were worked pretty well and were sore! The belly of the muscles were not sore, but the ends of the muscle (insertions and origins) were tender when used. Funny how pulling on your muscular rubber bands 25 times with a light weight can strengthen them.

Headed for the gym around 5:30 PM to do treadmill action for 30 minutes for 2.5 miles (5 mph) again. So hard! Mentally I wanted to quit at the 5 minute mark, and was really fighting my excuses to quit at the 20 minute mark. That is why I say I am going to do what I came to do and do it. . . no matter what excuse pops into my head. That way, no matter how mad I get at myself for not quitting when I wanted to, I am always proud to have done what I set out to do, and pat myself on the back!

Hungry at night! I ate some carrot sticks and some sugar snap pea pods and felt better (not like full or anything, but the edge was gone).

Saturday: A cold and windy and gray overcast sky. Hard to get motivated. But I did manage to get to the gym by 10 AM to run the usual 30 minutes for 2.5 miles (though I talked to the lady next to me for the first 6 minutes, and then had to speed up at the end to make it to 2.5 miles!). Did some chores around the house and helped my daughter with her anime cosplay costume. Took a little nap around 2 PM cause my kids were out late last night (and I am one of those parents that don't sleep till I hear them come in) and my training partner son had to be at school for a band festival by 6 AM, so I was making juice for him at 5:30 AM. He then proceeded to forget his shoes, so as soon as my husband got back, he had to turn around and go again. Luckily the bus didn't leave for half an hour after my son was dropped off at the school. So that is my excuse for napping !!!

Headed for the gym around 4 PM (all by myself. Big son had to work and training partner son has a 10 PM soccer game tonight - so he taking a nap, especially after getting up so early for the band festival). Today was Back and Triceps. As soon as I did my 4 sets of 25 reps with the Hammer Strength Back Row, my elbows (at the eyes) began to hurt! Oh crap I thought. But after a warm up set of two sets of 25 reps, they were OK. But I bet tomorrow will tell me a different story! Yikes. So I did the following:

Hammer Strength Back Row: 90 lbs at 25 reps for 4 sets
supersetted with
Cable Lat Pulldown: 70 lbs, 25 reps, 4 sets

Hyper Extensions: 25 lbs plate, 25 reps, 4 sets
fastly supersetted with
Hammer Strength Shrugs: 180 lbs, 25 reps, 4 sets

Cybex Middle of the Back Row: 75 lbs, 25 reps, 4 sets
supersetted with
Front Cable Lat Pushdown: 40 lbs, 25 reps, 4 sets

On to Triceps! Though I was pretty wasted by now.

Rope Pushdown: 50 lbs, 25 sets, 4 sets
supersetted with
Overhead Cable Tricep Extension: 20 lbs, 25 reps, 4 sets

And this is where I couldn't lift my arms up anymore. I tried to do Dips on the Cybex-assisted Machine but then my sternum hurt. So I was done.

Went home and made my Tomato Cashew Cream Pasta Sauce with caramelized onions, chopped up kale, garlicky sauteed mushrooms, and pan roasted sunflower seeds, all over linguine! It is 8 PM and I am still full, so I hope it stays that way for the rest of the night.

Sunday: Rest day of course. I was going to go and do some cardio, but I started my menses. I don't want to put my body through too much on one day. So I just watched my eating today. Now I know why I was craving carbs for the past two days at night! Also on Sundays I weighed myself. This morning it was 170 lbs! I lost 3 lbs in the past two weeks! Off to a good start. Yipee!

Monday: No cardio this morning since I will be doing Legs this afternoon. So I headed to the gym, this time with my 14 year old son training partner who is doing Chest and Biceps by himself today since I kept on my schedule and he took the whole week off, around 4 PM.

So lets begin Shoulders!

Hammmer Strength Shoulder Press: 50lbs at 25 reps, 4 sets
supersetted with
Dumbbell Side Lateral Raises: 12lbs (10s were too easy, and the 15s were too hard, so I looked for the funky 12lbs dumbbells) at 25 reps, 4 sets

Cybex Rear Delt Machine: 30lbs at 25 reps, 4 sets
supersetted with
Icarian Dumbbell Grip Military Press: 40lbs at 25 reps, 4 sets

On to Legs! (The trainer and his client teased me about my little sissy weights today. Wanted to know when I was going to put on some real weights. I told them I was on my ligament cycle and they became confused after that and teased me no more. Knowing guys they might have thought I was talking about my menses cycle - which is true, but no PMS this time. So they could've teased me all they wanted to and it wouldn't have bothered me!).

Leg Extensions: 75 lbs at 25 sets (burn baby burn at these little weights!), 4 sets
supersetted with
Leg Curls: 70lbs for 25 reps, 4 sets

Leg Press: 270lbs for 25 reps, 4 sets
supersetted with
Leg Press Calf Raises: 270lbs for 50 reps, 4 sets

Threw in Abductor Machine: 60lbs for 25 reps, 4 sets

And I talked alot during the break in between shoulders and legs, but when I did the exercises for just shoulders and just legs, I kept it to a minimum. So I got a good burn and sweat going.

Tuesday: Rest day. Went 30 minutes cardio (treadmill, 2.5 miles) in the morning around 9 AM. Spent the day doing errands and making meals and snacks, and picking up kids. Dinner was early, so I could go to yoga by 7:15 PM. Boy am I tight! It hurt just to lie on the floor and put my hands up over my head and lay the back of the palms on the floor. My shoulders were pinching! It was good that I was back in there limbering up my joints!

Hi Gaia

I'm going through a cutting phase right now too.
Just in reading your workouts, I was wondering if your rest days aren't restful enough?
The recommendations I've been receiving from some pretty hardcore bodybuilders say that a rest day should be rest. No cardio, yoga or other excercise.

How is your cutting phase going so far?

_________________
What's the difference between boogers and broccoli ?
-Kids don't eat broccoli.
.

Well, my cutting is off to a good start. I weighed in today at 168, so I have already lost my five pounds for the month. This is to be expected though. I usually do the first 10 to 15 lbs pretty well, then I plateau. Then I will start to think about what to do to shake up my body. (Hopefully the weather will begin to warm up so I can go out and do my hour long jogs! which helps me break out of the plateau usually).

Rest to me is not lifting heavy weights (or lights weights with high reps). 30 minutes of cardio before breakfast is to kick start my metabolism (being in my 40's) and it feels good so far (I am not out of breath or anything like that. I do sweat just enough to warrant a good hot shower when I get home though!).
Yoga doesn't count as aerobic/cardio to me also. Though I do go down in child pose alot if my lats are too fatigue to do another downdog! But I have been doing yoga (even went through the teacher training) for six years now, so it is just a strategic stretching exercise for me (I do not do Ashtanga or even the Anusara 2 class anymore cause it is way too aerobic for me right now).

If I am not feeling up to it, I won't do any cardio that day. If I am feeling tired or sleepy, I will back off and let my body rest. Not feeling guilty that I am not out running the fat off is what I have yet to perfect!

The other thing I will have to juggle is my garden. I don't like motors, so I shovel my beds over by hand. That counts as heavy lifting to me. So I will have to work that in my schedule some how.

sounds like you live an active lifestyle!

know what you mean about the being in the 40's... sigh......
I really need to "kickstart" things too.

congrats on the early weight loss and best of luck for the future!

_________________
What's the difference between boogers and broccoli ?
-Kids don't eat broccoli.
.

Wednesday: Chest and Bicep day. Did my usual 2.5 miles on the treadmill this morning around 8:30 AM, but it took me 40 minutes today. My daughter called from MSU (she had a bad day yesterday as her project for English did not go well and she is now in danger of getting a B in the class!) at the 15 minute mark, and I put it down to walking so I could talk to her without the hum of the treadmill. (I was happy to get out my red pen to edit her English papers during high school! I would write all over it! Now she is on her own, but she is going to get her prof to check her work before she turns it in. Good for her!). I talked for about 10 minutes and then resumed. It was easy doing cardio today.

Headed for the gym at 4:30 PM.

Chest was heavy
Hammer Strength Wide Chest Press: heavy set was 190 lbs/8 reps (worked in with some guy friends who were pushing 140 lbs/8 reps and were teasing each other about how I could do the extra 2 25's with ease/perfect form, and they were making faces and pushing their legs out straight to get their last rep up!). PB 210/8
Cybex Flyes: 90/8 heaviest. PB 100/8
Smith Machine Incline Press: 90/8 heaviest and PB.
Icarian Dumbbell Grip Chest Press: 105/8 heaviest and PB.

Could possibly do heavier weights to get the PB on some of the exercises, but I didn't want to push it today for some reason.

Biceps were a little on the light side:

Cable Curl: heaviest was 90/10. PB was 120/8
Hammer Curls: 30/8. PB 35/8
Cable Overhead Bi Curls: 4/8. PB 5/8

I felt like I wanted to do something just alittle bit more, so I played around and did some incline (45 degree) Dumbbell Chest Flyes with 30lbs for 12 reps. PB 40/8

So my Biceps were low today, but my Chest did alright. Maybe more waiting time between exercises might make me lift heavier, but when your son/training partner who was doing Back and Triceps today is sitting around waiting for you to get done cause he zipped through his exercises with ease and no intensity, it is hard to rest alot/enough in between sets. (Even at 15, you still hear "Are you done yet? Done yet? Can we go home now? Even though I said we would be at the gym for an hour, he got me to leave in 45 minutes!).

Thursday was a total rest day. I even took a couple of power naps (20 minutes) in the afternoon. Went shopping with my youngest son (13 years old this past November - my baby) for spring clothes (missing my daughter at times like these. But my son is turning into a clothes hound, and I do like guy clothes too. So much that I am always wearing my husband's clothes at home. They just are big and comfortable! and I am talking about shirts and sweaters mostly). So it was just a recoup day.

Friday: Back to work as usual. Treadmilling for 2.5 miles for 30 minutes in the morning, 8:30 AM. Did a little gardening by starting seeds indoors, so I got to play with some dirt! And went outdoors to watch the snow melt as the temp soared to 50 degrees! Yeah! It feels like Springtime!
Went to the gym a little later than usual, around 6 PM, to do Back and Triceps.

Back was heavy, but not PB's:

Cybex Row: 187.5lbs/8reps (whole stack at 200lbs for 6 was a PB)
Bent bar cable Lat Pulldown: 130/8, PB was 140/8
Hyperextensions with a 35lbs plate for 25 reps/4 sets
supersetted with
Machine Shrugs: 180lbs/25 reps/4 sets
Front Straight Bar Pushdown 40/10, a PB . . .finally!

Triceps were fast and furious with my 14 year old son bothering me so much as he was done with his Shoulder workout:

Cable Rope Tricep Pushdown: 130/8, a PB
Overhead V-bar Tricep Extensions: 6/8, a PB
Cybex-assisted Machine Dips: plate 4/8reps (I put my elbow behind my lats, stuck out my chest (yes, it was quite a sight in the mirror), and then kept upright and went down to just before parallel - and my sternum did not hurt that way!!! But I am glad that the guys who tease me alot were not there to make fun of my form!)

And then me and my son tried the new ab machines. I took the 5lbs medicine balls, sat in the machine, hooked my feet under the padded foot bar, and proceeded to try and put the medicine ball in the enclosed "basket". I first grabbed the ball down by my knees, went back in the chair with the medicine ball over my head, and then crunched my way up to the top to throw the ball into the "basket" again. I got 25 times putting the ball in the basket before my neck started to hurt. My son proceeded to use the 7lbs and 9lbs medicine balls and do just as many! I need to work on my core more!

Rest day on this Saturday: But instead of heading off to the gym to do cardio, I decided to test out the trails around 4 PM when it was the warmest today (around a low 40 degrees!). Well, for me to do the 3 mile trail run, it took me a little under 45 minutes to do, because it was still snow and ice covered. At times the ice was thick but as I ran on it and you could hear it creak and break off, and then there would be just slush getting my shoes all wet (socks too by the end of the run). Forgot to wear some kind of ear protection, so my ears were so cold and hurt, but my body was fine. I am very hungry today, but I am watching everything that I eat. Keeping it to a minimum today for tomorrow's weigh in.