Losing definition and then cutting up - check out page 1 :)

Not bad man, not bad!

You definitely look a lot bigger! The legs are in awsome shape and the shoulders seem to be wider and the arms bigger. Nice Job!

I agree with the long hair. It gives a kind of warrior look.

I've been super busy lately, perhaps more than any other time in my life, but it is great!

I was at the gym until after midnight yesterday. This was taken at a random Animal Rights party a couple of days ago. I bumped into Cal from our forum who lives in Arizona. He was visiting for the AR Conference and had our VBB t-shirt on so we chatted, and then I took him to the gym late at night to train.

This photo was moments after we first met in person. I feel like I'm shrinking but I'm still in the high 180's and still staying focused on long term goals.

Great times!

http://a83.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/27/l_6feb89c4986fb38a0cfc24c8d0d05842.jpg

Lookin good Robert! What do you attribute the weight loss to, running around too much and not eating enough to maintain? Did you want to trim down? Nothing wrong with being leaner after a building phase. You bulked up for a nice period of time. No better time to shed some weight off to accent all your progress than after putting some mass on. Where do you see yourself by the end of this year? When is the next time you think you shall plan on going on stage, the last time wa april 07 right? Great job at maintaining and advancing one of the best vegan builds around

Basically, consistency is the key word. I haven't been as consistent with eating or training because my consistency has been with working.....but with work, I've excelled in a major way so my physique suffered a bit. It doesn't have to be like that. I can learn to balance it and win in both areas, and I have. I had major deadlines and put in a lot of time to work, but I'll be back on physique track soon!

I have to reflect on the past and think about the future and come up with some new goals. I'm still shooting for 200, still wanting to bulk and still desire to compete again in the future, just not sure when.

Well, back to eating!.....

Rob you might be feeling smaller of what you could be now but that still looks huge. You're looking kinda bigger than in the last lean pics I saw of you.

When I go to Portland some time in the future you'll have to take me to the gym so I can brag around like "Look! He's my training buddy!"

Planning to compete sometime in 2009. Time to start getting in the right frame of mind:

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/21/l_e8d52e44ae5e48ebb269dc8d0e9c1439.jpg

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/62/l_fea4cc2ad9884fa8822cba0e027f98b9.jpg

Kind of hard to get into a frame of mind with that winter scene behind you! Is that Portland?

Lovely purple comp suit! And you still fit it! I have a purple one too, but I look like I would burst out of it if I just sneezed!

Your comp suit is SOOOOO tiny. Ahahahaha.

But you know you're looking hot as hell, even with that snowy background there.

Yeah, that is outside my front door yesterday in Portland

I took many more photos today....though none of me and I was fully clothed. We got even more snow so I took more pics. We even made the front page of cnn.com with our rare foot of snow and crazy weather out here. I do plan to compete in 09 since it has been a while since my last contest in the spring of 07. Time to get back into it!

Kind of hard to get into a frame of mind with that winter scene behind you! Is that Portland?

 

Lovely purple comp suit! And you still fit it! I have a purple one too, but I look like I would burst out of it if I just sneezed!

Yeah, that pair and my hot pink pair of posing trunks are both very small. I have others will wear in the future. These purple ones are nuts! Way too small!

Time to get back into action. I've been goofing off a bit lately and really need to get back into the gym, and back to eating big time. I lost some weight with all my traveling over the past 6 months but I can put it back on fairly quickly. Yeah Buddy.

Your comp suit is SOOOOO tiny. Ahahahaha.

 

But you know you're looking hot as hell, even with that snowy background there.

Looking great robert, thou I have to agree with HCPinGviini, soooo tiny

Your neighbours must be thinking you are crazy hehehe

"Hooooneeey there is again the freaky guy from the next door, he is in a thong and he is making strange poses, should I call the cops? "

More from today...I did push-ups first, so more pumped in the arms than the photos 2 days ago:

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/10/l_4d3afb60203c4804aca880a7b225779d.jpg

Starting to thicken up.....but still skinny. At least I'm working hard again, so I'm pleased about that and success or "results" should follow as long as I can stay focused and keep after it consistently.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/muscle1-1.jpg

Photo from Jan 25, 2009

Hey Superman where's your cape?

Did Super Girl hide it from you again ?

"Oh EB EB that's cold that's cold "

Looking thicker Rob keep it up

Starting to thicken up.....but still skinny. At least I'm working hard again, so I'm pleased about that and success or "results" should follow as long as I can stay focused and keep after it consistently.

 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/muscle1-1.jpg

 

Photo from Jan 25, 2009

I just shaved my face and the rest of my body other than legs, but they are nearly hairless right now anyway...so I'll take more pics without the messy face!

Nice man keep it up! You're Forearm and it's vein is are huge!

Excellent!

Call me "Creed" cause I've got "Arms Wide Open"

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/tan11.jpg

8.5 weeks away from competition.

Bulked up and then cut up and you can even see a bit of my Cheeks April 11, 2009 image

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs006.snc1/2828_1146728062505_1056650054_423480_2340917_n.jpg

Agh that's DIsgusting !

I wanna see your face when you say that. lol

You're looking good mate, keeping nice and full while getting leaner. That's the key to doing well on stage. I think training heavy and focusing on diet and cardio for fat loss will maintain all the size you have. Keep it up mate

I think it's AWESOME that you are bulking enough to lose definition. That is the only way one can properly get ridiculously big. Losing fat is a no brainer, but eating huge amounts every day is full time work.

Lose all the definition you want and lift super heavy. That's the only way to greatness!

Who cares about sixpack if you can deadlift 500 lbs? (that is my goal and when I achieve it I'll print a t-shirt with that text!)

BTW, Robert's rear double biceps pose is world class! Still shocks me every time I see it!

Hey Everyone!

I'm back into bodybuilding with more enthusiasm than I have had in the past 10 years.

Truth be told, over my 10 years in bodybuilding, I don't think there was an entire 12 month period where I have trained consistently. I injured my back in my first year of bodybuilding and re-injured it many more times over the next few years in dramatic fashion to the point that I stopped doing deadlifts and squats for the past 7 years. I also simply lost interest and found other things to enjoy and took lots of breaks from training and bodybuilding in general. I worked on cruise ships, wrote books, filmed documentaries, worked and traveled and bodybuilding became less of a passion and much lower on my list of top interests. Losing interest combined with constantly suffering from very painful and limiting injuries made it very easy for me to choose not to train to pursue other things while still running my websites and writing about vegan bodybuilding.

Sometime in August, 2010 after an entire year off from training to write books and travel, I decided to make a comeback to bodybuilding and to find passion in it again, to be safe and injury-free, to work hard and be focused and give it another run. This time around, 10 years after bodybuilding first captured my interest, I would give a mighty whack at a comeback.

I honestly don't know if it was turning 30 and wanting to prove I'm still an athlete; or getting so skinny from a year long break that I was lighter than I was 10 years ago, going under 170 pounds for the first time since I was a teenager; or wanting to represent my book and Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness more appropriately, or simply hanging out with Ryan Wilson and realizing I was half his size and deciding right then and there to return to bodybuilding; or something else that got me back into it.

Whatever it was....I'm happy to be back. And I really mean that. I've been training for 5 months and have been injury-free the entire time and I don't think I have missed more than 3 days in any given week over nearly half a year. I'm back and consistent and smiling a lot. I also have exciting news to report. I have made a slow and careful return to free weight barbell squats and deadlifts! I started out with simply bodyweight squats and then used the bar, then a few 10s on the side. This is over the course of many weeks. My first time squatting with a bar and weights in half a decade was a month ago when I peaked at 135lbs, even though I can still legpress 800lbs. I had to start all over with squats, have trainers watch my form as use little weights. Last night I squatted 195 pounds and I think I'm up to 155 on deadlifts, far short of the 350 pounds I used to do with each exercise when I first got into the sport. But happier than ever!

I'm stretching more than ever before in my life, spending time doing heat treatments on my muscles and supplementing like crazy. Even while writing this I just took a break to eat an entire package of tofu, 2 small avocados and prepare a drink with Vega Sport Protein, BCAA's, Glutamine and Creatine. I'm putting in more hours into the sport of bodybuilding than arguably ever before, aside from contest preparation time doing 2-3 workouts a day.

I'm having a lot of fun again and I really want this to continue...to give myself a long consecutive streak of training with lots of enthusiasm and see where it takes me.

Getting back into the bodybuilding spirit and documenting my progress, I have been taking photos all along the way.

I'm all smiles and having so much fun these days, wanting to be in the gym or training all the time! Let's keep this going....heading to the gym within an hour! Pumped!

A few recent pics to show some progress:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs487.ash2/76092_1653782538550_1056650054_1804345_8326976_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs928.snc4/74191_1657865080611_1056650054_1812026_1259963_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs945.snc4/73870_1637662015547_1056650054_1776993_5179008_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs904.snc4/71748_1625017379439_1056650054_1754211_4888275_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs493.ash2/76620_1623978913478_1056650054_1751563_148080_n.jpg

And of course, having a great time pursuing personal interests, but also dedicated to Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Success to help inspire others to go vegan and save animals. A sample pic to show how skinny I got.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs080.ash2/37346_1461008239313_1056650054_1345892_3299103_n.jpg

An improved arm after return to the sport:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs136.snc4/37133_1602941547557_1056650054_1710620_4791187_n.jpg

Thanks for sticking with me through all my ups and downs, injuries, times I lost interest, etc. I plan to be back for a while. Bring on the free weights and whole foods! Free weights only these days and eating a ton of great food too!

-Robert