Robert Cheeke's Journal - 3 contests in 4 weeks!

Today was my 6th day in a row training with weights. I usually do 2 or 3 days in a row max with a rest day to keep recovering.

But lately, I've been sleeping a lot and eating a lot, supplementing, etc. and have felt really good with this type of training. I'm also stronger than ever and my physique is looking good in a variety of ways. I'm still not as ripped as I want to be but I don't compete until the last week in April which is still some time away.

Anyway, on Valentine's Night Tasha, thendanisays, and Lean and Green and I went to the gym. We started off by playing a bit of basketball.....Tasha has a great shot and was dribbling the ball between her legs and showing some mad skills. It was cool.

After a bit of B-Ball warm-up we hit the weights.....at first I was feeling a bit out of it. I was jumping up and touching the rim (I can still dunk a basketball and dunked back in November to show someone) so I was a bit light-headed when I got to the weight room.

But after a few sets of bicep curls, I was back to normal. Since this was my 6th day in a row, and it was 10:30 at night I decided to just train biceps....I ended up doing about 8 sets of triceps too and some sets of abs.

It went like this:

Hammer Strength Machine Bicep curls to get myself into it:

45 x 15

45 x 15

55 x 15

65 x 10

65 x 10

Seated alternating bicep curls (didn't feel like standing yet)

30s x 8

30s x 8

30s x 8

Seated alternating hammer curls

35s x 8

35s x 8

35s x 8

EZ Curl standing curls (both arms)

85 x 7

80 x 7

80 x 7

70 x 15

Standing Hammer Curls

50s x 8

55s x 8

60s x 6

Tricep rope extensions

80 x 20

80 x 20

80 x 20

100 x 12

100 x 12

Push-ups

30

20

25

15

20

25

25

(160 total)

Some sit-ups and crunches and a bit of flexing my abs in the mirror.

Lean and Green was doing 375 lb deadlifts, no straps and was looking swol.

All 4 of us had a good time.

I came home and pounded 1000 calories before bed...usually I don't eat that much right before bed but the workout went so late and I was very hungry, I just ate.

Tomorrow is an off day for sure....but I think I'll get back to weights again on Monday.

I want my name to be "Mr. Consistency" and that is exactly what I have been for months with a good balance of consistent workouts and quality rest.

I may take 2 days in a row off to rest...that is what I did last weekend and then my first workout after that was the strongest workout of my life..multiple sets of dumbbell press with 110's. I've been doing cardio too.... 90+ minutes yesterday...starting to get a bit leaner but still heavier than I was last week...so things seem to be working well.

I have a very busy March....traveling all over...Florida, D.C., L.A, Seattle, etc. But I am committed to my diet and training amidst all the travel.

RC

P.S. I just posted the entire inventory of clothing in the photos section....please consider getting an item for yourself. I'm using it as a fundraiser for this contest that the 3 of us are doing in Arizona...we still have a ways to go, but we're doing well with our fundraising efforts.

Today was an off day from the gym but I went bowling so I still did something athletic. I bowled a 116 and a 112

I had some good calories today, great food that Tasha made from smoothie to quinoa and other things. I also had Vega on top of that, Pro Bars, and other food that I prepared myself. But for the most part..Tasha hooks me up with my meals, which is greatly appreciated.

I'm up late again (as usual). I've been promoting the VB&F clothing on facebook and myspace doing some fundraising and it has been going very well.

Off to bed now......back at it tomorrow. Gym workouts 6 of 7 days was a lot for me. I'll hit 5 days of weights this week.

Hey bro keep it up!! Man seeing that you are eating all that food is insane! I think with all those probars you are trying to make me lazy with food. Its like "cook" vs "eat a probar" the obvious choice is... Im cooking more so Im not pounding like 3K cals of probars a day. Lol. Cause boy are they sure good!! Dont like the chocolate chips much.

Yeah, I gotta take it easy on the ProBars from time to time...being 350-400 calories each but I figure they are primarily whole food ingredients so it's not too bad....the carbs are high but I'm not too worried about it 10 weeks out. If we're talking 4 or 5 weeks out I'll be a little more worried but right now I enjoy them.

I am eating quite a bit but my metabolism is crazy...it takes a lot for me to put on size, mass, fat, etc. So I can get away with eating more than most. I'm also doing cardio these days so I figure the more I train the more I can eat and the more I eat the more cardio I can do, then then the more cardio I do the hungrier I am and then the more I allow myself to eat

Something like that but it works. I am eating a ton of whole foods.....grains, beans, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. Then Vega on top of that, creatine, glutatmine, etc.

Time for breakfast.....I see a ProBar next to my computer....hmm......I had oats the past couple of mornings....maybe it is fruit and ProBar time.

Tonight, Tasha, Lean and Green and I went to the gym.

Lean and Green and I trained back.....also earlier today I met another forum member for the first time, another Portland resident new to the forum.

Today's theme was "12 reps" I didn't go as heavy as normal but did about 12 reps each set...some only 10, but in general it was a 10-12 rep day...not super heavy but a full and fairly slow range of motion day with squeezing and really feeling things moving.

Back started like this:

Warm-ups

3 sets of 20 back extensions

3 sets of 20 machine rows

3 sets of 20 machine lat pull-downs

Actual workout:

Narrow Grip Pull-ups

12

10

10

8

One-arm dumbbell rows

65s x 12

65s x 12

80s x 10

80s x 10

80s x 10

80s x 10

80s x 10

T-bar rows

Wide Grip

100 x 12

110 x 12

120 x 12

Narrow Grip

100 x 12

120 x 12

120 x 12

Bent-over rows

135 x 12

135 x 12

135 x 10

135 x 10

135 x 10

Cable rows

120 x 15

135 x 12

150 x 12

165 x 12

180 x 10

Drop Set

120 x 10

90 x 20

Then I rode the bike for 35 minutes.

After that we went shopping for cheap food.....gotta eat but also low on funds....but we got some good stuff and Tasha is making most of my meals from scratch. I'm also using VEGA everyday and ProBars (another sponsor) everyday, and making some food myself...but in general Tasha is making my food and had some creative stuff today with potatoes and avocado.

Great stuff!

Solid back day, I like the 10-12 rep range. I switch it up with 4-8 rep range workouts too. It's a good balance for me as I progress. I trained 7 of the past 8 days with weights, but have slept quite a bit and recovered well.

We should be very proud of ourselves.

You forgot to mention how you weren't feeling 100% and you wanted to work out on something lighter then

back, like your abs. But you worked on your muscle group that you were scheduled to work on. And

I doubt cardio was on your list to do after wards.

Great Job Dry, keep it up. I'll see you tonight

Robert, sounds like your workouts are going good. Can you elaborate on your diet a bit? I am sort of going by feel on my diet here since this is my first meat free contest. I knew how to dial it in before I mad the switch, but let's face it there is not a lot out there on pre-contest vegetarian diets. Most of the competitors I know tell me to "give it up" or "You can't enough protein" or the litany that I have repeated in years past to competitors who said they were thinking about making a change.

Thanks--Steve

Hey Steve,

Yeah, I'll try to share more about diet....so far so good. I get most of my food made for me by my roommate Tasha, on the forum. If you like soy, (some don't) I found 0 carb tofu that has 48 grams per package. So each package is 48 grams protein, 0 grams carbs. It's only $1.19 at Trader Joes, and is organic. I will bake it and put salsa (fresh cut, low carb) on it to add flavor or use other things to add flavor to it without having to add much sodium, carbs, calories, etc.

Right now I'm eating a lot of quinoa, beans, rice, tofu, potatoes, yams, oats, broccoli, other greens, fruits, Vega and other powders and supplements, some bars, and a variety of other foods, focusing on whole foods, less processed stuff, almost no breads, no pastas, etc. I'm really enjoying grains, greens and legumes in meals. I just like it....quinoa, kale, beans and tempeh, or something like rice, beans, avocado, broccoli. Those kinds of things.

I'll try to share more soon too....I'm keeping a super consistent training log but it's harder to keep up logging the nutrition side of it though, perhaps even more interesting.

Today I trained legs.

I warmed up by running up flights of stairs, then I did about 3 sets each on the lying leg curl and seated leg extensions as additional warm-ups.

High Volume Day - High Reps

Leg Extensions

110 x 25

150 x 20

190 x 15

230 x 8

190 x 15

190 x 12

Lying leg curls

70 x 12

70 x 12

90 x 10

90 x 10

90 x 10

90 x 10

Hack Squats

90 x 20

180 x 15

270 x 15

360 x 15

360 x 15

410 x 15

270 x 15

180 x 20

90 x 20

90 x 20

Lunges

Loop around the gym

1.25 loops around gym

1.5 loops around gym

1.75 loops around gym

2 loops around gym

2.25 loops around gym

Then I used the rowing machine (upper body cardio) for 22 minutes. It wasn't long and I had places to go....but I got in 35 minutes yesterday and last week 66 minutes of cardio after my workout. Soon I'll be consistently doing about 40 minutes after each workout.

Last night I was hungry after the back session and cardio and took in 1600 calories immediately post-workout. Today was 1200 calories immediately post workout and another 1000 or so 2 hours later....doing the cardio makes me hungrier but I feel like that will help me keep muscle while I continue to burn.....soon I won't be able to eat as much but now, 9.5 weeks out, I'm doing OK.....still training 5 days a week, doing cardio pretty much the same, 5 days a week and eating whole foods, taking supplements and I'm looking fairly good for 2.5 months away. I look forward to seeing what I look like in March and of course in April when we're only weeks away!

A special thanks to Tasha for making meals.

A special thanks to everyone who has been buying shirts or DVDs to help support our efforts to eat well, supplement well and make our way to Phoenix, AZ in less than 10 weeks. It's a huge help! I'm sponsoring all of us to get out there, and each of us is doing our own forms of fundraising and all competitors have been contributing well.

We're getting there and we appreciate your support!

Nice leg work, super strong!

This is the way to do it RC!! I'm loving the consistency.

Yes, I threw some D's on it......

I just purchased a luxury vehicle

Thanks guys....I'm working hard and having fun these days. I was at the gym for a long time yesterday, lots of high volume, deep range of motion exercises....which is a good balance for my super heavy days.

I'm making sure I get both of those types of workouts in these days. The 4-8 rep (sometimes even under 4 reps) sets and the 10-12+ rep sets too. Both do nice things for me physically, mentally and psychologically.

Today is Arms and chest....had some oats, some bananas, a Vega smoothie right now and then heading out with Lean and Green shortly. I've love being consistent these days....and of course I'm excited about it, given my track record. So even though it's only been 2 months or so that I've essentially not missed a workout (missed 2 in Hawaii) I am excited and will likely draw attention to it...because it helps me. When I can look at my log and see that I had an entry every single day and that 5 of those 7 days in a week were weights and the other days were focused on cardio, eating, resting, posing or stretching...it does good things for my mind.

Thanks for the feedback...for the first time in a while....I'm back, and it's so much fun!

I don't know where to begin....like Ice Cube says, "Today was a good day."

Today had it's ups and downs with stress and having to be here and then there and this and that, bank, post office, etc. but it's all good because it resulted in selling so much VB&F stuff. It was just one of those somewhat hectic days in general.

But when Lean and Green made out way to the gym, it was on.

He was training legs (some great videos to come) and I was training arms and chest. We trained for about 2 hours and then went to my house, had some food, sat down for a few minutes and then headed back to the gym for another 90 minutes or so and I did 40 minutes of abs and 35 minutes of cardio and urinated twice or thrice which added a few extra minutes.

My workouts went like this:

Biceps

Dumbbell alternating bicep curls

25s x 15

30s x 12

43s x 10

45s x 8

50s x 6

Dumbbell alternating hammer curls

45s x 10

50s x 8

60s x 6

60s x 5

45s x 8

Standing barbell curls

75 x 12

75 x 12

74 x 10

Triceps

Rope extensions

40 (on this machine felt the same as 90 on a cable pulley at my other gym) x 12

40 x 12

40 x 12

40 x 12

40 x 12

Dips

Bodyweight x 15

Bodyweight x 15

Bodyweight x 15

Bodyweight x 15

Bodyweight x 15

Chest

Flat Dumbbell press

68s x 15

82s x 12

105s x 4

110s x 4

105s x 3

Dips

(as mentioned in triceps)

170 push-ups (later did 40 more)

I trained chest 3 times in 15 days (rather than my normal 7 day off periods) so I didn't do too much volume today, just heavy.

Later tonight......

Abs

3 sets machine crunches

5 sets crunches on mat

15 sets hanging leg raises 5-20 reps per set (whenever grip slipped)

6 sets of decline sit-ups with 25 pound plate on my chest

4 sets of cable crunches (til left biceps started cramping)

140 x 15

180 x 15

180 x 15

170 x 12

Stationary bike for 35 minutes and watched the Lakers come back to beat the Warriors and that annoyed me (not a fan of Lakers)

Then back home to eat more.

Tasha made me more great food and I'm very thankful for that.

I was with Lean and Green nearly all day today....we took some pics. I posted a few in a new thread but will post some here too:

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/Rob1-1.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/Rob11.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/VeganBodybuilder/Bodybuilding%20Photos/Rob3-1.jpg

I posted videos of my lifts in the Videos section.

Hey....thanks again to everyone ordering shirts. This helps big time! It helps us get to AZ, helps us pay for registration, drug testing, and even eating....so we're very appreciative of all the support.

As you can see...we are working very hard, day and night and obviously results are coming with each week that we dedicate ourselves.

Back to eating the food Tasha made (she also made my oatmeal with fruit breakfast and my mango Vega smoothie (sunset on top).

YB

After yesterday's double workouts I was up until around 3:30AM working on things, preparing for a presentation at Portland Community College today and doing other things like promoting our clothing line to fundraise, and completing an interview, etc.

Anyway, I fell asleep after 4AM and was up at 9AM to get to the gym to train shoulders. I ended up pressing 90's in each hand (with Tasha spotting), which is my new personal best.

I believe I'm up to 90's for shoulder press, 105's for incline and 110's for flat press. 90, 105,110 is getting closer to my goal of 100, 110, 120. I'll just keep working away at it

Anyway, we got there early today and worked out for 1 hour 45 minutes, something like that. I do need to be careful....this was my 10th workout with weights (and you've seen my workouts are intense) in 11 days....only 1 day off (and I went bowling that day). I'm also training twice a day fairly regularly these days, and of course short on sleep last night. So I do need to be careful. In general I have been sleeping 10 hours a day and eating quite a bit, supplementing and taking good care of myself, staying positive, etc.

I will likely rest tomorrow or pound out one more day and then take Sat and Sun off to really rest up and recover and just do some stretching in the sauna and things like that (and continue to work hard, of course).

Today's workout was like this:

Lateral Raises to warm up:

17.5s x 12

17.5s x 12

17.5s x 12

17.5s x 12

17.5s x 12

Front Raises

17.5s x 10

17.5s x 10

17.5s x 10

Rear Delt raises

12.5s x 10

12.5s x 10

12.5s x 10

12.5s x 10

Machine presses to warm up before heavy dumbbells

70 x 12

110 x 10

110 x 10

Dumbbell presses

52.5s x 10

60s x 10

75s x 5

90s x 4

Seated straight bar overhead presses

100 x 10

100 x 8

100 x 8

100 x 7

Standing overhead presses

70 x 10

70 x 8

70 x 8

70 x 7

I couldn't do as much weight after burning myself out on those overhead dumbbell presses, but I really like pressing movements and wanted to keep going with straight bars to failure

Dumbbell shrugs (I also super-setted my dumbbell presses with shrugs using the same weight before racking it)

80s x 12

80s x 12

110s x 6

105s x 8

105s x 12

Then I rode the bike for 22 minutes and used the StairMaster for 14 minutes = 36 minutes post-workout cardio and read a newspaper about the Ken Griffey Jr. move back to Seattle

I ate a Pro Bar in the car, 2 bananas, ran some errands, came home and had some Vega and a meal Tasha prepared for me with tofu, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, etc. Great stuff! Thanks as usual Tasha!

OK, now back to work and then off to give a talk tonight.

Yeah Buddy. Great job today.

I had fun spotting you. I like how you're like darn the weights are over there. Oh well I guess I'll just have to carry them over.

Darn I made you so much fun. I didn't think you would go through it in one day. One fine eating machine !

Thank-You for reminding me how to do deadlifts properly today. I really appreciate it

Time to eat more

YB!!!

I trained back and forearms tonight and didn't leave the gym until after midnight.....it was my 11th workout with weights in 12 days. I really am in need of rest but wanted to get one more workout in before taking the weekend off.

I'm actually too tired to fill in all the details right now but I am taking pride in the fact that I have one of the most consistent journals because that was a specific goal of mine. I know it has only been 2 months that I've made every workout but 2 and have updated my journal pretty much everyday, but it still brings joy to me to know that and I'm pleased to be so productive.

Yesterday I hit a PB with shoulder press using 90's. Today was a solid workout too and now I must eat and sleep asap.

So exhausted....been working a lot, fundraising, and of course training very hard (as seen in videos and photos resulting from my efforts).

Thanks for the support. Night night.

RC

I it was my 11th workout with weights in 12 days.

 

I'm actually too tired to fill in all the details right now but I am taking pride in the fact that I have one of the most consistent journals

 

RC

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP Thas' Right

You're not the only one my friend. About to post that vlog we filmed that I finally got uploaded; dumb thing always cuts out or I don't have enough time stationary to get it uploaded.

Great training with you tonight. I wouldn't have wanted anyone else handing me the 110lber for the french presses BUDDAY. And the weighted dips spot was key as well. If a person doesn't know what they're doing on that it can greatly affect your performance on the exercise.

Anyhow lemme post my vlog so i can get some shut eye. Hopefully you me and Ravi will be able to train together tomorrow. I'll be at it all day until work.

throw some d's......

pretty soon we'll purchase a luxury weighted dip belt from VeganEssentials. Until then THROW SOME D'S ON IT AH C

Yeah, we'll keep hammering out workouts! We have to....Octo is doing the same.

I think I'll take the entire weekend off....I'll keep you updated.

I woke up at 11AM...well, a bit before, but I made it out of bed at 11AM, so it was a good 8-9 hours of sleep (lying down at 2AM but didn't fall asleep for quite a while, which is usual for me....always lots of thinking, brainstorming, etc. late at night keeping me up).

But now that I'm awake and ate oatmeal Tasha made for me I have energy to post my workout.

I trained Forearms and Upper Back last night.

Forearms:

Reverse bicep curls

40 x 15

45 x 15

60 x 10

60 x 10

45 x 15

50 x 15

A couple of sets of hammer curls, nothing big though

Upper Back

Lat pull-downs (light weight, full reps, high reps)

75 x 30

90 x 25

105 x 25

120 x 15

135 x 12

Barbell rows

100 x 20

100 x 15

100 x 15

Dumbbell rows

55s x 6

40s x 8

32.5s x 12

32.5s x 12

32.5s x 12

32.5s x 12

Machine low rows

100 x 15

100 x 15

100 x 15

80 x 20

80 x 20

It was a full hour of forearms and upper back. I'll be honest...I was exhausted today...I didn't even make it to the gym until just before 11PM. I was recovering from working until almost 4AM and up at 9AM for a workout the day before and of course training 11 of 12 days, some of those days being multiple workout days (2 sessions + cardio in a single day).

So the plan is to rest, eat, and recover all weekend.

Ravi is in town so I hope to see him...if he wants to train....I'll train. I'm RC...but if not...I'm content with lunch and hanging out with one of my best buddies.

I didn't get to see Phillip last night. I hoped to but was napping in the afternoon/evening and sluggish all day until Lean and Green basically said, "let's go RC...let's do it." and I knew I couldn't back down and I went for a midnight workout and had a really good pump just focusing on upper back and awesome range of motion, visualizing the lats, rear delts and traps looking shredded under my sweatshirt.

At the end of the workout thendanisays showed up and I looked in the mirror and flexed quads and abs and said, "that is ing, that is just sick!" commenting on how shredded I looked under the lights. Then I flexed my hams, calves, etc. and some kid said, "it doesn't look like you have an ounce of fat on you." I'll I could say was ....."yeah buddy" and hit another pose and we were out of there.

Pretty solid sleep, only had to pee once in the middle of the night...now looking forward to cleaning up a bit and then heading to Corvallis for the weekend.

Pics look fantastic! Say hi to Ravi for me

Ravi just left my house before I saw this......but will see him again in a few weeks and will pass on this message right away

All the best!

Time to go to Corvallis now.......

I took Saturday and Sunday off from training and spent the weekend with my mother and sister in Corvallis just hanging out. Tasha was there too.

I ate, relaxed and got some free food from my mother which was a big help during this contest preparation.

I'll be back at the gym in the morning and it will be nice to be lifting and doing cardio again....I only took two days off (as planned, by design) but already I'm anxious and excited to get back in there under heavy weights and on the stair stepper

I picked up more Walnuts from my mother so those are available at $5 a pound. I also posted tons of offers in the Classifieds section to save money on VB&F clothing, DVDs, etc.

Thanks again for supporting us! We've come a long way and we have 8.5 weeks to put our best physiques forward. We're making it happen!

RC

I trained once today...I was at the gym for 2 hours and 10 minutes training legs but it flew by and in fact I had to get out earlier than I wanted to because I needed to be somewhere....so I'll be back at it tonight to finish up.

It was a good workout.....kind of a frustrating day in general for personal reasons, from lots of different angles and topics, but that is how it goes sometimes. Maybe tomorrow will be an amazing day after a day with some challenges.

I look forward to tonight's workout. I was also pleased to see more funds in my paypal account that I expected. That was nice.

So far so good 8.5 weeks out......anyway, gotta eat more and then run more errands and then get back to the gym later on.

I just got back from my 2nd workout of the day

I got there around 8:50PM and left at 12:25AM.

For weights today it was only about 3 hours and there was 7 hours in between sessions so almost like a full night's rest between during the day

I'll fill in the details later...it's 1:30AM or so now and I'm still eating and will get to bed soon. But a really good workout today...I'm having so much fun I have to actively, consciously pull myself out of the gym so I don't stay too long or over-train, etc.

I've been resting a lot in general (10 hours of sleep a day often) and took the entire weekend off so today I hammered 2 leg sessions and and hour of cardio and did just fine.

I'll fill in details when I wake up...but lots of leg presses, hack squats, lying cable curls, leg extensions, calf presses, lunges, bike, stair stepper...... good times.

Training is REALLY FUN again! Also, PS we have at least 11 forum members who go to my gym! And one just started working as a personal trainer too.....there could even be more...there are random people who wear Vegan Bodybuilding shirts there too, which is cool, so maybe there are more than 11 of us....either way....it makes it all the more fun!

RC

Update the title of your blog to reflect that we are 8.5 weeks out, not 11 budday!!!

Looking forward to seeing you for workout # 2 in about an hour or so. Even if you can only drop me off the goods to ship out and not train will still be cool to meet up. Tomorrow is on fo sho! (still addicted to the twisted evil emoticon ) lol

Nice work yesterday and thank you for all the support you give to me over and over again. It's overwhelming and I cannot thank you enough RC i'm wit u

Dude, you were at the gym ALL DAY! Even my trainer made that comment about you, "he should be paying rent, he's been here all day."

I know we both have our distractions, things we're going through, etc. and today was a good one to help each other in the gym pressing 90's, 100's etc.

I know I didn't update my leg workout yet, but I will.

I just got back from training chest and abs for 2.5 hours and I want to go back for more. I seriously don't think I'm over-training. I'm eating, supplementing, sleeping, and taking breaks between workouts and I'm still strong (press 105's today after pressing 100's for incline) and it just feels good and is so fun!

So many forum members (11 of us) go to the same gym, and other members of the vegan community from business owners to Organic Athlete members, etc. There seems to always be a handful of vegan athletes at a time...I commented that there were 4 or 5 last night and there were 6 today while I was there...at least, maybe more I didn't see. And some random woman in front of me had a VEGA shirt on

Man, my gym rocks for training! So many friends there, yet I'm still able to focus, and push it and do my own thing without distraction..in fact as a role model for all of them, it is nice to have them there. I look in the mirror with 100's or heavier on my lap and see other vegans watching me and I know I need to put on a good showing and I shout yeah buddy and do my thing with solid range of motion with heavy.....ass....weight!

Leg update coming soon....chest and abs coming soon...gotta eat, Tasha made a nice salad and quinoa for me.....then Vega, then errands, more work, another workout and hopefully update here when I get a chance.

RC