Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Awesome on the deadlift!!

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vegan for the win!

Thank you!

Squat Day

Squats:

1x5x135
1x3x150
1x3x165

Box Squats:

3x12x115

Lunges with 25 lb plate overhead (might move up in the next four week phase)

Leg Press:

3x15x280 (This was super hard today, but then, I don't know why I'm doing so many reps for this.)

Leg Curl:

3x15x65

So I guess I'll do an update. My Deload Week is kind of boring to report on, as you do about 40, 50, and 60% of your 1RM for each compound lift, and then basically whatever else you want...Usually I do that and then I do all my assistance work with lighter weight as well, and spend the same amount of time at the gym.

Since I have felt like cardio is lacking in my life lately, I decided to do Deload Week a little differently. Hopefully this won't negatively affect my strength gains, but we'll see. I decided to just do the compound lift light, and then do some cardio all week long.

So far this week, I've had time for several days of HIIT. When I go outside I do about ten minutes of 30 second sprints with 30 seconds of jogging in between. Once in the gym I did sprints on the stationary bike. I did minute sprints with a minute of slower cycling for twenty minutes. One day I did a 30 minute run on the treadmill. I skipped yesterday and today and tomorrow will be the last days of my Deload Week. I'll do a light bench workout and then whatever cardio I'm in the mood for tonight. Tomorrow I'll squat light and do some cardio afterwards, and then in a day or two I'll start a new cycle, lifting heavy again.

Deadlift Day

Deadlifts:

1x5x145
1x5x165
1x6x185

Good Mornings:

1x15x105
4x12x115

Farmer's Walks with 45 lb plates...They have wide handles, so I thought they'd work. I was in the "Power Room" at my gym, which does not have dumbbells, so I figured I'd try to do my entire deadlift training session in that room. I like it because it's usually deserted.

Plate Pinches with 5lb plates

Hanging Leg Raises: 3x10

I decided I didn't want to use chalk and for some reason the bar really chewed up my hands. Also, the pull-up bar was not smooth, it was the same pattern as a standard 45 lb bar, so it left some definite criss cross indentations on my hands. I better get some "Power callouses" from this session...

Bench Press Day

Bench:

1x5x75
1x5x85
1x3x95

Bench with bands that may have been stretched a little too tight:

3x4x65

DB Press:

1x12x30 lb dumbbells
1x10x30 lb dumbbells
1x8x30 lb dumbbells

Dips:

1x10xBW
1x8xBW
1x6xBW

Push-Ups:

1x10
1x8
1x6

Wished I had a buddy there to help me do negatives...

Excellent work, especially on your deadlift day!

Why did you decide against chalk? I tried it for the first time the other day and am in looooooove!

What I like about this log is that everytime I look in there is some quality training going on. Solid !


Good question, how can one not like chalk?

You know, I actually thought about doing what you done for deload week, concentrate on cardio but I didn't go for it. It'll come in handy in future if I want to cut weight though =]

Reading your log just reminded me that I forgot to train grip last week -_-

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My training log

Go Adena!

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vegan for the win!

I love chalk too, but I think training grip without chalk sometimes is good. My theory is that if I just use chalk for like, three rep sets or less, or maybe even just for one rep maxes, I won't have pansy hands. I don't know, I'm no expert.

Thanks for liking the quality of my training, Bronco! I'm hoping for some good advice on training my bench. That's the only lift that I feel like I'm not progressing in anymore. It's way too early to plateau so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I just tried using bands the other day, so we'll see how that goes. If you have any other advice, I'm all ears.

It might be a few days before I update my log. I had food poisoning, but I think at this point it's, um, out of my system. However, I may need a full day of stuffing myself before I will want to attempt a squat day. I haven't been able to eat much for like, two days.

Oh no! Food poisoning sucks!! Though it's fortunately much less common for vegans. Good idea though, take a day to eat lots and get your strength (not to mention glycogen stores) back to weightlifting levels.

For bench, have you thought about trying dumbbells for a bit to change things up? I also think Ryan once gave the advice of specifically training the part of your range of motion you have trouble with. Are you getting stuck bringing the bar up when it's down at your chest? Or do you get a couple of inches up and then get stuck? If you have a spotter, you can do partial reps of just your range where you usually fail.

That, or because incline bench works your chest pretty equivalently to flat bench, maybe you could switch to inclines for a while and see if that helps you?

Feel better soon!

_________________
vegan for the win!

I guess it can't hurt, as long as it is not having a negative influence of the deadlifts .


Hmm, I'm not sure about the bench. What kind of plan have you been following up until now?

My normal routine is as follows: First I do bench, then J & Presses, then dumbbell presses, then dips, then push-ups. That's it. I train bench in the 3-5 rep range, all the rest in about 8-12 rep range.

This weekend was the first time I tried using bands. So on Sunday I did bench for 5 rep sets, then lightened the load and did a few sets of four reps with bands, then dumbbell presses, dips, and push-ups like normal. I've been told negatives help a lot, but I can't always count on having a good spotter.

I think my sticking point is usually a few inches off my chest. I'll have to do a 1RM day again and try to pay more attention to my sticking point.

I'm feeling a lot better today, and I have all day to snack while I'm sitting at a desk at work, and then I think I'll go ahead and do my squat session after work tonight. It's a 5 rep session, so it should be light enough for me to handle. I think.

Thanks for your kind wishes, everyone. It's my own dumb fault for refusing to just buy a new bottle of lime juice, though. So I marinated a whole bunch of seitan and potatoes with a marinade that included lime juice, and then made a sauce with it too. I had to throw out about four meals worth of food instead of just half a bottle of lime juice. I'm kicking myself for it now.