Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I finished a weeks worth of workouts (3). It felt good.But I am a little unsure about the adding the 5lbs every workout, it seems unreal to do that but I am hoping someone can clear that up. I think I did well with the eating all week, but yesterday was bad. I want to gain weight. I am 5'7 and 120lbs, Not sure how much to expect to gain per week though. And I am sort of at a loss about what to eat sometimes. does any one have examples of what they have eaten day to day to gain weight?

I did Stronglifts for about two months. You have to eat A LOT, especially if you are a hardgainer. Also sleep is VERY important. I had to add an extra hour of sleep a night during the routine, but maybe you won't have to?

I added 2.5-5lbs per workout on squats, but only 0-2.5lbs per workout on bench. In less than two months I had a 150% gain in my max squat!

So it works, but eat like a gorilla and sleep like a koala.

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Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

I just finished starting my second week of the 5x5. It felt good, I gained just over a pound, which I know is not anything but, I am a hardgainer and I weighed myself on an empty stomach. I dont think I have sadly ever been over 120lbs, but I am now. I started adding some grip and forearm work to it also. I would really like to figure out how to make my traps grow. I have none I mean none at all. Anyone has any tips let me now.
Angryvegan

Hey if it's a pound of muscle then that's great!

For trap growth I personally like dumbbell shrugs but that's very much an isolation exercise. If you are a hardgainer then you best bet is probably the deadlift. Great compound lift, hits your traps well, but you HAVE to make sure to watch your form. Good form is key with deads, especially for injury prevention. The page linked below is great for checking form...

http://exrx.net/WeightExercises/ErectorSpinae/BBDeadlift.html

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Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

Don't worry about adding 5lbs. You will stall at some point, you do as many as you can for 5 sets. Next time you do that exercise you try the same weight again. If you fail a weight 3x then you deload by 10% and continue as normal from there. It's just part of the program. Traps will grow with deadlifts man. You shouldn't be worrying about individual body parts, stronglifts will work you evenly. Stick to the program and eat a lot, that's all there is to it. Congrats on your 1lb gain, keep it up every week!

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My training log

Week two!! I am starting to feel the weight on the squats, man my legs are weak. But I did change it up a bit, on the advice of chewy, from another post. I could do 15 push ups on the first set. So I did a circuit of dips and push ups, man that was tough my arms felt like they were going to explode, Love that feeling. I am tempted to raise my bench a little more than the 5x5 says but got to think on that one.

Started week 4 of stronglifts. I think I have an injury. Last week doing some deadlifts or squats. back feels strained or something. I worked out even though it was painful. I am successful with the gains but stopped going up on weights when it comes to the overhead press. I think my shoulders are weak. Also the pull ups still suck, I feel like I am not giving my lats a workout. I have though gained some weight. I am at 126lbs. Never, I mean never weighed that much before.

During deadlifts and squats it's real important to keep your abs and lower back tight so it doesn't round. It's easy to do this on the way up but it's usually on the negative portion of the movement that people loosen their back - keep tight till the set is finished. If it still hurts, ice it 20 mins, 20 mins off. You can also do some lower back exercises (like deadlifts) with an empty bar or REALLY low weight, high repetitions to get the blood in there to help it heal (it should feel better further into the set, if it feels worse you need to stop).

Overhead press is usually the first one people stall on - your shoulders won't be especially weak; shoulders are the smallest muscles out of the ones the main lifts hit. Remember, if you fail a weight you try it twice more before deloading by 10% for the next workout. And if you fail before the last set you still finish all 5 sets every workout, just with as many reps as you can manage. What you can do is look at your technique in the meantime. Grip the bar tight, keep the bar CLOSE TO YOUR FACE when you're pressing, sort your breathing out so you don't have to pause at the bottom between reps. Most importantly make sure you're not using your legs or leaning to one side. As soon as the bar passes the top of your head throw your torso through to make lockout easier.

For pull-ups after you've done your 3xF, do 10 negatives without rest/bringing your arms down inbetween. Jump up and lower yourself as slowly as possible. Use wide grip to hit your lats more. As well as building your pullup numbers quickly you'll also get a better workout.

With all exercises it's good to take a video of yourself if you can. You'll probably see things you don't notice you're doing.

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My training log

Thanks chewy for the tips. Its good to hear, about stalling out on the shoulders. I will the negative pull ups. As for my lower back. I am heating it and iceing it. It was odd though it felt strained while working out today but right after it felt ok but after a few hours it started to hurt again. So we will see. I would like to mix my rice protein with another protein powder. I was thinking of pea, Has anyone had good luck with it? I dont do soy, it does a number on my digestion. I tried vega brand before and man that stuff is gross. I just want to make sure I am getting complete protein with all EAA.

Keep at it with the iceing, and make sure workouts aren't making it worse. I've read on here that 70% pea/30% rice is best for amino profile. I use a 60% pea/25% rice/15% hemp combination. I don't like the taste of pea or hemp but I did notice a slight improvement in recovery/mass when I changed over (used to use 100% rice), and I felt better about using smoothies as meals.

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My training log

the workout kinda sucked today, mostly cause of my low back injury/soreness. I had a massage last nite the therapist thought it was an intercostal tear around my ribs. I couldnt finish my squats because of it tonight. I did a little extra seated leg presses to make up for my sqauts. I am not sure what to do though when I have to do deadlifts. Do people us those belts?
Should I get one?

It was probably just too much weight too fast. Take a week or two off squats/deads and start light back up again...

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Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

If you had to stop squatting because of your back, you're not going to deadlift with work weight 2 days later. Forget about the belt. I would either just miss squats/deads completely and just do press/chins/bridge, or do high reps with an empty bar (maybe 3 or 4 sets of 20 reps) - and only keep going if your back feels better towards the end of the set. The idea is to get the blood flowing through there to help it heal quicker. And go back to iceing after workout.

Don't get tempted to go heavy. Sounds like this is your first injury, let's deal with it properly. You need your lower back for everything, if you make it worse it could become a reoccuring injury.

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My training log

My best advice is to find somewhere in your city/area where you can get proper coaching on form for a few sessions. Not the generic "random trainer at the gym", but for quality control purposes, find an olympic or powerlifting coach. There will be some if you have a university/college near you, and even if you don't, there are sometimes people at community centres and things like that.

To have such a bad injury so soon suggests to me that there's something majorly wrong with your form. Having a professional, experienced lifter guide you for a few sessions might do a world of good. Of course, that's only after you've rested and recovered!

Feel better soon.

I got good news and bad news! Good news is my back is better, back on squats I am currently squating my weight 130lbs. Which is great but feeling really heavy. And More good news is I am 130lbs, thats about 12lbs gained in 2 months. Bad news a few weeks ago I hurt my chest, I wasn't sure what did it, but I talked to my nurse ( I have a heart problem, so I wanted to make sure it wasnt that) and she was thinking it was a strain on my cartilage in my chest. It is on my left side only, so I have laid off alot of upperbody. Its slowly felling better but I feel way of I need a solid workout program to feel like I am doing something in the gym. So I hope this gets better soon.