Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Im intrigued that you do tricep with back.... I pair biceps with it and I couldn't imagine it otherwise....how do you find it? what are the benefits?

I build Triceps really easily, and I like to put alot of energy into building my Back. So even though I am wiped out after doing the exercises for Back, I can kick out many sets for Triceps and the Tricep will swell up no matter how light the weight (kind of like I really don't have to do any work to build them, so I can have just a little bit of energy left over from doing Back to do Triceps).
I put alot of work into Chest too, but mostly upper Chest, but I am not so spent like after doing Back exercises. That way, I can put a little more energy into building my biceps big too (which as you know, I think make a female a BBer and not a Physique girl).
Legs and Delts are by themselves because I want them to be huge, so they get all the energy for the day.
This gives me 5 days to workout my whole body (I put in a rest day between the 4 days (2 days on, 1 day off), which is enough for me to repair and recover.
So, I basically have a routine that will build the mass that I consider to be the priorities for my look at comp time, and what my genetics has given me.

Leg Day! Yeah! Huge Quads and a sweeping Hamstrings, here we come!

Leg Extension: did alot of little sets (150/25 warmup, 180/25, 210/25, 240/18, 270/15, 290/15, 302.5/12) before I did my new PB of 310/11+2 (my partner grabbed a yoga strap and put it around the end of the padded foot handle, and that little bit of help worked!)

Leg Curl: 115/25 same warmup, 165/13, and a 175/for a new PB rep of 10 (+2 more than last time)
it was so hard to curl that 175, that I did not want to go to the new weight of 180. . . not yet.

Leg Press: a new PB on this bad boy in my usual gym: 10 45lbs plates on each side (900)/8. I am almost up to my goal of being in the Big BB Club of 1000 lbs! I will say that I had the safety latch/the lower starting position latch still engaged, so I just pressed from the lower to the higher starting positions (because after the Sumo Squat incident, I noticed that I would still hurt myself really bad if I couldn't get the weight back up, and it went down to the safety catch position - which is way too low for me!). But I did 6P and 8P for 25 reps, and then 9P/15, without the latch engaged, and did a good ROM for those leg presses. I was so scared to do the full ROM on the 10P set though, so that is why I kept the latch engaged as I struggled just to lift the first rep.

Calf Raise: 80/50 X 4 sets (+10lbs than last time, but my PB was 90lbs/50 - so maybe next time?)

Adductor/Abductor Machine: 120lbs/25 for 4 sets (+10 lbs more than last time for each exercise)

Today's Chest and Biceps workout was going to be an epic failure, I thought. I was still so physically exhausted from yesterday's Leg day, and my eating routine was off by the company's party (learned that the Naan bread has butter brushed on it, and that my Chana Marsala probably had a dollop of cream in the sauce! My tummy hurt all the way back home! I do not even want to think that my Veggie Samosas had some dairy in it somewhere - it was bad enough being deep fried! though my tummy didn't hurt with those). But a 10 minute warmup on the elliptical and my Vega Pre-Workout with the CEE in it, got me motivated! Even when a group of 3 guys were on our machines before us, and we had to wait for them to finish their 5 sets for each of them. Ugh!

Chest

Machine Chest Flyes: did a number of 25 reps to warm-up to (60, 75, 90), then did 120/15 (stopping at 15 reps to save energy up for the heaviest), 135/12, 150/10, and a new PB of 160/5+3 (help from my partner)
(we also had to wait around so I was at the corner StarTrac cable station and did cable flyes at chest height cables - 30/25, 40/15, and 50/10)

-we usually do Smith Press Incline Chest Press - but the guys were on it for the longest time (they did shrugs, and then Shoulder Presses), so we skipped to the next one -

Chest Machine Press with Vertical Grip: 90/25, 120/18, 135/15, 150/12, and a new one mistakenly 170/5~3 (my partner left her 5lbs black rectangle on from her set, so my 165 was actually 170! Cooley O!)

then onto the Smith Press Incline Chest Press: 70/15 (solid, saving the energy), 90/15, 110/10+2, and then I forced myself to do my PB of 120/8+2 (it was hard to do my PB because of the new PBs on the other two exercises first - my Chest is getting to failure)

Hammer Strength #1 (the hard one to do) Chest Press: 90/15, 110/8~2 (PB was 110/8+2, so just need to make it a solid 10 rep).

(Running out of energy at this point. Laid down on the couch by the office, and had my protein drink that I usually have at the end of the workout. . . hoping it would give me some energy to do Biceps next)

Biceps

Max Rack Barbell Curl: 10/25 (hard at first, then my ligaments around my elbow eye got warmed up), 30/15, 40/12, and a new PB of 50/4~3 (so hard, and I had to rock for the ~3 to get it up, and then slowly let it go back down -eccentric contraction)

Hammer Curls: get it over with - 35/15 and then a new PB of 40/8

(felt like dying here. but I have only one more exercise to do . . .)

Cable Bicep Curl (Both of the arms curl at a 45 degree angle from midline, elbows in): get it over with - 40/10, 60/6

so tired, but my partner was doing Lateral Bicep Cable Curls, so I did her weights of 40/15 for 3 sets, and then called it quits.

I can't wait for Rest day tomorrow!!!!!! Just like I can't wait to go to sleep tonight and make this fatigue pain go away! And if the pain isn't gone by tommorrow morning, then I am going to stay in bed till it does! Well. . . I guess I will get up just for my feeding times

Ok I thought I was worn out from my work out..... reading yours just completely exhausted me!

Strong lifts Gaia!

Holy hammer curls....

Thanks everybody for the comments! They are going to help me this morning as I try to assess what damage I did yesterday. My back, and my matching quads, are so tight! I am stretching just to get moving this morning. I have this strong desire to go shopping today, but that will take alot of energy that I just might not have. Lets see after Breakfast #1 (8 AM) and Breakfast #2 (10 AM) if I am limber enough to crawl into a car, and walk around a mall for hours. . . . .

Rest day was awesome of course. Felt very tired, and it was nice to just relax since it was Saturday. Just had to go to Whole Foods for some shopping, and since a new Chiptole has opened up next to it, I got a burrito. Yummy!

Delts today was not as adventurous as I would have liked it to be. Maybe it was the storm moving in from the West, with the wind blowing and now white flakes are coming down - well actually moving horizontally across the land - that put a damper on my workout.

Delts/Shoulder

Smith Military Press (Seated): 40/25 warmup (same as last time), 70/12+3 (last time 13+2), 80/10+2 (last time 8+4), 90/6+4 (last time 4+4) - so some increases in reps

Rear Delt Machine: 50/25 warmup (same), 75/stopped at 15 to save the energy for the heavy set (last time 18), 90/12 (same as last time), 105/8 - new PB!

Max Rack Front Barbell Raise: 10/25 (same), 20/15 (same), 30/12 (30/10 last time), 40/8 (oops, down by 2, last time 40/10)
(and then to make up for it, I did some descending sets with a 20 and then 10 for 15 or more reps - till failure)

Machine Military Press, DB grip (did not do these last time): 70/25 warmup, 100/15, 130/12, 145/6+9 (my partner found a way to help on the machine so that I could go to failure), 160/4+8 (PB is 160/6+2 - so I was alittle less today)

Single Cable Pulldowns for Delts (midline, stepped forward for rear delts, and then stepped way back for a 45 degree angle from midline): 30/15 for 4 sets (15 reps midline, 15 reps forward, and then 15 reps back - delts were a screaming!)

DB Side Laterals: 20/15, 25/15, 30/12, and then 35/6~2 - a new PB of course (ROM was not pretty on those ~2!)
(then for fun did a descending set of 20lbs, 15lbs, 12lbs, and a 10lbs for as many reps as I could with that weight (delts screaming again!)

Ran over to the Seated Military Delt Press and did a couple of sets of high reps at the 75lbs, 50lbs, and then down to 35lbs.

Delts were trashed by then! Did some ab work: Oblique Twist Machine (70/15 on each side for 2 sets only - it was starting to aggravate the twinge in my back), 4 - 1minute plank poses, and I tried to do some crunches and lower ab raises with feet up in the air.
Then I had my protein shake and went home for some more food!
Trying a new supplement: World ABS ProStack #1 http://www.worldabs.com/products/number-one-pro-stack

Whatever I did yesterday, I was sore in the middle back (between the shoulder blades) last night before I went to sleep. I told my partner that I do not have DOMS, but IMS (instant muscle soreness!LOL!). The front delts were in the chorus with the Back as tenor, but I refrained from taking ibprofen and just used a heating pad instead, and then sleep came upon me and I was out till morning.

Today is Back and Triceps. My partner and I got halfway thru the Back exercises, when the New Year Resolutioners came in, along with the usual people that had the day off and decided to come in earlier than usual (the after 5 o'clock crowd came in, and it was the Monday crowd too!). We had to wait just a while for the cable station to do our tricep pressdowns and extensions (and since there was two of us, two big girls, we monopolized it well when we did finally get it - which means no long breaks between sets, one of us was always using it somehow, and it was never left alone).

Today I set goals at home (looking at what I did over the past few exercise days for that bodypart: Back and Triceps for today) and had them in mind as I went to the gym to execute them! and I did!

Back

Pulldown: goal of 150/10+3 - which was my goal, but then my partner suggest that I go more, so 165/6 (barely down though on the last two) - new PB
Machine Back Row (lower grip): goal of 240/8, achieved - a new PB
Cable Lat Single Pulldown: goal of 120/10, achieved, but then I decided to do 130/8 - a new PB
SL Deadlifts: goal of 120/8, did 120/9! - a new PB
Machine Back Row (upper grip): goal of 210/12, achieved, and tried to farther with 225/10 - new PB
Hammer Strength Back Row (underhand grip): 110/12, did 110/12+3 - a new PB

Pretty wiped out, but had a long wait of 15 minutes waiting for the cable station. Recharged by then, and onward to . . .

Triceps

Rope Pressdown: goal of 120/8, achieved - a new PB
Rope Tricep Extension (behind the head, fulcrum at waist level): goal of 110/10, achieved 110/10~2 (2 short ROM reps at the end)
Bench Dips: no where to go in the crowded gym for this, so improvised and had the bench seat of the low pulley back row and the 3 feet platform (used by the personal trainer for high jumps) to put my feet on - so no weights for this one, as my feet were way up in the air, and it was super hard just to 'dip' my bodyweight with it feeling like it was all in my lap!

So the day went well, and I do have to admit that I am one sore puppy right now after dinner. I am glad tomorrow is Rest day, and I can stretch and do yoga poses to help my Back feel better faster. I will also probably head to the gym for a walk on the treadmill again.

Another successful rest day yesterday. The only thing I noticed was that my sleep was short. I had about 5 hours and woke up wide awake too early in the morning. Read up on Tongkat Ali (one of the main ingredients of the Pro Stack by World ABS), and that one of the side effects was insomnia due to its stimulation of the CNS, especially when first starting to take it (may be too strong for the body at first). I'll have to see what happens tonight, may have to cut back on it for a week or so, till my body adjusts to it. It has only been 3 days on it, and have been not so sore the day after, but then again it is too soon to tell if it is working.

Awesome Leg Day!

Leg Extensions: new PB of 320/10 X 2 sets

Leg Curl: new PB of 190/4~2

Leg Press: new PB of 11P/8 (safety lock still in place though - so short range of motion - but it is 990lbs +the weight of the sled - probably over 1000lbs! I'm a Big Girl now! - sung to the tune of Huggies Big Girl training pants, LOL!)

Calf Raise: new PB of 90lbs/30 X 4 sets

Ad/Ab ductor Machines: new PB of 120/25 X 4 sets each

(Maybe it is not too soon to tell if the stuff is working?????? )

Some Ab work also: planks and bosu ball crunches

Lets see how Chest and Biceps goes tomorrow, and how much I can sleep tonight.

Congrats on the leg press!!! Most I have done is 335 lbs minus the sled weight. I won't push myself much harder than that till I have workout partner lol. BTW I love the concept of chest/biceps and back/triceps. I tried that this week and love it!!!

Nice! Did you have a lot of people watching you as you did 990? Omni "bros"?

Yes, I did have just about everybody in the gym watching me. Some guy made a comment about how I was hogging all the 45's (all 22 of them!), and when I was done, he would like to have one so he could do his Chest Press. I wanted to be a smartass and say, "You do know you can use a 25lbs and 2 10lbs plates, right?" but I just grinned and said "Sure, as soon as I press out this 1000lbs!"

Today was Chest and Bicep day. I spent the morning thinking about my goals for my workout today, and I was able to do most of them (the euphoria of doing all of them last time, wore off by the time Biceps' goals weren't being met. I know now that Biceps are going to be stubborn in going up in weight quickly. I will be more focus on doing more reps before proceeding onto the next heavier weight).

Chest

Machine Chest Flye: goal was 160/6-8 solid, did it with 160/6~2

Smith Press Incline Chest Press: goal was to go up to 130/and get whatever I could, did it with 130/6+2

Machine Chest Press with vertical grip: goal was 170/6-8 solid, did it with 170/6~2

HammerStrength Chest Press #1: goal of 120/and get whatever I could, did it with 120/6+2 (and I did it for 2 sets)

Bicep

MaxRack Barbell Bicep Curl: goal of 50/6-8 solid, but I did all 8 with a rocking motion (last 2 was rock it up, and slowly release down - killed my bicep doing it!)

Hammer Curls: goal was to do 40/8 solid, but again I had to rock it up on most of the 8 reps I did (the last 2 was rock it up, and slowly release down again)

Cable Curl at a 45 degree angle on the cable station: goal 60/8 solid, and this I was able to do!!!!

Now, I am just posting my goals and if I achieved them or not. Do note that I had warmup sets, and a couple of 12-15 rep sets, before I tackled my goal. I also may have done some descending sets for fun, to get a good burn on. I am also trying out new things that I see in the gym to see what works on my body.
I had an Ah!Ha! moment when I did Chest flyes on the cable station, and I put the fulcrum at thigh level, turned around with the cables, and I went to bring my hands together. I noticed that my pecs way up at my clavicle were screaming. Note - this is what I want to do to build up my upper pecs.

I slept OK last night. Didn't feel like going to sleep at 10 though, which is my usual time. Instead I ate a little snack (OK, a big snack of vegan cheesecake with peaches....yummy!), and passed out by midnight. I slept right thru the night, and was wide awake at 5 AM, but was able to go back to sleep till 8:30AM. So I have yet to have the side effect of insomnia from the tonghat ali. I think I am repairing faster, as I am able to progress on my weights everytime I lift, but it is still to soon to tell.