Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

How old are you? Studies have been done that show we are strongest in the late afternoon and I have found for myself I am the most productive in the gym from mid afternoon to early evening. I forget the age groups in the study but I believe it may have been 20s through 40s? Can't recall. I am terrible in the gym if I lift in the morning, I shake more and just don't have the strength. However, everyone is different.

Now I have found I have had very productive 3 day programs doing a push/pull system with the third day being legs. That is what I am doing now....and I have been having great progress!
Do you do flat, incline and decline press in the same day? I have found I overtrain if I do that. I will sometimes alternate incline and flat bench press. I have also gotten tremendous development with nothing but flat bench pressing. Flat benching hits every area of the pecs anyway, I think incline and decline can be overboard. I used to do all of those in years past, but last year I got to my biggest and most developed and I only did flats and shoulder presses, with weighted dips. That was all I needed for great chest, shoulder and tricep development. Once you get to a certain size, then you can start throwing in isolation moves.

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What do I do when not bodybuilding or working? Spend time with family, play guitar, write music, snowboard, roast coffee, travel, read, fight for those who are less fortunate than myself.

I think you have most of it figured out, but the key when you can only exercise 2-3 days a week is to lift heavy, compound exercises when you go to the gym. Keep it to the essentials, like deads, squats, overhead press, pullups, bench, dips, etc. No curls or ab flexors!

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

training two days a week

Day 1:Main lifts- Flat barbell bench press & squats.
Assistance: pull/chin ups, reverse hypers, dumbbell press, rear delt raises

day 2: main lifts-military press - deadlift
Assistance: Dumbbell rows, dips, good mornings, curls

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

ps do not limit pull/chin ups. Do these between every pressing movement (between sets), so Military & bench

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

Dude. no disrespect or anything, but why are you going to a gym???! Buy a 20 dollar pull-up bar and... well... buy a 20 dollar pull-up you can hang on you door frame. Gyms are a COMPLETE waste of money. And if you hate going to a gym, why? You shouldn't hate working out. Checkout a site called, gymnasticboddies.com. I'm pretty sure that;s it. If I'm wrong, just Google "gymnastic bodies" and it will probably be the first result.

If going to the gym is like pulling teeth, you're doing it all wrong, man. Working out should be like a drug. It should be like, "yeah, this is gonna make me feel good!!!" Ya know? I read your whole post and I understand why you feel the gym is necessary, but it's really not. You can achieve the same results by mechanically disadvantaging yourself, only performing bodyweight exercises that you can do at home.

Though I agree that some people do not need to go to a gym, I myself have no option.

You can't tell me that body weight squats are going to build proper dense, powerful legs (as an example). I'm not a bodybuilder, I lift for power/mass & for that I need a heavy weight. How can I deadlift, over head press tiny/body weight? I'm working towards strongman events, I need access to barbells, squat racks, benches.

Training has to be in line with the goal, if you're just after a healthy life style, staying in shape & fit I agree. But you cannot disregard gym as "a waste of money"...that's your opinion which I respect, but also you should do the same for people who enjoy/require gym access.

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler

In my opinion it's easier and more time efficient to just go to the gym. Yes you can build muscle at home/parks/on gymnastics equipment, but you have to do it a lot more often and some things just don't compare like squats/dead lifts. I miss being at the gym and hope to return this fall. I also rely on the above mentioned options for the time being. I enjoy calisthenics and gymnastics, but gyms aren't a total waste of money at all. If I hadn't have spent years in the gym, I wouldn't know how to build muscle using calisthenics. Obviously some people are more intuitive about it than others, but when i approach a calisthenics/gymnastics workout, its from a lifting perspective, and I'm using my body weight to replicate the moves as best I can, and using supersets to overload the muscle to failure. All those are things I learned from lifting though.

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Justin Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/user/RawVegaCaliBB

This...Justin showing here a clear understanding of how to train & the benefits of body weight/gym training. When I use body weight in my sessions it's because I want to feel athletic, so I'll go for more reps vs when I add say weight to pull ups I know reps will decrease. Calisthenics looks amazing, I wouldn't be able to do it but I respect people applying it. I'm happy being a "moving the barbell" kinda guy.

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"Don't fall for that crap that people are peddling on the message boards, in magazines or on TV. Get your shit in order, and get your training in order. Start kicking ass, and take out the crap that doesn't matter" Jim Wendler