Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I am also a supporter of a locally produced tofu here in So Cal....higher protein. You intensity about berating yourself...omg...i am reading your workout while salivating (is that cinnamon with a melted vegan spread?) thinking, "self,...get your lazy a$$ to the gym"

Whenever I work a night from now on I demand you train so I can read an update

Don't beat yourself up to much over the benching. Two so called bad reps from 12 isn't something to
Be annoyed over....

One is peanut butter sprinkled with cinnamon, the other is pumpkin fruit butter.



Yeah, the Twin Oaks tofu is 11gs of protein instead of the 6 most other brands have. The fat is higher but, for me, that's a good thing. I'm always on the low-end of fats.
I always read your log but I'm bad about commenting - you should never call yourself "lazy." You bust ass, day in and day out.



My update for today won't be as colorful, training-wise, since today was a full on rest day but I have some cool things to talk about concerning my new job and how training will be a lot more "set" since there are only two possible shifts for me to have, though the days won't be as uniform.

I think the reason I was annoyed was because, not even two weeks ago, I put up 65x10x3 pretty easily but my form wasn't as great. I'd almost say my bench form is the best of all my lifts so I don't even want to call it my 'weakest' even though it's extremely light weight.

Today's update is dedicated to you haha

Have you checked out every time I die's new album?

I'll definitely read it when I get off work tonight. For now, it's off to test some deads before my shift.

03.07.12
5/3/1: Pre-Cycle, Week Zero, Day Three

NUTRITION
56/187/210

VIGNETTE
Recent entries could lead one to speculate that I am, by ‘nature,’ a nervous person. Despite this not being true, this one is no different. Yesterday I started my new job and, while I wouldn’t call it “glamorous” (restocking beer, cleaning tables, and running drinks isn’t necessarily living it up), the position entails working at an extremely well-known, -loved, and –established business with a pretty top-notch reputation, locally and nationally. Coupling that with the fact that I have zero experience in the area and the over-used phrase “the pressure is on” might have came to mind once or twice yesterday.
Since I wasn’t scheduled for training until 5:00 p.m. I was left with a substantial amount of “free” time beforehand. As it so happened, yesterday was also a rest day so I had to find something other than the iron to keep me preoccupied. Luckily, I had a lot of work to get done on my blog and my poetry and since my lunch for the day had already been made (left-over homemade chili with a peanut butter sandwich), before I knew it, I was so immersed in my writing that I had to scramble to get my things together to head to work.
When I got there, everything went quite a bit smoother than I anticipated and I think I can safely say this new endeavor is exactly where I want to be right now – great establishment, people, and atmosphere, the work is challenging in a way I’ve never been exposed to before, and it’s a good foundation for some of my bigger, and loftier, life goals.
What it isn’t great for, however, is food intake – my shifts are short (either six hours or seven hours, tops) and there’s not a lot of time to take lengthy food breaks. In fact, I’ll more than likely never be able to eat while I’m on the clock because things are always moving. This wasn’t an issue for the first four hours of my shift - I’ve always been one of those people who, when there’s work to be done, it gets done and I pay little attention to anything else.
As the night started to wind down, it suddenly hit me: I was ravenous. For the next hour, I kept checking the clock to see how long until I’d be able to get home and eat, whereas before acknowledging the guttural noises coming from my abdomen. After that initial hour, I still had one more left and, by the time I got home at 11:45 p.m., my hunger had waned into exhaustion. The day’s early anxiety, bust-ass mentality, and lack of food seemed to hit me all at once: I just wanted to go to bed to do it all over the next day.
I took one glance at MyFitnessPal account and realized this was insane. Because I hadn’t known how long my shift was going to be (I assumed since I was training it would be shorter than usual), I ate half my daily calories beforehand – giving myself enough room to either have a big dinner and dessert or two smaller meals once I got home.
Five minutes before midnight and I had 1000 calories left to eat. Six months ago, I would have made a half-hearted attempt to do this, scarfing down 5-600 and calling it a night. Not anymore. I managed to throw back 1,021 calories worth of tofu, mini-waffles, peanut butter, cereal, and flax milk within an hour.
In the eternal struggle that is Sarah D. vs. Food … Sarah D. came out victorious.

TRAINING
Off

03.05.12
5/3/1: Pre-Cycle, Week Zero, Day Four

QUOTE OF THE DAY

-Henry Rollins

NUTRITION
58/150/200

PROLOGUE
Yesterday morning was simple: caffeinate (crush), peanut butter (kill), gym (destroy).


TRAINING
Warm-up: Back raises and leg extensions with light weight.

Deadlifts
65x5
95x5
115x5
135x21
I don’t even have words for how pulling these felt or how beastly I felt afterward.

65x10
70x10
75x10
Took a wider stance with these and it made all the difference in terms of hip flexibility and depth. Most certainly could have went heavier but I knew it wasn’t necessary after all the deads.

Seated leg curl
60x10
70x10
80x10

Back hyperextensions
10x10x2
25x10x2

Dumbbell side-bend
45x15x2

Cool down: None, had to get home to eat before work.

AFTERWARD
In the back of my mind, I've always thought I favored deads because, when I took strength and conditioning in high school, power cleans were my favorite lift but I've been afraid to return to them for some reason and the rush I get from pulling a heavy dead was the closest I thought I could come to cleaning a lot of weight. This session, however, tells a different truth: I favor deads because they are my strongest lift and, because of that, I get a pump from them like no other. To be honest, the buzz I got when I hit the 20th rep could have been rode out straight through 25 but I left them in the tank. Form would have started slipping soon enough if I kept pushing it too far and that wasn't necessary when I've been aiming for low 1RM estimates all week ... 229 is what counts as "low" these days, if you didn't know. Because I just got the memo yesterday at 2:00 p.m. when I pulled those deads.
Hunger, as per the usual, was extremely high yesterday; I showered at the gym, dashed home to make myself waffles topped with peanut butter and home-made raspberry protein ice "cream" served with a side of spicy-pumpkin tofu, and headed off to work sore, full, but content.
And, after reading veggiesasquatch's log the other day when he mentioned what he had for breakfast (oats and peanut butter), I decided to use late-night 'bowl' to bring back an old favorite of mine with a new twist: the peanut butter "cookie" oatmeal: 40gs of oatmeal cooked with just enough water, once finished, pour in 1 tablespoon of syrup, let it cool for a bit, stir in 1-2 scoops of vanilla protein (adding in water/milk if it gets too dry), swirl in some peanut butter, add any toppings you'd like (as you can see from the photo, the new "twist" was the Cap'n Crunch) and then enjoy. Tasted a-may-zing.

Love the quote and the oatmeal looks super yummy!

Best prologue in the history of prologues...

03.09.12
5/3/1 Pre-Cycle, Week Zero, Day Five

QUOTE OF THE DAY


NUTRITION
60/144/200

PROLOGUE
Since starting my new job, my level of productivity has increased proportionally to the amount my stress levels have decreased. The pessimist in me wants to attribute this to the "newness" of the position and believe that, eventually, it will wear off but my PMA has been too high the last few days to start thinking like that. If, and when, that happens, I'll bite my tongue, until then, I'm going to ride this newfound fire for as long as I can.
Before hitting the gym, I did some serious work on my writing, nailed down the majority of my assistance lifts for the first cycle of 5/3/1, did some - gasp - leisure reading, and planned out a pretty fantastic dinner for the lady and I. Doesn't sound like much but, for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm finally doing what I want and taking the steps necessary to get from where I am to where I want to be.

TRAINING
Warm-up: Light hill walking, jump rope, and a set of close-grip chin-ups.

Standing barbell overhead press
45x5
50x5
55x5
55x8
50x8
50x7
After the first set of 55, I knew attempting to test at 60, like I outlined in my written journal, wasn’t going to happen. However, going back to the 55 wasn’t the best idea either – in the back of my mind, when the 50s started flying up with perfect form, I thought about just going for it then but, just like with bench, I second guessed myself. I’m less bent out of shape about it with OHP, though, because even more so than my bench, this lift has always been back-and-forth because I can never settle on what grip-width feels the best which is why I did two damn sets at the end – the second one was with a wider-grip. Regardless, form was great for every rep – I just expected more.

Chin-ups
10x4
Each set was half close-grip/half wide-grip as per the advice of veggiesasquatch.

Close-grip barbell bench press
55x5
65x5
70x5
I don’t know why I’ve neglected these for so long – definitely excited to use them as assistance work for 5/3/1 and see how they help my bench and press improve.

One-arm dumbbell row
35x10
30x10
20x10
Pretty light.

Tricep pushdown with rope attachment
50x10
60x10
70x10
Light work here, too.

Face pull
60x10
70x10
Light work. Definitely can go way heavier on these if I ever feel like it.

Standing dumbbell shoulder press
15x10x2
20x9
I’m starting to think my OHP issue is a symmetry issue. Right side always goes up with ease, left side lags a bit.

Wide-grip lateral pulldowns
40x20
For the pump.

Cool-down: None. Thought I was going to pull my bike out when I got home but I ended up whipping up a homemade curry for dinner and hanging out with the old lady for a couple of hours instead.

AFTERWARD
N/A. See forthcoming End of PHAT/1RM testing re-cap tonight or tomorrow.

I love close grip benching. I based mine off 132lb x15 for the programmed assistance. Nothing major as I don't want the assistance to hinder the main lift.

Just don't go to close with the grip. If you do you'll end up hitting chest more than the tricep, I got mine off holding the bar & having my thumbs touch tips, then I gradually moved them a part until I felt the majority of the weight on the back of my arms....just a tip but you'll have to play with it (that's if you need to)

As for chins i solely did hammer grips to improve. Once I could do 5x10 I started doing mixed grip sets...

Great that you have a buzz from the new job, perfect timing with 5/3/1 coming 

All of my assistance stuff is going to be pretty low so I can keep the focus where it needs to be. Thanks for the form tip; I've always made sure to feel it in my arms. My chest is weak but I know that dips/pulls have been helping me out with it so there's no need to target it too specifically.

I'll still with hammer grips for a while then in addition to the rack chins since I find them a bit more challenging than just the assisted ones.

Not sure if I showed you this? I'm going to run my current 5/3/1 until cycle 5's complete (4 cycles using programmed assistance) then I'm going to give this a go, boring but big 3 month challenge

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... _challenge

Also here's a bodybuilding template for 5/3/1 by Wendler 

http://www.jimwendler.com/2011/09/531-and-bodybuilding/

The Boring But Big 3 Month Challenge is what really got me interested in 5/3/1 before I could get a hold of the e-book. I saw the logic behind and the volume and figured it was the next logical step from PHAT since I wanted to get stronger but didn't want to get rid of the high volume I'd grown accustomed to.

Edited to add: I just looked over the bodybuilding template - wish I'd have seen that before I latched onto PHAT. Maybe I'll run that once I reach some of my goals.