Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Fantastic back development!!! Well done!

What's a typical back routine for you?

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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

Sleep is about 6 - 7 hrs a night....but starting to get consistent...fewer nights of 2 - 4 hrs. I frequently wake up soaked in sweat between midnight and 1 am...not sure what that's about its just been in this last month, I'm careful not to work hard in my evening workouts and feel pretty cool by bedtime...someone said its just my body in super cutting mode?

Typical back is 3 to 5 exercises, 3 sets each 6 - 10 reps...last set always a drop set... I change up the exercises each time but my master list is:

chin ups - wide/narrow and sometimes with 10 - 20lbs weight
lat pulldown
reverse lat pulldown
straight arm pulldown
dumbell 1 arm row
seated row
lever row/bent over row
cross pulley

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

I used to live with Lean and Green from the forum and he would sweat like crazy at night if he ate certain foods late at night. I don't know if it could be related to your sweating but that did it for him.

Have a great day.

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

What are the supp's you take, if any? Maybe a trigger in there or, as Robert states a certain food.

When I have to be up early for work I always sleep terribly. It's like I know I need to sleep & if it's gone eleven I then get annoyed I'm still awake, so I stress, then I can't sleep. It's just a circle I get myself into.

Try the obvious things like no tv, texting ect an hr before bed & read something. I usually nod off listening to some death metal...

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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

I guess then no more bean sprouts and carrots before bed

I was taking creatine and L glutamine....doctor said to drop creatine ASAP. I've tried a million different herbal/vegan sleep aids...and with a combination of 7 of them, including a tea that mimics cortisol to trick my body into thinking it doesn't need to make more, it has gradually improved the last 2 weeks to around 7 hrs a night...normally I'd get 9hrs and with hard workouts even longer so its not really enough but at least I can function.
I've tried EVERYTHING with adjusting lifestyle and night routine before bed...nothing helped. My adrenaline no longer shuts off, its screaming 24/7...I feel like I'm relaxed, my mind relaxed too...but I just lay in bed not sleeping and heart rate too high. Luckily I only work afternoons...I can always sleep in IF I sleep....

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

A friend of mine swears when he would take his creatine of an evening if made him to hot & couldn't sleep. I respond to it well, it's. Been proven to work but obviously everyone's not going to respond to it.

Sounds like you're trying everything under the sun anyway, 7 hrs is still a decent amount to be getting. I get 5-6 during the day (broken) & then work during the night.

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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

First show completed...I didn't place well...somewhere in the last 4 out of 10. Glutes and hamstrings didn't come in as well as I wanted. And I got REALLY bad "professional" tan from the on site tanning company. I looked like I rolled in a mud puddle it was so streaky and blotchy and everyone else had a flawless tan and were giving my pity looks and offering me their cover up products but it was hopeless. On show day the tan company put a 12 year old girl who was really insecure in charge of touch ups and she said hadn't ever done tanning stuff and didn't know how to use the glaze etc. Her touch up efforts made me even worse! I am really upset about it becuase I know I placed lower for it and walking out on stage feeling humiliated for my tan was not cool...

And my friends only took 4 really blurry photos of me on stage....and the on site photographers took hundreds of photos of the first 3 figure classes and not even one photo from Figure D class. So I have NO pictures of me on stage! (I kinda need at least one clear picture so I can email it to the tanning people and rage at them.)

I guess I'm pretty disappointed....I was hoping/expecting to place 4 - 5th. My upper body and posing etc was great and my butt wasn't far off.

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

I think I need to post another back picture to help improve my self esteem in this moment of feeling like a failure. This is from last night...at least I'm good at some muscles.

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

Congratulations on completing your first show!

Sorry to hear about the tanning troubles. I've had the same tanning problems and was actually reprimanded back stage by the show promoter for one particular show because of the bad tan. So it happens sometimes, though we hope that it won't.

Again, sorry to hear it was a frustrating part of the show.

I know about those blurry pics from friends too. It seems to happen more often than not in bodybuilding. Due to the darkness of the room aside from the brightness on stage, the depth of the audience and distance from the stage and the fact that friends are trying to watch the show and often forget to take pics. So it happens pretty regularly, but it is a bummer the professional photographers didn't take any of your class. That seems strange.

You put a lot of hard work into the preparation for this contest. You should feel very proud of commitment, effort, and heart you put into it. Don't worry about placings. I've always thought of this sport as something that we do to compete against ourselves. We're just always trying to better ourselves, work harder, make strides and that is all we should really worry about in the "competition" aspect of this sport. At least that is just one perspective to have.

Congratulations again for competing. Most never make it that far. Even most of the people who say they'll compete, never do. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, courage, and determination to make it up on stage. Consider yourself one of the few who truly make it happen.

All the best,

Robert

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

Awesome photos too, by the way!

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

That really sucks about the tan And not having any great pictures of yourself on stage, that must be a real disappointment...
But you look really great!
Maybe just try and use this as a motivation to look even more amazing at your next show, and try to get a friend to bring a good camera and take lots and lots of pictures of you on (and off) stage, so you have some great pics of your contest shape.

Thanks Robert for your support...in the little into blurb they read when you walk out individually to pose I mentioned thankyou to you and the support from veganbodybuilding.com website. I had no team or trainer to thank like everyone else did. (And your book was a real key motivator as well.)

Here are 2 more pics...one from August 1st last year - I guess the real "before pic", its pretty hideous....the day I got out of bed (6.5 year chronic depression) and decided to push my body to the limit, my life took an intense turn that day...I didn't seriously consider a competition at that point but I was going to pretend and do everything as though preparing for one.

the 2nd one is the only pic I have of me on stage (although I'm desperately still hoping to find someone who has decent pictures)

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

Cool, thanks so much for giving our website a shout out and congratulations again on competing and getting up on stage after a lot of hard work and preparation.

The contest photo looks good. Well done.

What's your plan now? Do you want to compete again or are you taking some time to think about it and consider upcoming events, etc.?

All the best!

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

To place that low really aggravates me...it is not at all acceptable to my personality type and I stamped myself with a big "Fail and Redo the assignment" stamp in my mind.
I was already planning for the next show as I walked off stage...a few small changes would have placed me much higher ( longer eye lashes...I didn't realize I HAD to have fake ones and I did go and buy them so I had them in the evening show.) Needed WAY more jemstones on my bikini...being a novice show I thought that my moderately fancy one would be average but it wasn't...it was totally dull compared to the others. And I need a decent tan! It wasn't my body and stage performance that didn't make the cut...although I will have to tone up my glutes a touch more...

the next show is Nov 10th....
I weighed in at 122lbs the morning of the show, 9.5% body fat 2 days before the show...was hoping for 125. The 2 winning girls were clearly holding more muscle so my goal is to put on 20 lbs....or at least high 130's and then hopefully compete 126ish in November.

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Failure: unacceptable.
Find me on facebook: Deborah Nasmyth

You've done fantastically - I'd like to give you some advice on avoiding negativity or frustration: Personally, I'd recommend aiming for self-satisfaction, not to win a competition of this kind. As you said, they want you to wear fake eye lashes? Ridiculous. You should have your own aims and goals. If it wasn't for this kind of competition, would you want to wear fake lashes, or do any of the other things necessary to win? What would be your goal if these competitions didn't exist? Obviously, to improve you need to have an ability to assess your own weaknesses, otherwise those weaknesses will not be overcome. So I understand being a strong critic of yourself. But, that's different than allowing someone else to be a critic of you unfairly.

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