Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

LOL...

i take two-three layoffs a year (though i do some active rest, such as martial arts training and/or hiking and walking), i always come back to training stronger, and with less aches and pains. The Marjory of trainees today imo overtrain, especially natural trainees, they almost never give their bodies a break from the rigors of hard training. Most operate under the notion that if they consume enough protein, they can train as much as they like, they say, "there's no such thing as over-training, only under-eating", or "bodybuilding is 80% nutrition", to this i say...BULLSHIT!!

The body first requires an adequate stimulus, it then requires A "precise" amount time for the body to produce an adaptive response. Can you build muscle by overtraining? Of course, but i'm of the opinion (and many experts opinion), you'll reach your genetic potential much faster and with a lot less wear and tear on your body following the universal principles that nature has put in place.

Give your body a break now and then, I guarantee you'll come back stronger than ever:)

Here's a fantastic John Little article from a few years ago, called stimulus addicts...
http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/index.cf ... StartRow=2

Yeah I agree Rob. I've got most of MM's stuff and read a lot of John Little's work as well ~ fascinating.

I understand the concepts and even going back to what Arthur Jones used to talk about still holds merit today; I've applied it myself, experienced a lot of trial and error and for me, personally I find that I make the best gains from training HIT style but with a shade more volume than their traditional approach and recommendations.

Great stuff MF,

Next to MM, John Little is my favorite writer, the man's a font of knowledge whom also uses logic and reason as the driving forces of his thinking. As for Jones, despite contributing a great deal to exercise science, he was a right winged nasty pace of work, he liked to bully the people who worked for him, including Mike and Ray, in fact, when Ray stood up to him one day, Jones fired him and had him thrown off the premises. He liked to boast about how many people he'd killed, and according to Boyer Coe, he liked to beat the fuck out of his then child son. The worlds better out without assholes like that.

Indeed some can tolerate more exposure to H.I.T than others, i personally need the recommended 4-7 days between workouts, i think if i didn't do other activities (martial arts training) and didn't work so many hours i'd probably be able to tolerate slightly more, but hey, we all gotta work:(

With regards to volume, when i train with free weights i found i could tolerate more volume per workout (i spoken with quite a few hitters that said the same), on the other hand, i feel much more fatigued from machine based workouts.

I can only speculate, that this is because - For example when using pre-exhaustion for the pecs, a pec deck provides maximum resistance in the fully contracted position, were-as a D-B Flye does not, or how a machine pullover provides resistance through a much greater range than say a D-B or BB pullover. With machine compound movements, there's less balance and intramuscular coordination required, the machines allow the individual focus on intense muscular contraction's, not skill. I feel its because of this, less volume can be tolerated when using machines, that, and the combination of Mikes recommendation of eliminating momentum by using a 4-2-4 cadence on most movements.

Of course, this is not to say free weights don't have their place, they most certainly do, used properly, their extremely productive tool's.

Today's workout...

Underhand grip pulldown
95kgs x 8 reps to failure

Shoulder width grip smith machine bench press
112.5kgs x 6 reps to failure

D-B high pull
2 x 40kgs x 14 reps to failure

Happy with the increases from the last time i workout my upper body (9 days ago), though of course, its the entire physical system that's stimulated.

I must point out, i'm not a lazy individual, i love hard training, i just prefer a more scientific approach to training, rather than a traditional or arbitrary one. I often have the guys at the reception of my gym say to me, "well Rob, that workout out of yours was only 15 minutes", or " it wasn't worth your while getting changed", my stock response has become "well, i had to warm up:)".

When anyone really doubts the theory of H.I.T, i invite them for a workout with me, one of those people was my now training partner and nephew (who was into powerlifting at the time), we trained legs H.I.T style, we began with calf presses, then Romanian Deadlifts and then finished with Leg Presses, all for just one set to failure per movement. After being push to complete and utter failure on the leg press, my nephew struggled to get up and out of the leg press machine, looking rather pale, sweating profusely, and with his head hanging, he made a swift v-line for the fire exit door, he kicked the door open and began to throw up outside, i went out a to see if he was OK, well..actually no i just wanted to laugh at him, but anyway, i said to him, "that was a 3 set, 13 minute workout, do you still think the duration of a workout is important now?" His response... "fuck you" lol.

I find this with crossfit all the time. Someone recently said to me, "when I first started this if you'd have told me that a 4 minute workout could leave be lying on the floor gasping for breath, I'd have told you that you were lying".

I love it.

Hi Andi,

Hows it going...

Oh yes, if your motivated enough, you can really tax the body in minutes...

Heres a great example of what can be done with just 4-5 minutes of H.I.T once a week...i've spoken with this individual of a few occasions, really nice guy, and great athlete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74wtpTvpBHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_SYRcwy2Dc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJFURKttdKI

Tonight's leg workout...

1. Leverage style Leg Presses
360kgs x 7 reps to failure

2. Romanian DLs
100kgs x 9 reps to failure

3. Seated Calf Raise Machine
80kgs x 14 reps to failure (3 second hold in the contracted position)

I'm done, but, its at least its time to feast:) I fancy some Mexican bean and salad wraps, with apple and oatmeal vegan pancakes and vegan butterscotch sauce to top, oh yes:)

This afternoon's workout...

1. Seated Dip Machine
125kgs x 7 reps to failure + 2 forced reps with superslow negatives

2. Machine Pullover
90kgs x 5 reps to failure + static hold to failure

3. Hammer Strength Chest supported Row
120kgs 5 reps to failure (holding the weight in the contracted position for a second or two)

4. Standing Bi-Lateral D-B Curls
2 x 22.5kgs x 8 reps to failure

Excellent workout, was super motivated today, really enjoyed the intensity, workout was completed in 12 minutes.

I've decided to pull the plug on the warrior diet i've been following, couple of things were wrong, firstly i was dropping weight far to fast, and secondly after shoveling in a few thousand calories in one sitting at night which wasn't an problem), the following morning i've been feeling sickish for the first few hours of the day. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained i suppose, i did like the theory and concept, but the application was a different story.
I'm not given up on intermittent fasting all together, i'm switching to a lean gains style 8 hour feeding window, its a bit easier to follow (especially when your 245lbs).

Today was....

12pm
a shit load of fruit

3pm
Big ass bowl of whole wheat spicy Pasta (home made salsa with jalapenos)

5pm
medium sized bag of mixed nuts

8pm
Moroccan curry, with sweet potatoes, lentils, and chickpea's (the whole pot lol)
Naughty afters - vegan cookies

Max Contraction (static) Leg workout...

1. Leg Extension (omega set)
110kgs x static holds to failure

2. Leverage style Leg Press
300kgs x static hold to failure

3. Lying Leg Curl Machine (omega set)
55kgs x static holds to failure

4. Standing Calf Raise Machine (omega set)
100kgs x static holds to failure

Rest between exercises was kept to a minimum, just enough time to get set up. The static hold on the Leg Press was held in the position of maximum motor arm, the rest were held in the fully contracted position.

Changed gyms today, i had been training in a busy commercial gym, i was sick of the loud crap music, the poser's, the cheesy fake tanned trainers, waiting around on machines etc, so i join this real old school gym in my home town. The equipment was hand made in the 60s, but is still very functional, there's no music, the only thing you can hear in iron being lifted, no waiting around, no posers, it appears there are still some real gyms about:)

Back to my 3 way split...

Today's workout...
1. Pec Deck - static hold to failure
Supersetted with
2. Seated Chest Press Machine - one set to failure
one minute rest...
3. Standing Military Press machine - one set to failure
one minute rest...
4. Triceps Press-Down - one set to failure

The new gym sounds awesome man I've had so many bad experiences in big commercial gyms, mostly from time wasting wannabe personal trainers.

Hi Ross,

It gets better, it costs just £5 per week, half the price of the commercial gym:)

Here's a gentleman that's been training in it for 40 years, his name is Eric Dowie, there was a documentary on the BBC last year about him going to Venice California to compete at the age of 70. Inspirational man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koep6BioO7U

Last nights workout...

Warm-up - 2 sets moderately heavy low rep sets of exercise 2...

1. Stiff Arm Cable Pulldown - 1 set to failure
immediately followed by
2. Seated Chest Supported Row - 1 set to failure
3. Bench Press Machine Shrugs - 1 set to failure
4. Preacher Curl Machine - 1 set to failure
5. prone Hypers - 1 weighted set to failure

There was a 1-2 second hold in the contracted position of all the exercises...

Workout was completed in just over 12 minutes...

Really liking the effect of the pre-exhaustion, its a great low stress, high intensity technique ...

On this 3 way split routine am currently using, each muscle is being targeted just once every 15-16 days days or so,