Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Sensless, I'm really two weak for handstand presses but I try them occasionally. Thanks for the advice.

Raven, OK thanks.

Got straps about 10 days ago so I could go longer on OAP workouts. First strap workout almost passed out on a front lever attempt. Little afraid to try them as hard now.

Ran 5 miles in 49 minutes few days ago. Bodyweight (thanks to running) has gone up. 220 first thing in the morning and above 225 (with clothes on) by evening.

Attempted an OAC while fresh yesterday. Usually I spin around until halfway between an OAC and OAP when attempting OACs (I don't spin on OAPs and that's why I usually just do them). By just touching the door so as to not spin around I got 2/3rds up on a OAC. But without touching the door I don't get very far at all. Have gotten slightly worse actually on OAPs thanks to weight gain.

Straps, OAC OAP...whatevuh! Speak English, will you, you're in virtual America

I *love* any-and-every thing vintage; don't know if you do, but I thought you would appreciate this:


It was produced in 1958:

Ugly Americans
The more things change, they more they stay the same,

"It was produced when there was a lot of criticism of "Ugly Americans" that traveled to foreign lands and made nuiances--or worse--of themselves (unlike today ;o) ). It is amazing because of two reasons. (1) The A-list cartoonists that contributed to it, Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Hank Ketcham, Milton Caniff, Ernie Bushmiller, Rube Goldberg, etc. and (2) It's not exactly clear who the audience is. Is it trying to educate insensitive Americans? Or is it an arrogant defense to ungrateful foreigners who should be damn happy for the American dollars being spent in their lands?"

" A glance at the introduction clears that up: it is "... a gentle hint to you [Americans] not to be what our enemies say we are." The use of the word "enemies" is informative. Printed during the Cold War (1958), it was clearly a countermeasure against Anti-American propaganda, whether real or imagined, put about by evil commie plotters."

Straps are these things you wrap around your wrist and then around the bar so that you can hold on to the bar beyond when your grip would normally give out. OAP/C is one armed pullups/chinups.

Yes, those are funny cartoons. They even have Schulz there. I somehow assume he wouldn't be rightwing, although I guess I could see in 1958 liberal types taking part in that. You ever read Mallard Fillmore? Now there's a crappy rightwing cartoon. Not funny at all. They put it next to Doonesbury for equal time or something in one of the local papers.
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Today was a very very good workout. Just touching my hand against the door frame in order to not spin out of the OAC position I did 8 or 9 singles on the right arm getting 2/3 to 1/2 up. (Where 1/2 is the upper arm parallel to the ground.) Only got 1/2 up once or twice on the left arm though. Did this first thing in the morning at a bodyweight of 220. Took 3 days off instead of the usual 1/occasional 2. Was planning on 3 or 4 days rest for a while as mentally I've felt a little sick of lifting.

Yesterday ran that same course (it's probably only 4.7 miles as opposed to 5) and did it in 45 minutes.

So I pulled a muscle slightly in my foot and I've been resting it ever since I did that hard run quite a while ago... It's been a month and it's still not better. I think walking is stopping it from healing.

I've been doing a 3 rep set every minute for 30 minutes once every 3 to 6 days. That's all the time I have as I'm extremely busy as usual. So far did this with chinups with a 35 pound pack and military presses with 103lbs. Only managed 2 rep sets with 113lbs on the presses so far. Hurt my neck also. Doing chinups.... Ridiculous. Think it's the military presses which set me up for it.

Hmm...what's this supposed to achieve?
I took your advice on waiting longer between sets and it's working for me, thanks.
I've also taken to doing my weights all day occasionally -- for example, I will pick up the weights and do a set of something every few hours or so throughout the day. Like maybe, if I'm home, everytime I pass my weights in the hallway. That seems to be working too. I'm sure I'm still not maximizing my potential, but I'm still working on finding what's best for me, since I'm such a hater .



Sounds like good news

Sigh, it feels like I just hurt it yesterday. hasn't improved at all with the month away from jogging.


Just experimenting. Trying to find a way to get stronger. The usual ways won't take me any farther.


As long as your improving than just do what you mentally enjoy. 'Every few hours' is not a workout I mentally enjoy, I've found...

So last workout I did the first 25 minutes of chinups with a 3 rep set and 45 pounds. the workout before I only managed 16 minutes. So I did 87 chinups with a 45 pound pack in 30 minutes. That's getting close to nuts. Also started military presses with the same idea but higher reps. The more blood i can get into my shoulders, the better it seems.

Chinups: bw(223) + 55 pounds, 3 rep set each minute for 15 minutes. 80+total reps in 30 minutes.

After a year of high volume I think I shall take a rest from it. results for me:
1. I get overheated very easy. Just feel like I''m burning and can't sleep. Multiple high rep sets (more than 3 reps) brings it on bad. If I eat blueberry shakes I get better but sometimes I get sick of religiously eating them..... My mom is the same way concerning getting overheated. It's seem it's just some strange thing about us. It's been a constant battle to avoid overheating with high volume lifting.
2. I was much more injury prone. In particular on pressing movements. And for the last month I've had some shoulder pain. (Not related to moving, just when leaning forward while sitting my right sholder starts burning.)
3. The amount of improvement I made was negligible. I mean to say I got really good at doing set after set but my one set while totally fresh max was about the same I think. I went to a gym that has a 300# pulldown machine. If fresh (I wasn't) I think I could get maybe 4 or 5 reps. 12 years ago I did this same machine and could do a couple reps and that was without even bothering to train chinup stuff. Way back then I just did rows and pullovers (HIT style) and was almost as strong as now.

So I finally have a gym to workout at and I'm just going back to a single set every 4 days or so. Just a nice easy workout. Very short. Just a few exercises. Not much reason to keep a log as I've done this already for many years in the past. I know when I'll platuea at dips, etc. I know how eating will affect things, etc. In fact I know a ton and should write it up. I'm really a wealth of untapped (ignored) information. Oh well. But not much reason to keep a log anymore as the experiments are done for now. Maybe permanently.

I've had trouble with shoulder pain for quite a while now. (Not normal shoulder pain though, just this strange burning sensation when I sit without slouching.) It's finally just about gone and i did some OAC stuff. If i start one third up I can still pull myself to halfway with one arm. Weaker at top and bottom.

I've just been doing some low volume stuff lately. 10 minutes a couple times a week at work. I'm about the same really strengthwise.... I'm thinking I'll try to get back into OAC stuff for a while now. Maybe some low volume OAC eccentric stuff. And work on the lockout maybe.

Welly welly welly one arm pulldowns 160x4 + about 5 negatives on each arm.

Surprised myself by maxing out curl machine about 5 reps each arm + about 5 or so negatives.

So the new thing is doing negatives at end of sets. Figured an obvious way to do negative dips and hope to work back up to 100+ weighted in a few workouts. Just 45x8 when already tired today + a few negatives.

One arm pulldowns 170x2 right and 3 left plus some negatives, this machine is very accurate. My 227 just barely could pulldown 220.
Weighted dips 90x3 plus 5 negatives
Machine curls maxed machine for 9 right 7 left plus 5 negatives. Surprisingly good again. Negatives helped I think?
Tricep pushdowns 60x12 on right arm which was ridiculous good 60x3 on left, couldn't find the groove and just about hurt my elbow. Will try triceps machine next time instead.
Shrugs, 40 pound sholder raises x4 plus negatives....

Highlights:
Few days ago did machine curls with the whole stack (150) plus 10 added on top for 6 reps plus negatives.

Yesterday did dips for BW(225ish) +100 for 4 reps then tri pullovers 115 for about 6 I think. Did a few other things.... Tried a 180 one arm pulldown but wasn't successful. But I was a little tired already.

Shall do high volume dips and chins once every 5 days or so. First workout today was 100 minutes. Will try for 180 on average.

Did bodyweight dips and chinups assisted and with 55 pounds for 120 minutes on the 17th. Some improvement I guess.... Also added a few shrugs. Every 8 minutes I did a set. Perhaps I could do more often but I was tired from work. At the end I was only doing a 3 rep set with 55 pounds added on chinups. I'd really like to improve that. Was doing a ten rep set of dips until near the end.

I was really sore from the 12th. And was still sore on the 17th. If not for blueberry and banana smoothies (two a day) I would have had horrible insomnia and quickly aborted this workout. But with the bb shakes I slept good. Still was so sore I couldn't even jog as the bouncing hurt my pecs and lats too much. Not really sore at all from the workout on the 17th.

Working out hard like this instead of doing HIT seems to really help me not think about the state of the world. I was really getting in a bad mood doing HIT.