Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Okay, I am feeling pretty good about the routine I have just set up, so here is. I am going to do full-body workout three times a week. Single set, as heavy as I can manage. I'm a beginner, so my weights are pretty low still. Also, I have added a bunch of new exercises, so I'm gonna have to start at the beginning with low weights for them until I can figure out what I can handle.

I also need to figure out exactly which days I am going to go. A friend of mine wants to work out with, which I am very excited about. She is trying to lose weight, and I convinced her to start lifting weights, so she is going to join me 2x a week. That will be Tues and Thurs evenings, so I guess my third day should be on the weekend, Sat or Sun.

Other than weight lifting, I do mountain biking Mon and Wed, but that is going to end very soon when the time goes back and we won't have enough light in evenings to get in a ride. I'll then mtn bike just once a week, Sat or Sun. Very soon, I am going to have to start riding my road bike (mostly on my trainer over the winter months) every single day except the one day I mtn bike. If I'm going to be at the gym with my friend two evenings, I'm gonna have to figure out when to bike--maybe first thing in the morning on those days.

Okay, so now my week will look something like this:

Mon: mtn bike ride, evening
Tues: day 1 workout at gym, evening
Wed: mtn bike ride, evening
Thurs: day 2 workout, evening
Fri: rest
Sat: road bike ride, morning
Sun: day 3 workout

Eventually, from sometime in Nov, it will look like:

Mon: bike on trainer
Tues: bike on trainer, morning; day 1 workout, evening
Wed: bike on trainer
Thurs: bike on trainer, morning; day 2 workout, evening
Fri: bike on trainer
Sat: mtn bike ride
Sun: road bike ride, morning; day 3 workout, evening

I might have to move my gym workouts to Mon, Wed, Fri evenings, because I don't think I can handle my big outdoors road ride (prob 2-3 hours) and a gym workout on one day (Sun). The weekday trainer rides will be more like 1 hour and easier, so I'd be more able to go the gym on those days.

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My 2012 Training Log

Now that I got all that preliminary stuff over with, here are my actual workouts. I've provided the weight I'm currently at for the exercises I have actually done already. The ones with no weight are the ones that are new for me.

Day One
Squats (85 lbs)
Calf Press (170 lbs on some stupid machine)
Barbell Bench (70 lbs)
Barbell Shoulder Press (50 lbs)
Cable Row (85 lbs)
Lat Pulldown (90 lbs)

Day Two
Squat
Calf Press
Chest Dips
Upright Barbell Row
Barbell Bent-Over Row
Narrow-Grip Chinup

Day Three
Squats
Calf Press
Incline Dumbell Press
Rear Delt Row
One-Arm Dumbell Row
Wide-grip Pullup

One Q about the calf exercises. My current gym has just a seated calf press thingy. I have been thinking about doing calf raises with a barbell on my back, as for squatting, using the squat rack. At my last gym, I was doing this with a Smith machine (the only exercise I would use that for). But I was up to about 180 lbs, which is far more than I hold for any other exercise I do, and so I am a little afraid of trying to hold that weight without any support. Should I be worried about that, or do you all think I should be able to hold it okay?

Oh, and some basic info about me. I am female, as I guess you all know already. I am 33 years old, 5'5" and 150 lbs. I would like to lose about 10 pounds, mostly because lighter is generally better for cycling. But I don't plan on reweighing myself again for a while.

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My 2012 Training Log

Good to see a new journal on here!

What about doing one-leg calf raises with no extra weight? It's basically the same as doing 2-legs with a 150 lb weight, except you won't have to worry about loading up the Smith

Looks good so far. What about the deadlift?


The smith machine is okay for doing calves. Only problem is, that you can't go into the stretching position, which i believe to be very important. And when you can't go down the full way, you need more weight to make it a challenge.
But try it and you will see if you can hold it. I believe it will be no problem, it's easier to hold a weight than to squat with it.

One leg calf raises as Will mentioned are okay, but even if not too easy from the start, it's hard to keep adding weight. You can use dumbells, but the calves are very strong and at some point it won't be enough. If they suit you better than the smith machine, i think the movement is better, so do them then

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No one said it would be easy.

Oh, to clarify... at my last gym I was using the Smith for calf raises, and that was fine. But at my current gym they do not have a Smith machine. Just squat racks. So I was wondering if I should be worried about going from a Smith machine to a free barbell for the calf raises.

And Daywalker, I will start doing deadlifts. I forgot to put that in.

I also forgot to mention that I will be doing core work. Weighted crunches, back hypers, and cable side bends. I'll do those on the days I don't go the gym for the other stuff, which will work out to 4x a week. For these, I'll be doing more of a higher rep, lower weight thing.

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My 2012 Training Log

Oops, sorry, i got that wrong

I wouldn't do calf raises with a barbell on my shoulders. I think that would be all about balance and not about working the calves properly.
So the one leg variant of calf raises with a dumbell in one hand is far better.

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No one said it would be easy.

Did my day one workout today. I was in the gym for about 40 minutes, but that includes my warm-up and waiting around for equipment. There was one guy there who was bench pressing the entire time I was there. I went through my entire routine; he was bench pressing when I arrived and bench pressing when I left. Surely that's not necessary!

I got kinda pissy with a guy who was there... there are two power racks and they are used for bench pressing as well as squats (mostly pressing--I have seen only one other person squat so far). When I walked in both were being used for bench pressing, so I had to wait to squat. One guy got up and walked away, so I followed him and asked if he was done and he said he was. I asked if he could remove his weight (he had left it all on the barbell) and he said he found it that way. Okay, who walks in, finds a barbell with weight on it, and just presses whatever weight happens to be on it?? So he wasn't going to remove it. I gave some kind of annoyed response, and then he came and helped me remove it and move the pegs around for squattting and was very nice, so then I felt bad for being pissy. But now he probably thinks that I just didn't know how to do it on my own, when it was just that I hate when people don't put away their weights when they are done!

Does this count as a training journal still? Now I'm just venting!

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My 2012 Training Log

Of course it does

It wouldn't be as interesting for us to read if it were only numbers all the time

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No one said it would be easy.

Today I did my day two workout. There were a few new exercises for me to try out.

Did 12 squats, so I get to increase to 90# next time. I'm looking forward to hitting the triple digits finally.

I can tell I am going to have to be careful with the upright barbell rows to make sure I don't hurt my shoulder. It may mean increasing my reps and weight more slowly for this one. I just used the empty barbell for this today (45#).

For barbell bent-over rows, I settled on 70#, but did 12 pretty easily, so I'll be increasing the weight for that next time.

There were not many people in the gym today and I didn't have to wait for any equipment, so it was a nice fast workout.

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My 2012 Training Log

I was supposed to do my day 3 workout today, but didn't go to the gym.

This was my first time to try to go on a weekend, and I failed! The gym is open only for 4 hours on Sun, 10AM-2PM, and I wasn't ready to work out (my large breakfast was not digested) in time.

I'll have to avoid eating larger breakfasts on Sundays if I hope to actually get to the gym.

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My 2012 Training Log

I did my day three workout today, first time for that routine. I went at a totally different time of day. I have been going in the morning, but now I am switching to evening so that my friend can go with me. She didn't go tonight, though; our first workout together will be on Thursday.

I started with 20# in each hand for incline bench press, 20# dumbell for one arm row, and empty barbell (45#) for rear delt row. In all cases I did my 12 pretty easy, so I'll do more next time.

One issue I have with dumbells is that the increase amount is greater. That is, when I increase on the barbell, I increase by 5 lbs total, 2.5 lbs added on each side. But when I increase with dumbells, I will have to increase by 5 lbs each hand, or 10 lbs total. That seems like a big jump to me.

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My 2012 Training Log

Back to my day one routine today. This time my friend was with me, so I was showing her how to do the exercises as well.

I found that I had great trouble with the barbell bench. I could hardly lift the weight. Last time I managed 9 reps at that weight, this time I could do only 3. That seems like a big step back. I used to do the barbell bench 2x a week and now I do it only 1x. Plus, I missed one workout recently, so it has been a little more than a week since I last did it. Could that be the reason for the troubles? I am doing chest exercises on the other two days, but because I just started them I was not using a very challenging weight. I hope I can make progress on the bench next time.

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My 2012 Training Log

Hi Liz, it could be just an off day or fatigue from your other chest exercises. Many of us have days when the weights just don't go up as expected and with no apparent explanation.

I'm sure if you work on it for a few sessions your strength will return. Twice per week benching works best for me.

I managed to squeeze in my day two routine today. I almost messed up and missed it--the gym closes at 4PM. I was leaving to go there around 2:45 when I discovered I could not find my keys! I still haven't found them, but luckily the management office set me up with some spares just in time for me to get to the gym and squeeze in my workout. I skipped warm-up though; I just walked over there very briskly in hopes of raising my heart rate a bit.

Found myself getting a little sloppy on the squat. I was leaning forward onto the balls of my feet instead of pushing through the heels. So I didn't do too many reps and will have to work on that. I also really have to work on keeping my back straight on the bent-over rows. I really have to concentrate on it.

Otherwise, it went pretty well. Here's what I ended up doing:

Squat: 90# x8
Calf Press: 195# x 12
Chest Dips: -60# x12
Upright Barbell Row: 45# x10
Barbell Bent-Over Row: 75# x8
Narrow-Grip Chinup: -60# x8

(As I weigh 150 now, -60 on the assisted dips and chins works out to 90 pounds.)

I'm really glad I managed to get to the gym today. Tomorrow I am going on a 43 mi bike ride with a friend. I expect to struggle because I haven't been riding regularly at all.

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My 2012 Training Log

I did my bike ride today. I was pretty pooped out by the end, but I did better than I thought I would. I managed to keep going at a pretty decent pace. Now I'm tired out, though.

Tomorrow I am going to a free seminar on free weights at my gym. I'm hoping I just get to watch and don't have to do any lifting, because I need to recover from today, plus I am mountain biking in the evening anyway. Tuesday evening is my next gym day.

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My 2012 Training Log