Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi.

I am writing this to see which exercises work, how I feel after a work out, and what exactly to do to stop being injured.

I injured my right shoulder bench pressing about 2 years ago. It has been a chronic injury mostly due to my stupidity. Doing certain exercises either to heavy, or the wrong form and reinjuring it again.

Last month I injured my left shoulder / rotator cuff putting to much weight on my bench press. So now I have two shoulder injuries.

I was crushed. I have always been active and was tired of being injured, now I have two injuries. But I took a page from Bruce Lee (who was almost immobile for 6 months due to a weight lifting injury) and decided to train my mind while my body rests. Ive been reading The Science of Martial Arts Training, The Encyclopedia of Weightlifting, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and anything online about my injury and natural ways to heal it.

I have been to my chiropractor and I am soon going to a physiotherapist.

My shoulders have stopped hurting doing normal everyday things about a week ago so I decided to start a light set of working out, resting every day in between, until I can start weight lifting again.

My goal is to heal my muscles/joints, and gain weight up to where I was before I went raw (which is easier than I thought, once my body detoxed out I started seeing gains I havent ever seen in my weight and muscles).

Starting weight: 183. Height: 6'8" Raw Foodist

Aug 6th, 2008:

Jumping rope: 500 jumps as fast as possible
Calf raises: 3x10 no weight
Deep Squats: 2x10 no weight
Standing push ups: 1x20
Shoulder Therapy: 6x20 2lbs dumbbells
Medicine Ball Throws: 3x10, 1x50, 2x20
Various Sit Ups: 100

I kept this work-out light but high in intensity. After a month of not working out it felt amazing to feel tired after such a quick workout.

I devised this workout because all these exercises here I have never injured myself from, with or without weights. So I am no longer doing weight lifting exercises that have injured me until I feel I am strong enough to do those.

My shoulder therapy consisted of various shoulder lifts with the light dumbbells. Arnold presses, lat raises, shrugs, and 3 physical therapy moves:(I made up these names) The Saw (its a short sawing motion which over time extends to long sawing motions) The Door (it feels like your oping and shutting a door, with your upper arm planted firmly to your body, and your lower arm moves the weight), and Jug Pouring, which you tilt your hands thumb down and lift the weight up and down, like pouring something.

I love medicine balls. I am a big believer in functional strength/training and the medicine ball always helps me with explosiveness and definition in my muscles. My exercises yesterday consisted of standing face to face with a wall, in a martial arts ready stance, and throwing the ball against the wall as hard and as fast as possible, in varous different positions.

This morning my shoulders hurt, only a little bit. The rest of my body hurts also. It doesnt feel sore per say, more like "my muscles havent worked out in a month" pain. More deep down sore.

Updates coming soon.

_________________
I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. ~Bruce Lee

Try using dumbbells instead. My shoulder bugged me for years until I gave up benching and went over to dumbbells. The only time I benched after that was maybe a day or two before getting a max to get re acclimated. Lat pull also caused problems so I started doing lat pull only for high rep work and did my heavy back work with dumbbells or cable rows.

Massage Therapy can totally help heal Rotator cuff injuries. Ya gotta go to someone who does theraoy for injuries, not just relaxation.

Sorry for the lack of updates, my life has been crazy.

Ok.

I made up my decision that I am no longer going to do the typical gym weightlifting workout; isolating muscles by putting your body into non-fuctional awkward positions.

There are a few weightlifting moves that are extremely beneficial because they use your bodys natural movement and workout a lot more than one or two iolated muscles, etc: squat, dead lifts, overhead presses.

I have been really getting into underground, high intesity, fuctional training. If some of you dont know what that is get on youtube and check out the 300 the Movie workout. Thats the pro version of it, I am still working on the beginners version.

My home underground HIT fuctional gym now:

100lb punching bag
70lb punching bag
60lb sandbag
12lb sledgehammer
35lb kettlebell
weight bench (no longer use much, except for dumbbells and an occasional dead lift technique)
tires and rope

What I would like to have:

Pull Up Bar
Extra 35lb kettlebell, lighter kettlebells x 2
Gymnastic rings

Last week I did high intensity training. Every other day; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

The first two workouts were without the kettlebell, I did not have it at this time. I forgot to time those workouts though, nor log the reps/sets.

It was almost the same as my Aug 6th post, but I took off the shoulder therapy and in place did sledgehammer swings against the tire with tire pulls.

I felt sore, especially from the sledge hammers, and found the next couple days I had muscles sore I havent felt in a while.

On Saturday I bought a Kettlebell and found an exercise called the Turkish Get Up.

This exercise you lay flat on the ground with the kettlebell in one arm, elbow locked over your head, like you just finished a db press. You then try to stand up. You can use whatever method is easier for you to accomplish this, but your arm must always remain locked and above your head. The finished product is your kettlebell over your head, like a shoulder press, locked. Then you try to lay back down, arm with kettlebell still locked, flat on the ground. Switch and do it with the other arm, that counts as 1.

My left shoulder no longer hurts, but my right shoulder is still giving me problems. Thats why I chose the Turkish Get Up for my shoulder exercises. I was reading that it works out all your stabalizers, muscles, heads, and the whole area surrounding the shoulder without putting huge strains on them. They said if you continue to do this Turkish Get Up it almost makes your shoulder uninjurable and helps rehabilitate injured shoulders.

I timed myself for 5 minutes too see how many I can get done. I was only able to do 2 sets. Meaning twice with each arm in 5 minutes.

I also timed my sledgehammer hits and jump ropes, Ill post these later.

Evaluations: My body has never been so sore in its life. There are muscles I didnt know I had in pain. Its wonderful. It feels like all my body gets sore during these workouts, instead of just my bi's or chest. My abs feel like they are actually getting worked out, instead of just crunched.

Today I am sitting down and writing out some workouts that work for me and my situation. Its really hard to find gyms that train like this, thats why this is mostly underground stuff. Even the gyms that train you in this stuff, most are invite only.

There is one in utah called Gym Jones. www.gymjones.com

Will post workout soon.

_________________
I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. ~Bruce Lee

Ugh. I cant move. Sore all over.

I weighed myself yesterday at 177, 5 less than a month ago. But during that time I was injured and not working out, I can tell I lost muscle mass exclusively, so its back to retrying to gain weight again.

Ill post my workout from yesterday now:

544 jumprope: in 4:20 minutes
4 turkish get ups, each arm 35#: in 5 minutes
KB floor press 26#: 31 each arm, in 220 minutes
KB Between Leg Swings 35#: 169 catches in 5 minutes
Carolyns Sadistic Squats to 10
100 extra jump ropes for punishment of prematuraly dropping a weight on the ground

After the workout I couldnt eat anything for an hour due to gag reflex, and I was shaking for 2 hours. It feels like every muscle in my back is sore, including my legs and shoulders and chest.

I went to the chiropractor yesterday and he told me my range of motion in my newly injured shoulder has made an amazing comeback, and my chronicly injured right shoulder seems better than last time. My injury has only bothered me once, and thats the days I rest when my body is sore, I can tell it more sore in that part of the shoulder than the other parts.

I spent 2 hours reseraching my raw diet and how i can get high calories and protein without affecting cost. So basically cheap raw foods. I think I got it down. But we will see.

_________________
I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. ~Bruce Lee

Yesterdays workout:

Jump Rope: 556 in 4:20
Kettlebell Clean 26#:
--Right arm: 17 in 1:00, 19 in 1:00, 11 in :30
--Left arm: 18 in 1:00, 18 in 1:00, 11 in :30
Sand Bag push up to clean: 19 in 5:00
Sledgehammer swing
--alternate: 84 in 3:07
--overhead: 23 in 1:33
Medicine Ball Throws: 120 in 5:13
Tire Pull and Run: 37 pulls in 2:30
Jump Rope Punishment: 200 for missing tire on a swing, and not having full ROM in Medicine Ball Throws.

Thoughts: My Tri's felt it almost immediatly, and are the sorer muscles today although my back and shoulders are causing added pain. My legs are consistently sore now, and rarely feel better. Thats ok though, its progress. Doing the medicine ball throws at the end almost made me throw up, but I have to do the proper form on those to get the msot benefit which i didnt do through the end of them. Im not adding the press after the cleans until I feel my shoulder is strong enough to take the weight.

I look forward to working out now, but at the same time I dont. Its more fun working out this way, but the pain during the workout and the wanting to throw up or faint when your push yourself to the limits is something I dont look forward too, although I almost crave that feeling now.

_________________
I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. ~Bruce Lee

I did something to my Shoulder again. I'll post more about it here..

Ugh. Arent they the worst? Using these kettlebells instead of typical weight lifting seems to work better with rehabilitation thatn most things I have tried. I have been feeling myy injury during this whole process, but they feel stronger than before.

_________________
I'm not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. ~Bruce Lee