Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Sunday -

Today was supposed to be acroyoga, but I wound up on a too-long walk to the only shop that's open on a Sunday (took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and back) with my flatmate I haven't seen for a while. Decided to replace acro with chest and tris, but... didn't get to the gym till 11pm, again due to my flatmate. I've been talking about veganism a lot, and she's baffled by the amount of energy I have/exercise I do. Considering I had a 40% attendance record all through my school years because I didn't have the energy to get out of bed 3 days of the week... the fact that I'm now always chirpy and bouncing around is quite something, and can be put down to my lifestyle. Living with me is definitely winning her over, she wants to give it (completely vegetarian, mainly vegan) a go but isn't totally sure how as she doesn't cook much... I seem to be responding to this by doing a lot of cooking, good for the soul

Chest and Triceps:

Weighed myself. Fully clothed, at midnight after a day of lots of food, and still came out at only 143lbs which I'm thrilled with as last time I weighed myself was 3 weeks into Berlin, and it came out as 145 first thing in the morning having not been eating much for a while. Also took measurements 10days ago and it came out as 26" 36" waist and hips, a 3" drop so far this year.

Dumbbell chest press: 9kg x12x11x10
Dumbbell chest press incline: 7kg x12x12x10
Chest press machine: 20kg x12x12x10
Fly machine: 20kg x10x9x7 15kgx10

Tricep pushdowns: 17.5kgx12x12x12
Dumbbell kickbacks - 6kg x12 x12 x10

Decent improvement on last week. Beginning to feel some strength again. My appetite's been slightly uncontrollable though, I thought if anything I'd have gained weight as I'm not feeling I'm looking that good... I blame all the cycling for making me hungry

Where did I get to...

Monday: cycled 16kms. Was going to go to the gym in the evening but stuck in a cafe on the wrong part of the city till late waiting for the rain to go off so I could cycle home.

Tuesday: My birthday... obvious side affects being I cooked a lot of cookies, and a friend made a cake... and I had a few drinks for the first time in a month. Exercise wise, I did fitness blender's 1000 calorie HIIT workout as I didn't particularly feel like the gym and wanted a total body workout to get my abs and legs. And cycled 16kms.

Now there's a lot of cake sitting around me in tubs. At least it's vegan so sort of healthy? Ahem. Off to the gym to try and wake up, didn't go to sleep till 4. A new age, a new start...

Happy birthday for Tuesday!

AndiMorris wrote:Happy birthday for Tuesday!

Thanks think I'm just back to normal after it... I never normally eat cake and sweet things :/

Wednesday 14th: cycled 22kms and did 2 hours of acroyoga

Thursday 15th: tried to go to the gym in the evening, did back and biceps but I made the mistake of going at 6pm when the gym was full, couldn't get near a bench. In the end gave up after just machine rows, lat pulldowns and reverse fly. And I've lost the stats for them. Left, went home, made a spinach and sweet potato dal with flatbread. It's an old favourite.

Friday: cycled 12kms. Really didn't feel like doing anything. Had a bit of a mood plummet since my birthday. Dragged myself out to acroyoga in the park, but didn't do much.

Saturday: cycled um... 30kms total, but then part of that was a 12km cycle to and from the wonderful vegan pizza place here. I went semi healthy and ordered the hemp pizza with hemp seeds all over it. Strange concept but it was excellent

Sunday: Wussed out of the 22km bike ride to acro because of the rain. Took the ubahn. 3 hours of acroyoga and acrobatics. I think my body's getting used to it though, because I'm fine today and always wonder if I did enough.

Total cycled for week of the 12th: 96kms. I thought I hadn't done as much this week, but it seems I've still managed a fair bit. Mood hasn't been great since my birthday. The end of the summer's now coming so fast and I don't feel I've done anywhere near enough, but I'll be straight into final year of uni when I get back to Glasgow. Sort of ready to go back. I miss the cat, and my friends, and my gym there.

Monday the 19th:

Because I'm getting to the gym so irregularly at the moment (and leaving Berlin in 9 days and again won't have a gym for 2 1/2 weeks) I've decided to swap my routine up into 3 full body days a week of machine lifting, partly because I feel I'm getting uneven, partly to avoid the weight benches and the staring as I know I'll be back to Glasgow soon enough. I'm looking to start up parkour there as a replacement for acroyoga, to keep building endurance strength and flexibility.

Machine rows: 20kgx10 25kgx12x10x8
Chest press machine: 20kg x12x12x12
Fly machine: 20kg x12x9x7
Rear delt machine: 15kg x12x10x8
Lat pulldown machine: 20kgx12 25kgx12x10
Tricep machine: 35kgx12 40kgx12 45kgx10
Abduction machine out: 35kgx12x12x12
Abduction machine in: 25kgx12 30kgx12 35kgx12
Leg Press: 55kg x12x12x12

Sleepy, but bouncing up to having energy again and starting to feel quicker. 9 days left. Yikes.

Annnd I'm back. I felt weird about posting on here for quite a while after my ex let slip he'd been using this journal to keep tabs on me after I cut contact when we broke up. So, updates: still training, been back in the gym for 5 weeks, managing 4-5 training sessions almost every week despite a massive workload and at the moment a horrible cold, which has cut it down to 4 weight trainings and very little cardio. Also I've redone my split and jigged my workout about a little, the one at the moment's working very well and I'm seeing pretty fast improvements in the amount I can lift... now if only I can get rid of my cold.

So... I've been keeping track of all my workouts but I'll just write up the most recent ones. I've recently gone up quite a bit in the amount of weight I can lift, although it's still nowhere near decent in my opinion. Squatted in the squat rack for the first time (so addictive...) and managed 30kg, then have been knocked out of the gym for the past 3 days due to this cold still not shifting.

Had no strength gains over the summer, and hitchhiked round Central Europe for the three weeks before getting back to the UK (perfectly possible as a vegan it turns out, I never went hungry) so lost any muscle I had gained.

Also keeping track of my diet now, as my (very omni) boyfriend's pretty much moved in and after 4 weeks on the same high protein vegan diet as me has announced he's really enjoying the diet and is feeling great success!

On with the plan... all of these days also include 5-20mins of cardio, but I for some reason haven't been keeping track.

Tuesday 15th

Leg day (I finally have a regular leg day)

Leg Press: 20kgx20 35kgx20 40kgx20 45kgx20 50kgx20 55kgx20 60kgx20 65kgx12
Leg extensions: 15kgx15 17.5kgx15 20kgx15 22.5kgx15 25kgx15 30kgx12 20kgx15
Squat rack: 20kgx10 30kgx10x7
Leg Curls: 20kgx15 15kgx15 20kgx12 20kgx14 (not sure what was going on there)

Wednesday 16th

Back and Shoulders

Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 5kgx15 7.5kgx9x9x7
Bent Over Dumbbell Rows: 10kgx15x15x10
Side Lateral Raises: 4kgx15x9x6
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown: 26kgx15 33kgx12 40kgx5
Dumbbell straight arm raise overhead: 3kgx15x9x9
Rear delt machine rows: 25kgx10x10x10
Assisted pull ups: 35kgx10x8x7
Ab machine: 25kgx18x13

Thursday 17th

Chest

Dumbbell Chest Press: 5kgx12 7.5kgx15 10kgx12x12 5kgx4
Fly machine: 25kgx15 27.5kgx10x9 25kgx7
Machine chest press: 20kgx9x10x8
Incline chest press: 5kgx10 7.5kgx12 7.5kgx10

Friday 18th

Arms

Hammer curls: (same time) 7kgx15 8kgx10 (Alternating) x20
Tricep pushdowns 6kgx12x9x5... 6kgx15 9.5kgx15 x15 13kgx5 6kgx15
Bicep dumbbell: (simultaneous) 8kgx10 8kgx6 7kgx11
Dumbbell lying Tricep overhead press: 5kgx11x5 then failure
Conc curls: 6kgx15 7.5kgx8x8
Tricep press: 30kgx15 35kgx12x12 40kgx8
Bicep machine: 15kgx15 20kgx5 17.5kgx10
Dumbbell kickbacks: 7.5kgx15x10x10
Ab machine: 25kgx20 35kgx12x10

Saturday 19th

Rest day

Sunday 20th

Ill

Monday 21st

Ill

Tuesday 22nd

Ill

Going to attempt to get in a leg day today, if my cold lets me. My workload for final year is so heavy at the moment that I do reading on the machines... convenient but I feel like a loony. I'll try and get progress photos up at some point towards the end of next week.

Wednesday - legs

Elliptical 15mins 200kcals

Squats 20x12 30x10x10x10
Leg extensions 15kgx15 17.5x15 20kgx15 22.5x15 25kgx15 35kgx10
Leg press 30kgx11 25kgx20x15
Abs 30kgx20 35kgx15x14

Legs completely gave out and decided it was better not to continue.

Thursday - back and shoulders

Cardio 130kcal 11mins
Machine shoulder press 15kgx12x10x9
Lat pulldown 26kgx12 33kgx12 x12 40kgx6
Lat raise 4kgx15x12x10
Machine rows 25kgx12 30kgx12x8
The kettlebell one 12kgx12 16kgx8x8
Rear delt reverse fly 20kgx8 15kgx12x12
Front raise 4kgx12x12x10
Bent over dumbbell rows 10kgx12x10x10
Dumbbell shoulder press 7.5kg x9x8x6
Assisted Pull ups 35kgx10 25kgx5x5
Ab machine 30kgx15 35kgx8

Good to see you back.

AndiMorris wrote:Good to see you back.

Thanks good to be back, rather than storing endless notes as draft texts on my phone. And back to the motivation

Ok... progress photos. I can see quite a big difference when I compare to the last photos (third page). There's still a long way to go, but I'm beginning to be really happy. I'm mainly just relieved I can see progress! Back photos are a pain to take myself... and the cat got in one of the shots.

looking good, love the traps in your backshot!

mrbear666 wrote:looking good, love the traps in your backshot!

Thanks the body part I'm proudest of, and funnily enough my favourite to work out, I see results with my back so fast

my traps will never grow no matter what i do whats your secret? dont say shrugs, their my least favourite exercise

I prefer back exercises too, despite not ever seeing any real gains there.

mrbear666 wrote:my traps will never grow no matter what i do whats your secret? dont say shrugs, their my least favourite exercise

I never do shrugs either, so I really have no idea - as far as I'm aware I do nothing to target them directly, but they've definitely got better... it's lower back I struggle to work.

AndiMorris wrote:I prefer back exercises too, despite not ever seeing any real gains there.

I paired back and shoulder day up together just so I'd get shoulders done, even though doing them together is bad, apparently. Takes ages too, but at least it makes an enjoyable workout.