Robert's Training Journal - A Tale of Yeah's and Buddy's

[robert]

Now I fully understand your mission to completely destroy me.

 

Time for sleep!

 

We have to get up at 5AM for class!!!!

[robert]

I had Aikido at 6AM, Yoga at 9AM, and hiking from 11AM-12:30PM. I also didn't eat anything today.

 

Now it's midnight so I've been up for nearly 20 hours. I need to rest now, but I'm trying to catch up on computer projects too.

 

I think I have yoga tomorrow morning and then a presentation to give during the day and I may skip out on any other training after that since I won't eat tomorrow either.

 

Sleep Robert you big nugget!

[jonathan]

I had Aikido at 6AM, Yoga at 9AM, and hiking from 11AM-12:30PM. I also didn't eat anything today. I won't eat tomorrow either.

 

Seriously Rob, what are you doing? This is nuts - you are on a one way mission to lose all your mass. Quit the disco shit, hit the gym and eat like mad. Otherwise you might as well change the site name to veganbodywasting.com.

 

Jonathan

[Zack]

He is under the influence of a woman.

 

There's nothing wrong with wanting to clean out and be healthy, but wasn't your goal just a short while to gain mass?

 

Johnathon's pretty much right, think about what your goals are. If you really do want to clean out and eat like that and be lean, awesome, but bulking has always seemed important to you.

[robert]

I'm hoping this is something that actually helps me. I don't know much about cleansing, to be honest, but I'm hoping that by doing a cleanse for 2 or 3 days I'll allow my body to absorb and assimilate nutrients even better than it does now. I will also return to heavy eating and training soon. I've been doing that up until a few days ago.

 

In fact, I've been feeling strong, have had great workouts and have been eating as much as I can. Just lately I did the raw food and cleanse thing. It's Friday and I haven't eaten since Wednesday.

 

It's hard to decide what to do. I want to be bigger and continue to bulk, it's just so stressful on my digestive system, my body, and my mind (when it doesn't go as I'd like it to).

 

Anyway, thanks for your concern guys. I will do what I can to add more muscle when I start eating on Saturday

[Zack]

Your health is far more important than bulking up in my opinion. Listen to your body, you want to cleanse do it. Worry about your well being first. This will help your digestive system.

[jonathan]

Fasting is not the way forward Rob. If you can name one sucessful bodybuilder or strength athlete who fasts, I will be impressed.

 

Same for your health - depriving your body of calories, nutrients and minerals is silly. If you feel you must detox, eat just fruit and veg for a few days, but don't go without anything.

 

Bulking is always stressful for your digestive system, but not eating for three days can undo months and months of work, fuck your immune system up and generally make you feel like crap.

 

So for the love of god, eat something.

 

Jonathan

[offense74]

If you can name one sucessful bodybuilder or strength athlete who fasts, I will be impressed.

Thinking of it, I have a hard time naming one that is successful and doesn't eat meat, gobble down dairy in various forms and take steroids. Maybe if some of these strength athletes tried a differnt path they would not only be successful but actually live to be older than 60.

Bulking is always stressful for your digestive system, but not eating for three days can undo months and months of work, fuck your immune system up and generally make you feel like crap.

Where did you get that from? I don't think you will enter ketosis in 3 days and I don't think you will lose that much muscle. That the immune system would be depleted from periodic fasting is scientifically unfounded and most likely false.

 

I personally don't think it is necessary to fast but I don't think it's anything wrong with it. Also, top athletes experiment all the time to find out what suits them best. Carl Lewis would never have been vegan and probably not been reaching the results he did if he weren't thinking outside the box.

I know your philosophy is to gobble down rediculous amounts of calories every day and I don't think it's healthy, vegan or not. I would love to be successful doing what I love, sportswise, but if it will cost me my health, I'll go for health first. I think one can have both though.

[robert]

Today is Saturday and I haven't eaten since Wednesday! I know this is probably driving some people crazy, but I'm eating today. I actually just had a bit of fruit.

 

At yoga class this morning a guy asked if I was a swimmer, so it was a dead give-away that I've lost some mass over the past few weeks, and especially the last week from not eating.

 

But today, I'm eating raw and then I'll introduce other foods again. I think cleansing was good to experience. It was challenging in some ways but overall, I think it was just fine.

 

Now I'm ready to pack on the calories again.

 

I've been doing Aikido, Yoga and hiking but I'll get in the weight room very soon as well. I've only been away from the gym for about a week now.

 

Anyway, that's the update.

 

Thanks everyone for your concerns. I had concerns too, but Zack was right. To be honest, I was under the influence of an amazing woman who supports me quite a bit. I know myself and I know what I need to do and I will do that.

 

I'm at a bit of a cross-roads with goals but I should be very clear again soon.

 

Time to eat.....finally!!!!!!!!!!

[Hero]

glad youre enjoying life robert.

 

i found it was a nice little trick to get my body to grow to do a modified zigzag diet. constantly overload it with calorie-dense foods and lots of raw fruits and veggies, and then eat very light with just fruits and raw veggies, and then back to eating large quantities of food. that way my body doesnt feel so taxed out all the time and get used to what im feeding it

[robert]

Dude, we should both get big again (if we both want that). It was awesome when we both had some muscle and trained together. We've had some ups and downs in our lives that have affected how our bodies look and our strength levels, but "if" it is something we want.....we know how to get back there!

 

I do think I want to still bulk up, and I know I can do it. I just have to stay focused and stay true to myself. I give a lot of myself, I try a lot of new things, I sacrifice my own time to do other things, and I enjoy doing those things, but I have to look after myself too.

 

I give motivational speeches these days (including one yesterday that maybe on YouTube soon), in fact I have a whole National Tour lined up, and I need to follow my own advice I give to thousands of other people.

 

I feel a change in the wind coming on and I'll be ready. I love exploring new things but I also know where my heart lies and what my long-term goals are.

 

Again....time to eat!

[Odidnetne]

........ and I need to follow my own advice I give to thousands of other people.......

 

That's one of the hardest things to do in life. Topher's idea about zig-zagging is a good one, and I used to do something like that and was able to constantly lift without feeling tired/worn out. I'm doing something like that now, it's just finding the optimal time for my workouts is the problem.

 

Rob, I'm just curious, what have you been eating for breakfast? Just raw fruits normally?

[LizWorld]

Nah you do not like you have lost mass!!! You looked a bit more ripped due to lack of glucose and fluid!!! It's all in your head!!! Have you ever read about the ABCDE diet? I tried it for a while back in the days! Worked like magic!

[robert]

I haven't lifted weights in over a week!

 

I've been doing a lot of yoga, hiking and other things. My shoulder is still injured and my back has been acting up so I've been taking it easy. I was also traveling a bit and have been very busy getting ready for the Vegan Vacation:

 

www.veganvacations.net

 

I hope to get back in the gym soon and I hope I'm not too small during Vegan Vacation!!!

[robert]

I've been training with the Vegan Vacation boys and it is awesome! Special thanks to SydneyVegan and xveganjoshx for the training sessions. I trained with others as well, but those guys trained directly with me the most.

 

The Vegan Vacation came to an end tonight and many fly out tomorrow (or in 4 hours) so I'm off to sleep to wake up in a few hours and drive people around.

[robert]

I've been training lately. I was at the gym a couple of times with sydneyvegan before he left.

 

I'm getting some motivational help from xveganjoshx and hopefully I'll be back in action, making it happen soon.

 

This weekend I'm out of town, but I'll get back in the gym soon. This resting period is really helping too.

 

I might be eating vegan pancakes from Laurelthirst nearly everyday so that should help put on some weight too

[robert]

Yeah buddy!

 

I trained legs today.

 

I started on the bike for 5-10 minutes. Then I did some bodyweight lunges.

 

Leg press = 3 working sets (2 warm-up sets) about 8-12 reps per set.

 

Narrow foot position Leg Press = 3 sets of 8 reps

 

Lunges with 50 lbs in each hand = 3 sets 20-30 reps per set

 

Leg Extensions = 5 sets 8-15 reps per set

 

Then I sat in the sauna for 10-15 minutes.

 

After that I went to Proper Eats and met davidtarrfoster for dinner. Now I'm thirsty.

[Gorilla]

Hi Rob,

So how did you feel after the fast? How did you manage it? Did you spend a lot of the time doing yoga? What sort of quantity of water did you drink? Would you do it again (for that long)? It sounds amazing - don't know if I could go that long but I'm sure it's had a healing effect ...

[robert]

I have some interesting stories about my fast. I went raw for a day or two, and then no food for 2 days. During those two days I drank warm water with celtic sea salt a couple of times per day and just water a bit throughout the day. Then as I eased back into foods I ate raw the first day back until later in the evening when I kinda lost it and had vegan versions of: sushi, pizza, potatoes and grazy, cookies and ice cream. I ate all of that in one night the day coming out the cleanse!

 

During the cleanse, I felt fine. I was still training up to 4 hours a day without eating anything at all. I got very ripped! It was the best my abs had ever looked! But I also looked skinny, even though it was only 2 days without food and a couple days of raw foods.

 

Now I'm back to eating my regular vegan diet and I'm gaining weight again. I just got paid so I went out and got cookies and other things today in addition to a lot of raw foods, (mostly fruits) and my other staples like burritos.

 

I may try to cleanse again sometime in the future. It's fun to see how mentally tough you can be.

 

--------------

 

Today I trained abs and calves.

 

I did about 5 sets of hanging leg raises, 5 sets of bodyweight core exercises, 3 or 4 sets of machine crunches, and some other crunches on the mat.

 

Then I moved over to calves and did a lot of jumping to warm up and then some calf presses on the Leg Press machine, maybe 4 or 5 sets there and then 5 sets of calf raises using a barbell with 140 lbs or so on my back on the smith machine.

 

I also did calf raises while I was waiting for my 3 burritos from La Bonita after the workout.

 

Good stuff.

[robert]

Today I trained legs. It went like this:

 

4 sets of Leg Press about 10 reps per set

 

4 sets of narrow foot position leg press with 6 reps per set

 

4 sets of lunges with 50 lbs in each hand (100lbs total) for sets of maybe 20

 

4 sets of leg extensions about 12 reps each

 

Then I had dinner with oregonisaac.

 

Well, off to bed now.

[robert]

I trained Biceps and Triceps tonight. I actually started my workout by playing Nintendo Wii down the street at my sister's house. I played against my brother-in-law and broke out in a sweat playing tennis and boxing!

 

Then I went to the gym and hit it for 40 minutes, just in time to get to the burrito store before they closed. I got 2 big burritos and had some Vega while watching a Noam Chomsky documentary.

 

At the gym I did a bunch of dumbbell curls, some hammer strength machine curls and some skull crushers and cable exercises for triceps.

 

As I heal from my shoulder and back injuries I'm going to start doing nearly all compoud movements and move away from isolated exercises. I'm still scared because I know the pain of my lower back injuries of the past. It is something that truly scares me. I will do more yoga to strengthen my core and I'll eventually get my back looked at by a doctor of sorts and I'll move forward.

 

I'm eating well, I have a national speaking tour at some major events and I need to start looking like a bodybuilder again. I think I'll try to learn from Jonathan and a few others. I just need some serious bulking to take place soon!

[robert]

I trained back today. It was only about 40 minutes but it was intense I felt like I had done enough to really exhaust and train the muscles hard.

 

It looked like this:

 

5 sets of machine lat pull-downs as a warm-up for back training.

 

5 sets of pull-ups, about 6-8 reps per set

 

5 sets of hyperextensions for lower back

 

5 sets of t-bar rows with about 100lbs + the bar for 10-15 reps (I love that squeezing feeling so I did somewhat high reps).

 

Then I had 2 burritos and Vega. That is my NEW post workout meal program.

 

I was 181 and 184 on two scales today which is encouraging because I was 174-176 coming out of my cleanse during Vegan Vacation. Time to race Zack to 200lbs!

[Zack]

Time to race Zack to 200lbs!

 

Bring it on son.

 

So far, I'm 1 pound ahead.

[gkleinman]

I was 181 and 184 on two scales today which is encouraging because I was 174-176 coming out of my cleanse during Vegan Vacation. Time to race Zack to 200lbs!

 

Kick ass man, sounds like you're back into a groove!!

[robert]

I'm getting there. 3 Protein shakes today, 3 large pancakes, 2 large burritos, cookies, 5 bananas, lots of water, etc. I'm working on it again and my stomach seems to be handling it a lot better than I thought!

 

I'm really enjoying leg training specifically. I feel like that is the best way to add weight. I'm also targeting my back a lot right now since I can't "push" with my little shoulder injury and can't train chest. Back and legs should add some weight if I do it right.