VeganEssentials

Great progress!

Just the basic "Strong Enough" straps should do well enough, here's the link http://ironmind-store.com/Strong-Enough-Lifting-Straps153/productinfo/1239/ Don't go for the "short & sweet" straps, they're really tough to work with (only ideal if you're needing to bail out of olympic lifts where you risk crushing yourself), the Sew Easy straps are a bit awkward as well. The others are designed more for if you need LOTS of length on straps for doing axle deadlifts or other things where a big strap is better. Just one pair of the Strong Enough straps should last you for years, they're tough as hell, and pretty much impossible to destroy. Best thing to do when you get them is, scrape them up a bit on concrete or the sharp knurling on a bar at the gym (they're a bit slick at first, need a bit of scuffing to break in), rub in some chalk, and they're great from day one!

Looking good, and I can certainly appreciate the Johnny Cupcakes apparel as well!

My competition history hasn't been huge, as far as what I've done.... 3 strongman competitions (won novice division in one, placed 11th of 20 and 13th of 27 in the others) 1 powerlifting comp, 3rd of 4 in my weight class (missed making the mark, bumped up to heavyweights, got creamed except for one guy who bombed out) 1 comp that had clean & jerk for one event, deadlift max for the other, got 3rd of 6 for my weight class in that one if I remember correctly Wanted to enter some grip contests when they were more common, but they were always too far away to attend and enter Nothing bodybuilding related, never been able to get lean enough to consider stepping on stage, but who knows what could happen one day if I actually figure out how to get below 12% bodyfat!

Grippers don't really translate well to strength to hold a heavy barbell/dumbbell, oddly enough. For that, I've always had three main suggestions - 1. Fat bar training, easiest way is to get some Fat Gripz handles (should be easy to locate online) that snap over a BB/DB and turn it to a thick 2" diameter to work the grip harder. Thick bar work hits the entire hand structure big-time and to most, has the greatest carry-over to all other grip-related work. 2. Pinch grip training, while seeming like it wouldn't do much for holding a bar, really builds the finger strength and the musclulature between the thumb and forefinger to help you keep your hands closed tighter against force that's trying to open it (in a way that's definitely different from using grippers). Start with three 10 lb. plates (pinching with smooth sides out), try for 4, then move to 25 lb. plates and shoot for 35s or more as you get stronger (45s are for top-level grip strength masters, I came close with 85 lbs. but never quite could get a pair of 45s off the ground). 3. Practice static holds with a barbell at the end of your workout. Load up a set weight, say, 315 lbs. on a in the power rack with just an inch or two of movement to where you'd be standing fully erect with the bar in front of your body (basically, you want to stand up an inch or two and be in the position of a deadlift lockout or the start of a shrug position). Just hold for time, start with a goal such as 3 sets of holds for 30 seconds, when you reach it, either add time (such as, 5 seconds per session) or add weight. Nothing helps you hold on to weight like.....well....holding on to weight! Those three things will be the biggest factors to increasing grip strength for traditional lifts. Most of the other "toys" are fun to test against and work to improve on, but won't do a lot to help with everyday training. Grippers are a prime example, fun to play with (I've got about a dozen various ones stockpiled from my days of doing tons of grip work), but don't really do a whole lot for general hand strength to hold on to something heavy.

My sponsor also sponsors this guy: http://www.facebook.com/TheUlitmateVegan I'm. Just. Sayin'. Exactly. I've seen vegans sponsored by companies that aren't always 100% vegan, why some seem to believe that such a connection means the sponsored athlete can't be vegan by default is something I don't understand. If you're not using the non-vegan items they make, it doesn't mean a thing in relation to you being vegan yourself. Glad to see a company that, while not 100% vegan themselves, is happy to sponsor vegan athletes. In the USA, most supplement companies would be far less likely to sponsor athletes who weren't going to push the products they WANT them to push!

Tarzan - not sure how "obvious" it is to you that he's juiced, I'd be a bit cautious about making too many accusations without evidence. He's pretty big and definitely strong, but nowhere that's out of the capabilities of natural athletes by any stretch of the imagination. Shit, I once watched a naturally bull-strong 18 year old kid enter a deadlift comp with zero preparation (and his claims he deadlifted only a few times ever, trained at the same gym and didn't see him do anything but chest, arm and back work for 2 years straight) and pull 545 lbs. easily enough at about 220 lbs. bodyweight. Sometimes, there are natural freaks among us that truly are stronger than we will be, and it's not because they're all secretly juiced up. Also not sure about the "not even vegan" note, didn't come across anything that showed he was eating/supplementing with anything non-vegan (the company he's sponsored by does make plenty of non-vegan stuff as can clearly be seen, but it wouldn't make him non-vegan to just be using their creatine or other such things!) Of course, if I missed something, feel free to point it out, but I didn't take away the same things you did from viewing his info.

Some people swear that without lots of protein, they don't make as much progress in their training, and it's possible that some people truly do benefit in taking in larger amounts per day. 300g is probably more than his body will be able to really make full use of (he'd most likely get the same results with keeping intake at around 1g per lb. of bodyweight he is currently at, around 200g/day), but it is possible that he does get better results in building lean mass with a high protein intake. But, as there's no formula that dictates how much protein is utilized at most by all people (since protein quality, genetics, type/duration/frequency of training, etc. will all affect this differently from person to person), it would be pretty well impossible to be able to actually 'prove' that his notions of what he thinks he needs for protein intake would be excessive. Rather, I'd suggest making the point that QUALITY protein sources from plant-based foods can do equally well (pea/hemp/brown rice protein, etc.) in place of animal protein sources, and that when you eat quality food sources, many find that they don't need the same excessive amounts of nutrients they were getting from taking in large quantities of lesser quality, heavily processed foods. In which case, you could certainly "challenge" him to change to trying 200g of protein per day from good vegan sources and tell him you bet that he'll get exceptional results AND feel better for it, too

I normally say the same thing, I think that with boardn10 he has some nerve damage in one arm that affects his grip negatively on rows and deadlifts. Otherwise I don't recommend straps, since the best way to build a solid grip is to avoid straps whenever possible!

Thanks, RC and Mosh! Yeah, going to go slow and steady on the back for a good stretch and not go full-force back in too soon. Despite feeling 90% better after 2 months of treatments, it's not a magic fix, and any damage I've done before can be done more easily this time around, so I'm really planning on taking it slow through summer before working on getting some heavy weights tossed around again. Basically, my spinal erectors are so far gone from what they used to be, it's like starting over again, but give me time and it'll all work out! For the tires, I actually don't know where most came from that we have (they just would be at the facility one day, no idea who brought them or where they picked them up!) Though, I know in our area, most of the guys who have tires have gotten them from a place called Pomp's, which is a commercial/industrial tire repair/replacement service that handles big commercial vehicles, farm equipment, etc. Best best is if you can find someplace that handles that range of tires, you should be able to find a good free one as usually, they're happy as hell to have one less tire clogging up the yard (unless they do recycling on site to shred them to bits for use in other applications). That, or you could even check with someone at your city's public works dept. to see about what they do with the tires from their equipment, might be something that they'd have on hand that they're itching to get rid of, too!

www.ironmind.com, best straps around as far as I'm concerned. Thinnest material out there but stronger than any other brand (tested to over 1000 lbs. without breaking), not overpriced, definitely worth getting some from them!

Quick lower back workout last night - Light rehab deadlifts continuing my slow rebuilding phase - 1x5 @ 135 lbs. 1x5 @ 185 5x10 @ 235, still just adding 10 lbs. weekly for another month or two Hyperextensions - 2x20 @ bodyweight 2x20 w/ 20 lb. EZ curl bar behind neck Tested new tire that someone brought to the facility, smaller but dense and heavier than it looked, about 600-650ish by my guess, flipped one set of 3 and realized that I should probably not overdo it for too much on the lower back at once Front squat harness shrugs - 1x20 @ 150 (135 + 15 lb. harness) 1x20 @ 200 1x20 @ 240 1x20 @ 290 1x20 @ 330 1x20 @ 350, decided to cap it out there Got a reverse hyper machine in while I was away, but I'm not crazy about it. Not very comfortable to use, ankle strap too small, and it can't be bolted down and the compact size makes it unstable when you put some weight on for sets (front legs come off the ground an inch or two on each rep). Still, gotta make use with what you've got! 1x20 @ 50 lbs. 2x20 @ 100 lbs. 1x20 @ 50 lbs. Only got to use a quality reverse hyper once before, and it felt much better than this one. Might just have to spring for a quality one for the facility soon since I plan to use it to keep up with my lower back rehab since my decompression treatments are complete. Decided to do two quicks sets of seated DB hammer curls between the reverse hyperextensions since we now have quality dumbbells from 10 to 140 lbs. in the facility instead of a random mix of rusty hex DBs that only went to 80s and one set of 100s. Just 2x15 @ 45s with no cheat to call it a night. Today was rest, tomorrow will be legs and shoulder work!

Thanks, FH! Hoping to start finally putting up some decent numbers on the lower body stuff soon enough, last spinal decompression was yesterday, should be getting new x-rays on Monday or Tuesday to see how well it worked and how I'll be able to transition back to regular training again!

First day back to normal training again, had a good session last night for chest and upper back - Weighted pull-ups - 1x3 @ bodyweight (247 lbs. clothed) 3x10 @ 28.5 lbs. added on (27.5 lb. DB plus belt for hanging weight, 275.5 .bs. total weight) Flat barbell bench w/ axle - 1x5 @ 145 lbs. 1x3 @ 235 1x1 @ 265 1x1 @ 285 1x1 @ 300, just to make sure I could hit it well enough, only stalled out for a split second at the change from mostly chest to more triceps on lockout (which is usually my strong point!) 1x8 @ 235 2x7 @ 235 (was going to be 8,7,6 but had a bit of extra strength on the last rep) Hammer Strength plate-loaded high row - 3x12 @ 400 lbs. DB flat bench - 1x10 @ 95s 1x15 @ 80s 1x20 @ 65s Pulldowns - 3x15 @ 220 lbs. Horizontal bench machine w/ bands - 3x20 w/ purple and orange band for speed reps, close neutral grip position for hands Sled rows outside (being as it was in the mid 50s last night, seemed right to open the dock door up and get outdoors!) 1x20 @ 450 lbs. 1x20 @ 500 1x20 @ 550 9 decent working sets for bench, 12 for upper back, felt good but wiped out afterward. May well head back tonight to do some prowler pushing and sled dragging work for the hell of it, we'll see how the day goes!

Fair enough, but that pretty well means that you'll need to not take pretty most all professional athletes in common (and also in uncommon) sports very seriously. Most major sports are riddled with steriod use, all the way from baseball to swimming to track athletics to MMA to long distance cycling and beyond, it won't be easy to find anything in the arena of traditional (read: non-X Games stuff) sport that hasn't been dominated by people who are using anabolics/androgens, blood doping drugs, etc. for increased performance. That's just the reality, and I don't believe we're ever going to see that change. As long as there's money, endorsements and glory to be had, people will ALWAYS find a way to get an edge over the competition in any manner possible. I agree with Fallen_Horse, even if you're not interested in how someone trains when they're on something you're not (giving them perks you won't be enjoying to the same degree), there's still something to be enjoyed by watching them at their best, not to mention you can still learn something from them even if you take the clean route!

I will definitely consider it in the coming months for 5/3/1, VS! And agreed fully on the upper back work, which is why I've never let it slide and made sure to keep hitting it hard when it was one of the few things I had left to train heavy on. I was doing some barbell hip bridges for fun a while ago, might start putting those back in soon. It all starts to click after a few weeks of being back in routine, but even 2-3 weeks off of lower body work sets me back far on my form, so it's square one all over again! This past few days, no training, after walking for nearly 8 hours/day for 3 days straight (and a good distance expected tomorrow), it's all I can muster right about now for any exercise. At the same time, this is the first Expo where I didn't eat my way from one end of the hall to the othter (tried to steer clear of most of the junk food this time around), so that has been the one good thing of this last few days. Will be back on track come Wednesday, either doing legs or upper back as soon as I fly home and have a day to get things back in order at work again!

Pose the question to her as this - what's particularly unhealthy about being big so long as you stay fit? Health and general fitness is not fully determined by outside appearance, and considering you're barely carrying any excess fat, I can't see how anyone would worry much. Heck, I've got a mom who still thinks I look "too small" because I'm under 270 lbs. (in her mind, big = healthy, the opposite of yoru wife I suppose), so I know how it goes when people have their perceptions, but that's where they need a bit of education to know that just because you're larger than average doesn't mean you're less than healthy. Plenty of men out there who look healthy because they aren't large, but can barely make it up two flights of stairs without practically passing out from exhaustion. Just because one might look to be average size or "skinny" doesn't mean squat about determining their overall health. If anything, offer to get a physical and blood work done sometime in the near future, I have the feeling that once you can show a clean bill of health it will be easier to show that being larger than average does NOT have any adverse effects on general health (unless, of course, you're sedentary and don't really do much of anything!)

I once overheard someone say "That's why we have capital punishment - so that the athiests will actually have a reason not to do stupid shit like murder other people since they don't believe in the afterlife!" Made me chuckle a bit

Yeah, beware the sugar alcohols in excess, if for nothing else, how much they'll mess up your digestive system if you have too much. A new candy company sent me about a half pound of hard candies that were made with erythritol to try out, I mistakenly ate them all over the course of a binge night, let's just say that most of my following day was spent either in the bathroom or in VERY close proximity to one! The havoc that it can wreak on your insides when eaten in excess is no picnic.

Thanks, veggiesasquatch! I figured, if I couldn't do much for the lower body and my chest strength has been mediocre at best, may as well keep the shoulders and upper back stuff strong if nothing else! Felt good on those deads, but my QL on the left side was tight as hell today, body is not used to really pushing those hips through and having the lower back do much work. I'm going to have to stretch out a lot more to avoid it being tender in the future, that's for sure. I'd certainly be open to trying 5/3/1 when I get back to reasonable levels in the coming months. Basically, I'm planning on 2 months of slow "10 lbs. added per week" 5x10 stuff just to re-learn proper squat and DL form (which takes a few sessions to get back properly again), hoping that I can get both into the 400s again by fall, at which time I'd like to move to something with more structure. For a while, I just have to keep shit light as I'm starting off with a strong torso but wussified lower body, but it always comes back fairly quickly as long as I stay healthy.

I was always pretty close on pulls from blocks or low pins in the rack as I was off the floor, too. It all depends on your weak spot - if you're fast off the floor and slow down at the knees, then you probably won't see a lot of extra strength even with the reduced ROM (but, it can help get you to be faster at your sticking point by working that area more, and translate to a better DL over time). For those who are slow off the floor but have great hip/glute/hamstring strength, those people can often pull significantly more off blocks just because it starts them at their strongest portion of the lift. Worth doing, I was trying to put more work into starting from my weak point right when everything went south on my lower back

Quite true. The ones I've heard are clean/most likely clean are usually the ones that don't look as freakish (think Dave Ostlund, Phil Pfister, etc.) who had much more 'normal' bulky builds while maintaining great strength. As with any sport, once you get close to the top, most who may have never planned on using often end up doing so just because it's the only way to reach your peak and be on top since everyone else is in the same boat! But, yeah, 300+ lbs. with single-digit bodyfat as I saw in a photo taken of Poundstone last week with veins popping out all over the place, it's pretty well not going to happen without some chemical assistance

Not Forklift, but I can probably answer this one easily enough! Poundstone is strong as hell, but not natural. Very, very few pro strongmen competitors are natural. Heck, even the bulk of the top level ams are on something these days. Having a handful of current and retired pros that train at our facility lets you hear all the details from the insiders. Even tons of guys who don't look like they're using are still on something, so long gone are the days when it was always 100% clear that someone was juiced. Just figure this - most sports have an issue with performance enhancing drugs, be it baseball, football, track & field, strength athletics, and so on. Then, in particular, when you're talking about a guy who carries single-digit bodyfat levels on a 300+ lb. frame for a man who has deadlifted 900 lbs. and overhead pressed over 400, it should be pretty clear that Poundstone isn't clean.

Straps are fine if your grip gives out first, don't worry about that too much. You can work on rebuilding grip separately at a later time if need be, but don't let your grip hold you down from getting ahead on your back work! I definitely recommend working on pull-ups - it might take a few months to get strong with them, but they usually click pretty well one day and things go from difficult to much easier. Work on negatives, assisted pull-ups (use a band wrapped over the bar and under your knees, or, use a bit of push off the toes on reps), etc., and as you get to being able to do sets of 4-5 easily enough, start adding some weight to them. Good stuff! The rest/pause rep stuff had really helped me get to new levels for back and shoulder work over the years. Never felt like I was overtraining from it, if you haven't given it a shot to really incorporate them, definitely try it for a while. I don't recommend making most of your sets go that route, but if you were doing, say, 5 sets of 8 on rows, if the last 2 sets required you to pause and take a few breaths on the last 1-2 reps, that's perfectly fine. I wouldn't stress much about overtraining unless you're REALLY worn out and have been feeling drained, as a few extra reps forced out here and there shouldn't do any harm. See, I've always felt the opposite. If you're doing chest and shoulders on the same day, ONE of them is going to suffer, and that's whichever you do 2nd in the sequence. I've never known anyone to be stronger on their shoulder pressing doing it after benching than when they put it on a day by itself or with other non-interfering lifts. Remember, the delts and triceps are smaller muscle groups and recover fairly quickly, so even having 2 days off between chest and shoulders could allow plenty of time for recovery. Worth a try if you haven't gone that route before, again, wouldn't stress too much about overtraining unless it's something that's coming due to general excessive training and being too run down from everyday life. That could be it, without a back shot to show a lat spread, it's impossible to tell just how much work they'd need. I could just see a bit for improvement on overall thickness, but again, that's easily enough fixed with rows, pull-ups and deadlifts, so time will always take care of that. But, if you have a good lat spread, then that's one less concern, just keep working on general size as the bigger you will be, the more beneficial for how it will work in your favor on stage!

Anything goes kind of session tonight, trying to cover all my bases since I leave for Calfornia on business in less than 2 days and probably won't get to train while there (walking and talking for 8+ hours/day leaves me with little left for lifting at the end of the day). Started with light deadlifts to test the waters again, using IronMind back support (just to keep warm) but no belt for the time being, just going REALLY light for a few months until I know how things will be after the back therapy - 1x10 @ 135 lbs. 5x10 @ 225 lbs. Didn't get to shoulders lately, threw in some light maintenance work via standing strict overhead axle presses - 1x10 @ 55 lb. empty axle 5x10 @ 150 lbs. Then it was on to upper back work, starting with weighted pull-ups, narrow grip with hands about 8" apart - 1x5 @ bodyweight (250 lbs. clothed and layered, facility was colder than it was outside!) 1x5 @ 55 lbs. added (305 lbs. total) 1x5 @ 60 lbs. added 1x5 @ 65 lbs. added, bit of toe push at start of reps, but all were smooth, feet on floor between each rep Hammer Strength plate-loaded pulldown machine - 3x8 @ 300 lbs. Dumbbell rows (first time in months!) - 2x10 @ 160 lbs. each arm 1x20 @ 125 lbs. each arm Rear delt band pull-aparts - 3x20 Kept the pace fast with short rest periods, in and out in 90 minutes total including warm-up and set-up time, endurance and strength both picking up again as the lower back is getting better. Still, need to be safe, I'm a sucker for jumping back in too quickly. Planning on keeping the squats and deadlifts fairly light until May or June before really starting to work on gaining significant strength back in them, we shall see how things go. Probably won't update for a week, but I plan to get back to training as soon as I'm home again!