Pete

You can't just jump at anything & say - THIS is the cause. You need to see someone & get some nutritional advice & you also need to see someone to rule out any medical issues. You can eat vegan without soya easily, just as you can eat vegan without gluten, or whatever other issue you might have, it's just learning new things to cook. It could actually open a whole new world for you, as it sounds like you've been relying on stuff like soya milk & probably fake meats etc when there is literally a world of food flavours waiting for you if you want to go out & find them. First thing, first though, you need the test levels sorted out. My first call would be a medical specialist, rule out any issues that might be causing the low levels, next up I'd go & see someone to check on your current nutrition (if you can't afford someone to do this then you may have to play about a bit yourself), I think Mike Mahler does some stuff on hormone optimisation you might want to check out as he's an ok guy (& vegan). I'm sure your issues can be solved you just need patience & a little bit of work. Hopefully you'll get it sorted out quickly.

I think this might have been the best vegan event I've been to. We had a fantastic time, you can check out the details of our weekend at http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/brighton09.htm (that's with the event on Saturday & Sunday Training with Robbie). Hopefully everyone who attended had a great time at the fayre. The hammer curl contest went well, Pat did an amazing job doing a marathon talk for several hours after some speakers failed to show, & me & Robbie (hopefully) did alright at our talk as well. Gareth Zeal also jumped in & did an unexpected talk at the event (having two world record powerlifters at one show answering your questions. All you strength athletes who didn't go must be kicking yourselves as these are the people that will help get you to the next level in your training!). Everyone I spoke to thought the day was amazing (& so did I), infact I contacted Mr Yaoh himself ( [email protected] ) just to let him know how much I appreciated the effort, as I know these guys spend ages putting these things together & after they usually get all the complaints, but never the thanks they should be getting. To everyone who came to any of our talks &/or the hammer curl contest a big, big thanks & also do check out the sponsors of the hammer curl event as it's there generosity that makes the event work.

Hi all, I have been a little busy, but just noticed that there's no post about the Brighton vegan fayre that's happening in under 24 hours here in the UK http://brighton.veganfayre.co.uk/ it's about the biggest indoor vegan event in the world. Here's a quick bit about the day & the fitness related stuff that'll be on offer: About to go & set up the centre for the fayre tomorrow. Me & Maz will be in charge of the campaigns room (& keeping the artists happy) so anyone having a stall there can come & say nice things about it to me & if they need to moan then find Maz as he's in charge of that area There are talks all day by our crew, so keep an eye out: All these talks are in ROOM 2 1PM Me & Robbie have a Q&A session ask about training, diet or whatever & we'll try our best to answer 2PM our good mate James Southwood does a talk about competing in sport on a vegan diet 3PM Pat Reeves talks about her new book & I expect will answer any specific questions you have (she's also on the stall next to ours, so when you pop over don't miss out saying 'Hi' to Pat) 4PM there's big Anthony Aurelius talking about his new choi bo DVD & open to questions I expect (I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see he scuttling around with the veggie vision camera during the day as well, so watch out or you could end up on VV below are the events in the Campaigns room All day Vegan Bodybuilding stall 5PM Hammer curls contest Women will be curling 8Kg Men will be curling 12Kg The place is massive (it's where the big political parties, trade unions etc in the UK hold their conferences), so anyone wanting to see 1,000's of vegans in one place (& loads of other interested types, or bands) come along. You'll also get to see crazy guys like Rubber Ritchie the most flexible bloke I know! Hopefully see some of you there!

Obviously there is individual variation, but we're not talking about you choosing which style you want to use, we're talking about offering training advice. He's up on youtube offering training to people who maybe have no idea (you sound like you know your body enough to make sensible choices), as I trainer I tend to look at things like "someone with no idea is going to apply this advice", that's how you have to think if your training people, you have to teach the safest way, as I said people can often get away with it, but that doesn't mean it's the safest training technique to achieve the goals most people are after, for most people (& on youtube you've got to assume you're talking to 'most people'), other methods will get you there with less risk. For most athletes everything I said hold true, its a narrow view to think "this works for me, so everyone should do it", you must consider that maybe in this case you're actually the exeption who is, maybe, more durable than many trainees. If they did the same they could well become injured. These trainees can achieve the same results without those risks, in around the same time, using more traditional stretching, safe dynamics stretches/exercises & bodyweight squat variations if flexibility is the issue. Any trainer offering this to the average trainee shouldn't been seen as a good trainer as he's risking injury to his clients & the first rule is "never to risk injury to clients when training them". Knowing your body well enough to know this isn't going to hurt to you (or indeed well enough to know this IS going to hurt you) is a good thing & I'm certainly not trying to knock you, but bear in mind that maybe 80-90% (or more) of trainees really aren't in your position & don't know what their bodies are telling them, so can't make reasonable judgements, they need people like us to point out the safest course to reach their goals & even if we do something, then maybe it's not for them at their stage of development (until they've developed the necessary proprioception to decide for themselves). On the video he should have pointed this is really a specialised protocol that can be used by the advanced trainee who really understands their body & should not be used by the average trainee who should use traditional stretching techniques to reach their goals.

No, no, NO! Bouncing with weight balanced on your patella...don’t even think about it, you should never bounce in a stretch, let alone a weight stretch! Unlike what this person says pretty everyone recommends keeps knees in line with the toes. ALWAYS mind the form, this bloke is not one I’d recommend to train an exercise, doing any form of squat form is paramount to success, never just slouch down, do it right, or don’t do it! Safer ways to achieve these goals are to use more traditional calf stretching techniques & to try Goblet squats (Dan John shows some good stuff here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6529481301858251744 ) I would not recommend bouncing about in a stretched position with weight, just not that safe, some people can get away with it, but many pay a price at some point.

less usual exercises that work are: bench 'shrug' - lie on the bench & take a weight like you're at the top of a bench, now keeping the arms straight kind of shrug forward, so it moves upwards a few cm's, then back. Do that for reps. The other one is the serratus push up. start as you would a normal push up go down, but as you go up really increase the range of motion by flairing those lats out & abducting those scapulae apart, again do for reps (increase resistance by using bands). These exercises also help with scapula mobility & so can help prevent shoulder injuries, but start light as, if this is new to you, the muscles might be weak & so you could actually injure yourself.

Vegan Bodybuilding will be running the annual vegan shoulder press contest at the bristol vegan fayre (for more details of the fayre check out http://www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk/home.htm ) The event will be held right by the vegan BBQ at 1 pm on Sun 1 June, so you can compete, then eat! (cooking will be a massive slab of yagga wheat protein!). The contest itself involves lifting a single dumbbell over your head for as many reps as possible. the women lift an 8Kg dumbbell (on an approx 2Kg rod, so about 10kg total), & the men lifting about 15Kg (again with an approx 2Kg dumbbell rod, so about 17Kg total). For legal reasons only those over 16 can compete. Only vegans can enter the event & you'll be asked to sign a waver stating you're vegan & agree to participate at your own risk. The weight has been kept light enough so anyone with even a little training can compete if they wish, so hopefully you'll come along on the Sunday & join in the fun! Oh yes & we expect quite a few prizes at this years event, so if you're lucky you might end up with a nice prize!!!

The only downer in this is Robbie wont be able to make the next Bristol vegan fayre. He just got an invite to next years Mr World Apparently the UK team manager was so impressed with him at the Mr U he doesn't need to qualify. If only it was a different week Oh well, at least we've got a vegan onstage for yet another International show!

Cool, Ryan's coming over (hopefully) in 2007 sometime. We ought to try & get a mega-transatlantic meet-up organised! If you can make it during any of the vegan fayres Robert consider yourself booked for a talk (& if you're in shape maybe a quick pose )

A couple of our guys have been nominated in the Yaoh 2007 environmental awards of the year. With both Robbie Hazeley (Mr Great Britain, British championship & Mr Universe competitor) being one & James Southwood (UK Savate Champion) both in the running for an award! Personally I'm going for Robbie simply as getting a vegan onto the International bodybuilding scene has done wonders for giving our movement a boost within a whole new scene. Before long I expect that some of the other competitors will be giving it a go & it'll be due, in a large part to Robbie. The links for voting is http://www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk/awards.htm By the way in the best online shop for next year (nominate for 2008 section) let's get our very own Vegan Essentials up there! ( http://www.veganessentials.com/ ) & help Ryan get a bit more cash for his trip to the UK this year! You can vote once a month every month from now until June, so do it every month!

Ok we're starting the search for the most improved in 2007. So, it's time to get your first pictures in, if you want to be part of it. Remember it's the most improved over 2007, so anyone has a chance to get the prizes. We'll have trophies for 1st place male & female (thanks to Yaoh foods for there ongoing support)& Ryan from Vegan Essentials has kindly offered $100 gift voucher for 1st place $50 for 2nd & $20 for 3rd. Also everyone involved gets 5% discount from Vegan Essentials for every oder under $50 & 10% for every order over $50! I'll also be contacting several other companies this year to try & build up a goodie-bag of gifts for the winners. All you need to do is get a few pictures together & write a little bit about your goals, your training, diet & anything else you think is of interest & send it all on an e-mail to me at [email protected] To get some idea of the things people have done before have a look at http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/workinprogress.htm , then get busy & get the stuff to me. You can update as often as you like & at the end of 2007 we'll pick the most improved of the year (it will be announced at next years Animal Aid Christmas Without Cruelty fayre) The rules are you have to be vegan & into some form of training. It doesn't matter if you goal is fat loss, muscle gain, strength gain, winning a martial arts, strongman contest, tone up a bit, everyone is welcome!

Next weekend is the UK's Christmas Without Cruelty fayre in London (3 Dec Kensington Town Hall-tube Kensington High Street) http://www.animalaiduk.com/h/n/ACTIVE/demo_organiser/ALL/564/ At 4PM we'll be having the annual vegan press-up contest in the main hall. Unfortunetly this clashes with the Mr Universe bodybuilding contest, so Robbie wont be able to attend (as he's qualified for the Mr Universe ). We'll also be announcing the WIP of the year (WIP=Work In Progress. The most improved male & female of 2006 win a trophy to reward them for their dedication), so anyone wanting to enter needs to get their stuff in by Dec 2nd. For those who haven't seen the WIP section of VBB.org have a look at http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/workinprogress.htm to get an idea of what's going on! The latest female WIP to update is fruitbat who's looking very strong this year! http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/fruitbat3.htm

After last weeks 3rd at the Mr Britain, Robbie Hazeley continues his scaling of the "Universe Mountain", by getting a 2nd at the British Championship today (just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago!). While he was there there was a BBC 3 film crew doing a piece about another bodybuilder, but finding out Robbie was vegan, they did a bit about him, it should be out in March (so the vegan message is again sneaking out to an unsuspecting world ) Next week is the BIG 1, Robbie takes on the giants at the Mr Universe, as far as I know the only vegan to qualify for that contest, ever!

To my mind the argument in favour of B12 supplementation has by proven (barring new info). Just stating things like: It's unreferenced, it doesn't explain why or how they have measured the B12 method they recommend. How have they proven that present day B12 supplementation doesn't work, what they've said is "I say it's this, believe me". This is classic pseudo-science. Use a lot of technical terms, wrap it up to "look" (to the untrained eye) like a scientific piece. I've no need to mention any sources to check out the real science as a few have been mentioned before. Stuff like this can be dangerous, it can lead to vegans getting sick & dying younger than they should. Just about every expert agrees that B12 supplementation is the option to go for if you want to stay healthy as a vegan into old age, until new research comes out to change my mind I see no reason to stop taking B12.

Hi everyone, here's a link to the full day we had at the Gloucester veggie fayre http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/gloucester06.htm We were next to the Vegan Fitness stall, which was fun. Jo looks to be becoming an unstoppable vegan strength machine (come on ladies she needs to be stopped!)

Just about 100% of all nutritional experts agree that as a safety net it's best to have a B12 supplement that you absorb under the tongue (as the modified lymphatic areas in the region of the back of the mouth & under the tongue are the main areas you absorb B12 very little B12 is absorbed along the rest of the alimentary canal). It costs peanuts as you only need to suck a pill or open a capsule twice a week (why risk your long term health for a few pennies!?!)

At 15 you only need to eat, eat EAT! (barring any obesity issues). Your hormones are still heading towards your peak, so you have no problems producing enough of everything you need to get as big as you naturally can, proving you eat enough, don't go too mad partying & don't go too crazy in the gym. Your hardest issue will be patience. Growing takes time, so don't be in a rush, use good form & anything that ANYONE says that causes you pain (injury type pain, not training pain). I'd steer clear of any fancy supplements for now, maybe add a protein powder, but you really don't need anything else (you might not even need that if you're eating enough). Be sure you think about your micronutrients as well as your macronutrients, so get some fresh fruit & veggies everyday, & 2 definite issues you need to think about are healthy fat (fats & proteins are the two major factors in testosterone levels), so getting healthy fats (from ground flax, or hemp or their oils), only about a tablespoon of oil (double that of ground seeds) will give you an anabolic edge & aid in fat loss too! The other issue is B12 (I know I harp on about these two things all the time!), go buy a B12 capsule & twice a week open the capsule & put the contents under your tongue for a minute or so (or if you get a pill, suck one twice a week), this along with the above will keep you growing 100%.

It's wheat, so it's a grain. Although you don't have to have a complete protein every meal (daily I aim at it, but not every meal if you're eating 5+ times a day) as you'd have a well supplied "amino acid pool" to make-up any short fall in any mone meal (although brekkie maybe one time to try at complete protein as you might be short after you're long sleep?)

I've done some research on soya. I am in the process of putting it all together with references etc, but it's not ready yet (as you know if you've searched about a bit there's a LOT of studies out there to compare, source etc). I'll give you the basic outline for now & anything else you will have to wait until I've finished compilling (sorry mate ). First off before we start you need to know about the soya, meat/dairy war that's been raging for some time now. Various studies are published by either the soya industry (soya is the stuff of heaven & can cure everything from cancer to the common cold) & the meat/dairy industry (any man touching soya will grow breasts). Some of the "so called" research coming out has been of the lowest quality around & any sort of peer-review could/should tear it apart (doesn't happen so much these days as those doing the peer-reviewing know their next job is probably coming from the same guys who funding the research before them). So you have to bear these facts in mind when reading research. Don't just hop to the conclusions, check how they prepared any study, see what results they've got to get their conclusions (you'd be surprised how many studies get one answer, but have an opposite conclusion!). Now, here's the facts about soya. Soya has products called phyto-oestrogen in them. They are called phyto-oestrogens because they have a similar make-up to the estrogens in animals. They are said to be about 5,000 times less potent than oestrogen from animals (I've seen other figures for this, it depends upon which type of test you do, but at minimum it's 100's of times less potent by any standard). Here's the theory (NOT fact): There are two camps of thought. It could be that phyto-oestrogens can fit into the receptors designed for endogenic oestrogen (produced within the organism) - this is by no means proved, but if it can then it could have one of several effects: a/ It blocks the receptor from any endogenic oestrogen, so would have an anti-oestrogen effect. b/ As it acts like a very weak oestrogen it blocks the receptor from an endogenic oestrogen, so by acting much more weakly than the endogenic oestrogen acts as an anti-oestrogen (you get a weaker effect than an endogenic oestrogen, so in effect it acts like a block) c/ It fits into a receptor & acts like oestrogen At the moment the majority of research supports either a or b. There have been some feminising effects from some research, but this has been from purifying huge amounts of phyto-oestrogen & force-feeding it to rats (who, by the way, metabolise differently to humans), but more realistic studies have shown mainly no or a very slight anti-oestrogenic effects. As a side note, in studies of soya Vs whey there was no difference in effects of hypertrophy. I'd like to move back a step here & ask a question. Does ingesting oestrogen have an effect upon the hormonal make-up of the body to any great extent. Firstly any hormone is made of amino acids, now one thing the body is good at is getting at amino acids, breaking them down & assimilating them (there are the odd exceptions to this with prions etc, but as a rule stomach acid does a good job of breaking down any amino acid groups to their base components), but for now assume that oestrogen can make it into the body in reasonable amounts. Now, how do you think the effect of drinking the blood products of a lactating mother would effect your oestrogen levels? Milk products are swimming in oestrogens & yet they've never been associated with the feminising of males. As milk is fed to all growing males it would infact be implied that to keep our "maleness" we've had to have some system to protect ourselves from any potential feminising effects that we'd recieve the first few years of our lives. You cannot say that the very weak effects of phyto-oestrogen have this massive effect upon the males producing breasts etc & yet that the consumption of milk (& milk products, including whey) do not have any effect, unless you're claiming that oestrogen for mammals is broken down in the stomach, but phyto-oestrogen is not (but this would imply that phyto-oestrogens are very different from mammal oestrogen, so almost certainly wouldn't work in the same fashion within the body?). So, as you can see the "feminising effects" of soya is propoganda, or misunderstood research or terms. Another point is most plant based foods contains phyto-oestrogens (which are chemicals that look slightly similar to our oestrogen, but serve a totally different function within the plant), so you'd probably have to avoid plant food to avoid phyto-oestrogens OK, I think that's enough for now except to say that I'd take the middle ground with soya. I don't believe the "wonder food" hype it's being given, nor do I believe to "food from hell" hype that being pumped out. Treat soya like any other food. One that's got a decent amount of protein, for sure, but one that's not the "cure-all" either. Having soya will not cause breasts anymore than having whey will.

Just got the Trophies for the dumbbell curling contest. They are HUGE People will be thinking they've won the Mr/Ms Olympia when they walk home with these they nearly come up to my knee! The times for events are finalised so we've got a talk at 2PM & the contest is at 4PM. Hopefully, see you there.

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know about the (very quickly organised!) dumbbell curling contest we've arranged to do at the Gloucester Veggie fayre on Sat 1 July (details of the day here http://www.govegan.co.uk/ ) Women will be doing 5Kg (on a spinlock dumbbell handle of approx 2Kg) & men 10Kg (with the same weight handle). As an added bonus (to feel extra good about yourself, you not only get a trophy, but £25 to donate to the charity of your choice (barring any dodgy animal testing types of course!). My personal plug (not to bias you any of course!) must go to Vegfam who work with communities to make them self-sufficient in food & water before moving on to the next community (much better than the "here's your bag of rice now get lost!" attitute of some charities). Anyway, all the details of the contest can be found at http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/curlingchamps.htm hopefully, see a few of you there...

Got a page up about the Bristol Vegan Festival & the results of the World Vegan Shoulder Press contest 2006 http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/bristol06.htm By the way sorry I haven't been around so much, but my girlfriends been really sick, so I've been distracted.

I know a guy just outside of Pompey (that's Portsmouth to you outsiders-I was born there ), he might be interested in joining you, anyone who's seen James will know he's a big guy & would be pretty good guy to get you motivated...

So far we've only a few male & females, but as you know a lot of people prefer to enter on the day (just to keep us nervous!). I expect we'll be getting a lot more than the shoulder press contest simply because everyone can do push-ups. I'll be surprised if we don't get some big rep counts from some contestants. Thankfully, we've got trophy for 1st & medals for 2nd & 3rd for this event (the shoulder press was only trophy for 1st), both for male & female, & goodies from Yaoh & Redwoods foods as well as the results (& trophies again) for male & female WIP of the year (still time to get your updates in for that one!). So, there's a lot going on between now & the new year at VBB.org!

I think you had several advantages over the winner Alex, it's just that you never know. Sometimes you get the mass judges (size is everything), then you can equally get the condition judges (where how ripped is the thing). Luck really, you could have taken him with a different judge or two. I think you did really fantastic mate & 2nd is nothing to sneeze at! Enjoy your non-dieting (for a day )