DCNINJA

Welcome back

welcome

Great job!!! You have built some fantastic arms. I can't wait to see you enter when they do back!!!

welcome. I have two things you need to buy and USE. The first is a food scale. You probably already own measuring cups. Use the scale and the measuring cups to measure what you are eating. That will cost you about five bucks. The second is a cheap notebook. Cost less than two bucks. Write down everything you eat including calories. I can pretty much guarantee if you do nothing else, then you will lose some weight.

Repeating a little of what has been said here. First heavy duty real iron pounding squats, deads, and rows on back and leg days to get the hormones pumping. Second make sure your triceps are good. Most people worry about arm size and forget the upper arm is mostly tricep. I agree with the school of thought that is saying don't worry about weight. Arms respond best in my opinion to good form. It is too easy to use shoulders and back to make a curl. First make sure you are doing multiple grip training. Pronate, suppinate and neutral grip. Each of these hit the bicep in a different way and will give you real growth. I have seen people put an inch on a bicep by simply adding a neutral grip exercise. The exercises everyone is recommending here are all great. Experiment with them and figure out what works for you. Also experiment with rep ranges.

I hit each body part once a week. My preference is one body part per day five days a week or even a four day split. I believe in keeping a food and exercise log, and being completely honest in it. I have found having a trainer who is knowledgeable about nutrition and my goals is also helpful.

First eat more protein. Seitan, Tempeh, tofu, pea protein, soy, hemp, all of it. Eat protein every two hours you are awake. Second, look at how many calories you are eating and start increasing it by 250 a day until a week at a time untli you start to see some size gains.

Welcome to the group. Vegan chocolate is yummy.

I don't get that annoyed by it, but it reminds me of Catholic virgins who only have oral and anal sex. What next vegetarians who only eat sausage? I do know one person who is a vegetarian with the exception of eating steak occassionally. She is every bit as vegetarian as someone who only eats fish.

My problem is that this is a diet to rehabilitate someone who is fat. How about a vegan diet program for people who are not fat, in shape, and want to improve performance? That said we see it for endurance athletes sometimes, but rarely in strength athletes. My recent anecdotal experiment on my favorite test subject (me) showed that a lower protein (20%) combined with roughly 60-70% carbs and 10-20% fats was not as good as a diet that is more balanced with moderate fats, proteins and carbs in roughly equal proportions. Anyone else have anything anecdotal or otherwise?

I'm in Orlando Saturday through Wednesday.

Has anyone else seen these guys? They are pretty extreme as in god says it is extremely evil to not eat meat. I got a chuckle out of this, but there really are people this extreme out there. http://www.biblelife.org/vegan_debate.htm

The gym was crowded last night so I was there longer than I like to be. I am a firm believer in getting in and out in less than an hour. I did 15 sets of back with a few warm ups prior. I have been really hammering my protein. I am back on every two hours. In prep for the High Desert I kept my carbs higher and my protein lower. I felt small doing that. Now I am back to a more one third from carbs, one third from fat, and one third of my calories from protein approach that I have done in the past. Last time I wrote about my protein bar recipe, which I use a lot. I also have been pounding hemp and sun warrior protein with flax seed or Udo's oil. My rep range on workouts is still high. My arms still hurt when I lift heavy. I think it is all of the heavy curling I have been doing, and the heavier rows. So I keep the range around 20. Last night it was: Warm up with chest to bar chins for a few sets. Dead lift: 25@190--still didn't feel completely warm so I eased in 20@230 16@250 Rest on these was a little more than my normal rest, but they are deadlifts and we had three people working. Cable pull downs 20@165 17@165 12@165 I noticed here I am starting to get tired. My rest period was just enough to catch my breath. Also I didn't eat close enough to the workout. Dumbbell rows 20@60X3--needed to go heavier Seated cable rows 20@140-160X3 High pulls 20-25@90X3 I am trying to take it easy with these because of my elbows giving me pain. I cut bi's and abs, but will make them up today since it is an "off day". I have not been doing weighted pull ups, but am going back since I saw someone last night do them with 135 and perfrect form. I usually hit two plates around my waist, and seeing this dude do 3 really made me feel weak. It was a new PR for him. I was pretty impressed. Diet has been roughly 30g-40g protein every 2-3 hours between 7 and 7. I am trying to keep my fats at about 100g per day, and less than 200g carbs. I did not weigh in last night because I was at a different gym, and I don't know if the scale has bias.

Yeah, don't exceed the 5g. I have done higher doses, even much higher with no positive effect. Also the whole loading creatine thing (5gX5 per day for the first week) totally unnecessary.

I am a huge believer in fats. I try to make sure I have Udo's oil or flax oil at least once a day, and it is a staple in my protein powder mix. My experience is that my muscles are fuller and harder when I add flax or Udo's oil. I couldn't agree more on carbs. If I eat anything starchy carb, then I am softer, and I only want to eat more. Most of my carbs are leafy and green these days.

Brother, I know exactly how you feel. bodybuilding is like heroin, okay I don't know what heroin feels like. You always want that first high feeling. LOL Remember even in non-hormone enhanced competitors your hormones are going crazy from all of the changes in your body. I know guys who have started balling in traffic pre-contest. I know guys who have lost it after the season ended. Take everyone's advice with a grain of salt. After my last show I don't want to eat either. I am trying to put on some size for an upcoming show and I am not eating. How crazy is that. Recognize your feelings, know they are real, and know that they will change. That is the best advice I can give. If you compete again this year, next or never it doesn't really matter. Really. Take some time and relax if you need to. After my first show I couldn't enter a gym for a month. Then it turned into three. From six days a week to zero. Man that sucked. If you have a good trainer, talk to him. Ask him or her about it and what to do. My favorite guy in your area is Mark Nichols if you don't have someone. He is in Tigard, and produces phenomenal athletes. He is absolutely emotionally even keeled, even when I want to quit or go off the deep end. You have built a great physique. Be proud of it. Also recognize whatever you do next you are doing it for yourself. Take care man, you are absolutely normal Steve

I made some really good protein bars with Sun Warrior and Peanut butter. Yummy and they are packed with protein. Almost no carbs. I hate to drink protein, but am doing it more these days.

Brother I am with you on protein. So hard to get enough without carbs.

Would you say that you noticed a bigger difference in your body from going to vegan or going to raw? I noticed a difference going from omnivore to veg and again to vegan.

RAW, wow that is a lot of carbs. The interesting thing is your diet is all complex carbs. I am at the opposite end of the spectrum getting as much protein as I can. I try to keep a third from fat, a third from protein, and a third from carbs. But we are alike in that neither of us is hitting any processed carbs. Okay once in a while I will have some processed carbs, but not that often. Most of my carbs come from organic fruit and vegetables. I am curious to hear the kind of numbers you are putting up lifting. I know a number of people are going to more infrequent workouts and getting great results. I have cut my days in the gym in half recently. I am guessing you probably have a pretty decent power to weight ratio.

When I was feeling a little small one day:

Today's photo taken from iphone:

Saw a 74 year old woman today deadlift 125 at a power lifting meet. It was awesome.

Work conflict precluded me from doing the show in NYC this weekend. So now it is wait for a while. Nikki's desire to compete has been fun. This morning I saw that in three weeks we have cut an inch and a half off her waist. Total weight loss is one pound. As for me, I am back up to 175, which is a good thing. I want to bring my size back to the level I saw a few years ago when I competed heavier, and get a little leaner to hit the middle weight mark and not get pushed into light heavies. That said, my ideal is always build the best physique you can and see how it all shakes out. My workouts are ultra high reps these days. For example last night's leg presses were in the 25-30 rep range with ten plates (five a side). Today's shoulders were 55 to 65 pounds with rep ranges from 15-25. This is in part because of my arms feeling sore whenever I lift. It feels like the connective tissue to the elbow is just stretched or something. I am compensating with higher reps. Secondly I was going heavy right up to my last show including heavy weighted pullups with two 45s on my waist. Changing it up is probably good at this point. I see a number of old school guys who have done this and recent research seems to suggest changing rep ranges will give you a a boost. Started creatine today, and found some good vegan BCAA's from Dave Draper's site. I always like to support the old school boglass dybuilders since without them I would be nowhere. I have a new recipe for home made protein bars. Two cups of Sun Warrior from veganproteins.com I love how great their customer service is, and nobody else delivers better. 18 oz jar of peanut butter, a half cup of oatmeal. I use the stuff with hemp in it, I just like the additional omega 3. I crush the oatmeal into a powder. Add the protein until it is mixed, add the peanut butter with a mixer and some water. I use a little stevia to sweeten it. Get it to where it is about cookie dough consistency, then put it into a glass baking pan and freeze it. Cut into squares and you have a high protein low carb quick hit. Some people will say it is too high in fat, but I like to keep my calories about a third from fat, a third protein, and a third from carbs. This has been a real challenge since becoming vegan, so this lets me even the mix over all.

The whole notion no woman can compete as a bodybuilder without meat and drugs is as silly as no man can compete as a vegan without drugs and meat. As someone who has trained with, been trained by, and has trained female competitors it is harder for a woman than a man to compete for a variety of physiological and body chemistry reasons. On top of all that if you say woman bodybuilder people develop a stereo-type in their mind that is usually not related to the intense hard work, determination, planning, and execution that goes with being a woman bodybuilder.