Derek

Thank you all, you guys are awesome! If anyone knows a good photographer you should try setting up a shoot like this, it's a blast! The battle scene was especially fun because we did a few funny shots that looked great. Thank you for your faith! I should really keep telling everyone here I'm going to compete so I'll be forced to... I hear that works right? Thanks Robert! Spread them around and show everyone what a good diet can do . Thank you for the tri/thigh compliments too. Tri's are my easiest muscle to get awesome so I don't even worry about them, but I really hammered my thighs to get those lines, and I'm doing even more to them now. Just yesterday did squats at 315lbs for sets of 20 and supersetted with leg extensions... brutal. If you or anyone else has tips on giving decent but flat bi's an awesome peak I'd love to hear them. As for my lifts, my squats have probably gone way up since I last put my numbers on table 2.0, but I don't know about the other two. My best deadlift set is 405x6, best squat is 405x12, and best bench is my old 300lb one rep max. Been a while on bench though.

Thanks guys! I definitely want to, but so far this year work has been busy and we're getting married next month so I haven't had a chance to look into it yet. I'd still like to gain about 5 quality pounds before I compete for the first time. My Bi's and calves are way behind everything else. One of my trainers at Gold's (a dairy-free pescatarian) wants to do his first contest this year so I'll probably enter one with him. In this same shoot we did a battle scene with him that looks awesome, so I'll post that when I get it . Marcella has also talked about trying a figure competition, so I hope she does too!

Nope! . It is a lot of heavy press downs and DB extensions.

Hey guys! The final versions of my barbarian photo shoot pics just came in yesterday so I wanted to share. I love the way they turned out and hope to work with the photographer Kimberly Frost (http://www.kimberlyfrost.com) again sometime soon. The lovely lady here is my fiance Marcella. She is also vegan and we train together every day. There are a couple more shots of her on our blog. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__dYeHN8VJqY/S_Me116FzuI/AAAAAAAAAHI/FivsqxkG3m0/s1600/Derek+purple+blue+soft.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__dYeHN8VJqY/S_MhlwXAw_I/AAAAAAAAAH4/fQAmJkMn18g/s1600/Marcella+and+Derek+10x15+sharp+ready+for+print.jpg

Damn man that's great progress! How much weight are you up now? I bet you're way stronger too...

Awesome! You'll feel even better as a vegan! Welcome to Richmond! Come stop by Gold's Gym in The Fan sometime, it's a great place to build your body. Also a note in general: I am getting the final shoot pics one week from yesterday (which will be Tuesday 5/18) and I will be posting my favorites on here for you guys to check out! I'm very excited to see how they all look. I will put the whole batch on my blog in case you all want to see them too

Thanks. Yes I also notice the animal protein bloat that most guys have. I think that food takes so much longer to process it just makes everything puff up. As for the vegan women, look no farther than my fiance Marcella. She has a couple great pics on the blog that I'll post here soon.

Awesome! I love hearing stories like that. Too often fitness professionals are closed minded about veganism and it's supposed limitations, but you and that other power lifter are yet more examples that athletes can excel on vegan diets. I know I've gotten much stronger since I've been vegan.

Thanks!

Thank you for the support and praise! I'm glad you guys like the blog too and I appreciate you taking the time to read it

You're welcome! Ok, I have to brag that I got a new best lift today (which rarely happens). I DB shoulder pressed 100lbers for 5 reps! Marcella had her hands on my elbows the whole time, but it's the most I've ever tried and she weighs 115 so I was still doing all the work .

Thank you Robert! I'm glad I'm getting back in touch here, it is a great community and everyone is so supportive. It's great to work hard to improve your body and at the same time show everyone around you what you can achieve on a vegan diet. I never try to pressure anyone into changing their eating habits more than they are comfortable with, but I have gotten many Gold's Gym members to greatly reduce or eliminate their animal product intake just by setting an example. It's very fulfilling!

Thanks! Balance and asthetics are a huge part of my goal so I appreciate that.

I go through phases of heavy weight lower volume training also, but for the most part I stick to 5-6 days per week once or twice per day, similar to the split Arnold describes in his encyclopedia. My body responds really well to it, but I often times will have to take my rest day early, I usually play that by feel. As for sets etc, I usually do about 5 per exercise and at least one set is to failure or past failure (usually) on most exercises except isolation moves. The first couple sets are warm up though so it's not quite as bad as it sounds.

Nice lifts Adena!

P.S. I just realized the routines on my blog weren't open-able so I just fixed that. Sorry!

Thanks! I recently heard from the photographer (kimberlyfrost.com) and I should be getting the final edited photos from the last shoot soon. I'll put them up when I get them.

I've seen similar results with others on p90x. It's an intense program and I think the hardest part is actually sticking it out. Not easy, great job man!

lol. Don't know what to say to that. Thanks guys

Thank you all for your compliments, I'm glad I inspire . Seeing surprise on people's faces in the gym when they find out I'm vegan is great motivation! Doesn't that make you guys work extra hard?

oh. Thanks

Squat 455 Dead 425 Bench 300, BW 182. I haven't tried a bench in a while so that may have dropped, the others are current though

Great most muscular!

Awesome job. I have lots of clients that would love these kinds of results. It's not easy!

Thank you all for the compliments. To answer in order: I've been vegan a bit over 3 years. I've been strength training for 10 years and made much faster improvements as a vegan Yeah check out my blog to see everything that I do. I'm a personal trainer so I try to keep it up to date for all my clients. Thank you for the compliment on my legs. That crazy improvement is a combination of recovery (sort of) from a bad knee injury, and lots and lots of 400lb squats I am 5'11" or so last I checked. Yes, everyone feel free to check out our blog for recipes, workouts, and our interactive meal plan spreadsheet. We will be making our first website soon that will probably be called veganmuscleandfitness.com so I'll post whenever that happens too