Iron Clad Ben

Hi guys, I did a presentation in my cardio respiratory physiology class in front of 50 future chiropractors about how a plant based diet can prevent and reverse heart disease. I thought you guys would enjoy it.

WED 1/8/14

Squats: 8x135, 8x145,8x155,8x165

Legpress: 3x10x290+sled

Lunges: 2x30x50 (holding 25lb plates)

MON 1/13/14

DEADLIFT: 5x135, 5x185, 5x225, 2x4x275, 2x1x315

DB ROWS: 4x10x50

LAT PULL: 3x9x110

TUES 1/14/14

BENCH: 4x5x135, 1x4x135, 2x5x135

DIPS: 10,7,10,10

DB FLY/PRESS: 4x8x335

THU 1/16

SQUATS: 8x135, 6x145, 4x165, 3x3x175

LEGPRESS: 5x10x340+sled

Speed lunge pumps at 1/4 ROM: 10, 10

SAT 1/17

One-arm pushups: 51

Pullups: 10x3

"Jumping" Muscle ups: 5x4

Wow, haven't done pullups in a while and I usually try to do sets of 6-7 reps. Going the distance with 10 sets of 3 totally wore out my lats. Haven't been this sore there in a long time. In fact it's Monday afternoon and I'm still sore after doing them 48 hours ago!

Most recent workouts this week:

MONDAY 1/6

Deadlifts: 135 x 10, 185 x 10, 225 x 8, 275 x 3, 275 x 2, attempted 315 but couldn't lock out

Lat pull 3x10x110

DB Rows: 3x10x50

TUESDAY 1/7

Bench: 135 x 5, 135 x 5, 135 x 5, 145 x 3, 155 x 3 (needed a spot for this last one)

Dips: 8,8,9,8

Incline Bench: 4x8x95

Incline DB chest press: 3x5x35

After sucking at bench for basically my whole life I finally got some instruction this winter from Big Bald Mike who really helped me up my game. 135 used to be something I wouldn't even attempt without a spot. Now it's child's play, I can warm up with it. He really taught me how to actually engage my pectoralis muscles which has made a HUGE difference. Here's a video of him and I from last week when I deadlifted double my body weight on the trap bar:

Wow, so looks like last year at New Year's I tried reviving this blog once again and it didn't work.

Update:

I moved from Austin to Southern California last year. I'm now a student at Los Angeles College of Chiropractic. My school has a gym that's free for students that I have been lifting at RELIGIOUSLY since September. Suffice to say I've made some serious GAINZ. In the past few weeks I've shattered bench and deadlift records for myself. I feel like at age 32 I'm the strongest, fittest and healthiest I've ever been in my life. I'm cut as fuck and just loving the health and fitness lifestyle.

I like to incorporate this into my routine, and since I'm on the road this summer, it's the only strength training I've been getting the past few weeks. I like the progression and the fun of accomplishing new "tricks". A year ago I got my first one-arm pushup and I've been obsessed with them ever since. I also really like Kalosthenos' channel on YouTube. He is a vegan bodyweight guy from the Bay Area, watch his videos, he is sick.

I'm on there @ironcladben

Other vegan fitness accounts I like:

@beyondfitaustin

@bonebreakerbarbell

@veganproteins

@leanandgreen719

@tkofitatx

@austinbarbisch

@mindyvegan

@sarabethxvx

@801010athlete

http://www.naturallyfit.com/events/2013-naturally-fit-super-show/

Palmer Events Center

923 Barton Springs Road

Austin, TX 78701

There will be a couple of vegan gyms there, one of which is in Kyle and several folks drive from S.A. to train there.

I would recommend checking out the blog No Meat Athlete. Lots of great running tips on there.

I would highly recommend driving up to Austin today or tomorrow for the Naturally Fit Supershow. There will be tons of vegan bodybuilders and figure/bikini competitors there to meet, ask questions and get inspired.

Check out Beyond Fit and Bonebreaker Barbell, two vegan gyms in Austin that have people that can help you out.

Probably won't hear from him here but he won his first competition and will be competing again soon.

Awesome!

Suppose we need a proposal on what counts to name what.

This was pretty dope

Awesome.

Great handle

Another Beyond Fit workout on 1/1/13:

One-arm mountain climbers

Sandbag squats

Box jumps

Rope Jacks

Pushups

Sandbag Lift and slam

Sandbag partner toss

Food yesterday:

32 oz OJ

8 persimmons

1 kombucha

1 3oz bag raw seed snack chips (raw junk)

7 banana + peach / spinach smoothie

64 oz OJ

Food today:

32 oz grapefruit juice

64 oz OJ

64 oz smoothie banana/peach/spinach

Planned dinner: 64 oz smoothie banana/peach/spinach again, 4-8 persimmons

Exercise today:

3 x 12 one-arm pushups

2 sun salutations

4-mile run

5 pull ups

6 two-arm pushups

Workout at Beyond Fit yesterday with Chad and Tricia

Rope jumping jacks

Plank pushups

Rows

Sandbag Burbeeps

Mountain Climbers

Tire push/pulls

Fun times! Giant bowl of zuchinni pasta aftewards. Vacation. Life is good.

Wow been 3 months since I updated this.

Since then:

-Got into chiropractic schools in LA and Dallas. Choosing LA.

-Ran a 3-hour race with Robert a week ago. He won and set the course record, I took 9th with a distance of 17.98 miles.

-Got 26 one-arm pushups the other day. These are easily my favorite exercise right now. I do them every day for fun.

Now, training for a marathon on 2/18/13. This past Sunday I ran 17.60 miles in 3:10:00. Day before that I worked out at Bonebreaker with Mike and Bart. Plan is to bump my long runs up by 10-15 minutes a week. Expecting to do my marathon in about 4:15 or so.

Also working on cleaning up the diet. Been eating too many black beans and corn tortillas lately! They don't sit with me well and bring down my emotional energy. I got a new Omega VRT 350HD juicer for Hanukah so I've been trying to drink a green juice or a citrus juice every day. I'm not going to be militant about trying to eat 100% raw, just going to try to eat a shit-ton of fruit and greens. I'm feeling really, really good today and if that continues it should make keeping the diet on track that much easier.

Why do you want to eat "low carb"? That's a fad marketing term for "high fat". Carbs are not inherently bad. It's the fact that people eat a lot processed food made from low quality starches that hurts their health. If I were going to Thailand I'd be "carbing out" on all the crazy tropical fruit they have over there.

Hey there! My first half marathon was in San Antonio last year.

If you ever want to drive on up to Kyle (it's about an hour from SA) to workout at Bonebreaker Barbell, get in touch with Big Bald Mike. He normally lets vegans train for free at his gym

http://www.bbbarbell.com/

Robert has worked out there too quite a bit:

http://tiptopwebsite.com/photos4/bigbaldmike/dead2.JPG

http://tiptopwebsite.com/photos4/bigbaldmike/neckpull.jpg

http://tiptopwebsite.com/photos4/bigbaldmike/arm.JPG

Here's a shot with myself, Austin (who won the 24-hour race) and Robert. Vegans for the win! Literally!

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4527/3hourrun2.jpg

We are gonna rock this run buddy! I've been averaging above 35 bananas a day the last few days.

Great handle! Welcome

Throwin' down!!!