LostChris

Hey Tomvegan and klonoa, Where abouts in the Netherlands is everybody. Anyone in Amsterdam? Looking for some likeminded souls. Dont know anyone around here who is both passionate about fitness AND not eating meat. Let me know. All the best

Hey buddy, Ik heb ook in Nederland woont! If your ever around Amsterdam and fancy a run or something let me know veel succes Chris

Yeah I went ahead and did it. Finished at 20.15 which I was happy with. Now resting for a couple of weeks. My leg seems really fragile at the moment so I hope I haven't damaged it permanently like Evader said. I will see how it feels in a couple of weeks. I want to start running again by the beginning of April because there is another half marathon at the end of May I am keen to do but i'm not going to start training until my leg is completely healed so we will see.

Actually its not looking good Just tried to go for a quick run and only got 200metres before I had to stop from the paiin. Maybe my legs werent fully recovered yet. Had to hobble hme though and now im in a lot of pain. Doubt they are going to improve before Sunday unfortunately. thats a big shame. we'll see

Earlier in the year my weight training had to take a slight back seat for me to train for my first half marathon. I have been running for a while but I decided this year Im going to try and take it seriously. I was training three times a week. two mid week runs of about 5 miles then one long run at the weekend ussually of about 8 miles. Unfortunately one week before the marathon I really damage my left calf. so I did train for 8 days before the marathon. When marathon day came I strapped my leg up and just went for it. the weather was 2 degrees celcius and it even snowed for about 20 minutes! So not ideal. I finished at 1.35 which wasn't my aim but all things considered I was quite happy. That was last sunday and now this coming sunday I have a 5k race. Hopefully my leg is feeling one hundred per cent. I have finished the 5k in just under 20 minutes before but I am aiming for about 18 minutes. We'll see... http://s22.postimage.org/u4a7wuzmp/316282625_B03_B91_AADCE.jpg I was wearing my No Meat Athlete T shirt but it was too cold to show it

thanks for all the responses guys. The winged scapula sounds interesting. Everything you describe sounds the same as me. I do all these exercies anyway though. I do diamond press ups regularly. C.O. i do agree with your Physio but you must know how hard it is to just completely stop and recover. Im addicted to fitness! I have calmed down though. I always do every exercise wiyh heaviest weight i possibly can but the last two week si have been doing all my back exercises with low weights and high reps. This seems to be better for me and so far apart frm a few twinges no pains. We'll see how this goes.

I seem to be hurting my backa lot lately and its really affecting me (ie. the way I look and feel because I cant get o the gym enough). Almost every week now I pull a muscle in my back, wait a week for it to get better, go back to the gym and pull a muscle in my back again!!!! Its driving me mad. Whenever I do squats, deadlifts etc I tend to pull a muscle. I think its the centre middle part of my traps Im pulling. So I tend not to do those standing heavy lifts. But last week after a week of recovery i straight away did it again and I dont know how. Maybe doing bent over rows, but I didnt feel anything at the time. Not until the day after. . Its really affecting my training though. I dont think my form is that bad with anything so I maybe I just have a weak trapezius and need to build it up slowly. Anyone have any suggestions or similar problem?

Thanks mate. Below is a pic of my crappy side profile. http://s9.postimage.org/fy9yjsu0v/ugly_back.jpg Notice in the first image my shoulder blades still stick out unless I'm consciously holding them in. I work out my shoulders and back a lot and I can do more and better pull ups than anyone i know. I don't know why they look like this!!! Then the second image is more what i was training to explain so how my whole back is s shaped and as a result my stomch sticks out. Obviously I can hold it in and it looks better but am i really supposed to believe every other guy is just sucking their tummy in all the time. I think it looks really ugly and I dont see other guys with this profile. What do you think. Chris

Hi guys, Maybe you can help me. My front profile and back profile is starting to look much better these days but my side profile still looks... odd. I think. It is is so slim and arched. It doesn't look the way I see other guys looking and it pisses me off. Some things to know are that work out all my muscle groups equally Im not neglecting my back. Infact its one of my strongest areas. Also bear in mind I am an extremely hard gainer. I have only put on about 2 solid kg's in the last 3 months and that has been from HEAVY eating. Does anyone else have a weak side profile and know what I can do to affect it? Chris

Impressive Abdominal progress buddy. I get the slowest results from my abs but then I don't really target them too much either. Do you target your abs or is it just an indirect result of other workouts? Well done though bud and keep up the good work. Happy New Year too

Nice question! I would really like to know if there is any negative health imacts to breathing lots of cold air. I like to run 5-10 miles at a time once or twice a week. But recently (now that it is winter) this has been really hard. My lungs hurt. I have shorter breath etc. I have started running on a treadmill at the gym but for many obvious reasons its not the same and NOT what i want to be doing. Im considering wrapping up warm and just getting back outside but would like to know if that painful air is actually bad for us to be doing extreme exercise in. Lets hope someone knows eh Chris

Good luck matey. I was a similar size to you when i started out (about a year ago) and now I'm coming along good. Don't forget that with your build working out is going to be useless without a really good diet. I am eating a LOT these days and still only gaining slow mass so make sure you look at the make up of your diet and plan where your going to get the fats and proteins (and calories) you need. Good luck though buddy and I look forward to seeing the progress

|Voting away Real good luck to them. Could only ever dream of looking like Derek Tresize. Don't cost nothing to dream though

lol thanks dude. Only real men have tattooed nipples thanks for the encouragement. Really loving working out at the moment. particularly chest days and bicep days. My right bicep is getting bigger than my left though lol. Hope that evens out soon lol. I'l give it a fortnight or so and post up another pic. I know that doesn't sound like much time but I still notice a difference even if no one else does Been overdosing a bit on the old PB recently. I think my physique is basically thanks to peanut butter, soy and spinach haha (not together though)

Me too. I love a chest workout. Its my favourite at the moment. I love pushing myself bench pressing. Looking good buddy. Keep it up

http://s14.postimage.org/gbkicz7dd/31102012.jpg And here's an up to date one of me. As you can see i'm losing my definition but i'm definitely getting bigger (nowhere near as big as I want to be though. still a skinny runt )

Thanks for all your help chaps. I think I have now overcome my plateau. I have, very simply, just started eating MORE. I have tried to up my fats and taking on the carbs tip above, but on the whole all I'm really doing is eating more more more... ! Work is slow for me at the moment so its easy to eat all day but when it gets busier it might be harder so we'll see. I'm also trying to to lift heavier with lower reps rather than high reps and more manageable weights. I am starting to lose my definition but I'm getting bigger and that's what I really want at this stage in my 'journey'

So I've come to a bit of a standstill lately and my self diagnosis is that I need more fat in my diet. I have always been a super skinny guy and I think my results of the first year of working out have been from toning up. Now I need to put more weight on to build more muscle. I think I must have a very high metabolism because it is very hard for me to put weight on. I have posted below an example of what I eat on a typical day and maybe you can give some input. Bear in put I haven't really created this diet from any knowledge of diet plans. It just happens to be what I eat. I only changed a few small aspects of my diet when I started working out so thats why I need the help. Breakfast: Porridge with soy milk, Soy yoghurt on top and a banana (or other pieces of fruit) 11.00am Brown rice and vegetables or cous cous and vegetables or spinach salad, a few pieces of fruit. 2.00pm Salad with various leafy greens - spinach, various lettuce, rocket etc. Plus onions tomatoes sesame seeds, black onion seeds and a stick of celery 6.00 Big dinner! Fried potatoes and pizza with naan bread or curry with tofu or quorn schnitzels with broccoli and peas etc etc. Bear in mind all these meals are big and i also snack throughout the day mainly on fruit but also on nuts (almonds, pistachio's, sunflower seeds). So there you go. Looking at it written down like that it seems quite measly :S So hopefully you can help a bit. I ussually work out after breakfast so that second meal is my post workout dish. Can you help?

haha thanks man. I was moving house actually so that's why it was a mess. I have been a bit down the last week or two actually. I'm working out so much and watching my food but seem to have come to a bit of a standstill. I was progressing really good and really happy with my results but now I'm stuck. I think I need more fat in my diet. Anyway I'm off out right now but maybe later I'll post my diet up on the nutrition pages and see if there's any suggestions

Hey bro. I know this was a long time ago but I only just joined. I live in Amsterdam so if your ever around this way lets work out . Can't see myself going to Nijmegen anytime soon though. Keep up the work though buddy. Succes

Keep up the good work, your doing it for the same reason as me 'sticking it the veg haters'. It feels good to see peoples faces when you tell them you're a veggie Best of luck

Hi guys, how are ya I should start by confessing I'm not a vegan (I hope you are all understanding). I am a strict vegetarian for ethical reasons but I do still eat eggs and a bit of cheese (but not milk or butter or things). This website however has still inspired me a lot. I have(/had) always been a very skinny guy. You know the type that constantly looks like a recovering junkie. Twiglet arms etc. And then when I gave up meat a lot of people started joking about me saying i was weak and pathetic. I work in construction so you know the type I mean. I really wanted to prove them wrong so although I had never worked out before, after stopped eating meat I decided to try and get in real good shape. I began working out at the beginning of this year. Below is a before (february this year) and after (yesterday) to show my progress so far. http://imageshack.us/a/img803/6339/voorenachter.jpg Want to thank Robert and the others on this site for encouraging me actually and its really great see others on here doing the same as me. Thanks Chris