AndiMorris

That's the same for me grangi71, I've always struggled to gain weight (currently 67kg at 5'11"), and when I made a conscious effort to try and hit 3000 calories a day whilst doing stronglifts I did gain weight, but mostly fat around my gut. Since going vegan I've lost the fat around my gut, thankfully, but I still really struggle to put weight on and hit a decent amount of calories. I think that we share the same problem in that we're doing too much cardio, you on the bike, and me in crossfit classes, but to be honest I enjoy crossfit so much I wouldn't want to stop, and I think you and I probably just need to eat a lot more to compensate. Perhaps cut out one thing at a time from your diet and see if something is bloating you.

It could be, but when I wasn't doing Crossfit I put on a lot of fat, I went up to around 20% body fat. I think I still need more food during the day, I think I'm getting around 2500 cals at the moment on training days. Other than that everything is cool cheers!

Haven't managed to get to the gym all week as I'm staying at my parent's house while my bathroom is being rebuilt, and so I no longer have time before or after work, with the extra travelling involved. I'll try and get some home workouts in, but it'll more than likely be Saturday morning now as my next session!!

I can't see you having any trouble as long as you stick to the centre. It's a great city. I don't actually know any vegan friendly places to eat, but I'm sure a search of http://www.happycow.net/ will yield plenty of results. Enjoy!

Yeah I know a couple of them. I did a Faith No More cover band with Dave for a one off charity gig a few years ago, and have known him for a long time. I know Kris too, but nowhere near as well. They're from the same town as me.

Workout 25/10/13 Warm Up 2 rounds: 20 double unders 10 kettlebell swings - 16kg 10 push ups 10 med ball slams Lift: Dynamic effort strict press - 9x3 on the minute - 30kg WOD: 16 minute AMRAP 50 kettle bell push press (16kg) 50 double unders 50 push ups 50 double unders 50 kettlebell rows 50 double unders 50 med ball slams Just a quick write up today as I have to go and rip my bathroom out in a minute. Yesterday’s morning workout was a brutal horrible one. The dynamic effort strict press was fine. I added 2.5kg to last weeks without issue. Press is my weakest of all the compound lifts, so it’s nice to see the number go up even if it’s just tiny increments. The WOD however was a disaster. Push ups are my nemesis, my shoulders blow out so quickly in them. I had to break the set of 50 into 5s, and even then it was a huge struggle to get through them. I did the last 15 on my knees, so that I would be able to get onto the kettlebell rows at least, but I knew there was no hope of me finishing. I hate pushups, ball slams however are FUN!!

Nope. The other two guys always rib me for it, but not seriously. I can handle it from them as their some of my oldest friends.

Amazing, thanks very much dude. Last time we were in North Wales was a few years ago, so we're due a visit. We play Manchester and Liverpool reasonably often though.

Thank you!!! I think you can yes. Are you after downloads or physical copies? I think our label put that album on itunes and amazon, but I've never really looked. You can get them directly from us at desecration.bandcamp.com though There's a free mix tape on there too which has songs from all our albums so far.

Very interesting, cheers. I'll email my usual tattooist and see what she thinks of vegan ink. I need to finish the one I started a year ago (time flies!).

Hey Mr Bear, good log. I guess you're pretty local to me if you went to Bodom, and are going to Amon Amarth. I'm tempted to go to Amon Amarth for Carcass as support. Do you climb at boulders on Newport Road? I've always fancied going there, it looks great fun! Rossco, was it the Save Your Breath gig that the floor collapsed? They're friends of mine and were telling me that the floor nearly collapsed at I think the Southhampton gig, perhaps Portsmouth? They had to evacuate the building. Do you guys with tattoos ever enquire about vegan ink? I need more tattoo work done, but I've heard that the ink isn't vegan friendly. I wasn't vegan when I had my last ones done.

I prefer back exercises too, despite not ever seeing any real gains there.

Workout 24/10/13 - NANCY Warm Up: 200m run 2 rounds of: 10 pipe passthroughs 10 banded hip extensions 10 overhead squats with pipe Mobility Lift: Power snatch - 8x2 on the Minute @ 70% - 30kg WOD: Nancy (Scaled level 1) 5 rounds: 10 overhead squats - 30kg 300m run Completed in 13:08 Post WOD Mobility Great session with coach Ross yesterday. Power snatches felt light at 30kg, I should have definitely gone heavier. The prescribed weight for Nancy is 40kg on the overhead squats for 15 reps, and then a 400m run. I couldn't see myself managing that many reps at 40kg, so I scaled. I wouldn't say I found the level 1 easy, but I was the first to finish in the class, which NEVER happens, so I think that shows that next time I attempt this workout I should try for level 2 which is 10 reps at 40kg, and 400m runs. Everyone finished the workout in good time, which left us with around 10 minutes class time to go through some mobility work, which really helped me not feel like I was cramping up at work. That’s the worst thing about doing these early morning workouts, not having time to stretch properly afterwards, then sitting in a car for an hour, then at a desk for 8 hours, and a car for another hour. A supple leopard I am certainly not. Also, I weighed myself for the first time in around a month this morning and I was 67.5kg and 13.5% body fat. I'm happy that my body fat is still pretty low, but I'm only maintaining weight, rather than putting it on. This isn't going to help me build strength, so I need to find some more food during the day from somewhere.

Good to see you back.

Warm Up: 200m row 10 push ups 10 cleans - 20kg 10 push press 200m row 10 power cleans - 20kg 10 push jerk Lift: 5x3 power clean & jerk - 45kg (Excuse the grimace) WOD: 8 rounds 150m row max effort handstand push ups 3:1 rest 7 rounds completed, HSPU - 8,x,1,6,5,5,5 Another good morning session. Struggled to get to a weight I’d done before on the power clean & jerks though, but I haven’t done these in a few weeks, so in all likelihood I’m just out of practice. The WOD was good going too, I came off the wall too quickly in a couple of the HSPU sets, but all in all felt good about them. My average per set is creeping up, and I no longer fear them, in fact I quite enjoy them.

I emailed the shop to check and they said that the materials are vegan but they can't guarantee that glue is. Chucks are vegan then?

Oh cool, they're cheap too!!

If not, does anyone have any recommendations for vegan lifting shoes?

Hi, has anyone got any experience of these Inov-8 olympic lifting shoes? Inov-8 are a good vegan brand with a good company ethic and if these are any good I think they'll fill the gap in my olympic lifting shoes hole. http://www.inov-8.com/New/Global/Product-View-Fastlift-335-Black-Red.html?L=27

Workout - 17/10/13 Warm Up: 20 burpees (for being late!) 3 rounds of: 10 pipe passthroughs 10 banded hip extensions 10 banded good mornings Lift: 4x3 snatch (30kg) WOD: 5 rounds of: 800m run 1:1 rest Snatch was rough yesterday. It was supposed to be full squat snatch but I’m still struggling in catching the bar at the bottom of the squat, so I chose a weight I could definitely do, and made sure to try and catch at a half squat and keep on sinking into the full squat. One day I will get this catch right. I was surprisingly energetic for the WOD, considering it was still before the sun had come up, and I normally hate running WODs. I got through the first 3 rounds with relative ease, not amazingly fast, but I didn’t slow at all. I would guess that each round was around the 4 minute mark. However I ran out of time and couldn’t complete the last two rounds. This is the peril of training before work.

Workout 17/10/13 Warm Up: 3 rounds of: 10 pull ups 10 push ups 10 sit ups Lift: OTMEM for 9 rounds Dynamic Effort (as fast as possible with good form) Strict Press - 75% of 1RM Then: 3x12 band pull aparts 3 sets of max effort handstand push ups (6,3,3) WOD: 10 minute AMRAP 10 ring rows 10 deficit push ups First session back in a week and a half and it was another at 6:30am. Pretty brutal getting up in time, but I enjoy the atmosphere of the class, and also it’s great to have the rest of my day to myself. Dynamic effort press was supposed to be at 75% 1RM, of which mine is 40kg, meaning I should have done this at 30kg. However I haven’t got near that 1RM in nearly a year, so dropped it slightly to 27.5kg. I don’t think I should have however as it felt a bit easy. Perhaps I’m finally gaining some strength back! Max effort handstand push ups were fine, but I purposely didn’t push too hard as I’ve had a funny sensation in the top of my back/base of my neck for a few days and didn’t want to aggravate it by sitting in the headstand position. It’s good to be able to do these regularly now, I just need to work on speed and quantity. This WOD was hard! Both of these exercises I blow out early on every time. I completed 4 rounds, 10 ring rows and 5 push ups.

Workout 05/10/13 - Stronglifts session 3 Warm up: 400m run bodyweight squats mobility Back squat: 1x10 - 20kg 5x5 - 67.5kg Bench Press: 1x10 - 20kg 5x5 - 42.5kg Pendlay Row: 5x5 - 42.5kg I didn’t progress the weight on the back squat this week as my form last week was so rough. It was better this week, but I’m still going forward and my chest lowering. I just cannot seem to keep this in check. Bench and pendlay row were both fine at this weight, and will be definitely notching this up on the next stronglifts session.

Workout 03/10/13 Warm Up: 2 minutes double unders, then 3 rounds of: 10 push ups 10 pull ups 30 second handstand holds Lift: 3x5 push press - 40kg 3 x max effort ring rows - 12, 10, 8 WOD: Level 2 10 minute AMRAP 20 double unders 5 handstand push ups 6 rounds and 10 DUs complete. I found the push press extremely frustrating, I could not break the habit of dropping into a jerk when my arms got tired. Because of this I dropped from 42.5kg to 40kg for the last two sets. All press movements are my weakest by far!!! The WOD was fine, Rx was 30 DUs and 10 HSPUs, so I chose level 2 as chaining 10 HSPUs together would be a struggle when fatigued. DUs were all fine, mostly chained together, with the last couple of rounds broken down into 10s. The HSPUs were a different matter however. The first round was sweet, 5 together, easy. The second round was a nightmare! I couldn’t even kick up to the wall!!!! I eventually struggled through, but my arms were absolutely shot from the push press and I needed another abmat underneath to enable me to get any more rounds out. With the second abmat in place, lessening the range of motion required to complete the rep I was then able to carry on and complete 6 rounds in the 10 minutes, mostly with the HSPUs in 3s and 2s, the last round was a straight 5 in a row. Summary, get stronger, especially at pressing.

Ah this is a shame, I was looking forward to chatting to another vegan crossfitter, especially one that qualified for regionals! That's such a great achievement, and great to see a vegan doing that in a sport full of meat. Those are some damn good numbers for the benchmark workouts too!

Wall balls. Grab a medicine ball (usually 9kg for men 7kg for women but you make that decision yourself) with both hands at chest level. Squat down and as you return to standing throw the medicine ball up to hit the wall above a 10ft mark. Catch the ball and repeat.