jonathan

We laid them out for your benefit so as to give you an idea of Brian's front garden

Well here is a video first. I apolagise for it not starting from the ground - I still need to train Buzz to be a better cameraman and start it rolling at the right time And here is a photo of a different lift with the same 100kg stone http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/briancuninghame/stoneetc230406001.jpg Jonathan

They may be other exercises, but the squat is king Good that you have your eye on your form. If ever you want any tips, just post a video. Jonathan

Eating every two hours is the way to go I'm afraid. It's not just vegans either. Go check out a meateating persons journal on any of the big sites, and they eat pretty much every two hours. It doesn't have to be that much. I usually have a meal every four hours (so 4 meals a day) and then a smoothie/nuts/other snack inbetween. It just keeps your metabolism ticking over. Jonathan

2g per kilo of bodyweight is a good place to be. I have seen my strength go up considerably without gaining much weight btw - 5% bf is very very low, and not healthy or sustainable - 7% is ok though, and you would still be shreaded. Jonathan

No, its all good. You only put lots of stress on the knees if you don't sit back (ie when you squat down, you bend at the knees rather than correctly sitting back, as if sitting on a chair). Take olympic lifters - they do ass to grass squats and as far as I know they have few knee problems Jonathan

Well your hamstrings do form a significant part of your behind anyways, so you still need to exercise them. Why don't you want bigger hamstrings? Jonathan

Any foot position is fine to build glutes. I used to squat with a narrow stance but have recently changed to wider. Glutes are one of the prime movers for squats so whatever you do you build them. Regarding reps, I never train high reps (mainly cos I train for strength and high reps scare me!) so I stick to less than 6-8 reps. You can go higher if you want. One thing that I think is quite important for building glutes is squatting to depth. Basically you want to go as low as you can, at least to at the point where the line between your hip joint and knee is parrellel to the floor. Jonathan

Squatting. I used to have a rubbish ass from years of cycling, it was literally non existant. Now it is quite large, and very shapely. So all you need to do is squat Jonathan

Rockapella are gods. Their 'lion sleeps tonight' cover is legendry Jonathan

Honey is an animal product. Bees are exploited to get it. Honey is not vegan. I really don't see where the confusion is

Good plan - and we'll hold you to it It would be great if you could hit the stage at 195+. Can you give me an example of a typical bulking days diet? We could all also put our heads together over the next few months and get you a killer routine ready for when you bulk. Jonathan

It's ok alex - we have reduced the weight significantly so that more people can be competitive. It's only going to be about 180kg now. Good that you are training for it Jonathan

The first 5 plates lift I will get is the deadlift, and I'm pretty close now (got a new pb of 210kg last night, which is 462lbs). I only need to add another 22lbs to get 5 wheels. And I need to order another pair of 20's! There are some absolute monsters out there - there is one discussion board I read and occasionally post on just called strength discussion. Many of Britains top strongmen keep logs there. There is one guy called welshdragon is very close to getting a few records in overhead strength (his top log press is 185kg/407lbs) but his other lifts include 300kg squat for 5 reps (thats 7 wheels folks) a 350kg deadlift, 74kg seated dumbell overhead press for 2 reps. He is injured on the bench at the moment and still does 6reps with 160kg. Nutty!

23 sets of shoulder work. You just aren't going to be able to bulk doing that unless you are juicing

85kg/188lbs strict seated for a single. There is more in there though as I have done 3x8x150lbs very recently. 97.5kg/215lbs push press Jonathan

Good that you are getting rid of the bowflex. I wouldn't worry about losing any exercises. Free weights are just much much better. I haven't come accross that cage before, but if I'm honest it doesn't look very good. It's overloaded with accessories, and looks quite flimsy. Plus it doesn't give a max capacity, which is bad. Good brands to stick with are powertec and bodysolid, though obviously there are lots more, I'm just not familiar with them. I have had a good look through www.newyorkbarbells.com and they seem excellent. Jonathan

Hehe! Maybe, it was at a Cici's Pizza restuarant, and I only payed about $4

Pah! When I was 17 (and about 160lbs) I ate 24 large slices of pizza in one sitting, at an all you can eat pizzaria! I actually barely needed to eat for three days after. Jonathan

Everyone starts somewhere JW! When I started lifting about 2 3/4 years ago I could only bench about 70lbs, but I have recently pressed 292lb. No need to worry though - I don't bench any more, so you will overtake me in no time Jonathan

Nice routine JW Any chance of writing the weights down too?

Happy Birthday Shelby Have to say though, that this is the first time I've looked at your log, and your routine is crazy. Way too much. Thats all I can say. Jonathan

Its the beard isnt it - go on - admit it!

Recently the Edinburgh team have been secretly working on a new project. For your viewing pleasure we present a brief overview of our training and lifestyle. Sit back, turn up the volume, and enjoy :- also on rapidshare at http://rapidshare.de/files/17564627/vegan_fitness_-_built_unnaturally.wmv.html And for the swedish crowd: also on rapidshare http://rapidshare.de/files/17577927/vegan_fitness_-_built_suboptimally.wmv.html Jonathan, Kathryn and Buzz

If your Dad has had lots of knee problems and you think it is genetically inherant, you really should do weight bearing exercises for your legs. The very act of placing a load on it and stressing the surrounding muscles will strengthen the bones and ligaments which will prevent knee injuries. I had serious knee problems in my mid teens, caused by cycling (they effectively stopped me cycling - quite frustrating as I was competing at national level) which lasted about 3 years. Since having done squatting, my knees have been in perfect shape. I am not saying that you need to be knocking out crazy high weights, but a degree of leg work should be in your routine. As regards your legs growing too much, I do doubt that will happen. Again drawing from my own experience, I didnt train my legs for the first year and a bit of training as I thought that they were big and strong enough. It was only when I actually really looked at them that they were small compared to my upper body. They are pretty good now though. As regards your routine, I think that you are doing too much. You are doing so many sets that there is no way that you would be able to maintain a sufficient intensity to stimulate significant muscle growth. I'm not saying I do things right, but the average length of my sessions is about 2hours! I would pretty much entirely change your routine. From the exercises that you are doing, it appears that you are trying to hit pretty much every muscle from several different angles. It's just not necessary. I would suggest a routine like this, based on two workout days a week. I have included some leg work so as to give your joints the necessary stress to prevent injury and strengthen the ligaments. Day 1: Bench (barbell or dumbell) Bent over row, barbell Narrow grip bench Powerclean Abs Day 2: Front squat Deadlift Push press Dumbell shoulder press (seated) Abs You would want to include periodisation into your routine (ie an increase in weight and decrease in reps over a period) and then change it after 6-8weeks. If you give me your working weights for the exercises that you do I can try to work them out for the above routine. For things like squats, powercleans and deadlifts you should keep the weight low until you nail the technique. Refering back to the title of this thread, to be honest one of the reasons why you easily overtrain is that you do an awful lot in each session. Jonathan