jonathan

No, powercleans are a great exercise, regardless of your level of strength/experience. Right mate, I have looked at this last page of your log pretty closely. I have a few suggestions that I think you should consider: 1) Eat more, and better. You are eating very little and are already quite reliant on protein powders. As a beginner, you want to focus on eating consistently (not having blocks of 6 hours where you don't eat) and well. Get some complex carbs for breakfast, limit you protein shakes to 40g of protein, and at most twice a day. Eat rice, quinoa, pasta, tofu and veg. Oats, fruits and nuts. Aim for a total of 3000cal a day as a minimum, and aim to eat at least 300cal every 2 hours. 2) Ditch the machines. They are completely pointless. The only two machines you should even consider are the lat pulldown (if you cannot do chins/pullups) and calf machines. 3) Get a solid routine based on squats, deadlifts, bench, overhead press, powercleans, chins, dips and rows. Accept that you are going to have to work hard. 4) Be prepared to gain some weight. No offence, but if that is you in your avatar, you are very thin and could pack on a good 30kg. Jonathan

No offence mate, but that is a terrible routine, especially if you wish to train for general health. Drop the isolation exercises, like the side raises. For your shoulders for example for these lifts: Push press with barbell Seated dumbell shoulder press Shrugs Powercleans Best exercises you can do - builds strength and mass. Jonathan

Sorry to hear that mate. I have to say looking at your training over the last few months you have lost a bit of strength. Anything you can pinpoint? Want a hand devising new routine or anything? Jonathan

How many times did you train your biceps? Don't train so much mate - 4 times a week at the very most! Jonathan

Amil. You state in your opening post in your journal you want to gain weight and muscles. You need to start lifting mate, not just playing around with little dumbells and machines. Deadlifts, squats, bench, rows, overhead pressing and variations of those. Eat like you mean it, and reduce cardio. You can still gain a significant amount of muscle whilst doing cardio, but you have to up your calories, and lift hard. Jonathan

Rob, it has been 10 days since you last trained your legs, but in that time you have trained your arms 3 times, chest twice and abs almost every session. Get the leg workouts in, vastly reduce the overall volume, increase the intensity and remember to rest well. If I were training you I would have you doing this: Day One: Form work squats - with very little weight, to practice correct form. Squats, 3x10 to what ever depth feels comfortable, but a reasonable weight. Push press 3x8, hard enough that you are close to, but not at, failure on the last rep of the last set. Close grip bench - 3x10 Chinups - 3x12, with added weight if necessary. Should be hard, but still full range of motion. Abs Day Two: Form work deadlifts - with only 135lbs innitially to build form. Partial range deads, from rack. Start with the bar at above knee height and gradually work down to the floor. Use a reasonable weight for 5sets of 6. Bench press - 3x10 Bent over barbell rows - 4x10 Seated dumbell shoulder press - 3x8 Barbell curls - 2x12 Abs Something like that would be great for you, on a one day on, one day off basis. Come on man - do you want to stay the same size for ever? Jonathan

Glad to see you are taking it on board Rob - I hope you don't think me mean, but I just want you to do as well as you can. Jonathan

Rob my man, what will it take for you to do some proper heavy lifting, and ditch the pumpomatic machines and 47 sets for each muscle group? We all know you are addicted to the muscle burn and pump, but serious muscles are built moving serious weights in dark dungeons, not pumping away in the Spangles 'R Us fitness studio! You mentioned you have a friend who is a powerlifter (that 165lb guy of whom there is a photo in the photo section). Get him to show you some serious, heavy lifting. You have to be very patient with form work and building up from light weights (ie, no jumping in to 135lb squats and pulling your back due to poor form). I appreciate that you have had problems with you back, but both myself and JP from VF have too, and we are both competing in a heavy strongman comp on Sunday. JP has packed on 15lbs in just a few months from training strongman. You just have to be patient, and work hard to nail good form so that you won't injure yourself. You will only get bigger and stronger. You have to stop competing too. I know you like to stay lean, but you have to abandon that if you want to grow. Train heavy, rest well, get fat and get strong too. Jonathan

From pictures that I have seen of you in the past Odidnetne, you would be better off continuing to bulk. Put another 20-30lbs on, then think about cutting. Jonathan

It doesn't look too bad - the basis is fine though you are spending too much time on the "beach" muscles (arms and chest). You only need to do two different exercises for chest (or even less). Stick with flat barbell bench and incline dumbell bench. Same goes for arms. Maximum two bicep exercises and three tricep exercises. Get bent over row in there too, either with a dumbell or a barbell. The main lifts that you need to focus on to gain mass and strength (they are synonymous - you need one for the other) are deadlifts, squats, bench, overhead press, rows and variations of powercleans and snatches. Also, don't forget to train your grip. It is amazing how many people forget about it until one day they find they need straps for something like rows! Jonathan

Aye, it's fine. You need alot more fat - at least four times as much. Infact aim for 100g a day. It is vital for a lot of body functions and is a great source of calories. Fats from nuts, seeds, rapeseed oil, flax oil and olive oil are the best. Make sure to get enough omega 3 Jonathan

Kon, your goal is to bulk up. You are not going to be able to do that on the diet that you are eating. Your calories are way to low, not just on the occassional day, but every day. What is the problem with processed food anyway? Almost anything you eat will have undergone some sort of processing in order to preserve it/make it more palatable/tastier. So long as you avoid artificial preservatives/flavours/additives then you are fine. Some of the best food you can eat (especially for bulking) is processed - like bread, tofu, seitan, pasta, oats, cereals etc. I mean, if you are going to have soup and you blend it - does that mean it's out of bounds? For bulking you have to make sure that you eat consistantly, that you eat well and that you don't let yourself get into a state where you have insufficient calories for muscle growth and repair. If I remember correctly your bodyweight is pretty low so say you need 3000cal a day to bulk. You need to get 500cal 6 times a day. Work from there, you cannot go wrong. A good break down average for that 500cal would be about 20g protein, 20g fat and 60g carbs. Think about it man, before you jump on the "processed food is evil" band wagon and waste away to nothing. Jonathan

It's just a first timers comp so unfortunately it doesn't qualify me for anything. I think that the next comp I will do will be this one in Shetland (extreme north of Scotland): Jonathan

These are the videos of my events Here are me and Alex log pressing: My yoke and drag: The farmers walks: My medley: My stone lifting Jonathan

The five of us afterwards: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v519/veganpower/P1010124.jpg

On Sunday, 5 guys from www.veganfitness.net competed in a first timers strongman competition in Markinch, Fife (Scotland). The five of us competing were me, Joni (JP), Wayne (Deckerz), Brian (Buzz) and Alex (Kryptonite V/Daywalker). It was a stressful morning for us all. I didn't have much of an appetite and only got an oat shake in for breakfast. I played a bit of Diablo to relax and went for a short walk with Kathryn. We had to be there for 10.30 and set off at 9.30 so that we were a little early. The organiser, Big Al, went through all the events with us and then we sorted out the running order. The field was 18 men in total. We warmed up in time for the 12 noon kick off. First event - log lift: This was using an 80kg IFSA spec log, and was done with two logs, so that the athletes were lifting head to head. First up was Brian with another chap. He made a fast first rep, and fought an impressive second rep for a PB. 2reps Second up was Wayne (Deckerz). This was one of only very few occassions that Wayne has lifted a log, and he made 10 easy reps! Excellent stuff, and tied for 2nd place in this event. 10reps Third up was JP. His log pressing has been particularly impressive recently and he did not disappoint! Every rep he made looked pretty easy, and it was only chronic lack of fitness ( ) that held him back. Nevertheless, JP made 6 reps for a 2 rep PB. Alex and me were the last two up, head to head. Alex's main aim going into the event was to clean the log, as pressing it was unfortunately not likely. Impressively he made 4 good cleans and came pretty close on one of the presses. The log press felt very good for me, and despite it being the first time trying an IFSA log, I made 7 reps in about 68 seconds for a 2 rep pb. I overall in that event Wayne placed joint first, I got 6th place, Joni joint 9th, Brian joint 15th and Alex joint 17th. Event two - Yoke and drag: This was a 220kg yoke for 15m, and then run 15m to drag a 300kg chain 15m. First up was Alex, who made a quick yoke walk without any drops, and nearly got the chain drag in one go but for falling just before the line. Excellent effort. Second up was Brian who made a quick yoke walk too (around 16 seconds) and valiently battled with the chain, and almost completed the chain drag in the time limit. Following this event, Brian vomitted! Third up was JP, whoose yoke walk was easily a pb. The chain drag was easy for him! I was fourth up. The yoke was slightly unfamiliar for me but I picked up the speed towards the end. The chain was fine, but maybe not as quick as normal. Still a fast time though and I made second place in this event. Fifth up was Wayne, who was very fast throughout and was just a touch slower than myself and placed third. Third event - Farmers walk: This was done over a 15m course, with turns at 15m. Max distance in 75seconds with 100kg. First up was Alex, who made a PB of 30m with the farmers. A good fight for the last 10m or so. Very good effort! Second up was Brian. Brian has never walked with 100's before and amazingly managed 15m and made the turn, only for the grip to fail just after. Third up was JP whose farmers walks have been impressive recently, and he didn't disappoint with about 35m (2 turns). Unfortunately he gripped a little too far back on the handles and this worked against him. Fourth up was Wayne. He had torn the callouses on his right hand in the log press (the silly bugger had done highland games training yesterday and had huge blood blisters on his hand). Never the less he made a respectable 30m with two turns. I was up last. I didn't like the farmers that much as I found them quite cumbersome. The high pickup was nice but the grip wasn't great so I only made 48m, with three turns. No excuses really. I should have done better. Fourth place in the end. Fourth event - Medley: This involved carrying and loading a 65kg beer keg onto a 4.5ft platform, carrying a 100kg duck walk 15m, sprint 15m to the tyre, and then flip it 5 times and sprint to the finish. First up was Alex, who made good time with the keg and duck walk. Now Alex is the tyre flip master and made the 5 flips in no time. Unfortunately there was some confussion about sprinting to the line, and Alex lost about 8 seconds on this. Good time nevertheless! Second up was Brian, who actually ran with the keg (first time I have seen him move faster than an asmathic ant with heavy shopping), made good time with duck walk. He took a leasurely jog to the tyre and flipped it 5 times to make the distance inside the time limit. Great stuff! Third up was JP, whose overall time for the medley was superb. He was fast throughout and clocked in at about 50seconds. Fourth up was Wayne, who like JP made no mistakes and did the whole thing in 43seconds to win the event. Fifth up was me, and at this point I was little fatigued and generally not 100% speedy. I did the course in 45seconds. 3rd place by 0,04 seconds. Last event - Atlas stones: Five stones, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 kilos, loaded onto a 4.5ft platform. There was about 3m between all the platforms. First up was Brian, who quickly made the 80 and 90 but due to the brand-newness of the stones (and the layer of dust coating it) couldn't get the 100kg stone off the floor. Good effort! Second up was Alex, who chose to lift topless in order to shame us all! The first three stones went up in no time, but the 110kg just eluded him. He had two attempts at it that were 95% and 98% the way there. Third up was JP. He launched his way through the first four stones, lapped the fifth, but it was just too much on the day. Very respectable! Fourth up was Wayne, who frankly makes the stones look like little pebbles! He was the first man to make all five stones, and received a tremendous applause from the 100+ spectators! A good time also! Finally I was up. My technique is slightly slow, but quite reliable. I made all five stones in 32 seconds, which I was the third fastest time. It took the refs a few minutes to tot up the scores. Final placings were: Brian - 17th Alex - 16th JP - around 8-9th place (apolagies to JP for not remembering), Wayne - 5th Me - 3rd. The great thing was the closeness of the top three. I ended up with 75 point out of a potential 90, but there was only 1 point between the top three. So it could not have been closer! I got a little trophy, and some suppliments (which I gave to one of JPs mates as they were obviously not vegan). I am really happy with the result. Five vegans competing the field, and two inside the top 5. I am particularly happy as I didn't expect to do better than 7th! A grand day out Jonathan

I agree with Neven. You need to be looking at 3 months minimum. Also, you need to use the same poses Jonathan

Rob my man! I am betting that you could squat and deadlift given time and some dedicated form work! I also hurt my back last year, which made deadlifting and in some instances squatting quite painful, but you just have to nail the form. Start with a really light weight and work up from there. We are talking about 70-90lbs for the squat and 135lbs for the deadlift. Look at lots of online resources for tips on correct form, watch videos and take videos yourself so that you can see yourself lift. You would be suprised when it all comes together On to my favourite mass builders: Deadlifts Squats Push press Bent over rows Jonathan

When you say "the short bar" and "the long bar" are you refering to standard versus olympic bars? I ask only so that I can recommend using an olympic bar all the time. Basically when deadlifting with an oly bar, don't do less than 60kg (bar + 20kg plate at each side) as the starting height is likely to be wrong. I would advise against getting too comfortable with the standard bar as once your deadlift gets past 100kg, they aree unsafe to use. Jonathan

We had snow yesterday. It didn't really settle much in the city, but there is plenty on the hills. Rob, your street has so so may cables and wires zig zagging from one side of the street to the other! Jonathan

Thanks Rob

That would be fantastic Topher - we would love to have you. Just let me know when you will be over and we can take you up to the highlands and show you lots of castles! Jonathan

Firstly I would like to apologise for the non-proffessional video production quality. This is down to me posting them myself, rather than getting my man Brian to disco-fy them. I had a very successful training session last night and here are the videos from the pbs: 165kg squat: The form is pretty shit on account of this being my second attempt and going too bloody deep. It is a shame that I did not make the first attempt as it is much prettier. 230kg deadlift: A very easy pull. I was quite suprised actually! 235kg deadlift: Not easy at all - definately max effort just for the moment. Jonathan

A good suggestion Paused squats helped me get depth (I was going too deep) spot on too. Jonathan