Mike

That sounds like a blast! I hope you a have a good time. I couldn't help but get distracted during the video, because I was rocking out to the music. Tesla!! Mike

I think we have been hard on Tony. It does take guts to even attempt to go vegan in a sport like pro football. I come from a family of football fans and even my little sister makes fun of me for not devouring meat like the rest of my family. My main complaint was with the article itself. I think it focused too much on why the vegan diet didn't work, and not enough on how it could've worked. That isn't Tony's fault; he didn't write the story. If Tony feels like everyone in the vegan community is like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, he might be completely turned off by it (and his fans would be as well). I think it's best to show him support. Maybe he'll eventually find a way to make veganism work, at least in the off-season. But I wouldn't want to be part of a community that didn't support me. As a side note, and this is more for my personal knowledge, wouldn't flax seed oil accomplish the same basic effect as fish oil (regarding Omega 3's and such)? I'm not trying to criticize, but I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing.

That's awesome! It sounds like you'll have no problem hitting 9 minutes today. Personally, I still think it would a good idea to add a tricep exercise as well. The reason is that, when you do curls, your biceps contract and your triceps relax. As your biceps become stronger than your triceps, they pull your arms inward (like your hugging), and it becomes more difficult to fully straighten your arm. This type of muscular imbalance could eventually leave you open to injury. The extra size you're noticing in your triceps might not be a result of extra strength but, instead, a result of extra blood flow in the entire arm (which is still a very good thing). This isn't something you have to worry about tomorrow or anything, but over time it could be dangerous. Maybe you could do curls and tricep extensions on alternate days. It's totally your call, though. I think it's great that your building such endurance and are able to notice improvements.

Good point! It reminds me of people who say they tried to exercise but it wasn't right for them. Well, that doesn't mean exercise is unhealthy; it means that the person either was doing it wrong or wasn't giving it the proper dedication. I don't want to come across like I'm dissing him, though. I do respect the fact that he has at least cut back on his consumption of animals- better than nothing, I suppose. It would have been cool, though, to have the article focus on Mac Danzig's success story, instead.

As a guy who's pretty new to veganism, I found the article discouraging. I hate to admit this, but it made me wonder for a second if I would be better off including some animal products into my diet. I thankfully returned to my senses pretty quickly. I think the side bar with Mac Danzig helped show that the vegan diet can work, and in Danzig's case, it can work VERY well. I found it kind of humorous how the article was about a "247 pound" vegan, but he couldn't do it 24-7; what a numerical coincidence. I guess I'm kind of a geek for pointing that out .

Troy wrote: "I don't want to take your source to another forum and own everybody, " Oh come on; why not? I'd be interested too. I've always heard that decline recruits the most amount of muscle fiber. I'm not arguing (partly because I think VeganEssentials is right and partly because he's a massive guy). It's just funny how different scientific studies can be used to prove what ever it is that a person already believes. Personally, I believe that incline is the best, so I would believe that study; a person who believes that decline is the best would probably believe the study that agreed with his or her point of view. It reminds me of how omnivores and vegans alike will both cite scientific studies to prove that their diet is the healthiest. We all know the omnivores (and carnivores on the Atkins diet) are wrong, though.

Oh boy, this almost always turns into a heated debate. I say incline is the way to hit the upper pecs, in my humble opinion. I would even go as far as to say that I feel a slight difference between 45 degrees and 30 degrees. Critics say the pec major is only one muscle so you can't isolote. However, that one muscle is made up of numerous fibers. Incline, I believe, hits the upper fibers better than flat or decline.

Great suggestion, Chris. I once got such bad DOMS with those that I was walking on my toes and people thought I pulled a muscle . You shouldn't be worried about that happening to you though, Rick. Based on what I know about your current routine, you should have minimal soreness. As far as cardio on weight training days, I think it would be best to do no cardio on weight training days or maybe very light cardio such as a nice, slow walk. If you prefer to do cardio on your training days, I would do it at a different time of day than your weight training (cardio in the morning, weight training in the evening). Also, I would keep the weight training sessions down to 50 minutes or less, an hour tops. Have fun Mike

Thanks, that HIT cardio sounds like it will be a pain in the... well... I'll give it a try. Should I do it in place of my regular 1hr cardio, or in addition? Yeah, HIT is a drag, but in a good way... much like squatting as I'm sure Chris would agree . How about this type of set up: Week 1: Mon: Upper body weight training Tue: Elliptical HIT Wed: Lower body/abs weight training Thur: 1 hour on bike Fri: Upper body weight training Sat: 1 Hour elliptical Sun: eat a lot and rest Week 2: Mon: Lower body/abs weight training Tue: HIT with bike Wed: Upper body weight training Thur: HIT elliptical Fri: Lower body/abs weight training Sat: 1 hour on bike Sun: eat a lot and rest Alternate between weeks 1 and 2. This routine is loosely based on Body-for-Life. Basically, with the cardio, I'm just alternating the exercise and the way the exercise is performed to add variety. I think there are benefits to 1 hour cardio and HIT cardio, so why leave one out? PLus, as anyone who's come across my "anti-routine" thread can tell, I'm a sucker for variety

One HIT set would consist of 20 seconds where you go all out as fast as safely possible. Then for 40 seconds, you go at a really slow pace to give yourself some rest. Then repeat for as many sets as you're doing. If you were running, which you aren't but it makes the example easier, you'd sprint for 20 seconds and then briskly walk or slowly jog for 40 seconds. You can't stop during the 40 seconds; you have to keep moving even if it's very slowly. So that would be 1 "set." I would try something like this: 5 minute warm up (slow pace) 5 sets of HIT (20 seconds fast, 40 seconds slow; 5 minutes total) 5 minute cool down (slow pace) It doesn't seem like much, but you'll be cursing me (in a good way) after the first few sets. You can also google HIT cardio and you'll find TONS of info. Do you know anyone who is familiar with Romanian deads? It would be great if you could have a friend or trainer show you how to do them, because they can hurt your back if done improperly. They're actually a great exercise for strengthening your lower back, glutes and hamstrings, which helps teach your body the "correct"way to lift heavy objects without injury, but they have to be done right. The important thing is that you don't round your back at all. You should have your knees bent a little as well. If anything doesn't make sense, please let me know. I hope that helps .

Good point. I was concerned about this as well. I do a couple of warm-up sets at different weights to see what feels right. Usually after a few light sets, I can tell what my 5, 10 or 20 max would be, depending on what I'm going for that day. Also, I only go heavy with low reps on exercises I've been doing for a while. For new exercises, I go light with high reps to get the form down. If it's too light, I'll end up doing more reps within the 20 minute time frame; if it's heavier than I thought, I'll end up doing less. It also helps that I keep a log of my workouts. Thanks for the reply .

Thats a lot of push-ups. What are the face cards worth? Do you rest between each card? Awesome suggestion! That really helped my endurance. Face cards are ten pushups, aces are 11, jokers can be taken out or can be assigned a different value. Only rest if you need to. I used to set the timer and try to get through a deck in that amount of time. You can also roll one die and do that number if you can normally do less than ten at once, or you can use the die for pull-ups. In answer to the question, I can do 3 pushups but I have to be on my knees with my arms elevated

If you're concerned about keeping muscle, you might try some HIT cardio on non-training days. Endurance cardio is great for overall health, but if you do a lot of it, your body has some sort of function that inhibits muscle growth. I like your program; I am a big fan of full body workouts. Personally, I think it would be good to add another back exercises (some type of pull-up or pulldown would be good, or you could do some dumbbell rows). I think it would also be good to do something for your hamstrings- maybe some dumbbell Romanian deadlifts. You could always do an upper/lower split and add abs to the lower body days. Just my humble opinion. I'm glad to hear you've already made such great progress over the past month.

That's a really cool way of training, Ralph. The strength you're talking about getting as a side benefit could have something to do with the fact that this type of training really strengthens the connective tissue associated with curling. If you ever do decide to train specifically for size and/or strength, your body will be more prepared for it and less prone to injury. I'm not familiar with the schedule you mentioned; where can I find it? I suppose my only concern is that you're doing something for your triceps as well.

The people are at *McDonalds*. The smell will probably just make them more hungry. Yeah, it might cover up the smell of what they're actually serving.

No worries. Thanks for checking it out, though. I really can't blame you for not being into the one exercise per day thing. Prior to starting this routine, I was doing a full body routine three times a week, so it was really weird to not be doing multiple exercises. The thing that helped me was to keep the exercises and rep schemes constantly changing. Thanks to your and BodhiDave85's help, I think I've got a set-up that will work for me. Here's a sample week: Mon: Heavy bag training Tue: Romanian Deads; work up to max set of 8 Wed: Incline bench press; reps determined by roll of die (start at ten rep max, roll die and do as many reps as are on die with ten-rep max weight, continue until time is up) Thur: 20 minute run; interval training Fri: Bent-over rows; reps determined by playing card draw (start at 20 rep max, draw card, do number of reps on face of card, continue until time runs out) Sat: Squats; strip sets Sun: off Each workout is 20 minutes and exercises are rarely repeated and never repeated exactly the same. For example, on Tuesday, I worked up to a max set of 8 on the Romanian Deads; if I do that exercise again in a month or so, I might do 10x10. Also, this is only a "sample" week. This pattern would not be repeated in subsequent weeks. Well, there's a closer look at my crazy little "anti-routine." Thanks again to both of you for all of your help.

Thanks for the kind welcome, everybody! This seems like a really cool group; I'm looking forward to seeing you all in the forums. Lean and Green, I totally agree about Sedona. It seems like every time I go there, I get this great positive feeling that I just can't explain. Also, they have this restaraunt out there (something like D'lish) that I could eat at every day.

Thanks, Josh and Jason! I'm in Prescott. It's cool to see someone from Tucson; I lived there for a while when I was a kid. memories... lol j/k

Hey everyone! I posted a new topic on here a couple of days ago and forgot to introduce myself. How rude I'm very new to veganism and am very excited to be a part of this forum. Robert and everyone on this site were very influential to me, because you showed me that, along with the numerous other health benefits, vegans have muscle too. I've been lifting weights for a few years and am interested in developing a more well-rounded approach. There are a lot of different ways to be "strong:" powerlifters, bodybuilders, endurance athletes, gymnasts, martial artists and others are all strong in different ways. I'd like to find creative ways to incorporate as many different types of strength as possible into my training. Take it easy Mike

Right on! That's kind of where I'm at. I guess it might be better to take one day off to be safe. I was even considering upper, lower, off, upper, lower, off, but I think that would be too much time off. Thanks for the reply!

I love Pavel. He's the psycho (I use that as a term of endearment) who turned me onto the Smolov Squat Routine... my poor legs. If I'm not mistaken, I think GTG involves doing the same exercise for 5 days a week? I guess the difference would be that with my method, it's seven days and a different exercise everyday. That would be cool if you tried it; then we could compare results, ideas, etc. What I've really enjoyed about it so far is that I get to incorporate exercises and rep schemes I normally wouldn't have included in a routine. It keeps things from getting stale; one day I'm doing a 5 rep max squat and the next I'm doing high-rep benching. What do you think about overtraining with this "anti-routine"? Is seven days a week too much, even though each workout is only 20 minutes long? I'm thinking of resting on Sunday, but I want to find the balance between avoiding overtraining and just being lazy.

Oh, my bad! I guess it would help if I actually mentioned what my goals are. Basically, I want to be physically fit in as many ways as possible. I've gone through phases when I could ramp up to a heavy (for me) 1 rep max, but couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Conversely, I've gone through phases when I was in great cardiovascular shape, but was weak as a kitten. By doing a different exercise everyday, I'm including exercises that I normally wouldn't do, which I think should make me stronger in multiple ways. I read an article by Ross Enamait, in which he asked something like, "who's stronger: the person who squats 300+ pounds or the person who can do 500 consecutive bodyweight squats (paraphrasing)?" That's basically where I'm coming from. I like your idea about the cardio. I always warm up before lifting, but I typically give cardio a separate day - either upper or lower depending on the activity. So you think it's fine fr me to be doing some kind of lifting or cardio everyday? Thanks for the reply and advice!!

Hey! I'm new to veganism and am very excited to be posting on this forum. Realizing that there are bodybuilders who are vegan really helped me in my decision to embrace a plant-based diet. I have a somewhat unique routine to run by you. Here it is: Instead of following a three-day-per week 45-60 minute routine, I devote 20 minutes per day to a different exercise every day, seven days a week. I alternate between an exercise for the upper and lower body every other day. The exercises are rarely repeated and are never repeated with the same rep scheme. To clarify, I might do 8x8 incline bench Mon, ramp up to a top set of 8 for SLDL's Tue, do 10x10 on bet over rows on Wed, 8x8 leg extensions on Thur, etc. I also count running on a lower body day and heavy bag training on an upper body day. What do you all think? Personally, I like the variety and think it's good to keep the body constantly guessing. Is seven days per week too much? Would that lead to overtraining, or am I safe because of the variety and short duration of workouts(only 20 minutes each)? Any advice would be much-appreciated. Be brutal =).