Dan's Vegan Bodybuilding

[Dan.Linehan]

We all know that health and nutrition are key factors in personal development, but the world of fitness is so over-ran with various fads, bunk nutritional advice, mysterious powders, suppliments, and other concoctions, that it can seem next to impossible to come up with a cohesive fitness plan to start out with.

The three things below are what I'm starting out with, and I added a couple alternatives for anyone who wants to begin a similar path but doesn't want all the intensity of bodybuilding. Although I'm trying to gain weight I'm sure that's not the case with everyone here. All feedback is welcome.


1. 100% vegan and raw foods based diet for better nutrition.

This was kind of obvious after I thought about it for a few months.
This chart helped a lot too. If we're herbivores, we're herbivores.. there's not much to argue about as far as that goes.


2. Olympic style weight lifting for strength and bulk.

There are only two lifts in Olympic style weight lifting, the "snatch" and the "clean and jerk." Both utilize the whole body as a pose to isolating one or two particular muscles at a time. These lifts are considered much more natural than many other exercises, and they go back a long time, for example, the bench press only came into popularity in the sixties, but lifters in the thirties and fourties all used overhead presses as a measure of strength. These lifts are very popular overseas, but have not taken off in the US as much.

There are very few injurys in the sport for a couple reasons. First, technique is heavily emphasized from the get go: how much you can lift is always secondary to good form. A friend of mine has been lifting in this style for a year now and says he only now fully understands all the technical aspects that he needs to. Second, the weight that you press overhead is distributed over dozens of muscles, joints and bones while doing the lift. You are not isolating weight onto one joint or bone repeatedly, which causes wear and damage. If your body as a whole cannot lift the weight, well, then you drop it. On each attempt all of your muscles work as a team, and fail as a team, it's very difficult to blow out one muscle or joint with this approach.

It's ideal to work out only 2 or 3 days a week on this system; which is nice as I don't really want to burn hours upon hours at the gym doing a million isolation exercises. Since everything gets worked out at once you don't need to do the variety of things normally included in a fitness routine. Hopefully, a few hours a week will be enough to show results.


3. Traineo to keep track of my progress.

This site is web two-point-awesome.



*** The following aren't a part of my fitness plan, but I wanted to add them for anyone on here who doesn't want or can't afford to join a gym. Or if there is anyone here who, for some absurd reason, doesn't find the idea of pressing their own body weight overhead attractive. ***


Kettlebells: An alternative to gyms.

These exercises use the same motions found in the olympic lifts, like the snatch and the clean and jerk, and you can do the exercises at home with smaller, handheld weights. You are still working out your whole body at once and you aren't isolating particular muscles like you would be with a dumbell set or freeweight set.


Bodyweight exercises: Another alternative to gyms.

Ross Enamait has a ridiculous number of bodyweight driven exercises in two or three books he has self published. He's all about doing things the most natural way possible to get the best results, so there are a lot of funky home grown routines that you won't find anywhere else. His site is for any skill level, for example, there are easy pushups where you push off from a coffee table, to the entire opposite extreme: handstand pushups designed for a professional athlete.


I'll continue updating to let you guys know how the whole "vegan-bodybuilding" thing goes for me. Wish me luck!

[Trina]

Good luck Dan! I don't think I would have the willpower to do that kind of a regimen. Looks like I need this site more than I thought huh?

[Chris]

Hi Dan, good luck with your diet and fitness program!

That traineo.com website looks great - I will give that a closer look!

[andrew]

Yeah, thanks a lot for the traineo link. That web site is hot, and actually usefull.

[Jim]

Looks to be a good start Dan. You've got a plan, which is one step further than most. Just a few comments.

1) If you're targeting "builk", most bodybuilders try to get at least 1g of protein (mainly Whey protein) per pound of body weight. Considering a normal bag of Jerky has only 20g of protein and factoring in someone who weighs 200 to 300 pounds, get this amount of protein intake each day may be no easy task (although utilizing a protein powder shake does make it a bit easier).

I think that protein intake is one of the biggest issues that beginners ignore. One of my good friends from high school worked out all of the time, without impressive results. Only years later did you begin to take the nutritional aspect (specifically protein) seriously, and he transformed for what seemed overnight. He's extremely cut and probably ingests about 200g of protein a day.

2) I don't think that you're going to see "bulk" obtained from the Olympics lifts. The Olympics lifts primarily stress fast-switch muscle tissue and will be great for building althetic explosiveness and agility. To get larger muscle gain, you'll still need to factor in some traditional weight training exercises. The squat is a classic, but it's probably the most effective in terms of stressing multiple, major muscle groups.

When you watch the Olympic lifters, you'll see that a majority of their bulk is in their legs and abs (yes, underneath that seemingly beer belly are massive abs, at least at the elite heavyweight level). They do a lot of core front squats and dead lifts to give their body the fundamental support to carry such heavy weights.

3) I like Traineo, but I will plug my site as well. It all depends upon what level you're at. Traineo gives you a large degree of freedom, but if you're a beginner and you don't have a clue where to start, what good is that? RunFatBoy takes the opposite approach in giving the user a specific workout tailored to them. So, if you already know what you're doing then Traineo is probably for you. If you don't have a clue as to where to begin, RFB may be more appropriate.

Besides Traineo there are other sites as well such as Gimmeo20 and iTrainHarder that you may want to check out.

Hope this helps.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Jim

I like Traineo, but I will plug my site as well.

Great website Jim I might sign up and give it a whirl!

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Trina

Good luck Dan! I don't think I would have the willpower to do that kind of a regimen. Looks like I need this site more than I thought huh?

Trina, I believe that the more we learn, the more we realize how much we still need to learn.

Dan, thank you so very much for your helpful information. You seem to have quite a bit of knowledge, so I've got a question for you: How is your energy level? By that I don't mean "energy" in the common sense (I know that exercise makes you more physically active in general), but more in the sense of concentration, creativity, sleep need, and other non-physical attributes. I ask because I'm more interested in the mental benefits of exercise and wondering whether it would be more beneficial to start a bodybuilding plan as opposed to an aerobic plan.

[Alejandro]

Thanks Dan for you posts! I agree with andrew, that site is awesome!

[Dan.Linehan]

All,

Thanks for the great feedback and questions, and for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Jim

1) If you're targeting "bulk", most bodybuilders try to get at least 1g of protein (mainly Whey protein) per pound of body weight. Considering a normal bag of Jerky has only 20g of protein and factoring in someone who weighs 200 to 300 pounds, get this amount of protein intake each day may be no easy task (although utilizing a protein powder shake does make it a bit easier).

I think that protein intake is one of the biggest issues that beginners ignore. One of my good friends from high school worked out all of the time, without impressive results. Only years later did you begin to take the nutritional aspect (specifically protein) seriously, and he transformed for what seemed overnight. He's extremely cut and probably ingests about 200g of protein a day.

High protein and high caloric intakes are definitly important for bulk. I'm guessing that I'll be eating a lot more food in a few weeks than I am right now. At the moment I'm still learning the exercises and techniques properly; I'll write more on the weight gain aspect of things a little later.

Originally Posted by Jim

2) I don't think that you're going to see "bulk" obtained from the Olympics lifts. The Olympics lifts primarily stress fast-switch muscle tissue and will be great for building althetic explosiveness and agility. To get larger muscle gain, you'll still need to factor in some traditional weight training exercises. The squat is a classic, but it's probably the most effective in terms of stressing multiple, major muscle groups.

When you watch the Olympic lifters, you'll see that a majority of their bulk is in their legs and abs (yes, underneath that seemingly beer belly are massive abs, at least at the elite heavyweight level). They do a lot of core front squats and dead lifts to give their body the fundamental support to carry such heavy weights.

I'm working primarily on my strength for now and assuming that the extra weight will follow from gaining muscle mass. I don't have much fat on me currently, so to get stronger I'll have to put the pounds on.

Front squats are integral to the Olympic lifts, and they will be part of my workouts from the start. There's a lot of documentation suggesting that working on squats automatically triggers the rest of your body to function differently because it recognizes that you're building up its largest muscles.

I'm beginning with just two exercises actually: front squats and military presses. These should get me ready for the more complex lifting styles within a few months. Military presses are basically the jerk part of the clean and jerk, and front squats are crucial for of both Olympic movements: the snatch and the clean and jerk.

Originally Posted by Jim

Besides Traineo there are other sites as well such as Gimmeo20 and iTrainHarder that you may want to check out.

I already had everything set up on Traineo before I saw these sites, but when I went to iTrainHarder I realized pretty much immediately that their system would work better for bodybuilding for a few reasons:

They have a "measurements" tab,
They have a "photo tracking" section,
They have a huge database of weighted exercises including both the exercises I'm starting with,
I can easily create and name workout plans without a lot of fuss.

Traineo seems to focus more on weight loss and aerobic exercise, which wasn't what I needed, and although some of the charting software on Traineo was cool it's nothing critical for my needs.

I almost didn't check out Gimme20 since I liked iTrainHarder so much right off the bat, but in the interest of full disclosure I decided to setup an account there too and try it out.

Gimme20 is pretty slick. It has all the web 2.goodness of Traineo, and all the exercises and scheduling features of iTrainHarder. On top of that it also has an extensive profile system not unlike a personals matchmaking site. But my favorite feature is that you can set your workout plans to a public status so anyone could add your plan into their routine, and vice versa, you can choose from anyone else's workout plans instead of having to create your own. So if I wanted a good ab routine for example, I could just choose the most popular ab workout plan on the site and use that instead of researching the myriad of different ab exercises myself. Different routines are ranked on popularity and with reviews, which gives the whole site a nice community atmosphere.

The scheduler on Gimme20 was more than I needed though. I'm not setting my workout times in stone, or keeping track of missed dates, so I don't need more reminders in my mail. There were no measurements on the site either, so it didn't really seem geared towards bodybuilding. Since I didn't need all the extra features Gimme20 offered I decided to stick with iTrainHarder, but it was a close call. Thanks a lot for sending those links Jim.

Originally Posted by Scott

Dan, thank you so very much for your helpful information. You seem to have quite a bit of knowledge, so I've got a question for you: How is your energy level? By that I don't mean "energy" in the common sense (I know that exercise makes you more physically active in general), but more in the sense of concentration, creativity, sleep need, and other non-physical attributes. I ask because I'm more interested in the mental benefits of exercise and wondering whether it would be more beneficial to start a bodybuilding plan as opposed to an aerobic plan.

I can't really comment on the mental benefits of bodybuilding yet as I'm just starting, but if and when I notice changes in the areas you mentioned I'll post them.

[Ibanez]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

2. Olympic style weight lifting for strength and bulk.

There are only two lifts in Olympic style weight lifting, the "snatch" and the "clean and jerk." Both utilize the whole body as a pose to isolating one or two particular muscles at a time. These lifts are considered much more natural than many other exercises, and they go back a long time, for example, the bench press only came into popularity in the sixties, but lifters in the thirties and fourties all used overhead presses as a measure of strength. These lifts are very popular overseas, but have not taken off in the US as much.

There are very few injurys in the sport for a couple reasons. First, technique is heavily emphasized from the get go: how much you can lift is always secondary to good form. A friend of mine has been lifting in this style for a year now and says he only now fully understands all the technical aspects that he needs to. Second, the weight that you press overhead is distributed over dozens of muscles, joints and bones while doing the lift. You are not isolating weight onto one joint or bone repeatedly, which causes wear and damage. If your body as a whole cannot lift the weight, well, then you drop it. On each attempt all of your muscles work as a team, and fail as a team, it's very difficult to blow out one muscle or joint with this approach.

It's ideal to work out only 2 or 3 days a week on this system; which is nice as I don't really want to burn hours upon hours at the gym doing a million isolation exercises. Since everything gets worked out at once you don't need to do the variety of things normally included in a fitness routine. Hopefully, a few hours a week will be enough to show results.

Nice Glad to see you are doing o-lifting. I myself do olympic weightlifting. I also have an olifting website, you can check the profile for it. Weightlifting was popular in the 50s, 60s, but then bodybuilding and machines took off later and weightlifting was cast to the back.

Yeah, there are very few injuries because of the emphasis on technique and lifters are taught how to fail a lift correctly. Actually there really is no "pressing" per say, rather it's more of a leg drive, pushing the body under the bar, and locking out. But shoulder strength needs to be strong enough to support the weight overhead.

Also knowing the biomechanics behind the lifts really helps with progress.

There are also different training methods too, such as Soviet style, bulgarian, american bulgarian, etc. Very fun and interesting sport, extremely popular in foreign countries, ie Greece, Iran, etc.

2) I don't think that you're going to see "bulk" obtained from the Olympics lifts. The Olympics lifts primarily stress fast-switch muscle tissue and will be great for building althetic explosiveness and agility. To get larger muscle gain, you'll still need to factor in some traditional weight training exercises. The squat is a classic, but it's probably the most effective in terms of stressing multiple, major muscle groups.

When you watch the Olympic lifters, you'll see that a majority of their bulk is in their legs and abs (yes, underneath that seemingly beer belly are massive abs, at least at the elite heavyweight level). They do a lot of core front squats and dead lifts to give their body the fundamental support to carry such heavy weights.

Well in order to improve in the classic lifts assistance exercises such as pulls, back squats, front squats, overhead squats must be done. Most weightlifters practice pulls instead of deadlifts though. Actually, fast twitch muscle fibers have the greatest hypertrophy potential.

[tgl]

It can be a challenge to gain weight on a raw food diet. Depending on how much of your diet is raw food-based, you may find yourself losing a lot of weight.

[Lonewolf]

I just don't believe that you are going to get sufficient nutrients to grow on a vegan diet, unless you have a very slow metabolism but you say you are pretty lean already so that is unlikely. The other problem with veganism is that many of the protein sources are also high in fat (eg. nuts, at an average 50% fat content). Either that, or they are soy based, and soy contains plant sterols which are the precursors to the female hormone estrogen. High levels of estrogen in the body have negative effect on muscle growth.
Many bodybuilders/strength athletes don't fully appreciate how much eating is part of the growth process - maybe succcess is 80% dependant on how you eat. For many people, getting enough nutrients during the day to trigger growth is the single biggest obstacle, let alone veganism.
Being lacto/octo vegetarian is a better choice. Bill Pearl did magnificently on this.
The other thing is olympic weightlifting. This demands really quite severe levels of flexibility in the wrists, knees and hips and trust me, you are going to get many more injuries on this path than taking the bodybuilding or powerlifting route which is much more controlled (I've trained all 3 styles in my time).
By far the best natural gainer is the 20 rep squat routine written about by Randall Stroessen; combined with massive, heavy eating but you shouldn't train this way until you have been squatting heavy for a few months first.