Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I've been vegetarian/vegan for nearly 10 years, but I was never really one for exercise before this year. Now that I have the goal of becoming a firefighter, I have been strength training for five months and plan to keep it and being generally active as part of my lifestyle.

I'm 5'4" and 22 years old. Here's where I started out:
- 110 lbs.
- 19.7% body fat



My first logged workouts, working mainly on machines:
January 26th, 2012
Chest Press - 15x10, 15x10, 15x10
Lat Pulldown - 15x24, 15x24, 15x24
Seated Cable Row - 15x24, 15x24, 15x24
Military Press - 15x12, 15x12, 15x12
Bicep Curl - 12x7.5, 12x7.5, 12x7.5
Tri pressdowns - 12x24, 12x24, 12x24
Pull-ups - 8, 8

January 27th, 2012
Leg Press - 12x, 12x, 12x
Ball Squats - 30x, 30x, 30x
Straightleg deadlift - 15x15, 15x15, 15x15
Calf raises - 15x95, 15x95, 15x95, 15x95

There's been a lot of progress since then (although I won't be writing up the months in between!) and I'm almost halfway through fire school. When I'm done, I'd like to become an ACE Peer Certified trainer.

Five months later, and I've gained 18lbs. and my body fat is up (which is good for me!) to 21.5%.

I took some measurements last week so I'd have another way to track my progress.
Shoulders - 38"
Bicep - 11"
Forearm - 9.5"
Chest - 35"
Waist - 27"
Hips - 37"
Thigh - 22"
Calves - 13.5"

Late lower body workout tonight.
Perfect Squat - 15x, 12x20, 10x30, 8x40
SL Deadlift - 15x45, 12x55, 10x65, 8x75
Lying Leg Curl - 15x30, 12x35, 10x40, 8x45
Leg extension - 15x30, 15x30, 15x30
Leg Press - 15x90, 12x110, 10x130, 10x150
Calf raises - 15x115, 12x135, 10x135, 10x135, 10x135

When I'm working out at my (small and poorly-equipped) station my workouts involve all free weights and have less variety, so when I'm at the gym with my trainer I kinda like using the machines.

I forgot my notebook with my trainer today, so Monday I will have to update for yesterday and today's workout.

Looking good. Really solid gains. 18 lbs is a great increase. Keep up the good work!

_________________
My Bodyspace: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/VeganBodybuild

My goal is to become the biggest and best natural bodybuilder of all time, and I'm gonna do it vegan.

Agreed. Congrats on the progress!

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Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

Thank you both!!

Tomorrow I will be back lifting weights but today I stuck with cardio. It's been missing from my workouts for a little while. I grabbed a 15lb. rubber bar, went outside by the baseball diamonds, and ran up and down the bleachers. I kinda run their length up and down in a zig zag pattern and then back, which has me completing about 150-200 round trips (bottom step-top-bottom step) by the time I'm done.

Congrats on the gain! Looking good.

Also, love the Jo Chen Buffy icon.

_________________
--
Bruce

I will be following this log.

_________________
My Bodyspace: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/VeganBodybuild

My goal is to become the biggest and best natural bodybuilder of all time, and I'm gonna do it vegan.

Thank you blabbate and SW

I have a lot of catching up to do!

Thursday, July 5th
Bench Press - 12x45, 12x45, 12x45, 12x45
Incline BP - 12X45, 12X45, 12X45, 12X45
Cleans - 8x45, 8x45, 8x45, 8x45
D Handle Lat Pulldown - 15x29, 12x41, 10x48, 8x60
Seated Cable Row - 15x29, 12x41, 10x53, 8x60
(EZ Bar) Military Press - 12x25, 12x25, 12x25, 12x25

Friday July 6th
Leg Press - 15x90, 12x140, 10x160, 9x180, 10x180
SL Deadlift - 15x45, 12x55, 10x65, 8x75
Lying Leg Curl - 15x30, 12x35, 10x40, 8x45
Leg Extension - 15x30, 12x37.5, 10x45,8x52.5

Monday, July 9th
Bench Press - 15x45, 12x50, 10x55, 8x60
Inc BP - 12X45, 10X50, 8X55, 8X60
Cleans - 10, 8, 12, 10 Ha.. ha...
D Handle Lat Pulldown - 15x29, 12x41, 10x53, 8x65
Seated Cable Row - 15x29, 12x41, 10x53, 8x65
Military Press - 15x35, 15x35, 15x35, 15x35

Today I worked out at the station so I had to do things a little differently. There are no machines and no kind of rack set-up.

Ball Squats - 15x, 12x20, 10x30, 10x40, 10x40, 10x50
Dumbbell SL Deadlift - 15x30, 12x40, 10x50, 10x50, 10x60
Ball Busters - 15x, 15x, 15x, 20x There's an actual name for this exercise but my trainer and I made this one up instead. It's done laying on your back and it works your hamstrings. Sort of like this.
Lunges - 15x, 15x10, 12x10, 12x10 Killer!

Didn't have a lot of time for cardio so I did four sets of burpees. I need to improve my cardio and I'm trying to keep the exercises in line with HIIT, or do stuff like tire flipping.

More lecture tonight for class. No weight lifting today. I entertained the dog on our walk by incorporating some tabata sprints.

Bench Press - 15x45, 12x50, 10x55, 8x60
Inc BP - 15X45, 12X50, 10X55, 8X60
Cleans - 15x45, 10x55, 10x55, 10x55
D Handle Lat Pulldown - 15x29, 12x41, 10x53, 8x60
Seated Cable Row - 15x29, 12x41, 10x53, 10x60
Military Press - 15x35, 12x40, 12x40, 12x40
Upright Rows - 15x15, 12x25, 10x35, 8x40

20 min on the treadmill at a 7% incline at 3mph.

Can you post your diet?

curious were you freaking out when you saw the #s on the scale creep up so fast.

It was a 3lb. increase every month so I was happy to see my hard work paying off, not upset by it. I'm still very lean but the weight gain helps me in other aspects of my life.

I don't really track what I eat, but I eat multiple, smaller meals like many in this forum and try to get around 2,000cal. I eat breakfast (usually Ezekiel toast with pb), a pre-workout snack depending on when I'm getting to the gym, a post-WO snack/smoothie (Clif Builder bar), and follow that with two more meals and healthy snacking. I eat a lot of rice and beans and love bananas.

awesome, let us know when you become a firefighter.