Vegan Weight Training Blog

1. I must always include squats in my training routine if I want to get bigger–regardless of which body parts I want to make bigger. When I dropped squats for a while to try and focus on individual body parts like abs and pecs my progress was sub-par.

2. If I want to focus on individual body parts for size, I should simply add a few isolation exercises to my squat/deadlift/bench press based regimen, rather than doing isolation exercises exclusively.

I came to these conclusions when, after reviewing my training logs,  it become apparent that I made gains faster when I was squatting and deadlifting religiously. I was talking to someone today about how intense squats and deadlifts are, and how I suspect these difficult compound lifts are essentially "nature’s steroids".

I’ve been reading some stuff by Stuart McRobert, and he says that training "like the champions" (using high volume isolation exercises) is no good for most people because the majority of the guys in muscle magazines are on massive amounts of drugs. It seems to me the drugs are the reason routines composed exclusively of isolation exercises work for those guys. They’re already receiving an artificial "grow" signal, and all they need do is channel it into whichever muscles they choose. Regular drug-free gymgoers won’t see much of a benefit from isolation exercises because their body is not receiving a "grow" signal. But you can generate this signal yourself, naturally, by doing CNS-draining exercises like squats and deadlifts! This hypothesis was validated for me tonight when I read the following in Practical Programming for Strength Training, by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore:

"Large-scale, multi-joint, functional (sometimes called ’structural’) exercises are more efffective in producing an anabolic hormonal stimulus than small scale, single-joint, isolation-type exercises, even when using the same intensities and repetition schemes.
…
If using machines or isolation exercises, always precede them with structural exercises, and make sure these make up the majority of the work."

My entire purpose in cutting was to make my six-pack more visible. My abs became slightly more well-defined after I switched to fasted cardio, reduced my overall caloric intake, and cut out all white rice, white bread, pasta, and added sugar for a few months, but the difference wasn’t that striking. I don’t think the visual difference justified the overall weight loss of six pounds. Going forward, I will limit rather than exclude white rice, white bread, and pasta. I will continue to exclude added sugar except for a single item on cheat days, and I will continue to do cardio on an empty stomach.

I will also make an effort to eat more often. I usually eat two to three big meals a day, but I’m going to increase that to six small meals. Being lazy and/or distracted is what usually prevents me from eating when I know I should. Cooking sometimes seems like too much of a hassle. So I’m going to make big batches of food that I can keep in the fridge and microwave when it’s time to eat. This week it’s brown rice and beans with seitan. I think veggie curries, burritos, and soups will be good for this purpose as well.

I’m going to weigh myself every Monday from now on, and chart my weight here on BodySpace. I’d only been weighing myself sporadically before.

HIIT was really hard today due to a number of factors. It was hot out, it was my first session after my week-long break, and I have been feeling depressed due to personal stuff in my life. I didn’t want to do it at all, and I was considering going to the gym for regular cardio instead. But I knew I’d feel better physically and psychologically if I just went outside and got it done. I nearly quit after the second-to last rep, but I made it through. My last (10th) rep was a bit half-assed, though.

Today marks the end of my first year of serious weight training. I feel great about making it this far, and I have no doubt I’ll continue for the rest of my life. I’m happy with my strength and physique, although I wish I’d gained more weight. I think I should eat more, and more often. I also need to always include squats in my routine. When I stopped squatting to focus on isolation exercises for aesthetic purposes, I lost weight. Granted, I had also eliminated many high GI foods from my diet at that time.

I set a personal record on the deadlift today: 295 pounds. The lift-calculator here on BodySpace says 290 pounds lifted 5 times (what I did last time) represents a bigger max than 295 lifted 3 times, but I feel good about putting more weight on the bar and approaching 300 pounds.

Cutting out all added table sugar and high-GI foods has helped my acne, but I’m still getting zits. I used a total of two teaspoons of crystalline fructose this week–once in a bowl of oats and once in a cup of tea. Outside of that, and a teaspoon of agave nectar, I have had no added sugar in my diet for weeks. Maybe the sugary foods aren’t the only culprit. I think my skin was the clearest when I was regularly tanning in the back yard. I wonder if it was the sunlight that was clearing my skin up? I was eating a lot of raisins then in my oats, and even though they’re very high GI, I wasn’t getting zits. I am going to put raisins back in my oats for sweetness.

I am way too sore from squats to do HIIT tomorrow, plus I want to bulk up as much as possible for my 1-year weigh-in. I’m also going to switch to skipping rope on my cardio days for a while.