Vegan Weight Training Blog

Someone asked me if I thought being on a vegan diet made things more difficult, and I said I didn’t know because I’d never lifted as a non-vegan. But I recently discovered a set of weightlifting performance charts on ExRx.net, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am ahead of the curve on most lifts. So I think this shows that a vegan diet isn’t necessarily a hindrance to weight training, at least not at the level I’m at. According to ExRx, an intermediate lifter is one who has been engaged in regular training for up to two years, and an advanced lifter is one with multi-year training experience. I’ve only been lifting for a year and eight months, and according to these charts I’m at the advanced level on all my lifts except for the squat:

The fact that I’ve reset my squat twice after making major adjustments to my form probably explains why it’s relatively lower. I’ve deepened my form to the point that my butt nearly touches my heels, (Olympic style) which makes it much more difficult to lift large amounts of weight.

I was able to do 3 reps with the 90-pound dumbbells today on the bench press. Previously the most I’d ever done was 85. On my first attempt I completed two reps, then I failed to get the weight up on my second and third attempts, then on my fourth attempt I got it up the final time. I was really intimidated, but I gave it my best shot and did better than I thought I would. My goal is to bench press the 100-pound dumbbells 5 times.

My new squat form is working out well. I really have to squeeze my shoulder blades together to keep my back straight, which wasn’t necessary before when I wasn’t going as deep. My knees feel great, as does my left hip joint. (I discovered/created an excellent dynamic stretch that has just about eliminated the problem with that joint, which had been plaguing me ever since I started working out.) My max with the old form was 240×3, and today I did 220×3 without much trouble. That’s a small milestone for me, because it’s two 45-pound plates on each side of the bar. (The bars at my gym are 40 pounds instead of the usual 45.)

I’ve ordered some vegan Omega 3 capsules which I’ll be adding to my supplement regimen as soon as they arrive. Vegan DHA is easy to come by, but this product is the only vegan Omega 3 supplement to contain EPA as well. I’ve been meaning to order it forever, but it’s so expensive. Once I begin taking it I’ll really I have my supplementation nailed down pretty well–especially the stuff vegans can sometimes be low on. I take B-12, Calcium, Vitamin D, Iodine (from kelp), and Vitamin E,  and I have my Iron and Vitamin D covered with my daily multi.