Tuesday, July 16, 2013

How to be SUPER STRONG while being a vegetarian

In case you haven't found out, I'm a vegetarian and have been for well over 10 years. I've bounced around from vegetarian/vegan but currently I'm vegetarian. However, I don't eat eggs or dairy but occasionally have some honey and rarely have some fish if I'm out and about. It always amazes people when they find out how I eat. It's as if people can't believe that vegetarians can't be strong. I like to show people another side. I side I've been practicing for years.

This article is for those who are either vegetarian or for people who don't want to be vegetarian but wish to add more vegetarian foods into their diet without compromising strength. IT CAN BE DONE!!!!

Training
With that said, here's how you become SUPER STRONG as a vegetarian. To start, you want to make sure that what ever strength training program you are on it must be progressive. Meaning, you want to make progress. Progress = more force production produced.

Timing
The timing of your vegetarian foods is very important to ensure the best recovery and transport of nutrients to your body tissues. For example, after a heavy training session I will eat more calories coming from starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, and yams. If I'm in a high volume phase of training when I'm building strength and not testing strength (there is a difference) then I will eat more calories. It's simple, more stress on the body you need more nutrients to allow for recovery. If I'm testing for strength then I will eat much less because I don't need those extra nutrients.

Foods
So what kind of vegetarian foods do I eat? In the morning, I'll have fruit: pineapple, cantaloupe, Blueberries, and a banana for example. Mid morning, I'm have a lara bar, an odwalla bar, or I'll have a fresh made juice (PIT JUICE). Lunch, veggie tacos, veggie burrito, green vegetable salad, beans and rice, oatmeal with garlic.
Mid day, another bar such as lara or odwalla. Maybe another PIT JUICE before training. Or a banana. Depends what I'm training and how I'm training. Post training, I'll have an HERBALIFE REBUILD shake that contains BCAA's, glutamine, and protein for much needed recovery. For dinner, beans and rice, green salad, nuts, some fats such as coconut oil with my foods

Supplements
Take vitamin B complex since you are not getting it from animal sources. Vitamin D. This is especially important especially if you're not out in the sun like me. Before training, I'll take HERBALIFE PREPARE which has been by far the best pre-training supplement I've ever taken. Then I'll take some stimulant such as coffee, or ephedrine to increase metabolic rate and prepare the body for training.

Nutrients
It's very important to select fruits and vegetables as part of your training diet because these foods contain the highest concentration of nutrients on the planet. No packaged processed food can replace REAL food. However, you want to have them RAW and not cooked because cooking them robs them of vital enzymes and micro nutrients. It's for this reason why I choose to have a daily PIT JUICE to support my body with the highest available nutrients on the planet. No animal foods can contain the nutrients that are found in non animal foods.

These are just very brief guidelines about how I eat to be SUPER STRONG and be vegetarian. Below is a video of me squatting 195kgs = 430lbs. I compete as a 77kg = 170lbs Olympic lifter.

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