International Vegetarian Union (IVU) | |
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IVU Online News |
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September 2008 Olympic Medalist in Judo Goes Vegan In an email on 27 Aug 08 to IVU Online News, Ronda confirmed that she has kept her promise to herself and even exceeded her expectations: Well, when i first watched it [Earthlings] i wanted to go vegan but decided to go vegetarian first cause i didnt think i had the will power. But I've been vegan for two weeks now! I love it too, usually i put on a lot of weight and feel gross after competitions, but i feel great! I'm cooking up a rice and bean burrito as we speak! For more on Ronda: www.usatoday.com/sports/....womensjudo_N.htm ![]() More Astounding Feats by Veg Athletes
Veg Athletes May 2008 How a Vegetarian Builds Muscle Fortunately, a great deal of information exists about how vegetarians, including female vegetarians, can build muscle. One of the people providing this information is Steve Holt, who founded The Vegetarian Bodybuilder ™ and runs the website www.vegetarianbodybuilder.com Steve has been a vegetarian for 27 years, but he entered his first bodybuilding competition in March 2000 at the age of 46. He currently holds eight bodybuilding championship titles. In this article, Steve shares some of his ideas and experiences. A longer version of the article is available at www.vegetarian-society.org/downloads/HowAVegetarianBuildsMuscle.doc
1. Resistance exercise. The body is an efficient organism, and its objective is to reach a state of balance, or stasis. It will meet the demands placed upon it, but no more. Unless those demands are increased, the organism will remain unchanged. When those demands are increased via resistance exercise, adaptation is the result. One of those adaptations is hypertrophy, or muscle tissue growth. Protein: To build muscle, exercise is not enough; we also have to take in sufficient amounts of protein. Muscle is one way the body stores protein from our diet. The body utilizes additional protein in conjunction with the additional requirements placed on it. In other words, resistance exercise causes the body to utilize the excess protein we take in. If, however, weight training is minimal or non-existent, the excess protein will be converted to glucose for energy, and in the (very likely) event of a surplus of glucose, this excess ends up being converted to body fat. Body fat is the way the body stores excess glucose. For my suggestions on how much protein you can add to your diet, click here. 2. Now about weights. So where do you start? Maybe you’ve never done any of this stuff before, or perhaps it’s been so long that it seems like another life…. It doesn’t take much. You start by working on and developing proficiency in a few compound lifts. And you do this around the same time you increase your protein intake. For a sample beginner workout, click here. To learn more about weight training for vegetarians, click here. March 2008 Another Professional Athlete Goes Veg "After reading that [a book on the horrors of meat production], (meat) just didn't sound good to me anymore. It grossed me out a little bit. It's not a diet thing or anything like that [in other words, he didn’t go veg for health reasons]. I don't miss it at all." www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=720531 December 2007 Vegan Triathlon 2008
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