"You don't have to eat a bull to be as strong as one."
- Dr. Michael Klaper
- Dr. Michael Klaper
FITNESS
Whether you want to maintain good physical health or become athletic, here are some resources for keeping your body fit.Elite athletes reveal the vegan diet secret behind their success
On his personal website the Armenian-German strongman, who has 50cm biceps and became vegan in 2011, reckons he hasn't looked back since taking up a plant-based only diet.
Known as the herbivore strongman, Baboumian said he initially gave up eating meat as that meant an animal had to lose its life, so went vegetarian in 2005 before going fully vegan.
He expected a drop in performance, but was surprised by how good he felt.
"I was amazed by the great gains in lean body-mass and strength I got with the meat-free diet," he writes on his official website. More…
Athletic Events Abound Several athletic events including a road bike ride around the Lake, a Sierra trail run, a 50 mile run in SF and an exhaustive stand up paddle odyssey circumnavigating Lake Tahoe, all brought together at the end of the day with a huge vegan pot luck on Kings Beach! Details.
If you're vegan one day, maybe one day you'll be vegan!
The Vegan 1 Day Runners, Yolanda, Alida and Monica at the start of the run (L-R): 
- Yolanda ran 14 miles
- Alida completed the Spooner Loop and then did it again.
- Monica an awesome 22.5 miles. We were all powered by a vegan diet!
Jonathan AshmoreCheck our FB Fitness Group for discussion
Billy Howard
Danielle Mayabb
Nick Pollaro
. . . and you? . . .
Or email us if interested in joining the team.
Sign up with Edible Pedal.Climbing For Kitties
See our Climbing Day Photo Journal
9 team members climbed a cumulative 3220' in two hours on 22 June, raising $4100 for Feline Rescue of Northern Nevada.
High climb was 770' with several others making 665'. That's over 66 stories!
See Climbing For Kitties to join the next team.
Where doesArticles
Derek Tresize,
get his protein?
From Plants
- Top Vegan Athletes Changing the Face of the Vegan Lifestyle, 4/2104
By virtue of the extensive study and discovery of vegetarian and vegan diets and their various nutritional attributes, more and more people, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, are turning to these diets as a healthy alternative as well as for ethical animal welfare reasons. While for some, the vegan diet is instrumental in a particular and religious social setting, for others it is very much an individual choice, and while gaining popular ground in North America and Western Europe, it still faces numerous challenges and to some degree stigmatisation. Is cutting out red meat and especially fish, renowned for its wealth of nutrients and attributed to the good health of so many societies really a wise choice? Yet asking such a question, while valid in one sense seems redundant in another, and not just because studies have debated for and against the potentially harmful consequences of eating red meat. More…
- Hiker breaks Pacific Crest Trail speed record by covering 45 miles per day, 8/2103
At 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, he reached British Columbia and the trail's end after a total of 59 days, 8 hours and 59 minutes. It was the fastest time in the trail's history, breaking the record set just two days earlier by Heather ?Anish" Anderson of Bellingham, Wash., who completed the hike in 61 days and about 17 hours.
The previous record was set in 2011 by Scott Williamson of 64 days, 11 hours and 19 minutes.
Garrett did the entire trek on a vegan diet as a way to raise awareness about cruelty to animals.
"No matter how painful it was, I always kept in mind that it's nothing compared to what animals go through at factory farms. This trip was all about them," Garrett said. ?I wanted to stress that a vegan diet gives you everything you need for this kind of endeavor." More…
- Athletes Turn to Veganism to Enhance Performance, VegNews, 8/2013
In a recent news segment, ABC shows that the playing field may be more than level for athletes who get their nutrients from a plant-based diet.
The Los Angeles news outlet ABC 7 shined a light on the rising trend of athletes going vegan, helping to dispel the myth that one needs to eat meat to perform well on the field or in the ring. More…
- Vegan athletes solve the 'protein problem', ABC News, 7/2013
The idea of an athlete eating a vegan diet may seem counterintuitive. But it's a trend that's becoming more popular. Athletes going vegan show how it's possible to get enough protein to perform.
"No steak 'every now and then,' no ribs, no burgers, none of that," said Jacksonville Jaguars NFL player Montell Owens. Owens has become a so-called "clean eater" after watching friends and family experience health complications.
"Many of the things that they were going through, they were preventable," said Owens. "Culturally there needs to be a change, and why not start with myself?"
And he's not alone. Mixed-martial-arts fighter Mac Danzig started down the road to vegan a decade ago, first for moral issues, but then he found he liked how well he performed with a plant program.
"I felt just as good as I had before, if not maybe a little better," said Danzig. "I think if you eat cleanly and you have good fats and good carbohydrates and good protein, you don't need a really high amount of protein."
Both men got help from triathlete Brendan Brazier, who has helped many people join the ranks of veganism.
"Football players, hockey players, baseball players, fighters, all kinds of people," said Brazier. More…
- The High Performance Vegan Athlete. It Is Possible!, VegKitchen, 1/2008
Active people need more protein than the average person does. Often when animal products are eliminated from the diet, so is a large portion of the protein. Without adequate dietary protein the carbohydrate consumed will enter the bloodstream faster, causing insulin levels to rise quickly (spike), and then a short time later decline (crash). With protein and snack added to each meal a ?sugar crash? will not occur. Protein will complement the carbohydrate, allowing it to enter the bloodstream at a steady rate, thus delaying the onset of hunger and sustaining energy levels.
Protein, a vital part of an athlete?s diet, is used in the rebuilding process of muscle tissue broken down by training. During endurance training at a low heart rate (60-70% of maximum), fat is the body?s primary fuel source (90%) with protein second (10%). Because Ironman and other endurance training requires the body to be efficient at using fat as fuel, long rides in this zone are necessary. A six-hour-ride, for example, would burn nothing but protein as fuel for 36 minutes. More…
- Want to Eat, Look and Feel like a Pro Athlete? Go Vegan., Compassion Over Killing, 1/2012
Ok, we can't guarantee that you'll be able to serve like Venus or Serena Williams, run like olympian Carl Lewis or do the Tour de France with Dave Zabriskie.
But, if you're hitting the gym and want to take a page from the pros this year, whether your favorite sport is tennis, running, cycling, triathlon, martial arts, boxing, or bodybuilding, it's all the same advice: go vegan. More…
- Can Your Vegan Athletes Match Their Meat-eating Competitors?, American Council On Exercise
As the vegan diet, which is totally plant-based (no meat, fish or dairy), nudges its way into the mainstream of society, questions about its benefits proliferate—especially when competitive athletes adopt it. In the minds of many people, including some nutrition experts, athletes must consume meat and dairy products to build muscle and get into optimal condition.
This belief isn't grounded in scientific evidence—because none exists.
…
So while the issue is a "he said, she said" dispute based on subjective, anecdotal evidence, a growing number of "on the ground" experts—nutritionists, athletes or some combination thereof—are giving vegan competitors the green light. More…77-Year-Old Bodybuilder Jim Morris Proves Vegans Can Be Muscular & Healthy
Prior to becoming vegan I suffered digestive problems all my life, mainly constipation. I started taking anti inflammatory medication in 1966 for my joints. At one point I was getting cortisone injections directly into both elbows every week. The arthritis kept me awake at night.
I would get 2-3 colds yearly and allergy attacks as often. Since becoming vegan all my health problems have completely disappeared.
Over the course of the next 30 days, I'll dispel the most commonly held myths concerning plant-based nutrition. And in doing so, I'll provide sound information that can be simply applied to enhance any lifestyle. These tried and tested techniques will enable you to lay the foundation of optimal health, on which all types of breakthrough performance can be built."
Brendan Brazier — Professional Ironman triathlete, formulator of Vega, and bestselling author of The Thrive Diet (Penguin, 2007) and Thrive Fitness (Penguin, 2009)
When you join "Thrive in 30" for free you'll learn:
- How to combat stress using whole, plant-based foods and high net-gain nutrition
- The whole food truth about protein, fats and carbs—and how balancing your diet will help you build a younger body
- How you can alkalize your body's pH to combat disease, improve sleep and lose weight
- What superfoods to use to balance hormones, detoxify body or lower cholesterol
- How to identify common foods that cause unexplained, mystery illnesses
- How to use nutrition to strategically fuel your body so you'll have greater endurance, maximize the return from your workouts and recover faster
- Why nutrition, exercise and sleep are the secret to empowered mental health
- Long-term strategies that will help you transform your health for life
- You can apply what you'll learn in Thrive in 30 about the power of plant-based, whole foods to improve your whole body health whether you're a vegetarian, a vegan or an omnivore.
On the heels of his acclaimed vegan nutrition guide, "Thrive," professional Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier presents his own easy-to-apply system for total health and fitness, complete with detailed exercises and photos. Thrive Fitness explains how to gain maximum results in minimal time. Whether you're a time-crunched beginner or an experienced athlete, Thrive Fitness will help you sculpt strong, lean muscles; enhance the quality of your sleep; reduce body fat; minimize your risk of disease; increase energy; sharpen mental clarity; cut sugar cravings; and prevent sports injuries.
Link to vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke's biography. Check out the site for fitness videos and more.
What Happens to Our Brains During Exercise (and Why it Makes Us Happier)
Most of us are aware of what happens to the body when we exercise. We build more muscle or more stamina. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs becomes easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood though, the connection isn't so clear.
Leo Widrich, co-founder of social media sharing app Buffer, set out to uncover the connection between feeling happy and exercising regularly. From Buffer Blog.
Big Bald Mike From Mercy for Animals
Strong athletes looking to outperform their competition and improve their health may want to take a cue from vegan arm wrestler Big Bald Mike. After going vegan to help prevent cruelty to farmed animals in 2010, Mike has been training hard and competing in arm wrestling competitions around the country. We caught up with Mike to learn more about his arm wrestling, and how one of the biggest and strongest guys in the world became vegan.
Vegan Fitness is a lot like fitness for non-vegans. That's just the point: Eating meat and other animal proteins is not necessary to building up muscle and achieving a high level of fitness and energy. Not convinced? There are dozens of famous vegan athletes to prove it.
You need to consider and incorporate a balance of cardio-vascular, strength, and flexibility exercises, in addition to a healthy plant-based diet (i.e. Engine 2), to achieve fitness and health. Having a varied exercise routine (many experts recommend 'changing it up' every 2-3 months) is very important to maintain motivation, while consistency and structure is important to achieving results. More…
