"The road to nowhere is paved with excuses." - Mark Bell
1) You can gain muscle just as easily as meat-eaters...BUT you MUST have a solid nutrition plan
To get bigger and stronger, you need to do four simple things:
- Do the right exercises
- Lift progressively heavier weights over time
- Eat nutritious foods and consume enough protein
- Give your body sufficient rest
A proper nutrition plan is crucial to building muscle, but it doesn't really matter if you eat meat or follow a vegan diet, your muscles don't really care as long as they are getting enough amino acids to repair the micro-tear damage you cause at the gym.
2) Protein is CRUCIAL! (Anti-protein vegans don't make gains!)
There are many solid, scientifically-backed arguments against consuming high-protein diets. Unfortunately, there is simply no way around eating a lot of protein when you are trying to gain muscle and strength.
Research indicates that the optimal level of protein intake for muscle mass, strength, and athletic performance is approximately 0.75 grams per pound of body weight. Click here to read Everything You Need To Know About Vegan Protein, where I cite these studies.
My standard advice for protein intake when bulking is 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. When cutting, you should consume around 1.1 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.
These numbers are slightly higher than the recommended values in the cited studies because the digestibility of plant protein is about 10 to 30 percent lower than animal protein, depending on the food. Overall, animal protein is more easily absorbed and assimilated into your body. Animal proteins contain more essential amino acids (EAAs) per gram and are more easily digested and absorbed. To my knowledge, there are no studies analyzing the daily protein needs of athletes on a plant-based diet.
This does not mean that plant protein is in any way inadequate or even puts vegan bodybuilders at a disadvantage to their omnivorous counterparts. But as vegans, we do need to plan our protein consumption a bit more carefully.
To hit 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight on a vegan diet, you'll likely want to supplement your diet with vegan protein powder.
Click here to read the Ultimate Vegan Protein Powder Review. I'll tell you exactly what my favorite protein powders are and other options that you might like as well.
I like rice and pea protein sources because they’re similar to animal protein in terms of amino acid profile and protein digestibility. Rice protein mixed with pea protein yields an amino acid profile similar to whey protein.
While soy is the most popular vegan protein powder on the shelves and it is an all-around effective source of protein for building muscle, I tend to avoid it. To maintain the low IGF-1 levels associated with a plant-based diet, one should probably eat no more than 3-5 servings of soy foods a day. Furthermore, soy is often genetically modified to produce greater crop yields. Some research also suggests that soy has a negative effect on hormone levels for men.
Hemp protein is also popular, but a relatively poor choice when compared against rice, pea, or even soy protein. While hemp boasts a great micronutrient profile, including omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, hemp is only about 30 to 50 percent protein by weight. Furthermore, the protein is does contain isn't nearly as digestible as rice or pea protein.
3) The Protein Absorption Myth is just that...a myth!
A common recommendation by so-called "experts" is to consume no more than 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal, as more will be discarded for the body or stored as fat. This theory is what I call The Protein Absorption Myth.
Well, it is totally false.
Protein needs and absorption rates vary due to a person's lifestyle and lean muscle mass. There is no one-size-fits-all maximum protein absorption amount.
Think about it. A 220 pound bodybuilder and 120 pound weakling cannot possibly have the same protein metabolism rate, right? Obviously.
Beyond intuition, we have studies to prove it. Researchers analyzed protein metabolism of subjects who consumed all of their daily protein within 2-4 hour feeding windows to analyze the effects of the dietary approach called "intermittent fasting." The researchers concluded that consuming large amounts of protein within a small window of time does not affect protein metabolism in any way (source).
Note: I use this study to make a point, I do not advocate intermittent fasting, but know many ripped fitness experts (Greg Gallagher in particular) who swear by it.
4) You MUST focus on HEAVY, COMPOUND LIFTS
When I started lifting at the age of 17, I made a lot of mistakes. I did a lot of long (2+ hour) high-rep workouts consisting mainly of isolation exercises. These workouts were incredibly boring and I never looked forward to going to the gym.
When guys spend a couple hours in the gym pounding away with drop sets, burnout sets, supersets, and so forth, they're working very hard for little payoff.
What these guys and I didn't realize is that you maximize muscle and strength gains by focusing on heavy, compound lifts. These exercises are the "non-negotiables," which are exercises you should do every week, without fail. The big compound lifts vital for building a strong, muscular physique are the squat, deadlift, bench press, and military press.
Leave the drop sets, giant sets, and supersets prescribed in the magazines to the magazine readers. These training methods are as ineffective as they are grueling.
That being said, a well-designed weightlifting routine for strength and aesthetics includes both compound and isolation exercises.
Compound movements comprise about 75 percent of the exercises I do in the gym. The other 25 percent are isolation exercises.
5) Proper rest is just as important as proper training
One of the most common problems with weightlifting programs is excessive training. While many guys undertrain in the gym because they’re too busy checking themselves out in the mirror and scrolling through Facebook, there are also many guys who overtrain.
Your muscles can only take so much of a beating every week before your body falls behind in its ability to repair the damage caused by training. Training frequency alone does not determine much in the way of gains.
Instead, VOLUME is the important metric. Volume, or the total amount of total reps performed, is the main determining factor in your muscle and strength gains.
If your volume per week is too low, you will struggle to gain muscle and strength.
If your volume per week is too high, you’ll face problems related to overtraining (more on this later).
Get the volume right and you’ll make gains faster than ever.
If you want to learn all everything you need to know about building vegan muscle, download your free copy of my 35-page Complete Guide to Building Vegan Muscle. I promise it will blow you away!
That's a wrap! Thank you so much for reading this article!
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Your vegan fitness trainer,
Leif