Vegan Challenge: The Workout

On Wednesday I talked about my husband's foray into veganism for the next 30 days.  So here is the second half of his vegan challenge.  Not only eating vegan, but lifting and maintaining an active lifestyle as a vegan. 

When my husband and I were living in Hawaii together, we went to the gym together.  A lot.  I was really stressed out during my last student teaching experience, so I cut out the lifting and stuck mainly to yoga.   

Last night was my first night back to some serious lifting, and while it went well, I definitely am noticing that yoga did much more for my upper body than my lower body.  My arms, back, and chest are still fairly strong, but my legs were getting spasmatic after two sets of deadlifts.  

My husband however, was lifting more than ever while he was in Iraq, so I let him choose this workout plan.  I don't necessarily love it, but I definitely missed lifting, so its good to be back at it.  Plus, I get to pick the next program...heheh.  It will probably be something equally as complicated as the 5-7-9 program I made awhile back.  

Since his is simple, it should be much easier to follow.  The idea was to do the exact same workout three times a week.  Well, I got him to change that at least a little bit.  There are going to be two rotating workouts, and while the big lifts will change a little, the smaller lifts will be staying the same:

Workout 1:  

Deadlift 5x5

Barbell Bench Press 5x5

Dumbbell Military Press 5x5

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Pullups 4x8

Dips 4x8

Barbell Curls 4x8

Workout 2:

Back Squats 5x5

Dumbbell Bench Press 5x5

Barbell Seated Shoulder Press 5x5

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Pullups 4x8

Dips 4x8

Crunches 4x8

If you knew my workouts well, you would see my obvious influence on this program.  Since you don't, I will tell you.  First, I refuse to do anything more than 8 reps, I get incredibly bored and antsy.  Second, the way it is split into two parts, with the bigger lifts first, and the smaller lifts second...very "me".  As is the way there are fewer, but longer, sets for the second half.  What can I say, he asked my opinion.  

Post workout last night was dinner.  I let him pick something out of The Vegan Table, and he chose the Pan-Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Herb Infused Marinade.  What a mouthful.  These were possibly some of the best portobello mushrooms I've ever had.  I know it seems so simple, and to a degree it is, but the marinade was totally delicious, and the way they were cooked made it really soak in and just taste awesome.  

We had the mushrooms with roasted asparagus and mashed cauliflower (hummus is a good addition to this, if you were wondering).  

You'll have to excuse the lighting in our apartment for awhile.  I still need to play with it to find the best place, but I didn't want my food to get cold!   

He's got what I think will be some of his biggest challenges coming up this weekend.  Tomorrow we are having a BBQ at my aunt's house with some family that is in from Italy.  He'll have food to eat, no doubt, but I think it'll be hard for him to watch everyone else eating meat.  On Sunday we're going to visit his family.  It should be fine, they're really open to my being vegan, but I still think its going to be a challenge for him...but that was what he wanted, right??