Best regards from San Mateo, CA

Hi all,
Firstly thanks to the kind soul who created this space for vegans interested in physical culture. I switched to a full vegan diet 5 months ago, and due to ignorance on vegan nutrition I went through a "shock" adjustment period during which I lost 30 pounds in a eighth weeks. I was sad as only 6 of those 30 pounds lost were fat; the rest of my loss was hard earned muscle. Anyhow, it was not all bad news...my cholesterol dropped from 159 to 143, and after eight years of training I was able to see my muscle abs fully defined for the first time.

I practice muscle control (i.e. Maxalding) and body weight exercises (big fan of pull-ups and handstands); in addition I practice a brazilian martial art (Capoeira), and jog whenever I want to do something that does not require much concentration or thinking.

Thanks to "veganbodybuilding.org" I have found nutritional information that has helped me stabilize my body-weight at 135 pounds. My goal now is to regain the 24 pounds of muscle I lost without regaining the fat. I will be happy to share whatever good things I learn in this journey.

Wishing you all the best,
Porco_espinho

P.S. "Porco_espinho" means porcupine in Portuguese and it's my Capoeira nickname

It's great to have you here! I've read a few muscle control books. I've often wondered how long it would take to actually gain some control like the old-timers had? You'll have to let us know your training (times & stuff you do) as muscle control is virtually a lost art these days.
When you say 'handstands' do you mean 'hand balancing'. I'd guess being into old-time style training that would be a goal for you as the old time guys used that as a common training aid (yet another thing I've meant to learn myself). Even massive guys like the legendary Doug Hepburn could do hand balancing & 40 handstand push-ups in 1 set (I remember reading once about a famous bodybuilder back in the day watching Doug climb a ladder then jump & land on his hands & stay balanced-now THAT is hand balancing!). I think it's great we're getting a wide range of training methodologies being brought to the site as we can all offer options & by listening we can all learn that there is more than 'curl & bench' that most people do when they think of training!
Glad to have you here Mr porcupine

Hi Pete,
Thanks for the warm welcome. And you are right...the correct term is hand balancing as the ability to maintain the handstand is really on the pressure applied to the fingers. If you are falling forward (over) you apply more pressure, if you are falling back (to where you started) you press less.

Here is a great compilation on muscle control that a nice guy made available for free on the web. The book provides a good set of guidelines in terms of intensity and length of the contraction:
http://www.maxalding.co.uk/Philosophy/E-books/psp-max-ebook.pdf
http://www.maxalding.co.uk/Philosophy/E-books/MC-exercises-table.pdf

And here is an older Monte Saldo book which is a lot shorter and straight forward (it does not cover the science and philosophy) :
http://www.maxalding.co.uk/mc-book-english/mc-e-intro.htm#index

As to the length of time to develop good muscle control, I think it depends on the muscle. i.e:
- bi/triceps, pecs, lats, neck, traps, quads, glutes, forearms & face muscles are easier
- lower back, abdominal isolations, hamstrings & calfs are still challenging to me

All the best,
Porco_espinho

I do own a couple of muscle control books somewhere in my training library - I'll have to go & dig them out some point this week & check them out - you've probably got them I suspect, but it's been ages since I read them, so I might invest a bit of time rereading them.
I really think doing stuff like the elephant (sometimes called the rope) abdominal move is cool (especially those that can master one side of the abdominal cavity a time)
Here's a little clip, there's a couple of bodybuilders just posing or doing pec 'twitches' the end, but you get to see "Mr Muscles"

Hi Pete,
Thanks for the video. I'd never heard of Mr. Muscle but I am certainly impressed by his muscle controls. After I watched the video I found the link below with pictures of him at age 60 and he still looks great. Definitively a source of inspiration.

http://www.maxalding.co.uk/holland/holland.htm

All the best,
Porco_espinho

Sorry to hear you lost 30 pounds.

I finally became vegan when I decided that I didn't care if I lost 30 pounds of mostly muscle (I had 30 to spare of muscle). But then, to my surprise I didn't lose anything at all.

So then things are going better now for you? It's important to still be getting some fats. Nuts and oils. I love hummus with just about anything.

Hi Jay,
Thanks for the advice on fats. I try to get plenty of flaxseed but now that you mention I've been neglecting avocadoes (which I really like). I do love hummus too. I like to spice it with chipotle and red chili peppers, and to add some tanginess I add a bit of lemon juice and lemongrass tea to it. Highly recommend it!