Contest and challenge for everyone!

[VeganEssentials]

Okay - why not start the year off right and see what we can do to get more motivated than ever for making progress...

I propose a challenge to everyone here, and I'll offer up some prizes for those that do the best. Here are the contests that I'm willing to ante up for:

1. Most improved powerlifting total between Feb. 1st and July 1st. - Taking everyone's totals off the board as they stand on the 1st of next month, I'm going to keep a record of it where it stands, and whoever posts the highest new additions to their totals will win some VeganEssentials.com gift certificates. Top winner will get $75, 2nd place will get $50, and 3rd place will get $25, so if you've been looking to find an extra reason to crank out some new records, maybe this will sweeten things a bit more for you! The stipulations are as follows: if you haven't already posted a total on the board, you'll need to do it before Feb. 1st, and when you reach your final stats for each lift, you'll need to have someone video or take photos of each lift for submission, video preferred, at least within 5 lbs. of where you state your PR is at. Anything done on a digital camera or video that can be posted here or emailed to me will suffice, just to keep things completely even so that nobody has any doubts to legitimacy.

2. As I know that not everyone here is interested in gaining strength first and foremost, why not have a physique improvement contest as well? Same prizes, $75, $50and $25 for the top 3 placings, to be voted on by the members here. Rules are as follows - they'll be much like most physique transformation contests in that you'll need to take a hi-res photo of yourself by Feb. 1st, preferably with something like a newspaper or something to document the date it was shot (even if it isn't that day's paper it'll be acceptable - after all, how many of you have posed shots holding a newspaper that you keep on hand? ), and then re-submit a new picture any time before July 1st and we'll post the comparisons here to be judged. NEW CHANGE - Please have your "before" pictures sent to either myself (questions@veganessentials.com, please make subject line read "Photos for VeganFitness Contest") or JP by the start date and we'll hold on to them for safe-keeping until the contest is over. For "after" photos, try to get at least 3 different angles (front, side, back and anything else you may want) and if you can submit your starting and finishing weight as well it would be helpful. Both sets of photos will be posted here at the end of the contest and board members will vote on their top picks for who they think has made the most change to their bodies, with the top 3 taking the prizes. If you're serious about making a change for the better, there's no time like the present to get on it and start working hard to get what you want. Besides, you might just win something, so why not do it?

Both contests are for anyone who is a registered VF board member as of today, so let's get some entries here and see what happens! I know a lot of you are able to make some serious progress with some hard work, so let's see what we can do. Most such contests run just for 3 months, but I've added an extra two to allow for even more progress, so if you're up for it, start replying here so I can make a note of who is in!

Ryan

[Oak]

Hey,

This is really exciting!

I'd planned to start my strength training near the end of february. So this'll fit quite nicely. good that it's for four months.

My sister got given a digi video cam for her xmas - so i'll borrow that for the max lifts.

Oak

[fredrikw]

good initiative!

hm, if it wasn't for my injured shoulder, I think I'd go for it. having done close to no powerlifting at all, and being real bad at it, I guess my improvements in terms of percentage gains would be huge

[JP]

Fantastic Ryan!

I'll make this post sticky and we'll add it to the next newsletter as well.

Can you post another message to the bodybuilding section as well mate? I'll then make it sticky as well.

I'm going to really go for it as well, aiming at 45kg improvement!

[buzz]

excellent idea! and great for added motivation... Sure it will be a mighty tough contest

[JO]

good one! so... is the fleece in those indigo ice bugs vegan?

guess it's time to get the junk out the trunk.

tee, hee, hee.

[Fruitbat]

excellent idea and i realise the photos are needed because it is proof that we are telling truth but i find it very off-putting

[VeganEssentials]

Glad to see so many people are interested in the contest already! I'm hoping we can get at least 6-10 in each category so that we'll have it interesting with enough people going for it to make it a good mix.

Fruitbat, regarding the pictures, I just see it as a way that nobody on the board will have any questions about authenticity for who the winners are. Since the entire board will judge the physique transformation contest we definitely need to see the results, and for the PL total contest, I've even allowed for a 2kg/5 lb. difference between the true max lift and the one that is documented to allow for a bit of leeway (especially in case someone needs to do the lift on more than once occasion for documentation, ever bit helps!) I myself am not suspicious of anyone being dishonest, but this way every single member can be happy in seeing proof so there are no questions left unanswered. Hope the explanation helps a bit as to why we're looking for documentation!

Ryan

[Fruitbat]

No no - I am totally with you and y u require the documentation! No opposition what-so-ever - only I would feel majourly embarrassed and self-concious having pictures taken of me in the weeights room!!!!

[tylerm]

I am in on the strength challenge, sounds like fun!

[Dave Noisy]

Crap - sucky timing... I started in Oct able to bench 110lbs, and now i'm almost up to 150lbs..i doubt i'll be able to get anywhere near this kind of gain again..haha

[bronco]

I'm in on the sttrength challenge! I have two suggestions though:
I'm thinking it would be nice to have the closing date for the strength competition one month later, beacuse of the vegan fitness week in middle of june. This way, those who attend the meeting will have a chance to go for contest winning lifts with the real life support of fellow vegan fitness memebrs . I'm also thinking that in this case a video would not be necessary since there would be plenty of wellknown witnesses. Whatr you think of this?

In the case of myself I have not tried my 1 RM for 2-5 months for the big three, so some of the values in the strength table might be outdated. IHopefully I've made some gains since then, say 10 kg total. But the rules doesn't require me to try my 1 RM before the competition start so I would get in this case 10 kg "for free"? With this in mind, might it be a good idea to have everyone post current values ( say, from within a month of something) before the start date?

[sensless]

Will the contest be open to all users of the site or just Vegans?

Because of some injuries, some of my weights are down (deadlift-475 & bench-295). Would you like me to use the current PR's, or the PR's on the strength table?

Regards,

Sensless

[TriMe]

I'll definitely do the physique one. I'd do the lifting but I'm up for a half ironman in June, so I wonder how much of a difference in physique training for that will give me

[Oak]

Hey TriMe,

Heavy lifting seems to be concurrent with aerobic training fine. That is, strength training will not inhibit your ironman training. Although the cardio will inhibit the strength to some degree. But nothing much to worry about.

As long as you spend as much time training on your triathlon. Of course resistance training can aid you triathlon (in terms of heavy lifting).

Monitoring your weight may be a precuation just to make sure that you don't bulk.

Senseless - love your avatar pic. You look 10x bigger than me those arms are big too. do you have a max strict curl?
Sorry to hear of your injuries, you'll come back even stronger no doubt.

Oak