My Review Of Robert Cheeke's Vegan Bodybuilding Book

I have just finished reading Robert Cheeke's book, Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness The Complete Guide To Building Your Body On A Plant-Based Diet. This book is a must for anyone who is into bodybuilding or any athlete, and following a Vegan Diet, or anyone who might be thinking of following a Vegan Diet, and not sure how it could effect their performance or body in general. 

Robert takes on his personal journey into veganism and the dream of being a pro wrestler at first, then changing that to bodybuilding.  He admits he was not always vegan and started out at 120 lbs and has put on 75 lbs of muscle, on a 100% plant based diet, also using no performance enhancing drugs, 100% natural, not even consuming any alcohol, completely straight edge. 

He starts out in Chapter 1 by going over why choose vegan, and is not preaching to anyone in the manner of his writing.  Following up in Chapter 2 by how to get involved in bodybuilding and achieve results.  This includes being ready for the expenses involved, being able to set goals, changes to your body and overall mood, and the time and hard work involved in bodybuilding.  Chapter 3 talks about nutrition, not only is nutrition in bodybuilding, but in any sport/exercise regimine you are involved in, or just in general everyday life.  There is a very good list of DO's and DON'T's in this chapter, he also points out the importance of protein, carbs, and fats in your diet.  He also provides sample meal plans to help you put on mass, burn fat, prepare for a competition, and maintain your body gains.  There are also examples for a raw food diet and allergen free diet as well.  These are all just guidelines, and you can change them up as you need to for yourself.  He ends the chapter with a list of 10 ways to build a successful nutrition plan.  In Chapter 4 Robert goes into creating a successful training program.  The importance of stretching and warming up, as well as exercises for endurance and the lower body, upper body, core, and total body exercises.  How to incorporate super-sets, drop-sets, burn-out sets, and partial reps, into your routine, to help your training and build strength.  There are also sample weight and nonweight training programs for a week in this chapter.  Chapter 5 goes into lessons learned and followed, one of the best tips in this chapter is to keep a journal of your workouts, also of what you eat on a daily basis.  This way you can go back and see your progress, see what foods and exercises help you gain the most from your workouts.  Chapter 6 is an entire chapter devoted about where vegans get their protein.  He gives a list of 10 ways you can handle this question, when someone asks you it in your life.  There are also several high protein meals he lays out for anyone in this chapter, and a table showing the protein levels of different foods.  Chapter 7 is about choosing the best exercises to get good gains, with a list of the top 12 exercises for bodybuilding.  Chapter 8 how to turn what you are doing into activism and outreach.  If you look healthy and muscular, people will change their image of what vegans are, the typical skinny wimp, the basic message in this chapter.  You can use your body to change the world and it's perceptions.  Chapter 9 how to market yourself, how to go about getting sponsorships with companies, also how to use social networking to get yourself more recognized and again change the perception of vegans in the world.  Chapter 10 goes into supplements, the importance of using them and ones that are vegan.  Let's face it supplements are vital to everyone vegan and nonvegans, it helps us gain the necessary nutrients in our diet, especially if we live a very hectic life.  Chapter 11 is how to take your passion into a career, this is true for bodybuilding or any other athlete, or fitness person.  Chapter 12 we get a list of vegan equipment, products and services to use, this is a very important chapeter for all vegan athletes.  Chapter 13 Robert gives a list of his favorite vegan cities in North America, which can be helpful if you live in a nonvegan friendly town, and might consider relocating, this list also includes place to eat.  Chapter 14 is testimonials from people Robert has inspired.  Chapter 15 are final thoughts, and the appendix lists foods high in various nutrients as well as exercises for various parts of the body, and websites that are helpful for any vegan to checkout. 

This book is very well written and with Robert's addition of his personal experiences, it makes it even better, you get to follow his ups and even some downs.  His enthusiasm and positive attitude literally jump off the pages, and inspire you to better things and new heights in your life.  Even if you are not into bodybuilding, you can use this book to help you perform better in any sport you take on.  You can use the suggestions for exercises to help increase your overall muscle mass and strength, which will aid you in sports, also impress others who might think vegans are "skinny wimps".  As a runner  I know the importance of having a strong core and legs, and have been incorporating some of the advice Robert has shared into my own training.  Also rethinking my protein intake and general nutrition, I have modified it some since I started reading this book.   Again being a runner it is very important to have good nutrition, and have seen a difference since changing my diet slightly.  Again any athlete can use the information in this book, and adapt it to their own needs and training program, also as a true inspiration to them to work harder.  I have even started pushing myself even more in my daily training.  Robert is a true inspiration to all, and I hope he is around for a long time to inspire others and show what is truly possible on a plant based diet.  I highly recommend this book to any vegan athlete and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.