Age 40, Zero Protein Powder, Zero Steroids, Zero Testosterone Booster, etc.

I am 40 years old I am vegan I undertook
an experiment recently to get back in shape and lift a whole lot of weight while having no access to protein powder just using whole beans as my source of protein and using no aspirin no performance-enhancing drugs not even aspirin no no steroids no testosterone nothing and my experiment worked in a lot of ways I got positive results in a short period of time but an experiment by definition is something you undertake with the final outcome being unknown and my conclusions at the end of this experiment are ultimately kind of negative I would not do this again I would not work out lift weights and get back in shape using the same method that I used today I would in future go back to many of the methods I recommended in the past on this channel one year ago two years ago or what have you so I think that's a little interesting to talk about um if you're looking at the thumbnail for this video the cover image that shows me flexing about a week ago I know what it looks like it was taken today but it wasn't it was actually a completely different beard I shaved the tree grew a beard since then and the thumbnail image of this video that photograph was taken on a day when I did not go to the gym at all I didn't work out at all and on the day before that I also did not go to the gym so that's me not pumped up no tension in my body that's me in a relaxed pose that's me with the muscle lying flat so to speak now our appearance is what really matters yes no maybe for me at age 40 as a vegan with a lot of other things in my mind I'm not an athlete I have no pretensions to be an athlete and I'm not giving advice for athletes I have no expectation of ever being an Instagram model or a bikini model or anything of the sort all right obvious the real person lives in my real life but you know I notice at my gym here there were a lot of guys with more of a puffy build just like the the shape of their muscles Stan of their body in a very impressive way and their bench-pressing like 50% of one on bench-pressing so after just two weeks on this experiment my new approach to both diet and exercise just new in the sense of undertaking an experiment that's something I'm not a diet book I'm selling not even a method I did dorth but after about two weeks I was regularly everyday bench-pressing 110 kilograms that was my 3 rep max but I do sets of 3 sets of 3 repeatedly with 110 kilograms 110 kilograms is 242 pounds maybe 243 pounds um depending on I do the math or depending on how heavy your Olympic bar is or what have you so I was bench pressing a lot and that is for the record lying completely flat on the bench so many people exaggerate the amount that bench press by doing this ridiculous posture where they arch their back and all that does is shorten the distance that you actually lift the weight at and it oh it changes the angle at which your socket and chest muscles are working it's ridiculous guys if you're gonna do bench press lie flat on the benches it's actually about getting exercise and it's not about setting a world record lie flat on the bench it's just ridiculous anyway so that's what lying flat in the bench I'm got up to 110 kilograms 243 pounds quick so this was me bouncing back after having no access to a real gym for many months or depending on how narrowly defined a real gym not having access to a real gym for many years not worth getting into details on that the big changes I made with his experiment were one as already mentioned I had absolutely zero protein powder I've never never used performance dancing drugs I'm not unless you count vegan chocolate bars or not unless you count coffee I've never used testosterone boosters I've never used steroids of any kind whatsoever absolutely nothing so no pushing huh for her no aspirin no push-ups it's a big difference in the past the core of my workout was doing 200 push-ups per day and I would do them with my feet elevated way up high not going to get into detail with that because I've talked about that in the past the reality is if you're doing a ton of push-ups it doesn't matter with the feet up high or not you are basically going to be burning out your shoulder for other exercises you know it's not real easy to build up your benchpress if you're using the same the same muscles at a somewhat different angle for the exhausting task of doing to our push-ups this is just natural and I got good advice for someone also to try to balance the strain I was putting on my shoulders with inverse row or inverted row so to be clear I do upright row upright row as this motion point the weight up to your chin but inverted row or inverse row is this motion it's where you lie you lie down beneath the bar then you're pulling your weight up it's completely different and it really is it's almost the exact opposite of the motion you get with doing push-ups on your knuckles so I came to the decision that this time I do things differently from one thing it's different that I'm relying on adzuki beans as my source of protein so that's a red bean that we found here in Taiwan for another thing it was different that I was going to eliminate push-ups and I was gonna focus on building up strength through lifting and steel so benchpress it very rapidly got to 110 kilograms inverse row upright row dips chin-ups and you know and a whole bunch of normal exercises with with barbells I don't feel like listing all the exercise to do with barbells and also you know squats and what we used to call military press different kinds of press motions with large barbells and small I don't think that stuff's worth listing off detail the usual in terms of free rate free weight exercises but all steel no push-ups for me this was a big difference so you may be stepping back at this point saying well okay well you know you're not an athlete you're 40 years old you're vegan you're doing this less than part time you seem to get really good results and two or three weeks why aren't you happy with this why aren't you saying this is a great technique and everyone else should do it also reason number one loss of sleep and that is no joke it is true I bounced back into shape or really rapidly but the disturbance to your sleep of gaining body mass and gaining strength through directly lifting steel versus push-ups or other bodyweight exercise like that there is no exaggerating how disruptive this was and this is part of my refusal to take painkillers my refusal to take aspirin even it's really easy to get into a cycle as a weightlifter even if you're an amateur even if it's less than a hobby when you lift heavy weights it's easy to get into a cycle where you're using a stimulant even if it's just caffeine using something to get stimulated to get pumped up and then after the gym you're using something to relax the muscle help you sleep hope you calm down that is not a cycle I want to be on I had a lot of nights in those first two weeks those first three weeks where I didn't fall asleep until 4:00 a.m. I didn't have a pole I didn't have an injury there's nothing wrong with me but the soreness of the muscle expanding sometimes in the neck sometimes in the upper back lower back yeah yeah I remember that with the back was really expanding the back is expanding and it's not just a soreness of the muscle expanding eventually you fall asleep with that that constant soreness that constant low level pain the problem is also all the hormones that are flowing to your blood where you're in this you know edgy fight-or-flight mode in response to this I've gotta say that side of the weightlifting game with absolutely zero performance annainsea drugs nothing just doing this completely natural on a diet of nothing but red beans no protein powder I was really surprised at how my sleep cycle was destroyed by gaining the strength gaining the weight through lifting steel as opposed to doing bodyweight exercises like lifting lifting your wait on your on your knuckles through push-ups with your feet elevated so of the two I've cut really recommends you know bodyweight exercises if you can especially as an older person so my girlfriend's not here my girlfriend got sick and needed to go back to the United States for medical treatment she went back to new hospitals and doctors and blood tests and stuff with that so she's in America so nobody else's sleep cycle is messed up by mine I'm here all alone my daughter isn't with me here right if I were taking care of my daughter be impossible to sustain this this workout schedule right but the impact on me was really negative and if you're a normal person living in normal life where other people depend on you having your sleep cycle destroyed by gaining a ton of upper body strength rapidly it's gonna ruin other people's lives too it's not just gonna be your life for other people depend on you you cannot do this so I cannot recommend it the other kind of unsung hero in this workout strategy because remember I was trying to gain muscle mass and lose body fat at the same time while eating a diet that revolved around red beans at no protein powder none of these other advantages and you know sometimes I eat like normal Chinese food because I was a tofu and I drink huge quantities of soy milk the main source of fat in my diet is soy milk but the beans are not soy beans the beans are high protein low fat red beans atsuki beans once in a while I eat pinto beans something like that to mix it up okay the unsung hero in terms of my success in the first three weeks of this workout was buying furniture I used to walk a couple kilometres by a heavy desk carry the desk home on my head it's a lot exercise for burning a lot of calories and your your I mean the point is you're not doing that instead of going to the gym you're doing that in addition to going to the gym you're going to the gym and then afterwards you're carrying a desk on your head across the city that really helps you get results that helps you that's what helps you simultaneously lose body fat and gain muscle mass and it puts you in that edgy fight-or-flight mode that makes it really hard to fall asleep at night so I still do recommend if you were a regular person who's trying to stay in shape get in shape well if what you're trying to do is lose body fat and gain muscle mass or maintain muscle mass probably the best thing you can do is add into your day walking up and down stairs or walking up and down a mountain or just plain walking long distances with a heavy load in your backpack put a ton of books in your backpack if that doesn't work for you take rocks wrap the rocks in towels or blankets and put the rocks in your backpack get heavy weights start going uphill start going up stairs with those rocks I think that's what I'd probably have to start doing here because the problem was I did that for like three weeks and it's not that I was buying a desk every day but even it was walking across town buying a plastic bucket filling it with like forks and knives and other stuff I needed buying furniture for the apartments and stuff like that still you walk in a couple plumbers you're buying that you're carrying that home you know that was a significant part of my total my total exercise my total workout and then when I stopped doing that I didn't stop doing that cuz I was lazy I stopped doing that cuz I had enough furniture I don't need to I don't need another desk I'm not gonna buy a new desk every week right but I'm still eating the same amount of food I'm still struggling to get enough protein by eating beans all the time and you know what the results aren't the same anymore all right I'm not losing body fat gaining muscle mass the same way I was during those couple weeks those kind of figures that kind of thing it's easy to ignore that it's easy to not recognize oh yeah right the exercise of getting outside the gym that also really counts in my case I think you need a big difference so anyway I got to eat less or I got to start carrying around rocks in my backpack or both yeah well I'm where am I gonna get the rocks I'll get I'll get some heavy objects to put in the backpack gotta get some heavy objects that people don't make a clanking noise you know you don't want metal weights clanking around back there people gonna look at you funny what are you looking carrying in that backpack man so look guys long story short I would be lying to you if I said that this were easier to do without protein powder vegan protein powder is too expensive it's a nightmare it's a lot wrong with it however getting enough protein and and and spacing out protein rich vegan meals in the day that you don't have in digestion all day it is a hell of a task there is no real easy way you can't you can't eat red beans three meals a day and still go to the gym twice a day you can't if I have a meal for breakfast that's a big pile of red beans I love it it's no problem I don't have a problem eating that but then could digest that before going to the gym for me that is impossible there are some vegan bodybuilders who cook the beans in a pressure cooker then freeze it in the freezer then put it into a juicer or what I mean a blender and they make like a protein shake I don't know what kind of liquid they use they mix it with soy milk or something and they find that easy to digest so your beans are ultra processed at that point they're boiled they're cooled they're frozen on they're blended up okay if that works for you great maybe you find a particular type of bean and when it comes out of the pressure cooker you find it so easy to digest that isn't probably in the same way that before when I was discussing muscle soreness I wasn't describing an injury I was just describing strain and soreness and the feeling of the muscle expanding in the same way I have to say here eating beans all the time I'm not talking about indigestion I'm just talking about digestion getting enough protein in that format as a vegan it is a lot of hours of digestion so my conclusions at the end of this experiment is that I would never use this method again in the future I would go back using my old old method I recommend you also go back to using my old method push-ups chin ups dips bodyweight exercises upright row is great inverse row is great however I would limit your reliance on heavy heavy steel I would limit your reliance on pushing your limit with you know your 3 rep max with heavy heavy you know benchpress what-have-you simply for the reason that ultimately the way your body functions the way your intellect functions and even your emotional health all rely on sleep any workout no matter how effective if it is going to destroy your ability to sleep it's going to destroy your ability to live and that is fundamentally not worth it