We are on the move

Thanks for visiting VeganGyms today. In an effort to have a more professional image, we have moved to www.vegangyms.com come on over and take a browse. We will be boosted the content a lot over the next few months.

Plant Power!

How to be best prepared for an epic session.

So your about to hit up the gym (ideally one of the gyms found here) and you need to have the best equipment possible to represent Vegan power!

What are the options? There is no shortage, but lets check some out!

Clothing: Shorts, top and (you are a big kid and can choose your underwear and socks, just be practical).

If you want to look stylish, head on over to the Vegan Proteins website, where there a tee’s, shorts and head bands that will show you are vegan and good looking! No meat athlete also has a good variety of wares to choose from.

Shoes: Shoes that contain leather are not deemed Vegan friendly due to the material coming from animals. Most sports brands have alternative materials, but its good to know what your looking for! Adidas do a nice selection that can be viewed here or you can check out Moo Shoes whom have a good selection at prices that will not break the bank.

Water Bottle:
Buying a new plastic bottle of water each day is expensive and bad for the environment. Most gyms supply free water, so if you take a flash water bottle such as one of these from Zazzle you most definitely will care for it. There are plenty of options in your regular mall though, so we want provide to many choices here.

Gym Bag: We want to look the part, and being able to keep everything together makes life easy.
Vegan Proteins has a few bags varying in size starting at $4 for a simple tote bag. You can check them out here. It also shows you are clearly proud of your Vegan ways.
Zazzle has a wide variety of vegan tote bags, all with illustrations that are fun but get the point across.You can check them out here and get you subtle form of activism across with there trendy bags.

Food and supplements: The number of non-whey supplements is increasing at a massive rate. Ideally you want something pre workout and something post workout.

For the cost conscious, the simplest form of a pre-workout meal is some form of fruit. You could have an apple or two or a banana. The nutrients will be release through out the session ensuring you can perform to your potential.

Afterwards, we will generally want to get something within 30 minutes of finishing the workout. An a protein shake is probably the best bet to get those muscles repairing efficiently. A couple options are Vital Proteins, looking at the ingredients you can see that just because the product is not derived from animal products there is still a lot of protein content. Sun Warrior has a wide variety of products to choose from also. Your best option would be to head on down to your local health food shop and try a few out and then stick with the one that is tasty and proven for yourself. There are many forms of plant protein (brown rice, pea, hemp) so there is plenty of variety.

Music: Completely up to you! Whatever motivates you and makes you push that extra 10%!

What equipment you decide to use, comes down to you as an individual and what makes you the most comfortable. As a plant based athlete, we should support companies that produce vegan approved products. This will enable these companies to grow and expand to expose the vegan lifestyle to more and more people around the globe.

Should a Vegan Gym turn away non-Vegan customers?

A gym is a business, therefore new customers need to be constantly signing up, and ideally becoming long term customers.

The Gym scene is becoming far more saturated globally in general, even relative to 18 months ago. The latest trend is smaller personalised studios that have a smaller clientele which means more personalised service.

Given that the Vegan movement is becoming main stream, there is a gap in the market for gyms that target those whom follow a vegan life style.

How should vegans go about promoting there gym?

A few top vegan qualities are compassion, knowledge and community.

The rest of society seems to think that vegans are strict, exclusive and unwelcoming.

There is a real conflict between the thoughts here, they do not align. This is an opportunity to decrease the gap between these thoughts.

A vegan gym therefore should be:

1 – Open to all. Vegan or not, everyone should be allowed to train at the gym. Otherwise, it would be seen as discriminatory as well as keeping up the exclusive vegan image.

2 – A friendly atmosphere, there should be a firm policy of open mind ness. It is okay to allow anyone into the gym, but it’s important to stay non-judgemental and include everyone wherever possible.

3 – Resourceful, this is one variable that can be controlled. Stock all vegan friendly products, only plant based protein powders should be available. There should be some lots of vegan reading material throughout the gym (The China Study, FOK DVD available, Robert Cheeke’s book etc.). Staff who are vegan is crucial, this means that anyone can ask the questions that many vegans get such as the ‘where do I get my protein from?’ and ‘what do I eat?’. Another idea is to have a Vita-Mix available for use which is available in some form that encourages non Vegans to take a step towards a plant based diet, whether that means providing a voucher for a green smoothie every 2^nd week, or at a small cost a Protein smoothie can be made ready post work out.

Of course this is all great to see on paper and these ideas may/may not be viable financially. But why not; if the great energetic qualities of plant based people can be harnessed to encourage those whom may have previously laughed at a vegan lifestyle to adopt it without any social pressures then the community as a whole could benefit.

4 Features of a Good Gym

Cleanliness

Nothing worse than trying to find that other matching dumbbell in a massive room. Or jumping on a machine after someone has dripped all over it.

This is such a basic courtesy. Vegans are clean eaters. If we treat the gym like how we eat we will ave no worries.

Personable Trainers

Nothing more awkward than wanting to ask a basic question, however being to scared to approach someone who knows how to help. People can have on days and off days and there clients often know which day it is too well.

Treating one how you would like to be treated. Vegans treat animal and the environment with care and respect, as we do with humans.

Variety of Modern Equipment

Nothing worse than going to a gym and not having any kettle bells to use, or any electronic tread mills.

Keeping up with technology is important today. Vegans are learning more and more about the benefits of the plant based food we eat.

Community

No one likes to be ignored and not having the ability to be involved with other.

Social experiences are crucial. As Vegans, we accept anyone and everyone and work together for the greater good.

About Vegan Gyms

NB: When we mention Vegan on this site, we mean plant based eating. Founded around Legumes, Seeds, Nut, Fruits and Veges. We are not referring to sugar based vegan junk food.

The fitness industry is booming currently. Vegan is becoming more and more mainstream as awareness of all the benefits of plant based eating brings from health, environmental, animal cruelty.

The next phase in living a healthy lifestyle is that these two generally mutually exclusive lifestyles to become immutably exclusive by a large proportion of those involved in these lifestyles of healthy eating at the moment.

There are a number of plant based/vegan gyms around the world, and the numbers are going to increase significantly in the near future.

This website is going to be a place where we can get to know where these vegan gyms are and who the vegan trainers are who are promoting the next phase for those who want to live to maximise there performance.