Rob Bigwood

How and why did you go ve­g­an?

Af­ter re­al­iz­ing that the an­i­mals I was eat­ing had the same feel­ings, fears and pain as the an­i­mals I loved. I’ve al­ways been an an­i­mal lover but nev­er made the con­nec­tion. I did some re­search on­line, watched a few videos (Meet Your Meat be­ing one that still hor­ri­fies me) and made the de­ci­sion to nev­er eat meat again.

Did you en­coun­ter any dif­fi­cul­ties? If so what were they and how have you dealt with them?

I was un­suc­cess­ful my first few at­tempts but once I got my head straight the di­et was easy to main­tain. I ate the same meals but re­placed meat with to­fu, beans or mock meat. I switched to soy milk and cut out the eg­gs and cheese (though this was the hard­est part for me). A ve­g­an di­et is a lot easi­er than peo­ple think.

How have your fam­i­ly and friends re­act­ed to your ve­g­an­ism?

They were con­cerned at first and didn’t un­der­s­tand, prob­a­b­ly think­ing it was a phase. But see­ing how suc­cess­ful and healthy I’ve be­come they re­al­ize what a pos­i­tive thing a cru­el­ty free di­et is.

Is there any­one who has par­tic­u­lar­ly in­spired or helped you?

I start­ed a veg­e­tarian di­et with my girl­friend around three years ago. I think we both have ed­u­cat­ed each other along the way. I read Joshua Katch­er’s blog The Dis­cern­ing Brute and Robert Cheeke’s ve­g­an­body­build­ing.com for other in­spi­ra­tions.

How do you feel switch­ing to ve­g­an­ism has im­pact­ed your health?

I used to weigh 285 lbs (130kgs), be slug­gish and re­lied too much on cof­fee through­out the day. Now I’m down to 225 lbs (102kgs), have in­cred­i­ble en­er­gy and over­all feel like a new per­son.

Can you de­scribe some of your favou­rite meals, take­away or home cooked?

Break­fast: Oat­meal with al­monds, sun flow­er seeds, flaxseeds, raisins and cran­ber­ries. Or a healthy bowl of ce­re­al with soy milk and a ba­na­na.

Snacks: Ban­na­nas, oranges, ap­ples with peanut but­ter, nuts, fresh­ly squeezed car­rot juice, and Ve­ga pro­tein shakes.

I live in New York so find­ing ve­g­an lunch and din­n­er op­tions is easy. I love In­dian, Thai, Mex­i­can and Ja­pa­nese. I’m a big fan of Soy and Sake, Gobo, Blos­som, Can­dle Cafe, and Can­dle 79.

Have you en­coun­tered any ab­surd stereo­types, com­ments or neg­a­tive at­ti­tudes?

Supris­ing­ly ev­ery­one has been pos­i­tive. Once they re­al­ize you can be big and strong with­out meat peo­ple re­al­ly don’t have much to say.

What do you think are the most ef­fec­tive ways of help­ing ve­g­an­ism to be­come more main­stream?

Lead­ing by ex­am­ple. Don’t ex­plain it – show it!

How did you be­come a pro­fes­sio­n­al arm wrestler?

A good friend in High School com­pet­ed and got me start­ed. My first com­pe­ti­tion was in North Car­oli­na back in 2001. It takes three first place wins (in the novice di­vi­sion) to be con­sid­ered a pro­fes­sio­n­al. I turned pro a few years lat­er.

Could you de­scribe your train­ing rou­tine as a pro­fes­sio­n­al Arm Wrestler?

I arm wres­tle with a group of guys in Brook­lyn, NY. I al­so do ca­ble and spring holds to si­m­u­late armwrestling. This sport is all about ten­don strength. Weight­ed pull ups and grip and forearm work­outs. I can’t get in­to the spe­cif­ic de­tails for ob­vi­ous rea­sons!

What do you eat and do you take any sup­ple­ments?

The on­ly sup­ple­ments I take are a mul­ti-vi­ta­min, liquid b-com­plex and a few ve­ga sup­ple­ments. Sim­ple.

How do you feel be­ing ve­g­an has ef­fect­ed your progress as a strength ath­lete?

I’m healthi­er now and feel just as strong as I did be­fore turn­ing ve­g­an. The on­ly thing that ef­fects my progress is my hec­tic work sche­d­ule.

How did it feel beat­ing a pow­er­lift­ing le­g­end like Shawn Lat­timer? (shown in the video above)

It felt great. He is ac­tu­al­ly one of the nicest guys you would ev­er want to meet. Just by look­ing at him he is mas­sive and in­timi­dat­ing stand­ing at 6′4 and 400 lbs (180kgs). I just gave it my best shot and had no clue what was go­ing to hap­pen be­fore the ref said “Ready Go!”

Any ad­vice for as­pir­ing ve­g­an arm wrestlers?

Do a lit­tle re­search and don’t be­lieve ev­ery­thing you hear. There are tons ways to get pro­tein other then eat­ing dead car­ca­sus. This goes for any­body.

Main Pho­to by Hyun Lee