Melbourne Vegan Strength (MVS) saw the conception of my interest in strength training, once just a hobby with little purpose, with encouragement and guidance from the MVS crew, this quickly developed into a driving obsession for heavier weights, in the name of personal development but more importantly to help dispel ridiculous myths that developing and maintaining strength is only possible through the consumption of animal products. Check out the site: www.veganstrength.org

Held at Noah's house in an inner city suburb, MVS has been primarily focused on developing the three major lifts associated with powerlifting; the squat, deadlift and bench press. The setup is pretty informal, far from what you would see in any commercial gym... no state of the art equipment, no drink fountains and definitely no mirrors. The world of MVS is gritty, we would squat in the front garden (even if it's raining), deadlift in the vacant block nearby on the raw and uneven earth, and bench in the front room of Noah's house. It has to be said that I am yet to find a group of people who are as supportive and enthusiastic as the MVS crew. From day 1, I felt warmly welcomed.

Ivan deadlifting what looks like 210kg

MVS has earnt itself quite a reputation in the global vegan strength community, it has even been rumored that attending a lifting session will automatically add 10% to your previous best lifts. I have a feeling that we are pretty notorious amongst the neighbours as well, due to the amount of yelling and slapping that takes place psyching up for big lifts.

This is The Nothing, resident cat of MVS, keeping a keen eye on the lifting

Andy deadlifting 200kg

Knackers hitting depth

The MVS rack, where many Squat personal best lifts (PB's) have been forged

Some of the crew discussing something incredibly important

Ivan hitting depth (for the first time) haha joking...

Below are two links to some video footage from the last powerlifting comp that Noah and Andy competed in (10.04.10), both of which taking away second place in their respective weight divisions.

Andy's lifts:
Bench: 97.5kg Squat: 160kg Deadlift: 212.5kg TOTAL: 470kg
Noah's lifts :
Bench: 180kg Squat: 207.5kg Deadlift: 230kg TOTAL: 617.5kg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBrNqjh6VQ&playnext_from=TL&videos=LMilBwjGDwo&feature=sub

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq3Z1K08i_Q&playnext_from=TL&videos=LMilBwjGDwo