The Aethix Approach

Welcome back to The Aethix Approach podcast! This is Season 3, Episode 9, and today, we’ve got a guest who’s been throwing around heavy iron, breaking stereotypes and spreading the good word of our lord and savior Seitan for years—Vinnie Crapello! Vinnie competes in the 165 lb weight class as a drug-tested powerlifter and member of the PlantBuilt powerlifting team, with a 460 lb squat, 280 lb benc...

In this episode of The Aethix Approach, I’m excited to welcome a guest who is a prime example of bridging the gap between strength and aesthetics on a plant based diet: Charlie Ziegler! We’ll dive into Charlie’s impressive athletic background and his journey into powerlifting, why he ultimately stepped away from the sport to pursue hypertrophy-focused training and whether he’d ever consider steppi...

In this continuation of our conversation with natural vegan bodybuilder Joe Vijay, we delve even deeper into the nuanced world of bodybuilding, veganism, and ethics. 🌱💪 This episode picks up where we left off, exploring Joe’s recent competitive season as a vegan bodybuilder and then diving into our opinions on enhanced bodybuilding and steroid use as a vegan. Could there one day be a Vegan Mr. O...

Welcome to The Aethix Approach Podcast, Season 3, Episode 6! In this episode, I’m thrilled to welcome a guest who represents a prime example of dedication, discipline, and purpose in fitness: Joe Vijay. As a natural vegan bodybuilder, Joe’s journey is an incredible testament to the power of commitment—not only to his sport but also to his values. 🌱💪 In this episode, Joe shares his inspiring stor...

In this episode, I’m thrilled to welcome a guest who embodies the spirit of strength, resilience, and compassion: Bill Muir—or as many know him, Sgt. Vegan! Bill’s story is as inspiring as it is multifaceted: a vegan since 1992, a combat veteran, a registered nurse, and the author of Vegan Strong along with several other works. He’s a true testament to the power of living with purpose. In this epi...

Today, we have an incredible guest with us who’s paving the way for strong, vegan women all around the world: Katya Gorbacheva! Katya is not just any powerlifter—she’s one of the strongest vegan women on the planet, a nationally qualified USAPL powerhouse, and an elite force in the USPA/IPL. Plus, she’s part of the PlantBuilt and Vegan Strong teams—the largest vegan athletic team out there! 🌱💪 I...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of being joined by my good friend and vegan coach/powerlifter, Billy Duffy. Billy and I met a couple years ago here in New York City and quickly became friends - wish usually seems to be the case when you have two extremely niche overlapping traits including being vegan, which already narrows down about 98.5% of the global population, and being obsessed with th...

In this episode, I’m joined by Boston-based, vegan natural bodybuilder and coach, Ben Mitchell. Ben is an example of someone who TRULY loves bodybuilding. He got his undergrad in Exercise and Movement science and self-admittedly spends a huge amount of his free time immersing himself in all things bodybuilding - nutrition research, training programming, and all other aspects involved and it shows...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Austin, AKA the Vegan Meathead. Daniel is a competitive, 75kg and 83kg powerlifter who holds multiple drug-tested, state records and competes along with the PlantBuilt team, the world's largest international all-vegan athletic team, as a member of their powerlifting subteam. Daniel has over a decade of experience competing in powerliftin...

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with the vegan fitness power couple themselves, Dani Taylor and Giacomo Marchese. Dani and Giacomo have been involved in the vegan fitness space for years now and originally met through the VeganBodybuilding.com message boards around 2008 during a meet-up event. They started their joint business Vegan Proteins shortly after which was an online storefront for...

In this episode, I’m joined by vegan competitive bodybuilder and coach, John Thomas, AKA the bodybuilding vegan on Instagram. John was nice enough to take the time to come on to the podcast just several weeks out from competition which, for any of you who have dieted super hard before know, is a brutal period that often consists of low energy and brain fog. That being said, I have to say that it w...

In this episode, I’m joined by the one and only Dr. Eric Trexler. Eric has a PHD in Human Movement Science, earned his pro card as a natural bodybuilder, has been a coach since 2009, and is currently a metabolism researcher at Duke University in North Carolina. Eric is also co-owner of the MASS research review, which if you didn’t know, is a monthly newsletter that breaks down the most recent nutr...

In this episode, I’m joined by plant based body recomposition coach Maxime Sigouin who runs the fit vegan coaching program. Maxime has a very interesting life story about what led him to pursue fitness coaching and a plant based diet. As he shares in this episode, he’s experienced a lot in his life so far including caring for his partner who was going through cancer treatments, training seriously...

So this episode is going to be a bit of departure from what we’ve done before on the podcast but I think it’s a lot of fun. Eddie Baumgartner, a vegan powerlifter who was on the podcast in season 1, joins me again for this one but instead of the normal interview style that we’ve done before - we actually did a version of the hot ones challenge for this one. For those who aren’t familiar, the hot o...

In this episode, I’m joined by none other than Robert Cheeke, the godfather of vegan bodybuilding, activist, motivational speaker, founder of veganbodybuilding.com , and best selling author. Robert was the first person I personally ever heard of competing in bodybuilding as a natural athlete on a completely plant based diet and he has done SO much over the years to promote veganism and eating a he...

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Minil Patel - a London-based vegan doctor specializing in general medicine with a passion for health and fitness. Minil has been vegan for over six years, has been lifting seriously for well over ten years, and is a strong believer in keeping the mind and body healthy through nutrition, fitness and science. We get into all the details about how and why Minil went...

In this episode, Jen Morgan joins me to talk all about her experiences as a competitive, vegan, strongwoman athlete in the masters’ 132 and 148 pound weight classes. Strongman is a competition that includes a variety of events where the goal is to demonstrate the highest feat of strength possible on that particular movement to beat out other competitors in the weight class. You may have heard of t...

In this episode, Julien DesRoches joins me to talk all about bulking on a plant based diet. For anyone who isn't familiar with the term, bulking is the name for intentionally overeating to gain more weight and should be combined with a properly planned resistance training program. The goal with bulking is to put the body in a more anabolically-primed state to pack on more muscle quicker than the i...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Zachary Belknap, a natural WNBF pro vegan bodybuilder and NASM certified personal trainer. Zack placed first in his pro-debut bodybuilding show and despite it not being his direct pursui, also has some impressive strength numbers under his belt with a 495 lb squat, 345 lb bench press and 520 lb deadlift. Zack went vegan in 2015 mainly for envir...

In today’s episode, I speak with Leah DeCesare, a 47kg or 103lb weight class powerlifter who’s competed at the Arnold and in several national powerlifting meets with great success. Leah’s been vegan for well over 15 years and built all of her incredible strength and muscle on a fully plant based diet. In competition, Leah’s hit a 275.5 lb squat, a 176.3 lb bench press and a 308.6 lb deadlift at on...

Episode Notes In this episode, I speak with Tom Simak, a plant based endurance athlete and content creator from Queensland, Australia. Actually, this episode with Tom was originally recorded at the end of July, 2021, but life got pretty crazy for me shortly after so I’m only releasing the full episode now in October, 2021. My apologies to Tom and you listeners out there for the huge delay! Back to...

In today’s episode, I’m joined by vegan powerlifter Eddie Baumgartner. Eddie has been competing in powerlifting for years now and has hit a 555 lb wrapped squat, 308 lb bench and 533 lb deadlift in competition. He’s also recently made the switch to equipped powerlifting which queued a discussion about the differences between raw and equipped powerlifting and how raw powerlifting in particular has...

In this episode, I speak with Taylor Patterson AKA The Vegan Trainer, a personal trainer and life coach who specializes in working with others to help improve various aspects of their life above and beyond just physical fitness. Taylor has a unique approach to his coaching that aims to improve various lifestyle facets such as work, social and financial health, to name a few, with the approach that...

In this episode, vegan bodybuilder Lance James and I chat about what drew him to competitive bodybuilding, how his training programming and philosophies have developed over the years, body dysmorphia in bodybuilding and how his plant based diet has affected his results in the gym. We also discuss our reasons for being vegan and our personal forms of activism as well as issues with the online vegan...

In this episode, I speak with Mateo Way, a vegan powerlifter and bodybuilder, about what led him to lifting and veganism, differences between bodybuilding and powerlifting training, effective diet and nutrition strategies, individual genetic differences, vegan stereotypes and much, much more. Mateo is a burly ass dude with a 529 lb squat, 365 lb bench and 627 Lb deadlift at a bodyweight of 228 lbs...