Veganism For Athletes

Athletes at the top of their game across all sporting disciplines are finding that a plant-based diet is not only possible but preferable, as it aids recovery, improves performance, and gives them an edge over their competitors.

If you haven’t seen The Game Changers documentary, we recommend you do. Executive produced by Jackie Chan, Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, it follows UFC fighter, James Wilks, as he goes on an eye-opening journey to find the best diet to enhance sporting performance. Along the way, he interviews scientists, doctors, and athletes to uncover the secrets of why a plant-based diet confers so many benefits.

One key reason is that a plant-based diet reduces inflammation in the body. This means that athletes are able to work out, recover quickly, and get back to training sooner and harder. It also optimizes blood flow and improves muscle efficiency, crucially, with no loss of strength, muscle mass, or endurance. No wonder this is an increasingly popular way of eating for athletes!

Dotsie Bausch, cyclist, Olympic silver medalist
Korin Sutton, pro-bodybuilder, certified sports nutritionist, Master Trainer
Robbie Balenger, plant-based endurance runner

Among the many vegan athletes are Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton, Olympic 400m runner Morgan Mitchell, and Olympian weightlifter Kendrick Farris. Leading heavyweight boxer Bryant Jennings, the world’s strongest man Patrik Baboumian, and world-class mixed martial artist Nate Diaz are vegan, too. And so are powerlifter Alison Crowdus, climber Steph Davis, surfer Tia Blanco, and many wrestlers, including Ryback Reeves and Austin Aries, and NFL players, including Griff Whalen and Tyrann Mathieu.

The Game Changers website contains a lot of useful information and offers free resources to help professional and amateur athletes reach their goals, including meal plans for gaining muscle and strength, improving endurance, getting and staying lean, and optimizing health. And you don’t need to be an elite athlete to reap the benefits! It works for Saturday night dancers and Sunday morning joggers, too.

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