Frank Medrano: training program and diet

Girl look at that body – Yeah, I work out!

A beautiful and muscular body for a man today is one of the indicators of success, physical strength, health and an unambiguous factor of female attention; an attractive appearance is always in “trend”. People who are far from the subculture of bodybuilding and professional sports are aware of how thorny and difficult the path to the formula “a healthy mind is in a healthy body.”

The average person who does not delve into the topic imagines a strict and boring daily routine (we train during the day and sleep at night), eating chicken breasts on an industrial scale, monotonous and monotonous training with “hardware” in the gym - otherwise the desired result will not be achieved. But it is not so.

Today, thanks to the Internet, the sports direction “Kalisthenics” (translated into Russian as “beauty and strength”), known since the times of ancient Greek civilization, in which there was a cult of a healthy and beautiful body, is successfully walking around the planet, which we can clearly see in the sculptures. .

Horizontal bars, parallel bars and platforms on the streets of Russian cities appeared back in Soviet times, allowing young people to develop their bodies and engage in sports and gymnastics absolutely free of charge, without visiting fitness clubs and without using sports nutrition in their training diet to increase muscle mass.

It is enough just to regularly train with your own body weight and eat right, consuming daily amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. No extra cash costs, just your motivation and desire to become better.

The United States also took a course towards street training (workout) at the beginning of the 21st century, gradually promoting a healthy lifestyle and strength sports through the media and the Internet, as well as introducing a wide audience to a number of interesting athletes, one of whom I would like to talk about more details.

What's special?

This athlete proved to everyone that it is possible to develop strength and build a beautiful body without using special means traditionally used by bodybuilders in their training programs. You just need to move away from the usual concepts that oblige athletes to eat a lot of meat and other protein foods to restore strength and gain energy for exercise.

Also, the exclusivity of his method lies in the fact that it does not include grueling exercises with heavy iron.

The results of Frank Medrano's program prove that an athletic body can be developed at any age, and those who think it is too late should not despair. The main thing is desire, but opportunity can be found. The author of the program thinks so.

A little history

When Frank was young, he was a pole vaulter in track and field. Then, having matured, he stopped playing sports, and after a few years his health began to deteriorate - fatigue quickly set in, weakness and slowness overcame him. Diets did not help, it began to affect mental and moral health, and self-esteem fell.

That’s when the idea that something needed to change in life came to salvation, and Frank Medrano decided to act.

Having become acquainted with some techniques, he opted for calisthenics - special gymnastic exercises designed to deeply work out joints and muscles solely using the weight of one’s own body. This gymnastics made it possible to practice anywhere and at any time, since it did not require any special equipment. It provides a convenient opportunity to effectively use your time and control the conduct of classes.

By setting and progressively achieving small goals, I managed to slowly realize my cherished desire - to create a perfect body. Motivation also played a role - daily contemplation of progress from training pushed me to move forward and gave me confidence in my abilities.

Interesting facts and answers to questions

Frank Medrano received certificates from the following US national organizations dedicated to healthy lifestyle, fitness and sports:

Council on Physical Education (ACE) Aerobics and Fitness Association (AFAA) International Sports Science Association (ISSA) American Institute of Sports Medicine (ACSM) National Exercise and Trainers Association (NESTA) National Federation of Trainers (NFPT) National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF)

Life philosophy

In an interview, Medrano said his biggest role model was Nathan Jackson, whose holistic teachings and vegetarian diet inspired Frank to take the same path. Jackson emphasizes that anyone can become stronger, healthier, more resilient, and gain ripped muscles on a vegan diet.

Another source of motivation and inspiration for Medrano is his fans. The street workout emphasizes that like-minded people give strength and confidence to manage thyroid function and diet.

Where does he work?

Dan Attanasio, Noel Polanco and Frank Medrano founded the Vegan Calisthenics-X community. Through the site, the trio answers questions about the diet, shares information and makes motivational videos about the benefits of a plant-based diet.

Postulates of the program

To achieve the desired results, as in other methods, Frank Medrano's training program must strictly follow a list of certain rules. There is no need to be scared - there are few of them and they are understandable to everyone, even beginners.

To get results you need to follow only three points:

1. Regular classes. It is most important. Failure to follow this rule will lead to poor results and loss of motivation. In this case, most people abandon the thought of self-improvement of the body. And vice versa, systematic training and visible results force you to pursue your goal more actively.
2. Eating according to the rules. For full-fledged exercises that do not lead to disruptions in the functioning of the body, it is necessary to eat properly. It doesn’t necessarily have to be meat; a vegetarian diet, which Frank Medrano himself adheres to, is perfect. Nutrition using this method is healthy and nutritious, which allows the body to be normal.
3. Interval training. High intensity exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system, accelerates metabolic processes, effectively burns fat and increases endurance. This is an additional motivation for the athlete.

How does Frank Medrano train?

Photo: Frank Medrano
As Frank Medrano points out, training should be based on calisthenics or exercises that use only your own body weight. This is quite enough to always keep yourself in good physical shape. To increase strength and build muscle volume, you need to use the resistance of your body weight.

But the athlete himself admits that during his training he also adds exercises that involve dumbbells and a barbell. These exercises include squats and lunges, dumbbell curls that work the biceps, and straight-legged deadlifts.

He also adds sprints over a 100-meter distance to his training, with their help he can burn excess fat deposits and create a powerful release of hormones into the blood for accelerated muscle growth. Frank also uses interval training using the work-pause method. Also, for each day of the week, the athlete uses his own training program, working on a specific zone:

• for Monday, a set of exercises is used for the torso, working out the triceps and oblique abdominal muscles;
• Tuesday is reserved for working out the muscles of the lower back and back;
• Wednesday is the time to engage the shoulder girdle;
• on Thursday, attention is paid to pumping up the arms;
• on Friday, the entire training time is spent working on the lower part of the body;
• for Saturday there is a full body set;
• On Sunday you need to give your body a well-deserved rest.

Regardless of the day of the week, any workout should include high interval training for 15 minutes. Each training takes Frank about two hours on average.

Athlete nutrition program

Photo: Frank Medrano
Medrano became a vegetarian on the advice of his bodybuilding friends. The athlete, following their example, refused to eat meat and after a while he felt how his health improved - his energy supply increased, the period of time for the body to recover decreased.

As you can read in various interviews with Frank Medrano, nutrition is based on strict veganism. He became a vegan at about 30 years old; his diet completely lacks food of animal origin, containing exclusively plant products.

As a rule, this strictest form of vegetarianism must be approached sequentially - first excluding red meat from food, then eggs and chicken, fish, then seafood and any dairy. But Frank, as he himself says, gave up everything at one moment without intermediate stages.

As the athlete himself says, it was quite easy to give up meat; there were big problems with eggs and chicken, which caused the athlete to break down more than once. Many athletes believe that in order to build muscle, it is necessary to include meat dishes in the nutrition program, since they contain the main material for building muscles - protein. But according to Medrano himself, this is a pure myth and he himself would not have achieved those high results if he had continued to adhere to a diet containing meat. Its menu is based on the following food products:

• olive oil, also nut and flaxseed;
• soy and almond milk;
• Frank eats pasta, but only the hard variety;
• rolled oats, coated cereals;
• the athlete’s diet contains fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as dried fruits;
• legumes

It is worth noting that Medrano strictly adheres to a healthy lifestyle and gives preference exclusively to home-cooked food. The athlete does not eat in public establishments, basing this on the fact that he pays special attention to knowing exactly what products were used to prepare the dish.

Frank's diet consists of low-fat foods and plenty of superfoods. When he strives to achieve maximum results, he increases the amount of vegetables consumed and reduces the amount of salt.

It should be noted that athlete training is suitable for athletes with an average and high level of training. You can view his training on the Internet, where there are a large number of videos with his training.

As Medrano himself states, his goal is to convince the world that veganism and sports contribute to the health of the entire body, allow you to prolong and improve the quality of life, and it is not at all necessary to take illegal drugs to achieve results.

Features of training

Features of the classes according to the method are based on the use of calisthenics. This method does not involve the use of any devices or equipment. As Frank Medrano explains, your own body weight is the load in these exercises. Many may think that this is a completely worthless undertaking and an ineffective program. But the fact of the matter is that after the first workout you can observe the results obtained - increased endurance and increased strength.

Calisthenics exercises are useful not only in Frank’s method, but also simply in everyday life or as additional exercises in other sports. They are aimed at comprehensively working all muscle groups and do not harm the joints. The complex includes exercises such as lunges, squats, various jumps, push-ups and pull-ups.

The method does not provide for a specific time of day for classes - they can be performed at a convenient time in a suitable place by creating an individual schedule.

"Work like a one-legged Iraq war veteran"

Medrano's workouts are based on calisthenics - strength gymnastics using your own weight and overcoming resistance.

"It is very comfortable. You can squat, jump, and lunge at any time, indoors or outdoors.”

Not only workout areas are suitable for training, but also boxes, park benches, stairs, steep slides, horizontal bars, and chairs. In addition to these, the athlete includes basic and isolation techniques for mass and honing contours.

Where to watch and find out?

Anyone can start classes on their own right away. They do not require a partner to provide security or assistance in supplying equipment.

During training, you can use available auxiliary items and devices - benches, parallel bars, chairs or horizontal bars. They will help maintain balance or add additional stress.

Frank Medrano prefers to record his workouts on video, and posts the videos on a specially organized online channel, where anyone interested can enter. These lessons are perfect as a teaching aid. Until recently, his video tutorials were freely available, but now they are sold on the website.

But the author himself notes that his main activities do not prevent him from visiting the gym from time to time and training individual muscles with heavy weights.

How did it start?

Now it seems incredible and surprising to many that Frank managed to achieve such amazing results as a vegetarian that he managed to pump up his body without eating meat.

But, as you know, until the age of thirty he led an ordinary life and ate like all the people around him. Everything changed from the moment he decided to take up sports seriously.

Frank Medrano turned to his bodybuilder friends for advice, who told him about the nuances of switching to a plant-based diet and the impact of such a regime on the body. And also about what rules you need to follow so as not to harm yourself.

A short time after the start of training, the first results appeared - positive changes in well-being, time to recuperate decreased, fatigue went away, and energy levels increased.

Feeling such changes, three months later Frank and like-minded friends created their own team, Vegan Calisthen-X, which decided to popularize healthy vegetarian food among professional athletes.

Diet

“I would never have achieved such results if I had continued to eat meat.”

It's hard to believe that he built such muscles on plant foods. A strict vegan, having given up animal products at the age of 30, with the help of basic equipment, cultivated heroic strength in himself. Using personal example, he destroyed the stereotype about the need for strength athletes to consume meat to obtain protein.

Medrano was introduced to vegetarianism by bodybuilder friends who tested the nutritional system on themselves. After giving up animal food 2 weeks later, the athlete felt an unprecedented influx of strength. Inspired by the result, he created the “Vegan Warriors” project and began posting videos and evidence-based information in favor of a plant-based diet.

“My vegan friends and I are in great shape and full of energy.”

On the menu:

• almond and soy milk;
• rolled oat flakes, cereals with shell;
• durum pasta;
• legumes;
• flaxseed, olive, nut oil;
• dried fruits, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Frank is more devoted to home-cooked food. He never eats in public catering, citing violations of cooking technology, the abundance of fats, sugar, and chemical additives. Controls the consumption of salt and glucose, strictly monitors the intake of fiber into the body.

When asked about his plans, Koda replies that he wants to remove the mental and intellectual limitations that block the achievement of extreme results. The athlete’s goal is to convince the world that sports and a vegan diet heal the body and improve the quality and length of life. Today, the trainer shares his personal experience and sells training through the website - https://www.frankmedrano.com/.

Why vegetarianism?

Medrano Frank was first involved in fitness, and then his passion in life was extreme gymnastics - building muscles and mass. Food during this period was normal. Then his attention was drawn to a couple of friends who had extraordinary physical attributes and incredible strength, but they were also vegans. This state of affairs shocked and made me think.

Veganism is the strictest form of vegetarianism, in which the consumption of meat in any form is completely prohibited.

After Frank collected the necessary information, he also decided to try this nutrition format. I really wanted to take my life to the next level. At first, not everything worked out, there were breakdowns, the diet was a regular vegetarian one with rare consumption of chicken meat and eggs.

After several weeks of such nutrition, positive changes became clearly noticeable - strength appeared, heaviness went away, and the speed of movements increased. This reinforced the idea that you can’t stop and you need to move on.

The next stage was a complete abstinence from dairy products and poultry. In addition to this, Frank began to profess non-violence against animals, which strengthened him on his path. He became a vegan.

Interview continued

Why did you become vegan?

I've been into fitness for a while, but I couldn't have imagined the incredible levels a vegan, plant-based diet could take me to in terms of fitness and fitness. I had been doing extreme calisthenics (mass building training) for about a year and a half when two of my friends who were doing the same thing as me told me about the vegan lifestyle. Both of my friends have incredible strength and physique, so when I found out they were vegan, it caught my attention and I started researching. What struck me most about going vegan was that I felt like I needed to take my health to a whole new level. They explained the health benefits of veganism and helped me with healthy vegan eating when I first started. Within a few weeks, my energy had increased significantly and my muscle endurance and recovery rate had increased to incredible levels. I became stronger, faster and stopped feeling the fatigue and heaviness that I had after eating dairy and meat products.

What initially convinced me to go vegan was the health benefits; and the effect that veganism has had on the way my body looks and functions has only strengthened my beliefs. I then accepted other reasons for going vegan, such as the animal cruelty inherent in factory farming. It opened my eyes to the truth about the unjust killing of animals for food. It made me look back and think; All these years I didn't understand that animals deserve to live - we don't have to consume them to be healthy or strong. Then I realized that I wanted to be a vegan.

Was it hard for you? If so, what was the hardest part and did it get easier over time?

Overall, it was not difficult, but there were some obstacles along the way. I was NOT a vegetarian, so I went vegan straight from eating meat. I was committed to eating healthy long before going vegan, so I didn't usually eat a lot of meat. It was easy for me to give up red meat, fish and dairy since I rarely ate them. It was a little more difficult with chicken, turkey and eggs. At first I was resistant to eating chicken or eggs. But over time, as my resolve grew stronger, I noticed that I liked the taste of this food less and less. Having a wide variety of vegan foods to choose from helps me a lot. This ensures that no matter what happens, I will always have healthy and delicious food nearby.

Frank's diet

Nutrition in the system of Frank Medrano, whose photo is presented in this article, plays a major role. Food should be environmentally friendly, homemade, so that you can clearly determine what is entering the body.

The main products that the author of the method eats are as follows:

• pasta and noodles;
• various nuts;
• legumes and lentils;
• mushrooms, cilantro, spinach;
• brown rice;
• fruit and vegetable dishes;
• almond milk;
• peanut (nut), coconut and olive oil;
• oatmeal;
• whole grain bread products.

Advice from a nutrition professional

Frank Medrano, whose abs are surprised and envied by even the most famous athletes, gives everyone recommendations and nutritional advice.

The main ones are:

1. The transition to a vegetarian diet, and even more so to veganism, must be carried out gradually. It is necessary to give up familiar foods gradually, trying to replace them with plant foods of similar vitamin content.
2. You should not morally castigate yourself in case of breakdowns, which are inevitable. This is natural until the body adapts to the new way of eating and thinking, which will lead to a lack of cravings for unwanted foods.
3. You need to create a nutrition plan and a list of foods that are suitable for a particular athlete. You should also understand what dishes need to be prepared and how - they should be nutritious, attractive and appetizing.

There may be pitfalls along this path - doubts, resistance from friends and relatives who will dissuade you from making such a decision and claim that this will only worsen your health.

Advice for overcoming the difficulties of such a plan is to move towards the final goal, understanding the usefulness of such a diet and the fact that only targeted actions will give a positive result.

My body is my gym. With

As the example of this man shows, when building an athletic body and voluminous muscles, it is not necessary to use even the most memorable chicken breasts and other meat products in your diet. Meet Frank Medrano, relief man, king of horizontal bars, workout monster and...vegetarian!

Frank Medrano was born in 1980 and until the age of 30 he could not boast of serious success in any sport, but he took it seriously when he realized that in the reflection of the mirror he was looking at a weak, sick and always tired of life person.

Frank reached his current state through many years of hard training and broke all the philistine patterns with an athlete-specific plant-based diet.

Yes, in his training, in addition to parallel bars and a horizontal bar, resistance to gravity, he also uses a barbell, dumbbells and weights, but as an auxiliary tool, the main emphasis is on training with his own weight.

Medrano’s diet menu does not contain meat products, which, according to all canons, must be on the menu of any “jock”, and he became a vegan, following the successful example of his friends, who helped him develop an individual training and nutrition program, changing his whole life with the help of sports .

Subsequently, the athletes founded the “Vegan Calisthen-X” community, through which they promote a healthy lifestyle, fitness classes, a vegetarian diet and their training programs. I must say, they successfully achieve this goal!

Tips for beginners on adaptation

Many novice athletes who want to train using this system wonder if they will succeed? Answering such questions, Frank Medrano, whose muscle mass growth occurred gradually over some time, advises paying attention to proper rest.

For those who are just starting to play sports, the processes of recovery and adaptation to stress are much slower. Therefore, the initial stage must be approached individually, having determined with what load a particular athlete can train.

General recommendations are that:

• training should take place three to four times a week;
• between classes you need to take a break of one day;
• if the body does not have time to recover, then it is necessary to reduce the number of exercises or their repetitions;
• the number of repetitions and weight of weights should be increased gradually;
• work out certain muscle groups every day.

Dumbbells and a barbell can serve as an additional load for performing biceps curls, squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

After each workout, you need to add running at a distance of up to one hundred meters. It helps burn fat faster and helps in the growth of muscle tissue through hormonal releases.

Schedule for the first three days

Since Medrano Frank's training program involves working muscle groups on a daily basis, you should consider this schedule.

For the first three days it is like this:

1. Monday – working out the pectoral muscles and triceps: sets of one hundred and fifty push-ups, respectively, with a change in arm position, dumbbell press on a bench, push-ups on uneven bars.
2. Tuesday – training of the back muscles: thirty repetitions of power exercises, pull-ups with a reverse and direct grip, fifty and one hundred repetitions respectively, dumbbell rows and pullovers, five approaches for each type of exercise. Then again pull-ups (fifty repetitions) and power-ups (ten repetitions).
3. Wednesday - working out the shoulder muscles: one hundred push-ups, standing dumbbell press, dumbbell lateral raises and lateral raises with a body tilt (five sets of twelve repetitions).

The order of classes in the second three-day period

According to Frank Medrano's method, if the body is recovering slowly on the fourth day, it is worth taking a break for one day and then continuing.

Those who do not need this continue classes further:

1. Thursday - work of triceps and biceps: thirty muscle-ups, fifty pull-ups with a reverse grip, barbell curls, dumbbell lifts with a hammer grip (all exercises for five approaches). Then dips and regular push-ups (one hundred repetitions).
2. Friday - leg muscle training: four sets of squats with a lunge and dumbbells, one hundred air squats, four sets of twelve repetitions of one-legged squats, straight-legged deadlifts and calf raises (four sets of twelve repetitions).
3. Saturday – general training: one hundred pull-ups and the same number of push-ups, a hundred-meter run in ten races, one hundred crunches and push-ups on the uneven bars, fifty power-ups.

Also, each workout can be supplemented with working out the abdominal muscles and hanging leg raises.