Vegan powers to national records

See Anastasia Zinchenko’s GVA profile

She squatted 125.5 kg – over double bodyweight – to break the first Israeli record.

In Bench she started with 75.5 kg, which broke the record, then broke her new record twice more. She finished with 81.5 kg.

Deadlifting 145 kg gave her a total of 352 kg. This was another Israeli record.

“This competition didn’t show just the work of the past months” she said. “But the past 8-9 years of powerlifting: real physical and mental training.”

The competition came off a period where training opportunities were limited and often early mornings.

“The real work was not to start crying and going home, but getting things together and doing whatever was in on that day.…Getting up after each missed lift and keeping going. I have never missed so many lifts in my life like in the past 3 months.”

Anastasia has been vegan since 2013. She was originally interested in the health aspect.

She says “the more information I gained about the negative impact of factory farming, the more my decision of living a vegan lifestyle became motivated by morality. I don’t want to support something and contribute to something I consider as being wrong or unnecessary.”

Anastasia has no trouble building strength without meat and has written a recipe book. It detailed high protein recipies.

“My everyday staples are protein bread, protein pancakes and protein cakes based on the recipes I published in my recipe books and on my homepage. Of course, I add veggies to my meals and some kind of a fat source, like tahini or peanut butter.”