Fitness & Bodybuilding
Tory Washington: From Engineer to Vegan Bodybuilding Pro, and the South Florida Origin Story | Ep 011 | SoFlo Vegans Podcast
Vegan bodybuilding pro and coach Tory Washington joins SoFlo Vegans for a wide-ranging origin story: growing up between Alabama, Jamaica, and South Florida, his Seventh-day Adventist and Rastafarian roots, leaving a corporate engineering career at Tuskegee, and the 2009 competition where a vegan diet first proved itself on stage.
Topics Covered
- Growing up Seventh-day Adventist with a mother who raised the family vegetarian on biblical grounds, and how that fed into a later Rastafarian-influenced Aytal lifestyle
- Earning an engineering degree at Tuskegee University, working in corporate America, and the moment Tory decided to leave a stable job to train people full-time
- Placing third in his first bodybuilding competition in 2009 as a vegan and being told by judges he needed to hold his poses longer, then winning his class and turning pro six months later
- How his viral Facebook photo and growing visibility as a lean, muscular vegan led to fitness magazine features and being pulled between his engineering job and travel
- Building a foundation for new vegan lifters through his e-book Primer: squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, and bench press before isolation work, plus eating enough calories and fiber when transitioning off a carnivorous diet
- Practical advice for people wanting to lose weight and build muscle at the same time, including hydration, walking, and hiring a coach to counter fear of judgment
- Being part of a touring speaker panel with Johnny Juicer, John Badass Vegan, and Doms Thompson, and ongoing work with Rethink Protein
- Advocating for South Florida, specifically Broward County west of University Drive, as underserved territory for new vegan restaurants like the incoming Copper Branch in Fort Lauderdale
About the Guest
Tory Washington is a vegan IFBB-level bodybuilding competitor, online coach, and author of the e-book Primer, based in South Florida after growing up between Alabama, Jamaica, and Broward County.