Weightlifting and strongman competitions have long designated contests as “drug-free,” prohibiting those who use strength-enhancing anabolic steroids to take part.

That’s fair. But meat free?

Not ingesting a protein-rich diet derived from animal products would seem to be a barrier to muscle-building exercises.

A Wilmington resident pursuing a doctorate in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware is defying that notion, and his early academic lessons helped pave the way.

Bradie Crandall is 26 and recently won his weight class at the U.S. Powerlifting Association Drug-tested National Championships in Las Vegas. He hoisted more weight — 1,565.2 pounds — than anyone his size in the three disciplines that make up such an event: squats, bench press and dead lift.

He is now training for this fall’s Mr. America Strongman Clash of the Titans in Atlantic City. There, participants will demonstrate their personal prowess by lifting cars, pulling trucks, tossing giant cement balls and truck tires and whatever else the imaginative organizers dream up.

Crandall became a competitive weight-lifter five years ago after his decision to eat a plant-based vegan diet, free of foods such as meat and eggs that have long been viewed as staples for such an endeavor.

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What was his motivation?

Crandall was a football player whose career ended when he suffered a fractured vertebra that didn’t result in paralysis in his first game as a linebacker at John Carroll University in Ohio. He then enrolled at the University of South Carolina after his family’s move to that state and studied chemical engineering.

His interests were piqued when he delved into sustainability research and the relationship between humans and their environment.

“Trying to keep the Earth as habitable as possible is a very important thing nowadays,” Crandall said after a recent workout at the Training Center near New Castle, “and I was really focusing in on issues like climate change.”

Crandall concentrated, he said, on “the impact agriculture has on the environment.” Methane emissions from livestock and other greenhouse gases produced in farming are major causes of climate change, according to scientists.

Wanting to make a personal effort toward protecting the environment, “that's when I started to sort of shift towards veganism,” said Crandall.

In his UD research, Crandall builds reactors that run on renewable energy and works on projects to convert carbon dioxide emissions into useful items such as food, including one to aid astronauts on deep-pace missions. He expects to pursue a career in public policy and is on the advisory board with UD’s Biden Institute, which counts increasing environmental sustainability among its key issues.

The power didn’t wane

Crandall first stopped eating beef, then eggs and dairy products while slowly eliminating various foods “just to see how far I could go without it affecting my performance in the gym.”

He was pleasantly surprised it had no discernible effect on his weight training.

Crandall is now a part of Team PlantBuilt.

“I felt like I was actually doing better in the gym,” he said. “It was a couple months process that ended over the summer and I became vegan.”

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Fueled by plants

Crandall graduated from South Carolina in 2020 and came to Delaware to pursue a doctorate.

He’d already learned that his physical training wasn’t undermined by his diet and began competing in powerlifting and strongman events. He recovers quicker and sleeps better.

“Plants have all the protein you need,” he said. “We're starting to see more and more vegan athletes basically compete with the best. I don't think there's any hindrance with a plant-based diet. If anything, there might be some benefits.”

Crandall might begin his day having avocado toast with oatmeal and peanut butter, then drinking a protein shake with soy milk.

A plant-based meat with protein-rich pasta is typical for lunch, with berries, a rice cake and another shake as an afternoon snack.

Dinner often consists of a stir fry with vegetables, rice or noodles and soy-based tofu or wheat-based seitan.

It has served him well.

“Everybody wants to be strong as an ox, of course, but they tend to forget that the ox eats grass,” he said.

Throwing his weight around

By the time he entered his first powerlifting competition in 2019, Crandall had already been on a vegan diet for a year.

He began winning American Powerlifting Federation and U.S. Powerlifting Association events right away along with the New Castle Chaos Strongman Competition.

"He's got a lot of grit, for one" Cosme Gonzales, the Delcastle High graduate who coaches Crandall and about a dozen others, said of what makes Crandall so successful. "Secondly, he's a very calculated and intelligent lifter. He doesn't train to failure all the time. He uses a very reasonable approach. It's not like he's going as heavy as possible every session. You have to plan your peaks."

Having such success while on a plant-based diet "is almost unheard of," Gonzales added. "There's only a few athletes at the highest level doing that. It's incredible. Him as an athlete is impressive. Then you find out he's vegan and you're just like 'Whoa!'"

Crandall has set records for several states, including Delaware marks in squat, bench, deadlift and total weight at the recent U.S. Powerlifting Association Nationals. He has bench pressed as much as 405 pounds, squatted 640 and dead lifted 655.

“This is really like my breakout year,” he said. “… I’ll hit it really hard for the next two years and I'm sort of going to retire as I start my career, or maybe I change gears and do something else. I don't see myself doing this forever. It takes a toll.”

He’s also an author

While quarantined during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Crandall wrote a book advocating plant-based diets as superior to those involving animal products for strength-based sports.

“There was certainly an appetite for that information,” he said.

“The Living Machine: Engineering Strength with a Plant-Based Diet,” was so well received Crandall plans to soon author a follow-up chronicling his more recent experiences and what he’s learned.

“I was motivated to write a book based on the overwhelming number of questions I was getting from people on plant-based diets and strength training,” he said. “I wanted to put together a resource that I could direct people to which could serve as a guide. At the time, there weren’t many good resources out there on the topic of plant-based strength training.''

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Vegan Bradie Crandall wins US powerlifting events, vies in strongman