Sacramento’s Nick Squires makes powerful statements with veganism, weightlifting
Veganism and athleticism are two things powerlifter Nick Squires once thought did not go together.
Powerlifting is a sport which involves three events: squat, bench press and deadlift, all done with maximum weight. For a sport like this, you would think an athlete’s diet would consist of mostly meat and other proteins. Not Squires.
Squires moved to the Sacramento area from Los Angeles in 2018 with his wife and their daughter. He became interested in weightlifting when his daughter was born.
“I was kind of inactive, and I wasn’t really healthy,” he said. “I was looking for something to do to get in shape. My wife and I started training for a Tough Mudder obstacle course run, and a lot of the training for that is basic weightlifting.”
“When I got into that, I realized I was really motivated by weightlifting and the idea that your success is measured off of how much you’re lifting and not what you look like or the number on the scale,” he continued. “At that point I got into powerlifting and trained in that for a couple of years before I started competing.”
Squires’ wife has been a vegan since 2004, and watching her train for the Tough Mudder and marathons helped him dispel the notion that veganism was not beneficial for athletic performance.
He said his decision to fully embrace the lifestyle in 2014 was influenced by adopting and fostering rescue dogs.
“I had this epiphany that I was spending time and money saving specific animals and then going home and eating others,” he said. “We got a dog named Wilbur, and he reminded me a lot of a cow in the way he moved and his mannerisms. At that point I stopped eating all beef and pork. I continued to cut animal products until I was fully vegan.”
Squires says he prefers to weigh between 235 and 245 lbs during training, and then he cuts to 220 for competitions.
“For maintenance, I just pull back the amount of food that I eat, but for a couple weeks a year when I’m cutting weight for a weigh in before a competition I clean up my diet — no junk food, lots of tofu and veggies to keep the calories down but the protein up.”
He starts his day around 6 a.m. by eating something simple like protein bars and cookies, followed by one or two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at 10 a.m.
Lunch is a larger meal, typically a meatless entree cooked with vegetables and brown rice. Around 3 p.m., Squires will eat a salty snack to help his sodium levels for his afternoon workout.
“I train from around 6 to 8 p.m., and then have my heaviest meal of the day,” he continued. “I absolutely love a couple cheeseburgers from Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat with a side of Brussels sprouts. We will also do lots of pasta with Gardein meatballs or Beyond Meat sausages. Lately, I’ve been going through a lot of the Trader Joe’s vegan turk’y burgers as well.”
“During bulking, I find it easier to eat smaller meals more often than to try to eat three 1,600 calorie meals,” he said. He also snacks on vegetables or fruit throughout the day.
Squires says he went vegan around the same time he began powerlifting, so he does not know for sure if there is any difference, but he can say without a doubt that being a vegan has not limited him in a sport that involves a lot of protein, calories and building mass.
Squires has participated in notable powerlifting competitions. In 2019, he won the USPA California Drug Tested State Championship, and qualified for the 2019 USPA/IPL World Powerlifting Championship in Limerick, Ireland. There, he won a gold medal 242-pound weight class. He also finished second at the 2018 USPA Drug Tested California State Championships.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Squires has spent time building up his home gym. At the time the shutdowns began, he was training for the Drug Tested USDA Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, which were postponed.
“At that point I thought, I should keep training for this event. I don’t want to lose too much of my progress, so I scrambled and bought enough weights and equipment to train at home.” he said.
There’s another challenge Squires faces: online trolls who try to discredit and doubt his journey. Squires has thousands of followers on various social media platforms, and not all of them approve of his vegan lifestyle.
“I think that what happens is there’s this cognitive dissonance where people don’t want to be reminded that there are changes in their lives they can make and they’ve made excuses for it,” he said. “When they see someone who challenges those excuses, there’s usually a reaction. I just try to make light of it.”
Someone who does not doubt Squires’ journey is Cheng Saelee, head coach of the Sacramento-based powerlifting team Iron Maniacs.
Squires’ weightlifting success slowed down about a year and a half ago. Saelee, who worked out at the same gym, signed up to help out a friend.
“He’s a really funny guy,” he continued. “We mess around and have fun while lifting. I admire his dedication to lifting and achieving his goals.”