A STRONG CONVERSATION with World Champ RYAN STILLS

Daniel Austin
Sep 15
2 min read

I've been privileged to lift alongside some of the strongest vegans around on the Vegan Strong PlantBuilt team for a decade now. In 2022, we had a next level vegan beast come aboard as our team captain: The one and only Ryan Stills.

Ryan Stills at IPF Masters World Championships, Oct. 2022

He has been our day-of coach at team competitions for the past 4 years, but in 2023 at the Mr. America Sports Festival, he also competed with us and easily won best lifter of the whole meet – which, to be honest, is a common feat for him. Simply put, Ryan Stills is one of the strongest vegans to ever vegan. He has won 5 IPF World championships (including 3 of those titles since he has been vegan), and he's one of the few vegans among us (or among powerlifters in general, non-vegans alike) to achieve a 500 DOTS. Impressive doesn't quite describe his performance over the years. He's nearly 50 years old now, and he's still stronger than you. By a lot. In this recent Vegan Strong PlantBuilt team meet-up at the Fit Fest USA games in Tampa this past August, Ryan and I were hotel roommates, so I seized the opportunity to pick his brain about powerlifting – from humble beginnings in the sport, to aging in it, to going vegan, and much, much more.

Listen and learn from a mensch with 30+ years experience in the sport of powerlifting. You may even laugh, too. The episode is right here, and right here only: