Ben Wills: A Fitness Log

Weight Lifting: Mass Gaining: 2011.01.06

Today, my hex shrug/deadlift bar came in. I guess I should have expected the textured handles, but for some reason, I didn’t. It was a nice surprise.

I switched around some things from my Monday workout to incorporate shrugs and deadlifts. I also swapped the order of the bench press and dips. I do dips on rock rings that hang from chains on my power rack’s chin-up bar. Having the dips be from a non-stable position seems to be pretty awesome. I don’t know how many less I can do that way, but I would imagine it’s less than if I had stable dip bars.

I also picked up some stuff for grip work once a week. I went through and selected some climbing-centric exercises from The Grip Master’s Manual. In the end, I’ve got two 2x4x48s, a broomstick with a clamp on one end and adjustable weights on the other, chinese medicine balls, and a 4’x1/2” steel rod. I’ll explain more next week.

This is my last “warm up” week before going full on next week. Full on means counting calories (one free day a week) and macronutrients, supplements, drinking a gallon of milk a day, and working out a few days a week.

Some Notes:

• I just threw weight onto the deadlift bar for deadlifts. I haven’t done them in almost two years (when I had a 1rm of 300+ after a couple weeks). I only got 16 out of my desired 20 reps, but part of that was shoulder, forearm, and finger stress. I’m hoping that my grip training helps here.
• I was surprised to get the 20 reps in on squats. After that set, I collapsed onto the floor for a couple of minutes. I don’t know that I’ve ever pushed myself as hard as I did in that set. Doing those squats in the middle of the set after already doing the other leg work I did was pretty intense. Considering alternating squats and deadlifts throughout the week, instead of both.
• The workout was 40 minutes. This fast-paced and heavy workout style whips my ass. By the end, I could barely do a pullup and only got three reps on bench. I think I’m going to trim this for next week.
• I quit bench at 3 reps, knowing I could do more, because of a tendon/ligament-like stress in my right shoulder. This felt very similar to something I’ve dealt with in my left shoulder for 3 years. I don’t mess around with that kind of stuff, so I stopped. I think this is another reason to trim up the workouts and have days that focus on deadlifts OR squats and bench OR dips. This way, each of those is only being done once a week and gives it time to heal properly…still thinking on this.
• I didn’t do any good mornings because my back hurt from going straight into hard deadlifts after not doing them for almost two years. Us Wills-folks have a hereditary back thing. If you really want to know, ask. Otherwise, it’s just something I have to look out for until my back gets a lot stronger.

Morning Mass: 173.5 lbs

Workout Start Time: 5:23 pm

Workout End Time: 6:03 pm