Progression: Battle Scars

After roughly a month’s rest, I went backto training. Excited than ever, I took my pre-workout meal and headed straight to the gym.

I will be posting my work-out logs, programs, diet and such for others to critique.I would love to hear your thoughts about what I do in the gym.

 It was almost 5 years ago when I had a very terrible accident inside the gym. The accident left me with a shoulder sprain that still haunts me until today. I was dumb enough to have not consulted a physician about it. Worst, I almost ended up with very same incident.

Shoulder sprain. I was set to lift 210lbs then. I was 19, and was still learning the ropes of bodybuilding. As always, I was excited to hit the weight room. I was doing a 5×5 routine then. At my last set, I intended to break my previous record. I wanted progress. But I wasn’t carefull.

On the bench, lay the bar carrying 210lbs for the last set on my bench press exercise. Took a deep breath, tried to psyche myself up, and then had second thoughts. I sought the help of a spotter. 

Spotter. I was assumming that the gym had someone to assist the lifters in-case it was necessary. They did. However, the guy tasked to do it was a small guy. Whay I mean by small is that he had a really small physique, smaller than a bantam-weight boxer. He weighed right around 120 - 135lbs.

He came over at the end side of the bench and told him how to hold the bar properly as I do my repititions. Nodding his head as confirmation, I started to lie down and lifted the bar. When I was about to get toi my third rep, I noticed that my right arm was shaking. I told him to lift the bar as I pushed it.

The worst thing happened. Before I started lifting the weight, I had him hold the bar having his left hand over-hand and his right hand on an under-hand grip. As I was pushing the bar though, he took his right hand off the bar and tried to hold it using an over-hand grip.

Too late. As he lifted his hand, my right hand plumetted in the process. It took me 6 weeks to fully recover from that injury.

I almost made the same mistake during the last training session. I was looking for Tristan ( who by the way is someone in the gym everybody can depend on when it comes to weightlifting assistance), was nowhere to be found.  Seeing that nobody was around but a few gym patrons and a kid cleaning the mirrors, I made a hasty decision. When I asked where Tristan was, the kid said he was still asleep and decided to volunteer to spot me.

Almost. That was a dumb decision. I was confident that I could somehow lift the weight since I was able to lift it the last time I did the exercise with a much heavier weight. To my surprise, it was almost a deja vu experience. My right arm was shaking and I was at my second rep. Good thing I decided to not go further with it.

My advice to other bodybuilders out there, get a gym partner. If you can’t, you can always ask for someone for assistance, but make sure to avoid the mistake that I did.

Workout Log: 11.03.09

Squats: 230lbs x 2

Deadlifts: 270lbs x  3

Machine Rows: 280lbs x 3

Bench Press 230lbs x 2

Closed-grip Bench Press: 140 x 3