Who Says Powerlifters Have to Be Fat!


My name is Ben I’m 21 and I powerlift. I compete as a 198 or a 220. I’ve been training seriously for about 6-7 years now and competing on an international level for about 3, I have been sponsored by Universal Nutrition for about a year and use exclusively their products. Shoulder injuries have been a constant annoyance for me an have hindered my bench so I usually depend more on my squat and dead to win shows but I’m working on it. I’m currently in training for my next meet in October where I plan to total 1700+ RAW at 198 with a 630+/365+/705+. I live by the mantra that you don’t have to be fat to be strong and I have massive respect for my bodybuilding brothers. I plan on keeping a training log here and uploading vids of my progress for just about every session. that’s all I’ve got if you’ve got a question then ask it.

Here’s a vid that my boy Jason made for me awhile back that I’ll use as an introduction to who I am

here’s a few vids from my recent training…
615x6 deadlift with just a belt… Ben Rice Deadlifts 615x6 RAW weighing 204 Universal Nutrition.mp4 - YouTube
Some crazy core “windmills”… Core Strength Demo Windmills Ben Rice BW 200.mp4 - YouTube
some crazy pullups and strongman axle work… Pullups and overheads Ben Rice BW 200 6 26 11.mp4 - YouTube

Freaky.

Welcome man.

some sick lifts, keep up the hard work, get to the almighty 2000 total! fuck 1700!

Impressive numbers dude, keep up the good work.

Nice, I’ve been reading Ben Seath’s log over on the AnimalPak website and I keep seeing your stuff popping up. It’ll be a lot easier keeping track of y’all now that you’re over here. Best of luck, I’ll be following.

thanks for the warm welcome!! I’m excited to learn a lot from the community of lifters here

Today was technically an off day but I was feeling good so I went in and just did some random bodyweight stuff mostly working core strength. all in all today was mostly about having some fun with the guys.
Kneeling box jumps
floorx2
4"x3
6"x2
8"x2
12"x2
14"x1
16"x2 close misses

Medicine ball goofin
10 lbs watch the vid

Ceiling punch pull ups
18" gap
BWx20 (PR)

Windmills

Rocky IVs
BWx6 (PR)

Prowler pushes
300 lbs 125ish feet x a lot of trips
had some traffic issues in the parking lot, these definitely drained me

what a beast…

New Program started today!
Sheiko Master of sport Prep #2 W1/D1 BW:202
First day of this crazy Sheiko Program. This is totally different from anything I’ve ever run before! gotta say that so far I loved it!

Close Grip Bench press (All reps were fast and I long paused the last rep of each set)
45x5
135x5
160x5
190x4
225x3x2
250x3x5

Squats
135x3
225x3
295x5
350x4
410x3x2
470x3x5 (these were less crazy than I thought, difficulty wise, but consistently hitting depth was the real challenge just due to the high volume)

Close Grip Bench Press (take 2 same rep style fast then paused)
175x5
205x5
235x4x5

DB Flyes
30x10x5

Bottom up squats w/o/belt
135x5
315x5
365x5
315x5x2 (these are much harder than they look, especially without a belt)

“dirty” GMs
245x5x3

Arched Back GMs
155x5x2

Rocky IVs

Pullups x a few sets

Only 1 day in but I really like the program so far. The high volume and pre-determined sets kept the flow of the session consistent and focused. I cannot afford to take long breaks between sets or else the workout would take forever. I had a full sweat going the entire workout and I loved how the shear number of sets was pushing me or the whole workout even when the sets didn’t feel super heavy.
There are a few observations that I made about the program that I will need to adjust for as I continue:

  1. I need to bring way more water because I was going through mine like crazy in between sets
  2. Wearing sweats on a hot day was not my best move I was sweating like crazy the whole time, shorts for squat days= a must
  3. I took longer between the Squat sets than I did the bench sets, I would like to cut my squat set rests down a bit more, those were where the session dragged a bit.
  4. Need to warm up my hips more thoroughly before starting, consistently hitting depth in the squats was really hard because my hips were so tight from last weeks training.
  5. might be slamming a nitro after the second exercise next time to keep me from being catabolic in such a long session.
    Overall I loved the way this session went and I can tell that I am going to get stronger from this program! next up Wednesday is CGBP and deads. I can’t wait!

Ben - awesome lifting and love your attitude. Born lifter. BTW, what program or training system were you running before you started Sheiko?

[quote]cutbackcoach12 wrote:
Ben - awesome lifting and love your attitude. Born lifter. BTW, what program or training system were you running before you started Sheiko?[/quote]
Thank you for the extreme compliment, I love doing what I do. To answer your question I have recently been running an extremely modified 5/3/1 (before that it was all my own programming) I have always been into high volume work but I liked the idea and intensity of the 5/3/1 progression where you had 1 all out set per workout. I would run the main 3 sets and then add in crazy amounts of accessories. I think the sheiko feels opposite, I’m running crazy amounts of volume on the core lifts and the accessories are much less than I’m used to. Either way I just love being in the gym and getting stronger.

Sheiko Master of sport Prep #2 W1/D3 BW:202 CGBP
today was, without a doubt, the absolute most difficult workout I have ever done! the volume alone was enough to be formidable, but combining it with the fact that there were multiple deadlift mini-sessions surrounding a 23 set Bench marathon all with moderately heavy weights was the recipe for a truly epic, and testing session!

Axle Deficit deadlifts (4" box, conventional stance, no belt)
115x3
205x3
295x3
355x3
425x3x2
455x2x4

Close Grip Bench Press (long paused the last rep of every set, and all singles)
45x5
135x5
160x5
190x5
225x4x2
235x3x2
255x2x2
275x1x3
255x2x2
235x3x2
225x4x2
205x5
190x6
175x7
160x8
(23 sets total)

DB Flyes
35x10x5 (felt easy, I’ll be making 5 lb jumps ever session that calls for these until they start to feel hard)

Sumo Deads
135x1
225x1
315x1
add belt
355x4
425x3
495x3x2
565x3x2
600x2x3
600x6 (this set was only supposed to be a double but I decided to make it a max rep… Sorry Sheiko I couldn’t help myself)

Leg Press (I was pretty trashed by these sets)
5 plates per side x5x6

Decline sit-ups
BWx8x3 (all I needed after all those deads)

I left the gym absolutely spent. I frigging love it!!! I’ll be doing some active recovery tomorrow to help get ready for Friday’s session. Wanna thank my training partner Ben Seath for sticking around to push me through the end of the session, and I wanna thank his lady Ivy for bringing him a pizza to help him make it the whole time haha
observations about today’s workout

  1. the lighter weights don’t feel as light on the way back down for the benches, 23 sub-maximal sets are much harder than 1 or 2 max weight attempts for me, but I like that I was constantly moving through out the workout.
  2. The deads at the end felt like they were going to be impossible with how tired I felt going into them, but the top sets were actually very solid, I would have stopped on the way up to the top sets but I stuck it out and ended up hitting every set and then some!
  3. I need to eat like crazy before hitting these sessions, I was really undernourished today and it definitely affected how I was feeling through the entire session.

All in all I was very happy with this session, and I can tell that I am going to be hurting tomorrow… but I feel like today, I earned the pain and I’ll endure it proudly. My badge of honor, as proof that today’s session mattered and I am going to be stronger as a result of it. Now to recover and attack Friday’s session!

I don’t post much but I just felt I had to tell you that you are insane! One of the more inspirational logs to come around in a while. I will definitely be following.

[quote]JCrisp91 wrote:
I don’t post much but I just felt I had to tell you that you are insane! One of the more inspirational logs to come around in a while. I will definitely be following.[/quote]
Thank you! glad to have you along for the journey

You sir are a fucking beast, we compete in the same weight classes and I am not even close to your strength levels. I will be following for sure, have a good one.

Glad to see you posting here man! Ive seen your stuff on youtube. You put up some ridiculous numbers, plus you pull sumo haha! Awesome work man!

Whats your height?

Active recovery… sort of BW:202 7/7/11
No Sheiko today, but I wanted to get some blood flowing so I decided to pull a John Broz and do some lifting to recover.

Axle Clean and push press
25x5
115x5
140x5
165x5
185x9

Switch to singles and make the Presses into Jerks
205x1
225x1 PR
235xmiss jerk
235x1 PR
245x1 PR
255xmiss clean ugh

front squats
135x3x5

15 minutes walking on the treadmill with Cyal.
Felt nice and loose by the end of the session, aaaand I still got to work my overheads so that strongman training won’t be such a crazy switch down the road. Still struggling to get my nutrition down while I’m at home, no one else eats like I do so a lot of my food is not with the family. Really excited to hit squats and close grips tomorrow. Going to make sure that I slam as many calories as possible before heading in and bring extra food and water to eat during the session haha

here’s the video (Cyal and I have been arguing for months over the weight of the axle, he says it’s 35 lbs I always assume its 25, the crazy thing is that we’ve both weighed it… on the same scale… and got different answers… Benny even weighed it and got 30!!!Tonight we were going back and forth about it and so the scale came out again… this time 25! I win… although I wish that they were right, because all of my numbers for the last training cycle would be 10 lbs heavier haha) anyway here’s the vid

[quote]pbclax1 wrote:
Glad to see you posting here man! Ive seen your stuff on youtube. You put up some ridiculous numbers, plus you pull sumo haha! Awesome work man!

Whats your height?[/quote]
Thanks! I’m 5’10

[quote]elmore18 wrote:
You sir are a fucking beast, we compete in the same weight classes and I am not even close to your strength levels. I will be following for sure, have a good one.[/quote]
haha I’m always working to get better just like everyone else :wink: Glad to have you along for the ride!