The success stories just keep pouring in. This one will boost your motivation.
John Warfield from Jackson in Michigan USA just emailed me his results with StrongLifts 5x5. Get this: in only 9 months he accomplished a 325lb Squat and 415lb Deadlift... at age 50! Read his amazing story.
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Mehdi,
You've changed my life, and my wife's life, in a major ways.
About two years ago I weighed 300 pounds and had a third chin growing. Seeing myself in pictures disgusted me and almost made me cry. I felt ashamed of my body and mind.
A year later of almost daily hour long cardio sessions, I had dropped to 200 pounds, and my energy level was soaring. However, looking in the mirror and seeing a still "loose" physique and hanging skin made me wince. Not knowing any better I embarked on adding the entire round of weight machines to shore up my body -- improve strength and pull up the loose spots.
The machines, at light weights, helped for a while, and I started to show definition that I'd never possessed before. However, as the weights grew, my muscles didn't really. Trying to increase to heavy weights on machines, with such restricted movements and no stabilizer invovlements, was both stupid and dangerous. The machines, especially the leg machines, tended to create large balls of muscle that only really worked about a third of the muscle length. I had huge globs above my knees, and balled hamstrings that always tended to cramp. One day, while "curling" with my hamstrings on the reverse leg lift, I felt one of the hamstring bands snap over another, and the pain was excruciating. I knew I couldn't keep that up.
I started hodgepodges of split routines... I benched on the smith machines... I "squatted" on the smith machines... But strength results did NOT follow, only injuries. I thought I was hot stuff 1/3 squatting 250 pounds on the smith machine with the large shoulder pad, but my hamstrings were laughing at me while my thighs were crying. I didn't know "squat" and felt unfulfilled and guilty for not being able to find a path to my max potential.
Searching for an answer brought me to StrongLifts about a 9 months ago. I really wanted to go with compound lifting, but having never lifted free weights before I was afraid. But you laid it out so plain and simple, and showed how starting with the bar was going to give me the technique to master the weights -- so I jumped in with both feet.
I started everything with the bar, and built, and built. After completing the first round of StrongLifts 5x5, I had gained 10 pounds of muscle in my legs. The muscle is sooooooo different. The entire strands have grown thicker and stronger. It's NOT bodybuilder muscle, it's growth along the entire length, and all stabilizer muscles as well. My hamstrings have gotten so healthy I can do sprints with ease. My legs, arms and chest have grown in this way, while my waist has shrunk still more, and my "looseness" from weight loss has all but disappeared. My abs and torso muscles are thick and powerful. Having once been a size 50 waist, I am now a comfortable 35.
My wife was so impressed with the results we started her on the program. After 4 babies and stubborn extra weight, she was desperate for fat loss and firmness. Her belly muscles, when pregnant, really got pulled apart and doctors had told her that there was nothing she could do to pull them back in and rehab her lower gut. But having had me blast her with a good Mehdi "BULLSHIT" and seeing the results I had achieved, she jumped in. We started training together and she has lost 15 pounds, transferred countless more pounds from fat to muscle, down-sized clothing three times, and shows leg muscles of an olympic champion. She's proud of herself and I am very proud of her.
We are currently on MadCow for intermediate, which has allowed both of us to break through plateaus in squats and deadlifts.
I'm 50 years old, 6'1", 212 pounds, and on Monday I deep squatted 325 pounds (x5). Today I deadlifted 415 pounds (x5). Having done this made me want to write. We can't thank you enough for publishing the StrongLifts site and providing encouragement. We have fallen in love with squats and now love our bodies like we have never imagined we could. We've had to endure the no-squatters, the knee blowers, the unsolicited advice givers, the curlers in the power rack, etc... and now are able to withstand the barrage of negativity that comes from the majority of gym goers...
But when we complete our lifts and walk past the naysayers with the squat or deadlift body/mind pump and steel torso, they shut up -- and silence truly is golden.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
John Warfield
Jackson, Michigan USA
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Awesome story John. Your results prove that any guy can achieve a 300lb Squat and 400lb Deadlift within a year (heck, you did it in only 9 months) IF using the RIGHT kind of methods - obviously StrongLifts 5x5, it's simply the most powerful training program on the entire Internet.
If you haven't claimed your free copy of the 5x5 report, please download it now by clicking here (...and remember to send me your success story like John did so I can publish it on the blog, it will motivate all the other StrongLifters).
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