Lifesource ’09 Blog #01: Overweight & Understrengthed
July 2, 2009
July 1st is a very personal date for me. It was July 1st, 2007 that I locked myself in my room at the Vacation Inn in El Centro, CA and made the most dramatic physical and emotional changes that I ever had in my life. I was stationed on the US / Mexico border with the Cal. Air Guard and between July 1st and October 20th I was either at work, the supermarket, the gym, or inside my fortress of solitude; Room #123 at the Vacation Inn. The results were impressive; I lost 65lbs in 16 weeks and slashed my body fat percentage in half.
It’s two years later to the day that I started Coach Craig’s Model Body Rapid Weight Loss Program and I’m not proud to say that my personal quest for Herculean Power has brought me to a place where I feel about 50lbs overweight and under strength. No one understands what I mean when I say that I’m ‘under strengthed’. It has not all been for naught, I have made some decent strength gains and impressive lifts it the 20 months.
While still on the border in early 2008 I squatted 365lbs for 20 reps, following “Super Squats” by Dr. Randall Strossen. I spent a few weeks battling Forest Fires in the summer of ’08 in Modesto CA, again with the Guard, and ended by competing in a ‘backyard’ style Strongman Contest at American Iron Gym in Reno, NV. Had I more than two and a half weeks to train for it, I may have placed a little higher than I did.
’08 ended and ’09 began in San Angelo, TX at Goodfellow AFB and I undertook a strength and power based program, influenced by Strossen, Paul Kelso and Coach Craig, the results were a raw (shirtless / beltless) bench of 405, squat of 500 and dead lift of 615lbs. High highlight of my summer was the Hyde Park Games in Austin, TX, where I pulled up 650lbs with some chalk and a belt.
On one side of the spectrum these lifts are impressive, on the other, for many of them I was close to 270lbs. In all honesty it’s like this; I’m not strong enough for my weight, I’m carrying about an extra 50lbs, I think I could be just as strong (and look a hell of a lot better) at 230lbs with a little hard work and discipline and I have an Air Force Fitness Evaluation coming up in a month.
I’m currently stationed at Beale AFB in Nor-cal. I have a few passions in life, one of them is being and Airman, the other is moving big weights. Like two years ago, I’m living in a hotel all alone. It’s been a while since I’ve hit the gym, and I’m severely overweight and under strengthed. Today a case of Lifesource arrived from Coach Craig over at Iron Curtain Labs. I have three more 12 hour shifts and then it begins. Sunday the 5th I’ll be back on the system.
My name is Ronald A. Strahan and this is Savage Muscles.<em />
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