They are balanced athletes, not just meatheads who can lift a lot of weight
Rob,
Last night Ryan (my XO) and John (one of my PSGs) competed in a Push/Pull competition on our COB.
John’s BW: 203#, Ryan’s: 207.
Ryan benched 335 (PR for over here) and dead-lifted 495 (a PR by 80#!)…his 1RM for DL when he started training with me 5 months ago was 335#…an increase of 160#!
John benched 295# (tied PR), and dead-lifted 455# (a PR by 40#).
Both of their performances show the benefits of your programming as neither had ever trained seriously as an athlete (besides the standard beach muscle workouts) before this deployment.
Attached is a photo of them locking out their max dead-lifts.
It was also interesting to note amongst the competitors here on Taji that while John and Ryan did not ‘look’ the biggest in their respective weight classes (Ryan missed the lower weight class by #2), their performances and relative strength to BW is incredible.
Also, after having trained with these guys and understanding there’s more to fitness that just strength, I knew looking at the other competitors, that while they may have all been strong, none of them possess the lung capacity, endurance, or stamina as John or Ryan.
They are balanced athletes, not just meatheads who can lift a lot of weight.
Ryan recently ran a sub-35 5-miler and John will likely run in the low 34s or mid 33s on his 5-miler next week.
Take care and thanks for what you and your team do.
-E