Memoirs of a Strong(er) Beta Tester: Part 1
By
R&K Connelly
I originally started with the vision of creating the best article that
EliteFTS.com has ever published. It was going to have graphs, tables, and
pictures and be very detailed. Then I remembered how much I hate that. Don’t get
me wrong. I love reading, and I understand when the writer is a little
long-winded when a point needs to be made. But other than that, I want to get to
the meat of the subject.
I was asked to include some of the e-mail correspondence I had with Dave, so
you will have the opportunity to read that as well as some bits of my training
log. This way you can get more of a “feel” as to how things went. However, I
will still try to make this a quick and easy read.
Me
Male, 37 years old (was 36 years old when I started
Strong(er); 5’7” when I
feel proud and have shoes on; weight when I started was at 186 lbs
My training history
For this article, it really doesn’t matter. Let’s just say that I’m somewhere
between the guy who has never trained and Dave Tate. Draw your own conclusions.
Why Strong(er)
Umm…Dave Tate was offering to guide people for free for an entire year. Dave
Tate + Guide + Free = you’re an idiot not to apply.
Aside from the obvious, I had hit a wall in my training and was going
backward. I was suffering injury after injury and was very close to selling my
equipment and buying a hot tub. I wanted nothing to do with training.
Phase 1
The program comes with everything laid out for you. There are three parts to
phase one:
· Phase 1.1 GPP
· Phase 1.2 Muscle building
· Phase 1.3 Recovery
Phase 1.1 GPP
The GPP phase is designed to “reset” your system. Mine definitely needed it,
and this phase went great for me.
I once read that the program you need is the one you aren’t doing. I don’t
know who first said it, nor do I really care. It’s the saying that holds the
gold. I never really “got it” until I made the switch. It was completely
different from what I had been doing. I’ll admit it took me a couple of weeks to
get adjusted. I like my “comfort zone,” and this was way outside of what I was
used to doing.
Final notes
The program was eight weeks. It definitely messes with the mind when looking
at numbers that should be higher but aren’t. However, it’s only been eight
weeks, and I haven’t done (or have rarely done) many of the exercises listed.
Shows how “locked in” I’ve been.
I started phase 1.1 with a severely screwed up elbow. It was so bad that I
couldn’t bench 85 lbs without it feeling like it was going to break. I ended the
phase having benched 200 lbs for eight reps. I’ve had no new injuries. This is a
huge deal because it’s been about three years since I’ve gone this long without
injuring something.
Me: You have us doing planks, yet Dr. Michael Yessis stated that they
were worthless. Do you stand by your decision to place them in the program or
have you taken them out?
Dave: I would leave them in because I respectfully disagree. The
reason I use them isn’t so much as a strength builder but to teach people what a
tight core feels like. There is no way you can do this and not feel what a tight
core feels like. This will be used when we bridge into box squats in the next
phase. It will be much easier to tell them to tighten their torso the way the
planks do and they will have half a clue what to do.
Me: I was reading ahead to the next section and realized that
you utilize a lot of equipment including things like the pec deck, machine
press, leg press, and leg extension. I have a home gym, and I’m lucky enough to
have your glute ham raise, reverse hyper, 45-degree back raise, sled, and
several other things. However, even if I could afford to purchase the other
equipment, I have no more room.
I know you state that we can use similar movements. Yet, how does one mimic a
leg extension or leg press? I’m guessing that the leg press could be a squat,
but would that change the rep/effort due to the load on the spine? Would you
please provide us with an idea of what we can do without these items? Or am I
thinking too much?
Dave: Yep, you’re thinking too much. Look at the scheme, and you will
see specialization days. For the legs, just put together a sequence of the worst
hell you can think of and then kill it. The same goes for other body parts.
Me: Phase 1.1 gives a very direct goal for each day. I find it easy to
follow because it indicates what the rep scheme should entail (failure, past
failure, below failure). Phase 1.2 doesn’t offer this information. Most
exercises only indicate reps. For instance, it says incline fly for one set of
12 reps. What are we shooting for here? Are the 12 reps to failure, past, or
below?
Dave: Unless otherwise noted, one or two reps shy. This is a good
question. I thought I had that in there.
Me: How does one know if eight weeks of phase 1.1 is enough? I’m
finishing up my seventh week and each workout is still a challenge. I about died
on Monday (squat past failure). I have been able to increase weights/reps.
Dave: Because I say so. Ha ha ha ha. Seriously, I think it can run for
10–12 weeks, but I try to pull myself and others out of programs while they are
still progressing to avoid overtraining.
*Note: A strange thing happened that I wish to address. As stated, in
week seven I was still making progress. Although it was difficult, I truly was
thinking of doing three more weeks. However, during week eight, everything just
seemed to “change.” It’s hard for me to explain, but there was no way I wanted
to keep going.
Phase 1.2
Dave calls on his bodybuilding background for this section. I hate
bodybuilding. There is tempo work and triple sets, strip sets, and rest-pause
sets. To be honest, I cursed Dave every training day for the first couple of
weeks. I was so far removed from my comfort zone and doing “what I liked” that
it took me that long to realize I was feeling pretty good and still injury free.
I also decided to hire Shelby Starnes to help with the diet end of things.
Final notes
This phase sucked, for me anyway. I hate doing tempo work. It’s
humbling as can be when using the low end of the dumbbell rack and dying.
There’s a part of me that likes going through crap. I figured it wasn’t enough
to go through a training phase that I hated. I needed to add dieting to the mix.
My weight is below 180 lbs and I’m still injury free. Mentally and physically
I need a break.
Me: In phase 1.2, you basically take no rest between movements other
than to set up or get to the next one, correct?
Dave: Yes, it’s best to set it all up before the giant set.
Me: Also, can you tell me if this is normal or if I am doing
something wrong. I just finished day two, and I’m shaking. Day one left me sore
to the touch. The strip sets seem to be more mental because I’m fried
about halfway through the second part and have to will myself to go on. Also, I
seem to be super weak. My last set of squats was what I normally use for my
warm-up weight. I think it was like 25 percent (or less) of my max. Is this
normal or am I just a big baby?
Dave: This is totally normal.
Phase 1.3
This is a recovery phase. You’ll want this. There’s no need to say anything
more.
Me: I understand who Strong(er) is for, but I’d really like to hear,
in your words, why you feel this program is different than others that are
offered (BFS, Crossfit). This would really help me understand the core of
Strong(er) and help me stay on path with its objective.
Dave: The objective is to offer a program that will build muscle
and strength over a year plan and place extreme focus in each section
at different times. Other programs try to do it all at once and just work on
conditioning or strength and conditioning. This plan is designed for
intermediate lifters while just about everything else is for beginners. This
also follows a scheme of building GPP and muscle balance, building muscle mass,
using the new mass to build maximal strength, using the strength to do another
mass phase to build maximal muscle mass, and then using a leaning out phase to
strip off body fat. After this, we use the rebound to add more muscle. This is
when it all starts over again.
Final thoughts
Phase 1 was a great experience for me. It’s very easy for me to get locked
into a particular way of doing something. This phase allowed me a respite from
what had become a toxic relationship with the iron.
It definitely takes a certain mindset to get through this phase. Phase 1.1
isn’t that difficult, but phase 1.2 is, especially if you aren’t used to that
type of work. Tempo work, for me anyway, is the most challenging, and because I
wasn’t able to use anywhere near the weight I usually use, it definitely was a
challenge on the ego. However, I reminded myself that the phase had a purpose
and that purpose was to build muscle, not strength. It may help to keep that in
mind if you decide to embark on this little adventure.
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