I first started training Ken back in December of '07. He had already began adopting healthy eating habits in October, which was when he decided to turn his life around:
In the above photo, he had a 40 inch waist and weighed around 200 pounds. Through healthy eating habits, he dropped down to about 185 pounds when we first started working together. Ken was 51 at the time - he could do one sloppy pushup, had knee pain, had the flexibility of a steel rod, and could barely get past eye height when he tried to raise his arms overhead. Of course, when I told Ken to get a referral from his physician for a physical therapist to look at his shoulders, he was told that the pain and lack of mobility in his shoulders was "all in his head".
That mental toughness I had mentioned in the beginning of the post was crucial to Ken's success. I'm not even sure I could've gotten through some of the workouts I designed for Ken! We focused on heavy strength training along with some targeted metabolic circuit and interval training. Ken also came in early for every session and performed my prescribed mobility and foam rolling exercises which was critical in improving his hip/shoulder/thoracic spine mobility and overall soft tissue quality.
18 months later, here's Ken!
Ken developing some power with box jumps:
Posterior chain work:
Deadlift: 315 pounds
Box Squat: 225 pounds
Bodyweight:
12 Decline Ring Pushups:
3 Neutral Grip Pullups:
Single Leg Squat with 10 Pounds:
If this doesn't inspire you to go work out right now, I don't know what will! Sadly, Ken moved away from Massachusetts last month so we've stopped training together. However, he did get a promotion, which comes as no surprise because like I said before - you can tell a lot about a person when you watch them perform an intense workout. Ken's determination and dedication inside the gym is as just a part of him as it is outside of it.
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