Amazing testimonial

I get a lot of testimonials each week. They are all truly special to me, and I mean that. It's amazing to know that you wrote something regarding training or life or anything that made a difference in someone's life in some way.

However some are more meaningful than others. And that is the case with this one.

For reasons only a few people close to me know, this testimonial brought me to tears. In the future, as I write about it, you will understand why.

I want to thank Heather for sending this to me, and to let her know publicly how much this really meant to me.

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I have been lifting for almost a year at this point, with a very dedicated but old-school trainer who believes in heavy triples, doubles, singles and trying to go for a PR every week. This worked for a little while, but I’m no spring chicken. I’m a 41 y.o. female. I started having shoulder pain, hip pain, and a very tired back. Progress stalled after a few months of this, and I started to get frustrated when my numbers weren’t moving, and I wasn’t even having fun. Doing accessory work with new friends at the gym was fun, but training the “big three”…well I was starting to dread it. I liked my 4th day at the gym when I was by myself and could work on whatever I wanted. I knew something had to change, and as I read Base Building, everything made sense. I didn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t be) going for PR’s week in and week out. I was frying my body and my mind.

I started following your base building models a couple months ago and everything started to move again. Some slowly, but some quickly. I was feeling stronger and happy to be in the gym again. My recent victory was a 305 deadlift on June 7 at a push-pull meet. It was a grinder but I never stopped pulling. I almost backed out of the meet that morning because I just wasn’t feeling it. My mom passed away on May 30, and I was only doing the meet to have something positive to focus on. When I wanted to stop, I realized that I was wearing my LRB shirt and I thought about you at Relentless with a torn quad. I knew that I wasn’t a quitter and to suck it up and lift. I ended up winning my class and getting best female lifter. (attached is a picture with a damn goofy face once I finally locked it out.) I gave it everything I could and was so pleased after the lift that I went to text my mom about it. (she’d been in the hospital so much that I was texting pictures and numbers after every meet or gym PR so we could share. She lived out of state, about 2 ½ hours away.)

I’d like to thank you for the advice, information, and frank opinions that you share. I enjoy your writing immensely, and hope that I can someday see you lift in person.