Wanting to learn more and teach others

[Baddecisions]

Coach Rippetoe and company,
I thought I would write to share a bit of my story thus far as well as ask for advice. First I would like to thank you for putting out in depth information, and more free advice than anyone else on the subject of strength training. Through my teens and early twenties I was essentially strong by accident. I was in the military, enjoyed eating too much and lifting heavy weights. Upon leaving the Marines, a series of bad luck and bad decisions eventually left me at 320 lb and rather immobile. At this point I made the biggest mistake of my life and was talked into getting bariatric surgery. I lost weight at a frightening pace and a year later weighed just under 160 lb. I looked like a Holocaust survivor with leukemia. Worse than this I obviously lost a great deal of strength. I could do more chin ups at 300 lb than I could at 160. After a long while in physical therapy I stumbled back into the gym and began “exercising”. I got where I could run and do body-weight exercises, and was lucky enough to run into your book Starting Strength. I decided to commit to it, no matter how embarrassed I was to get under a barbell again. I have suffered, among other things, chronic knee pain for a few years now. My biggest surprise came a month in when I realized my knees didn’t hurt anymore. One month of squatting with the bar low on my back accomplished what two years of physical therapy could not. I followed the program to the letter, the most difficult part being nutrition. Consuming a gallon of milk on top of food with less than half a stomach can only be described as hell. But a few months later I had put on 25-30 good pounds and increased my squat from a 155 max to a 315 working set. This is by no means the strongest I have ever been, but it’s stronger than I ever thought I’d be again. I continue to set what I call post op PRs as I head into the third phase of your program. I just had to take a few weeks off due to pneumonia, but it didn’t seem to set me back too terribly and it gave me a chance to finish reading Practical Programming for Strength Training. I intend to let linear progression take me as far is it can, and to come to Wichita Falls as soon as possible and attend a seminar, my eventual goal to become a strength coach. I would especially like to work with other disabled veterans and perhaps keep them from making the mistakes I did. Is there any training or certification that you would consider more useful than others? If you consider certification useful at all. Right now I’m just reading anything I can get a hold of and trying to help a few others start the program. I currently work in law enforcement and have enjoyed helping others become stronger lately. Any advice on moving forward would be appreciated, and thanks for all the advice so far.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Sounds like you're well on your way.

The Path to the Starting Strength Coach Credential | Tom Campitelli

[Baddecisions]

Thanks Rip.