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Thread: Testimonial for SSC Adam Skillin

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Posts
    1

    Default Testimonial for SSC Adam Skillin

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    I have been working with Adam since mid-June of this year. I started as a complete newcomer to strength training – my 24 year-old son, David, gave me an intro session with Adam as a birthday gift. David started strength training about a year earlier and it had made a massive difference in his life – on many levels. So when he told me about the gift, I had to accept it – even though I had a lot of trepidation about barbell lifts and strength training in general.

    A few facts about me: I’m a 67 year old woman, 5’7” – and in June I weighed something north of 175 lbs; in my teens and twenties I studied dance seriously, and through the years kept reasonably active, doing the personal training thing off and on for years with periodic overuse injuries; in 2015, I had posterior lumbar interbody fusion surgery, so I have a titanium disc at L4/L5; and since then I had really cut back on physical activity. In my mind, I did not think I would be a good candidate for this barbell stuff and of course I worried that I would do some lift that would pop out my metal disc! But my son wanted me to try it out, and I could not refuse.

    After 5 months of working with Adam once a week, plus another session on my own weekly, here is where I am now: I weigh now 150 lbs.; my best squat work-set is 132.5lbsx5x3; on press my PR is 52lbsx3x5; bench is 70 lbsx3x5; and deadlift is 175lbsx5. Back in June, those weights were 45, 30, 40, and 105. In August, I still weighed 175 lbs., and my doctor prescribed statins to lower my cholesterol (LDL of 169). With keeping to my program designed by Adam, and modifying my diet, I lost the 25 lbs., cut my LDL cholesterol to 130 with no statins (and all the other lipid screen numbers dropped as well) in 12 weeks while continuing to add weight to all my lifts. As a further bonus, in early November, my biannual bone density test showed my osteopenia (the female precursor to osteoporosis) had stabilized – meaning my four and half months of strength training up to that point had stopped the progression of osteopenia first diagnosed in me back in 2013.

    Back pain? Non-existent. Back strength? So much better in everything I do in life. Being to fit into clothes I haven’t been able to wear for over 30 years? Fantastic. Going to my 45th college reunion and showing off my deadlift videos to all my old Harvard buddies? Yeah, I loved it.

    I would not have been able to accomplish any of this without the terrific guidance and teaching from my coach, Adam. He knows just how to cue me to get me to do these lifts as well as I can do them at the moment – he sees everything and reads my mind with its fears and concentration lapses perfectly – so I am able to feel confident and perform – which at my age is priceless – to say nothing of the incredible health benefits the program has given me. And it’s not even been six months.

    It’s very hard work, it does take time, and it is an investment – one, however, with an almost infinite return. My husband Ron has been so impressed with my progress (as well as my new figure!) that he has started the program – we were able to add a home gym to our basement – and now Adam coaches us both. Ron had never, ever done any exercise remotely weight-oriented – and in just three sessions, he is already doing all four lifts, including full squats with a bum knee and a herniated disk. So, now it’s a family endeavor – and that’s very cool!

    Thank you, Mark Rippetoe, for this program. No surprise, of course, but it works – really, really well.

    And especially heartfelt thanks to my coach, Adam Skillin. His skill, knowledge, professionalism, and expertise has made my life so much better.
    Carole in NJ

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    12,495

    Default

    Thanks so much for the kind words, Carole. Keep up the great work and I hope you and Ron realize how rewarding it is to work with you both and to get to observe the progress that results from your time and hard effort.

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