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Thread: My Starting Strength Houston experience, at 4 months (and counting)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
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    4

    Default My Starting Strength Houston experience, at 4 months (and counting)

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    I’ve been a member of Starting Strength Houston since the beginning of May. This, by itself, might not be surprising or worth mentioning.

    Except that the gym itself didn’t even exist until mid-August.

    I’ll explain.

    I first read The Blue Book several years ago and found myself nodding in agreement while progressing through each section, as I’d finally found a weight training philosophy that explained its technical points simply and easily. After trying various exercise approaches over the years and seeing little result for my efforts, Starting Strength promised what I had come to appreciate in an effective approach. As work, school, and other concerns took precedence, it left an impression, and I promised I’d pursue it once I could commit to it properly and consistently. Meanwhile, I took advantage of the website’s offerings as time allowed, learning all I could.

    Fast forward to last spring, when I read about the Starting Strength Franchise Gym program. Once Houston was announced, I was lucky that its location was barely 15 minutes away from work. I joined the Early Interest mailing list and faithfully checked (okay, fine, cyber-stalked) the gym’s site for Sign-up availability, knowing that weekday evening timeslots would be the most popular. I was determined to secure a spot before they were all taken, and I wasn’t giving up.

    I signed up on the evening of Sunday, May 5th. The website wasn’t even open for registration until the following morning, but to the surprise of owner JD Shipley, I somehow got in anyway. I’m happy to have made his day (and a day early at that!) by becoming SS Houston’s first-ever client (BTW, thanks to SS Houston’s Head Coach Josh Wells, for the Forum User Name!). My friends thought I was crazy, paying upfront for an Intro session and a month’s worth of training for a gym that wasn’t even there yet (and wouldn’t be for several months) but they couldn’t understand that this was an investment, one that I knew would improve all aspects of my life in a safe, sound, and sensible manner.

    Fast forward again, and I’m starting my 5th month at SS Houston. I began at just over 297 pounds, at a height of 6 feet, and 45 years old. Before the gym opened, I had lost nearly 25 pounds via caloric restriction and long, slow-duration cardio, which, while eventually effective, was boring and personally unsatisfying, while failing to make me feel any fitter. Since then, having stopped cardio once the gym opened, I’ve lost 5 inches off of my waist, and half a pound of body weight. This confused me at first, as I always equated inches lost to weight lost; however, weight training’s unique effects have made me reconsider how my body responds to proper exercise intervention.

    My clothes fit differently now. My shoulders are larger, my torso is more tapered, and my pants fit a bit more snugly in the hips and legs while being looser in the waist. I wear the same shirts, but the sleeves are shorter now (due to the shoulder growth), while the overall lengths have increased, because of the waist reduction. I haven’t grown, but postural improvements give the illusion of increased height. My energy levels have increased, my sleep patterns have improved greatly, and I can see progress without the drudgery of long, slow-duration cardio. These changes have been tremendously rewarding, and the additional positive feedback from my classmates and coaches has been genuinely encouraging.

    I’m truly grateful for being able to take advantage of the environment that SS Houston provides. The coaching staff, including Josh, Shelley, Chase, JD, and the apprentices are infallibly patient, generous, and knowledgeable, aided by the excellently structured teaching method, a focus on technical proficiency over expediency, and the friendly, fun atmosphere they provide.

    While I’ve had some setbacks along the way, with insidious shoulder and back issues (plus my own technical/form errors) necessitating the occasional programming de-load and resetting, the flexibility of Starting Strength as a comprehensive training methodology has addressed a large number of my shortcomings, and continues to do so. I’m incorporating feedback more readily, and improving noticeably. My Press and Bench are back to linear increases with each session, and my Squat is improving gradually also. I’m still working on returning to Deadlifting via the alternating use of RDL’s and Rack Pulls with each session, but I’ll regain that too, in time.

    After all, my coaches don’t give up, and neither do I.

  2. #2
    J.D. Shipley's Avatar
    J.D. Shipley is offline Owner, Starting Strength Houston
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    115

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    Quote Originally Posted by SSHouston_#1 View Post
    I signed up on the evening of Sunday, May 5th. The website wasn’t even open for registration until the following morning, but to the surprise of owner JD Shipley, I somehow got in anyway. I’m happy to have made his day (and a day early at that!) by becoming SS Houston’s first-ever client (BTW, thanks to SS Houston’s Head Coach Josh Wells, for the Forum User Name!). My friends thought I was crazy, paying upfront for an Intro session and a month’s worth of training for a gym that wasn’t even there yet (and wouldn’t be for several months) but they couldn’t understand that this was an investment, one that I knew would improve all aspects of my life in a safe, sound, and sensible manner.
    This is one of my favorite stories to tell. Months before, I had taken a leap and signed an area development agreement for multiple gyms in Houston. At this point, it was all on faith that large quantities of people would see Starting Strength as a way to improve their quality of life.

    We signed a lease, and finalized the website for sign ups. It was live that Sunday, May 5th but the announcement was planned for 10:30am the next morning.

    As I said, it was all on faith that many others would see it like I did, but having Andy rush in to sign up before we even launched helped me rest a little easier after that. If there’s one person that saw it like I did, there has to be 10 more. If there are 10, maybe there’s a 100 more...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    248

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    Fantastic story JD. This should be an episode of SS Radio for sure.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Posts
    2

    Thumbs up Numero Uno

    Andy, is this you?!?!? We just had a talk last night at the gym about your weight loss. Great post. I had no idea you were Numero Uno at the gym. Great job and great post.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2019
    Posts
    4

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    Hi Kahne!

    Yes, it’s Andy. Thanks for the reply, and the compliments, I really appreciate it! You’ve come a long way, too, and it’s been great to see over these months. We always love having you train with us!

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