Your (succes)story with CNP

[ThaGerGuy3000]

I thought this should be a topic here.

So hereis mine:
I started working out 9 years ago and did machine work for 3 years(never saw a Squat rack up until 5 months ago....... german gyms man..) as I felt like there was little to no progress after the first year I gave up and purchased a set of dumbells and worked out at home, still doing the only rep scheme I had ever heard of, 3x10.

So I quit that after seeing no progress and starting to play starcraft all day.
5 months back I entered a gym in the town I moved to.
I saw a Squatrack and someone curling in it. I read about strength training and bought SS (so what, sue me) then stumbled across cnp on reddit/r/weightroom.

Now I got my Squat from some 50ish kg (yes people that weak exist) to 120 in the past 4 months. I did SS at first but the programme sucked, linear progression my hairy ass.

I know what most of you are thinking (he quit before, ,he will quit again) but I always loved lifting, but no one I knew was strong, ALL trainers said go for machines 3x10 and at 3 different gyms I never saw a Squat rack or a barbell being used for something other than benching.
Now that I have a goal (getting strong) and the tools to do so I see no reason to quit. Machines just killed my soul after the second year.

Now I am already one of the strongest guys in the gym (german gyms man.. srsly wtf) and getting stronger every week.

Oh yeah, age 25 72ish kg

 

[DevonG]

Congrats on the progress, it's amazing what happens when you finally discover barbells.

My story was somewhat similar. Always been one of the scrawny guys, but "in shape" as I would run a lot and do the machine work. Tried a few times to "bulk up" by throwing in a few shakes here and there but never spending any time getting to know and understand nutrition and exercise (I failed to "Grok" it, as Paul Carter would say).
Started reading CnP in late '09 while I was working way up North in the Oilsands and had not to do but sit in a small trailer 12 hours a day.
Loved the blog, the research, the articles, etc. I took it all in and learned as much as I could. At the time I started working with a PT when I was on my days off (yeah, I know) and while we didn't do much barbell work, he was a pretty cool old Soviet dude that lived through civil war in a sattelite state and taught me a lot about attitude and generally loved making people suffer (in a good way of course). At the time I was about 145 lbs of weak ****. I didn't change much, got up to around 155 lbs and was in great condition, but still not really strong.

Fast forward to last spring when I got a great job doing ambulance/fire work in the picturesque town of Waterton in the rockies at a national park where a hotel let us use the gym for free. It was a tiny workout room with a single squat cage that would become my new home for the next 4 months. The best part was that I was on call 24 hours for usually 2 weeks at a time but there were very few calls and we lived in a staff house with our own kitchen and BBQ. I could prepare all my own food, sleep as much as I wanted, and spend all the time in the world at the gym. I'll forever remember it as the best summer job EVER. Grilling steaks on the back porch right beside a towering mountain and beautiful lake with a herd of big horn sheep sleeping on the lawn right next to me and (I **** you not) a tiny baby deer hopping around the back yard right beside me.

I got after it on the squats (first time in my life), Deadlifts (first time in my life) and benchpress (first time with an actual barbell) and OHP (first time) with great fervor while finally putting into practice the eating and sleeping practices I always read about on CnP. Spent almost all day eating the good food I was cooking, actually logged calories to hit 5k+ a day, and slept upwards of 10 hours a day. While I did end up eventually injuring my groin with too wide a stance and moving up weight a little too quick on squats, in 4 months I went from 148 lbs of weak **** to 168 lbs of much better looking less weak **** and my love of powerlifting was born.

Things have been back and forth since then, military training actually set me back quite a bit as during basic you do pretty well nothing but bodyweight and running while pretty well being starved and sleep deprived.. But up to 178 now and it was a good day hitting that 4 plate deadlift for the first time this past summer.

A funny side note.. When I see people I haven't seen in years and they go "Oh my god you've gotten huge! the army has really bulked you up!" To which I have to laugh. Not really, the army would have me slim and running all the time eating mostly pasta and occasional chicken breasts, Chaos and Pain did this.

 

[Deimos]

I'll bite.

Was 120kg at 16, around 194 tall, doing nothing but playing basketball 2-3 hours a day (with both city Junior and Senior team) and playing WoW or counter strike, programming and designing.
Snapped, decided to slim the **** down and went to 83 kilos in 3 months doing around 12 hours of basketball a day (won 2 national golds that summer), Starting strength with barbell that went to 40kg lol and 1800 calories (nothing). Stalled and realised I was skinnyfat, started going to gym doing Westside for skinny bastards, had to Steinberg squat the weight and wasn't allowed to deadlift over 60kg due to floor damage. Had a fight with my basketball coach, decided to pursue MMA (father was a karate coach so I had long karate background).

College came, ****ed up my ankle, ****ed up my shoulder (cycling is ****ing dangerous guys), finally came back to full-time training with weights again two months ago. It's 2 hours MMA in the morning (striking or wrestling mostly), 1 hour weights if I can make it, 2 hours MMA in the evening, college/job/girlfriend fill in the rest of my day. Busy,busy bee.
Currently at around 95-96 kg@195cm, cutting down for the month to get to LHW for an upcoming tournament. It's hard to say what my current maxes are because I am damn tired during a lot of my sessions ( I do them after MMA), but I do farmer's walks with 160kg and can do 10 weighted pullups at 95kg+10kg vest, so that should give you a clue.

I never believed in the "5x5 3xweek or you overtrain" dogma and I was always told I'm dumb and that I should do a split and such and such yada yada.
Well, thanks to Jamie and CnP, I had my beliefs confirmed and my views expanded, my cardio is so good I can wrestle a 165kg dude for over 30 mins and not get gassed out,I feel better than ever doing such a crazy volume in the gym most of my friends would call suicidal, eating so much people say "oh your metabolism is so good!" and monkeying around with BTN presses, one-arm barbell presses, "legend" pullups and other fun lifts so much that people think I'm doing crossfit.

Also plan to compete as a junior in raw next year, hope I can crush some skulls there too!

 

[AlexPowell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UuezbpU53U

It rocks, no other way to put it
I follow the training and the diet

 

[aendi]

I've only been at this style of training for a couple of months, but I'll be competing in March and will let y'all know how it goes.

 

[CNPJamie]

I thought this should be a topic here.

So hereis mine:
I started working out 9 years ago and did machine work for 3 years(never saw a Squat rack up until 5 months ago....... german gyms man..) as I felt like there was little to no progress after the first year I gave up and purchased a set of dumbells and worked out at home, still doing the only rep scheme I had ever heard of, 3x10.

So I quit that after seeing no progress and starting to play starcraft all day.
5 months back I entered a gym in the town I moved to.
I saw a Squatrack and someone curling in it. I read about strength training and bought SS (so what, sue me) then stumbled across cnp on reddit/r/weightroom.

Now I got my Squat from some 50ish kg (yes people that weak exist) to 120 in the past 4 months. I did SS at first but the programme sucked, linear progression my hairy ass.

I know what most of you are thinking (he quit before, ,he will quit again) but I always loved lifting, but no one I knew was strong, ALL trainers said go for machines 3x10 and at 3 different gyms I never saw a Squat rack or a barbell being used for something other than benching.
Now that I have a goal (getting strong) and the tools to do so I see no reason to quit. Machines just killed my soul after the second year.

Now I am already one of the strongest guys in the gym (german gyms man.. srsly wtf) and getting stronger every week.

Oh yeah, age 25 72ish kg

Hopefully, the no wellness movement spreads to Germany rom Austria. Badass progress bro!

 

[aendi]

Quick update: I've been using a C&P inspired template while running a peaking cycle for an upcoming comp. All in all it's going damn well with rep PRs dropping almost every week of the cycle so far. Looking to hit some big numbers (for me) come comp day.
Aiming for 190/130/220 @ u100 (I'm 6'5" for reference - long levers are a bitch).

 

[AlexPowell]

Quick update: I've been using a C&P inspired template while running a peaking cycle for an upcoming comp. All in all it's going damn well with rep PRs dropping almost every week of the cycle so far. Looking to hit some big numbers (for me) come comp day.
Aiming for 190/130/220 @ u100 (I'm 6'5" for reference - long levers are a bitch).

Hey bro, which competition is this?
Fellow AusBro here, which PTC do you train at?

 

[aendi]

It's the WA GPC State Titles. I'm at PTC Perth

 

[AlexPowell]

It's the WA GPC State Titles. I'm at PTC Perth

Good luck man, I'll tune in for sure.

 

[aendi]

Quick update on WA State Titles yesterday.
I went 197.5/125/217.7 for [email protected] and took silver in the 100s. Bench was lame thanks to a recurrent shoulder injury.
The guy that took gold is in his 40s and jacked as anything. He made me question 'Do I even lift?' and I was by far the tallest and skinniest medal winner.
Fuelled throughout the day with Inferno, Swole, and some Ferox before deadlifts.

Of note, and the craziest lifter of the weekend was a guy named James McNaught who has destroyed the 82.5kg class going 270/190/290 for a 750kg total. With slightly better attempts he could have added another 15kg to that. Just sickening. Not sure what supps he takes but I daresay it's something stronger than anything CnP sells

 

[CNPJamie]

I'm at PTC Perth

Where everything costs ten times as much as anywhere else on Earth! It actually cost me as much to send a shirt to Kazakhstan as it did to send one to Perth.

 

[aendi]

Where everything costs ten times as much as anywhere else on Earth! It actually cost me as much to send a shirt to Kazakhstan as it did to send one to Perth.

This is true. I have no comeback.

 

[Ven0m]

I guess Iw I'll share my story, it's not much....

I started lifting in High School, and could surprisingly bench better than anything else. I hit 135 first or second time benching, and did a horrible bro/Weider/bodybuilding routine on and off until Freshman year of college. Around Spring of 2007, I toyed around with 5x5 and 3x3 after discovering Bodybuilding.com articles and forums. I ended up staying with Madcows 5x5 intermediate for almost 20 weeks. This was boring, but I was able to up my lifts to a 275# Deadlift, 230# Squat, 195# Bench.

While lurking the powerlifting forums on BB.com, I found people ranting and raving about a blog. I checked it out, and remember reading the entry "A Ride Along with Chaos and Pain". I was intrigued and couldn't stop reading. I ready the entire blog and really caught on to his philosophy about lifting. From there on, I implemented Squat/Pull/Press on Mon/Wed/Fri with Tues/Thurs being body weight, or arms and abs.

I got my lifts to a 275# Front Squat, 315# Back Squat, 185# push press, 250# close grip bench, 415 Dead, and significantly increased my pull-up numbers. Through the years I have injured my low back and hip, mild strains that were annoying and prevented heavy lifting. I also endured a hernia surgery in 2011. Today, I switched focus to Strongman, have my first comp this April, my numbers are at their best, still incorporate CnP principals, and I have been tinkering with my APD because eating meat and smashing shakes is cheaper than other ways of eating for me.

 

[Justin_p]

I generally look at other people's manner of training and think to myself, "yeah, okay, not for me." I got off my ACL restrictions about two months ago, focusing mostly on my quads with lots belt squatting. When it came time to deadlift, well, it's such a total disgrace that I'm not even going to share what 10 months of not deadlifting did to my already mediocre numbers to begin with.

So, I've started doing lots of heavy (for me, not really heavy) 1-3 reps for 8-15 sets. I've got an epic soft spot for zercher lifting. Last night, I matched my pre-ACL tear with Zercher lifting.

This is working. Oh, and I've put on 14 lbs since January 11.