Why I Only Trained at Garage Strength
Why I Only Trained at Garage Strength
Growing up, lifting was not a very important aspect of my life. Honestly, it was not in my life at all. I only started lifting before my senior year of high school. I was 165 lbs. skinny fat that could not do one pull up. Then came Garage Strength. The gym that changed my body, my attitude, and ultimately my life.
I originally found out about Dane because he came in for a pregame talk for the football team. Obviously, the speech was very good, motivating, and unorganized. It was everything that Dane was at the time, he is slightly better now. After the game, of course, I checked out who he was and what he did. That is when I first learned about Garage Strength. I quickly went to him and went through a workout. I died. It was unlikely anything I have ever done in my life. That was in December, I didn’t go back until June then. He killed me.
In June, I decided to take weightlifting seriously because I wanted to be good at football and maybe have a chance of playing in college. I went from 165 lbs. skinny fat, to 180 lbs. somewhat muscular all in three months before my senior year. I still couldn’t do a pull-up, but I could at least bench body weight, power clean, and squat to depth. I went on to have a decent senior year which helped me play in college at Wilkes University.
At Wilkes University is when I really started to excel and Garage Strength helped me go from a barely recruited kid out of high school to a two-year captain. I went from 185 lbs. freshman benching 225 lbs. three times to a 235 lb. senior benching 225 lbs. for 30 reps. Garage Strength completely transformed my body and my attitude towards the weight room, football, and life.
After college, I decided to go into Olympic weightlifting. It was challenging and I thought it was fun. My first meet I missed all my snatches at 242 lbs. and clean and jerked 334 lbs. After three full years of training, my best snatch was 341 lbs. and my best clean and jerk was 440 lbs. Just the athletic progress I made over eight years was absolutely incredible.
After college, I was having trouble finding a job so Dane offered me a job. I started off being the bitch and splitting wood, stacking wood, driving to Virginia after I just got done a shift working as a bouncer at a nightclub for a pellet stove, and whatever other dumb crap Dane asked me to do. Eventually, I moved up, started training people, started learning from him. Eventually, after some people left, it was just Dane and me so I stepped up and earned my spot. Now, the gym being three times the size it was before, I am the manager at Garage Strength, bought a house, had a kid, have 2 dogs, and a beautiful girlfriend (who I met through Garage Strength). I am truly blessed and thankful for Garage Strength changing my life.