16 year old me was a bum, who wasted too many opportunities. I’m not sure 39 year old me has learned enough lessons yet!
Awesome to see the setup you’ve made for yourself.
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16sep25:
Agile: 10 min mobility
Powerful:
Hang clean: 185x2, 185x2, 185x2, 185x2, 185x2
WW: hang power clean+FS: 85x2, 85x2, 85x2, 85x2, 85x2
Strong:
Hi bar squat: 45x10, 135x6, 225x3, 255x3, (add soft belt after this), 285x5, 250x6, 250x6, 250x6
- WW: 35x10, 85x5, 135x5, 175x3, 210x5, 185x6, 185x6, 185x6
Built:
Deficit RDL (1-0-3): 185x10, 185x10,
- WW: (soft belt) 135x10, 135x8,
Minor emergency cut the workout short, all good now
@alex_uk 16 year old me didn’t know anything, and knew he didn’t have good examples, so when I got my first job I legit went to the public library to check out a book on how to handle money. “I will teach you to be rich.” I’ve read a lot over the years, many arguably better, but given my age at first read, it was certainly the most impactful
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Thanks, I just used your story here as part of my morning routine with my son, talking about effort, consistency, discipline and preparedness, your story fit in nicely!
16 year old me was intelligent, but stupid, would have rather been drinking, getting high, and playing video games than reading books. 16 year old me also had a gambling problem and never saved a penny. That really was a gift you gave yourself.
Hoping my son learns more from your 16 year old self than my 16 year old self!
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I didn’t have much guidance when I was younger either. Sounds like you did WAY better with your self guided tour than I did. Much like with @alex_uk you will be a continuing source of conversation with my teenage sons. Thank you for the inspiration.
Edit: Please extend my apologies to your wife for any head inflation that I may have contributed to. 
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17sep25:
Agile: 5 min mobility
Powerful:
Side to side single leg jumps: 5x10
Strong:
NG Chins: 5, 5, 5, 5
- WW: Bx5, Bx5, Bx5, Bx5,
Built:
Barbell row (2-0-1) 135x8, 145x8, 145x8
- WW: 75x8, 75x8, 75x8
Lat pulldown: (3-1-1): 170x10, 170x9,
- WW: 110x9, 110x8,
Strict 1 arm DB row: 115x7, 115x6+6 with body English
- WW: 40x9, 40x9
Cable curl:(3-1-1) 30x12, 30x12, 30x10
- WW: 10x10, 10x10, 10x10
Incline DB curl: 25x7, 20x10
- WW: 10x12, 15x9
Db Preacher curl: 20x12, 20x11
- WW: 10x12, 10x12
Notes:
- chins felt fine. Elbow cranky so avoiding weight on these for now.
- Barbell rows felt good. Really dropped weight and put a big focus on the contraction. 145 is light, but my back was cramping by the end. Also teaching my wife the form, she did well.
- Wow some tempo on curls, especially cable curls, just blows me up. Hoping some dedicated curl work will help the elbow feel better on chins… at least that sounds like a good excuse to me haha
@alex_uk @BethB I appreciate the kind words, but I wouldn’t give 16 year old me too much credit. I had a pretty screwed up childhood, to include some time bouncing around foster homes. Things settled down around 14, but it meant I grew up younger than I should have, with both good and bad benefits. I know being broke enough to not know where my next meals coming from, so I was always worried about money. I worked hard at that age. Two sport varsity, 35 act, straight As, student council, you name it, mainly because I just felt I had to prove myself to the world, and that I wouldn’t make it out unless I did so, if that makes sense. Figured out by like 16 that any career I wanted would involve security clearances and background investigations, which also helped shape me up. Even so, I Also made plenty of boneheaded moves, and in retrospects it’s a miracle I made it out of high school with no children and only 1 arrest. (No conviction, a fistfight I didn’t start but perhaps ended a bit too enthusiastically).
Edit: this ended a bit of a ramble, but TLDR; life tried very hard to teach me lessons and I still proved hardheaded half the time
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I always envisioned atlas as being 35 or 37 years old
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Glad I popped in here when I did, you’re talking about stuff I care a lot about.
You and I were pretty similar - both coming from poverty and no role models.
IDK how you ended up as an O while the only option I saw was E, but that’s great for you and I’ve always been stoked for your path.
The insecurities you mentioned, that drove you to be a chronic over-achiever? That’s me to a T as well.
You want to talk about getting a late start?
I got out at 24, got a mortgage and started night school for my BS. Finished college around 28 but by that time I also had 10 years work experience and 2 kids.
(PS: It wasn’t the degree I truly wanted but it worked out. That’s a separate story.)
From there I enrolled directly into a night MBA program, due to the same insecurities mentioned above.
By the time I finished that in 2019 I was… around 30.
And now…
Because of how hard I worked - and smart choices I made - and luck - and how hard I worked ON MYSELF rather than just on maximizing income at each moment - I’d say I’m doing pretty well for me and my giant family 
And you’ll do even better!
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I can’t really give myself all the credit here. As I said above, my childhood was rough, but things did calm down. To simplify a very long story, I moved in with my dad, and he was an excellent parent. With my grades, college was always the clear choice, and then I just was trying to figure out how to pay for it. Plan was originally athletics or ROTC (both actually panned out, though athletics was only for some mediocre schools tbh). My old man was the one who turned me on to the different service academies, even flew up with me to visit West Point and USNA summer after my sophomore year, drove me to interview with my congressman, proof read admission essays. He never forced me into any route, but he never really cut me slack either. I could do what I wanted in life. Sports, schools, whatever… as long as I kept my nose relatively clean, kept my grades high, and had some sort of standard for myself. He made a huge impact, and we are very close to this day. Any life question, not even problem, just choices I’m mulling over, he’s still the first person I talk to about it.
On top of that, I had some truly, truly excellent high school athletic coaches. Total unsung heroes who did more for the boys I knew than they ever got credit for. We had good athletic programs, sent a lot of kids to college, a few NFL even, but man, that was secondary. Our head football coach was happy to make athletes, but he was passionate about developing men. We had starting players kicked off the team more than once for failing to uphold the moral standards our coach had. You got any grade below a C? You were explaining it to coach. Swear in front of a woman? Coach would smoke the whole team at the end of practice. Dad was beating you bloody? Coach was at your door in 15 minutes, and you stayed with coach until graduation. (That exact event happened twice, once with the head coach, once with our offensive line coach.) hell, he used to bring in loads of bread and jars of peanut butter for guys to take home if he knew the only meals they got were provided by the school. He didn’t do a whole lot to push me the O route or anything, but he definitely gave me a lot of inspiration for the kind of man I knew I wanted to be someday. (I keep saying he because the head coach had the most impact, but honestly any one of them would do the same, it was a fantastic group of men).
I feel that. I will say, I don’t really consider myself making a late start, more like a late pivot. I’ve got a start, and hell I’m honestly in a position where I could just get out, grab a contracting job making $60k more than I do now, and just be content for the rest of my life. There’s no real need for me to pursue grad school or anything with my credentials, it’s just something I want to do so that I can do work I find meaningful, not just paying the bills. Which is a very spoiled situation to be in, as I sometimes need to remind myself.
I couldn’t agree any more emphatically. Been awesome seeing all the great things you and the gang are getting up to in HI, and I love the big family. Really, happy for ya.
7 Likes
A simple “heart” click isn’t enough. +1000000 to the above. Awesome story.
Well that explains our different routes - I had the grades and academic chops, as should be obvious, but neither the wise dad (rather, the opposite) nor the helpful coaches to get me on some kind of track toward college. There’s more (cult-adjacent stuff) but beyond the scope of this forum. Made it out alive, though, all’s well that ends well!
A sweet spot for you to be in, indeed, and the world is your oyster. If I may add, nuclear is POPPING right now. I know that’s not your passion but there’s likely some good $ in it if you wanted to.
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18sep25:
Agile: 5 min mobility
Powerful;
8x1 seated broad jump
Strong:
Bench press: 45x10, 135x5, 175x5, 205x5, 235x5, 185x8, 185x8, 185x8
- WW: 45x10, 65x5, 85x5, 95x5, 120x3, 95x8, 95x8, 95x8
Built:
Db 20 Inc bench (3-0-1): 70x10, 70x9
- WW: 35x10, 35x10
Db fly: 30x12, 30x12
- WW: 10x6, 10x10
Skullcrusher: 60x12, 60x12, 60x12,
- WW: 30x10, 30x10,
Cable overhead ext: 60x12, 60x12
- WW: 30x12, 30x12
Rope pushdown: 45x15, 45x13
- WW: 30x13, 30x12
Notes:
- no cardio today, was supposed to have a gym at work that I was planning to use, but it was closed. Upsetting, and also means I got to work 2 hours early.
- Bench felt good. 235x5 is decent for me, think 240 may of been there.
- Trying to focus on some upper body hypertrophy, listened to a podcast with Dan Green that had me pretty sold I needed to focus on it a bit more. I will say, the sessions are kinda funny, and I do like feeling a pump.
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20sep25:
Agile: 10 min mobility
Powerful;
Hang high pull: 135x3, 165x2, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3
- WW: 85x3, 85x3, 85x3, 85x3, 85x3
Strong:
Deadlift: 185x3, 225x3, 315x3, 365x2, 405x1, 430x5 (PR), 365x5, 365x5, 365x5
- WW: 125x5, 175x3, 215x5, 175x5, 175x5, 175x5
Built:
Slant board front squat: (3-1-1): 45x6, 95x6, 115x8, 115x8, 115x8
- WW: 35x5. 65x8, 65x8, 65x8
Donkey kickbacks: 15x15, 15x15
- WW: 15x8, 15x10
10 Inch barbell step ups: 65x10, 115x10, 145x10, 185x10,
- WW: 65x10, 85x10, 105x10
Notes: l
- pull a PR second week back to deadlifting after not doing it for months. Had more in the tank too, this was just a heavy set of 5, not a max by any means. Proof that my process is working. Liking the idea of reintroducing heavy deads now that I significantly lightened my RDLs earlier in the week.
- The front squats are brutal. That 3 second timed eccentric and then holding in the bottom, along with the extra stretch from the slant board just makes these brutal. Hoping these help with some quad strength, along with some knee bulletproofing
- Donkey kickbacks are done light. I feel dumb doing them, but damn do my hips feel better after them lol.
- Step ups are too much fun lol, I was just having fun with these
- Hoping on a plain to the UK for a week, will see if I can make training happen.
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where you staying
In London yesterday, got to Portsmouth last night. Will be here for the week, then a bit of time again in London Friday before heading home
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@dagill2 @rugby_lifting will be close that @alex_uk is. Not sure either of them are in Portsmouth though.
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I’m Brighton area, so a good hour/2 hours from London or Portsmouth.
If you’re looking to train, The Gym Group are usually available everywhere, 24hours, and cheap enough that even if you paid for a month, it’s still no big deal. PureGym are probably pretty similar, but i’ve never been.
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Not in London with work this week I’m afraid.
Pure gyms can be crowded at busy times but i do use them when travelling with work as the equipment in there is usually really good (lots of items and lots of choice).
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@simo74 @dagill2 @rugby_lifting appreciate the advice gents!
The work trip is proving a bit busier than expected, lots of mandatory social functions after hours so my gym time isn’t looking good. Managed to get a bit of bodyweight training in though.
Work for today:
4ish mile run
5x20 pushups
5x20 BW squats
5x20 sit ups
Notes:
- ran those first two ish miles hard, definitely well sub 8min pace. Did this largely because I was wearing a Navy shirt and felt peer pressured to be fast when running on populated streets lol. Slowed to a jog once I left the crowds.
- I had fish and chips on Sunday, because it was my first night here and it seemed fun. Then at a work function for dinner yesterday, they served fish and chips. Not my first pick for twice in a row, but no big deal. Guess what they catered for lunch today? You got it, fish and chips….. it’s been 3 days and I’m already sick of fish and chips hahaha
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Unfortunately, British cuisine doesn’t get much better. You’ve peaked already.
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Yall colonized the known damn world in search of spices and then decided you didn’t like any of em.
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I always find it funny how people talk about British cuisine being bland. In reality the UK has been a diverse mix of many cultures for a century and this means that when it comes to food choices you can literally eat foods from nearly anywhere in the world. Pretty sure the most popular takeaway dish in the UK is an Indian curry. If all you can find is fish and chips then you aren’t looking hard enough.
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