Strong New Guy

no, not me (obviously)

a new guy appeared at the gym I lift at. upon talking to him, he said he had never lifted weights but had always been “strong” and had been into sports (soccer) all his life. Now, in his mid 30’s and a slightly overweight 200 lbs,(about 5 feet 8 tall) he decides to lift for the 1st time.

his squat form is poor, understandably, so he asks for help, so I help him. breaks parallel for two good sets of 5 with 154lbs. good start

a week later I see him in the gym again and he deadlifts 374 lbs for a single. his notebook for that workout says he did 3 sets of 4 in the bench press with 220lbs and he said he had squatted 308lbs for a single. Having just seen his deadlift, I was inclined to believe him.

Ive read in other threads on TNation stuff like “my cousins friends brother benched 300 the first time he tried” but this is the first time ive ever seen someone actually lift respectable weights from the very start.

not trying to make a point about anything really, it was just quite impressive

I have found that guys like this are always impressive and fun to teach. Where they have problems with is full workouts, initial strength is great but after 2-3 sets they nose dive.