Tony, you beat me to this. I wanted to write about my progress a couple days ago, but feared Julianne threats to beat me for doing anything without her approval.
I too have been working with Charles Staley for the past 23 days.
When I started Charles’s group, I had just come off a pretty hard core diet where I went from 16% BF 237 lbs to mid 13s% 235 lbs in 17 days. The diet was strict, the cardio insane, the lifting heavy, but the results were awesome. I didnt expect anything to come close to the results from the Cheater’s Diet.
Following Charles advice, I ate foods that made me feel good, but not too much. His motto is that any food will make you lose weight, if you eat too little of it.
My cardio has dropped from twice daily (HIIT in the morning / mod endurance in the evening on the Cheater’s Diet) to whenever I can fit it in with Charles (uphill walking on a treadmill for 20 min).
I lift every other day. I am always tired but never trashed when I walk out of the gym. AND, the lifts and protocols are fun.
When I started Charles’ program, I was around mid 13s% BF 238 lbs.
I just measured myself at 11.5% BF this morning 240.0lbs.
Needless to say, I was shocked.
I thought the regimine was going to be strictly an EDT routine. Though EDT was included, he mixed in a bunch of other protocols totally different from what you see on most of the articles on T-Nation. It was fun to absolutely mix up my routine.
The first month has been focused on working out muscular imbalances. I found a major imbalance in my hamstrings, which I am working to fix. It was like finding out you have an oil leak in your car before blowing up on the freeway. I am always sore in places I havent been sore in a long time, especially in the Quads, the back, and the shoulders.
As far as being part of the Staley Training group, I can honestly say that if you can afford it and are serious about getting in shape, then you NEED to join this group. Its always nice to see Charles respond to your questions directly. He offers video descriptions of the exercises. This is a really cool idea, because you get a very concentrated description of the move.
Plus, Charles’s group offers a ton of goodies. His members get hefty discounts for tons of exercise equipment / supplement companies (think some of the coolest stuff that has been T-jacked). And if they dont yet, just tell Julianne, and she will be on it within hours.
The best part is the conference calls. Last Wednesday, Lonnie Lowry was on chatting about his philosophies on diet, recovery, and lifting. And we could ask Lonnie questions directly. I read T-Nation like a religion. Here are the guys I read and follow everyday of my life on the other end of the phone. BTW, I love Lonnie’s idea of giving yourself recovery credits. And in case you miss the call, he archives them, so you can review all of these calls with all of your favorite Coaches. Thibadeau, Berardi, Dan John, and on and on. (im waiting for Coach Davies to come on, I think I would nut all over myself). He also holds weekly conference calls where you can directly ask him questions regarding your training, progress, whatever.
I am the type of person who tends to get analysis paralysis. I overthink and overthink and micro-nitpick issues to the point where I lose focus of the bigger picture. With Coach Staley, I think the biggest attribute is having someone else worry about that for you. I just have to get in the gym. I kick my ass while I am there, but I dont have to worry about whether it is time to move from OVT to ABBH to F2F to EDT. I work the program given to me, and reap the awesome results that I alone (at least in 5 years) have not been able to attain.
Sorry about this being long winded, but that has been an absolutely incredible experience. Please feel free to PM me or post here with any questions about the program. I cant give out specific information on exercise protocols or routines . . you have to pay Charles for those, but I can offer my opinion of this program.