I’d always been a tall and lean type of guy, one who dabbled a bit in weight training in my late teens/early twenties until a shoulder injury made training very hard to do. A sedentary lifestyle, a job where I sat for hours on end and the changes that one’s body undertakes with age all chipped away at that lean form little by little. One day in 2001, after returning from a convention trip to Cancun I was shocked to see a flabby, weak, middle aged guy with my face looking back at me from our vacation photos. Those pictures were a wake up call. I went straight to the local gym and started up with a personal trainer. My goals were to lose body fat but also to build muscle and strength. In about 18 months I went from 230 flabby pounds to 210 of pretty lean muscle, losing 35 pounds of fat while gaining 15 pounds of solid muscle. It was hard work, but I stuck with it.

Then my trainer moved away to start a new career and education. I was afraid I would not be able to sustain what I had accomplished. Before he left, my trainer introduced me to Ryan Branson, and I began training with him.

That was two years ago. Ryan listened closely to my goals, which had changed to more power/strength and size gains with fat loss mixed in. Building muscle was going to be harder than ever, since I was then 39 and had been stuck at a plateau for some time. Ryan was inheriting a client who had already undergone one physique metamorphosis, was at a more advanced stage of training and was trying for another big body change without the use of drugs or steroids. Ryan combined a constantly changing regime of power, strength, hypertrophy and endurance programs with strong advice on diet and proper nutrition to break through that plateau and start advancement on my goals.

Today, at age 41, I am the biggest and strongest I’ve ever been in my life at relatively lean 225 pounds. Ryan deserves the credit for his effective training programs, hard work and his obvious desire to see me reach whatever goals I set for myself. I’m looking forward to seeing where we go from here.