Give us a little background on your training history, what brought you to the RSC in the first place, and how you’ve changed since you joined.
During fall of my senior year of high school my girlfriend at the time poked fun at me for not having a butt in front of a couple other friends. At 5’11” and 155lbs she was probably right. I had never thought much about lifting since I played soccer, tennis, and volleyball. In the past I had messed around with my friends in the weight room but never for more than a week at a time. Our workouts were typical. First a set of curls, definitely done as a drop set, then a few sets of bench that were way too heavy, a set of leg press for good luck, and then we’d blast our abs into oblivion. Determined to prove my girlfriend wrong and get HUUUGE before college in the fall I decided that this would be my New Year’s resolution…
By the time prom came around I had put on 12lbs, and I knew that when summer hit I was going to go into feast mode. As summer passed I ate myself up to a semi-soft 182. Once I got to college I continued my quest for muscle and by winter break had reached an even softer 190. By this time I had gotten my deadlift up to about 350(the only When I went back home one of my sister’s friends said to me, “Hi Luke, you look…..chubby.” So, once again I became motivated to make a change and made getting lean my new goal. Three months later I was the leanest I’d been at 175. Around this time I began doing more reading online on websites like T-Nation which led me to blogs including Eric Cressey and Ben Bruno. I wrote my own programming for a few months, but then decided it would be better to follow a plan and went to Eric Cressey’s “Show & Go” program. I started to get stronger. My deadlift hit 430, bench was at 270, and squat at 390…
Since I’ve been part of the RSC it’s really been a tool for me to change my passion for fitness and nutrition from being about me to being more about helping other people and helping them succeed. I’ve also completely changed my diet from eating frequently to the Renegade diet which we all follow, and I’ve seen a great reduction in stress due to that change. It’s can be difficult to see changes in yourself when they occur slowly over a long period of time, but I do know that I’m a more care-free, compassionate, thankful, and badass person than I was when I joined.
One of the things I love most about our Featured Member section, is that you get to dive deeper and learn more about people in our community. Before reading Luke’s Q&A, I would have never known how much he loves….
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