A Transformation Story

This story is dedicated to every high school student who thinks that he is so good, that it is a waste of his time to train in an elite environment.......


"I wish I would have understood a long time ago how important it was to train THIS hard."

These are the words that Mike Murphy spoke to me after he finished dominating his testing session a week ago.

Mike made the wise decision to train with us this winter before going into his final football season at Columbia University (which is also my alma mater).

His gains in a 4 month period speak for themselves.

• Deadlift Increased by 80lbs (345 to 425)
• Broad Jump increased by 10.5" (124" to 134.5")
• Pull-Ups increased by 10 (19 to 29)
• Bench Press increased 35lbs (220 to 255)

The Background:


As can be guessed from the quote above, Mike was not always the man he is today.

He elected not to train with us before he went to college.

He was much faster than everyone he competed against in high school, so I assume he felt our program was not going to do him any good.

He was also a very cerebral kid, so I am pretty sure he did not like the idea of training with a bunch of animals.

After a series of injuries, Mike decided to spend some time with us in the Summer of 2009.

During that time, I could tell that he really wasn't buying into what we were doing.

He questioned a great deal of what we did, and he would randomly miss sessions without much of a reason.



The Transformation:


I am not really sure what happened, but Mike completely changed in the summer of 2010.

I think it was a combination of him becoming tired of getting injured (he got hurt again in the Fall of 2009) and the 5AM group he was training with.

Instead of being a timid kid, who would shy away from competition in the gym, he became as insane as the guys he was training with. (Dom Martelle, Chris Perry, Steve Armato,)

The locals in our gym actually thought he had something wrong with him.

That thought of him being insane carried over into the winter of 2011, as he would walk into the gym everyday with a sleeveless shirt, despite the fact that it was -10 degrees outside.

Of course Mike was not really insane.

He just approached his training sessions as if every training session was his last.

I guess he got older, he started to realize that this was the only way to train.


The Video:


Below is an actual video of Mike during one of his testing sessions.

In the video, he is deadlifting 425lbs.... Raw

Keep in mind he was only able to move 345lbs four months earlier.

Also keep him in mind that he did this about 1 minute after I hit my personal goal of 405.
(I will never forgive him for that).