DEFYING ALL LOGIC: Stacey achieved amazing results in spite of the many hurdles in her way Photos: Sue Saunders Photography
IF you look at Stacey Satta and haven’t read one of my blogs during the 12 weeks of her training on the Amazing 12 Chichester, you could be forgiven for thinking everything went precisely to plan. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Stacey, now one of only four people to have completed the Amazing 12 Chichester twice, is quite a remarkable woman and you’ll find out why.
Her reason for doing it a second time was simple: to build upon the massive achievements she made during her first 12 weeks.
“I knew I’d get results,” she explained of her decision.
LEANER AND STRONGER: more than happy with her results
You can see from her impressive photos that she was successful. But the striking images do not tell the background story.
As was the case with her first Amazing 12 that ended in April, Stacey completed the program on little sleep, which for most people simply would not have been manageable.
But that wasn’t the full extent of what she had to contend with. In fact, I’d say this most recent Amazing 12 was tougher than the first (which wasn’t easy) even though when she started in September, Stacey was in better shape and condition.
“It was a little different [second time] because I knew what to expect,” said Stacey. “I found that it [the 12 weeks] went much quicker, but it was more challenging. I was struggling with sleep and the weights were getting heavier.”
TURNING BACK THE CLOCK: Stacey’s now as light as she was in her teenage days
Stacey also had an injury to contend with. As early as week two, she started having issues with the rotator cuff on her right shoulder and by week five I not only had to remove bench-pressing all together, but had to practically redesign her shoulder program.
Yet, despite not having done bench press from before the halfway mark of the program, by the end her shoulder issues had practically cleared up (I partly put it down to rest and lots of Turkish Get-ups) and when I retested her bench press a week after she had finished the A12, Stacey managed to lift more (50kg for one rep) than ever before!
That’s not an isolated strength improvement. Her back squat went from a 77.5kg struggle (in April) to a technically spot-on 95kg – at 54kg bodyweight!
WRITING ON THE LEGGINGS: as determined as she is strong
Her deadlift went from 87.5kg to 92.5kg, although during the program her working weight peaked at 80kg for reps and sets compared with 72.5kg in the spring.
I still think Stacey could have topped that deadlift weight, but it’s an exercise where, if her mind isn’t right, she falls to bits.
I tried getting Stacey to lift without telling her how much was on the bar (so she wouldn’t psyche herself out), but she couldn’t resist taking a peak. And that was that.
But she admitted: “I learned that I can do most things if I can get into the right mindset.”
TOP GUNS: she worked hard for those muscles
In fact, she made improvements across the board. For example, doing the Military Press she finished in April getting 27 reps with 30kg whereas second time round she hit 40 reps with 32kg in the same time period.
Doing chin-ups, in April she managed 38 bodyweight in a set time, whereas most recently Stacey nailed 49 in the same time frame with an additional 1kg attached and looked as fresh as a daisy when she was finished!
“The most satisfying part was seeing my body getting leaner while also feeling stronger and lifting weights I didn’t think it would be possible for me to lift – EVER!” she said.
In terms of body composition, her weight loss went like this: first Amazing 12 – 10st 2lbs to 8st 10lbs; second Amazing 12 – 9st 2 1/4lbs to 8st 6 1/2lbs, which is the lightest she has been since her teenage days. But this mother is now 38 and I bet she has more muscle and can lift plenty more than she could back then.
Stacey’s main obsession was with lowering her body fat and after dropping from 26% to 21% in April, she came into the second Amazing 12 at 23.6% and by the end was exactly 20%
In essence, she dropped weight, lost fat and gained in strength, muscle and fitness all in spite of her continual struggle to sleep and more.
Miraculously, she missed only six of the 60 training sessions (one more than on the first Amazing 12). In eight sessions she did attend I had to amend the workouts or cut them short because Stacey was simply too exhausted to take on the added stress of any hard training.
Had she been well rested after every session, attended all the workouts and been able to test herself fully (she always gave 100 per cent), I shudder to imagine what she would have accomplished.
“My lack of sleep was the most challenging part,” she admitted. “It affected my rest and recovery. I missed a few sessions because of it and couldn’t always perform as well as I would have liked.”
There wasn’t a single week when she didn’t come in for at least one training session feeling either run down or shattered. Usually, Stacey still looks remarkable on a few hours sleep, but I started to get concerned when she turned up on a few occasions barely able to keep her eyes open.
“The hardest part was around weeks eight and nine when the diet and training, for some reason, became really challenging,” she recalled. “I had to really dig deep and stay focused.”
That Stacey was so determined to keep going proves she was never short of commitment. She never found that to be a problem except on the days when she felt so depleted. I can count on one hand maybe the amount of training sessions at Core Results gym we had when she was full of beans and operating on all cylinders.
If anything, I’d say the final four weeks were probably the worst (in terms of exhaustion) and those are the critical stages when, generally, the most ground is made.
Somehow, though, she came through it and was delighted with the outcome.
“It was remarkable given everything I went through and I feel I achieved more than I thought I would,” she said. “I’m very happy with the results.”
Obviously, it was far from an easy ride for Stacey. She had a lot to contend with.
“Dedication and commitment are the keys to success on the program,” she said. “If you’re up for a challenge, want to look great and feel great, just go for it,” she said. “You won’t regret it.”
Just make sure you’ve got your sleeping sorted first!
If you want to become an Amazing 12 Chichester graduate like Stacey or find out more about the program, contact Claude@intelligentstrength.co.uk. We are taking applications for the next round in 2018.
RAISING THE BAR: Rich and Stacey, in their own way, have made impressive progress
ANOTHER Amazing 12 Chichester is nearly complete. Stacey Satta, on her second circuit of the Amazing 12, completed her final week. Rich Evans has a few more days to go.
There’s a reason for the different schedule: Rich, 49, knew before he started that he was going to miss a few days here and there because of prior commitments and then he lost more days when his mother passed away, so we agreed to continue into another week to try to make up the difference.
It’s certainly been an extraordinary experience for me as a coach. Even the weeks passed by incredibly fast, I had a feeling it was going to be challenging and it proved to be so – in a good way.
As a coach, you have to think on your feet sometimes. Seldom does everything go exactly to plan and it’s how you respond in those instances that matters most.
GETTING A GRIP: it’s been tough-going for Stacey at times
My goal, as always with the Amazing 12, is to guide the participant to the finish. We can only do our utmost in the circumstances we are presented with. The finish is the destination and the program is the way. But this time we had to take many detours.
I wish I could say Rich and Stacey completed the program precisely how Paul McIlroy had designed it. But it didn’t go that way.
Things happen and over the past 12 weeks many things happened. I’ll perhaps elaborate more in future posts.
GUN TRAINING: Rich feeling the burn
However, they each made it. And though finishing was never in doubt for either Stacey or Rich and they each modestly dilute the merits of staying the course, I consider it an achievement worth validating.
It requires commitment, discipline and dedication to apply oneself for three months straight as they have. And, particularly given the obstacles they each faced, the achievement is made more praiseworthy (in my opinion). It says a lot about their character that in the face of trying conditions they never bailed out.
As I’ve detailed practically every week for the past three months, Stacey coped with disturbed sleep to turn up at Core Results for training five days a week. She did miss a few sessions here and there. And some workouts were never fully completed because I had to scale her workouts appropriately. To push someone when they are obviously fatigued simply isn’t sensible and nor is it commendable.
It was always a case of trying to make progress while not adding to her exhaustion.
If anything, it highlights the importance of sleep for recovery and human function. That may sound obvious, but Stacey has simply got used to operating at a lower level than most of us would be prepared to tolerate or capable of dealing with. That doesn’t make it right or, more importantly, in any way healthy.
SLEEK AND SLENDER: Stacey hasn’t lost any strength
It’s partly because Stacey for so long has soldiered on through life half-awake that she often doesn’t bat a tired eyelid at training when her system is clearly running near to empty.
She had a good run through weeks 10 and 11 and then I jinxed her one night on week 12, saying how impressive it had been that she hadn’t missed a session for about two weeks straight. That night she came down with a sore throat and in the morning woke up feeling terrible.
But she was determined, being so close to the finish, not to be derailed. Somehow she recovered enough to train that evening and, as was often the case on nights like that, we played it by ear.
GET UP AND GO: some days have been better than others
Typically, Stacey performed. Sometimes she just defies logic or biological science. “Even when I feel terrible, I never feel worse by training,” she said.
In spite of the sleep problem, Stacey has made incredible progress. Looking so slender that some of the ladies in the gym were enviously eyeing her up, she stacked a heavy barbell on her back this week and squatted for reps beyond what I tested her as a maximum a week after her first Amazing 12.
The difference is that Stacey, a few days ago, was only warming up rather than trying to explore what her limits were!
And then on the deadlift, which had thwarted her on week 11 when her technique went awry and she lost confidence, Stacey nailed it relatively comfortably.
She admitted as she approached the bar for the first set that half her head was saying it was going to be hard, while the other half was urging her on and saying she could do it.
The weight went up quite effortlessly and I could see the expression on her face – that look of ‘that was easier than I thought it was going to be’.
WALKING A FINE LINE: it’s been a case of seeking progress without adding to Stacey’s tiredness
The next day, though, Stacey had hit rock bottom again. Again, there was no point pushing the envelope when what she needed – if she insisted on training (as she did) – was a session that helped her to tick over and nothing more.
Even in her depleted state, saying she was feeling weak, there were some positives to be found. She could still complete 47 bodyweight chin-ups in 15 minutes compared to the 38 she did at this very stage on her first Amazing 12 experience when feeling much better.
The next day, in what was her final session, Stacey again came in on only a few hours proper sleep and not having eaten well (feeling a little sick), but was able to grind her way through another session that I calculated wasn’t going to break her.
GAINS: injury has added focus to the upper body
For Rich it’s been a different story. He hasn’t been able to squat or deadlift from week 9, when he injured his knee. He also had to stop a crawling program I had him on. He’s moving much better now compared to when he sustained the injury, but we didn’t want to risk making it worse.
Not one to sit around and wait for miracles to happen, he got the knee checked out. He’s seen acupuncturist and specialists and physios, had scans etc. He has cartilage damage in one knee and, most likely, faces an operation sometime in the future.
From a training and results perspective, though, it wasn’t the best outcome. There’s no better total-body muscle-builder (in my opinion) than the back squat and no greater strength-builder than the deadlift.
But the show has to go on – even without my two trump cards. And, if there’s a silver lining in this dark cloud, Rich has consequently worked a lot more on his upper body and can at least still train.
DREADED: Rich didn’t enjoy this movement much
While it was clear from week to week (especially from the halfway stage) he was looking different – and Rich acknowledged the changes – his scales still recorded his overall body fat and muscle mass as the same!
“I know – I’m a freak,” he said.
There is no question he is stronger. Much stronger. For example, by the end of this week he was bench-pressing for repetitions more than he was back squatting at week 9. I keep upping the weight and Rich continues to hit the targets I have in mind for him.
“I’m streets ahead of where I’ve ever been, strength-wise,” he admitted. “I’ve never been this strong in my life.”
LOADED: time for the bigger dumbbells
Of course, it’s easy to ask what difference it would have made had he not got injured, but in reality there’s no point. You can’t change what’s happened and, as in life, it’s about making the best of what you have at your disposal.
Rich knew going into the program that his body, for whatever reason, held on to body fat even when exposed to physical training. What we wanted to discover is how his body would respond to the Amazing 12.
Sure enough, the fat wasn’t dropping off him like it does for most on the program even though his strength and fitness was elevating. It was frustrating for him to see Stacey shrinking week by week while his fat loss remained consistent.
“What I need to find is someone who studies people like me,” said Rich. Trouble is, I’m not convinced there is anyone else like Rich.
NO ESCAPE: circuit day tests Rich’s resolve
Only part of the way through the program did we consider a visit to an acupuncturist Rich had visited previously for his knee and held in high regard. He diagnosed an issue with a valve that wasn’t functioning optimally and possibly held the key to the fat loss.
It certainly seems that since this treatment, Rich’s shape has changed more significantly, which bodes well for the future.
He now goes into the final week, which is all about reaching a peak. The protocol is different and especially for a vegan as compared to a meat-eater. And with Rich being Rich, it will be fascinating to discover what happens next with him in the remaining days.
Find out how Stacey and Rich finished by subscribing to these blog posts. And if you’d like to be next on the Amazing 12 – and think you have the commitment and drive to take yourself to the next level – apply by contacting Claude@intelligentstrength.co.uk.
There wasn’t a single week when she didn’t come in for at least one training session feeling either run down or shattered. Usually, Stacey still looks remarkable on a few hours sleep, but I started to get concerned when she turned up on a few occasions barely able to keep her eyes open.
