I HAD to debate whether to even include Jon Waites’ second round of the Amazing 12. It’s not because of the results (you can be the judge of that). It’s because he effectively only completed nine weeks. So, if I am honest, it was more like the Amazing 9 than the Amazing 12.
Jon’s a busy man. A father of two who runs his own business, Jon quite often at short notice had to shoot off to London from West Sussex, meaning he skipped quite a few sessions – 14 to be precise! Ouch!
That’s all a bit frustrating. My intention is always to get the best results possible. Luckily for me, Jon always responds well to the program (well, who doesn’t?) He trains hard, too – within the parameters of my instructions.
This second Amazing 12 transformation was definitely different to and more challenging than the first. Jon was training with his girlfriend, Jo (below), rather than by himself and out of his garage as opposed to a gym. We made it work. I brought over dumbbells and kettlebells. Jon had some of his own equipment. It was dusty. Often it was cold, especially at the start of the year and when we rearranged our training sessions for 6am! But you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
So you should look at his photos through the lens that says with three weeks extra training his results would have been more spectacular. Continuity in this program is so important. You miss sessions and you lose momentum and the opportunity to maximise the effects of the training. Jon also skipped quite a few days at a crucial time – week 11 – and I wasn’t sure he was even going to finish because he had so much going on away from the gym.
But he had come so far it would have been deeply disappointing had he not made it across the finish line.
Thankfully, he did.
As you can see, Jon was in fairly good shape to begin with. It shows that this program works on the experienced as well as complete beginners (check out Jo Smith’s transformation for evidence of that). Jon got strong. He was banging out reps on the incline bench with 37kgs dumbbells in each hand and made gains in other areas. But, for obvious reasons, I wouldn’t say I got him as strong as when we first trained. Had we not missed so many days it would have been another story. But he was still strong enough, for example, to hammer out around 50 chin-ups in short time with 7kgs strapped to his waist.
Jon’s Amazing 12 transformations were almost exactly a year apart. He is already hinting at doing a third. Some people can’t get enough of it. And there’s a reason for that. It works: it gets you strong; it gets you fit; it gets you in shape.
Thanks, as ever, to my trusty photographer, Sue Saunders, who is currently going through the program herself.
I should make a point here of mentioning the photos and that we had to use a black backdrop for the finishing pictures as we switched venues. Sue and I work hard to ensure the comparable images are as authentic as possible.
I got a text from Jon the next day expressing his thanks and saying he was very pleased with the results. If my customers are happy then I am happy.