SUE CRABTREE is an amazing lady. I mean that.
I’ll tell you why in the paragraphs to come.
She’d never done any proper weight-lifting previously and yet took a chance on the Amazing 12 Chichester, committing to a program that demanded she would have to train five days a week in the gym and extra days by herself.
“If you want something badly enough, you will find the time and commitment to train,” she said.
So committed was Sue, 48, that when she had to miss several days training to help her mother – who had to go into hospital during week 9 – she forked out for an extra week to make up for it.
She had never worked with me before although she had provided nutritional advice to one of my previous Amazing 12 graduates, Rich Evans, and that’s how she first heard about the program.
Sue’s certainly not scared of muscles, as some women are. In fact, that’s what she was after. She wanted to become strong and proudly declared it.
“I just didn’t have the knowledge or drive to know how to do it,” she said.
Sue, a native of South Africa, had to also deal with a lot of negativity – people doubting her, questioning her, undermining her.
She was told she was “too old” and that she’s “too busy” before the program started. And during it she heard people say she “was looking tired” and “should rest” and that “this type of exercise is not good for me”.
But when she was bench-pressing a heavy weight, Sue would smile to herself, with all the naysayers in mind, and think, ‘look at me, guys. I’m doing this despite your predictions’.
She was very open and honest with me (which I respect) because there were days Sue didn’t feel on her A-game and just wanted to curl up by herself at home. But she pushed herself into the gym at Core Results and got on with it.
There were days when she felt depressed and down, but she still got on with it.
There were many, many days when the weights were pushing her hard, metaphorically, but she soldiered on. Never complained. In fact, she sort of liked it.
“Not once did I turn up to training and leave feeling worse,” she said. “I always felt incredible [after training]. Those odd days I turned up not feeling 100 per cent turned out to be my best training days.”
In the beginning, Sue didn’t know what she was doing, though. Her concentration was all over the shop. She couldn’t find any consistency to her movement.
But that’s all brilliant. Really. It’s brilliant because Sue persevered and overcame it all.
She injured herself, too, but came through that. Lessons were learned every step of the way. Some were learned the hard way.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, Sue’s a tough woman to keep down. She’s resilient and determined.
When she had to skip training for a few days because of injury, it was always reluctantly. In all she attended 87% of the possible sessions.
Before starting the program, I showed Sue the movements and tested her strength. To give you some example of her strength improvements, she went from a 2-rep maximum on the bench press with 31.5k, to multiple sets of 3 with 38k.
Her incline bench press went from 7k for reps of 10 to 12.5k. Sue’s back squat went from a tough 37.5k for two reps to 50k for two as a warm-up. Her deadlift increased from a 2-rep 50k to six reps with 57.5k. Her shoulder press shot up from a challenging five reps with 12k to sets of three with 27k!
She also wanted to do the Amazing 12 to send out a message to all women with menopause that it need not intrude on life.
It was only after a few weeks that Sue’s attention switched from muscles to mindset, though, and how what she was feeling was as beneficial, if not more so, to her thinking as it was her body. That was a revelation.
Going into the Amazing 12, Sue had been an avid runner. Any other types of training (boot camps and circuits) always had that cardio element to it. She was used to getting on with it and letting her mind wander freely.
Typically, Sue was always in going-the-distance mode where the emphasis was on completion rather than the method.
“I rush around with my job and I used to treat being busy as a badge of honour,” she admitted.
“But you cannot rush lifting weights or else you get injured. It taught me to slow down and smell the roses.”
I love that quote because it shows me how Sue has become so much more mindful than when she started, that she fully understands the meaning of it in a gym-training context.
“I’d rather do one great deadlift than five very bad ones,” she said. “I had to learn to stop thinking about the past and the future. It was about focusing on now.
“When I am lifting weights, I am in the moment. I am focusing on the muscle group and how I am feeling (well most of the time).
“Completing the A12 has made me mentally and physically stronger. I can feel it in my day-to-day job.”
Yet Sue used to routinely apologise, thinking she had been hard work for me to coach, but really she wasn’t. I enjoyed every minute.
However, there were times when she felt her body wasn’t changing much even though I could clearly see it was.
“Every now and then I would just focus on the weight loss and give myself a hard time,” she admitted.
“But right from the start I didn’t want it to be about weight loss. I wanted to gain muscle and get strong. I’m very pleased with the results.”
She dropped nearly 5kgs in weight and nearly 2% body fat. “Great readings,” she said. “It’s all about eating well and exercise.
“Anyone can be skinny, but it takes a lot more to get strong. I’m very proud I didn’t get a ‘hormone belly’ because I am going through menopause.
“I am so proud that, thanks to the Amazing 12, I took control of my body and steered it into a fantastic new direction.”
Armed with her new body and lifting knowledge, Sue has every intention to continue building on her success.
Interestingly, her greatest challenges on the program came with the nutrition side, although she found the eating plan “very easy”.
I’ll let Sue explain: “despite being a nutritionist, I still learned from the Amazing 12 diet that my portions were too big and I was snacking out of habit rather than necessity,” she said.
It was during the last week that Sue felt her energy levels dip, which can happen and she found tough.
“But it [the strategy] worked,” she said. “I did what Claude asked me to do. I thought, ‘just shut up and follow it exactly’.
“I got some weird enjoyment of pushing my body through training when I felt so tired. I really had to get my mind to focus and be strong. I enjoyed that feeling of having a strong mind.”
I’ll be honest, though. I wasn’t sure until the final day how satisfied Sue was going to be despite many gym onlookers commenting to me on how well she had done. As mentioned earlier, she was wrestling with some demons.
“But I’d tell anyone thinking about it to just go for it. You won’t look back. It’s not about the six-pack or pushing the heaviest weights. It’s about you.
“The Amazing 12 fits around the individual and makes you the best you can possibly be [in 12 weeks]. I’ve got strong arms, but my mind is so much stronger. Who knew that lifting weights could do this?”
Better still, Sue feels she has control of her life.
“I know the Amazing 12 is a program, but I do believe Claude made it unique,” she said.
“His outlook on life is a great motivator and I am going to miss our chats in between the rests.
“I have learnt a lot from Claude on how to exercise properly, but also so much more mentally. Thank you, Claude, for your patience and sharing your passion of exercise with me.”