Every week our team at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc looks to help hundreds of people achieve their health and fitness goals. And getting stronger is at the top of the list of identified goals.

An athlete wants to get stronger to increase his force production and be more powerful. With baseball for example, this translates to throwing harder and better hitting performnance.

With the business professional having more strength allows for more distance off the tee box when they take clients out for a round of golf.

And the new mom wants strength to be able to carry car seats, diaper bags, groceries, strollers as well as a new born.

For all of these people more strength helps improve posture. It helps us protect us from injury. It helps us look better in the mirror after a shower or at the beach on the vacation. And this does wonders for our confidence.

So whether we want to describe our strength goal as getting 'toned', 'jacked', 'swole' or simply to get stronger it is a goal shared by a number of people.

But if you've been at the strength game for any period of time you know that it isn't easy to just put on 5 pounds of muscle. Consider for a second that a pound is 16 ounces. And picture what an eight ounce steak looks like.

[caption id="attachment_5444" align="aligncenter" width="300"] An 8 ounce steak. You would need 10 of these for 5 lbs.

To add 5 lbs of lean body mass, imagine 10 x 8 ounce steaks. Add this much protein to your arms, legs, chest and back and you have an idea of how much muscle protein we're talking about.

As well, we should probably include one obvious condition. You can't increase your belt size as you add lean mass. If adding 5 lbs of muscle means going from a 32" to a 34" or 36" belt we haven't really done our job that well.

So we can probably agree that putting on lean mass is not an easy thing to do. And we've discussed in the paragraphs above, it is something that almost everybody wants.

And that makes the following results that much more impressive.

Meet Chase Batchelor.

Chase, and his dad Mark, joined Okanagan Peak Performance Inc in the fall of 2017. He had played baseball with the Okanagan Athletics, coached by Evan Bailey, and was looking to increase his strength and power in the off-season.

Chase made some incredible gains and I send him a few interview questions for this purpose.

Okanagan Peak Performance Inc: Chase what was your biggest accomplishments/gains from training? (strength, mass, speed etc)

Chase: My biggest accomplishment would definitely be the huge overall increase in both muscle mass and strength.

OPP. What impact did the coaching & programming have? (would it have been the same doing it on your own? had you tried previously on your own?)

C: The coaching and programming had a huge positive impact on the results. I strongly believe the results would be way less substantial if I had tried to do it on my own. I had previously tried to somewhat train on my own and saw little to no results causing me to quit working out for a few months.

OPP: What results did you expect before you started training?

C:I came in expecting to increase overall mass by like 10-15 pounds. In no way was I expecting to have the results that I did and gain the strength that I have.

OPP: How will this help with baseball this year?

C: It will help tremendously with baseball this year as it will allow me to drive the ball harder and further to where balls that were previously outs or singles are now doubles. I feel that my speed has also increased which will allow me to move more quickly in the field and on the base paths.

OPP: What are you goals for baseball this year? Beyond this year?

C: This year I want to be a big contributor both hitting and on defense to my team and help us win the League Championship which we are hosting this year. In the future I hope to play baseball at the college level in the U.S.

OPP: What are your future goals for training?

C: My future goals for training are to continue to increase my strength, lean mass and speed.

***

Chase, that's awesome! Some incredible results there.

But obviously these results aren't typical. So what can we learn from this experience and help others who want the same?

Well here are 5 things Chase did that really helped.

1. He showed up. I'm not kidding. We under value the importance of showing up and doing the work. Chase was committed and never missed a session. And when he did train he was early and never cut corners or finished early.
2. He took it on the road. There were a few times when Chase was away for family trips, baseball and other  commitments. But he stuck to the plan and continued to advance his training by doing something while away.
3. He was a  teenager. Ok this is something that is hard for adults to do but if you're looking for the ideal phase in your life to put on lean mass it's hard to beat being a teenage boy.
4. He ate and rested outside of training. If we see a client 3 hours per week there are 165 hours for them to make decisions regarding sleep, nutrition and activity when we're not there. Will they get enough sleep? Will they eat the right foods? And the right amounts? Will they drink enough water? Chase did all the right things when no one was watching.
5. He believed. In order to achieve your goal you need to believe it's possible. Chase trusted in the process and believed in the outcome.
6. He had great coaching. Graeme is a baseball specialist and Chase was in great hands working with. All of our coaches helped out at various points but Graeme definitely played a big role in the results Chase achieved.

If you're look to get stronger, to add some lean mass or tone up, make sure to talk to one our coaches. You might not add 25 lbs of lean mass in 4 months but we can definitely help you stronger in less time.