I met Jared Holt at a seminar in San Francisco. I was also fortunate meet his beautiful new baby girl and wife who he brought along. I love when people do what they love with their families and bring them along. It shows a lot about their character and it warms my heart.

 Anyway, Jared has been a credentialed strength coach for about a decade & during that time, has worked in the strength & Conditioning industry, competed in several different pursuits (i.e. lifting competitions) as well as implemented a wide variety of training protocols. During his 6 month “Maximus Body” program he lost 18 pounds and went from 198lbs to 180lbs. He also dropped from 13.2% body fat to 7.4%. His deadlift went up to 2.4x Bodyweight and his 10k run time dropped from 59:18 to 49:12. He got leaner, stronger, and faster. 

In his own words: 

“Balancing my responsibilities of running my own private strength and conditioning business, teaching college classes, and being a husband were soon compounded by the introduction of my wife being pregnant with the first upgrade to our previous family of two.  When I shared this news with other fathers at the gym they shook their heads and told me how my fitness was going to take a nosedive as I joined the ranks of “dad bod”.  I found this insulting as it seemed to be a defeatist mind frame and cowardly to not own up to what’s in your control and instead hide behind pregnancy and new borns.

I had been training for nearly two decades and absolutely loved it.  My background of competing in bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman, and obstacle course races deepened my credentialed vocabulary of training methods available to me.  Fast becoming a minted father I faced a unique challenge I hadn’t yet faced.  I immediately looked to what I saw as successful fathers within the health and fitness industry.  Bobby Maximus had been on my radar for a while & I had a small collection of articles in my attempt to try and nail down the methods behind his madness.  This was only heightened when my hunt for family men began, so it goes without saying that as soon as I saw he had a book my response after a couple rejoicing expletives was, “….yup, just take my money.” 

I received his book in early 2017, read it, re-read it, & highlighted my new text book.  The articles I had collected were then jammed into what I saw as their respective sections of the book. I decided the 6-month program was a perfect opportunity to get in the best shape of my life while also celebrating the birth of my baby daughter.

His program delivered. I feel I was all around in the best shape of my life upon completion of the program.  Worth noting is that my daughter was born 2/3 of the way through the program & that event only provided more of a boost for me to prove all the naysayers wrong, you can be fit, working father and husband.  (I continued to train even while in the hospital without ever leaving our room).

A perfect “reward” for finishing the program was when I saw that Bobby was doing a seminar nearby and I would only be a week shy of finishing his program.  Not only did I meet the big man himself (as did my wife and daughter), but I also had the pleasure of talking shop with him.

Probably the biggest veil that was lifted from my eyes because of Mr Maximus was the reiteration that not only is the primary goal to train and not merely “work out” (something I had already embraced) but that it didn’t have to happen within the four walls of a gym & its equipment (something I hadn’t yet embraced).  He regularly illustrates this by the use of any and all tools available as well as by using whatever time is given during that day.  So even with all the responsibilities of a family man it’s far more important that by days end you challenged yourself and trained instead of chalking up a loss simply because your caged mentality leads you to believe that physical advancements only happen within the confines of the gym walls.

Here’s my two middle fingers to those that hide behind others as their excuses:

Start                                “End Of Program“

Body Composition – I got Leaner

Bodyweight                198                                    180  (down 18 lbs)

Body fat                     13.2%                                7.4%   (5.8% loss)

Some of my lifts expressed in relative terms, EVERYthing went UP! a.k.a. I got stronger

Back Squat            1.7                                      1.9

Bench Press            1.4                                      1.5

DeadLift/Hex           2.2/2.3                                2.4/2.7

Time Trials – I got Faster

1 mile Run                 7:54m                                6:46m (-1:08m)

10k Run                 59:18m                              49:12m (-10:06m)

Bobby’s program showed me that the machine I was born with is much more capable than I had previously allowed myself to believe.  The tenants and lessons I learned will not go forgotten nor unused as I continue not only my own training but also that of my clients, students, & athletes.

PS:  When I posted these results on social media I definitely received some pleasant negativity from the weak-willed people who hide behind others for their excuses.  I found this funny as it plays right into my favorite passage from Bobby’s book, Section #1: Psychology – Ch#1: Improve Your Self-Image – (Page 10): You Think That You’re a Special Case (buy the book to read the specifics, trust me when I say it’s #Epic)”

To learn more about developing the Maximus Mindset visit www.maximusmindset.com