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How I Squatted 100 Kilograms After Just 37 Hours of Training
This simple training regime and just three hours a week dramatically increased my strength —here’s how you can do it too.
In November 2018, I joined a gym for the first time in my life, with the simple goal of becoming stronger. Not bigger, stronger—an often-overlooked but major difference.
I had never done strength training before. I was, and still am, no big guy, measuring 1.80 meters in height and weighing in at 78 kilograms (5'11", 171lbs). I did have some experience in Freeletics, which is a bodyweight training program carried out in a Crossfit-like manner, meaning lots and lots of repetitions and a strong focus on endurance and stamina rather than pure strength.
My frustration with Freeletics was that I did not feel like I was getting stronger. I got more fit, for sure, but not really stronger.
To give you a gauge of my fitness level at the time I started strength training: I could do 25 burpees in 1 minute and 28 seconds and I could run 5 kilometers in a little under 25 minutes and 10 kilometers in about 55 minutes, translating to 5:30 per kilometer, or 8:51 per mile.
Strength-wise however, I was dead average. I could do a maximum of 12 push-ups in a…
