The injury that changed everything

Of every workout modality I’ve tried over the last 17 years — and I’ve tried nearly all of them — nothing has transformed my body more dramatically than Progressive Strength Training (PST).

More than bodybuilding.

More than powerlifting.

More than CrossFit.

More than HIIT.

In fact, PST has had such a profound impact on my physique, it’s the only training modality I prescribe my fat loss clients to this very day.

And the funny part is that it all happened by mistake.

Back in 2017, I was pushing my body to the max, essentially running two extremely high-demand training programs simultaneously — and foolishly.

One was a bodybuilding program, designed to pack on muscle.

The other was a powerlifting program, designed to pack on strength.

But what ended up happening was something I didn’t see coming.

I tore one of my right rotator cuff muscles.

This took me out for months, and as a result, undid nearly all of the muscle and strength gains I had worked incredibly hard to build.

However, I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason if you look hard enough.

After living in denial in hopes that my shoulder would magically heal on its own, I finally found myself a local physiotherapist to help me.

Raphael.

I still remember my first assessment.

He diagnosed my injury almost immediately, and began taking me through some additional diagnostic testing.

One of which was to assess my lateral core strength.

“Okay, now, show me your side plank,” said Raph.

I got down on the ground, lined myself up, and lifted myself into position.

And within a few seconds, my entire body was trembling.

I didn’t make it 30 seconds.

There I was, someone who considered himself a strength athlete, struggling to hold myself up off the ground for 30 seconds.

I looked up at Raph, embarrassed, and could see on his face that he just figured out exactly what the problem was.

What I learned that day was that my body had developed several compensatory mechanisms to counteract my lack of core stability.

In plain English, whenever I would workout, because my core was essentially “offline,” my joints — especially my shoulders — were taking the brunt of the load more than they should have been, resulting in an inevitable injury.

This was a massive wake up call.

But it was the one that I needed to start my ultimate rebuild.

As I began to rehabilitate my shoulder, I was desperate to find a way to generate similar levels of muscle and strength development, without the injury risk, and without the 6-day-a-week time commitment in the gym.

My goal was simple:

Create a training system that made me look like an athlete again, while bulletproofing my body and eradicating injury risk.

So I took my love for bodybuilding and powerlifting, and combined it with my new found obsession of rehabilitation.

Taking only the principles of each that worked, and scrapping the rest.

From bodybuilding:

From powerlifting:

From rehabilitation:

After amalgamating only the best principles from three very different worlds, I was left with a training system that hit every nail on the head in it’s own unique way.

Bodybuilding-style exercises, executed with powerlifting-style periodization, reinforced with rehabilitation-style safety.

Every workout, you have one simple goal:

Beat the logbook.

One more rep.

Or 5 more pounds.

Executed with pristine form.

While maintaining 1-2 reps in reserve at all times.

Intelligently timed de-load weeks to drop systemic fatigue.

And core stability drills that bulletproof your body across every major joint system to eradicate injury risk.

And the best part?

45-60 minute workouts.

Not 90-120 minute marathons.

4 days in the gym.

Not 6.

What started as an injury ended up becoming one of the most important breakthroughs of my entire training career.

Because it forced me to stop chasing aimless workouts and start building real, repeatable systems.

PST isn’t flashy, and I didn’t design it to be.

I designed it to work.

Repeatably, predictably, powerfully, year after year.

When your workouts are centred around the simple goal of beating the logbook while protecting your body, results become inevitable.

The results being a lean, chiseled, athletic body that stays pain and injury free.

And that’s exactly why I still run this system today and prescribe it to every client I coach inside Ditch Your Dad-Bod.

If you’re curious how this system would apply to your body specifically, feel free to hit reply and ask. I respond to every email.

— Coach RK