Paul Li, 15 years old, sophomore in high school playing middle linebacker for JV.

After football freshman year, I realized that as a linebacker, the formula to success was to gain muscle mass. I was 140lbs, with a 95lb bench press.

I started going to my school weight room, and played around with weight machines and such because our football program lacks solid strength training. I went from 140 to 143 from this as beginner gains, and I then did research online around January of freshman year and decided to run Starting Strength and eat as much as humanely possible. Weight went up to 158lbs by April, bench went up to 135×5 and stalled; squat went from 135 to around 165. I then decided to run a basic 5×5 program during the end of school and throughout the summer before two-a-day practices start and weight went up to 170.

Within these months, my body weight went from 140 to 170, my bench went from 95 to 170, my squat went from 135 to 225, my deadlift went from 235 to 365, and my overhead press went from 75 to 135.