Guest Blog: How my Husband Paul Tennison achieved his fitness goals: A unique perspective.

Sarah Angelica
Apr 24, 2024
5 min read

Fitness goals have been an important part of my life for a very long time. As a child, I watched lots of sports on TV and often imagined achieving greatness. Since I loved sports, I ended up playing football, basketball, and baseball through high school. After high school I went to West Point where I was exposed to numerous sports and fitness concepts that I had not seen before. I have always been willing to try new sports and exercises. Some of these experiments have been more personally rewarding than others.

Today I consider myself the most fit and healthy I have been. I attribute this to my grow mindset.

My fitness journey: As a child, I was too skinny to be a competitive athlete at the level I desired. It was just a reality. I grew tall while in middle school, but I did not eat enough to develop the necessary muscle. I also didn't lift weights consistently or heavy enough to build the muscle I desired. As a high school senior I was 6 feet 1inch, yet only weighed 145 lbs. Way too skinny to play basketball or football at the college level.

While in college I learned lots of new sports and exercises. We were required to take physical fitness classes of boxing, swimming, combatives, and gymnastics. I also participated in intramural sports of wrestling, basketball, area hockey, orienteering, flickerball, and ultimate frisbee. I also participated in other active hobbies such as playing guitar, snowboarding, hiking, racketball, and training for the Army fitness test. While in college I finally started lifting weights with some consistency. However, I was not eating enough and failed to consume enough protein to consistently improve my strength. I also finished my first (and only) marathon in 2009.

When I graduated from college, I commissioned as an active duty Army officer. My endurance and running ability were good. However, my strength was still lacking. I was 6 feet 1 inch, and only gained 5-10 lbs since I graduated high school.

In the Army, I was sent to Korea on active duty. In Korea I would occasionally go to Yoga classes and started going to the gym to lift more consistently. I also decided to try triathlons and started focusing on running, biking, and swimming. I had some success in the small triathlons on post including several top three finishes in my age group. My unit also had a sports competition week where I played a phenomenal basketball game scoring 36 points. I left Korea at 155lbs.

After Korea I was in Germany for about a year. During that time, I trained intensely to make the Army 10 mile running team. Unfortunately, my training was not successful. The Army 10 miler race in Germany in 2014 was very competitive. I finished the race around 70 minutes and wasn't even close to the lead of the pack. I also battled lots of injuries from attempting to consistently run 20-30 miles per week while also doing physical fitness training with my unit most mornings, and lots of Army training in the field. In hindsight, my running goals were always too ambitious and when I ran that much, I could not keep my strength up.

After Germany, I left active duty and went to Tennessee for law school. In law school I finally changed my fitness perspective and began focusing on gaining lean muscle mass. I read the book Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, the Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body and had an epiphany. I had often been focused on endurance sports in my fitness pursuit and had never consistently supplemented my diet with enough protein to gain lean muscle mass. I finally started being more consistent in the gym by focusing on programming my workouts with chest and arms on day 1, back and shoulders on day 2, and legs on day 3. I started trying to lift weights 5-6 days per week.

One of the concepts that really worked for me in my weight lifting was to try and lift 5-10 more lbs each week than I did the week before. If I couldn't lift more weight, I would try to do more reps even if only 1 more per set to continue that muscle development. This is called progressive overload. The theory is that by lifting more weight or more reps, you force your muscles to adapt to the increased load. You will then get stronger or your muscles will breakdown and then grow back larger to adapt.

The fitness achievement I am most proud of in my life was joining the 1,000 lb club which I accomplished after at least 1 year of consistent work in 2019. I made incredible progress on Deadlifts specifically. I was able to improve from not knowing the proper form and consistently added weight week after week until I successfully lifted my personal best 405 lbs at 170lb bodyweight! I had similar improvement on the bench press. My lifetime best pre- my bigger leaner stronger journey was 155 lbs. Today my bench press 1RM is 285lbs! I also improved my squats significantly from around 200lbs to 400lbs!

I still remember clearly the day I finally achieved this goal! I had deadlifted 390 lbs. I loaded 405 lbs on the bar and told a friend of mine, wish me luck, if I get this lift I will join the 1,000 lb club! I had been working on achieving this goal for at least a year. The lift was challenging, I almost didn't get it, but the satisfaction when I achieved it was immense!

When I reflect today on my history of achieving personnel fitness goals, I learned these lessons along the way:

Plan to succeed! No one achieves challenging fitness goals without planning to get there. Want to get stronger? Get a plan. Want to lose weight? A plan is also critical.
Find a community to support you! When I was running a lot, I spent time with runners. When I was lifting often, I spent time with them in the gym. Finding others on a fitness journey will keep you accountable and motivated. Plus you can learn from each other. Many fitness communities are famous for their support. Ask people what they like about their fitness community. Be curious and see what you can find.
Be adventurous and try new things! This often helped with my fitness goals. It can be as simple as seeing someone else in the gym doing a lift with a different grip, different tempo, or different work/rest cycle. Similarly, when training for cardio fitness, do you always train the same way or vary your speed and intensity?
Track your progress! I have used Map my Run, Strava, Instagram, a journal, my phone notes section, and fitness apps like Centr. It is very difficult to improve what you don't track. What you measure is what you prioritize.
Mentally rehearse successful performance! This is true in sports, life situations, races, weight lifting, etc. Many books claim that some of the world's greatest athletes achieved their greatness in part due to their developed ability to successfully mentally rehearse their wins. There are studies that show mentally rehearsing weight lifting activates muscles similar to actual lifts.
It is always more rewarding to do a short training session or short workout than to do nothing. I get it, its been a long day and the temptation to go home lay down and read a book, watch TV, or engage in another easy activity is tempting. Don't! The days you don't feel like training are the opportunity to make the most progress. Consistently is key.
Celebrate milestones! When you finally achieve an import goal, celebrate. You worked hard to get here, it is worthy of celebration. Life is short. You should also be that person that encourages your friends, teammates, or family when they reach their goals.
Fitness is a worthwhile goal. Fitness is a gateway to health, wellness, a healthy mindset, and teaches you that when you work hard, you can achieve your dreams.