Hi Mr. Castano,

I started lifting when I was 17 in my last year of high school. I started out lifting 6 days a week and I gained a tiny bit of muscle and strength in the very beginning while on creatine. After gaining a little bit in the beginning my gains stopped, however I did not stop lifting. I am a very determined person. Among my friends who know me best, I am known for that. In my entire life I have been a perfectionist and accomplished a lot of goals. I have lived by the code that determination and perseverance are omnipotent. I am not someone who tries anything half-heartedly if it is something I'm interested in. In spite of all this, weightlifting is something that I've had an exceedingly hard time with.

Even though I was gaining NO muscle or strength I continued to lift for 6 days a week for an entire year. I was hell-bent on gaining muscle. I kept thinking that maybe this is just how slow gains come and maybe you take a small step forward every six months or so. I kept on lifting thinking what I was doing was right and I felt that it was still worth it no matter how slowly gains came. After a little over a year I began trying some other things. I want to list as many of the programs I can remember so people will see how much I have to compare this to. I won't be able to remember all of them.

One of the first things I tried was doing a cycle where for 4 weeks you do a certain rep amount and then you change it for a second and third set of 4 weeks making it a 12 week program. I got nothing from this. I tried a 5 day a week one where you train each body part once a week. I tried what that steroid user Bill Pearl says in whatever his book is. I got a book by a guy named Ralph Mann and tried at least one program in that. I tried "beginner programs" from magazines where you lift 3 days a week. I tried at least one other 4 day a week beginner program. I tried the thing in the book "bodybuilding 101". I tried this program from "flex" magazine where they'd give you a little more in each issue. I tried "the weider approach". I tried schwarzenegger's advice. I also tried a bunch of splits and workouts I made up myself. Basically I tried everything. I tried most of these programs for between one month and 12 weeks waiting for my body to "start responding". "Superslow" and "Heavy Duty" were two others I tried, in fact, I tried those a lot and there was nothing that confused me more than those two programs. They are to a very large degree responsible for my failing for so long. The programs were so different and philosophical that there was no grey area. Those programs were either right or wrong and I could never decide which because neither that way or the traditional approach did anything at all for me. I will say however that Mike Mentzer (author of heavy duty) is the only author besides Castano that I don't dislike. This is because even though he was wrong about what he said, he, unlike pretty much everyone else at least acknowledged the fact that what works for steroid users will not work for the non-user and he did his best to find something for non-users. I really can't stand most of the authors I dealt with before Castano because they either only test their ideas on themselves while they're on steroids or they test their ideas on other steroid users (like weider would). They never mention that their advice won't work for a lot of non-steroid users and they act like it will and act like they're not on steroids most of the time. They are nothing short of frauds.

Sometimes I would gain a really little bit of strength or size on a few of those programs but only for a really short amount of time or only while I was on creatine (water-weight). Overall I can honestly say that I got absolutely nothing for all my efforts for all the years that I tried those!

When I first started lifting I don't think I knew that the people in weightlifting magazines took steroids. I realized it very slowly due to the fact that their advice didn't work but if you read magazines enough, like I did, you will hear most the guys admit it. A few of them are entirely honest (for example Flex Wheeler and Mike Mentzer) but most of them at least admit it. just not very often. You have to read enough to find out that they use and to see the interviews where they talk about it. They don't just take steroids, they are nothing but professional drug users. People who are unfamiliar with the fact that those guys are drugged up out of their minds should look for a magazine called "Natural Bodybuilding Magazine". Those guys are on the honor code and don't take anything illegal (but still take supplements sometimes in increased dosages). They are not as big as the users, and what I find really interesting is that you can use the people who admit it and the people who definitely don't use as reference points to see who is and isn't on steroids. If a baseball player or other athlete looks more like the users or even like the top non-users. well, he's a user and a whole lot of athletes apparently are. I considered taking steroids but I never did because I have been a successful athlete in ways outside of bodybuilding and I am known for it and I feel respected among my friends and I didn't want people to be able to say "yeah but he takes steroids". My other sport (mainly skiing) is one of two reasons I didn't ever take steroids. The other reason is because I believe it is cheating.

Anyways. I didn't want to take 'roids so ultimately I gave up, completely, for more than a year. In the end it was something that Mentzer said that made me give in. He said that everyone has different potential and some people only have the potential to gain a really tiny bit of muscle. Since I'd tried everything and gotten nothing I decided that that was me. Weightlifting became the one thing that made me think that people can't accomplish anything they put their minds to after all.

After a good year of not lifting, this summer (summer '05) I was reading online about natural ways to raise testosterone just for the sake of having high testosterone for sports and I came across Francesco Castano's site. I read a few testimonials from guys who had similar stories to mine (tried a lot of things with no results first) who said that this program finally worked for them. In fact a lot said that this finally worked GREAT for them, and that is exactly how it's gone for me. I did not have high hopes when I ordered this program because I no longer believed that it was possible for me to gain strength.

I cannot believe how different this program has been from any others I ever tried and I could not believe how well it worked. I started lifting on July 5th this year and for 3 months followed this program to a tee. I don't have good potential for weightlifting and I believe that others should be able to gain at least as much or more in three months on this program if they follow it as well as I did. For three months I only did the bodybuilding phase and ignored the fat loss phase so I was gaining as fast as I could. This testimonial is for my first 3 months because those months are an indication of how well this works when it's followed perfectly and fully. I also stopped after 3 months to ski for a while so that's the other reason this is just for the first 3.

The results were visible within a week. I kept track of my arm measurements and increased from about a 14 inch arm to 16 inches even within the first 3 months I did this program. I only measured my arms because it wasn't very necessary to measure because it was so clear that this was working and my bodyweight increased from 165 to 195. There may have been a gain of about 5 pounds of fat. There were two weeks in which I gained just under a quarter of an inch on my arms in the week alone and one week where I gained a FULL quarter of an inch on my arms, just in a week! I used machines for a lot of my exercises and here is how I increased: If I used the same weight from one workout to the next I usually did at least 2 more reps but sometimes much much more. There were certain workouts I had where I would increase 20 pounds on a few lifts since just my last time that I did them. One day I increased 30 pounds on machine flies just since my last chest workout. At the beginning of the three month period I worked out with 200 on the bench machine and then at the end of the months I was working out with 270. On the incline machine I started with 90 and ended working out with 180. On the shoulder press machine my gain for the 3 months was the same and went from working out with 90 to 180. On lat pulldown I went from working out with 190 to 250. Everything else increased at a similar rate to all of this. Triceps were among the fastest gaining body part. There was one thing I didn't increase in strength much on and that was shoulder shrugs, however, I recently got a deep tissue massage and had a large increase in strength as a result of that. I guess the muscle was just too tight. Whenever I stopped gaining I just increased calories, and started gaining again. This program enables you to fully understand all the variables involved and it is so nice to be able to pinpoint a reason for a lack of gains rather than wondering. So far on this program the only times I stopped gaining I just needed to increase calories and that was the only reason. Castano's concept of increasing workload amazes me. It amazes me by how clear it becomes that it is the key ingredient to bodybuilding and how this program proves that it's necessary.

Being stronger has been great. Every movement I make feels more supported. My joints feel better and I feel more athletic overall. My friends who hadn't seen me for a while all noticed my difference in size.

I am not going to post before and after pictures right now because since I started concentrating more on skiing I actually lost a little muscle (no matter, I know how to get it back now), so it would not be a clear indication of what I gained. I will however post a picture of my face so that people know that I am a real person (see my myspace site). I have not met Mr. Castano outside of the internet but he succeeded in something that I never would have without his help and it is partially because of my appreciation of him that I have written this. I also wrote this simply because I want as many people as possible to find their way out of all the B.S. that is in other books and magazines and into an effective program. Perhaps the main reason I wrote this is because I feel that this is the only way for a lot of people to gain muscle (besides using steroids) and I am pissed off at the steroid using authors who advise people like me who don't use steroids. I absolutely can't stand those authors. People like Schwarzenegger are basically responsible for wasting years of my life. Just thinking about all the confusion, and time wasted and effort for nothing makes me want to vomit. I want to save as many people as possible from either completely failing or wasting as much time as I did on account of confusion.

I believe that this program is the one true way to lift. I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be the best for everyone even if it's not the ONLY thing that'll work for everyone like it was for me. Look at what an enormous difference it made for me!

Thank you for enabling me to finally have control of my strength and fitness.