This case study follows the progress of an untrained 11-year-old female novice, Audrey, across two years. Audrey started her novice linear progression (NLP) with a 30 kg squat, 15 kg press, 20 kg bench press, and 40 kg deadlift. Two years later, she holds 8 national records in both the APF and AAPF. Oh yeah, she’s also my daughter.

Coaching Decisions: Modified NLP

One day in April 2024, Audrey asked me, “Dad, can you teach me to lift?” My heart nearly stopped because I suspected this was some sort of trick. Instead, she was quite sincere. I only found out two years later that this was motivated by a lost arm-wrestling contest to a boy at school. After some discussion, she made it clear that she didn’t merely want to be taught how to lift. She wanted to get stronger. She wanted, dare I say, to train.

Audrey was neither willing nor able to commit to a three days-a-week training schedule. Her competing interests included dance, orchestra, and just enjoying life as a kid. The coaching decision was simple: run the NLP but only twice per week. The biggest downside was that each upper body lift, press and bench, would be trained only once per week.

Her first two sessions were as follows:

Session 1

• Squat: 30 kg x 5 x 3
• Press: 15 kg x 5 x 3
• Deadlift: 40 kg x 5

Session 2

• Squat: 35 kg x 5 x 3
• Bench: 20 kg x 5 x 3
• Deadlift: 45 kg x 5

There was nothing particularly remarkable about either of these sessions. We worked up to these starting weights using a process of titration. Her squat was rather uncoordinated. Her depth varied from 8” below parallel to 4” above parallel from rep to rep. Her gaze was anywhere but where it should be. Her knees caved in unless I yelled at her. Like I said, as anyone who has coached rank novices would know, particularly in this age-group, nothing out of the ordinary. We took a 5 kg jump on the squat and deadlift simply because I felt we were just a touch conservative with the initial session, and her coordination was already noticeably improved.

Now, as perhaps others with children may sympathize, I had low expectations about compliance and longevity for Audrey. This isn’t anything specific to her. Rather, children are prone to whimsy. I hoped we’d make it to 8 weeks at least and see where to go from there. With that in mind, I decided to progress rather slowly and prioritize comfort (gasp!). I wanted the toughness to sneak up on her, to see if she had grit. Therefore, from that second session we simply added 2.5 kg to the squat and deadlift every session, and 1 kg to the press and bench press every session. This progression continued for two months (about 18 workouts) without issue. The first deviation was the introduction of the power clean. This was introduced after the 12th session and alternated with the deadlift thereafter. The next deviation, after the 19th session, was the squat.

Introducing the Light Squat

Right around the 70 kg mark, the bar speed of Audrey’s squat started to significantly slow down. Her form, which had been solid for weeks, started to break down. Some reps were high. She had trouble keeping her knees out, and cueing wasn’t helping. She hadn’t missed a squat (or any lift) yet, but I could tell that day was soon coming. I also noticed a hesitance, or a mild dread, when it came time to go to the gym.

Instead of going right up to the point of failure, I decided to introduce a light day for squats. I chose 85% as her light day because I find 80% is often too steep of a reduction for women lifters, on a light day. Typically, with a lifter that is training three days a week, you introduce a light squat on day two of training. Thus the trainee continues to get two heavy squat days per week. However, we were restricted to training only twice a week. This means a 50% reduction in heavy squats. Not ideal, but I worked with what I was given. Remember also, I was trying to keep this as enjoyable as possible for my daughter. She had been showing great progress, she was succeeding regularly, and she was mostly enjoying it. She was developing grit.

From here, her heavy squats were paired with the power clean, and her light squats were paired with the deadlift. The difference was immediately noticeable. Her heavy squats immediately improved without needing a reset. Her progress continued without significant interruption until mid-July.

Disruptions

There were 3 noteworthy training disruptions over the course of Audrey’s training: July 2024, June 2025, and August 2025. The first disruption was a 2-week sleep-away camp. Audrey went away and had a blast being a kid with zero parental supervision. She swam every day, sprinted from activity to activity, and didn’t even look at a barbell.

Upon her return, I gave Audrey my first firm nudge as a parent and coach. It was August 2nd, the same day that she returned from camp. I know how easy it is – through both personal experience as well as years of coaching experience – to let training slip completely away from you after a vacation. “I just got back today” becomes “I just got back yesterday” becomes “I’ll start next week.” Therein lies doom and weakness. Audrey’s incredulous, “Today?! Can’t we just do it tomorrow?” was met with “No. We’re going now.” You’ve never heard a louder sigh nor seen a larger eye roll.

Her workout that evening was very light:

• Squat: 50 kg x 5 x 3
• Press: 23 kg x 5 x 3
• Deadlift: 70 kg x 5

That’s anywhere from a 15% - 35% reduction from where she was before camp. Did she lose that much strength? No, but I didn’t want her first workout back to be soul-crushing. I was already “forcing” her to train. Plus she had already begun to adapt to the lifestyle at the camp, and doing 15 heavy reps of squat was not in the cards: her legs were unsteady and sore during that first workout back.

From there we took pretty aggressive steps back to real training weights:

• Squat: 50 kg > 65 kg > 70 kg > 80 kg
• Press: 23 kg > 26 kg > 27 kg
• Bench: 30 kg > 33 kg
• Deadlift: 70 kg > 85 kg > 87.5 kg

Keep in mind, this is still training twice a week. So, after a two week layoff, we returned to her prior training weights within 1-2 weeks. This is important to note. It is unwise to take a break longer than one week and expect to return to training as if nothing happened. It is also, often, unnecessary to reset some fixed percentage and then resume conservative linear progression from there. If we would have progressed 2.5 kg on the squat and deadlift from there, it would have taken months to get back to actual training weights. This would be a major waste of training time. It’s also a good way to lose a client who gets demoralized by their apparent regression.

The remaining two disruptions in June 2025 and August 2025 were injuries.

After a heavy set of deadlifts (100 x 5), Audrey complained of pain in her tailbone. Only after the set did she tell me she was feeling it during her warmups. It was painful to sit for a couple of days.

We resumed training three days later. Her squat was 40 kg x 15 x 3 the first session and 45 x 15 x 3 the subsequent session. Upper body lifts were unaffected. Deadlifts were omitted. She was back to working weight by the third workout. This was a brief application of the Starr Rehab protocol.

Her other injury was August 2025, which cut her deadlift session short when she complained of a dull aching pain in her hamstring. The treatment: we stopped deadlifting that day. Her deadlift returned to working weight the following week on its regularly scheduled day.

I highlight these injuries for two reasons. One, to show that training doesn’t have to STOP just because you’re injured. Two, to demonstrate a healthy way to approach pain. After Audrey’s initial back injury, I told her it was very important to let me know if she’s feeling actual pain during lifting and warm-ups. She honestly thought I wouldn’t believe her, or would be disappointed in her. She pushed through the pain. The second time she let me know right away. We stopped and it resolved itself.

The Road to Competition

Toward the end of 2024, Audrey’s press and bench were still progressing, but quite slowly. We had reduced her increments to 0.5 kg for both lifts. I had also introduced backoff sets for her Press - a top set of 5 followed by 2x5 at 90%. This led into March 2025 when another Chicago Strength & Conditioning member told me she wanted to compete in an upcoming “beginner” powerlifting meet in the APF. This planted the seed.

Audrey overheard that conversation and asked me about it on the way home that evening. She was clearly very curious. I asked if she wanted to give it a try, and she told me she was nervous, but yes. The meet was five weeks out.

At this point of Audrey’s training, she had literally never done a true single, outside of warmups. She hadn’t even failed a squat yet, and she’d been training for nearly a whole year. I decided to take a sharp turn in her programming over the next 5 weeks to prepare her for the meet.

My goal as her coach and father was not to see how much we could squeeze out of her on meet day. It wasn’t to design the perfect peaking cycle. My goals were simply these:

1. Make this as low-key and enjoyable of an experience as possible
2. Expose her to singles
3. Practice commands
4. Go 9 for 9 at the meet

The following workout, we titrated our way to a heavy single on squat, bench, and deadlift:

• Squat: 115 kg
• Bench: 47.5 kg
• Deadlift: 110 kg

None of these were 1RMs; each could have been done for two or three total reps.

From here I implemented what I’ll call a 2-Day Texas Method. One day is volume, the other intensity. We started here:

Volume Day

• Squat: 90 kg x 5 x 5
• Bench: 42 kg x 5 x 5

Intensity Day

• Squat: 117.5 kg x 1 x 5
• Bench: 50 kg x 1 x 5
• Deadlift: 110 kg x 1, 115 kg x 1, 117.5 kg x 1

The volume day progressed by 2 kg every week, the intensity day progressed by 2.5 kg. One week out from the meet we did 3 singles each at her opening weights.

It’s worth noting here that her deadlift did not cooperate at all. In training leading up to this, she had recently completed a PR of 109 kg x 5. The following week was the 110 kg x 1 “heavy single” with gas in the tank. After the initial 117.5 kg single she failed to pull higher than 110 kg before the meet. It was clear that her programming needed to change to drive progress, but I had to balance this against the very limited time we had to prepare for the meet. I also had to not let my own anxiety about her deadlift falling to pieces only weeks out be felt. So we just got lots of reps at 110 in on the way up, and I counted on letting the heavy squats drag the deadlift along with them as they progressed.

Meet Day: May 3, 2025

Total success. Audrey’s full meet was:

• Squat: 110 kg, 120 kg, 125 kg
• Bench: 50 kg, 55 kg, 60 kg
• Deadlift: 110 kg, 115 kg, 125 kg!
• Total: 310 kg

Her squat and her total were APF national records (the beginner meet was APF only). From my perspective her squat had a little more in the tank, but her bench and deadlift were true 1RMs. Audrey actually chose 125 kg for her final deadlift over my suggested 120 kg. Again, I had seen her fail to pick up 117.5 kg repeatedly, and struggle with only 110 kg. I wanted her to go 9 for 9 and not end the meet on a low. She was genuinely confident though, so I deferred.

After the meet, we had a light week, during which Audrey tested her press, hitting 42 kg x 1. Then we resumed our heavy-light progression that had been working, resetting to about 75% of her meet-day PRs.

Road to Meet 2: 8 National Records (December 6, 2025)

Her training progressed through the summer with mostly steady progress. There were a couple of injury hiccups, previously noted. My philosophy here was mostly: show up and do work. The program was still working. Steady progress was made weekly on every lift, even her power clean was up to 50 kg x 3 x 5.

By October, she was setting significant training PRs:

• Squat: 110 kg x 5 x 3
• Press: 47.5 kg x 1
• Bench: 57 kg x 5 x 3
• Deadlift: 114 kg x 5

We decided to compete in the upcoming December 2025 meet. Unlike the first meet, which was exclusively a beginner meet, this was a much larger more typical meet. This meant a longer day, more lifters, possibly stricter judging, etc. Since Audrey’s training was progressing so well, and we were changing a variable I didn’t control (the nature of the meet), I decided the best meet prep was no prep. Just train right up to the meet. Two weeks out, we did 5 singles at her openers, followed by a regular training day. The week of the meet we just did a light day, then showed up to see what would happen.

It worked:

• Squat: 120 kg, 127.5 kg, 135 kg
• Bench: 55 kg, 62.5 kg, 70 kg!
• Deadlift: 120 kg, 130 kg, 137.5 kg (locked out but red-lighted for ramping)

I had one of my prouder moments as a coach talking with Audrey before her final bench press. After her second attempt, I asked her, “65 or 67.5?” She replied, “70.” I raised my eyebrows and passed it onto the scoring table. Internally, I doubted this was probable. I gave it at best a 50% chance of success. This would be a significant PR and nothing in her training indicated this was a sound choice. Hopefully, I didn’t let this show.

While we were waiting for her attempt to come back around I was frantically wracking my brain to try to come up with a good way to motivate her without letting my doubts creep through. As the women were beginning their third attempts, I said the following to her.

“Audrey, you’re going to see a lot of missed attempts now. The third attempt of women’s bench press is always this way. Pay attention to how they fail. They will almost all fail quickly. A second of effort and they give up. They quit. What you’re about to do is going to be very hard. Not impossible, but hard. If you only try for a second, you won’t get it. You’re going to need to put everything into this. All that matters is you don’t quit. Just drive your heels and push and push. Make them take the fucking bar from you.”

It worked. It took about 8 seconds to lock out, her back cramped mid lift, but she didn’t quit. Grit.

Audrey came to this meet with several goals. She wanted all of the national records. She also wanted to be the first woman at Chicago Strength & Conditioning to earn The Sticker. The Sticker is awarded to those who achieve a single rep for each of the following weights:

• Press: 100 lb
• Bench: 155 lb
• Squat: 225 lb
• Deadlift: 315 lb

She already had the press and squat. The bench was basically there too, but the deadlift was the next big challenge to tackle. We also had a specific technique issue to work on for the next meet.

Meet 3: IL State Meet (March 21, 2026)

At this point, Audrey was clearly serious. She had been putting up very impressive numbers. She had her own goals. She was training. She was a lifter.

As her coach, I needed more flexibility. The 2-day constraint seemed exactly that, constraining. I floated the idea of moving to a 3-day a week program, something called the Texas Method. I sold her on the merits: a light day with 5 sets instead of 3 called “volume day”, an even lighter day where she can work on her press, and a really fun day called “intensity day” where it’s heavy, but only one set. Those of you who have run Texas Method may call that gaslighting; I call it selling. She agreed after I told her it would only be for the 13 weeks or so leading up to the state meet.

What followed was a pretty much textbook implementation of the Texas Method. The program started with the following weights:

Volume Day

• Squat: 102.5 kg x 5 x 5
• Bench: 52.5 kg x 5 x 5

Recovery Day

• Squat: 92.5 kg x 5 x 3
• Press: 34 kg x 5 x 3
• Chin-up: 15 reps w/ green band

Intensity Day

• Squat: 115 kg x 5
• Bench: 60 kg x 5
• Deadlift: 116 kg x 5

I left a third lift out of volume day because we were still constrained by 90-minute workout times. Also, from personal experience, I’d rather die than power clean or do anything else after a truly heavy 5x5 squat.

I targeted 75% of 1RM for volume day and 85% for intensity day. This proved adequate for the squat and deadlift, but too much for the bench press. She failed her first intensity day bench at only 4 reps. I consider this evidence of just how far she reached to get that 70 kg bench at the meet. We dropped down to 58 kg on the subsequent week and progressed from there.

One of the first setbacks was, again, the deadlift. After failing intensity day in weeks 3 and 4, I introduced the rack pull and halting deadlift at roughly 90% of her intensity day deadlift. This fixed the deadlift. She didn’t miss any further deadlift attempts.

After the 10th week we switched intensity day to triples and rode that right up to the meet.

Meet Results

• Squat: 140 kg, 150 kg, 160 kg (miss)
• Bench: 65 kg, 70 kg, 72.5 kg
• Deadlift: 135 kg, 140 kg, 145 kg
• Total: 367.5 kg

This was done at age 13 as an 82.5 kg lifter (bodyweight of 81.7 kg).

This was a truly outstanding performance. Audrey went for 160 kg on the squat. We knew it was a stretch. She missed it, but it didn’t seem to discourage her in the slightest. The bench and deadlift both looked like they had a little more in the tank, but Audrey chose to be conservative to clinch The Sticker. She secured new national records in both the APF and AAPF for squat, bench, deadlift, and total. She secured the Best Lifter - Teen trophy, and placed third overall in the Women’s Open division. The progression across all three meets is summarized below.

	Meet 1 (May 2025)	Meet 2 (Dec 2025)	Meet 3 (Mar 2026)
Squat	125	135	150
Bench	60	70	72.5
Deadlift	125	130	145
Total	310	335	367.5

View Audrey’s full meet history and training log.

Conclusion

I intend this to be an instructive case study for coaches. Audrey’s journey is exemplary of the following takeaways:

• The NLP works every time, even when applied sub-optimally (2x a week)
• Each lift progresses on its own timeline. Advance when ready, not all at once
• Consistency trumps everything. Audrey missed only a handful of training sessions across two years
• Disruptions to training don’t require stopping, they require managing
• A young athlete’s enjoyment is a legitimate programming variable
• A successful first meet is worth more than a big first meet
• Know when to motivate, when to steer, and when to defer

Now, back to training.

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