My name is Anne Ash. I am 54 years old and I'm a fifth grade teacher at Friends Christian

Middle School and I train at the Strength Company in Villa Park, California. I met a woman at

the social who had great results, lowering her cholesterol and her blood pressure and that really

spoke to me and I thought that's what I want to try. I did not want to go on medication. Well we have socials,

we have get-togethers. Basically all the people who come to the gym are invited. We either

go to a restaurant or we have it here in the gym where we just get together and

have food and and have some drink and just talk and share our lives with each other.

Get to know one another. Well, my cholesterol was definitely high before. My blood pressure was high.

I ran in the 150s over 80 something and my blood pressure now is about 120 over 70, and my cholesterol is under 200.

So the difference between a starting strength gym and a regular gym is, first of all,

the coaching that we receive is so personal and encouraging, and the people, there's only eight people at a time at the most.

And so you get to know the people so well, and they become your friends.

So lifting at a starting strength gym is like going to the grocery store.

You see people of all different ages, all different body types, all different fitness levels, and you feel very

comfortable.

Well, I think I felt every day that I was getting older and more tired and less able

to move like I wanted to be moving.

And now I feel like, I really feel like I can do anything. I can hike. I can ride a bike. I could run if I wanted to be moving. And now I feel like I really feel like I can do anything.

I can hike, I can ride a bike, I could run if I wanted to.

I can move so much easier than I used to.

I'm still getting older, but it's definitely easier to do the things I want to do than it used to be.

One of my incentives for doing this was I was due to have a grandchild, our very first grandchild,

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