Max has been a Pharos member since 2018. He's done every program, won the Limitless Challenge, and spent years lifting heavy. He's also spent the better part of 15 years dealing with a recurring back injury that kept derailing his progress.

In this episode, Piet and Emylee sits down with Max to talk about what changed when he stopped trying to push through the injury and started building around it. The result? More muscle, less body fat, zero back pain — and the strongest his lower half has ever felt, without a single heavy deadlift or back squat.

They cover the Bulletproof Your Back program, pendulum squats, why tall guys with long femurs probably shouldn't be back squatting, the identity crisis that comes when you can no longer do the thing you've always done, and why 10 grams of creatine might be doing more for your brain than your body.

They also get into nutrition — why eating in a deficit without hitting protein is the worst thing you can do, how Max went months without feeling bloated for the first time in years, and why tracking macros isn't meant to be forever.

This one is for the OG gym goer who's been at it for years, is dealing with injury, and needs a smarter way forward — not a harder one.

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