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Prep coach review


HarryB

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Let's have an open and honest discussion about coaches from clients. Heaps of you peeps have had coaches both good and bad so let's get some reviews.

I find it interesting and perhaps someone else will too. Plus it might give people some choices when they're looking for someone to coach them. Let's not just do a kiss up and go on and on about how awesome our mates are.. let's just look at being honest and instead of commenting about people we haven't worked with.. let's stick to our personal experiences :)

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I've never actually been coached but I have had mentors. It's generational because when I started out there was no such thing as a prep coach and you pretty much learnt as you went.

But I will start with a self assessment. I've prepped people for a long long time. I guess almost 20 years and in that time I've coached all levels and had success at both national and international comps (bodybuilding)

I'd say I'm a decent coach BUT I'm a little simplistic in my approach and I put the onus of working out certain things back on the client. My style requires a lot of interaction and work on the clients part. I don't just give a plan and then see you in 4 weeks. I also have a flexible system so there's nothing hard and fast although there are basics I adhere to as people who have worked with me will attest.

Some people see my approach as lazy lol I see it as empowering ;)

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For a full comprehensive list of all coaches in the south island region i think Gymrat already covered that off his his log mate.

From my personal experience;

Wookie - great programming, excellent at pointing out form improvements.

Well his commentary isn't very comprehensive. And yes wookie is by all accounts a great strength coach.

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People need to look at themselves before they put down their coach/trainer/whatever the f*ck you want to call it.

Seriously... if the coach has programmed speed deadlifts @ 220kg but "it's too light" you are "feeling strong" so you do 260kg instead... When you don't lift as much on meet day what the f*ck do you expect, then people will say "oh his programming wasn't that good".

Or the bodybuilders, 9 times out of 10 if you look like shit or failed to reach where you should have got to then it's your own fault - you cheated, skipped cardio sessions etc etc (were lazy or undisciplined). Or the female competitors blame the coach for their post comp rebound... 1. You probably stopped paying him so it's not his problem anymore. Prepping is a service that you pay for. 2. You binged on shitty food for 2 weeks wtf do you expect to happen!!!

I think people (retards) except miracles from coaches. You still gotta do the work.

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agree with most of the posts in here, may as well not get a coach if you arent gonna follow what they say 100%

not 90% not 95% like dont think you know best or think a little adjustment wont matter, if they told you to do or not to do something it will be (hopefully!) well thought out and for a purpose

 

iv been with wookie just a short time but can completely vouch for the quality of coaching, especially given its difficult not being face to face, and it will show in my lifts real soon

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Since I am doing my own coaching by coaching myself it's a good learning experince for me. By getting diffrent bits of info off the net and watching various videos on YouTube like having refeed days two weeks before a comp etc. Now that I am getting closer to peak week which will be next Saturday I will be doing lots of reading up on diffrent methods for peak week. One thing that I have noticed is I am doing a better job at coaching myself compare to my last trainer that I had and the last trainer that I had got me to eat 300g of oats in one serving . Which I thought was rather dumb after I mentioned it to him.

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Since I am doing my own coaching by coaching myself it's a good learning experince for me. By getting diffrent bits of info off the net and watching various videos on YouTube like having refeed days two weeks before a comp etc. Now that I am getting closer to peak week which will be next Saturday I will be doing lots of reading up on diffrent methods for peak week. One thing that I have noticed is I am doing a better job at coaching myself compare to my last trainer that I had and the last trainer that I had got me to eat 300g of oats in one serving . Which I thought was rather dumb after I mentioned it to him.

300grams cooked or dry? 300grams cooked is nothing . 300grams dry does seem excessive and im sure he wouldnt have ment that. I still think you would be better having a coach being a competitive bodybuilder. Having somebody being able to monitor your progress and lay out a tried and proved method for you because it seems to me you are just googling ideas man. All good if thats how you wanna roll bro but remember even the pros have coaches.

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Been wondering about that myself as well and he was like I am sorry I forgot to tell you. The only problem to that is me being coached by a competive bodybuilder there not many hear in Dunedin compare to other main centres with a bigger population base like Auckland etc

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Before I write this I am going to say this. And anyone who knows me will vouch. If I am being coached I am 100% dedicated to what I am doing and everything is done as precisely as possible. Especially in my earlier years.

I've worked with 4 different people since 2010 and I feel like I've gained something from each of them. I learnt the absolute basics from Maree stunington back in the day when I was playing pretty competitive football. She also prepped me for my first comp and I don't have a negative thing to say about her. I was with her for two years and by the end of those two years it was time to move on. Not because she wasn't up to it but because I felt I had taken from her what I needed and it was time to mix things up.

For a short time after that I saw Jo Stewart. This was only probably 3-4 months and although it wasn't a long time I did learn a few things. Very simple approach. A protein is a protein and a carb is a carb etc (bulking). I chose to move on because I felt the next person would do a better job and I was correct.

Next up big Harry B. This is where my body really changed from an athletic guy to a bodybuilder. We started in 2012 and to this day I still run my ideas by him. That speaks for itself. As he posted earlier he never wrote any plans for me which was a first as I wasn't used to this. He more pointed me in the right direction and made me work it out for myself. Again a very basic and simple approach for the most part and relys on nutrition to get the results

Amanda Foubister has helped me a bit and gave me a lot of new knowledge last year especially in cooperating football with my bodybuilding. She's a good friend so is always willing to help and is like an encyclopaedia of knowledge when it comes to nutrition and her qualifications and client base versus her prices contribute to that.

I started doing my own thing as of this year and I got myself in pretty good shape from January-March. About 8 weeks out I had a bit of a melt down and Harry was there to keep me sane and basically critique my ideas.

So I've worked with a few people over the years and out of respect I've chosen to keep everythig positives I guss things to look for is 1) their client base 2) client retention and 3) the person themselves.

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It would be better if you actually went into the things you thought were negatives TLAF. Writing only positive shit doesnt tell you much and its pretty obvious from the way you wrote it that there were big negatives in some of the coaches you reviewed.

agree

a review should include pros and cons otherwise its just an advertisement and people should really pay money to do those on this site

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thats it im reporting harry for advertising his own services via this fake topic lol

Ba ha ha ha find someone who's actually paid me ..

I do agree with some of what realtalk said however I would say that you also need to look at the way in which you relate to your coach and their ability to motivate you to stay on track. That's a huge part of it. Not everyone is able to stay 100% on track so as a coach it's important to have the tools to deal with this.

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agree

a review should include pros and cons otherwise its just an advertisement and people should really pay money to do those on this site

ok man get me the account details and I'll pay for my advertisement of other people's services which I will make a grand total of $0 for.

It would be better if you actually went into the things you thought were negatives TLAF. Writing only positive shit doesnt tell you much and its pretty obvious from the way you wrote it that there were big negatives in some of the coaches you reviewed.

Just because I move on doesn't mean I think negatively of people. I obviously move on for a reason and that because either A) I believe I can do an equal or better job or B) I've found someone new of greater benefit for whatever reason. If people are looking into any of the coaches I've used and want a full run down im happy to give them one via PM.

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Sometimes the only negative on a coach is that they stop being helpful to you... once you have learnt how their system works and how to apply their ideas then you no longer really need to have them as a coach and can sometimes be better served learning more or something different from someone else :)

yeah good point

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Great topic Harry, So many facets to the topic, I'll comment from a BBuilding perspective as I wont pretend to know much about the P/Lifting side of things:

 

IMO Social media provides a good and often bad platform to assign credit or blame to coaches - The amount of times I have heard "Damaged Metabolism" in the last year just beggars belief!

 

BBuilding is by nature a svery demanding (physically/mentally/socially/) solo and often very narsissic sport.

The shows tend to bring out the best or worst people. from my experience at the shows there are mainly good people, all in the same boat - half clothed,tired,wired,hungry but in good spirits, but  after the placings come in, the social media provides an avenue to whine/moan and bicker over things that wouldnt get often said about people face to face.

 

In my years PT'ing, competing and just being around the industry my observation is that i would have to say different clients will approach different coaches for different reasons.

IMO they generally either:

see a coach either because the coach is in good shape(and they want to loom like them or date them),

see a coach who is the diet guru,

see a coach who is the training guru,

see a coach who is the steroid guru,

or see a coach who is a blend of the above so they get an all encompassing package,

 

I bet if some of the coaches who genuinely make a living out of contest prep training nutrition in NZ answered honestly then I would say that most of their clients got a positive result from there time together and the ones that  said they didnt either:

Didnt follow the exercise/diet prescription,

Were already more advanced than the trainer - knowledge or physique wise,

 

OR (IMO) most commonly, were just too far out of shape to begin with and didnt leave enough time to lose the fat or add the muscle (unrealistic)

 

Or were under the illusion that 3-5%(M) or 7-12&(F) was a health conscious body fat level to carry around that you would feel great at.

 

The problem is the "disgruntled" client will usually voice their discontent over social media even if their trainer suggested a later show or that they were too fat/thin to be inshape in time without half killing themselves, yet the trainer/coach probably wont be able to voice their side of the story due to client/trainer privacy issue or just out of being above engaging in a slanging match on Facebook.

 

I agree with Jordan in that if you want certain knowledge in a certain area then look for the people that are getting consistenty good results with a cross section of people, this will show that their methods work.

 

I also agree with Tom in that Coaches are professionals and that they arent resposnsible for what their clients do to sabotage their gains after their photo shoots or contests. Yes a good one will recommend booking in time to go over post contest diet.training, new goal setting etc and may even provide an "exit" plan from a pre comp diet but should they do this for nothing no, they are professionals and make their living out of putting hours (and many unpaid hours) into their clients.

 

If you pay for a 12 week plan thats fine, but it is perhaps unreasonable to expect the next 8 weeks of post comp plane to be provided for zip. Ideally a great coach/nutrition adviser will be a year round service, not some one you use to get a great show result then blame when you put on 15kg in 4 months whilst not using them after the show. J

 

Yes their are some people who shouldnt be "coaching" due to inexperience, lack of knowledge or questionable methods but the ones that get good results consistently are probably doing a reasonable job.Just a matter of doing your research before you choose someone for this,Again though, our sport is judged on a temporary look and its noty always the healthiest person that wins the show.

 

Just my 2 cents.

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OK, well here's a story about a negative experience. I'm not going to name the trainer, because it happened to a friend of mine, not to me, and I'm not sure I can remember all the details now. But I will say this was an elite bodybuilder (possibly pro?) who was definitely trading on his past successes on stage to promote his PT career.

 

My friend started dieting for his comp with plenty of time for where he was currently sitting. This was his first competition, and his goal was not necessarily to come in insanely shredded, but simply to come in looking good. It should have been perfectly achievable.

 

Unfortunately, although this PT was good for training tips, he sucked when it came to diet.

 

The weeks went by, and my mate just wasn't getting any leaner. And no wonder - because his diet included a shitload of calories. I don't know why this PT insisted on keeping them so high, but he kept increasing the cardio instead. Eventually, my mate was running for 3 hours every day and he STILL wasn't losing the weight.

 

At this point, I should say my mate was absolutely religious about following his prescribed diet and training. You could not ask for a more devoted client.

 

With no further progress, and a looming competition deadline, the PT started to tell him it was all just water retention. (Such clear bullshit, it really got my blood boiling.) So he made my mate stop drinking water for a couple of days. No change. I think at this point he might have then cut the carbs out (because carbs make you hold water, you know), then dehydrated him again. Still no change.

 

By now it was obvious that PT was totally lost and just fishing for excuses.

 

My mate competed, did not look good, and took a huge knock to his confidence. He hasn't been back on stage.

 

As for the PT, he didn't turn up to the show... No word from him until he eventually sent a text asking how my mate went... a full fortnight later.

 

 

I'm not sure what the moral to this story is. But perhaps it's that not all pros are good trainers, and not all good trainers are pros.

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