I did a search and couldn't find a similar thread. I thought this might be useful for guys wondering about whether to work with a specific coach.
To be clear, this is not intended to be a place to bash a coach. If you didn't have a positive experience simply state that and nothing more. Someone can send you a dm if they want to know more.
If you want to contribute, please include the following:
- Name of coach
- Duration you worked with them for
- Main form of contact
- Training approach
- Diet approach
- Drug approach (if applicable)
- Any other info
I'll start with the coaches I've worked with over the years that are still taking clients.
Chris Tuttle
- I worked with Chris for approximately 12 months
- All contact via email
- Training was mostly volume based, some supersets and structured towards my weak points
- Carb cycling approach, moderate fats. Very health focused, variety of vegetables and supps. Chris really knows how to manage the GI tract. This was almost 10 years ago so I suspect he is even better now.
- Very moderate drug wise; mostly pushed test up, everything else in low doses. Made me take time off, like primo. Only oral use was towards end of prep
- Really enjoyed working with Chris. I stopped because I got really sick when I was first diagnosed with Crohns (I was hospitalised). Highly recommend him, really nice guy.
Jordan Peters
- I worked with Jordan for about 18 months
- Initially contact via email then he moved to contact via his coaching site at the time
- I think everyone knows this... but it was low volume and a lot of training to failure. Did mostly upper/lower which tbh I genuinely enjoyed. I got strong AF whilst I followed this approach, but I also got injured. I tore my left bicep doing weights chins (minor), and tore my right lat (no idea how to be honest). Thankfully minor and no noticeable defects to this day.
- Quite basic food wise, training day and rest day diets. Rest day was the same as training day more or less without the pre, post and intra. Food got pushed pretty hard.
- Whilst I would say the drug approach was moderate at the time (based on my usage since), it was higher than Chris. He pushed my test, and he let me use orals in the offseason.
- I learned a shit load from Jordan. I already knew Jordan as he used to train at the same gym as me, and he helped me with posing prior to working with him. Trained together twice. Honestly that time was invaluable in learning just how far a human can be pushed under load. I stopped working with Jordan as he was scaling down his coaching and I wanted to learn something new.
Alex Kikel
- Less than 3 months
- All contact via email
- The only thing that stood out was his concept (I forget what he called it) of these 100 rep sets. It was actually pretty brutal. Unsure if they were effective though
- Diet honestly felt like a cut and paste and didn't change
- Drugs, nothing to say here, but i personally chose not to follow the plan
- I didn't finish the first 3 months...
Patrick Tuor
- I worked with Patrick for 7-8 months
- Contact via whatsapp, lots of voice notes
- Training was insightful. I wouldn't say it was high volume in the traditional sense; there was a lot going on within a set. Cluster sets, supersets, drop sets. Legs was brutal, for example first exercise in my quad plan was leg extensions for sets of 20, superset with smith squats for sets of 6-8 where the first set was 6s eccentrics, second was 6s concentric, third was 6s either way. With the training approach I started to develop quite a different look; very full and round, but it kept me very lean
- Patrick had quite an interesting approach to diet, I wouldn't say there was a particular format. He changed it quite regularly in terms of both structure and macros. Patrick is quite big on phases, and everything is tied together. So for example when we started, he had me on a 4 week strength phase that was more focused on low reps high weight, with very high food (mostly carbs) and drugs (will touch on below) like halo...
- Drugs were quite aggresive. Tren and orals in offseason, although orals were cycled. He did at one point put me on insulin as my weight stagnated. But he was also big on certain health supps.
- I actually enjoyed working with Patrick the most. I felt had I stayed with him, I would have continued to develop really well. The only reason I stopped working with him was there were 2 periods where he went AWOL for a couple weeks. I don't really know why, and he was very apologetic when he did resurface.
Tyler Cook
- I worked with Tyler for about 6 months
- Contact with whatsapp, checkins via typeform, phone calls etc (Tyler is in the same country as me)
- Training was very high volume, lots of supersets and high rep stuff. To be honest, I didn't enjoy it too much, but that was just my personal preference at the time
- There was nothing notable about the diet, it was balanced and when food went up, it went up across the board. We got up to around 5000kcal by the end of the growth phase.
- Drug use, the thing that stood out to me, and to be fair I had never used it and now its one of my favourites, was low dose tren e offseason. That got me through some sticking points and I got to one of my strongest points.
- I stopped working with Tyler because I wanted a little more attention to detail
Justin Harris
- I worked with Justin for the best part of 18 months
- Contact was all on email, although I did have his whatsapp for any adhoc bits
- I really love Justin's training methods. There is no one size fits all. We ended up mostly using his power building approach which had some movements in I'd never done, e.g. Kroc rows. It was a mixture of various styles; failure sets, amraps, 20 rep sets, widow makers, supersets. I think I stayed on the same plan for a good 12 months and it was great. The other thing worth noting here is that he has you do HIIT cardio all year round. I used to hate HIIT, but once I got into it, its really quite effective and time efficient. Much more enjoyable that an hour on the treadmill, although the sessions were brutal.
- The diet is where Justin really shines. A very detailed carb cycling approach. He'd send me a spreadsheet with each check in. His approach to assigning food is unique too in that if he gives you a meal that is 50p 100c 15f, each macro is counted alone. E.g. if I have 250g of chicken breast, only the protein counts towards the protein count, the rest is disregarded. His concept is that he isn't interested in indirect calories, he wants you to hit the base macros in each food group. This actually made following the diet very easy to plan for. I stayed very lean throughout out time together even when food got upwards of 5.5kcal on high days. At one point we were on 3 high days a week and those days include an off plan meal which tbh, I never wanted as it was the last meal of the day.
- Drug wise, Justin doesn't tell you what to do. He gives you his philosophy and input when you ask. This was very plain and simple; most guys get the most growth between 2-3g total. It doesn't mean you have to do this, he just tells you what he has seen. I really appreciated that as he made it clear from the get go.
- Justin also helped me with a lot of other stuff, e.g. my crohns, which is why I originally went to him. I knew he had experience of this (much like Chris Tuttle actually), and I was in a bad spot when we first started. He got my bowels under control, he got my thyroid responding again and got my health markers in check (they were bad from the medication at the time). The first 6 weeks I transformed, and I believe it was because he got me healthy. I stopped working with Justin because my wife and I were going through fertility issues and I needed to come off, but I also experience other, unrelated health issues. I was quite sad to stop, but at that point in time I had to put my health first. I need to make it clear, my health issues were no way related to Justin. I had an issue with my heart that was somewhat undiagnosed that had been present for 10 years prior.
I've worked with some other coaches over the years but to the best of my knowledge that are not taking on clients any more, or for undisclosed reasons I do not want to mention them.
