Coaching programs

aoifeisabelle

Has anybody had any good experiences with online group style coaching programs? I’ve been looking at the Larry Doyle affiliate program or something similar by James Smith. Would anybody recommend these or anyone else?

Not looking for anything too intensive. Just looking for guidance around nutrition and ideas for workouts.

Thanks!!

CBear1993

I'm the same, I don't care about going to a PT to do a physical session at their gym.

Just looking someone to hold me accountable, pay them monthly, keep track of weight/fitness goals

Refresh a strength/conditioning program every 6 weeks or so!

Mars Bar

I worked with Kieran McMahon both in Abu Dhabi in a semi personal manner and then online only when he went back to Ireland. He's a very nice guy and has been knocking it out of the park during this pandemic.

www.facebook.com/ptkmfitness

CBear1993

Cheers!

Any idea of his pricing here? Had a look on the website and doesn’t say, just “are you willing to invest €8 per day” if that’s for a month then that’s €240 per month

Larry Doyle online looks very good, €30 per month affiliate program is crazy cheap! Anyone any experiences?

James smith would be too generic I feel?

Mars Bar

I don't know what he's charging now. I know I paid in dirham but can't remember the figure and it may be different now with the virus. No harm sending him a message to find out. He's very approachable
He will tailor for you. It won't be generic.

caviardreams

CBear1993 wrote: »

Cheers!

Any idea of his pricing here? Had a look on the website and doesn’t say, just “are you willing to invest €8 per day” if that’s for a month then that’s €240 per month

Larry Doyle online looks very good, €30 per month affiliate program is crazy cheap! Anyone any experiences?

James smith would be too generic I feel?

AFAIK Larry Doyle's affiliate does not include an individual check in etc. It's a generic one size fits all programme that everybody gets for the month and advice etc. alongside it, but it's not customised etc. or with individual check-ins.

Black Sheep

I've used online group coaching for 3+ years and I like this model as it delivers what I need at a low price point. All of these below around about 25-30 euros per month. All of them will do 1-1 as far as I know but that's a different order of expense!

I don't need technical coaching and I don't really need help with diet or programming adherence / motivation, all I wanted was to get high quality programming and yeah maybe some feedback / Q&A periodically.

It's worth remembering that you can go international due to the nature of how this is delivered, so for me personally everything I've used has been US based so far.

I don't know if you are looking for something which uses barbells, dumbbells, machine resistance training etc. but this is what all of these use. If you're looking for something more casual / aerobic based then apologies, they may not be useful.

1. Juggernaut Strength Systems Online Coaching
https://www.jtsstrength.com/online-coaching/

JTS is run by Chad Wesley Smith who is an elite powerlifter and properly impressive athlete, very deep and respected knowledge of strength and exercise science. JTS' online coaching is now based on an "A.I" type set up where they generate programming based on what level you are at, but when I did it there were several tracks that were written weekly by different coaches.

They used a Facebook group for people to post videos for feedback and general chit chat / discussion with other trainees.

PROS: Legit programming, legit coaches. The track I did was very well written, faultless I would say.
CONS: Notoriously high volume and to be honest I couldn't sustain what was programmed at all, I completely nose-dived pretty quickly. In hindsight I should have altered what I was given but I felt like I was paying to receive my programming so I didn't have to do that. Of course that's the problem with group coaching. The Facebook group was full of nice people who seemed to have little to know training background and were confused about what was going on, they literally couldn't have understood the programming or been implementing it correctly, I have no idea what they were doing there. The programming used RPE (rate of perceived effort) which, personal opinion, I just did not like / do not use well. The Facebook group also didn't really have any proper critique in it, the coaches would just give people a pat on the head and say 'good job' even if some crazy **** was going on.

2. Baker Barbell Club
https://www.andybaker.com/baker-barbell-club-online/

Andy Baker co-wrote all the Starting Strength books but his programming in his online group coaching diverges pretty far from Starting Strength. He emails out two different tracks on a weekly basis. A 'basic barbell track' that runs for 12 weeks before switching to something else, and is usually a variation of a HLM (Heavy Light Medium), Texas Method, 852 or 5X5 programme. The 12 week blocks have you testing the squat, bench and dead at the end and basically this track is for people who are mainly interested in getting stronger and want to use almost entirely barbell training. Then there's the 'powerbuilding track' which also changes from time to time but for 2+ years now has been based on Andy's approach to conjugate training. At the moment it has a max effort upper and lower day, and a dynamic/volume upper and lower day. There's a lot more physique-orientated programming on this track.

PROS: The written emails arrive on Monday mornings, there's a private online BB and also a private Facebook group for form checks. The Facebook group is much more tightly moderated than the JTS one and Baker will critique every post you make, sooner or later, he actually will give negative as well as positive feedback. You probably still need to know how to lift to be there, but there is more coaching than on JTS. The age demographic is older, average age is 35+ and it's quite US centric although a good few Europeans. The programming is very solid, he uses classic programs, I don't think there's much to take issue with. The volume and intensity is usually percentage based, off 1rm tests, rather than RPE.

CONS: I personally don't see many, although you will not get advice on diet or conditioning, it's all lifting orientated. I guess you could say Andy Baker is a legit coach and author but he has his critics who would say his approaches are slightly at odds with some of the cutting edge exercise science. No comment on that, I don't know enough... Sometimes it seems like the sciences has to catch up to the "bro science"...

---

In addition to the above, other possibilities that I looked at but have not actually tried out yet:-

The Conjugate Club
https://www.conjugateclub.com/

More conjugate coaching, this one actually linked to Louis Simmons in a tangible way. I gather there are multiple different tracks for different needs.

Hybrid Performance Method
https://hybridperformancemethod.com/training

Again, multiple different programming tracks here, for different goals. Like JTS, you have absolute world class athletes involved as business owners, would appeal to me in that you are getting the best exercise science here.

CBear1993

Wow, that’s some info there!! Great post. Thanks for taking the time to write that out. Are you with any of those right now?

Black Sheep

Yep, been using the Baker Barbell Club since January 2018, still very happy with it.

Worth checking out the various articles he has written on his website to get a sense of whether the programming is of interest or not.