• What outcomes can I help you achieve?
• How can you get there?
• Who this is for?
• Why do I do this?
• Why me?
• How do you coach? What do you provide (specifically)?
• How do I get started?

What outcomes can I help you achieve?

• Help you double the weight you can successfully squat, bench press, and deadlift in 1 year.
• Within 3-4 months, I can help you develop enough proficiency with form, programming, and general strength training principles so you don’t need my help anymore.
• Add 50lbs total (across all 3 powerlifting movements).

How can you get there?

By getting myself fired within 3-4 months.

My goal is to empower you with the tools, skills, and confidence to take your training into your own hands. This means you…

• Aren’t worrying about ‘proper’ form anymore because it’s already dialed. It’s definitely not as hard as you think it is.
• Have a defined goal and understand how to pick an appropriate strength training program to meet that goal
• Can follow a training program, understand how it works, and know the basic design principles behind it
• Know when and how to add or remove weight on the bar. You don’t need me or anyone else to determine what’s right for you at any moment
• Can break through psychological barriers that prevent you from being self-sufficient.

Who this is for?

Beginners, Novices, and Intermediate level strength athletes who just need a little push (i.e., are hitting a plateau and completely stuck)

There are tons of opinions and methods for defining levels which aren’t worth the trouble of describing here, so i’ll give a quick and dirty sizing chart. It’s easiest to measure your level by comparing your 1 rep max for each lift against (bodyweight) * (lift ratio).

Why do I do this?

Solving a meaningful problem

Getting older sucks largely because your body degrades and grows frail. I’d bet that most people would be fine getting older if their body stayed young.

A condition which affects every human on planet earth is Sarcopenia. This is the gradual loss of muscle mass, strength, and function over time. Your muscle cells and fibers will eventually grow smaller and less numerous. This leads to increased risk of serious injury, hospitalization, doing daily activities, and really just enjoying your life.

We can’t stop this entirely, but can fight it effectively with strength training. The problem is that most Americans don’t have the tools to get started, but a small push in the right direction can lead to a lifetime of benefit.

Passing on the love of gamification

I love the feeling of being better than I was yesterday. You can easily quantify and gamify your progress with a simple number like a 1 rep max (can even use estimated 1 rep maxes), and it’s entirely possible to do this well into your 70’s. Passing the bug on to someone new is energizing beyond words.

Sharing simplicity

Strength training is surprisingly straightforward, but it’s easy to get stuck or never start at all because there’s so much information out there. I wasted at least a decade overcomplicating my own training because I never took the time to define the right goal. However, once I got a coach to help me do this and understand how to pick the right program for me, I was able to hit lifetime goals I never thought possible. I was even able to share this guidance with my parents, who are now lifelong lifters themselves. If my 65 year old dad can do it, I’m confident you can too.

Why me?

I have made (enough) progress myself

I feel awkward tooting my own horn, but kind of need to in order to prove that I know at least some of what I’m talking about. I’m not

I get the fear of being injured

I’ve had what felt like very limiting injures throughout my life. To my own surprise, I’ve overcome them and continue to hit PRs. I am not an exception, and neither are you. Injuries are normal and will happen.

Some examples below.

• At 25 I herniated my C5/C6 discs in my lower back, requiring a full year of PT and preventing me from any barbell squats. To make matters worse, it was only with 225lbs and I had a barbell pad as well. My doctor recommended I don’t squat more than 135lbs for the rest of my life. 4 years later I was comfortable squatting 405lbs.
• At 31 I had a partial rotator cuff tear from overuse (lifting, skiing, boxing). This required 6 months of PT with little to no benching movements. I took another 3 months of self-rehab to get back to a point where I could bench normally, and was able to get back to 285lbs+ within a year.

I’ve wasted time with overcomplicated programs so you don’t have to

I started going to the gym at 15 but never really knew what I was doing. As a prototypical college gym bro I followed programs on bodybuilding.com and youtube, but was never the strongest person in the gym. It wasn’t until I began a true powerlifting program at 27 that I began seeing meaningful progress and significant reduction in injury rate.

How do you coach? What do you provide (specifically)?

I prefer to be very hands on in early stages and gradually back off. I anticipate the most questions, form checks, troubleshooting, etc.. will occur in months 1-2. If all goes well, we won’t have much to discuss in weekly check ins and can even defer them altogether. I call it a win if you determine that you have enough momentum and proficiency to take training entirely into your own hands and begin exploring other training template providers/apps.

What we will be doing

1. Goal definition
1. Document challenges, preferences, and motivations
2. Set benchmarks and success criteria
2. Monthly training template
1. Explain how it works and why it’s designed this way
2. Help substitute movements/variations & adapt template based on available equipment and pre-existing injuries
3. Weekly check in (30min)
1. Revisit goals
2. How you did last week, what you plan to do this week
3. Troubleshooting, Q&A, detailed form check
4. Guidance on how to graduate to self-directed training
4. Form checks (on demand)
1. Send videos for immediate feedback

Resources

I have personally used barbell medicine (BBM) for coaching for years. If you just need templates, they do a great job with this. Juggernaut AI and Base Strength AI are both apps you can also leverage if it’s easier. I suggest buying templates from BBM and re-running them until you hit a plateau.

https://www.barbellmedicine.com/

https://www.juggernautai.app/

https://www.basestrength.com/

How do I get started?

1. Fill out this form if you want to get started soon: https://forms.gle/i7KCk1RvEJSLbaPH7, OR
2. Send me a note at rsharma3989@gmail if you have questions!