testimonials

-Sean W.

“I’ve been training with Will as my coach since around December of 2022. Before that, I had been doing my own thing in the gym, no programming or specific goals in mind other than to get big. I didn’t track my progress, didn’t track my macros or nutrition, and found myself stagnant. I found myself spending months going to the gym doing the exact same thing, and never getting any stronger. In the months leading up to taking on Will as my coach, my gym sessions would get progressively worse. I just couldn’t understand why I dedicated so much time and energy to going to the gym only to get seemingly weaker each week. I thought I had some idea of what was going on, but it turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Starting a program with a coach was tough. The hardest part wasn’t the weight, it was the ego. Its really difficult to be told you’re working weight for bench is maybe 60-70% of what you’re used to lifting. It can be frustrating to feel like you’re performing nearly the perfect rep, only for your form to be picked apart and told you’re not moving optimally. Its even harder to make the changes your coach gives you, performing the exact same exercise in a manner that you aren’t used to. For example, your coach fixes your squat, and now that “fix” makes 135 move like shit. “This isn’t working” you’ll think to yourself, “I feel weaker now than when I started.” The first couple months are the hardest. Out of every top single, RPE 9, 3x1, repetition I’ve performed, the hardest ones were those first few weeks of coaching. 

At almost a year of coaching, I can say with 100% certainty that all those shitty reps, all that frustration, and all those hits to my pride were worth it. I have back problems from my time in the Army. Before coaching with will, I couldn’t squat more than 225 without a belt on, and even then I’d still have back pain. My old max squat was an ugly 275. Today, I can squat that for reps without a belt and with no pain because of the time and effort Will put into correcting my form and holding me accountable. All of my “big 3” max lifts prior to coaching have become working weights. When I started coaching with will, I weighed about 195 pounds; these days, I average around 207. Tracking my macros (and having a coach always in my ear asking if I hit my protein goal) has tremendously helped my lifts. When I competed in my first powerlifting meet, my squat max was a 72 pound increase to my pre-coaching max, less than a year prior. While much of that can be attributed to nutrition, I attribute most of that to Will helping me find a squat form that helped me move weight as optimally as possible. Over the last year, I’ve smashed all of my previous maxes. I’ve lifted weights to competition standard on stage that, without coaching, would likely have never even been gym PR’s. I’m glad I stuck through those first few months. It was a lot of work, but I trusted the process and stuck to the guidance that Will gave me, and I’m stronger now than I ever thought would be possible. Plain and simple, the process WORKS. I don’t have the words to adequately explain how much I recommend Will Ernster as a coach. My strength and confidence in the gym are miles ahead of where they were before I started coaching. Plus, the dude’s built like a brick shit-house so you know he knows what he’s talking about. I can’t wait to see where we go from here, and where I’ll be with my lifts a year from now. Even if someday I decide to take a break from being coached, I will always have the knowledge and experience I’ve gained, and continue to gain, for as long as I continue to lift.”