12 Weeks with Josh Bryant

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

A while back I was scanning the forums for advice on paying the money to hire an online coach. I live in the U.K and good coaches are hard to come by where I live, plus I spend my week divided between two parts of the country, so having a coach in a fixed place does’t always work.

I decided to bite the bullet and hire one, recommended by EliteFTS and one that I’d read and heard a fair bit about. Twelve weeks later I think it was the best decision I had ever made training wise.

A little background - trained at a Crossfit gym for about a year, prior to joining military. Went through training and took a good year off hitting any sort of strength work. Finished training and spent a few months on ship, doing what I could trying to get my lifts and technique to an acceptable level.

I opted to train with Josh for 12 weeks and focus solely on powerlifting with him. I still had to keep my conditioning and running to a good enough standard to coincide with work so that presented a few problems when the weight got heavier.

Lifts in Kg. Weight: fluctuates around 82-85kg depending on how much running they have us do at work.

Start of the program:
Squat: 165-170 (hit 170 once then missed 3 consecutive attempts, in 3 weeks)
Bench: 115-120 (again, 120 was hit and miss but I’d had it twice)
Deadlift: 205 (I failed a 210 attempt a few inches from lock out)

End of the program:
Squat: 175 (confident and to depth on every time)
Bench: 140 (albeit a grinder)
Deadlift: 235 (a bit of shaking at the top of the lift but overall, not too bad)

I also ran a 6 mile race at 39:30 at the end of the program so I’d say my running has not suffered.

Josh has been prompt at responding to any footage, emails or queries and always gives constructive advice. The programming was hard work, but I was able to hit the weights HE prescribed on every workout bar 1 or 2 (when I had been ran ragged at work). Although the progress in the squat wasn’t as rapid as the bench and deadlift, I put this down to myself being less versed in this lift.

I will absolutely be paying for another cycle from Josh when work settles down. Hiring a coach took away a lot of the guess work and stress of planning your own training. I never had to question the efficacy of what I was doing.

If anyone is sitting on the fence about hiring any professional, I say go for it. And if you’re stuck on who to hire - I think you know who my recommendation would be.

If anyone has any GENERAL questions about the cycle, I’m happy to answer - as long as it doesn’t pertain to specifics that might harm Josh’s business.

Jable.

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what was the cost for the 12 weeks?

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Can’t actually remember the exact price to be honest. I think it was around £200, but I got a fixed diet plan to follow too. I think he has since changed them, but if you’re interested it’d probably be best emailing him for an up to date price. It sounded like a lot initially, but spread out over 12 weeks, with constant weekly updates it is probably the best value out there.

4

Awesome bench improvement! What kind of shift would you attribute to the success?

Also were you doing the dead benches?I tried them for awhile but I felt like I was actually getting weaker off the chest. What do you think about them?

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Yeah there were dead benches in there for a while, I felt they were quite good for helping recruit more leg drive for me but everyone is different.

I’d say improving my technique probably played a big part in the increase. Learning to keep my wrists straight and finding the right width grip and foot placement. Other than that I’m not actually sure - it just shot up one week and then a few weeks later did so again. I found pause reps worked well for me too.

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i emailed and the price was 250 pound for 3 months obviously being 18 and going to university budget is low but i’m considering it

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^^^^ damn thats high

George Leeman charges $50-75 a month USD.

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i’m glad someone agrees

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Fair enough, it seems to be higher. The reason I went with Josh was for his experience and recommendation from EliteFTS. Plus, his training seemed to appeal to me the most, which is important when committing to a 12 week cycle - you’ve got to actually enjoy the sessions.

I’d say email around and make a decision based on what sort of training YOU want to follow and who you think can offer you the best value.

Which University do you go to? Is there no powerlifting or oly lifting club?

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yeah i agree thanks for the recommendation anyway, i will im planning on emailing tom martin see what his prices are

going in september cardiff and i dont think so from what ive seen all commercial gyms

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Josh’s programming can easily be pieced together with what is available on the net. However, the main benefit of hiring a coach for training and/or diet is not in the info they provide anyway.

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[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
Josh’s programming can easily be pieced together with what is available on the net. [/quote]

I’m curious what makes you say this? Vincent Dizenzo said that he had seen Rob Wilkerson’s training split, and even though Josh was training them both with a concentration in bench, their training was totally different.

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Just wanted to jump in here and say that I’ve had similar results with josh and have been training with him for a year now. Josh has written loads of articles so most of his methods can be found on the internet, but it’s the application of those methods that really makes it worth hiring him in my opinion!

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just wanted to chime in here. i am currently working with josh for the first time. i am 6 weeks in on a 12 week program and my bench is already up 15lbs, squat is up almost 20, and deadlift is currently at my max, but pulled much easier and quicker than ever. while all his info is available through books and websites, it is his personalized adjustments that makes the difference.

i originally tried the bj whihead routine from his metroflex book and failed miserably. i actually over trained and lost strength. now on a similar routine but with some minor tweaking i am thriving. each week i send him my work log and i rate the difficulty of each set. based on my feed back he makes adjustments. half way through i have already hit my minimum goals for this cycle. my bench previously was stuck at 330 for months. he is well worth the money!!!

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Yes, I’m training with him as well, and while I’ve read many of the programs he’s set up, I wouldn’t say they give insight to what he set me up with. for instance I used a deadlift program he published in one of the EFS Make a Wish books that relied heavily on deficits; my current program has none. I’ve read/seen bench programs that make use of isometrics; mine has none.