The #1 Mistake I Made as a Coach (So You Don’t Have To)

When I first started coaching, I believed more was always better. More reps. More weight. Less rest. If you weren’t crawling out of the gym, it didn’t count.

Looking back, that was the biggest mistake I made as a coach.

Because performance isn’t about grinding yourself into the ground—it’s about building consistently, moving well, and recovering fully. I wish I had understood earlier that training smarter beats training harder every single time.

And I’ll admit another mistake: nutrition. For years I thought giving clients strict, bland meal plans was the answer. Chicken, broccoli, and misery. That worked… until it didn’t. Nobody wants to live like that. I learned that food needs to be flavorful, flexible, and sustainable to actually last.

For men using GLP-1s, this lesson is even more important. Weight can come off fast, but if you don’t protect your muscle with smart training and realistic eating, you’ll end up smaller, not stronger. That’s not what you want.

The truth is, I had to fail my way into these lessons so I could coach better today. You don’t have to repeat the same mistakes.

Learn from my scars: train smart, fuel smart, and focus on building something that lasts.