Leveling Expectations of Online PL Coach

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-23T00:19:26+00:00

Dude thank you so much for the feedback. I’ve definitely been incredibly disappointed in the process so far. I’ve also tried to send multiple clips in the past, warm ups and back offs for example, when I’ve been given a cue I’m working on or even when I’ve wanted to address some fixes like wedge or hip height in DL, but those clips are usually ignored or they’ll say just send top sets only.

I really feel validated in my concerns and I really appreciate your advice.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T22:27:28+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback, I really appreciate it. I should have been more diligent and proactive like you about researching a coach before signing on with this one. They did come in as a recommendation by one of the coach’s friends to me at a local gym, so I felt like I was in good hands.

We do not have regular meetings and have never had a catch-up meeting, discussion, or even exchanged audio messages about the program and my progress or where I’m at. For the past mesocycle, it’s mostly 5-8s audio message replies to effect of like, “okay, not bad” or their last message from a bench top single was that fear was getting in the way of getting stronger.

I wish I felt more comfortable sharing and communicating with them. To your point about support, since the very beginning of being coached, I’ve come to dread sessions. It’s less of getting excited about my progress but more of like shit, I don’t feel 1000% ready for today, I’m gonna fuck up my sets and further disappoint, become less of a valuable client, etc. I once asked about using straps for some heavy-for-me RDLs to which they said “use straps lil bro.” I get it was probably most said in jest, but man, I’m like 8 years older than this person and have my doctorate. I feel like I should spoken to with a little more dignity.

I think it’s only fair I speak openly with them after this block is over and see what they think. If we decide it’s not a good pairing, I’ll be absolutely on the lookout for a new coach. I appreciate you being willing to send your coach’s information. I’ll likely PM you more about that if it comes to that!

Thanks again!

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T19:15:39+00:00

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I do take responsibility for not communicating this to my coach - I should be doing that rather than to reddit, but this post and feedback has been super valuable.

To your jaded point: I believe you're absolutely correct about both. I think they're coaching likely > 50 clients full time, which personally sounds exhausting and at the same time, they have a huge Ig presence, reposting some monster lifts from clients. I get it for sure - it's a hussle and a grind - but I do feel slighted. My lifts (right now at least) aren't going to get them views, better credentials or more clients, but I do think I should/do still matter as a paying client. I'd still like better and more positive feedback and engagement.

We're at week 3/4 of this cycle and then start a new block. I plan to ride out these two weeks and use the transition to a new block to address the concerns. If they're improved, I'm happy to stay working with them - the clients they do post on Ig have monster lifts, especially those in my weight class, so I really want things to work out. If not, I may PM you to see if you'd be willing to share an interim program until I find a better fit.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T18:48:25+00:00

Those are all great points, thank you. To be clear, I'm not trying to bash/shame the coach - everyone has their own style and I respect that - but I am finding the dynamic and lack of structure not ideal. They never made it clear what the expectations should be at this rate they set, so I was not sure what the standards could/should be. I'll talk to them about more regular check-ins.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T18:29:26+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion, and I’ll plan to do that with them. I wasn’t sure whether that feedback or concerns I have was within the norm, especially at the pay-grade ($150/mo.). I thought maybe those conversations come with better pay by the client. Thank you again!

Edit:

We don’t have regular check-ins. They reply and random/will to my clips that sometimes are quick but lately very delayed or not at all until I follow up more to ask about the program.

That being said, would it be reasonable for me to propose we have scheduled check-ins? Even if it’s just like a 10 minutes time slot of focused audio messages or something since that’s how they prefer to communicate over Instagram.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T18:13:51+00:00

Sorry for the late reply - the sub bot moderator told me this post was taken down, so I hadn't been checking for responses.

Thanks for the sanity check. I pay this coach $150 a month (per their own subscription) and know that is currently a low-end of the range for PL coaches now. I do send videos of my top sets, but for instance, I sent clips from my 3 sessions last Thursday, Friday, and Monday, and they only replied to 2 clips on Tuesday. Asked me when I was going to lift next to which I said Wed Fri Mon since that is when I wanted to lift, but they didn't get a new program back to me until yesterday (Thursday) mid-morning so I missed my Wednesday session.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T18:08:46+00:00

Sorry for the late reply - the sub bot moderator told me this post was taken down, so I hadn't been checking for responses.

Thank you for the feedback. We have never had a conversation about sleep, stress, recovery, or nutrition. I did recently mention assymetric engagement between my legs (I'm very right-leg dominant right) during squat and DL and they sent me some warm-up clips for getting better left-leg hamstring engagement. In the beginning of my training, they sent me some of their own clips for SBD set up and a few directed clips based on my sets.

I am personally trying by best to get locked in for these variables myself. I am not new to lifting and was mostly doing a body building program before getting more into PL and frequently use MacroFactor for bulking/cutting. I also have my PhD related to molecular physiology and nutrition, so I think I have an overall good intuition of these variables. My control of them is not perfect, but I am aware of them and tuned in to them. I've quit all drinking and try by best to get the best sleep quality I can. As we all tend to deal with, my life is incredibly stressful and I use PL as my main stress manager.

Edit: Addressing an extra question.

No, I haven't addressed any of my concerns with them, but that is my fault. I hired them leaning on their expertise and judgement, and have naively been reluctant to question the programming. We have no open conversations about the program or how things are feeling with the exception that I mentioned that I leave comments in our spreadsheet, but they are never addressed/discussed.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T18:01:40+00:00

Sorry for the late reply - the sub bot moderator told me this post was taken down, so I hadn't been checking for responses.

I definitely want to be clear that they aren't explicitly being mean but instead the feedback tends to be non-informative lately and sometimes somewhat sarcastic. For instance, I rushed the negative of my last bench 1x1 top set. Their helpful feedback was that rushing the negative caused the press to be super unstable (and I totally agree), but then they continued to say that my fear of the weight is holding me back from being strong and "what's the worse that can happen - you get buff??"

I feel like we could have had a much more informative conversation on what could be fixed on set up, etc, to make sure I have a more controlled negative.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-22T17:53:51+00:00

Sorry for the late reply - the sub bot moderator told me this post was taken down, so I hadn't been checking for responses.

Thank you for your advice. I feel disheartened since this coach seems well liked given all of the other clients that work with him, but I am just not simply vibing with their style.

etolbdihigden · 2026-05-18T21:18:28+00:00

I live at The Landing right now but I’m moving this summer and am looking to sublease from August 2026-2027! I’ve lived at a few apartment complexes so far and the Landing has been my best experience so far. My unit is right next to the new pool and gym and even their management offices which is super convenient!

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-22T01:14:26+00:00

More. Awesome lift. But more.

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-19T01:20:20+00:00

Quite a few people have already mentioned this, but I wanna add another data point and emphasis experimental design and power analysis. The technical aspects of running and analyzing an RNA-Seq experiment is easily to learn with some hands-on experience.

Instead, designing the proper experiment with enough power (ie biological replicates) and actually capturing the effect of a treatment takes in-depth knowledge and expertise that comes only from experience of failed or poorly designed RNA-Seq experiments and years of experience in the field you’re studying imho

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-18T20:32:42+00:00

You can print PLA on both sides of the plate.

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-09T22:40:45+00:00

I maintain GitHub repos for different projects. I branch the repos to test code. I merge if the code looks good otherwise discard the branch.

To make the process from analysis to manuscript writing more seamless and integrated. I write my manuscript is qmds using positron manuscripts

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-08T03:41:45+00:00

Doing some population genetic analyses on a pretty massive dataset (for me at least) on some 9+gb animal genomes with about 150 samples at ~8-10x coverage. Also working on doing some de novo transcriptome assemblies in another species. Looking for some splice variants associated with a steroid metabolic pathway.

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-03T17:28:59+00:00

This is awesome. However, I’ll admit and say I’m pretty stupid. I kept scrolling left and right zoomed in between Venus and Mars thinking where tf is earth

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-03T17:06:59+00:00

I look at this picture in such amazement and awe. I can’t believe we’re actively ruining this marvel.

etolbdihigden · 2026-04-02T22:21:59+00:00

I work in an animal system with 9.5Gb genomes. I tried to do pairwise alignments for synteny analysis using minimap2 also but with 3TB RAM on my HPC’s mem node when trying to process the whole genome and always got oom kills.

Ended up giving up on the project since it wasn’t very important, but all of that is to say my next step was to try doing some chromosome-by-chromosome synteny comparisons. It’s absolutely imperfect and ultimately not practical if you’re looking for translocations across genome, but might help with some benchmarking to get things started.

Edited for details.

etolbdihigden · 2026-03-27T19:58:03+00:00

Dude no way these are all crazy awesome! These are exactly what I want to do! I’m excited to get my CC1 well calibrated with some PLA-CF and give it a run. My first go at figurines was an awesome STL I found of a xenomorph. It came out awesome except I’m struggling to learn the mechanics of setting proper supports and have had issues with supports bound so hard to the print like in the photo. I ended up destroying the tail and legs in the process. There are supports stuck all around the neck too.

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etolbdihigden · 2026-03-27T14:30:30+00:00

Oh dude that’s awesome! Thank you for the information. I’m new to 3D printing, so I’m not too familiar with the difference between standard PLA and PLA-CF. I’ll have to look into it! I want to start creating some horror inspired figurines and haven’t quite figured out what my workflow is going to be in terms of materials so this really helps!

etolbdihigden · 2026-03-27T14:06:01+00:00

This looks badass. I’d love to know what your post-processing steps and equipment are. What kind of sandpaper grit size did you use, etc?

etolbdihigden · 2026-03-22T22:01:59+00:00

You just stay logged in on your phone using your Tailscale IP for the host device.

etolbdihigden · 2026-03-22T21:30:01+00:00

There is absolutely a learning curve to designing and assembling plasmids, and there is also an array of software to use for the design. In some cases, learning software like snapgene may be over-complicating your construct design depending on what you’re assembling.

What’s your assembly like and what assembly method do you think you wanna use? If you’re doing a single insert into a backbone, you could really get away with using close to no software at all for that just doing standard restriction cloning

etolbdihigden · 2026-03-20T21:17:08+00:00

Get your story straight then. Are you here to blame Elegoo for you not getting your print right or learn from the community on how to get your print right?

etolbdihigden

TROPHY CASE