Massage Therapy & Wellness
in Kingston, NY

I first met Mike years ago through our local gym, and when presented with the opportunity to utilize him as a coach I jumped at the chance. I had been lifting for about 25 years and the last 5 or so in a powerlifting style. While I consumed a lot of material online to further my training and moved a respectable amount of weight, I still ended up with a constantly painful right shoulder, a squat that did not always hit depth, and a conventional deadlift I never was happy with the looks of. I knew Mike would have an ideal knowledge combination of the practical, being a competitive powerlifter himself, and the theoretical on body mechanics from his studies in sports medicine and LMT background. We began only a few weeks before my first powerlifting meet while I was on a basic 5/3/1 program, and he was able to clean up some gross issues with the big 3 in short order. He graciously offered to come to the meet as my handler and his guidance there helped me do far better than had I been alone. After the meet he tailored a program to address my weaknesses and technique flaws in the big 3 with the predominant goal being continued longevity and movement quality over outright maximal weight. In a matter of 4 months I am now benching four times per week pain free whereas before just twice a week would trigger acute shoulder pain and sleepless nights. My squat form and depth is light years better, my conventional deadlift looks much cleaner, and am working to perfect a sumo style that better fits my leverages for the deadlift. I had been resigned to never benching big nor pain free again and fixing that alone would have exceeded my expectations. Mike's weekly videos are filled with great insight, and he's always available to field my endless questions. At the end of the day I couldn't be happier with how much of a help he has been, and his coaching would be extremely valuable to anyone with an interest in strength sports, wether a novice just beginning or someone who's been at it a quarter century and made plenty of mistakes along the way.