Online coaching
Online coaching for building muscle: a program with enough weekly work for each muscle, progression you can see in the logbook, effort you can actually judge, and a coach who reads the numbers and adjusts the plan every week.
This is one part of how coaching with me works. Wrestling is where I learned to train; cutting and bulking are where I learned the rest. Want the numbers on the bar to move too? Coaching to get stronger. There is also a page on coaching for men.
Fit
The idea
The research here is unusually clear, and most programs ignore it in favor of novelty. Coaching, for this goal, is mostly making sure the boring things happen every week.
What matters most is total weekly work: the number of hard sets you do for each muscle. A meta-analysis of the dose-response found that more weekly volume produced more muscle growth.1 The 2026 ACSM position stand says the same: hypertrophy is enhanced by higher volumes.2 So the first thing I check in a plan that isn’t working is how many real sets each muscle gets in a week. (How many sets per week.)
Your muscles need a reason to change: a little more weight, a rep more, a set more, over time. A 2022 trial found that progressing by adding reps built muscle about as well as progressing by adding load,3 so there is always a way forward, even on a day the weight won’t move. The logbook is where we see it. (Progressive overload, explained.)
Heavy or light matters less than people think: a meta-analysis of 21 studies found light and heavy loads built similar muscle when sets were taken to failure, while heavy loads were better for one-rep strength.4 What a set needs is to be hard enough, which is why we track reps in reserve, not just the number on the plate. (How hard each set should be.)
A 2016 meta-analysis found training a muscle about twice a week beat once; a 2019 update found little difference once the weekly volume is matched, so how you slice it across the days matters far less.5,6,2 So the split is built around the days you actually have, not the other way round. (How often to train.)
How coaching runs it
Built around your goal, your experience and your week, in the Trainerize app: the lifts, the sets, the reps, and the weight from last time, so every session has a target.
You weigh in twice a week and send progress photos every two weeks. For this goal the scale is the least interesting number; the logbook and the photos tell the story. (How long it takes to see it.)
We look at which lifts moved, which stalled, and what the week allowed, then change one thing: a set here, a rep range there, a swap when an exercise isn’t doing its job. Between calls you can message me with questions.
Muscle needs material. You’ll learn to use calories and protein to support your goals without overcomplicating food, the way the coaching page describes it. No forbidden foods and no extreme plans.
How soon? In one study that scanned new lifters weekly, real growth became clear around weeks three and four and kept climbing from there.7 That’s a study, not a promise about you. What I can promise is that the plan will have the four things above in it, every week.
Where it starts
Apply and tell me what you’re doing now: how many days, which lifts, roughly how many sets, and how long since a lift last went up. That tells me more than any goal statement.
If something hurts, a doctor or physical therapist comes first. I’m a fitness coach, not a doctor.
If I don’t think I can help you build muscle, I’ll say so.
Enough work. Real progression. Someone reading the numbers.
Apply for coachingNext
Tell me what you’re lifting now and how long it’s been stuck. We’ll build the plan that moves it.
Prefer to message me directly? DM TRANSFORM on Instagram @diogo.camera
Prefer a form? Fill out the full application (opens Google Forms)
No pressure to commit. Just an honest conversation about where you are and where you want to go.
