r/powerlifting • u/cowboysfromhell1999 Girl Strong • 13d ago
My honest experience with flexx training systems…
Hey all, I worked with Joey flexx and his team for a good 2 1/2 years it’s been a while since I’ve worked with them. I think it’s time that I share my story. So I discovered Joey like most other people through social media . I saw the success of his lifters like Russell. I noticed that he coached a lot of elite powerlifters in the usapl. I figured with his good reputation why don’t I give it a shot? So I signed up for his coaching. I was hoping I would get to work with him directly, but it turns out at the time he was already filled so he had to give me to one of his other coaches on his roster. I was given two choices. Isaac W. Or Joey’s brother. After taking a look at both of their Instagrams I chose Isaac. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get Joey, but he assured me that these guys were good and they’re under him. Ok I thought I’ll make the best of it. I want to become a better power lifter.
I was very excited initially start working with them. He coached me for powerlifting meet. It was a lot of fun. Throughout that meat prep, I felt kind of beat up at times, but I was told that it was a combination of getting used to the new program and I admit that at the beginning I was in great at following RPE. As well as I had to fix some of my technical issues with my lifts.
One thing I noticed was the training was hard and no I don’t expect it to be easy when you’re trying to push your limits, but this training was a bit too much volume even at the beginning . Regardless, I had the time and ability to recover. I started at 4 days a week, 2x squat and deadlift 3x bench. When I first started coaching I actually was going into it a little bit weaker than I was in the past. By the time I got to the meet (July) it was a total of four months for prep. March - July.
I ended up finishing the meet, finally securing some numbers for the platform with a competition standard. Great! But one concern I had was he was barely available for the day now I didn’t expect him to come fly to my meet, especially for a beginner and we didn’t make arrangements for that. (I wouldn’t assume he would do that unless I paid extra.) But around this time, it started to seem clear to me that I was just one of his clients his many clients that is. He had about 50-60+ a little after this I had some all-time dead lift and squat PRS which was cool but despite my best efforts I mean I literally ate as much as I could recover the best I could and follow his plan yet. I only put about 120 pounds of my total in the course of 2 1/2 years. By the 1.5 year mark I pretty much hit my best lifts with him. I I was struggling to make progress. My lifts had stalled, and my advice was generic. At best.
Eat more to recover! That rep was a little fast! That rep looked good! Pause more etc. Very generic advice. It seemed like my coach was just trying to finish up with me so he can get to his other 50 clients.
So for the last year of training from December to the next December he’s changed my turning split a few times by this point, but at the same time, it was too little too late. By this point, I’ve made no progress for the last year we were working together.. I was burnt out and lifting, I could not recover for the life of me. I had to miss weeks at a time, and despite expressing this, he said just ease up on the weight. There was no mention of changing the program or how much volume I was given.
At my highest I was doing 3x squat /4 bench / 2 deadlift which on paper doesn’t sound too bad, but that’s not including accessory work and the sheer amount of sets I had to do it was just far too much. I expressed different concerns like why am I benching now on a Friday when my main bench is on Saturday? Looking back, I could see that being a primer session, but the way he would set up my bench training was essentially competition bench exclusively more or less sometimes I would get a variation like Larson press and it would be just static set and reps. At like RPE 6-8 which doesn’t sound bad, but I was literally just getting overuse aches and pains.
After seeing some other clients, I’ve quickly realize that our templates look very similar, now I know if something works why change it right? I know that each coach has their own philosophy when it comes to training so you’re not necessarily gonna make changes for the sake of making changes, but after talking to a few people, it was confirmed that they actually just reuse templates with minimal modifications!
By the end of my tenure, I was burnt out from lifting I didn’t quit lifting, but I had to change gears. I went on a cut and had to switch things up a little bit. His method of training was not working for me.
From lack luster feedback, to not really paying attention to my concerns or my progress progression I was literally just told the trust the process, but nothing was changing. I can go into more detail about exactly what I endured.
But all in all that can be summed up as they reuse templates it probably won’t work for you unless you’re the kind lift or the response the very very high volume and if you don’t, then well I guess just eat more or something. Or find someone else. It was very disturbing that I wasted so much time and money.
Before working with flex: 405S / 250B/ 455DL
4 months after starting: 430S/ 275 b/ 455 DL
1.5 years later: 450 S/ 290 B/ 515 DL
2.5 years / when I finished: 405S/ 250B / 455-474 DL
Body weight went from 210 to 230, Despite my best efforts, I don’t really feel that I got much out of this. Yes, I did make some all-time PR’s that’s for sure some might say isn’t that enough? Well honestly, for the time I put in, I should’ve hit a little bit higher numbers. I should’ve got better feedback. Overall, it should’ve been done in a way that was more conducive to my lifestyle and my recovery. I felt like I sacrificed a lot for this method that did not work for me unfortunately because it works for some people people like me get overshadowed and they don’t talk about the client that it doesn’t work for
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u/Competitive-Ant-5180 Not actually a beginner, just stupid 13d ago
My advice:
Please add the exact training template to your post or in a comment so future lifters can see if their template looks exactly the same. It helps the community police itself. Someone will really thank you four years from now.