Austin Current - Online Personal Trainer

Hey, what's up — I'm Coach Austin. I'm the founder and coach here at Science of Strength Training®️ (@scienceofstrengthtraining ). [<< swipe through the slides to learn more about me and what I offer] I'm best known for my book, Science of Strength Training. It's a best-selling visual encyclopedia about the science behind strength training, written for the everyday gym-goer and translated into 10+ languages. Aside from writing, I'm a coach and personal trainer. That's been my day job since 2013. I train people in person locally in Longmont, Colorado, and online through my 1:1 VIP coaching program and training app (The Lifting Hub). Everyone has a gift for explaining how parts of this world work to others. My gift is teaching others how to take care of their physical self through exercise. I've spent my adult life learning everything I can about using physical activity, nutrition, and strength training to impact the body. And I've been fortunate enough to help people of all skill levels from all over the world improve their health and well-being through movement and fundamental nutritional principles. One thing to know about me is that I lead with education, not belittlement. The fitness industry has become so focused on being right that it has lost sight of being helpful to the 99% of people who need it most. I'm here to help change that. I'm here to help you break through the barriers of entry, help you build confidence in the gym, improve your health, and build a life and body you're proud of. No gimmicks. No BS. My mission is to be your trusted source for all things strength training. My page is a level-headed, no-nonsense place to learn, lift, and evolve your knowledge. Want to work with me 1:1 to improve your lifts, gain muscle and strength, and transform your overall health and body composition? Well, I'd love to chat with you more about it. There's an application linked in my profile or you can visit my website, scienceofstrengthtraining.com (this is also where you can see the pricing for my 1:1 coaching and training app). Have a question? Never hesitate to ask. I'm here to help you. Chat soon, Coach Austin #strengthtraining #fitness

After 12 years of coaching, I’ve realized most people don’t need more motivation. They need clarity. Every client you see here started in a similar place — capable, motivated…just stuck. Not because they weren’t working hard, but because they didn’t have a clear path forward. They didn’t know where to go next, and why. This is how it works: 👉 We chat. 👉 We build an approach around your goals and schedule. 👉 We review, adjust, and learn each week — calmly and objectively. The goal isn’t just a better physique. It’s confidence in the gym. Ownership over your health. And results you can actually maintain. The goal isn’t to become obsessed with fitness. It’s to feel strong, capable, and in control of your health again — and learn how to keep it that way. If you’re interested, swipe through the slides to learn more about how it all works. If you’re ready for clarity and real accountability, comment or DM “INFO” and I will send you more details about how to start working together 1-on-1. Looking forward to hearing from you. Chat soon, Coach Austin

Comment the word “calorie1” below, and I can help you calculate how many calories and grams of protein you should generally aim for based on your current goals (lose, maintain, or build). Better yet, it’s all calculated right in our DM conversation — no need to even leave the app. Body composition = the relative ratio of stored body fat to muscle tissue on your body. Body (re)composition (aka, body recomp) = simultaneously gaining muscle tissue while losing stored body fat. A higher amount of body fat and a lower amount of muscle tissue = less favorable body composition. A higher amount of muscle tissue and a lower amount of body fat = a more favorable body composition. Beyond the aesthetic changes this recomposition will cause, a more favorable body composition is associated with improved health outcomes, including better metabolic health and a lower risk of all-cause mortality. When a client comes to me with the goal of “weight loss”, this is when I introduce them to the concept of body recomposition. Because the true goal shouldn’t be to “weigh less”, it should be to improve the ratio of how much muscle versus body fat you have on your frame, improving your overall health in the process. Now, if you’re reading this and haven’t swiped through the post yet, please take the time to do that now. All the info is in there for you to learn more about this process. If it seems too complicated, you’re likely overthinking it. Keep it simple. Start somewhere. Last, take a deep breath. You’ve got this. Questions? Love it. Ask them in the comments. We’ll chat there. Or, if it’s more in-depth or personal, feel free to send me a direct message. Chat soon, Coach Austin #bodycomposition #health #fitness

The back squat is no joke. It’s often quoted as the “king of exercises,” where it typically shares the crown with others like the deadlift and bench press, and for good reason. The back squat is an exercise with many upsides, including the ability to train numerous major muscle groups simultaneously (namely the quads and glutes) — i.e., time efficiency during your session. It also allows plenty of room for progression over time and allows the trainee to alter their rep range, set number, and rep tempo to best accommodate their more specific goals (all keys to choosing good exercises). All that being said, the back squat is an exercise that takes practice to master. But good news for you, unless you aim to be a powerlifting champion, mastery is overkill, at least in the short term. For clients, I have them send me videos of their sets. This ensures that their form is the best it can be for them to achieve the goals they’re after. From their videos, I send back a screenshare recording of me giving immediate feedback on things they could think about heading into the next session to help improve their form. If the back squat is something we aspire to achieve in future programs, I assign variations of the squat movement to help us build strength in the movement pattern as we start practicing the skill slowly, such as goblet squats, leg press, hack squat, split squats, etc. Are back squats neccessary for lower body development? Of course not, but they’re certainly one of the most potent tools we have at our disposal if you have the skills to perform it with intensity and volume. If you’re not quite ready for the back squat yet, that’s ok — keep practicing. If you need help getting your strength levels to a point where you can back squat or perform a variation, don’t hesitate to reach out. I do this type of work with my clients every week. Questions? Drop them in the comments. I’d love to talk through it with you. Chat soon, Coach Austin PS: If back squats feel like complete garbage for you, you don’t have to do them. There are no required exercises. #strengthtraining #backsquats #exercisetips #backsquat

Creatine has undoubtedly experienced a bit of a renaissance in recent years. What began as the most well-studied performance supplement is now expanding into conversations around cognitive function, muscle and bone preservation, and possibly even growth and development during key life stages. The take-home message? It’s not magic, but it does seem useful across more varied contexts than we once thought. It’s also worth noting that creatine isn’t some exotic supplement-industry invention. It naturally exists in foods, breast milk, and even most infant formulas. In other words, many of us have been consuming creatine in small amounts for most of our lives. As it stands today, the biggest safety consideration appears to be supplement sourcing rather than the molecule itself. That said, we still need more dosing data for women across life stages, as well as for children and adolescents. The early evidence is promising, but we’re not done learning yet (and we never will be).

Part 6 of our women’s muscle + ACSM guidelines breakdown is here and this one covers the training quality most programs skip entirely… 💥Power. Not strength, or muscle size. But muscle POWER. Force times velocity baby!!! How fast you can move your body or a load. And it’s actually the quality that declines the fastest with age and predicts your functional independence better than muscle mass or strength alone. But I don’t say this to be scary — while power takes some easing into to do— you can train it “almost anywhere”, which makes it accessible! This carousel breaks down exactly what power training actually is and how to start doing it. What loads and rep ranges actually build power versus just strength, why the INTENT to move fast matters even when the bar is moving slowly, how to add plyometrics at any level even if jumping feels intimidating, the bone health bonus you get from impact work, the most common mistakes people make (going too heavy is the big one), and practical ways to fit power work into what you are already doing without adding an entirely new day. The non-negotiables for power: LIGHT load in the 30 to 70% 1RM range, move the concentric phase as FAST as possible, keep volume low (under 24 total reps per session), rest 2 to 3 minutes between sets, and do it first in your session before fatigue sets in. (Yes, we build this in @thelyssmethod our clients know!!✨💥) Power is not just for athletes. It is for every woman and person who wants to catch herself before she falls, get up from a chair without thinking about it, and stay physically independent for as long as possible. That is your physical retirement account. Start where you are and scale it back if you need to. But start! And checkout our past 5 posts on exactly why and how — @doclyssfitness has the first 2, we both have the 3-6 ones on our feed. Save this one and go back to read Parts 1 to 5 on @doclyssfitness and @austincurrent_ 💖 Full paper: Currier et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2026.

If your argument starts and ends with “kids shouldn’t lift heavy,” you’re skipping the part that actually matters: Coaching, progression, and graded exposure 😉

💬 Comment “RPE GUIDE” for the free lifting guide Part 5 of our women’s muscle + ACSM guidelines breakdown is here and this one might be the most important thing we’ve posted in a while. Because the headline finding for muscle building is this: it’s wayyyyyy more flexible than the fitness industry has led you to believe. 6-8 reps? 12-15 reps? 25-30 reps? If you’re working hard enough and doing enough of it, it works. This carousel breaks down exactly what “hard enough” and “enough of it” actually means in practice. What volume you need per muscle group per week, what rep ranges are supported, how to choose exercises that actually build muscle, how to know if you’re training with enough effort using RPE and RIR, the progressive overload tools you have available, and the mistakes that keep people spinning their wheels without actually growing. The two non-negotiables for hypertrophy are volume and effort. Everything else including load, exercise selection, rep tempo, free weights vs machines is way more flexible than you’ve been often been told. That’s not an excuse to train lazily. It’s permission to build a program that you’ll actually stick to!!!! Many roads lead to Rome! ✨ Training age matters more than biological age or sex. YES this applies to women. What changes is your starting point, your goals, and your preferences. The principles don’t change! See parts 1-3 on @doclyssfitness 💖 Save this one. Part 6 covers power training, the quality most programs skip entirely and the one that matters most for long term function and independence. 💥Full paper: Currier et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2026.

💬 Comment “RPE GUIDE” for the free lifting guide The 2026 ACSM Position Stand on resistance training just dropped and it’s the most comprehensive strength guidelines ever published, based on 137 systematic reviews and over 30,000 participants. First major update in >15 years!! And honestly the headline finding is something we’ve been saying for a long time. The best program is the one you actually do consistently. Train your major muscle groups at least twice a week, lift heavy enough to challenge yourself, stop a couple reps before failure, and add weight over time. That’s it the secret sauce!! This carousel breaks down exactly what that looks like in practice for STRENGTH! And what loads to use, what rep ranges work, how to know if you’re working hard enough, and the mistakes that keep people stuck lifting the same weight for years. Strength is a skill. It requires specific, consistent practice at heavier loads over time. And the research is very clear that this applies to everyone, regardless of age or sex. (See parts 1-3 for more women specific context). Save this one. Parts 5 and 6 are coming covering hypertrophy and power training. 💥 Full paper: Currier et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2026.

Part 3 is here and this one is a collab with my friend @austincurrent_ 🙌 If you missed Parts 1 and 2, go back and read those first. We unpacked what actually happens to muscle during and after menopause, and why the relationship is way more complicated than “estrogen drops, muscle disappears, quality is gone forever.” Part 3 answers the question everyone actually wants answered: how should you be training for muscle, strength, power, and bone? Is there a difference? Spoiler: the answer is more useful than either extreme “only one way to train” you’re possibly seeing on your feed right now. We believe you’re smart enough for nuance 🤓! A few things we cover here: - The science does NOT support one single way to train at any age or life stage. What matters more than your biological age or sex? Your training age, your starting point, and your goals. - Both high and low loads build muscle and support bones. The key is intensity. How close to failure you train matters more than the number on the bar. - Power in important! But needs its own specific focus and most programs or messages skip it entirely, or group it in just with “heavy lifting”. But lifting of any kind >> - Only ~20% of adults meet resistance training guidelines. Women possibly even less so. Telling people there’s one right way to train makes that problem worse, not better. Austin brings the coaching expertise and I bring the research nerd energy and together we think this is one of the most practical posts we’ve put out. Save this one and please share this info around! 💖 Part 4+ we’ll get into how to actually structure your training to build all four qualities. Follow so you don’t miss it and drop below what you want us to cover 👇

Starting kids on resistance training early can help develop overall physical literacy, strength, bone mineral density, improved cardiovascular health, and higher levels of confidence and self-efficacy as they get older, leading to better health-promoting habits as they age. And for young girls specifically? It’s going to help them build a stronger reserve, which will set the stage for them to grow into healthier, more confident, and physically capable women with a lower risk of sarcopenia, dynapenia, and osteoporosis as they age. If you’ve got kids, this is one of the most important things you can teach them. And in honor of International Women’s Day, follow @loadwomen to support other women in entering lifting and strength sports. It’s a movement started by @claire_barbellmedicine , joined by @doclyssfitness and @tatumbrandt , on a mission to help more women experience the power of strength training. Big shout to @lucy.milgrim for hitting a personal best with her recent deadlift attempt at the 2026 @arnoldsports festival. The disclaimer: Lucy is a very skilled lifter who has received coaching to reach this level and is also a high-level wrestler. If your kid is interested in lifting, start them slowly with bodyweight and progress them appropriately as they demonstrate greater competency and readiness. If you have the means, I would encourage you to get them in for a few sessions with a personal trainer or strength coach to ensure their lifts are performed with good technique and to understand how to progress their lifts as they continue to progress appropriately. Best, Coach Austin #strengthtraining #strengthandconditioning #internationalwomensday #arnoldsportsfestival #arnold

To me, good coaching has less to do with where it happens and more to do with how well you do it. The statement: “Online coaches should be required to train clients in-person first.” I know it comes with the best intentions, but is this just unnecessary gate-keeping? We like for people to have to work as hard as we did to get to where we are. I get it. But is this blanket statement fair to make on behalf of an entire industry? I’ve trained and mentored coaches over the years who started online (due to life circumstances and a lack of time flexibility) and are changing the lives of the people they work with. They’re brilliant, qualified coaches. Some people are more naturally gifted teachers and communicators. Some are more social and extroverted, while others are more reserved and introverted. Some have kids and can’t keep the odd hours of an in-person personal trainer, especially during the grueling years of building a book of clients. Are there unqualified trainers out there preying on the insecurities of others and using their sex appeal and influence to fill their pockets? 100%. Does the personal trainer industry need to evolve and create tighter regulations? Yes, it does. And it’s done so progressively since the profession’s inception. Things take time. As always, two things can be true. But in my opinion, that doesn’t disqualify the educated, well-intentioned trainer trying to help people who really do need their help just because they haven’t spent time with clients on a gym floor. But what do y’all think? I’m genuinely curious. I would love to hear from you in the comments. Looking back, what experiences shaped you the most early in your coaching career? Did you start coaching in person or online? Looking forward to the conversations. 🤝 Chat soon, Coach Austin #personaltrainer #onlinecoach #onlinecoaching #fitness #strengthcoach