More progress. More usable energy.

"I've been just vibing and getting a fat dom and pump for ages but weights aren't reallyyyy going up."

That was me in early 2024. I was in the gym consistently, eating well, and doing what I thought I was supposed to do. I'd already transformed my physique once, I'd lost significant weight and built a solid foundation. But somewhere along the way, my aimless "bro sessions" stopped working.

To try and fix it, I swung the pendulum completely the other way. I started training to absolute failure on almost every set, pushing harder and harder, completely frying myself. But instead of growing, I got nothing back. The progress that used to come easily had stalled entirely.

I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I just knew something wasn't working.

Once I started following his programming properly, the numbers started moving again.

Squats: From 120kg for 7 to 135kg for 4.
Military Press: From 55kg to pushing 77.5kg.
Shoulders: Started getting compliments in the gym.

But it wasn't just about the numbers. My mindset started to shift too.

I wasn't constantly anxious about my progress. I wasn't obsessing over every rep. I was just... training.

But progress is rarely a straight line. While I had those early breakthroughs where my confidence was through the roof, the reality of a three-year journey means old ghosts sometimes creep back in.

There were physical setbacks: injuries to my wrists, shoulders, forearms, and hamstrings. And when the physical progress stalled, the mental struggles returned too.

Life also got in the way. Relationship stress. Work stress. Being a dad. Running a business on the side. There were times when training felt like one more heavy expectation to manage, not something I was doing for myself.

But every time I hit one of these lows, Dariusz was there. He didn't judge me for having a bad week. Instead, he'd remind me of the data, showing me the objective progress I was making even when my brain told me otherwise. He'd adjust my program around my injuries, dial back the volume when I was stressed, and never once made me feel like I was failing.

Once we dialed in the volume and recovery, all my weights went up significantly across the board.

The numbers started speaking for themselves:

Military Press: I went from struggling with 55kg to pushing 60kg for 8 reps, and eventually hitting a massive 77.5kg.
Squats: Smashed a 135kg x 4 Barbell Squat Personal Best, and pushed my Smith Hack Squat up to 120kg for deep, quad-building reps.
Dumbbell Press: Pushing 40kg+ on shoulder press and 48kg on chest press.

But it wasn't just the strength. I had gone from a plateaued 77.7kg to sitting at a lean 85.5kg. The physical changes were so drastic that other people in the gym actively started noticing.

I went from feeling stagnant and hiding under hoodies to getting direct compliments on my shoulders.

On one upper body day, I even told Dariusz that I ended up doing extra cable volume while sharing a machine with two older guys simply because I "wanted to show off" and "looked so good". At times, the weight I was moving and the amount of people staring actually felt "weird" and "embarrassing".

The progress was so explosive that Dariusz himself had to do a double-take. After I sent over progress pictures showing my new quad separation and upper body definition, he messaged me asking:

My response?

When we stepped back and looked at the data, my bodyweight had increased by 7.8kg, from 77.7kg to 85.5kg, while I remained visibly lean in my progress photos. Dariusz admitted that progress like that is exactly what gets you "round accusations all the time".

I reported remaining natural throughout the process, even when the progress started attracting jokes and questions about it.

Three years. Most people quit coaches after a few months. I stayed because he treated me like a whole person, not just a program.

And when he saw that the real barrier wasn't my training, but my life, he built a whole new system to address it. That's not standard practice. That's coaching at a deeper level.