Next Level Personal Training

I started of with Next Level in June of 2011. I had been to the gym but was still unsure about weightlifting, form, and nutrition. I started off at 128 pounds and 24% body fat, and went to 118 at 12% body fat, nationally qualifying at my first competition. I have always been pretty slender and was very worried about messing with my physique before I had started a family.
Before I started with Joe, I had heard many horror stories about coaches blowing girls metabolisms, doing cardio 2 to 3 times a day, eating nothing but egg whites, bell peppers, and chicken. I knew that some people with a little more body fat might survive this type of training (not without some long term damage). But, I surely would not.
Joe set up a meal plan with 150+ carbs because he knew that I handled them well. I actually started seeing growth in my little muscles! His training is based on a lot of old school body lifting techniques. I was able to lift heavy and see results, pretty quickly actually. I can honestly say prep was enjoyable, the entire time.
This is not a coach for you if you need someone to hold your hand. He is really smart so when he writes you a plan he assumes that you are going to be fully accountable and he will expect you to do the work, 110%. He stays in contact with you constantly, so the communication lines are always open. If they are any reasons that something isn’t working for you, aka time constraint, chicken makes you barf, you feel bloated… he fixes them before they even become an issue. If you are being lazy or are expecting changed that aren’t in your best interest (aka supplements that are bad, etc)…expect a no nonsense approach.
It has been one year since I have trained prep with Joe. I am 4 pounds above my competition weight, and am pregnant with my first child. I am so grateful not to only have had a coach that first cares about my health, and then my competition goals. But more so, for a coach that has taught me how to eat and how to train, long term. (Not for just 8 weeks of my life). I look forward to my next prep with Joe in the future.
P. S. Hes really funny too. Score!

I was a client of NLPT June-​October 2011, and I was part of the Bikini Team for competition prep.
Joe is knowledgable, passionate, and unlike many coaches out there, he takes the time to educate his clients. He doesn’t just tell you what to do and bark orders, but rather he explains the reasoning behind things and I love that! He empowers you and encourages you to be aware and active in your own health. He promotes healthy weight loss, and most importantly, healthy competition prep. He doesn’t starve you. He doesn’t slave drive you on cardio. You don’t eat sticks and berries and get by on 700 cals per day with no carbs. You eat. REAL food. He doesnt believe in excessive cardio and has old school philosophies on lifting… and they WORK. Joe is the real deal, and with so many coaches who take no mind to the havok they are causing to their clients metabolisms, Joe stands out like a beacon in the night.

I honestly I have no idea where to begin this review. There were so many aspects of my relationship with Joe from Next Level Personal Training that were so wrong and extremely unprofessional.
Ladies and gents, the following are why I would NEVER recommend you train or have any affiliation with this company:
–Joe plays favorites. I found this out after I stopped training with him. He was charging some girls between $ 300-​$ 500/​month and others (his favorites) only $ 100/​month for the same exact nutritional guidance and workout régime. Unfortunately, I was one of the girls paying on the higher end. I was furious when I found this out.
–Joe actually stole pictures from my facebook page and now uses them on his fan page and website. I have not trained with Joe for months now. He abruptly ended my training in a very unprofessional manner and for unprofessional reasons. He then blocked me from both his personal and business facebook page sites. After this transpired, it was brought to my attention that he copied all my progress pictures from my personal facebook page (before he blocked me) and proceeded to post them on all his sites! If you go on his web page and look at his ‘Belles of Steel Team’ there I am!!! The gaul! He is actually attempting to use my pictures for professional gain, and trying to take credit for my results when I have been training with some one else for months now! Not to mention just the simple fact that he stole pictures of me in both a bikini and shorts and a sports bra. I almost feel sexually exploited.
–Joe will not allow you to have a personal life without his involvement. He will facebook stalk your page, commenting on all of your status updates and photos… and some of the comments he left on mine were just so rude. I have spoken to other girls he has trained and they said the same exact thing: «it’s almost creepy how he spy’s on us through our FB page…»
–He dropped my business and training partner A MONTH BEFORE HER FIRST COMPETITION. Why? Well, there are so many outlandish reasons he gave… one being because she was asking to many questions and was questioning whether she would be competition ready in one month. So she was obviously having doubts because of her results. In addition, I think it’s quite normal for a girl to be scared beyond belief before her FIRST competition at whether she will be fully prepared or not. He took this personally and dropped her.
–He lacks professionalism. He gossips worse than any girl I know. You have to keep your guard up around Joe and his ‘favorites.’ They love to turn around and bash you when your back is turned. He did this to my training partner and I during our training and after he dropped us. Luckily we had girls on the other side that informed us of this. Just a shame.
–Your trainer should probably be in good shape. This should have been a red flag for me when researching Joe. Like Jamie Eason states, every trainer should practice what they preach. Joe clearly does not.
–Food logs. Joe swears by them. But there is no way he actually looks and critiques them. He just makes sure you’ve hit your macros, but doesn’t care how. When I showed my new trainer my food logs, she was floored at what Joe was allowing me to eat. She couldn’t believe it. His nutritional guidance was terrible. In fact the only ‘guidance’ he provided was numbers. He never looked at exactly what I was eating to reach those numbers.
I honestly could keep going, but I think I’ve given you all plenty of useful information to make a well informed and educated decision about whether or not you should train with Next Level.
–We now train with a WBFF Pro and she managed to correct so many aspects of our diet and training, and gave us better results in the one month we trained with her than in the 3 months we trained with Joe.

Joe was amazing to work with as a coach. I was looking to get into the best shape of my life for my wedding, and I was considering competing for the first time! I found Joe while seaching on facebook and Google for coaches, knowing that I was going to need extra help and support. My workouts were pretty good, but my nutrition left something to be desired.
I was very pleased with the program that Joe sent me up with. He was very focused on making sure that everything that I was doing was going to be maintainable even in the «off season». Whenever I felt stressed out about my progress, etc, I could express those feeling to Joe and he would talk me through them, offering explanations with how my body was working and reacting to the changes that I was making to it.
I never felt deprived on my diet and I did enjoy occasional dinners out that helped me to feel social all while I was achieving my goals!

Joe is very knowledgeable and cares about preparing your body before, during, and after competition. There were personal differences in training and style but at the end of the day, Joe knows his shit. I am very appreciative for the impact he had on my life and I wouldn’t be where I am at now without the base of knowledge he instilled in him. Truly, i never lifted a weight before stepping in the gym with him and while we had our differences, I do not think they had anything to do with his training and I think if youre in the san diego area and thinking of training for a show, I would recommend seeing Joe or one of the other amazing trainers at World Gym. Thanks for taking the time to read this review.
Also, Joes website and blog is actually pretty freaking informative. Take a second to actually read the articles and not just look at the before and after pics *which speak for themselves*
This is an amendment ot my previous review. I stand by my statement that expectations of me were a bit unrealistic and he does tend to play favorites. He did drop me and my friend from training for reasons that I still dont honestly understand, and he did send me some hurtful and unprofessional messages afterward. It felt like a bad breakup and I didnt know where things went wrong. But just like with all bad breakups, once the smoke cleared and I calmed down, I was able to look back and appreciate what I gained from the relationship– a solid skill base in weight lifting and knowledge on competition prep.

I approached Joe after having worked with various trainers and beginning to lose faith in body transformation. Don’t lose faith! You just need the right workout and meal plan! I have been working with Joe through online consulting/​training for 2 months, going on 3. I am thoroughly satisfied! Being in LA, I was not sure what the level of communication and specificity would be, but Joe proves incredible at maintaining close contact and really catering to his clients’ needs. He responds quickly and in detail, and I like a lot of detail! I am a really inquisitive person (and have a science background), so I ask a lot of questions, and Joe never fails to respond with enough information. He even provides additional reading if desired! I encountered some knee issues about a month ago, and Joe not only added exercises to strengthen my knee and hip, but changed the plan I had at the time to account for the injury. His ability to combine good nutrition and a great workout exceeds that of any other trainer I have worked with.
He shows genuine interest in his clients, their health and progress. I have seen fantastic results after working with Joe for only 2 month. I can only imagine the magnitude of the results if I were working with him in person.

Love everything NLPT offers! Great workout and eating plans! Lots of variety. I’m part of NLPT Bikini team and I live in Idaho. If I can get amazing results, so can you!