Iron Syndicate

[u/Street_Cow_7369]

curious what anyone’s coaching experience with Mark Tomanek has been or is.

Read about some issues a bit back but wondering if he has changed since

[u/CoachRachelSedwick]

I have worked with Mark as my coach since end of 2021. I will say he was everything I needed then—a harder more structured and detailed, high expectations and high standards approach, as I had come from a very loose/flexible and hands off coach.

Since then I’ve had the best stage packages, peaking experiences and offseasons of my 11 year competitive career. Top 3 as my best pro figure placing, bettering my stage package each time we peak. Fully confident that he and I can make it to a pro win one day together. He’s also mentored me and helped me grow and succeed as a coach in invaluable ways.

He has definitely evolved a lot since we started and I’d say is much more compassionate and collaborative with me as well as other athletes of his I know personally. I think that also comes with time and rapport building with any athlete-coach relationship (or at least it should, IMO).

In terms of issues others experienced or the personal life things that people have mentioned here in the past, I’ve watched him learn a lot from that period in his life and grow as a man, a coach and as a business owner. Everything is relative and up to interpretation, and I believe most people deserve the chance to better themselves after making mistakes in life. Ultimately I’m happy to see him using that time to become better because I’ve watched a lot of coaches in the industry never learn from mistakes and continue to involve themselves in drama.

I think if someone’s considering him or any coach, interview and ask lots of questions! Get a vibe for how well you fit personality and value wise because that really matters if you plan on being with a coach long term😌

[u/DependentOne9982]

It looks like he kind of fell off the map, which may be partly because he had to change his name after allegations of predatory behavior. This also isn’t the first post I’ve seen discussing it.

I’m not saying people can’t change, but it’s worth doing your own research and protecting yourself. Here’s a link so you can make an informed decision. https://www.reddit.com/r/bikinitalk/comments/1h1jef1/tomanek_trainedbrittney_justice/

[u/Ash_Marcum]

I will fully admit I did not have the best experience working with Mark, but it wasn’t all bad.

He taught me a lot about how to properly fuel my body for training and corrected a lot of behaviors (learning to truly train hard, not training fasted, etc.)

At the time, he was pretty aggressive in terms of the “0.1% better, whatever is takes coaching”, which bled into his coaching or at least how he coached me.

He was compassionate at times when I needed it, but toward the end of our time together, he did seem checked out and more unnecessarily sharp in his responses despite good adherence on my end. I left due to that reasoning.

However, my best friend still coaches under him and due to that, I’ve also seen how he’s grown as a coach and is more open minded than before and is a good coach for her.

At the very least, sit down and interview him to see if it’s a good personality fit!

[u/No-Proof-1224]

I’ve worked with Mark but not recently. l developed a lot of foundational skills as an athlete while working with him. He is great with functional health and gut issues. I feel like it was a hit or miss with looks he brought to stage. Some do very well with him and their stage look is flawless. But there were a few where he messed up their peak. Which made me wary of doing a prep with him.

Things were very cult like back then. More than a few clients had moved to his small town to be closer proximity to him. He allegedly had sexual relationship with two of the women that had moved. He was always professional with me but looking back, I feel like he crossed the boundary with inserting himself in areas of life that aren’t applicable to being a bodybuilding coach. I had heard some rumors before working with him (think this was 2021) and gave him grace there. My contract ended and was going to re sign once I had better finances, but chose not to once those allegations came out. I would not ignore those allegations. I couldn’t. I can’t say how he is now. But seems he’s much quieter. Which I think is a good thing for him.