Carl became Europe’s first official Starting Strength Coach (SSC) in 2014, marking over a decade as an SSC and two decades in the fitness industry as a dedicated personal trainer. Now a Digital Nomad who travels and works around the world with his fiancée, he coaches Lifting Camps around Europe and Canada. He writes articles, provides online coaching, and occasionally offers personal training. Leading by example, he has naturally gained 120 lbs of bodyweight while increasing all his lifts by 40–50%. He currently squats and deadlifts in the 600 lb range, presses well over 300 lbs, and has his sights set on a 400 lb bench press—a lifetime goal he continues to chase.
I offer one-to-one and two-to-one coaching sessions. I also run lifting camps across Europe and beyond. My rates and locations can be found on my website: www.beautifulstrengthgym.com.
I offer online coaching at a rate of £185 per month. You will get tailored programming and form checks for every single session, plus access to my exclusive Discord server. This is a forum where we – my online clients and I – get together for fun and insightful conversations about training, lifestyle, tutorials and everything else in between.
To ensure the highest quality coaching, I only take on a maximum of thirty-five clients at any one time.
For further information, please visit my website: www.beautifulstrengthgym.com.
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30 Reviews on “Carl Raghavan, SSC”
Carl is a great coach. He gave me some very useful advice to improve my SLDLs when I saw him at Starting Strength HQ. Fantastic technical advice and a very friendly guy.
I saw Carl for 2+ years and he transformed my training, my attitude, my diet, and ultimately made me a hell of a lot stronger.
He’s the business and doesn’t f*ck about. This is serious training to get strong and be a badass.
Can’t recommend enough to get proper coaching from someone like Carl if you are serious about lifting. 💪🏻
Carl has been my coach for more than two years now and has taken all my lifts to another level. He has a great coaching eye, offers the right cues, and knows how to program around all life circumstances. Easily one of the best investments I have ever made
Carl is an great Coach. I have had a number of sessions with him and he has an excellent ability to put the theory into your head so you can put the practice into your lifts.
He is also strong! He clearly practices what he preaches and proves the system works.
If you’re in the UK and you’re looking to get strong with barbell exercises, Carl is your man.
I started training with Carl back in 2015 and couldn’t have had a better introduction to strength training. At the time I was struggling to squat much over 50kgs, and within a year I was able to squat 120kgs for a single.
His knowledge of the mechanics of the powerlifting movements is exceptional, as is the effectiveness of his coaching cues – he knows exactly what to say at the right time!
Can’t recommend him highly enough!
Carl is a fantastically patient and helpful coach who helped me learn the lifts from scratch and get to a point where I’ve now got some reasonable weight on the bar. He picks up on the smallest things to help me improve. Booking my first session with Carl was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Carl is a really excellent coach. I have had more than forty hours of in person coaching, and I now do online coaching. Everything he says works. I don’t think you could find anyone better.
Carl is brilliant! He has an incredible ability to notice and correct little errors in technique, and will give you personal cues so you don’t keep making the same mistakes. One session with Carl is worth 100 by myself in the gym, in terms of the progress I make.
Would recommend anyone to have a session with him, whether you are a seasoned lifter or a complete novice (like I was when I first met Carl).
I have always referred to Carl as a force of nature and a thorough professional. I would go as far as saying that he is the best strength coach in the UK!! His skill is unequivocal. So as far as knowing his stuff, consider that an axiom. He knows it!
What makes him stand apart is that he can apply his skills whilst breaking mental barriers at the same time. At 49kgs of body weight, I never dreamt I could squat 70 kgs. If someone told me that before I met Carl, I’d question their sanity but with Carl think insane, think amazing and think; I should have started strength training yesterday as opposed to I shall!
I have been an online training client of Carl’s for 2 years now. What really stands out is how much he cares. Every time I hit a PR I think he is maybe more excited than me! This passion, matched with deep technical knowledge and a keen eye, make working with Carl really inspiring and most important of all, productive!
Coaching with Carl is right up there on my list of ‘best money I’ve ever spent’. I reached out to him originally for form check purposes as there is only so much self teaching you can do and only so many YouTube videos you can watch and I got so much from the experience that I’ve continued to seek his advice. He helped fix my squat and has introduced me to the Rack Pull and Pin Press along the way. No question is a stupid question and the support and encouragement you get from him is phenomenal. His credentials are excellent. I can’t thank him enough for the help and advice he has given and I would highly recommend him as a coach, online or in person
Have trained with Carl for over a year. He knows the SS system inside out. He tells you what you need to hear and has a very straightforward approach. Carl had fixed a lot of my form as well as getting me to a 96kg press which I’m very happy with.
Carl has been my coach for a couple years now (ignoring the COVID madness in the middle), not only has he helped improve all my lifts, but he is also a great guy to be around. I had multiple injuries and technical issues throughout the time and each time he will adapt my program or cue me in a way that helps resolve it. Just hit 80kg overhead today for 8×1 and I’d never have hit that without his guidance!
I’ve trained with Carl twice – first at a squat/deadlift camp, then a 2 hour private session. Both times I was very impressed by his knowledge and perception. I learned a lot particularly during the personal 2-hour session and went home with a much improved squat and an optimised programme that’s got me back on the right track. Highly recommended.
Carl is an excellent coach. I have had the benefit of Carl’s coaching 1-1 and online and cannot recommend both highly enough. Carl is a technical master with an eye for detail which has helped me improve all of my lifts steadily over the course of the last 9 months and stay injury free in the process. From an online perspective, his responsiveness is extremely impressive and shows a genuine vested interest in helping his clients get stronger. He’s exactly who you need in your corner if strength is your priority (which it should be!)
I’ve been coached by Carl the past 18 months, all of it online save for one seminar and one PT session focusing on the Olympic lifts. He’s excellent – a real rare gem.
First off, I’m stronger than I ever thought possible and still making slow but steady progress.
Second, of the few small injuries I have had, in most cases Carl had been harassing me to make changes addressing the issue as a technical improvement before the injury blew up! My fault for not paying attention.
Third, he’s very responsive, he gives intelligent and actionable feedback, he knows what he’s talking about and is patient with questions and comments.
Finally, he’s an all round solid guy and clearly cares about getting you strong. I’d highly recommend him to anyone wanting to get stronger.
Carl is an Amazing coach. For someone that is scrawny, hates going to the gym, is mostly interested in strength from a wellbeing/longevity perspective and is overly analytical, he helped keep in check my innate skepticism, kept me on track and got my squat/deadlift from 40Kg to 102Kg/ 80 to 130Kg respectively (my squat took longer). All this while keeping my time in the gym to an optimal minimal.
Carl doesn’t look like your other coaches (although if you google you will find an older version of him that does). He is insanely strong and he lives what he preaches. He lives strength and every moment in the gym is a calculated move to increasing strength vs. wasting time. He is also wise. I wish I had heeded his advice on prolonging the novice effect and eaten the 2g/Kg of protein he recommended. Over the years I have since found everything he talked about has it’s basis in the physiology of how the body works.
I have a list of people that my life is better for having met them. Carl is on that list. I only wish I had met him sooner and started training younger. You won’t regret working with Carl.
Fantastic coach who knows his stuff and has a great eye for the movement patterns.
Gives clear and constructive feedback on what you need to do to improve and get stronger.
Listens to feedback and looks at things from different angles (literally and figuratively). He knows that two people are learning during the session – a rare quality.
Plus an all round cool and interesting guy with a great sense of humour!
I’m a 48 year old female weightlifting and strength lifting enthusiast from Denmark. I had Carl recommended to me by another coach and in June 2022, I travelled to London and had the pleasure of training with Carl for two sessions divided over two days. We spend most of the time concentrating on the olympic lifts. Carl is a really great coach, he has a sharp eye and quickly identified the things I needed to work on in order to improve my lifts. He communicates in a direct and precise maner which is very easy to understand and he has this “next level” ability to help you get rid of bad habits and perform the lift correctly very quickly. Carl is clearly very passionate about what he does, and it shines through. I’m so happy with the things I learned, and I’d recommend Carl anytime to anyone who wants to get strong and learn correct lifting technique.
I was tired of messing around at the gym and getting no tangible results with my local PT.
Carl guided me through the SS NLP via online coaching. I went from 65KG (skinny) to 85KG (muscular).
Went from not being able to correctly bodyweight squat to lifting 100KG with correct form.
Along the way, he helped me recover from injuries and gave me accountability.
Visited him in Dec 2024 for a 1:1 in-person session and got so much benefit from it.
He’s passionate about lifting and excellent at coaching. He knows how to help you reach your lifting goals.
I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to get stronger.
Carl is a great coach. Not only is he strong as hell but his advice on how to get stronger is great. He knows where to start and is able to build a really good foundation for further lifting.
Carl is extremely strong and knows how to get you extremely strong. He’s particularly good at figuring out the right thing in your form to focus on. He’s also excellent at the motivation side of the hobby. Highly recommended.
I’ve been training with Carl for about 2 years now and I can say with certainty that the progress I’ve made on all my lifts has been incredible.
Due to my erratic lifestyle it has been really difficult to show up regularly for training sessions and Carl I have found has shown remarkable patience in dealing with my schedule, tailoring the workouts accordingly and making sure I don’t fall off the wagon !
I could go on but I’ll just say this- you can’t go wrong with Carl !
I’ve had the incredible opportunity to train under Carl’s online coaching for the past year, and the progress I’ve made has been nothing short of transformative. When we started, my technique had major flaws, and the PRs I had in mind felt out of reach—but thanks to Carl’s expertise, I’ve not only fixed my form but also smashed through plateaus I once thought were out of reach. His dedication to lifting is unmatched, and that same passion shines through in his coaching. Beyond the numbers, he’s helped me grow into a more confident and mentally resilient lifter. If you’re looking for a coach who truly cares about your progress, Carl is the real deal.”
I didn’t start weight lifting till I was 60. After a year I took Carl on as coach. Carl is all about building strength and within a year I’d add at least 50% to all the SS lifts and learnt some new helper lifts as well.
Carl runs training camps for those he coaches and at the last Xmas camp we learned the olympic lifts: Snatch and Clean and Jerk. I tell you throwing around a bell bar with weight in your sixties for the first time is really quite exhilarating!
Carl is very thorough, watching every rep of every set in every session. He will adapt the programme to suit his client’s lifestyle and his knowledge in gaining strength is unbeatable.
Carl knows his stuff and helped me understand the fundamentals of the big lifts, while also adapting the program based on how my body responded. Also as a fellow Nomad, Carl was very flexible as I constantly changed gyms and equipment while traveling . Would highly recommend
Carlito is the man. Trainer to both me and my younger brother.
Think, coach’s eye meets eye of the tiger. Great at pulling you back if you get too aggressive with loading and almost a sixth sense about when shit is about to hit the fan fatigue-wise. Also, an all round great dude to hang with. Also, inspires with his own personal development as a lifter, taking in all the bumps along the way.
Onwards and upwards, Carlito’s way 😊🤗
Before working with Carl, I had struggled for years to make meaningful progress in the gym. Despite consistent effort, real strength gains and muscle growth always felt just out of reach. That changed quickly once I started training under Carl’s guidance. In a relatively short time, I experienced noticeable improvements, putting on significant muscle mass and becoming genuinely stronger for the first time.
Carl is committed to his clients’ success. He takes the time to ensure that you perform strength training correctly and fully understand the principles behind it. His coaching combines technical precision, clear communication, and genuine support. Whether you are training with him in person or remotely through online coaching, Carl brings a personable approach that truly sets him apart.
If you are serious about making real progress, I cannot recommend Carl highly enough.
Carl is one of those people that will impact your life in a positive way. I think, strength training is an excellent metaphor for life. How dedicated, relentless, and consistent you are, the more successful you’ll be. Carl embodies that.
Another example if his knowledge and deep thinking, is that he tells you things which you at first think is a bit “bananas” or too simplistic, but you realize a year later is absolutely true. Carl is in essence an excellent trainer and coach (with a sharp comedic wit). He has an eye for detail and a sharp mind…and I will always ALWAYS have him on my team. Period. Do I recommend his service? Yes. Wholeheartedly so.
Carl has been a great coach. I first met him at a London squat, press, and deadlift session and have had further private sessions over the last couple of years. He’s helped me correct my form on the big lifts, got me to take on power cleans and rack pulls, and helped me tailor my program so that I can still make gains while being pragmatic about pace and recovery at age 56!
Carl knows what he’s doing. I’ve been getting online coaching from him for a year now (with two camps and an in person session inbetween), through a bulking and then severe cutting phase due to medical reasons. His programming works, as do his cues. The money is a good investment even with all the free resources out there, because you don’t know what you don’t know — but a coach like Carl does.
I had the opportunity to meet and have a session with Carl almost two years ago in Buenos Aires, of all places. He and his fiancée travel a lot. For me, living in Argentina, I never thought I would have the opportunity to meet a Starting Strength Coach in person and be trained by one. I have to say that the quality of the instruction is outstanding. Carl told me that he had been a SSC for ten years by then, and I can imagine that the amount of experience and knowledge he has is enormous. On a personal level, he is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.
If you have the opportunity to do a session with Carl or to go to one of the seminars he hosts, you are in luck! Seize th opportunity or contact him for online coaching.
I have had the pleasure of training under Carl for nearly three years. He has helped me to get stronger on all of my lifts and to dramatically improve my form. He cares deeply about helping his clients achieve their goals, with personalized feedback for every session.