Aaron Frederick began strength training about 9 years before becoming a member of Starting Strength Austin in June 2020. In January 2021, he decided to make the switch from member to Apprentice Coach. As both a Starting Strength Coach and Precision Nutrition Coach, he brings a diverse skill set to the gym. Aaron has served 20 years in the U.S. Army where he undertook and spearheaded each unit’s Fitness Training Program with great success. Now retired from the U.S. Army, Aaron brings a passion to help others achieve their goals and a desire to watch others find the same fulfillment in training that he has.
6 Reviews on “Aaron Frederick, SSC”
Aaron has been more than your typical “personal trainer”. He has been a friend in both good and bad times. After having a successful military career, Aaron could spend his time on his couch but instead spends long hours in the gym because he knows what training does and has a great perspective on both life and training. He brings a military work ethic and discipline to his clients and knows how to keep you confident and motivated. He has had setbacks himself and knows what it takes to keep motivation high when obstacles present. Not to mention both a trainee and trainer perspective as he continues to be both.
My advice to you is to listen to him and you will gain results both expected and unexpected with a dose of humor and comradery.
I worked with Aaron from March—Sep 2022, 3x a week at Starting Strength Austin. In this time, I made sizeable gains on all my lifts and finally learned how to do each with the correct form. I also suffered from zero injuries and learned how to grind on harder lifts. I’ve made PRs in the gym that surpassed my own expectations — all thanks to Aaron’s careful programming and coaching.
Apart from the technical aspects of lifting, Aaron made me feel comfortable from the second I met him. I’m a larger lady and felt absolutely no self-consciousness or shame around him; he’s hugely accepting, compassionate, encouraging, and just plain old-happy to work with anyone who wants to lift. The process is hard but he’s not a tyrant. He knows when to push you and when to work with your body and be compassionate or flex your programming. He helped me find solutions to my diet (specifically consuming enough protein) that worked for me. I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t like the taste of eggs and I’m still on the women’s leaderboard for all lifts at Starting Strength Austin.
Lastly, Aaron is a truly warm and caring person. He never fails to make me laugh at class. He’s invested in all his students, regardless of their ability levels. Starting Strength Austin will miss him; I know I will. If you have a chance to work with Aaron, take it. You’ll learn a ton about both lifting and life.
Aaron is a great coach and I would absolution recommend him to a friend or family member. Aaron has coached me three times a week, every week for the past eight months. With his help I am very happy with my results. I have full faith in his guidance and recommendations. Over the course of my training I have hit several walls on the different lifts. Aaron’s programming for my training has been great. He’ll either give a slight adjustment or in some cases map out the next three to six week plan for that lift. Not only has it worked to get me past those walls, when he presents the plan it makes sense. It’s good to feel confidence in what I’m working toward. Lastly, I’m 52, which means my advances don’t come as fast as some of the younger lifters. The adjustments Aaron made for this have worked well. On top of all the performance results, Aaron is a good guy and fun to be around.
That should say “absolutely” recommend….
I have trained with Aaron at SS for over a year and have made the largest strength gains of my life during this period. I have witnessed Aarons coach functional skills and form to all types of people while maintaining a patient and encouraging vibe. It makes for such great class atmosphere that is both fun, funny, and educational.
Before starting online coaching with Aaron I spent over a year trying to figure out how to learn the lifts and the programming all by myself. I studied the Starting Strength book and online materials, and even though those are great sources of information, putting all that information into practice was not easy: there are many moving parts and everybody has a bit different proportions and capacity. After hitting a wall where I did not make much progress at all anymore, I finally decided to invest in some quality coaching, and the only thing I’ve regretted about that decision, is that I didn’t do it earlier.
Aaron has very effectively spotted problems in my technique, a few bigger ones and then a lot of smaller details. When there has been something that needs to be fixed, Aaron has given me a cue I should focus on next time. Working through the problems one by one in a priority order has worked great. Now all the lifts feel right to me, and when they sometimes don’t, I usually know also myself what was the problem.
Aaron has taken my goals and priorities into account extremely well, and has been able to create me a program that works in my personal situation. I have small kids and a job that is sometimes pretty demanding, and the time I have for workouts or for quality recovery is limited. The workouts I’ve got from Aaron have been fun to do with exactly the correct amount of challenge without being overwhelming, and I’ve been able to make some great progress even though for me lifting is more of a hobby than a top-three priority.
I have had Aaron for the last few months as an online coach. He has helped me through some sticking points in my lifts and helped me set some new PRs. I was able to hit a 200+ press, and get very close to my goal of deadlifting 400, even while working through some rough elbow tendinitis. Aaron knew how to fix the problem and continue work while I healed up. I would suggest him to anyone considering coaching.