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William Santiago III | Strength Coach

@will2gaincoaching

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Strength Coach
Streetlifting+Powerlifting
Helping busy lifters train with structure
DM “COACHING”
Head Coach @thefortnyc

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Streetlifting. The sport that gave me purpose. The sport that showed me that I was right. All the untapped potential I had for years was for not. For all the times that I got side lined because I was too small, too injury prone, not strong, not fast, not skilled. For all the times that I couldn't do something because I couldn't afford it, or life didn't provide me the clear path to what I thought I wanted to pursue.
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This is where I took matters into my own hands. Over 13 years ago, fitness gave me the outlet to exercise my demons. It gave me a path of growth. It helped me find a way to give back to the people & make a living. I knew that I could never be the biggest, but I knew that I wanted to be strong. But strong in a different way. Powerlifting never appealed to me because I thought it was boring many moons ago. I used to always suck at bench press because of my long arms & narrow frame. I hated squats, & deadlifts were cool, but I plateaued really quickly.
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Weighted calisthenics helped me actualize my strength. It showed me I was far better than the average. That my rapid potential in a relatively short time could amount to something extraordinary. Of course, nothing ever pans out as we deem. We go to hell & back all for seeking the path of self righteousness. I've been doing "Streetlifting" since 2017. Way before it ever became popular in The USA. In doing so, I told myself that "if the opportunity to max out calisthenics ever hit America, I'd be in it 💯 %."
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God answered my call & back in 2023 it happened. There's a lot more to this story, but I'll leave it at this.
For the tens of thousands of hours spent exercising, & the hundreds of thousands of reps spent refining the craft of overall movement, I find myself in a position where I can with upmost certainty say, I've been able to leave my mark. One of the first American Streetlifters, One of the first record holders, a Two time National Weighted Muscle-ups record holder, and a Bronze Medalist at the National Level.
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You could say that some of those, if not all of them were luck. I say it's a combination of faith, work ethic, & for the love of the game. 🎮
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Photo credit to @rachh.annn taken in Commit2Fitness by @will2gaincoaching

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4 months ago

Your potential is limitless. If you believe, you'll achieve. I, along side my team had the pleasure to coach 3 amazing athletes over the past 9 weeks towards doing their first powerlifting meets Under Special Olympics New York!
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In my 8+ years of coaching, this has hands down been my favorite coaching moment. From seeing all of the other teams, the energy, the comradery, the sportsmanship, the overwhelming positivity, I was teary eyed the entire morning, during the open ceremony, even in bits in between.
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If there's something that I've grown to realize over the years, that would be it isn't the destination, it's the journey to get there. Being able to help guide these athletes, awaken their inner strength, and have them show out & have fun doing it every week is what made this meet that much more sweet.
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That said, we're just getting warmed up. Forever & always for the love of the game. 🎮🏋🏽‍♂️🎯 taken in Gold's Gym Smithtown by @will2gaincoaching

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6 months ago

Do it for the love of it 🎮 Your destiny is always in your hands. You have the power to manifest your wildest imaginations. The only thing it requires is honest work.
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Video credit to @chris_steels 🎥🍿 taken in JDI Barbell by @will2gaincoaching

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9 months ago

The stronger you get, the more your setup starts to matter.

When you are a beginner, you can usually get away with a lot. Your weights are lighter, your margin for error is bigger, and even if your positioning is not perfect, you can still muscle through a rep and make progress.

As the weight gets heavier, that margin gets smaller.

A small mistake in your squat stance, bench position, pullup setup, or deadlift start position can completely change how a rep feels. You may lose tightness, shift into a weaker position, waste energy, or make a weight feel much heavier than it actually is.

This is why getting stronger is not only about building more muscle or trying harder. It is also about becoming more repeatable.

Your setup should help you create the same strong starting position as often as possible.

That could mean placing your feet in the same spot before you squat, setting your upper back before you bench, creating tension before you deadlift, or making sure your grip and body position are consistent before a weighted pullup.

You do not need to obsess over every tiny detail. But you should have a basic routine that you can repeat.

As your strength improves, the goal is to remove unnecessary variables.

The more consistent your setup becomes, the easier it is to understand whether a rep felt harder because of your strength, fatigue, or simply poor positioning.

Strong lifters are not just strong.

They are very good at creating strong positions over and over again. by @will2gaincoaching

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5 hours ago

You do not need perfect technique to get stronger. Good technique matters, but there is a big difference between improving your technique and obsessing over making every rep look absolutely perfect. Your limb lengths, mobility, proportions, and individual leverages will all influence how certain movements naturally look for you. Because of that, your squat, bench, or deadlift may not look exactly like someone else's.

The goal is not to force yourself into someone else's version of perfect technique. The goal is to find positions that are strong, repeatable, comfortable, and appropriate for your body while continuing to refine them over time. You still need to push yourself and expose your body to challenging weights. If you constantly lower the weight because every rep needs to look flawless, you may never learn how your technique responds when the weight actually gets heavy.

As intensity increases, small technical changes will occasionally happen. That does not automatically mean the rep was bad. What matters more is recognizing the patterns that consistently limit your strength. Maybe your hips shoot up on deadlifts, your squat position changes under load, or your bench loses stability. Those are things you can gradually improve while still progressing your training.

Strength and technique should develop together. Learn your leverages, keep challenging yourself, and make steady technical improvements along the way. You do not need to wait until your form is perfect before allowing yourself to get stronger. Progress first, refinement along the way. by @will2gaincoaching

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a day ago

Your strength is not going to feel the same every single workout.

One week a weight might move incredibly fast. The next week that exact same weight might feel much heavier. That does not automatically mean you lost strength or that your program stopped working.

Strength is influenced by much more than just your muscles.

Sleep, stress, nutrition, hydration, soreness, previous training sessions, and even how mentally prepared you are can all affect how much force you are able to produce on a given day.

This is why it is important to look at your training as a trend instead of judging yourself from one workout.

If you squat 315 pounds easily one week, but it feels slower the next, you did not suddenly become weaker. Your body may simply be carrying more fatigue that day.

This is also where autoregulation becomes useful.

Instead of forcing a predetermined weight regardless of how you feel, you can adjust the load slightly while still training within the intended effort of the program.

Your goal is not to prove your maximum strength every time you enter the gym.

Your goal is to consistently provide enough stimulus to improve while managing fatigue along the way.

Some workouts will feel amazing. Others will feel average. Some will feel terrible.

That is completely normal.

Pay attention to the bigger picture.

If your technique is improving, your average training weights are increasing, and you are gradually doing more work over time, you are still getting stronger. by @will2gaincoaching

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2 days ago

Getting stronger is not just about lifting more weight. It is about lifting more weight without completely changing how you perform the movement.

As the load gets heavier, your body will naturally search for shortcuts. Your squat may get higher. Your bench touch point may drift. Your deadlift setup may become rushed.

If your technique changes every time the weight increases, you are not always getting stronger at the same movement.

Sometimes you are just getting better at surviving heavier reps.

That is why form consistency matters.

Your technique does not have to look perfect under heavy load. Some breakdown is normal. But your strongest reps should still resemble the movement you have spent weeks practicing.

A simple progression framework is this.

Pick a rep range, like 6 to 8 reps.

Use a weight you can control for all 6 reps with consistent form.

Over the next few sessions, build toward 8 reps without changing your technique.

Once you can hit 8 clean reps across your working sets, increase the weight slightly and start back at 6 reps.

If your form noticeably changes, keep the weight the same until you own it.

Film your heavier sets and compare them to your lighter work.

Your goal is not just to add weight.

Your goal is to earn the right to add weight by making your technique repeatable first. by @will2gaincoaching

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3 days ago

Changing your exercises all the time might make training feel more interesting, but it can also limit how strong you actually become.

Strength is a skill.

If you want to get better at squats, weighted pull ups, dips, muscle ups, bench press, or deadlifts, you need enough consistent exposure to those movements to actually improve them.

Every time you constantly swap exercises, you're spending more time learning something new instead of building on what you already developed.

As a beginner, this matters even more.

Pick your key movements and give yourself time to progress them. Improve your technique. Add reps. Add load. Build confidence under heavier weights. Learn where you struggle and what actually helps you get stronger.

This doesn't mean your program should never change.

Your secondary and accessory movements can rotate based on your weak points, recovery, goals, or the phase of training you're in. But even those exercises should usually stick around long enough for you to actually measure whether they're working.

If your weighted pull up is the priority, you don't need five different pulling variations every few weeks. You need consistent weighted pull ups with supporting exercises that solve a specific problem.

Variation should have a purpose.

Don't change movements because you're bored or because you saw another exercise online.

Build consistency first.

Then make changes when your training gives you a reason to.

Getting stronger isn't about constantly finding new exercises.

It's about getting extremely good at the right ones. by @will2gaincoaching

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4 days ago

If strength is your priority, your training is not going to look the same all year.

Getting stronger requires different phases of training, and each phase has a different purpose. Some phases may focus more on building muscle, improving work capacity, increasing your overall fitness, fixing weak points, and giving you a bigger foundation to build from.

Think of this as building your strength ceiling.

The more capacity you build, the more potential strength you have available when it is finally time to specialize.

But once you enter a phase where maximizing strength becomes the main goal, your training becomes more specific. You may perform fewer exercises, reduce your overall volume, spend more time working with heavier weights, and dedicate more recovery toward your key lifts.

Because of that, some of your previous fitness attributes may temporarily decrease.

You might lose a little conditioning. Your muscular endurance may not feel as good. You may even feel less capable with certain exercises you were previously doing frequently.

That does not automatically mean you're becoming less fit.

You're simply prioritizing a different adaptation.

The solution is understanding what phase you're currently in and judging your progress based on that phase.

Build your foundation when it's time to build.

Specialize when it's time to specialize.

Then repeat the process with a higher ceiling than you had before.

Strength is not built from one type of training forever. It's built by knowing what to prioritize, when to prioritize it, and how each phase contributes to the bigger picture. by @will2gaincoaching

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5 days ago

Muscle up timing can be the difference between a clean rep and feeling like you're fighting the bar the entire way up.

For most people, the pull should happen as you're coming back from your initial entry.

Think of the entry as creating the position and momentum. As your body starts coming back toward the bar, that's your opportunity to aggressively pull and redirect yourself upward.

Pull too late and you'll usually lose momentum. Pull too early and you may waste your strongest pulling position before your body is ready to transition over the bar.

This is why timing matters just as much as raw strength.

That said, advanced muscle up specialists may intentionally pull earlier.

Instead of waiting for the full return from the entry, they'll start creating tension through the lats earlier. This produces some initial torque and gives them more control over the direction their body travels.

From there, they can use just enough hip flexion to help guide the body up and over the bar smoothly.

The key word is enough.

You're not aggressively throwing your knees toward your chest or turning the movement into a huge kip. You're using a small amount of hip movement to complement the pull while still keeping the rep clean.

For beginners, don't overcomplicate this.

Learn your entry. Feel yourself coming back toward the bar. Then pull hard and stay connected to the movement.

As your technique improves, you can start experimenting with earlier tension and more advanced timing.

Strength gives you options.

Timing teaches you how to use that strength efficiently.I can also make this slightly more Streetlifting specific and emphasize what separates efficient hip flexion from a potential no rep. by @will2gaincoaching

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6 days ago

The muscle up is a skill strength exercise.
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There's a set amount of strength practice you need in tangent with skill practice. This is because the degree of timing & body awareness is higher than most movements. Also being able to produce enough upper body force is key.
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For this reason, I typically segment the majority of my yearly muscle up training as skill refinement. This includes doing 3 count swings, 2 count swings, having an object limit my amount of swing, high pulls to the hip, and many others.
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Once I'm around 8-12 weeks out from competition, I'll then proceed to load up the movement progressively. I've found this to be the perfect balance of muscle up quality control + skill mastery.
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If you're trying to get better at Muscle ups, DM me "Muscle up." & let's get to work. 💯 by @will2gaincoaching

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7 days ago

Getting as strong as possible is not just about lifting heavier weight.

Strength is a spectrum, and understanding where strength speed, speed strength, and absolute strength fit can help you train with much more intention.

Absolute strength is your ability to produce the highest amount of force possible. Think heavy squats, heavy presses, heavy pulls, and near maximal efforts. This is usually what people think about when they hear the word strength.

Strength speed is your ability to move relatively heavy loads with high intent. The weight is still challenging, but your goal is to produce force quickly. This is where movements like heavy explosive triples, dynamic squats, or powerful weighted calisthenics can have a lot of value.

Speed strength shifts even further toward velocity. The resistance is lighter, but the goal is to move as explosively as possible. Jumps, throws, Olympic lift variations, and other explosive movements can live here.

The important part is understanding that these qualities support each other.

You can have a massive strength ceiling, but if you struggle to produce force quickly, you may have trouble expressing that strength efficiently.

You can also be extremely explosive, but without enough absolute strength, your overall force potential still has a ceiling.

This is why getting stronger is not always about adding more weight to the bar.

Sometimes you need to raise your ceiling.

Sometimes you need to learn how to access that ceiling faster.

The strongest athletes are not just strong.

They are capable of producing the right amount of force, at the right speed, for the task in front of them. by @will2gaincoaching

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8 days ago