The coach
About Dom Cardone
IFBB Pro. 16 years coaching. Based in Las Vegas and coaching men across the United States, one on one, entirely online.
In short
Who Dom is and who he coaches
Dom Cardone earned his IFBB Pro status at just 21 years old after winning the heavyweight class at the 2014 NPC Nationals, making him one of the youngest bodybuilders in the sport's history to reach the professional ranks.
With 16 years of coaching experience, he works exclusively with men at every level (from serious beginners building their foundation to elite competitors chasing championships and men who want to be at their best without the stage), delivering fully personalized, one on one online coaching with the same precision, discipline, and championship standard that took him to the professional stage.
Career
How he got here
He learned the sport from both sides
Dominick found AJ Sims through a bodybuilding forum when he was still a teenager at 15 years old. AJ became his coach and one of the most important mentors of his career. Before Dominick ever asked another person to trust him with their body, he experienced what it meant to place his own goals, health, and future in the hands of a coach. Later down the line, he would be coached and mentored by Fakhri Mubarak, Chris Aceto, Oscar Ardon and Chad Nicholls.
At 16, Dominick began coaching his father. One year later, his father won his first bodybuilding show. That was the beginning of Cardone Nutrition Coaching, long before it had a name or became a business.
He earned his IFBB Pro card at 21
In 2014, Dominick won the heavyweight class at NPC Nationals and earned his IFBB Pro Card at only 21 years old, making him one of the youngest bodybuilders in the sport's history to turn professional.
It was the goal he had set for himself after discovering bodybuilding as a teenager. By an age when most people are still trying to figure out what they want to do, Dominick had already spent years building himself into one of the best young bodybuilders in the country.
His health changed the direction of his career
Dominick's competitive career ended earlier than he planned when serious health problems from mercury poisoning forced him away from the stage.
That experience changed the way he looked at bodybuilding and the responsibility of being a coach. Health could no longer be something considered only when a problem appeared. Blood work, recovery, cardiovascular health, gut health/digestion, and the long-term consequences of every decision had to be part of the process from the beginning.
It did not take away his love for bodybuilding. It gave him a deeper understanding of what the pursuit can demand from a person and why a coach must see more than the physique standing in front of him.
The last 16 years have been about his clients
Dominick has now spent more than 16 years coaching everyone from everyday men and first-time competitors to national champions, professional athletes, IFBB Pro Card winners, and Olympians.
Some clients come to him to step onstage in the best condition of their lives. Others want to build muscle, regain control of their health, or finally understand why years of effort have not produced the body they want.
The goal may change, but Dominick's responsibility does not. He studies the individual, pays attention to how that person responds, and makes every adjustment with a reason behind it. No copied plans. No coaching by formula. Not treating someone's health like an acceptable price for progress.
He has lived this sport as a competitor, a professional bodybuilder, a patient, and a coach. Every part of that experience now goes into helping his clients move forward with greater precision and fewer lessons learned the hard way.
In the room
With the men who did the work
Not a roster and not an assistant. Every client on this page is one Dom coached himself.
Who he learned from
Trained under five of the best in the sport
Third-party authority, and none of it is a claim he is making about himself.
- 01
AJ Sims
- 02
Fakhri Mubarak
- 03
Chris Aceto
- 04
Oscar Ardon
- 05
Chad Nicholls
Biography
About Dominick Cardone
Dominick P. Cardone III was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1993. Long before bodybuilding became his career, he learned what hard work looked like by working construction and concrete alongside his father. It was demanding, physical work that required discipline, patience, and the willingness to finish the job no matter how difficult it became. Those early years helped shape the standard Dominick would later bring to bodybuilding, coaching, and every other area of his life.
Athletics were always a natural part of who he was. Dominick grew up playing football and first began weight training before his sophomore year of high school to prepare for the upcoming season. What started as a way to become stronger for football quickly became something much bigger.
After discovering videos of Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, Dominick became consumed by bodybuilding. He studied the training, the nutrition, the physiques, and the mentality behind becoming one of the best in the world. Within a matter of weeks, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. He was going to become a professional bodybuilder.
At only 16 years old, Dominick stepped onstage at the 2010 NPC Metropolitan Championships. The experience confirmed what he already believed: bodybuilding was not simply an interest. It was his calling.
From that point forward, Dominick committed himself completely to the sport. At 21 years old, he achieved the goal he had set as a teenager and earned IFBB professional status, becoming one of the youngest bodybuilders ever to turn professional. That achievement was the result of years spent living the process, studying his body, learning from respected mentors, and developing an understanding of what it truly takes to perform at the highest level.
His coaching career began just as early.
When Dominick was 16, his father asked him to prepare him for a bodybuilding competition. One year later, his father won his first show. That experience showed Dominick that his purpose extended beyond building his own physique. He had the ability to take what he was learning, apply it to another person, and help that person accomplish something they may not have believed was possible.
For the next several years, Dominick coached clients without charging them. His focus was not on building a business. It was on building knowledge. He treated every client as an opportunity to study, experiment, refine his methods, and better understand how different bodies responded to training, nutrition, supplementation, recovery, and contest preparation.
The results came quickly. Clients began producing dramatic transformations, winning regional class and overall titles, earning IFBB Pro Cards, and reaching the Olympia stage.
Today, Dominick brings more than 16 years of coaching experience to every person he works with. Throughout his career, he has guided professional athletes, competitive bodybuilders, first-time competitors, and hundreds of everyday men and women through life-changing transformations.
His approach is built on far more than meal plans and training programs. Dominick believes great coaching requires understanding the individual in front of you. Their body, lifestyle, health, mindset, history, limitations, and goals all matter. Every decision should have a reason behind it, every adjustment should be based on real feedback, and every client should understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Dominick does not coach from theory alone. He coaches from decades spent studying the science, learning from elite mentors, competing at the professional level, and personally experiencing the demands of building a world-class physique. The work ethic he learned beside his father became the foundation of everything he built afterward. The environment changed, but the standard never did.
Show up. Pay attention to the details. Do the work correctly. Never ask someone else to meet a standard you are unwilling to live by yourself.
That is the foundation of Dominick's coaching and the meaning behind Conditioned for Victory. It is not simply about looking better. It is about developing the discipline, knowledge, health, and confidence required to become someone capable of winning in every area of life.
Philosophy
How Dom coaches
After more than 16 years of coaching and competing at the professional level, Dom knows that writing a plan is only a small part of coaching. The real work is knowing what to look for, understanding why someone is responding the way they are, and making the right decision before weeks or months are wasted.
Every client is treated as an individual. Dom does not force people into one coaching system or assume that the same methods will work for everyone. Training, nutrition, cardio, digestion, recovery, supplementation, blood work, sleep, stress, and lifestyle all affect one another. They have to be evaluated together if the goal is to produce the best possible result.
Changes are made based on the client's actual response, not simply because another week has passed. Dom looks at body composition, training performance, recovery, hunger, energy, digestion, adherence, health markers, and everything happening outside the gym. He wants to understand the full situation before deciding what needs to happen next.
Sometimes a client needs to push harder. Sometimes they need more food, less cardio, better recovery, or a completely different approach. Knowing which decision to make comes from experience. Dom has spent years learning how different bodies respond through contest preps, off seasons, health phases, setbacks, plateaus, and every situation that happens between them.
He is direct with his clients because he takes their goals seriously. If effort is the problem, he will say it. If expectations are unrealistic, he will explain why. If something is hurting progress or compromising health, he will address it immediately. He is not going to tell someone what they want to hear just to keep them comfortable.
That same standard applies to him. If his approach is not producing the response he expected, he will take responsibility and adjust it. His ego is never more important than the client's outcome. The goal is not to prove that the original plan was right. The goal is to keep learning from the response and continue moving the client forward.
Dom expects his clients to execute the plan, communicate honestly, and take responsibility for the choices they make. In return, they get a coach who pays attention, thinks through every adjustment, explains what he sees, and stays fully invested in the process.
Cardone Nutrition Coaching is for men who want more than a meal plan and a weekly check in. It is for men who want experienced eyes on every part of their progress, honest feedback when it matters, and a coach who takes their goals as seriously as they do.
A great coach does more than give you instructions.
He knows what to do when the plan stops going according to plan.
Press and appearances
Where he has said all this before
Long-form interviews and a feature written by someone other than him. Third-party corroboration is worth more than any claim made on this page.
Muscle & Fitness
A feature on Dom's recovery from mercury poisoning.
That is the whole pitch
If you are serious, let's get to work.
You do not need to have everything figured out before reaching out. Tell Dom where you are, what you are trying to accomplish, and what has kept you from getting there. He will give you an honest assessment of what needs to change, whether his coaching is the right fit, and what the next step looks like.