Weightlifting for Kiwis - Discussion and support regarding the art of swole

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Can we talk personal trainers and maybe can I also get a reality check here?

After lifting for nearly 10 years on my own, I recently signed up for a personal trainer. This is why (and I've told him this):
  1. My main challenge is form and muscle engagement. I'm one of those retards with little to no body awareness.
  2. My numbers are shit because I've a deep-seated fear of working out with the wrong form and fucking up my body permanently.
  3. My primary goal is getting my strength up (I don't want to be a strongman contestant but I want to be able to lift furniture and do functional shit if SHTF), with cutting to low bf as a very close secondary goal.
He's trained me for 2.5 months (twice a week, an hour each). I'm not sure if I'd carry on after I use up my sessions.

My reasons are:
  • Turns out my form is generally very good, very little adjustment needed.
  • A random in my gym pointed out I was using my lower back a lot when squatting and I needed to engage my core a lot more.
    • I started paying attention and he was right. On days where I didn't focus on using my core, my lower back would pick up the slack and hurt like shit the next 2 days (in a bad way, not DOMS)
    • This was 15 sessions in with my trainer and he never noticed/pointed it out. When I brought it up, he said "it's just a little".
  • My trainer's program includes "strength and stamina" benchmarking every 6 weeks. This involves some sprinting, biking, body measurements and doing main lift 1RM tests, and takes up like 3 sessions.
    • I realize he needs to show me that I'm making progress to justify his cost and I'm cool with that
    • I don't even mind if it's done that often. But I don't like the fact it eats up THREE sessions, that's $200 to measure my strength and stamina every 6 weeks. Am I being unrealistic here?
I find the value of a personal trainer (both this one and in general) very questionable, always have, and I fucking hate how they force you into signing up for a bunch of sessions vs pay per use.

How can you tell good personal trainers from shit ones? Is my personal trainer here any good?

My bar isn't very high for a personal trainer - essentially I want a dedicated spotter who knows his shit and can tell if my form is wrong and immediately point that out. And optionally chat about workouts and give recommendations like "are you doing THIS? And if you're doing THIS, are you doing THAT?"

Unlike most normies, I'm happy to bring my own program, diet plan and calorie/workout responsibility check. I would just do my thing for most of the week and go in once every 1-2 weeks, do the big lifts with the trainer, he checks if my form is still okay with increasing weights and if yes I'm good to go.

Soon I'm going to have to decide whether to go back to lifting alone or extending my sessions, and I'm sure with inflation, the price is gonna hit $100/hour.
 
Última edición:
ToxicKek dijo:
Can we talk personal trainers and maybe can I also get a reality check here?

After lifting for nearly 10 years on my own, I recently signed up for a personal trainer. This is why (and I've told him this):
  1. My main challenge is form and muscle engagement. I'm one of those retards with little to no body awareness.
  2. My numbers are shit because I've a deep-seated fear of working out with the wrong form and fucking up my body permanently.
  3. My primary goal is getting my strength up (I don't want to be a strongman contestant but I want to be able to lift furniture and do functional shit if SHTF), with cutting to low bf as a very close secondary goal.
He's trained me for 2.5 months (twice a week, an hour each). I'm not sure if I'd carry on after I use up my sessions.

My reasons are:
  • Turns out my form is generally very good, very little adjustment needed.
  • A random in my gym pointed out I was using my lower back a lot when squatting and I needed to engage my core a lot more.
    • I started paying attention and he was right. On days where I didn't focus on using my core, my lower back would pick up the slack and hurt like shit the next 2 days (in a bad way, not DOMS)
    • This was 15 sessions in with my trainer and he never noticed/pointed it out. When I brought it up, he said "it's just a little".
  • My trainer's program includes "strength and stamina" benchmarking every 6 weeks. This involves some sprinting, biking, body measurements and doing main lift 1RM tests, and takes up like 3 sessions.
    • I realize he needs to show me that I'm making progress to justify his cost and I'm cool with that
    • I don't even mind if it's done that often. But I don't like the fact it eats up THREE sessions, that's $200 to measure my strength and stamina every 6 weeks. Am I being unrealistic here?
I find the value of a personal trainer (both this one and in general) very questionable, always have, and I fucking hate how they force you into signing up for a bunch of sessions vs pay per use.

How can you tell good personal trainers from shit ones? Is my personal trainer here any good?

My bar isn't very high for a personal trainer - essentially I want a dedicated spotter who knows his shit and can tell if my form is wrong and immediately point that out. And optionally chat about workouts and give recommendations like "are you doing THIS? And if you're doing THIS, are you doing THAT?"

Unlike most normies, I'm happy to bring my own program, diet plan and calorie/workout responsibility check. I would just do my thing for most of the week and go in once every 1-2 weeks, do the big lifts with the trainer, he checks if my form is still okay with increasing weights and if yes I'm good to go.

Soon I'm going to have to decide whether to go back to lifting alone or extending my sessions, and I'm sure with inflation, the price is gonna hit $100/hour.
Presiona para expandir...
Dawg it sounds like you just need a gymbro.
 
I like having a trainer to keep myself honest and also I find when I have someone with me who I know is stronger than me I feel stronger and more comfortable going for heavier weights.

You already sound like you aren't really clicking with this one though and are looking for an excuse to get out, maybe it's time ?
 
@ToxicKek

You don't need a trainer, you need a lifting buddy or just call over a spotter.

There's a couple types of people that need trainers: complete noobs that couldn't tell you difference between a bench press and a squat and people that are just unmotivated and need the "accountability" and/or monetary incentive to show up.

Personal training is sorta a racket.

____________________

I calculated I've only had about 1200 calories a day since I quit drinking 6 days ago. My TDEE is about 3.2K or so so that means I've already lost about 3lbs. Scale backs it up. Man I don't know if I can keep this up but it sure is rewarding to see such rapid progress on this cut I'm attempting. I did a couple maintenance workouts this week just high rep fairly light weight stuff. Not expecting any gains in a cut but would like to try and arrest as much lean mass loss as possible.
 
ToxicKek dijo:
Can we talk personal trainers and maybe can I also get a reality check here?

After lifting for nearly 10 years on my own, I recently signed up for a personal trainer. This is why (and I've told him this):
  1. My main challenge is form and muscle engagement. I'm one of those retards with little to no body awareness.
  2. My numbers are shit because I've a deep-seated fear of working out with the wrong form and fucking up my body permanently.
  3. My primary goal is getting my strength up (I don't want to be a strongman contestant but I want to be able to lift furniture and do functional shit if SHTF), with cutting to low bf as a very close secondary goal.
He's trained me for 2.5 months (twice a week, an hour each). I'm not sure if I'd carry on after I use up my sessions.

My reasons are:
  • Turns out my form is generally very good, very little adjustment needed.
  • A random in my gym pointed out I was using my lower back a lot when squatting and I needed to engage my core a lot more.
    • I started paying attention and he was right. On days where I didn't focus on using my core, my lower back would pick up the slack and hurt like shit the next 2 days (in a bad way, not DOMS)
    • This was 15 sessions in with my trainer and he never noticed/pointed it out. When I brought it up, he said "it's just a little".
  • My trainer's program includes "strength and stamina" benchmarking every 6 weeks. This involves some sprinting, biking, body measurements and doing main lift 1RM tests, and takes up like 3 sessions.
    • I realize he needs to show me that I'm making progress to justify his cost and I'm cool with that
    • I don't even mind if it's done that often. But I don't like the fact it eats up THREE sessions, that's $200 to measure my strength and stamina every 6 weeks. Am I being unrealistic here?
I find the value of a personal trainer (both this one and in general) very questionable, always have, and I fucking hate how they force you into signing up for a bunch of sessions vs pay per use.

How can you tell good personal trainers from shit ones? Is my personal trainer here any good?

My bar isn't very high for a personal trainer - essentially I want a dedicated spotter who knows his shit and can tell if my form is wrong and immediately point that out. And optionally chat about workouts and give recommendations like "are you doing THIS? And if you're doing THIS, are you doing THAT?"

Unlike most normies, I'm happy to bring my own program, diet plan and calorie/workout responsibility check. I would just do my thing for most of the week and go in once every 1-2 weeks, do the big lifts with the trainer, he checks if my form is still okay with increasing weights and if yes I'm good to go.

Soon I'm going to have to decide whether to go back to lifting alone or extending my sessions, and I'm sure with inflation, the price is gonna hit $100/hour.
Presiona para expandir...

It seems you already know what your problems are, and what you want to change, so if you can't motivate yourself to do it, a trainer won't help IMO. Getting a trainer seems pretty popular, but I don't hate on them or their students as everyone has different goals. In my observations at the gym, it seems either most of these people don't want to train hard and are doing some mental gymnastics thinking that by having a trainer, they can say they trained (house wife types) or they are new to the gym and/or want a friend to hold their hand until they feel more comfortable. I mean fuck, when I was new to the gym, they gave me 3 free sessions and a program, which I was grateful for because I knew nothing about the gym and I was super fucking intimidated because it brought home a few truths - that a bunch of other men were working very hard and I had been sitting on my ass and was physically/mentally weak.

I think trainers are in a bind as they want repeat customers but working the client too hard, or being too ambitious with goals is going to stop the money coming in, which might explain why I see so many trainers doing subpar workouts. Whatever I guess, people waste money on all kinds of shit, and paying some run of the mill personal trainer at the gym is far from the worst thing someone could be doing with their time/money.
 
Didn't eat or sleep properly all week and am paying for it today, I know I should not me struggling this much. Don't be lazy with your meals guys, I'm missing a lot of energy from skipping meals because of how busy I was. 😭

I do think trainers can be worth if you can find someone that suits your needs. I've had two.

One was pretty easy on me and didn't push me too hard, did not get any results in 3 years, which is also my fault, I acknowledge that.

Found someone else who does not suck up to me and actually makes me want to cry and throw up sometimes except I saw amazing progress in a short time. But again, I also had a massive attitude change between the time I swapped trainers.

It's mostly on yourself to get results, I am just lazy and need someone to write my work outs for me and check that I'm not selling myself short on what I can/should be capable of.
 
Daily reminder to sleep like you train, frens. If you're not training or eating, then you're supposed to be sleeping.

1657950112036.png


Are you getting your sleep in?
 
Última edición:
thejackal dijo:
@ToxicKek

You don't need a trainer, you need a lifting buddy or just call over a spotter.

There's a couple types of people that need trainers: complete noobs that couldn't tell you difference between a bench press and a squat and people that are just unmotivated and need the "accountability" and/or monetary incentive to show up.

Personal training is sorta a racket.

____________________

I calculated I've only had about 1200 calories a day since I quit drinking 6 days ago. My TDEE is about 3.2K or so so that means I've already lost about 3lbs. Scale backs it up. Man I don't know if I can keep this up but it sure is rewarding to see such rapid progress on this cut I'm attempting. I did a couple maintenance workouts this week just high rep fairly light weight stuff. Not expecting any gains in a cut but would like to try and arrest as much lean mass loss as possible.
Presiona para expandir...
I wouldn't do a crash diet if I were you. I know its rewarding but you will fuck up your metabolism. I don't know if you are overweight but start with a deficit of around 200kcal and work your way down slowly. It's much healthier, sustainable and you will get better results over time.
Lower it by another 200kcal everytime you see your weight stagnate. You will have a way better time, you won't feel like shit and the risk of binging is way lower. If this is the end of a cut, go for it but if you just started, start slow. The risk of regaining fat is also way lower when you slowly increase your calories again (jojo effect). You will know your body way better.
Good luck!
 
I've been doing practice squats with the bar only for depth on my non-leg days, hoping it's helping since I really can't do full depth on leg days...I hope it's helping, tell me if I'm retarded.
 
Any exercises other than an adducting machine to strengthen and grow the adductor muscle group in the legs? My adductor muscles don't feel as tight as my other leg muscles and kinda bothers me. Exercises for abductor muscles would also be nice.
 
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