Advice on personal trainers?

Sup,
I was interested to see if anyone on TW had any experience with one? I've seen one guy a few times but I can't help but feel that I'm being mugged offeach time. I am seeing results but what he's teaching me doesn't seem like anything I couldn't have figured out alone. I've been at a gym for about 2 years and have become much healthier (losing 45lbs) and now I'm just working on trying to get my body into a shape I'm happy with. Right now he's got me doing 5 sets of 5 reps on only a few exercises with heavy weights. It feels like he's trying to get me to bulk or something but I don't wanna be too big. Anyone else had experience with a PT? What thoughts do you have?

What kind of lifts does he have you doing? Free weights or machines? Is he including all the major lifts? (bench press, military press, deadlift, squat)

As for getting big, it doesn't happen by accident. You have to try hard for a long time to get big.

What kind of lifts does he have you doing? Free weights or machines? Is he including all the major lifts? (bench press, military press, deadlift, squat)

As for getting big, it doesn't happen by accident. You have to try hard for a long time to get big.

It's all free weights. It's split into two days at the moment, I'm not sure if it's even trying me enough though because I'm not getting DOMS anymore anywhere near as bad as I used to when I first started with him (on a side note, he came runner up in the Mr England contest... lol)

Day 1 All of them are five sets of five and on the last one work to failure, heavy as I can manage
Bench Press
Overhead Barbell Press (I think)
Pull Ups (close grip. and I can barely manage that. I am a pussy.)

Day 2
Bench Press
Dead Lifts
Squats

and I also throw in some core exercises normally even if it's just some weighted crunches of turkish get ups. Apparently I'm stricitly off of cardio though.
Any other thoughts?

So far you have listed why your are working out or what your goals are, just that you "don't want to get big"

Trying to be strong? Muscular? Lose weight? Fitness?

Yeah I know I could've listed more but I wasn't specifically talking about like what my goals are, I was mainly interested on whether they were worth it because I'm starting to resent handing money over for things I could figure out myself.
Mainly, I'm looking to get toned but I'm quite particular about it. I don't wanna get too big in the chest because I don't want huge pecks as such, I wanna get smaller in my lower body especially have a firmer ass but I think a lot of my problems there are to do with loose skin left from my weight loss over the course of like 9 months. I used to be a nice size and was happy with how slim I was but since I've been seeing this new guy I am so hungry ALL the time so naturally I've put on a bit of weight and I just came to TW because everyone hear seems to know what they're talking about and I wanted to find out from you guys if my personal trainer knows what he is talking about.

Your trainer has given you a "decent" routine... no need to bench every workout, imo.

However, is your trainer helping you with your form and technique with your lifts?

As long as he is TRAINING you, go for it. Also, check out his credentials. He might be a trainer, but he might not have any real certifications and could be clueless when it comes to good technique/mechanics. The last thing you want to do is learn bad habits.


PS - it's also dumb that he told you no more cardio if your goal is weight loss, not strength and mass.

I agree with the bench press thing, doing it every day will lead to over training.

And on the cardio note, cardio is important whether you are losing weight or trying to gain weight. Moreso for losing weight, though.

i've always said, and my coaches have always said, if you're trying to gain size, then focus on gaining size and maximize your gains by not doing cardio

How does doing cardio minimize your gains?

burns extra calories and uses up nutrients which could be used for increased mass

So eat more, then you will be big and able to run.

look, i don't care what you do for your workouts.

doing cardio while trying to gain mass is not the most efficient way to grow

So eat more, then you will be big and able to run.

This is stupid. I'm 6'1, 165, and have the metabolism of a race horse. I cannot put weight on for the life of me (except I put on 5 lbs these past 2 months because I've been eating 5 - 6000 calories a day). I won't go near cardio because I don't want any of that energy getting used to burn the fat that I don't have. I want all my energy to go towards rebuilding muscle.

If I did cardio with some amount of frequency, I guarantee I wouldn't have gained the 5 lbs of mass that I did. Saying, "So eat more" is retarded.

I guess he must know what he's doing. He has a lot of certificates and that I'm just starting to resent handing the money over every time. How did you guys come up with your programs? Did you pay to have a program set up or just acquire all the knowledge yourself? If so, how? I doubt everyone went on a personal training class...

I started out by reading Rippetoe's books on programming and then doing further research on the Internet.

i've always said, and my coaches have always said, if you're trying to gain size, then focus on gaining size and maximize your gains by not doing cardio

just popped in to say everyone with enough experience on the subject agrees with this. completely agree

i think belial and i only disagree about cereal being healthy :lol:

and you're going to hell for eating it ;)

look, i don't care what you do for your workouts.

doing cardio while trying to gain mass is not the most efficient way to grow


I agree with this and the weight and size I gained this winter with no cardio (aside from warmup) also agrees with this.


edit: oh and I love cereal.