[Wynton]

Well, here's a little trip report.

The trainer I mentioned earlier had to cancel, so I found another one. With this guy, I made it crystal clear I wanted to learn proper form with free weights. Initially, I was reassured that this guy was pretty knowledgeable, if for no other reason, he took several opportunities to tell me he had been doing this for decades and understood proper form. But a red flag came up when he also told me right away that it would take a lot more than 1 session to do what I wanted.

Without anyone else to turn to on short notice, I went through with the session. After a brief discussion of one issue I have with my knees, he had me perform certain motions purportedly designed to display how much flexibility I had. Next thing I know, this became the entire focus of the session. Somehow the entire time was devoted to my performing various flexibility or stretching routines, with barely any use of weights. The only thing we did that used weights at all was one version of a leg press machine (and the point of that was to stretch the hamstring). Bottom line is that I found the entire experience to be a waste of time, though I also concede that he might be good for someone who wants their hands held for months.

The good news is that he didn't charge me, evidently because he assumed it would bring him good will, especially since he was late to begin with, and he figured I'd be coming back.

At this point, I am tempted to just watch some videos and figure out proper form for myself, even though I suspect it is a bad idea in the long run.