Gaining muscle / burning fat dichotomy... am I missing something?

[durron597]

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i feel like the guy knows a lot but he's understandably reluctant to teach me;

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Personal trainers are not guardians of temple knowledge-- that is not their value add.

edit: You apparently have two sessions left. You want him to teach you any of the following that you don't know how to do: Squat, Dead lift, Row, and Power Clean. Take charge of your sessions.

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we've done tons of squats and rows

i will make sure he teaches me dead lifts and power cleans tomorrow

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I'm curious how this went, and whether you got to power cleans or needed to spend too much time on all the progressions. BTW, on the pull-ups, do negatives.

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i mentioned that to him, he said we've done deadlifts and i just didn't realize they were deadlifts because they weren't with a barbell. im not sure why he doesn't want me to do them with a barbell, because he had me do something on a machine yesterday that he said was just like a deadlift - 2 weights at the bottom of a machine where my hands were out in front... the weights when to rest when i did a "squat"-like motion and the standing up motion pulled the weights up. he also said he doesn't like power cleans because you can injure your rotator cuffs that way and that i do the same muscle groups already with multiple different more targeted exercises. (he also said something similar about french curls and that i can injure my spine that way)

[Blarg]

A deadlift type motion with a machine sounds scary to me. I already see most things in life don't fit a six-footer all that well -- counters are so low you have really stoop to work at them, same with xerox machines; chairs are so low my knees feel bunched up, desks are built so low some are hard to even get my legs under, cars are too small, etc. Things are made to work with both men and women, and that includes a lot of short people. Tall people get the "left-overs" when it comes to ergonomics, in a sense -- we just have to make do. But while some of that might be very uncomfortable, none of it is going to be immediately dangerous. I find it hard to picture an exercise machine I would trust my spinal cord to.

[thirddan]

durron, try and get this guy to do everything with free weights...machines lock you into a specific motion and dont allow for your natural motion to come through, they also lock out a bunch of muscles that help to support and stabilize.

i don't think anyone would really be surprised that he didn't show you how to clean...most trainers just aren't qualified to instruct on most lifts, not just the more technical ones...there is a reason most commercial trainers have people do tons of isolation/machine work and that is because they don't know how to do anything else cuz they got certified at a weekend seminar...

and the working all the muscle groups with multiple exercises is so lame...unless you have tons of hours together at the gym this is just not effective...doing cleans works practically every major muscle group from the calves all the way to the traps and upper back, its a full body lift...wouldn't you rather use your time efficiently and hit the whole body in one lift than have to run around the gym for an hour to get the same training effect? you might have to jump on 6 machines to get all the muscles groups trained while doing a set of cleans...

building your program around the major compound exercises and supplementing with assistance moves is much more efficient than building a program of all isolation movements...

[shemp]

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he also said he doesn't like power cleans because you can injure your rotator cuffs that way and that i do the same muscle groups

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Well. You're caught in the middle, trying to speak a language you don't yet know, and he's answering in another language. What he's saying is nonsensical even in his own language, but it doesn't matter. You are asking about total body complex movements, and he's answering about hitting body parts. The power clean is the (well, one) end of a progression of several excellent exercises, starting with the dead lift, none of which put the rotator cuff at risk.

Maybe after this training session is over, we go back over your goals and come up with an appropriate plan/shopping list for a trainer.

[durron597]

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durron, try and get this guy to do everything with free weights...

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it's funny, i had him doing everything with me with free weights and he told me that i would be much better off using machines but he went with me, a few days ago i let him show me machine stuff and now we do almost all machines

honestly i think i might just start following meltdown from t-nation after im done with these sessions, it's cheaper and probably more effective. a few problems with this though:

1) my trainer told me that i should be doing a lot of minor variety in my work out. like if i bench press twice in three days i should do like narrow grip one day and wide grip the other... or one day i'll do push ups off a bench, the next time off the weight rack, the next time with my knees on the ground doing them flat etc. etc. does this have any merit?

2) the other thing is that i can do more weight when i have someone spotting me. i like the fact that i have someone who can watch me and tell me where / when i can improve my form in the middle of a set... bleh...

i see everything you guys are saying about how much my trainer sucks and i agree to an extent but i like the security blanket having one provides, at least until i get more comfortable with my body and working out

[durron597]

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i don't think anyone would really be surprised that he didn't show you how to clean...most trainers just aren't qualified to instruct on most lifts, not just the more technical ones...there is a reason most commercial trainers have people do

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by the way, my trainer is really built and one saturday i came in and he was doing his own lifting (rather than training someone) and he was doing barbell deadlifts at one point... i think the max i saw him do was like 3 reps of ~550 which i thought was pretty sick (iirc it was 5 45ers & a 25 on each side)

[Thremp]

Durron,

That is very solid for your trainer. He likely put you on a cookie cutter machine program... again really standard.

Meltdown is a hard workout for a fist workout. You should really go SS or 5x5.

You don't need that much variation in the beginning because you muscular adaptation in the form of CNS improvements will be altering load/intensity so much in the first year of training that it can take care of all the variation you need. One thing I've come back to after years of lifting is just: Do the simplest thing that works. If I can go 5x5 it and make gains... thats what I do.