advice before I meet with a personal trainer

[BigCummins]

Machines are usually reserved for the lazy, ignorant, or injured.

There is nothing "advanced" about free weights. They are just the simplest most effective modes of working your muscles when compared to gimmicky hi-tech looking machines. Machines just try to mimic the natural range of motion your going through when using freeweights. I find them to be quite inhibiting of my movement depending on the excercise being done.

It is a good idea if your new to learn proper form for the major lifts like wolfram mentioned, but this should be accomplished in the first couple sessions and then you can cut your trainer loose.

[shemp]

[ QUOTE ]
i can only guess, but i would guess that machine based programs are pushed because the trainers aren't educated enough to properly instruct on free weight techniques and have no skill in proper program design...

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I would make the same guess and avoid the trainer for this very reason.

Btw, the original exchange reminded me of: Do you have anything without ANY spam in it?

--Well, the spam, eggs, sausage, and spam doesn't have much spam in it.

[cbloom]

Could be a liability thing too for these gym chains. If they actually encourage free weights and people do them and get hurt they might get sued.

[BigCummins]

for some reason I cant edit... Add beginners to the mix of regular machine users.


Also, if you didnt get a word in before he asked you to try out the machines then thats one thing, but if you told him you wanted to be trained with FW's first and then he told you to try something different, then he probably has some agenda of his own for doing so. These machines don't require a special membership or something do they?

[Wynton]

I'm pretty sure that the machines do not require a separate membership. The only clear economic incentive I see at work here is that the personal trainer presumably would like me to buy additional sessions with him.

At this point, all I can do is try him out and hope he provides basic instruction about proper form. Without knowing anyone specific there, I'm not in a position to reject or accept whoever they set me up with. And this was never intended to be anything other than a 1 or 2-shot deal.

Perhaps I should have looked into the possibility of a trainer not associated with the club directly.

[Wynton]

[ QUOTE ]
the original exchange reminded me of: Do you have anything without ANY spam in it?

--Well, the spam, eggs, sausage, and spam doesn't have much spam in it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was kind of like that. In fairness, the guy merely asked if I would consider these other machines; not knowing any better, I said I'd be open-minded to anything. But even with my limited knowledge, it raised a red flag to me that he was even proposing more machines.

[bwana devil]

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Perhaps I should have looked into the possibility of a trainer not associated with the club directly.

[/ QUOTE ]

there are programs trainers go through which allows them to put impressive looking initials after their name. i dont have the foggiest idea what the different programs are and what means they might have had longer than 1 week worth of training but perhaps someone might be able to shed some light on it or direct where to look.

you mention looking elsewhere, craigslist always has posts from trainers. perhaps you could shop around on that in your area and be able to interview the trainers a bit more before you decide on whom to use..

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
This is a weird exchange. You call him up expressly to find someone to check you off/teach you some free weight movements and he says, perfect!, I've got a special machine for folks like you.

edit to add: Maybe it isn't clear. I wouldn't give such a person my business.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree. I'm finding it kind of hard to picture a useful transition of any sort too.

In fact I think delaying the move to weights is a bad idea. You want to learn your balance and form and flexibility when you're still doing light weights, not when you're developed enough to be doing serious loads, especially the kind that can mess up your back if your form isn't quite there or degrades as you get tired.

It sounds like all you'll be doing is building in either bad habits or patterns of neuromuscular coordination that simply won't apply. You don't want to get things like balance "almost" right. That does you no favors at all and is actually potentially harmful.

Better to start at the beginning without any fancy sidesteps.

[Rootabager]

go in there and say hey I am going to start doing 5X5.

These are the exercises in 5x5.
bench,dip,squat,deadlift, shoulder press, bent over row, etc.

I want to learn to do these correctly.

I also am interested in the olympic lifts.

This is what I want you to teach me.

If that takes 2 classes so be it.

Then you wont need him anymore.

[POKEROMGLOL]

ok, so i learned how to lift weights *kind of* back in the early years of highschool, maybe late middle school. Like 7 or 8 years ago.

It isn't hard AT ALL. just watch videos online, try and copy it, make sure nothings hurting, and don't kill yourself with heavy weights for a while. i really don't think anyone needs professional help to learn how to lift weights properly.