Hire personal trainer?

[slimon]

I bet you if someone payed my friend 50 bucks to work out for an hour he would but yet won't do it for his own health. Even though I'm only 10 pounds overweight I wouldn't work out for my only good but I would work out for the 50 bucks. Isn't that alittle crazy?

[notfreemoney]

[ QUOTE ]
Is my friend getting ripped off? He's paying 80 dollars per session for 24 sessions which come out to be 1920. One session is an hour long. I think he's paying way too much but he really needs it. He's 5'11 and about 260 pounds. He is more motivated now because he's paying alot of money. Maybe that is the key? He's going twice a week so the whole thing is going to take 3 months. What happens after that though? Without the trainer will he stop going? If that is so he's going to have to pay someone for his rest of his life?

[/ QUOTE ]

80 is on the higher side but is not out of the ordinary for a competent trainer... Some even charge upwards of 100 per hour. Hopefully after the 3 months your friend will have seen that he can lose the weight with hard work and have that as a motivation.

[MasterCye]

Finding a good trainer is very difficult. At my gym, in the 2 years i've been going there, they've gone through about 30-40 different trainers. The only one whose been there the whole time was the guy who does the martial arts classes. Of all the trainers that have been there the only one I would trust is the martial arts guy, and only to teach martial arts.

In finding a trainer I would ask these questions:
1. How important are squats and deadlifts in your programs?
- In 2 years I've NEVER seen a trainer have a person do squats and deadlifts.

2. If they say squats and deadlifts are important ask if squats to parallel or ATG(ass to grass).
- ATG, it recruits more muscles in your legs and is safer for your knees

3. Machines or free weights.
- Free weights doing compound movements are king.

4. How much do you incorporate those brightly colored balls on the wall.
- The more they use them, the worse they are. I've seen trainers working people out on those balls almost their whole session.

If you manage to find a trainer who correctly answers these questions congrats, they still might suck the big one.

Your best bet is to educate yourself. Buy some books, browse some of the online forums. All this will cost less than a bunch of sessions with a probably sub-standard trainer. The best thing that can happen with a crappy trainer is wasting some time and money, the worst is severe injury because they taught you something incorrectly.

[shemp]

From what I've observed personal trainers have several major problems:

1. They eschew major movements and heavy weights (presumably their certification authorities tell them it is dangerous).

2. They focus too directly on core and stability (giving the impression of building a six pack).

3. Focus on "pump." (This is perhaps related to #1 as well as what they think will impress their clients).

Even assuming those problems, whatever gets someone to the gym, motivation-wise, as well as leaving the planning to someone else are good things.

[SamG]

I've considered booking a few sessions with a trainer to me help with my form on squats and deadlifts and to learn to clean. But you'll get better advice on this forum than you will from a trainer, and Rippetoe or 5x5 or whatever is a better program than whatever machine circuit a trainer will probably put you on.

I think of personal trainers in the same way I think of financial advisors: You're probably better off spending just a little time educating yourself and doing it on your own.

Do Rippetoe and invest in index funds. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[shemp]

Sam, there's a crossfit affiliate in Raleigh. Probably charge $100/hr 1 on 1 or $75/hr each for 2. I don't see any Oly coaches listed for your area. (edit: I may have mispoke about rates. Could be $50 1 on 1, and $75 for two.)

I think the ideal relationship between trainer/trainee is that they are developing the goals and program together-- but the trainee has taken charge of his own fitness, and getting technical help.

The typical relationship, given someone with vague wants "to get in shape/more tone", seems bound to fail (even if the typical trainer weren't an oaf)-- and it is remarkable to me that it is actually a very worthwhile stepping stone to some. It gives them just that little bit of confidence to start finding their own way.

[suzzer99]

Yeah in my case I've made it very clear to my trainer that adding muscle mass is my main goal. Actually losing fat is the overall goal, but gaining mass is the goal with him. He's a pretty muscular guy, which is why I picked him, so he should now how to get me there. I'm giving him a month and then re-evaluate.

I'm sure though that just getting in the hapbit of a real workout 3 days a week will be worth it for me.

[Thremp]

suzzer,


You'll probably end up on a 3x8 machine based program like almost everyone else does :/

[triviatard2]

Is 3x8 that bad if it's freeweights?

(this is suzzer, I got tempbanned for posting a trivia question in OOT, MOD RAMPAGE!)

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
Is 3x8 that bad if it's freeweights?

(this is suzzer, I got tempbanned for posting a trivia question in OOT, MOD RAMPAGE!)

[/ QUOTE ]

More or less. Whatever program you'll be on will likely suck. You'll mostly do too many exercise variants. You should be doing the simplest thing that works.