firing personal trainer??

Parent Cafe
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<p>Tell him that you are going with a different trainer to mix it up since you are not satisfied with your progress so far.
No hard feelings, bro, it’s a business decision.
Then say, “let’s kill it for the next two sessions” and let the subject drop.</p>

<p>Ask someone who looks lean and cut who they train with.</p>

<p>Don’t you think you know enough about lifting to drop the trainer?</p>

<p>Focus more on getting professional nutritional help to give you the results you want.</p>

<p>I would add spin classes, jumping rope, swimming laps, basketball games, running to mix it up and to increase your cardio.
Do you have a good heart rate monitor, one with a chest strap like a Garmin or Polar?
If not, then buy one that can track your numbers and download it all in your computer to monitor your progress.
Activities that make me sweat profusely 1 hour/daily is my benchmark for cardio along with lifting and free weights.
Men’s Health Magazine gives good advice and great articles on workouts.</p>

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<p>Find a killer boot camp class where you run until you want to throw up, then the instructor makes you do push-ups, squats, planks and run some more.</p>

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<p>That kind of low intensity cardio is OK for warmup or maybe cool down, but it is going to do essentially nothing for fat loss or your metabolism. After diet and diet, It is the fifth (and last) priority on the hierarchy of fat loss I posted above.</p>

<p>Diet
Diet</p>

<p>1) Metabolic Resistance Training
2) High Intensity Anaerobic Interval Training
3) High Intensity Aerobic Interval Training
4) Steady State High Intensity Aerobic Training
5) Steady State Low Intensity Aerobic Training</p>

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<p>I did not say eat a “high carb” diet. Eat a balanced diet. Cut out beer and pop if you’re drinking them and other empty carbs. Spend your money on a qualified sports nutrition specialist if you must. Anerobic exercise (weight lifting and high intensity cardio intervals) require that your body use carbohydrate as a fuel source. That’s just how anaerobic metabolism works. This does not mean a high carb diet, it means that in order to get a quality workout you need to have carbs on board. Eating the right amount of quality protein is good and some protien along with carb for recovery after workouts is good. You don’t need to protein load, though, to improve your body composition. When you eat low carb and end up using that extra protein for fuel the by-product is nitrogen which is filtered in the kidneys and excreted in your urine and sweat.</p>

<p>In term of bio-electical impedance, if you are dehydrated at all you will get a higher reading for body fat. A qualified trainer should be able to do an accurate 3 site skinfold test.</p>

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<p>I dont think your weight vs height ratio is bad. it is really important to get the proper body fat analysis. If reducing fat and increasing muscle is your goal. do your clothes fit differently? I have a PT she doesnt even engage people in the gym when she is with me. she concentrates on my form and what I am saying, that is what I pay for and expect. Just tell your trainer you want to mix it up, thank him for what he has done and move on. If you started to not pay he wouldnt have any issue stopping the training.</p>

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<p>A simple measure of progress is to measure your waistline (at navel level). For general good health, it should be less than half your height (33.5" – note that in Japan, they warn men of obesity of their waistline gets that big, and the average height of men in Japan is about your height). Lean athletes may get their waistline smaller, perhaps down to 42% of height.</p>

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<p>alright, i’ve just spoken to my trainer and explained my concerns about my lack of progress. He said that it was due to my poor eating habbits but i’m progressing well on my exercise. This trainer gives very very little direction with regards to diet. In fact, he’d previously said my diet was just fine…</p>

<p>He wasn’t very nice about it and asked me to continue for 1 more month with better eating habits. I’m thinking of just doing my last 2 sessions and hiring a new trainer. </p>

<p>I want to thank everyone for the advice! I’ve really got no experience when it comes to fitness.</p>

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<p>I do not know about personal trainers in general. They cannot control what you eat. The info is freely available, if you want to loose fat, you have to loose weight. Personal trainers are involved with building muscles, loosing weight has 2 components and combination of them will determine if you loose, gain or stay the same. They are:
-amount of energy that body is spending
-amount or energe that body is consuming
While trainer is involved in building your muscles, stamina, flexibility and other physical attributes of your body, he/she cannot possibly control TOTAL amount of your consumption/spending of energy. To clarify, say you exercise for 2 hours with your trainer and then sitting down for the rest of your day, you are goping to spend much less than somebody who is exercising the same and engage in some other physical activity for the rest of the day. The same difference goes if each is consuming very different amount of calories.</p>

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<p>It’s hard to add much then, isn’t it?</p>

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<p>Expect him to be hostile for the last 2 sessions and will be very critical of you.
Just finish out your workouts with him and do not let him bully you into signing on for more.
He is not a good fit for you.
A professional trainer would be tracking your progress and workouts.
This guy wants your $$.
PTs should motivate, instruct and individualize your workouts to meet your fitness goals.</p>

<p>Your passive behavior and reluctance to speak up is costing you $$ with unsatisfactory results.</p>

<p>Get some fitness books out the library and start researching-learn about diet, strength training, physiology, whatever to get the most out of your workouts.</p>

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<p>Sounds like the right move, OP. As someone else said, it’s just business. Of course, he wants you to stay for another month – he wants your money! If he were to call back for any reason, you could point out that, in addition to the lack of progress in the areas about which you were concerned, he also took calls and texted and that you weren’t paying him for that.</p>

<p>Maybe you could do the workouts on your own and hire a dietitian instead?</p>

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<p>lowendnewbie:</p>

<p>If you end up needing or wanting to take a break from personal trainers, you could pick up this book:</p>

<p>[New</a> Rules of Lifting for Abs](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Lifting-Abs-Myth-Busting/dp/1583334602/ref=sr_1_4_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331145159&sr=1-4]New”>http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Lifting-Abs-Myth-Busting/dp/1583334602/ref=sr_1_4_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331145159&sr=1-4)</p>

<p>It’s a bit of a misnomer. It’s a comprehensive general fitness three phase workout program written by Alwyn Cosgrove and published about a year ago. It will take anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks to complete the program depending on how long you stay with with each of the three phases. Each workout has a dynamic warmup (fantastic stuff). Then a core section (with three chapters of variations and progressions that are worth the price of the book, alone. Then two strength supersets, with an upper body push, an upper body pull, a hip dominant lower body exercise (like a deadlift), and a knee dominant lower body exercise (like a squat) in each workout. Some of the workouts also have a power section. Then, he outlines workouts that you can do for high intensity intervals either as “finishers” or on alternate days. In other words, it’s exactly what he does in his gym following his “hierarchy of fat loss”. </p>

<p>I did the program two time through, start to finish, last year. One time starting on New Years day and then again finiishing up the year. There’s plenty of variation to pick easier or harder versions of many of the exercises and it can be tailored for all kinds of different equipment. I now use the workouts as the templates for my own workouts, simply plugging in different exercises in the various slots.</p>

<p>For example, I might do the planks and side planks with my feet on a weight bench this week. Next week, I’ll do them with my feet in a TRX. I’ll be doing one this afternoon.</p>

<p>If you get your diet right and do this program for three months, you’ll see results, either in terms of fat loss or, if you don’t have a lot of fat to lose, in terms of getting more ripped.</p>

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<p>If you buy the book, there’s a website where you can download free workout sheets for each of the workouts – just print one page per workout and take it to the gym with you as a cheat sheet.</p>

<p>Even if you hire another personal trainer, this would be a terrific program to do with the trainer. It’s probably the best, most up-to-date, all-around workout program available in book form right now – and by adjusting the weights and difficulty, it’s suitable for almost everyone from a near beginner to an conditioned athlete.</p>

<p>This one - [Core</a> Performance](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Core-Performance-Revolutionary-Workout-Transform/dp/1594861684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331146214&sr=1-1]Core”>http://www.amazon.com/Core-Performance-Revolutionary-Workout-Transform/dp/1594861684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331146214&sr=1-1) from Mark Verstaggen at Athletes Performance in Arizona (famous for their NFL combine training) is also fantastic, but a little older. Similar workouts, although I find the organization of the chapters on the actual workouts to be nearly inscrutible. Great stuff on the actual exercises, though.</p>

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<p>thanks a lot for your advice. </p>

<p>I’m going to shop around for another trainer and see what i can afford. I went with the cheapest guy i could find…maybe that is the problem. </p>

<p>interesteddad, how fast did your body fat % drop with a proper diet and that book?</p>

<p>do you know any books on nutrition?</p>

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<p>I lost 90 pounds over 18 months. The final 20 pounds was during the four months or so that I spent doing the New Rules of Lifting for Abs program the first time around. I don’t really have enough faith in the body fat percentage readings to even look them up. Plus, I don’t think my experience is relevant to yours. You can’t have that much body fat to lose at 150 pounds. I would expect it to be pretty slow going. It usually is for people who are starting near a good body weight.</p>

<p>The second time I did the program I didn’t lose any body weight – I wasn’t trying to and I had upped my calories from 1800 a day for 18 months to 2000 a day (since I was no longer getting a lot of calories from burning my own blubber). However, I dropped a pants size while staying the same size across the chest and getting noticeably more muscular in the legs (from all the damn split squats!). I’ve been pretty impressed with the results both times. It was interesting to start the program again when I was already stronger. </p>

<p>For nutrition, I’m pretty impressed with Mark Sisson’s approach (Mark’s Daily Apple). I’m not sold on the whole “paleo” thing per se, but I find that he has an overall approach that makes a lot of sense. Good advice on carbs, proteins, and fats. But, honestly, this stuff isn’t rocket science. If you want to lose body fat, you have got to cut something out of what you are currently eating, whatever that is. </p>

<p>The first place to start for almost anyone (except maybe a marathoner or ironman or distance cyclist) is to STOP DRINKING CARBS. No soda, no fruit juice, no sports drinks, no sweet tea. No sugar in your coffee. No milk shakes. No chocolate or strawberry milk. Little or no beer. Until you’ve done that, there’s not even any point in talking about nutrition.</p>

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<p>That could be the problem–your comments regarding the trainer’s behavior, e.g., being late, talking on the phone, not really answering your questions, etc. all suggest someone who is simply going through the motions as well as someone who is very unprofessional. I’ve used a personal trainer for several years (off and on) and depending on the club and the area, the cost generally ranges from $50-$80 per hour. You can get a discount if you buy multiple visits. BTW Idad is very knowledgeable on this topic. Pay attention to what he posts.</p>

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<p>I haven’t researched it recently, but when I was looking into the low carb way of eating, this protein causes kidney problems assertion was addressed over and over and the gist of what I read was there are no studies which show that higher protein diets causes kidney problems in people with healthy kidneys. People with kidney disease cannot process high protein diets, but it’s the fact that their kidneys can’t handle it that is the problem, not that there is anything inherently wrong with eating higher protein diets or that high protein diets were the cause of their kidney disease.</p>

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<p>If the body fat is what you are concerned with, have you gotten a proper high tech measurement?</p>

<p>Also, my daughters bf is about as fit as can be rock hard abs, etc and his body fat is above ten percent but to see him younwould never believe the numbers. </p>

<p>I would concentrate more on how you look, feel, how clothes fit, etc</p>

<p>Also, maybe for awhile don’t use a personal trainer, but spend that money on group on deals, or social times or one of the other places.</p>

<p>I got ten krav maga workouts for forty dollars, and five rowing classes for 35dollars. Many places have deals on boots camps, free three or week long visits as well. These can jump-start your workouts if you have plateud.</p>

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<p>Most American’t get plenty of protein. Why use protein for fuel? It’s not a great fuel source. I did not say that it will cause kidney problems. Adding extra waste into your system that it can’t use, whatever the source is hard on the organs that need to filter it. Your body’s ideal fuels are carbohydrate (in the form of blood sugar from foods and stored in muscles and liver as glycogen) and body fat. Again, most American’s eat enough protein to build and maintain their muscles. If you take in excess protein your body is not going to build more muscle or change composition positively. If you are not eating enough carbs for your workouts (assuming anaerobic) your body will burn the protein with nitrogen released as a waste product. It is an expensive and inefficient fuel, and the nitrogen must be excreted through your kidneys.</p>

<p>See a registered dietician who is a sports nutrition specialist for tips - do not get dietary advice from random people on the internet.</p>

<p>Also, make sure your new trainer, if you use one, is NSCA, ACSM, or NASM certified.</p>

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<p>My bad. I thought “bad and hard on the kidneys” meant that it could cause problems for the kidneys. Otherwise what does “bad and hard on them” really mean? </p>

<p>If the OP eats a lot of refined carbohydrates, I agree with interesteddad that reducing those would probably be helpful, and I also agree that a sports nutritionist might also be beneficial.</p>

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<p>I think many Americans, especially those who have bought the low-fat mantra, don’t get sufficient protein to support lean muscle mass gains from an effective strength training program. Without lean muscle mass, it is harder to combat excess body fat. Lean muscle and resistance strength training increase insulin sensitivity which is important for a metabolism that doesn’t tend to store fat.</p>

<p>Enough protein to stay alive by dietary standards, sure. Enough protein to support lean muscle gain in a young fit person with a regular program of resistance strength training? That’s a different issue. I aim for 100 grams per day of protein (at 160 pounds). I’m happy if I go over that. For a young male in his 20s trying to become leaner and more ripped, working out five days a week, I would personally be aiming higher than that. I don’t think a target of 100 to 150 grams per day would be excessive or even in crazy bodybuilder bulking up territory.</p>