No longer taking advice in the weight room . . .

iowalinda

Our local small town weight room is manned by volunteers. The other day, the volunteer who was working in the room came over to tell me I was not using one of the machines correctly. She changed a few things and had me try again. Right away I could feel stress in my knees (it was a leg machine). I did a few reps, as I didn't want to seem rude (and she seemed to think she was being helpful). For hours after that, my knees hurt. I don't know much about weight lifting, but it didn't seem right what she was telling me. And I definitely don't want to get hurt, so wondering if I should just stick to stuff I know.

jessef593

I'm not sure why you got woo'd there seems to be a hand ful of people who would rather make you feel crap about a post opposed to actually sharing something on the topic.

Personally. I do not listen to any gym staff and a rare few trainers especially after watching afew of their training sessions.

If you're going to listen to anyone. It should be someone with several years under their belt along with hopefully a decent certification.

I have several "employees" at my gym who criticize and try to correct my training regimine. Generally with block pulls and banded squats. For some reason the moment someone becomes employed at a gym they are under the impression that their certified to train. These same employees stood there watching a tv while 15ft a way a kid was pinned under the bar on bench press. I quickly ran over to help and then immediately turned on the staff.

Moral of the story. Learn as much as you can so that when someone attempts to correct you. You can correct them as to the proper execution of an exercise. I would suggest getting an accredited trainer for at least a couple of sessions to avoid injury

iowalinda

Thank you, Jesse I've been warned that doing weight lifting incorrectly can cause some serious and permanent injuries, so have been cautious.

billkansas

I've found Youtube a great resource for compound lift form education. I prefer Starting Strength versions myself... seems like you could do pretty well by Youtube and perhaps take videos of your lifts for comparison. Personally, I haven't taken any videos of my lifts but need to.

LivingtheLeanDream

You are right to be cautious, if something didn't feel right then chances are it wasn't right. Without knowing more perhaps this person wasn't even qualified or had enough experience to be assisting you.

mbaker566

you are right to be cautious, but at the same time if you've been doing something incorrectly, doing something correctly may put stress on joints and limbs that aren't used to the pressure.
idk if you were right, or they were, but just saying...when i teach yoga people complain when i fix their alignment because it feels "wrong" but they were before.

heybales

Ditto to idea that moving something into a better position may still hurt because it's different.
Usually when you do that you back off the weight a bit until used to it, or make gradual changes.

It could easily be you weren't in best position - but also not at a level of intensity that it mattered much.
But it could eventually if you kept progressing.

I know many of the machines have the pivot points the joints should line up with, and your position in the machine makes it awfully hard to confirm that. Mirrors help.

But they also should have started out asking if you have any physical issues you are working around - because if so, you could have had a PT person set you up they are unaware of.

NGentRD

jessef593 wrote: »

I'm not sure why you got woo'd there seems to be a hand ful of people who would rather make you feel crap about a post opposed to actually sharing something on the topic.

Personally. I do not listen to any gym staff and a rare few trainers especially after watching afew of their training sessions.

If you're going to listen to anyone. It should be someone with several years under their belt along with hopefully a decent certification.

I have several "employees" at my gym who criticize and try to correct my training regimine. Generally with block pulls and banded squats. For some reason the moment someone becomes employed at a gym they are under the impression that their certified to train. These same employees stood there watching a tv while 15ft a way a kid was pinned under the bar on bench press. I quickly ran over to help and then immediately turned on the staff.

Moral of the story. Learn as much as you can so that when someone attempts to correct you. You can correct them as to the proper execution of an exercise. I would suggest getting an accredited trainer for at least a couple of sessions to avoid injury

So I was a personal trainer at a franchise gym and I agree to some extent. Taking advice I feel is different. The first thing I thought before going up to someone was that they might be offended. Some trainers know there stuff some really don’t. It’s a big spectrum so you need to be somewhat skeptical. I only give advice on form and only for certain things like a deadlift because to me, it’s one of the most complex movements, yet everyone does it. But the vast majority don’t know how. This can be from watching others, YouTube videos etc. Some videos are great but it’s more beneficial to have someone actually setting you up to your mechanics and breaking the movement down in front of you, then trying to remember what you saw in a 10 min video.