Gym Fitness Assessment -- Eek! Advice please!

dazedandconfused87

Hi all,

Recovering crash dieter here, who has been eating at TDEE (or a bit higher) now for the last month or so... knew I gained back some weight, but had no idea how much until I went to a wonderful fitness assessment at my new gym today.

Well.. that was certainly intimidating! Realized that all the home workouts I had been doing were actually with incorrect form and I thought I had somewhat of a decent fitness level/strength.... but it looks like I was entirely wrong, lol. Weight and BF are much higher than I had anticipated, but it's better to know a baseline and to do this the PROPER way this time.

Now I know that these consultations are often designed to persuade people into personal training sessions. Everything this guy said did make sense and he asked about my fitness goals, was happy when I said I didn't have a goal weight, and laid out what he thinks would be a good plan for someone like me -- starting with fixing my foundation (ie. on my squats I tend to favour leaning to the left side more, etc) and then move onto strength building, then fat loss, etc.

Everything he said sounded legit to me but again -- his job. He laid out the price to me which was ENORMOUS and also required a down payment, so of course I felt pretty pressured but also interested.

My fear is that if I am going to the gym and using the machines incorrectly, to what benefit is it? (He was showing me the chest press machine, lat pull downs, etc). I don't want to go to the gym and just waste my time using machines or completing lifts the wrong way, but I also don't think I can reasonably afford this. Does anyone have any advice or experiences of their own to offer? I would like to lift heavy and body recomp and drop a LITTLE weight if possible, but no more than 15lbs.

Insight is appreciated!

Rayman79

Its a tough situation, and I've been there myself a number of years ago. You want to go to the gym and make progress, but you're not entirely sure about your form and don't want to hurt yourself or 'do things wrong'. On the other hand, funds are limited and paying for a PT can be a big outlay.

As I see it, you have a couple of compromise options:

One is to just pay for a few sessions, and really concentrate on getting him to guide you through good form and set up a program for you to follow. By the way, if he's not interested in this and will only sign you up as a committed ongoing client - find a new trainer!

The other option is to learn by trial and error (which btw is the route I took). The learning curve is longer, but cheaper. I spent a lot of time on-line searching through tutorials, exercise videos etc. I recorded my lifts in the gym when I could and tried to correct my form over time. Using a (good) coach in the beginning would have been a better option in the long run - but I also now realise that most PTs cant coach good lifting form anyway!

There are a number of good youtube resources now, not to mention the formcheck thread in the ETP group. If you do choose to go it alone there is still heaps of help out there.

awinner_au

When you say the fee is a lot, is it a lot over just a standard gym fee, are you paying extra for the guy at the gym to show you correct form?

I don't know what the situation is in your area, but here if you join the gym there is usually a trainer on duty who shows you how to use machines properly. The gym I go to has a specific trainer on duty just for this. I pay about $11 a week.

If you are looking for personal training you will certainly have to pay.

It is important to have the correct form when you do weight lifting, you can get there on your own by watching a lot of youtube videos as long as you can filter out the rubbish.

SideSteel

Its a tough situation, and I've been there myself a number of years ago. You want to go to the gym and make progress, but you're not entirely sure about your form and don't want to hurt yourself or 'do things wrong'. On the other hand, funds are limited and paying for a PT can be a big outlay.

As I see it, you have a couple of compromise options:

One is to just pay for a few sessions, and really concentrate on getting him to guide you through good form and set up a program for you to follow. By the way, if he's not interested in this and will only sign you up as a committed ongoing client - find a new trainer!

The other option is to learn by trial and error (which btw is the route I took). The learning curve is longer, but cheaper. I spent a lot of time on-line searching through tutorials, exercise videos etc. I recorded my lifts in the gym when I could and tried to correct my form over time. Using a (good) coach in the beginning would have been a better option in the long run - but I also now realise that most PTs cant coach good lifting form anyway!

There are a number of good youtube resources now, not to mention the formcheck thread in the ETP group. If you do choose to go it alone there is still heaps of help out there.

This seems reasonable to me.

At our gym the majority of the trainers don't put people through a fitness assessment to point out how out of shape they are but honestly it wouldn't surprise me if tactics like that were used to try and generate sales.

I really feel for people who are in your (OP's) situation. You want guidance but you really don't know whether or not you're getting someone who is going to provide you what you are looking for.

In addition to the above, if you decide to hire a trainer I would be VERY clear what your goals are. If you want to use a trainer to learn how to squat and deadlift for example, be clear that this is what your goal is. And if the trainer is having you do things that aren't part of the goal, ask him or her why.

I would generally agree that it's cheaper to not hire a trainer provided that you are observant, resourceful, and do your homework. Few people meet all those criteria but if you can do so, you can get very far on your own.

dazedandconfused87

Its a tough situation, and I've been there myself a number of years ago. You want to go to the gym and make progress, but you're not entirely sure about your form and don't want to hurt yourself or 'do things wrong'. On the other hand, funds are limited and paying for a PT can be a big outlay.

As I see it, you have a couple of compromise options:

One is to just pay for a few sessions, and really concentrate on getting him to guide you through good form and set up a program for you to follow. By the way, if he's not interested in this and will only sign you up as a committed ongoing client - find a new trainer!

The other option is to learn by trial and error (which btw is the route I took). The learning curve is longer, but cheaper. I spent a lot of time on-line searching through tutorials, exercise videos etc. I recorded my lifts in the gym when I could and tried to correct my form over time. Using a (good) coach in the beginning would have been a better option in the long run - but I also now realise that most PTs cant coach good lifting form anyway!

There are a number of good youtube resources now, not to mention the formcheck thread in the ETP group. If you do choose to go it alone there is still heaps of help out there.

This seems reasonable to me.

At our gym the majority of the trainers don't put people through a fitness assessment to point out how out of shape they are but honestly it wouldn't surprise me if tactics like that were used to try and generate sales.

I really feel for people who are in your (OP's) situation. You want guidance but you really don't know whether or not you're getting someone who is going to provide you what you are looking for.

In addition to the above, if you decide to hire a trainer I would be VERY clear what your goals are. If you want to use a trainer to learn how to squat and deadlift for example, be clear that this is what your goal is. And if the trainer is having you do things that aren't part of the goal, ask him or her why.

I would generally agree that it's cheaper to not hire a trainer provided that you are observant, resourceful, and do your homework. Few people meet all those criteria but if you can do so, you can get very far on your own.

Thank you. It was just tough to realize that by working out on my own for approximately 3 years now and "yo-yo dieting" (didn't realize I was YOYO dietingbut now I see that's all I was doing from learning from MFP) that I have basically been spinning my wheels in the mud and not getting anywhere, not getting any more fit and losing the same 10 lbs and regaining it over and over again. SO frustrating but at least it gives me a baseline where to start and I am focused on doing this the RIGHT way now.

What turned me off was he was pushing urgency on me -- saying I needed to decide by Friday, that I would need to pay a down payment and when I indicated it was just too expensive for my lifestyle he would make cuts to the amount of sessions to make it more affordable but still quite astronomical. I'm talking like a $500 down payment, with a biweekly cost of just over $200. Unfortunately, this is just completely out of my budget, and I would suspect it would be for a lot of people.

I think I'll try and do what has been suggested -- maybe I can sign up for 4-5 initial sessions to get into a good routine, work on form and using machines correctly, before I am hopefully able to branch off on my own.

What I also didn't like was that he said things like in order to see results I would need to change up my routine every 2 weeks which is another reason a trainer would be a necessity -- whereas through looking at these forums, I just don't see how that could be true.

So now I've gained the 10 lbs or so I lost back but I had to - I couldn't go on, exercising 5-6 days a week and eating 1500-1600 calories without eating exercise cals back. I liked the way I looked but I had no energy and felt awful. I've been eating at maintenance or what I thought was my TDEE (and often above) since July now. Would you all recommend I continue to eat at TDEE for a bit longer, while going to the gym and hopefully starting a weight program?

Thanks for all the input so far!

dazedandconfused87

Oh sorry, and one more thing -- currently sitting at 5'7 and 150 lbs. Ideally would like to lose 15 lbs but I am not married to that idea - more interested in recomp. However, whenever I stop eating @ TDEE - I should do a 15% cut, correct?

Sarauk2sf

If you are looking to lose 15lb, I would generally (and other factors indicative of otherwise may apply), continue cutting. Recomping is slow (where you basically eat at maintenance and do not lose/gain weight, but lose fat and gain muscle at about the same rate) and 15lb to go generally too much to try to recomp at.

dazedandconfused87

^^^ Very helpful, thank you. I'm currently trying to do a "reset" as per the EM2WL guidelines so I think I need to eat at maintenance/TDEE a little bit longer. Ultimately the 15 lbs is just a gauge, I am open to seeing how I feel as I continue to build muscle/strength and lose some fat.