Advice? 1st time with a Personal Trainer

rowdylibrarian

Morning, all! Tomorrow, I'm having my first ever paying session with a Personal Trainer to explain and plan a free weights program for me. Upon reading the experiences of other ladies on MFP, I've asked her to model it after the NROLFW, though somebody told me yesterday that they wished they had started with "Starting Strength" instead. Any thoughts on those two programs?

Our budget is tight (is $40 an hour typical, by the way?), so I want to make sure I'm getting the most out of it. What should I definitely do/not do, ask/not ask? What do you wish you had done differently? Thanks!!!!

Determinednoob

I'll probably get blasted but, my thoughts are that SS is better. NROWL uses some inferior variants of some exercises, does not have the best volume\frequency for a beginner, has you change your routine at arbitrary times vs the real time to change which is when the volume and frequency no longer match your training level and recovery ability (you have gotten so strong you need more volume with higher weight which means you need longer to recover).

That said there are also a lot of other beginner routines that don't get as much mention anywhere with different forums having their different flavors of koolaid that get pushed. Other routines to look into would be Stronglifts which is a flavor here, Babylover SS, Greyskull LP, Onus Wunsler SS, Witchita Falls, Practical Programming Novice routine, Reg Park's 5x5, and Allpro's beginner routine http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843 and many more I'm sure.

You can look over all of these and see if you like any of them better than others. All but the Allpro's routine will be similar. Allpro's is a bit better for adding size, has slower strength progression, is easier on a calorie deficit, and has built in deloading so you don't ever have to take that into consideration.

Hmm I think I typed more than I planned.

rowdylibrarian

I'm GLAD that you typed all of that! It's good information! I wonder if she would get mad if I called her and said, "I changed my mind! NROWL uses some inferior variants of some exercises, does not have the best volume\frequency for a beginner, has you change your routine at arbitrary times vs the real time to change which is when the volume and frequency no longer match your training level and recovery ability (you have gotten so strong you need more volume with higher weight which means you need longer to recover), so can we change it to SS?!" Lol.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll check them out!