Personal trainer willing to help
mikehart164
Posts: 108 Member
My name is Mike and I'm a personal trainer willing to help anyone with questions!
2
Replies
-
There are tons of threads here with people asking questions about health, fitness, and nutrition. Maybe check out some of those and see if you have advice for someone's situation?6
-
Thank you Mike. I want to start weight training and don't know what to begin with. I go to the gym but usually just use the elliptical the treadmill and rower. What should I start with and at what weight level?1
-
I've been getting my strength training out of a book (Joan Pagano's Strength Training: Exercises for Women, but I'm not entirely sure I'm doing things right. I'm mostly using 8 and 10-lb dumbbells now and "heavy" resistance tubes and bands, but I'm kind of making it up as I go along. Some days, I do the cardio-and-weights workouts in the book. Some days, I do a full body workout using the book's suggestions (I know to rest the day after a full-body workout). Some weeks, I alternate doing upper body on Day One, Lower on Day Two, etc. But I don't belong to a gym and I don't know if what I'm doing is 'better than nothing', 'fine', or 'for heaven's sake, stop before you hurt yourself'.
I do know that if I do 3 sets of 15 reps with 10-lb dumbbells, I will break a sweat and feel like I've put in effort, but I don't suffer any aches that a soak in a hot bath and a good night's sleep don't take care of. Starting to think about getting a pair of 12lb-ers, but not quite ready yet.
Should also mention that I have motor- and hand-eye coordination issues which make me worry about whether I'm getting the exercises right. I seem to 'naturally' inhale when I should exhale and vice-versa. Working on that, but the minute I start to think I've got the hang of it and relax, I revert.
Something tells me that I might need to book a session with a personal trainer who can actually watch me in action, but do you have any tips/suggestions that might help?2 -
Thank you Mike. I want to start weight training and don't know what to begin with. I go to the gym but usually just use the elliptical the treadmill and rower. What should I start with and at what weight level?
Assuming you have no injuries or health concerns. The best way to start is find 8-10 machines that you can learn. Start with 2 sets of 10 reps of those exercises and do them 1-2 days per week. After a few weeks you can increase to 3 days per week and 3 sets of 10.
Try to have one exercise per bodypart.
Chest shoulder back bicep tricep and low back quads hamstrings calves!
That's a great starting point !2 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »I've been getting my strength training out of a book (Joan Pagano's Strength Training: Exercises for Women, but I'm not entirely sure I'm doing things right. I'm mostly using 8 and 10-lb dumbbells now and "heavy" resistance tubes and bands, but I'm kind of making it up as I go along. Some days, I do the cardio-and-weights workouts in the book. Some days, I do a full body workout using the book's suggestions (I know to rest the day after a full-body workout). Some weeks, I alternate doing upper body on Day One, Lower on Day Two, etc. But I don't belong to a gym and I don't know if what I'm doing is 'better than nothing', 'fine', or 'for heaven's sake, stop before you hurt yourself'.
I do know that if I do 3 sets of 15 reps with 10-lb dumbbells, I will break a sweat and feel like I've put in effort, but I don't suffer any aches that a soak in a hot bath and a good night's sleep don't take care of. Starting to think about getting a pair of 12lb-ers, but not quite ready yet.
Should also mention that I have motor- and hand-eye coordination issues which make me worry about whether I'm getting the exercises right. I seem to 'naturally' inhale when I should exhale and vice-versa. Working on that, but the minute I start to think I've got the hang of it and relax, I revert.
Something tells me that I might need to book a session with a personal trainer who can actually watch me in action, but do you have any tips/suggestions that might help?
You are doing a great job! I think you have a good start. With the motor control and coordination issues I would suggest getting a gym membership as the machines may be a larger benefit to you to increase in strength and endurance faster.
It would be a great idea to have a trainer for a few weeks to help you with form and construct a great program for you!
Nice job thus far!1 -
mikehart164 wrote: »Thank you Mike. I want to start weight training and don't know what to begin with. I go to the gym but usually just use the elliptical the treadmill and rower. What should I start with and at what weight level?
Assuming you have no injuries or health concerns. The best way to start is find 8-10 machines that you can learn. Start with 2 sets of 10 reps of those exercises and do them 1-2 days per week. After a few weeks you can increase to 3 days per week and 3 sets of 10.
Try to have one exercise per bodypart.
Chest shoulder back bicep tricep and low back quads hamstrings calves!
That's a great starting point !
Machines are mostly isolation work and can build imbalances compared to encouraging people to look into various beginner free weight programs that have compound moves. Compound moves build better overall stability and give people more bang for their buck. This isn't to say someone should jump into barbell back squats day 1, but there are progressive lifting routines built for beginners that help teach form. Even a dumbbell lifting routine is going to be superior to machines. Machines induce greater joint strain compared to free weights.3 -
I feel like I've hit a platto what should I do? My goal is to tone up.0
-
mikehart164 wrote: »Thank you Mike. I want to start weight training and don't know what to begin with. I go to the gym but usually just use the elliptical the treadmill and rower. What should I start with and at what weight level?
Assuming you have no injuries or health concerns. The best way to start is find 8-10 machines that you can learn. Start with 2 sets of 10 reps of those exercises and do them 1-2 days per week. After a few weeks you can increase to 3 days per week and 3 sets of 10.
Try to have one exercise per bodypart.
Chest shoulder back bicep tricep and low back quads hamstrings calves!
That's a great starting point !
Machines are mostly isolation work and can build imbalances compared to encouraging people to look into various beginner free weight programs that have compound moves. Compound moves build better overall stability and give people more bang for their buck. This isn't to say someone should jump into barbell back squats day 1, but there are progressive lifting routines built for beginners that help teach form. Even a dumbbell lifting routine is going to be superior to machines. Machines induce greater joint strain compared to free weights.
I do agree with you. My response is mostly in regards to the hand eye coordination and motor control struggles. Doing machines that run unilaterally will help them to learn what movements they struggle with control first and they can address that prior to moving on to dumbbell routines. Just a difference in opinions on starting points between you and i0 -
-
What is the best way to incorporate squats and deadlifts back into my programming after a facet joint injury? Prior, I had been running a hypertrophy block after a power lifting meet with DUP. I'd like to reduce volume on the big 3 in case I want to compete early fall, and keep volume high on my accessory work. I'd like to deadlift twice per week, squat 3x, and bench 3 x. 1 rms are SQ: 240, DL: 290, Bench: 1101
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 426 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions