personal trainer, waste of time/money?

[CreamE30]

Heres the deal R3vians,

I'm currently about 120 pounds and 5'4'' and fairly slim, mostly muscle on my body as in low body fat index (thats the term right?) I'd like to get bigger both in upper body and in my legs. My mom has a gym membership that she never uses so I figure I might as well.
Right now I've started working out every day except on weekends because my 9-6 job leaves me too tired. All I have at my disposal is a bench press bar and no bench with 15 pound discs and 10 pound discs and those perfect push up things. They're good but I feel like there isn't enough I can do with them.

Anyways, I don't feel like I'm doing enough of a work out for my upper body because I simply don't know how to with what I've got. I'm thinking if I work with a trainer for a month and learn all the different workouts and diets and then I can go on my own from there and go to gyms n such.

What does R3v think? Should I check it out or are they mostly a waste of money and I should just keep lifting heavy stuff in my garage?

[drumad]

Not necessarily a waste. They can lead you in the right direction. I previously used to lift heavily and weighed up to 260 pounds on my 6'2" frame. Not exactly big by any means but much bigger than I am now (190 pounds). I went on a slimming diet and regime so I am what I am now.

What it sounds like is that you need to EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT AND EAT some more. For me at that weight, I found the biggest growth stemmed from the typical heavy type lifts

deadlifts - my favorite
squats squats squats squats
benching
military presses
cleans cleans cleans

I'm not a trainer/professional by any means. You should go to a bodybuilding forum and just start reading.

I do think you should go the trainer route however.

['e30love']

u dont need a gym ive done the p90x workouts, they leave u ead trust me ive done benchpressing and upper body workouts at gym for 2 hours and didnt feel half as sore as this u will need some protein shake and recovery drink but do one day and ull realize first day is push ups and pull ups to the max

[drumad]

^true about p90x.. however, p90x is designed more so to shred you up

For growth as OP is describing, heavy weight lifting low reps are needed.

Most protein shakes have sucralose = bad. Finding one without is nearly impossible. Egg whites, chicken breast, tuna, red meat, natural proteins are best.



BTW OP. you sound like a hardgainer. google it and read and you'll probably think you're one of those guys.

[Be30mer]

Pull ups. Greatest way to put on upper body strength. I did 35 everyday for pole vault and it did wonders for my abs, back muscles, and triceps.
and eat lots of what he ^^ said.
You definitely DO NOT want a personal trainer, save money and motivate yourself.

[der affe]

PT's are good if you don't have any friends that work out and you are clueless on what to do. they will give you some direction and guidence. take that knowledge and run with it. buddy up to a few people in the gym for advice if you get stuck. you are golden.

[drumad]

You definitely DO NOT want a personal trainer

Why not? Say the guy goes straight into a heavy lifting program without learning how to do proper squats/deadlifts/cleans? He can throw out his back and/or injure himself in several other ways.

I'm not exactly the right person to say since I went into squatting with minimal guidance and didnt hurt myself, but if I were ot do it again, I'd get a trainer/join a class.

PT's are good if you don't have any friends that work out and you are clueless on what to do. they will give you some direction and guidence. take that knowledge and run with it. buddy up to a few people in the gym for advice if you get stuck. you are golden.

this as well. I'm sure you have at least one friend who works out on the regular and is more than willing to help you.

Oh OP, if you have money, look into Cross Fit. That WILL tear you up.

[Be30mer]

Why not? Say the guy goes straight into a heavy lifting program without learning how to do proper squats/deadlifts/cleans? He can throw out his back and/or injure himself in several other ways.

I'm not exactly the right person to say since I went into squatting with minimal guidance and didnt hurt myself, but if I were ot do it again, I'd get a trainer/join a class.

There's plenty of other ways to get in shape than to pay some creep to help you work out.
OP: do pull ups and jump rope. No way to hurt yourself. Save your money and use on the e30. :D

[CreamE30]

Good advice guys. I have a buddy who's been working out for a while now. I was honestly pretty surprised when he said all he has are dumbells and nothing else. The only thing he really has over me is a bench and different weights, so I think I'm just going to spend some cash on more weights and a bench possibly and go from there.

I'm not too concerned with gaining weight through diet, as much as I am with dieting correctly to help fuel me to work out and build muscle. I have that whey protein mix stuff that tastes like shit that I'm going to start using again. I've gained a little weight recently because I think that since I was 18 (21 now) my metabolism has backed off a little bit.

[drumad]

I'm going to say this now.

Focusing on just one aspect - workouts over diet etc will not yield what you want.

You should be very concerned with your diet. You say you weigh 120 lbs? You should be taking at the very least, 120 grams of protein. You're trying to get big so you should be putting down 1.0-1.5 your body weight in grams of protein. So around 120 to 180 grams is your goal. I'm not saying to eat to gain weight, but to eat to support your muscle growth, which will then help you gain weight.

Plus with your height, you should be able to build up monster squat strength as well.

[Ray Smoodiver]

I'm going to say this now.

Focusing on just one aspect - workouts over diet etc will not yield what you want.

You should be very concerned with your diet. You say you weigh 120 lbs? You should be taking at the very least, 120 grams of protein. You're trying to get big so you should be putting down 1.0-1.5 your body weight in grams of protein. So around 120 to 180 grams is your goal. I'm not saying to eat to gain weight, but to eat to support your muscle growth, which will then help you gain weight.

Plus with your height, you should be able to build up monster squat strength as well.

That's at the upper limit for protein intake. any more than 2g/kg and your kidney function really starts to be affected.

Take a Calcium supplement too, your joints will thank you, as calcium loss occurs with such high protein intake.

Take a multivitamin too, as your B6 absorption rates will drop through the floor with that much protein being processed.

[Dermeister3]

check out the bodybuilding.com forums, lots of info there

i would at least do a bit of personal training. dont do it every day, you dont need that. also, once you learn the technique's and workouts, you wont need them as often. Work out on your own. I would get a gym membership over just buying weights, b/c youll work out more often, b/c your paying money each month and you dont go often, youll feel like your wasting your money, and force yourself to go.

[b*saint]

If she has big tits then yes.

[drumad]

That's at the upper limit for protein intake. any more than 2g/kg and your kidney function really starts to be affected.

Take a Calcium supplement too, your joints will thank you, as calcium loss occurs with such high protein intake.

Take a multivitamin too, as your B6 absorption rates will drop through the floor with that much protein being processed.

I kept reading your post and was like.. wtf? i just said that but realized you said kg and not lb :P. So if I did it right, you'd say that around 100~ grams would be sufficient? Regardless, I'm sure that 100~ grams is much more than he eats in a day.

Word on the mutli, I personally take Univ Animal Pak, even when I'm not on a "diet" or in a health phase. Sort of became a normal part of my day.

[Ray Smoodiver]

I kept reading your post and was like.. wtf? i just said that but realized you said kg and not lb :P. So if I did it right, you'd say that around 100~ grams would be sufficient? Regardless, I'm sure that 100~ grams is much more than he eats in a day.

Word on the mutli, I personally take Univ Animal Pak, even when I'm not on a "diet" or in a health phase. Sort of became a normal part of my day.

Yea, around 108g of protein would be ideal, and probably three times as much as he's getting right now!

If anything, take protein to speed up recovery, which means you can train harder, faster, longer, and not feel like you've over trained, or that you can't hit the gym day after day because your body is giving up on you.