Please help me plan a session for my trainer!

I wish I could change gym and still see him but my trainer's new job is in Greece...
I'll have another trainer sorted as soon as this one leaves I think, there are two other male ones at the gym to choose from. 3 female ones as well but I have already trained with 2 of them in the past and I don't feel like they push me enough.
My trainer has recommended one of them who is similar to him in how he trains people. Apparently "he is dying to train me" I wonder if I can negociate his prices based on that ;) I know him a little bit but he looks a little bit too hyper/crazy and friendly/chatty for me to be honest. I would like to try the other one as well, looks more calm/poised and tough. Is that twisted to prefer that? I'm not looking for a friend or a confident, don't want to be chatting between exercises iyswim. I don't know their individual prices yet, I used to get a good price from my trainer as I used to see him twice or three times a week. Only once a week with the next one.
I think it'll boil down to who can train me at the times I can go. I am going to be careful with how I approach it and not commit too soon. Maybe do three or ten sessions with each one and then make a decision. Someone else better might come along to replace my trainer as well.

It's good to know you have made progress with your fitness and to hear that things felt like they fell back into place. I've still got work to do for this and this is my next goal I think. It'll be good to train with someone new who can see where I stand now and not where I've come from. They'll probably have a clearer picture of where I need to go.
I really more and more want to qualify as some kind of instructor/trainer, just afraid of actually writing it down as a goal in case I can't follow it through. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and look into what to do. Also want to get in touch with my old body combat instructor who was going to talk to me about qualifying just before I got pregnant. He does personal training as well actually.
Have you ever looked into the Les Mills stuff?

Next week is going to be tough, last week with my trainer, I feel surprisingly emotional about it. I don't even want to think about our last ever session and actually saying goodbye. I've been training with him for just under a year now so we've spent quite a lot of time together, it's weird that I won't see him again, probably ever!
Oh well now I know what to do with my mens fitness exercises book, it'll be my leaving present to him!

I'd better get to sleep, speak to you soon!

Well, I saw my usual trainer yesterday and he told me he has given his notice in. It looks like he is leaving for good this time. I was expecting it but I'm still really gutted.

The good news is that means I can carry on muay thai, the bad news is that I have to find another trainer at my gym for once a week. It'll probably be good for my body to have a different kind of trainer/training, just need to find the right one. I have someone in mind already, another male trainer which is probably not going to go down well with dh, he would really like it if I trained with a female, the ones at my gym are so wishy-washy though I only considered it for 5 minutes.
My current trainer is just excellent though so I'm really gutted right now. :(

haha, it does get better, keep it up ;) have you tried several hand grips? I usually have the narrow grip (looking at my thumbs iyswim).
I kind of realise the bodyfat percentage is impressive, everybody I see either at the gym or family/friends comments on how slim/good I look which is really nice.
I have been training 6 or 7 hours a week for almost a year now so it is hard work finally paying off.
I bought some size 10 jeans last week which I had not done in over 10 years, always been a size 12-14 (going up to 22 at some point - that's when I stopped buying clothes...)
Somewhere in my mind though whenever someone says how good I look I automatically think "you mean I look good for someone who put on so much weight, or "you look good for someone your age" or "you look good for someone who has ha a baby". I think I've lost a lot of confidence.

I have my last paid session with the muay thai trainer this sunday, she's great and really hot on technique which is what i need cause I'm all over the place when I'm boxing. I want to carry on seeing her once a week, whether I can afford it is another matter. I can do another 4 sessions at the moment.

My gym has been bought by virgin active, I'm not sure if it'll have repercussions on my other trainer's employment so it's nice to have some kind of backup trainer in mind in case he does leave though I don't think I would like the woman as a personal trainer, she has a power plate which she keeps mentionning and it is so not my kind of training at all. She is great at Muay thai though.

How many children have you had? Is surgery something you would consider? I've always thought I would never go that far. (When i look at my smaller saggier boobs though I do despair...) One of my husband's cousins had breast surgery before her wedding after having 2 children. At the time I thought it was "totally out of character" (judgy pants on...) now I kind of understand!

oh well, I got my book and they're both the same :( same exercises, same pics except it's a male model in the mal book and a female model in the female book, bummer!!

Yes, DO IT :D I want to train as a fitness instructor/personal trainer as well...I don't know if I have enough time to do it. I think dh would prefer I put my energy in our business (understandable... ).

Can you actually book personal training from someone at your gym at all?
You should definitely be a qualified instructor, you'd make a killing if there is no one else around!! :D

I had my body fat measured last week and came up 21% (with the calipers when they measure you several places on your body. (Charles Poliquin biosignature). So happy with that, so much better than the nearly 50% when I started!!! (when I said I never looked better even when I was that weight, that's except for my belly..so awfully saggy :()
Trainer said let's try and get it down to 17/18% and see what happens then.

Have you seen the charles poliquin site and facebook page? There's a video of mary pier gaudet doing weighted pullups (on the site) and some martial arts (on CP's facebook videos, don't think I can link to that?).

I'm not sure if the gym challenge is over yet, I'll have to check tomorrow. I think there should only be a few days left but my trainer is the one who initiated it so it might be on until he comes back at the beginning of May.

I saw the muay thai trainer this morning for the first time and we went over the basics. She seems good & tough, she's definitely thorough with technique which is great and what I need. I have told her I'm only checking it out while my trainer is on holiday (so 4 sessions) and I guess I'll have to make a decision after that. I don't think I can afford both my trainer and her, also if I could afford it then that would mean that I could afford my trainer once more every week or every two weeks and the question then is "wouldn't I rather do that"?. We'll see. If I have to cut down on the hours I spend with him to spend some with her then I'm not ready to do that at the moment.

The book is very good, very thorough. Tells you an exercise then the variations and whether that makes it easier or harder and why. (all the stuff that I don't know at the moment.)
I would imagine it looks exactly the same as the man's one. I think it was probably stupid to buy both without checking first. We'll see when the other one comes.

I have to go prepare some food for tomorrow, lots of people coming over for easter...take care!

oh no I hope they're not the same, I bought the womens one cause it was available the next day and ordered the one you have as well (but that takes 1-2 months to come).

I think it's a really good idea to get a trainer to check your form etc, the ones at our gym would usually do the first session for free, or give you some kind of incentive (like 3 sessions cheaper if you pay in advance). definitely try and negociate on what they first tell you.
as to how to know whether they are good or not, well I'd say meet/talk to more than one first.
there is a exercise professional registry here
it says what level of fitness they have studied to.

Ask the trainer you talk to for a reference? and ask them questions about what a typical session would be like, if they take your measurements/weights etc.

If you can meet them beforehand then it's better I think. I mean they have to look like they work out :D

I have had two female trainers before and I feel like this male one pushes me harder, definitely not looked better before even though I have been at this weight before. I feel a lot stronger too. Not sure if that's a male/female thing though. I'm stronger than both female trainers so maybe that's something to do with it too.

I reclaimed the record for this gym challenge, it's up till nxt week, we'll see if my competition tries again and how they score.

my trainer is still around, going on holiday at the end of the week though so I'm booking some muy thai sessions with another trainer (independant one and I didn't check her on the register actually...)

better go for now

hey how is it going, any progress on the chin ups?
I tried out the spartacs circuit this morning, what weights dumbells/kettlebells do you use? I found it very hard work (in a good way), it made me feel dizzy a couple of times.
I did it twice, didn't have time for a third round as my rests were longer than the recommended 15s on the first go. Definitely doing this again :D
which mens fitness book do you have? I looked it up on amazon and there are quit a few different one, saw a women's one as well, have you had a look at that one?

i really need to set new goals. i've only ever had goals to 'loose weight' then when i reach them I kinda lose motivation and start dropping out.

i want a flat stomach - or as close as i can get, i think i want to go down to 60kg and see what it looks like then. am a bit worried i've just got extra skin that i won't be able to get rid of. it looks awful but we'll see.

a few weeks ago my trainer asked me if I had/would consider training to be a class instructor. i had actually considered it before i got pregnant.
i would like to qualify as a gym/class/body combat instructor or something along the lines but as i work with my dh ( running our own company) he is not too keen on me spending time doing this instead of working for our own company iyswim.
we haven't spoken about it since, I will talk about it when the time is rit I think.

have you got any goals?

i tried zumba, didn't like it. I do enjoy the body combat classes though.

good luck with the chin ups, i went and did some yesterday, 2 is my maximum without any assistance, very proud of that:) also did leg and knee raises. i find it tougher training on my own, it's defintely more fun/challenging with my trainer!

i don't actually know if there is a prize for the clean and press challenge, and to be honest they never do anything like this.
i know the gym sounds good and i think it is all right (expensive though which is why i think people complain) however there is a high staff turnover, my trainer has been looking for other jobs/gyms/promotions for months as they are not happy. it's always been like that as far as i can remember and it's a shame. the managers do not stay long and whenever the existing staff try and get the promotion for manager they are made to jump through hoops for weeks inly to find out they were never going to get the job. he has quit once already and got offered more money so stayed on. I secretly hope he doesn't leave but good people always move on.

i will be able to lead one of our sessions again so i've been looking at loads of sites and magazines for ideas, i'd quite like to do the spartacus circuit i think. got this from mensfitness. do you have any mags you subscribe to? where do you get the exercises ideas and names from etc??

shopping yeah, definitely enjoyed that!! IJust got myself some colourful tops for training from sportsdirect, as opposed to the baggiest black t-shirts i could find...

How often do you do the chin up training? I guess it came on quite quick (well, 9 months) to be able to do just the one because I do quite a bit of weight lifting as well. I'd do the chin up exercise every 3 or 4 days though I think. Also, do you try with less than 30kg, just to see what happens, for just like 3 reps (my third one would usually fail) ? See this is what my trainer does, pushes that little bit further when sometimes you don't think you could.

vipr: yes they start at 4kg, that's very light, not seen anyone do 4kg in the class. The other girls usually do 6 kg, women who train fairly regularly do 8kg, I do 10kg (this is all during the class, I go heavier with my trainer as we only do a few reps.)
The guys who come to the class usually start with a 10kg or 12kg but are swiftly moved on to 16kg, the instructor does 16 or 20, I think there is a 24kg there as well. Only ever seen one guy do this one, very impressive. (and the instructor if we've ran out of viprs).

We have a gym challenge on at the moment, clean and press with the vipr, as many as you can for 60 seconds. 6kg for women, 12kg for men. Yesterday I managed 42 reps with 10kg during the class in 60sec.
This morning for the actual challenge I did 43 reps in 60sec with the 6kg (top of the leaderboard (I have to brag a little bit about it ;)) and 33 reps with the 12kg (the man record holder at the moment with 12 kg is 35 reps so not far off!)

Do you also have someone to train with sometimes? one of the girls from spinning approached me last week to do abs together, I think it works really well, brings in variety and motivation.

look up the Vipr on youtube, it's like a plastic tube that you use. as a weight and do cardio with.
it's great, really gives you a good workout.

yeah i do a lot at the moment and i hope i keep it up, exercise is making me happy, that and buying some size 12 jeans yesterday, first time in years....

i have been doing assisted chin ups on the machine, started with 50 kilos or something, down to 40 and then 35 and then nothing I think.
i did several sets of 6 reps each time ( or however many i couldmanage)

i think my general fitness has improved so much it has really helped.

i'm not sure what you mean about negatives, I jump up, grab the bar and let myself down really really slowly which helps, something to do with your musce being under tension and therefore growing stronger. or smething.

it is very satisfying :)

i'm going to ask my trainer tomorrow if he is planning on letting me train him again, i hope so it was fun to plan and fun to do!

he did the deadlifts with 24k, me with 16. same for kettlebell swings.

i had my baby in june 2009 so it took me quite a while to start training again because of work and no childcare basically. made me miserable.

i train with him twice a week and we train together on saturdays.
i do go on my own sometimes, but usually just end up doing some skipping, punchbag, or some running. and chin ups now i can do them ( well, 2 of them;))
i also do a vipr class, two spinning classes and a body combat class per week. i used to do one bodypump every week but the timetable is not convenient at the moment. i do like it a lot though.
are you in london?

i do apologise for the typos, i was tring to type fast... it should say " i hope it was not a waste of his time"
i usually spend the next day after a particularly hard session cursing him, and was hoping he would be the same tomorrow. don't think he would admit it though.

Done!

feedback from my trainer: it was good but the bench press in the middle slowed things down, if you're going to do just one strength exercise then you have to make it big.

we did a jog, which got me out of breath but not him so not sure i'll do that again, it is a warm up though.

burpee etc was challenging for both of us

kettlebells was good, we both beat our best times.
suitce deadlifts was easy, we did 3 sets of 8 on each side with breaks after alternating and then felt like w should do it again without any rest, and that was better

i skipped the chin ups prts as we were already halfway through the session

bench press, well it went well but didn't really fit in with the rest and i can't really spot him properly because his weights re so much heavier than mine.

cabke work was good, we did them simultaneously and i got him to up his weight. he doesn't think the kneeling down exercise is very effective. i think it is for me as i always feel it in my abs the next day, we'll see tomorrow...

i changed the abs this morning, we did
russian twists with the vipr, 2 sets of 20
then the swiss ball on each side 20 times too

and that was it, no time left for stretching.

I really enjoyed planning it and really want to do it again. next saturday he is leading though.
i'm hoping he will feel something tomorrow and that it has not been a waaste if s time, i'll find out wednesday.

can you not get a trainer at your gym? once in a while? i find it he oushes me so much harder than i would on my own.
i've lost 4.7 stones (30k) in 9 months thanks to him (pregnancy weight, nowack to my normal weight but with an awful jelly belly and probabky another stone to loose. i did put on a shit loads when i was pregnant, i had to stop training because of very early spd)

i mean it sounds like you know what you're doing, how long have you been training?