Conflicting advice from my PT

[luvhisgrace]

So the gym I’ve signed up for offers 3 PT classes for free. I’ve been going to the gym periodically over the past 5 years (gone from 57kg to 75kg). So I have experience but I’m also quite casual with it and would have months off at a time. My usual split would be U/L or PPL.

Of course I took up the chance to have a free PT, and hopefully learn some things. I had my first session with him but the he advice he gave me went against most of what I’ve read online over the years.

He saw my PPL workout and said no no no. There’s a place for PPL but optimum is to work one muscle (e.g chest) per workout otherwise it’s not getting the full attention it needs. This didn’t sound crazy or anything and so we did our first session (chest and a tiny bit of arms)

5x10 bench press (going up in weight every set)
5x10 dumbell press
5x10 dumbell flyes
5x10 1 arm dumbell press
And then concentration curls 10 reps at 8kg, 7kg then 6kg (whatever you call this type of workout)
There was also gonna be a push up superset in there but I couldn’t physically lift myself at that point. Also the sets above needed spotting at the end sets so it wasn’t that the weight was light.

Half a week later I’m still in pain, after 20 sets in on workout. He said he would do this/similar twice a week. As I get used to it doms will last less time but still seems a lot.

What do you guys think? I always thought 20 sets per week for a muscle group was at the upper end, but I’ve done 20 in one set. I’m used to doing 9 haha.

 

[krispablos]

@luvhisgrace Your PT doesn’t know anything. Anyone idiot can make you do a bunch of junk volume that will leave you sore for days. 20 sets per workout will not be sustainable for more than a few weeks at best. I would possibly see if they would be willing to work with you on creating a better program, or put in the time to learn the physiology and program things yourself.

 

[herprayer]

@krispablos Accurate. This looks like a poorly designed old school bodybuilding routine. I see injuries in your future.

 

[adviceplease]

@luvhisgrace His job is to make you feel weak so you feel compelled to pay for his services. I am personally against PPL but single body part splits are even worse and make no sense for a casual lifter. Either pay for a PT who will have some accountability to you or just follow a proven routine

 

[dirknolan]

@luvhisgrace I wouldn't call just his routine but per se, just not accurate. Sounds like you are a woman? Is that right? If so, I expect to see some guy who's gotten strong lifting all his life not being able to grasp the amount of strength someone who has actually has, and then goes with that. 20 sets a week for every muscle group doesn't sound too bad, if you're actually using weight that is quite light that is. A lot of reps and sets should be for gaining strength not muscle mass. You gain the strength from doing light weights, could be as much as 12 reps 3x, could be as much as 18 reps 3x, could be as much as 32 reps 3x, but if you have to do that many and if you really start needing assistance to do that many, the weight is too heavy. You gain the strength to lift heavier, the heavier you lift the more muscle you build, the part you should keep focusing on is gaining strength for when you do start lifting heavier, which is why you use lighter weight. And what matters is that you should be able to do that many for your whole entire workout for the day on every exercise, still without ever requiring assistance, too. What you're talking about sounds like not just needing assistance during your workout, but on every exercise, that's too much. I think he kind of knows what he's doing, except he either overestimated your strength or just has it set in his mind that he doesn't want to come up something for each person he has to train and set up a routine the way he thinks is right for everyone. And did you say 20 sets twice a week? Dude, you got me curious, is that right? That's like 10 sets for each muscle group a day, that would take forever. For that many sets, you might as well just be focusing on major exercises like bench, squat and deadlift and just be done with it. It would just be a lot faster to simply do more reps and less sets than to have to take a 3 minute break each time. If that were me, my pump would be just gone by the time I got to the next exercise. One thing is clear, if that's really what he really tells to everyone, that's a waste of time. Did I even read that right? Oh, okay, that's what he said he's doing, so you're doing half that right now... yeah, that's still too much, I'm talking about here's what you should be doing is for strength, if he's just telling you do this because it's half of what he does, it's still too much with the amount of weight you are using, that's what I'm saying.

Find out what everyone can do on the exercises you do what everyone's average max's are for your age and all that. Take that amount and cut it in half. If you can still do that amount more than once, you're already stronger than at least 50% of the people that can do that same amount once. Knowing that, any amount of weight you can use that is above that amount will still give you strength no matter how much it is. For how ow much you should also work out with, take what you know you can do at least 3 times of, and cut that in half, what you use to work out with should be anywhere between that, and what I said above. Next is to find out what you want to do for what for reps. I start off by telling people if they can't do more 3 sets is fine, just do double the reps with each weight, there's either 4, 8, 16, or 6, 12, 24, doesn't matter which only depends how strong you are and what you can use to do that with, doesn't matter if you go light to heavy with more reps to less in whatever order because it's not like you'll need assistance. If I were going to tell them how much to really go for, I'd say 3 sets with each of those, 9 sets altogether. That's just for getting back into shape. Once they get serious about it, that's when I say, this is how many reps you need and doing just what I just said 9 sets 3 with each number of these reps, they are, 8, 13, 18, and 32. Sorry, forget about the 8, just 8 reps for whatever the exercise is like a cool down or warm up.

You might have just heard that and been just like holy sh###, that's even worse than what I'm doing. Maybe? But, considering what I would then consider if I were you, I'd be considering doing that for just the exercises that don't work out the muscles that you are trying to work out by doing that what you said ppl, or any of the three main exercises, instead of doing that every day for each and every muscle group and keep doing the exercises that you were already doing for every other day. Remember everything I said. And I could use a like.

 

[george121]

@luvhisgrace He's a shit head. Glad you're not paying him. I got certified through NASM. And it has some good information in it. A lot of its methods for getting a client to "peak performance" is shit.

He's trying to leverage soreness equating to a "good workout bro"

A good trainer takes your info, injuries and wants and needs and develops a good routine allowing for you to get the most stimulus in the amount of time the session allows. He or she does this by having a already developed set plethora of EFFECTIVE workout routines that they can modify and edit to curtail to the current clients needs.

Trainers hold cards to their chest so you will continue to come to them since they don't want you to spread your wings and fly away. But that's bullshit practice. Education and allowing your clients to grow is far better than making them depend on you for fuckin everything.

People should choose to come to a trainer, not because they don't know any better. But because they should CHOOSE to keep coming based off how the trainer develops and nurtures that professional relationship.

And of course to make you work your ass off.