Personal trainer. AMA

>put in time and focus to gain knowledge for yourself
>put someone else do it for you and follow simple instructions

idk man why does anybody do anything

I have all my beginners and female trainees do starting strength. I would go out for an official SS coach cert, but this is not going to be my career. The few who are intermediates I actually program for. But I mostly do starting strength
Power cleans on Wednesdays starting when they can no longer add 10 lbs increments to the DL
Chinups on friday starting on week 3 if they can do at least 5

1. Someone with 30 degree scoliosis comes to you for strength training. Which compounds do you include and which do you specifically exclude?

2. Same question but it’s a 70 year old grandma instead of someone with scoliosis.

3. What do you think of SS?

4. You meet a client for the first time, they are dyel, wear gloves and specific “gym kit”. They ask what supplements to buy, what do you respond?

5. Do you include cardio in your beginner strength trainees program?

6. A new female client says “I don’t want to get to bulky, I just want to tone.” What do you respond?

7. Client asks you for diet to meet his goals. They tell you they’re vegan. What do you respond?

Hope it’s not too many questions.

1. IDFK, I'd consult the S&C guys or physiology department at the school
2. Have them do SS
3. Love it. Great for novices, not useful for non-novices. Most my trainees do it
4. Creatine and that's it.
5. No, but some stronger/experienced guys I'll have do conditioning once or twice a week
6. Tell them that cannot happen and is a myth unless you are on the rons. If they don't believe me then I won't train them
7. I won't train a vegan. Their rejection of logic and sub optimal nutrition is incompatible with the type of strength training I prescribe

fave exercise to make people do?

The power clean. All athletes MUST be cleaning, especially football players. Improves explosiveness, deadlift power, coordination, and overall athleticism. Everyone who can clean should be cleaning imo

what best advice do you give clients to break using shitty food as a reward?
Like you can kill it in the gym and ruin it in a 5 min binge rage at home.
How do I stop?

Well I'm not really the weight loss guy, I'm the guy for gaining size and strength, but I try to drill it into my trainees head that bad nutrition effects performance during training

What does your clients programming look like?

Well beginners will be doing SS
Non-novices get individualized monthly programming. Typically percentage based and tailored to personal needs
Here's next week for one of my intermediate guys

Sunday
Squat w/belt 3x5
Close Grip Bench 4x4
Rack Pull 2x7

Tuesday
Press 4x5
Pin Squat 3x4
Power Cleans 3x5

Thursday
Deadlift w/belt 3x5
Paused Bench 4x5
3-0-3 Tempo Squat 2x8

Friday
Isometric ab work
Arm work
Conditioning

i sprained something in my inner thigh and doing bikes with one leg is shit, any ideas for cardio? this was like 2 days ago

indoor rowing machine

How many of your female clients have you fucked

no.
When trying to teach hip drive on the squat, I usually place my hands on a trainees lower back and push down to get them used to the stimulus. Closest I get to sexual touching even though it isn't sexual in the slightest

>injure leg
>do leg exercise
u wot

It's not a leg exercise, it's a pulling movement. You don't have to use any leg drive
That being said, I wouldn't work out with a sprained ankle at all, but if you must do some sort of cardio, that's the only thing I can think of that sort of removes legs from the movemnt

shameless self bump

freelance PT here just starting out

how do you find your clients? what if they don't want an SS routine but they just wanna lose some weight? where do you train them?

have you read Verkhoshansky's book on Plyometrics? If not, you should.

I've never really had to find clients, theyre usually just people who work out in the uni gym who want some help
The people who come to me are the ones who want to do SS either because they're a student athlete or just skinny and weak. I also advertise myself as a strength coach and not and weight loss guy so I don't usually get ppl that don't want to do a strength program and just want to lose fat. There are other ppl who do that, I'm just the barbell guy

What did you do to become one?
How much money do you make?

Im considering becoming one

All right, if you insist. Since I see you use SS:

1. “Light Squat Wednesday” or “Front Squat Wednesday”
2. Do you use the “Advanced Novice” volume reduction programming of 4x2 Power Clean, 3x3 Bench Press, 1x5 + 90%x2x5 Squats etc.
3. Will ABA-ABA-ABA-ABA programming work instead of ABA-BAB-ABA-BAB before Phase 3, since PC and BP have shorter SRA curves and than DL and OHP, and use micro loading? Plus, Benching more often might benefit powerlifting ambitions.
4. How many weeks of pure strength training does a novice needing to prepare for a fitness test in the long term (army/special forces/firefighter/SWAT) do before adding conditioning work to their training (aerobic and anaerobic)?
5. Hook grip or alternate grip?
6. Natural intermediate strength program post SS (e.g Texas Method)?
7. Natural intermediate cutting program post SS (e.g. Jacked and Tan 2.0)?
8. How do you program chin ups for high body fat % trainees that can only do 0-1.
9. What do you do with the client between sets, when they rest 5-7min in the late stages. Talk about life?
10. How do you manage to NOT lose clients after you introduce them to something as simple as SS? Don’t they go “I could have googled that, lmao” in your line of work where complexity sells?

What certification did you go through?

What kind of pay are you making?

I am working on my NASM cert and aiming at making it a part time side gig.

no because I don't use plyo in my programming

This is not my career so I didn't have to get a cert, I just got the S&C and Physiology department to approve of me. I'm doing it as a work study program for my uni so the pay usually goes toward paying down my tuition. It's $8 an hour, about 20-30 hrs a week.
My advice is don't make a career out of PTing, do it on the side or as part time. Just the honest truth

Why? It's a dead end job? I don't know what to do, I looked up all the possible courses you can take in the universities I'm interested in and I don't like any of them apart from the ones about strenght training. I really don't want to end up studying something I hate and doing it as a job

Can we see your physique? You're a PT so you much look good and dyel, right user?...........user?

Must look good and not dyel*

How did I fuck this up

1. Light squat. Better to have novices repeat a movemnt than to introduce another one
2. At that point I usually deviate from SS programming because the trainee develops individualized needs
3. I don't think so. During the novice phase I'd say it's best to maintain frequency and volume close to equal for P and BP & PC and DL
4. However long it takes to finish their novice linear progression. Then it's time to do military specific training
5. Hook. Prevents imbalances
6. The Bridge from Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Baraki of barbell medicine
7. IDK
8. Lat pulldowns, rows, and negatives. No assistance machine or kipping helps imo
9. uhh idk. Usually talk technique
10. No because they usually get hooked on watching their numbers go up every session and find it helpful that another person is their to critique their form on the spot

I have an decent physique. It's at least above average and I'm natty. I'm more of a strength guy and as we all know strength =/= aesthetics

Rowing is like 90% legs you know right? Its only in the final part of the stroke that your back and arms are engaged.

Pics?

Then I take that back. I dont do rowing so I guess I wouldn't know but it looks like it's mostly upper body
Like I said, dont work out with a sprained ankle unless you will be seated for all your lifts. The kinetic chain will still be stressed even if you are doing upper body

What's your average client like? I'm studying for my PT test now but I'm a bodybuilding type in my 20s and have no idea how I'll train soccer moms and senior citizens..

I didn't make this thread to post pictures.

NOT ME. Stop impersonating me

This, the pts in my gym are all old guys and dyels. How the fuck do they expect me to listen to them when they can't bench 1 plate?

>tfw i also can't bench one plate

Why do you suck

>6. The Bridge from Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Baraki of barbell medicine

Is there a book? What’s it called so I can pirate it?

Nigga....

You are ei shit PT L A D

I'd say 2/3 of my clients are underweight 18-21 y.o who have never touched a weight before. The rest are either female student athletes who don't get sufficient strength & conditioning for their sport or intermediate lifters who understand the value of a coach and long term programming

barbellmedicine.com/the-bridge/
free 30 pg ebook

that really hurts my feelings user

Best lifts?

Squat: 495
Deadlift: 530
Press: 225
Bench: 270
Power Clean: 315

200 bw, 22 yrs old, been training since 16. Natty

bretty gud m8

Worst client?
Best Client

Worst:freshman female volleyball player. Refused to eat. She was like 10 lbs underweight, didnt gain any weight in the month i trained her, told her she needed to eat more, and she would lie to me about her eating habits
Best: the kid who went from a 135 squat to 435 squat in 5 months. Kid was a genetic freak with untapped potential when I got him

from 135 to 435 squat in 5 months? what the fuck. how much weight did he gain?

from 150 to 195 lbs bw. He actually did GOMAD also for a month straight
Adding 5 lbs every time you go into squat adds up to a hellofa lot of weight.
He was also a genetic freak. One look at his dad was evidence of that

Is ur name Brandon

Does he fuck you afterwards as bad as you fucked up his programming?

Are you allowed to choose what your client does in a routine, or does the gym you work for only allow you to use meme exercises that minimize potential lawsuits? (Assuming you work for a gym)

You know nothing about the strengths, weaknesses, stats, and needs about this particular trainee so you are not in a position to criticize without context

I workstudy as an extension of the strength and conditioning department at my uni so I'm not allowed to put trainees on meme routines lol

Ok, I'm looking into becoming a trainer, and I was wondering if gyms purposefully limit the exercises trainers can train their clients with to minimize potential injuries, because that's the only rational reason I can figure when at my gym I see perfectly able and young people being made to do weird jumping dance routines with dumbbells while the trainer looks on bored and uninterestedly counting reps. Otherwise, why are these trainers so shit at helping people?

Barbell training is much safer than those meme balance routines you see PTs administering. In fact it's safer than most sports. But real PTs don't care because meme routines sell memberships

I understand they're much safer, I just can't fathom being that type of trainer. How do you get into in a job where you're supposed to help people get healthier and you just don't care about them. It seems so slimy.

By "that trainer" I mean the meme exercises, not barbell. The wording on there might have been confusing.

Should I work out even when I'm really sore?

I've never seen a trainer teach proper form

What do you lift? How do you quantify improvement both for yourself and for your clients?

Why do I randomly have spells of no stamina, sometimes outright trembling/weakness and lightheadedness? Eating right away helps but I'm not diabetic as far as I know. Tried getting more sleep and it has very little effect.

>Going to the gym for a 30min workout

t. someone who doesnt lift heavy enough to need long rests

Because some people don't have time to research everything when it comes to training, some people prefer to pay someone to do all the thinking for them, that way they can just focus on lifting

It's why a lot of top athletes who are very experienced coaches themselves, will have a coach doing programming for them, and coaching them on the day of a competition, because it leaves all the thinking for the coach to do, which leaves the athlete to be able to focus on just being an athlete and not have to stress about shit that a coach should be on top of

That depends. DOMS doesn't necessarily mean you haven't recovered. If you've recovered, you can train

I teach proper form
How do I quantify improvement? Uhh, by seeing the weight increase

That's a question for someone well educated on physiology.

What a shitty answer

If you have more than 5 clients you'll be doing a shitty job of tracking progress just like you did a shitty job of answering my whole question

>The Press (TM): 225
>Bench: 270
what the fuck

>man can't keep track of more than 5 sets of numbers
have you heard of a spreadsheet?
jesus christ I hate tripfags, stay in your containment thread

If you were looking for something more specific, my trainees and I all keep training logs and I have a master log in excel with notes and dates.
I also record my training sessions on video since I train alone

I view the Classic Press as somewhat of a lost art that has been usurped by the bench press. I like pressing and I do a lot of it, so it's that high out of sheer volume

>seeing the weight increase
>this means i use a spreadsheet
Nice implication there you child

Im at
>lbs
Bench 195
2 sets 4. took me two weeks to get into working sets of this

Sumo deads
225 1x5

Ohp
135
One rep max

Any programs or ideas on how I can hit 2 plate bench, one plate ohp for working sets? My normal deadlift and sumo is both 225 im just afraid of increasing on normal if my form is bad.

He said he was a strength coach dude, It's easy to track progress with tons of clients if the marker for progress is whether or not they got stronger following a spreadsheet program

are you seriously suggesting that "seeing the weight increase" doesn't mean tracking it? I knew autism made you take things really literally but this is absurd
fair enough, I guess I don't press often enough to see gains relative to bench

Your deadlift seems to be lagging. You can be a novice at one lift and an intermediate at another, so if you haven't fully run through your linear progression on your deadlift, keep going.
If you truly are an intermediate and are serious about strength training, you may want to look into online or personal coaching. At this point your training needs will be more individualized. I'm not a fan of broad template programs for non-novices

t. Someone who rests so long he doesn’t remember he’s even working out

Alright man thanks. There's someone like you at my college gym but hes a dick head. So I'll just keep adding 5lbs to my dead lift and when I stall on all my lifts ill see about that.

this is the worst fucking program i’ve ever seen. i hope this shit is bait. hypertrophy is fucking impossible with this shit

1. This is not a program. This is a week at a glance out of a 4 month training template for one of my trainees
2. This is not for hypertrophy this is purely for a strength adaptation for an advanced novice lifter
3. You don't have nearly enough context about this trainee or his programming conditions to criticize an entire program based off of one weeks worth of workouts

4. If your criticism is that their isn't enough volume, it's because this is a "low stress weeks" out of a mesocycle of high, moderate, and low training stress periods
5. If your criticism is that there isn't enough exercise variation, that's because this is only one week out of a 4 month plan that uses a wider variety of exercises, also if the goal of the trainee is to become proficient at these particular exercises, why the fuck would he expend excess fatigue/time/unecessary tonnage on ancillary exercises?

*CORRECTION: I meant 2 month not 4 month. was thinking of someone else when I typed that

he said he's a strength coach not a bodybuilding coach

How do I get started doing what you're doing?
Lifting is pretty much the only thing I like, and I considered becoming a PT, but I despise how PTs always give their clients meme routines so they don't progress and keep coming back. How do you keep clients?

What certs do you have? Can I realistically get hired somewhere without one? (no real strength cert over here, don't have the money to go to the USA for SSC)

Laziness and the belief that someone who does it for a living is more knowledgeable than you could be without formal education

I don't have a cert, this is just part of a work study program my uni offers. The strength and conditioning department persuaded the workstudy board to create a trainer position for me to work as because of my abilities to train people and program for them.
I keep clients because of the progress they make. The starting strength method is very effective at hooking people on strength training by seeing their numbers go up every workout. Also, I advertise myself as someone who can get your squat up to 315 in a matter of months, no bullshit meme routines.

If you want to try and make a career out of training (which I am not) tou have to have a niche. If you want to be the weight loss guy, sell yourself as the weight loss guy. If you want to be the strength guy, be the strength guy. If you want to be the athletic trainer, be the athletic trainer. The hard part is finding a gym that will support your style of training.

Opinion on upright rows?

I've heard they can be bad for your shoulders but I could be mistaken.
Either way, I don't program them. All my trainees do power cleans, which is an explosive jump, NOT an arm pull. If you spend your time in the gym doing an upright row arm pull, you condition your nervous system into wanting to use your arms to get the bar onto your shoulders when you start cleaning.

Either way, it's a subpar bodybuilding exercise that messes with your capacity to clean properly, so I don't like them

Thanks brah, that was a pretty good reasoning, I too am a big fan on the power clean.

Starting at 26 makes me so sad. Im skinny and weak, but getting there.

It's never too late to make it brah :)

How can you teach yourself to power clean? When I do them I always feel like I'm doing them incorrectly, it never feels natural unlike the other exercises in SS. Every trainer at my gym tries to get me to do some meme routine or alternatives, but I want to do the routine right and as written.