Some of you may remember that I made a promise to myself that I was going to make some big changes in my life and improve my health. As it progressed I decided that I want to see exactly how far I can push myself. I've been working with a trainer(s) since December and in mid January I had to sit down with the gym owner to have a talk. My complaint was that they were not training me like I wanted and that they couldn't track my progress. They could tell me I was stronger but they couldn't tell me how.

I knew because I keep a log of everything I lift, everything I eat and every bit of exercise I perform. I put a lot of time into my nutrition, coming up with a training plan (shouldn't they have done this for my off days?) and making my ass get in the gym. When I wasn't seeing any improvement I wanted to know why and I was told "don't worry about it because your diet is good". That wasn't good enough for me so I sat down with the owner and told him exactly how we needed to change my plan.

Fast forward to today: I get to the gym and work with a new trainer. She ASKS me what I want to do today and I ask her if she is crazy. She says upper body and we go to the bench. I sit on the bench and she brings me a set of dumbbells..........................15lb dumbbells. I was nice when I told them where they could shove my remaining training sessions. The owner is a nice guy and was pretty embarrassed about it, along with other things, and gave me a refund after I repeatedly said no thanks. I'll give him credit for that.

Long story short....if you ever decide you want to use a personal trainer then you better interview them and ask a lot of questions about their plans and how they measure success. My experience was bad enough that it almost broke my drive to continue. Sorry for the long post, just felt the need to rant a little.

With as much self control as you have I would build my own plan. Set your goals and do it.

I lost seventy pounds in less then 4 months all by myself. Eat healthy, walking and some running.

Josh I applaud you for taking the step forward in the right direction, I wouldn't put the blame personally on the gym unless they recommend the trainer, with that being said when arm day rolls around let me know, I have tons of wood that needs splitting

We're the 15s too much for you? Just kidding, good gyms are hard to come by. I was going to one a few years ago and when I showed up one morning it was locked up and completely empty. They had packed everything up in the middle of the night and moved out.

I tried that place out you're way.. by cracker barrel, they kept sounding a alarm ad told me to control my roid rage, apparently slamming 45lb plates is a no no ...I left and haven't been back

I lost 50lbs before I ever stepped foot in the gym or talked to a trainer. I did that on my own to prove a point to myself but I did it almost exactly like that



That's pretty much what I did but the problem is that researching things on the internet generally works like this: article 1 says you should lift high weight, low rep article 2 says low weigh, high rep, article 3 says do 800 squats a day or you will catch AIDS.

I hired "professionals" to help me develop a plan and correct my form but that didn't happen. Hell I still don't know if my deadlift form is worth a crap because they avoided it like the plague.

Planet Fitness. I have a membership there too but only use it if I need to fit in a workout late at night.

Josh, what gym were you working out at, if you don't mind saying?

Suck it up, you pansy.....

Which is more of a reason to drink more beer and eat more ribs..Josh thanks for the heads up.I'll make sure and never step foot in a gym ever again.

I'll shoot you a PM. The owner has been a pretty stand up guy about it and I'm not going to be negative about them on the interwebz.

I've always recommended that you gotta find a trainer that's gotten to where you want to be. If they've never lifted heavy, how can they teach you to do it? I've trained people who have had other personal trainers and every single one of them got bigger numbers than ever before when they worked out with me. Several of them had one particular trainer who was very knowledgeable, but he had never competed in powerlifting and wasn't that strong for his size. Gotta find the expert that knows how to get you where you want to be

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the steroids. Come again?

Says the guy with a membership to Planet Fitness….

HAH! Like I said, it's for emergency use only and I used it last night and wanted to kill myself. There was a group of natives surrounding the weights and it was pretty tough for me to get through the circle of trust to get a workout done.

We're having a charity competition the last Saturday of February. If you want to grow some balls and learn how to lift right, you could come watch. All proceeds go to the Miracle League of Tuscaloosa

USPA 4th Annual Lifting for a Miracle on Facebook

I'm wore out after reading this. Oh well.

I don't care if my balls are dragging the ground, the only way I'm driving that far north is for a gay dove shoot.

I had a ho tell me last month at the flying J in Satsuma she was a personal trainer and her work out room was next door at the La Quinta. Said she work for cheap and knew you from planet fitness.