Well balanced program for beginner/intermediate exerciser?

[Matt Z]

Leg Presses wouldn't be my first choice for someone with bad knees (or a bad back). Sled Hack Squats might be better if you have access to a machine (position feet foreword).

Dumbbell Bench Presses are better than Dumbbell Flyes, but you have to use more weight since they're a compound movement. If you use the same weight for both, flyes will feel much harder, but that doesn't make them better.

Also, the chest muscles of a woman are no different than those of a man, they just tend to be somewhat smaller, and are normally somewhat obscured by the breasts.

[jessicalock]

Thats excellent - thanks so much for your help Jeff. I was starting to go round in circles with the limitations given!

Jessica.x

[Ironman]

Yea those are bad limitations. No wonder the trainers at my gym don't seem to know much.

[Matt Z]

What are the requirements to become a personal trainer? Do they varry greatly depending on where you get you certification? I ask because I've met a lot of trainers who were/are terrible.

[Stephen Johnson]

Personal training is a lot like sales - it's an easy field to get into, but much harder to make a living. Word gets around a gym who's good and who isn't in a hurry

[Ironman]

All they have to do is pass this dead simple test. They don't get paid much though. I knew this guy who actually did know what he was doing. He had a regular day job. He just took a job as a part time trainer to make a little extra money. He quit after a couple months because he just wasn't making much money at it. He didn't feel it was worth his time. The gym gets almost all of the fee paid. It is like $80 an hour at my gym. You can get a better deal if you buy big though. That deal would be ok but only if the trainer knows what they are doing. The problem is people who know something are not going to stick around for what most of these places want to pay them.

[Matt Z]

The trainers I've seen never seem to push their clients, or even correct poor form. Often they rely heavily on machines, apparently because machine exercises are easier to demonstrate.

[jessicalock]

I am only doing the first stage of a Personal Trainers course so basically once this assessment is out of the way i will be qualified to teach in a gym only. (i have 2 more mini courses and assessments to pass before i can work as a personal trainer on RPE level 3) I had to do 40 hours of 'work experience' which was just basically shadowing the trainers in my gym thru inductions and personal training programs for the members at the gym. Some of the instructors were pretty bad, i think cos basically they are only paid a wage to be there and not any extra per training program they devised.

There are personal trainers at the gym but i think its similar to what was mentioned in that they only get a percentage of the fee (i guess cos they are using the gyms own client base) And i think they way it works generally is that the personal trainers are only allowed to train clients in the gym if they pay an annual 'lease' type fee....All in all its quite a crappy situation unless you can get a good firm client base and train them in places other than commercial gyms (e.g. personal trainer to the stars who have their own gyms - i wish!)

Anyway thats my input.....

Jessica.x

[Stephen Johnson]

The trainers I've seen never seem to push their clients, or even correct poor form. Often they rely heavily on machines, apparently because machine exercises are easier to demonstrate.

In fairness to the trainers, most of their clientele are women, older people and business types - not exactly a pool for hard-core lifters. Lately, I've noticed the trainers at NYSC use a lot of stuff with stabillity balls, under the rubric of "functional training."

[Ironman]

Yea, Matt, they do all those things at my gym too. I have also noticed an obsession with swiss balls and this thing they have people stand on where they almost fall down. I also saw this lady they had doing lunges and she had ballance problems due to core strength issues and they just kept having her do them. No basic compound stuff ever. It's always something weird where you are just think "What the hell is that?"

When I see them not pushing someone and letting them use poor form, It is so hard not to be like "Hey knuclehead, what are you doing?"

[Matt Z]

I can understand the reluctance to push people too hard, but there's no excuse for poor form. If they don't show people how to perform the excercises properly (and safely), then what are people paying for.

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