starting strength gym
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: A tale of two trainers

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    112

    Default A tale of two trainers

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    After getting married, moving, getting my wife pregnant, becoming a father, and generally spending the last few years out of the gym and ballooning up to 5"9' 315lbs, I decided to get back under the bar a few weeks ago.

    I started at:

    12/28/16 — Wednesday
    Squat 5x235x3
    Bench 5x185x3
    Dead 5x275x1

    Today:

    01/12/17 - Thursday
    Squat 5x295x3
    Bench 5x200x3
    Dead 5x315x1

    I'm trying not to be greedy, and to just go up slowly and follow the program. But I except to add at least 100 to each lift before I'm out of novice progression. I'm eating plenty of meat and green vegetables, but generally cutting all the crap (carbs) out of my diet. All of my clothes fit better, I've lost 20 pounds, and most importantly, I feel healthy and athletic again and am getting stronger.

    Anyway, at the gym today, a trainer comes up to me and tells me that he's been watching me workout the last few weeks. He says that he's the owner's brother and really felt that it was his duty to come by and talk to me. I ask him what's up, and he tells me that I'm doing pretty much every lift wrong. (I knew that my technique wasn't perfect, but that was quite the gut punch. Still, there's nothing more valuable that technique advice, so I listen to him.) What I've been doing wrong, apparently, is to lift everything for sets of 5 reps. He tells me I'm in danger of putting muscle on top of my fat, which means that "the fat will never come off." He says that I really need to start doing sets of 25+ reps for everything, and gives me his card. I just smile and thank him for the advice.

    Meanwhile, I received an email from a SSC that I found through the website, to whom I had sent an email about training my aging parents (my mother works on her feet all day, and has advancing arthritis). I was understandably worried about trusting a stranger in another state with my parents, but the reply I got from him was knowledgable, helpful, and very encouraging. Hopefully we'll get a training program set up shortly for them.

    Rip, how do you manage to keep the brand quality so high? I'm impressed and wanted to let you know to keep up the good work.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,557

    Default

    The secret is that we fail some very good people. We hope they get better and come back, but if they are not up to the standard, they don't pass.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
    Location
    Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Posts
    1,025

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by thras View Post
    He tells me I'm in danger of putting muscle on top of my fat, which means that "the fat will never come off." He says that I really need to start doing sets of 25+ reps for everything, and gives me his card.
    What a worthless fuck.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    583

    Default

    You are starting off very strong. When I'm able to put up your numbers I will party like there's no tomorrow. Follow SS and don't let anyone derail your progress.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    112

    Default

    @TimK According to his card, he's both "nationally" and "internationally" certified, with a lot of letters after his name.

    @ChessGuy I'm still well below were I was at a couple of years ago, so this is mostly about recovering strength, not building it for the first time. That, and my increased body weight let me start high. I am concerned about getting greedy, but if I get stuck I'll back off.

    It's interesting to me that the same eating and lifting behavior that had me losing weight caused me to gain 3 pounds this last week. I don't really care about gains or losses on the scale though -- my theory is that only eating meat and green vegetables, together with training hard to lift heavy things, will be incompatible with being a fat slob in the long term. So either I'm going to lose some fat, or God will kill me to preserve the balance. It's got to be one or the other.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,557

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by thras View Post
    @TimK According to his card, he's both "nationally" and "internationally" certified, with a lot of letters after his name.
    Of course he is.

  7. #7
    Brodie Butland is offline Starting Strength Coach
    Consigliere
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Cleveland
    Posts
    3,930

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by thras View Post
    @TimK According to his card, he's both "nationally" and "internationally" certified, with a lot of letters after his name.
    Something I've come to appreciate the older I've gotten--degrees, certifications, and titles don't mean that the person across from you knows a damn thing he's talking about. And the more someone relies on those accolades, the less they're likely to know.

    This guy apparently believes that people are like trees, in that you can tell how many bulking/cutting cycles a trainee has gone through by looking at how many rings of fat and muscle go around his midsection. I mean, seriously--if a trainer said that to me, I'd assume he was just fucking with me.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •