I’ve been working with a trainer for almost 2 years now, and had phenomenal results (hit multiple PR’s, followed by an epic shred for a BB competition last June). I could not have done this without him.
At this point though, I’m not prepping for anything. And having a trainer is expensive. I got my macros on autopilot (thanks to keto ). I pretty much have my form down for most basic lifts; so I rarely need help. I hope to go off on my own beginning January.
I’m looking to continue building muscle and strength, with a good balance of compound and focused lifts.
I want to start research on doing it myself, but I have some concerns…
How do I build a workout regimen without taking up all of my time figuring it out?
If I purchase a pre-packaged workout regimen. How do I get help with new lifts? What do I substitute if my gym doesn’t have the right equipment?
How can I trust the shit I’m reading (and possibly paying for) on the interwebs isn’t pure bullshit? I can at least challenge my trainer on things, and he will make references to his sources.
There’s a crap-ton of info and garbage out there. Where do I start?
I’ve worked with Neil Hill, Mike O’Hearn, Layne Norton, and the common denominator is exactly what you said - if you aren’t prepping for anything, you can absolutely make your own program for progress.
I tell all my clients that if they still have to pay me after a year, then I failed them (excluding contest prep clients). I’ll be happy to send you my stuff and give you any/all insights I have.
Run a program for 8-12 weeks. reassess the following:
are you beating the log book?
Are you getting adequate MMC (Mind muscle connection)
are you stimulating the muscle properly?
How is your form?
A program is simply that a program. it is meant to be tweaked to the trainee to their desired goals. Not every exercise is always the most optimal one. This is why you run something and make changes based off your results. ALWAYS START WITH LOWER VOLUME and allow yourself to increase if need be.
If you need help with new lifts, you can always youtube them. There are tons of contest prep coaches who display free content, training videos, workout routines, exercises etc that can help you understand how to execute the lift. John Meadows has a goldmine on his moutainndog1 YT channel. B PAK is another great channel to look into same with Jordan Peters.
How do you know something is legit? Always read reviews, and always do your homework. Just like when you signed up with a coach. You will know what you get is what you pay for if there is enough concrete evidence, results, and success with that coach or training program.
Training is not black and white there are a lot of variables that go into the puzzle, at the end of the day the trainee (yourself) Should have a good grasp on what works for you over the years of doing this. You should know what feels best during a workout, what exercises give the best mind muscle connection, and where you need to improve on lifts that lack. Take a deep hard look in the mirror at weakpoints and focus your workout routines around those area’s by doing them 2-3x a week and backing down on strong points. This way you can understand and know how much volume and frequency you can truly take without it hindering recovery and muscle gains.
You have my email so you can always bounce ideas off me whenever buddy.
Sent you email, but I replied to the PP notification and pasted your email addy in there. You might have missed it as just a topic notification in your inbox,
I decided to go with Every Damn Day Fitness’s volume program. Heard great things about it for the most part, plus it will carry me through about 6 months of training. The workouts are a bit long for the first couple weeks (about 90 min excluding any warmup, HIIT, or cardio). And some folks say the training can be a bit mundane, which I don’t think will bother me too much.
I plan on logging everything into JeFit for tracking. If the app gets too cumbersome, I’l switch back to good old fashioned spreadsheets.
BBM The Bridge for a couple months. Then DL’s and sometimes BB Squats kept triggering a glute issue; so had to quit BBM templates (although they are pretty awesome)
Built my own Upper-Lower Split program. Saw pretty good progress, but I caught myself making my workouts longer and longer, pushing 2 hours per day, 6 days/week.
COVID shut the gyms down. Used MAPS Anywhere program to workout at home (bands and a dowel are all you need). Saw major improvements in mobility over 3 months (march-june). Never ended up looking like the chick in the web site tho.
Gym’s back open. We are requested to not be in the gym for more than 1 hour (this is probably a good thing for me, lol). Now doing a combination of my [shortened] Split workout 3 days/week, then Functional/mobility workouts from MAPS Anywhere 2 days/week. Then I do HIIT 2 days/week with my old trainer via Zoom.
). I pretty much have my form down for most basic lifts; so I rarely need help. I hope to go off on my own beginning January.
