Lo/Rez Training

Training Training Logs
821

[quote]LoRez wrote:
For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to justify spending $300 or so on a swiss bar… but then I talked to my girlfriend last night, and she told me she just bought another 10 weeks with her trainer for $1500 or so (she was rounding a bit, but it was at least $1200).

I was shocked.

After a little digging, not including her [not cheap] gym membership, that means she’s spent over $4000 on training since she moved there. And she hasn’t seen the results she’s wanted.

I was shocked. (Repeating for emphasis.)

She said she asked at least one other person, and that’s about the same rate they paid for training too. Granted, she asked one of her doctor friends, but wow.

After basically telling her she’s getting ripped off, I told her that she could get coaching from some of the top people in the industry for less than that. She said if I can find her someone to work with that she’d be ok with that. It’s a one-on-one session 2x a week right now, but she’s on her own the rest of the week. Her gym is decently equipped with several serious lifters (more fitness/physique/bb oriented), and she’s comfortable in the actual weight room with actual weights, so there’s that going for her too.

I won’t be out there for another two months… but I think I can find her someone in the meanwhile.

(I also don’t feel at all guilty about splurging on a swiss bar now.)

[/quote]

That’s crazy…

822

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to justify spending $300 or so on a swiss bar… but then I talked to my girlfriend last night, and she told me she just bought another 10 weeks with her trainer for $1500 or so (she was rounding a bit, but it was at least $1200).

I was shocked.

After a little digging, not including her [not cheap] gym membership, that means she’s spent over $4000 on training since she moved there. And she hasn’t seen the results she’s wanted.

I was shocked. (Repeating for emphasis.)

She said she asked at least one other person, and that’s about the same rate they paid for training too. Granted, she asked one of her doctor friends, but wow.

After basically telling her she’s getting ripped off, I told her that she could get coaching from some of the top people in the industry for less than that. She said if I can find her someone to work with that she’d be ok with that. It’s a one-on-one session 2x a week right now, but she’s on her own the rest of the week. Her gym is decently equipped with several serious lifters (more fitness/physique/bb oriented), and she’s comfortable in the actual weight room with actual weights, so there’s that going for her too.

I won’t be out there for another two months… but I think I can find her someone in the meanwhile.

(I also don’t feel at all guilty about splurging on a swiss bar now.)

[/quote]

That’s crazy…[/quote]

Buy her a package with meadows… or anyone basically who trains the physique girls …Thats pretty average for personal training prices. WHen you think about it it kind of makes sense I mean maybe they have 10 clients they train full time. Thats 1200x10= 12k a month. Maybe they keep half of that? You have to pay the gym a percentage.

So 6k at most a monthx12 months = 72k a year.

I mean really youre paying for knowledge and experience…however if they dont know shit and havent gotten results its not worth it obviously… In the words of Jim Wendler “Thank god people dont know jack shit about lifting weights… keeps food on the table”

823

[quote]LoRez wrote:

Axle Clean and Press 230 x 8
18" Axle Deadlift w/Straps 540 x 10
and some other stuff.

But those are the two I kinda care about, and they both seem pretty achievable in the next 2-3 years if I trained for them. 18" is pretty high off the ground… and straps negate the fact that it’s an axle.

[/quote]

I think those are awesome goals, and if you achieve those goals in the next 2-3 years, that will be the most impressive progress I have ever seen, on the internet, or in real life.

Straps don’t negate the axle factor. Try a heavy set of 10, strapped, and tell me you still believe that.

I’m considering making an axle myself. You’ve inspired me, and I have plenty of pipe lying around, I’m sure I have the right size somewhere.

824

I’ll get to the comments.

Axle Z Presses - because I’m tired of writing Savickas
Bar (20) x lots
40 x 5
60 x 5
70 x 5
80 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 3
70 x 8

Left AC joint sort of hurts on these. I think it’s the AC joint. By the end my entire shoulder girdle felt sore, and not entirely in a good way. It’ll adapt.

False grip on all of these, and wrists got a bit sore too. I’ve heard Inzer sucks at shipping. No sign of the wraps yet and no tracking information on the website.

One-Arm Tricep Pushdowns
Interspersed here and there in the above. Rigged up a pulley off my rack to do this with a loading pin, carabiners and some paracord.
5 x a few; 25 x a few; 20 x a few

Right elbow is showing clear issues around 20 lbs. 25 was too painful and my delts started kicking in to move the weight.

Moderate-Incline Axle Presses from Pin 4
20 x 10
70 x 5
90 x 5
110 x 3
130 x 3
140 x 5
140 x 5
140 x 7

Right now these are harder than a straight bar. Did NOT use a false grip.

Squats
0 x 0

I may attempt these later or tomorrow AM. My knees don’t want to have anything to do with these right now. Therapist says my IT band is strung way too tight, so I’ll have to work on that.

–

In the past week, some animal has taken up shop in my garage. First signs were urine (could be a cat) and feces, but I cleaned that up and thought it was gone. Today, more urine, more poop, and a package of nutter butters was broken into and partially eaten. More incentive to start going through the stuff in my garage.

I’ve had to air it out for awhile before lifting in it. It’s still bad, but tolerable. The heat and humidity today is pretty bad too.

825

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
Buy her a package with meadows… or anyone basically who trains the physique girls …Thats pretty average for personal training prices. WHen you think about it it kind of makes sense I mean maybe they have 10 clients they train full time. Thats 1200x10= 12k a month. Maybe they keep half of that? You have to pay the gym a percentage.

So 6k at most a monthx12 months = 72k a year.

I mean really youre paying for knowledge and experience…however if they dont know shit and havent gotten results its not worth it obviously… In the words of Jim Wendler “Thank god people dont know jack shit about lifting weights… keeps food on the table”[/quote]

Yeah. The money side of things do make sense; your math seems a little off to me, but yeah, I get your point.

The real problem is she’s overpaying for what she’s getting. I don’t think she needs someone of Meadows’ caliber to work with, but for that kind of money there are much better options. I’ll probably put a thread up somewhere and see if I can get Dani and/or Bron’s input and advice.

Plus there are just much better ways to spend 5k than that… e.g., a downpayment on a house…

826

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
I think those are awesome goals, and if you achieve those goals in the next 2-3 years, that will be the most impressive progress I have ever seen, on the internet, or in real life.[/quote]
Hm, so maybe I’m a bit over ambitious on the timeframe… Honestly, I didn’t really think it was until you mentioned it. Not that that changes anything.

I’ll give that a shot. Not having done it, that was my guess, but yeah, I’ll try it to see what you mean.

I just used 1-1/2" Schedule 40, cut to 7’. With the two collars I’m using for the inside collars, it’s right around 20 lbs.

827

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
Buy her a package with meadows… or anyone basically who trains the physique girls …Thats pretty average for personal training prices. WHen you think about it it kind of makes sense I mean maybe they have 10 clients they train full time. Thats 1200x10= 12k a month. Maybe they keep half of that? You have to pay the gym a percentage.

So 6k at most a monthx12 months = 72k a year.

I mean really youre paying for knowledge and experience…however if they dont know shit and havent gotten results its not worth it obviously… In the words of Jim Wendler “Thank god people dont know jack shit about lifting weights… keeps food on the table”[/quote]

Yeah. The money side of things do make sense; your math seems a little off to me, but yeah, I get your point.

The real problem is she’s overpaying for what she’s getting. I don’t think she needs someone of Meadows’ caliber to work with, but for that kind of money there are much better options. I’ll probably put a thread up somewhere and see if I can get Dani and/or Bron’s input and advice.

Plus there are just much better ways to spend 5k than that… e.g., a downpayment on a house…[/quote]

Honestly even just going to the fuck that dumb routine do this one and just handing her a bb split from there would be better off than wasting that much money.

I mean from someone who taught himself trial and error from the beginning, you could do a lot worse than any of those routines as a beginner. If you just tell her basically to eat 3-4 meals a day of a meat, some rice or potatoes or pasta, and salad with each meal she’ll get results lol.

828

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
Honestly even just going to the fuck that dumb routine do this one and just handing her a bb split from there would be better off than wasting that much money.

I mean from someone who taught himself trial and error from the beginning, you could do a lot worse than any of those routines as a beginner. If you just tell her basically to eat 3-4 meals a day of a meat, some rice or potatoes or pasta, and salad with each meal she’ll get results lol.[/quote]

Oh, for sure.

Now, it’s not like she’s not getting some results from what she’s doing, but there’s several dumb things that I can point out… and even though she listens, she’s not going to do anything about it. I think she just needs someone with some sense of ‘authority’ to just tell her what to do, and that’s probably not going to be me.

Even more so than the workout, the fact that she’s also running around 35 miles a week and doing 6 miles of stair climbing… that’s what really bothers me.

Which is one of the reasons why I’m glad I had success with my ‘cut’, because now she has some proof that you don’t have to do a ton of cardio, starve yourself, AND lift 6 days a week to get leaner.

829

I have a GF I got into lifting. I tried to make it really easy, just doing basic movements to get her used to stuff, like Goblet Squats, Rack Pulls, DB presses, just stuff that got her use to moving through a certain ROM, bracing her core, whatever. I put her on a basic 5x5 routine, with actual Back Squatting, OHP, etc after awhile.

During her time on the 5x5 routine, I sent her some solid videos, with stuff like Kim Valentine to what a ‘good’ working set looks like, and sent her to ChelseaLifts youtube channel, which is really the best source I know of for lifting info for ladies, at least IMO. Now she’s on WS4SB, with her using a basic template, but now she’s experimenting. When before I’d say ‘do EZ curls’, now I told her to try a different curl variation every upper body day, to see what she likes, what feels the best, etc.

It took her awhile to feel like she didn’t need to run all the time, but at least for my GF, me just saying ‘15 mins of cardio’ post-legs seemed to curb her appetite. Nutritionally, I just told her to get at least 2 servings of meat a day, and drink a scoop of protein. However, she’s 100 lbs, so that’s enough protein for her, and she naturally just kind of eats alright.

I guess I just typed all that just hoping it gives you some ideas. Just make sure that you send her some good information, I can’t recommend ChelseaLIfts enough. So much of what girls read about fitness is talking about celery diets and how cardio rulezzzz. So when I try to tell her something, she’ll be like “but I read somewhere that blah blah only eats blah blah”. So just send her to good sources of information, solid routines, and let her feel she’s doing the research and making decision.

830

This is going to seem like blasphemy on this site… but have you ever considered telling her about crossfit?

I know everyone shits on it but if you have someone whose not a terrible crossfit instructor (ie someone with an actual certification who follows the periodization) its not that terrible for the general public…

Crossfit produces plenty of good-looking and reasonably in shape women… Assuming shes looking just to look better.

831

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
This is going to seem like blasphemy on this site… but have you ever considered telling her about crossfit?

I know everyone shits on it but if you have someone whose not a terrible crossfit instructor (ie someone with an actual certification who follows the periodization) its not that terrible for the general public…

Crossfit produces plenty of good-looking and reasonably in shape women… Assuming shes looking just to look better.[/quote]
x2

832

[quote]chobbs wrote:

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
This is going to seem like blasphemy on this site… but have you ever considered telling her about crossfit?

I know everyone shits on it but if you have someone whose not a terrible crossfit instructor (ie someone with an actual certification who follows the periodization) its not that terrible for the general public…

Crossfit produces plenty of good-looking and reasonably in shape women… Assuming shes looking just to look better.[/quote]
x2[/quote]

might as well jump on the flame train, and agree. I got my wife into CF about 6 months ago and shes really enjoying it(and seeing good results). For women getting into CF i think theres more than enough cardio for them to worry about “getting bulky” and the fact that there are group classes help them meet friends to keep them interested and going back.

833

[quote]GetitUp wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
This is going to seem like blasphemy on this site… but have you ever considered telling her about crossfit?

I know everyone shits on it but if you have someone whose not a terrible crossfit instructor (ie someone with an actual certification who follows the periodization) its not that terrible for the general public…

Crossfit produces plenty of good-looking and reasonably in shape women… Assuming shes looking just to look better.[/quote]
x2[/quote]

might as well jump on the flame train, and agree. I got my wife into CF about 6 months ago and shes really enjoying it(and seeing good results). For women getting into CF i think theres more than enough cardio for them to worry about “getting bulky” and the fact that there are group classes help them meet friends to keep them interested and going back.[/quote]

Gotta agree as well. The gym I go to is full of older meat heads and my girl always feels out of place in there. I think girls really dig the group setting and like to feel like part of an exercise “team,” so to speak. Have to make sure the CF instructor is worth anything, though.

834

[quote]LoRez wrote:
In the past week, some animal has taken up shop in my garage. First signs were urine (could be a cat) and feces, but I cleaned that up and thought it was gone. Today, more urine, more poop, and a package of nutter butters was broken into and partially eaten. More incentive to start going through the stuff in my garage.

I’ve had to air it out for awhile before lifting in it. It’s still bad, but tolerable. The heat and humidity today is pretty bad too.[/quote]

You’ve gotta seal the garage completely off from the outside(if at all possible). I had a rat problem for a little bit in my garage, and I had to find every little 1" hole that an animal could possibly get through and fill it. I doubled up on my garage door bottom seal in places, screwed some metal plates over gaps between brickwork and roof, etc. No more problems now.

835

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
I think those are awesome goals, and if you achieve those goals in the next 2-3 years, that will be the most impressive progress I have ever seen, on the internet, or in real life.[/quote]
Hm, so maybe I’m a bit over ambitious on the timeframe… Honestly, I didn’t really think it was until you mentioned it. Not that that changes anything.

I’ll give that a shot. Not having done it, that was my guess, but yeah, I’ll try it to see what you mean.

I just used 1-1/2" Schedule 40, cut to 7’. With the two collars I’m using for the inside collars, it’s right around 20 lbs.[/quote]

I’m actually going to make 3 of these, out of schedule 80 pipe. I can buy a 21’ piece of schedule 80 for less than 70 bucks. I know a few people that could use these. I’ll plasma cut some collars, then weld them on. Not sure if I’ll paint the bars. I’ll probably leave them unpainted to start, I can always do it later. The only thing I can’t do at my shop is add knurling, I’ll have to look into that. It’d be nice to add a few knurling rings for reference.

836

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
I guess I just typed all that just hoping it gives you some ideas. Just make sure that you send her some good information, I can’t recommend ChelseaLIfts enough. So much of what girls read about fitness is talking about celery diets and how cardio rulezzzz. So when I try to tell her something, she’ll be like “but I read somewhere that blah blah only eats blah blah”. So just send her to good sources of information, solid routines, and let her feel she’s doing the research and making decision. [/quote]

Thanks for writing that up. Sounds like you did a good job getting her into lifting.

My girlfriend didn’t really develop an interest in lifting until after she’d moved; after residency, working a real job, in a new town, and without me around, she sort of gravitated toward the gym to fill her time. Her goals at the time were pretty vague, pretty much just “I want nice arms and I want to see my abs”. They might be a bit better now.

On the other hand, I’ve at least pushed her to work on her squats and deadlifts, since they have been part of her constantly changing programs. Last night she texted me to say that she just got a 160lb deadlift and a 140lb squat. She was pretty proud.

It would be unfair to suggest that her trainer is incompetent or anything of the sort. It’s more that the programming is designed to be “advanced” and constantly varied, creating something of a dependence on the trainer, and also making sure she always “feels” like she worked out. It seems her trainer is kind of banking on the “I’m sore so my training is working” phenomena. Good for business, not necessarily for progress. I think after 6 months or so, my girlfriend’s starting to see that.

The running she’d been doing forever, and she actually placed high a couple races when she first moved out there (she actually got 1st for her age range in one). She’s not a competitive runner, but it’s been a definite part of who she is. At least that means mountain hikes won’t ever be an issue.

Diet-wise, she has trouble convincing herself to eat that much protein. This, and her propensity to snack, are the biggest problems toward the “I want to see my abs” goal. I at least persuaded her to add another scoop to her protein shake, but she’s still not really getting enough meat in. On the good side, she’s eating lots of vegetables instead.

Thanks for the tip about ChelseaLifts. I didn’t know about that.

837

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You’ve gotta seal the garage completely off from the outside(if at all possible). I had a rat problem for a little bit in my garage, and I had to find every little 1" hole that an animal could possibly get through and fill it. I doubled up on my garage door bottom seal in places, screwed some metal plates over gaps between brickwork and roof, etc. No more problems now.[/quote]

It’s an apartment complex garage, so I’m not sure if there’s much I can do, but thanks.

838

And re: Crossfit… thanks everyone. I’d kinda forgotten about that option. I’ll run it by her.

839

I slept horribly last night due to that workout. My entire upper back and shoulders were just beat up. Popped a few advil and some phosphatidyl serine (cortisol control/relaxant) just to get back to sleep.

That was surprisingly hard on my body. And probably in the right kind of way.

840

[quote]LoRez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You’ve gotta seal the garage completely off from the outside(if at all possible). I had a rat problem for a little bit in my garage, and I had to find every little 1" hole that an animal could possibly get through and fill it. I doubled up on my garage door bottom seal in places, screwed some metal plates over gaps between brickwork and roof, etc. No more problems now.[/quote]

It’s an apartment complex garage, so I’m not sure if there’s much I can do, but thanks.[/quote]

ohhhhhhhhhh… yea that won’t work then lol.