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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   3437 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 28, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How would y'all recommend finding a personal trainer?

I want someone local, and I have a fitness goal of being in better shape for an upcoming underwater hockey tournament. But otherwise I think I'm flexible. Just don't know what to look for or avoid.

Personal trainers are financially motivated to keep you coming back, it's a pretty perverse business model. I'd recommend avoiding it entirely. I say this as someone who briefly was a personal trainer.

If you want programming there are apps for that. If you want someone to motivate you it's far better to get a friend to work out with you. If you don't have friends who want to work out, join a Crossfit gym and now you do.

I sometimes work out with friends, but I want to do more training during work hours when they are not available.

The motivation isn't there right now (or ever?) to do workouts on my own.

Through personal recommendation.

I tried a couple of personal trainers after taking a ridiculously deep dive on qualifications, and found both to generally be a waste of time. What's been most helpful actually was asking chatGPT4 for advice on how to craft a very specific routine in line with my preferences. For example, I've been weightlifting for years using basic compound lifts and asked it to do a general physical audit to see where I'm lagging behind. Because I managed to do 30 pushups in 30 seconds, it told me I definitely didn't need to focus on upper body strength, but in comparison I barely could last 10 seconds on a closed-eyes one-legged-stand test. Given the filters I gave it, it then suggested adding split squats to my routine. It's great stuff.

When I started lifting I got a PT who gave me a good routine, and when I ran the program he gave me through ChatGPT it said it’s a good programme with nothing much to add.

I lack personal motivation for follow through. Is there a chatgpt app that will nag me about my fitness goals?

Beeminder? Never used it myself though.

Tried it, you can just lie to it, which I guess would be the problem with any app, and why I want a human.

Your gym will have a list, presumably you can ask for someone more into cardio and then try a few to see whose personality fits.

Don't. Just start lifting.

Source: Years of lifting and know personal trainers personally. They will just put you on a cookie cutter plan and spot your lifts. Something you can achieve with 15 minutes of googling and having friends who lift. Unless you are a professional athlete looking to squeeze out a 0.1% performance on the table, it's almost always going to be a waste of time.

And if you don't have enough drive to just start lifting without a trainer, you are not going to stick to it anyways.

Source: Seen this shit happen time and time again.

And if you don't have enough drive to just start lifting without a trainer, you are not going to stick to it anyways.

Source: Seen this shit happen time and time again.

Yah I don't have motivation, how long can a personal trainer extend motivation. I certainly don't think it can work indefinitely, but a few months?

I bet there are a lot of people who hire a trainer once or twice a week for years (possibly decades) who wouldn’t have the motivation to do it by themselves, and in their case it makes a big difference.

Why lifting for a cardio heavy sport?

If all you want is to improve your cardio, you definitely don't need a trainer.

It's definitely a motivation problem I'm trying to solve

If it's cardio and a motivation problem, just go to something like a spin class. When I was doing it, it was much cheaper than personal training, given that one trainer could manage the entire class of people rather than just one. I used to joke that I found cardio so boring that it was impossible to motivate myself, so the only way I could do it was to have someone basically yelling what I was supposed to do at me.

Seconded, this is good advice.

Most people get "personal trainers" in the context of lifting. I thought that applies here.

If its for a particular sport, then I don't really know. Are there not any pros or semi pros showing up to the club you paly at ?

No such things as pros for the sport I play. If I had to guess Underwater hockey only has about a thousand active players in the US.

The more experienced and in shape players offer some training advice when you are on their teams, but I'm not on their team and would just generally prefer being in good cardio shape.

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