New personal trainer

[musclejunkie22]

Well guys, thought I'd throw my experiences in with the rest. I've been working out forever and have a good build (44y/o, 5'10" lean 185, 46c, 31w, 16a) and decided I needed to shake things up. I've been trying to break the 190 plateau and still look lean and muscular for a long time and I couldn't do it. I want to take my build from good to amazing. So I hired a trainer that specializes in bodybuilding. He's helped guys get ready for contest and the whole bit and has competed himself. I'm hiring him for a month (that's about all I can afford for now!) to get me going and shake up my workout and progress. Then I'll go it alone again for a month or so and check in with him for some more sessions. Anyways, it's interesting. After years of working out mostly alone and relying on reading and friends' advice, it's great to have the motivation of a pro trainer. He also advised me to stop all of my supplements like creatine, amino acids, glutamine, etc. He told me that most legal supplements are worthless and that I should just concentrate on getting my protein from whole food and to try to not do protein shakes (once in a while, in a pinch he said it was OK).

My workouts so far have been very basic. Only compound movements like squats, deadlifts, rows, etc. and none of the "finishing" movements like flyes and leg extensions. I'm completely exhausted after every workout and feel like throwing up half the time during the workout because I'm so overworked. But it feels great overall. We'll see where he's going with this. I told him I wanted to put on some thick meaningful size and stay relatively lean and I guess this is his plan to do it. I'll keep you posted and maybe if I'm brave enough, I'll post some pics in the future. For now, wish me luck and share your thoughts on this new routine of mine.

[Corwin]

Good luck guy....

The office where I work is planning on adding a gym (the mother ship has something like 3 gyms already) this year, and I plan on taking advantage of the personal traiining services when they offer them.

My workouts lately have been drop sets, which seem to be making a huge difference. Like you, arms a bit over 16, waist 31 (getting leaner, should be 29-30) and chest 46/47 range at 175 and 5'9".

Hope to see you breaking 200 soon.

[musclejunkie22]

Wow, Corwin. Sounds like we have similarly proportioned builds. Sounds also like you have a fast metabolism like me. Drop sets worked well for me, as well as supersets, and low reps/high weight in general. For me the thing that always worked was changing my routine regularly and making sure that my workouts were intense. Good luck to you when you get your trainer.

We'll see about 200...that would be f###ing amazing. Right now I'm concentrating on breaking 190!

[Corwin]

Could be... always thought your build was hot and glad to say I think I am finally catching up.

Out grew most of my shirts recently, so went to Ben Sherman and Aramani Exchange today to get new ones. I tried on large shirts at BS and wondered if they were a bit tight. "That's the way we make them, and lots of guys with muscular builds like you say the same thing. But if you went to extra-large, it would be way to baggy around your waist."

Love hearing the words "muscular build" :-)

Keep growing...

[musclejunkie22]

I know everyone on this forum enjoys hearing "muscular build"! Good work, Corwin. Now I have to get myself to the next level in build so that you can catch up again...