I’m determined to put on some upper-body muscle mass this spring.
Problem #1: I’m not motivated enough.
I want to know if a personal trainer is what I need to get me in shape, but I don’t know what they do exactly. Does he visit me at random hours and peak through my windows to make sure I’m not scarfing down a box of donuts? Does he pop out from behind the hedges, yank the candy bar out of my hand and shout “GOINK-GOINK-GOINK”?*
Does he have a place that I have to visit evey day for a weigh-in, to make sure I’m not putting on any more flab? What happens if I am, do I get chained to a treadmill for an hour as punnishment? How does a personal trainer make a difference in my life? It seems like it will always be my own lack of motivation that matters in the end, trainer or not.
Problem #2: I tend to build muscle only below the belt.
I’ve been a cyclist for 25 years and have no problem getting nice lean, muscular legs. But try as I may, I can’t seem to develop my bony girl arms (I’m not a girl). Does a trainer know the magic combination of exercise to get me into a more uniform shape?
There’s a scene from ‘Chariots of Fire’ where a trainer tells an athlete “I can’t bring out what God didn’t put in”. He was referring to athletic ability, but it applies to motivation too. We are all achieving results all the time, whether we realise it or not. It’s just a case of deciding to achieve the ones you want, as opposed to the ones you don’t want. If you want to make some changes in the results you are achieving, you need to make some changes to the way you live. If you can find the motivation to do that, fine. If not, a personal trainer won’t make any difference, and you’ll waste a wad of cash as well.
A personal trainer can’t provide motivation! What he or she can do is help you with good information about the diet and exercise program that’s right for you; supervise your exercise program to make sure you perform the exercises correctly and occasionally provide some encouragement to challenge yourself; answer questions; provide the encouragement that comes from undertaking a program with someone else attending, joining in, encouraging and helping (some people need this more than others).
As for your building up your arms, I suggest there is no magic, and also no problem. First, don’t be too misled by comparisons with other people. Your physique is unique to you, and maybe you just have less than average muscle tissue along your upper arms. That having been said, the muscles in your arms obey the same rules as any other muscles. If you exercise them to fatigue level with weights, you will stimulate new muscle growth. There are lots of books and websites that give you all the info you need about correct weight training.
However, it takes time and the main thing is to be consistent. My own program looks like this:
Mon - upper body workout
Tue - cardio-vascular exercise
Wed - lower body workout
Thu - cardio-vascular
Fri - upper body workout
Sat - cardio-vascular
Sun - rest
The following week I swap upper and lower body workouts around. Then just repeat the same two week cycle. This produces good results.
I’m working with a personal trainer to lose weight (bye-bye beer belly!). The main reason I did this is that I didn’t know where to start or how to get to my goal. Since starting with my personal trainer 10 weeks ago I’ve lost 16 pounds, which 10 weeks ago seemed impossible.
When I had my first session with my P.T. we spent most of the time discussing my goals, current diet and physical condition. We took weight, body fat and body circumference measurements. At the second session she had a workout program set up for me, along with a diet to help me get to my goal. We then agreed to meet once a week to evaluate the workout program and chart my progress.
At the third session we took weight and body fat measurements again. At the fourth session we took body circumference measurement. We repeated this cycle every three weeks. By doing this I could see the progress I was making which in turn motivated me to keep it up.
My P.T. pointed out that she could help me by giving me a plan, but unless I followed that plan I wouldn’t see any results. In other words, you have to motivate yourself. My motivation came from three places. First, I spent a lot of money on my P.T. and I wasn’t going to let that money go to waste. Second, I wasn’t going to get on that scale every three weeks without a positive change. Finally, and most importantly, I was sick of the way I looked and was determined to make a change.
If you’re commited to changing your upper body, by all means look into a P.T. Some of them are expensive but they are definitely worth it. You don’t have to meet with them every week for a year…you only need to work with them long enough to get a program down. But if you don’t have that commitment I wouldn’t spend the money.
Hmm…you say you aren’t motivated enough right now…that could be a problem. I bike as well as weight train and can tell you that for me the mental toughness needed for weight training far outweighs that for biking. Biking seems to produce in me an adrenaline rush that keeps me propelling forward and motivated to push harder while heavy weight training almost stops me cold…unless I muster all that I have inside to do that next rep, to push past that pain…and then to repeat that all over again to eek out a couple more. That’s when you “dig deep;” that’s when you tell yourself whatever it is that motivates you to push past that pain; that’s where motivation is key.
To be successful in a weight training program you do need some motivation…even if just a little bit. Motivation tends to have peaks and valleys and this is where a personal trainer can be helpful. In addition to the points of ianzin and convict , your personal trainer helps during those valleys of weight training when your motivation begins to wane…if you have a good one, that is. I don’t recommend personal training indefinitely since it’s usually not cheap but just long enough to formulate an individual program, learn proper form, and receive those bouts of motivation when you need it. Once you get in a routine and see the changes, you’ll be fine on your own.
As a suggestion to quantity…I would go hard in the beginning with something like a two to three month personal training package with PT three times a week versus a nine month training package of PT once a week. Consistency is so important. PT is a means to utilizing your time in the gym the most efficient way. Many people read a few magazine articles, purchase a couple of books, and hit the gym thinking they are having a great workout. Come to find out later, they could have spent less time on the weights and made greater advancements had they just done this or that a little differently. Personal training will help maximize these gains in the least amount of time.