New Trainer

I have been without a trainer for a year now. Previously I worked with two at once! One for strength, one for Figure. They were often at odds as to what they believed I should be doing. 


I worked with SC (Strength Coach) for about three years, maybe longer, I enjoyed that more than anything. Every Friday I would leave work early and would hit weights so heavy, sometimes my whole body would shake.


I would work with FP (Figure Pro) leading up to competitions, and since I was doing three a year, that pretty much covered the year! I would see her on an evening after work, we did mindless weights (even she said that), but she was great at assessing what needed work. 


I stopped training last year and was on my own. I have decided it is time to find a new trainer, one who meets all my criteria.


I went to meet a new trainer after work on Monday, so we could talk and decide if we might work well together. I already sent him my list of requirements, down to the only day and time that I could train, none of this silly "jumping around stuff", just pure heavy weights, muscle building only, I am looking to add mass, as much as naturally possible, and he was in agreement.


I told him "I don't need to lose weight, I don't need to lose fat, I need to build mass, get big and ripped!"  He said that training a figure competitor would make it very interesting.


He doesn't train at my club, he has his own facility and has completed courses through the Poliquin International Certification Program (P.I.C.P.) and the BioSignature Modulation Program. That's how I found him, browsing through the list of PICP trainers listed on the Charles Poliquin website.


I showed up Monday evening at about 7:30, the facility is located in one of those small industrial type areas, where you will find lots of auto body shops, and small manufacturing shops, the kind that is a long driveway, with roll up garage doors, all in a row.


I drove down the end of the drive, not much open at this hour, so I looked for an open garage door, and there it was, with a nice Ducati parked right in front.


There were two trainers, and two clients, nice! The place has just about everything I could want, a dual cable, one power rack, glute ham raise, lat pull down, dip bars, back extension, kettlebells, lots of free weights, med balls, some benches, a huge trampoline, mats, a heavy bag, a sled and big, thick ropes. In other words, not a bunch of sissy machines, my club has plenty of those (and I do use some of them depending on my training at the time).


I sat on one of the big thick mats, occasionally talking but not much. Roy said I didn't look like I had been off training for 4 weeks, I told him that he should have seen me 4 weeks ago! ha!


I watched Roy train, watched how he treated the client, and liked what I saw. He was calm, thinking, watching, paying attention, taking notes, speaking when necessary, but not much. He was working on a full body workout, not what I want but his client was training for fat loss, he said his plans for me are very, very different. That is good, you really can't gain a lot of mass by doing full body, dynamic workouts, and he agreed, it would be heavy weights, body part splits just as I am used to. He understands I want to gain muscle mass, I don't like group training and circuits, that's not real training in my eye. He understood completely.

We talked for about a half hour afterward, about my goals, my needs, and diet.  We talked about supplements and sleep, he seems to know quite a bit but at the same time was very interested in how I maintain such a low body fat percentage all the time!  He asked if I do a lot of cardio? (NO!), do I take fat burners  (NO!) ....hmm, how do I stay so lean? I started just rattling off how and I forgot how completely natural my diet has become in my everyday life.


What I liked was he considers the whole person when training, it's not just the weights or the diet, but your sleep, supplements, energy levels. 


He told me about the fat measurement of the subscapular, if it is at 8mm or less, then I am probably naturally lean and can eat carbs till the cows come home, and not gain a lot of fat. If it measures at 10 or higher, I would be insulin sensitive and starchy carbs would not be a good thing for my body.


I told him that I have my 9 site bodyfat measurements on a spreadsheet for over the past year, I would check it out as soon as I got home. Yes, I have it from March of 2009 to September of 2010, last time I think I saw SC and he checked it. My subscap? Went up to 8 twice, and the rest of the time low as can be.


Want to see the measurements?


Kristy Body Fat


He said he was a little scared when I explained how I broke my rib, I am not sure if that was because he thought I might injure myself again, or I was just a bit too aggressive. I assured him I am fine, I had a DEXA scan not too long ago, I have the bone density of a 27 year old!


We agreed to start with a month. I will show up at noon on Fridays (today, first day!) and he will start by testing my max in lifts, lower body today, upper next week. He will write a program, increasing weights weekly.


Last piece was to change my work hours, once again to fit my training. Thank goodness I have a very supportive supervisor! Fridays, now I work 7:30 to 11:30 so I can get there on time. We will see how it goes, I am looking forward to it.


Watch out world!