Pimp my workout. From Weekend Warrior to all-around Athlete?

I’d love to know why you think it is such a terrible strength routine. Well, I can try to explain, but it's difficult to try and get across all of the fundamental concepts in a clear and concise way in this format. Can you explain why you think it's a good program or what it's supposed to accomplish, and tell me how much stronger have you gotten doing it? I suspect that the answers are you can't and not very much, if you're really not lifting anything heavier than 45 pounds. Anyhow, if you want to get a grounding in strength training, I'd recommend doing some reading , specificallyhttp://aasgaardco.com/store/store.php?crn=199&rn=312&action=show_detail and http://aasgaardco.com/store/store.php?crn=199&rn=328&action=show_detail by Mark Rippetoe (who, incidentally, was affiliated with Crossfit until he split with them late last year). For an introduction you could start with some of the articles he's posted online -- http://startingstrength.com/articles/incremental_increases_rippetoe.pdf and http://startingstrength.com/articles/novice_effect_rippetoe.pdf. But anyhow, some basic ideas -- strength training is based on progressive overload. When you lift weights you induce stress in your body, and provided proper rest and nutrition between workouts, your body responds to that stress by adapting, i.e. becoming stronger. Having adapted, your body will now require a larger stress to be induced in order to produce another adaptation. As a beginner, your ability to recover exceeds your ability to induce stress -- i.e., you're not strong enough to induce a stress so great that you can't recover from it by your next workout. So a beginner can progress very quickly (again, provided proper rest and nutrition -- this is where most people fail) by increasing the weight lifted every single workout. If you're not starting out by lifting more weight each time you go to the gym, you're not doing an effective program. In terms of exercise selection, a beginner strength trainee wants to choose exercises that allow him to use the most muscle mass to lift the largest weight over the greatest range of motion. These types of movement have the potential to make him the strongest the quickest, for lots of reasons which I won't get into right now. A beginner strength program requires very few exercises, but those exercises should be done heavy if strength is the goal. The barbell squat is the exercise that uses the most muscle mass to move the heaviest weight over the longest range of motion, and so it is the basis of most effective strength programs. The exercises in your program are all accessory movements, or lightweight variations on the main movements which you aren't doing at all. They involve tiny weights which don't have much potential for inducing stress and adaptation. Per the bit about progressive overload, we also need to be able to finely scale the resistance of a movement. This is why we use barbells -- we can increase the load by as little as 1 lb. at a time in order to spur continued progress, but we can also safely use extremely heavy loads. You can't squat 400 lbs. with dumbbells. Finally, different repetition ranges have different training effects. 10-12 reps is often called the hypertrophy range, in that it will tend to have more effect on the size of a muscle than the strength, which is why it's popular with bodybuilders. Strength trainees tend to do most of their work in lower rep ranges with heavier weights. Sets of 5 are usually recommended for strength. I started out with stronglifts 5x5. Like I said, it's pretty much just a watered-down versio of the Starting Strength program. I don't think it offers any improvements over the original template. I could go into detail about why I don't think it's as effective, but I think it'd be obvious to you if you read the book. I switched over to the real deal after I read it, and while stronglifts is basically a decent program, I think I would've been better off getting it right from the beginning. Yes, that's the program I was sending you to. The Wichita Falls Crossfit program was developed at Mark Rippetoe's gym, and it's a way of blending a beginner strength program with conditioning work. The conditioning workouts are basically short Crossfit workouts, and the strength days are basically Starting Strength. Crossfit can be great, but it's not a true strength program, and the many Crossfit variations with added strength work that have been developed are a testament to that fact. Personally, I think you'd be best served by focusing solely on getting your strength levels up before you worry about your conditioning. Strength is a general attribute -- being stronger will make you better-prepared to improve any other aspect of your performance. And beginners can make strength gains very quickly. But mixing strength with some conditioning as in the above program can work too, you just won't get strong as quickly. And I'd warn you not to worry about losing weight if you're trying to get stronger. 6'4" 207# is light, and you'll need to eat plenty in order to recover from your workouts. Other folks have different approaches, but I think this is the most effective way to get strong.

I cannot recommend highly enough http://exrx.net/, which has just about as much information on exercise of all types as a novice to intermediate level athlete will ever need. Perhaps most important, it has extremely detailed and straightforward http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/Instructions.html. When I was first starting out, I too was a bit intimidated by all the different people offering all sorts of different, often conflicting advice. What I appreciate about exrx is that they not only clearly state why they offer particular advice, but go so far as to footnote with scientific studies that support their claims. The world of workouts seems to me to be so full of snake-oil that I truly value exrx for its clear, straightforward, and scientifically valid advice. I've read Starting Stregnth. I've read almost all of exrx. Basically my takeaways were this: 1) Train each major muscle group in the body. 2) Take at least a day, preferably two days, before working out that same muscle again. 3) Pick one exercise per muscle to do each workout. Maybe two for larger muscles. More than that is http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/LowVolumeTraining.html. 4) Exactly which exercise you pick isn't the most important thing in the world (this is where I was getting hung up) but in general shoot for: a) using gravity for resistance b) large ranges of motion (usually therefore calling upon multiple muscle groups and a natural transfer of load between them) c) natural transfer of the weight from support by muscle to support on bone. 4a) Several exercises are basically max out the above three criteria and should be included in your workout no matter what. These are squats for the legs, dead lifts for the back, bench press for the chest and arms, and presses for the shoulders and arms. All the other exercises you pick are in some sense secondary to these. They are either axillary exercises meant to focus on particular muscle subsets of the major lifts (for instance: incline presses that focus on the upper pectorals specifically, in support of the general pectoral recruitment of the bench press) or focus on those muscles not fully recruited in any of the major lifts (calves, forearms, neck, etc.) 5) Pick a weight that you can do for 8-12 reps, usually about 80% of your one rep max (1RM). Do reps until full volitional failure (this is very important). Once you can do 12 reps of a weight before volitional failure, increase the weight. [Note: this is a novice guideline. Later on you may want to change to a hi/lo intensity program, include periodization, etc. But for now, 8-12 until failure, and then at 12 up the weight.] 6) Anything more than two sets of this is http://exrx.net/WeightTraining/LowVolumeTraining.html. And even two sets is, at best, a very modest gain over the benefits of one set.

Should I use the trainer’s strength workout? No, that is an absolutely terrible strength routine. You'll waste your time and look silly doing it. Should I use Stronglifts 5x5? No, if you're going to do that just do Starting Strength, which is what stronglifts bastardizes. Is there a way to integrate the two? How do I best improve my cardio (ie running) when I also want to improve my strength? You should do the Crossfit Wichita falls program, which blends barbell strength programming with short Crossfit-style conditioning workouts. Regular Crossfit programming is lacking in strength work. See my comment http://ask.metafilter.com/142150/Highspeed-or-highweight-lifting-to-lose-weight-and-look-toned#2034816.

Thanks ludwig_van: thanks for your comments and suggestions... lots of food for thought in your replies. P.o.B.: I got two free training sessions with the trainer with my membership and I hired him for two additional sessions (which we did last week) in which he came up with the program in my question. He has a Bachelor's degree and a certification. He built the program while working with me--but, I definitely got the feeling that he pretty much uses the same exercises for everyone and just swaps them around or makes some small variations. But, I don't think that I'm going to be working with him further so it probably doesn't matter much. I haven't tried the program enough to know if I like it. I have some concerns (like ludwig_van brought up that the weird shit that trainers have people do might not be the most complete work out. But, I tend to think there is some value in it). For example, when I've been through the trainer's routine I feel spanked afterwards so I think my body is doing work and thus getting stronger. I have wanted to mix in some big compound moves (ala Starting Strength/Stronglifts) which is why I originally posted the question. Thanks for responding to my recovery question and for your thoughts on planks and everything else. Thanks everyone for the feedback.

If you start lifting free weights you may find that you stop losing weight and instead put on weight in the form of muscle. Likely not a bad thing but somethig to keep in mind in order that you don get discouraged. 207 pounds for a 6'4" guy sounds pretty healthy.

I just wanted to add two more things. The number of sets will usually depend on the volume of the workout. Reps, sets, and exercises will make up the volume. If you go up or down in one of those the others will generally fluctuate to accommodate. Sometimes there are low volume workouts and sometimes high, but you'll find there is a middling that most people follow depending on experience. The second thing is, the plank is a great exercise. You can vary it up in a couple of ways. Four to two points of contact, and from four different types of contact. One or two Elbows/Hands and one or two Knees/Toes. You can also do side planks. I find it hard to believe that anyone under and advanced athlete would find these easy enough in any variation to not find these as a suitable exercise.

By the way Is there any way to use the steam room, sauna, whirlpool best to aid recovery Yes. After your workout do ten minutes in a (freezing) cold shower and then fifteen in the suana. Repeat process.

My goal is to be in all around great shape. For me this means that I would like to be able to excel at rock climbing and trail running. I hope that is specific enough. I think this is an interesting question (and I hope helpful for others) because these are sort of opposite activities. And, I do understand that maybe the best training I could do is to climb more (but alas I can't stomach climbing gyms) and to run more Fantanstic. You know what you want to specifically do, even if you are splitting up activities, and I don't think they necessarily are opposing actvities. Although it would be your best bet to plan your training around the activities; you sure could go ahead and look into any number of GPP programs, such as Crossfit, and start there. Adding in some strength movements would be a great idea, but I would be wary of doing programs consiting of only low reps when you obviously need your "strength" to last all the way up the side of a mountain. Anything that is difficult for someone to do then becomes less difficult than easy has made them stronger through that exercise, right? I'm reminded of people I have known who have been in great shape (again what does great shape mean?) who have done much of their work through yoga -- which is all body weight. But, you know doing planks is hard--I can see how it would make someone stronger. This is where the nitty gritty questions start. If you check out books by most strength coaches they will parse down between many different aspects of neuromuscular abilities. Strength is usually defined as only one out of many, the number will vary depending on who you read. If someone is only talking about strength in athletic endeavors, beyond strength oriented sports i.e. Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, etc.; than they are seriously missing the larger picture. I'm not going to argue what actually constitutes a core exercises or whether they generalize over to actual athletics; but, again, whatever exercise you do will make you better at doing that exercise as long as it has a program geared towards a specific way it will be done better. Everyone is going to have their subjective idea of what great shape is, that is outside of the obvious like Olympians, and that is for you to decide. Are you paying for the personal trainer or is he part of a gym deal? Did you pick him out of a list of personal contractors or does he directly work for the gym? Does he have a degree or does he have a certification, or both? There's a spectrum of great to crappy trainers, and we certainly don't know based on what he's got you doing it, but it would help if you told us how he's got you doing those things? Is he there with you or did he just write up a program? Do you like him and his program?

But, I guess some of the value that I see in the trainer's program is that by using the Bosu and fit ball it does force one to work on balance. I'm not sure if squatting and deadlifts do that. Of course squats and deadlifts require balance, as does the power clean and the press. When you're freely moving a very heavy object through space, balance is crucial. You'll realize this very quickly if you take the time to learn these exercises. Anything that is difficult for someone to do then becomes less difficult than easy has made them stronger through that exercise, right? No, this is not right. If I go jogging every day, jogging will get easier, but that doesn't mean I have become stronger. You're stronger when you can move something heavier than what you could move before, or when you can move something more times than you could move it before (within limits). I'm reminded of people I have known who have been in great shape (again what does great shape mean?) who have done much of their work through yoga -- which is all body weight. But, you know doing planks is hard--I can see how it would make someone stronger. "Great shape" doesn't mean anything necessarily. As you learn more about how the body responds to training you can begin to refine your own idea of what "great shape" means. As for planks, it's true that everything that makes you stronger is difficult, but it's not true that everything that's difficult will make you stronger. I can do my squats on top of an exercise ball with one arm tied behind my back and a blindfold on, and they'd certainly be more difficult, but they aren't going to make me stronger than regular squats will, because I won't be using heavy weights. To get strong you need to lift heavy weights, and exercises that don't allow you to lift heavy weights are of limited usefulness for getting strong. Planks can be useful as an assistance movement for a little while, until they become too easy, at which point you can do them weighted -- but it's still an accessory exercise, and you're better off focusing on the main lifts, which provide enough work for the muscles of the abdomen and lower back that accessory exercises for those muscles aren't strictly necessary. This idea is elaborated on in http://startingstrength.com/articles/core_stability_rippetoe.pdf. Anyhow, like I said, it doesn't sound like you want a straight strength program -- I still suggest that a blend of strength work and high-intensity conditioning like what I initially recommended would suit you pretty well. But I think that anyone who wants to participate in a sport that involves strength (which rock climbing does) and has never done a linear strength progression would benefit from doing one.