DrRinse

I've been lifting weights since the start of this year. Recently I left my old gym to a much better one. They gave me an assessment when I started there and said my overall fitness and recovery time was below average and I'd need to raise that.. In the 2 months I've been training with my routine, I gained 12lbs and I noticed the difference in my physique though on some exercises I've found not much progression at all. Overall though, I was pretty impressed. I showed the routine to the guy doing my assessment at the gym. He said that I shouldn't do s/l deadlifts the same day as squats. He then said my routine was a load of crap. A pretty quick judgement; after all, he only looked at one page of the routine. He told me to scrap it and follow a routine he'd made up.

Here's one day of my original routine

Barbell Squats 5 x 5 warmup then 2 heavy sets 5-7 reps
Dumbbell Lunges 1 set 5-7 reps
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts 2 sets 5-7 reps
Lying Leg Curls 1 set 5-7 reps
Barbell Curls 2 sets 5-7 reps
Cable Pushdowns 2 sets 5-7 reps
Standing Dumbbell Curls 2 sets 5-7 reps
O/H Dumbbell Extensions 2 sets 5-7 reps

One day of his routine goes something like this:

5 mins bike
Hip Flex 2 sets 25 reps
Crunches 2 sets 25 reps
Chest Press Machine 2 sets 10 - 12 reps
Rower 750m
Shoulder Press 2 sets 10 - 12reps
Dips 2 sets 10 - 12 reps
Leg Curls 2 sets 15 reps
Leg Extensions 2 sets 15 reps
Stepper 5 mins
Bicep Curl 2 Sets 10-12 Reps
Standing Calf Machine 2 sets 25 reps
Crosstrainer 5 mins
Lat Pulldowns 2 sets 10-12 reps
Treadmill cooldown

I'm pretty sure there's a good few more exercises in there I can't remember. What I do remember is how long all this took. After an hour, I was still not finished and out of steam. I don't know any more about bodybuilding the info I've read on the net but I don't see much back training in his routine though to admit, it is meant to be a general fitness routine. I also have to do this 3 times a week and from what I know, training the same muscle parts 3 times a week is excessive as are workouts that last longer than an hour.

I get the vibe that he thinks I'm some poor idiot and that he's going to fix me up. I'm open to his advice; after all, by all accounts he has 40 years experience in bodybuilding and there are impressive competition pictures of himself hanging above his desk in the gym but I am cagey about ditching a routine which looks like it's working for me.

Any advice most welcome.

Thanks,

Anthony