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Personal trainer

H

Heavenly

Peer Supporter
Hi,

I have a personal trainer who doesn’t believe in TMS and thinks that I get injured by my way of exercising. Ok so I really like heavy deadlifts and squats and in spite of my pains, I still do them. I get bored with accessories exercises or with too many reps at lower Weight. I know that heavy lifting doesn’t cause my pain. In fact, I got injured while performing an exercise with very low weight. I think my dislike for the latter exercise frustrated me ; plus it was on a bad day when I was angry. Ever since I can’t really get rid of the pain. I just want to keep doing my heavy lifting because I enjoy it.

So my question is: Should I stop any session with that personal trainer? I think he’s wrong but I’m not 100% convinced.

Thanks!
 
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Since a lot of brain re-wiring is based on believing 100% that your pain is psychological anything that influences you in the opposite direction should be either stopped or at least taken with a big grain of salt. Fighting the doubt is probably half of the entire effort, if not more. But decision is obviously yours as you are your own healer.
 
I'm glad you posted about this; I was thinking of posting about weightlifting and TMS because once I first discovered I had TMS, I stopped doing mostly cardio at the gym and started doing weightlifting. My back would hurt every time after I lifted weights, but I would just ignore it and it would go away. I've been weightlifting for over a year now and I've developed a clicking sound in my lower back and tension in my upper back. I also pulled one of my glutes... wondering if these are injuries from improper form or from TMS. How can one know? I'd love to continue to weightlift but I'm worried I am just bad at it and tend to use improper form.
 
My personal trainer story goes like this: I was working with a personal trainer for several months and moving up to heavier weights fairly fast.

One day while doing lounges my knee really hurt. Was the weight too heavy or was it TMS?

He showed me how to stretch the IT band and knee pain was gone immediately. My quads had gotten too tight.

Another time I was putting back a 90 pound dumbbell and it pulled on my arm a bit. Later when I was working out it hurt. I kept ignoring it but wasn’t going away. Eventually, I saw my doctor and had some physical therapy for it to heal.

So make sure it is not an actual physical cause and move forward gradually.
 
I’ve been weightlifting for 4 years, gradually increasing the weight. I stretch before and after exercises. Nutrition plays an important role in adding muscles so I try to eat plenty of protein. I definitely crave meat after my sessions. I doubt that my exercises are the factors of my pain.

I took three months off from the gym and my pain was worse during that time than it is now.

When I joined the gym again, I started slowly with weight. Today I can deadlift 225 lbs and I only weigh 102 lbs. When I lift, I have almost no pain. My pain comes up when I work at my desk or worry about random things.

Sarno said that our body was resilient so I’m not worry about hurting myself doing the exercises I enjoy but my personal trainer do worry about it since he doesn’t believe in TMS.
 
Obviously, you have to do what's right for you. But if you're worried about it, then maybe it's time to make a change. If it was me, I wouldn't want someone who was impeding my recovery.

I don't have a personal trainer, but I do have some work out DVDs where the instructor will go "don't do such and such or you'll get hurt!". I always scoff, because I know 99% of it is BS. It's well meaning, but most of doesn't hold up to true scientific scrutiny.
 
Cap'n Spanky said:
I don't have a personal trainer, but I do have some work out DVDs where the instructor will go "don't do such and such or you'll get hurt!". I always scoff, because I know 99% of it is BS. It's well meaning, but most of doesn't hold up to true scientific scrutiny.
Click to expand...

It’s insane how much BS are being told about our body and what not to do to avoid injuries.

I had a physical therapist working on my problems last year and since I kept on getting worse session after session with him, he was going to give up on me. Then his colleague brought out that he noticed I had an anterior pelvic tilt which was not ideal when squatting and this could be the cause of pains. They tried to fix it and although I did appreciate their efforts, I was only getting worse. I decided to quit PT and that was before I heard about Sarno.

Afterward an acupuncture doctor diagnosed me with SI joint instability and said it was common with women who had given birth multiple times. He tried to fuse my joints with an electric machine but my inflammation got worse too.

According to Dr Sarno, there’s not such a thing as SI joint malfunction. He also said that we’re not made of papier-mâché!

Thanks for your input!
 
subtlecollision2 said:
I'd love to continue to weightlift but I'm worried I am just bad at it and tend to use improper form.
Click to expand...

If you use improper form, you can get a muscle strain which may last about a week but if the pain lasts much longer, chances are it’s TMS. I had done deadlifts which caused pain in my tailbone and my physical therapist told me it was common and should go away in a week and it did.
I wear a lifting belt to help me brace my core and it does the trick for me.
If you gradually add weight and go nice and slow at each rep, you should be okay. Worry or fear might cause tension so maybe you can listen to music for relaxation and focus and reassure yourself that you are safe.

My personal trainer didn’t say I have improper form. He’s worried that I like to max out.
 
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If you feel like your trainer is not listening to your concerns and is not helping you address your pain and discomfort, it might be time to consider finding a new trainer who is a better fit for you.
 
ClameJacart said:
If you feel like your trainer is not listening to your concerns and is not helping you address your pain and discomfort, it might be time to consider finding a new trainer who is a better fit for you.
Click to expand...
I did and I am now my own personal trainer. I’m currently studying to be certified. I like to think that nobody else knows our bodies better than ourselves. I hope that I can help others struggling with TMS to keep exercising.
 
I'm wondering myself I should stop seeing my PT because I get pain whenever I exercise and I'm doing the correct movement. My TMS has made the gym a much scarier place to be now and I'm just so confused on how to move forward. I want to keep exercising but I struggle to get past the fear and symptoms.
 
If physical therapy didn't work that's just more proof that your pain is being created by your fearful primitive brain. The TMS brain mechanism was designed by evolution to keep you fearful and doubtful so that you'll never take any risks.

Quitting the gym means that this primitive part of your brain wins. If that's not what you want, you have to vidualize what you DO want, and take the necessary steps to become smarter and stronger than this primitive brain mechanism.

You'll need mind-over-body tools to do this. What kind of emotional work have you done?
 
I've started seeing a TMS therapist recently. I'm beginning to do a body scan everyday and repeating the mantra "it is safe for me to experience this". I've read most of the books. One symptom that's bothering me the most now is an overactive bladder. There's some leakage, which concerns me. However, my pelvic floor muscles aren't weak and there's nothing wrong with my bladder so I'm confused.
 
Search the Success Stories subforum for examples of recovery from pelvic floor conditions. It seems to be today's "popular" symptom, just like Dr Sarno said how back pain was popular in the 1980s and ulcers were the stress symptom in the 1970s ( I remember that, I dated a guy at university who had an ulcer, this would have been in 1971 or 1972.) Repetitive stress injuries became popular in the 1990s and pelvic floor dysfunction, regardless of gender, has become very common in the last few years for completely unknown reasons. It's all TMS! And you too can recover. It's just your TMS brain trying to keep you from going out and having a life. Your job is to kindly reject that.

Ask your therapist if you can do the SEP - the Structured Educational Program at tmswiki.org in conjunction with your therapy. The therapeutic writing exercises might be helpful.
 
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