$300-500/m wellness/fitness budget

With $300-$500/month, if it were me, I’d get with a wellness clinic to check hormones first and foremost. If needed, you could easily get supplementation for 200 or less.

As for as personal trainer, that can pretty much I’ll be done with ChatGPT now. A couple weeks ago I had to create a diet plan for me and a complete workout. Unless you need someone to hold you accountable, I don’t see the need for a personal trainer anymore.

Peptides are awesome but everyone has their own risk tolerance and if you were not using grey market, you were going to be paying a shite load. I’d say getting hormones addressed would be way more cost-effective, especially if you don’t need to drop any weight.

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ChatGPT to replace a trainer is not a good idea. ChatGPT to help with new exercises, how to structure etc. is fine.

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Disagree. Waste of $. He’s already in the gym 4-5x a week so likely knows how to lift. Trainers are getting most their info from gpt anyway

If he were brand new to the gym and lifting it would be a different story. But hey if he’s got the coin to toss around, it definitely wouldn’t hurt. My kids take all my extra $

Actually had this talk with one yesterday.

Yeah. I’ve always wondered why the professionals still use coaches and trainers now that we have ChatGPT and other LLM’s to run everything.

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He’s already in the gym 4-5x a week so likely knows how to lift.

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That's a really, really big fricking leap.

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Now feeling bit better hoping to break through this plateau

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Don't change programs too fast; people will often give something a month, not see what they want (while their body is learning how to do Olympic lifting, for instance) and over correct.

Even if you get a trainer, pick a generic trajectory. You want how to learn to grind out max effort (via 5/3/1 or other), or you want to get a bit faster to move heavier weights (or develop balance) on Olympic lifts, etc. Give it 12 weeks.

There's a popular trainer at my gym that a ton of women use, but it seems to be more about variety to keep them interested in coming to the gym, rather than any particular goal. I think a lot of trainers are used to that kind of unspecific guidance. Whereas if you say, "I've never been comfortable doing a non Smith machine squat, and I'd like to gain confidence to move more weight," you've given them a couple of weeks of specific training they can build a program to.

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no substantial strength improvements

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If you want to get stronger do a strength based progressive overload program like 5/3/1. I guarantee you will blow your mind at how strong you will get.