Do Both
I exercise at the gym a lot and at home with Cathe. I started out at the gym. I think STS versus a personal trainer depends on your goals. So you'd have to decide whether you just wanted to tone up or build muscle-I don't mean bulky. (women don't really get bulky muscles.) You will get better results with a personal trainer and in the gym. The gym has much more equipment than you could ever buy, so you will be able to vary your workout more. There is all kinds of equipment at the gym that works better than weights. I just love the cable machine for example. Plus the Smith Machine, the declined? leg press (your legs are pushing toward the ceiling kind of), and a trainer can show you how to use the equipment with proper form. A gym will have someone that will spot you if you need it-you may have to ask, but there will be someone there to help you out. A trainer can watch you and make sure you have your form right. I have had years and years of personal training. I went to a trainer once a week for a while until I learned my form-I didn't do that too much because it is expensive. After that, I would go once a month and the trainer would give me a new workout and check my form. Personal training will also help you with Cathe's DVD's. With a personal trainer, they will write you up a chart. You can keep the chart and months, years, down the road you can pull it out again and do that routine. Once you find a trainer you like and she/he is familiar with your capabilities, knows you have good form, been doing weights for a while, they can change your routine for you but if they have you do something they know you have done before, know you have good form, etc. They don't have to watch you do the exercise so they can just write it down, tell you about it and move on to another exercise. So your training time is spent on the exercises you either don't know very well or maybe you need the trainer to do a check to make sure your form is still good. But it does take while before the trainer will feel confident enough in your form and abilities. I have a whole big file full of weight charts, so if I want to, I can just pull out an old routine, but since it's been a while since I did it, it is like a new one. In my opinion, personal training is worth the price.
Since You've already bought STS, I would do it and a personal trainer-maybe not at the same time. I have STS too. I just started it this week. I really like it. However, I augment my weights at the gym with Cathe DVD's. For example, STS has you working out each muscle group once a week-chest, shoulder's, biceps one day, legs another, etc but each muscle only once a week. I prefer at least twice a week. So now that I'm doing the STS series, on the day I do the Chest, shoulder, biceps dvd, I do back and triceps at the gym. I do legs twice a week-once to a DVD and once at the gym. With Cathe's other DVD's I use them to guide my workout at the gym. For example, is I'm doing her superset dvd, I'll do supersets at the gym. Working out with Cathe is also a lot more fun than just doing it at the gym.
So, in summing up, finally, I think that a trainer and STS both have a lot of value. I would consider augmenting your Cathe workouts, after you finish the STS series, with some personal training. After you had some, you can pretty much do it on your own because you'll have good form and be familiar with the equipment.
