Month: November 2025
The problem with complicated plans and how to ensure success
Over the weekend I had an awful experience. The local football team was going to be playing in Giants Stadium, and my daughter is part of the cheer squad that supports them. I honestly don’t pay attention to football (though I enjoy studying different approaches to how the best in the world train) but I wanted to see my daughter cheer.
I missed it though.
The plan was to go back to the car, attempt to bring it closer and bring my daughter her stuff when the main game was over. What ended up happening was I got stuck in gridlock traffic, couldn’t get back in, had to break a few traffic rules and sweet talked a guard to letting me back in, but it was too late. Somehow I ended up by the visiting teams locker room.
The plan, had too many things that could have gone wrong…and some did. I should have voiced my disapproval and pitched a simpler plan but didn’t say anything before it was too late. When it comes to making plans, the more complicated it is, the more likely something is to go wrong. Less moving parts means you’re more likely to reach the destination without something breaking down.
Now when my personal training clients are making a big decision and they are torn about what to do, I have a simple 3 part exercise I have them do.
- Write out all the options.
- Then write out every possible thing that could go wrong with each option.
- Then next to the things that could go wrong, write out either a way that could prevent that from happening, or a contingency plan in the event that something like that does happen.
That exercise helps simplify and clarify what the best decision is, as well as what action steps need to be taken.
With some of the long term training plans I have laid out, some of them are very complex, involving multiple pages of spreadsheets and includes contingencies, just in case. To keep making progress for year after year after year takes a lot more thought than “Just work hard bro” or “You have to switch up the exercises” which is just a way for them to fool themselves into thinking they’re making progress.
As complicated as they are, there are simple patterns that emerge which I keep in a swipe file on my notepad on my phone which makes it simple for me to apply.
And just about every profession has different levels of potential complications and decisions. Among the people I train include doctors, lawyers, office managers, billing managers, sales professionals, first responders, investors, musicians, accountants among many other professions. Each profession involves making decisions that wear down your will power. With all the complications that come with their careers as well as managing home life and whatever else they have going on, at the end of the day, they just want someone to figure it out for them and tell them what to do…and have it actually work.
The way to ensure success is to keep it simple. The simplest way is to have someone set it up for you and tell you what to do, while they watch you to make sure you are doing it safely and effectively.
So if you want to actually achieve your goals, but aren’t sure where to start or how to get there, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio in Boonton. I’ll do the complicated part for you. All you have to do, is show up ready to rock. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328 and introduce yourself to get started.
Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and moonlights as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strength performers more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a live show and travels across the country doing presentations on goal achievement for conferences, corporations, associations, nonprofits, and government entities as well as for schools and universities. His personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey and is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville, Kinnelon, Pine Brook, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.
getting stronger is the key to whatever your goal is. Here’s why
The other day I was having a conversation with my wife. She was telling me she wants to grow her glutes and put on 3lbs of muscle over the next 6 months. I told her I could get her there in 3months by getting her stronger.
Now I’m a strength guy, getting stronger has been my focus for a long time and even got to the point of setting a world record and flying across the country and showing off from the stage. Get paid pretty well to do it too.
Now she was probably under the assumption that if all you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail. And yes that’s partially true, but when it comes to strength training, yes its a hammer, but its also a key. The key to just about any goal you wish to attain…at least from a physical standpoint.
Ken hexbar deadlifting around 185lbs and taking it for a walk.
If you’re one of the more “life experienced” people, getting stronger is the key to longevity. There is a correlation between grip strength and needing assisted living. When people lose the ability to get in and out of a chair easily that’s when things tend to take a turn for the worse. The key to longevity is get stronger.
Josh made the varsity team as a freshmen, went on to become team captain and achieved his dream of going to Westpoint Academy. Getting stronger helped.
If you want to get better at sports…assuming your technique is halfway solid, getting stronger will help you relax into it. I once helped someone add 20 yards to her golf drive in a month. I’m no expert in golf, but I’ve seen the Happy Gilmore movies and I know that if the numbers that are supposed to go up go up, good things are happening. All other things being equal, the stronger athlete will win. The key is get stronger.
2 people asked her if she had a butt lift operation. Nope, she simply got stronger in the exercises optimal for her.
And for someone who wants to look better in a bikini (and yes I have a vested interest in my wife looking even better), the key is get stronger at the optimal exercises associated with looking good in a bikini in the reps and volume ranges associated with building muscle and burning fat. I’m training a woman for a beach vacation coming up in January, and assuming everything goes according to plan, she’ll be doing hip thrusts with 480lbs for about 60 sub-maximal reps in a workout. How do you think her glutes are going to look when she’s doing that? How do you think the rest of her is going to look when she’s gotten stronger across multiple lifts? Let’s just say, she’ll be thankful she chose Eric Moss Fitness for all her health and fitness needs.
Hopefully I have you convinced that you should get stronger. We’ve covered some of the “why” (in actuality, there are so many more examples, but I’m trying to keep these somewhat short.). The next question is now the “how?” Well, there are many progression patterns you can try to find on your own, and many of them are pretty good too.
But if you want the simplest answer, let me do it for you. There is an art and science to optimal program design and much of it has a bit more complexity than “go hard or go home bro.” But don’t worry about that, just show up ready to go. I have a free trial available so you can see if you like it first. Just text me direct at 973 476 5328 and introduce yourself to get started.
Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and moonlights as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strength performers more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a live show and travels across the country doing presentations on goal achievement for conferences, corporations, associations, nonprofits, and government entities as well as for schools and universities. His personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey and is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville, Kinnelon, Pine Brook, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.