Meet Daniel. Daniel is not your typical college student. He has a wisdom that goes beyond his young age. While some of his contemporaries are focused on getting drunk, in his own words “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” and wanted to invest in his long-term health before it became an issue.

It’s not like he hadn’t tried it before. He’d worked out in gyms near Montville for nearly a year and never made the kind of progress he wanted, oftentimes getting hurt in the process. People his age are often the perfect storm for progress, but Daniel has long levers and a low appetite which made him “skin and bones” (his words not mine). Being tall and lanky, the levers of his skeletal frame are long, which can make it hard to use heavy weights (picture holding a broom by the end of the handle to get an idea of what I mean).

When he tried to work out, his arms would cramp up to the point where he couldn’t straighten them for a few days and his back would go into spasm. Long story short, he needed the right personal training program customized to his needs and abilities to help him achieve his goals of gaining muscle and strength.

So he started looking for personal trainers near Montville (the town where he lives) and found me. He did a little digging on me and found this picture of a steel bar I had bent on Instagram so he decided to reach out to me.

With his previous history of getting hurt in the gym, he had some initial concerns when he signed up for my personal training one-week free trial membership. I assessed him and came up with a corrective exercise program to make sure he wouldn’t get hurt. We put a plan into action and he was making decent progress.

Then with the surges of covid that had happened during the holidays, out of respect for his parents and concern for their safety, he decided not to risk it.

Luckily he did the corrective exercise homework I gave him and when tensions alleviated, he came back in. I assessed his movement patterns again and determined we could proceed safely on a more vigorous program. I put together a progressive resistance training plan that would span about 3 months to rapidly build his functional strength and muscle development expanding his capabilities to the point where he would surpass previous limits without even realizing it.

During the 7th week of the progression, when he was bench pressing I asked him “how does that feel?”

“A little bit heavy today.”

“Well that’s not surprising, that was your 1 rep max 7 weeks ago and you’re doing it for 5 reps…per minute”

By the end of the progression, his training weight in the bench press was a staggering 44% higher than his previous 1 rep max. To put that into perspective, an effective training plan may produce a 1 rep max of 25% higher if it’s done right. 44% higher for reps without performance enhancement drugs is often thought impossible even by knowledgeable coaches who I respect.

The success of a program can be proven by the results it produces. In 12 weeks he put on 25lbs of muscle simultaneously decreasing his body fat from 15% to 8%. His bench press 1 rep max increased by 64% and he churned out ridiculously easy 10 reps with what he previously could only do for 1 rep. He went from never being able to do a chin-up in his life to pumping out 3 of them consecutively with ease. We doubled the strength of his squats. We added 105lbs to his hex bar deadlift which is way stronger than anything he’s ever done before (not bad for someone who always hurt his back in the gym). He did all that without getting hurt, and without feeling sore. Now he’s stronger, healthier, more muscular, and more resilient to injury than he’s ever been before. Like Goldilocks and the 3 bears, my personal training program was just right for him.

Where do we go now? We continue to train and get stronger. Strength is a journey towards being better.

Is his journey complete? Hell no, but we are off to a very strong start. I’m proud of how far he’s come.

**** updated progress on Daniel’s personal training journey

So I had written his success story a while back and continued his progress. Just for the heck of it, we decided to test his chin-ups again. He’s now up to 8 consecutive chin-ups, which is more than double what it was before. Fun right?!?! One of the things I like to say is it’s not just a 12-week training program, it’s simply a strong start to a strong start to a lifetime of health and strength.

More of my personal training success stories

If you are ready to get a strong start to a stronger, healthier, and more muscular you, I have a 1-week personal training free trial membership. Just text me at 973 476 5328 to get started.

Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and doubles as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strongmen more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a show and speaks on goal achievement for corporations, nonprofits, government as well as for schools and universities. His exclusive personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey, is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville and Parsippany New Jersey.