Are you training too hard? A simple test

We are officially in the misinformation age.  With deepfakes being created in seconds with AI and improving its going to get harder and harder to be able to spot the difference.  And when it comes to misinformation the fitness industry is a frequent offender, so unless you have a trusted guide (like having a personal trainer conveniently located on Main Street in Boonton) you’ll have to kind of figure things out on your own.

But worry not, I’m here to help.

One piece of misinformation I’ll help clear up is the notion of “go hard or go home bro” and “pain is just weakness leaving the body”.  Yes you have to train in a way that challenges you, but not go overboard with it.  There is a sweet spot between too much and not enough and knowing the sweet spot is key to not only fast progress, but continual progress.

One client who I’ve been working with for sometime has been struggling with what may be left over from when she had covid a while back or it could be something to do with chronic fatigue syndrome.  She also happens to be an avid runner and has some races coming up.

The challenge she faced was that even though her strength training is tightly restrained in order to keep her progressing, she also needed a way to do that with her runs.  With having a race coming down the pipeline. Skipping the runs wasn’t an option.

So she needed a plan to still get the mileage in but also a way to track when she might be going to hard.  I came up with a plan for her that used time as a metric (easy to track), have her doing nasal breathing (purposefully limits her speed) and also to track her resting heart rate and a unique test called that tap touch test.

If you look up cns tap test it’s a downloadable app.  Not sure if it costs anything since I got it years ago.  And the way it works is you tap it as fast as you can in 10 seconds.  It tally’s up the number and you just keep track of it.  If the numbers start dropping, maybe time to take it easy.

The reason this works is because when you central nervous system is starting to over do it, your fine motor control is one of the first indicators.  This test is the canary in the coal mine.  You can also just be observant if you start typing clumsily or have issues signing your name.  Those all operate along the same principle, but the app is easier to track.

So if you are possibly overdoing it, try giving that a go or you can also have me take care of the complicated part for you.  For me it’s simple to progress the things you can while staying in that sweet spot of training.  All you would have to do is show up and work the plan, while I guide you through it.  Simple as that.

And luckily I also offer a free trial so you can see if you like it first.  Just text me at 973 476 5328 and introduce yourself to get started.

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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.