Author: Eric Moss
Strength Training for the Skeleton
Earlier today, a woman I train had come across a video from Peter Attia, an expert in longevity and advocate for weight training for people who have more life experience…so they can continue to experience quality of life.
In the video he was discussing that not only could weight training slow down the loss of bone, but can even sometimes reverse it. I already knew this because one of my personal training clients had shown me her bone density numbers before training with me and during training and there was a substantial positive increase.
Why? Well it’s relatively simple. When you weight train, your body adapts to the stimulus by making things stronger in anticipation of the stimulus happening again. This comes in the form of the myelin sheathe that incases the neural signal which tells which motor units to fire which muscle fibers, thickening muscle fibers, thickening tendons and thickening bone via remodeling. All of that complicated sounding mumbo jumbo can be summed up as “gains bro”.
Without that stimulus, the body has no reason to keep it around.
“Wolff’s Law states that bones adapt to the degree of mechanical loading, such that an increase in loading causes the architecture of the internal, spongy bone to strengthen, followed by the strengthening of the cortical layer. Furthermore, a decrease in stress on the bone causes these bone layers to weaken.”
In other words, use it or lose it.
One of the exercises that has come into popularity lately due to the efforts of Bret Contreras is the hip thrust.
Now normally, this exercise is used by people that want to have a nicer booty, and yeah it’s a goto when a woman comes to me and wants to look better in a bikini. But its something I also recommend for my more life experienced clients who have no desire to post booty pics on the instagram.
First, glutes are the fountain of youth. In some of the research conducted by Robin Mckenzie, he discovered that as people age, certain muscles get tight, and certain muscles get loose. The ones that get loose need to be strengthened and they tend to be the ones involved with keeping people upright, which is why being hunched over is associated with age. Glutes are part of what extend the body, and also prevent back pain, make it easier to get in and out of a chair and continue to live life on your own terms.
But fairly unique to the hip thrust is where the barbell is actually positioned on your thigh. Now in gymnasts they found that the bones around the ribs tend to be extra strong, right where the parallel bar hits. The bone remodeled the specific area in anticipation of it happening again. With the hip thrust that region is your thigh bone, which also happens to be one of the sites where they test for bone density.
We’ve all heard of someone falling and breaking a hip. Doesn’t it make sense to strengthen the hip?
Now of course, you’d want all of you to be strong, not just for the bone health but in order to live the basic demands of life. Very few of us will be completing an Ironman at 80 years old (a phenomenal accomplishment by Mountain Lakes local Natalie Grabow). Most things like picking up your grandkids, carrying groceries, your entire skeletal frame etc. can all benefit from a customized to you progressive strength program. And if you think you’re too old, you’re not…unless you’re a ghost.
One of my clients who came to me in her late 70’s is bench pressing nearly double her starting max, as a submaximal weight. You can still make gains with the right program in place.
Now if all of this stuff is “spooky” to you (I had to, tomorrow is Halloween), don’t worry, I got this. The complicated part I’ll handle, all you have to do is start the free trial at my personal training studio conveniently located on Main Street in Boonton. Simply 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.
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 such as myself 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.
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.
re: Fit for TV, The Reality of the Biggest Loser…what I would do differently
I remember when the Biggest Loser first came out. I had already been working as a personal trainer for a couple years by that point and had a blog where I had called out some of the unsafe/unethical/stupid practices they had done. When that Netflix docu-series came out, I thought about hitching up to it, and calling out the original series again when all my suspicions were confirmed.
But I decided to go an alternate route and make it a positive/productive one instead.
I’d be thankful they chose Eric Moss Fitness for all their health and fitness needs 🙂
So first, lets look at the contestants and what their needs are. I didn’t watch the original series because truth be told, I would get disgusted with the trainers and the way they treat the contestants so I don’t know all of their stories. But there were a small handful of the former contestants that were part of the docu-series.
All of the contestants wanted to lose weight, knew they needed to lose weight but didn’t know how. They thought the Biggest Loser represented the ticket to better health and thought that the show had their best interests in mind. But Hollywood is Hollywood and the better approach doesn’t make for good tv. Also just having a basic understanding of how reality shows really work is why when I was approached about having cameras in my studio, I said there would have to be very specific ground rules that eliminates things like misrepresentations about the truth.
So, lets look at the contestants, what their goals are etc. Their goal is simple, gain health by losing weight and keeping it off. Now if you look at the actual results of what the contestants did…they lost a lot of weight and in a very short period of time but most of them gained it all back. The approach was crazy (people leaving in ambulances makes for great tv) they were screamed at and encouraged to fight amongst each other (because drama makes good tv) and made to do humiliating things (because once again, that sort of thing makes for good tv). My personal training business isn’t dependent on television ratings, it’s built on real people with real struggles, getting real results and continuing to choose Eric Moss Fitness for all their health and fitness needs and telling their friends about it.
Phase 1: Establish better relationship with food, progress custom workouts that build muscle/cardiovascular fitness. Body fat would come off, strength and biomarkers for health improve dramatically, confidence and life outlook improves drastically.
Phase 2: Maintain and build upon your results, continue to live the best life for years on end.
So my approach would be a multi phase approach. The first phase for training would be centered around the basics to get them to build muscle and strength, improving their cardiovascular system and burning body fat right out of the gate while teaching eating skills that set them up for quick wins with longer term success. The results for building muscle and strength will come fast. Reason for this is because they spent so much of their life feeling like they weren’t enough and I’d want them to feel good about themselves for a change. Nothing builds confidence like the way effective training can. In addition to that, building muscle helps you burn fat and keep it off.
The workouts would be challenging, but never outside of what the person can safely do. There is a sweet spot between too much and not enough, and keeping them in the sweet spot is the key to both fast progress and sustainable progress without the body ruining it’s metabolism along the way.
The nutrition would be something that simultaneously fuels the workouts, provides enough protein to build muscle while keeping them in a caloric deficit…but not enough of a deficit where they feel hungry all the time resulting in the body fighting back with the rebound effect (work with your body instead of against it). Instead of overly strict dieting which wasn’t even effective in the first place, I would have them use their hand size to help with portion control while practicing the healthy skills and habits that will set them up for long term success. According to Dr. John Berrardi and his staff at Precision Nutrition, using your hands as guides for your portions has approximately 95% the accuracy of weighing your food…and is much easier and more practical. If something is going to be effective, it needs to be consistent. And if it’s going to be consistent, it should be convenient.
You can learn about it on his website https://www.precisionnutrition.com/hand-portion-faq
For the way I coach them. I wouldn’t BS them and I wouldn’t belittle them or yell at them either (unless they were doing something unsafe and I only would do that to get their attention). What the contestants were looking for is a guide to help them. I would be the caring guide that treats them like a friend/family member and help them strategize how to make the process fit their lifestyle. The plan works and I’d get them laughing throughout the process to make it enjoyable for a change.
When phase 1 is done, I’d show them how far they’ve come, and I wouldn’t use the scale. I don’t think the scale is that useful of a metric because it doesn’t take into account things like muscle growth. For body composition I prefer progress pictures and possibly waist measurements. And I wouldn’t use it as a public spectacle for embarrassment. If I have people post their progress pics, it’s because it will make both them and me as their guide look good.
I’m not about guilt and shame, I’m about building gains, because life is for living.
Now you may not be a contestant for the Biggest Loser, but if you need help and if you are in or near Boonton NJ and if what I say vibes with you, I offer a free trial so you can see if you think it’s for you. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328 and introduce yourself to get started on the road to better health, strength and confidence, quickly but sustainably.
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.