I used to be right all the time.  That was in my first marriage which lasted less than a year, but I learned from that experience and applied it to my marriage now and just had our 10 year wedding anniversary so I haven’t been right in over a decade.  To be fair though, my ex wife wasn’t that bright and my wife now probably is smarter than I am.  She keeps me around though because she can’t handle dealing with spiders or the clog in the shower drain and those are things I can handle without issue.

When I first embarked down the road as a fitness professional I made a lot of mistakes but I learned from them. I experimented with many things from workout machines, traditional weight training, to fitness bootcamps, kettlebells, calisthenics, corrective exercises and probably a ton of things across a 20 year career I’m forgetting at the moment.  Some of it had merit so I kept it around adding it to my quiver, and some of it I found to be complete nonsense so I got rid of it.

Yesterday one of my long time clients came to me with a question out of the blue.

“What do you think of box jumps?”

pic via https://experiencelife.lifetime.life/article/break-it-down-the-box-jump/. I don’t claim ownership of this

“The risk reward ratio just isn’t there, and I think anything it can do, can be done better with a kettlebell swing which has less impact and safer….why?”

She proceeded to tell me that one of her friends, was doing a circuit bootcamp type of deal which had box jumps in it and had broken her foot.  She has a wedding next week, and a vacation the week after that.  Now with a broken foot, her summer is ruined.

I don’t often like to poke holes in other people’s programs when I don’t know the full story, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bad one.  Before putting an exercise in one of my clients programs, I ask myself…why?  What purpose does it serve in the program?  Does it affect other exercises in a negative way?  What could go wrong?

In the case of the box jump, it does have some sport specific applications for power development but 9 times out of 10, I’d put the kettlebell swing or snatch, barbell clean, hexbar jump, or rear foot elevated split squat jump in there first.  And when I say first, it would literally be the first exercise performed.  Power is best developed while fresh, not under fatigue.

Fatigue while somewhat useful for building muscle or conditioning also brings issues.  Form tends to go south while tired and in the case of the box jump, that’s not the sort of thing you can get away with while being sloppy…too much can go wrong.

Gashing your shins open (fairly common) is the lesser of the evils.  Falling backward or forward and cracking your head open being the greatest of all possible evils and, rupturing a tendon or breaking your foot is somewhere in between.

Doing it as part of a circuit, is quite simply a bad idea.  I hope the trainer learns from it.

In the case where I might use it, it would be for a young athlete that needs that specifically, like for a test or something.  Definitely not for the average person that simply wants to look and feel better.  Nothing makes you feel better than spending your summer vacation in a cast.

So the takeaway?  Just say “no” to the box jump.  Say “yes” to safe and effective training that puts you closer to your goals.  The good news is you don’t have to figure this out yourself.  I can put a program together for you that gets you to your goals, quickly, safely and sustainably.  I also offer a free trial so you can see if you like it before making any kind of decision.  Just send me a text at 973 476 5328 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.

As part of the trial free trial I have at my personal training studio conveniently located on Main Street in Boonton, I try to learn about the person I’m training, about their training background and their training preferences.  Many of them are new to training, but sometimes they’ve done other methods.

My clients associate my gym with peaches, but sometimes people new to me come from another gym with a fruit in the name. This morning I was chatting with a woman who recently took my free trial who had come from one of those fruit themed franchised gyms and hadn’t built her peaches to a point she was happy with and asked me ….

“Can you build good glutes even if you don’t have good genetics for it?”

I said…

“Yes when you train them right, though some will build bigger ones than others because that’s just reality it will look right for your frame because they were built naturally.”

It’s become a bit of a running joke in my gym where we talk about home grown, non GMO, organic peaches being the best ones.  Much like the steroid fueled bodybuilders look strange sometimes having a Brazilian Butt Lift operation can be the viewed the same way.  Its not natural so sometimes it seems off even if you can’t put your finger on the exact reason why.

If you look up the side effects and dangers of Brazilian Butt Lift surgery, it’ll say pain, swelling, bruising, temporary numbness as being the common, temporary ones that are not terrible all things considered.

Fat necrosis (where the injected fat cells die) can also occur creating lumps and irregularities as well as the fat cells being absorbed unevenly which can make them look unbalanced.  Those are at least only cosmetic.  You can also get potentially deadly infections, or fat embolism where the fat enters into the blood stream possibly blocking vital vessels.

The side effects of effective glute training includes stronger glutes, stronger hip bones, less back pain, being better at various sports and having higher levels of confidence.

And the kicker is getting nice peaches isn’t as difficult as people think…when you train them right.  And results can come relatively quickly.  Jana had 2 people ask her if she had Brazilian Butt Lift surgery after just 9 weeks of training with me, and back then I was still refining my methods.

Jana had this pic taken on vacation…enjoying her life with the lean, fit, strong physique she earned through training

So then how do you build them?  Squats, Romanian deadlifts and lunges are great because they hit the glutes from the stretched position (associated with growth) but they aren’t enough.

The glutes are unique.  They are the largest of the skeletal muscles and are capable of a massive amounts of power, but they are lazy.  They only will work when forced to instead preferring your lower back and your hamstrings to do the work.

That’s one of the reasons, the hip thrust is a great exercise.  To a large extent it inhibits the hamstrings and lower back forcing the glutes to do the work instead.  And when called on and programmed effectively you can go far with it.  All of my clients who have been with me a while can do over 200lbs for volume (a lot of reps), most are moving between 300 and 400lbs for volume, one will hit 500lbs for volume before the weekend and I had one woman do 580lbs for 15 unbroken sub maximal reps.  That comes from effective progression which is very different from “go hard or go home bro.”

Then you throw in some lateral (sideways) movements like side lying hip abduction or cannonball abduction apply progressive overload to your exercises and you’ve gotten all that you need to build a shelf that you can balance a shot glass on.

And of course if you really want it to look right you should train the whole body instead of just one muscle group.  Do you really want firm glutes and soft and weak everything else?  Wouldn’t it be better if your entire body was strong, firm and toned?

If you don’t know how, don’t worry I’ve got you.  This is what I do.  I offer a free trial so you can see if you like it first.  I’ll test to see where you are and how to train you safely and effectively, teach you the exercises and I’ll also explain how the process works so you’ll know it’ll work for you regardless of where you are staring from or what you think your genetics are.  All you have to do to get started is 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.

This morning I was chatting with a colleague within the larger world of health, fitness, wellness and longevity.   I had asked her what she would do different if she had to start fresh in her career, but had all of the wisdom, knowledge and skills that she has now, kind of like in the Matrix when Neo says “whoa I know kung fu” having bypassed all of the blood, sweat and tears that comes from training in a dojo and ascending the ranks.

One of the things I had mentioned was honoring the struggle and how it was a necessary rite of passage in my career to get to where I am now, a personal trainer with a studio conveniently located on Main Street in Boonton.  Before that I bounced around a couple places, doing in home training and sleeping in my car between clients during freezing temperatures.  Not pleasant, but I wasn’t where I wanted to be… yet.

And I thought about how that relates to health and fitness.  You see, I walk around lean and muscular all year around.  When people see what I look like, they assume that I eat like a monk surviving on boiled chicken and steamed broccoli.  I don’t do that, at least not anymore because I’m happy with where I am.

this pic was taken around my 44th bday. No edit

If I want pizza, I’ll eat pizza.  If I want the Al Hara Shwarma sandwich I’ll have the Al Hara Shwarma Sandwich.  If I want dessert, I’ll eat dessert.  Before I do it though, I figure out “Which is more important right now? My health and fitness goals? Or the pleasure of this moment?”

The only wrong answer here is the dishonest one.

You see, I’ve got the best of both worlds, because I got to a point where I’m happy with my strength and my physique so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor without feeling guilty.  If I wasn’t where I wanted to be, well I’d have do duck my head down a bit, tighten up my nutrition and training and get to that point then I can relax a bit.

If you are happy with your strength and health, awesome!  Power to you!  But if you aren’t and you really should be honest with yourself about this, then maybe you’ll have to tighten it up a bit.  Good news is you don’t have to struggle more than necessary since I’ve figured out the direct path for you (refined from over 20 years of training people).  I also offer a free trial so you can test drive my coaching for yourself.  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.