Author: Eric Moss
Gun Control, Are you prepared
It almost feels like every 3rd day there is another mass shooting. And lately there has been a lot of talk about guns, and our right to have them. One of the arguments that people that are anti gun control say is “I need guns to protect myself and my family.”
Well statistically speaking you are more likely to kill your family than some intruder is…but that’s beside the point, and I don’t want to get into a pro gun, anti gun debate. I won’t even tell you wear I stand on the issue.
If I told you, someone was going to creep through your window at night, and murder you while you weren’t expecting it…you would likely verify the threat, call the police, get security systems and the whole nine yards to safeguard you against a threat.
Here’s the thing, the highest cause of death in the US (at least from 2016, but I doubt it’s changed much) is heart disease…not homicide, not even close actually and that’s for all races.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus16.pdf#019
And the kicker is it’s to a large extent preventable. So whether or not you are for arming yourself to the teeth or not, you should take care of your health first. And beyond that, being healthy is always a good thing and isn’t even close to being a polarizing issue like gun control is.
“Strong people are harder to kill and more useful in general.” Mark Rippetoe
Eric Moss is a world record holding professional strongman. His personal training studio is in Boonton Township New Jersey with Lewandowski Chiropractic and is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville and Parsippany New Jersey.
A Few Words on Fasting
I used to be pretty active on Facebook but am more of a lurker than someone actually posting something, unless its funny or promotes positive vibes…or allows me to teach you something, like I am in this article.
A short while ago I was scrolling through my facebook feed seeing what people are talking about. It’s useful to me to generate ideas of what I want to write about, and I’m friends with a lot of people involved in the world of fitness, strength, personal training etc. And one thing is for certain is that the schools of thought can be polarizing. One thing that is very polarizing, is “fasting”
So while I was scrolling my facebook feed, I saw someone make the claim that and I’m paraphrasing here “the only thing that fasting does is burn up your muscle mass and kill your metabolism. Food is fuel.”
First on the burning up muscle and killing metabolism, someone forgot to tell Terry Crews.
Now let’s talk about the food is fuel. Yes it is, but not in the same way that gas is to a car. Think about it. Before gas is put into a car, it has to be refined and broken down to a form that the car can use. Food is like this, but it’s broken down by chewing it, mixing saliva with it before it’s broken down in your stomach and absorbed.
All of these steps take time, so what your body is actually running off of, isn’t what you just ate, its what you ate a while ago.
Now when your body doesn’t have any stored sugar to burn up (it’s preferred fuel source) it switches to burning up fat (which it had saved up just in case we needed it.) Those days when we needed to store up body fat are long gone unless you live in a 3rd world country or are living on the streets. It also throws in some of the bad cells in your body with that process Terry mentioned autophagy. I’ll explain that part a bit more in a different article.
The idea of fasting isn’t new, but it’s come around again as if it were new. When I explain that I fast, I get a lot of people telling me that my approach is wrong. I’ll just say this.
I’ve been doing this since 2009 (so about 9 years adherence)
I’ve been able to maintain near single digit body fat year round (not yo yo dieting).
All my biomarkers of health say I’m a-ok
I don’t feel lethargic, or have to worry about what I’m going to have for breakfast, or lunch or if it follows the rules of whatever diet I’m doing.
I don’t have to force myself to eat when I’m not hungry or pressed for time like getting to the studio by 6am.
I’m strong enough to bend steel…like Superman.
With all of those things, if I’m doing it “wrong” then baby I don’t want to be “right”. Now is fasting right for you? I don’t know but I encourage you to do your own research so you can make an informed decision.
Treadmills, yay or nay?
One of the things that my personal training clients have access to is me as a support system to give guidance, even when they aren’t in my studio. Knowing this and using me as a trusted resource one of my people asked if I recommend a treadmill for home use for his wife.
no treadmills here.
I don’t for a couple different reasons. For one thing people buy them with the best of intentions, but it often becomes something that people later label as “an expensive coatrack”. You see, standard gyms have a drop out rate of around 70% within 6 months the reasoning behind which is usually one of a handful of reasons.
Either people don’t know what to do (lack of guidance though I don’t think this applies to treadmill use since it’s pretty straightforward) are frustrated with a lack of progress (your body adapts to what you are doing, and in the case of a treadmill, the only real progression is to do it faster or if you have a fancy pants one increase the incline).
Another is the potential for injury. When I applied for insurance in my last facility, they had asked me if I had any treadmills and for good reason, they seem safe but there is inherent risk. Just check out this montage of treadmill fails.
And there are dozens more on youtube where that came from. And yeah, you can connect a safety strap to turn it off if you lose your footing, but let’s get real, nobody does that.
Another is a lack of consistency from a lack of accountability. Here’s how it happens, you start out on a program filled with vim and vigor, but life gets in the way and you start to fall off track. One skipped session becomes two, two becomes four and the next thing you know months and months have gone by and the only thing on your treadmills are your coats and shoes (hence the expensive coat-hanger bit.) In fact one of the biggest reasons people hire personal trainers in the first place is to simply have someone there waiting for them to keep them consistent on track. The treadmill doesn’t care if you use it or not, hence no social pressure keeping you consistent. Consistency is critical to success.
So what do I recommend instead? Well, for one thing and here’s my pitch, if you are looking for a personal trainer in Boonton Township or Mountain Lakes come take my trial membership.
If you aren’t and want to get healthy, then pick up a set of kettlebells and get a Strongfirst, RKC or FMS instructor to assess you and teach you the basics. There are so many things you can do with them, they take up very little space, train things that running can’t, don’t cost much and never break.
The swing is king. It trains cardiovascular conditioning, strength and is joint friendly when performed correctly.
Now let’s say you are the type that is self motivated and wants to specifically be a runner. That’s great, but running on a treadmill, and actual running though they seem the same in actuality aren’t. It has to do with you moving across a surface rather than the surface moving beneath you. That and it locks you into both a predetermined pace and predetermined stride length, neither of which are right for your body.
Solution for that is to simply get outside and run. What happens next is up to you.