Author: Eric Moss
A Personal Training Session Should be Judged by the Results It Produces
Some people think my personal training studio in Boonton moved, no I’m still here and don’t plan on going anywhere. That was Impact Fitness that moved, and yes I was surprised since we moved in around the same time.
It happens I guess, I wish them well.
Years ago when I was developing my performing strongman career I had enlisted the help of Dr. Rob Gilbert to teach me about motivational speaking. Dr. Gilbert has a success hotline, and podcast where he produces a short daily motivational message, and the other day he spoke about why coaching is one of the most difficult jobs in the world.
Here is the link if you want to listen yourself, it’s only 3 mins long https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-coaching-is-one-of-the-most-difficult-jobs-in/id1532154557?i=1000553246960
It’s funny because personal training seems to be the exception to this rule. Sometimes when I talk to people I find out they already have personal trainers, and they like to say that he/she is really good.
Great! (the world needs more good personal trainers after all) What are the criteria you use to see whether or not they’re good?
They’ll usually say something like, I’m always sore, they push me really hard etc.
Ok, but is that the reason you signed up with them? To be pushed hard and get sore?
If that’s the reason, fine I guess but many times when people hire them to do it’s simply because they think that is the ticket to gains in strength, muscle definition, and dropping body fat.
In fact, one of my clients from years ago hired me to yell at her. I told her I don’t really yell, but perhaps what she really needs is a more effective program. She was actually working as a personal trainer herself, and I completely changed her paradigm to one of progress instead of screaming “faster! harder!” (that’s what she said)
There is more to effective programming than simply working hard.
Now it could be you hire a personal trainer just to keep you consistent. If they’re keeping you consistent that’s great! Mission accomplished!
However, you may be looking to them for actual progress. And that’s a different thing entirely.
Indicators of progress for how it transfers to every day life would be things like you’re able to do things you weren’t able to do before, you’re looking better and feeling better etc. In the gym, I look at it mathematically. Are the numbers themselves improving?
As an example, there are multiple variables to be measured when it comes to progressive resistance training. The standard ones are load (amount of weight) volume (total amount of sets and repetitions performed) and density (load x volume/ time). It doesn’t need to progress every single workout, in fact wave loading style periodization goes counter to this. But in the bigger picture if the numbers are increasing over time, great! You’re making progress.
Now if you are trying to decrease body fat if your weight is staying the same, but you are repping out with weights you previously struggled with, you know you’re leaner because you don’t turn a 1 rep max into a 10-15 rep max without gaining a bit of muscle. You can often see it in the mirror or in before and after pics. Daniel gained 25lbs of muscle while decreasing his body fat with this approach, feels way stronger and is more capable and looks way better too. His bench numbers are almost twice as heavy as when he started with me. That’s progress.
I never once yelled at him and rarely does he feel sore after training. I push him yes, but not farther than he can effectively recover from. The important thing is the way his personal training program is put together and progressed.
Another personal training client of mine did chin-ups for the first time in her life for sets of 3 when she previously couldn’t do any. She also did her starting 1 rep max in squats for a set of 15. Those are all signs of progress.
Another personal training client of mine (a personal trainer herself) got her lifetime first chin up, and later that day welcomed her 2nd grandchild into the world. That was a big day for her and she felt accomplished.
So when you are looking at your program, ask yourself why you started it, then ask yourself if you are getting what you actually wanted out of it. If you aren’t, it may be time to rethink the way you look at it.
And if you need help with this, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio…still on Main Street in Boonton. 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 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, associations, nonprofits, government entities 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.
Rest in Strength Bud Jeffries
I haven’t had much of a chance to write lately because I’ve been so busy. About a week and a half ago, I got a text message from my strongman coach Chris Rider. He quite simply said, “did you hear the news?”
“???” I replied getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
He told me Bud Jeffries had passed away. I was in literal shock. Bud was a man who literally redefined what was considered impossible. A man who would do one arm clapping push-ups at over 300lbs, dead squatted a 1000lbs (picture a squat where you crawl underneath the barbell before standing up, did full splits and swung a 53lbs kettlebell for about an hour straight. His odysey of working up to swinging for an hour straight burned over a hundred pounds of fat off of him.
Reading his books influenced many of the tougher sessions I’ve put my personal training clients through, particularly when it came to long kettlebell swing sessions and training heavy partials.
Lately, he’d been creative doing things like pressing a heavy kettlebell overhead while throwing a flaming ax on fire at a target.
“How could this be?” I thought. He was carrying a refrigerator over his head with one hand literally the day before it happened. Here is the link.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY-XRMvr8Fn/
I knew of Bud because I had read about him in Pavel Tsatsouline’s books so he was like a comic book hero come to life. But I didn’t actually meet Bud until a couple years later when he caught wind that I was an up and coming strongman. When he was traveling through my area, he invited me out to one of his school assembly shows to see how he does them. I actually keep a clause in my contracts today so that I can do the same.
It was literally just a couple days after I did one of my shows and showed the difference between a garage band with potential, and Metallica. Man he was good. He was smooth, polished, had the kids watching his every move. He set the standard that I would attempt to live up to, and showed the potential to do something amazing. At over 1000 performances in 44 states, he inspired countless youth.
Bud had caught Covid back in December and though he was better, the theory is it was complications of that which eventually got him. Still shocking because if anyone was going to be kill proof it should have been him.
I guess the only bright spot of this is that he can now be with his son, who passed away a short time ago from being in motorcycle accident.
Bud’s passing also provides a lesson. Live up to your greatness, each and every day. It’s what he did and you never know when it might be your last.
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 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, associations, nonprofits, government entities 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.
How to Achieve NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS Unlike Last Year
It’s coming upon that time of year again where people start thinking about their goals for the year. Gyms will probably have some kind of promotion getting a whole ton of people in, knowing fully that most of them will give up on them.
These stats were taken from https://discoverhappyhabits.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/
“In 2019, one survey found that more than half of Americans wanted to be healthier – 59% wanted to exercise more, 54% said they would eat healthier, and 48% resolved to lose weight.”
“The most popular resolutions for 2021 are exercising more and improving fitness (50% of participants), losing weight (48%)”
Notice a pattern?
7% of survey participants stuck to all their resolutions in 2019, while 19% kept some but not all of their resolutions.
Those stats aren’t actually bad, but one thing to consider is that these statistics aren’t going to be completely accurate. Many times in the statistics gathering process it is done by a poll.
There is an issue with this. When you are asked, “Did you achieve your resolution this year?” A seemingly harmless question can be interpreted as “Are you a winner or a loser?” Especially if we didn’t meet our expectations.
Nobody ever wants to admit they came up short. And knowing this, I expect those stats are more than likely just a wee bit off.
But they don’t have to be. Not if you follow the process I use to create personal training success stories at my personal training studio in Boonton.
The first thing you have to do is know what you want to achieve. The destination informs the journey to get there after all. I ask my clients a lot of in-depth questions so I can get a clear idea of what they want.
Then when you know what you want, you have to figure out what it will take to get there so we can create a step-by-step plan to get from point A (where you are) to point B (where you would like to be).
Let’s just say for the sake of argument you want to gain 5lbs of muscle and burn 10lbs of body fat. Great! You know what you want to achieve!
Now the question becomes, what exercises are an option? Which ones are appropriate and how can we get there?
In this case, you’ll need to have a program that includes resistance training and a supportive nutrition plan. Cardio helps for sure, but not as much as getting your nutrition en pointe and not as much as weight training believe it or not.
In order to have a well-rounded balanced training program, you should try to include at least one exercise for each movement category.
- Upper body push (like a bench press or overhead press)
- Upper body pull (chin ups, trx rows etc.)
- Hip hinge (deadlift, kettlebell swing, hip thrust etc.)
- Knee dominant movement (squats and squat variations, lunges etc.)
Start within your capabilities and expand outward step by step. When people come to me to maximize their results, the first thing I do is determine what they can and can’t do safely during a movement evaluation. Then depending on what they can and can’t do, I select exercises appropriate to their goals and establish current maximums.
When I know their current maxes I start the process to be well within their capabilities and gain momentum so that when we arrive we’ll be well prepared to blow previous maxes out of the water. I’ll give a couple of examples.
With Daniel, his goals were to gain muscle and not get hurt. Following a corrective exercise program to give us more options to work with. When we were able to put a more complete program in place I started him well within his capabilities so that we can develop momentum to expand well past them. And it worked as you can clearly see in the picture. Around 25lbs of muscle gained, reduced his body fat from 15% to 8% via a body fat tester, improved his bench 1 rep max by 64% went from zero chin-ups to 3 chin-ups (now at 10), and added 105lbs to his hex bar deadlift all within a very short period of time and without getting hurt, which is awesome.
The same thing with Tom, we started well within his capabilities to the point that he kept telling me the weights were too light. I’m like, just trust the process, you’ll see. As you can clearly see it worked.
Now, what if your goals are a bit different? What if it’s more specific to your hobby or profession? The same process applies. With Lauren, she wanted to be able to hold a handstand for a full minute as well as do 2 pull-ups (harder than chin-ups). We figured out what she could do, took a bunch of steps backward to be within her capabilities, and climbed our way back up. When we achieved her handstand goal, I took a picture to send to her. And yes, we also achieved the 2 pull-ups.
So anyway, I know this post is getting a little long-winded so I’ll try and wrap this up. In order to actually achieve your New Year’s resolution this year, unlike last year, set your mind and get clear on what you want to achieve. Determine your current capabilities, work the process back to be well within capabilities, and create a step-by-step plan to progress outward until you crush your goals. Put it into action.
Boom! Done! Success!
If you want my help, you’re in luck. I offer a free trial membership at my personal training studio located on Main Street in Boonton. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328, introduce yourself and let me know what you want to achieve. Let’s make 2022 your year unlike last year…and especially not like the disaster 2020 was.
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 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, associations, nonprofits, government entities 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.