It’s about more than looking good
I’m always learning. I love reading books, listening to podcasts, watching youtube videos from people that actually know what they’re doing so on and so forth. One thing I was listening to the other day was an interview with Alywn Cosgrove. Alwyn Cosgrove was one of the OG trainers that was saying that strength training is more important than cardio for the goals of burning fat. (Here’s a link to one of his articles https://www.results-fitness.com/the-hierarchy-of-fat-loss). His philosophy of if he can get more results than the others, he’ll always have business. I’ve adopted that as my own which is why I show off my personal training success stories. And his program design philosophy, which he got from Bruce Lee, I’ve also adopted into my own systematic approach.
Anyway one of the things that struck me was when he had said “You’ve helped them get a new body, now what are they going to do with it?” and that got me pondering.
Summer is approximately 3 months away, which is enough time to get a new body, or more accurately discover the real body you’re supposed to have. And when you have it, you often get the itch to do something with it.
Recently I changed my sidewalk sign to say “Summer is coming, free trials available”. Yes, summer is coming, and though what people may be thinking is I’m promoting looking great in a bathing suit. And yes, I am, but it’s also more than that. Summer could be about lounging on a beach or pool side, but it could also mean playing volleyball with your friends. It could mean more vigorous hikes, or taking up other active hobbies like climbing or recreational sports or doing your first 5k, getting the confidence to go out to parties as a young adult or rolling around with your grand kids as a young adult with several years of experience.
I count someone being able to roll around with their grand kids to be as important or even more important than helping someone win a physique competition. Neal, was able to roll around with his grandkids while they were still young.
When you train effectively you not only look good, you feel good and can do things you wouldn’t normally have been able to do, and that is where your best life is.
I have a tagline that says “Strength for life, living and the pursuit of happiness. We should all have the strength, physical capacity and physique to live life on our own terms free from the shackles of weakness. Because life is for living.”
And I know the journey to get that new body can be a complex and overwhelming one. Fortunately you don’t have to figure it all out by yourself, I have a free trial at my gym in Boonton. 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.
Tom M. Personal Training Success Story
Before Tom came to me, he was undergoing a renaissance period in his life. Back in the year 2023 he realized that being introverted, having a desk job as an accountant and a sedentary lifestyle wasn’t going to give him the life he wanted. So he decided to do something about it starting with his physique.
One day he passed by my personal training studio in Boonton and picked up a brochure with some of my info on it and was inspired by the success stories there. He opted to take charge of his nutrition before working with me and to his credit, lost 50lbs completely on his own.
Then around new years, he was cleaning his apartment and found the flyer he picked up and decided 2024 was the year to turn his life around. He reached out to me to schedule the free trial.
At the end of the free trial, when we were sitting down for his goal assessment, knowing he is an accountant and we were heading into tax season, I tried to steer him towards one of the twice a week programs. Tom was adamant he could do 3x per week and would make it happen. Having worked with accountants, I wasn’t so sure he could pull it off and reluctantly signed him up.
But Tom defied my expectations. To his credit he showed up every single session ready to bring his best. And applying his work ethic to my program design despite going through the trials and tribulations accountants do during tax season, he got massive results all across the board.
In the first 12 weeks, he took a weight that was heavier his one rep max bench press and was able to do 90 reps in 10mins, went from 1 chin up to 6 chin ups, his squat 1 rep max he did for 2 sets of 15 sub-maximal reps, his Romanian deadlift he was easily doing sets of 6 with weights heavier than his starting 1 rep max. That is a massive increase in his strength. But that’s not the only thing that completely transformed.
He started dressing more stylish and his physique had improved dramatically and people started complimenting him. With his new found confidence he started going out and doing more social things, some of which were with friends he met training alongside at Eric Moss Fitness.
One of my taglines is strength for life, living and the pursuit of happiness, because we should all have the physical capacity and physique to live life on our own terms. Tom’s story is the perfect example of what I’m talking about.
Now at just a little over a year later, he took a new job which is more fulfilling for him and we switched to a remote format until tax season is over. Currently he’s doing sets of 5 chin ups with 10lbs added and his sub maximal bench press training weight is a whopping 100lbs heavier than his 1 rep max was last year, and he got 27 reps in 5 mins with it. Let the enormity of that sink in for a minute.
When you look at the difference in year to year, often times we get stuck doing the same old thing day after day, year in year out and just accept it. Tom is proof that life can be better and part of that starts with the confidence that comes with improvements to your strength and physique. Nothing improves confidence like doing something tough, and coming out the other side way stronger and way more muscular and that transfers to life. Because life is for living.
If you feel stuck, maybe it might be time to check out my free trial. Just text me 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.
Why She Came Back: The Power of Effective Training and a Positive Vibe
So recently one of my personal training clients had come back to training with me. The main reason she stopped in the first place was she had moved to another town, taking her farther away from my personal training studio in Boonton. Generally speaking, people won’t travel further than about 8 miles to work out with someone, but I guess I’m worth the trip.
When she asked if she could come back, I replied “Of course!” And that’s when I got the rundown of what brought her back.
First it was the fun and relaxed vibe I have in my personal training studio. You see, I think there is a misconception about my training methods, and it’s not a bad assumption. Inside the studio it looks like a dungeon, with steel bars I bent during shows decorating the crown, the main colors in the gym are shades of grey. In the window, alongside amazing body transformation pics there are rolled up frying pans, and chains made out of nails I had bent in my hands.
If I were a passerby, I might assume that the trainer there was super intense, but then once you meet me you realize, I’m laid back, like to joke around, am a dad of daughters and I love animals. The clients I have are all good people, professionals in their careers and all support each other (helping my daughter surpass her girl scout cookie goal) and everyone surpasses what they previously thought themselves capable of. That vibe is part of the reason she came back. But it’s more than that.
She remembered what she had achieved training with me and remembered what I taught her. But it’s different when you are doing it on your own vs having a place to go where that’s what you do when you’re there with someone guiding you to make sure you’re doing it right. So she started working out with a personal trainer that was closer to where she lived, but once you know what’s possible for yourself, it’s hard to go back.
Now with me, I start off with the understanding that each of us has the capacity to lift a car off of a human but it’s blocked with all sorts of internal mechanisms that are there to keep us safe, but at the same time are overly conservative. And what I do, is program in such a fashion that teaches your body that it’s in fact safe. I remove the rate limiting factor by optimal design which helps people get the body they want, faster and more sustainably.
Unfortunately, a lot of what limits people are often times self imposed, or from being misguided. As an example, the other personal trainer told her that women shouldn’t lift heavy (something I’ve talked about before but wait for it). She said not to lift heavy because it’s bad for the ovaries and could damage her chances of having children. Smh.
I’ll admit, that’s a new one for me, and I’ve been training people since 03. There have been all sorts of misconceptions of weight training over the years from things like it’s only for vain people or that it will make you slow/ muscle bound, or that weight training is dangerous or only for men or young people to even making you gay. For the record, all the gay people I train were gay before training with me.
Those limiting beliefs stop people from getting the healthy strong body they deserve. I don’t normally ask questions in these articles but “What have you heard that might stop you from weight training?”
The benefits are well known, but perhaps you just don’t really know what to do. If that’s the case, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio. 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.