This past Friday I was talking with one of my personal training clients and she had told me she was interested in starting some sort of martial art. When I enquired further as to what type she was drawn to, she had said “Anything practical”

It’s actually kind of funny, because she shares her time slot with another clients of mine who is also an instructor/practitioner of Southern Style Praying Mantis (a Chinese martial art), and I have a bit of a martial art background myself. Back in the day I had practiced Tae Kwon Do, Isshinryu and Judo. I dabbled in different arts and sports even finding myself being offered the opportunity to work with a world class boxing coach. Honored by the offer, but I really didn’t like the thought of people who train to punch me in the face…punching me in the face.

Ironic also because years later I would later set a world record in a feat that drew lots of praise from boxing legend Evander Holyfield’s coach.

But also ironic because she sought me out for strength training. And my viewpoint is that strength training is a martial art and an extremely practical one at that. Legendary strength coach Mark Rippetoe had once quipped “Strong people are harder to kill and more useful in general”

Strength training can be a stand alone martial art but can complement whatever martial art you happen to partake in (hence why my guy who practices Southern Style Praying Mantis trains with me). In sports taking performance enhancement substances is viewed as cheating. They don’t make you more skillful in the activity. What they do is make you stronger. All other attributes being equal, the stronger athlete will win.

Strength training can be considered a legal cheat code in sports.

And in terms of practicality, I can’t even tell you the number of times being strong has helped me out. Everything from carrying heavy furniture, to carrying both my daughters up the stairs at the same time, to getting yard work done, to pushing cars out of snow, to opening jars that were practically glued shut, to helping one of my clients bend a bike rack back into place after another car hit it the list goes on and on.

Many times people view lifting weights as a vanity oriented activity…and yes I like looking good to, but my real passion is helping people get stronger for the thing. What is the thing? Well you know…the thing is that thing that you happen to be passionate about that makes you happy. Whether it’s rock climbing, snowboarding, Southern Style Praying Mantiss, music, bending steel, competing in triathalons, rolling around with your grandkids or whatever. Whatever it is strength training should make it better.

Strength, for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We should all have the physique and physical capacity to do whatever it is that makes you happy.

If you need help with this, I have a free trial available. 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, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.

Well it happens every 4 years or so. Here we have today to decide who is going to determine our fate, and it’s based on votes. Now today being election day, your mind is probably already racing to try to either refute or support my opinion…but I’m not actually talking about that either.

I’m talking about you.

Yesterday morning, I was chatting with one of my personal training clients during her workout. Her initial goal was simply to look better in a bikini for a Caribbean vacation she has coming up last week of November. Knowing this, I set a course to be able to progress her strength in the rep ranges associated with muscle development in the lifts that would make the biggest difference to how her physique would look in a bikini and the progress needed to be incremental but at the same time rapid.

Why? Because small increments are least likely to set off the governing mechanisms that limit progress.

Now during the conversation, I was pointing out how far her lifts have come in the short time she’s been with me. She started in September and had a goal to maximize her results by the end of November. In the hip thrust (the most direct way of loading the glutes through the longest range of motion while the max contraction is in the shortened position). She started with a calculated 1 rep max of 193lbs, and I had a goal of getting to 300lbs for at least 10 consecutive reps. Yesterday she was only 15lbs away from that goal and she’s doing it for submaximal sets of 15. She’s on track, ahead of schedule actually.

When we were reviewing how much progress she made across the lifts…bench pressing over her starting max for 102 reps in 10mins, squatting with 32lbs over her starting max submaximal sets of 15, overhead pressing with starting 1rep max + 12lbs for 98 reps in 10mins and set to romanian deadlift with her starting max for submaximal reps soon. Let’s just say that is a remarkable amount of progress for a short period of time and there is no way to get those kinds of results without dramatically improving your physique.

So during this conversation, she had joked that it felt just as challenging each time. I don’t think she realized it at the time, but that is a loaded statement that reveals a lot about effective program design.

See the thing is, we all have these governing mechanisms in our body that senses that the load is too much and thus shut the processes down. When you can progress the load, volume and density without tripping up those threat mechanisms, progress can be made not only rapidly, like hers was thus far, but also sustainably. The trick though is that it has to be in that sweet spot of challenging, but not too challenging.

In other words if you can raise the programmatic variables of volume, density and load without a proportional increase of the “discomfort” of the lift, dramatic and sustainable progress is yours for the taking. And the kicker is to work your way up incrementally. Those small changes lead up to big results in a surprisingly short period of time.

And those incremental changes, like habits can be thought of like votes. Every tiny little improvement can be thought of like a vote for your future self. Now the question I have is in 4 years regardless of which presidential candidate we end up with…will you be better than you are today?

If you need help with this, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street in Boonton. Just text me at 973 476 5328.

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, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.

Here we come again. It’s that time of the year when the weather gets a bit colder, people layer up and cover up areas they aren’t exactly proud of and delicious treats during get togethers are constantly tempting us like sirens to sailors.

After the candy of Halloween comes Thanksgiving, then Christmas and then the debauchery of New Years eve. Come New Years day though they try to quit cold turkey and then “This year will be the year I get in shape” where they have to compete with every other resolutioner who is using the equipment they want to use, and taking their sweet time doing it because they have to post it on social media.

Something I see other fitness professionals preach is get started now and you’ll have a leg up on the New Year. One might think “Why bother? I don’t want to give up hanging out with friends and family and there are just too many temptations. Better to start in the New Year”

I’m not going to gatekeep by preaching to you about how you need to suck it up. That’s actually an exercise in futility since willpower is a finite resource anyway (you can only say no so much before you crack).

Instead I’m saying that with a few strategies, you can actually use this to your advantage. In other words you can have your cake and eat it too…and still lean out.

Years ago, I was training a bride for her upcoming wedding day. One of the days she came in looking upset.

What’s the matter?

“I haven’t lost any weight in the past 3 weeks”

When was the last time you cheated on your diet?

“I NEVER cheat on my diet”. And I knew she was telling me the truth so I said …”Cheat immediately“

That weekend was the Renaissance Fair and she cheated and then some. She comes back in for a weigh in now 3lbs lighter. How?

Our bodies are amazing adaptive mechanisms. It adapts to just about any stimulus you throw at it assuming it has enough frequency and time. In an effort to survive a potential starvation cycle your body can actually down regulate your metabolism to conserve its resources. This is leftover from a time when we had to compete with sabertooth tigers for survival in the ice age. And usually the way the cycle works is people create a calorie deficit, they lose a bit of weight, then when they hit the law of accommodation (when your body stops adapting to a stimulus) the weight loss slows so they cut calories further. It becomes like a dog chasing it’s tail.

Instead by throwing in a “cheat” day or a “cheat” meal every once in a while you can potentially stop it from happening. You’re still technically in a deficit because one unrestricted day isn’t going to upset the caloric balance of an entire week of eating on point. That and throwing all the rules out the window can help you from a psychological standpoint since it’s not 12 weeks without fun, it’s only a couple days till you can have that scrumptious whatever floats your boat.

So how much? When I give my one size fits most nutrition recommendations for my personal training clients who come to me for transforming their bodies, I tell them 3 unrestricted meals or 1 day unrestricted. That will help you to be able to stay on track, while also living life and enjoying the fruits of your labor. You’ll enjoy the season, and if you start now you can enjoy the way you look before new years is even here.

If you need help with this, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street in Boonton. 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, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.