Category: cool stuff

 

How to lift weights without looking like a man

This morning (the morning of writing this not posting it that is) I was training one of my personal training clients and pointed out just how far she’s come. In today’s session, she did 95 reps with 80% of her starting max within a 10 minute timeframe which anyone who knows lifting knows that is a huge amount of progress in a short period of time. It only took us 13 personal training sessions to get here.

She was surprised then asked “This won’t make me into a man will it?” This is a common concern I’ve heard over the years and no, I’m a personal trainer, not a gender reassignment surgeon.

And for the record, I’m cool with whatever you identify as. He, She, They, Them it’s all cool with me.

Now what she’s talking about is body builders like the one below.

First, the amount of work body builders do is insane. It takes years of super-hard dedication where everything you do is toward the end of building as much muscle as possible and being lean as possible on competition day. More than likely can’t get to that level without a whole lot of PED’s as well.

Now even then it doesn’t happen over night. The reality is there is where you are which we’ll call point A. Let’s call Point Z the point at which you are winning every bodybuilding competition out there. At some point in your training journey if you ever get to a point that is too muscular, let’s call it point T or U or V or whatever. Just switch to maintenance at a point you’re happy with like point Q…maybe even as little as point D.

And in reality, you’re not likely ever going to get to a point that you are too muscular for your own liking so you should still train to become stronger. It’s the best way to improve your strength and your physique.

This is a picture of Bret Contreras’ Glute Squad, a group of figure competitors. Bret Contreras has been a big influence on my personal training methods because he’s a mix of a scientist and a coach in the trenches working with real people and getting real results. That’s what I’m about.

The Glute Squad

Are they overly muscular? Well tastes differ I guess but not in my opinion. They’ve got the toned physique many of my female personal training clients strive for. They’re drug free, and they’re strong. Their average bench press is 135lbs, average military press is 91lbs and their other lifts are impressive too. They’ve been training for years and train to improve their strength and can stop at any point and switch to maintenance mode if they want.

So how do you lift weights without looking like a man? Simple, lift weights and attempt to improve your max strength for reps. As long as you’re not on PED’s you’ll be fine and if you ever get close to the point that it’s too much muscle, switch to maintenance mode at a point you’re happy with.

There’s benefits beyond too. It’ll make you stronger so you can open jars, carry kids or walk down the street feeling safer. Making progress will make you feel happier and more confident. Have a bad day? Take it out on the weights. Have a good day? Celebrate it with hoisting some iron.

You won’t become a man, you’ll become the best version of yourself. The one you’re born to be.

If you need help with this, I have a free trial available at my personal training studio 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 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 live show and travels across the country doing presentations on goal achievement for 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.

Progression is the name of the game

Last night as I was packing up, one of my personal training clients started picking my brain. He’s heavily involved in martial arts and was looking for ideas of training his students and we got to talking about different ways of measuring progress.

We came up with different ways for both the students and the teacher to figure out whether or not it’s working. Things like the national physical fitness tests we did in high school came up and even things that can measure punching power.

When it comes to a vague notion like being “in shape” it’s important to have barometers of progress. How do you know if what you’re doing is working? You have to assess every so often.

In my personal training studio, I assess my clients current strength over a couple exercises that I come up with in order to reach their goals. As an example, if a person comes to me unable to do any chin ups, then in 12 weeks they’re able to get 3, I know it worked. Come again 3 or 4 months later and they’re able to do 5 or 6, I know it’s working. Numbers are the easiest to compare because they’re objective. 10 is a bigger number than 1, as my daughter who is in kindergarten taught me.

Now even though my passion is with strength, a lot of times people come to me because they want to improve the way they look. Well again, I can tell from the numbers because there is no way to turn a 1 rep max into a 10 rep max without looking better (assuming you aren’t eating like a maniac).

In fact if you turned 1 rep maxes across several different exercises and your bodyweight remained the same, it’s a good indicator that you have burned fat and built muscle.

Another measure though it’s not objective is pictures.

This is a 12 week before and after picture of the results daniel achieved by training at Eric Moss Fitness, a personal training studio located in Boonton New Jersey. As you can see he's gained a lot of muscle, getting much stronger in the process and massively transformed his physique.
personal trainer in Morris County

When it comes to dramatic changes like these, progress is obvious. In fact when people start my program, I advise them to take a bathroom selfie and not look at it for at least 3 months. It’s hard to notice the day to day change but over time the changes add up.

But what if it isn’t every 12 weeks? What about making this a longterm lifestyle?

I like the ideas from Clarence Bass, a legend in the fitness world where he recommends taking pics every year on your birthday so you know whether or not you’re maintaining what you built effectively. I started doing this when I turned 40 years old.

My yearly birthday pic 41 years old

Now, it doesn’t have to be on your birthday. It could be the start of the new year or any time really. Just make sure you have some kind of way to determine whether or not you’re on track to whatever it is you want to do in life.

If you want my help, I have a free trial available. 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 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 live show and speaks on goal achievement for 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.

How to Get “In Shape” in 2023 (myth-busting and info about how to design your own fitness program)

How to make 2023 your year

Well, 2023 is here, the new year has arrived and if you’re like many people, getting in shape nears the top of your new years resolution list.  Also if you’re like many people, its appeared at the top of your list before but remains and unchecked box on your new years check list.

eating healthy and exercising are consistently near the top of people's new year's resolutions
credit Statista

This year is going to be different though because I’m going to point you in the right direction.  Will this be a step by step plan?  Well sorta, but more like general guidelines that if you follow you can do great.

First, let’s set a couple things straight.  A common mistake people try to do is “spot reduce” problem areas.  A common example of this would be doing a bunch of ab exercises in an attempt to burn belly fat.  Unfortunately it doesn’t really work that way so don’t do it.

Fortunately though you can spot enhance muscle development.  Meaning you can do more curls to improve your biceps, or do heavier hip thrusts to build your glutes (the butt muscle).

So in order to get that the sought after lean, sculpted athletic appearance you should

  1. Develop the muscle in order to create toned muscle. (Through training)
  2. Get lean enough so the muscle won’t be covered up. (Through nutrition)

In reality, when people say that they want to be toned, what they’re actually looking for is building muscle and burning fat, just not to the extreme levels of body builders.

Now in order for this to happen, you’ll need to get leaner by taking control of your nutrition.  The nutrition needs to do a couple things simultaneously.  It needs to create a caloric deficit while simultaneously providing enough of the good stuff to rebuild your muscles while building health.  I have plans for this, and I also have nutritionists, dietitians and functional medicine doctors in my network to help out when the big guns are needed.

With the nutrition in place, we’ll train for performance across a variety of exercises that hit the main movements categories.

At the base level for lifting, this would be:

  1. Upper body push (examples would be bench press, military press etc)
  2. Upper body pull (examples would be rowing, chin ups and lat pull downs etc.)
  3. Hip dominant (examples would be hip thrusts, deadlifts, kettlebell swings etc.)
  4. Knee dominant (examples could be barbell squats, goblet squats, front foot elevated split squats etc.)

Training those 4 key lifting movements will train all the muscles involved with them.  As an example in the overhead press, you’re hitting shoulders, upper pecs, triceps, glutes, abs and many others.  Getting the 4 main categories will ensure you’re making effective time of training and hitting the major muscle groups along with everything in between and ensures balance.

Now, with those 4 in place we would strive to get stronger across all of them.  Why train for performance?  Well generally that produces better results, and better enthusiasm for training.  When you are training simply for aesthetics it’s hard to quantify results.  Even supermodels have things about themselves they don’t like.

Meanwhile, doing more weight than you ever had before and repping out with it is easy to compare.  Numbers are numbers after all.

Taking a bench press with a weight that someone could only do once at the beginning of a 12 week cycle and being able to do it for an easy “ish” set of 10 at the end of the cycle is an obvious improvement. In addition to that the best way to improve someones physique is to improve their max strength and do reps with it.

Strength has its own benefits too, like walking around with the “I got this” mindset and strength carries over to life in general, like throwing around your kids, drumming all night long, lifting critical care patients (one of my clients is a paramedic), martial arts, playing pickle ball or just having the physical capacity to do whatever makes you happy.  Life isn’t meant to be observed from a chair.  Life is for living, and it’s better when you have the physical capabilities to live it to its fullest.

picture taken of Jana on a recent vacation
Jana had this pic taken on vacation…enjoying her life with the lean, fit, strong physique she earned through training at Eric Moss Fitness

Now, with the basic lifting movements in place you would apply a strategy of progressive overload. As in over time you add either more weight, more reps or ideally both.  Like I said and it bares repeating the best way to improve your physique is to improve your max strength for reps.  Keep in mind, it’s not going to be every session.  It’s going to be over time.

With my personal training clients, after I’ve screened them to see what we can safely do, I come up with some exercises in the categories listed above, establish what their current capabilities are so I can get an idea of where I can start them to progress them optimally.

Then we start below their capabilities and expand outward until we sneak past their previous limits without them even realizing it.

Applying these strategies works for both men and women, younger or more life experienced.  

I’ve applied this to regular people that just want to look better, perform better and feel better about themselves. I’ve applied it to athletes.  I’ve applied it to nerds (their words not mine). I’ve applied it to touring musicians that needed to improve their capacity so they don’t lose a step.  And I’ve applied it to national beauty contest winners who went on to go the distance at the international level (making history by being the only one representing Team USA to not only place but to come in 2nd)

Mr. Gay World USA 2022 Tony Ardolino showing the physique he built at Eric Moss Fitness in Boonton
Mr. Gay World USA 2022 Tony Ardolino showing South Africa toned physique he built at Eric Moss Fitness in Boonton

It works for them, it’ll work for you too.

So let’s recap with a couple key elements.  Get a nutrition plan that simultaneously burns the fat that covers your physique while providing the building blocks for muscle and health.  Get a plan that covers the 4 main lifting movement categories and have a strategy of progressive overload to maximize your strength for reps.  If you do it right you can have that body you’ve been dreaming about for the past couple years and depending on where you’re starting from you can get it before summer.  Just have a look at some of my success stories and see how they did.

If you need help with this, I have a free trial at my personal training studio in Boonton. 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 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 live show and speaks on goal achievement for 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.