Category: training philosophy
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing
In addition to being a personal trainer with a personal training studio located on Main Street in Boonton, I’m also a motivational speaker/modern day performing strongman (ie I perform feats of strength like bending steel bars, breaking chains, rolling up frying pans etc. as part of a motivational speech)
Anyways, last week I was in Fort Lauderdale for a motivational strength performance for a pharmaceutical company and was checking in at the front desk when I saw a quote that inspired this article.
‘The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.’ – Walt Disney
I agree. You see, I can’t tell you the number of people who I’ve spoken to over the years that will say things like “I really should get in shape” or something to that effect, many times while they’re standing in my doorway. I usually will tell them I offer a free trial for when they are ready and rarely do I get “I’m ready now”
You see people will say what they want, but it’s not what you say what you want, it’s doing what it takes to get there. There are plenty of people that do sub optimal programs that still get great results because they got to work and adjusted as they go. For me personally I got my ideas from body building magazines before realizing they were just big advertisements for supplements and didn’t have good info.
I still got pretty good results because I was young and worked hard. I’ve learned a lot since then, partially from various certs, attending workshops, reading a lot of books, hiring coaches and some of it just from plain ole trial and error while learning from my successes and mistakes.
Talking about something is fun to do, but the actual doing something is what makes it work. If you don’t know what to do, that’s ok just do something because something will always be better than nothing.
What is that something? Well you could pick up a book about the subject or better yet, take my free trial. Just text 973 476 5328. You don’t have to make the same mistakes I did, or try to figure it out on your own. I take care of all the planning for you. All you have to do, is do your best.
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.
It’s all relative
About a week ago, I was working in my personal training studio with one of my clients. I sometimes joke around telling people she’s a cyborg because at the young age of late 50’s early 60’s I had coached her to doing a pull up with 56lbs hanging from her waist. She was telling me a friend of hers who is extremely active was told by her doctor she has osteoporosis so no heavy lifting.
That particular phrase drives me nuts. What is heavy anyway? What constitutes as heavy is going to be relative to the individual AND relative to the lift itself. As an example, a 53lb deadlift is not an extremely impressive lift. Holding a 53lb kettlebell iron crucifix style is way harder. And what’s heavy for you may not be heavy for me. It’s all relative.
And also when they screen for bone density, they compare it to when bone density peaks in their 30’s. They don’t compare you to the rest of the population unless I’m mistaken. Like I said, it’s all relative.
Consequently, I’m also networked with other personal trainers on social media, and literally later that same day someone posted a similar story. Only their client had improved their bone density and yet their doctor told them not to lift anything over 10lbs.
That is fine to start, but never anything over 10lbs ever? That’s a recipe for disaster.
Before I include an exercise with someone’s personal training program, I like to ask myself “Where do we go from here?” As in, how can I use it to progress someone towards their goals? It’s sort of like the idea of the fixed state mindset and the growth based mindset. I don’t want to include things that don’t allow for growth.
And what do I mean by growth? Well, when you train appropriately, your muscles grow, your bones grow ie thicken, the myelin sheathe that encases that transmissions of neural flow to activate your motor units also grow (sorry to get a bit geeky, but I like to throw things like that in there to let people know I’m not just a pretty face). That growth makes you harder to kill.
So yeah, no heavy lifting relative to the individual to start with but avoiding it forever is only going to make bone density worse. Like anything, start within your capabilities and progress them from there. Every single woman who has sought me out to offset the weakening of their bones has made remarkable progress relative to where they started from…no bones about it.
If you need help training, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street 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 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.
Strength, the legal cheat code for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
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.