I don’t normally like to poke fun at other personal trainer’s programs but sometimes I just can’t seem to help myself. I noticed there is a trend on youtube where “so and so reacts to insert celebrity names workout routine” usually in a non complimentary manner. In which I’d chime in saying that they don’t know the full story.

I mean, if those people saw my personal training clients bench pressing wooden dowels they might poke fun at it also, but the reality you can’t argue with the results my personal training clients get. One of my personal training clients today is bench pressing just 10lbs less than double his starting max for 47 reps in a 10min period. He made that progress in 8 months. You can’t argue with success.

Anyway, I was discussing a training program from admittedly someone I never met and they told me someone they know was being asked to bench press beyond what they are capable of and they’ve been sitting uncomfortably on a plateau for like a year.

So knowing this, I couldn’t help but chime in why what they are doing is…shall we say…less than optimal. Here is why…

Sure training to failure can produce some results in terms of building muscle. In fact for years, the advice that was typically given was to take your 10 rep max and attempt to do 12 reps. Yes you can build a bit of muscle but you hit a plateau relatively quickly at which point attempting to do more and force progress can lead to back tracking or injury. I prefer to allow progress.

When this person was asked why they have people train like that, they said people want to feel the burn.

“They’ve been training for a year and have nothing to show for it.”

How’s that for a burn?

See for me, if I’m going to dedicate time to doing something, I want to have something to show for it. If I’m training for a period of time, and I didn’t get stronger quite simply it didn’t work. If a program doesn’t work, I discard it.

And even if it did work, it won’t always work due to something called the law of accomodation which is just a way of your body saying “whatever this is, it won’t kill me so I don’t need to continue adapting”

That is why I’m always learning and writing new programs so I have a rolodex of programs to pull from. In fact earlier this week, I had saved a program on my phone for easy access for when the need arises. Got the necessary equipment in place for when it’s needed. This particular plan will have the training plan if all goes according to plan to keep someone’s bench press continually moving forward for the duration of a year. It is handy to me to have a full year of training plans figured out.

When someone hires me for training, it is my job to make sure they get results from the effort they put into it. I’m always watching to see if the plan is panning out the way I intended or if progress is starting to slow down, I switch it for something that does. That’s how results can continue to come for year after year.

If your training program is stagnating and you want to get result, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street 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, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.