Author Archive
Judas Priest, Chuck Norris and Melody Schoenfeld RKC
Posted by: | CommentsJust now I asked my facebook following what I should blog about. Fellow metalhead Shawn Torrents (a dude I go back and forth since the days when Myspace was cool) recommended I blog about our favorite band. So I will.
You know I love old school heavy metal of all kinds. When it comes to my taste in music, yeah I love listening to Pink Floyd, and yeah I also love listening to the Rollingstones but the band I find myself drawn to over and over again is a band called Judas Priest.
The vocal power of their frontman Rob Halford is unmatched. I brought my cousin to the last concert entitled Epitaph and he couldn’t believe the power of the dark side. Seriously the man’s voice is f’ing ridiculous. Some might say it’s vocal effects and I claim bs because then everybody would sound that incredible. Singers like him just aren’t around period and at one point I sought to make my voice like his till I found someone who essentially reverse engineered what singers like him do naturally. That’s how I found Jaime Vendera who is to voice what Pavel is to strength. In case you are wondering, yes I can scream high and loud. The karaoke guy dreads it when I am about to hit a high note because his equipment is in danger.
Now another dude Paul Reddick recommended I blog about Chuck Norris. I’m afraid to because we all know what a roundhouse kick to the face would do to this handsome mug. We just can’t have that so don’t tell him.
Now one thing that always proves popular is to blog about sex which is another thing that one of my friends had suggested. Well to be honest I wouldn’t really know what to write about. Techniques? Positions? How to talk to girls? Well the words coming from someone built like a Greek God and the words coming from a fat guy with the upper body strength of a wet noodle would be different. I’m not a fat guy with the upper body strength of a wet noodle so I can’t comment or speculate on that. Besides my Friday nights aren’t spent going out with girls…yet. This is what I did last Friday night right before going out.
one arm kettlebell handstand. What I did last Friday night before going out.
Well Melody Schoenfeld RKC remembered that I had promised to make a blog post dedicated to her awesomeness so I will try to make an abridged version…sort of like a cliffs notes tribute.
Melody was an assistant RKC when I went through back in 09. While there I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to her but she found me on facebook and when I checked out her facebook profile and saw that we had a lot in common, we rock. The fact of the matter is Melody rocks…literally. She’s a kettlebell swinging, hard rock singing princess of pain with a soft spot for all things furry.
She isn’t exactly a big girl but she’s become pretty strong though I’ll be honest I don’t know what kind of numbers she’s putting up these days. She’s proof that both women and vegans can become strong if one wished to do so…and you should wish to do so because being strong is awesome.
Now as you know, one of my goals is to be a beast tamer (do a pistol, a one arm overhead press and a pull up with the 48kg/106lbs kettlebell) I do believe it is her goal to do the Iron Maiden challenge (the same exercises done with a 24kg/53lb kettlebell) so maybe our paths will cross either in hard rock, or hardstyle. Either way it’ll rock regardless.
So if you have the opportunity to watch Judas Priest, do it. If you have the opportunity to work with Melody do it. You’ll either get strong, or you’ll go deaf 
Eric J. Moss
over and out
Thanks for being awesome.
Things that I am thankful for
Posted by: | CommentsLast night as you know was Thanksgiving and as we are all sitting down to over-stuff ourselves we decide to announce out loud to the family the things that we are thankful for. Now when it came my turn I had told them “I am thankful for my true friends and family and for having the opportunity to spend this dinner with them.” I want it to be known that when you are good to me…don’t think I don’t notice it.
Now the one before me is the one that I would like to point out. His first thing that he mentioned was that he was thankful for his health. It leads me to wonder…how many are thankful for their health? Health goes under the radar for many people…that is until it’s too late. Others simply don’t have health to be thankful for (it’s a shame really) and yet others have it and take it for granted by doing things like smoking, eating bad foods all the time and that sort of thing.
Now for me I know I’m healthy because I spend my life teaching people how to be healthy through things like exercise and nutrition and balancing those things into their life. I am thankful that I have a job that I genuinely enjoy and my clients are the best in the world (I just wish I had a hundred more like them). I am thankful that I have this medium (my blog) where my voice isn’t limited to my immediate area but for anyone that knows how to use google to search for things I talk about. I am thankful that some people that read my words might even listen and pass it on or even better actually apply what I am talking about.
And as I tend to do when I sign off…I am thankful that you read this…thanks for reading and being awesome.
Eric J. Moss
What to eat for Thanksgiving to stay ripped year round
Posted by: | CommentsSo Thanksgiving is tomorrow and it’s a holiday known for over eating which can pose a problem for many people on a weight loss, fat loss, get ripped program or whatever. Several fitness websites will promote low calorie this, or low carb that in an honest effort to help out the people try to watch what they eat. Some will ask me what they should eat in order to get or stay lean during the holiday season. My response?
Whatever the heck you want.
You see the fact of the matter is that trying to stay “in shape” is a life style…but it’s only one aspect of a life style. You have got to learn balance in order to make it last. At the end of the day being ripped, strong or whatever is their to try and make your life more enjoyable and if you can’t enjoy time with friends and family because of your dedication (addiction) to fitness then you are missing out on the bigger picture.
Besides there are more reasons than enjoyment to splurge every once in awhile. In Marty Gallagher’s book the Purposeful Primitive he mentions something called an Anabolic Burst that happens when you have a period where you aren’t eating enough followed by a feast. What he claims (and I’ve heard it mentioned elsewhere too) is that when you do that your body forgets how to turn the excess calories into fat and turns it into muscle instead. When last I checked putting on a little bit of muscle isn’t a bad thing.
ammo for the guns
Another reason to stuff your face is that if you follow that feast with a fast (assuming you are training and have been on a diet for awhile) then your leptin (a fat burning hormone) up regulates and can kick your fat burning into overdrive. I know I instinctively fast when I eat to much and it helps me stay ripped. It also happens to be something I found I was doing right when I read Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon where he talks about including fasts into your lifestyle to get and stay lean year round (something I do)
Well anyways that’s it. I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and stay relaxed. Thanks for being awesome and reading.
Tough Mudder NJ recollections
Posted by: | Commentsalright I know it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged because of the stuff I had going on but now is as good a time as any to jump back on the horse and since I’ve just completed the tough mudder just a couple hours ago I’d give a couple thoughts and insights that I had from it. I also know I am backed up on my blog posts and I had some very cool experiences despite what I had been going through and I’ll write about them soon. I promise.
First thing is first. Tough Mudder is great at testing your grit. From a fitness standpoint I was great and I consider myself somewhat of a tough guy and this was a great way to see if I was full of $hit or not. With the joke of me not ever wearing a shirt flying around the internet I chose not to disappoint and went through the course shirtless which got this response from a girl running the course “If I looked as good without a shirt as you do, I’d be topless also.” If only there were more girls like her . And I guess there is some truth to the Adonis Effect after all.
What I regret is the fact that I even CONSIDERED dropping out of it. You see I pride myself as being a guy who leads by example and the fact that I nearly wimped out is disappointing to me. Let me say this for the record so if I ever show a weakness again I want YOU to call me on it. When the going gets tough Eric J Moss does not quit. Quitting is for wimps and I am no wimp. Thank goodness for my friends on team Mantivities for calling me on it. I guess we all have our moments of weakness and it takes an outside eye to catch it.
Another take away I had was that no matter how bad you think you got it…there is always someone that has it worse and is more of a badass. I remember specifically thinking about how cold my feet were after having just been in the water and looking over and seeing 2 dudes with prosthetic legs that were running the course…BADASS! There are a lot of people that would say “I can’t do this.” or “I can’t do that.” and the fact of the matter is they can’t because their head isn’t strong enough. Those guys with no legs below the knee were doing it, and not complaining either because their head was what carried them through…not their muscular endurance.
Speaking of endurance. I wanted to kind of test the Voropayev study a little bit and pretty much did kettlebell training exclusively (there was running in there too but not all that much). Training for this I did my own variations of the 15:15 protocol in Viking Warrior Conditioning and it was pretty effective because the only thing that seemed to make me breathe heavy was the sheer coldness of the water. No matter how much I ran (and I whipped by a couple that train to…forge elite fitness and wore it proudly on their shirts) I never breathed heavy. I guess that whole gaining the endurance of an ancient warrior has something to it. Pretty cool huh?
well that’s it for today. Power and awesomeness to ya!
Eric J. Moss
Never Forget 911
Posted by: | CommentsI’ll never forget where I was when it happened. I was in my intro
to security class in a local college when someone told the professor
what had happened. He turned on the television to check it out
and at first I thought that it was a pilot error. When the second
one hit I knew exactly what had happened.
The entire place was in pandemonium. Nobody knew what to do. Several
of my classmates were attempting to call their parents who worked in
the city but since everybody was calling at once nobody got through.
I wasn’t able to even watch anything on the news because at the time
we only had antennae tv (remember those?) and the World Trade Center
was the main thing that would broadcast it. It didn’t even matter
though because word travels fast when this sort of thing happens.
One thing I knew though was that it would never be quite the same
again. Even though most of our daily lives aren’t a whole lot
different it is still in the back of all of our minds…and that is
one way I’ll never forget.
As always thank you for reading.
Eric J. Moss
