Eric J. Moss | New Jersey Kettlebell Training | North Jersey Personal Training | RKC Kettlebell Certified » highly recommended

Should you train while on vacation?

Eric Moss — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:33:21 +0000

I don’t know how long you have been keeping up with my blog but a little while back I took my girlfriend on a cruise where I proposed to her (and she said yes). Well the time has come for us to book our honeymoon because our wedding is coming up in November. Well for me being the stingy bastard that I am I wanted to get a high bang for my buck place (kind of like my exercise programs) and checked a lot of places and what they have to offer. One thing I noticed under the amenities was that just about all of them have a “fitness facility” listed under a place that could have very easily been titled “Here are a bunch of reasons you should stay here.”

Now I have a hard time understanding a lot of people’s mindsets. For one thing is pushing yourself through a workout while you could be on a beautiful beach or an excursion really the way you want to spend your vacation? Contrary to popular belief you aren’t going to lose your results after a single week of indulgence and relaxation. Actually you could come back refreshed since back off weeks are a part of just about every strength and conditioning programs out there. Some of my clients even ask me right before they leave what they should do while on vacation. I answer “Whatever you want. Relax and we can undue whatever damage was done when you get back.” Most of the facilities don’t give me the eye of the tiger anyways.

Would you rather be here or in the gym.

One thing I have also noticed is that some people will avoid training just about every other week of the year and suddenly while they are on vacation they get the inspiration to train. Hey I guess late is better then never but the major problem here is that they spend their entire vacation limping around from delayed onset muscle soreness. Not a pleasant way to spend the vacation and you aren’t going to have any visible results from the single workout that pretty nearly ruined your trip.

So to wrap it up what I recommend is to pay your dues BEFORE your trip. Spend the vacation enjoying the fruits of your labor.

The fruits of my labor

The Expendables and Sylvester Stallone’s REAL secret

Eric Moss — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:25:38 +0000

So last Friday I went out to see the uber epic movie “The Expendables” and absolutely loved it. Hey I love old school type shoot em up action movies and Stallone was one of my favorites. In fact he was a huge inspiration to me as a kid and judging from how bad ass he was in this movie he’ll still be an inspiration for years to come. Hey the dude is 63 years old and still has a chiseled physique that is tough as nails.

63 year old badass

Now yes I know he got busted with human growth hormone but it is legal with a prescription and I don’t think he abuses it. Since natural human growth hormone declines in the body as you get older his amount simply leveled the playing field. If he were abusing it he would have a big gut even while ripped like the Mr. Olympia champs have.

notice the gut? that is from abusing hgh

And yes I had already talked about his real secret in this video

Here you want a little clip about how Sly trains?

That’s the real secret.

Here is another secret for you. Pavel Tsatsouline (the one I blame for the kettlebell invasion) and Jason Statham are one in the same.

Is this man the leader of the kettlebell invasion?

Did you watch the Expendables? What did you think?

Building habits to promote behaviors

Eric Moss — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:51:53 +0000

So the other day I was watching some good old fashioned mixed martial arts with my fiance in our home after dinner. The dishes were left in the sink so that I could wash them after the fights which I had waited all week to see. My fiance is starting to get a little more into the fights but I guess this night was too much for her and she said to me “If I skip the main event I’ll just wash the dishes so you don’t have to.” Normally I would have jumped at the chance because I absolutely hate washing dishes. I don’t know what it is but when spaghetti is at the bottom of the sink it’s really gross even just to touch.

The thing is I told her to stay and watch the fights with me. I really dread washing dishes but I know that if I start breaking the cycle then that would start a whirlwind that would leave our house a mess all the time. I know the importance of starting good habits and just sticking to them.

Beer isn't exactly the right habit to build but you know what I mean.

On the other hand I had put swings and turkish getups on my fiance’s “to do” list. I am going to do that 5 days a week. I am doing this to imprint good habits with her because I know she has the same kind of traps as me. If she drops off she will literally have no fitness program and it isn’t in her system yet to train consistently. With me being on her case if it happens like I plan it she will get addicted to the stimulus of training and learn the thrill that comes with physical strength. Like I said we are building good habits. Me to clean up everything right after I use it so the mess doesn’t accumulate and her to make fitness a part of her lifestyle.

So what can you learn from this? Do whatever habit you are trying to build every day until it is a part of you. Habits create lasting progress.

Strength Training for Fitness and Aesthetics

Eric Moss — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:25:47 +0000

Alright I was sitting here at my laptop with no clue what I wanted to write about so I’ll just give you a free workout to try at home. Hell I’ll write down the guidelines for you to complete it free of charge since I am not an asshole after all. I just came back from running a class and this is what I had them do. All you need is a kettlebell. The purpose of this training session is to train over head stability and movement quality, build strength and boost your metabolism to burn some fat (if that is your goal get on a proper nutrition program).

4 turkish get ups alternating sides. Make sure to pay attention to proper form.

“Countdowns” (I stole “countdowns” from uber Strength Coach Alwyn Cosgrove…he told me to…)
Complete this as fast as you can with good form.

10 swings
10 goblet squats
9 swings
9 goblet squats
8 swings
8 goblet squats
till you get down to 1

Wait for your respiration to return to normal then do kettlebell arm bars to open up the chest. That one doesn’t have a specific rep count since I want you to just kind of explore your way through the exercise. Remember to keep your lats tight and keep your shoulder away from your ear.

Then do a couple halos and round the body pass just to loosen up your shoulders a bit more.

Prone cobra stretch at the end.

Enjoy.

Eric Moss RKC

I want you to notice that even though there is a lot going on in that workout I stress the basics. It’s turkish getups, swings and squats. Do more of the stuff that provides a high bang for your buck and you will get better results. Exercise selection is the last thing your body adapts to so don’t buy into that muscle confusion crap. Try that training session out and let me know how you do with it. I mean it, speak up.

The Fastest Fat Loss Diet Period

Eric Moss — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:04:22 +0000

You know it really is a small world.

I was at a wedding over the weekend (the bride looked beautiful btw and the look of her back is testament to the fact that women should be lifting heavy because her back looked fantastic) and the next morning I was at the hotel with another person from the wedding. This was a dude I had talked to previously and he knew that I was fairly knowledgeable on fat loss training and nutrition and was telling me his friend had gotten ripped abs really fast using “some diet with a 5 day cycle where he goes to McDonald’s and eats whatever he wants once a week.”

I said to him “Is it the Xtreme fat loss diet by Joel Marion?”

“Yeah.”

Awesome! You see I have a copy of Joel Marion’s Xtreme Fat Loss Diet and it promises some big time, almost near impossible results. His plan of attack did make sense to me though but I wanted to see if it was more then theoretical. The general basics of it are;

Gorge yourself to up your metabolism. (the spike)

Create an extreme caloric deficit taking in only branch chain amino acids to prevent muscle wasting. (the dip)

Work your way back up to normal eating over the next 2 days. (the climb back up)

Repeat. (of course their is more to it then that and I recommend you check it out before trying it on your own)

This “friend of a friend” basically proved this diet works in the trenches. Great news!

If you think about it, taking the slow methodical approach I had taken with nutrition like before though it did work and I got ripped still lost 17lbs over 84 days. This approach promises 25lbs in 25 days. That is extremely fast.

at the beginning

What if this happened 25 days later?

At the same time look at training, steady state cardio though it can work, is not nearly as fast as high intensity interval training. Previous nutrition experts recommended the slow steady approach to nutrition. Joel Marion is recommending a sort of interval training version of nutrition. Sounds like he is on to something big. What do you think?