Eric J. Moss | New Jersey Kettlebell Training | North Jersey Personal Training | RKC Kettlebell Certified » spartan training

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

Here is why running for fat loss sucks

Eric Moss — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:03:40 +0000

Alright so not that long ago someone commented on my blog here asking why I said running sucks for fat loss. Well here is why.

The basic premise behind just about every exercise program for every goal one can think of is that our bodies are all adaptive mechanisms. We adapt to every single thing we do to become more efficient at it. You do things that require strength, your body responds by fortifying it’s nervous system, increasing muscle mass, increasing tendon strength and that sort of thing. It adapts to become more efficient for the given task.

Well running works along the same lines. You run a certain distance at a certain speed and your body adapts to it by making your body more efficient. Once your body becomes more efficient at it it ends up taking less calories to run the same distance. Think of it like trading in a car with bad gas mileage for a car with good gas mileage. I know that sounds good except for the fact that our bodies don’t store the gas that isn’t used up in the form of six pack diminishing body fat.

So in order to burn the same amount of calories you would have to run either longer, faster or both. Then once again your body picks up the slack and adapts to it and you are right back where you started. It’s just like a dog chasing it’s tail. Run as you might you will never catch it.

So if you are trying to burn fat the best strategy is to try to replace it with muscle via resistance training at a fast pace and couple that with a proper nutrition program. My preferred tool is the kettlebell. Muscle itself takes up a lot of calories just to maintain itself and hey it looks cool too.

What do you think?

training blog 11/23/08

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:34:54 +0000

pull up ladders (5+10+15+5+10+15)

that was intermixed with

clean and press ladders 5 ladders 4 rungs of a 53lb kettlebell

4 mins of hard swings

training notes = I was pretty tired today which I don’t know why. techniques from Enter the Kettlebell and SuperJoints

Also if you want ripped abs check out my site RockBodyFitness.com

training blog 11/7/08

admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:39:47 +0000

Today I am asking someone to pick a card and that will determine the rep range today. It is a 2 of diamonds. I guess it will be extremely easy today.

left side
10 single handed swings
2 clean and press
10 single handed swings
2 clean and squat
10 single handed swings
2 turkish getups
10 single handed swings
2 snatches
10 single handed swings

repeated with the right hand

training notes = the circuits were done without rest. Also about 15 mins before the session started I demonstrated a turkish getup with an 80lb dumbbell. She didn’t think I could do it. She was wrong.

training blog 10/27/08

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:14:32 +0000

all movements except for dragon flags done with a 53lb kettlebell

clean and squat 8 reps left side
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat 8 reps right side
rest 30 seconds
1 handed swings left side 25 reps
rest 30 seconds
1 handed swings right side 25 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat left side 8 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat right side 8 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and press alternating sides 10 reps (from dead position)
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat left side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat right side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
turkish getups alternating sides 10 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat left side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat right side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
snatches left side 8 reps
rest 30 seconds
snatches right side 8 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat left side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
clean and squat right side 5 reps
rest 30 seconds
dragon flags 5 reps

training notes = Drowsy today from the weekend and the weather. Used the warmup and cool down routine from “Official Kettlebell Foundation dvd Series” by Scott Sonnon and the pry the pump stretch.