Category: training philosophy

 

Josh’s Success Story

About 10 years ago I was doing a presentation for a group of free mason’s. It was a presentation that was set up by one of my clients Neal who I helped get healthy after being hit by a bus back in the 80’s.

Anyway, he had said that getting healthy is an important part of personal and character development which is why he set that up. Now in order to make things fun and capture the attention of the attendees, I twisted open a horseshoe, just like in the pic below.

Eric Moss twisting open a horseshoe at a conference in Texas.

What I didn’t realize is it would make one of the people there remember me for years to come. It just wasn’t the right time because his son Josh was only around 7 or 8 at the time.

Fast forward a couple years, I move my personal training studio from Parsippany to working with Lewandowski Chiropractic and then back into my own personal training studio on Main Street and I get a call from his dad asking about training his son. I’ve trained a number of youth over the years and one thing I try to make sure is that it is something the kid wants to do, and not just something the parent is pushing them into. Josh wanted to do this, and he was focused and then some.

He wanted to get into the prestigious Westpoint. And in order to do that, he needed to build up his physical strength and conditioning as well as his all around character. Westpoint doesn’t take just anybody.

When he first started training it was in the middle of the football season, which complicates things a little bit. My first order of business was to design a program to build strength that would transfer to the game. He put in the work and very quickly got to a double body weight hex-bar deadlift to a farmers carry and it immediately showed in his sport.

After the football season was done, his dad was told me that we have 3 months to get him as strong as possible as fast as possible for lacrosse. Music to my ears. I put him through a program that took his 1 rep max barbell military press we added 15lbs to it and he did it for a sub-maximal set of 8. His single arm overhead kettlebell press 1 rep max he did 19 consecutive reps with it. Got to 15 chin ups and all that helped him get the varsity spot as a freshmen…which meant he would letter all 4 years of high school as long as he didn’t slack (not that I was worried).

But Josh isn’t just brawn, he’s got the brains too getting straight A’s all across the board. I would often joke with him by saying “Josh when are you going to do something with your life?”

boonton personal trainer and his athlete success story
Josh made the varsity team as a freshmen!

Josh was thriving on the program, and the strength increases he got made him hit hard. His dad would often show me footage of him playing while laughing about him manhandling other players.

Then we had a setback. Josh had been selected to be team captain and his coach wanted him to train with the rest of the team, instead of with me. I understand doing it for camaraderie, but you also have to look at the athlete as an individual with their own goals and ambitions.

And a programs’ effectiveness can be judged by the results it produces, and Josh got weaker on his program. Having worked with Josh, I knew he works hard and never complains so I know it wasn’t Josh’s fault…it was a faulty program.

They came back and I measured him to the physical standards for Westpoint and I realized we have work to do. We needed to fix the issues created by the faulty program and it had to be quick. Luckily I know Josh would put the work in and follow the program I created for him to the T. He also took multiple AP courses in his senior year and aced them to seal the deal.

Then about a week and a half ago, his dad calls me up. I knew it would be for 1 of 3 reasons, either he wanted to send me a friend of his (maybe), they actually found something on oak island (inside joke and yeah right) or he got accepted into Westpoint. I knew what it was before I picked up the phone.

And I know they credit me as a critical component to his achievement but in truth he would have gotten there with me or without me. He’s the exact type they look for, an athlete and scholar a leader and a well rounded person. In the culture of success that I foster in my studio, he was a definite contributor to that and I was happy to be part of his journey.

Congrats Josh! But just be warned, your real journey has just begun.


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.

New Year’s Resolutions and how to make them happen in 2024

Ah yes, it’s that lovely time of the year for gyms when the doors get flooded with new comers hoping this will be the year they finally do what they resolved to do 3 years ago.

I read a statistic that 90% of new year’s resolutions will be abandoned within the first couple months. Having been a personal trainer for a minute to two, I can tell you this is likely the case. People flood the gyms in January and February, then in March and April it’s much less people. And no it’s not because they achieved their goal that quickly like in my 12 week transformations.

Daniel's 12 week transformation from personal training at Eric Moss Fitness
Daniel’s 12 week transformation at Eric Moss Fitness

No usually it’s because people get frustrated or overwhelmed, life gets in the way, you name it.

A lot of times I think people kind of have an idea of what to do, but it’s vague and vagueness leads to paralysis by analysis. One of the key things is to have an actionable plan in place.

In my personal training studio in Boonton, we train more than just the body. We train the mind via life coaching which I build into the sessions. When I ask about resolutions (not relating to training, because I have that part taken care of) I’ll follow it up with “What’s a framework you can put into place that can ensure success?”

A framework should have actionable steps and a lot of times the first one can be simple. As an example, one person said they want a better relationship with one of their parents. Complicated goal, simple actionable step. Find a qualified therapist who can help resolve past trauma.

In the case of learning to play guitar, you could download Yousician and simply follow the steps consistently.

And of course the only shortcut to the top is to hire a coach that can guide you, make real time corrections to make sure you stay on course until your dream becomes you new reality.

If you need my help, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio in Boonton. Right now early afternoons and Thursday mornings have availability. 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 strongmen 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 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.

Here we go again

It happens every year, the same exact time of the year. Some people look forward to it, and some people dread it. Personally for me, it’s not that big of a deal but it is for my kids and I enjoy my time with my family.

What I’m talking about are birthdays and it presents a good time to reflect on whether or not your life is trending in the right direction. With some of the lifecoaching I do for my personal training clients in Boonton, I give them a life assessment wheel and ask them to rate various parts of their lives so we can figure out what needs improvement for a balanced and fulfilling life.

For me, I like to use it as a time to reflect my health and fitness year to year.

Even though I identify as 27, only partially jokingly btw, the truth is chronologically I’m actually 42 years old. A couple years back, I picked up a tip from Dan John, who picked up a tip from Clarence Bass who takes physique pictures every year on his birthday. I decided to do the same when I turned 40 since it’s generally known that you lose muscle mass every year. That is unless you do something about it.

So I started taking bathroom selfies every year on my birthday ever since I turned 40.

drumroll please.

physique pics every year since I turned 40, personal training in Boonton
physique pics every year since I turned 40

I want to point out a couple things with this, one is I’m no photographer but that’s probably pretty obvious.

Second I want to point out, you can see my physique is comparable year after year. I may be leaner some years and that’s ok, but my muscle doesn’t appear to be decreasing like everyone thinks it will.

Another thing I’d like to point out, at least for the one this year. I didn’t diet down to peak for this, and I didn’t do a pre-photo shoot pump up or anything like that. In the pic all the way to the right, it’s literally at the end of a weekend where I…

  • went out to a cocktail bar drinking lots of bourbon based drinks while eating alligator sausage and short-ribs followed by chocolate souffle.
  • Had company at my house where I ate a whole bunch of cheese, crackers, chips, Thai food, my mom’s cheesecake and ginger snap cookies from Trader Joe’s.

Definitely not ideal conditions but that’s ok, it’s my walk around physique, the one I live in 24/7.

And yet, I think I look pretty good. Which I want to use for the last point. As you can see, I had a weekend full of debauchery and good times. Why because what’s the point of all this if you can’t enjoy yourself? Life is for living and we should all have the physical capacity to live it to its fullest.

And yeah, its easier to maintain a house than it is to build one, and I built one a long time ago and continue to maintain it into my 40’s and beyond. The best time to start was 20 years ago, but the second best time to start is now.

If you want to get started, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio in Boonton. Just text me at 973 476 5328 and I’ll try and squeeze you into my already busy schedule.


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 strongmen 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 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.