"At NJ Personal Training and MMA, we realize that a workout should build a powerful skill. Why do boring exercise when you can use MMA technique to get in excellent shape?"

I figured that you might like to see my Fat Trav picture : /

I found this old picture while going through an old hard drive, and figured it would be a good way to show you that when it comes to changing your body, I have really effective techniques that work. They will 100% work for you... I just have to tailor a specific program to meet your specific goals. It's a little like mass transit... we might be going in the same direction, but we're not trying to get to the same exact place.

Not everyone wants to be a fighter, I certainly don't anymore. Getting punched sucks, and I never got paid well for it. On the other hand, who really wants to have a trainer that follows you around a gym and just points blindly to the next machine you're going to use? I can't even believe that people get paid for that :-/

The type of training that we do here isn't like anywhere else. It's not just MMA, it's not just fitness training. I apply a combination of the things that I've learned in my lifetime as a student of exercise science, nutrition, and as a professional fighter to change the training game.

My name is Travis Roesler and I created New Jersey Personal Training and MMA to help you accomplish the physical goals that you want to achieve. NJPT is a one-man operation and until very recently, my publicity has only been fueled by word of mouth.

After constant pressure from my trainees to put up a web site and share my methods (check out the videos or ‘Training’ section), I have created this site which I will do my best to make awesome. I’m no web guru so bear with me... I’m better at being hit in the face by boxing gloves.

The blog contains both articles that I have written to teach you guys some stuff and other random commentary to inspire thought. I pretend to be a writer on top of being a personal trainer.

This is not your run of the mill, corporate gym, but a small private training studio where function and results reign supreme. I have no interest in making you sign a contract or having your credit card automatically billed. Believe me, I didn’t get involved in the business of training people for the money ;-) In addition, I actually have the cheapest training rates that I've ever heard of. People tell me that I should charge more, but that leaves out the trainees that are actually fun to work with. I'll sacrifice a few dollars to keep the good trainees involved.

While I worked for a while as a personal trainer at age 16, my path in this field has truly been accidental. After playing football at the University of Pennsylvania and walking away from the sport to fight professionally, I started to get a lot of attention on my university campus.

One random day, my classmate Bari asked me if I would teach her how to fight, and to be her personal trainer. She wanted to learn mixed martial arts, and to get into better shape.

I had never taught anyone before, but I’m a logical guy and I was sure it wouldn’t be hard. Plus, I knew a billion exercises and had extensively studied the science behind training and physical development (I was very into weightlifting growing up and a bookworm too).

We got to work at the campus gym and from that point on we were interrupted constantly by people who also wanted to learn how to fight and undertake this kind of training program. I'm loud... we attracted a lot of attention.

Within weeks I had a dozen clients and after several months I was teaching and training out of my apartment almost full time. I was happily surprised by the response but also a little freaked out, within weeks my priorities and schedule had done a back-flip.

I had my own personal training business started even before I graduated from business school or received my minor in nutrition. I always thought that I would be a CEO of some kick-ass company, or be stuck in a suit doing something important. Instead I just ended up helping people to achieve their physical goals or learn how to fight like warriors. You can call this self defense if you like, but really either you can with a fight or you can't... self defense is just as much self offense.

"People rarely succeed in their work, unless they have fun doing it. I love being able to offer the kind of personal training that get's results every time."

It’s a humble life but I guess somebody’s got to do it :-)

MMA aside, I like helping people recreate their bodies, and to finally achieve their goals... sometimes after having suffered a lifetime of failure in this area.

As you've already seen in my pictures, I’ve been really fat before. Its not hard for me to understand what it’s like to take a look at yourself in the mirror and be a little disgusted. The trick is to use that feeling as inspiration, know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and truly be confident that you are going to do what it takes to get there.

I was a football player and I used that as an excuse to be extremely heavy. I don't care if I was hard to move around on the field, I felt like crap. Once my priorities shifted, there was no turning back. I walked away from massive bench presses, and I learned everything there was to know about the science behind losing weight. I teach this to 90 percent of my students... some of them are already ripped and don't care to hear it. (I still make them listen to me ;-)

In my own 'trainsformation' I utilized my knowledge of nutrition, exercise physiology, kinesiology, and martial arts training to create a program that I stuck to no matter what.

If I was a sales person, I would tell you that it was easy, and that everyone and their grandma can breeze right through the process if they just train with me, and just buy the biggest training package that you can buy, even though I don't actually have training packages.

The truth is, it was not easy, and you already know that. I certainly didn’t feel great all of the time. I had moments of discouragement and doubt, but they were to be expected. That's the kind of shit that you need to work through when you want to earn something.

It took me four or five months to lose 60 lbs. After a year I had lost 80. Long after, just by keeping the same practices and habits loosely in mind, I haven’t put a pound of it back on.

"Developing good habits and incorporating them into your lifestyle permanently is the key to long term success in the physical realm."

When people ask me what I do for a living, I often hesitate. I don’t like telling people that I’m a “trainer”. Frequently my response is, “I teach people how to fight and how to get in shape.”

I don’t lack pride in being a ‘personal trainer’, I just get a bad impression in my mind when I hear the word. To me, a trainer is frequently someone who follows you around the gym and tells you what to do. When that exercise is over, they pick another one for you. After an hour, you are tired, you pay the person, and go home.

You develop a reliance upon someone else motivating you to do something that you could have done yourself. You could have blind-folded yourself, stumbled around your gym, done a set on whatever machine you bumped into, and probably had similar results.

I'm not that guy. I will teach you whatever you want to know. You want to learn how to choke someone to sleep with your legs? Great. You want to learn how to get a six-pack? Awesome. You want to learn how kick someone in the head and get a six pack at the same time? Awesome. Let's do that.