There is no more valuable commodity that someone could sell than information. Yet many fail to understand this. I want to point to a recent example of what happened on an internet forum when a colleague of mine announced the release of his new training manual.
The manual was set to sell at $39.95. In my opinion, this was ridiculously cheap for what he was offering. But low and behold there were people bitching about the price.
Are you kidding me?!
Let’s say that he has a single 12 week program included in the manual. He told me that he personally charges somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 for a six week program. Double that and the cost is $600. That is the true value of that training manual. If I was desperately in need of that information and wanted to apply it to my workouts, that is what I would pay. Hell, I have paid many experts that much in the past when I was coming up in this industry as a kid. Yet people found the nerve to bitch about paying forty dollars for that?
If you want, more than anything else in the world, to shave ten… …continue reading.
How often can you train a bodypart, muscle group or movement pattern?
Well that depends on quite a few different factors. How long have you been training? What are you training for? How strong are you? How is your recovery ability? Are you healthy or injured? What other physical activities do you engage in? What have you been doing in your workouts lately?
Let’s address each of those and show why they are so important in determining this.
How long have you been training?
If you are a beginner you will always do full body workouts three days per week, no questions asked. If you are an intermediate you may switch to upper/lower splits and train four days per week or still three days, just spreading your two upper and two lower workouts over 9 days instead of 7. If you are advanced you may stick with this plan or perhaps do two upper and one lower workout per week. Or maybe you may do a pushing workout, a lower body workout and a pushing workout, or some variation of that.
What are you training for?
If it’s mass, full body workouts work great. Then again so are upper/lower splits… …continue reading.
Last week I had the great pleasure of visiting my very good friend and colleague, Alwyn Cosgrove. Sometimes when you’re close to someone you forget about their level of expertise or start to overlook it after a while.
For those who don’t know, Alwyn is one of the leaders in the fitness industry and one of the most brilliant people around. I knew that Alwyn was the leading expert in the field when it comes to business coaching for fitness professionals but I really had an awakening to just how good he is this week. I visited his training facility, Results Fitness, for the first time to do staff training for his employees. To say I was impressed with what I saw would be an understatement.
From the moment I walked in I could tell that this was a highly successful, first class operation that was run flawlessly by Alwyn and his amazing wife, Rachel. He has systems in place and a business model that can’t be beat. There was a great family like atmosphere in the gym that was noticeable immediately that would make all new members feel welcome in a hearbeat.
Alwyn and Rachel have done an… …continue reading.
“Hey Jay does your training system focus more on sarcoplasmic hypertropy or myofibrillar? Do you believe in hyperplasia? What fibers do you focus on hypertrophying? Type IIA, IIB, IIDD, type 36-26-36? How do you vary rep speed within a set to take advantage of the dynamic effort motor unit induced reverse dialysis of the brachialis which has been shown to cause paralysis of the urine analysis consumed post workout in the hopes of inoculating thermogenesis of the breastesses?”
HUH?!
These are the kinds of training questions I am asked on a daily basis. The one asking the questions is usually a 149 pound guy with one year of training experience and approximately 7,839,402 posts on his favorite online training forum where he has spent an equal amount of hours. He is an expert because although he hasn’t trained anyone and has barely found time to train himself he can quote SuperTraining inside and out.
Newsflash, people: It aint that complicated!
In the last few days I have discussed this with some of the brightest minds in the business. First, I spent last week with one of the smartest guys in all of strength and conditioning, Alwyn Cosgrove. We… …continue reading.
This is an interview I did recently for Mike Robertson of www.RobertsonTrainingSystems.com
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MR: Jay, tell us a little bit about yourself.
JF: Well Mike here is a quick summary for everyone: I became obsessed with weight training when I was younger because I was always the smallest and weakest kid in school. At that time I had two goals; one was to improve my sports performance, but more importantly to me was just to get bigger. I hated being so small and weak.
I learned a lot through trial and error and then started to read and study as much as I could. I made some great gains over the years and went from 145 pounds at six feet as a high school senior to 230 at the same height, at my biggest.
Over the last 14 years I have helped tons of hardgainers like myself to achieve their goals. I have also worked with over 500 athletes in my own private training center in New Jersey.
MR: What brought you into the industry? Once there, who has helped you become the coach you are now?
JF: My obsession with training continued to grow… …continue reading.
“At first I was afraid, I was petrified…”
No way they’re playing this…
“Kept thinkin I could never live without you by my side…”
What did I do to deserve this? Say it aint so.
“But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong…”
Holy shit, they really are playing I Will Survive, in a “gym” in New York City. How a travesty like this could ever be allowed to occur is something that will always boggle my mind.
If you own a gym or training center of any kind, one of your main responsibilities is to have a fairly decent knowledge of music. To know nothing whatsoever about music and pay no mind to what is playing in your facility is downright negligent.
In this day and age it is unacceptable to ever hear a commercial in a gym or training center. With iPods and satellite radio readily available, allowing commercials to air while people are trying to squat is unforgivable.
If you own a training facility you have those two options. You either buy satellite radio or you make 12 hour mixes on your iPod and plug them into the… …continue reading.
On a normal visit to the mall it usually takes me at least 15 minutes or so for the stress levels to amplify and cortisol to flow like the Nile. But around the Christmas shopping season, I’m sweating bullets long before I ever walk in the door. Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the parking lot, while waiting for the next miserable mall patron to harrass and follow to their parking spot is enough to make anyone long for a sharp piece of glass to jam in their retina.
Finally inside I realize that I forgot how hot the mall gets, especially this time of year, and now I have to lug my enormous hip hop style puffy winter jacket with me for next hour. Of course I could run it back out to the car but once I enter the war zone I like to get down to business and get out as quickly as possible. A mad dash in the cold would only extend my time of suffering.
I pull my hat lower and keep my sunglasses on to avoid the possiblity of any awkward exchanges with someone I haven’t seen in the last three to… …continue reading.
Question:
Jason,
I play in competitive flag football leagues and tournaments and I have been trying to find a workout to improve my playing ability as well as maintain my size and strength. I typically play football three days a week and I found it difficult to fit the typical workout plan into the rest of the week. I read the MVP Muscle Plan in Men’s Fitness and I found that it works perfect for me. I can get three great workouts in between my game days. I also work in law enforcement and I feel that this workout can also benefit me in my job. With this workout I can increase my speed and agility for football but also build strength for my job. I was wondering what substitutions I could make to the workout to change it up a little as not to get too burned out on one workout. Thank you for the great workout and I hope to read many more great articles.
Don
Answer:
Don,
If you play football three days per week, three days is probably the maximum amount of days that you can lift. And like the MVP workout, you should stick… …continue reading.
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