Originally written for EliteFTS.com in 2003
I wasn’t feeling that great and should have known better. I didn’t sleep that well the night before and had been stressed out of my mind all day. I had a million things to do and barely had time to eat since breakfast. By the time my workout rolled around shortly after 6pm, I was shot. I thought about just putting my workout off until tomorrow. That would have been the smart thing to do. Unfortunately my training partners arrived and cranked up the music and started to talk some trash. I tried to fight it for a few minutes, “You don’t have it in you today,” I told myself. “Be smart.” Suddenly the sound of my own internal voice was drowned out by Marilyn Manson screaming through the speakers, “You can’t save yourself…”
Ah fuck it, I’m in.
After warming up we got started on three board presses. Although I tried to get psyched and do my best to perform, every rep was looking worse and worse. I knew I wasn’t going to be setting any PR’s that day but I at least wanted to put up a respectable number. Finally, after a… …continue reading.
For EliteFTS- Originally written in 2004
Am I the only one who reads articles by other strength coaches and wonders if I’m losing my mind? Surely some of you have read some of these very same articles and ended up more confused than Ozzy after Sharon leaves him home alone. Reading about an iso-quasi-eccentric upside down fat bar hang clean supersetted with sub-maximal dynamic effort isometric depth jumps can have the profound effect of making you tear out your own hair in an effort to figure out a way to incorporate these methods into your workouts.
The sad fact is that many of the people who read these articles don’t realize that much of these methods are unnecessary and even useless. By constantly trying all of the most high tech, scientifically advanced new trends in strength training many of you will only end up spinning your wheels and never making true progress. Jumping from one method or system to the next, just because it seems more complex than the last, is not an efficient way to get bigger, stronger, and faster. As a strength coach your main goal is to get results with your athletes. Results win ball games and… …continue reading.
In the quest to get bigger, faster, and stronger many athletes overlook the most important aspect of training, which is recovery. The faster you can recover from an intense workout the faster progress will be made. Recovery does not mean just getting as much rest as possible in between training sessions. There are many steps to be taken in the road to recovery and if you want to reach your training goals it would be wise to utilize as many as possible.
Perhaps the best way to aid recovery is to avoid over-training. I will not go into great detail here about over-training because that is another article in itself. I will however give some of the signs of over-training to look out for. The first is an elevated morning heart rate. Take your heart rate first thing in the morning before getting out of bed, if it is five beats above normal this could be a symptom of over-training. Some other signs to look out for are lack of appetite, reduced sex drive, lack of energy and motivation, and insomnia. With that in mind let’s get on with the recovery methods.
Many people have said that bodybuilding ruined strength… …continue reading.
Originally published at EliteFTS.com 11/2005
Last night I closed the doors to my strength and conditioning facility for the last time. After over ten years in the same town and the same building, it was time for me to move on to new challenges. When I finished carrying the final few medicine balls out to my truck I locked the doors permanently. I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to meet a few friends for dinner. When I arrived I walked into a surprise party thrown for me by over thirty of my closest clients. I was touched to say the least. Throughout the night we all shared stories and laughed about the good times we had over the last decade inside that tiny gym. People from all different walks of life had become family there and I knew my life would never be the same without them. Through teary eyed thank you’s and hugs, they all reciprocated the sentiment. After drinking a “few” beers it was time to make some speeches. I took a few of my favorite athletes aside and thanked them, from the bottom of my heart, for coming to me and putting their trust… …continue reading.
I have been getting tons of questions in the last 24 hours about Muscle Gaining Secrets. It is impossible for me to get back to everyone personally but I am pleased to announce that I will stopping by the Turbulence Training Members Site tonight at 9pm (EST) to answer questions. Everyone that purchases Muscle Gaining Secrets during our 72 hour special launch sale also gets 3 FREE months membership at Craig Ballantyne’s kick ass Turbulence Training Members Site. I owe Craig and everyone who has purchased so far a huge debt of gratitude so to show my appreciation I will be answering questions live tonight.
Until then I am in the Big Apple on “business.”
Craig and I have a little tradition we call Tattoo Wednesdays wherein I go for some new ink every other Wednesday or so and Craig…well, does nothing really. But he does email me throughout my hours in the chair to keep me entertained. The strangest part is he doesn’t even ask what I am getting done or to see pictures. Bizaree…
But he enjoys the small part he plays in Tattoo Wednesdays and that’s all that matters, really.
As you can… …continue reading.
I would like to thank everyone for all of the emails that have been flooding in during the last 48 hours and apologize for not being able to get back to everyone personally. I promise my staff and I are doing our best to get back to everyone and will be working around the clock today to handle all of your questions and concerns.
I woke up this morning to find an email in my inbox that I wanted to share with everyone because it demonstrates one of the biggest mistakes people could ever make and essentially guarantees failure in all that you do.
“Jay, your new product looks great. Here’s my one and only problem with it though. You’re lying to the world. Nobody could ever gain 80lbs of muscle without tons of steroids and you know it. It’s impossible and it’s complete bullshit. I used to respect you but now that is all gone. I can’t believe you would do something like this. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Chris
Before I share my reply I should tell you that I know this guy. We have met three or four times and I even had lunch with him… …continue reading.
Nutrition expert, Mike Roussell and I sat down for an interview recently and discussed the topic of building muscle.
Check it out:
MR: Jason, your transformation was pretty incredible going from 147lbs to 231lbs. How much trial and error did you think you went through training wise until you found what really worked?
JF: Oh man, Mike, I can’t even begin to tell you. I tried so many different methods and systems it was unbelievable. I actually started out as a beginner on a six day a week high volume body part split. This was back in the 80’s so I think I was just looking in the magazines at whatever Sean Ray or Aaron Baker or Gary Strydom were doing and just copy it exactly. Obviously that didn’t work out too well.
I entered high school weighing less than 100 pounds and after four years of training my ass off and growing almost a foot taller, I only weighed 147 pounds at graduation. So obviously, all my experimentation during high school didn’t work out to well either.
During those four years I was still doing whatever I could find in the magazines and even ordered some courses like Cybergenics… …continue reading.
Originally written 8/2005
I decided to write this article a few months ago but never got around to it until recently. It wasn’t until last weekend, when I scrolled through Dave Tate’s hip hop training mix on his iPod, that I realized this article was a necessity. Too many people are listening to, and worse yet, training to bad hip hop.
Before I get into my recommendations of hip hop to train to I must first tell you why I feel I am qualified to write such an article. Afterall, if I saw a hip hop article written by some thirty year old white dude who trains athletes for a living I would be quite skeptical myself.
The year was 1985 and like most kids from Jersey I listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. Normally I listened to my mom and dad’s tapes but Born in the USA was the first tape that was ever mine. Around this time I was also introduced to The Who by some of my older cousins as well as U2 and Tom Petty. This was what I listened to all the time. That is until I got my first taste of hip hop.… …continue reading.
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