A few years ago a young kid walked into my gym by the name of Jeff D’Annunzio. He was a baseball player and wanted to get bigger and stronger in order to increase his chances of fulfilling his dream of playing college ball. From day one Jeff busted his ass and outworked everyone around him. I only had to show him how to do something once and he would master it immediately and do it from that day on with text book form. Eventually I started to use him as an example to help teach other kids. He even helped me demonstrate technique once in front of the 300 kids I was speaking to at his high school.
Every single day that Jeff walked into the gym he was happy, positive and ready to train hard. He never complained once or had one negative thing to say in all the years that I’ve known him. To have 20 Jeff D’Annunzio’s would be any trainer or coaches dream.
The thing about Jeff is that, like me, he doesn’t have the best muscle building genetics in the world and in many scouts eyes he may have often been considered too small. Not… …continue reading.
It doesn’t seem appropriate to write about something as meaningless as training on a day as significant as today so instead I would just like to send out my thoughts and prayers to all those who lost friends and loved ones on this day six years ago and honor the memories of all the fallen heroes.
They will never be forgotten.
Question: Jason, I know you’re a huge hip hop fan so I wanted to ask if you saw Dr. Dre at the MTV awards Sunday night. Do you think he he did this naturally?
Answer: During commercials of the Giants game I was switching to the MTV awards and did happen to catch Dr. Dre coming out on stage. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw him and thought I was hallucinating. As far as I know Dre has been out of the public eye for at least two years so the change was not seen slow and gradually like LL Cool J’s was over a number of years. Instead Dre went from what looked to be a soft but pretty big, 225 to a ripped 250. He looks to have gained at least 30 pounds of muscle and lost an equal amount of fat.
While many people will quickly assume that the good doctor traded in his chronic for Dbol, I think this is missing the point and taking away from his effort. I have rarely seen such a dramatic change in any two year period by anyone. Did he have some assistance… …continue reading.
Today we have a guest article from my friend and well respected colleague, Patrick Beith. Patrick is a world renowned speed coach who many coaches including myself, turn to when they have speed training questions. He is also having a huge sale for my readers which ends at midnight tonight. Check it out HERE.
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The Top 10 Speed Training Myths by Patrick Beith
1. Static stretching prepares you to compete/practice
Static stretching actually reduces power output. Athletes should prepare for practice by doing a dynamic warm up that moves from basic, low intensity movements to faster, more explosive movements as the muscles loosen up. You want to simulate movements that athletes will go through in practice or a game. What happens when you try and stretch a cold rubber band? In a way, you can think about your muscles the same way.
2. Strength training makes females too bulky
This is a popular mindset with many female athletes that we have worked with. Simply look at some elite female athletes like Mia Hamm, Lisa Leslie, etc. These athletes certainly train with weights and no one would accuse them of having manly physiques. Strength training… …continue reading.
I was in public gym training last night; a situation I don’t like to be in. I walked in and right past all the girls and douchebags on the treadmills and stairclimbers. Immediately I was pissed off. Don’t these morons know that there are endless roads to walk on and plenty of stairs to run up?! Why would you possibly get in your car and drive 15 minutes across town to WALK ON A GODDAMN TREADMILL?! Why not just walk to the gym and back? Are people really this stupid? You’re gonna pay the gym 50 bucks a month so you can…walk? Either I am insane or there are a lot of dumb people in the world. And why not go run the stairs at your local high school football stadium and get some fresh air and sun? Do people really need to have this pointed out to them?
For the first time in years I had to squat in front of a mirror. For those that don’t know, you should never squat in front of a mirror. It throws off your form and is just all wrong on so many levels. Because of this my squat sucked and I… …continue reading.
Working in the fitness industry seems like it has to be the worst occupation in the world when you’re at a party full of people you don’t know. At least 75% of the people you meet will ask you some kind of question about how they can lose “this” or tighten up “right here.” My favorite is when a 187 pound woman with a plate full of doughy, greasy food comes up and asks me how to get a body like Jessica Biel. By about the fourth such inquiry I usually start looking at the drapes and wonder how long it will take me to fashion a noose out of them and attach it to the ceiling fan while praying that it will hold my weight.
Earlier this summer I was fortunate enough to have the extreme pleasure of being at a party where I only knew about five people and met at least two dozen who had questions about “how to get ripped abs.” I couldn’t have been more excited. To say I was in heaven would have been an understatement. (please note the strong sarcasm)
While standing around I felt a tap on my shoulder… …continue reading.
– Whoever came up with the idea that this is the proper way to write a workout obviously failed first grade:
A1) Bench press
A2) Bent over row
That is not how you write an outline!!! Didn’t you learn that in elementary school??? Why are so many people doing this? It is completely ass backwards and wrong! Dave Tate was the first to point this out to me years ago and I thought, “Man, how could I ever be so stupid?” You know how? Because I am that stupid. But there are many people who seem to be more intelligent than me who are still doing this. Please stop it now.
When Dave pointed this out to me I immediately emailed five close friends and colleagues of mine who are big names in the fitness industry. I am proud to say that since that day none of them have ever made that mistake again.
For the final time, in case your first grade teacher didn’t tell you this, here is how you write an outline: The number goes first and then the letter. Thus…
1A) Bench press
1B) Bent over row
– What are people proving with… …continue reading.
– Why will some people readily take cholesterol medication but not change their diets. If they need to take something, why not fish oil? I asked this to an older friend recently who had started taking cholesterol medication and he said he wouldn’t take anything like fish oil because he didn’t know the dangers and heard that it thins your blood. So you opted for drugs instead?
– If you are going to get a religious tattoo, that’s your business, but I think it’s a safe bet to say that getting the phrase “Only God can save me” or “forgive me for my sins” is, at this point, a horrible decision. You’re not Tupac. People will laugh.
– Like in-the-gym-training-volume, the volume of speed workouts should also be kept fairly low. Doing a few dozen forty yard dashes is overkill and will not lead to speed gains but over training. If you can get by with 5-10 total hard sets on your leg days of squats, step ups and glute hams, what makes you think you need to quadruple this number on the track? You don’t. Speed work needs to be of a very high quality, not quantity. If… …continue reading.
I constantly harp on the importance of getting stronger and continually striving to lift heavier weights. It’s the most surefire way to make long term progress. Adding more sets and decreasing your rest periods and adding intensity techniques are short term approaches and can not work forever. The only thing that can is getting stronger and lifting heavier weights.
There are two particular muscle groups, however, where this principle doesn’t always apply. These muscles are the neck and the forearms. While you should strive to get stronger and improve your lifting poundages on neck and forearm exercises, there will come a time where the overload is too great. Once you can wrist curl a pretty decent amount of weight, it will start to get harder to continually add weight without putting your wrists at risk for injury. If you were somehow able to do a barbell wrist curl with 275, I’d be willing to bet that the pounding your wrists would take would not be worth it and that you would probably be looking at an injury waiting to happen.
That is not to say that you can not continually improve your grip strength poundages, because you can and… …continue reading.
An Interview With Jason Ferruggia
By Craig Ballantyne
Recently I had the opportunity to talk hockey training with my friend and colleague Jason Ferruggia, owner of Renegade Strength & Conditioning. Since there is still time to get in shape for hockey season, we thought it would be the perfect time to share it with all of you.
CB: Where should an adolescent player look to start their off-season training?
JF: Craig, I believe the biggest mistake a young kid can make is to focus on one sport and one sport only. Early specialization is the worst thing a kid can do for his or her athletic career. Kids are better off playing as many sports as possible and not looking to specialize until somewhere around their senior year of high school. Their training should reflect this. The workouts that any young athlete does should be designed toward making a better all around athlete, not a better pitcher, wide receiver, or goalie.
Having said that, I believe an early off-season training program should focus on unilateral training, correcting any imbalances that may have developed over the course of the season and rebuilding any lost muscle mass.
CB: Is there anything… …continue reading.
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