My Favorite Excuses

October 31, 2008

rocky balboa 1 My Favorite Excuses

–I don’t squat because they’re bad for the knees.

–You’re not supposed to squat below parallel.

– I don’t need to do legs because I run and go on the stairclimber.

–I’m just getting back into it. (For two years?!)

–Today is my light day. (What about all the other days?)

–I don’t care about getting strong; I just want to be big.

–I don’t care about getting big; I just want to be strong.

–I don’t want to get too big. (As if that was possible)

–I didn’t eat enough today.

–I ate too much.

–My diet has sucked lately.

–I drank too much last night.

–I haven’t had enough water today.

–I didn’t get to have coffee before my workout.

–I don’t want to get calluses.

–I don’t want to get injured.

–I don’t have time to eat that much. (Yes you do)

–I can’t eat that much. (Yes you can)

–I don’t want to get fat.

–I have crappy genetics. (Join the club)

–I just injured my_____ last week.

–I can’t squat because I have bad knees.

–I can’t squat or dead lift because I have a bad back.

–I lifted a lot more than that last time. (What could have happened, I wonder?)

– I just want to get cut.

–I don’t like working that hard. (Then take up sewing)

–I can’t get motivated.

–I’m just not into it anymore.

– Heavy lifting is dangerous.

–He didn’t touch the bar, that was all me. (Ok)

– There’s no need to lift all that heavy weight.

–You can get great results with light weights and slow tempos. (It shows)

–If I took steroids I would look like that too. (No you wouldn’t)

–If I took steroids I would be that strong too. (Ditto)

–I feel weak today.

–I feel sick today.

–I’m tired today.

–I feel like crap today.

–I didn’t get enough sleep last night. (Join the club)

–I’m too stressed out.

–I’m too busy.

–I’m too old.

–I’m depressed.

–I have too much work to do.

–I’ll train later.

–I’ll train tomorrow.

–I don’t have time.

–I can’t. (I know)

What’s your excuse? I know that I have been guilty of a few of these over the years and have always regretted it.

There is no tomorrow. The time is now. Take charge and don’t look back.

No excuses.

Jason Ferruggia

Please leave leave your comments below and feel free to add to the list.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Motivation | 13 Comments

High Powered Fat Loss

October 30, 2008

By John Alvino

bruce lee abs High Powered Fat Loss During my entire 16 year career as a professional fitness coach, I have experimented with every imaginable exercise protocol on myself and my many clients. This tireless journey has helped me to perfect a fat loss system that delivers unparalleled results.

My fat loss subjects have included young and old, men and women, obese and those who just want to lose “the last 10 pounds”. Actually, the only group that I never worked with was identical twins. That is, until now.

Just recently, I had two twin brothers (Angelo and Phil) hire me to design training routines for them. They are both wrestlers and needed to lose body fat while simultaneously improving their conditioning. This is my specialty, and I was very excited to work with them.

I was tempted to give them two different exercise routines (to monitor the results of each). But instead, I gave them the exact same routine, since they had the exact same goals, similar injury histories, and they were going to be training together at school. Considering that all of the variables were identical, I was expecting comparable results for both of them.

The initial program I designed for them lasted one month. After they completed this program, they came back to see me for their phase two plan. When I tested their body fat percentage, I was shocked.

Phil had achieved fantastic results (he had lost 9.5 pounds of fat) while Angelo got nowhere (just under 2 pounds). I immediately thought that Angelo was cheating on his diet. They both assured me that this wasn’t the case and that they eat all of their meals together.

After scratching my head for a minute, I decided to have them do a workout in front of me so I could make sure they were doing the routine properly. It only took about ten minutes into the workout to determine why they had experienced such dramatically different results. Angelo was lazy! He trained at a very low intensity with absolutely no enthusiasm. Phil, on the other hand, trained very hard and in a very focused and inspired fashion.

In fact, Angelo trained in such slow motion that Phil actually lapped him about halfway through their workout. It was no surprise that Phil had gotten significantly better results then his brother did.

In addition, it’s not a shocker that Phil is a great wrestler while Angelo is just mediocre. The point is simply this: although genetics do play a role in your appearance and athletic performance, work ethic is a HUGE component of your success. As a matter of fact, without it, you are doomed to mediocrity, no matter how talented or gifted you are.

Thus, I strongly encourage you to evaluate your intensity during your workouts. My advice to you is simple: Step up your intensity, work hard during your workouts and watch your fat loss results accelerate to new levels!

For more information on John and his How to Get Ripped Abs system, click HERE now.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Choosing the Right Exercises for Fast Muscle Gain

October 28, 2008

Choosing the Right Exercises for Fast Muscle Gain When I first started training, I didn’t know any better so I went to the gym and did all the machine exercises and isolation movements that I saw everyone else doing. I figured these would all lead to fast muscle gain and I would be huge in no time.

My dad knew a steroid-using Italian guy named Tony who owned a gym and competed in several bodybuilding shows. He asked Tony if he could write me a program and Tony obliged. I was bursting with excitement and thought this would be the difference maker in my training. I met with Tony at his office one day, and in a scene that could have been straight out of an episode of The Sopranos, he interrogated me about my muscle building program. I gave him a piece of paper with my workout on it and he took a long, hard look at it.

“Here’s whatcha gonna do. And I don’t wan any a’guments. You do dis and you’ll grow. Ya undastand me?”

“Yeah, definitely. No problem.”

He pulled out a legal pad and scrawled out my new training program. It was loaded with all of the exercises that all the top name bodybuilders in the magazines were always shown doing. Stiff arm pullovers, concentration curls, leg extensions, cable flyes, you name it—they were included.

I took my new program, thanked Tony, and left. The next few weeks would surely be an amazing time for me, I thought. The growth that I was about to experience would be dramatic, I just knew it.

But nothing happened.

You know why? Because those exercises suck, that’s why. Sure, the volume was too high for my limited recovery ability at the time, but if he had me doing the right exercises, I might have experienced some kind of gains.

Choosing the right exercises could ultimately be the difference between lightening fast muscle gain and absolutely no muscle gain whatsoever. No matter how well thought out your workout plan is, if you use the wrong exercises, it will be completely useless. Even a bad training program will yield some results if you are using the right exercises. For these reasons, exercise selection is one of the most important components of any muscle building system.

So how do you choose the best exercises?

The best mass building exercises are always multi joint, free weight, compound exercises that use as much muscle mass as possible and allow you to use heavy weights. This includes movements like squats, deadlifts, chin ups, dips, overhead presses and rows. If you are desperately seeking fast muscle gain, the last thing you should ever waste your time doing is using machine or isolation exercises during your workouts. These exercises are great at producing that burning feeling that so many people love and can often lead to a great pump, but they do very little to pack on massive size or build real world, functional strength.

For a very unique, scientifically advanced rating system which gives you a complete list of the best exercises on the planet, proven to lead to insanely fast muscle gain and mind blowing strength visit MuscleGainingSecrets.com now.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 3 Comments

A Muscle Building System For Huge Arms

October 22, 2008

bd1ff FrancoColumbu 96 A Muscle Building System For Huge Arms One of the most frequent email requests I get is for a muscle building system that will produce a massive pair of guns. Bulging biceps and thick horseshoe triceps are a look that just about every guy wants or is envious of. Nobody wants to be walking around with a pair of pipe cleaners that barely fill out the sleeves on a size medium t-shirt. So once and for all, let’s set the record straight on what it really takes to build some huge arms.

First of all, you need to take note of the fact that the biceps get worked during all forms or deadlifts, rows and chin ups. They also come into play on wide grip bench presses and some forms of Olympic lifts. The triceps receive great stimulation from all forms of pressing. So right off the bat we have to be careful not to add in too much additional direct arm work or there is a great risk of overtraining which will, of course, lead to no gains in size or strength.

The ultimate muscle building system for the arms will focus on compound exercises first and foremost. If you want big guns, be sure to include a great deal of close grip chin ups in your program for maximal biceps stimulation. A close grip chin up allows your biceps to be stimulated with far greater weight (your own bodyweight) than any type of curl does. The greater load you can use on any given exercise, the greater the growth stimulus will (usually) be. Other great compound movements which provide a massive growth stimulus for the biceps are thick rope rows, rope climbs and rope or towel chin ups. For triceps you need to do a lot of dips and close grip bench presses.

Once you have those compound exercises covered you can move on to more isolation type exercises. Some of the best direct biceps exercises are:

Standing barbell curls
1 arm standing barbell curls (an extremely difficult exercise if you have never tried it before)
Standing dumbbell curls
Incline dumbbell curls
Standing hammer curls

For the triceps some of the best mass-building isolation movements are:

Angled bar pushdowns
Lying dumbbell extensions
Bodyweight triceps extensions
Overhead cable triceps extensions

Stick with those exercises for the next few months and you will definitely add a few inches to your pipes and be stretching your shirt sleeves quite soon. Now matter how great the temptation you must resist the urge to add in foo foo pumping exercises like concentration curls and kickbacks. These exercises are useless and will do nothing at all for you.

Since the arms are a small muscle group and receive plenty of work on other exercises they do not require their own separate workout as many bodybuilders advocate. They best option is usually to train the arms at the end of an upper body day or at the end of a full body workout. If you have better than average recovery ability you can also train them with legs on a lower body dominant day. Since they are a small muscle group and recover faster than bigger muscles like the lats or pecs the higher frequency may work out better.

This is something you will have to experiment with in your quest to come up with the ultimate muscle building system.

Hit ‘em hard and heavy a couple days a week and be sure to buy a tape measure to track your unbelievable arm growth.

For more insider tips on how to build sleeve ripping arms, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/ .

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 1 Comment

Finally, a Great Protein Powder

October 20, 2008

sun warrior rice protein Finally, a Great Protein Powder As most of you who have followed my writing for a while know, I have never been a big fan of protein powders. That’s because most of the junk available on the market today is made from extremely low quality protein and contains cheap fillers, artificial sweeteners and other dangerous chemicals. I learned this first hand a few years ago when I paid a lab in New Jersey to test the top selling protein powders at the time. Most of these brands tested horribly and you wouldn’t believe the crap they had in them. I learned that some of the stuff you pay $40 a bottle for only costs the company $4 to make! And the chemist told me that he “wouldn’t let his dog eat this stuff.”

The good news, that I am incredibly excited to announce, is that there is finally a protein powder which is made with 100% high quality, raw, all natural ingredients, tastes incredible, mixes instantly and contains none of the dangerous disease causing chemicals that almost every other brand out there today does.

Sun Warrior Protein is a true advancement and is by far and away the best protein powder on the market today. I started using it myself and with all of my clients at the beginning of the summer. After testing it out for a full 16 weeks with numerous subjects I can honestly say that this stuff is incredible and truly believe that it needs to be experienced by everyone interested in fitness, performance and anti aging. Some of the things I love about Sun Warrior Protein are that it:

Tastes great, even alone in water
Mixes instantly without a blender
Has a super smooth, creamy texture
Is one of the only proteins available that is completely hypoallergenic, unlike soy, whey and egg proteins
Doesn’t cause gas or bloating like whey, and is the easiest protein on the market to digest, causing absolutely no problems whatsoever
Contains all 9 essential amino acids in a perfectly balanced ratio
Has a 98.2% digestion efficiency rating, ranking it high above any other protein source
Is naturally very high in B vitamins and antioxidants
Improves the absorption of other vitamins and minerals
Has the potential to lower cholesterol
Has numerous anti aging properties
Contains no artificial ingredients or sweeteners
No disgusting aftertaste

Do yourself a favor and try a bottle today; you won’t regret it.

Click HERE for Sun Warrior Protein.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Nutrition | 1 Comment

Killer Ab Workouts You Can Do At Home

October 15, 2008

steve cunningham 460x370 Killer Ab Workouts You Can Do At Home By John Alvino

When most people attempt to perform ab workouts at home, they usually just lie on the floor and engage in a marathon of crunch repetitions. This all too common approach will never lead to a well-balanced set of six pack abs.
First of all, the basic crunch will only provide a marginally positive training effect for beginners. Once you get strong enough to crank out sets of 50-100 or more, the resistance the crunch provides is simply too little to provide a training effect.

And secondly, the crunch only works the abs in one movement pattern: trunk flexion. Trunk flexion is just one of the many different abdominal functions that must be developed in a good ab routine. Therefore, you can’t achieve a complete ab workout by using a single exercise, like the crunch, in isolation.

Instead, you need to perform several different ab exercises, each targeting a different abdominal function and/or region. This may sound confusing, but once you understand the anatomy and function of your abdominals, designing an effective ab workout is quite simple.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with a lesson in anatomy. Instead, I’m going to lay out a complete, ready to use ab workout for you. The following workout contains only exercises that require no equipment whatsoever, making them ideal for a home training session. Here it is:

1a) Reverse Crunch On Floor 3×20-25 30 sec rest
1b) Straight Body Side Crunch On Floor 3×12 (5sec hold) 30 sec rest
2a) Plank 3×60 sec 30 sec rest
2b) Seated Russian Twists With Leg Cycle 3×20-25 30 sec rest

Now I will give you a detailed description on how to properly execute each exercise:

Reverse Crunch On Floor- Lie on your back on a mat. Flex both knees and hips to 90 degree angles. Bring knees toward chest by flexing abdominal muscles, raising butt from floor while maintaining a constant knee angle. Return until hips and knees are again extended to 90 degree angles. Repeat for the prescribed number of reps.

Straight Body Side Crunch On Floor- Lie on your side on the floor. Keep your hands straight out above your head, in line with your body. Keep legs straight. Lock your hands together. Simultaneously raise your arms and legs up so that neither are in contact with the floor. Hold this position for the prescribed number of seconds.

Plank- Get on the floor in a push up position. Support your body on your forearms and your toes. Be sure to keep the abs tight and hold your body in a straight line. Do not let hips sag or hike them up too high. Hold for the prescribed number of seconds.

Seated Russian Twists With Leg Cycle- Sit on floor and cross your arms across your chest, grabbing the opposite shoulders. Lean back until your upper body makes a 45 degree angle to the floor. Rotate trunk to the right while simultaneously bringing your right knee towards your chest. At this point your left elbow will be touching your right knee. In a smooth motion rotate to the left and repeat this on the other side. Continue to alternate until you finish the prescribed number of reps. One full rotation equals one rep.

And there you have it! A simple ab workout you can perform anywhere with no equipment necessary. Do this workout 2-3 times per week for up to a month. After a month, it will be time to progress to a more advanced routine.
A nice set of abs is in YOUR future! Begin this routine and start getting results today!

Click HERE for John’s incredible How to Get Ripped Abs program.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Fat Loss | Leave a Comment

How to Gain Muscle: 5 Quick Tips

October 13, 2008

How to Gain Muscle: 5 Quick Tips When it comes to the question of how to gain muscle, there are many things you must know and do. But, often what is more important than what you should do is what you shouldn’t do. With that in mind here are five training mistakes you should avoid like the plague.

1) Training Too Often- In order to get big you must provide your body with the optimal stimulus and then back off and allow it time to rest and recover. Without adequate rest time you will never grow to your maximum potential. For this reason I recommend that you don’t train with weights more than 3-4 days per week.

2) Training Strictly For the Pump- Far too often I see skinny guys in the gym doing set after set of 10-15 reps with poundages my grandmother would use. Yes, high volume training leads to a great pump but a great pump does not always lead to muscle growth. You can get a pump doing high rep lateral raises with water bottles but everyone knows that won’t turn you into a monster any time soon. Chasing the pump should only be a small concern in your workout; after you have gotten your more productive work out of the way.

3) Not Cycling Your Training Intensity- Overzealous skinny guys love to work themselves into the ground. They figure the harder they work the faster they will grow. The problem is that when you constantly train to failure and beyond you will eventually burn out your central nervous system and this will greatly slow down your recovery and thus the rate at which you build muscle. If you want to make long lasting gains you have to back off once in a while and give your body a break. After a period of reduced intensity you can ramp back up again and repeat the cycle.

4) Using the Wrong Exercise Order- One thing that is often overlooked by those interested in learning how to gain muscle is proper exercise order. Always start your workouts with the most demanding exercise. So if you are doing a clean or any other form of explosive lift or jump this exercise would usually come before squats or chin ups. If you are not doing explosive lifts or speed work, the biggest compound exercise should almost always come first. Therefore a rack deadlift would usually come before a push up or dumbbell row. Also, the heaviest, lowest rep sets should be done early in the workout and the higher rep work should be done at the end. There are exceptions to these rules and times when breaking them could actually be quite beneficial but for the most part this is how you should plan your training.

5) Not Using a Training Journal- If you want to get bigger and stronger you absolutely must record each and every workout you do in some type of notebook or training journal. This way you can know what’s working and what isn’t and you can also measure your progress over time. The most important element of the training journal is that it gives you a quantifiable goal to beat every time you enter the weight room. There is no way anyone (unless you have a photographic memory) can remember all of the details of every workout they do. So without a record, you are just guessing and never know if you are doing more or less than the previous workout. And if you want to get bigger and stronger you had better be doing more; be it weight, sets or reps

For more tips on how to gain muscle fast please visit MuscleGainingSecrets.com.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 4 Comments

Tempo Prescriptions For Fast Muscle Gain

October 10, 2008

Michael Pittman Tempo Prescriptions For Fast Muscle Gain I’m sure by now that many of you are familiar with the word tempo when it comes to training for fast muscle gain…Right?

No? Well, I wouldn’t feel left out or get too worried about it because it is a fairly useless concept. Tempo, in the training world, is the speed at which you perform your reps in a given set. Therefore, the correct terminology should actually be rep speed. It is typically displayed in a three-digit code. The first number represents the eccentric or lowering (also called the “negative”) portion of the rep, the second number represents an isometric contraction or pause, if there is one, and the third number represents the concentric or lifting (“positive”) portion of the rep. For example, if you lowered the weight in three seconds, took a two-second pause, and then lifted it in one second, this would be represented by a 321 tempo. A 404 would mean that you lowered the weight in four seconds, did not pause, and then lifted it in four seconds.

The concept of “tempo” was first brought to light back in the early 90’s. Plenty of people got suckered and jumped on the bandwagon. Since then, many trainers and strength coaches have written in great lengths about “tempo” and have suggested that different “tempos” induce different training effects. They have also suggested that “tempo” is something that should be manipulated frequently.

Here’s the truth…

Giving “tempo” prescriptions for mass building workouts and hoping that it will lead to fast muscle gain is a complete waste of time.

Changing the speed at which you perform your reps on a regular basis never lets you know if you are making progress or not. This is actually a great trick that some trainers use. They don’t know how to get their clients stronger, so they just change the “tempo” and hope there is no way their clients will ever catch on to this ingenious little scheme. In January, you are benching with a rep speed of 505, and then in March, a 402 rep speed. Come June it’s 323, etc., etc. Because the “tempo” keeps changing, so does the weight you’re able to use. But how do you know if you are ever getting stronger? It’s just like using way too many exercises—there is just too much variety to keep track of. There are certain variables that need to remain constant in any experiment, and that’s what your training program basically is– an experiment. You are always testing what you are doing and you need to see if it’s working, meaning that you’re getting bigger and stronger. If your bench goes up, is it because your “tempo” was different or did you really improve your strength? With varying rep speeds, you never really know. That is one of the major reasons why the “tempo” concept is completely useless.

So the next time you see a workout program with any kind of “tempo” prescription included in it, run the other way in a hurry; there far better ways to waste your time.

For more myth-busting information and to discover the real secrets of fast muscle gain, click HERE now.

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New DVD Makes Muscle Building Too Easy

October 8, 2008

cover medium New DVD Makes Muscle Building Too Easy A coach who I have always admired and respected for all of his contributions to the strength and conditioning industry is Charles Staley. For years Charles has always been one step ahead of the game, introducing cutting edge training concepts that never fail to produce big time results. He also has a gift for simplifying complex information that would confuse a rocket scientist and putting it in simple terms that everyone can easily understand and benefit from.

Recently, Charles released the brand new EDT Video Guide which I had the pleasure of reviewing. This is an outstanding, yet incredibly simple to follow training system that can be done by anyone, with limited equipment, at home or in the gym in as little as 15 minutes, three times per week.

Another great thing about this system is that it works for everyone from beginners to advanced lifters. Charles has laid everything out for you in an incredibly easy to follow format. It’s literally idiot proof and there is no confusion whatsoever about what he wants you to do. If you train at home, just pop in the DVD’s and follow along. If you train at a gym, you will have the concepts down after just one viewing; it’s that simple to understand.

While Charles and I don’t agree on everything related to training, I must admit that I have used EDT with many of my athletes and have always been extremely pleased with the results. Not only have my guys gotten great gains with the system, but they have fun doing it; which always makes you happy as a coach. And it makes it easy for me to train large groups at once because there is almost no way that anyone can screw it up; it’s that straight forward and easy to follow… once you get the key concepts down.

To celebrate the release of the new EDT video series Charles is giving FIVE FREE gifts away to anyone who orders before this Friday, October 10^th.

Don’t miss out on this awesome system and the limited time only bonuses.

Give EDT a try for yourself today by clicking HERE now!

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Announcements, Muscle Building | Leave a Comment

Ab Training For Hardgainers

October 5, 2008

Question: What should hardgainers do for their abs?

Answer: Hardgainers do not need any direct ab training. If you are doing a lot of big exercises like squats, standing presses, deadlifts and chin ups, what is doing a few sets of stability-ball crunches going to accomplish that hasn’t already been done? All of those compound exercises involve the abs and all of the core musculature tremendously. For hardgainers, adding in more volume in the form of isolation movements like crunches, reverse crunches, and things like that is just going to cut into your recovery ability and make it harder to pack on a ton of size. And remember, to see your abs your bodyfat has to be very low. That is only accomplished through proper training and diet and has nothing to do with what ab exercises you do or how many sets and reps of them you do. Don't waste your time with thousands of reps of back breaking ab exercises in the hopes of getting a ripped six pack because it's never going to happen.

Train hard.

For more information on how to completely transform yourself in 12 weeks or less click HERE now.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | Leave a Comment

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