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Renegade Gym- Watchung, New Jersey

Obliterate Stress

As you have heard me say many times by now, stress is probably the number one thing that gets in the way of you achieving your performance and physique goals. When you get stressed out your cortisol levels rise and your testosterone levels plummet. Cortisol is the stress hormone that eats muscle and adds slabs of bodyfat.

I have seen this happen first hand with clients many times. When they are going through a stressful time such as studying for exams or trying to make a team, they gain bodyfat around the waist. This is from all the excess cortisol their bodies are producing.

Last year I found an incredible way to combat stress that made a huge difference in my life. Being a naturally high strung, intense kind of guy, I need all the help I can get. Discovering the Holosync Meditation program changed my life.

http://www.ObliterateStress.com/

Within just a couple of weeks I noticed a big difference in my stress levels. My focus improved, my sleep quality was better and I just didn’t get as stressed out about things as I normally did.

Recently we opened a new gym and I have been working 24/7. Because of that I hate to admit it, but I have skipped my meditation sessions at least three times a week or more for the past month. And the difference is dramatic. It’s like a complete 180. I’m stressed out of my mind and just know that if I had been following the program as I used to I would be able to deal with all of this a lot better.

http://www.ObliterateStress.com/

So starting today I’m back to meditating every day. Summers coming and I can’t afford to be shrinking away and getting fat. I need to obliterate this stress immediately.

The great Henry Rollins once said, “Through the years I have combined meditation, action and the Iron into a single strength.”

You can’t just be balls to the wall all the time and do nothing but lift heavy weights. You need to pay attention to the other stuff as well. Strong body, strong mind.

I have turned countless clients on to this program and their results have all been phenomenal.

I truly hope that you will give it a try and that you will drop me a line in a few weeks sharing your results.

Check it out here: http://www.ObliterateStress.com/

To stronger minds,

Jason Ferruggia

Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Chief Training Adviser, Men’s Fitness Magazine

Author, Media Spokesperson, Consultant

My Top 5 Muscle Building & Fat Loss Tips

I was interviewed for a big name fitness magazine recently and they asked for my top five training tips. Here’s what I told them…

Train like an athlete- You should be training for enhanced performance and your strength work and conditioning/ cardio should be hard, heavy and fast. None of the light weight, slow motion nonsense, and no medium intensity, steady state cardio that drowns your fast twich fibers in lactic acid, turning them slow.

Use big, full body exercises and add in some throws, jumps or strongman training whenever appropriate. Always strive to increase your performance from one workout to the next by lifting more weight, doing more reps, jumping higher, running faster or getting done in less time. Everybody wants to look like Georges St. Pierre or Gabrielle Reece so why not start training like them?

Use exercises that allow you to move your body through space- When you move your own bodyweight (or bodyweight plus resistance) like you do in a chin up, pushup, squat, etc. you activate more muscle fibers, thus you will get bigger, stronger and leaner a whole lot faster. As far as conditioning and cardio goes, you have to realize that the human body wasn’t designed for repetitive steady state activity but rather short bursts with a wide variety of different movements. This is exactly what you do when you play most sports. When you pump away on a machine for 30 minutes you are fighting evolution.

So focus on bodyweight and free weight exercises like chins, dips and sprints, play as many sports as possible, and avoid all strength or cardio machines like the plague.

Less is more- When training for size, strength and speed, quality is always more important than quantity. If you undertrain you will make some progress, albeit slowly. If you overtrain you will make zero progress. When in doubt, do less. Limit your workouts to 45 minutes (excluding warm up) and 12-18 (and sometimes up to 24 depending on the type of training) total work sets.

Eat only organic, anti inflammatory, plant based whole foods- If a caveman couldn’t eat it you shouldn’t eat it. Nothing that comes in a box or plastic wrapper or that contains any artificial ingredients whatsoever should ever touch your lips. Focus on getting the majority of your calories from vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and legumes. Add in extra protein where you need it and drink nothing but pure water. Also, try to avoid dairy, corn, wheat, sugar and saturated fat as these cause inflammation throughout the body leading to pain and disease.

Sleep- Getting 8-10 hours per day of high quality sleep is simply the best thing you can do for recovery, building lean muscle, burning bodyfat, improving insulin sensitivity, enhancing immune system function, repairing damaged tissues/injuries, improving brain function, etc, etc, etc. If you are not sleeping you have a major problem and it needs to be addressed with high priority.

For complete 12 week workout programs, premade diet sheets, a detailed list of the greatest exercises on the planet and a ton of helpful tips on improving your sleep quality and recovery ability get on over to http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.

Train smart,

Jason Ferruggia

Strength & Conditioning Specialist

Chief Training Adviser, Men’s Fitness Magazine

Author, Media Spokesperson, Consultant

Prowler Rows

How to Build a Massive Back

There are three exercises that need to become staples in your program to if you want to build a thick, muscular back and those are chin ups, rows and deadlifts. Everything that isn’t a variation of one of those exercises is essentially a waste of time for anyone looking to add tons of mass as rapidly as possible.

Starting from the top, we have the traps which go from the neck all the way down to the mid back. These can be worked most effectively with dead lifts, shrugs and hang cleans. Deadlifts should be done for sets of 1-5 reps unless your technique is perfect and you are an advanced lifter. In this case you can experiment with higher reps. Just be sure that you can maintain the stiffness in your abs and spine throughout the set. Shrugs are best kept at 6-15 reps and cleans should usually be done for six reps or less.

Next are the smaller muscles around the shoulder blade area which are the infraspinatus, rhomboids, teres major and minor and rear deltoids. These muscles work during all forms of rows. If you are really looking for bang for you buck and to work as many muscles as possible then stick with big compound rowing exercises like dumbbell, barbell and bodyweight rows. These will work most muscles in your back. But if you are more advanced and want to isolate and directly target some of these smaller muscles you can do that with face pulls, bent over lateral raises, scare crows and external rotations. These smaller isolation type exercises are not necessary but can help prevent imbalances and can put the finishing touches on a well muscled back. Unlike other isolation exercises such as leg extensions and concentration curls, these exercises actually do serve some purpose and are effective and building size and strength and preventing injury. When utilizing some of these smaller isolation exercises be sure to keep the reps in the 8-12 range as that is what seems to work best for these muscles.

The lats are next and are the muscles that stick out under your armpits and give you the appearance of width. They make up a great deal of the total back musculature. To really increase the size of your lats and thus the width of your back, focus on all variations of chin ups and pull ups.

Lastly we have the erector spinae which is basically the lower back musculature. A well developed set of erector spinae really stands out and lets people know you are way more than all show and no go. There is no better lower back exercise than the deadlift and its variations. Some other great erector spinae builders are good mornings, back extensions and reverse hypers. These exercises should be done for 6-20 reps.

While everything written above is important and should be considered, you could ignore all of it and just deadlift on a regular basis and still develop a very impressive back. Deadlifts are the king of the back builders and work every muscle group. If you are pressed for time, stick with deadlifts. If you have more time to dedicate to building a big back do a few sets, twice per week of some type of deadlift or lower back exercise (deads should only be done once per week for advanced lifters), some form of shrug, an upper back “isolation move,” and some variation of rows and chin ups.

Hit it hard and heavy and eat like you mean it and you may have to start turning sideways to fit through doorways.

Be relentless,

Jason Ferruggia

PS. If you aren’t satisfied with your current training program and really want to get jacked for summer get on over to http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ right now.

Conditioning Guidelines

Question: I am a little confused about how to set up my conditioning workouts and what the guidelines and parameters should be. Could you help me out with that?

Answer: Ok, when discussing conditioning the first thing that needs to be asked is what is your primary training goal at the moment?

If it is to get huge and strong, then conditioning must be limited and can not interfere with your main workouts.

If you are training for a sport and need a mix of both strength and conditioning, that is another story.

And if you are just looking to get shredded that is a whole other scenario.

For athletes, which is how everyone in my gym trains, you will do strength/power workouts MWF and conditioning 1-3 other days (usually two). Maybe Tues and Thurs or Thurs and Sat. Whatever. It depends on exactly what is more of a weakness and what is a main priority, strength or conditioning.

When you are choosing this option, the conditioning workouts shouldn’t interfere greatly with the strength days, but the fact is they will have some small negative impact. Unless you are just looking to become a big, fat, unathletic powerhouse, any conditioning will have some negative impact on strength and explosiveness. The key is to get the conditioning you need while limiting the negative impact. If your diet is perfect and you have great genetics you could become big, strong and explosive while doing absolutely no conditioning and remain quite lean. You won’t have great conditioning, though. Which is fine if you’re ok with that. Some sports, like shotput and hammer throwing,  don’t require it. Most of us, however will need to do some sort of conditioning to stay lean and in shape.

In this case you don’t want to do a lot of heavy sandbag work or bodyweight circuits that will interfere with your strength training. You don’t want to get sore from your conditioning workouts. Also, if you are stressing the CNS on MWF, you should back off a bit on your other training days.

Conditioning days could make you very slow and sap your power in no time if you use the wrong loading parameters. The duration of each set, round or circuit you do should be fairly short with a short break in between. The best way to turn fast twitch fibers slow is to drown them in lactic acid for 20-30 minutes straight.Do that and watch your vertical jump (one of the best tests of power) and plummet in no time.

What you need to do is hit it hard for 20-30 seconds and then take a brief rest. You can do this for 15-30 minutes but it has to be done intermittenly in interval style. Doing intervals on a bike are terrible for power athletes because the lactic acid buildup is too severe. If you wanted to you could sprint on the bike, hop off, rest for 10-30 seconds, then jump rope, rest, swing a sledgehammer, and then get back on the bike and repeat in that fashion for 15-30 minutes. But you can’t just pump away on the bike non stop and not expect it to effect your explosive power output.

Also, remember that the human body is not designed for doing any sort of repetitive steady state exercise for any long duration. So you are better off mixing up your conditioning workouts and using a variety of drills.

As I said, for most athletes, I like to keep the duration of each drill rather short. But depending on the individual and the exercise, you could go up to 2-3 minutes per interval. For example, you could jump rope hard for 2-3 minutes straight and then take a minute break and continue on for 20-30 minutes. I find that jumping rope is a great way to improve your conditioning, foot speed, coordination, etc. without draining your power or making your sore and highly recommend it to everyone.

Now, if you are training strictly for fat loss, all bets are off and the rules basically go out the window. I wouldn’t let your power drop off significantly but it’s not your main focus at the time so don’t obsess over it. You still need to get your strength work in but the rest of the time should be spent jacking your metabolism and burning calories.

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion.

For more great training information check out http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/

Renegade Gym

After all these years, and to celebrate the opening of our new location we finally have a proper website for the gym.

Check it out at http://www.TheRenegadeGym.com/

How to Build Muscle at a Mind Blowing Rate

People who want to know how to build muscle fast often ask me what the most important thing they can do in their workouts is to boost their rate of progress.

It’s very simple. The most important thing you can do each and every single time you go to the gym is to try to set a PR (personal record) on every lift you do. That’s it. What this means is that you should always be trying do either do more reps with the same weight (within reason, any sets above 12 on most upper body exercises and 15-20 reps on lower body exercises will do nothing to stimulate muscle growth) or more weight for the same number of reps. Doing the same thing that you have done in a previous workout will do absolutely nothing to help you build lean muscle. The first time you apply a new stress to the body it will adapt by building itself up bigger and stronger. But when it faces that exact same stress again the next time, it will be prepared for it and thus will not adapt again. This is why you have to go up in either weight or reps and try to set a new PR.

Powerlifters and weightlifters continually try to set PR’s in contests. They also do this in training by testing their one rep maxes every few weeks or months. But setting PR’s does not have to be relegated to singles. You should try to set six rep PR’s, ten rep PR’s and twenty rep PR’s. If you are really serious about your desire to build lean muscle, you always have to be improving. To do this you have to keep detailed records of everything you do in a training journal and always look back at it so you have a goal to shoot for at every workout and on every set you do.

If you really want to get jacked, no set should ever be done without the goal of setting a PR. The only exceptions are prehab exercises and times when you are rehabbing from an injury. If you continually try to set PR’s on everything you do it gives your workout a much greater purpose and meaning. Not only that but it is a thousand times more fun than just mindlessly going through the motions trying to get a pump. Suddenly your workout becomes something that has quantifiable results that can be measured each and every single time you set foot in the gym. What could be more motivating than that? Chasing PR’s also eliminates all the useless junk volume that most people end up doing after they have finished their main exercises.

Even if you start your workout with big exercises like chin ups and military presses and set new eight rep PR’s on those, it doesn’t mean that when you get to the little exercises and the end like hammer curls and pushdowns that should forget the principle and just do whatever it takes to get a pump. On the contrary, you should still be trying to set a new eight, ten or twelve rep PR on both of those exercises as well.

So now that you know how to build muscle fast, it’s time to forget about adding more sets, decreasing your rest periods and supersetting for a while because none of those approaches will ever help you get huge. Instead, start trying to set PR’s on every lift you do and get ready to be blown away by the results you achieve and how much more enjoyable your training will become.

3 Foods to Eliminate From Your Plant Based Fat Loss Diet

A plant based diet is obviously far healthier than a meat based diet. And it’s easy to get absolutely ripped while following a plant based diet. Unless, of course, you eat like a lot of uneducated vegetarians. Just removing meat and dairy from your diet doesn’t make you any healthier if you are still eating excessive amounts of junk food. Eating more fruits and vegetables does. My colleague, John Alvino has just created an entire set of plant based meal plans (that are only available until Midnight, tonight) that will get you shredded in no time. I asked John what he thought were the top three foods that most vegetarians eat but need to avoid if they want to lose fat fast. Here are his answers:

#1 Food to avoid on a plant based fat loss diet:

Excessive soy products

Most vegetarians consume copious amounts of soy. Heck, it is not uncommon to see soy milk for breakfast, soy burgers for lunch and soy ice cream for a late night snack.

These foods can stop your fat loss dead in its tracks. In addition to all of the sugar and salt these products contain, soy has an estrogenic effect in the body.

Excess estrogen binds to the fat cells and causes an increase in the size of estrogen-sensitive fatty tissue such as belly fat.

#2 Food to avoid on a plant based fat loss diet:

Flour products

This list of fat loss no-nos includes: breads, pasta, muffins, cereals and just about all other baked goods.

These foods increase a hormone named insulin in the body which directly promotes the storage of fat.

Flour also has an inflammatory effect in the body. The last thing you want is inflammation in your joints which can cause pain and prevent you from being active.

#3 Food to avoid on a plant based fat loss diet:

Cheese

Cheese contains animal based saturated fat which has a negative effect on your carbohydrate metabolism.

In the presence of saturated fat, ingested carbohydrates are directed to your fat cells for storage instead of being diverted to your muscle cells for energy.

Vegetarian diets are typically higher in carbohydrates and anything that interferes with their utilization should be minimized or completely avoided.

Click HERE to get John’s plant based fat loss meal plans before midnight when they are gone for good!

2 Foods You Should Stop Eating Immediately

— Ever since I first brought up the countless benefits of switching to a plant based diet nearly two years ago a lot of people have started making smarter nutrition choices. The problem, however is that not all foods are what they appear to be, and everything that goes into making them isn’t always listed on the label. To help clear up some of the confusion I have enlisted the help of my colleague, nutrition and fat loss expert, John Alvino. John has designed an incredible list of plant based meal plans that you can see HERE.

John, the first food I want to address is gelatin. Most people think gelatin is completely fine, but can you tell us where it really comes from?

Gelatin is made from the boiled bones, skins, tendons and other connective tissues of animals. I know this sound gross but, hey, YOU asked!  Gelatin can be found in Jell-O, many candies, marshmallows, desserts, and breath mints (such as Altoids), to name a few.  There are many other foods containing gelatin.  Make sure to read labels carefully.

Is there an alternative substance?
You bet there is!  One great alternative is called Agar-Agar, which is derived from a particular sea vegetable.  Agar-Agar is sold in noodle-like strands or in powdered form and is usually white-ish in color.

Some other vegan alternatives are guar gum and carrageenan.  These are thickening agents that work just as well as gelatin.  All of these options are readily available and I suggest you give them a try.

Check out John’s complete plant based meal plans here.

Although cheese is not vegan, most people think it is vegetarian. Is this right?

This is not necessarily the case.  A substance named rennet is traditionally used as a coagulating agent during the cheese-making process.  Rennet is derived from the digestive juices of slaughtered calves. Rennet, like gelatin, is a common food additive in foods that are considered “vegetarian”, but really aren’t.

Can you find cheese that doesn’t contain rennet?

Yes you can!  There are a growing number of companies that use vegetable enzymes or microbial enzymes to make their cheese products.  These cheeses taste delicious and are becoming easier and easier to find.  I know that as more people become aware of this and lean more towards a plant based diet, all the cheese manufacturers will follow suit and provide vegetarian alternatives to rennet.

I’m sure a lot of people will find this information very eye opening. Thanks for sharing it with us, John.

To get a hold of John’s complete plant based meal plans, click here.

Jason Ferruggia
Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Chief Training Adviser, Men’s Fitness Magazine
Author, Media Spokesperson, Consultant

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