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Wednesday’s Workout & Playlist
April 29, 2009
Got a little too fired up to train way too long before tonight’s workout. Approximately two and half hours prior to training I was listening to some old Rollins Band stuff and working myself into a frenzy. I want my old size and strength back yesterday. Not three months from now, not a week from now, not tomorrow. But yesterday. And I want to triple my previous bests in the worst way possible.
Since I have gotten worked up like this a million times in the past only to burn myself out come workout time, I tried my best to keep calm. I did some work and talked to people who have a calming effect on me. But no matter how hard I tried to suppress it I couldn’t hide the fact that I just wanted to get my hands on some heavy iron and rip the bar in half.
One of my training partners arrived at the gym early and said, “Wow, you’re already reeeeally pissed off, huh?”
“I wanna rip your fucking face off right now.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear. This is gonna be fun.”
After over two hours of visibly shaking in anticipation I finally started mellowing out and crashing about five minutes before the workout. Luckily I got the rage back and went on to have a great workout that consisted of a bunch of chins, military presses, pushups on the TRX Straps and neck work.
I only started being able to press overhead with kettlebells or dumbbells about a month or so ago. Started with a bar about a week or two ago. Tonight I did 135 for 10, which I was happy with. I have to take these slow and be careful not to reinjure myself. But I have my sights set on 225 for the summer. We’ll see how the shoulder holds up. But it’s feeling pretty good so far. The band dislocations definitely make a big difference and are highly recommended.
The training mix, listed below, which was blasting on the stereo definitely helped me reignite the intensity that I nearly lost and kept it high throughout the workout.
Prelude: NWA
Son of a Bush- Public Enemy
Take the Power Back- Rage Against the Machine
Just Another Victim- Helmet & House of Pain
Metal Storm/ Face the Slayer- Slayer
I Fuckin Hate You- Korn
Mob Scene- Marilyn Manson
Psycho- System of a Down
Step Up- Drowning Pool
Bastards of Bodom- Children of Bodom
Street Fighting Man- Rage
Gone Inside the Zero- Rollins Band
Zero- Smashing Pumpkins
I’m With Stupid- Static X
The Way I Am- Eminem ft/ Marilyn Manson
The Nigga Ya Love to Hate- Ice Cube
Night of the Living Baseheads- Public Enemy
I’m slightly stronger than my mom.
So don’t fuck with me.
Please leave your comments, questions and music recommendations below.
The Business Implications of the “Fun Factor”
April 27, 2009
Saturday we did floor presses and parallel grip chins for our main two exercises and finished with a high rep challenge on the log clean and press. This is probably my number one favorite exercise of all time and definitely creates an awesome atmosphere in the gym. We had nine guys on one log and everyone else stood around cheering and yelling while each guy took his shot. Everyone tried to out do each other and it was a blast. Although it seems like a lot of rest, it really wasn’t a factor. After more than ten reps on the log you need a good five minute break.
Though, the log clean and press is my favorite exercise the reality is that I could be happy doing dips, chins, squats and deads from now ‘til eternity. I don’t need much variety to keep me happy. In high school I watched the same exact porno every single day for four years straight. And it always got the job done. Having access to thousands of other options these days is more of a waste of time than anything. Keep it simple and the results are usually faster to come. So to speak…
The truth is that none of us really need much variety in our training. Most people would actually get better results from focusing on fewer exercises and doing them better. Then, of course, the fun/entertainment factor of running a training facility and/or training people comes into play and that rule kind of goes out the window.
Not everyone that comes in to my gym or somewhere else similar has read The Way to Live by George Hackenshmidt. They haven’t memorized what Paul Anderson ate for breakfast every day. They don’t know that the squat is “the king of all exercises,” and they don’t take the ghosts of Arthur Saxon, Perry Rader and John Grimek with them every time they approach the squat bar. I do. But they don’t. They don’t know the history involved and the reverence the squat commands. And I can’t expect them to. Nor can I expect them to keep giving me money if we do the same four exercises from now til 2015. They might end up stronger that way. But they will be bored to tears and hate my guts. And it doesn’t take much for people to hate my guts.
So to run a successful training center and have guys who aren’t all about old school strength training still enjoy it enough to keep coming back week after week you have to add a “fun factor” to every workout. This is the reality and the art of coaching that a lot of people don’t understand. This fun factor usually comes in the form of an odd lift that they can’t do anywhere else or some kind of competition. The log took care of that for us on Saturday.
While chains do very little for the raw lifter looking to improve one of his big lifts, they can be added to assistance work for the “fun factor.” Are dips or chin ups or pushups any more effective with chains than they are with a weighted vest or a dip belt on? Of course not. But they look cooler. And when you are looking to run a successful training business you always need to consider these things.
In the age of the internet, many trainees’ minds have been warped. They have been led to believe that there is surely no way you can get results from just… squats, deads, militarys and pull ups!! You need to do reverse band squats with chains and weight releasers and Mardi Gras beads on the bar, and you need to squat to a box while standing in a sandbox, with a pale and shovel approximately 27 inches directly in front of you. Be sure to vary the tempo on every rep and do an eccentric quasi isometric static hold and dynamic pre stretch before the concentric, but for exactly .87 seconds and no more.
Because in the age of YouTube nobody gets excited about a basic barbell exercise that some loser did back in 1906. It’s sad. It breaks my heart. But it’s reality.
In my opinion this is probably the most important value that chains, bands, sledgehammers, tires, sleds, sandbags, kegs and logs add to any training center. They make it unique and they keep it fun for everyone who didn’t grow up watching Pumping Iron on repeat and reading The Keys to Progress by John McCallum as their bed time story.
I will always train guys with five or six basic exercises for strength but for assistance work and finishers you have to incorporate fun stuff and exercises that everyone can easily compete on. If not the atmosphere will suffer and so will your finances.
Jason Ferruggia
PS. My buddy Mike Geary has a lot more great business advice for small gym owners and trainers that you can check out at http://www.SmallBizSuperProfits.com/ if you’re interested.
Please leave your comments and questions below.
Training Related Stupidity
April 24, 2009
Here’s a list of some training related items that I personally find to be really, really stupid. This is all in good fun, but I realize some people will be very offended. I would expect nothing less…
The supposed inverse relationship between reps and rest periods. According to this rule you should rest longer when you are doing sets of three than when you are doing sets of twenty. So if you squat 455 for three you need way more rest than you do when you squat 295 for twenty. The rule is based on CNS recovery but makes absolutely no sense to anyone who is stronger than an eight year old girl.
Saying that front squats are safer, more “functional” and less stressful on the spine than back squats. This always blows my mind.
Using the acronym “ATG” squats. It took me quite a while to figure out what this meant. When I realized it stood for I am “A Total Geek” I vowed never to use it; because although I may appear to be A Total Geek, I don’t want to go around promoting that fact. Saying “full squats” is more than sufficient. And unless you are an Olympic lifter with decades of training experience you probably aren’t getting ass to the grass without some serious spinal flexion. Something you will regret many years later if you do enough of it.
Saying PWO shake. It took me three times longer to figure this one out than ATG squats. PWO?! Are you serious? Are we getting that lazy as a society that we can’t type out post workout? And isn’t workout one word?Moreover, imagine you just finished training and meet up with a smoking hot girl somewhere down the street a few minutes later. She asks what that hideous looking pink mixture you are sipping is. And you respond with, “Oh that’s my PWO shake.”How far do you think that relationship is going? You may as well have said, “I am a Pussy With Onion breath.” That’s what she heard when you said PWO.I wonder if I asked Dorian Yates, Bill Kazmaier or Arnold what that stood for if they would have a clue. Hopefully they would punch my teeth out.Each time you use this phrase your balls will shrink by 20%. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Saying that because the hamstrings have two functions; hip extension and knee flexion, athletes should train them both. And then going on to recommend leg curls for knee flexion work. Athletes will be fine if they never train knee flexion. Hip extension is where it’s at for speed and power. However, if they do leg curls they will usually end up injured come game time. Just ask Shaun Springs, David Boston and Mo Vaughn.If you want to train knee flexion, you should only do so while also training hip extension in the same movement. The only way this can be done is with the EliteFTS.com glute ham raise bench. An excellent piece that I highly recommend for non beginners.
Using bands and chains on squats, presses or deads when you are anything but a competitive powerlifter who competes in gear. If you do that, it’s a great idea and you can’t argue with the results. If you are a high school football player or a 35 year old guy just trying to get stronger, who lifts without a squat suit or bench shirt, it’s a waste of time and doesn’t do anything to match the strength curve of a raw lifter.
Saying that the longer you have been training the lower your average number of reps should be. This means that a guy who has been training for twenty years, has gotten incredibly strong and can squat 600 pounds should never do above 3-5 reps. He should always pummel himself into the ground and destroy his joints with massively heavy loads. And in another ten years when he is 50 I guess that would leave him no choice but do only do heavy supramaximal eccentrics every time he goes to the gym? That is what some experts are recommending. This is probably the most ridiculous rule of all time. The truth is exactly 180 degrees in the opposite direction. I would rather have this guy keep his reps at 10-15 at that stage of his career if he is that strong already. Why continually inflict more and more damage on the body?
Doing External Rotations. For years I did these and recommended them. I was always against most isolation exercises but thought that these were one of the few that actually had some benefit. The fact is that you would never do that motion in real life and the external rotators will never work in isolation. You train them with pushups on the TRX straps, hand walks, overhead presses, etc. But never in isolation. This is a waste of time, and a mistake I made for a long time.
Writing workouts in an A1, A2 outline format instead of 1A, 1B. This is not the way you were taught to create an outline in first grade. The number always goes before the letter; remember that.
Underestimating the importance of conditioning. This is another mistake I made for a long time. Conditioning is just as important as strength is for many athletes. Not so much for baseball players but definitely for wide receivers and d-backs. Conditioning can be a confusing topic for some because there are many gray areas. For example, a football lineman works hard in what is basically a test of strength for 6-8 seconds and then has a half a minute of rest. So he doesn’t need the same level of conditioning as an MMA fighter, but definitely needs increased work capacity. This is an article in itself; the point is to pay as much attention to conditioning as you do strength. That’s why it’s called strength AND CONDITIONING.
Please leave your comments and questions below and feel free to add to my list or create your own.
Thanks,
Jason Ferruggia
Bear Crawls
April 22, 2009
Bear crawls aka bear walks are an awesome strength and conditioning exercise but are commonly performed incorrectly. This is the proper way to do bear walks. The common mistake is to keep your butt up high in the air and allow your lower back to round. This can be problematic for people with glass backs and should be avoided. Performing them as demonstrated is a great total body exercise that really works the core musculature and the stabilizer muscles of the shoulder. This is way better than external rotations and other such isolation movements.
This exercise is way harder than it looks when done properly. Try to work up to 50-100 yard sets and increase your speed only if form is perfect.
For more great training tips visit http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/
Let the Twatting Begin
April 21, 2009
Well, its official… After much prodding, I finally bit the bullet and joined Twitter. I will be sharing training and nutrition tips, my daily workouts and diet as well as letting you into the deep, dark recesses of my demented mind.
http://twitter.com/JasonFerruggia
See you there.
Last Night’s Training Mix
April 21, 2009
- Rebel Without A Pause- Public Enemy
- We’re Back- Bobby Creekwater, Cashis, Eminem, Obie Trice & Stat Quo
- Renegade- Hed PE
- Bleed it Out- Linkin Park
- PscyhoSocial- Slipknot
- War Within a Breath- Rage Against The Machine
- Fish Out of Water- Mudvayne
- Davidian- Machinehead
- Zero- Smashing Pumpkins
- Survival of the Streets- Cro Mags
- 99 Problems/ One Step Closer- Jay Z & Linkin Park
- Freedom (live)- Rage Against The Machine
- Butcher Knife Bloodbath- Jedi Mind Tricks
- What a Day- Nonpoint
- You Don’t Know- 50 Cent, Cashis, Eminem, Lloyd Banks
- Undead- Hollwood Undead
- Prophets of Rage- Public Enemy
Top 3 Exercises Per Implement
April 20, 2009
Barbell- Squat, Deadlift, Military press
Dumbbell- 1 Arm Row, Flat Dumbbell Press, Dumbbell Military Press
Bodyweight- Pistol Squat, Chin Up, Dip
Kettlebell- Clean, Snatch, Swing
Sandbag- Shouldering, Zercher Squat, Walking Lunge
Keg- Clean, Overhead Press, Snatch
Medicine Ball- Chest Pass, Soccer Throw, Rotational Throw
Log- Clean, Clean and Press, Bench Press
Suspension Straps- Pushups, Inverted Rows, Ab Fallouts
Swiss Ball- Flat Dumbbell Presses, Flat to Incline Dumbbell Presses,
Sledgehammer- Overhead Swing, Rotational Swing, Forearm Exercises
Power Wheel- Handwalking, Alligator Pushup, Pike or Ab Roll Out
Thick Ropes- Rows, Tug of War, Battling for Conditioning
Fat Bar- Curls, Timed Holds, Rack Bench Presses
Plyo Boxes- Step Ups, Depth Jumps, Box Jumps
Please leave your comments below.
You Either “Get It,” or You Don’t
April 17, 2009
After what seems like a hundred years of training a million people I can unequivocally state that your results in the gym are directly proportional to your IQ. You either “get it,” or you don’t. The first time someone walks in the gym I usually have a pretty good idea of what their long term progress will be within thirty seconds of meeting them. If not, I know for sure by the end of their first workout. Their attitude, work ethic, and usually most importantly, intelligence are the telltale signs of where they will be in twelve weeks. Some may question why I put smarts before work ethic, but the fact is smart people always work hard. That’s why we call them smart.
If I demonstrate an exercise and someone can’t do it fairly well, no matter how complex the movement, within five minutes of me teaching it, they are probably never going to be a good athlete nor will they ever be one of the big dogs in the gym. That’s just how it is. This has never been proven untrue during the 15 years that I have been training people.
If they don’t have incredibly high levels of kinesthetic awareness and really understand what we are doing and why we are doing it and how the body functions their results will always be less than optimal. The successful ones know how to arch their backs, brace their abs, tighten their glutes, drive with the hips. The tell tale sign of someone who will never get anywhere in the gym is when they can’t arch their back properly. If they can not get into the correct position for a bent over row or a Romanian deadlift the first time we attempt that drill, I know that there is very little hope for that person in the long term. That may sound harsh, but it’s a stone cold fact. If they can’t understand the difference between flexing at the hip and flexing at the spine within five seconds, I immediately know we are looking at someone who will always get subpar results. More and more high school kids come in with the flexibility of a conference table. I didn’t tell you to sit around on the couch and play Nintendo for all those years while allowing your hamstrings to become tighter than shoe leather. And now you want to earn a scholarship? Good luck.
For 15 years, the smartest guys I have trained have almost always gotten to be the biggest, fastest and strongest. They are highly attentive when I explain something for the first time. They don’t miss a word of it. They intently study what I am doing. They are inquisitive and they ask the right questions. Unlike what your first grade teacher might have taught you, there are stupid questions. Lots of them. The successful athletes and lifters never seem to ask them, though. These are the guys who watch every other person in their group perform every single rep of every single exercise that they do. They never miss a beat and try to learn from and help each and every other lifter in the gym, because they understand that you learn from both teaching and being taught. They are always looking for ways to improve their own technique, trying to figure out what the stronger guys are doing that they are not. They are quiet and introspective. The only conversation they engage in during the workout has to do with improving their strength or technique or helping someone else. They are thinking not about the girl they met this weekend or what happened at work today but rather exactly when to open up their knees at the bottom of their squat. Small talk and trivial conversation is something they don’t engage in. They realize that all of that can be turned off for an hour and they are working toward a bigger goal here; one that requires the utmost attention to detail. In fact that is one of the great joys of training; taking an hour to shut off the outside world and go to battle with yourself, your training partners and the iron. All the problems will still be there for you to dwell on and make yourself miserable with an hour later.
When I see a guy wandering around the gym, wishing I allowed him to check his cell phone or that a really hot girl would walk by the window I know his progress will always come at a snails pace. If I see someone not watching his partners do their sets and trying to either help them or pick up a tip to improve his own performance I know that I am looking at someone who just doesn’t get it. A year from now they will only have made slight improvements; or at best, something far from what they could have been capable of.
Usually after addressing a problem I would end an article with the solution. Unfortunately I don’t really have one here. You either get it or you don’t…
How to Build Bigger Arms
April 14, 2009
Guns, jacks, pipes, hooks, pythons… Whatever you call them, the fact remains that most guys want bigger arms. While they are nowhere near as impressive as a big set of traps, you still don’t want to have and extra six inches of space in your shirt sleeves; that’s for sure. So the question is how to build bigger arms? The answer is not as simple as you might assume. If it were easy, you would see tons of guys walking around with 18 inch arms. But that simply isn’t the case.
It’s been said over and over again that in order to add an inch to your upper arms you need to gain ten pounds of bodyweight. This advice has become gospel and it seems that nearly everyone agrees with this these days. Real world evidence shows that this is not the case, however. Walk into any public gym on a Monday night at five o’clock and you will see quite a few skinny guys, weighing no more than 170 pounds, who are sporting decent sized arms.
Many of them probably have not gained more than 10 or 15 pounds total since they started training but they all have put more than an inch or two on their arms. This is because localized hypertrophy/ muscle growth will take place if enough volume is present, without a large increase in bodyweight. Look at the calves on soccer players or the forearms on mechanics. But this only happens up to a certain point.
So these young guys read in some magazine about how to build bigger arms and start by doing ten sets of arms two or three days a week. The volume is enough to elicit a growth response and they may even get a good eight weeks out of this and a quick two inches of arm growth in the absence of any significant weight gain. Seems to defy the ten pounds per inch rule, right?
But what happens after that? Where do they go from there? The gains will halt and there will be absolutely no more arm growth whatsoever unless they make some drastic changes. And that is the pitfall of high volume training- where can you go when you plateau? Add more volume? At what cost? How much volume can you add? If ten sets isn’t enough should you try twenty? And then thirty? And eventually a hundred?
There’s nowhere to go with this approach. Like I said, it’s great for some quick gains on your arms but isn’t a long term approach. Once you hit a plateau you have no choice but to start lifting heavier weights and eating more. More weight on the bar and more food on your plate is the fastest way to increase the size of any body part. All the fancy supersets, drop sets, tri sets, pre exhaustion, post exhaustion techniques in the world won’t help in the least if you are not doing those two very important things.
Beginners can train the arms three times per week and intermediate and advanced lifters seem to do better training them twice per week. Stick with big exercises like close grip chin ups, barbell curls, hammer curls, towel curls, dumbbell curls, parallel bar dips, close grip benches, and lockouts. You shouldn’t need more than 2-4 sets of biceps and triceps twice per week to achieve optimal growth, providing that you are always increasing your loads and steadily adding more calories to your diet. After a couple of heavy sets finish your arm workout by getting the biggest pump possible with one or two higher rep sets.
For more information on how to build bigger arms and increase the size of every other body part, check out http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.
Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia
The Most Important Thing You Can Bring to the Gym
April 10, 2009
While a good belt will help you squat more and a pair of straps will help you pull more, there is actually nothing more important that you can bring to the gym than a training journal. Every time you go the gym you should have a goal in mind of beating a previous performance. If you don’t write down what you did in each and every workout you will never know what numbers you are trying to beat and will never be able to track your progress accurately. The most important principle in weight training is the oldest and most basic one and that is the principle of progressive overload. The principle of progressive overload states that if you want to get bigger and stronger you need to continually lift heavier and heavier weights over time. In order to be sure that you are following this principle you need to write down everything you do at every workout and then look back at those numbers and try to beat them in upcoming workouts.
Another reason why keeping a training journal is so important is it shows you what worked and what didn’t. Everyone is individual and thus not everything will work exactly the same for everyone. Whenever you try a new training system or exercise for a month, you should keep detailed notes in your training journal and track your size and strength gains closely. It is also a good idea to keep notes about how you felt during the workouts for future reference. When you do this you can also look back in future months or years and find out what worked best for you and what you liked doing best. If you switch to low volume high frequency training and gain ten pounds of muscle in a month after several months of high volume bodypart splits you need to have a detailed account of that for future reference. That way, a year down the road when you hit a roadblock you can go back in your training journal and see what broke you out of your rut last time.
It is also highly motivational, especially at times when gains seem to be coming slowly, to look back a year or two in your training journal and see that your although you are struggling with your squat lately, it has actually gone up over 150 pounds in the last two years. By looking back at your progress you can keep your motivation high and always keep moving forward.
Please leave your comments below.
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