Today I have a short Q&A I did with my good friend and world renowned fat loss expert, Alwyn Cosgrove.
JF: What are some of the biggest time wasters when it comes to training and dieting for fat loss?
AC: The biggest ones are very low calorie diets (they just slow metabolism down too much) and low intensity steady state aerobics. You need to keep the “furnace” (your metabolism) cranking. The goal as I call it is “metabolic disturbance” – burn as many calories through training as possible but use a system that will elevate metabolism through EPOC significantly for several hours. Low intensity cardio (even on an empty stomach) just doesn’t fit in there.
JF: How does the weight training that you prescribe for a fat loss client differ from that of some one who is trying to get bigger or stronger?
AC: It depends on the client and the amount of fat to lose really. With the beginner/ intermediate client I have NEVER seen these massive amounts of muscle loss that everyone is afraid of on fat loss programs. With these groups I use upper-lower supersets with slightly higher rep brackets.
With… …continue reading.
Question: Coach,
If you had to pick one best carb for lean bulking what would it be?
Jonathan
Answer: Jonathan, this one’s too easy; yams (essentially the exact same as sweet potatoes) win hands down. It’s been argued that the human body hasn’t adapted to eating grains like oats and brown rice. This is debatable and may or may not be true. Some people may have issues with grains, others may not. But I have never known anyone to have a problem with a root vegetable like sweet potatoes or yams. This is the ultimate “clean” carb and should be a staple in any muscle building diet. There is a place for white potatoes immediately after training but most of the time you should be focusing on sweet potatoes. Many of my clients follow a carb rotation diet and sometimes I have them eat nothing but lean protein and sweet potatoes at every meal on their carb days. They always wake up lean, full and vascular the next day. My colleague, nutrition expert, Tom Venuto, is a huge fan of yams and routinely walks around at low single digit body fat percentage.
Question: Hi… …continue reading.
This is a great exercise that works the upper body pushing muscles as well as the abs and lower back, which have to contract forcefully throughout the movement. We use this as an upper body finisher or rep challenge exercise. The key points to look for are a full range of motion and no sagging of the hips or collapse of the lower back… which of course, sometimes goes out the window in the heat of competition. But do your best.
What I love about this exercise is that it requires more athleticism than a regular pushup so it serves multiple purposes.
You can get your Power Wheel HERE. It’s a great piece of equipment that I can’t recommend highly enough. And nothing works your abs any harder.
Question: Jay, I just lost 25lbs of bodyfat and now my main focus is on getting strong and lifting heavy weights. I still want to continue getting leaner but the main focus is on strength right now. What kind of adjustments do I need to make in my training and diet?
Mike Flynn
Answer: Mike, if you want to keep burning fat the diet needs to remain tight. The majority of your carbs (50% or more) should come from veggies, about 25% from fruit and the remainder from brown rice, sweet potatoes and oats. I would either limit the starchy carbs to the early morning and afternoon or only have them on training days. Still I would cut them off at 6pm. I would also recommend keeping your sodium levels high. This will help you maintain strength while dieting.
Training sessions should be short, intense and heavy. Train hard and to the point of near failure but never train to the point where you literally fail and miss an attempted rep. That is the worst thing you can do for strength gains. This makes you weaker and like the saying, “success breeds success,” failure also breeds failure.… …continue reading.
Question: Jason, I just wanted to let you know that I have been following your stuff since 2003 and am a huge fan of your work. I am thinking about opening a small, hardcore gym like yours and had a quick question for you. Would you mind sharing with me what kind of application form you use and how you determine who gets to train at Renegade Gym? From what I understand you don’t just accept anybody off the streets, correct? Thanks for all that you do and keep up the great work.
Andy
Answer: Andy, thanks for the comments and the support. Years ago I had a formal application sheet that potential gym members/clients had to fill out as a pre screening measure. After looking over that we would arrange for a sit down interview with them. If I liked what I saw and heard the applicant was granted a short term membership to prove their self. If that worked out they were invited to stay.
Nowadays, in an effort to be more time efficient, and just because I have done this so many times over the last 15 years, we have whittled the application process down… …continue reading.
“You’re always saying you’re too weak to be strong.”
– Life Wasted by Pearl Jam
Another summer weekend just came and went and now here we are yet again, on a Monday morning…
With yet another opportunity to change things for the better; to make the dramatic improvements that you have been planning to make for so long.
Maybe you thought about it over the weekend when you drank too many beers or ate too many hot dogs at your neighbors’ barbeque.
Or maybe you were ashamed to take your shirt off at the beach or your friends pool party and you promised yourself that life would be different come Monday morning. That you would finally step up and make the changes you have thought about for so long.
While some of you were nursing your hangover with coffee and a greasy, fried sausage biscuit yesterday morning, the dedicated were doing fasted cardio before sitting down to a healthy breakfast of green tea, organic eggs and fruit. Others slept off the booze lying around on the couch all day while the driven were running hill sprints in the hot sun.
Just like every Monday, you have a… …continue reading.
Here’s a quick interview I did recently with my wacky Canadian buddy, Craig Ballantyne.
Craig Ballantyne: What was your workout yesterday?
Jason Ferruggia: I ran a dozen forty yard sprints in the morning, about two hours after breakfast. That was, of course preceded by a pretty good warm up.
At night, six hours later, we did a heavy lower body workout. Before squatting and deadlifting I like to foam roll for about ten minutes and then get in a pretty good dynamic warm up. I like to be dripping with sweat and feeling very loose and “safe” before getting under a heavy load. That’s not a problem at Renegade Gym as it usually gets up to ninety plus degrees during summer workouts and you’re sweating like Patrick Ewing in the fourth quarter after your first warm up set.
We started with five sets of hurdle jumps. After that we worked up to a five rep max on a box squat and then finished with a back off, death set of 20 reps. Then moved on to some shrug pulls for sets of 8-10. Finished up with the neck harness and a few sets of with the… …continue reading.
People often ask me how I have so much time to prepare meals for myself all day and the answer is… I don’t. I’m super busy, and when it comes to food preparation I’m super lazy. That’s why I’ve become a master of quick, healthy, plant based meals that anyone can make in no time.
Today I want to share three of my favorite recipes with you that I eat on a regular basis. All of you that want to eliminate or at least minimize the practice of consuming unhealthy meat and dairy products are going to love these.
Muscle Building Shake:
16oz sugar free almond milk
30-50gms (depending on bodyweight) of Sun Warrior Protein
1 cup organic mixed frozen berries
½ cup frozen spinach (sounds gross but you can’t taste it)
1 banana
1 cup raw oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cacao nibs
Blend all ingredients until smooth. Add more water if thinner consistency is desired.
Pour and top with one tbsp goji berries.
I usually start every day with that.
Lentil Stew: this is incredibly easy to make, healthy and packed… …continue reading.
Recent Comments