Goodbye, My Friend

August 29, 2009

Goodbye, My Friend “We got the results back from the doctor today. It’s pancreatic cancer. There’s no cure… It’s terminal.”

My heart stopped and tears welled up in my eyes.

Even though he and my mom never decided to make it official and tie the knot, he was, for all intents and purposes, my step dad. That’s what we referred to him as, and Edward Liebman was the greatest father figure I had ever known.

“Whattaya mean? Are they sure?!” I asked as cold sweat started to roll down my back.

“Yes.”

I couldn’t speak and began to weep like a baby. I felt like someone had sucker punched me in the stomach and I dropped to one knee.

“Now, look, this doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere anytime soon. I’m gonna fight this thing ‘til the end,” he told me.

I struggled to compose myself enough to get a few words out.

“I know you will. And I know I don’t have to say this now because it’s not going to be goodbye anytime soon, but I just wanted to say how much I love you. I hope you know that. And I want to thank you for everything from the bottom of my heart. No one has ever done more for me and I can never possibly repay you. But you have to promise me that you’ll stay around long enough to give me a chance to try.”

“I will” he assured me as his voice cracked and he started to cry. “And everything I did was out of love. I love you guys so much. And we’re gonna have a lot more fun times together. The doctors are gonna get me healthy enough to stay around for another year or two, or maybe even more. I won’t be around forever but I promise you I won’t be going away any time soon.”

That was the end of May, 2009. Ed passed away this Sunday, August 23rd, only three months after that phone call and two days after his 63rd birthday. It was the only promise I had ever known him to break and one that no one could ever blame him for. He was one of the greatest people I ever knew and by far the most generous. If Ed loved you there was no favor too great and nothing he wouldn’t do for you.

I only wish I could have done more for him.

In and out of the hospital and rehab all summer, Ed never got to enjoy another healthy, pain free day again. And it broke my heart. When I wasn’t with him I was working ‘til the wee hours of the night so that I’d be able to afford to take Ed anywhere he wanted when he got better. It was the only way I could get motivated to work at all. I had plans of taking an extended leave whenever he got better and doing all that I could to help him enjoy the time he had left.

Goodbye, My Friend But we never got the chance. Instead we sat together in his hospital room and watched sports and talked about him getting back home. It seemed a horrible way to spend a summer, but I’d give anything this morning to be able do drive back to that hospital and sit with him all day, watching SportsCenter on repeat, cracking jokes and keeping him motivated to fight.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ed was a diehard Eagles fan; something that didn’t go over too well in a household where we bleed Giants blue. But we always had fun with it, constantly chiding each other throughout every football season. And we kept it up ‘til the end as I joked about Michael Vick being a perfect fit for the city of Philly while he remarked about what a fine, upstanding citizen ex-Giant, Plaxico Buress was.

With each passing season I grew to hate the Eagles less and less, only because I loved Ed so much and knew how happy it made him when they won. Even though it’s sacrilegious for a Giants fan to say, I will be secretly rooting for the Eagles this year in every game they play that doesn’t affect the G-Men. And if Big Blue falters I will be behind the Eagles to go all the way… for Ed.

When the doctors told Ed that it was over last Thursday and that there was nothing else that could be done to save him he finally accepted it. We had been told that before but Ed continued to battle back and seemingly prove them wrong. But this time was different. They knew, he knew it, we all knew it.

He was no longer nervous or scared bur rather calm and composed. He apologized to everyone for letting us down and told us he fought as hard as he could. But we assured him that he never let anyone down.

He had a long talk with his son Justin who had been flying back and forth from California all summer, and they each got one last chance to say everything that they had never said to each other and iron out whatever issues they may have had. I was so happy for the both of them and knew how much that meant to Ed.

He then told my mom how much he loved her and had one last meaningful conversation with her.

A few minutes later Ed sat up and asked, “Where’s Jenny?” My future wife ran over while he extended his hand and told her, “I love you. I’m just so sorry I don’t have more time to spend in your life. You guys take care of each other.”

Goodbye, My Friend When he reached out for me I was broken down in tears and unable to speak. He grabbed my hand and hugged me and told me he loved me. I told him I loved him too and thanked him for everything. There was so much more I wanted to say but I couldn’t get the words out.

Ed went to sleep shortly afterwards and we never got the chance to speak again.

On Tuesday we brought Ed back home to Philly and buried him beside his parents. It was the worst day of my life.

There are no words that can begin to describe the sadness I feel right now, struggling to come to grips with the fact that someone who meant so much to me is really gone. It doesn’t seem real or fair and I’d give anything to make this pain go away and to bring Ed back. He was the first person I called for advice and the one who was constantly looking out for me and helping me in any way he could. He didn’t have to do that and I knew it. It’s just the way he was. He never placed himself first in any equation. Ed only thought of others and how he could help them or make them happy.

When I found a new space for my gym at the beginning of 2009 Ed was the first one I brought over to take a look at it and get an opinion from. He told me he loved it and that was all I needed to hear.

He was always there when I needed him.

I will forever regret not being able to compose myself enough to say more to him during our final conversation, but if somewhere, some way he can hear me now this is what I would tell him…

Ed,
No matter how hard I try I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that this is real; that you’re really gone. We had so much left to do. There were so many places I wanted to take you and so much I wanted to do for you. You were supposed to dance with Jen at our wedding and play with our kids. The fact that none of that will ever happen is devastating to me.

We had a lot of good times, my friend, and I will miss them more than you know. I’ll miss our nights out in New York, pre football Sunday brunch at my house, movie nights, family dinners, and watching Entourage every Sunday together. I’ll miss the trips we took to the beach and the mountains. I’ll miss our secret handshake. I’ll miss the way you said “dee” instead of day (Mondee instead of Monday). I’ll miss you always being all over me about taking better care of my money and I’ll miss rushing into your office on April 14th to get my taxes done at the last minute every year.

I’ll miss your smile and your laugh and your constant barrage of corny jokes. I’ll miss always having a buddy who shared my need for quick service in a restaurant and snapped in kind when we went too long without eating. And I’ll miss your priceless reactions to comical situations.

I’ll miss celebrating Jewish holidays with you and every one of our birthdays together, our strategically planned eating schedule on Thanksgiving, putting up Christmas lights while reciting lines from “Christmas Vacation” and the frustration and hilarity that always ensued when at least one strand of lights would burn out every year. Come New Years I’ll miss seeing your text messages or picking up your phone calls at midnight.

I’ll miss the way you proudly revealed your new Eagles t-shirt every season followed by me reminding you of your favorite teams Super Bowl history. I’ll miss watching games with you and texting you during them when we weren’t together.

I’ll miss seeing you walk in the door and sit down in your favorite seat and the way it always took you ten minutes to say goodbye because you kept thinking of something else to say.
ed6 Goodbye, My Friend
I’ll think of you and miss you every day for the rest of my life. Things will never be the same without you. No matter what I am doing or where I am going I will always wish you were there and that if you weren’t I could at least call to tell you about it.

If I could do it all over again I would have hugged you and told you I loved you more often. I hope that I always made you proud and never let you down or disappointed you in any way. And if I did, I’m sorry. Please know that it was never my intention.

I can never thank you enough for all you did for me and the impact you had on my life. It meant the world to me to have you around for as long as I did. I will cherish each and every one of the memories you left me with and will never, ever forget them.

So goodbye for now. Hopefully somewhere, some way we will be together again and it will be just like old times, watching the Eagles/ Giants games, laughing, joking and smiling.

As I continue my life without you I can only hope that I can be half as a good a man as you were and that I will make you proud in all that I do. I know you’ll be there watching over me and continuing to guide me like you always have.

Thanks for everything. I’ll miss you more than you could ever imagine and will never forget you.

Until we meet again, rest in peace my friend.

I love you.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Uncategorized | 56 Comments

How I Gained 18 Pounds of Muscle in 5 Weeks

August 12, 2009

squats v deads By John Alvino

Over the years I’ve had a lot of different training partners; a couple professional bodybuilders, a few competitive powerlifters, and countless hardcore lunatics. But I never got faster gains in muscular size and strength than the months I spent training with my buddy and world class strength coach, Jason Ferruggia.

Jay is not only immensely focused and intense when he trains but he has this stuff down to an exact science. He’s the thinking mans strength coach, forever analyzing and experimenting. There literally hasn’t been a single day in the thirteen years I’ve known him that we haven’t discussed training at length. NOT ONE DAY! That’s how obsessed he is with finding a faster, more efficient way to help his guys build muscle and get brutally strong.

He’s constantly dialing me up with some new concepts and theories for us to try out on ourselves and our clients because he’s never satisfied. While other arm chair gurus may theorize, Jay is in the trenches testing new methods on countless human guinea pigs and tracking their results like a mad scientist.

About a year ago I received a call from him some time after 1am. If I saw anyone else’s number on the caller ID I might have been shocked. But since I’ve come to realize that his brain and obsession with training have no off switch the late night call didn’t surprise me at all. What he said when I picked up did, however…

He had a radical idea and wanted to try something completely different than anything we’d done before. As he went on to explain this concept in great detail I grew more and more intrigued. It sounded like he was on to something big. I jumped out of bed and started pacing around the house. We went back and forth until nearly 4am trying to perfect this new system he had just conceptualized.

By the following Monday we were ready to put it into action. Since Jay had just undergone shoulder surgery I would have to go it alone. But I trained like he was right there with me, screaming in my ear like he always does.

Around the end of the second week on this new program some interesting things started happening. My skin was getting tighter and I felt pumped all the time. On week three I was doing ten reps with weights I used to only be able to do for five!

People started to take notice and make comments. My clothes were getting too tight and I was even getting accused of using steroids.

By the end of week 5 I had gained 18 pounds of muscle! And this was after twenty plus years of serious weight training! These were the most mind blowing gains I had ever experienced in my entire life!

And now Jay has taken the system which he created during that late night phone call, refined it and perfected it, and has finally made it available to the general public for the very first time.

And he’s giving it away FREE! With every purchase of his awesome Muscle Gaining Secrets system before this Thursday at midnight you’ll receive a FREE copy of his Advanced Mass Building Guide (the one that helped me gain 18 pounds in 5 weeks). On top of that you’ll also get his brand new Armed & Dangerous program and his fat shredding guide, Renegade Cardio.

But these 3 FREE bonuses are only available til this Thursday at midnight. After that they’re gone forever. So get on over to MuscleGainingSecrets.com right now to steal the exact program I used to make the best gains of my life.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 10 Comments

3 Lifting Mistakes You MUST Not Make

August 11, 2009

If you’re serious about building muscle and getting stronger there are three very critical mistakes that you absolutely can’t afford to make. I can’t tell you how many times I see guys in the gym committing these cardinal sins and how badly I wish I could help them all. Unfortunately I can’t save everyone but I’ll always do my best to give my loyal readers an unfair advantage over everyone else.

One critical mistake all skinny guys and girls make is they follow traditional bodybuilding advice and only train each muscle group once per week. If someone just arrived here from Mars and I told them the best way to improve something was to do it only once per week they would think I was absolutely insane.

To elicit a growth response you must provide the muscles with a certain level of volume, which should be absolutely no higher than the bare minimum. Research and empirical evidence has shown this to be roughly 50-100 reps per muscle group, per week. Anymore than this will lead to overtraining and less than this will usually not be enough for anyone but the inexperienced newbie who is just starting to train for the very first time.

How you reach that magical number of total reps is very important, however. If you do them all in one workout you’ll make far slower gains than if you broke them up into two sessions of 25-50 reps or three sessions of 17-33 reps. Doing that will allow you to get two or three times as many growth stimulating workouts per year, per body part. I think anyone can do the math on that one and see which option would be more productive.

The next critical mistake is allowing your workouts to last more than 45 minutes (not including warm up time). After your first heavy set of any workout your body will start pumping out growth hormone and testosterone at much higher levels than normal. Blood tests have shown this increased anabolic hormone release to peak at approximately 27 minutes. By 45 minutes you are back to baseline. At 46 minutes and beyond your levels actually start plummeting and the evil, muscle destroying, fat storing hormone, cortisol starts pumping like crazy. That is why you have to get in and out of the gym as fast as possible. I have always had my high paying clients track their total workout time with a stop watch and cut it off at exactly 45 minutes even if they had a set or two left to complete. That’s how important it is for you to finish your workouts quickly.

The third critical mistake I see on a regular basis is people constantly using the same weights. I’ve said this a million times but it bears repeating, the most important thing you can do if you want to build muscle faster than everyone else in your gym is to constantly add weight to the bar. Consistent strength gains in a hypertrophy rep range will build muscle faster than anything else you do in the gym. This may go against a lot of what you have read but think about it logically. If you took two twins and had one do supersets, drop sets, forced reps and steadily increase his training volume over the course of six months, then had the other simply double the weight he could do for ten reps on a squat, deadlift, military press and chin up, which twin do you think would be bigger at the end of the experiment?

The answer should be obvious.

Eliminate these mistakes today and start growing tomorrow.

Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 8 Comments

9 Quick Tips For Bigger Arms

August 10, 2009

barbell curls 9 Quick Tips For Bigger Arms 1) Include a lot of close grip chin ups and dips in your workout program.

2) Do both heavy sets to stimulate the fast twitch fibers and higher rep sets to get a good pump increase the size of the slow twitch fibers, sarcoplasm, etc.

3) Consider training arms (biceps and triceps) on your leg day, 48 hours after your main upper body day. This allows you to hit them more often and also when they are fresher.

4) Or consider, for a short specialization period of a month or two, training biceps and triceps first in your upper body workout.

5) Since they are a smaller body part, the arms can tolerate more volume and frequency than the lats, quads or other larger body parts, when specializing on them for a month or two.

6) Do an equal amount of work for both the triceps and biceps.

7) The triceps respond best to heavy loads so be sure to hit them heavy with some dips, floor presses or board presses.

8) Stretch the biceps and triceps in between sets and after your last pump set.

9) Always try to increase the load on all of your biceps and triceps exercises. If you are curling 35 pound dumbbells now you had better be curling 50’s a year from now. If not your arms will look pretty much exactly the same

For more info on how to build bigger arms tips and routines check out http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building | 1 Comment

Q & A with Dave Tate

August 3, 2009

dave tate Q & A with Dave Tate This is an interview from the winter of 2006 that I did with my good friend, Dave Tate. Since many of you may have missed it the first time around I decided to repost it. Enjoy…

*****

I’ve never met “Big Bad Dave Tate.” I have never even met Dave “Fuckin” Tate. Supposedly this is some terrifying lunatic who would throw you through a wall for squatting less than 800 pounds in his presence or suck the brains from your skull if you looked at him wrong. At least that’s what I have read on the internet.

I only know the Dave Tate who I exchange hilarious daily emails with, trade business and life advice with and on many an occasion, drink a few too many beers with.

On a recent weekend in February, Dave was in Jersey for some business and as usual we got together and had a few drinks and a lot of laughs. He also came to watch me train a group of athletes and told me afterward that he had never seen kids with better form before. This, of course, has nothing to do with the story; it’s just a shameless plug I had to insert because it’s quite a compliment coming from the big man himself.

The morning after Dave and I partied till the wee hours of the night I got a call from him. He was stranded at the airport as the blizzard of ’06 was about to dump two feet of snow on the Tri State Area. Without hesitation I picked Dave up and we headed back to my house.

We were watching the Olympics as the snow came piling down when we decided to do an impromptu interview/ Q&A session. There is no rhyme or reason or flow to the interview, it was just random thoughts tossed back and forth as we sate on the couch drinking beer and eating pizza.

JF: What was the proudest moment of your powerlifting career?

DT: When I won the IPA nationals. I always wanted to win a national competition. Since I was a kid that was all I wanted to do. It was also the first time I squatted 900. It sounds stupid since there are a zillion federations but I still wanted to do it. It was also the first time my total broke into the top 10 for my weight class.

JF: What are your thoughts on mobility work?

DT: The pendulum swinging. You only need to train what’s weak in your athlete. It should be tested, if it’s needed do it, if not keep it out. People don’t have the time to do everything nor do they need to do everything.

It’s more important for the older lifter.

JF: And if people do need mobility and flexibility work you want them doing it in the power rack, right? (sarcastic remark, of course)

DT: Keeep your shit outta my rack. The power rack is the temple of the weight room. It’s made for going heavy. I can live with doing chins but keep your curls and stretching and duck unders the hell outta my power rack. Okay, while this is all said in fun I do feel many have lost sight of what the power rack was intended for.

JF: High frequency training?

DT: It has its place. High frequency training is a method, not a training system. It can be used for bringing up weak points. I’ve used this and recommended it but the volume is controlled though and I’ll use the empirical rule of 60%. Beginners can do it but advanced lifters will overtrain quicker than hell. If some one needs to cut bodyfat, then sure they can do high frequency training. If they need to get bigger and stronger; no way. Turn the dial because you’re on the wrong frequency.

It has its place for specific purposes.

JF: What would you rather do, bi’s and tri’s or squat?

DT: (Thinks long and hard) Squats. Nothing’s better than a good pop off a box.

JF: I know that, much to Cosgrove’s dismay, you love your arm workouts these days, though. Speaking of which how big are those guns?

DT: Over twenty one inches. I needed to get them measured for my bench shirt so that’s how I know that.

JF: Dude, I just saw you measuring them in the kitchen before but whatever you say. How does some one get arms that big?

DT: Train your triceps; tri’s for guys, curls for girls.

JF: Everyone’s gonna want specifics so what should you do exactly?

DT: Board presses, floor presses, bench presses, close grip bench presses, rolling dumbbell extensions. I’ve always been a huge believer in pushdowns for many reasons; they keep the tri’s fresh and drive so much blood in there. They also are good for elbow health. I have always done some kind of press, extension and pushdown for as long as I can remember.

JF: What about bi’s?

image003 Q & A with Dave Tate DT: I’ve never been a big fan of bicep training even when I was bodybuilding. I always started with something heavy like a barbell curl. Then finished up with whatever I could do to get the most blood in there. If you want big arms make sure to keep hammer curls in there. Cables never did much for bicep development, stick with barbells and dumbbells.

I think if you are training for big arms, direct arm work is a must. If you are doing a lot of pulling and rows already then your biceps work is going to have to be a lot of isolation work.

Unless it’s a bodybuilder, I have never programmed a bicep movement in to a workout.

In the same respect I have never put in a calf exercise or a forearm exercise, and very few quad movements, direct quad movements. Unless it’s a step up, but I don’t know what people consider that to be; I consider it hip dominant.

JF: Well it depends on the height of the box. If it’s a lower box then it’s quad dominant; if it’s a higher box it’s hip dominant.

DT: True. So revisiting movement pattern splits it could be a vertical push since you push your foot straight down into the bench. Which makes me think, what is a leg press, is it a vertical press since I am pushing into the machine? So should I do it on my vertical press day? Well now I’m training legs three days per week.

If a step up is not a vertical push then what is a calf raise?

At least with the body part split you fucking understand, oh I feel it in my back; it must be back. What the hell is a sit up? What day does that go on? What’s a side raise? Is a deadlift a vertical pull or a hip dominant movement? If it goes on vertical pull day now we’re training our legs four times per week. There is also a horizontal leg press as well, what day does that go on? What about a lying leg curl, that’s a vertical pull. So now you are training your legs every single day.

Not only that, but quad dominant is not a movement pattern, last time I checked my biomechanics book.

JF: What about a front raise, bent over rear delt raise, or better yet a reverse crunch; what days do they get trained on?

DT: Exactly.

JF: What’s the most important personality trait a coach or trainer must possess?

DT: Awareness. Going further than listening, you need to be able to understand the personality of the person you are working with. If you are working with some one who is motivated by positive reinforcement you need to be aware of that. If you have some one who responds better to negative reinforcement you need to be aware of that. You need to look at every client or athlete as a puzzle first, person second because you need to figure out what goes where. It is the simple things you need to know how to pick up one.

At a recent seminar while teaching someone how to squat I will tell her to sit back, keep the chest up, knees out and so on. This was not working so I had to look for reasons why this was not sticking and the message was not being received. I pick up on that every time I gave a command this person would look at them selves. If I said knees out she would look at her knees. Right away I knew I was using the wrong cues. This is a very visually oriented person so I change the commands to “picture you knees out” instead of knees out. Now the head stayed up and she used her minds eye to see what she had to do. This fixed the problem right away.

If I would not have picked up on this I may still be there trying to teach her how to squat. This is not rocket science but basic communication skills that are more important than people think. Coaching and Personal Training is nothing more than communicating training to the person you are working with. Everyone spends countless hours on the training aspect but if the message is not passed from one to another then it does not matter what you know.

JF: Let’s switch gears for a second. What’s your favorite movie ever?

DT: Serenity, Any Given Sunday, Scarface.

JF: Favorite band?

DT: Santana, Garth Brooks, all jazz, I like listening to music outside of the gym that has a calming effect because I have a very aggressive personality.

JF: What about your favorite rapper?

DT: Umm, I was into DMX big time for a while but I’m sick of him now. Maybe Jay- Z? No, I think I’d have to go with The Notorious B.I.G.

JF: Favorite song?

DT: Garth Brooks – The Dance. There are others, but it always changes, that’s the one that comes to mind right now and is always on the list.

JF: Recently I saw you fall on the floor in laughter when someone walked into a seminar wearing a wife beater. Have you changed your views on wearing wife beaters in public?

DT: Absolutely not! Unless you’re loaded with tats, no way. Even if you’re jacked, unless you have a ton of tattoos, no way, you can’t do it. You can buy a fucking tank top. I have no problem with tank tops but wife beaters, no way.

****

For more from Dave and to order the greatest strength training equipment in the world please visit, EliteFTS.com.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Uncategorized | 11 Comments

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