Renegade Inner Circle is Live!

February 23, 2010

The new Renegade Inner Circle, private membership site is up and live. We are running a special promotion until this Friday at midnight (EST). The normal one year membership rate is reduced from $147 all the way down to $97. That means you get an entire years worth of workouts and consulting from me for less than a third of my hourly training rate! Or, you can choose the monthly membership rate of just $19.95. Either one is an unbeatable deal.

For more information on what you get and to become a member right now click HERE.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Announcements | Leave a Comment

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups

February 20, 2010

sergio oliva Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups The pull up is quite possibly the ultimate measure of strength. It’s also one of the greatest muscle building exercises in existence, which is precisely why it’s been called the upper body squat. Lat pulldowns can’t even come close to comparing. Whenever you move your body through space the level of neuromuscular activation is dramatically higher.

People all too often ask, “How much can ya bench?” A more appropriate question would be “How many pull ups can you do?” The pull up measures your strength to weight ratio better than almost any other exercise known to man. You are pulling up one hundred percent of your bodyweight, in the exact manner the human body was designed to work. It’s one of the most natural exercises you can do. While not everyone can squat or deadlift due to lower back or knee problems, pretty much everyone can do pull ups. Or should be able to do pull ups…

To this day I am still haunted by the image I witnessed in a local park a few years ago when I was there training. A man my age was there with his wife and his son. He was shooting some hoops, watching his kid play, and basically just enjoying the beautiful July weather. At one point he wandered over to the pull up bar and got on it. He then proceeded to twist and squirm and strain for the next 10-15 seconds as he attempted and failed to do one pull up. ONE PULL UP! Now mind you, this guy was not obese. He had the average adult male physique- 5’9”, 165 pounds with a 38 inch waist, ten inch arms and “a chest like a wet blanket,” as Frank Rizzo of The Jerky Boys would say.

The second hand embarrassment was enough to make me want to dig a hole and jump in it.

“Look at the man you married, honey. I can’t do a single pull up. But don’t worry, I can keep you safe.”

“Hey buddy, watch how strong daddy is. Don’t you want to grow up to be just like me?”

To paraphrase Matt Rhodes, a man who can’t do pull ups is a woman. Or some other form of living being, because the women at my gym can do ten or more. But you can’t call yourself a man if you can’t do pull ups. It’s as simple as that.

Below are the top 10 ways to improve your pull ups.

1) Don’t go to failure- This is the biggest problem I see with pull ups. Everyone goes to failure on every set. That’s because it’s so easy to do. As soon as a single rep does not look exactly like the previous one and you can’t get as high, the set is over. If your speed slows down noticeably the set is over. You would never continue a set of squats if you could no longer lock out the weight. If you got all the way up on rep five but were only able to get up ¾ of the way on rep six you wouldn’t proceed to do four more reps of partials until the set ended with the weight crashing down on you and crippling you. But that’s exactly how people finish their sets of pull ups. The form gets worse and worse and worse, and they keep going and going and going, climbing up the invisible ladder, swinging and kipping. When you do this you get no stronger. And most of the time you get weaker. The negative effect of training to failure is seen more on chin ups than any other exercise. No one knows why this is, but trust me, that’s how it is.

2) Lose excess body fat- If you are carrying excess body fat your ability to do pull ups will be greatly reduced. Extra body fat is good for lifting more weight in certain exercises that require greater leverage like the squat and deadlift. But that’s all it’s good for. Other than that it’s unhealthy and unsightly.

3) Start in the proper position- All too often people start in the dead hang position with their scapula elevated and their shoulders touching their ears. This is dangerous and incorrect. When you do this all of the tension is placed on your tendons and ligaments instead of your muscles. When you get on the bar you want to pull your shoulder blades down and lock your shoulders into their sockets. This is a far safer position and ensures that the stress will be placed directly on the muscles and not the tendons and ligaments.

4) Maintain a slight elbow bend throughout the set- This goes hand in hand with the above tip. Before starting your set you want to bend your elbows ever so slightly. This bend should barely be noticeable, but it will have a huge impact on your elbow health. Do not start with your elbows completely locked. This, again, places all of the stress on the tendons and ligaments instead of on the muscles. On each successive rep you should lower yourself until your arms are nearly straight, stopping just shy of lockout. But don’t use this as an excuse to cheat. Just shy of lockout means that your elbows are “99% locked out;” you just don’t want that complete extension.

5) Initiate with the lats- When you start to pull, be sure that you fire your lats first; not your biceps. If you have trouble feeling your lats, as many newbies do, have someone poke or slap your lats a few times before you start pulling. Even having a partner keep his hands in contact with your lats throughout the set may help. It may also look a little strange to other members of your gym.

6) Drive your elbows down- To get the most out of your lats when you chin you should think about driving your elbows down and back. Don’t simply pull with your biceps.

7) Pull your chin to the bar- I used to be a stickler for having people pull their chest to the bar. I still instruct beginners to do that, knowing full well that they won’t be able to, but that it will at least instill the importance of getting high. You only need your chin to clear the bar. That last few inches does very little for you lats and instead focuses the stress on the smaller, weaker muscles of your upper/middle back. The pull up should be used to target the lats, first and foremost. Don’t waste energy struggling with that last few inches at the top. Get your chin over while keeping your back arched and then lower yourself. Use other rowing exercises to target those smaller upper back muscles and use the pul up to smoke your lats completely.

8] Use a variety of grips- There are countless ways to pull your body up. You can do chin ups with your palms facing you at a number of different grip widths. You can also do chin ups with your palms facing each other, or pull ups with your palms facing away at multiple grip widths. You can pull up on bars, rings, fat bars, ropes, towels, suspension straps, beams, Eagle Loops, and even baseballs or softballs hanging from a chain. The variations are endless. Use as many different chin ups as possible to avoid burnout or overuse injuries.

9) Use a variety of rep ranges- To do a lot of pull ups you need strength and you need endurance. Strength is built with low reps. You can do low reps with a weighted vest or dip belt or you can simply perform more difficult variations of pull ups. Endurance is built with high reps. This is where the use of bands comes in handy. Having a few different levels of band tension will allow you to vary your rep range greatly. This will help you boost your chin up numbers a lot faster. Some days you train in the range of 1-5 reps for maximal strength. Some day you train in the range of 6-12, and others you train in the range of 15-30, with a band, to improve your endurance.

10) Strengthen your grip- The stronger your grip is the easier pull ups will feel. I suggest getting a Captains of Crush Gripper and using it a few times per week. You can also add in some more specific grip work at the gym like fat bar holds, hexagon dumbbell holds, as well as various pinching and crushing exercises.

Start using these top 10 ways to improve your pull ups today and drop me a line to let me know how they’re working out for you.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

IYCA Summit

February 15, 2010

logo iyca IYCA Summit I got back from Louisville yesterday after spending a great weekend at the IYCA Summit with friends and colleagues like the incredibly knowledgeable Mike Robertson, nutrition expert, Dr. Chris Mohr, one of the greatest college strength coaches in the game, Joe Kenn, speed expert, Lee Taft, and my brother from another mother, Brian Grasso. It’s always a pleasure to hang and interact with these guys. I also got to finally meet Pat and Holly Rigsby for the first time, along with Westside Barbell Club’s AJ Roberts and high school strength coaching giant, Carlo Alvarez; all incredibly nice, knowledgeable people whom I was honored to spend time with.

There were lots of great discussions over the weekend and as always I learned a thing or two from everyone I had the chance to speak with. Whenever you get the chance to be around guys like this you have to be sure that you are absorbing as much information as possible.

I hope to do more with these guys in the future and will be bringing you some great interviews and collaborations both on the main site and in the members section.

A lot of people had questions for me on plant based eating and were interested in making the switch to a healthier, performance enhancing diet. I was excited to hear that Lee Taft hasn’t touched meat or dairy in five months and said that, in his mid forties, he has never felt better in his life. He said he has more energy, never gets sore anymore, recovers faster than he used to and is no longer plagued by some of the minor injuries that used to bother him. It’s always great to hear more stories like this, confirming what I have experienced personally and with all of my clients who have made the switch. The benefits are just too powerful to ignore any longer.

I think I even convinced IYCA founder, Brian Grasso to make the switch. I will keep you updated on his progress and will expand on this whole plant based nutrition concept some more very soon.

Thanks again to everyone who came up to say hi over the course of the weekend. It was great meeting all of you and I hope to see you again sometime in the future.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Simplify Your Program, Amplify Your Results

February 11, 2010

Bill Starr Like Lynyrd Skynyrd advised, I have always tried to be a simple man. Mainly because I have a simple brain and am left with no other choice. But I have always believed that the more you can simplify things, the happier and more productive you will be.

On any given day there’s a good chance that I’ll sell all of my material possessions and move into the wild. Or at least I dream I will. I imagine a life with no TV, no internet and no cell phones, where I am eternally happy and stress free. I know that the internet makes our lives easier and helps many of us, including myself, make money. It’s just that it also complicates things and takes up too much of your time, if you let it. We live in a society where everyone always needs to be plugged in. I, for one, just want to be unplugged more often.

A couple years ago I got rid of email on my phone and then downgraded to something more basic without all the bells and whistles. On most days, now, I don’t even turn my cell phone on until somewhere between noon and four in the afternoon. I can’t really explain why, except for the fact that maybe I miss the eighties and early nineties, when people couldn’t get a hold of you at anytime, no matter where you were. That and the fact that it helps me be more productive due to far fewer interruptions.

When it comes to checking regular email these days, forget about it. I can barely bring myself to login to my account, never mind read dozens of emails and respond to them.

And that’s exactly how I feel about complicated training programs. When I let my guard down and check out some other training sites on occasion, my head often starts to spin when I read some of the recommendations that are being made. Bill Starr was the first strength coach to work at both the collegiate and professional level. He was the strength coach for the Baltimore Colts when they won Super Bowl V. No matter what the guru’s may tell you about slide boards, balance training, kettlebell swings, Bosu balls, tempo training, eccentrics and simultaneously working one arm with the opposite leg, the fact of the matter is that not much has changed in the last forty years when it comes to effective strength training. As Bill said himself, “the more simple a program, the more it will achieve the desired results, which is greater functional strength.”

An effective strength training program doesn’t need more than thee to five total exercises per workout. If you write a program with more exercises than that it’s usually for entertainment value, not for results. People should concentrate on quality not quantity and strive to do fewer things better.

If you are an athlete that usually means you will only be training for three to six months out of the year. The rest of your time will be spent playing or practicing. For three to four of those months you should be squatting. Back squats reign supreme, but you could also do front squats for variety and overhead squats to improve your mobility and build functional strength and stability in a completely different manner.

I love deadlifts, but the reality is that most athletes would be better served doing some sort of Olympic pull. A snatch or clean variation, and preferably both, should be part of the program. There’s less risk and more benefit.

If you are also running and jumping, which every athlete should be doing, there is very little need for anything else in the weight room aside for mobility work such as hurdle step overs, duck unders, some joint prep work and some isometric bridging exercises. All of this should be part of the warm up and does not constitute the strength portion of the program.

If an athlete is very inflexible it would probably benefit him to do some split squats or Cossack squats and hold the stretch position at the bottom for a few seconds. Romanian dead lifts or single leg RDL’s could help as well. Loaded stretching that you turn into an exercise seems to be more effective than regular stretching; which bores most athletes to tears. Some extra tight guys will need both. But, there is nothing inherently more “functional” or “sport specific” about single leg exercises, as some coaches suggest. They can be used in certain cases but they aren’t necessary when an athlete only has 12-16 weeks to train. If you have six months to train, I would recommend starting with unilateral work at the beginning, for the first couple of months. For everyone else with limited time, you need to get the most bang for you buck, which means you need to head to the squat rack.

For the upper body athletes need to press vertically and horizontally. Bench presses, inclines and military presses are at the top of the list; especially for football players who will most likely get tested on one or two of these. Personally I prefer to use weighted pushup variations or dumbbells most of the time but when guys are getting tested you are left with no option. These exercises are great assistance movements, however.

Chin ups and rows should also be included to balance out the upper body training and keep the shoulder region healthy. A wide variety of chins should be included to help avoid any possible tendon issues that can arise from using the same grip too often.

If you pick one of each of these exercises and use the proper set and rep scheme you have as effective a strength program as you can find. If, in one workout you were to snatch, squat, press and chin what more would you possibly need? That’s a program that will get you strong. When you start adding in rear delts, concentration curls, Cuban presses, right leg/ left hand step up and military press, fancy tempo schemes and all that nonsense you take away from the effectiveness of the program; not add to it. People need to understand that every single muscle group does not need individual attention and isolation. When you do snatches and overhead presses you eliminate the need for direct external rotation, shrugs, rear delt and rhomboid work. That’s bang for your buck right there…

Athletes play their sport. That is how they get conditioned optimally. They run, jump, cut and do agility drills. That is how they develop the ability to do these things better; not by doing weight vest multi-planar lunges on the slide board. You need to build strength in the weight room and play or practice your sport frequently so that the strength transfers over. Most “sport specific exercises” and all that clown nonsense do very little.

Interestingly enough, the guy who DOES need all that extra stuff in the weight room is the thirty or forty year old guy who’s just training because he loves it, but isn’t competing in a sport. For him, the workout IS his sport. If all he does is powerlifting or Olympic lifting he will most likely be pretty banged up in a few years and getting one step closer to a shoulder or knee surgery on a daily basis. Guys like this, who train year round, should only squat and deadlift for blocks of 12-16 weeks, once or twice a year, if at all. It really depends on their injury history and goals. If all he does is bodybuilding, he might look good but will possess no functional strength or the athleticism to compete in a pick up beach volleyball game. One spike attempt and he may tear an abdominal muscle, lat or rotator cuff. So this guy actually needs so called “sport specific training” more than the athlete does. Weird but true. Plus, anyone who trains year round definitely needs more variety than the athlete who only trains for a few months. But, only after you have been training for a few years and have mastered the basics. This is another article for another day but I will address this in full detail very soon with specific case studies.

An athlete, training for only 12-16 weeks, however, should pick big, basic exercises that get the job done fastest. These are usually simple, old school barbell exercises. Sometimes dumbbells or bodyweight exercises can work just as well, but you have to remember that many athletes will be getting tested on a barbell lift (or three) at camp so they need to train on them during the off season. That and the fact that it is so ingrained in our heads that strength (especially for football) is measured by the numbers you clean, squat and bench press.

The point of all this is that if you want to get better results from your training you need to simplify. Complicated routines lead to lackluster results. Like Bruce Lee said, “simplicity is the key to brilliance.” It also helps you get bigger and stronger a whole lot faster.

Simplify your program to amplify your results.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Muscle Building, Strength & Conditioning | 15 Comments

Super Bowl, UFC & More Cheat Meals

February 8, 2010

First of all, congratulations are due to the new Super Bowl Champs, the New Orleans Saints. It was definitely deserved and it’s obviously a great thing for that city.

Although I am incredibly happy for the city of New Orleans I am also a big Brett Favre fan. I thought it would have been a cool story to see Brett come back and lead his team to the Super Bowl after having the greatest season of his long career.

I particularly liked the post game press conference when Brett said that no matter what anyone else thinks he’s going out on top. To dominate like he did at forty years old is very impressive. Think about that for a second… The guy is forty…and a professional athlete… in one of the most brutal, physically demanding sports on the planet… and dominates. It’s amazing when you put it in perspective. Especially since most average guys in their forties are fat, lazy, weak and out of shape. Hell, most average guys in their thirties fit that description.

I often run into former high school or college athletes who are in their thirties now and have long since stopped doing any sort of physical activity. Their reasoning is that they are “too old, “over the hill,” or “washed up.”

“Dude, I can’t do heavy squats or deads anymore. I haven’t done that since college. I don’t need to be doing that stuff at my age.”

I point them in the direction of Brett Favre, Randy Couture or Louie Simmons and tell them to listen to some old Ice Cube; particularly “Check Yo Self.”

Speaking of which, a forty five and forty six year old guy main evented a UFC pay per view Saturday night. If that’s not motivation to get off your ass and train harder I don’t know what is. It definitely got me thinking about where I want to be in ten years.

As usual, we did a good twelve hours of cooking yesterday and my friend, the master chef, Mike DeSanti was at it again. Mike’s family has a history of recipes that go back several generations and he has taken cooking classes and worked as a chef in restaurants around the world. Red quinoa salad with string beans, chick peas, and peppers. Green pea salad with artichokes. Some kind of wacky mushrooms on toasted French bread. I’ve been twisting Mike’s arm to get these recipes together in some kind of format that will allow me to share them with all of you guys in the near future. Hopefully he complies. You wouldn’t believe the creations he comes up with.

We found a new vegan cheese that they sell at the deli counter at Whole Foods which really stepped the pizzas up a notch. One plain pie, one with “meat,” and one with roasted garlic. Jen made the world’s greatest escarole and beans with some vegan pesto and a few incredible desserts like pumpkin pie, brownies and coconut quinoa cookies. I didn’t realize until recently that you can replace eggs in a dessert recipe with tapioca starch. Good to know. But then again, I’m usually on the couch while Jen and Mike man the kitchen. Every so often I wonder over to spill something, break a glass or suggest that the first pizza could have been cooked a few minutes longer or used more cheese. I like to think of myself as more of an idea guy. I think…

It’s been a while since I have posted anything about music and there have been lot’s of requests so stay tuned for that one day this week. Until then…

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Sunday Cheat Meals

February 4, 2010

Reggie Wayne Sunday Cheat Meals There’s never a day that passes when I don’t get several emails about my diet. So today I’m going to share with you some of the stuff I eat on a normal football Sunday. That’s my big cheat day and we start it off early with the ESPN pre-game show going on at 10am while we fire up the kitchen. During the fall, this day often starts even earlier with a trip to the farmers market. Even though it’s a cheat day we still like to keep some healthy, fresh produce on the menu.

Since I eat pretty clean throughout the week my goal on this day is to jam down as many junk food calories as possible. But even at that, I try not to get into too much deep fried, saturated fat, heart attack food.

Breakfast will often be something like blueberry buckwheat quinoa pancakes. Yup, all that in one cake. We smother that in maple syrup and top it with some more fresh blueberries. This will be followed up by a bowl of fresh fruit topped with shredded coconut.

Since pizza and football go so well together we always make a few pizzas throughout the day with crusts that we buy at Whole Foods and some home made or jarred, organic tomato sauce. On one of them we’ll throw an olive tapenade with some onions. On another we will put some fake ground beef and peppers and onions. Sometime’s we’ll get fake meatballs or sausage and put this on a pie as well. Depending on the day or mood we’re in we may or may not add soy cheese to the pies. Or some days we’ll mix and match. I don’t eat these fake meat or cheese products during the week at all and avoid all soy and wheat, in fact. But on cheat days all the rules get broken.

One of my favorite pizzas is the beet and sweet potato pizza. We bake the beets and diced sweet potatoes first, and then put them on top of the pizza before putting it in the oven. It’s incredible.

We almost always make homemade hummus and have a huge tray of vegetables to counterbalance the junk food. Along with the veggies I will also go through an entire bag of Lundberg rice chips. Sometimes two. And a sleeve of some type of vegan cookie. Oh, and a bag of dark chocolate covered almonds from Whole Foods. Honestly, I could get through the day just on those. Give me a sack of those and I’m a happy man.

Then we get to the four o’clock game…

Around half time of this game is when we are looking at “dinner.” This could be fake riblets, kale slaw, baked beans, rolls and a big salad. Another favorite is veggie burgers and dogs on fresh rolls with sautéed onions, sliced avocadoes, homemade fries and ketchup.

Dinner could also be eggplant parm with brown rice pasta like we had last Sunday, compliments of my good friend and master chef, Michael DeSanti. Mike makes an incredible assortment of vegetable based dishes that always make up a large part of Sunday’s menu. One of my favorite green dishes is sautéed rainbow chard.

Other times dinner will just be some kind of lentil stew with onions, celery, carrots, kale, garlic, spices and potatoes. If we don’t have potatoes we might just pour this over brown rice pasta.

On days we don’t want to put too much effort in to dinner we will just make fake sausage and peppers sandwiches. There’s also an assortment of quinoa and brown rice dishes we make as well that I will cover another time.

By the time the eight o’clock game rolls around we are getting ready for dessert (as if I hadn’t had enough already). I’ll always whack down a pint or two of Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream. This will be accompanied by some home made cookies or brownies and a glass of almond milk.

Recently we made a raw chocolate pudding consisting of avocadoes, carob powder and maple syrup. Combine all the ingredients in the food processor, chill for about 10-15 minutes and then shovel it down. Really good stuff.

At that point of the night I’m done and will be lucky if I can keep my eyes open to see the fourth quarter. On Monday morning it’s back to clean eating for the next six days. And a much needed visit with the Prowler.

Please leave your comments below.

Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Nutrition | 14 Comments

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Renegade Inner Circle is Live!

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups

IYCA Summit

Simplify Your Program, Amplify Your Results

Super Bowl, UFC & More Cheat Meals

Sunday Cheat Meals

Follow/Friend Me

Recommended Sites

Recent Comments

Renegade Approved