What’s up guys? I’m coming at you from St. Petersburg, Florida where I’ve spent the last few days. Yesterday I had an awesome workout with Adam Bornstein and my long time good buddy, Craig Ballantyne at the Powerhouse Gym in downtown Tampa. It’s a pretty impressive facility and worth training at if you’re ever in town. Before we trained Craig and I were having coffee (well, I was as Craig doesn’t drink coffee) and discussing a nutritional change that we both made that has us feeling significantly better. 

We’ve both cut out gluten completely. I haven’t touched it since the… continue reading.

Guest Post from Renegade Inner Circle Member, Chad Proud Ah, where to start? I first started training, err, caring about my physical appearance back in 2008. I was 20, and a sophomore in college at the time. I had always been the scrawny kid growing up, and used to be teased incessantly for it (even by my own family). So much so in fact that I actually felt proud when I weighed 206 lb. Now, mind you this 206 lb. came from a consistent diet of popcorn chicken dipped in applesauce, Cheetos, cookies and pop (dorm cafeteria favorite). continue reading.

Below are the 7 things you need to know about how to build a bigger back. I will also give you the top 10 best back exercises plus the ultimate back building workout. As always and with every other muscle group, building a bigger back simply comes down to choosing a few key exercises and then getting progressively stronger on them. I wish I could tell you it was more complicated and fancier than that. But it’s just not. The typical gym crowd is all about the chest and biceps, but a big back is what separates… continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle Coach, Sean Hyson Good training music has to make you excited, alert, and even a little bit angry. For guys, it’s natural to turn to rap and metal (and, of course, rap-metal), to evoke this condition. However, these aren’t your only options, and if you train consistently throughout your life, you’re going to crave a change eventually. I think the real purpose of training music is to bring out your passion. You have to be somewhat emotional and worked up emotionally to train hard and purposefully. So, really, any music that… continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle member, Gary Deagle As you can tell from the puka shell necklace pic(they were popular in 2003 right!?), I had a lot of obstacles to overcome. At that point I had just been suspended from my first semester of college, felt like I had ruined my life, and on top of it was scrawny. My mom bought me a Men’s Fitness thinking it would spark my interest since I was big time into sports and an athlete in high school. 

Luckily for me I read an article in it… continue reading.

Question: What’s the best fat loss workout to help me lose 20 pounds over the next few months? I’m ready to get in the best shape of my life this year and want to make sure I’m doing everything correctly. Answer: The single most important factor for fat loss is diet. You can do ZERO cardio and do nothing but singles, doubles and triples in your training and still get ripped if your diet is dialed in. That doesn’t mean it’s the most effective way but it can be done through diet alone. There’s nothing else you can do to… continue reading.

Guest Post by Wil Flemming You have likely read about, or performed a complex of some sorts in your training experience. Yeah, you have most likely performed some gut busting combination of movements that made you want to puke. Something like, 10 reps of deadlift, 10 cleans, 10 RDL’s, 100 push presses, 33 good mornings, 14 punches in the stomach, until you yakked up what you ate 3 days ago (only a slight exaggeration). At least that is what I have read about complexes. “The hardest 10 minutes you can throw down in the gym.” “Guaranteed to… continue reading.

Question: Jay, I know you are a big fan of box jumps. How do I incorporate them in my training and do them correctly? Answer: Let me start by saying I rarely prescribe a bounding type of box jump where you jump on and jump off of the box, unless I’m working with advanced, highly skilled jumpers. If you have a very low (6-8″) box and are doing it for conditioning that’s okay for people with a decent level of athleticism. But you can’t have unskilled jumpers and average people off the street jumping onto a two foot high box… continue reading.

“Every day of my life, I’m trying to find a different way to get better.” “Nobody’s as serious about health and fitness as me, and staying fit is my top priority.” “What makes you grind?  You have to always be chasing something.” “In any war, you put your back to mine, I put my back to yours, and let’s do what we gotta do.” “You’ve got to go out and show them that I’m a different creature now, then I was five minutes ago, cause I’m pissed off for greatness. Cause if you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that just… continue reading.

Guest post by Renegade Inner Circle member, Joshua Grant. A few years ago I decided to stop training. Completely. This was a kind of experiment on my part.  Having a naturally curious mind I wanted to see what would happen. What would happen if I stopped working out 5 days a week, doing bodybuilding routines, carrying food around in tupperware containers, worrying about the size of my biceps, and just gave up training/dieting altogether. Now you have to realize how big a deal this was.  Before this I had been training and dieting religiously. I started working out for… continue reading.

I wrote this list back when Shades of Grey came out but completely forgot about it for some reason. Today seemed like as a good a day as any to post it. So here are some useless, trivial facts about the dude behind this here blog you’re reading. 1) I only puke two to three times a decade. When I do it’s like a scene from the Exorcist. 2) There are very few things I find funnier than watching someone else puke, though. I’m literally in uncontrollable hysterics. 3) I’m almost never in a bad mood. 4)… continue reading.

A lot of people ask me the moment when things started to “click.” When I was finally able to start gaining size and muscle and stop being a skinny punk. Or when I was able to take what I had learned and turn it into a successful business. The answer was I stopped trying to do everything on my own and found good coaches and mentors. Look at the people that consistently dominate at what they do and make good decisions. Successful athletes, businessmen, and musicians—they all have coaches. Michael Jordan had someone work on his… continue reading.

I want to start by thanking all 1,112 of you who contributed to the NJ Strength Disaster Relief sale. During the course of the sale over a quarter of a million people visited this site but you guys took action. I truly appreciate that, as do the people of New Jersey. Here is the screen shot from my Clickbank account: So you guys raised $8,188.88 for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Then I got three incredible emails from friends… First Chad Waterbury donated $500: Then Dave Draper’s wife, Laree did the same: And finally, Matt of Fat… continue reading.

“Ya best protect ya neck.”
-Wu Tang Clan In the past I’ve always recommended neck training but said that it was optional. That was a mistake. It’s not optional. It’s mandatory. You look infinitely cooler and more badass with a bigger neck and it’s a life insurance policy. No one can argue either of those two facts. Countless athletes and lifters have sustained injuries that, based on their own accounts, could have been life threatening or left them paralyzed, had their necks not been as strong as they were. I was genetically cursed with a pencil neck so I will… continue reading.

What’s up guys? I’m coming at you from the Hyatt Regency in Denver where I’m getting read to go train with my buddy, Craig Ballantyne. Then I will be meeting up with fitness icon, Shawn Phillips, for lunch. I’m in town to do a charity toy drive on Saturday with Craig and about twenty others. We’ll be buying thousands of toys to give to marines to distribute to local kids. If you’re in the area come by and hang out. Last night Craig and I had an awesome steak dinner at Elway’s where we watched the Bronco’s game while talking… continue reading.