How to Build Muscle, Gain Strength & Become a Better Athlete » Fitness Business Info

One Simple Way to Keep Clients

Jason Ferruggia — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:33:19 +0000

“Before I studied the art, a punch was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I studied the art, a punch is no longer a punch, a kick is no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick is just like a kick.”
– Bruce Lee

The difference between a good, highly experienced strength coach and a C-level, inexperienced one is that they can make complex subjects seem simple. They know enough not to overwhelm beginners with too much information and not to shout out too many coaching cues during the first few sessions.

The last thing you want to do is confuse or overly stress out a novice lifter when he has just started training. There’s no way he’s going to master the complexity of a power clean his first time. So don’t expect that. Good enough is good enough as long as he’s not at any serious risk of injury.

When you know very little about a subject it seems fairly simple. It’s all black and white. Then when you start to learn more about it you discover that it’s really more complex than you once thought. Or at least that’s how you make it seem in your own mind and when discussing it with others.

To the average guy on the streets a bench press is just a bench press. You lay down, grab the bar and press the weight up. Once you start learning about the bench press it becomes so much more than that. To really master the lift and press as much weight as possible it becomes a full body exercise. You need to have the perfect grip width, shoulder blades retracted, all your weight on your upper back, back arched, leg drive, lat flare at the bottom, triceps engaged by ripping the bar apart, breathing timed perfectly, the precise bar path etc.

Armed with your new enlightenment it’s tempting to show the world how smart you are. Many coaches or trainers will do this by treating their clients or athletes like they have a powerlifting meet coming up in two weeks and are going to be the next Ed Coan. They will coach, coach and over coach the ever living shit out of the lift to the point where training is no longer fun.

Case in point:

At a gym I was training in recently I watched a guy take a 21 year old kid through his first workout. He gave more coaching cues in one hour than I would normally give in a month. It was just non stop. After about twenty minutes I could see the despair and confusion in the kid’s eyes. He was obviously getting frustrated yet the trainer couldn’t see it. He was teaching the kid to arch excessively which ended up hurting his back and causing pain in his hip flexors, forcing him to shoot up from the bench in intense cramping.

After their last set I was crossing my fingers that the trainer would let him end on a positive note and simply say, “Great job. That set was perfect.”

But my hopes were crushed when he told the kid that he just needed to work on letting the bar sink down a bit while keeping his elbows locked before lowering it. That’s an advanced concept that guys with ten years under the bar still struggle to master.

All the kid wanted to do was get a good workout in and get some positive reinforcement. He may, in fact, one day decide that he wants to enter a powerlifting meet. But that was not the day to prepare him for it.

On day one a bench press is just a bench press. You lay down, pull your shoulder blades back, squeeze the bar and press away. That’s all there is to it. If you give more coaching cues than that you’re just trying to impress people. What you will really end up doing is losing clients. If you turn a workout into and advanced SAT study session I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s gonna suck. And it’s very unlikely that you’re going to keep that client for too long.

Do NOT teach this circus act to your clients

There are world class powerlifters who have been training for decades who are still trying to improve their bench press technique. So why would anyone think that a newbie should be required to master it within their first week? Don’t even worry about leg drive and arching until at least the second or third month.

And if you teach the arch it’s not necessary to have your clients resemble a 114 pound member of the Chinese elite bench press team. That’s completely unnecessary for anyone who doesn’t plan to compete in powerlifting, and pretty risky. A slight arch in their lower back is more than enough.

If you train athletes remember that lifting is nothing more than GPP for them. It is NOT their sport.

They’re not going to get scholarships or a bigger contract based on their technical skills in the weight room. The same can be said for most average dudes who just want to get bigger and stronger. Mastery of every lift may not always be their goal so don’t force it upon them.

Decent form is great form for beginners.

Intermediates can get away with very good form.

Their deadlift may never look like Andy Bolton’s nor their bench like Scot Mendelson’s, and that is perfectly fine. I can guarantee you that nobody in the NFL has that kind of technique mastered, yet the league is full of some very strong, jacked dudes.

So to all the upcoming coaches and trainers out there my advice is this… sometimes it’s better to show people less of what you know than more.

Keep it simple, keep it safe and keep it fun… That way you’ll keep your clients.

PS. Being a good coach is one aspect of keeping your clients. For more on this subject check out The Client Retention Blueprint.

A Day in the Life

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:19:10 +0000

“I never sleep, cuz sleep is the cousin of death.”
Nas- New York State of Mind

I was supposed to be Eminem. At least that’s the way I saw it back in ’88. It was my freshman year of high school and the Beastie Boys were yet to be taken seriously, so I figured I could be the first great white rapper. I practiced my rhymes all the time and just knew that within a few years I’d be on tour opening for Public Enemy. Then 3rd Bass came along and crushed my dreams. But I could at least be second, I thought…

Twenty three years later I still write and rap every day. Except that I don’t write raps. I write about training and I rap along to Eminem, Nas, Biggie and thousands of other classic hip hop songs on my iPod.

I also:

Coach athletes and regular people who want to get bigger, stronger and faster
Design training programs
Answer questions
Order new stuff for the gym or myself to try out
Test out and review products people send me for free
Do all kinds of networking and behind the scenes business stuff
Read about training
Read about business
Keep in constant contact with the eleven people I pay to work for me on a regular basis
And whatever else I need to do in order to ensure my success

It’s all about the hustle. It’s the only way I know how to live.

While it may not be as glamorous as touring the world rocking mics and partying with my groupies backstage, I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Here’s a sneak peak into a recent day.

4:56am- I wake up with an incredible urge to pee and while en route to the bathroom write the first few sentences to an article I had promised my buddy, Chris McCombs.

5:02am- What’s the use? I already have the article started in my head and I can’t risk forgetting the opening. May as well get it done now, I decide. So I fill up a 40oz bottle of water and get to work.

5:43am- With that one done I decide to get started on another article for the Huffington Post.

7:07am- Check in on social media stuff and blast a few tweets to my Twitter and status updates to my Facebook page. It’s all very noteworthy, life changing stuff… like Jerky Boys quotes and my commentary on the effectiveness of coconut oil as a sexual lubricant.

7:09am- Notice that I have a decent number of new fans on my Facebook Page since I last checked and when I click on them I notice the steadily increasing number of good looking females. If only I had a mic in my hand this could all be so different.

7:14am- Hop in the shower, alone, and get ready to head to Renegade.

Michael Flynn approaches 500

7:23am- After getting distracted by an important email I text my long time good friend and Renegade staff member, Alyson that I’m running late and she’ll need to open up for me.

7:31am- Throw some One World Whey and Athletic Greens in a shaker bottle for later as I run out the door.

8-10am- Coach two groups of clients.

10:09am- My eyes start closing while I’m standing and in mid conversation with my brother. This is unusual since the dude is pretty intense and keeps you on your toes, to say the least. With all that’s been going on lately I’ve barely slept in days. I decide I need one of my four monthly cups of coffee right now.

10:32am- Caffeine seems to be kicking in and Jared and I discuss some business issues as he gets started painting on the new record boards. We wanted to add some more boards/categories and decided that chalkboard paint like we had in the old place was the best choice.

10:37am- We settle on bench, squat, dead, log clean and press, pushup, chin up, broad jump and farmers hold. That covers a broad enough spectrum of maximal strength, power and strength endurance. I would love to have some kind of lower body endurance challenge but the space we’re in doesn’t allow for it. While a wall sit is a fun toughness challenge it’s not worthy of a record board.

Since we still don’t have a log light enough for the girls we decided to sub in a high rep barbell clean and press as a temporary challenge. As many reps as you can get in a minute with 65 pounds. Aly bangs out 17 on her first attempt below.

10:44am- I call John Alvino. “Hey maggot (a name we always call each other because it makes us fondly recall the Iron Sheik vs. Sargent Slaughter feud), before we finalize these new record boards can you think of anything else worth adding?” We decide to leave it as is. Somehow the conversation deviates to big asses and the like, as it usually does. When we were 22 I would have never guessed that we’d still be having the same conversations 15 years later and would still be so easily distracted by the sight of boobies. In mid sentence John says, “I gotta go, bye.”

Click. Just like that he’s gone and I have no problem with it. When you’re on a cell phone you may have to hang up with someone at any second. Having that understanding makes it very easy to talk to someone on the phone. If I know I can’t get off the phone that easily with someone I won’t call them… ever. I simply can’t deal with giving an explanation of why I have to go. I just do and I’m hanging up. I’ll call you back at some point.

I also can’t deal with the questioning…

“What? Just like that? You’re hanging up right now? Are you gonna call me back?”

It’s one of my least favorite lines of questioning on this earth.

But apologizing for getting disconnected is equally as irritating.

“What happened? Was that my phone? Your phone? Sorry, dude I don’t know what’s wrong with my phone…”

“ALRIGHT!” I get it. Who cares? Just move on with the conversation like nothing happened. I think in 2011 we all understand that calls will be dropped from time to time. Let’s pick up where we left off and move forward.

Walt hits 500 for a set of 8 rack pulls

10:52am-I review four resumes my assistant had forwarded me and a few internship requests.

10:55am- Upload my bio and head shot to send to Adam at Live Strong where I’ll be a new member of their five man fitness advisory team. I wonder for a minute if anyone else on the staff could be as handsome as me. The chances are slim I realize, so I send the pic along.

11am- Do a phone consultation with a multi time NFL Pro Bowler, mainly about nutrition.

12pm- Call to wish my mom a happy birthday and regret not doing so earlier in the morning. We go back and forth about whether something she had told me yesterday that I forgot was due to my inability to pay attention or my lack of memory. I argue for memory loss, she’s standing strong behind her opinion that my listening skills suck. We agree to disagree… I think. I can’t remember.

12:07pm- I laugh at the strange dichotomy of my world. One minute I’m on the phone with one of the greatest football players of the last twenty years, the next minute I’m getting yelled at by my mom like I’m 15.

12:09pm- Jared tells me about someone who has a problem with me. I’m shocked by the fact that it’s past noon and this is the first such occurrence of the day. I must be getting soft. Dan Kennedy always says if you haven’t pissed someone off by noon every day you’re not doing a very good job.

12:17pm- I receive an email from the person in question. I write back.

12:28pm- Get a text from my friend Andrew who tells me that his legs are covered in mosquito bites from our dinner together the night before. I tell him I’ve already scratched my ankles to a bloody pulp. We laugh about my quip to the waitress about how I couldn’t choke down the hockey puck I was served and the jokes that ensued afterwards. “This is bone dry too?!” You had to be there. The point is I spend a good portion of my day in hysterical laughter and place a premium on comedy.

It seems like I choose my friends by their ability to make me laugh or find the humor in all that I do. Which is pretty much everything.

12:39pm- Realized I was running late for lunch with mom but luckily I got my running late habit from her and she’s running later than me.

1:05pm- Call Jen, who’s back in Cali while waiting outside the restaurant for my mom. We go over some business stuff, then she tells me that I’m gonna miss the Santa Monica Food Festival this weekend. For someone who likes to eat as much as I do that kinda sucks. I tell her that I’m also gonna miss getting laid. Which kinda sucks worse.

DaNunz Pumps the Guns

1:10pm- I get a text from another athlete client who is on the road and needs some tweaks to his program based on what’s available in the gym he’s at. I send him back the changes.

1:12pm- Another text from a college athlete of mine checking in to say hi and update me on things. He tells me that my old friend, Sal Alosi of the New York Jets, is their new strength coach and said hi.

1:16pm- Mom shows up late and we eat. I get chicken and pasta. The stress and lack of sleep lately is shrinking me rapidly so I need to pack in some calories.

2:03pm- Check my phone after lunch and see a text from my buddy Sean Hyson, updating me on his trip to Vegas for the Mr. Olympia. Since I’m across the street from the mall I decide to run in and see if I can find some new shorts and pants which I desperately need.

3pm- Walk out of the mall empty handed. This is pretty much the case nine out of ten times I go to any mall. That is, of course, if you’re not counting the unsolicited phone numbers I receive while shopping.

“HI-OH!”

Just kidding. Well except for the two guys that told me to call them. They thought I’d be perfect as a “fluffer” for their next film. I’m not exactly sure what that means but the spank on my ass they gave me assured me that they meant business.

“I think it may have moved.”

“Moved?”

“It may have moved, I don’t know.”

“I’m sure it didn’t move.”

“It moved! It was imperceptible but I felt it.”

Ah, that never gets old…

3:05pm- Text Joe DeFranco a question about some equipment I’m thinking of getting for the gym.

3:11pm- Get a call about the possibility of training one of the best high school teams in the state, or at least some of them. We set up a tentative date to get the ball rolling.

3:15- Hop in the car and am greeted by the sounds of that whiny, screechy weird Lil Wayne/ Ne-Yo hip hop/ R&B stuff that all sounds the same to me these days… HORRIBLE. So I put on Hip Hop Junkies by Nice and Smooth and head to a 4pm meeting about something that could be pretty big.

5:20pm- Back at Renegade and back in coaching mode. But first I discuss the importance of not sounding or appearing too desperate when you first meet a girl you are interested in with a young friend of mine. Girls are like attack dogs and can sniff out fear or desperation from a mile away.

Sending that one extra text or asking that one weird question can be the death of any possible relationship or one night stand long before it starts. You need to at least appear like you have things going for you and your life isn’t hinging upon her getting back to or spending time with you.

The key to this is to keep a steady rotation, I explain, so then you’re never putting all your eggs in one basket. If it doesn’t work out with one you have 2-4 to fall back on. Then you’ll never be desperate which leads to getting more girls, etc, etc. Success breeds success.

But be prepared for girls who were at first quite busy all the time when you wanted to get to know them better to never have anything going on ever when you no longer do. That always makes for lots of fun and weirdness.

5:30-7:30pm- Run two groups through the paces, crack some jokes and talk some shit to raise the level of competition in the gym. In my evil and devious mind I constantly plot ways to get the crew fired up and pissed off enough to outdo each other at all costs. An example of this is me telling 23 year old Jeff how embarrassed he will be if 48 year old Mark beats him on the Power Wheel Pushup challenge (seen below), especially since he’s been training with me for nine years, one longer than Mark. I whisper in Mark’s ear that he’s getting old and may not have the heart to fend off the young lions anymore. He proves me wrong.

7:30pm- At this point I’m overtired and wired so I decide to train with the last group. I put on Spaz Out by Jedi Mind Tricks (featuring Apathy, King Magnetic, Esoteric and Celph Titled) and I’m ready to go. Motivated by the performance of my 58 year old friend and client, Paul (seen in the video below) and staff member Yaniv (also seen below) I hit the military presses hard along with some chins and curls. It was all I had time for as I had to meet mom for dinner. For the biceps I introduced two of my coaches to a very secret technique I just invented that night called “running the rack.” I would tell you about it but then I’d have to kill you.

9:06pm- Roll into the Pluckemin Inn for dinner, six minutes late.

“Where were you the whole time?”

“It’s 9:06. I said I’d be here by 9.”

“Oh. Ok.”

After a pretty sub par, shlocky meal mom says how she wishes Ed was here and misses him every day. She said she was talking to him in the car on the way home from work. I start tearing up. It’s been two years but it still happens every time. I keep a picture of Ed next to my bed and touch it every morning when I wake up, promising to make him proud.

10:47pm- Back home and completely exhausted. I send an email about some nutrition and supplement stuff to another one of my pro guys and return a few other business related emails. My friend Jon Le Toq wants to know when I want to book the Renegade seminar in London and for me to shoot him a few possible dates to secure the gym.

There’s another email from my friend Paul Mort who simply wants to know if I’ve ever noticed how the skin on your balls resembles both elbow and chicken skin. I tell him that the thought occupies my mind for most of the day.

11:23pm- Log in to the Renegade Inner Circle and answer a few dozen questions for a half hour while trying to keep my eyelids pried open.

11:56pm- Tell Jen I love her and thank her for dealing with me. Then crash into bed, hoping to get some sleep. The hustle starts again bright and early tomorrow.

The Hidden Benefit of Barbell Training

Jason Ferruggia — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:26:20 +0000

By now we all know that in order to get bigger and stronger you have to use a barbell in your training. This is obviously not any kind of new and exciting revelation. You want bigger legs you squat. You want bigger shoulders you overhead press. You want a bigger back you deadlift.

Now, to play devils advocate I could make a valid argument why the only barbell exercises you truly need are the squat and deadlift and why for the upper body you could get away with dumbbells and bodyweight exercises only. Hell, standing dumbbell presses would probably get the job done just as effectively, in many cases, as a bar.

The obvious problem is the incremental weight jumps you can make from workout to workout. With a bar you could go from 135 to 140. Or if you had fractional plates, as I recommend most people do, you could go up to 136 or 137.5. With dumbbells you’re usually going to be making ten pound jumps. That makes slow and steady progression a little bit more difficult. Not the end of the world but worth considering.

Secondly, some exercises done with dumbbells for low reps just aren’t that safe. If you want to train maximal strength and press for a triple it’s safer to do so with a bar. Even just getting dumbbells that heavy into position can be a little risky sometimes. For those reasons I very rarely prescribe a dumbbell exercise (other than a one arm snatch) for less than five reps.

But, in my opinion, here is the real magic and advantage of using barbells in a training center where you want to create a great atmosphere and have all of your clients loving their experience at your place…

When you base your programs around the power rack and big barbell exercises everything changes. There is more camaraderie, more team work, more competition and a better atmosphere in the gym overall.

You know why that is?

It’s pretty simple, actually.

Because in a properly run barbell workout everyone is involved in every single set their training partners do. Let’s say you have four guys in a group training together and they’re squatting. You have position 1- spot left, position 2- spot right, position 3- spot from behind, position 4- you’re up to squat. And you repeat and keep moving.

Doing this keeps every single member of the group engaged and focused. Each person is changing weights, spotting, coaching, learning and paying attention… They are FULLY entrenched in every single rep of squats that goes on during that workout.

Let’s say you were a bodyweight only guy or a guy who didn’t believe in loading the spine. I can guarantee you that your training center will never have a great atmosphere and build that same type of camaraderie and competition if you replaced the squat with the dumbbell split squat. There will be very little intensity when compared to barbell training. Guys will just wander around staring at the ceiling or counting birds outside the window.

There’s no need for them to spot, there’s no need for them to change weights and therefore they’re in their own world, concerned only about their own set or their own performance; not everyone else’s. And that creates a really shitty environment.

Of course you have to do single leg work and pushups and chins and all that kind of stuff which I’m a huge fan of, but it should be done after you get your one big barbell exercise out of the way.

That’s all it really takes is one big barbell exercise per workout to completely change everything. If all the assistance exercises are the exact same but you start with barbell military presses instead of dumbbell military presses it makes all the difference in the world for the numerous reasons I mentioned above.

After guys get their fill of the excitement, intensity and camaraderie of doing that one big lift together you can move on to assistance work.

One thing to note is that guys and girls are completely different. The majority of females (unless they are athletes) don’t enjoy healthy competition like guys do. You and I might get pissed if Billy squats more than us but it will force us to slap another five pounds on the bar or come back and whip Billy’s ass next week. Our day won’t be ruined over it.

If Susie out squats Sally, Sally will get pissed too. But not the way a guy will. She will just be pissed off in a bitter way and ready to quit. Mind you I’m not talking about every female, and especially not the ones you want in your gym. But on average this stereotype does hold true.

Same goes for coaching complicated exercises. Guys will be frustrated with themselves if they can’t do it but will desperately want to get better at it and keep trying. Girls will get very bitter and say “fuck this.”

Most females also don’t develop the same sense of camaraderie that guys do. Instead, they may “develop a sense of bitterness,” like my friend, John Alvino said, if you force them to stay put around a power rack and work together as a team.

Just keep those things in mind if you train females. Most of those types of females are better off in a bootcamp type setting and actually NOT doing barbell training.

Side rant done.

So while coaches will continue to argue the merits of dumbbells versus kettlebells versus bodyweight versus machines versus barbells I think they are missing one of the single most important factors.

For creating an incredible training atmosphere with camaraderie and competition, that people will absolutely love and tell their friends about, nothing beats the almighty barbell.

PS. Want to make even more money in your training business? Check out my friend Alwyn Cosgrove’s brand new program where he shows you exactly how to do just that.

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Dress For Success

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:27:26 +0000

This info is for trainers and coaches but really applies to every business where you will be interacting with people.

One thing I will never do when training people is wear old school sweatpants or those swooshy wind pants that trainers love (nobody hates those more than my buddy, Craig Ballantyne, just FYI). It just seems so 90′s. I mean, why not add a fanny pack while you’re at it?

When you look like everyone else you will get grouped in with them. You need to stand out and look professional. Especially if you are training people in a public gym.

I only wear loose fitting, nice cargos when I train people. So they’re not sweat pants yet I could still move around and train and demonstrate exercises.

Like Jerry told George, when you leave the house in sweatpants you’re really telling the world I’ve given up. I can’t make it in this society… so at least I’ll be comfortable.

I just picked up a new pair of cargos yesterday that were Ralph Lauren sport or something. They were insanely expensive, close to $200. But you have to look professional and successful when you’re working. Especially if you want to charge people a lot of money to train with you.

If someone wants to train one on one with me I’m going to charge them more than the cost of those pants for a single session. So I need to look the part. I can’t be rolling up in some ragged clothes that I look like I pulled them from the dumpster.

I know that’s a cool look for hipsters and what not but unless you’re an actor or rock star it’s not always the best idea to show up for work dressed like that. I’d probably avoid the hipster mustache too.

I see guys training people in the gym all the time wearing old shitty looking sweatpants and sneakers and it causes me second hand embarrassment. I mean have a little pride in your appearance.

If it’s summer cargo shorts will most likely be a more professional look than basketball shorts but you could get away with some nice Nike shorts or something as well, I suppose. It really depends on the person and the situation. Just make sure they’re clean and newish looking.

I’m not big on material possessions and would honestly be fine owning a handful of t-shirts, a pair of jeans, shorts and flip flops. To be honest with you, when I go out on a Friday night my style of dress is probably no different than it would be if I was in college right now. I’m never gonna be a button down shirt, shoes and Dockers kind of guy. And that’s fine. But you have to look presentable and professional.

Sure Vibrams are better for you than a pair of $150 Nikes but most people don’t know that. If someone hires you and you show up the first time wearing what most people think are aqua socks that could send a bad impression. I’d recommend the New Balance Minimus or Merrel Trail Gloves instead.

Dave Tate once gave me a great piece of advice many years ago when my career was taking off and I was meeting with more and more influential people who could help me in a lot of ways. He told me that since I could now afford it I should buy a five thousand dollar watch. I thought he was nuts and told him that I hate spending big money like that on material possessions. He then explained how in business situations rich and successful people will almost always notice your watch. When they see it’s a Breitling like I wear now as per Dave’s advice, they look at you and treat you differently and are more apt to make deals, etc. Especially when you look like Dave does or like I do with the full sleeves and all. It sounds silly or materialistic but this is the reality of the world we live in. As rebellious as I have been since birth I still know that you have to play the game in certain situations if you want to succeed in life.

Sure, it doesn’t fit in with the minimalism concept I prefer to live by but I have no problem breaking the rules here and there if it’s going to change the way people perceive you and thus allow you to become more successful or have opportunities you might not have had otherwise. At the end of the day we all work to make money. So if you can help yourself do that more efficiently by looking more professional you’d be a fool not to.

One of the other best pieces of advice you can remember is to always leave the house dressed for success. Even if you’re just running to the store for some paper towels.

You never know who you are going to meet or what opportunity could be awaiting you.

So always look your best and be prepared to give someone your business card or make a deal of some sort without having to hang your head in embarrassment or explain why you look like a homeless guy.

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How to Run a Successful Training Facility

Jason Ferruggia — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:57:00 +0000

I started training people when I was nineteen years old and still in school. After working in the college weight room I got out on my own. At first I was working with adults in a one on one setting for twenty bucks an hour. Eventually I worked that up to fifty and had a pretty good base of clients. They were all the average fat loss personal training client, however, and that was really the last thing I wanted to spend the rest of my career doing. I wanted to work with athletes and I wanted to train guys who were really serious about getting bigger, stronger and faster. That’s what I am passionate about. I have zero passion for any other type of training or any other clientele.

If the average middle aged female asks me for fat loss advice I don’t know what to tell her… primarily because I don’t care enough to think about it. It’s like asking for my opinion of the new Usher record. I don’t have an opinion of it because I don’t think about it. It doesn’t enter my thoughts. Ever.

One day back in the mid 90’s, while out with my dad, we ran into a friend of his who was out with his son. It was discussed that I could help the kid become a better football player and wrestler. A week later Mike Schwalb became my first athlete client. He later became my little brother and is one of my closest friends in the world to this day. That was sixteen years ago.

Mike’s dad did pretty well for himself so he was able to pay my rate of fifty bucks an hour, four days a week for Mike to train with me. Soon after that, because of the great results Mike was getting, he had referred me two more high school athletes. At that point I had three high school athletes paying me $800 a month and thought life was pretty good.

I was training them one on one at first but soon they started asking if they could come train together. Once we started doing the small group thing it got even better. They were having more fun and their results came at an even faster rate.

I then knew that small group training with athletes was what I wanted to do with the rest of my career. But I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to get a ton of them because most parents wouldn’t be able to afford that rate. So I decide to offer a special rate for student athletes.

I cut the monthly number in half then took fifty bucks off the top and decided that the student athlete rate was $350 per month. I had no clue about business or marketing back then so I just came up with that. I later shared that business plan with guys like Zach Even Esh and Eric Cressey and several others when they used to call me for advice on how to get started in the industry.

Funny enough, that’s what everyone who makes money does these days and what all the fitness business guys teach- small groups of 3-8 clients to one coach at somewhere between $300 and $1000 per month.

Anyway, word of mouth referrals started pouring in and the business was taking off. Then I came up with the idea of incentivizing referrals by offering a free month of training every time someone brought in a new client and that led to a whole new stream of regular business. Before I knew it my gym was overflowing with high school, college and pro athletes all day long. I was living the dream.

The Darkest Hour
One day all tenants of our building were notified that we had six months to find a new location. The building had been sold and the new owners had plans to take over the whole thing.

I searched frantically and eventually found a perfect spot at the last hour. But then it all went to shit when my lawyer screwed something up that we needed for the zoning permit. So after more than a decade in business Renegade no longer had a home. During this time I spent many hours on the phone with my good friends Dave Tate and Alwyn Cosgrove, discussing what to do with my future. We bounced around between a couple different locations and eventually decided to open in a new town just about three years ago.

When opening the doors of the new place I figured that the world had changed dramatically since the mid 90’s. Back then there was no competition. I was the only game in town. No one did the type of training I did. And if they did there was no internet to let my potential clients know it. I owned my town and the surrounding area. No one could touch me. There was no Velocity, no Parisi, not a sports performance place on every corner, not five million strength coaches who flip tires, no internet, no crossfit and no bootcamps.

On top of that the economy was a hell of a lot better back then.

So I thought, maybe the old plan won’t work anymore. The world is a completely different place. Maybe there’s too much competition, maybe people don’t like to pay for high quality service like they used to anymore because they’re used to paying lower rates for crossfit and all these silly little bootcamps. There was also the fact to consider that every high school these days seems to require the athletes to train in the weight room because they all have a strength coach nowadays.

Things had also changed dramatically for me. I was in a much different position than I was back in the mid 90’s. My name and business had grown over the years and I now had a ton of other commitments that would prevent me from being on the gym floor for twelve hours per day like I used to. So figured I needed some type of business plan that would reflect that.

With that in mind and in a horrible lack of judgment I decided to charge less than we used to and have more people training at once. Back in the days we almost always kept the client to coach ratio at six (or eight at most) to one. This time I decided that since the rates were lower we would have to increase that number to 15 or so. This can work if all of those people are experienced lifters with the athleticism of an Olympian. You get a few less than skilled lifters in that group, while trying to do barbell exercises, and the whole thing goes to shit.

Lesson Learned
There are really only two ways to run a profitable training facility these days. The first is you can run large group fat loss bootcamps. This is the type of training that I hate and have zero passion for. Now, if you know a thing or two about training you can make these workouts pretty cool and exciting. But for me, training middle aged women for fat loss is one of the worst possible jobs I could imagine. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. If that’s something you are passionate about out more power to you. I doubt you’d be reading this particular site if it was, though. The point is you have to do something you are passionate about otherwise it will never work. For me to put on my Richard Simmons wig and little striped shorts and go hop around in the morning with the ladies would be a huge mistake and would be a dismal failure because I wouldn’t be into it at all and everyone would see through it. Do what you love, first and foremost.

If you want to run bootcamps the training has to be pretty simple with a low risk of injury. No complicated exercises (because they’re not paying for that level of coaching and most of them don’t want to do those exercises anyway) and no fancy equipment needed. There should be a client to coach ratio of about 20-40 to one. The price per month should be around $199. If you start going much lower than that it’s going to be pretty hard to make money.

The other way to make money is what by doing I started doing back in the mid 90’s and what Eric Cressey, Zach Even Esh, Joe DeFranco, Alwyn Cosgrove and countless other successful coaches do today. You run small group training with a client to coach ratio of 4-8 to one. The price for this should be in the range of $249-499 per month, on average. If people would expect to normally pay $75 for personal training let them pay $20-35 and be in a small group where they are going to get much better results and have a lot more fun.

Coaching complex barbell lifts (or even advanced bodyweight exercises) in big groups for low prices (under $249 per month) DOES NOT WORK. Trust me; I tried it. People don’t get the attention they need and they end up getting hurt or with shitty results.

No matter what anyone tells you people will still pay for high quality service these days. And the only way you can offer high quality service is at the right price. Personal training, in most markets, is dead and bootcamp training is, well… bootcamp training. Small group training at a price somewhere between personal training bootcamps is where you want to be if you’re running your own facility or considering opening one.

As for getting clients into your training business, I suggest you check out Low Cost Client Getting by clicking HEREnow.

Good luck.

Essential Equipment for a New Gym

Jason Ferruggia — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:45:35 +0000

Today’s post is from a forum discussion in the Renegade Inner Circle.

Question:
Jay,
I’m opening a new gym and I want to run group training out of it and set it up “Renegade style” as I have a lot of old clients and leads who are interested because I use to teach similar type group training at my old globo-gym.

My question for you is what baseline equipment do you recommend getting for it. I know prowler, tire, kettlebells etc. Just wanted to see what your recommendations would be. It would be mainly mainstream general public group training, but I also want to train some high school athletes as well. Not sure if I should get a couple squat racks or one of those big all purpose unit type things.

Thanks for any help!
Gary

Answer:
Firstly, let me say this to you…

If you want to do big complex lifts it’s ideal to keep a 6:1 or at most 8:1 client to coach ratio. When you go above that quality control is lost and it becomes very difficult to run the training sessions effectively. Unless, of course, everyone in the room has the athletic ability of Kobe Bryant.

That probably won’t be the case, however.

If you want to do more than eight people at once I would suggest another coach. I personally can get great quality with up to twelve people, as long as they are somewhat experienced. Maybe you can too. But you need to consider the future and growing the business and the fact that at some point you won’t be the only coach there. If not you’ll never grow.

So you don’t want to trust the safety of your clients with employees who may not be able to handle coaching more than eight people at once. And even eight is pushing it for complex exercises when some members of the group might not be as skilled as the others. Six might be the best option.

I did this for over ten years and then made some big mistakes the last three years trying something different and I can tell you from experience not to do it.

As far as equipment goes you need to decide how many people will be in a group and how many people will be in the gym at the same time. Then decide what kind of training you are going to do and know that the most people you can have on any one implement is 4-6.

So if you want to have groups of six with you and one other coach, for example you could have two racks that you both run. Then for assistance work you would most likely need two of everything you planned to use- glute ham, back extension, dip bars, etc. That is, if everyone is doing the same workout. You also have the option of letting people start the workout together, say on hurdle jumps and squats and then proceed to split up the assistance work so that Group A is on the glute ham and Group B is on the 45 degree back raise.

Six people per piece of equipment is a lot but you can get it done if you are very efficient. Four is a better number and works great in a rack since you can keep the guys rotating clockwise from position 1-2-3-4. Spot left, spot back, spot right, squat, spot left, etc. With six it’s a little trickier but you can make it work. If you have guys doing dips and chins or other similar exercises alternated for assistance work it’s usually not a problem.

Having gotten all that out of the way I’d get the following equipment to start:

- A rack of db’s up to 120lbs, at least

- A few power racks from Elite Fitness (tell them I sent you). The 3×3′s look more professional and higher end but I might save money and just get the 2×2′s. You could argue that those look more hardcore and underground. The choice is yours but definitely get them with monkey bar parallel chin up handles. As I’ve mentioned before, too many straight bar chins and pull ups will lead to elbow problems.

- Dip stations to add on to power racks

- Bars for squats, deads, presses, etc. This is great all purpose bar.

- Bands for assisted chins, dips, etc. pushdowns, face pulls, pull aparts

- Prowler and/or sled

- Adjustable benches- 2-3 (Unless you save money and just get flat benches. When I was on the phone with Wendler ordering some new stuff a few years back, he tried to save me about a grand by saying how much are you going to use the incline function? Just prop the bench up on a box old school style like Arnold and Franco. So that’s what I did. In retrospect I’d probably rather have the adjustable benches now but saving the grand at the time was worth it.

- Kettlebells- really you don’t end up using KB’s for a lot of heavy stuff so I’d save the money and plan on only doing 1 arm swings and snatches and a few other things at first. That way you only need to get up to 61′s or 53′s. I’d want more of fewer weights. So 26, 35, 44, 53 mainly. If you have girls get some 17′s. Don’t waste money on eights. If someone can’t move the 17 they can’t train with you. I’d make that a rule. I’d want 3-4 of each weight.

- 3-4 sets of Jungle Gym XT straps

- 3-4 Power Wheels

- 3-4 pair of Fat Gripz

At that point you have the basics covered and can make it fun. Then you can add stuff like rings, ropes, farmers walks, etc. as you go.

I always go from the top of the body down to see what we could or would need/use.

So for traps and shoulders you’re fine with what you got. Same with chest. You got your chin up bars and variations. I might want to add in some rings for chins and dips. For inverted row variations maybe you’d want some ropes and cable attachment handles that you can put the Fat Gripz on. But that would be about it. Then you got your dead variations in and out of the rack, swings, single leg RDL’s, single leg hip thrusts.

For quads you can squat and then do every single leg variation known to man. Plus you have sled/prowler work. But you might want some plyo boxes to jump on and do step ups with. Getting some furniture slides to do lunge and pushup variations would be cool too. Plus they’re like five bucks at Home Depot.

For abs you’re pretty set.

Everything else like yokes, logs, stones, ropes, etc. is gravy but definitely not essential.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

PS. Once you have the facility set up you’ll need to start getting clients. For a great way to do that CLICK HERE.

12 Ways to be a Better Trainer or Strength Coach

Jason Ferruggia — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:56:46 +0000

Always Start Too Easy. Whenever you have a new client always start them out with easy exercises and light weights. If you do group training have them do the easiest progression of whatever the rest of the more advanced members of the group are doing. Any nitwit can create a hard workout. That doesn’t make it effective, though. You don’t want them struggling or getting down on themselves or thinking that your training is too hard. Nor do you want them throwing up during their first session or getting too sore from it.

Don’t Introduce Too Many Complicated Exercises Per Training Day. If you want to introduce the barbell snatch for the first time it’s probably a good idea to have the rest of the workout consist of no brainer exercises like inverted rows and glute ham raises. Don’t pile snatches, pistol squats, divebomber pushups and Turkish Get Ups into the same workout if they’re all exercises people haven’t done before.

Only Give People Exercises That You Can Do Yourself. You should have tried it out first and mastered the form before you can teach it effectively or expect someone else to do it.

Almost Perfect Form is Usually Good Enough. When introducing a new exercise always accept “good enough” as perfect form at the beginning. As long as they aren’t going to get injured let some imperfections slip. Why? Because nobody likes to be continually told that they are doing something wrong. It gets frustrating and they get down on themselves. Especially females. Make small improvements over time and eventually they will get it. If they never do, as long as it’s close enough and there’s no injury risk involved I would probably let it go.

Say People’s Name at Least Three Times Per Workout- There’s no sweeter sound to a person than that of their own name. This is especially important if you train large groups and need to yell across the room to people. If you’re like most people you forget someone’s name two seconds after you meet them. So try this little trick. I forget exactly where I learned this but it works.

Whenever someone tells you their name immediately associate it with someone famous. Here, I’ll do it right now live on the spot. I promise I’m going to just randomly pick names out of thin air and write down the first thing that comes to mind.

You say Billy.

I think- White Shoes Johnson. Man, that’s weird. Talk about being trapped in your old school memories.

You say Kyle.

I think- Kylie Minogue- That’s even weirder. And embarrassing. I couldn’t think of anyone named Kyle off the top of my head so that’s what I thought of first.

You say Roger.

I think- Daltrey. “Who the fuck are you?”

You say Alex.

I think Rodriguez. I’m a huge Yankees fan and even I’m not happy that his was the first name to come to mind.

You say Jimmy.

I think Walker. There’s me trapped in the 80’s again.

You say Dean.

I think Malenko. I grew up obsessed with pro wrestling.

You say Eric.

I think Estrada. Seriously?! Now this is getting disturbing.

You say Frank.

I think Rizzo. “Open ya ears, jackass!”

You say Jack.

I think Torse. Loved me some Jerky Boys.

You say Peter.

I think North. That’s right.

You say Sam.

I think Mills. Linebacker for the Saints, used to wear number 51. Why I thought of him first I haven’t the foggiest.

You say Tom.

I think Glavine. Again, very, very strange.

You say William.

I think Wallace. I’m half Scottish. And even though Mel Gibson’s insane, Braveheart’s still one of the greatest movies ever made.

In retrospect I kinda regret doing this little exercise as it gave me an unwanted look into the dark recesses of my mind. I find it a bit odd that I couldn’t think of anyone who became famous after the 1980’s except for A-Rod. I’ll have to look deeper into this at another time.

The point is that by doing this it makes it way easier to remember someone’s name. And that’s very important for business.

Don’t Use Big Fancy, Technical Words. Nobody knows what the conjugate method is or what a brachialis is or the difference between sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy, nor do they care. I do my damndest to keep this site free of big words and confusing subject matter. And you guys that read this site are far more educated than the average person who is going to hire you to train them. I just know that not too many people want to read that type of stuff. So don’t force that upon your clients. Keep everything simple and as dumbed down as humanly possible.

Make Things Competitive. Guys thrive off competition and if you can make at least some or some parts of your workouts have a competitive element training will be more fun.

But Think Twice Before Doing so With Certain Females. Guys like to compete against each other. Females usually like to compete against themselves. Be careful when pitting females against each other. Make sure you know them well before doing so.

Definitely don't be this guy.

Guys Respond Well to Criticism. Girls Don’t. Know the Difference. You can tell a guy he’s apussy and that your mom squats more than him and he’ll be completely okay with it. He’ll respond quite well, usually. If you train groups of guys you can bust balls and talk about how so and so just made them look like a punk by doing ten reps with their 1RM. It motivates them.

Girls are different. There is a rare breed of them that you can do this with. Most of the others will get down, angry or defeated. They respond best to positive feedback and support.

So while you might be able to tell Mikey his squat looked like a car wreck you have to tell Susie that hers is looking better and she just needs to sit back a little more.

Smile and Have Fun. If you’re tired, lifeless and miserable your business will die. Try to lighten up and joke around more often. This is sometimes hard for me because I take it very seriously if someone isn’t really giving it all they have.

If I write a diet for someone that should have packed ten pounds on them in a certain time frame yet they look the same as they did the first time I wrote it, that person slowly starts to die in my eyes. I lose interest and start to resent them. Maybe that’s wrong but I’m being honest here.

The best thing you can do is get rid of that person or just let it go. Don’t let them bring you down and instead stay positive and focused on the people in your training program who do actually bust their ass and do what they’re supposed to do.

Don’t Check Your Cell Phone During a Training Session. Ever. It’s incredible to me that I have to mention this but I see it happening all the time when I’m in public gyms. The only time this might be acceptable is if you are training large groups or classes and you need to check a text at the beginning of the workout to see who’s running late or whatever.

Keep the Workouts Short and Simple. Nobody wants to be overwhelmed by an overabundance of confusing set and rep schemes and overly complicated exercises. Everyone has enough stuff overwhelming them at work and in their personal lives. The last thing they need is more of it at the gym. So keep it simple and keep the workouts limited to no more than 30-45 minutes.

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This is the ultimate resource for any trainer or strength coach that wants to put together highly effective, short, simple workouts that will deliver huge results and help grow their business.

Click HERE to order your copy now.

I’ll post more random tips on how to be a better trainer or strength coach some time in the future but in the meantime I’d like to read your feedback and hear your tips. So please leave your best stuff below.

I look forward to seeing a lot of good tips from all of you.

Thanks, guys.

“I Don’t Do Dat, Baby”

Jason Ferruggia — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:57:11 +0000

In Part 4 of the interview I did for Craig Ballantyne last month we discuss training females and a few random business tips for trainers and strength coaches.

Craig Ballantyne: Let’s transition back into some training stuff. Now, your gym isn’t just for guys, right? There are girls that train there also, correct?

Jason Ferruggia: There are a few girls, but that’s not my focus or main specialty. My first priority and focus is getting guys bigger, stronger and faster and just improving their overall performance. That is my true passion. We really only try to appeal to males and any marketing we may do is always done with guys in mind. But if high school or college female athletes want to come in and train for improved performance, and they can hang, they are more than welcome. In fact, they often earn a lot of respect from the guys when they do.

In our old gym we had only one female athlete in more than a dozen years, that was able to hang and actually made it more than three months. She went on to have great success. Others came and went but none made it more than three months.

Right now, in our new location, we have three high school female athletes who are doing a great job and are an absolute pleasure to train. Although, truth be told, it’s apples to oranges because the scene during the high school training time is far less intimidating now than it used to be. We had quite a few more lunatics back in the day. Those kids seem to be fewer and far between these days, which is a shame and a whole other topic for another day.

As far as female non-athletes go we have three to five of them right now who are able to hang with the guys and get in on our workouts. And that’s three to five more than I ever thought I’d have. Again, because of the way we train, what we train for, the music and the atmosphere; it’s not really a place where most girls would want to be or would feel comfortable. So I don’t expect a lot of them to want to join the gym. Nor do I do anything to entice them to do so. It’s just not my thing.

The girls that I mentioned, that we have now, can all do at least five chin ups, some can do ten or more; they can all pull over 225 and squat around 185. So they have all gotten outstanding results and continue to make great progress.

I know some of the hardcore females might be offended by me saying this but most average women do not want to train with 15 guys in a 90 degree gym while listening to Deftones and Ice Cube and pull max deadlifts or clean and press a log. Dem’s just da facts. When you find one that does, though, I highly suggest slipping a ring on her finger.

And if a female comes in looking for fat loss she’s definitely in the wrong place. That’s not what we do.

Or like Frank Rizzo said, “I don’t do dat, baby!”

It aint Jenny Craig or Curves. We train to get bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic. Fat loss is a goal that bores me to tears. It’s very unappealing to me to train someone solely for the goal of losing fat. I refuse to do it. The weight room is a place to get strong. You lose fat with proper diet and a lot of sprinting.

It’s not worth wasting strength training sessions when all you have to do is learn the most effective fat loss exercise there is and practice it regularly…

Pushaways. Push your fat ass away from the dinner table.

No matter who the client is I never change the training when it comes to fat loss. We simply change the diet and add in more sprint work and the like.

So if a girl hires me she can expect to be doing box jumps, chins, farmers walks and Olympic lift variations just like the guys. I may let her skip the neck harness, however. A girl with a neck like Stone Cold is never a great look.

If a girl can do all that stuff, is very athletic and in shape, can do at least five chin ups, jump onto a 36 inch box, squat 135 or so, then I have absolutely no problem working with her. Of course, I would prefer if she were an athlete. I would also prefer if she looked like Jamie Eason and was training for the lingerie bowl.

But like I said, everyone trains like an athlete at my gym anyway. Now obviously those prerequisites eliminate 90 percent of the population of females, but like every business book and business expert on the planet recommends- you have to do one thing and one thing only, to be successful in life. You can’t specialize in everything. You can’t be the master of everything. You have to do one thing, really well. I have chosen to do what I do because I love it. I can’t compromise.

I know a lot of trainers or coaches might be listening and read my site quite a bit, and the best business advice I can give you is to specialize in one thing. No one ever remembers the guy who does rehab, runs bootcamps, trains people for lacrosse, trains six year olds, trains old ladies and is an expert at pre and post natal training. Choose one thing and specialize on it.

Get really, really good at it and make it your focus.

For me, it’s turning average athletes and former athletes into beasts. That’s what I love to do. The thought of working with any other population makes me miserable.

For you it may be postural alignment or housewives. Whatever it is that you love to do. When you do what you love your whole life will be more enjoyable and you will be more successful. Don’t take on clients just for the sake of making more money and don’t train people for something you don’t enjoy. And never work with a client who you really don’t like working with. Take it from someone who knows from experience; that shit will make your life miserable and will have a huge negative impact on your business.

This means turning down more people than you accept and only training clients you will enjoy training and who will be a walking billboard for your company. Before accepting someone into your facility think to yourself, “Would I be proud or embarrassed to have this person wearing one of my t-shirts around town?”

Craig Ballantyne: Cool. Could you just give some quick tips on training females that you have found to be most effective? Are there any differences between the sexes in your opinion?

Jason Ferruggia: The differences are minimal but there are a few.

• Females require less rest between sets. This is simply because they weigh less and are weaker. It’s no different than a 135 pound guy who squats 185 needing less rest than a 250 pound guy who squats 550.

• They require less rest between workouts. In other words they recover faster.

• They seem to excel on full body workouts. Males can get away with upper/lower splits but for females it’s usually a waste of time.

That’s really about it. Other than that I recommend that they train just like guys. Do mobility work regularly, start workouts with explosive stuff like jumps and throws, do maximal strength work, use bodyweight assistance exercises and get good at controlling your body and moving it through space effectively. And stay the hell of the machines. Sprint two to three times per week and you’ll wonder why you ever wasted a second on the stairmaster.

One last story here to emphasize my point about training for strength- I knew a powerlifter years ago whose wife wanted to get in shape. She was probably about 38 at the time. Instead of designing some clown workout for her he said, “Ok, we’re gonna get your bench up to 135, your squat to 225 and your deadlift to 315. When you hit those numbers you’ll be in better shape than you ever dreamed of.” Some people, including his wife, thought he was nuts. But you know what? He took this novice lifter and got her in incredible shape in less than a year with three basic powerlifts and an emphasis on consistent strength gains. I always thought that was a pretty cool story.

Please leave your comments below.

How To Get More Done

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:28:19 +0000

Here are a few random tips that will help you get more done and probably enjoy your life a little more in the process. I can’t take credit for “inventing” these tips but they are very useful and have helped me to be more productive.

Get your most important tasks done first thing in the morning- Do this before you check email or voicemail or anything like that. When you start getting sidetracked with other stuff ten minutes can turn into two hours and before you know it it’s time for your lunch break. Get the important stuff done first.

Don’t answer every phone call or text you receive- You are not required by some odd law to do so. You are not required to be at the beck and call of everyone you know. Many friends and acquaintances get upset if you don’t immediately pick up or text them back.

“That bastard! I know he has his phone with him right now!”

But these people fail to realize that a cell phone is a luxury that you have for your convenience and it is meant to make your life easier; not more difficult and more stressful. It is not meant to keep you on a leash and accountable to everyone in your life at all times.

Turn off your cell phone- Jack White of the White Stripes once said that he doesn’t believe in cell phones. I laughed when I read that but I completely understood his point.

Not too long ago we were somehow able to survive without cell phones. Now people can’t even turn theirs off. I was guilty of this for a while. But turning off your cell phone and unplugging completely, once in a while is a very liberating feeling. And when you do so you won’t even be tempted to answer every call or text, because you won’t even know they are coming through. When I want to be productive the first thing I do is turn off my cell phone. I also leave it off for extended periods when I’m at home which helps me to relax and just be in my own world for a while.

Check email less often- People are increasingly guilty of checking their email too often. This is an addictive trap which leads to zero productivity. Most smart productivity and business experts recommend cutting this down to twice per day, at most. Something like 10am and 4pm. Condition people to know that you only check email twice per day and that they shouldn’t expect an immediate response from you.

Don’t respond to every email you get- This is hard at first because you want to be a nice guy. But when the numbers start piling up you simply can’t answer all of them and expect to also make money and have a life. On a daily basis I now receive more emails than I could possibly answer in a month. I used to try and answer all of these personally. Then it started to make me miserable because I was getting nothing done and letting other aspects of my life suffer. So I had to start cutting it off. Answer only the most important emails and limit most of your responses to a few lines.

Delegate- With my personality this was very hard to do. But it can pay huge dividends if you are willing to turn the reigns over to others on certain aspects of your business or life. Put your trust in someone else to do the things you aren’t good at or the things you don’t like doing. I also have someone else do all my web stuff because it’s not my field of expertise. I also have people answer emails for me for many of the reasons listed above. You have to do what you’re good at and let others help you with stuff you aren’t good at. I’m good at designing programs and training people. So I focus on that and let others do the stuff I don’t want to do or don’t know how to do. I highly recommend giving this a shot.

For more great info on this subject pick up a copy of Time Management For Trainers.

What it Takes to Train at Renegade Gym

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:21:41 +0000

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 to this…you come in and you train. That’s it. Your “application” is your first workout. I know within one training session if someone is Renegade material and if they are someone we want at the gym. After that first session I will invite someone to train with us or bluntly let them know that it isn’t going to work out. At this point in my career it usually doesn’t even take a workout any more. One two minute conversation is usually enough. But I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

At Renegade we want and accept only the most dedicated, disciplined hardest workers around. There is absolutely zero tolerance for anything less than 100% commitment. I don’t say that to be cool or hardcore or tough. Because I am none of those things. I say it because I take this business very seriously and am not in it for the money. I do it because I eat, sleep and breathe this shit. I am obsessed with it. I love getting people bull fucking strong and jacked out of their minds. I love helping guys run faster and jump higher. I live to help people hit goals and do things they never thought possible.

The majority of people, however, just don’t have the level of commitment that I expect and demand. That is why I have turned down more clients than I have accepted and will always continue to do so. It’s why I have always thrown an average of probably half a dozen people per year out of the gym. From a business perspective I highly recommend that you do the same. When you’re starting out it can be tempting to just take money from everyone that comes your way. But doing this will ruin your business in the long run. Your clients/ members need to be walking billboards for your company. And if they are lazy, whining schmucks, how is that going make you look when they get zero results and then tell people they train at your place? Never mind the fact that these types of negative, weak minded people will ruin the atmosphere in the gym, bring others down of and basically make you hate your very existence.

At Renegade we demand that if you are going to be a part of the team, you bring something to the table and make the entire group better. If you are not making the atmosphere better you’re only making it worse and just taking up space that we can’t afford to give you. At Renegade it’s not just about you; it’s about everyone else you train with as well. You need to not only elevate your game but also bring everyone else up with you. And if you are the low man on the totem pole, your job is to get to the top fast.

Like the great strength coaching legend Louie Simmons said about his world famous Westside Barbell Club, “I don’t have room for poodles in my gym; I only want pit bulls.” I am not comparing myself to Louie or Renegade to Westside, because there can not and will not ever be any comparison. But like Louie, I want guys (and girls) who are fiercely competitive and will do whatever it takes to constantly set PR’s and be the top dog in the gym.

I expect that every member of Renegade not only “brings it” each and every time they are in the gym but also that they do whatever is necessary to enhance their results outside of the gym like eating more (or less), getting enough protein, sleeping more, foam rolling, stretching, meditating, doing mobility work, sprinting, conditioning, etc. And if they don’t do it I always know. And soon I lose interest in them. We all do. Renegade is similar to the animal kingdom in that once you fall behind the pack you’re on your own and left to die. The rest of the group will move onward and upward and those who are not doing what’s necessary to excel will be forgotten about. In the jungle, the weakest and slowest water buffalo are left behind to get eaten by the lions. Things are no different at Renegade. When you get to the point that people stop caring about your results and your lack of progress you are all but dead. And your complaints and excuses will fall upon deaf ears because nobody gives a shit.

Yesterday was a max effort squat day, and longtime Renegade member Jeff D’Annunzio walked into the gym with a fire in his eyes and approached me like he was going to punch my teeth out. He told me he couldn’t sleep last night nor could he think about anything all day long at work except hitting big numbers on his squat last night. He had his fists clenched and was nearly foaming at the mouth before we even started warming up.

THAT’S the way it should be.

Some guys walk in and don’t even know what we’re training that day and are more concerned with what they are doing after the workout is over than the task at hand. Those are the guys that won’t last long and will never achieve greatness. I’ve always said if I had a 100 guys like D’Nunz and Doyle I would never leave the gym all day long.

For 15 years people have walked through the doors of Renegade Gym and have left their blood, sweat and tears on the floor. And those people have all become family. I have formed some of my closest friendships and bonds inside those four walls and I love many of those guys like brothers.

In all the years since I first started doing this, I have never once tried to sell myself or the gym. I have read almost as many business books as I have training books and I have helped many people in the fitness industry increase their yearly income to six figures. I know all the rules of business and have taught them to many people. But I don’t follow too many of them. It’s just not in me to do so. Like Sinatra, I have to do things my way.

Many of my friends and clients joke around about my salesmanship, saying it’s the worst they’ve ever seen. One of my oldest clients, Mike Schwalb, brought his friend Andrew Slater in once about six or seven years ago, and on the way to the gym repeatedly told him, “Don’t expect any sales pitch whatsoever from Jay. In fact, don’t expect him to say much of anything. He really doesn’t give a shit if you train there or not. If anything you’re gonna have to prove to him why he should let you train there.”

Andrew is now one of my close friends who I go to concerts and party in Vegas with. Something neither of us would have guessed that first day. But when you go to battle with a guy you develop a level of respect and mutual admiration that you can’t get in any other way. And if he starts slacking in the gym I’ll be the first person to get on his ass and let him know it.

I couldn’t possibly count the number of people who have trained at Renegade over the years. The weak fall out rather quickly; the driven often become lifetime members.

My friend and longtime client, Joey “Styles” Scott told me recently that winning the Big East Championship with Seton Hall University and playing professional baseball in the Oakland A‘s organization both paled in comparison to the times he had training at Renegade. He said it was the best time of his life and many have echoed his sentiments.

To create something that special that people love so much is an amazing feeling that no words can describe. There is no amount of money in the world that can replace that. That is why I will never accept payment from just anyone who walks in my door. It’s not about the money.

It’s about creating a place where guys can excel beyond any and all expectations and be the absolute best they can be. And if you’re not prepared to do whatever it takes to be the best… you’re not prepared to train at Renegade.

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