How to Build Muscle, Gain Strength & Become a Better Athlete » Fat Loss

12 Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:40 +0000

1) You’re Eating Too Many Carbs

This should be pretty obvious to most people by now, but there are still the old die-hards out there who swear that everyone should be consuming two grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight every day while maintaining a low fat intake. Load up on whole grains and fruit while cutting down on healthy, essential sources of fat like grass fed beef they’ll tell you.

Anyone experienced in physique transformation knows this is nonsense. Most people have a terrible tolerance for carbs, shitty insulin sensitivity and simply don’t do enough physically demanding work to warrant too many carbs. If you want to get lean cutting carbs is usually one of the first and most important steps you need to take. That doesn’t mean you can’t have any but you need to make smart choices and they need to be taken in at the right times and cycled properly.

2) You’re Eating Carbs at the Wrong Time

If you’re above 20% body-fat pretty much any time is the wrong time. In that case I would only recommend vegetables and possibly some post workout potatoes or a once per week refeed. When you get down to 15% you can increase the amount of carbs in the post workout meal or the weekly refeed. Everyone else should limit carb consumption to post workout and night time, as per The Renegade Diet rules. During the day you want to be alert and focused, which is one reason why you don’t want to load up on starchy carbs during this time. Save for them for the night time when you want to optimize serotonin production and rest, relax and repair.

3) You’re Eating Too Much Fat

Some people cut carbs and assume that they’re good to go and there’s nothing else to worry about. Unfortunately, the low/no carb diet isn’t as much fun as Dr. Atkins made it out to be. You can’t just eat pounds of bacon and mayonnaise with reckless abandon and think that you’ll magically end up ripped. Fat contains calories; nine per gram to be exact. At the end of the day total calories still matter, and if you’re eating more than you burn you’re never going to get ripped. Please don’t mistake this as my advocating a low fat diet. That’s just as bad, if not worse, than eating too much fat. A bare minimum of 20% of your calories should come from healthy fats like pastured egg yolks, wild caught salmon, grass fed beef and coconut oil to ensure optimal health. Just be careful about going overboard with it and thinking that low carbs automatically leads to single digit body-fat. You still need to keep a handle on things like total calories.

4)You’re Not Eating Enough Protein

In my experience it’s usually only females who are guilty of this but guys can make this mistake on occasion as well. The average female who can’t lose body-fat usually eats a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with an egg. One… single… egg.

Then she’ll have a sandwich for lunch with four ounces of lean turkey. For dinner it will be a salad with low fat dressing and four ounces of chicken or fish. Although, in all honesty they may skip the protein all together and just have a salad for either lunch or dinner. Let’s assume she weighs 135 pounds. Most experts would agree that she would need to consume at least 100 grams of protein per day, if not a gram per pound, which would equal 135 grams. Each ounce of protein is around 4.5 grams of protein. So in this example she had 36 grams combined with lunch and dinner plus the six grams from the egg. So that’s a total of 42 grams, which falls just a wee bit shy of where she needs to be.

Females often freak out when you tell them to eat more than six ounces of protein at a sitting but when you break down the numbers for them and reveal just how many calories they’re eating it should make more sense. If they had eight ounces of protein three times per day it would 108 grams of protein. That’s only 432 total calories. Add in the fat and it’s still not that much.

People who eat a sufficient amount of protein usually end up having an easier time getting ripped than those who don’t. Make sure you’re getting enough.

5) You’re Drinking Too Many Protein Shakes

There are two problems associated with drinking shakes when you’re trying to get ripped. First of all, whey protein can raise insulin levels, as I have been telling people since the mid 90’s. If you’re trying to get lean you don’t want insulin to be flowing like the Nile all day. You want a nice insulin surge post workout but the rest of the day you want it under control. That’s why The Renegade Diet limits the intake of whey protein to very small amounts during most of the day and only allows a larger amount post workout or at night.

The second problem with drinking too many shakes is that they are so easy to digest that you don’t really burn any calories when you eat them. When you chew down some salmon and broccoli your body works harder to digest that food and you burn more calories during the digestion process. When you drink something that is so easily digested, like a protein shake, your body does almost no work in the process.

So, when getting ripped is your main goal, limit your shake intake and chew as many calories as you can.

6) Your Liver is Over Stressed

This is usually the last thing people think of when embarking on a fat loss diet but it can sometimes be the most important. Everything that goes into or on your body has to be processed by the liver. That means all food, alcohol, suntan lotion, environmental pollutants, etc. If you are constantly exposing yourself to this kind of stuff and overstressing the liver fat loss will be much more difficult to come by. Cut out booze, stop eating grain-fed, chemical laden meat and incorporate some regular periods of intermittent fasting to give the liver a break and you will find your rate of fat loss is noticeably faster.

7) You’re Eating Nuts

I love nuts. I mean, who doesn’t? Give me a bag of pistachios or cashews and I won’t look up till the whole thing’s gone. The problem is nuts have a ton of calories. When you’re dieting for fat loss the rules are usually the opposite of those followed by skinny hardgainers trying to gain size. Those guys want the most calorically dense foods possible. Fat loss dieters do not. You’re better off filling up on nutritionally dense foods that don’t pack a lot of calories, like green vegetables. If you’re dieting you need to limit your nut consumption to about ten almonds per serving. No too many people can eat ten almonds. Most people eat ten handfuls. If you are strictly tracking and calculating everything all day and you want to load up on nuts at certain times I suppose you could but I wouldn’t recommend it. Nuts can be very problematic for a lot of people, especially those with digestive or auto immune issues. As Paleo Solution author Robb Wolf has noted, nuts should be used the same way you use condiments- sparingly.

I should also add, and this is strictly my opinion, meaning it has NOT been proven and posted on Pubmed… nut butters seem to be easier for most people to digest than actual whole nuts. Just something to consider.

8) You’re Eating Fruit

“What?! You’re telling people not to eat fruit!? Everyone knows that it’s impossible to get fat from eating too much fruit!”

Yeah, yeah I know, that’s why physique competitors eat so much fruit and why all fat loss experts who specialize in getting people shredded recommend such high quantities of it. In our hunter gatherer days fruit was nothing like what you see in the supermarket today. Berries were small, dark and bitter; not the huge sugar sacks most people consume these days. Don’t get me wrong, fruit is healthy and can be eaten by lean individuals in limited amounts but any type of excessive fructose (a sugar found in fruit) consumption will lead to fat loss. Fructose can only be processed by the liver and once liver glycogen stores are full the excess gets converted to triglycerides and stored as body-fat. If you want to get ripped cut fruit completely for a while or limit it to one to two small servings per day. Just be sure to really up the vegetable consumption so you can keep your vital nutrient uptake where it needs to be.

9) You’re Not Training Heavy

When you want to lose body-fat the first inclination is often to crank up the reps and cut the rest periods. I actually have no problem with fairly low rest periods. But not if you’re used to resting three minutes between sets and all of the sudden cut them down to thirty seconds because you decided it was time to get shredded you’ll be in trouble. That never works. All that happens is your weights start plummeting on every exercise and you get weaker and smaller. High reps have the same effect.

When dieting, the primary role of strength training is to maintain muscle mass. That is the single most important thing. Don’t use it as your primary “fat burning” activity… UNLESS you are seriously overweight. If you need to lose more than fifty pounds or so that would probably be fine (although please don’t ever do any of the bullshit you see on those fat camp TV shows). Females can actually get something out of metcon workouts in the right situation as well. The caveat, however, is that that they need to be strong and actually have some muscle mass. If you take a weak female with no muscle and give her a silly metcon circuit she won’t usually get much out of it because she’s too weak to produce enough force. Females should get strong first before they attempt that type of training.

If you’re a guy and are trying to lose 10-20 pounds of body-fat without losing all your muscle mass in the process you should use strength training as a way to maintain size and strength; nothing more, nothing less. So the same principles that helped you get big and strong apply when dieting. Keep the reps low and the resistance high.

10) You’re Overdoing Cardio

Traditional forms of cardio are largely useless for fat loss. But useless is even okay, it’s when it starts to be counterproductive that we have a real problem. Excessive amounts of cardio lead to an overproduction of cortisol which leads to more abdominal fat and numerous health problems. If you want to do cardio that won’t actually hurt you and could do you some good, go for a long walk. No self respecting man should ever be spotted on an elliptical machine.

Sled work builds muscle, burns fat and is irreplaceable

11) You’re Not Running Sprints or Doing Sled Work

Dieting is the most important thing for fat loss. After that you should be doing some form of strength training to maintain your muscle mass. When you have those to things dialed in you’ll want to add in some type of sprinting or sled work. There is nothing more effective for fat loss. See all wide receivers, defensive backs, sprinters, soccer players, etc. for proof. Two or three 20-40 minute sprint or sled sessions per week will be enough for most people.

Don’t have a sled? Get one HERE.

12) You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

When you’re short on sleep your insulin sensitivity decreases and your cortisol goes up. Both things lead to less than optimal fat loss. You also miss out on the critically important Growth Hormone boost that comes each night during deep sleep. If you want to lose more fat you have to get more sleep. Most people will ignore this and some of you are probably reading this at 2am. Unfortunately this just might be the most important thing on the whole list. More sleep improves EVERYTHING. Make it a priority.

If you liked this post do me a huge favor and hit the Facebook Like button and share it with anyone you think would be interested.

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Fast Fat Loss Workouts

Jason Ferruggia — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:55:55 +0000

“There aint no cure for the summertime blues.”

That’s what Eddie Cochran told us in 1958.

And a lot of people know all too well about that particular subject. I’m talking about less than two months from today when June 21st rolls around and it’s officially time to start shedding layers for all to see.

Those who aren’t prepared will inevitably be stricken with a fierce case of the summertime blues. That’s because they will be forced to keep their shirts on or live in embarrassment over the next few months, regretting that they didn’t lean down like they wanted to.

Girls will start saying things like, “I hate all my clothes,” and guys will just start making excuses and avoiding pool and beach parties at all costs.

Don’t let it happen to you. It’s not too late to lose another 10-15 pounds of bodyfat before July 4th weekend. But you’ve got to get started today. As in right now! Not tomorrow, not later on tonight, but right now!

Firstly, if your diet isn’t spot on there is no type of training you can do that will make much of a difference. So get that in check first. Lean, organic grass fed meats, wild caught fish, eggs and grass fed, raw whey protein powder should make up the bulk of your calories. Load up on the green veggies and get some healthy fats like coconut oil in on a daily basis.

To ensure that you’re getting adequate nutrition I recommend a serving per day of Athletic Greens, which is the best mixed greens product I’ve tried and eliminates the need for a bunch of other supplements.

One other good trick is to take a tablespoon of psyillium husks in water every night before bed. That helps clean you out and flatten your lower belly a bit.

Remember, getting lean is at least 85% nutrition, so don’t even think about starting a fat loss focused phase with a crappy diet. It just won’t happen.

Now For the Fast Fat Loss Workouts
The first thing I always tell people before they embark on a fat loss phase is to keep the heavy strength work in the program. Even if you train strictly with bodyweight that means you still need to keep high resistance, low rep (5-8) work in the program. If you immediately abandon strength work in favor of high reps you will lose muscle and strength. The end result is a small, soft physique. You definitely don’t want that.

The first thing to add in is high intensity, low duration conditioning like hill or sled sprints. If fat loss is your main focus right now you will only need two or three days of heavy training to maintain your muscle mass and strength. The other days should dedicated to more fat loss style training.

Let’s say you strength train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you are currently doing zero conditioning start slow and add in two 15-20 minute sessions on Tuesday and Saturday. My first choice is hill sprints or sprints with a sled. Sand sprints on the beach are awesome as well. And you can never go wrong with the Prowler or a jump rope.

The intensity should be high and your heart rate should be higher. You don’t have to puke but it shouldn’t be comfortable by any means. So get comfortable being uncomfortable.

If you’re new to sprinting take it slow. A half dozen 20-30 yard sprints is a good start. Then, a few weeks later you can work up to ten 50’s. Six weeks later you could push it to somewhere around 1000 yards total for a good fat loss workout. In other words, ten one hundred yard sprints. Run the length of a football field up hill, on the beach or on flat ground with a sled then walk back and repeat.

Four hundred meter sprints are hard to beat for fat loss but that takes a long time to work up to and is definitely quite a bit riskier from an injury perspective. If you have a really long hill or a huge stretch of grass to run with a sled on you could work past 100 yards after about eight weeks of sprinting. If that’s not an option be very careful when working your way up to the 400 and make sure your sprint technique is spot on.

Two days of sprinting per week will be enough for most people. If you’re in shape and athletic there’s no reason you couldn’t get up to three or four, as long as least one of them is of lower intensity.

One option I really like is to bring a kettlebell to the beach and alternate sprints with a kettlebell exercise each set. So set the kettlebell down 50-75 yards away from your start position then sprint to it. When you get there do ten snatches per arm. The weight doesn’t have to be heavy. For most guys a 35 pound bell will be fine. It’s not really strength work, just conditioning. After the snatches walk back to the start line.

When you catch your breath hit the deck for ten Hindu or regular pushups. Again, this will be fairly easy, but in a winded state it will do the job. You don’t want to induce a lot of soreness or systemic fatigue but rather just keep moving and burning fat. After the pushups sprint back down to the kettlebell. Ideally you should launch out of your tenth rep and right into the sprint. Rest as needed and repeat for up to 10-12 sets. That’s a killer workout right there.

On top of your sprint workouts you could also add a 5-10 minute finisher to your strength training workouts. That would be something simple like sledgehammer swings, sled drags, Prowler pushes, battling ropes, jumping rope, hitting a heavy bag or kettlebell snatches. Just set a clock and get after it.

Another great option I use a lot is the following set up:

Monday- Upper Body Strength
Tuesday- Lower Body Strength
Thursday- Fat Loss Conditioning Circuit
Saturday- Fat Loss Conditioning Circuit

As a side note this is also a great template for combat athletes where the two days at the end of the week are more strength endurance/ conditioning days based on their specific needs. If you only have time for three days you could just do once circuit style workout on Friday.

A sample workout might look something like this:

1a) Low Box Jump- 15-20 seconds
1b) Spiderman Pushup- 10-20 reps
1c) Rope Slams- 15-20 seconds
1d) KB Overhead Squat- 5-10 reps per side
1e) Sled Rope Row- 10-20 seconds
1f) Mountain Climber- 25-50 reps per side
1g) Kettlebell Snatch- 10-25 reps per side

Repeat for three to five circuits with minimal rest periods. Set up a similar workout on Saturday. The exercise options are based on your strength levels and the impact that they will have on your heavy days. Keep that in mind.

So there you have a few fast fat loss workouts you can put to use immediately. Like I said, don’t wait til tomorrow. Get started on these today and let me know if you have any questions or if I can help you in any way.

Good luck.

The Transformation of Kyle Matthews

Jason Ferruggia — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:21:47 +0000

Kyle Matthews knows a thing or two about hard work and dedication. He won the first ever Muscle Gaining Secrets transformation contest a few years back, then repeated his performance when we had another transformation contest for members of the Renegade Inner Circle last year.

To do that twice is pretty impressive. Especially considering the fact that between the two contests he suffered three freak injuries that set him back considerably (all of which we didn’t have the time to cover in this interview). Today Kyle’s going to share some of his experiences and explain how he trains and stays dedicated to making such dramatic improvements on a regular basis.

JF: Kyle, you and I have discussed how our training backgrounds were similar and that we made a lot of the same mistakes at the beginning. What was it that finally opened your eyes and got you on the right track? What were the major changes that helped you start making such incredible progress?

KM: You were what finally opened my eyes. I had tried TONS of different programs with the same dedication I have now. I never got results, so I moved onto the next program I could find. I kept reading, and reading, and reading, until I finally stumbled on your Muscle Gaining Secrets program. I sat in my bed for the rest of the day and read the ebook. I started the program the next day, and it was go-time right from the beginning.

Within the first couple weeks I was seeing unreal results. The major differences that stick out in my mind are the concept of progressive overload and the value of big, multi-joint movements. Additionally, you taught me how to manipulate my calories depending on my goals and more importantly, how and when to manipulate my carbohydrates. Once I started experimenting with the principles, getting lean, something that I had unsuccessfully tried to do for about 7 years, became a simple matter of putting knowledge into action.

This is what Kyle cracks a can of when he wants to get jacked.

JF: What a lot of people may not know is that after the first time you transformed your physique for the Muscle Gaining Secrets 12 week contest you suffered a pretty serious injury that set you back for a while.

Can you talk about that and what you had to deal, how you trained during the injury and what you did to come back?

KM: Training was progressing well until October of 2008, when I dislocated my left kneecap. I had done this a bunch of times prior to the incident and had already had 2 knee surgeries under my belt. This time, however, it was a lot worse than before. I fell off a fence and my leg buckled behind me on impact. My foot was literally underneath my lower back and my quad at about a 45 degree angle in relation to my torso. I remember looking down at my knee and seeing my femur bulging out against my skin. I sat up, grabbed my left ankle, and began to move my foot clockwise. Luckily, as I straightened out my leg, my kneecap slid back into place. I instantly knew it was bad. Real bad. I tore my ACL and MCL.

Moreover, my patellar tendon was so stretched out that not only did I need to fix the tears, but I also needed a patella relocation. My surgeon fixed the tears and moved my kneecap back into place. Because I had dislocated my kneecap so many times, he had to loosen my patellar tendon on the outside of my knee, stretch it over my kneecap, and synch it down to the inside of my knee using steel wire to make sure it didn’t happen again. Then, he went back in later to clean out all the broken cartilage and bone from the dislocations.

The last surgery was mid March of 2009. I was on crutches for about 10 weeks. Full recovery (which for me was sprinting, squatting, and deadlifting at my previous level) was marked at 1 year. It seemed long to me but my ortho is an accomplished sports surgeon that works with various Olympic teams and the Stanford Football and Wrestling teams so I went by his timeline.

Despite being on crutches, I was back in the gym training upper body as soon as I was allowed to sweat…literally. As soon as I got the stitches out, I was back in the gym. I was lucky enough to have an awesome training partner who was willing to hand me DB’s and rack/unrack bars for me. I basically did curls, dips, chins, and various light presses until I got off crutches. From the date of the injury to the time I got off crutches, I had gone from about 185lbs with single digit body fat to 160lbs and soft. I was getting skinny fat in a hurry. My focus switched to knee rehab 4-5 days/week and 2-3 days/week of upper body training.

I was following a push/pull kind of split for upper body. I also started bulking immediately since I couldn’t stand being 160 lbs and weak. Over the next 8 months (until about mid February 2010) I bulked relentlessly and gained a grand total of 58 lbs topping the charts at 218 lbs. I’m pretty sure I followed MGS during the bulk but I can’t remember for sure. What ever it was, it was definitely written by you.

JF: It was a program I helped you modify because of your injury.

KM: That’s right. I got stronger than I ever had before and met some long time strength goals. My bench maxed out at 350 lbs, which was 65 lbs heavier than my previous max and 125 lbs heavier than my max after knee surgery. I pulled 500 lbs off the rack, set about an inch below knee height, which was also a goal of mine for about as long as I have been training seriously.

JF: Now during this latest transformation you used the Triple Threat Muscle program. Tell us a little bit about your experience on the program and the results you achieve.

KM: Triple Threat is awesome. I felt like Muscle Gaining Secrets was more geared towards acquiring raw strength, power, and size whereas Triple Threat is a little more focused on enhancing overall athletic performance while sprinkling the strength and power stuff on top. The finishers were my favorite part. My conditioning and coordination went through the roof.

I timed my 40 yard sprint when I started the program and clocked in around 5.6-5.7 seconds. At the end, I had brought that down to 4.8. That is by no means fast, but it is a lot faster than I was when I started. I was pretty impressed with those results considering that I was in no way concentrating on getting faster. It’s obviously partly due to dropping about 20 lbs of fat throughout the duration of the program, but I think a large part of it also has to be from the design of it. The finishers are absolutely killer.

Cutting all that fat for the first contest involved lots of steady-state cardio. This time around, the finishers alone got me pretty lean. When my fat loss slowed, I added a couple more sprinting days per week. For the last two weeks, I did fasted cardio on a treadmill 2-3 times per week…that’s it. While I was cutting for the contest, a good friend of mine was doing Triple Threat with me. He is a professional volleyball player, and a textbook hardgainer. When he started the program, he was 200 lbs…and 6’7” tall. He did all the finishers with me and still gained 20 lbs of lean weight. That’s pretty solid proof that the finishers don’t hinder muscle gain if you’re trying to gain weight.

This was a new experience for me because last time I cut, I wasn’t very worried about losing muscle; my main goal was fat loss. That’s because I didn’t have very much muscle in the first place. This time around, I was worried about losing hard earned muscle so I was much more conscious of my diet and how much weight I was losing week to week. I had just come off an 8-month bulk and the last thing I wanted was to mess it up and end up losing a bunch of the muscle I gained during that time. I’m pretty sure Triple Threat took care of me in that respect. In the end, I ended up gaining some strength, which was kind of unexpected because I was so focused on cutting fat.

If I had to choose my favorite program you’ve written, it would probably be Triple Threat.

JF: Awesome stuff. Finally, let’s discuss motivation. A lot of people reading this are going to be envious of the kind of progress you have made. I mean, let’s face it, not a lot of people have the dedication to follow a diet as strictly as you do for 12-16 weeks. How do you stay dedicated and motivated and what tips do you have for others that may help them stay on track?

Kyle's Triple Threat Muscle Transformation

KM: That is a really tough question for me to answer. I don’t think dedication is something that can be taught by a person. The way I see it, dedication is something that has to be learned by the individual through experience and drive. From the first time I set foot in a gym when I was lifting for Pop Warner Football, I was immediately intrigued by the veteran weightlifters. I was a young, chubby, weak little kid, and these guys looked gargantuan. It was something I admired. The big weights they were moving were impressive, their large stature commanded respect, and most of all they were all really nice to me. Even though I didn’t start training seriously for a number of years after that, it stuck with me and was always something I admired.

I stay dedicated because training is something that is really important to me, and it has been for a long time.

I make the time to train because it is probably the most motivating factor in my life.

Training has taught me dedication and that same dedication has carried over into the other aspects of my life.

I’m HUGE on goal setting; it is my major source of motivation. I am constantly setting new goals, writing them down, and setting a timeline.

When you set a timeline, you have a way to measure progress and hold yourself accountable for meeting it. If you don’t have a timeframe it becomes too easy to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I’ll start next week.” Once you take that out of the equation, you just do it. And you do it for nobody but yourself. You do it because you will know deep down that if you don’t, you have failed and given up on yourself.

The biggest tip I would give someone is to set goals. Set a goal, write it down, and get after it. Set some goals for a week from now, a month from now, 3 months from now, 6 months from now, and a year from now. Dream big, it’s okay to set longer term goals that seem out of reach. You want to make yourself work hard in achieving them. Write them all down on a piece of paper and put it in your pocket. Carry it with you every day. Read it at least once a day and keep adding to it as you knock ‘em off. That is exactly what I did when I was new to setting goals and when I get off track, I go right back to that formal goal-setting system.

The only other advice I would have is to stop making excuses. Nobody is going to do it for you so you have to get off your ass and figure it out. It would be great if we could all have someone like you follow us around, watch what we eat, keep us motivated, and train us. That’s not the case, so get over it and do it on your own. You will make mistakes, you might even get injured, and you probably won’t make the same progress as you would if you were being professionally monitored. But, you also will gain tons of invaluable knowledge and get all the satisfaction of knowing that you did it on your own.

JF: One of the most important lessons to learn here is that Kyle does ONE program with 100% dedication and sticks with it for 12-16 weeks.

He is not a program jumper, not constantly in search of the next best thing, not constantly second guessing and questioning.

And that is why he makes better progress than 99% off all people who will ever pick up a weight.

It’s that simple, folks.

Please leave your comments or questions for Kyle below.

It Aint Strength Training Unless You’re Gettin’ Strong

Jason Ferruggia — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:04:47 +0000

“How did everything that was so good get so bad?”
- Rocky Balboa, Rocky III

I can’t take it anymore.

It’s gone too far.

It’s driving me insane.

I hate it.

No, I loathe it. Like Newman did Keith Hernandez.

I’m sure Arthur Saxon is rolling in his grave.

And Doug Young (pictured left) and Kaz would probably puke in their mouths if they ever saw or heard of such a thing.

It’s this overwhelming obsession with metabolic conditioning and it’s ruining real strength training.

I know I’ve said this countless times before but I can’t repeat it enough…

You lift weights to get bigger, stronger and more explosive. That’s it.

Not for fat loss or conditioning. There are far better, less detrimental ways to achieve both of those goals.

The problem is our entire society has been polluted with this bullshit movement. Everyone these days thinks that a strength training workout should be more grueling than going five rounds with GSP or Brock Lesnar.

That is not remotely true, my friends.

You should always leave the gym feeling better than when you walked in; not completely wiped out in a pool of your own blood and puke.

It’s all gotten way too out of control. Every single workout does not need to be a conditioning fest.

That’s not to say that building a small conditioning component into an effective strength program is a bad thing. Bill Starr was a fan of doing this way back when he was preparing the Baltimore Colts for Super Bowl V.

But there is an enormous difference between doing heavy sets of five on a bench, squat and clean in a three exercise circuit with appropriate rest periods and a workout that includes following up your five rep set of cleans with a 400 meter run, 20 kettlebell snatches, 35 box jumps, 10 kipping chin ups and a set of burpees.

That’s not strength training.

That’s just fucking retarded.

Finishers & Off Day Conditioning

What about the concept of finishers? Even a lot of the smart guys who haven’t allowed their strength training to turn into an aerobics class still feel compelled to always do a finisher these days. I’m here to tell you that you can let go of the guilt and that it’s okay if every single workout doesn’t include a finisher. Even if it’s a well thought out finisher that won’t have a negative effect on your joints or your training.

In the old days (hell, even 10-15 years ago) no one did finishers. You lifted weights to get jacked and then you went home and ate. On off days you did some conditioning or played a sport. Now I have guys asking me 20 times a week what kind of bodyweight circuit they should do on their off days.

NONE! It’s your OFF day! Go for a walk and take it easy on the joints. Or get a life and play a sport. Go surfing or hiking. Do anything other than more (low quality) strength training.

“But I have to do something! How about a circuit of kettlebell swings and snatches?”

Uh… no.

How friggin’ conditioned do people need to be? Seriously? When and where do plan on using that elite level of conditioning you are training for? Unless Dana White signed you for his next Pay Per View main event I think you can tone it down a notch.

I honestly don’t remember people thinking like this a decade or so ago.

When did everyone become such a manorexic, metrosexual pussy?

Playing yourself into shape is a far more honorable and manly pursuit than setting up a sandbag and kettlebell circuit in between two heavy strength training days.

When men were still men people moved big iron to gain size and strength and they walked or ran on off days to maintain their conditioning and bodyfat levels.

Nobody did four weekly 30 minute circuits of swings, burpees and snatches. You know why? Because that shit makes you small and weak, pumps you full of cortisol, destroys your joints, and negatively affects your strength training.

The Man Maker Formula

There’s a very simple formula for being awesome that people have followed with great success for many, many years:

•   Lift
•   Run (or walk)
•   Incorporate Flexibility/ Mobility/ Soft Tissue Work (Foam roll, ART, massage, etc.)

That’s the whole ballgame in a nutshell.

If you want to get lean you simply diet by cutting carbs and calories and you add in a 30-45 minute walk 5-7 mornings a week on an empty stomach. And don’t worry about what some study quoting geek told you about it not being effective. Anyone who spews that bullshit should not be taken seriously when it comes to training advice.

Just about every bodybuilder in the history of the planet has walked to get ripped. I’ve used it with numerous clients for almost two decades and it always works. That’s why I’ve been telling you to do it for years and I keep repeating myself.

In fact, I now recommend it to all skinny-fat hardgainers who are trying to pack on muscle. Genetic misfits like that (myself included) usually gain as much fat as they do muscle when training and eating for size. Adding in the morning walks keeps the fat gain at bay while they gain size and it doesn’t have any negative effect on their training whatsoever.

Your heart rate for these walks should be around 60-70% of max. Again, don’t listen to dweebs hopping around with their clipboards shouting that the “fat burning zone doesn’t exist and it’s HIIT time for everyone!” Trust me, it aint. Do what Yates did and start hoofing it.

If your primary goal is to gain as much size and strength as possible, then walking is probably all you will want to do for conditioning.

If you also want to be in shape and athletic then add in sprints (with a sled or prowler, on a hill, or on flat ground if you’re an experienced sprinter) and/or jump rope a couple days a week.

Just Do It

The inevitable next questions to follow my “sprint often” recommendations are always:

“How many sprints?”

“What distance?”

“What’s the work to rest ratio?”

The honest answer is I have no clue. I don’t know what kind of shape you’re in. I don’t know how much grass you have in your neighborhood, how long your hill is, how much experience you have running, how much you weigh, etc.

If you’re training for football or the 100 meter then we can get more specific. But if you’re just training to be an in shape, athletic, badass then heed Nike’s advice and just do it. Get outside and start sprinting. Always do a thorough warm up and start slow and easy. I wouldn’t run more than 30-40 yards your first time out. Over time you can add distance to each sprint if you want. Or you can add more reps. Or both. You can also decrease the rest time. There are a million options. The point is to just get it done.

Two 15-30 minute sessions per week will do the job for most people. How you set up the distances and rest times within that 15-30 minute time frame is up to you.

Sprinting is something that everyone should be able to do with at least a decent level of proficiency. It’s a basic, fundamental human skill.

Swinging a kettlebell for 200 reps is not.

Running up a hill for 15 minutes on an off day will not have a great detrimental effect on your strength training. Swinging or snatching a kettlebell for the same 15 minutes probably will. The swings and snatches will induce soreness and are just providing more repetitive stress to the joints.

You CAN run up a hill or jump rope and deadlift the next day. You CAN’T do ten minutes of kettlebell swings and deadlift the next day. At least not without some type of negative impact on your strength.

Jumping rope is another skill that I believe all able bodied human beings should possess. I’d rather see you do that any day of the week instead of some crazy bodyweight circuit that’s just stressing your joints and delaying your recovery from the workouts that really matter.

Putting it All Together

You lift weights (and do real bodyweight strength training, meaning hard sets of 5-10 reps, not 50 rep nonsense) to get bigger, stronger and faster. If your goal is fat loss the training doesn’t change. The only thing you might do is cut down the volume a bit or add more rest.

This is the complete opposite of what most people would think but it’s what you need to do if you want to maintain size and strength while dieting strictly.

Walk in the mornings and run sprints twice per week. Or just walk. It’s up to you and your goals.

Since everyone wants to do it these days I will also allow a finisher to be included in couple of workouts per week for fun (fun being the key word). Hell, I do them myself from time to time more as a challenge than anything else. I understand the desire to do something fun and challenging and different. So I’m not saying never to swing a kettlebell or mess around with the battling ropes.

The most important thing to remember is to ensure that whatever you choose has very little impact on your strength training and isn’t adding a ton of unnecessary reps to your joints. This means you have to be careful with kettlebell exercises, barbell complexes and bodyweight circuits.

The best conditioning methods will always be running, jumping rope and pushing the Prowler.

If you choose to do a finisher then you have to adjust the rest of your week accordingly. You can’t do a finisher at 3-4 workouts and then add in another hard 3-4 conditioning workouts on top of that.

Remember that your joints only have so much mileage in them. When they’re gone they’re gone. So use them wisely.

A finisher doesn’t need to be more than 5-10 minutes and can include any of the exercises that I have poked fun at in this article. Just don’t overdo it, and never do strength training disguised as conditioning of on off days.

Train for Strength, No Matter What Your Goal

Strength training is quantifiable and produces measurable results. “Fat loss” or “metabolic conditioning workouts?” Not so much. After 12-16 weeks very few people get any leaner, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if your conditioning is improving. But you can always get stronger and see your numbers going up.

So train for strength no matter what your goal.

Dieting is responsible for 90% of your fat loss. I’ve seen fat asses train their balls off and never lose an ounce because their diet sucked. I can name a couple dozen of them off the top of my head right now. You simply can’t out train a bad diet.

Think about what type of training is going to have the biggest positive impact and focus your efforts on that. It’s Pareto’s 80/20 Law. Believe me when I tell you that real, old school strength training will make a bigger difference than anything else, no matter what your goal.

Not circuits of kettlebells or battling ropes or burpees or whatever other “met-con” bullshit you can come up with.

Keep it old school and always remember…

It aint strength training unless you’re gettin strong.

Sean Hyson Interview- Part 2

Jason Ferruggia — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:07:16 +0000

JF: So, what about staying motivated, getting up and walking on an empty stomach, running sprints when you might not have felt like it, training on low carbs…

Do you have any tricks you use to keep you motivated or anything you can share that can help those who lack motivation? Or is that concept foreign to you because it’s never a problem you could imagine having?

SH: I started the transformation in late February, so I was sprinting outdoors (sometimes while it was snowing), and usually at night after work. Sure, I was tired from the long day, and I knew I was missing my favorite Seinfeld re-runs, but I had a job to do. That’s how I thought about it. I don’t like letting people down. I feel sick to my stomach if I think I’ve disappointed someone I care about or I didn’t live up to my responsibilities in some way.

Honestly, Jay, I didn’t want to let you down. I have so much respect for you, and I did the transformation in part to show the world the effectiveness of your methods and to give something back for all the knowledge you’ve imparted to me over the years.

JF: That’s very kind of you to say. I appreciate that. But just so you know, you’ve been letting me down for years. I joke, I joke… Carry on.

SH: I believe that you have to be accountable to other people if doing it for you alone isn’t enough.

JF: I agree 100%.

SH: I employed some strategies to stay sharp. I typed the words “Total Commitment” in big bold letters and printed it out and taped it to the cabinet above my desk at work. I had to look at it all the time, and whenever people walked by my desk and asked me about it, I had to explain what I was doing.

I set my stereo to wake me up in the morning to the Rocky theme song. Maybe that’s cheesy, but damn if it didn’t work. I’m an enormous fan of the Rocky movies and that soundtrack makes me want to fight and weep all at the same time. It gets me so fired up. So hearing it first thing in the morning helped me shake the cobwebs and get right down to business.

JF: Nice. I love it. Just don’t post the video of you and me jumping around and hugging in the ocean after we raced on the beach that day.

SH: We’ll see. As the program wore on, I did start to crack a little bit. I started drinking a Diet Coke in the last four weeks now and then—probably because the low-carb days had gotten so extreme my body was really craving something sweet. It’s funny, but I actually was afraid to drink Diet Coke in the beginning. I wanted everything to be so pure. I think the point I’m trying to make is that if you can do little things here and there that satisfy cravings but don’t do any major damage, go for it. That helps to restore your resolve.

One last thing I’ll say about mindset is that when you’re being really disciplined and hardcore, a certain feeling of elitism has a way of coming over you. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

JF: Definitely. I’ve always said that and am glad you’re bringing it up.

SH: You better believe that when I was on that hill, sprinting in the snow, or jumping rope on an empty stomach for five five-minute rounds (that’s a championship UFC fight!), I thought I was tougher than 90% of the world’s population. That kept me going. Telling myself that if I do this next workout I’d be making a major statement because most other people would have quit by now.

I certainly don’t think that I’m better than anyone else, and what I accomplished wasn’t extraordinary, but I took a lot of comfort in knowing that I was rising to meet challenges that most people shy away from.

It’s empowering. It all goes back to confidence, as I mentioned in the beginning. In all my life, I’ve never found anything that made me feel better about myself than training. And the harder I trained, the better I felt.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, I’d also like to add that I got very little support from anyone (outside of you and the gang at Renegade, of course). My parents were encouraging, but they didn’t really understand what I was doing or why. Same goes for the people at work. Some people even ribbed me for not going out—living like a monk instead. I think all of that should just add to your motivation rather than dissipate it.

JF: No doubt. So what did you learn during your twelve week transformation?

SH: I learned that diet really is the biggest determining factor in body composition. The diet you gave me was spot on and I could see progress inside of the first week. That alone was very motivating. I learned that you’re never as tired as you want to think you are—you CAN run sprints after work.

I remember what UFC champ Georges St-Pierre’s Muay Thai coach once told me. He said that when GSP was getting tired in a workout and started loafing, he’d tell him things like, “imagine your mom was in here and the air conditioner just fell on her head. Would you be too tired to run over and lift it off her? Of course you wouldn’t. Find that energy now.”

I also learned to keep things in perspective. I mentioned gaining strength from elitism before, but you also have to remind yourself that the challenge of getting in shape is nothing like the challenges that some people have to face. It’s not a UFC fight, it’s not the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded and you’re at bat. It’s not treating cancer. If other people can face those situations and come out better for them, you can get to the gym in the morning.

Sean Hyson Interview- Part 1

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:07:39 +0000

Today I have an interview I recently conducted with my brother-from-another-mother, fellow music lover and Seinfeld quoting, old school physical culture obsessed, first class gem of a human being, the lovely and talented… Sean Hyson.

You may know Sean as the fitness editor of Men’s Fitness Magazine and may have seen his incredible before and after transformation pics. Today we’re going to get to know a little bit more about the man himself. I was going to have him conduct the entire interview in his dead on, Christopher Walken impression but then I remembered you would be reading it, not hearing it, so the effect might be lost on you…

JF: Hys-Cube, first of all thanks for doing this, and let’s get this started with you telling everyone how you got into training in the first place?

SH: My pleasure. I’ve always been a fan of strength, whether it was demonstrated by tough guys in movies, pro wrestlers, or He-Man cartoons. People who held some kind of power always made me take notice, so I guess it was inevitable that I’d get into lifting eventually. I was a very skinny kid growing up and even though I liked to be active and I practiced martial arts for many years, I never had much confidence.

JF: Sounds very much like my story. So what inspired you to pick up a weight for the first time?

SH: If I had to pinpoint one moment that inspired me to start training, it would be this one: It was my freshman year in college and a friend of my roommate’s came to our room to visit. He had his shirt off, and I couldn’t help but notice that the kid was ripped. He was on the track team and he lifted weights. I didn’t really have a problem with him, but he was kind of an obnoxious guy, and at that moment a thought flashed in my head. “What if, by some strange circumstance, I had to fight this kid?”

Even though I had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, I had to be honest with myself. I didn’t think I could beat this kid if it came down to it. He was so much stronger. That was really the impetus for me to start training. I bought a weight-gain powder a week later and started lifting. For the record, I could totally whip that kid’s ass now!

JF: Haha. I’m sure. So what were some of the early mistakes you made in your training career?

SH: As for mistakes, I made all of them. I probably even invented some new ones. I trained only chest and arms for the first few months and did too many sets. My only instruction came from Arnold’s Encyclopedia, so my form was awful. One thing I will say for myself, however, is that I never got hooked on machines. My dad is a lifter, and he believed that machines were a waste of time, so I knew to avoid them. I used free weights from the beginning.

JF: What led to you becoming the fitness editor at Men’s Fitness and what jobs did you have along the way?

SH: I wish I could say I struggled and paid my dues to break into the fitness and magazine industries, but I really didn’t. Actually, I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to struggle and pay those dues! Lucky me. My dad worked for a publishing company and got me an interview at Men’s Fitness, which was re-launching in New York at the time. I had just graduated college, so the timing couldn’t have been better.

I was already obsessed with fitness and had been reading fitness mags for many years. I was a writing major in college, with a concentration in magazine writing specifically, so it was very lucky timing and a great fit. I started as editorial assistant, doing every little job anyone would give me, and I had the great fortune of being mentored by the former fitness editor of Men’s Health, who had come over to MF. He groomed me to be fitness editor, and in 2004, I got the job. I studied on my own time and got certified a little while later (C.S.C.S.). Since then, I’ve been fitness editor for Muscle & Fitness Hers and Sly magazines (Sylvester Stallone’s short-lived fitness mag), and I’ve done some freelance writing for Outside’s Go magazine and T-Muscle.com. I’m also the senior editor at UFC magazine.

As of last week, I’ve been doing some editing for Muscle & Fitness magazine as well, so, as you might have guessed, I don’t get out much anymore.

JF: Yeah, I could tell. Let’s discuss your transformation. For those that don’t know, Sean came to me last year and said he wanted to do a 12 week transformation that would be featured in Men’s Fitness. He asked me to write up the program and diet and promised me he would be 100% committed. To say he lived up to his word would be an understatement. We stayed in close contact throughout the entire 12 weeks and Sean was as dedicated as a person could get. I wrote the program and diet but Sean is the one who actually had to do all the hard work.

So Sean, let me ask you, first of all, how did you stay so strict on your diet throughout the entire 12 weeks without cheating once? A lot of people find that impossible to do.

SH: I have to say that the discipline part wasn’t hard. The way I constructed it in my mind, I had no choice but to succeed. What was the alternative? If I didn’t get results—amazing results—I was going to look like a fool in front of thousands (maybe millions?) of people. I had announced in the magazine and on the Men’s Fitness website that I was going to get ripped. I had before photos taken, and everyone who knew me had heard me make the promise.

JF: I want to stop you right there for a second because this is such an important point. If anyone reading this has a goal similar to Sean’s I advise you right now to make it public. Tell as many people as you know. Post your pictures online, in the Renegade Inner Circle, wherever.

Do whatever it takes to ensure that you can not and will not fail because you’ve put it out there and can’t look like a loser in other people’s eyes. Social support is huge in physical transformation as is the idea of looking like a failure in the eyes of dozens, or in Seans case, hundreds of thousands of people.

Continue on, Cube…

SH: So I basically locked myself up for three months and threw away the key. I got to bed by 10:30 every night, spent my spare time prepping meals and washing dishes, and never missed a workout. To be brutally honest, I was seeing a girl at the time and I even pushed her away because it was a distraction.

JF: Who’s more hardcore than you?

SH: Haha. Well, there were other factors that led to the end of that relationship which I won’t bore you with—and, to be clear, I would never prize training over a meaningful relationship—but I felt I had to base every decision on whether or not it would bring me closer to the results I wanted. Getting in extreme shape in a short period of time requires an extreme attitude. If that’s what you want to do, I think if you tell yourself that it’s just for a relatively short time, the whole process won’t seem so daunting.

We’ll back atcha tomorrow with Part II in which we’ll get into motivation tips and the training and nutrition program Sean followed to get ripped.

In the meantime drop us a comment below.

The Best Way to Gain Muscle is to Lose Fat?

Jason Ferruggia — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 14:29:14 +0000

Today we have a killer guest post from my friend and colleague, John Alvino.

Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section below…

*******

When Andy came into my training center, he was very clear on what his goals were. He wanted to gain size and strength, and he made it abundantly clear that he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve his goals.

After our initial consultation, I learned that he had been trying to get bigger and stronger for the last four years. He was very serious about accomplishing his goals and I admired his dedication, determination and his stick-to-itiveness.

Andy’s four years of consistent efforts had, unfortunately, resulted in one year of gains followed by three years of stagnation and frustration. This is exactly why he chose to come see me. I had the job of figuring out why, despite all of his hard work, Andy had been spinning his wheels for the past three years.

One thing was for certain: Andy was well read and was using some very effective muscle building protocols. He was training properly, getting adequate recovery and eating a sufficient amount of clean food.

So why was he stuck? Well, Andy was stuck in a classic muscle building plateau. He certainly did his best to bust through this plateau by using different techniques, but in the end, they were all to no avail.

When he tried to increase his calories, he would gain unwanted fat. When he tried training heavier and harder. he burned out.

He even tried backing off of his training program to reverse any potential overtraining. When he did this, he would lose some of his previous gains; then, when he would resume training, he would gain back what he had lost — but no more.

Although he was completely bewildered by his predicament, it was no shock to me. I have seen this frustrating scenario play out time and time again.

When I told Andy that I had seen people in his situation countless times before, he just kept saying, “Please don’t tell me I’ve reached my genetic potential, I’ll do anything, just tell me what I need to do!”

Although he seemed ready to hear anything, my suggestion to him almost made him fall off his chair. Very calmly I looked him dead in the eyes and said, “In order to gain muscle, you need to lose body fat first.”

Andy was shocked. He said, “I don’t want to lose anything, I want to gain!” Then I told him, “After you get ripped, you will gain muscle quickly — perhaps faster than ever!”

This very suggestion happens to be one of my best kept secrets.

I originally came up with this theory after I had competed in my first bodybuilding competition. You see, before I did my contest prep, I too had been stuck in the same dreaded plateau that Andy was stuck in.

And like Andy, I did everything in my power to gain as much muscle as possible before dieting down to contest shape. But for a full year I couldn’t gain an additional ounce of muscle or add a pound of weight to the bar. This was beyond frustrating, as you can imagine!

Then the day came — 12 weeks before my contest. I now had to focus on losing fat and instead of gaining size. For 12 weeks, I dieted and trained my butt off until I had lost close to 30 pounds and I was totally ripped. I actually won my weight class and felt great!

But after losing 30 pounds, I was definitely ready to get back to the gym and start putting some size back on.

I was back in the gym on Monday morning, but on a whim, I did something dramatically different from anything I had ever done before: I decided to see if I could stay lean while I gained my size back. So I increased my calories, backed off my cardio and hit the weights hard.

I certainly deserved (and expected) some nice gains. But what happened left me totally stunned. In just three short weeks, I had gained 21 pounds of muscle and had broken my personal best in my main lifts.

This was crazy to me. I continued to gain over the next several months until I had gained 33 rock solid pounds. I was now leaner and eight pounds heavier than before I started dieting!

Why was I able to gain this muscle so quickly? Back then, I thought it was just dumb luck, or some kind of weird coincidence. But that “coincidence” started to become very predictable reality when all of my clients who got ripped also experienced their best muscle building gains right after their contests.

After many years of research and experimentation, I actually discovered that there are several reasons for this phenomenon, but there is one factor that is most significant.

You see, following a properly executed fat loss phase, your body becomes considerably more sensitive to the MOST anabolic hormone — insulin.

For those of you who don’t know, insulin is a storage hormone. It can shuttle glucose (blood sugar) and proteins into muscle cells. This is great for anyone who wants to build muscle.

So an effective muscle building diet will encourage the release of insulin. Initially, when you start a diet like this, you will definitely see gains in your lean muscle mass.

But before long, your insulin receptors will become saturated and get resistant to insulin. In other words, the same amount of insulin that was effective at shuttling nutrients into your muscles at the start of the diet will not be enough after a couple short months.

Your body will respond to this by releasing more and more insulin. More insulin equals more muscle, right? Wrong!
Unfortunately, there is a flip side to insulin. Remember, insulin is a storage hormone. Sadly, it is just as effective at storing fat as it is at storing muscle!

You see, once your muscles (and liver) are full of glucose, and your receptors are getting resistant, insulin will dump glucose into fat cells. So you will be getting fatter and your body will get more and more efficient at shuttling nutrients towards fat cells.

And this, my friends, is the beginning of the classic muscle building plateau. The bad news is that this phenomenon is extremely frustrating. The good news, however, is that it is completely avoidable! All it takes is a temporary shift in your short-term goals.

For 8-12 weeks, you should focus on losing body fat. The fat loss plan you should follow MUST be one that maintains ALL of your hard earned muscle while INCREASING insulin sensitivity.

To best accomplish this, your plan must include:

1) Heavy training- If you switch from heavy lifting to light circuit training, you will lose a significant amount of muscle mass and strength, guaranteed.

2) Carbohydrate cycling- Eat carbs on your heavy training days and more specifically around your workout. This will provide energy and necessary muscle glycogen for optimal recover.

On non-training days, reduce the amount of carbs to allow for more fat burning and increase insulin sensitivity.

3) Calorie waving- In order to lose fat, you must burn more calories than you intake. But if your calories stay low for too long, you will risk losing muscle and slowing your metabolism. So be sure to increase your calories to maintenance level at least two times per week.

4) Control your cardio- High intensity interval training (HIIT) definitely burns more fat than slower steady state cardio does. But doing too much of it can have a negative effect on your recovery abilities and lead to muscle loss. Therefore, you should only do HIIT in small doses.

*** Note from Jason- Where have you read that before? Now you see why I like John’s advice so much.***

I recommend limiting it to 2-3 sessions per week with each session lasting no more than 12 minutes. If any additional cardio is necessary, it should be done with much lower intensity while using steady state parameters.

Are you curious how Andy made out while following this plan? Well after 12 weeks, he lost 19 pounds of fat and saw his abs for the first time in his life. We are now 7 weeks into his muscle building phase, and he has already gained 16 pounds of pure muscle and just hit new personal records on his squat, deadlift and military press!

His physique looks completely transformed. He looks bigger and leaner and he is stronger than ever. Congrats, Andy!

I highly suggest you follow the same protocol and I’m confident that you’ll experience the same great results. I look forward to hearing about YOUR success story!

John Alvino

For more fat loss information from John and to grab a copy of his FREE report, Ninja Strategies for Lightning Fast Fat Loss visit JohnAlvino.com.

Injury Update, New Goals & Why You Must Always Resist Average

Jason Ferruggia — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:00:43 +0000

For those who haven’t been following along, I destroyed my right shoulder in September of 2007. My rotator cuff and labrum were both torn and surgery was required. Of course, being the meathead I am I plowed through for another 12 months, during which time I trained with the likes of Dave Tate, Matt Rhodes, Smitty from the Diesel Crew, Craig Ballantyne, John Alvino and some other strong dudes, whose names you may recognize and some others you wouldn’t.

As a man, I am required to go balls to the wall when training with others who may be as strong or stronger than me and can not except defeat. It’s just man law. Or part of my stupid gene. Either one.

I finally got the surgery in September of 2008. Recovery was worse and took longer than I thought. Upper body training was out and since I hate doing most lower body exercises that aren’t called squats or deadlifts I was basically on the shelf for three months. Before the injury I was around 231 pounds, at six feet tall. Going into the surgery on a year of shitty training had me down, probably in the 215 range. While I was home recovering I thought, “Since I’m not training I will just eat like a normal person and see what happens over the next three months.” I wanted to see what my natural adult weight would be after years of heavy training and force feeding. How far had I taken my shithouse genetics, I wondered.

Twelve weeks later I woke up weighing 179 pounds and if I didn’t start gorging myself I’m pretty sure I would have dropped another 5-10 pounds. So when I tell you I’m a skinny-fat, hardgainer by nature, it’s not just some gimmick. I looked like death and friends were horrified to see me. I showed up at a horse race all our friends go to every year that’s basically just an all day party/booze fest, and my friends Kyle and Jeff hit the floor in hysterical laughter at the sight of me.

“Somebody get this guy a sandwich!” Kyle started yelling to everyone in earshot.

Me in 2008 after surgery & a 40lb weight loss

The next week when Jeff was driving our friend Mike to my house for a UFC pay per view, he warned him, “Now,you’re gonna be pretty shocked when you see Jay, so try to stare too long, and just act normal.”

Fast forward to this June, 2010. I weighed in at 224. My shoulder is way better, although, frustratingly, nowhere near 100% yet. Overhead pressing is fine. I worked up to the 100’s for five reps on one arm push presses recently, which was pretty exciting considering that the last time I pressed the hundreds was August of 2007 right around the time of the injury.

I still can’t bench 95 or flat dumbbell press the 50’s without excruciating pain but I’m totally fine with that. If I never bench again it wouldn’t bother me in the least. I’ve been working the blast strap pushups regularly with a weighted vest and zero pain and have recently gotten up to 225 for reps on a Swiss bar incline press. Although I still have to be quite careful on the latter.

I can do pretty much everything else except for heavy curls. They sent a pretty good shot of pain to my shoulder.

Visually, my entire right side is still significantly smaller than my left.

And in my eyes, both my arms look like toothpicks because they are a good two inches smaller than the old days.

Because I used to do so much heavy pressing and a lot of dips my triceps kept decent size without a lot of work. And even though I never did a lot of curls, what little I did was enough. Since I can’t press or curl heavy anymore, and because there are probably some other nerve related issues and what not going on, my arms are now disproportionately small. This becomes painfully obvious to me every time I put on a t-shirt and there’s an extra inch of sleeve blowing in the wind that was never there a couple years ago.

In the spring/early summer I jacked up my Achilles and calf so I couldn’t push the prowler or run sprints like I normally do. That coupled with way too many carbs left me looking a bit too soft for my liking.

Me at 224 earlier this summer

Like Chris Farley’s “fat guy in a small coat,” routine I was going with the smooth guy with small guns look. But I didn’t fully realize it until I saw some pics from this summer.

So when I got home I decided that I was going to lean out and put size on my arms at the same time. These are contradictory goals and not something I would recommend but I had to give it a shot. Although I originally had plans of getting back up in to the 230’s I have gone in reverse and come down to 211. Long term, I think the 200-210 range will be a better, healthier weight for me to live the rest of my life at. That alone is 40-60 pounds above my natural adult weight so that may be enough. I might not even be opposed to 195. The number may be tough to swallow, though. It’s just one of those stupid things…

So right now I’m working on bringing my arms back up over the 18” mark while leaning out. I know this is a goal that is often worth making fun of and if that were your goal I might break your balls about it. But for business purposes I think it’s the right thing to do at the current time. So as much as I despise training arms, I’m plugging away at it. I’ve put a ¼ inch on them in the last few weeks while simultaneously dropping body fat. And my strength is going up across the board. I’m pretty dialed in right now and feeling good.

Well… pretty good. Both of my elbows are shot; especially my left. Just grazing it against another human being in a crowd is incredibly painful. The other day I tried to do a reverse dumbbell wrist curl with a five pound dumbbell and couldn’t budge it. Gaining appreciable arm size with blown elbows will be a difficult task so I’ve started going back for my weekly deep tissue massages/torture sessions. Today I had my elbows worked on to the point where I was nearly in tears. But luckily I have one of the best massage therapists around and her magic hands will get me back go good health.

"No matter what your dad says, we always root for the Giants & Yankees."

I’ll assess the curls on a weekly basis. I have broken my right wrist three times so I have to be careful with too much weight or volume or that starts acting up which leads to other problems.

As far as the leaning down goes that will have to be assessed weekly as well. Unfortunately, when I get too lean my face looks too big for my neck, my teeth look too big for my face, and my head looks too big for my body. It’s a whole scene going on. And not a good one.

Currently I’m lifting four days per week, sprinting one or two, doing morning cardio a few days per week and eating low carbs. I’m getting leaner, stronger and my arms are growing all at the same time. I realize some of you will want more detail than that so I will try to post some more detailed updates in the next few days and weeks.

In the meantime here’s a quick clip of a finisher from a recent lower body workout. I started with box jumps, then worked up to a heavy five rep squat, did two sets of split squats for 10-12, although for the last time since any type of single leg exercise really messes up my right knee (this is due to an old injury I got from doing knee break squats and plantar flexed Atlantis leg curls on a 402 tempo back in the mid 90’s that’s just never healed fully), then did heavy shrugs, glute hams and abs.

After the workout we came up with this little finisher below as a challenge and went through it twice. This is a clip of the second round. And yes, those are only 26 pound kettlebells. I refuse to go heavy on exercises like this. I probably couldn’t even if I wanted to anyway.

So that’s my injury update and current training plan.

I guess the point is you always have to have something to shoot for; a goal to be working toward. Every 12 weeks, set a new one for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve it. Then set another one. Injuries and obstacles will come up along the way. But so what? Like John Lennon said, “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

I’m as injury prone as Grant Hill and Allen Iverson combined, so I know I’ll have something happen before the years over. But I’ll deal with it, work around it and move on. I’m used to it by now and don’t let it get me down or stand in my way.

Always train what’s trainable. Sometimes you’ll slip and fall off the wagon without noticing like I did. We’re all human. But as soon as you realize it, give yourself a kick in the ass and don’t let it happen again.

Being human is one thing, but we don’t have to be like everybody else.

At the end of the day it’s unacceptable to be average.

So do whatever it takes to ensure that that doesn’t happen and always resist average.

What goals are you shooting for over the next twelve weeks? What’s holding you back from achieving them, if anything? And how can I help?

Getting Ripped at 48

Jason Ferruggia — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 13:05:20 +0000

I’m not quite sure why but three of the most ripped guys in my private training center are over 45 years old. A lot of times over the last 16 years I’ve noticed that the kids in their 20’s and even those in their 30’s don’t always have the same dedication as the guys who are closer to the half century mark. And one thing guys in their 20’s can rarely ever figure out is diet. It’s like rocket science to a lot of them.

“Wait, so cereal’s a carb?”

Maybe chasing tail, drinking, partying and deciding what to do with the rest of your life has something to do with it. Maybe in your 20’s you think you look big when you’re really just fat, and in your 40’s you finally come to accept that. Who knows?

All I know for sure is that I’ve had the pleasure of working with some extremely dedicated guys in their 40’s who are more than willing to do whatever it takes to get results.

Ralph DeVito is one of those guys. The picture above was taken when Ralph started with us earlier this year. He was 47 years old and decided it was time to get in great shape. He had trained before in the past but this time was different. Like my friend, Mark Crook, who I’ve written about in the past, he became obsessed this time around.

He wanted to do everything in his power to achieve his goals as fast as possible. He did everything I told him and asked all the right questions. He ordered every supplement I recommended, got foam rollers, lacrosse balls, switched to only organic, grass fed meat and local farmers market produce, was the first person at the gym every day, studied technique of the more advanced lifters and mastered his form on every exercise, did his fasted morning cardio every day he was supposed to, ran hill sprints… whatever it took.

In less than a year he has surpassed a great number of people who were light years ahead of him in the gym when he started simply because they didn’t posses a tenth of the dedication and discipline that Ralph has.

I’ve always said that the results you get from training are directly related to your IQ. Unless, of course you are a genetic freak. Ralph is the owner of a very successful company, so needless to say he’s a pretty smart dude. Without fail, the smartest guys I’ve trained over the last 16 years have always gotten the best results. Because they “get it.”

When you’ve worked with someone for over a year and they describe their breakfast to you like this you know they’re a lost cause:

“I ate really good yesterday. First, I had two egg whites and a packet of apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast…”

“Two egg whites?! I told you to eat forty grams of protein at breakfast and you ate four?!?”

“Oh, I thought I was being good. I shouldn’t be eating the yolks, right?”

“You shouldn’t be eating the yolks!? When have you ever heard me… Actually, just kidding… you’re right. Perfect breakfast. Have a good one, buddy.”

There simply isn’t enough time in the day to explain things for the 469th straight time to people.

You either get it or you don’t.

The Details

Ralph- “After” at 48 Years Old

The first thing we did was cut all carbs out of Ralph’s diet except for fruit and vegetables. Normally this would be hard to do cold turkey but Ralph had his mind set on what he wanted and did it overnight.

He also cut out dairy and all other inflammatory foods. Within two weeks of doing this he told me that some aches and pains he had for years were completely gone!

His diet consisted of a protein shake with mixed berries, spinach and some fat from either cashews, coconut oil or pumpkin seed oil blended together for breakfast every day.

Meal 2 was usually an omelet with spinach and a piece of fruit. Sometimes these two meals were flip flopped.

At lunch he had either fish or chicken with a big spinach salad.

During the afternoon he would snack on some nuts or organic beef jerky.

On training days he would use Pro Grade Workout before, during and after training for a total of 60 grams of carbs.

At dinner he would again have fish, chicken or lean, grass fed beef with a salad and vegetables.

Every day he drinks a gallon of water and supplements with:
•    A multi-vitamin
•    Omega 3 krill oil
•    Digestive enzymes
•    Maca
•    Protein powder (rotating between Sun Warrior and Pro Grade)
•    And protein/carb training drink

For the first 12 weeks I don’t think he had a refeed (carb) day once. Until you get under 15% body fat you really shouldn’t be eating carbs anyway. Now we have him doing a once per week refeed where he loads up on red potatoes and is free to have a little dessert, pizza, pasta or whatever else he wants. But at this point he doesn’t really miss those foods anymore so he keeps the carb up pretty clean.

He trains three days per week, with workouts very similar to my Triple Threat Muscle program and the ones I post in Renegade Inner Circle, focusing on:

Big compound movements (presses, pulls, squats, etc.) with progressive overload
A lot of bodyweight exercises (TRX, dips, chins, Power Wheel, etc.)
And some finishers like the prowler, battling ropes, kettlebells, jump rope, etc.

One thing that Ralph understands better than a lot of people is the importance of not training to failure or grinding reps and always making slow, steady, consistent progress. He’s never come close to missing a rep yet.

Instead of trying to jump up 25 pounds per week he is always happy with small gains on a regular basis. By not being overzealous he has slowly surpassed a lot of guys in the gym who were stronger than him because they burn themselves out and push it too hard, too often.

Pretty impressive at any age

Three or four mornings per week I have Ralph doing 30 minutes of fasted cardio at 60-70% of max heart rate. And on one other day he runs hill sprints.

That’s about the nuts and bolts of it.

Hard work and dedication. That’s what it takes.

If Ralph can do it at 48 years old, as the head of a major company, with three kids and wife, there’s no reason you can’t.

Make no excuses and start kicking ass.

Got any questions or comments for me or Ralph? Post them below.

Eliminating Cardio Confusion

Jason Ferruggia — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:56:40 +0000

Over the last few days, since my post on fat loss for advanced lifters, I’ve gotten quite a few questions from some confused readers. Some people thought that I had changed my stance on cardio. Before I address that I must reiterate that Rya, who I was addressing in that post, is an advanced lifter and weighs 240 pounds. So what works for him might not necessarily be what works for you.

I haven’t changed my stance on traditional cardio at all. From the get go I have always said there are two options when it comes to cardio and they are both at extreme opposite ends of the spectrum. You can either do very high intensity cardio (sprint) or you can very low intensity cardio (walk). Two of the leanest groups of people on earth follow these methods. Sprinters obviously sprint and bodybuilders such as Dorian Yates and other behemoths walk.

It’s the midrange stuff that I’m opposed to and that presents a problem for most people. I have never changed my opinion on that. The way most people do cardio sucks, in my opinion.

When you hop on a machine and go at it with moderate intensity for 30-40 minutes you will get all of the negative effects associated with cardio (increased cortisol, muscle loss, overuse injuries, decreased power output- meaning you’ll be less explosive, etc.). When do the same thing at a high intensity you’re totally fucked. That’s why I have always maintained that you should do one extreme or the other. Or both at different times of the day and week.

As I’ve said countless times before, I also hate most traditional forms of interval training. Usually intervals are performed on a machine, which makes me hate them from the get go. You push as hard as you can for 30 seconds followed by a lower intensity period of 90 seconds, or something along those lines. No matter what anyone says that will also sap your power production because the lactic acid buildup is massive. And lactic acid is the arch enemy of fast twitch muscle fibers. This type of training is also hard to recover from, whereas low intensity cardio is not.

So I still hate intervals on a bike, stair climber, ski machine thingy and whatever else they stock Bally’s and Gold’s with these days… Especially the rowing machine. Thirty minutes of repeated spinal flexion sounds fun but I think I’ll pass.

A better option for intervals would be to rage against the machines and get outside and sprint. But who do you know personally that can sprint for thirty seconds straight? To sprint for 30 seconds, followed by a 90 second rest period, over and over for 10-20 minutes straight is nearly impossible for most non-Olympians. And risky as hell. That is an injury waiting to happen right there.

If you want to sprint, sprint. Like a sprinter. Not a nitwit. Start with short distances and slowly work your way up over time. Take adequate rest periods and slowly decrease them as you get in better shape.

If you’re an average dude it will take you in the neighborhood of five seconds to run a 40 yard sprint. And that would be a very far distance for your first time sprinting. I’d recommend sticking with 20’s your first few weeks. So instead of the silly recommendation of sprinting for 30 seconds straight I advise you to sprint for two or three seconds straight. HUGE difference.

It’s funny that intelligent strength coaches who work with high level football players rarely let their athletes sprint at balls out intensity, 40 yards or more during the off season (because the risk of injury is too high), yet fitness trainers recommend that the average lay person head right out to the track and start running 100’s from day one. People have got to be more responsible than that. The only time I have football players run 40 yards or more is at least a month into the off season training and that’s usually just a tempo run, not an all out sprint. Most of the speed work averages about 20 yards.

Assuming you are sprinting proper distances and taking care to be safe the next question is how long should you rest? Who knows? As long as you need to. Keep track of it and try to improve over time. Everyone’s different.

That’s why when people ask me about specific guidelines for hill sprints I tell them I don’t know. I don’t know what kind of shape you are in and what hills you have available to you. Because you’re really limited by the hills you have. If I told you that you should be sprinting for 15 seconds yet you could make it up the only hill in your neighborhood in eightseconds would you not sprint up the hill?

You can’t always be a slave to exact prescriptions; sometimes you need to just man up and do work… son. Your sets, reps, intervals, whatever, are based on your hill and your fitness level.

Now, eventually you may work your way up to being able to sprint your hill for 30 seconds, followed by a 90 second break and repeat that for 20 minutes straight. So I guess you could say you’re doing intervals at that point. But who cares? I call them hill sprints. Like Walter Payton did. If you’re sprinting on a football field or a track just say you’re sprinting.

Don’t actually say to anyone that you’re “doing intervals.” That’s so 1998 and so not cool.

If you had absolutely no other option, for whatever reason, than to do intervals on a bike my recommendations would the same as my sprint recommendations. Keep the sprints very short and the rest periods as long as necessary while removing almost all tension from the bike while cruising. You really want to avoid that extreme lactic acid buildup.

The best way to come close to traditional interval prescriptions is achieved by performing a variety of exercises such as swings, burpees, med ball slams, battling ropes, mountain climbers, etc. in a circuit. Mixing it up prevents the massive accumulation of lactic acid in any one area and is far more beneficial than be locked into the versa climber for twenty minutes. For athletic purposes I prefer to keep the intervals or work times/set duration lower than 30 seconds. Ten to twenty seconds would be a better idea for power athletes.

This type of “interval training” is often associated with the training of combat athletes. Although, that is actually quite misused and abused in those circles because many fighters/wrestlers should be focusing more on power and strength development with more traditional methods. But that’s another topic for another day. I like to use this type of “interval training,” as a finisher to a strength workout. Some people do this on off days, which I think is a big mistake as it interferes with your recovery too much.

As far as the low intensity stuff goes you can walk with a sled, a light weighted vest, walk up hill, walk through the woods or trails or just walk the streets. The best time to do it is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Even if Sammy Study-Reviewer tells you it won’t make any difference, please just trust me and do it before you eat breakfast. Skinny-fat guys in lab coats who tell you not to do what has worked for countless people need not be taken seriously. It’s how every bodybuilder in history has done it and it will remain that way for eternity.

Walk as fast as you can (this aint a leisure stroll through the park) and try to keep your heart rate at around 65% of max. Honestly, it could be lower but you’d have to walk longer. If you keep it there you could get away with thirty minutes.

The nice thing about this is there is no negative effect at all. No cortisol, no muscle loss, nothing. And you start your day with some nice fresh air which is great for your health and your mind. This should be done three times per week, minimum, for most people. This will help keep you lean while you’re in the process of trying to gain size and will also help you recover more efficiently.

In the past I had recommended little to no cardio for skinny hardgainers but recently I have been putting morning walks in most of their programs with great results. I still think that if you are a true ectomorph, eliminating cardio during your first few months is a good idea. But beyond that it’s worth adding in.

Like I said, there are no negatives- only positives that can come from this. And because there are more skinny fat guys in the world than there are skinny ripped guys I think this is a pretty good recommendation across the board. If you stay ripped and just gain lean muscle without any additional body fat, no matter how much you eat you don’t have to do any cardio at all. And you don’t have to visit this site anymore because we all hate you and you are ruining our day. Kidding, of course. But we all envy you.

The old days of bulking and cutting are rapidly coming to an end. A smarter approach is to include some high and low intensity cardio methods year round, time your carb intake properly and never let yourself become an out of shape fat ass.

So hopefully that clears up any confusion as to what types of cardio and interval training I recommend.

And if you don’t know, now you know…

PS. My friend and colleague, Tom Venuto (who also happens to be a competitive bodybuilder who maintains single digit bodyfat, year round) has just released a brand new FREE report on how to lose pure fat without losing an ounce of muscle in the process. Click HERE to download your copy now.

Please leave your comments below.

How to Build Muscle, Gain Strength & Become a Better Athlete » Fat Loss

12 Reasons You’re Not Losing Fat

1) You’re Eating Too Many Carbs

2) You’re Eating Carbs at the Wrong Time

3) You’re Eating Too Much Fat

4)You’re Not Eating Enough Protein

5) You’re Drinking Too Many Protein Shakes

6) Your Liver is Over Stressed

7) You’re Eating Nuts

8) You’re Eating Fruit

9) You’re Not Training Heavy

10) You’re Overdoing Cardio

11) You’re Not Running Sprints or Doing Sled Work

12) You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

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Getting Ripped at 48

The Details

Ralph- “After” at 48 Years Old

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Eliminating Cardio Confusion

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