“No, no, just squat straight down really fast and drop your ass all the way to the floor. Move your feet and hands a little wider. Now just rip the bar up off the floor and stand straight up.”
I cringed in pain as I watched two college aged kids deadlift a couple weeks ago at the gym I’ve been training at in Cali.
“Dude, it feels like my back is gonna break.”
And indeed it was coming close.
I continued writing in my training journal and prepared for my squat workout but I couldn’t look away from the car wreck happening just off to my left.
After a few more sets I snapped out of high intensity pre workout mode and got into coaching mode.
“Can I help you guys out here?”
“Yeah, man. Please do.”
I introduced myself to Luke and Billy and proceeded to explain what they were doing wrong and went on to coach them on deadlift technique for the next thirty minutes. I’m always hesitant to do this because I don’t want to come across as a douche or insult anyone. But I couldn’t stand by in all good conscience and let these poor… …continue reading.
1) Before you even get to the gym make sure you have a muscle building workout plan. You can’t get there and just wing it if you want to see serious results.
2) Psyche yourself up on the way to the gym by visualizing the workout in your head. See yourself going through each of your exercises and dominating the weights.
3) If you train at a public gym, where it’s more thank likely that they will be playing Usher and similar R&B tunes that will make you wanna clean out your ears with a gun, make sure you have some good training songs loaded on your iPod.
4) Train 3-4 days per week. Which one is optimal? Three always works best for beginners. For everyone else you need to determine what your schedule and recovery ability will allow. If you play a pick up sport regularly throughout the year or participate in kickboxing or surf a few days per week, three days is probably your best bet. If you do no other physical activity outside of the gym (no sprints, no walking, biking, nothing) than four days might be a better idea for you.… …continue reading.
Question: Are there any natural supplements that could raise my testosterone levels? What about lifestyle choices?
Answer: Firstly, as far as supplements go you have a few different options. Take note that, as with all supplements, not everyone will get the same results from the following products.
Maca is a cruciferous vegetable grown in Peru that contains plant sterols which have been shown to block and control the production of estrogen as well as boost testosterone production. In the past I would have told you that for maca to be effective you need to use 3-6 tablespoons per day of the whole maca root powder, not the extracts and not capsules. However, Dr. Wong, who I have great respect for, has recently come up with an awesome new maca product in capsule form which I have found to work quite well in everyone I’ve tried it with. And taking the capsules is a lot better than choking down six tablespoons per day. You will need to stick with this regimen for at least four weeks to see a positive increase in testosterone production. Click HERE for Dr. Wong’s new high strength maca supplement.
Zinc has also been… …continue reading.
Once you’ve been training more than a few years the need to deload on a somewhat regular basis becomes more and more prevalent.
How often you do so depends on your training age, strength levels and injury history. Eastern Bloc countries and countless other successful lifters have had great results by training hard for three weeks and deloading on the fourth week.
It’s a pretty widely accepted formula and has been proven time and time again. So there’s really no need to try and reinvent the wheel. Three weeks hard, one week deload is my standard go-to-recommendation.
There are other options, however, and if you have only been training for a couple of years you won’t need to worry about deloading just yet. Beginners can go a few years without deloading. Eventually you’ll want to start with 12 weeks then work your way down to 10 and so on. When you get a little more advanced some people might be able to go 6-8 weeks hard before deloading. If you’re more of an early intermediate lifter, eight weeks may be a better option for you. If you’re more advanced and go eight weeks you might want to consider deloading for… …continue reading.
Guest Post by Scott Sonnon of Tactfit Commando
We’ve known for years that muscle tissue is highly active metabolically, and it helps us burn more calories during the day. So more muscle equals better fat burn, right? Unfortunately that’s only partly true — and not to the extent we once believed. A pound of muscle is now thought to burn an extra 6 calories per hour (as opposed to the 25 or more per hour we once believed). You’d have to pack on an awful lot of beef to make much difference.
But that’s only one side of the equation. Muscle mass provides a number of other important benefits, foremost of which is better management of insulin. Insulin is your “storage” hormone. Its job is to transport fuel into your cells. The higher your ratio of fat to lean tissue, the less sensitive your lean tissue becomes to insulin. Basically, when your body fat percentage creeps too high and insulin comes knocking, your lean mass stops answering the door. If you see a vicious cycle in all of this, you’re right!
One way to encourage your muscles to start answering the door again is through resistance exercise aimed at… …continue reading.
All too often I walk into public gyms and see skinny guys plugging away, doing set after set of the worst, time wasting exercises possible. That’s why, today, I’m going to show you the most effective exercises per body part starting from the traps and working our way down to the calves.
Traps- If you want huge traps like UFC champ, Brock Lesnar you need to deadlift. That will always be first on the list. Hang cleans and snatches would be next followed by shrugs.
Shoulders- To build big cannon ball shoulders you need to incorporate either dumbbell or barbell military press into your program. No other exercise can compare.
Chest- For chest development you can’t beat pushups. That is, provided you do them right, of course. For most guys pushups will be too easy after your first few months of training. That’s why you need to learn advanced variations or load them by wearing a weight vest, having a friend hold plates on you back, performing them on straps or rings.
Aside from pushups you will get your most bang for your buck from some type of flat or incline dumbbell press. The bench press is a good exercise… …continue reading.
1. Have a clearly defined goal. You can’t put 50 pounds on your squat, lose 50 pounds of fat and gain 50 pounds of muscle at the same time, while simultaneously training for a bodybuilding contest and a world record in the hammer throw.
2. Train for performance increases from workout to workout. It’s very hard to see size gains or even fat loss gains from day to day but you can see performance improvements on a regular basis, if you train properly.
3. Set PR’s as often as possible. You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect to see any results. Setting PR’s ensures results and fun.
4. But know when to back off. Deload weeks should be taken after 3-8 weeks of intense training.
5. Do fewer things better. ADD is a very bad thing. Pick the most productive exercises and methods and get good at them. It’s the best way to make long term progress.
6. Foam roll or use a PVC pipe before training. Hit the quads, hams, IT bands, glutes, inner thighs, calves, lower and upper back.
7. If you are going to static stretch because you… …continue reading.
Today’s guest post is from David Jarzebowski, a member of the Renegade Inner Circle.
Ok, so a high school friend of mine got married in Buffalo, NY, over the weekend. When I was booking the ticket, the only option from London was to fly via Newark. Given how close this was to Renegade Gym, I decided to extend my trip by a day and try to squeeze in a training session at Renegade. Jay was kind enough to agree, and so I booked the flights and hotel at Newark airport.
I arrived from London at 1pm local time (6pm UK time) and got to my hotel around 2:30pm. I was starting to get a little nervous about the training session, and also about how I was going to get to Watchung itself.
I spoke to the hotel staff and they told me it was not possible to walk to 0.75 miles from the hotel to the bus stop. So I had to order a taxi. This was a mistake, as apparently there is a flat $20 fee from the hotel to Newark. The hotel told me about this in advance, but I didn’t know what else to… …continue reading.
I got back late Tuesday night from an awesome four day trip to Chicago (the home of my two favorite athletes of all time, Michael Jordan and Walter Payton). For those who have never been I highly recommend going to the Windy City during the summer months. It’s definitely one of my favorite places. Although I wouldn’t want to visit in the winter.
We hit North Street and Oak Street Beaches, where strangely you are only allowed to swim out til the waters at mid chest level and then some guys in row boats stop you. Weird.
We caught a Cubs game at Wrigley on Sunday where I got to see four former Yankees playing (Soriano, Abreu, Matsui, Nady) and actually witnessed a Cubbies blowout victory. An afternoon at Wrigley is a must have experience for any true sports fan.
Then we went up to the top of the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, unfortunately), ate at some good restaurants (an underrated but great little spot that had fresh, organic food was Big Bowl around Rush & Division), hit some good bars (I especially liked the area around North/Damen) and saw as much of the city as… …continue reading.
Here is the final installment of my interview with the God of Turbulence Training, and one wacky Canuck, Craig Ballantyne.
Craig Ballantyne: Let’s discuss some more muscle building stuff. You can talk about what you’ve got going on in terms of how you work with your guys to build muscle. You talked a little bit about it so far, but what are your main philosophies?
Jason Ferruggia: Always get stronger. That’s the main theme no matter what the goal is. Again, we stick with big basic exercises and I do a lot of bodyweight stuff or bodyweight plus external resistance. I’ll have one to three big barbell exercises a week where we’ll usually work up to one top end set for the day. Usually always trying to set PR’s, unless it’s a deload week or we are cycling the weights back down, as you need to do from time to time.
For the maximal strength exercise I cycle it in a number of ways and I often wave the reps, so maybe three weeks we’ll work up to an eight rep max, a six rep max, a four rep max, and then we’ll deload… …continue reading.
Recent Comments