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The Unmaking of an Athlete: Part 2

15. Nov, 2009 5 Comments Strength & Conditioning

Originally written For Elite Fitness Systems in 2004

When Part One of this article was written a few years ago the focus was on college strength coaches. Unfortunately the unmaking of an athlete begins long before college. It starts at a very young age with uninformed but well intentioned parents. By doing what they think is best for their kids; many parents actually end up destroying their children’s athletic futures. For this story to be complete we have to go back to the beginning.

The father of three high school aged boys [...]

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The Unmaking of an Athlete

05. Nov, 2009 15 Comments Strength & Conditioning

This is an old article from 2004, originally written for Elite Fitness. Since it was quite popular and many of you may have missed it, I figured I would reprint it here today…
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I sometimes wonder if there are any prerequisites at all to getting a job as college strength and conditioning coach. As the owner of my private athletic training company (Renegade Strength & Conditioning) I have had the opportunity to work with athletes from numerous colleges and universities across the country and have witnessed their disgust with their schools [...]

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Do You Have to be Fat to be Strong?

02. Nov, 2009 7 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

Guest Post by Mike Westerdal of Lean Hybrid Muscle

Many of you know that I compete as an amatuer powerlifter. One thing I’ve noticed over the past few years is that there are a lot of guys that believe the bigger you get and the more bodyweight you carry the stronger you will get. This was pretty much undisputed in the past.

All you had to do was look up all the world records in the squat, bench and deadlift and you’d find that the super heavyweights weighing 300 lbs and more [...]

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Death of the Back Squat?!

24. Oct, 2009 45 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

I’ve gotten a lot of questions the last few days about my opinion on Mike Boyle’s video claiming that the back squat is dead. Like I said, I don’t agree with everything Mike says. Nor do I agree with everything Alwyn Cosgrove or Chad Waterbury say. But they are smart guys who know their shit. I learn something from each of them and I like a lot of what Mike has to say about warming up, rehabbing and staying injury proof. But I’m never just going to throw out what [...]

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Training: Renegade Style

29. Jul, 2009 2 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

Here’s a quick interview I did recently with my wacky Canadian buddy, Craig Ballantyne.

Craig Ballantyne: What was your workout yesterday?

Jason Ferruggia: I ran a dozen forty yard sprints in the morning, about two hours after breakfast. That was, of course preceded by a pretty good warm up.

At night, six hours later, we did a heavy lower body workout. Before squatting and deadlifting I like to foam roll for about ten minutes and then get in a pretty good dynamic warm up. I like to be dripping with sweat and feeling [...]

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What it Takes to Train at Renegade Gym

21. Jul, 2009 75 Comments Fitness Business Info, Strength & Conditioning

Question: Jason, I just wanted to let you know that I have been following your stuff since 2003 and am a huge fan of your work. I am thinking about opening a small, hardcore gym like yours and had a quick question for you. Would you mind sharing with me what kind of application form you use and how you determine who gets to train at Renegade Gym? From what I understand you don’t just accept anybody off the streets, correct? Thanks for all that you do and keep up [...]

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Burning Fat While Gaining Strength

14. Jul, 2009 46 Comments Fat Loss, Strength & Conditioning

Question: Jay, I just lost 25lbs of bodyfat and now my main focus is on getting strong and lifting heavy weights. I still want to continue getting leaner but the main focus is on strength right now. What kind of adjustments do I need to make in my training and diet?
Mike Flynn

Answer: Mike, if you want to keep burning fat the diet needs to remain tight. The majority of your carbs (50% or more) should come from veggies, about 25% from fruit and the remainder from brown rice, sweet potatoes [...]

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30 Questions

30. May, 2009 22 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning, Training Music

Does anyone actually like doing front squats?

Why do so many people think that front squats are somehow magically more “sport specific” than back squats?

When did getting strong get so complicated?

Has anyone who weighs above 185 ever tried to wear a regular American Apparel t-shirt? The 50/50 blends and the 50/25/25 blends are good. But the regular cotton tee… Man, is that a funny look. The upper body is skin tight and then it flares out to a giant moo-moo dress at the bottom. Strange..

Is everyone in the fitness industry now [...]

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The Poor Man’s Evel Knievel

26. May, 2009 1 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

“Dude, I broke my fucking shoulder again.” I said, referring to the torn rotator cuff I have been rehabbing after surgery that resulted in me losing almost all size and strength after a very long layoff from the gym.

He’s heard this from me plenty of times before so it was no shocker.

“What’d you do now?”

“Went way too heavy on log clean and presses, which I know, are not the smartest exercise to be doing right now, but I can’t hold back anymore.

Anyway, that was about two weeks ago. So I [...]

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When to do Conditioning For Fast Fat Loss

14. May, 2009 20 Comments Fat Loss, How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

With summer rapidly approaching I’ve been getting lots of questions about which conditioning methods will help you lose fat fast and get in playing shape without compromising your size or strength, and exactly when should you do them.

First of all, I recommend a strength training schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This leaves Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday or Sunday for conditioning and/or playing. To start you should be training on a four way upper/lower split. This means that you have two upper body days and two lower body days. You [...]

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