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Training Update- 10/11

Jason Ferruggia — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:19:42 +0000

As I’ve detailed plenty of times before I had shoulder surgery three years ago to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum. I’ve also torn my trap on that same side in the past, so the shoulder is pretty jacked up.

Because of this I spent the majority of the last three years doing tons of pushup variations on the floor, the Jungle Gym XT, medicine balls, etc. Any time I tried to press dumbbells or a bar the pain was just too much to deal with and I had become [...]

A Day in the Life

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

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

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

“When Was The Last Time I Overdid Anything?”

Jason Ferruggia — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:44:37 +0000

Training’s been going pretty well lately. The shoulder still bothers me but has been feeling a lot better and is coming along. Now I have a new injury to deal with. I’m a big fan of overdoing things. Well, lemme rephrase that actually… I am not so much a fan of it as I am someone who routinely overdoes things. It’s one of the many things I have in common with Clark Griswold.

I’ve been doing a lot of running lately. Hill sprints, flat ground sprints, sled sprints and cone/agility drills. [...]

Transformations, PR’s and 12 Bananas!

Jason Ferruggia — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:08:47 +0000

The Men’s Fitness video crew stopped by Renegade Gym on Saturday to shoot some footage of Sean Hyson’s amazing transformation and his attempt at a new PR in the squat. Sean is the fitness editor at Men’s Fitness magazine and has been taking the train out from New York City to train at Renegade Gym on the weekends for over a year now.

On top of that we also had a visit from one of my favorite guys in the entire fitness industry, none other than the owner of Monkey Bar [...]

How to Improve Your Chin Ups

Jason Ferruggia — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:33:02 +0000

The last post I wrote about how to improve your chin ups detailed how to get from zero to one. Once you get to one you will, in time, work your way up to sets of five or even ten reps. But again, you will hit a wall at some point and be unable to make any more improvements.

So today I am going to offer a very easy, completely unscientific method that will help you add more reps to your chins.

One of the major problems is that for most average [...]

Power Wheel Pushup

Jason Ferruggia — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:42:09 +0000

This is a great exercise that works the upper body pushing muscles as well as the abs and lower back, which have to contract forcefully throughout the movement. We use this as an upper body finisher or rep challenge exercise. The key points to look for are a full range of motion and no sagging of the hips or collapse of the lower back… which of course, sometimes goes out the window in the heat of competition. But do your best.

What I love about this exercise is that it requires [...]

TRX Exercises

Jason Ferruggia — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:19:09 +0000

Today I’m going to show you a few cool exercises you can do with the TRX Straps. Everyone knows by now that I am a huge fan of heavy, traditional exercises like squats and deadlifts, but for years I have always preached the value of bodyweight exercises and moving your body through space. This elicits a higher level of neuromuscular activation than simply moving your limbs around a fixed object and helps you build muscle and develop strength faster. Most of my workouts include some kind of big heavy [...]

Bear Crawls

Jason Ferruggia — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:28:54 +0000

Bear crawls aka bear walks are an awesome strength and conditioning exercise but are commonly performed incorrectly. This is the proper way to do bear walks. The common mistake is to keep your butt up high in the air and allow your lower back to round. This can be problematic for people with glass backs and should be avoided. Performing them as demonstrated is a great total body exercise that really works the core musculature and the stabilizer muscles of the shoulder. This is way better than external [...]

How to Improve on Chin Ups

Jason Ferruggia — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:11:55 +0000

Today we are going to discuss how to improve on chin ups. Chin ups are one of the best overall muscle and strength building exercises around. The problem is that many beginners can’t do a single rep and many intermediate trainees can not seem to progress on them no matter what they do. One very simple solution is to get a big rubber band and loop it around the bar to assist you, as shown in the accompanying video. Start with a strong enough band that allows you to [...]

Battling Ropes of Death

Jason Ferruggia — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:58:35 +0000

Great workout tonight. Did some rowing, squatting, shrugging, etc. and finished with the battling ropes of death. I have gained back about 20 of the 48lbs that I lost and am feeling pretty good. The shoulder is coming along and I am happy at this weight. Gaining another 30 pounds on top of this is probably something that I won’t be doing. I’ll see how I feel as I progress but I feel very good being lighter. My natural adult weight is only about 165 at an even six [...]