Sometimes it’s easy to get confused and lose sight of what’s most important. Especially when it comes to building muscle.  You read about all these different, fancy, confusing concepts and, of course, start trying them all. You make so many changes that you can’t really tell what’s doing what. And your training gets really, really complicated. When something is ultra complicated it’s never that fun. That’s why I believe in simplicity. Training should be fun and it should produce results you can track on a regular basis. If you can’t look at your training… continue reading.

Dedication, discipline and brutally hard work. That is the secret. Everyone wants hacks and shortcuts and instant gratification. They want it yesterday. I’m all for applying the 80/20 rule, when appropriate, and eliminating everything that isn’t essential. That’s how you get meaningful work done. But it’s still work. It’s called work for a reason. Just because you simplify or focus on a few important things doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. And you can’t blindly apply the 80/20 rule to everything. It just doesn’t work that way. If twenty hours of practice per week are required to be excellent… continue reading.

Guest Post By Chris Lopez, CSCS, SFGII In today’s world we spend the majority of our days doing things in front of us with terrible posture. We crouch over keyboards while our chests cave in and our hips shorten from sitting. We drive with our arms in front of us while, again, we’re seated with shortened hip flexors. We sit in “artificial wombs” (a.k.a. cubicles) for hours at a time not moving and making the front of our body even tighter. And then we go home and slouch on the couch further tightening the front of our bodies This overuse… continue reading.

When it comes to nutrition we all get suckered. We all get confused and misled. I’ve been there. People try to make things more complicated than they should be. I’ve been guilty of that too. Next thing ya know you’re putting a stick of butter in your coffee, cutting all carbs, and running in fear past every Mexican joint you see because you think even coming near a bean is going to cause extreme joint pain. It’s all very confusing and stressful. It shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be that way. In the latest episode of The Jay Ferruggia Show… continue reading.

I woke up one morning last November and something felt different. It was later than my normal rising time. The sun was already shining. I didn’t hit the ground running like I always do. I wasn’t amped out of my mind and busting with excitement to get to work and dominate everything in my path. It was a feeling I wasn’t used to. I knew it was time to check myself. Where was the passion? Where was the hustle? Where was Jay?! What the hell happened? After some deep thought and introspection I discovered that I was lying. Lying to… continue reading.

In this episode of The Jay Ferruggia Show, I give a brief recap of the American Airlines Skyball event in Dallas, benefiting our wounded warriors and their families. Jen and I both had an amazing time working with Chef Robert Irvine and his team. Over the last two weeks, our inbox has been flooded with your questions on training, nutrition, business, music and lifestyle design. The feedback I’ve been getting has been overwhelming. Enough so that I just had to do another Q&A. Keep sending your questions and feedback to Podcast@JasonFerruggia.com and I will do my best to answer… continue reading.

Guest Post by Danny Kavadlo There are no quick fixes or instant transformations. The sooner we get that out of the way, the better. Sadly, in a world of office weight loss contests, celebrity dieting pageants and fantastical infomercials, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that transforming a body in any capacity takes time and effort. Though we are often told otherwise, training your abs is no exception. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read articles claiming that with these “three easy steps” or “these five foods to avoid”, you can get six-pack abs. Yeah… continue reading.

I got this question from my buddy, Gary Deagle on Twitter. @JasonFerruggia Top 5 foods you can’t live without? — Gary Deagle (@GaryDeagle) October 18, 2014 But it was too hard to limit it to five so I cheated and doubled the number. And I’m answering it in a blog post instead of on the podcast. Slacker move? You decide. But maybe I’ll surprise you and do both. I’m crazy like that. If you’ve ever been around me when food is served you’d know that saying I love to eat is a gross… continue reading.

In this episode of The Jay Ferruggia Show, I recap a fantastic weekend at The Austin City Limits Festival, hanging out with my buddies, Luka Hocevar and Jay Jablonski. After a brief recap of ACL and my visit to Onnit headquarters I break down an important visualization exercise that will help you get closer to living the perfect day. Today’s Podcast Topics Include: Your feedback from the show and some shout outs to listeners How to eliminate people who drag you down Recap of the 2014 Austin City Limits Festival Who we saw, who was great, who sucked The one… continue reading.

Guest Post By Sean Hyson C.S.C.S. When you’re a beginner, you don’t think too much about the program you’re on or what food you need to eat to maximize the results. It’s enough to just go to the gym and lift hard. And go ahead and ask an advanced lifter about his training. It’s probably so simple you won’t believe it. But when you’re in between those two stages—an intermediate meathead—you’ve been exposed to just enough information that you analyze, and then over-analyze, everything. And that’s when you fall for the tricks that hold back your progress. Jay… continue reading.

Everyday, thousands of thoughts bounce around your head.  Dictating your moment-to-moment emotions, the thoughts that stick in your mind will shape that story and dictate your actions. What story are you telling yourself? For most of you, it’s one that’s holding you back. You’re letting your own thoughts stifle your progress. “I’m just not the type of person that will ever get ripped.” “I’m so tired today, my workout will suck. I’m just gonna take it easy.” “This week is crazy, I know… continue reading.

If you’re a skinny dude who is serious about building muscle and getting stronger there are three very critical mistakes that you absolutely can’t afford to make. I can’t tell you how many times I see guys in the gym committing these cardinal sins and how badly I wish I could help them all. Unfortunately I can’t save everyone but I’ll always do my best to give my loyal readers an unfair advantage over everyone else. Mistake #1: Training Too Frequently One critical mistake skinny guys always make is to train 6-7 days per week. This is completely unnecessary… continue reading.

We do transformation contests in The Renegade Strength every year. The way it works is simple. You take a before pic and send it to us. Then you take an after pic and do the same. People vote. I fly the winner to Santa Monica and put them up at a nice hotel near the beach. Here’s recap from our last winner… Cali Beach Trip Recap by Josh McManus I got to spend a weekend meeting Jay a few weeks back. Just thought I’d give a little recap of how it all went.

 I got to Santa Monica on Thursday… continue reading.

Jeff “Koosh” Kushmerek is a living legend inside the RSC. He’s like Norm from Cheers. Everyone knows his name. To join Jeff and hundreds of others, click HERE to join the Renegade Strength Club. Give us a little background on your training history, what brought you to the RSC in the first place, and how you’ve changed since you joined. I started lifting in 1988. My brother’s roommate from college lived with us that summer. He was a RB for UColorado. We did 21’s and I couldn’t move my arms for 2 days. I was doing workouts from the magazines… continue reading.

In case you didn’t know, it’s National Coffee Day. To celebrate we are proud to announce the launch of the Renegade Roasting Co. If you know me you know I LOVE coffee. It’s one of my favorite things in life. And the only thing I need to set PR’s in the gym and reach superhuman levels of productivity at work. So it only made sense to start our own coffee company. We took months to seek out the highest quality, best tasting beans we could find. Then we needed a roasterie. I’m old school and like things… continue reading.