Guest Post by Luka Hocevar, Creator of The Fitness Business Mix Tape The fitness industry is the real deal. There are very few professions where you can affect people as much as we do. Literally change people’s lives; inside and out. You should be proud for being in this industry and you owe it to the people you train to be the best you can be for them. Here’s some real talk though. Training people year in and year out can become tough, draining; especially when your goal is to affect more and more people. Giving more… continue reading.

@JasonFerruggia What makes for a “good” warmup prior to lifting? — Will Thorburn (@wthorburn) January 8, 2014 Will, I like getting your core temperature elevated first. You can do this with 3-5 minutes of jumping rope. If you have any specific areas that are really locked up you’d probably want to spend a few minutes working them with a lacrosse ball or Rumble Roller. After that go through the muscles you’re training that day and get some blood in there and lubricate the joints around them. One thing that people should… continue reading.

@JasonFerruggia is it possible to cut bodyfat and still increase strength for intermediates and what are realistic expectations thanks. — Ross Armstrong (@rossypotamus) January 6, 2014   Ross, Absolutely. There are two ways to gain strength. One is to increase the size of the muscle. The other is to increase the neural drive to the muscle (neural improvements). When you’re dieting for fat loss you obviously won’t be increasing the size of the muscle. So you’ll have to focus on neural strength gains, which is really what you should be doing anyway. Plenty of people… continue reading.

@JasonFerruggia what are some crucial habits a morning routine should contain in order to get your body & mind ready for the day? — Rob Sanders (@Huskergrappler) January 8, 2014   Rob, Great question. I am a huge proponent of having morning rituals and believe it sets the tone for a productive, happy, successful day. The first thing I do when my eyes open is meditate. In the past I tried doing this at other times throughout the day but this has proven to be the best for me because I’m guaranteed to get it… continue reading.

Guest Post By Tyler Bramlett.  Creator Of The 27 Body Transformation Habits Whether you like it or not, who you are right now is a culmination of the daily, weekly and monthly habits that you have formed up to this point in your life. Let me be crystal clear about this so you can get the most out of this article. You are NOT and will never be better then your habits… Period! If you have bad habits, you will not build the strength, muscle and athletic abilities that meet your true potential. But… Bad habits are easily remedied… continue reading.

For optimal results a female shouldn’t train exactly the same way males do. Below is a list of 4 things females should do to ensure better results from their training. 1) Increase Frequency I usually recommend that guys beyond the beginner level train each bodypart once every 4-7 days. The stronger and more advanced you get the more that stretches from four days to seven. Females, however, because they seem to recover faster than males do, can get great results from training bodyparts a minimum of twice per week. And in many cases they can make rapid progress training muscles… continue reading.

People Will Train More For Performance If you have good genetics, eat and sleep properly you can probably gain about twenty pounds of muscle your first year of training. The next year you can gain about half that and half that again the third year. That’s best-case scenario. After that it’s peanuts. For some people it will take 5-8 years to build impressive muscle mass. That’s not to say you don’t make gains but it will be more of a slow thickening up process and the scale won’t change much from year to year. Huge weight increases will only be… continue reading.

Guest Post By Al Kavaldo,  Author of Stretching Your Boundaries The first time I ever took a yoga class I was 24 years old. I had been working as a personal trainer at a commercial gym for a little while and decided it would be good for me to get firsthand experience at some of the classes we offered. Like many young guys, I arrogantly went to that first class with the expectation that it would be very easy and very boring. I was wrong on both counts! The class challenged me in new… continue reading.

Guest Post By Rob King Back in Feb 2012 I ventured from my home town of Newfoundland, a cold rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, to venture to another cold place and home of Renegade Gym, New Jersey. I wasn’t going “down south” as we call it here when we want to escape the cold wet weather of Newfoundland, I was going on an mission to meet a guy that his impacted my life and training, that is Jason Ferruggia. My girlfriend and I had booked up 2 spots in Jay’s Renegade Workshop and I couldn’t miss the opportunity… continue reading.

Guest Post By Sean Hyson One time, I made the mistake of Tweeting that I had to modify my workout in order to make better use of light dumbbells, which was all the equipment I had available to me at the moment. Seconds later, some “bro” responded, smugly suggesting that if I’m serious about training, I should seek out a better, more “hardcore” gym with heavy dumbbells. Obviously, he didn’t know me, because there are few places on earth I’d rather be than in a hardcore gym at any given moment. And, normally, I have no interest in using light… continue reading.

Here are some lessons I learned in 2013. Some were brand new revelations while others were just strongly reinforced over the last twelve months. I hope you find at least a tidbit or two you can take away from the following list that will make your 2014 your best year ever. 1) Always Show Gratitude In 2013 I made it a habit to show gratitude in a multitude of ways on a daily basis. Firstly, I started keeping a gratitude journal (thanks to my good friend, Craig Ballantyne for the inspiration). Each day I write down the… continue reading.

Just a quick note today to let everyone know that the Bikini Body Workouts 60 Day Transformation program that my wife, Jen, and I put together for all the female Renegades out there is finally live. It’s available for immediate instant download right now. And it’s on sale until the end of the week for 50% off the regular price. In the program you get: The fully 60 day workout guide The nutrition plan The 21 Day Booty Blast Videos of all the exercises And, of course, some pretty sick results along the way. This the perfect plan to help… continue reading.

Voodoo Floss Bands These are awesome for instantly making your ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbows or shoulders feel significantly better. I keep them in my gym back and break them out whenever anything isn’t feeling up to snuff. After a couple minutes of voodoo magic I’m good go. Rumble Roller
 A plain old basic foam roller is great. But once that no longer does anything for you it’s time to graduate to this bad boy. I use this 365 days per year on every muscle group from head to toe. continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle Member Matt Knox I was the skinniest dude in my town. Period. Dot. Exclamation point. Don’t believe me? If I wanted to wrestle in school (9th grade), I would have had to gain at least 5 pounds. Yep I couldn’t even make the wrestling team because I didn’t weigh enough to make the smallest weight class of 93lbs. Pathetic. Did that stop me? Nope I would play football next year with all of my buddies right? Wrong, I was so small that my parents and coach did not want me to play because… continue reading.

Should you train to failure or not? Nobody seems to know for sure. So I will end the confusion. And, just so everyone is clear, training to failure literally means that the weight is falling back down on you. You actually never want to do that. Instead you can train to technical failure. That’s the point where another rep with perfect technique would be impossible. But even that’s a little far for my liking. I always tell people to stop sets with 1-2 perfect reps in the tank. Now, granted those 1-2 reps will be hard and much slower than… continue reading.