Guest Post by Tyler Bramlett, Creator of the CT-50 System One of the most common mistakes people make is getting married to the idea that the only way you can progress with your training is by increasing the amount of muscle you have or how much weight you can lift. While it’s nice to stand in front of the mirror and know for certain that you’ve packed on a few pounds of lean muscle or shed some unwanted body fat, there’s another area where you can make some serious gains. You see, strength training… continue reading.

Guest Post by Dave Dellanave I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I am traveling I always turn the TV on in my hotel room and I swear to you the show MythBusters follows me around. Every time I flip the TV on, the two main characters, Jamie and Adam, are dissecting some new half-truth. I love the show because they savagely, gleefully test the validity of a wide range of myths, movie scenes, YouTube videos, and news stories — often leveraging explosions and destruction to put the term “indestructible” to the test. Often,… continue reading.

I turned 39 yesterday. I woke up and walked out on the balcony to practice some deep breathing, as I do each day, and noticed an incredible sight. The beach and surrounding parking lots were nearly empty. There was hardly anyone on the bike path. All of the summer tourists had disappeared overnight. I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I know how the locals must have felt the day after Labor Day each year at the Jersey Shore when we all cleared out until the next Memorial Day. As a kid I always thought I had the worst… continue reading.

Tom couldn’t figure it out. Why was it that every time he’d bust his ass to gain ten pounds over the course of 3-4 months he’d always end up hating the way he looked? He was bigger but fatter. Out of the ten pounds six or seven was always pure, gelatinous, adipose tissue, also known as body-fat. No matter what he did the results were always the same. If he ate higher carbs and lower fat or lower carbs and higher fat the same thing would happen when he went on a rapid bulk plan…. He just got fat. Then… continue reading.

As a young meathead, I did a lot of stupid stuff in the gym. I mean really f’n stupid. But I was in my twenties and thought I was invincible. Not to mention charming and handsome with the bloat of youth filling my puffy face. Oh, where have ye gone? Father time, you’re a cruel bastard… The point is that stupidity eventually led to shoulder surgery. That’s why I cringe every time I see someone doing upright rows or lateral raises.   I see it in… continue reading.

People hear that statement every day from doctors around the world. And in an instant their entire life changes. They realize what’s important and what’s nonsense. They suddenly regret all the time they wasted on pettiness or trivial bullshit. They regret not taking the time to do all the things they’d promised themselves they’d do, the skills they wanted to develop, the places they wanted to see, the people they wanted to help. A lot of people go to holistic healers at times like these and they’re advised to stop doing all of the stuff that they hate doing and… continue reading.

I just got a great message from a Renegade trainee: “Your workouts are my favorite form of training I’ve ever done in 20+ years. I’ve gotten in the best shape of my life and never enjoyed training more than I do right now.” – Optimized You (on IG) My inboxes are always flooded with messages like this. But I never tire of the feedback. It fuels to keep going, to keep leading more people toward the light. I love getting people off the merry-go-round of bad training programs and… continue reading.

When I was growing up you had to put in work to get a girl. You couldn’t just go to the club and stand there like lummox. You actually had to know how to dance. Needed some moves. So you’d be in there doin your little two step, smiling and having fun. Waiting but not creeping. Once you got the eye contact you’d wait just the right amount of time… and then you might start dancing with her. But at an appropriate, safe distance. Ya didn’t just go mount her… continue reading.

Guest Post By Mark Crook No band affected and influenced the metal world more than Pantera during the early to mid 1990’s. With the first note of their 1990 release, Cowboys From Hell, Pantera hammered the final nail into the coffin of the once thriving hair metal scene (thank God!) and ignored the alternative rock/ grunge explosion.  I know our own Jason Ferruggia is arguably the biggest Pearl Jam fan on the planet and I’m sure many reading this are as well and are about to curse me out but that whole “Seattle Scene” era just didn’t excite me (except… continue reading.

Everybody knows that squats, deads and presses get you huge and that bodyweight training is just for conditioning, right? Wrong. One look at rings gymnasts or a quick YouTube search of dudes dominating chin up bars in every park in New York City will show you that bodyweight training can get you jacked. That’s because exercises that force you to move your body through space have a higher level of neuromuscular activation than those where you are simply moving your limbs. It’s one of the reasons why back squats are better than leg presses. Some of my favorite bodyweight exercises… continue reading.

Guest Post By Renegade Inner Circle Member Kevin Cassidy I was lost. For seven years of my life I was living in chaos, pollution of my body, and destruction of my mind. My life was in a downward spiral leading to my bottom. I started off with the world in my hands, and became willing to give it all away for another drink. I have been involved in athletics my entire life. I grew up playing football, roller hockey, ice hockey, basketball, baseball, and soccer with my friends. When I grew older my love for the game… continue reading.

There aren’t many things worse than being an un-athletic doofus. But a lot of times that what we let ourselves become in our quest to get bigger and stronger. You freak out and obsess over size and strength gains and you let your movement efficiency and conditioning go down the crapper. A lot of that comes from heeding the old “hardgainer” advice of doing no more than two or three short workouts per week and laying on the couch the rest of the time. Yeah, that sounds like the epitome of health and fitness. continue reading.

As a strength training newbie, if you do everything right you can gain twenty pounds of muscle in your first year of proper training. In some rare cases I’ve even seen some gifted kids gain thirty. But to gain thirty you have to also be growing at that time anyway, with or without strength training. That means it’s only gonna happen if you’re 16-22, maybe even up to 25. Gaining much more than that is going to be damn near impossible. That’s not a defeatist statement but rather a reality check so that you don’t frustrate yourself and get disappointed. continue reading.

There’s never a time in your life when you’ll build more muscle faster than somewhere between the ages of about 16 and 22 (or up to 25 for some people). Your anabolic hormones are cranking, your recovery ability is through the roof and your digestive system is performing at peak capacity. Even if you don’t eat above maintenance or do any strength training at all you’re still going to build muscle and gain a significant amount of weight. Everything is growing throughout your teenage years. If you do the right things, training and nutrition wise, you can dramatically enhance that… continue reading.

Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite show muscle today; the pecs. You can’t train them like every other muscle group. The reason being that they’re made up of predominantly fast twitch fibers. Fast twitch fibers have the greatest potential for growth, but also fatigue quickly. They respond best to lower duration sets with heavy weights. They thrive on explosive contractions.  They can’t handle as much volume and need more rest. They’re “performance muscles.” Not every muscle group is like that. Some are slow twitch, meaning you train them… continue reading.