Today we have a guest post from Renegade Inner Circle member, John P, detailing his last twelve weeks of training. *** Hey guys,

I just finished up my final week of Yoked so I figured I’d throw out my review in case it’s useful to anyone. A bit about myself: I’m 33 years old, I’ve been training seriously for approximately a year and a half. Starting this program, I had just completed a 3-4 month phase of trying to get lean, where I started around 19-20% body fat and got down somewhere around 11-12%, which was around 186-188 pounds. After… continue reading.

Guest Post by Keith Scott. Not all injuries are really injuries. Huh? What the hell does that mean? It’s simple…over the years I have “magically cured” a lot of people’s injuries quickly because so many injuries are not really injuries, rather they are muscle spasms or knots that are causing pain and dysfunction. This is not to say that these knots don’t cause major pain and problems…they do. It also doesn’t mean that they are to be ignored, because many spasms or knots are a sign that either something was tweaked and needs to be fixed, or that the… continue reading.

I hate doing cardio. There are very few things I find less appealing than the thought of getting on a stair master and huffing away for thirty minutes straight. I’d imagine five rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime to be less painful. Going for a long walk or bike ride a few times per week at a low intensity is a great idea and I think everyone should do it. Pounding your joints on a machine at a high intensity for 45 minutes, five times a week? Horrible idea. When I opened Renegade Gym back in the early 90′s… continue reading.

What’s up guys? I hope you had a great weekend. Although I doubt it was as wild as the one my friend Mike had a few weeks back. Mike came into my gym for the first time as a skinny 12 year old. His dad hired me to get him bigger and stronger for football and wrestling. At the time I was only training regular people, still earning my chops as a beginner personal trainer helping people lose fat. But I really wanted to get into high performance training and help guys get bigger, stronger and faster. So Mike became… continue reading.

Unless you’re the ultimate McGuyver like handyman and you truly enjoy doing it, there’s rarely a time that it’s worth building your own equipment. It’s like saving twenty bucks at the car wash and doing it yourself. It takes you two hours to do a good job. So now it cost you ten bucks an hour. Surely your time is worth more than that. And you could have done something more productive. It’s a mindset shift that can make a huge difference in your life. Save money on material possessions, yes. I’m all for that. Buy cheaper clothes, drive a… continue reading.

Special guest post by world record holding deadlift champion, Andy Bolton The Deadlift is a superb exercise. Now you might think I’m biased, given that I’m pretty good at it (In case you don’t know – I’m that big dude that’s pulled over a 1000lbs. Twice)… that said – by the time you’ve finished reading this article I’m sure you’ll want to start hitting the deadlift HARD. Here are 7 reasons why the Deadlift is a superb exercise for serious Athletes… 1. If you’re a bodybuilder, or a guy who wants to be JACKED, very few things add slabs… continue reading.

Man, I’ve really been on some grubbin’ streak lately. It seems like every time I turn around over the last two weeks another one of my friends is in town wanting to meet up for dinner at one of LA’s finest restaurants. While my wife is a five star chef and makes incredible meals each night it’s always nice to get out amongst the people, give the local females a thrill and order half the items on the menu. Or in the case of a recent brunch at Post in Manhattan Beach with my long time buddy, Mike Schwalb- everything… continue reading.

There’s a helluva a lotta cats out there addicted to pre-workout stimulants. Gotta be cranked for your workout; bouncing off the walls or ready to run through ‘em. So you slug down a triple espresso and stack with it with some 3 Hour Energy Blaster, NO Explode-aria and whatever else they sell at the checkout counter of GNC. Anything short of an 8-ball of coke is fair game. After twenty minutes or so it starts kicking in and you feel superhuman. You’re no longer a guy who barely slept because you were stressed out all night or the guy who… continue reading.

An RSC Exclusive Report – Sign up HERE to become a member today. 13 Rules For Injury Free Training – By Keith Scott LEARN to listen to your body! Being intuitive to what your body is telling you is not easy, but if you take the time to really “listen” you will be able to master it and know when to back off, ramp up, or modify. The obvious sign is pain….if it hurts, stop doing it! But the more subtle forms of pain and dysfunction are harder to notice at first. Here are a few pointers: 1 –… continue reading.

One of the most frequently asked nutrition questions I get is, “How many carbs should you eat per day to build muscle?” Everyone always focuses on protein but if you want to get jacked carbs are crucial. High fat and Paleo style eating can be great for getting lean but not for getting big. That job requires some rice and potatoes. Carb intake should be directly correlated to weekly training volume. For example, let’s say Billy does an old school 5×5 routine twice per week because he believes that as a hardgainer that’s all the training he can handle. There… continue reading.

Recipe courtesy of Metabolic Cooking Makes 2 Servings Perfect for a snack, spread or sandwich Ingredients • 2 small whole wheat tortillas • ½ cup quinoa, cooked • 4 egg whites • ½ avocado, cubed • 1 cup lettuce, shredded • ½ cup salsa • ¼ cup red onion, diced • ½ cup black beans • ¼ cup fresh cilantro Directions 1. Cook quinoa and egg whites separately. Then mix with black beans, cilantro and onion. continue reading.

I remember when I was a skinny maggot and had a hard time getting a lot of calories down. It was one of the primary reasons I was a skinny maggot. You’ve gotta eat to grow. Yesterday, while watching two Giants victories I whacked down a huge plate of eggs and potatoes, a few pears, a cup of berries, an entire gluten free pizza, a pile of Jen’s bison meatballs, six cookies, and 3/4 of a cherry pie with coconut milk ice cream. But that was a far cry from the one day I ate 10,000 calories one Saturday in… continue reading.

In 2006 I went up to Boston to do a seminar at Total Performance Sports with some friends and colleagues of mine. The Friday night before it went down we all trained at TPS. I was going toe to toe with my buddy Smitty of Diesel Strength & Conditioning while Alwyn Cosgrove looked on in amusement. We went back and forth, constantly one upping each other and exchanging good-natured insults between sets. Over the previous few months my shoulder had been getting worse and worse from years of stupidity in the gym and several crash landings on dirt bikes, ATV’s… continue reading.

If you missed Part I click HERE. If you missed Part II click HERE. When we last left off I was telling Chris about how we needed to fix his hormonal issues that many hardgainers struggle with… “Okay, good. Let’s please do that.  I can’t live like this anymore. It’s getting so frustrating and depressing,” Chris told me. “Hey man, no one understands that more than I do (see the picture of me at 17 years old, after four years of training, to the left). But if you do what I say you will totally transform yourself. I’ve… continue reading.

If you missed Part I click HERE to read it. Now, back to the story of young Chris, the skinny-fat hardgainer. *** “Okay, so I can’t just rely on the big lifts, I should do some single leg, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises and I need to train my neck and forearms. And if I ever hope to see any growth in my calves at all I’ll have to bomb them like Arnold used to.” “You are correct, sir.” Got it. What else,” Chris asked. Myth #4: Hardgainers Should Train Very Infrequently “You said you were doing the classic HIT… continue reading.