The Iron Guru, Vince Gironda was legend in the world of Physical Culture. Here are seven of his best tips. 1)    Get sufficient sleep each night. Growth can only take place after recuperation. Get plenty of rest. 2)    Build up enthusiasm for each workout. Going through the motions of training will not produce results. You would be better off not training. 3)    Cycle your training. Never do today what you can’t supersede tomorrow. Don’t perform more exercises or more intensity than necessary to maintain an upward growth pattern. 4)    Never continue your workout so you run out of steam before… continue reading.

Most of you know by now how much I love the old school pioneers of the Iron Game. One of those legends I always pay my respects to is “The Iron Guru” Vince Gironda. Today I’m gonna give you an awesome way to combine the  Renegade Method with Vince’s training principles. First, start your workout with some type of explosive power exercise like a jump, throw or Olympic lift. This is pretty much a Renegade staple. Three to five sets of 1-5 reps will be sufficient for most people. After that move on to your maximal strength exercise. That will… continue reading.

“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 my dreams. But I could at least… continue reading.

Instead of discussing how little you can get away with to get in decent shape, let’s talk about how many days a week you should work out for maximal muscle growth and fat loss. Because if you’re reading this site you want to be built like a modern day warrior or Greek God. You’re not the average couch potato looking to just “tighten up a little.” Everybody wants the easy way out. Ten minute arms. Eight minute glutes. Six minute abs. Ya know what nobody wants? The truth. That building muscle and transforming your body takes HARD WORK. How many… continue reading.

I started training people when I was nineteen years old and still in school. After working in the college weight room I got out on my own. At first I was working with adults in a one on one setting for twenty bucks an hour. Eventually I worked that up to fifty and had a pretty good base of clients. They were all the average fat loss personal training client, however, and that was really the last thing I wanted to spend the rest of my career doing. I wanted to work with athletes and I wanted to train guys… continue reading.

Today’s post is from a forum discussion in the Renegade Inner Circle. Question: Jay, I’m opening a new gym and I want to run group training out of it and set it up “Renegade style” as I have a lot of old clients and leads who are interested because I use to teach similar type group training at my old globo-gym. My question for you is what baseline equipment do you recommend getting for it. I know prowler, tire, kettlebells etc. Just wanted to see what your recommendations would be. It would be mainly mainstream… continue reading.

Fourteen months ago I ended my three year stint as a vegetarian. Here are the reasons why… Firstly, I debated about even writing this article at all because the last thing I want is to start a whole debate about the morals and ethics of eating meat. For some reason a lot of people take it more seriously than religion and I don’t really want regular visitors to this site getting all fired up and arguing with each other about something so trivial. But the fact of the matter is a lot of people ask me about my diet and… continue reading.

Last Wednesday I drove over to Rawesome in Venice, like I do every week, to pick up some meat, produce and a little raw butter, cream and goat yogurt. I arrived at the tail end of a government raid in which the LAPD and government officials poured out all of the raw dairy and left with a flat bed truck full of produce, nuts and bison steaks. We all know that it’s not in the best interest of big business/ big pharma for us to be healthy. Apparently selling healthy, organic food is now a crime. A crime worthy of… continue reading.

Yesterday morning I woke up with the intention of going to Six Man in Manhattan Beach. It’s an annual volleyball tournament that attracts around nineteen hundred billion people and is known as the beach party of the summer. However, I had stayed out late the night before with some friends and really wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t have a sip of alcohol but I felt like I drank a dozen vodkas. That’s the funny thing about staying up late. I end up feeling exactly the same whether I drink or not, even if I get the same amount of sleep… continue reading.

Anyone who reads this site regularly knows how much I hate 99% of all public gyms. It’s just not really my scene. Plus they never have the stuff I want and always have too much of the stuff I don’t want. I found this piece by Stuart McRobert which echoes my sentiments (and probably yours) and thought it was awesome so I’m sharing it here: “This gym is all appearance and no substance. It is only because we have a lot of fancy-looking equipment that we impress everyone who knows little or nothing about training. Because we have spent a… continue reading.

How long should your workout last if you want to build muscle and gain strength at the fastest rate possible? When it comes to workout duration less is more. To increase muscle hypertrophy and get stronger you want to get to the gym, hit it hard, stimulate size and strength gains, then get out. That means no more than sixty minutes total, including warm up time. When you start training your body will naturally boost testosterone levels significantly higher than normal. This increased output peaks somewhere around a half hour into your workout. By taking blood… continue reading.

I have a great article for you today by my colleague, Brad Pilon. Brad is a super smart dude who knows more about nutrition than most people have forgotten. He’s also one of the few guys I rely on for dietary advice. Check it out… How Much Protein Should You Eat Per Day? By Brad Pilon You’d think by now we’d have a clear-cut answer to this question, but to tell you the truth, ‘how much protein’ is a question we’ve been trying to answer for over 200 years. In fact, protein has played a central role in nutrition… continue reading.

Bodyweight exercises need to be part of your program if you want to get build muscle, burn fat and improve your overall athleticism. Not everyone needs to or should lift a barbell, but bodyweight exercises are essential. I’ve used them to rapidly transform the bodies of professional athletes, models and entertainers. One of the many things I love about them is they can be done anywhere at any time. But I’m not just talking basic pushups, sit ups, air squats and high rep calisthenics. That’s beginner stuff that won’t really build muscle beyond your first few months of training. We’re… continue reading.

Die Hard Pearl Jam Fans- As I’ve mentioned numerous times before I’m a huge Pearl Jam fan. So naturally I went to see Eddie Vedder a few times on his recent tour. One thing that always irks me is when the hardcore fans who are standing during Rival sit down during Porch. They sit because they’re cooler than everyone else who only know the words to the radio hits. I get it. But the fact is that those are the songs that got you into the band in the first place. So get up off your ass and sing along… continue reading.

People often ask me, “Are trap bar deadlifts safer than straight bar deadlifts?” In the past I might have been inclined to say yes. But that was before I witnessed a lot of average guys sustain some really odd injuries while trap bar deadlifting over the last three years. You see, when you get used to working with a higher level, more athletic clientele it can skew your viewpoint on things a bit. I’ve found that to be the case with a few concepts that I once believed to be true. After being able to test them on a wider… continue reading.