About three or four years ago Chad Waterbury and I connected for the first time through our mutual friend, Alwyn Cosgrove. Over several Jack & Red Bulls at a bar in Santa Monica, we discussed training for hours on end.  Despite the fact that we went into the meeting with seemingly very different views and theories, we concluded that we agreed much more than we disagreed. Since that night Chad’s become one of my good friends and we discuss training on a weekly basis. He’s one of the guys I trust most and I’m always interested… continue reading.

All too often I walk into public gyms and see skinny guys plugging away, doing set after set of the worst, time wasting exercises possible. That’s why, today, I’m going to show you the most effective exercises per body part starting from the traps and working our way down to the calves. Remember that the most important factor in all of strength training is progressive overload. So forget about all the other confusing nonsense and work to get brutally strong on these exercises. When you can move head turning weights for ten reps you will be big. continue reading.

By Dave Ruel of AnabolicCooking.com Makes 1 Serving Ingredients * – 3/4 cup oatmeal * – 8 Egg Whites * – 1/2 scoop (15g) of Chocolate Protein Powder * – 2 teaspoons of Pure Cocoa Powder * – 1 teaspoon of Splenda (Jays note: Use organic honey instead) * – 1 tbsp of Flax Oil * – 1 cup of frozen Blueberries * – 1/4 cup of water Directions * 1. In a big bowl, mix All the ingredients (except for the frozen blueberries) * 2. Cook… continue reading.

Today’s guest post is from David Jarzebowski, a member of the Renegade Inner Circle. Ok, so a high school friend of mine got married in Buffalo, NY, over the weekend. When I was booking the ticket, the only option from London was to fly via Newark. Given how close this was to Renegade Gym, I decided to extend my trip by a day and try to squeeze in a training session at Renegade. Jay was kind enough to agree, and so I booked the flights and hotel at Newark airport. I arrived from London at 1pm… continue reading.

I got back late Tuesday night from an awesome four day trip to Chicago (the home of my two favorite athletes of all time, Michael Jordan and Walter Payton). For those who have never been I highly recommend going to the Windy City during the summer months. It’s definitely one of my favorite places. Although I wouldn’t want to visit in the winter. We hit North Street and Oak Street Beaches, where strangely you are only allowed to swim out til the waters at mid chest level and then some guys in row boats stop you. Weird. continue reading.

Probably my biggest weakness is my grip strength. That’s why I always check out anything Jedd Johnson has to say on the subject. He is the master when it comes to this topic and today I have an awesome guest post from the man, himself. Check it out… Grip and Forearm Strength is an important aspect for anyone who trains with weights or competes in sports.  This is true for many reasons. Grip Strength helps your other lifts go up, in turn improving your weights lifted.  The way this happens is by a concept called Radiant Tension. To demonstrate… continue reading.

Here is the final installment of my interview with the God of Turbulence Training, and one wacky Canuck, Craig Ballantyne. Craig Ballantyne: Let’s discuss some more muscle building stuff. You can talk about what you’ve got going on in terms of how you work with your guys to build muscle. You talked a little bit about it so far, but what are your main philosophies? Jason Ferruggia: Always get stronger.  That’s the main theme no matter what the goal is.  Again, we stick with big basic exercises and I do a lot of bodyweight stuff… continue reading.

In part 6 of my interview with Craig we discuss how I set up programs in order to maximize muscle building, strength & power development, conditioning and overall tissue and joint health. Craig Ballantyne: Can you walk us through a typical Renegade style training session. Is it always goingto be total body training with conditioning at the end? Jason Ferruggia: More or less. We don’t really isolate muscles and every workout involves the total body. There may be an upper or lower focus on certain days but we are still using exercises and drills that involve the entire body… continue reading.

Here’s the next installment of my interview with CB… Craig Ballantyne: Now, I know you don’t specialize in fat loss, per se, but over the 15 plus years of training people, what have you noticed and what lessons have you learned from training athletes that might help average people and some of my readers lose fat more efficiently? Jason Ferruggia: Athletes that train intelligently always seem to be able to get down to single digit body fat fairly easily.  Then you have the average guy going to the gym struggling and he’s always stuck at 20 or… continue reading.

Here’s part 3 of my recent interview for Craig Ballantyne. Craig Ballantyne: Why don’t we just stick with nutrition a little bit and talk about your personal nutrition now? So, talk about your general nutrition approach for yourself and how that’s working for any of your clients that are using it as well. Jason Ferruggia: I don’t think there was anyone that ate more meat and dairy than I did back in the day. I would have a gallon of milk a day, a dozen eggs, and at least a pound of beef for years. I was a… continue reading.

Here is part 2 of the recent interview I did for Craig Ballantyne. Click HERE for part 1. Craig Ballantyne: Tell us a little bit about some of the unique conditioning that you do? Obviously you’ve got the prowler, you guys do sprints, but what else do you have in Renegade Gym that you guys do? Jason Ferruggia: First of all, it should be noted that not everyone needs to do conditioning. Typically the most explosive athletes do the least amount of conditioning. These would usually be throwers. But if you want to be in shape… continue reading.

Today I have part 1 of a recent interview I did for my buddy Craig Ballantyne. Craig Ballantyne: Jay, why don’t you give us a little bit of background about who Jason Ferruggia is? Some of the readers may not be familiar with your stuff, so just give us the Renegade Strength Coach background. Jason Ferruggia: Sure. I’ve been training people since the early 90’s. In 1994 I opened up Renegade Gym in New Jersey with the money I had saved up. I was actually still going to school at the time as well. Since then I have… continue reading.

It’s almost impossible to imagine it today, but there was a time, many years ago, when athletes avoided strength training like the plague for fear that it would make them slow and “muscle bound.” Fortunately we have long since discovered that that was a myth and nowadays just about every athlete on the planet, from tennis players and golfers to football players and wrestlers, participates in some type of strength training program. This is frequently talked about by the announcers and highlighted in pregame videos. How the sporting world has changed over the years… Strength training making… continue reading.

Question: What is the best way to stay hydrated during training camp and two-a-days? Is there a certain hydration “procedure” during hot weather workouts, which may or may not be limited to a certain form of drink mix.. ( ie, fruit, vitamin supplements, change of food intake, etc.. ) Despite the best efforts of football staffs, we seem to hear of disasters in this area every year……I want to just try and give my son every advantage that I can… Answer: The best thing I’ve found, that I I’ve used with great success over the… continue reading.

Long before I kinda “went mainstream” and had the Hardgainer column every month in Men’s Fitness and became known for my ability to help skinny guys get bigger and stronger there was a smaller, hardcore audience that knew me only as the guy who trained football players and combat athletes in a dungeon gym in New Jersey. As much as I love getting guys bigger and stronger, when you throw in the element of speed, conditioning and overall improved athleticism I get REALLY excited. That’s my true passion. If I could only train one type of client it would… continue reading.