Fitness

You wanna build muscle? You wanna get strong? You wanna get ripped? You wanna do it with short muscle building workouts you can do at home? In a sweet, minimalist garage or basement gym? Where you can avoid the expensive public gym memberships and the nonsense that goes along with those hell holes? I feel you. I hate most public chain gyms. Walking into that type of place usually sickens me and makes me question humanity as a whole. The sight of guys loading on weight plates and doing a two inch range of motion. The smell of fake tanner… continue reading.

Sleep is the single most important thing for improving your body composition and overall health. In Anthony DiClementi’s amazing book, The Biohackers Guide you’ll learn how to instantly improve your sleep. Topics include: -Why is it that dozens of influential thinkers, inventors, businessmen, and politicians can get away with 5, 4, or even 3 hours of sleep each night and function at a high level? The answer will surprise you – pg. 172 -5 sleep biohacks, 14 sleep improvement tools, 10+ smartphone apps, dozens… continue reading.

I love loaded carries and include them in every training program I design. There is nothing more functional than picking up something heavy and walking with it. It’s manly, hardcore, old school shit. Makes you feel like a badass. Especially when you’re doing them in a public gym where no one else would dream of doing such a thing. Loaded carries bulletproof your entire body from head to toe. Ankle, knee and hip stability is increased from loaded carries. Your toes, feet and abs get stronger. continue reading.

Yes, you can. Absolutely. What you shove down your pie hole is the single most important factor relating to fat loss. Diet, diet, diet. That should be your focus. You could do nothing but get up and go to work each morning, come home, sit on the couch and repeat. And still lose a significant amount of bodyfat if you’re eating properly. But that is the worst message in the world to be promoting. I hate it more than people texting at the dinner table. I loathe it. It’s that oafish, unathletic, unfit 80’s bodybuilder type of mindset. The… continue reading.

Guest post by Coach Robert Dos Remedios One of the often overlooked aspects of training is the warm-up, or  what I  like to call “Activation and movement preparation”. For many years we have used a simple yet effective and efficient pre-workout routine to get folks primed for a great training session. This is our 5-step sequence 1. Soft Tissue drills (2-3 minutes) Foam rolling has become mainstream and anyone who has ever got on a roller will attest that it can be quite addictive. We keep it direct… continue reading.

There are thousands of guys out there who follow a proven workout and muscle building diet. Look at their training and nutrition plan, and you’d think they were all jacked out of their minds. Yet so many stay skinny and weak, with tube steak arms, hideous belly fat, and droopy man boobs. The reason? They’re missing a critical piece of the performance puzzle. Hormone Optimization. Hormones are the signaling molecules that let you see the results of your work. Check out the 5 most important ones. And learn how… continue reading.

I just received some great feedback I needed to share with you. It’s from a professional wrestler I know who has trained Renegade style for years now. He hasn’t made it up to the main WWE roster yet, but he’s still putting in that hard work, chasing his dream, 24/7. Anyway, here’s his email: “My man. I’ve been getting your emails about Brad Pilon’s How Much Protein, and since changing my diet my protein count is down to 95 grams per day. Amazing… continue reading.

True or false: the harder you train the better your results? If you just arrived here from another planet you might assume that’s true. It makes sense on the surface. But it never seems to pan out that way for most of us. You can only put the pedal to the medal for so long. When you do it constantly your progress slows down. Sometimes it comes to a halt. Worse yet, you might start to regress. Sadly, it’s always the skinny-fat, high stress, hardgainer types who want to test this theory. They’re the last people who should be doing this. continue reading.

1. Think safety first. If you are always getting hurt no progress can be made. 2. Identify the exercises that hurt you and stop doing them. Just because lots of people tell you an exercise is great that doesn’t mean it’s for you. If it hurts stop. 3. Have a clearly defined goal. You can’t increase your 40 time, lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 20 pounds of muscle at the same time. 4. Train like an athlete. Blend dumbbells, kettlebells, bodyweight exercises and various forms of movement. 5. Train for strength gains. continue reading.

I like to keep things simple. Why? Because it’s the only way to get things done and accomplish goals. There are four things you need to do to build lean muscle, get stronger, boost your endurance, and shred bodyfat. 1) Use Some Type of Progressive Overload Over the course of time you have to add weight, do more reps, decrease rest periods or increase volume. Your body will only adapt when forced. That means pushing yourself beyond what you are currently capable of doing. You can’t get comfortable. Always strive for some type of small improvement. 2) Use Bodyweight Exercises… continue reading.

Here’s a question that was asked recently in The Renegade Strength Club Forum, followed by my response. I’m posting it here because it could help a lot of people suffering through a similar plight. Jay, I’m coming back from multiple injuries. I recently got my bloodwork done because I just felt like something was off. And I was right. My estrogen levels are higher than my testosterone, which is low. My cortisol is high as well. I’m 5’10, 168 pounds. I am skinny fat! A guy I hired put me on six meals a day and… continue reading.

Guest Post by Logan Christoper I was incredibly weak when I was growing up. My brother, who was a star football player in high school, got me to sign up to play freshman year. The summer before that started he began training me. It’s sad to say but on that first day I couldn’t even do a regular pushup. While within a few days I was able to achieve that goal I was still far from strong. When I started benching I struggled for a long time before I could handle even a real plate on each side of the… continue reading.

If you don’t have access to a full gym or even any barbells and other standard equipment fear not, my friends…. You can still get great results in the confines of your own basement or garage with nothing but your bodyweight and a set of dumbbells. Below I have listed my top 10 dumbbell exercises for strength and size. I tried to keep myself honest by only including exercises that were better with dumbbells than they are with kettlebells. So that’s why there are no swings, Turkish get ups, farmers walks (because dumbbells tend to roll out of your… continue reading.

I used to think the definition of a “hardgainer” was a skinny dude who had trouble gaining muscle. But now I know that’s not true. A skinny ripped dude is just too lazy too eat. That’s his only problem. A “hardgainer” is the skinny fat guy who has zero muscle mass with an A-frame physique, narrow shoulders, pipe cleaner arms, a little belly and soft pecs. They’re everywhere these days. For some odd reason it seems like not as many of these guys existed years ago. The majority of skinny guys were leaner. The ever declining quality of our food… continue reading.

1. Start With a Targeted Warm Up You’ll see a lot of people flop around on a foam roller to “get warm.” That does nothing to get your shoulders ready to train. Instead, you need to focus on learning which of your muscles don’t fire properly and what drills get them going. Here are a few of my favorite shoulder activation movements for you to try. Prone Y- Raise Iso Holds… continue reading.