Fitness

A lot of you are very interested in the Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth book. And you know me, I could talk and read about the old school Iron Game legends all day. Here’s a small sample of what’s revealed for those of you who emailed me asking exactly what’s included: Vince Gironda: Legend and Myth by Alan Palmieri is the most complete and comprehensive writing on Vince Gironda ever. This is a must read for anyone interested in Vince Gironda. The “Iron Guru” was perhaps at his pinnacle of fame in the “Golden Years” of bodybuilding,… continue reading.

Give us a little background on your training history, what brought you to the RSC in the first place, and how you’ve changed since you joined. During fall of my senior year of high school my girlfriend at the time poked fun at me for not having a butt in front of a couple other friends. At 5’11” and 155lbs she was probably right. I had never thought much about lifting since I played soccer, tennis, and volleyball. In the past I had messed around with my friends in the weight room but never for more than a week at a time. continue reading.

The last thing I could ever imagine doing is carrying around Tupperware containers and weighing my food all day. I need freedom and simplicity in everything I do. Otherwise my life sucks. So my approach to nutrition reflects that. When I wake up in the morning I’m not that hungry. I just need to get shit done. That’s my most productive time of the day and I need to attack my MIT (Most Important Task) with a vengeance. That means I’m drinking water and coffee and skipping food for the first couple hours. Some people freak out and… continue reading.

“It is quality rather than quantity that matters.” – Seneca Author, Ryan Holiday recently came out with a great book about stoicism. It’s been selling out like a Led Zeppelin reunion tour. While reading it I couldn’t help but think how the philosophy applies to training. As Ryan says, “stoicism doesn’t concern itself with complicated theories about the world, but with helping us overcome destructive emotions and act on what can be acted upon… it’s built for action, not endless debate.” That’s like the Renegade philosophy of training. There’s no need to make it complicated. What worked for Arthur Saxon… continue reading.

The simple answer is yes, of course you can. Resistance is resistance. I don’t think you will get huge without a barbell, though. No, check that. I know you won’t. Squats, deadlifts and presses are hard to beat when it comes to packing on size. If you just did those and the rest of your exercises with dumbbells, bodyweight and kettlebells you’d be fine. But if using a bar of any sort isn’t an option for you lets look at what you CAN do, which is build some serious size and strength. We’ll start from the top. continue reading.

In this post we’re gonna talk about how to build big shoulders. I’ll give you a quick bit of anatomy on the shoulders and then we’ll get into the best shoulder exercises and the ultimate shoulder workout. Here’s a question a reader emailed me recently… Question: Jason, I have a question about shoulder training. First, of all should I even train shoulders directly? Some people say they get enough work from other upper body exercises. And secondly, if you recommend training them, what are the best exercises? Answer: First of… continue reading.

This is a guest post by my buddy, Ryan Nemeth (brother of WWE wrestler, Dolph Ziggler. It’s from his book, How to be a Hardbody. That’s Ryan over there, on the left. EXERCISING IS NOT… Exercising is not war. Working out is not a bloody fight on a battlefield. Exercising is not a live-action wildlife sequence in a jungle with a tiger and a gazelle and sharp teeth and blood and victory and defeat now we have to separate the men from the boys and the predator from the prey and suddenly lightning strikes and there’s fire… continue reading.

Guest Post By Nick Nilsson Bodyweight training is awesome…however, due to the nature of bodyweight training (limited resistance), it can be tough to build substantial muscle mass with it. That’s where I come in… My name is Nick Nilsson (a.k.a. The “Mad Scientist of Muscle”) and these 3 “mad scientist” methods will help you build some serious mass with your bodyweight workouts. 1. Daily Specialization Training This is incredibly simple yet incredibly effective…you’re going to take one good bodyweight exercise (ideally something that allows you to only get 4 to 6 reps to start with, like chins, for example) and… continue reading.

Guest Post by Geoff Neupert, CSCS, Master SFG I have never bought into the popular fitness myth that you shouldn’t train to get stronger in order to lose fat. If strength is the foundation for every physical quality, and it is (according to Russian sports scientist Dr. L. Matveev, the “father of periodization”), then why wouldn’t you train for strength to lose fat? As strange as this concept may sound, if we simply open our eyes and look at the world of athletics, we’ll discover the answer. Have you ever noticed that some of the world’s greatest athletes are also… continue reading.

@JasonFerruggia What makes for a “good” warmup prior to lifting? — Will Thorburn (@wthorburn) January 8, 2014 Will, I like getting your core temperature elevated first. You can do this with 3-5 minutes of jumping rope. If you have any specific areas that are really locked up you’d probably want to spend a few minutes working them with a lacrosse ball or Rumble Roller. After that go through the muscles you’re training that day and get some blood in there and lubricate the joints around them. One thing that people should… continue reading.

@JasonFerruggia is it possible to cut bodyfat and still increase strength for intermediates and what are realistic expectations thanks. — Ross Armstrong (@rossypotamus) January 6, 2014   Ross, Absolutely. There are two ways to gain strength. One is to increase the size of the muscle. The other is to increase the neural drive to the muscle (neural improvements). When you’re dieting for fat loss you obviously won’t be increasing the size of the muscle. So you’ll have to focus on neural strength gains, which is really what you should be doing anyway. Plenty of people… continue reading.

Guest Post By Tyler Bramlett.  Creator Of The 27 Body Transformation Habits Whether you like it or not, who you are right now is a culmination of the daily, weekly and monthly habits that you have formed up to this point in your life. Let me be crystal clear about this so you can get the most out of this article. You are NOT and will never be better then your habits… Period! If you have bad habits, you will not build the strength, muscle and athletic abilities that meet your true potential. But… Bad habits are easily remedied… continue reading.

For optimal results a female shouldn’t train exactly the same way males do. Below is a list of 4 things females should do to ensure better results from their training. 1) Increase Frequency I usually recommend that guys beyond the beginner level train each bodypart once every 4-7 days. The stronger and more advanced you get the more that stretches from four days to seven. Females, however, because they seem to recover faster than males do, can get great results from training bodyparts a minimum of twice per week. And in many cases they can make rapid progress training muscles… continue reading.

Guest Post By Al Kavaldo,  Author of Stretching Your Boundaries The first time I ever took a yoga class I was 24 years old. I had been working as a personal trainer at a commercial gym for a little while and decided it would be good for me to get firsthand experience at some of the classes we offered. Like many young guys, I arrogantly went to that first class with the expectation that it would be very easy and very boring. I was wrong on both counts! The class challenged me in new… continue reading.

Guest Post By Sean Hyson One time, I made the mistake of Tweeting that I had to modify my workout in order to make better use of light dumbbells, which was all the equipment I had available to me at the moment. Seconds later, some “bro” responded, smugly suggesting that if I’m serious about training, I should seek out a better, more “hardcore” gym with heavy dumbbells. Obviously, he didn’t know me, because there are few places on earth I’d rather be than in a hardcore gym at any given moment. And, normally, I have no interest in using light… continue reading.