Fitness

Renegade Strength Club member, Michael Hodge sent us this message recently: *** My name is Michael Hodge, and I have been a member of the Renegade Strength Club for over 5 years. In October of 2011 I was weak and skinny fat, and I could not, for the life of me, figure out a way to break through my “plateau.” After finding Jason, I discovered that there was no plateau, and I was, in fact, just training the wrong way. Since I had seemingly tried everything else, I figured I… continue reading.

I got an email and very impressive before and after pics from Renegade Strength Club member, Mike Bulin. He said… “I started following the Renegade Strength Club programs 3 years ago. I must say they changed my life. I used to go into the weight room with zero guidance and zero confidence. Then I stumbled across Jay. I read a bunch of his articles and I was convinced he knew his stuff so I spent the money to join the club. I saw great results immediately. continue reading.

Everyone’s over-thinking and over-complicating this whole training and nutrition thing. You should see some of the questions I get on a daily basis. It’s mind boggling. It doesn’t have to be this hard, my friends. Lift heavy, get strong, get a pump at the end. Sprint hard, do some lower intensity conditioning. Eat more carbs on training days, less on off days. Unless you’re skinny and ripped. In that case eat a shitload of carbs every day. Sleep eight hours a night, take a nap if you can, do your best to eliminate stress. Use a foam roller and… continue reading.

Its summer so a lot of people get all concerned about having their pretty little abs showing at the beach. Because of this they crank up their conditioning and cut down on carbs. That’s all well and good but that shouldn’t be the only reason you condition regularly. You should do it all the time with passion and intensity because it makes you more of a badass. A guy who is big or can squat a lot of weight is pretty useless if he can’t make it up a flight of stairs or play some flag football or volleyball at… continue reading.

It was on a trip out to California many years ago that Diamond first taught me the importance of staying tight and how it could bulletproof me against injuries and instantly add 20-40 pounds to all of my lifts. I arrived from Newark Airport on a Wednesday night in LA and was scheduled to meet Diamond at Gold’s Gym in Venice the next morning at 10am. His name was Darren but everyone called him Diamond. Apparently it had something to do with his time playing for numerous baseball teams in the minor leagues. Diamond was about 230 and ripped at… continue reading.

You want to lose fat fast. So what do you do? Find a hill and run up it. Today. Seriously. Do it. You don’t have to go balls out like you’re trying to beat Usain Bolt in a race, just run fairly hard. About 75% of your top speed would be a good start. Walk back down, catch your breath and do it again. Then go home. That’s it for Day 1. No need to kill yourself or get injured. Only clowns train themselves into the ground like that. Smart people take the time necessary to prepare and adapt. Two… continue reading.

Over the course of the three years Daryl had transformed himself into one strong dude. That’s because Daryl was smart enough to know not waste time pussyfooting around with little foo-foo exercises. He focused on big, manly exercises like squats, deadlifts and presses. Progressive overload was all that mattered to Daryl so he added weight or reps and gradually built up his strength to a very impressive level. Of course, with that added strength comes a lot of added size, too. The best way to get bigger is to get stronger. We all know that by now. There are no… continue reading.

Training first thing in the morning is never going to be ideal. In a perfect world you’d be up for a few hours so that you give your body temperature a chance to get elevated and get the fluid moving that has settled in your discs overnight. But we don’t live in a perfect world and a lot of people have to train first thing in the morning or they’ll never get their workouts done. If that describes you I have some advice that could help you out. First of all you really need to be awake for an hour… continue reading.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Road Warriors back in 1984. I was ten at the time and my friend Lance had slept over the night before. We always watched WWF wrestling on Saturday mornings but on this day we happened to catch some AWA action on ESPN. Iron Man by Black Sabbath played and the two most jacked up, badass looking mofo’s I’d ever seen, wearing face pain and spiked shoulder pads ran to the ring. I didn’t even know what traps were called at the time but I knew that Hawk looked cool as hell… continue reading.

Today I have a short interview with my buddy, Tyler English, who is a champion professional natural bodybuilder, strength coach, gym owner and author. Jay: Give me your top three best training tips for guys looking to get jacked. Tyler: Focus on the Big Movements This isn’t something new to your followers, but all too often bodybuilders are given the stereotype of training simply for the pump. In the natural bodybuilding world we use those compound movements as the staple of all our strength training programs. Training for the pump is still something I love, but only after… continue reading.

What’s up Renegades? Jay here doing the intro to this guest post by my brother, Nate Miyaki. Nate always drops pure unadulterated dopeness, but this may be his greatest post ever. Enter Nate… *Warning – It is highly recommended that you listen to “Regulators” by Warren G and Nate Dogg before reading this article. 1. Because its a bad ass song. 2. So you understand all of the references. Nate Dogg, where you been? I’ve been chasing skirts out in the 4-1-5. Fool, you know how we do it. Actually, I’ve just been busy as sh*t Hustlemania-style. But… continue reading.

When it comes to strength training most people love to mentally masturbate about meaningless minutia all day long. They get all stressed out about one concept followed by the next. Because so and so said this or they heard XYZ from this other guy. They can’t commit to any program because they second-guess the shit out of it. Then, if they actually do start a program they’re constantly worried about doing everything perfectly right. Or thinking there might be a better way. So they obsess over: •    How many days a week should I train? •    Should I do… continue reading.

“Ricky! What’s up, buddy? Long time, no see. Looks like you’ve been training pretty hard. Your entire torso is much thicker than the last time I saw you.” “Thanks for noticing, Jay. I’m trying, man. Been following the programs you laid out for me and it’s really working.” “That’s great to hear. Hey, I’m actually heading to the gym in a couple hours. Did you train yet today?” “No.” “You wanna jump in for a session with me?” “Seriously? You think I’m ready for that?” “Dude, you’re the size of Arnold. You’re jacked. You’ve been doing what… continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle Coach, Keith Scott Most of the shoulder injuries that I have seen and treated in my career from weight training come from pressing or pushing exercises. While shoulder problems can occur from pulling types of movements, in general, the shoulder is much safer and we see fewer injuries from most pulling types of motions. Many pressing movements can place the shoulder joint in a much more dangerous position. It is essential that people learn to do things to properly safeguard their shoulders as much as possible during pushing or pressing days. Whether you… continue reading.

If you’re picking teams for any type of sport choose the guy with the big hamstrings and J-Lo ass. You know he’ll be powerful. If you wake up one day in some Game of Thrones type world and have to fight a guy to the death in order to have your life spared choose someone with no hamstrings and a pancake ass. If his feet are pointing out to the side like Donald Duck, instead of straight ahead, that’s a pretty good sign that he’ll be easy to bring down. Hamstrings and glutes are the power muscles. They improve your… continue reading.