Fitness

No, it’s not. Overtraining is real and does exist. It’s what holds back the majority of people who can’t get results. But to really reach a true, deep state of it is way harder than most people think. We, in the fitness industry, use the term because it’s easy to understand and it helps us guide you in the right direction. Skinny hardgainers actually do need to “fear” overtraining when they’re starting out because it gets them on the right path. We don’t want those guys doing three hundred sets a week and training for two hours… continue reading.

Let me start out by saying that this post is not for beginners. If you’ve been training for less than two years most of what’s written below will not apply. As a newbie you need to learn proper technique and stick to the basics. Once you’ve built your foundation and packed on your first 15-20 pounds a plateau is sure to rear it’s ugly head at some point. So if that’s where you’re at right now and are wondering why you’re not gaining any muscle read on and hopefully you’ll find some useful info to get you growing again. You’re… continue reading.

Guest post by Renegade Inner Circle Member, Addison Marshall When I was playing Spring football my freshmen year I started having very bad rib pain. After a few tests, I learned that my ribs had cracked from a spleen that had been enflamed with Leukemia cells. Finding out I had cancer was the worst news of my life. The first 6 months were hell and my body was showing it.  I had lost about 30 pounds and most of my muscle.  I just ate shit all day and was always to tired to workout.  I eventually gained weight… continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle Coach, Keith Scott If you are not doing a good, quality warm up before your training session you are missing a HUGE and extremely important component of training. By “missing” this, your performance will suffer and you will get injured at some point. I don’t care how young you are, how “tough” you think you are, or how much smarter you think you are, you will suffer in both areas. That’s just the way it is…

Over the years I have found that there are a few different kinds of people when… continue reading.

My recovery is usually pretty on point and I don’t too many inflammatory foods so I don’t get sore that often. I mean, I get sore, or course, but it’s usually just light soreness from time to time and never anything too deep or crippling. Today, though, I’m definitely feeling it more than usual and need a massage. That’s because in addition to my regular training I threw in a couple finishers from my buddy Craig Ballantyne’s Home Workout Revolution Below is the one that I hit yesterday: Workout 1: Bodyweight Cardio Do 40 reps per exercise. continue reading.

Guest Post from Renegade Inner Circle Member, Chad Proud Ah, where to start? I first started training, err, caring about my physical appearance back in 2008. I was 20, and a sophomore in college at the time. I had always been the scrawny kid growing up, and used to be teased incessantly for it (even by my own family). So much so in fact that I actually felt proud when I weighed 206 lb. Now, mind you this 206 lb. came from a consistent diet of popcorn chicken dipped in applesauce, Cheetos, cookies and pop (dorm cafeteria favorite). continue reading.

Below are the 7 things you need to know about how to build a bigger back. I will also give you the top 10 best back exercises plus the ultimate back building workout. As always and with every other muscle group, building a bigger back simply comes down to choosing a few key exercises and then getting progressively stronger on them. I wish I could tell you it was more complicated and fancier than that. But it’s just not. The typical gym crowd is all about the chest and biceps, but a big back is what separates… continue reading.

Guest Post by Renegade Inner Circle member, Gary Deagle As you can tell from the puka shell necklace pic(they were popular in 2003 right!?), I had a lot of obstacles to overcome. At that point I had just been suspended from my first semester of college, felt like I had ruined my life, and on top of it was scrawny. My mom bought me a Men’s Fitness thinking it would spark my interest since I was big time into sports and an athlete in high school. 

Luckily for me I read an article in it… continue reading.

Question: What’s the best fat loss workout to help me lose 20 pounds over the next few months? I’m ready to get in the best shape of my life this year and want to make sure I’m doing everything correctly. Answer: The single most important factor for fat loss is diet. You can do ZERO cardio and do nothing but singles, doubles and triples in your training and still get ripped if your diet is dialed in. That doesn’t mean it’s the most effective way but it can be done through diet alone. There’s nothing else you can do to… continue reading.

Guest Post by Wil Flemming You have likely read about, or performed a complex of some sorts in your training experience. Yeah, you have most likely performed some gut busting combination of movements that made you want to puke. Something like, 10 reps of deadlift, 10 cleans, 10 RDL’s, 100 push presses, 33 good mornings, 14 punches in the stomach, until you yakked up what you ate 3 days ago (only a slight exaggeration). At least that is what I have read about complexes. “The hardest 10 minutes you can throw down in the gym.” “Guaranteed to… continue reading.

Question: Jay, I know you are a big fan of box jumps. How do I incorporate them in my training and do them correctly? Answer: Let me start by saying I rarely prescribe a bounding type of box jump where you jump on and jump off of the box, unless I’m working with advanced, highly skilled jumpers. If you have a very low (6-8″) box and are doing it for conditioning that’s okay for people with a decent level of athleticism. But you can’t have unskilled jumpers and average people off the street jumping onto a two foot high box… continue reading.

Guest post by Renegade Inner Circle member, Joshua Grant. A few years ago I decided to stop training. Completely. This was a kind of experiment on my part.  Having a naturally curious mind I wanted to see what would happen. What would happen if I stopped working out 5 days a week, doing bodybuilding routines, carrying food around in tupperware containers, worrying about the size of my biceps, and just gave up training/dieting altogether. Now you have to realize how big a deal this was.  Before this I had been training and dieting religiously. I started working out for… continue reading.

A lot of people ask me the moment when things started to “click.” When I was finally able to start gaining size and muscle and stop being a skinny punk. Or when I was able to take what I had learned and turn it into a successful business. The answer was I stopped trying to do everything on my own and found good coaches and mentors. Look at the people that consistently dominate at what they do and make good decisions. Successful athletes, businessmen, and musicians—they all have coaches. Michael Jordan had someone work on his… continue reading.

“Ya best protect ya neck.”
-Wu Tang Clan In the past I’ve always recommended neck training but said that it was optional. That was a mistake. It’s not optional. It’s mandatory. You look infinitely cooler and more badass with a bigger neck and it’s a life insurance policy. No one can argue either of those two facts. Countless athletes and lifters have sustained injuries that, based on their own accounts, could have been life threatening or left them paralyzed, had their necks not been as strong as they were. I was genetically cursed with a pencil neck so I will… continue reading.

Today we have a guest post from Renegade Inner Circle member, John P, detailing his last twelve weeks of training. *** Hey guys,

I just finished up my final week of Yoked so I figured I’d throw out my review in case it’s useful to anyone. A bit about myself: I’m 33 years old, I’ve been training seriously for approximately a year and a half. Starting this program, I had just completed a 3-4 month phase of trying to get lean, where I started around 19-20% body fat and got down somewhere around 11-12%, which was around 186-188 pounds. After… continue reading.