Fitness

Many people live in constant fear that too much cardio will cause them to lose muscular size and strength. Therefore they just decide to spend their lives fat, out of shape and unhealthy. They’d rather have one foot in the grave at all times than walk around any smaller or weaker. Growing up a skinny maggot I certainly understand this fear as it dominated many years of my life. These fears are not unfounded as too much cardio will, indeed, eat away muscle tissue and cause strength losses. But that’s traditional, steady state, outdated lame-o cardio done on a machine. continue reading.

Question: I am a little confused about how to set up my conditioning workouts and what the guidelines and parameters should be. Could you help me out with that? Answer: Ok, when discussing conditioning the first thing that needs to be asked is what is your primary training goal at the moment? If it is to get huge and strong, then conditioning must be limited and can not interfere with your main workouts. If you… continue reading.

It has often been said that you can’t lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously. That statement is actually incorrect. Beginners can do it. Even guys who have been training for a long time who make drastic changes to their diet and their workout programs can do it. You can’t do it for extended periods of time, but it can be done. For example, if you are currently doing traditional steady state cardio, switch to sprints. Sprints have an anabolic effect and do not produce cortisol… continue reading.

In a dream come true I was able to spend my Valentine’s Day at home with my girlfriend eating an amazing dinner, and dessert consisting of homemade chocolate coconut pudding (made with the best protein powder on the market) while watching NBA All Star Saturday Night. Now that’s my kind of Valentine’s Day. I text messaged a few friends and told them to enjoy their price fixed dinners with the crappy holiday menu and that they could catch the highlights on Sports Center in the morning. I used to never miss this event but… continue reading.

Ever since I first discussed the importance of “the power look” and how important it is to earn respect and separate you from the pencil necks, I am repeatedly asked about how to build big traps. The best trap building exercise is the deadlift. One need look no further than the massive trap development of elite powerliters to see how effective this exercise is at building these intimidating muscles. Pussyfooting around with light weights will never get the job done. You need to deadlift heavy weights (with picture perfect form) for sets of 3-6 reps. A good goal for most… continue reading.

By Alwyn Cosgrove I presented on Real World Fat Loss at the 2007 Perform Better event in Rhode Island and the 2008 NSCA conference. As part of my presentation I talked about my “story” – why I became fascinated with fat loss and effective fat loss training — and the need to destroy the myths that surround the topic — and why it keeps me up at night scouring journals for new information. I believe that behind every person who is trying to change something — or present something new… continue reading.

Question: I have a question about how to build big calves. Mine are like string beans and I can’t get them to grow. Got any good suggestions? Answer: Whenever people ask me how to build big calves, I immediately check their training volume. High volume works best for calves. They are probably the hardest muscle to build, and if you chose the wrong parents getting them to grow is gonna be a bitch. continue reading.

Although the majority of people continue to rely on exercises like sit ups and crunches when it comes to training the abdominals, research has proven that these movements place excessive loads on the lower back, leading to a lot of pain for a lot of people. Repeated, loaded spinal flexion is one of the leading causes for disc herniation. In fact, the traditional old school, slow speed sit up has been shown to place 730 pounds of compression on the spine! Other commonly used ab exercises place over 1,000 pounds of compression on the spine!… continue reading.

Question: Coach Ferruggia, I just wanted to let you know I have been a big fan of your stuff for years and appreciate what you do. I had a quick question about football. What do you do for conditioning with your football players? When do you do it in the weekly schedule? How often? Thanks a lot man, Jared Austin Answer: Jared,… continue reading.

Question: Coach, can you give me a quick overview of how you implement plyos, speed and agility work with your athletes? Answer: Ok, just so everyone is on the same page here, plyos consist of jumping, bounding and hopping exercises. These can be done off of one or two legs. Some of the simplest and most effective plyos are vertical jumps for height, box jumps, hurdle jumps, and broad jumps. Speed work consists of short sprints from 10-50… continue reading.

By John Alvino When most people attempt to perform ab workouts at home, they usually just lie on the floor and engage in a marathon of crunch repetitions. This all too common approach will never lead to a well-balanced set of six pack abs. First of all, the basic crunch will only provide a marginally positive training effect for beginners. Once you get strong enough to crank out sets of 50-100 or more, the resistance the crunch provides is simply too little to provide a training effect. And secondly, the crunch only works the abs… continue reading.

By Patrick Beith & Latif Thomas On a daily basis I receive emails from newsletter subscribers asking variations of the very same question: What is ‘step over drive down?’ How do you ‘step over drive down?’ What does ‘step over drive down’ actually do? I think you understand what I mean. And this is a great question that clearly needs some further explanation. The only way to get faster is to learn to apply more force to the ground. Simple Physics state that every action has an equalAnd opposite reaction. So it stands to reason that the more… continue reading.

Here are 5 random muscle building tips that may make a big difference in your training. – Don’t exceed 5-6 reps on most of your warm up sets. Your first set could consist of a very light weight for 10-20 reps just to get loosened up and get the blood flowing but beyond that you want to keep the reps low. The reason for this is that you don’t want to build up too much lactic acid or accumulate too much fatigue with your warm ups. – Don’t stretch before your workout in the hopes of preventing… continue reading.

You want to know how to gain muscle? Sick of being skinny and weak? Then start eliminating these five mistakes and you’ll be on your way. 1) Training Too Often In order to grow you must provide your body with the optimal stimulus and then back off and allow it time to rest and recover. Without ample rest time you will never grow to your maximal potential. For this reason I recommend that most average, busy, drug-free guys don’t do more than three big weight-training workouts per week. You can do some easier stuff on the other days, but three… continue reading.

I’m taking off for my birthday today and have handed the keys over to my buddy, and someone I admire and respect greatly,  Jon Hinds of Monkey Bar Gym. Enjoy… What does it mean to be truly physically fit? Feeling physically fit is definitely different for each individual. Some people feel physical fitness is the ability to bench press 300 lbs, other people say it’s making it through a full hour aerobics class, or completing a 5k run. To me, true physical fitness is the ability to do all of these things and more, at any… continue reading.