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Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest. –Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Workweek Email, voice mail, text messages, Facebook messages, Twitter messages, paper work, bills to pay, food to buy, kids to raise, responsibilities to fill, commitments to uphold… It can all get a little overwhelming at times and we need to take steps to minimize the clutter and distraction in our lives. It’s one of the reasons my voice mail is perpetually full. I refuse to empty it. I don’t even know what’s on… continue reading.

Sometimes it’s tough to let things go. I, for one, used to always have a problem with this. For years I was a collector, a pack rat. I loved to keep stuff. Boxes and boxes of stuff. Most of the stuff had some kind of meaning or memory associated with it. But a lot of it was just… stuff. Over the last few years I have gotten a lot better at this and have adopted more of a minimalist/ zen-like approach to living. This weekend I decided to step it up a notch and got rid of a huge portion… continue reading.

From Paleo Cookbooks Ingredients 1 broccoli, cut into florets and stalk diced 3 rashes of bacon, fat removed, diced ½ cup toasted cashews 1tbs oil Instructions Boil broccoli in water on high heat for 5‐7minutes or until tender and cooked through. Remove water and place broccoli in a large serving bowl. Cook bacon in a frying pan for 4‐5minutes or until crispy. Remove bacon from pan and place into serving bowl along with broccoli and cashews. Combine well. Serve. For over 300… continue reading.

I’m really psyched today to have an awesome interview with my colleague, and performance enhancement expert,  Kelly Bagget (that’s him dunking to the left). Whenever I read any of Kelly’s work I always find myself nodding in agreement and am sometimes shocked by how much we agree on almost every subject training related. Today Kelly’s going to be dispelling some myths and talking about improving your quickness and overall performance. Check it out… Jason Ferruggia: Kelly, could you give our readers a quick glimpse into your background as a coach and also share some of your personal experiences that… continue reading.

For those who haven’t been following along, I destroyed my right shoulder in September of 2007. My rotator cuff and labrum were both torn and surgery was required. Of course, being the meathead I am I plowed through for another 12 months, during which time I trained with the likes of Dave Tate, Matt Rhodes, Smitty from the Diesel Crew, Craig Ballantyne, John Alvino and some other strong dudes, whose names you may recognize and some others you wouldn’t. As a man, I am required to go balls to the wall when training with others who may be as… continue reading.

I’ve been a little short on time the last week, working on some new projects so today’s post is taken from a question in the Renegade Inner Circle… Question: I’m curious about peoples thoughts on the whole idea of beginner gains, I noticed a lot of places on the net, say that if a beginner starts working out that they can gain 20 pounds pretty easily. What if your workouts and nutrition sucked when you were a beginner, and you never gained those 20 pounds? Is that window gone for when you get your shit in order? Jay I’ve… continue reading.

What a difference five years makes. I go out to bars about three times per year instead of three times per week. I hate staying up late and drinking these days, preferring instead to stay home, read a book and be in bed by 10:30. I’ll hardly touch a piece of food that isn’t organic or 100% natural. I’ve gotten rid of my microwave and toxic pots, pans and food storage containers. I only drink the purest water I can out of Sigg bottles, and even have a filter on my shower head. I threw out all my regular… continue reading.

Since there was quite a bit of interest in and positive feedback  on Chad’s fat loss system I decided to get him to write a quick article for us today on the top 5 fat loss myths. Check it out… Fat Loss Myth #1: Low intensity cardio is great for burning fat and boosting endurance. Jogging for an hour is a complete waste of time. So is any form of cardio that forces you to do the same repetitive movement over and over. When your muscles have to continuously contract for 30, 45, or 60… continue reading.

Jason Ferruggia: What are your top  fat burning nutrition tips? Chad Waterbury: The first step is to feed your body more nutrients and fewer calories. There’s really no way to get around the fact that burning fat requires you to give your body fewer calories than it needs. But where people really mess up is with their food choices. Most guys don’t get enough of certain key nutrients to feed their anabolic hormones even when they’re eating to bulk. So when they drastically cut calories their metabolism shuts down because they’re getting even fewer nutrients than… continue reading.

About three or four years ago Chad Waterbury and I connected for the first time through our mutual friend, Alwyn Cosgrove. Over several Jack & Red Bulls at a bar in Santa Monica, we discussed training for hours on end.  Despite the fact that we went into the meeting with seemingly very different views and theories, we concluded that we agreed much more than we disagreed. Since that night Chad’s become one of my good friends and we discuss training on a weekly basis. He’s one of the guys I trust most and I’m always interested… continue reading.

Today’s guest post is from David Jarzebowski, a member of the Renegade Inner Circle. Ok, so a high school friend of mine got married in Buffalo, NY, over the weekend. When I was booking the ticket, the only option from London was to fly via Newark. Given how close this was to Renegade Gym, I decided to extend my trip by a day and try to squeeze in a training session at Renegade. Jay was kind enough to agree, and so I booked the flights and hotel at Newark airport. I arrived from London at 1pm… continue reading.

Here is the final installment of my interview with the God of Turbulence Training, and one wacky Canuck, Craig Ballantyne. Craig Ballantyne: Let’s discuss some more muscle building stuff. You can talk about what you’ve got going on in terms of how you work with your guys to build muscle. You talked a little bit about it so far, but what are your main philosophies? Jason Ferruggia: Always get stronger.  That’s the main theme no matter what the goal is.  Again, we stick with big basic exercises and I do a lot of bodyweight stuff… continue reading.

In part 6 of my interview with Craig we discuss how I set up programs in order to maximize muscle building, strength & power development, conditioning and overall tissue and joint health. Craig Ballantyne: Can you walk us through a typical Renegade style training session. Is it always goingto be total body training with conditioning at the end? Jason Ferruggia: More or less. We don’t really isolate muscles and every workout involves the total body. There may be an upper or lower focus on certain days but we are still using exercises and drills that involve the entire body… continue reading.

Here’s the next installment of my interview with CB… Craig Ballantyne: Now, I know you don’t specialize in fat loss, per se, but over the 15 plus years of training people, what have you noticed and what lessons have you learned from training athletes that might help average people and some of my readers lose fat more efficiently? Jason Ferruggia: Athletes that train intelligently always seem to be able to get down to single digit body fat fairly easily.  Then you have the average guy going to the gym struggling and he’s always stuck at 20 or… continue reading.

Here’s part 3 of my recent interview for Craig Ballantyne. Craig Ballantyne: Why don’t we just stick with nutrition a little bit and talk about your personal nutrition now? So, talk about your general nutrition approach for yourself and how that’s working for any of your clients that are using it as well. Jason Ferruggia: I don’t think there was anyone that ate more meat and dairy than I did back in the day. I would have a gallon of milk a day, a dozen eggs, and at least a pound of beef for years. I was a… continue reading.