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 local time (6pm UK time) and got to my hotel around 2:30pm. I was starting to get a little nervous about the training session, and also about how I was going to get to Watchung itself.
I spoke to the hotel staff and they told me it was not possible to walk to 0.75 miles from the hotel to the bus stop. So I had to order a taxi. This was a mistake, as apparently there is a flat $20 fee from the hotel to Newark. The hotel told me about this in advance, but I didn’t know what else to do, so I paid the money and shut up.
Also, I was originally going to train at Renegade at 7pm, but decided to train at 6pm based on the fact that it might be easier to get back to the hotel if I trained at 6pm. However, I ended up getting on a non-express bus in Newark, which took over an hour to get to Watchung. Still, I got off this bus at 6:15pm, and walked for about 25-30 minutes to the gym. This was fine, except for having to run across a 4 lane highway. But it was all worth it when, over 2 hours after leaving my hotel, I crossed the highway and saw the Renegade Gym sign.
As I approached the front door, I was pretty nervous. Was this beast of a man known as Jason Ferruggia going to look me up and down, laugh at my 185lb squat and send me back on my way? I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I walk in the door and recognise AC, the guy who I had been in touch with prior to my arrival to try and sort out a ride after training. He greeted me with a big smile and a hand shake, and I instantly felt better.
I stood around for a bit, and then Jay came over and said hello. We shook hands and he commented that I looked bigger in person. This put me at ease instantly. We exchanged a few more bits of small talk, and then he got back to training the 6pm group.
I glanced around and figured that rather than stand around, I’d better do something so that I was ready to train. Being too nervous to talk to anyone, I just started doing some mobility work that I’ve been doing lately based on the Asses and Correct DVD. After a few minutes, Jen came over, introduced herself, and had me sign a waiver.
I asked Jen where I could do some foam rolling, and she pointed to the far end of the gym and pointed out the location of the foam rollers. I started foam rolling and began to feel a little more relaxed, although not very much more.
After rolling, Jay informed me that I would be training in a group with 3-4 other guys at 7pm. Mike (the guy who did the recipes in Triple Threat Muscle) helped me through the warm up.
After warming up, we did some kneeling medicine ball throws. I’d never done these before in my life, so I was nervous. However, I tried to copy Mike as best as I could, and they were pretty fun. I was still feeling a bit nervous, and had a hard time focusing on anything other than throwing the ball (like counting how many reps I’d done; thankfully Mike was taking care of that).
After the medicine ball throws, we did squats. I did a few reps of the wall squat drill, and also stretched my hamstrings and hip flexors. We then started to squat.
I was still nervous at this point, as I wanted to do my best and show that all the work I’d been doing over the last 8 weeks, since I knew I was going to train at Renegade, had been worthwhile. My first warm up set went fine, no real drama. Jay was watching my form, and had a few pointers after I was finished. He watched me do an overhead squat, and commented that my tight hamstrings were causing my lower back to round at a certain depth. He suggested I go not as deep. He also told me to point my toes out slightly wider.
At this point, I was starting to feel much more relaxed. I had remembered all of the names of the people I was training with, and I had figured out when I needed to put weights on the bar for the other guys, and when I could rest.
After squats we did deadlifts, and this was pretty cool. Basically, Jay just had me do a bunch of sets of 135lb and kept giving me pointers on how to improve. I still have a way to go, but this was a very cool experience and really hammered home to me how cool of a guy Jay is. He was giving me 1-on-1 instruction (in between coaching the other guys, who were doing rack pulls), despite the fact that I had paid nothing to be there (and I wasn’t even a potential client who might join the gym in the future).
Finally, we finished with a few sets on the bench. Jay gave me a bunch of tips that really made my bench feel more solid. I hit 205lb I think for a single (but not an all out 1RM), which was great.
Once we were done training, I bought a couple of t-shirts (one of which Jay gave me for free, again proving what a sound bloke he is). I said goodbye to everyone, and Jay gave me a lift to the bus stop so I could begin my journey home.
The bus ride home was fine, involving a change in Elizabeth and at the airport. I did learn that I pronounce “Newark” in a way that is confusing to NJ residents, after the bus driver got confused when I asked if he went to Newark (“new-uk”, not “nu-uk”). Good times :-)
Conclusions
Overall, training at Renegade was a brilliant experience. The 4+ hours on the bus were well worth it. Here are my highlights/conclusions:
1) I train on my own, so I am not used to receiving any coaching or encouragement whilst training. This was the best thing about Renegade. Everyone is encouraging you to get the weight up, and people are shouting the cues you need to keep your form in check.
2) Everyone was very friendly, and focused on helping you do better.
3) It was great not having to search around the gym for weight plates, pull 25lb plates out from behind 45lb plates etc. Training around people who actually care about their environment was nice.
4) Jay is no where near as scary as he seems (at least as scary as he seemed to me). I don’t mean to kiss ass, but he was friendly and a great coach. I can see why Renegade is so successful.
5) I need to make notes in my training journal about what cues to think about when I am training. Since I am training on my own, I need to review the cues before each set. I think this will help me progress much better than I have of late. Being at Renegade made me realise that my progress has been pretty poor, and I need to do something about that. This is the start.
Ok, I think that is it. This is quite a marathon post, so if you managed to read it all, well done and I hope it was entertaining. I had an amazing time, and I can’t thank Jay enough for letting me train at Renegade.
If you get a chance to train at Renegade, TAKE IT. If you have to go out of your way, then DO IT! It will be worth it.
Cheers,
Dave
