Posts Tagged ‘Jason Ferruggia’
Know how to finish!
It’s taken a while but I’m back!
I hope your new year has gotten off to a rockin’ start.
One of the biggest keys in winning in sports is knowing how to finish. You hear coaches and players talking about being their best at the end of games, either coming from behind to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat or holding off a furious attempt by an opponent and bringing home a big win.
Well, the same can be applied to your training. Do you finish an awesome session wanting more or in a heap of sweat and snot on the floor? Which way is best?
To be honest with you, for me, it’s a little bit of both. Jason Ferruggia talked a lot about how you finish a training session in a series of three posts that really kicked arse. If you haven’t read these yet, you have to take a look at these three articles, It Ain’t Strength Training Unless…, Conditioning Confusion Part I and II.
It really depends on your goals. If you want to get stronger you have to lift, eat, and recover. Not every session needs to be failure leaving your eyes popping out of their sockets. Nor does it need to be a conditioning fest. Conversely if your main goal is getting lean then chances are you won’t be able to make huge strength gains.
It’s all about prioritizing your goals.
For example, my biggest goal right now is strength. I hit 3 lifts per week, hit some hill sprints a couple times per week and include a couple of finishers at the end of my lifting days to stay lean.
Speaking of finishers- here is a quick one I hit after an upper body lift full of heavy presses, rows, and tons of bodyweight training.
My kettlebell technique isn’t the greatest yet, I know, but I’m practicing and determined to perfect this awesome training tool.
How do you like to finish a session?
Drop a comment and share your favorites.
Back to Basics…Again!
Last week I read this great post from Jason Ferruggia about the keys for beginners to make consistent gains.
I got me thinking about going back to basics again. Over the last couple months I’ve incorporated a lot of olympic and combo lifts.
Although I never really stray too far from the basics, I think it’s time to really get back to the basics. It will be a steady diet of heavy pressing, pulling, squatting, and tons of bodyweight work.
Like I said, not really too different from what I’ve been doing over the last few months but in order to reach my goals it’s time to get busy! I’ve always had the best results with keeping it basic so let’s see what happens!
Back to Basics Wk 1 – Day 1
1 – Clean/Press 3×8,6,4,4 (ascending)
2 – Bench Press ( max reps w/90% of BW) x5
3a – Chins 3xsubmax
3b – Pushups 3xsubmax
Conditioning – 5rds for time
4a – Burpee x10
4b – Thick Rope Slams x20
4c – Box Jump x5
4d – Sledge Swings x20
Great session after a week of deloading!
Triple Threat Muscle…Jason Ferruggia does it again!
I’ve studied Jason Ferruggia’s work for over 2 years now. At the time I discovered his work, I’ll admit my training sucked. I was flat out training like a ****** (insert your favorite adjective here). I was doing too much volume, body part splits, not lifting heavy, and doing a bunch of useless cardio. I don’t know what my problem was. I grew up in an awesome dungeon powerlifting gym learning from beasts on how to REALLY train. I guess somewhere along away I got away from my roots, getting wrapped up in all the bullsh*t that’s out there in the strength and fitness world.
While doing a search one night, I came across Jason’s Muscle Gaining Secrets program. I had actually just come across his blog the preceding day and liked what he had to say. The sales page blew me away plus I knew from reading just a few of his articles that he was the real deal when it comes to training. I ordered MSG immediately.
I printed the book and couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t believe it. What I was reading was the type of stuff those monsters who taught me how to train preached. The answer was simple. I got back to basics, followed the MSG templates and about 16 weeks later I had packed on about 10lbs of solid muscle and got leaner than I had ever been. My only regret is that I didn’t snap any before or after pics.
So, when I heard his new product, Triple Threat Muscle was coming out I couldn’t wait to share it with you guys and save some of you from the same mistakes I made for years.
If you’re looking to pack on slabs of lean muscle, get stronger, and more athletic than you’ve been in your life, you have to grab this program now while it’s on sale. For the next three days Triple Threat Muscle is on sale at an unbeatable price considering all the knowledge Jason is giving you.
I’ve read some of the experts’ reviews who where lucky enough to get a copy before it was released. Let me tell you, they are raving about this program and I think you will too.
Get Triple Threat Muscle now and get absolutely jacked.
Muscle Gaining Secrets – A must have for every training library!
Jason Ferruggia is one of my go to guys when it comes to training. He’s one of the best in the industry and for good reason. He’s trained over 700, including 90 from organizations you may have heard of like the NFL, NHL, and MLB. In fact, he’s helped over 53,000 hardgainers and skinny dudes build muscle and add mass all while staying ripped. How does he do it? His book Muscle Gaining Secrets is one of the best training manuals out there. It is a must have for any training library.
I got my copy over 18 months ago and it totally changed the way I was training. It helped me get back to my roots of lifting heavy using compound exercises to pack on slabs of muscle.
FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS ONLY. Muscle Gaining Secrets is on sale w/ 3 incredible bonuses. Trust me, these bonus are not going to last long. Click here to get your copy of MGS and claim your 3 out of this world bonuses.
Below is a little taste of the high quality content Jason puts out.
Muscle Building Secrets
By Jason Ferruggia
In the quest to unlock the world’s most powerful muscle building secrets I have tried nearly every training system and diet there ever was. Through many years of trial and error I have finally developed a surefire way to build enormous amounts of muscular size and strength rapidly in even the most painfully skinny hardgainer.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is training session frequency. One look at male gymnasts or Cirque Du Soleil performers will tell you that a higher frequency of training than the typical “once-a-week-per-bodypart” recommendation is in order for rapid muscle growth. Whenever you want to improve something in life you do it frequently. It doesn’t matter if it’s improving your golf swing, learning an instrument or building muscle; you have to do it more than once per week.
The next thing that needs to be looked at is training session length. When you allow your workouts to stretch any longer than 45 minutes, you are actually doing yourself more harm than good. Research has shown that testosterone levels are shot after 45 minutes of training. They actually peak at 27 minutes, so stopping at 30 minutes might even be a better idea. Beyond the 45 minute mark, cortisol production increases dramatically as testosterone levels plummet. Cortisol is the stress hormone and actually eats muscle tissue and increases bodyfat storage.
Another one of the most important muscle building secrets that I have discovered over the years is that it is crucially important to cycle your training. The body eventually adapts to any one set routine after a while. The trick is to switch your routine just before your body starts to adapt to it and your gains come to a halt but not so soon that you don’t allow for significant progress. Switching too often is just as big of a problem as not switching things up often enough. If you constantly switch programs too frequently you will never make steady progress because you will always be confusing your body and you will just end up spinning your wheels.
Some experts argue that overtraining is the biggest problem most drug free lifters face. Others say that undertraining is actually the main problem for those who fall into the hardgainer mindset. The truth is that both camps are right and wrong. You need to push yourself, sometimes to the brink of overtraining, and then adjust things at just the right time and back off for a while. Eventually, if you back off too long, you will enter a state of undertraining. The key is to ramp up your training again before that happens. When you train like this you will never experience plateaus.
Finally, I must point out that no matter how well you cycle and plan your training you will never experience any significant muscle growth if you use the wrong exercises. The most effective exercises are those that allow you to move your body through space (as opposed to just moving your limbs). Those include chin ups, dips, pushups, handstand pushups, inverted rows, squats, single leg squats and deadlifts. Stick with those exercises and their different variations and you will build massive amounts of size and strength.
Now that you have the knowledge it’s time to put these muscle building secrets to work and get your butt to the gym and start growing like a weed.
Good luck and train hard.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle fast. He is the head training advisor for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
Dare to be great.
What is greatness? My two favorite definitions are “The state, condition, or quality of being great; as, greatness of size, greatness of mind, power, etc.” and “Remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree, or extent, very skillfull or first rate.”
What is discipline, or more importantly self discipline? I came across this definition recently and I think it’s the perfect one! Self-discipline involves acting according to what you think instead of how you feel in the moment. Often it involves sacrificing the pleasure and thrill of the moment for what matters most in life.
Do greatness and self discipline go hand in hand? Of course, both are relative terms, but I don’t think you can have one without the other. You have to work extremely hard to have and achieve both. Whether it be in life or training, you should strive for greatness and self discipline. Undoubtedly, the most successful people in the world have both.
I’m not perfect! Do I have self discipline? I would like to think so. Am I great? Hell no, not yet, that is! You see, I believe you have to dare to be great. I admit, for a long time I thought I couldn’t achieve certain things. I thought these things were too hard and just couldn’t or wouldn’t happen for me. But, I don’t care about that anymore. I’m no longer afraid to fail and I’m going to work my ass off to get where I want to be. No longer will I lead a wasted life!
In his post Life Wasted, Jason Ferruggia talks about this very thing. Read below and find out why he believes Only 5% of all the people on the entire planet have what it takes to achieve greatness in any realm of life.
Check out Jason’s post and let me know your thoughts! Stop by his site and drop him a comment as well.
Life Wasted
by Jason Ferruggia
You’re always saying you’re too weak to be strong.”
– Life Wasted by Pearl Jam
Another summer weekend just came and went and now here we are yet again, on a Monday morning…
With yet another opportunity to change things for the better; to make the dramatic improvements that you have been planning to make for so long.
Maybe you thought about it over the weekend when you drank too many beers or ate too many hot dogs at your neighbors’ barbeque.
Or maybe you were ashamed to take your shirt off at the beach or your friends pool party and you promised yourself that life would be different come Monday morning. That you would finally step up and make the changes you have thought about for so long.
While some of you were nursing your hangover with coffee and a greasy, fried sausage biscuit yesterday morning, the dedicated were doing fasted cardio before sitting down to a healthy breakfast of green tea, organic eggs and fruit. Others slept off the booze lying around on the couch all day while the driven were running hill sprints in the hot sun.
Just like every Monday, you have a choice today. You can realize that weakness is a sin and you must now repent for a life wasted. Or you can continue on the path of mediocrity and continue to let others pass you by.
“I have faced it… a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”
Sure it sounds good. Who wouldn’t want to be strong , jacked, fit and healthy?
But the question is do you have what it takes to commit to one goal and see it through to the end? Because most people don’t. Those people are the 95%. The disciplined make up the 5%.
Only 5% of all the people on the entire planet have what it takes to achieve greatness in any realm of life.
Be it in their job, their personal lives or a physical endeavor of any sort. Think that’s an exaggeration? Take a look around you. Go to Major League ballpark tonight. Tell me I’m lying. The 5% are on the field (and are represented in the pictures in this post) while the others are sitting in the stands stuffing their faces. After observing closely you may even think I’m giving more people more credit than they deserve. Maybe it’s one percent.
Where do you fall?
Each and every Monday morning represents a new beginning and a chance to turn things around and finally join the 5%.
We all know that only the strong survive. We know that to get bigger or leaner or to become a better athlete or stave off illness and disease we need to get stronger. But what steps are you taking to get stronger every day? What are you doing to escape your life wasted?
“I escaped it…a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”
Did you get enough sleep last night? Or is late night TV more important than high testosterone levels, improved insulin sensitivity and enhanced overall health?
Did you avoid inflammatory foods this weekend? Or is the taste of sugar, wheat, soy, corn, dairy and saturated fat worth a life of pain, disease and incredibly slow recovery?
Did you order a foam roller or at least use the one at your gym religiously several times last week? Did you get a massage recently? Ah, what’s a little scar tissue, right? Let it keep building up. Moving freely and without pain is overrated anyway.
Did you throw out your posture destroying, injury causing Nike Shox and get a pair of Free’s or better yet, Vibram Five Fingers? Did you trash your fancy Italian loafers and replace them with something like a Sanuk? Or maybe your knees, hips and spine just aren’t that important.
Have you been taking 6-12 grams of high quality, pharmaceutical grade fish oil every day? Or maybe it’s too expensive. Besides you need money for beer on Friday nights.
Did you eat fruits and/or vegetables with every meal this week?
Have you been doing mobility work every morning? It’s probably the most important factor in musculoskeletal health and you’ll miss it when it’s gone; replaced by arthritis medicine and a walker.
What about cardio/conditioning? How many times did you push the prowler or run sprints this week? Being big and strong is great but not if your cardiovascular health has to suffer.
Did you order a jump rope to use at home on your off days?
What about a band or strap to help you stretch with at home? Stretching is boring and tedious and nobody likes to do it. But without it many of you will never get out of pain or even be able to perform a single rep of squats or deadlifts properly. Who needs those lifts anyway, right? Let me know how those leg extensions and leg curls work out for you.
Have you been eating by the clock, force feeding yourself when you’re not hungry? Choking down tablespoons of olive oil at the end of every meal to get more healthy calories? Counting protein grams and total calories? Drinking a gallon of water per day religiously? Cutting carbs at night and on off days?
Have you been taking advantage of the nice weather and walking several mornings per week while everyone else is still asleep? And if you have what will you do in a few months when the winter rolls around? Put your fitness on hold until the spring or put on a few layers and brave the cold weather while everyone else gets an extra half hour of sleep?
Did you throw out all the junk food in your house yet?
Have you started meditating on a regular basis?
The 23 hours per day that you spend outside of the gym are just as important, if not more so, than the hour you spend in the gym. Dedication is a 24 hour a day commitment. There are 168 hours in a week. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever gotten even remotely decent results from being dedicated for only three to four hours per week.
But those three to four hours are crucially important. You need to make sure you are keeping a training journal and tracking your progress; always trying to beat your previous best. Every workout is a battle; you against your log book and you must do all you can to emerge victorious and lift more weight or do more reps than you did last time. If you train with partners your job is to crush them and be the top dog at each and every workout. Competition is a healthy part of life and without it you are an organism that is not truly living, but slowly dying.
Do you have what it takes to get under a bar loaded with so many plates that it actually scares you? A weight that could crush you with one wrong move? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to move that weight and make it your bitch? And add five pounds to the bar next week?
Do you have what it takes to really fully commit to that goal? To stop questioning what you’re doing and wondering if there’s a faster, easier way? To realize that brutally hard fucking work is the only way to achieve greatness?
Because if you don’t you will never be among the 5% and you will be the one who has to live with your regrets. I know I have mine, and they eat away at me. I have made many mistakes over the years and know I could be a lot further along in my training then I am. I could have made better strength gains than I have but I slipped up and made mistakes along the way. But I take full responsibility for that. And I know I have to accept those mistakes, move on and promise myself that I will never make the same mistakes again.
It’s up to you to do the same. Don’t wait til tomorrow because it will be too late.
“Having tasted… a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”
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