How to get really, really strong, and pack on more muscle than you know what to do with.
Posted on 11. Aug, 2009 by Keith Scott in Uncategorized
Three years ago, I met Jason Ferruggia at a fitness seminar. Before that time, I heard of Jay, read a lot of his stuff, and basically thought he was just one of those crazy, hard-core strength guys that shaved his head to look mean.
After spending a couple of hours with Jay, I realized that he was much, much more then some bald, hard-core strength coach. Jay knows more about packing muscle on and gaining strength then anyone I know.
I have been in this business for over 18 years, and it wasn’t until I met Jay, and really listened to him that I realized that I really didn’t know as much as I thought when it came to real strength training and muscle building.
The same weekend I met Jay, he asked me to review one of his first training books. I was blown away by the information contained in those pages. Since then, Jay produced Muscle Gaining Secrets and it is by far his best work yet. The cool part is, Jay keeps making it better. This week, Jay is re-releasing Muscle Gaining Secrets to the public. Although I thought the first version was awesome, Jay has managed to make this installment even better.
Jay continues to study, learn, experiment and make himself and his work better.
I was able to snag a few minutes of Jay’s time to ask him a few questions about getting stronger and packing on muscle.
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KS: Jay, everyone thinks they know how to get bigger and stronger. Just walk into any gym and a lot of people are working at getting strong. But as you and I know, most people never really even get close to their true potential regarding strength and size. What is the biggest mistake people make when trying to get big and strong?
JF:: They follow the same old, traditional bodybuilding routine. That means they are training each body part with way too much volume, not enough intensity, probably too much intensiveness, and not enough frequency. Just so everyone is on the same page, when I say intensity I am referring to percentage of one rep max. That means that they aren’t lifting heavy enough. Intensiveness refers to perceived intensity of effort. Too many weak, skinny guys continually go to failure and beyond, using forced reps, drop sets, negatives, etc. because that is what they think is hardcore and what they read about in some muscle mag. Training hard and training smart are two entirely different things.
You want to provide the muscles with a growth stimulus and then get out of the gym and start recovering as soon as possible. This takes far less volume than a lot of people think. Research and in-the-trenches-experience has shown that most trainees will make great progress on 50-100 total reps per week, per body part. Doing more than 50-100 total reps per week will not elicit greater gains but only impede your recovery, making it harder for you to add size and strength.
The way you get to that magical number of total reps is very important, however. If you do them all in one workout you will make far slower gains than if you broke them up into two sessions of 25-50 reps or three sessions of 17-33 reps. Doing that will allow you to get two or three times as many growth stimulating workouts per year, per body part. I think anyone can do the math on that one and see which option would be more productive.
KS: I know you’ve been training a lot of females lately. It’s awesome that the girls are realizing that they can reach their fitness goals by following your methods. What is the best advice you can give the females out there that want that rock hard body….you know, killer abs, shelf-butt, ripped arms and legs, etc….
JF: You have to lift weights. That would be my first piece of advice for the ladies. You can’t just do cardio and expect to get in great shape. It will never, ever happen. You have to squat and deadlift if you want to get that Jessica Biel type butt that every girl wants.
If you don’t want to lift weights then you at least have to do bodyweight exercises that will be challenging enough that you can’t do more than ten reps per set. Chin ups, dips, pushups, pistol squats, lunges and inverted rows are all great choices. High reps with light weights will do absolutely nothing and are a complete waste of your time.
There is no definition for the word tone. You can either build muscle or lose fat. And that is what most females should be trying to do. While you can’t tone you can increase muscle tonus. That is basically the appearance of the muscle at rest. And the only way to get that rock solid look is through heavy resistance training. Simply doing cardio and lifting light weights won’t cut it.
To see your abs and definition in your arms and shoulders your body fat has to be very low. The only way to get it there is through a strict diet and non traditional cardio methods. Ditch the steady state stuff and opt for sprints instead.
KS: Give me your top core lifts for getting really strong.
JF: Squat, deadlift, military press, chin up and some kind of pushup (or bench press if your shoulders can handle it). Those four lifts and their variations will get anyone really, really strong as long as they remain consistent and pay attention to their nutrition and recovery.
KS: For those “beginners” out there, hell….even for the more advanced people out there, what are the top 2 or 3 things people need to do each day if they want to pack on muscle and get really strong?
JF: The two most important things you can do if you want to pack on muscle as fast as possible are add weight to the bar and food to the plate. You must constantly be trying to make strength gains (in a hypertrophy rep range) at each and every trip to the gym. This is the only guaranteed way to gain muscular bodyweight on a long term, consistent basis. Supersets, drop sets and all the other fancy training techniques will never hold a candle to lifting progressively heavier weights. If I took two twins and had one gradually double his training volume over the course of a year and do tons of leg extensions supersetted with leg presses and similar type training and had the other twin simply increase his squat from 135 for ten to 275 for ten, which one do you think would have bigger legs at the end of the year? Which one would weigh more at the end of the year? The answer should be obvious.
Aside from that you need to eat ample amounts of clean food and constantly be adding calories as you gain weight.
And you need to do everything you can to maximize your recovery ability. Foam roll, stretch, ice, get massage and ART, meditate and sleep as much as possible.
Thanks Jay!
If you want to learn more about Jason’s methods and have all of his knowledge right on front of you, then you need to get yourself a copy of his newly released Muscle Gaining Secrets. Jay lays out everything you need to get really strong and add muscle in ways you never thought possible. However, you need to hurry. Jay is offering up a great promotion right now. He is giving away three awesome bonuses for anyone that buys Muscle Gaining Secrets. But like I said, you need to hurry because this promo only goes until Thursday and then they are gone.
Limited-Time Bonus #1: Renegade Cardio: Intervals, steady state, fasted, fed, high intensity, low intensity… with all the conflicting information and confusion it’s no wonder most people will never see their abs no matter how hard they try. They’re doing it all wrong! But I finally set the record straight and allow you to steal my closely guarded secret cardio workouts, usually only reserved for my highest paying clients. Get ready to get shredded!
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The Free bonuses alone are worth the money. Check out Jay’s Muscle Gaining Secrets right now and jump on it to get your FREE bonuses.
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