Great tips from Jason Ferruggia
I was interviewed for a big name fitness magazine
recently and they asked for my top five training tips
were. Here’s what I told them…
Train like an athlete- You should be training for
enhanced performance and your strength work and
conditioning/ cardio should be hard, heavy and fast.
None of the light weight, slow motion nonsense, and
no medium intensity, steady state cardio that drowns
your fast twich fibers in lactic acid, turning them
slow.
Use big, full body exercises and add in some throws,
jumps or strongman training whenever appropriate.
Always strive to increase your performance from one
workout to the next by lifting more weight, doing more
reps, jumping higher, running faster or getting done
in less time. Everybody wants to look like Georges St.
Pierre or Gabrielle Reece so why not start training
like them?
Use exercises that allow you to move your body through
space- When you move your own bodyweight (or bodyweight
plus resistance) like you do in a chin up, pushup,
squat, etc. you activate more muscle fibers, thus you
will get bigger, stronger and leaner a whole lot faster.
As far as conditioning and cardio goes, you have to
realize that the human body wasn’t designed for
repetitive steady state activity but rather short bursts
with a wide variety of different movements. This is
exactly what you do when you play most sports. When you
pump away on a machine for 30 minutes you are fighting
evolution.
So focus on bodyweight and free weight exercises like
chins, dips and sprints, play as many sports as possible,
and avoid all strength or cardio machines like the
plague.
Less is more- When training for size, strength and
speed, quality is always more important than quantity.
If you undertrain you will make some progress, albeit
slowly. If you overtrain you will make zero progress.
When in doubt, do less. Limit your workouts to 45
minutes (excluding warm up) and 12-16 (and sometimes
up to 20 depending on the type of training) total work
sets.
Eat only organic, anti inflammatory, plant based whole
foods- If a caveman couldn’t eat it you shouldn’t eat
it. Nothing that comes in a box or plastic wrapper or
that contains any artificial ingredients whatsoever
should ever touch your lips. Focus on getting the
majority of your calories from vegetables, fruits,
nuts, seeds and legumes. Add in extra protein where
you need it and drink nothing but pure water. Also,
try to avoid dairy, corn, wheat, sugar and saturated
fat as these cause inflammation throughout the body
leading to pain and disease.
Sleep- Getting 8-10 hours per day of high quality
sleep is simply the best thing you can do for recovery,
building lean muscle, burning bodyfat, improving
insulin sensitivity, enhancing immune system function,
repairing damaged tissues/injuries, improving brain
function, etc, etc, etc. If you are not sleeping you
have a major problem and it needs to be addressed
with high priority.
For complete 12 week workout programs, premade diet
sheets, a detailed list of the greatest exercises on
the planet and a ton of helpful tips on improving
your sleep quality and recovery ability get on over
to www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.
Train smart,
Jason Ferruggia
Strength & Conditioning Specialist
Chief Training Adviser, Men’s Fitness Magazine
Author, Media Spokesperson, Consultant.
