Archive for March, 2010
I have presented several times on “Real World Fat Loss” (the 2007 Perform Better tour, the 2008 NSCA conference, the 2009 IDEA and ECA conferences to name just a few).
As part of my presentation I talked about my “story” – why I became fascinated with fat loss and effective fat loss training — and the need to destroy the myths that surround the topic — and why it keeps me up at night scouring journals for new information.
I believe that behind every person who is trying to change something — or present something new — there is a passion – an overwhelming why – that drives them to find the answers. It’s become something that I look for before really listening to coaches or trainers. The why. The Raison d’être.
I recently heard from my long time friend Jason Ferruggia (Jay and I first met about thirteen years ago at a strength training seminar). Jay was busy putting the finishing touches on his new muscle building and athletic development course. I was surprised that he hadn’t mentioned it to me before as it was a big project.
But then when I thought about it a bit more I wasn’t surprised at all. You see Jason looks at building muscle in a very analytical way — he’s always looking at research, reading training logs, testing methods and refining his ideas.
That’s his passion.
And that’s why guys like myself, and a bunch of other trainers are always asking his input on how to gain muscle. I flew him out to California to conduct a staff training for my team because he’s not only one of the best there is – he’s constantly improving his methodology.
I mean – we’re talking about a guy who took himself drug-free from 147 to 231lbs.
We’re talking about a guy who has tried every training method under the sun and confesses to spending $60,000 on worthless supplements to try to gain size.
This is a guy who would email me in the middle of the night when I was going through my chemotherapy treatments with ideas on halting muscle breakdown and using different nutrients to enhance my immune system. His desire to find the solution to muscle growth problems drove him.
And it continues to drive him today.
Some of you may be aware that I used to have a column in Mens Fitness magazine called Hardgainer. I was a skinny kid who gained muscle (fought my first mens black belt event at 136lbs) and the editors felt that a regular column would be a great idea.
I did it for a year before I gave it up and handed the reins to Jay. You see – his passion for the topic, and to be brutally honest, his knowledge on how to gain muscle was ahead of mine. I pride myself, and have always done so – on honesty and integrity and being authentic- and felt that he would make a great resource for the magazine, and for the topic matter, a better resource than I was.
Jason’s written several articles and manuals on muscle building.
But his newest product is something different…
After being out of the gym for a while due to a book deal, various other business ventures, some family issues and rehabbing his own injury taking up his time, Jay couldn’t resist the pull anymore…. he’s back full time running a gym and training people. Testing new ideas, and transforming people. Truth is, I don’t think in his head, he ever actually stopped – because every couple of days I’d get an email or a call about something he’d been reading, or thinking about or trying out…
We talked recently about muscle building when you’re NOT a skinny teenager or hardgainer, and how today’s clientele want to not only look better but to feel better (no one wants to be unable to go for a walk or play a pick up soccer game or basketball game because they are so beat up from their supposedly healthy exercise schedule), and to actually perform better (you want to not only look athletic – you want to be athletic…)
So – Jason being who he is – went to work – trying out new methods, exercises, splits, recovery techniques, diet.
And now he’s sharing his findings in his latest product.
I spent last night reading the new course. Even just reading the information you can almost feel the passion behind the words — and you’ll see why Jay is one of the best in the field at this.
I think the overall message when you’re looking for information in any field is to find the most passionate individuals – those with a Raison d’être and an incessant desire to find out why… and a primary question of “how to make it better”… when it comes to muscle building – it’s Jason Ferruggia.
Maybe one day I’ll know all the answers. Until then I’ll keep studying :)
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AC
PS – If you want to read Jay’s story – get over HERE
I think there are definite parallels between work and fitness training. Over the past few years I think as a whole, in both areas, we’ve confused working “hard” with working long.
Think about someone you know who you’d describe as working hard for a living. Now – do they really work hard – i.e. back breaking, intense physical labor — or do you mean that they work long hours – nights and maybe weekends?
Working “hard” and working “long” are not the same. And neither one means working effectively.
You could make the case that someone who is working long hours and weekends to achieve their objectives may not necessarily be working hard at all – they may be doing completely ineffective activities.
In addition, their rate of actual quality work output may be very low on a minute-by-minute basis. Or quality output may not be frequent enough — so they are trying to compensate by increasing their total volume.
But just increasing the volume of an ineffective, low-quality (i.e. intensity), infrequent activity isn’t helping whatsoever. Effective, results-producing work is not dependent upon the total volume of work primarily.
It’s the same as effective, results-producing exercise:
Effectiveness first.
Intensity second.
Frequency Third.
Volume last.
Is your training effective?
Are you focused and striving to do more work/lift more weight/do more reps in the session?
Are you training regularly? (in all studies – frequency of exposure to a stimulus is a primary key to success).
Once you have effective and technically sound exercise, performed with appropriate intensity on a regular basis – then you can think about adding volume. Doing more work can’t replace effectiveness, intensity or consistency.
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AC
Tags: Alwyn Cosgrove
Legendary Boston University hockey Strength Coach, Michael Boyle, has just launched an incredible new site that you absolutely need to be a part of if you train hockey players.
It’s called Hockey Strength and Conditioning
Coach Boyle has partnered with
- Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks),
- Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) and
- Kevin Neeld (Endeavor Hockey) and assembled..
…The Greatest Collection of Hockey Strength and Conditioning Coaches on the Planet!
Their advisory board is a Who’s Who of Hockey Strength and Conditioning including Chris Pietrzak-Wegner (Minnesota Wild), Chuck Lobe (Tampa Bay Lightning), Jim Reeves (Mind to Muscle), Brijesh Patel (Quinnipiac), Cal Dietz (Univ. of Minnesota), Chris Boyko (UMass), Maria Mountain (Revolution Sport Conditioning), Tim Yuhas (Yuhas Performance), Matt Nichol (former Toronto Maple Leafs) and Kim McCullough (Total Female Hockey).There are a ton of articles on the site already with topics ranging from Strength and Conditioning, Programming, Youth Training, Injuries, Female Training and Coaching.There are webinars, audio interviews and videos up as well, all about hockey!
Each week, they will be adding videos, articles and programs to the library and with this group, you know the Coaches Forum will be jumping. Each month, there will be webinars and audio interviews added as well.
Right now until March 31, they have an incredible offer: Only 1 dollar for 30 days, then $9.95 a month after that.
It’s only a buck, and you have until March 31 to check it out:
Hockey Strength and Conditioning
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AC
AlwynCosgrove.com is an affiliate of HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com
I think you’ll be interested in this…
Tuesday March 16, Sports Nutrition Blueprint creator and former New York Mets Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeff Cavaliere is hosting a live Q&A session at 9pm Eastern/ 6pm Pacific.
He’ll be taking your questions for about an hour and he’ll answer them ‘first come, first serve’.
There’s nothing to sign up for and there are an unlimited number of seats. All you have to do is go to the following link at 9pm EST/^PM Pacific, ready to take some good notes:
=> Sports Nutrition Blueprint
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AC
P.S. – If you have any sports nutrition questions that you want answered, bring them all tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 9pm EST. Jeff will answer every question he can get to. No need to sign up or register, just show up at 9pm EST/6PM Pacific here:
There’s an interesting fact about investing a penny, and doubling that investment every day.
So – day one – you have one cent in the bank. Day two – two cents. Day three – four cents. Day four – eight cents etc.
By day 30 – you’ll have over $5 million saved (go ahead – do the math).
The idea is that major change starts with a small investment.
Now obviously it would be pretty difficult to find a bank that would double your money for you every day — but the point is that seemingly insignificant investments (at the time) can add up to something very significant over time.
Let’s put this another way. What if you improved your diet, and your exercise program by 1% per day…
Actually – let’s go even lower – 0.3% per day. 3 tenths of a percent.
Day two – another 3/10. Day three another — and so on.
At the end of one year – you’d have improved your diet and exercise program by over 100%
All success is – is just a few simple disciplines repeated over time.
Brian Tracy has said that reading one hour per day will make you an expert on the topic of your choice.
One hour is not a big investment. But when you add that up over the course of the year – that’s 365 hours. Or nine 40-hour work weeks.
Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle building or building your personal training business — Small investments compounded over time will add up to big results.
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AC
