Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Explosive Power, No More Back Pain & Ripped Abs?


If you have never heard of Jim Smith of The Diesel Crew you have definitely been missing out. Jim is by far and away one of the most brilliant and innovative minds in the entire strength and conditioning industry today and never ceases to impress his peers with his unique training methods.

I sat down with him recently to discuss his new manual, Combat Core.

Question: Jim, what do you think is the biggest mistake most trainers make when trying to develop core strength?

[JS] Most trainers focus on what I have dubbed building strength of movement patterns. What they fail to realize is that this is only one piece of the total puzzle. Building strength in the gym with movements like leg lifts, sit-ups, reverse sit-ups and so on...is a compliment to a bigger, more comprehensive core strength program. There are other criteria that make up the rest of the pyramid that I have established in Combat Core.

Question: What, in your opinion, is the biggest myth concerning abdominal programs?

[JS] For trainers, I would point to my previous response. For the general public and even athletes, I would say that they believe that "more is better." They believe, if they do 1000 crunches each workout, they will get ripped abs. Of course, the real answer is that being able to display a sick set of abs is the direct result of low body fat levels. If you want abs, you better get the fat off that is covering them.

Question: How does core strength affect back pain and posture?

[JS] Your abdominals and back musculature work together to stabilize and protect the spine, hips and pelvis. If any of these muscle groups (and surrounding structures) are weak, posture is affected and sometimes the muscles (groups) become inhibited which causes the secondary movers to become overactive or on-tension. This will inevitably lead to injury and poor performance. Building torso strength by incorporating compound exercises that activate many muscle groups at the same time, teaches the lifter or athlete to move their body as a single, coordinated unit. Isolated exercises tend to lead to imbalances if used too much.

Question: How have your abdominal training strategies changed over the years?

[JS] I used to think that by throwing in a couple sets of sit-ups or leg raises at the end of the workout was enough torso strengthening work. But over the years as I have gained experience and continued to study performance, I have developed a new, more comprehensive training model specific to athletes. The same attention and effort that you put in to planning your primary training sessions, you must also spend on designing your core training strategies.
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Jim is having a huge sale on Combat Core that ends at midnight, tonight. If you place your order between now and midnight you will receive five limited time only bonuses that absolutely kick ass.

Combat Core is by far and away one of the most impressive works I have seen from any fitness professional in a long, long time. It honestly blew me away and I picked up tons of unique new exercises while reading it.

Click HERE now to get your copy today.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

12 Week Transformation Contest

I am very excited to announce that we are
holding the first ever Muscle Gaining Secrets
12 Week Transformation Contest.

The rules of the contest are the following:

--You must be a Muscle Gaining Secrets
customer and use one of the workouts from
the package.

--You must register in our private forum
and post your before pictures.

--You must begin on or before April 4th.

--The contest ends on July 4th, 2008.

The prizes awarded to the top finishers will
be:

1st place- $1,000.00
2nd place- $500.00
3rd place- $250.00

We will also be adding some bonuses prizes
as time goes on.

This is the perfect time to start
getting in shape for summer and have a shot
at a thousand bucks while you're at it.

So what are you waiting for?

Get on over to
http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com, now
and start getting jacked today.

Train hard,
Jason Ferruggia

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Dining With Danzig


Along with my friend Sean Hyson of Men’s Fitness, I had lunch on Saturday with Mac Danzig, the winner of last seasons Ultimate Fighter and future UFC champion. Upon meeting Mac for the first time one of the things you notice immediately is that he is incredibly polite and respectful; nothing like the image that they created for him through the magic of editing on The Ultimate Fighter. The second thing you notice is that his hands are incredibly huge compared to the rest of his body and that you probably wouldn’t want to get hit by one of them.

Following are a few highlights from the conversation we had at one of New York’s top vegetarian restaurants:

•He doesn’t weight train because he gets too big too fast and just doesn’t really enjoy it. Instead he does bodyweight exercises.

•He loves running/sprinting for conditioning.

•Most of his training/conditioning work is just MMA training.

•He stopped consuming all dairy products in 1999 due to a recurrence of sinus and respiratory issues among other things.

•His condition and immune system improved immediately and his sinus problems were a thing of the past.

•He doesn’t believe in high protein diets. He walks around at 170 and competes at 155 but only consumes 100-140 grams of protein per pound daily.

•He drinks a gallon to a gallon and half of water per day.

•His diet consists of lots of brown rice, quinoa, tempeh, nuts, seeds, beans and lentils. He cheats in the off season with soy ice cream or vegan cookies.

•He swears by The Ultimate Meal and Vega meal replacements and says he notices improvements in energy and recovery ability when taking them.

•Since swearing off all animal products he has never felt or performed better. His sleep quality has also increased noticeably.

•He is a huge music fan and listens to an incredibly wide variety of stuff including Black Sabbath, Wu Tang Clan, Neil Young, Peal Jam, Public Enemy, Ministry and of course, Danzig.