A review of Jasson Ferruggia’s Muscle Gaining Secrets.

I’ve had the privilege of evaluating Ferruggia’s bodybuilding program. Before I give you my review, I'll tell you upfront that I make commission on the sale of this program.  But I only promote products I believe in.  Here's the standard I use: if I would recommend it to a friend or family member, I'll recommend it to my readers.  There are a lot of affiliate offers I turn down because they are scams and rip-offs.  Now, on to my review . .  .

About the author:

Jason Ferruggia is a highly sought after, world-renowned strength & conditioning specialist. Over the last 15 years he has personally trained more than 700 athletes from over 90 different NCAA, NFL, NHL and MLB organizations. He has also worked extensively with firefighters, police officers, military personnel, Hollywood stars and entertainers.

Now, let’s take a look of some of the program’s components:

Muscle Gaining Secrets: This ebook is the central component of the program. Ferruggia tells his own story of being a skinny kid (147 lb) even after spending years in the gym. The problem, he explains, was in his training—he was trying to imitate the training methods of professional bodybuilders (splitting his routine into six days a week, etc). He learned these methods just don’t work for genetically average, natural lifters. 

Jason Ferruggia goes on to explain the Seven Critical Factors involved in designing a training program:
*Exercise Selection
*Training Volume
*Number of Reps Used
*Rep Speed
*Rest Intervals
*Training Session Length
*Training Session Frequency

Much of the ebook’s content is focused on explaining these seven factors and how to set up a program for maximum muscle gains. Ferruggia also discusses the different muscle groups and how to best train them (legs, back, etc). As a guy who has learned much through trial and error (20 years of it), I can tell you this program makes a lot of sense. This 147 page ebook is probably the best I’ve read in terms of helping you set up your training and nutrition. He covers all the basic questions a new trainee would have.

The Supplement Report: Ferruggia did an excellent job of exposing the supplement industry from a historical and personal perspective. He explains how the industry has scammed people of their hard-earned money with hype and steroid-using bodybuilders’ endorsements. Like me, he has made the mistake of spending way too much money on supplements. I sort of felt like I was reading my own story—I’ve fallen for some of the same scams (especially the ones that passed through in the 90’s). Ferruggia recommends a few cost-effective supplements (protein, creatine, etc) and encourages the readers to spend their money wisely. This report alone will save a new trainee hundreds of dollars. 

Muscle Gaining Secrets Workout Guide: This is a four phase training manual and journal. It begins with a workout for beginners and progresses to more advanced routines. It is designed to be printed out and used as a training journal. 

Muscle Gaining Secrets Meal Plans: There are nine different meal plans. Each plan is about ten pages’ worth of meals. The plans vary from 2,000 to 6,000 calories. You would simply select the one for your own caloric needs and use it as a guide. 

Composition Tracker Software: A software that helps you track your progress. 

The Exercise Database: This is a very well illustrated guide to how to properly do the exercises. Between the pictures and descriptions you shouldn’t have any trouble learning to lift properly.

10 Minute Muscle Meals: This is a nice addition to the program—quick, convenient, high protein recipes for meals and/or snacks. 

Audio Interview (MP3): Ferruggia talks about his own fitness journey in this 45-minute interview. Once again I could related to this—he’s tried several different training methods through trial and error. He also answers questions about his training program (kind of an audio summary of the MSG ebook). 

I really only found two things I disagree with:

First, Ferruggia doesn’t believe in the efficacy of Yohimbine HCL. I do think Yohimbine can help if the proper dosage and timing is implemented.

The second disagreement involves meal frequency. Ferruggia encourages trainees to eat six meals a day—every three hours. This is a controversial topic, but I’m not 100% convinced meal frequency is all that important. Having said that, I think most trainees will do much better eating at least four times a day. In other words, our advice would end up being similar: I would encourage trainees to try to eat 4-5 times a day but not fret too much over it (as long as you are getting enough protein and calories).

One final thing--Ferruggia recommends a specific brand of supplements.  I'm sure the brand he endorses is good, but be sure to shop around.  I just don't think it makes that much difference as long as you stick to the basics and use reputable brands.   

Conclusion:

Muscle Gaining Secrets is an excellent program and I think it is well worth the money. I really wish something like this had been available when I first started training. I would have wasted a lot less money on supplements and also wasted less time on inferior methods.  I think this would be especially helpful for beginners or "hardgainers" (you can see I mention some other programs below for more advanced trainees).  

If my review has helped you, please use my links to purchase this program. I only endorse programs I believe in and you’ll be supporting an honest voice in the fitness industry. Just CLICK HERE to check out the program.
source

About the author: Paul Smith is a freelance writer. His rich life experience is the main base of his writings at custom paper writing service and his guest posts. Feel free to contact Paul at Google+.

1 - Eggs. They contain protein which is essential for building the muscle. And vitamin B12 which is also there is necessary for muscle contraction and fat breakdown.

There are many people who are looking for ways to gain weight. But gaining weight and keeping it on can be very difficult for some people. However, there are some things you can do to gain weight. One of the basic ideas you need to understand is that in order for you to gain weight, you need to increase your calorie intake and engage in physical activity to build muscle. This means that you need to take in more calories by eating more calorie rich foods. You should eat nourishing foods that will help you add muscle and body mass. One of the best ways to build muscle is to engage in some form of strength or resistance training.

Set some realistic weight gain targets :

Change your eating habits :

Start lifting weights to gain high quality lean muscle mass

Aim to gain weight slowly :

These are some ways to keep you motivated for building your body
If your motivation to workout is decreasing while building your body, here are 6 tips to keep you motivated to exercice:

1- make a notebook in which you write down your daily workouts. It is a very motivating way that makes you able to check it everyday and see how far you got with your series and exercices, so that you could get a picture about your developpement and improvements.
2- do a certain ritual before every workout to make you ready, and totally prepared for the game. There are world wide champions who totally agree with this strategy and say that they revise the series of workouts they are going to do before going to the gymnasium so that they don't ask what they are going to do today.

3- don't be a slave of your workouts. Don't let them control you. You should control them instead. So you shouldn't be following some precise workouts instead of focusing on what could be really helpful fo your body. Moreover most of bodybuilders Basically work every muscle in a day, but you should work on the parts of your body which are not well built yet instead of being commited to a certain schedule. The main goal is to work your body, not to make your body work exercices.

4- try to be different and special; if you get too tired while doing a certain exercice which is needed by your body but you can't stop it, you should try another workout, because changing your muscles exercices could be a really big challenge for you and your body, and succeding in it would be really awsome.

5- you should measure the average of your efforts and frequently check them and the growth of your muscles. Because the stress And tiredness may be the main reason that keeps you demotivated. Thus you should get some rest and good sleep then check your workouts after it.

6- take pictures of yourself using a digital camera or using your phone camera every month to keep checking your improvements and comparing between the pictures to see the difference. Eventhough you are still in the beggining of your workouts, take a picture , name it "before" And take another when you finish, name it "later" and it is the best and most apropriate way to keep motivated.

Most everybody asks this question. Either the first time they walk into a gym and see the selections or at some point they wonder if the bench press machine is better than the regular flat bench press with free weights.

I was a machine person for quite some time…then it hit me! Why not incorporate a little bit of both! That?s right… there?s not some rule that says if you use a machine you will never get the results you want. And there?s no rule that says you must only use free weights.

In every gym that you go to, you will see people pumping their biceps. Biceps along with the pecs and abs are sometimes called vanity muscles because they are the most visible and therefore commands the most respect. Invariably, when you ask someone to show you his muscles, he will probably flex his biceps.

Before we discuss biceps development, I want to point out that the biceps make up only one third of your upper arm with triceps the other two-thirds. So to have an impressive arm, you must build your triceps too or the effort on your biceps will not show good results. Many people fail to realize this and that is why you see them doing curls after curls without much improvement. We will touch on triceps exercises in another article. For now, let's talk about biceps.

Here are some exercises that will blast your biceps. Most of you would have done some or all of these exercises. The question I am asking is, are the exercises done in the correct form and techniques because if they are not, you will most likely be wasting your time as your biceps will not grow to its full potential. Perform each exercise for 3-5 sets once or twice a week and at reps between 6-10, but make sure that at the high end of the reps, you will not be so fatigued that you can't perform another rep in good form.


a) Standing Barbell Curl/ EZ Bar

If You really want to gain size stop reading articles out of magazines and find a trainer that knows what they are doing.

Eat organically, you are what you eat (if you give yourself a 59 cent hamburger you are giving your body 59 cent muscles that makes you look like garbage.)

Eat According to your metabolic type, "the metabolic typing diet"

Lift mainly in the 8-12 rep range

Your tempos should range from 3-1-3 to 4-1-4 and no more

You total time under tension for each lift should only last 60 sec or less (this is because you want to produce as much Testosterone and Growth Hormone.

Don't lift longer than 45 min per workout, less at a higher intensity equals more.

This would be different if you were on pro-hormones or juice, because of the recover time.

You shouldn't be performing any cardio

Lift according to your genetic makeup and your muscle fiber type if you tend to be more of an endurance athlete you will do better lifting a little higher reps, if you are more of a speed athlete you will do better lifting a little lower reps heavier weight.

Supplements and other things can help in achieving mass, as we all know what the pros use and most amateurs lifting in the gym.

Though follow science it can do way more for you than just taking some pill.

Mass is easy to gain when you lift correctly, don't waste years trying to reach your goal when you can invest in a trainer that can get you tons of results now.  And if they don't get you results fire them immediately

Words of wisdom

work harder

Less is more

Scott White

Personal Power Training

Believe me… I hated leg workouts. Until I realize the true potential that a simple set of squats could unleash.

Frankly… I see the same people on the leg press machine, leg extensions, doing lunges and doing squats week after week. But for every other muscle group, it's like a new day. There are the familiar faces of course, but there are always new people. It's like working legs is an exclusive club.

And yet that is 50% of your body! Your entire lower body you will neglect because:

US Navy 030514-N-3228G-003 Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 2nd Class George F. Stowe IIIuses a military press to work his legs muscles during a workout (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You don't like working legs
You don't want bigger legs
Your legs are big enough

But let's suppose… you do work legs. And without much weight at all. Just enough to stimulate your entire body propelling it into new levels of growth. Do you think that is possible?

How can doing squats increase our bench press? If you are stuck on bicep curls, how can incorporating legs into your routine break you thru those plateaus?

I'm here to tell you right now, as you read this, that doing leg workouts is a whole lot more than just getting bigger, more toned, or stronger legs.

Think about it. Testosterone is a primary ingredient of building muscle. So you do a hard set of tricep pushdowns. Your body responds by making more testosterone. Let's just guess at 10% more for the day. Phew. Hard workout. Good job!

Do you qualify as one of those people?

But… let's say you do a set of breathing squats at 100% intensity.

You just boosted your testosterone production 1000%.

Do you think I'm being facetious?

But back to the purpose of this question. Working your legs isn't an option. It's something you do. So you don't want bigger legs? Fine. Don't pile on the weight. Don't overload them. Just stimulate your metabolism, and stimulate your body changing. So you don't like legs? Get over it.

Fact is, by incorporating legs into your workout, you will see more gains in 6 weeks then most people do in 3 months.

Don't take my word for it. Look around at your gym? The guy with a huge upper body and tiny chicken legs. Do you want to look like that? Who are the bigger guys in your gym? Who are the women that you most want to look like? I can assure you those people do legs. Any top notch physique does legs.

Doing a cardio machine that uses legs is not the same.

So that's why working your legs is so important. Please do not make excuses. You do not have to train to failure where you cannot walk. You don't have to squat 600 lbs. You simply must train the 50% of your body that pretty much 80% of everybody just doesn't do.

Next time you are in the gym take a good look around. Notice the leg equipment. Notice the same people using that week after week.

Become one of the individuals at your gym that trains legs and discover the secret to growth.

HERE ARE THE REASONS WHY WORKING EVERY MUSCLE - NOT JUST CERTAIN ONES - IS THE SUPERIOR METHOD OF GETTING THE RESULTS YOU WANT:

1- Builds lean muscle
2- Reduces body fat levels
3- Increases energy
4- Balances blood sugar in the body
5- Increases neuromuscular efficiency
6- Improves sexual performance
7- Lowers cholesterol in the body
8- Protects against heart disease
9- Improves mood

The secret to figuring out how much protein you need is not by just taking some number you found like 30g and apply it to yourself. If everybody had the same needs we would all be the same. And we both know that just isn?t true. Each person is slightly different.

Let me explain. We?ve all heard that a person can only digest 25-30g of protein in one sitting. B.S.!

Just think about it. Does an IFBB professional bodybuilder intake the same amount of protein as the guy who?s 135 lbs just starting out? Even if there is a 200 lb weight difference?

The answer might shock you. NO

Needless to say, so many people just take some number, multiply that by their body weight and that?s what they think they need a day. Tell me, if a person is 35% body fat, should they use their weight or their lean weight to figure out how much protein they need?

Simple. Lean weight. Your daily protein requirements are based on your lean body weight. And how do you figure out your lean body weight?

Use the skin fold caliper home test. Go back to Question #2.

Step 1:
Take your body weight in pounds
Example: 194 lbs

Step 2:
Find your body fat % using one of the methods in Question #2
Example: 15.7% (which is .157 for the step below)

Step 3:
Take your body weight in pounds and subtract the % body fat
Example: 194 lbs – (194 x .157 = 30.45 lbs of fat) = 163.54 lbs of lean body weight

Step 4:
Take your lean body weight and multiply by 1.14
Example: 163.54 lbs x 1.14 = 186.4g of protein a day

Step 5:
Divide your daily protein requirements by 5-6 meals and that is what your protein target is for each meal.
Example: 186.4/6 meals = 31.07g of protein per meal
As you will see, a person who is 286 lbs of lean body weight will require a lot more protein. And a person who is 286 lbs should not be consuming the same amount of protein if their percentage of body fat is 35%.
But why use 1.14 for protein requirements?

The Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) is 0.8g of protein. But that?s been shown to be too low for active athletes.

Some sites will recommend 2.0g of protein. But that seems a bit high and your body will have trouble absorbing that not to mention you will probably have a lot of excess calories which can lead to fat gains.

1.14-1.5 is the most efficient range for most active, healthy adults. This range will help build muscle but not lead you into a high protein diet. Feel free to adjust within that range if you feel you need more protein.

This is the point in the article where I could go into a long and unusually boring dissertation
about muscle physiology: Muscle fiber types, controversies over whether the muscle gets
larger or divides into new muscle cells, or both.

Number of reps, volume of training, concentric, eccentric, isometric, etc.: this is important
information for the research scientist, but not all that relevant to the hard training bodybuilder.
I mean, what are we looking for here? In a nut shell, what we want is the correct level of
stimulation to a muscle to make it larger, right? Too little stimulus and the muscle won’t grow.

Too much stimulus and the muscle doesn't grow, or worse yet, gets smaller due to injury or
inability to recuperate. The proper stimulus within a given period of time is what we are looking
for.

This brings me to another point. It is not the amount of actual weight that is the most important
factor to muscle growth, but the actual amount of stress or tension the muscle must endure
during the rep that is the crucial stimulus for growth. But some might ask “ Doesn't using
more weight mean more stress on the muscle?”

The answer is no.

If you take 405 lbs. off the rack when bench pressing and bring it down quickly without control,
bounce it off your chest and lock the elbows out hard at the top for one rep, are you
creating more stimulus to the pec muscles than if you took 300 lbs. off the rack and brought it
down with full control, pressed it up without any bounce or momentum, and did not lock the
elbows out at the top for ten reps?

I think the answer to that question is obvious, and we will examine this particular topic in the
coming sections.

The point I am trying to make here is that weight is only a factor within the variable of how

the rep itself is performed. All things being equal (i.e., each rep is performed correctly for that
exercise) weight does matter.

The more weight you can use in a given exercise, with correct form, in a given time period, for
a specified number of reps, the more stimulus for growth the muscle will experience. However,
using more weight for the sheer sake of using more weight, not taking into account how
the rep is performed, does NOT equal more stress on the muscle.

When we talk about a stimulus for growth, we must look beyond the simple micro-environment
of the muscle fiber in question. This is where bodybuilders and scientists often fall short
when trying to examine the topic of muscle growth. An examination at the level of the muscle
fiber, where the actual damage occurs, is obviously important for any study of why and how
muscles grow from weight training.

However, it is not the only factor involved leading to the increase in size and/or number of
muscle fibers in response to weight training.

When we train with weights using sufficient loads and intensity, we cause micro-trauma to
the muscle fiber(s). That is, at the level of the fiber itself, we have caused a certain amount of
controlled damage to the fibers involved.

However, muscle growth is far more involved than simple breakdown and repair. This is the
point in the report where we need to look at the concept known as the “metabolic cost of exercise.”
This concept, though complex if you map it all out, can still be reduced to its most basic
definition: Muscle growth is not a local event that happens exclusively at the level of the
muscle fiber, but is ultimately a systemic response to exercise that leads to muscle growth.

So what exactly is meant by “systemic?”

It means that when we lift a weight several things happen. At the level of the muscle, there
is controlled damage to the myofiber during muscular contraction. This damage (known as
micro-trauma) leads to remodeling (growth) of the muscle predominantly takes place during
the eccentric (negative) part of the rep.

Simply put, at the local level of the muscle fiber, it is the lowering
(negative) part of the exercise that is responsible for most of the
damage to the fiber that (hopefully) leads to muscle hypertrophy
and increases in strength.

From this information we can conclude that a controlled rep,
where the weight is lowered under full control, is a particularly
important part of a properly executed rep.

Now this is what is happening at the local level of the muscle fiber,
but as I said before, muscle growth is ultimately controlled by
the effects exercise has on the entire system. For example, as any
bodybuilder knows, growth hormone is one of several anabolic
hormones important for increasing muscle mass and shedding
body fat.

Growth hormone is a key anabolic and lipolytic (fat mobilizing) hormone that many bodybuilders
are injecting pre-contest and off season to build additional mass and burn fat. However,
growth hormone (GH), insulin, human growth factor one (IGF-1), and to a lesser degree
testosterone, can be partially manipulated by diet and exercise, so don’t think an elephant
pituitary extract enema is the only way you will ever add new muscle!

The metabolic costs of exercise can be shown in this example: When we lift weights we cause
a rise in lactic acid. Research suggests that the signal to release growth hormone in response
to exercise is related to the level of lactic acid in the blood. It is a system-wide response to the
exercise (i.e. the increasing level of lactic acid in the blood) that causes growth hormone to
be released.

In fact, the body produces many metabolites and metabolic byproducts in response to weight
lifting that contribute to the growth of lean tissues being trained.
What does this tell us?

It tells us that weight training does not just cause controlled damage to muscle fibers to stimulate
growth but has a systemic effect. It suggests weight training has a high metabolic cost
that stimulates the entire body to respond to the exercise in a positive way.

Another example of a systemic response to weight training is not commonly appreciated.

When a person first starts to train with weights, their strength climbs rather quickly, yet they
put on relatively little muscle. What is going on here? Scientists have postulated that this early
rise in strength in response to weight lifting takes place from an improved efficiency of the
nervous system, that it is a neural adaptive response.

Personally, I believe that the efficiency of the nervous system continues to play an important
role in the process of building muscle even after many years of training, but that’s another
story.

You see, this is an example that demonstrates it is not only what happens to the muscles
themselves when we train, but what happens to our entire system when we train. The nervous
system becomes more efficient, the endocrine system responds, and various enzymatic pathways
are affected. The body’s response to weight training is clearly not a local event relegated
simply to its direct effects on muscle fiber but is actively promoting a systemic response.
These are a few examples of how the systemic response to exercise leads to increases in size
and strength. The metabolic cost of exercise probably plays as crucial a role in muscle growth
as does the local stimulation to the muscles (i.e. myofiber damage caused by intense muscle
contraction).