The Leading Authority on Hardcore, Underground Strength, and Fitness

Interview with CBAthletics.com

CB: Jason, you've been studying training for many years now. What valuable lessons have you learned the hard way?

JF: Wow, great question Craig. I've learned more lessons the hard way than I care to remember. I don't even know where to begin but here are a few off the top of my head:

Low carb diets suck for gaining muscle- No matter what anyone may tell you, you need carbs to grow, there is no way around it. I took some bad advice years ago and tried desperately to gain size on a no carb diet and I got nowhere. I had even tried this approach with clients and they experienced similar results. As soon as I brought the carbs back, I started growing again. Sure there are different levels of insulin sensivity and some people tolerate carbs better than others but the bottom line is you need some carbs to grow.

Less is more- This is something else that I learned the hard way. In my late teens and early twenties I overtrained myself into the ground on a regular basis. When in doubt, always do less. 20-28 sets, three to four days per week is plenty for most people to get great results.

You need some kind of energy system work ("cardio") to get extremely lean- As my good friend Alwyn Cosgrove has pointed out on more than one occasion, there is often an overreaction to concepts or ideas in our industry. Several years back the anti cardio movement came to the forefront and told us all that no one needed any energy system work whatsoever to get lean. Diet and proper weight training would be enough to get the job done. Being some one who hates the word cardio and loves lifting heavy, this was all I needed to hear. I jumped on the bandwagon like so many others but later realized that it was simply impossible to get really ripped without any engergy system work whatsoever. If you want to drop a lot of body fat and get shredded, you have to do some interval training and possibly even some regular steady state cardio as well.

You have to listen to your body- Sometimes when you are scheduled for a heavy squat day and you walk in feeling like you just got hit by a bus and then had your girlfriend dump you while you were peeling yourself off the pavement, you have to back off. Either do something else that day, go lighter or go home. Pushing yourself is a necessity to achieve optimal results but sometimes you have to know when to back off. This is something else that I learned the hard way and have the injuries to show for it.

CB: What's the top tree things you'd like other coaches/parents/athletes/lifters to know?

JF: I'll tackle each of those separately, Craig.

First of all I would like coaches/trainers to know that you must be able to do that which you ask of your athletes. I would like coaches to know that being hardcore and yelling and screaming is not enough to make up for a lack of knowledge. Finally I would like them to know that experience is the best teacher and you learn way more in the trenches then you do in the classroom or library or on the internet. If you haven't trained dozens and dozens of clients and haven't logged thousands of hours on the gym floor, then in my opinion, you have nothing to offer anyone so don't write articles or training programs, you are only doing people a disservice and it aint cool. There are sometimes instances where there are tons of studies that tell me why I shouldn't do something but the thousands of hours I have spent training hundreds of clients tells me I should, so I go with experience every time. When some one has no experience you can read or see though it in a heartbeat. I never wrote an article on training until I had been training myself for over thirteen years and working with hundreds of clients for almost nine years.

I would like parents to know that early specialization is the worst thing that they can do for their kids. Kids should play as many sports as possible and learn to enjoy them. I would also like parents to know that the best training center for their kids is not always the one with the flat screen TV's, juice bars, and fancy million dollar machinery. Parents should also know that whoever they send their kids to are most likely going to become role models in their kids life so the type of person that trainer or coach is is just as important a consideration as how skilled they are at what they do for a living.

I would like athletes to know that it's the little things that count. Every one loves coming in and lifting heavy; no one likes stretching or doing the foam roller at home by themselves. You can spend the entire off season jacking your squat up a hundred pounds but if you don't fix that incredbily tight hip rotator you are going to be plagued by lower back pain all season and that big squat won't mean shit when you are sitting on the bench with a heat pack on. Without saying anything that hasn't already been said a thousand times that is my main message to athletes.

To lifters I would just say you have to listen to your body. Some guys don't go heavy enough often enough and some guys go too heavy too often. You have to find the happy medium. I think one of the biggest mistakes most average, drug free lifters make is going heavy on both their max effort days and their speed/repetition days. There is just no way most people can recover from that. If you work up to a one rep max squat on Tuesday and then finish your box squats on Friday by working up to a heavy single I think you are headed for disaster. I know there are many successful guys who do this and some are my close friends but I think, in general, the average lifter would make better progress by going heavy only one time per week. Another reason why I don't like going heavy twice per week is because it's just not good for your body. It's not good for your joints and it's definitely not good for your spine to be loaded heavily twice per week. It may not affect you right away, but long term, that will definitely come back to haunt you. That is one of the main rules of my training programs; we only load the spine once per week.

CB: What do athletes need to work on most?

JF: Most athletes are too weak. I don't care what sport they play or at what level they are playing at, most athletes, in general, need to get stronger. I think that if most athletes just focused on properly getting stronger, they would improve their performance and be a lot better off. I am not downplaying the importance of running mechanics, flexibility, agility, change of direction and things of this nature but no one thing is going to help athletes any more than just getting stronger. For this reason strength training has to be the number one priority in most cases. By improving your strength you will improve your linear and lateral speed, you will improve your vertical jump, you will hit harder and throw further, and you will help to prevent injuries.

CB: How should kids train to get fast?

JF: Well after we have them on a good strength training program, the next thing we need to teach them is basic running mechanics and basically just how to move athletically. They need to learn how to control their bodies in space and accelerate, decelerate and change directions properly. I think people try to get too fancy sometimes and use methods that Charlie Francis would employ with an Olympic sprinter who is going for a world record, when training ten year olds. It need not be this complicated. Most kids do plenty of plyometrics on a daily basis both in the sports that they play and just due to the fact that they are kids and running and jumping is a big part of a kids life. For this reason I don't think you need to do tons of fancy plyos. I think some basic running, jumping, skipping and change of direction drills coupled with a good strength and flexibility program will improve any kids speed. The problem with many kids is not that they don't do enough "speed training," it is that they don't know how to run properly. I would spend time teaching proper mechanics and do drills that would reinforce what you teach. For change of direction and the ability to react and think on your feet, nothing beats just marking off a set area and playing tag. One final thing I should mention is that in all the years I have worked with young kids I have rarely come across teenagers who possess great flexibility. This may come as a shock to many readers but it's a fact. A lot of it is due to the fact that they are going through growth spurts when they first start working with me and some of it is due to the fact that kids lead a more sedentary life now than they used to. Flexibillity and mobility need to be addressed from the beginning with every young athlete.

CB: What are your top lifts for absolute beginner young athletes?

JF: Leg extensions, butt blasters, pec dec flyes and concentration curls. Thanks I'll be here all week. Of course I'm kidding. In all seriuousness I would have to go with bodyweight squats, split squats, pushups, chin ups, bodyweight hanging rows aka inverted pullups aka fat man rows, abdominal bridges aka planks, medicine ball throws and things of that nature. I also like to use stability balls as much as possible with young athletes. The main thing to remember with young athltetes is that whatever you do, it has to be fun. As much as I despise the word, it also has to "functional." Always use bodyweight exercises as much as possible until you have exhausted every possible option before moving on to external resistance. If a kid can't do pushups don't throw in the towel and put him on a bench press, simply put a bar in a higher position in a power rack and have him do the exercise there. When it becomes easier, drop the height of the bar in subsequent weeks. You can go a long way with bodyweight exercises, you just have to get creative and use your imagination.

CB: And for mature athletes?

JF: For size and strength gains you have to stick with the basics. This would of course be squats, deadlifts, bench presses, military presses, chin ups, rows and cleans. All of those exercises have a number of different variations and can be done in many different ways. Aside from the basics I think most people would benefit from reverse hypers and glute ham raises. Not everyone can get a hold of the proper equipment but I think every athlete should do some strongman training as well. On top of that list I would put tire flips, farmers walks, rope pulls, car pushes and sled drags.

CB: What are time wasters for young athletes?

JF: Well Craig, I see so many mistakes made in the training of young athletes I don't even know where to begin. The old debate never ends about what age kids can start lifting weights at. The truth is they can lift weights at any age. When they are old enough to walk they try to pick up anything they can get their hands on. That box that one year old just picked up off the floor was a max effort deadlift yet I didn't hear anyone complain or freak out about it. Everyone just thougt it was sooo cute. So if we allow our kids to do MAX EFFORT DEADLIFTS at the age of one then what in the hell is the problem with them doing some dumbbell presses when they are ten? Before anyone thinks that I am kidding, let me reiterate that when an infant squats down, with a round back no less, and strains to pick something up off the floor this is literally the equivalent of doing a max effort deadlift. Why then is there the constant concern about kids lifting weights? It makes no sense whatsoever.

Having said that I must now retract that statement and tell you that even though I think kids CAN lift weights at a very young age I don't think they NEED to. There are much better things for them to be doing that involve bodyweight exercises and static holds like I mentioned previously. So, even though there is no harm in doing so, I think that starting a kid on dumbbell and barbell exercises is a mistake.

Also, anything that is too "sport specific" is a huge waste of time. Specialization for young athletes is a huge waste of time. Kids should be concerned with becoming better overall athletes and worry about becoming better baseball or soccer players a few years down the road.

Recently I had some free time and went to observe a group training class at one of these sport specific facilities. It was the eight to ten year old group and they had the kids working on first step and sprint mechanics like they were going to be facing Michael Johnson in the Olympics this summer. I think that's definitely overkill. You need to teach a kid how to move athletically and work on mechanics but you don't need to get that intense at that young age. It is way too much for a kid that age to think about and will probably do more harm than good. This is a gimmick that is used to sucker parents into thinking that they have found the ultimate "sport specific" training center and that this is the place where their kid will become the next Derek Jeter.

CB: What are time wasters for bodybuilders?

JF: Isolation exercises, excessively long duration cardio, tons of direct arm work and a lot of machine training. Having said that I should mention that if some one is training purely for aesthetics machines can be used but should only make up a very small portion of your training. If you are going to use machines be sure to use compound exercises such as the leg press and avoid isolation machines like the leg extension.

Most supplements other than pharmacuetical grade fish oil, creatine and protein powder are also worthless.

CB: And some tips on how to get jacked?

JF: In order to get jacked you have to eat a ton; that is your top priority. You need a ton of protein and a pretty good amount of carbs. As I mentioned earlier I hate low carb diets for any purpose but for muscle gain they are the absolute worst. Everybody needs carbs to gain size. People over react to info that they read on insulin sensitivity and start thinking that an apple will make them fat. To get big you will need anywhere from a minimum of 250 grams of carbs per day to 800 grams or more. If controlling bodyfat is not an issue for you then you should be eating carbs at every meal. Just divide up your daily carb allotment into six meals. If you need to watch your bodyfat levels a little closer then you should only eat carbs during the morning and after your workout.

As far as training to get jacked goes I always start people on full body workouts three days per week. During this time period we stick strictly with the big, basic exercises. Eventually we move on to an upper/ lower split four days per week. I keep it pretty simple; one heavy upper body day and one lighter/ higher rep upper body day and the same for the lower body. I never want anyone I train to just get big and at the same time be weak and "non-functional" so I have them all go pretty heavy on the heavy days. Lifting heavy weights targets fast twitch fibers and more importantly makes you strong. There is nothing worse than walking into a public gym and seeing a 240 pound guy squatting 225. If you're gonna look strong, you have to BE strong. At least that's the way I see it. So I focus on max strength one day and max hypertrophy the other day. On the heavy day we willl pick an exercise and work up to a few feavy sets of one to five reps or just go for a five, three or one rep max. After that we do some heavy assistance work in the range of five to eight reps, depending on the bodypart or exercise. Direct arm work can be done in the hypertrophy range of six to twelve reps for three to six sets on both the heavy and light day. On the second upper body day of the week we will do sets of six to twelve reps, more exercises, lower rest periods and sometimes use techniques such as compound sets or drop sets. People always want specific numbers so as far as the sets go I would say you could get away with five to six per bodypart on the heavy day and five to eight on the light day. That's just a general rule of thumb though.

Eventually when you get bigger and stronger you may find that you can not recover from two leg days per week, especially if you are doing some type of energy system work as well. When this situation arises I stick with the two upper body days but turn the second leg day to more of an accessory/weak bodyparts day. This usually ends up being traps and neck because you can never get either of those muscles too big; calves, abs and maybe some forearms are also done on this day along with some type of interval work to finish the workout.

Although I said that tons of direct arm work is a waste of time I am not one of those coaches who takes it so far as to allow no direct arm work. Chins, dips and presses will always build big arms better than curls and pushdowns but after you have trained for a while and want to achieve maximum arm size you absolutely have to do direct arm work. You don't need 15 sets twice a week but you do need to do some direct bicep and tricep work at the end of your upper body workouts. This does not need to be heavy work either, nor should it. I have seen articles on arm training that advise doing triples or even singles on scott curls! This is insane and dangerous. Do heavy triples on scott curls for a month supersetted with ez bar tricep extensions and tell me how your elbows feel. Like shit, I can guarantee you that! All your heavy bicep and tricep work will come form your rows, chin ups and presses. Do your direct arm training under typical hypertrophy training guidelines and just try to get a good pump. You still have to go heavy but never below six reps.

If your diet is in check and you are training properly the only other thing you need to worry about is that you get enough sleep. If you are doing all three of those things you will grow.

Lastly, I recommend that you take a week off completely from training every six to sixteen weeks. This is obviously a huge range and depends on a number of factors ranging from your age, training age, stress levels, etc. To be safe though, it is always better to err on the side of taking your off weeks more frequently then less frequently. It may shock people to hear but I have actually had great success with clients by having them train hard for four weeks followed by a complete week off. Most people can't do this because they are obsessed with going to the gym all the time but you would be surprised at how little training you can actually get away with after you have been doing this for a while. And much to most people's surprise you actually lose very little, and usually nothing in a week off. As a beginner I would not advise this, however. At that stage you can go a good twenty weeks without needing a week off but the longer you have trained the more frequently you should take a week off.

CB: Who do you look to for advice now?

JF: Well Craig, without sounding like too much of a kiss ass, I can honestly say that I always read your daily emails and thoroughly enjoyed your all access pass. I honestly think you are one of the greatest minds in our industry. I am lucky in that many of my closest friends that I talk to on a regular basis are some of the smartest guys in strength and conditioning. For advice on getting stronger I go to my two close friends Jim Wendler and Dave Tate, no one else compares. When I want to know the latest info on training very young kids I call up Brian Grasso. For strongman training advice I go to CJ Murphy. Alwyn Cosgrove knows as much as anyone in this industry but is the absolute best when it comes to assesments. Murph and Cosgrove are also two of the funniest people you will ever meet. Finally for advice on nutrition I look no further than my good friend and fellow Jersey boy John Alvino. There is nobody that knows diet secrets like Johnny Al. Like Murph and Cosgrove he is also someone who will have you in hysterical laughter with every sentence that comes out of his mouth. Now that I think about it, apparently those are the two qualifactions to be my friend; you must be a wealth of strength and conditioning knowledge and be able to make me laugh my ass off every time we speak.

CB: And what advice would you give to a young strength coach wannabee?

JF: As I said earlier, Craig, experience is always the best teacher. Having said that I would tell an aspiring strength coach to work for free, intern with experts in the field, do consultations with people in the field and just get as much experience as you can. Also, while you are getting that in the trenches experience you have to continue to read as much as you can. Books, websites, newsletters, videos, audio cd's; whatever you can get your hands on needs to be studied. As far as business advice goes you have to always remember that it is a personal relationships business and your ability to develop meaningful relationships with clients/athletes is one of the most important skills you must possess.

CB: Thanks man, where can people check out your stuff online and offline?

JF: People can check me out on my website, www.J1Strength.com where I sell my ebook, How To Get Jacked as well as a few other products and few more in the works. I am also on the Q&A staff at www.EliteFTS.com and have quite a few articles there. I also write for some magazines and starting in the February or March issue I will be taking over the Hardgainer column in Men's Fitness magazine. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my good friend Alwyn Cosgrove for that one. Finally I'd just like to say that it's been an honor Craig, and I thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity.