#160: Gaining 80+ Pounds, Fist Fights, and the Legend of Renegade Gym
The Jay Ferruggia Show
Jay Ferruggia
4.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2017
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back in the mid 90’s in a small town in Dirty Jersey, I opened Renegade Gym.
It was one of the original hardcore, underground, warehouse style training facilities.
The atmosphere was legendary, the results unmatched.
Long before it was mainstream to push sleds and flip tires we did it. Way before you ever saw gymnastics rings in a gym we had them. Twenty years before it was cool to “train like an athlete,” we were doing it.
Group workouts? Competitions? Record boards on the wall? Yup, we were doing that in ’96, son.
As you approached the front door you could hear the sounds of Ice Cube and Slayer shaking the walls.
When you walked in you were greeted by a sign that said, “Welcome to the Terrordome,” and under it the gym rules. Break one and you’d be kicked out.
We didn’t have the time or patience for anyone who came to mess around.
You were there to be the best or you weren’t welcome.
Guys traveled far and wide to come to this tiny basement dungeon to get bigger, stronger and faster than they could anywhere else.
Although I can’t bring you there, I’ve done my best to recapture the magic in today’s episode.
I’ll be sharing stories and getting into full detail about the training system that routinely transformed every member into a savage beast.
Highlights include:
- Fist fights galore
- Really stupid PR attempts
- What the yoga girl should have never asked me
- Knocking myself out during a workout
- Trying to knock my brother out
- How my toe got crushed by three 45lb plates
- Finishing a keg clean and press contest soaked in blood
- The epic shit talking
- Friday strongman sessions
- The exact details of the training system
- The diet that took me from 147 to 231
- Why we finally had to close the doors
- What we did in between
- My time living in NYC
- My start online
- Reopening the gym
- The move to Cali
- Renegade West and the future of Renegade Gym
You never know what’s going to come up in your day; however, with just one scoop of Athletic Greens when you wake up or add it to your morning smoothie, you know you have all of your bases covered.
It’s easy, and it tastes great.
Click HERE to receive a special offer as a listener of the podcast.
Do you wanna get strong and shredded in as little as 3 hours per week? Without the usual aches and pains associated with most training programs? Then join our exclusive community in the Renegade Strength Club. You’ll slash body fat, boost testosterone, increase energy and turn back the clock. Get the workouts, coaching and accountability you need to build your best body ever at: www.RenegadeStrengthClub.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is episode 160 of the Renegade Radio Podcast. I am J Ferrujia, the OG of the fitness |
| 0:20.5 | industry, hardcore since 94, the originator, all that shit you see that's popular today. |
| 0:28.9 | Group training, Sledds, |
| 0:39.0 | Been doing it since the mid 90s son |
| 0:43.2 | i'm gonna talk about that today we're gonna go back and take a tour through history |
| 0:47.1 | of the original renegade gym |
| 0:49.5 | the original renegade training system and all that. This episode is brought to you by |
| 0:54.0 | Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is the number one all-inclusive supplement, |
| 1:00.5 | digestive enzymes, multivitamin, multimeral, liver support, superfood, greens mix. |
| 1:09.2 | All that great stuff, no crap ingredients. Try athletic greens today to get all your vital |
| 1:16.3 | nutrients in 30 seconds or less at athletic greens.com slash J-A-Y. this episode is also brought to you by the renegade strength club |
| 1:26.9 | the renegade gym had a legendary mythical following people from all around traveled far and wide to get jacked |
| 1:35.6 | out of their minds in that tiny underground space. I can't bring you there but I can |
| 1:41.1 | bring it to you via the Renegade Strength Club. |
| 1:43.7 | Go to Renegade Strength Club.com for the workouts, the coaching, the community that you |
| 1:48.8 | need to get in the best shape of your life. All right, we're going to try this again. So we are here. A lot of you guys had |
| 2:08.5 | stories, had asked questions for stories about the original Renegade gym the early days of renegade |
| 2:13.4 | gym the evolution of the training system so I'm going to cover some of that today I |
| 2:17.1 | made some notes here so for those who don't know I started in the |
| 2:22.2 | strength conditioning business in 1994 while I was going to school. |
| 2:27.0 | I was still in college at the time and I started interning in the weight room, |
| 2:31.0 | started training people that summer of 94. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Ferruggia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jay Ferruggia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.