Muscle Gaining Secrets Review

Muscle Gaining Secrets is a bestselling muscle building program written by Jason Ferruggia, CEO of Renegade Strength and Conditioning gym, blogger at jasonferruggia.com, and Men’s Fitness Chief Training Advisor.  Jason has twenty years of experience as a professional trainer and has used the knowledge he has gained from years of experience training others to develop his complete program, Muscle Gaining Secrets.  As a proclaimed hard gainer himself, Jason coins this program “the skinny guys guide to lightening fast muscle growth” though from the impressive number of his clients who are professional athletes it seems that you do not have to be a skinny guy to benefit from this program.  If you are looking for efficient yet extremely intense workouts designed to help even the skinniest beginners gain muscle quickly, then this may be a program for you to consider.

[Killing it at the Renegade Gym.]

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: Who Does the Program Target?

In the program Jason says, “I have used these methods with hundreds of high school, college and professional athletes, armed forces members, Hollywood stars and thousands of every day regula
This program is intended for anyone who wants to gain size and strength while spending as little time in the gym as possible.r people.  The results have been astounding and the program works every time.” Though the program is dubbed the “the skinny guys guide to lightening fast muscle growth” what Jason has really done is take his twenty years of experience training all different types of people who wanted to build strength and muscle, learning what works and what doesn’t work, and then compiled all of this knowledge into his Muscle Gaining Secrets program.

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: What Does the Product Include?

Let us start off by telling you that Jason has consistently tweaked his Muscle Gaining Secrets program over time.  We were first introduced to this program in 2009 and we feel that it is even better today then it was back then.  Know that if you choose to purchase this program you will receive lifetime updates each time Jason’s improves his program.  Since Jason’s updates often include revisions to his workout programs you will continuously received new ways to structure your workouts that will help you achieve continuous strength gains.

The Muscle Gaining Secrets training program also comes loaded with additional materials and resources to help you be successful in gaining muscle.  The basic package currently consists of nine different components.

The Training Manual (137 pages)

The Muscle Gaining Secrets training manual is a dense 137 page eBook divided into 18 chapters.  This is where Jason does his best to take everything he has learned in his twenty years of training others and get it all down on paper.  He dedicates one of his chapters to explaining in detail what he calls the “7 critical factors” for muscle growth.  He then breaks the body down into muscle groups and dedicates a chapter to each one explaining how you should train each body part to maximize strength and size gains.  He also has chapters dedicated to stretching, recovery methods, nutrition, training partners, and even training music.

The Maximum Mass in Minimum Time Workout Plan and Log Sheets (63 pages)

This eBook contains the exact workout plans that Jason says will give you “maximum mass in minimum time.”  Based on the muscle gaining philosophy he lays out in the training manual, here he puts it all together and presents three different workout plans, a raw beginners workout plan, beginners workout plan, and the real meat of his program, the maximum mass in minimal time workout plan.  Jason recommends your starting point based on the amount of time you have spent under the iron.  We’ll explain each workout plan in greater detail below.

The Exercise Database (66 pages)

The Muscle Gaining Secrets Exercise Database eBook clearly illustrates through pictures and detailed explanations how to do over 100 weight training exercises.  In this regard, the eBook is excellent; however, there are no hyperlinks in the eBook which can make it a bit of a nuisance to navigate on a computer.  For example, you will have to scroll through 42 pages of exercises in order to look up a how to do a parallel bar partial range dip.  Printing out the eBook and then flipping through the pages would actually be faster.  We would love to see Jason add in some hyperlinks in the next update to make this eBook more convenient to use on a computer.

Nutrition Guide & Meal Plans (88 pages)

The Muscle Gaining Secrets Nutrition Guide and Meal Plans include hundreds of day-by-day meal plans and recipes organized by total daily caloric intake.  There are nine total meal plans starting from 2,000 calories per day and going up to 6,000 calories per day in 500 calorie increments.  Muscle Gaining Secrets literally hands you your meal plan for the entire time you will be on this program.

The 10 Minute Recipe Guide

In addition to the day-by-day meal plans leading you up to 6,000 calories per day, Jason also provides you over 40 of his favorite 10 minute meals.  These are easy to make recipes with a limited number of ingredients that ensure you are getting Jason’s recommended nutrient intake throughout the day.

The Supplement Report

It may seem like everyone is writing a supplement report these days (which is good because it means word is spreading about this mostly-bogus industry), but we were surprised to find ourselves thoroughly enjoying Jason’s report and we agree with the majority of his recommendations.  Jason’s report is unique in that he is not regurgitating a bunch of information he read about the supplement industry.  Instead, he provides an open and honest account of his own personal history with supplements throughout his training career which results in a much more engaging report.  Jason has definitely learned the hard way when it comes to the truth about supplements and his report will help you avoid the same mistakes while at the same time steering you towards those few supplements that are actually effective.

Growth Tracker 5000 Software

This is a very simple, very basic piece of software the some might find useful while tracking their progress.  If you are consistent in taking your measurements and putting them in this software while you implement Muscle Gaining Secrets then this software will be able to help you visualize your progress.  It is in no way dependant on anything related to Muscle Gaining Secrets so you could use this software to track your progress on any workout program.

Uncensored Audio Interrogation

This is a 45 minute interview with Jason where he describes his background and personal workout history.  He goes into great detail about the philosophy behind his approach to building muscle explaining why he favors a low volume approach, why he changed his mind about training to failure, and he even discusses his approach to building muscle on a vegan diet.  Most of what he says is also found in the training manual, but hearing Jason talk about it brings a lot more color to his philosophy and approach than just reading the letters in black and white. For example, when explaining why he prefers a day off between workouts he says, “if you train like a p***y and…it’s fine, you can probably train six days a week, but if you train hard, you know, I like a day off between workouts.” That is classic Jason Ferruggia!

One Month Access to the Renegade Inner Circle

The Renegade Inner Circle is Jason’s private membership site.  Once inside the Renegade Inner Circle you will get access to exclusive, members only articles, his forum and message board, additional training programs developed by Jason, and over 65 videos illustrating various warm-up routines, exercises, and stretches.   The forum and message board is pretty active and is where Jason will respond to any questions you may have and coach you throughout the program.  He makes the Inner Circle his priority and they often get the first heads up anytime he has a new program about ready to be published—like his soon to be released Renegade Diet.

[Chest supported rows are featured quite a bit in MGS.]

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: Workout Program Overview

The workout program is divided into three distinct plans, one plan for absolute raw beginners, followed by the beginner plan, and the full maximum mass in minimum time workout plan.  The program proscribes your starting point based on the amount of time you have spent training.  The raw beginner plan is intended for those who are weight training for the very first time.  It smartly begins with bodyweight and dumbbell training structured in a two-day split and is recommended for 4-6 weeks.  This helps the raw beginner build better stability, flexibility, and base strength before moving on to heavier barbell training.

The Beginner Workout Plan:

The beginner workout plan is divided into three phases, each lasting between 4 and 8 weeks.  The first phase consists of a three-exercise full body workout that you repeat three times per week.  It focuses on the big compound exercises.  Again this is a smart place to start for beginners as the big compound exercises will continue to improve stability and will start to build strength and size.

The second phase adds three more exercises and uses a two-day split.  Phase three adds more exercises and moves to a three-day split.  All beginner phases focus on the basics with a heavy emphasis on compound exercises.

The Muscle Gaining Secrets Maximum Mass in Minimum Time Workout Plan:

The MGS Maximum Mass in Minimum Time workout plan consists of four phases.  Each phase is recommended for 6-8 weeks with one full week of rest prescribed between phase 2 and 3.  Every workout in Muscle Gaining Secrets is a full body workout.  You will do pushes and/or presses for both your upper and lower body in each workout.  One of Jason’s innovations with this program is that he uses a technique he calls micro periodization in which you progress from high reps to low reps in one week.  As your reps decrease throughout the week, your weight and intensity will increase.  This technique allows you to do full body workouts with great intensity without burning yourself out.  This technique is an adjustment from his early Muscle Gaining Secrets program and we believe it is a nice improvement.

If you follow every phase of the program starting from the raw beginner training plan then you will have almost 16 months worth of workouts prepared for you.  If you start with the beginner workout plan then you will have between 10-14 months of workouts, and if you are an experienced lifter and use only the maximum mass in minimum time workout plan then you will have 6-8 months worth of workouts depending on how quickly you move through the phases.  Very few workout programs actually provide you with such a long-term training plan

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: Strengths of the Program

There are a lot of things we love about Muscle Gaining Secrets.  If you follow the prescribed rest periods between sets then you will complete all of these workouts in 45 minutes or less.  This is what he means when he says maximum muscle in minimum time.  His workouts are efficient, hit your entire body, require serious intensity, and yet you are in and out of the gym in less than an hour.

We are also big fans of his micro periodization technique.  Each workout has a consistent rep and set scheme so it is not overly complicated, yet the set and rep scheme changes from workout to workout keeping it fresh and challenging you in different ways each time.  This technique also allows for you to make consistent progress week to week, which helps keep you motivated and committed to the program.

Jason also understands that lifting heavy weights is fun! It is why we hit the gym.  We want to gain strength, build some size, and have fun lifting heavy things, and that is an essential part of this program.  Every week you will lift heavy, lift hard, and then move on with life outside of the gym.

Oh yeah, and his program works.  He has tons of real life success stories published here: MGS Success.

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: Weaknesses

One of our biggest concerns regarding this program used to be that it called for you to lift heavy every workout all the time, and we felt that this eventually led to central nervous system burnout and could also lead to injuries.  His change to micro periodization has done quite a bit to relieve us of the CNS burnout concern and Jason stresses the need to lift heavier every workout, but he also emphasizes the need to progress slowly throughout the program.  The biggest risk is that you will try to move through the phases too quickly or you will up the weight too quickly.  Regardless of Jason’s warnings, human nature suggests that may people implementing this program will try to move too quickly.  Please heed Jason’s warning and take your time moving up weight.  You will make progress from week to week.  Appreciate incremental progress for what it is and do not risk serious setbacks by moving too quickly to get to heavier weights.  You will get there.  Just keep following the program.

Muscle Gaining Secrets Review: Price/Value

The basic package for Muscle Gaining Secrets is priced at $77.  There is an up sale for a deluxe package which currently includes three additional products and costs an additional $27.  As of the date of this post the deluxe package includes Jason’s Renegade Cardio program, Armed and Dangerous: add 2 inches to your arms in 8 weeks, and his Advanced Muscle Gaining Guide.  We will review the deluxe items in a separate post to help you determine if you should invest in the up sale.

Regardless of which package you decide to purchase you get a 60-day, no questions asked, money back guarantee if for some reason you are not happy with the product.  Though this product is more expensive than some, the Self Health Atlas believes Muscle Gaining Secrets to be a tremendous value as it comes with an extensive package to help you better understand, achieve, and track your muscle growth and he provides more than a full year’s worth of workouts.  We consider this to be a Strong Buy for anyone looking to put on size and build strength throughout their entire body.  It is also the best program on the market today that can get you in and out of the gym in less than 45 minutes every single workout.