The Jay Ferruggia Show #160: Gaining 80+ Pounds, Fist Fights, and the Legend of Renegade Gym
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