The blogger simply known as Fit Jerk has been making waves in the fitness industry with his brash cut-to-the-chase, brutally honest, no bullshit attitude. He doesn’t just exude confidence, he epitomizes it. Just take a look at some quotes from Fit Jerk’s Fitness Blog and you’ll see what I mean:
“I don’t like wasting time, I don’t kiss people’s asses, I can’t handle people who feel sorry for themselves. I tell it like it is. I don’t accept the guilt of those who chose to be mediocre in life.”
“Unlike some ‘experts’ who are out of shape and completely useless, I can help you get in the best shape of your life. Point blank period. I’m the dude that’s done it, tried it, and been through it all.”
“You either get with the program or take a hike. But eventually, you know you’ll be back. In fact I know you’ll be back because 95% of the info out there is bullshit, designed to keep you a mindless product-consuming sheep.”
Bloggers out there in any niche can learn a thing or two from Fit Jerk’s no holds barred approach to marketing. I tend to be on the same page with him on many issues and think the anti-hyperbole may be the new direction for advertising in the coming years.
Although I’ll freely admit I’m not strong-willed enough to handle a fitness regimen of any kind… why don’t you check out Fit Jerk’s Flawless Fitness Book and as he puts it, “have a body that turns heads wherever you go”. (which for me, is only a 30 feet radius around my computer desk!)
and now the raw & uncensored interview…
Q: I think everyone can tell straight off just by the name “Fit Jerk” that you mean business and don’t hold anything back.
A: Yeah, you’re right. I’m a straight up kinda guy. I actually got the name from this lady who was one of my first book customers. She wasn’t taking action so I laid it to her straight. She called me a jerk, but a fit one. I liked it and ran with it. Most authors wouldn’t raise a finger after making the sale. I’m not going to be associated with that kind of faggotry.
Q: But why should people listen to you?
A: The thing is, people don’t have to listen to me and I’m not out to convince them of shit like that. Those that are skeptical always ask me that question “why should I listen to you FJ?” and what I tell them is to go read my blog. That’s it. I don’t try and sell them some bullshit or pressure them with retarded products. I let my writing, my body and the results of the people I train do my talking. What ends up happening is that instead of me giving them reasons of why they should listen to me, then end up creating their own.
Some listen to me because I cut the crap and lay it to them straight. Others listen to me because on some disturbing level they find me entertaining. Some listen because I deliver real content. Whatever floats their boat.
See, there are too many fat ass morons running around screaming desperately so that people will pay attention to them. That’s not my style. I don’t chase. I don’t kiss ass and I don’t bend over for people. What I do is lend out my hand, if you take it, cool. If you ignore it, cool. There is a reason I model myself in my own fucking book, it’s not to show you how awesome I am (ok maybe a little) but it’s because I like to walk the talk. I find it funny when I see fitness books and the person showcasing the exercises in the book isn’t the author, because they are usually not in any presentable shape. It’s like “why?”
But the even more baffling thing is that there are some fitness authors that look good enough to be in books don’t bother putting themselves in. Pretty dumb if you ask me.
Q: So you’re pretty much an advocate of what I say – be your own expert, yes? Do you find that after people take your course and read your stuff, eventually they see that most of what you say is pure common fucking sense?
A: Not really. Ha ha, but it depends. See, if I talk to someone who knows what they are doing, they will read my stuff and say “well, of course! That’s common sense!” But what is common sense to them may not make sense for others, especially beginners. See, people make fitness both overly complicated than it needs to be or too simple and see no results. It’s neither of those things. It’s in the middle. I realized this through experience, nothing else. I’ve been to both extremes and it’s a pretty odd place to be.
Now I have a healthy obsession. Healthy because I’m not up at night losing sleep trying to read every newly released scientific study under the sun. You can’t know it all. No one can, but you can know a good amount to make shit happen. Now before I turn into a fucking monk, let’s move on…
Q: What are the “experts” not telling people in the fitness industry that you are?
A: First let me just say that there are legit people out there as far as trainers or even as far as bloggers go. In fact I have 3 categories for them. The first are the awesome sauces of the world, like Jody from truth2beingfit.com. She comes to my blog because she says I motivate her. It’s actually quite the opposite, this woman inspires me because at 52, she looks kick ass. She’s a lean, mean grandma and knows what she’s doing. So mad respect. Others that are cool are JC from JCD Fitness, Will Brink, Matt Perryman, Nate Green, Lyle Mcdonald and a few others. These people are cool. If you find my obnoxious, too abrasive for your reading pleasure, now you know you have credible options.
The 2nd type of people are the “fakers”. These tools don’t exactly claim to be “experts” which is ok, but what gets me going is when they try and sell fitness advice, and yet don’t know jack shit. They blog because they think blogging is cool. You can tell by the way they write that fitness is just some “make quick cash” scheme they are dabbling in. These fuckers really annoy me. Fitness and writing about fitness is my craft and I take this seriously. There are nights I’ve been up reading studies and books till my eyes bleed… or till my contacts get dry enough to resemble a shriveled prune… and then you find some schmuck who recommends the latest diet pill and backs it up with broscience. Lame.
The 3rd type are the sellouts and/or the marketing fairies. Take Christian Thibaudeau for example. I’ve read his books and articles and respected this guy… all up till the point where he helped tmuscle.com push some bullshit supplement that promised like 20lbs of muscle in like 2 weeks (or something equally ridiculous). Not even steroids can give you these types of results… and this just pissed me off. I mean here is a guy who I respected, but now I have to lose all respect for him, just because of this move. On top of that he was all like “I dont even get paid to praise this awesome supplement”. Heh, first I think thats bullshit and even if that was true – what a stupid move. If you’re going to sell out like that, at least demand a higher price, dude!
Oh, then there are the acai berry scams etc. Don’t even get me started with that shit.
So what am I doing different? Well, basically I’m cutting through the noise and getting back down to Earth with a realistic and effective approach. If I tell you to do something it’s because it works for me and countless others. When I tell you to take something, it’s because I’ve taken it in the past and has proven to be effective. Truth be told, I would love to slap the morons spreading the ridiculousness out there, but unfortunately shit splatters.
Q: Are you annoyed more at them or the fact there are a ton of dumbasses paying them money for it? Have you ever had an “encounter” with someone you thought was full of shit? I’m almost afraid to see what you’d be like to their face…
A: Good question, but you can never blame the customer. Money is earned, so when they plunk down their cash they probably believe that it will bring them some benefit, some kind of valuable return on investment. The only reason they believe that is because the douchebag “expert” gave them a complete mind fuck. But at the end of the day, I somewhat need these god damn cupcakes running around scamming people, because that’s when they come running to me.
I make it a goal to be the end of the line when it comes to someone’s fitness goals. What I mean by this is that they shouldn’t need to go diet hopping or living in a state of confusion after FJ has graced some truth upon them. They can certainly learn more but a good foundation is what I set out to do.
As for in-person… Yeah, I’ve met some idiots in person but not anyone who runs a useless blog. I think they avoid me, which is a wise decision.
Q: You seem to give very practical tips on your blog that virtually anyone can understand.
A: Yeah, my writing philosophy is smack-your-face-simple. Step 1: Make it useful. Step 2: Make it simple. So when I start writing, I end up with this massive, sometimes confusing web of thoughts and ideas, but it’s all useful stuff. Sometimes it’s gold and the next day I’m like “damn I wrote that?” What I do then is edit, structure and simplify it all down so that even a complete tool with zero skills can understand it. In fact I want people to be able to read an article, then that very day go apply whatever they learned.
It’s a process I call “spit first, shine later”. I also call it verbal diarrhea but that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing.
Q: This is actually quite good advice for any blogger. You’ve made quite a name for yourself on the ProBlogger.com forum – especially since you seem to have more of a grasp of blogging than even some of the “blogging bloggers”. How do you think your fitness niche uniquely differs than some of the leading advice given by the blogging gurus?
A: Heh, yeah, Problogger is a cool, tight forum. But it’s not been all sugarcream and honey rainbows. Lara (the mod) consistently gave me fucking hell in the beginning. Two infractions and a shit load of PM’s. At one point I was apparently on the last stand and she said I’d get banned if she heard another complaint. Not her fault though… all these retarded people were bitching like little girls. It’s a damn forum, don’t read my stuff if you don’t like it, know what I mean? No one was forcing them yet they kept on being douches.
Whatever. I can’t change who the fuck I am and so all I kept doing what what I knew best – bring value to the forum and connect with cool people. But I also respected the place so I decided that after writing, I’d go back and edit my spice and throw in a little bit of “nice” so I can hang around.
As for the question… Well, one place where it differs is that I can be diverse. A lot of the blogging gurus will say “stick to your niche”. Well for me, I don’t have to since fitness is universal. It doesn’t matter if your’re an accountant or a fucking race car driver. Everyone wants to live healthier and so what I do is “spread my seed”.
I’ve guest posted for Men With Pens which is a freelance writer site. I’ve also guest posted for Marko at How To Make My Blog and have done other non-fitness related interviews. Why? For one, I like what I’m talking about and two, it gets me known. So when these people ever need to seek fitness advice, that little “seed” has been planted and they will think of the one person that has established trust and knows what he’s talking about. Me. Now a bunch of marketing geeks will drool over this technique and use it just to get exposure and “to plant seeds” and hey, to each their own. I don’t write for anyone I don’t like. I read Men With Pens on a consistent basis and I’ve gotten to know their editor, so it works for me.
Other than that, the rest of the advice is standard as usual. For anyone that’s looking for something “fancy” – don’t bother. Get a blog. Start writing. Invest in yourself so you better your craft. Promote it, connect with others and always remember content is king. It’s not difficult, it’s just tedious work… and too many nipple nuggets forget that.
Q: Do you look more to help everyday average people that may not want “rock-hard chiseled abs”? Or is your attitude that if you’re not going to be 100% passionate about your fitness, you don’t want to waste your time on them?
A: I help anyone that wants to be helped, regardless of their goal. Point blank period. The people that I don’t want to waste time with are ones that are always bitching, whining and complaining. I don’t care what your goal is. I don’t care what you think of me and I certainly don’t care how deep your pockets are. As long as you put that head down and do what I’m telling you, things will start to happen.
This is one of the reasons why I have so many articles under the motivation category of my site. There isn’t a lack of information out there (in fact there is actually too much info and people get paralyzed), there is a lack of action. People read and read and watch videos and listen to podcasts, then just sit at home and bask in the newfound knowledge that they gained without doing anything with it.
FUCK THAT.
You want to know the one place where I had always had the biggest learning experience? No it wasn’t school. It was the fucking gym. The lessons that I have gained from helping others and training myself was worth more than the weight on the bar. The reason is because there is a gap between theory and reality. This is why transferring information from the head to your hand results in a different experience. You can go read about some cool new workout you read in a magazine but when you go try it, you realize it’s completely useless. The iron is king. Nothing is above it.
Q: You talk a lot of smack talking shit against supplements it seems. Is it just certain “magical” ones in general or virtually all of them?
A: Yes and no. A huge pull for my site is the fact that I review supplements, and if you’ve ever read my supplement reviews, you’ll see that I can be quite an ass (when justified). A few companies have blacklisted me from sending future samples because I bashed their shit so hard. But think about this for a minute… you are a supplement company and are off to send your product to a dude who runs Fit Jerk’s Fitness Blog!
If your product is blows chunks, How do you think I’m going to express myself? A fucking monkey could answer that question. I guess some of them feel that I owe them something because they sent me free samples. I don’t owe them shit. The only person I owe anything to is myself first and my readers second.
The truth is I like supplements. I’m a fan. But there are just too many insane products that use so much fairy marketing lingo, it’s crazy. If you want a good laugh, go read the sales copy for Muscletech’s Anabolic Halo. That shit belongs on a comic book, not in a store.
Q: I’m also assuming the new FTC regulations haven’t affected you one bit then. You’ve been hardcore straight up from day one so there wasn’t a need to change. Are you secretly hoping they crack down hard on some of the fakers in your niche?
A: No, I’m too honest for FTC to violate me. If I take the effort to write a deep and detailed review of a supplement (or product) and it happens to be good, I’ll legitemally want to help the company spread the word and sell it. So at the end of the review I’ll say “if you liked what I wrote and if you want to support the site, pick up this supplement from the link below”
So I’m disclosing the link, and hey, if they are going to buy it anyway, why not support the site that told them all about it? I know I would.
Q: I’m a scrawny guy with almost no muscle whatsoever and I sit in front of my computer working for hours on end. What fitness advice would you give to someone like me? Like a full-time blogger?
A: I consider myself a full time blogger by day, yet I still hold another job (coaching gymnastics and martial arts) that I do in the evenings and I can still find time to hit up the gym. So first, I’d say get a membership. It doesn’t have to be all frills, but if you want some mass, you will need to lift heavy, and then eventually, heavier. I’d create a 6-week plan with tons of compound movements and tell you to progressively overload your weight every week. I’d also focus on volume. Hypertrophy favors volume at 75-80% of your max intensity. But all of this is only accounts for 30% of the success.
The other 70% is your food intake. If you’re scrawny, then chances are your body fat is already low (I’m guessing since I’ve never measured yours), so there is no real point in trying hard to stay shredded. A 45-30-25 ratio (protein-carbs-fats) would be a good way to go. To make things accurate, I’d calculate your base metabolic rate (the # of calories you burn just to stay alive). Then I’d factor in your activity level… which I’ll consider null. Then I’d take this number and slap on another 1500 calories on top and you would have your daily intake.
I’d also tell you to take fish oils, creatine, whey protein & a solid multivitamin. Nothing fancy, just stuff thats tried and true. Those are the basics. Of course, as a client we’d go into more detail… which is why I do something called E-Training.
Q: A much more detailed reply than I expected. I figured it would be “stop smoking, eating pizza, drinking 4 cups of coffee a day and go for a walk once in a while, you fucking idiot!”
A: Yeah, actually that’s not bad advice and a good way to start. Now all you gotta do is look in the mirror and say that shit out loud a good dozen times.
Find out more about Fit Jerk by checking out Fit Jerk’s Fitness Blog. You can also follow him on Twitter @FitJerk. Just don’t piss him off!