3D Muscle Journey

In this episode, Brad Loomis, Alberto Nunez, and Andrea Valdez chat about what they do on show day and meet day for our athletes. BODYBUILDING-SPECIFIC questions that are addressed: How do they pick shows for athletes when we can? How do they manipulate the physique in accordance with certain judging criteria? What planning protocols do they feel like people miss? How do they make themselves usefu...

In this episode, Brad Loomis, Jeff Alberts, and Andrea Valdez chat about how to lose a bodybuilding show. No, they are not telling you to suck or to be a bad athlete, but they are actually talking about how they handle losses in a sport built on subjectivity. The bulk of this conversation revolves around Andrea picking apart the most individually devastating losses in both of the lives of her more...

In this episode, Eric Helms, Alberto Nunez, and Andrea Valdez give their insight and feedback regarding the many shifts happening within natural bodybuilding's competitive structure over the past 5 to 10 years. With every new division that is created, combined with the continual sweep towards further subjectivity in our sport, the athletes are becoming more and more green while the judging criteri...

In this episode, Jeff Alberts, Alberto Nunez, and Andrea Valdez discuss all the ways contest prep can be (and should be) a terribly difficult experience for bodybuilders to go through. The trio talks about the physical, social, mental, and emotional tolls that an elongated fat loss phase can take on an individual. Sure, there are things we can do as athletes and coaches to make this just a little...

In this episode, Jeff Alberts, Alberto Nunez, and Andrea Valdez discuss all the ways contest prep can be (and should be) a terribly difficult experience for bodybuilders to go through. The trio talks about the physical, social, mental, and emotional tolls that an elongated fat loss phase can take on an individual. Sure, there are things we can do as athletes and coaches to make this just a little...

This is our fifth and last of our one-on-one team interviews, featuring Andrea Valdez. As it is now December 2016, we'd like to close out the year with some "state of the coach" addresses, if you will. Basically, we're asking the same questions to each 3D coach to see where they stand through this annual change, and it's something we plan on doing every year. In this fifth episode with Andrea, we...

This is our fourth of five one-on-one team interviews, featuring Jeff Alberts. As it is now December 2016, we'd like to close out the year with some "state of the coach" addresses, if you will. Basically, we're asking the same questions to each 3D coach to see where they stand through this annual change, and it's something we plan on doing every year. In this fourth episode with Jeff, we will disc...

This is our third of five one-on-one team interviews, featuring Alberto Nunez. As it is now December 2016, we'd like to close out the year with some "state of the coach" addresses, if you will. Basically, we're asking the same questions to each 3D coach to see where they stand through this annual change, and it's something we plan on doing every year. In this second episode with Alberto, we will d...

This is our second of five one-on-one team interviews, featuring Brad Loomis. As it is now December 2016, we'd like to close out the year with some "state of the coach" addresses, if you will. Basically, we're asking the same questions to each 3D coach to see where they stand through this annual change, and it's something we plan on doing every year. In this second episode with Brad, we will discu...

Here in this episode, we are starting our second series of 1-on-1 team interviews, beginning with Eric Helms. As it is now December 2016, we'd like to close out the year with some "state of the coach" addresses, if you will. Basically, we're asking the same questions to each 3D coach to see where they stand through this annual change, and it's something we plan on doing every year. Beginning with...

Team 3DMJ welcomes their second guest ever, Dr. Mike Zourdos. He joins Eric Helms and Andrea Valdez to discuss the recent past and distant future of strength training research. Dr. Mike is an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University, where he leads the Muscle Physiology Lab in Boca Raton. This discussion starts by covering quite a bit of ground in regards to academic and career paths wit...

In this episode, Brad Loomis, Alberto Nunez, and Andrea Valdez talk about how to deal with lagging body parts. Whether these be true weakness or perceived weaknesses, it can be difficult to navigate through the endless recommendations on how to deal with them. In this episode the coaches talk about what qualifies a body part as lagging, when to address this in your program, and how to manipulate v...

In this episode, Jeff Alberts, Eric Helms, and Andrea Valdez talk about how to eat intuitively as a strength or physique athlete. They discuss their own current eating habits, both in and out of season, and go over some typical ways they have coached people out of strict fat loss diets and into some of these more maintainable off-season structures. You'll hear about 3DMJ's tiered system of dietary...

In this episode, Jeff Alberts, Eric Helms, and Andrea Valdez talk about when to quit as a physique or strength athlete. While most content on the internet is about how to get motivated or how to commit yourself in the long-term, this week's episode focuses on the flip side of that. Nothing is forever, but some things can definitely be cut short or taken too far if you're not paying attention to th...

In this episode, Alberto Nunez, Eric Helms, and Andrea Valdez deliver some experience and insight on how to "make it" in the fitness industry. As a team, 3DMJ gets a lot of of request and inquiries about this topic. Usually it's about becoming a coach, sometimes it's about becoming some other type of internet entrepreneur, but collectively it seems that many of our listeners would appreciate some...

In this episode, Alberto Nunez, Brad Loomis, sit down with Bryce Lewis USAPL Raw Nationals to discuss what it's like to compete on a national powerlifting stage. Bryce is actually a long time 3DMJ athlete and elite powerlifter. He is also the founder of The Strength Athlete, an online powerlifting coaching service who creates real, customized approaches unique to the athletes who need them. Both B...

In this episode, Alberto Nunez, Brad Loomis, and Andrea Valdez talk about auto regulation, RPE, and training by feel. Basically, how should training feel, and how do we use these "feels" to navigate through our programming in attempts to increase our fitness while managing fatigue. The coaches hit on quite a few misconceptions about auto-regulated training, and discuss many of the tools that can h...

In this episode, Alberto Nunez, Brad Loomis, and Andrea Valdez talk about how to invest in a proper natural bodybuilding off-season. Many people find it quite easy to determine how to get someone shredded, right? You do the best you can to lose body fat while maintaining muscle. Pretty straightforward. But what to do afterwards or between those dieting seasons is what people really struggle with....

In this episode, Eric Helms, Jeff Alberts, and Andrea Valdez talk about the post-contest recovery diet phase. In particular, the coaches discuss the various effects of the sport that begin to occur immediately after you get off of a bodybuilding stage, all the way through the weeks, months, and sometimes years following the competition season. (For the general prescription of what the 3DMJ coaches...

In this episode, Brad Loomis, Jeff Alberts, and Andrea Valdez talk about competition day stresses and how to deal with them. Sure, getting an ultra lean physique is definitely the hardest part of natural bodybuilding. But for first time competitors or those who lose their cool pretty easily, getting on stage can be quite a traumatic experience. Throughout this episode, we discuss our personal show...

Alberto Nunez, Eric Helms, and Andrea Valdez talk about embracing the suck and sacrificing to win. Bodybuilding is an extreme sport. And although recent generations have found more efficient and practical ways to go about it, we can't forget that the shit gets difficult. At some point, it will hurt...a lot. The coaches discuss some terrible times, some pleasant times, and some of the times that th...

Alberto Nunez, Brad Loomis, and Andrea Valdez discuss all about bodybuilding INJURIES. This particular episode definitely did not end up how the coaches thought it would, but it took an unexpected turn for the better. Brad, Berto, and Andrea start with the physical injuries. They dive into prevention, warm-up, and all the other normal stuff you'd expect on an episode about injuries. But somewhere...

Jeff Alberts, Brad Loomis, and Andrea Valdez discuss how to be a more selfish athlete Now although selfish usually has a negative connotation within our society, throughout this podcast we talk about both sides of the coin. Yes, we actually think that being selfish can be a good thing, and is sometimes absolutely necessary in order to achieve goals and live a fulfilled life. But how selfish is too...

Jeff Alberts, Eric Helms, and Andrea Valdez discuss how Team 3DMJ has continued to thrive as one of the longest-standing online natural bodybuilding teams to date. Jeff, Eric and Andrea talk about the reasons the group was formed, the reasons they think it has stuck together, and what they actively do to ensure the future of 3DMJ. Although the focus is on teams and partnerships, this episode will...

Alberto Nunez, Brad Loomis, and Andrea Valdez discuss the role of Social Media in bodybuilding, and how we have seen the rise of the internet affect our sport. We go over the benefits and the costs, as we've seen them from an athlete perspective and a coaching perspective. How have we found social to be useful, and how have we found it to be detrimental to ourselves and the clients we work with on...