F Cubed: Fitness, Finance, and Faith

Today, I make the case for using the same training split for an indefinite period of time. Whether this be weeks or months, I propose that it is much easier to analyze and identify progressive overload (or lack thereof), when you're using the same split - week in and week out. This is in contrast to going in and "shocking the muscle", with different workouts each time. Subscribe on YT! tinyurl.com...

Anyone who's ever undergone a radical physique transformation will probably agree with Laurin Conlin's (IFBB Bikini Pro) quote: "Dieting will be longer than you like and slower than you think." Having turned things around from an overweight and out-of-shape youth, I can attest to this, and I completely agree. On a day-by-day basis, this feels like you're just starting at the same black-and-white p...

It may be a Tuesday, but I'm nobody if not somebody who likes to take chances and buck the trend, so I wanted to go ahead and lay out some Monday Motivation for you guys, TODAY! And, our inspiration for this piece comes from one singular source - the gospel. Recently I've come to the realization that the more I learn about Jesus - his life, his teachings, his sacrifice - the more I'm lead to a des...

Cut me a little slack today because it might sound like you've stepped into The Matrix, with 'knowing that you don't know', or 'not knowing that you know'. But, in all of my years in finance and as an educator, I actually view this as a big issue that plagues many passive investors. Specifically, they 'don't know that they don't know', which is not too dissimilar from thinking that 'they know'. As...

One of the most important, yet commonly overlooked variables within your training program, is how long you rest between sets. I think most people have a very haphazard approach to their rest periods. And, even when rest periods are being monitored, they are too short to maximize performance - our ultimate goal in the gym. Subscribe on YT! tinyurl.com/y9mdfnsl Connect on IG! www.instagram.com/jschu...

Big shout-out to my man, Simon Sinek. Today's piece is largely inspired by his book "Start with Why", and he makes the case that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. From that, I wanted to encourage you all to sit down and figure out your own whys inside of the three Fs: fitness, finance, and faith. I think we all spend too much time on the how, and not nearly enough time on the w...

RPE, or Rate of Perceived Exertion, has had a monumental impact on the effectiveness and sustainability of my training. It is something that I borrowed from the powerlifting community and only recently discovered in the last 3-5 years. Most of the first decade of my bodybuilding career was spent feeling like I HAD to take every set to failure, or it didn't really count. Knowing what I know now, I...

In this piece, I wanted to take a very macro view at understanding one of the central pieces to the global economy - money. Specifically, money has a cost, and this is always represented by the interest rate that might be associated with those funds. If we start at the very top, with the Federal Reserve, we can begin to see how their targeting only a few different interest rates ends up having a d...

A great tool for life is to take inventory of your strengths - what you're good at. I think we all spend far too much time focusing on what we're not so good at, or our inabilities, or our weaknesses. Instead, flip that on its head and become keenly aware of what you are good at - where you excel. The benefits of this are no clearer seen than with training and nutrition. Truth be told, inside of a...

Have you ever felt like God could never use you? Ever felt like you're just so far from the mark of what God wants you to be that He would never even consider using you in some grand way? I know I have, and that's part of the reason I struggled to finally make the decision to include the faith element in F Cubed late, last year. But, if we actually look at biblical history, we see that God loves t...

It's Monday, so that means we need some motivation! Well, on that note, as you chase after your goals in life, whether they be fitness, finance, faith, or anything for that matter, approach each day with a singles and doubles strategy. When you step into the batter's box that is a new day, don't swing for the fences. Instead, stay patient, wait for your "pitch", and focus on singles and doubles. T...

Man, it's been nearly 20 years that I've been hitting the bodybuilding stage! That's crazy to think about...especially when I think back to how it all began. Back in 2000, while nursing a broken leg, I read Arnold Schwarzenegger's biography, got all fired up to compete, and did my first show in Spring, 2001. Sure, I got laughed off the stage and had no business being out there, but little did I kn...

How do you analyze the stock market? Basically, there are three ways: technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and quantitative analysis. In this episode, I give a broad overview of each one, along with a brief comment or two regarding my personal evaluations of each technique. In doing this podcast, it dawned on me that this idea would also make for a great video series on YouTube, so be sure an...

I've got to give credit where credit is due, as the inspiration for this segment was inspired by the song "Sleep in the Storm" by Unspoken. If you guys haven't heard of them before, they're nothing short of incredible, so I would check them out ASAP. That, along with Paul's words of encouragement in Acts 27, and Jesus' own act of sleeping through the storm (literally) in Mark and Matthew give us a...

If your focus is body recomposition, either in the form of fat loss or muscle gain, then the two variables at play will always be training and nutrition. However, I posit that the training variable should almost always be fixed at maximizing muscle growth, while it is the nutrition variable that will be manipulated to meet your goals. Even if your ultimate goal is fat loss, you'll want to train to...

Whoever that girl was that I recently found while doing a mindless scroll on the internet who coined the term, BLT, to refer to Bites, Licks, and Tastes, was a genius. This is pure brilliance! The thing is all those little nuggets of this or nibbles of that add up...sometimes quickly. I know I fall victim to too many BLTs all the time. Not surprisingly, when I reign those guys in and track them or...

The two areas that I'm most passionate about within the world of finance are trading/investing and saving/budgeting. The pathway to any type of financial security is going to inevitably involve these two actions. Well, in this podcast, I wanted to offer up a unique way to think about your dollars...as employees...of YOUR company. If we look to how any corporation works, and map that understanding...

Back in part one, I laid out some general thoughts regarding what my general approach to training and nutrition would be, if I were starting over as a beginner again. But, I didn't get into too many specifics about the details surrounding what each session on that training split would look like, or exactly how I would look to execute a brand new nutritional strategy. Well, here in part two, I want...

If I was starting all over again in the world of fitness, and I was an absolute beginner, how would I approach training and nutrition? With nearly twenty years of experience in physical fitness and competitive bodybuilding, I would simplify the entire process. From a training standpoint, I would ditch any type of "bro" split, or anything that was overly complicated, and I would simply do a 3-day o...

A few weeks ago, I did a piece that suggested a "Circular Approach to Applying the Gospel". Well, in putting that episode together, the idea for this episode was born - with many thanks to my wife, Autumn. The idea is that a daily application to the gospel is more than just a circle...it's a snowball. And, the more and more it builds and expands, the more and more we are left with one overwhelming...

During any lengthy battle of physique transformation, which is harder, the mental battle or the physical battle? My knee-jerk reaction, which I think most would agree with, is that on any given day, the mental battle is more challenging. However, drawing on my experience with competition prep, I suggested that the physical battle might actually be harder at two very distinct points - the beginning...

FOMO is real. And FOMO when it comes to faith might be the realest it gets. I know firsthand how it feels to wonder if going all in on Jesus might leave you feeling like you're "missing out". Make no mistake, I still struggle with this now - today. But the growth in my faith and my walk with God has revealed an important truth to me. The more you push towards Jesus, not only do you not miss out, b...

Man, you guys are in for a treat today! My man Angelo Liloc from MOD3RN NUTRITION joined the podcast today, and this dude has been on an incredible journey. He holds nothing back and shares an inspirational story of overcoming adversity that highlights his own path that lead him to an intersection of fitness and faith, where he came face-to-face with his One, True Identity. Lastly, he leaves all o...

Everyone is always so focused on how much money they make. Everyone is so fixated on making more and more money that they so often forget one key thing: how much money you make doesn't matter...how much money you keep does. If you make a bunch of money, but you spend it all, then you won't move any closer to any of your financial goals. In today's society, with all the glitz and glamour on getting...

The image of Jesus as a Shepherd is pretty well-known within the Christian faith, as it's directly in Scripture...a few different times, I think. Well, thanks to Priscilla Shirer's Voice of God study, I learned a whole bunch about the relationship that shepherds had with their sheep back in the early days. This special bond has all kinds of interesting nuances and important implications for us tod...