Recovery – J3 University

In this episode, John and Luke discuss how to retain as much muscle as possible during either a fat loss phase or prep through changes in exercise selection, volume, and fatigue management.

Timestamps

Training Concepts 02:44

Effort vs Accuracy 09:39

Exercise Selection 15:32

Volume 20:42

Deload Structure 27:42

John Jewett

J3U Founder & Educator

MS, RD, J3U-PC

Episode 107: Navigating Stalled Lifts

John — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 02:00:12 +0000

Published Tue January 2nd, 2024

Episode 107: Navigating Stalled Lifts

In this episode, John and Luke discuss how to bust through lifting stalls, the variables to account for and troubleshooting for whenever you run into stalls.

John Jewett

J3U Founder & Educator

MS, RD, J3U-PC

Pizza Endings and Prep Beginnings

mark — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 15:21:31 +0000

Last Friday I ended my improvement season with three of my favorite things, pizza, cookies and a movie on the couch with John. Moments where we can kick back and indulge on all things high fat, carb, sugar and delicious are few and far between, so I enjoy every minute of it when we can.

Entering in to prep isn’t this big shift for me. We’ve built a routine that is so consistent that it makes moving from improvement season to prep a seamless transition. The biggest change, which doesn’t seem big at all, is being extra precise and diligent with my macro amounts. During improvement season we do allow for some flexibility. I’ll macro match meals which can throw off my amounts a bit, I’ll have extra veggies if I feel like it, and have a free meal almost every week. So, there is a certain amount of calories that aren’t accounted for compared to what’s actually written on my plan.

Once prep starts I want every variable to be as precise as possible. I stick to the exact foods and amounts on my plan. No more macro matching or eating extra servings of veggies and there’s certainly no free meals. If it’s not on my plan, I’m not eating it. To me, this makes it so much easier than if you’re given a macro amount and have free reign over matching those macros. Especially when you’re getting deeper in to prep, hunger increases and you’re more food focused. I personally want to be told what to eat and when to eat it. It takes all the guess work out of the food portion of prep and allows me to put all my focus on my training and recovery.

John will be joining me in prep here shortly as well. Last year we were on completely different schedules. When he was in improvement season I was in prep and just as soon as he was in prep I went in to improvement season. I’m actually looking forward to being on the same schedule. Instead of enjoying pizza and cookies on the couch we’ll be enjoying chicken and salad! But we’ll be doing it together and that’s all that really matters!

Think bigger! Train Hard!

Renee Jewett IFBB Pro

S’mores and Show Dates

mark — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 04:35:21 +0000

Hal-cy-on
Denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful

It’s amazing how time passes so quickly. It seems like our trip to Frederickburg was months and months ago. John and I have been putting in some serious work hours this past week trying to get everything completed and ready for the launch of J3 University. I remember when the idea of creating an education platform was just that, an IDEA. That idea turned in to planning, turned in to action, turned in to months of meaningful work. There was a quote I read once that stuck with me and rings true when I talk about this, “The value of an idea lies in the using of it”. So next time you have an idea, instead of ignoring it or finding an excuse not to act on it. Feed that spark of inspiration with planning, discussion and most importantly, action.

As much as we can get consumed in our work we know how important it is to take a break from time to time. Plus, I still had my Adventure Book date night to cash in on. There was no better time to take advantage of that than after a week of practically being chained to our computers. The date night of the month was in a cute café and bar called Halcyon. It has a laid back feel with sprawling couches, art-lined walls and a patio where you can find people relaxing with their four legged friends. But the shining beacon for us was the tableside S’mores. How cool is that? They give you a little fire pit with kebab sticks, a Hershey Chocolate Bar, Marshmallows and Graham Crackers. It made for a unique and fun eating experience.

The last days of January will surely be spent clocking in more work hours and I will recall the halcyon days of S’mores and relaxation. I’m grateful we had this momentary time away from our desks to talk and reconnect. But I’m eager to get back to work and put the finishing touches on J3 University. We created a spark and now we are consumed by the fire of our creation.

Think bigger!

Train Hard!

Renee Jewett IFBB Pro

Wine, Flammkuchen and Recharging

mark — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:52:42 +0000

We’re officially halfway through January and hopefully you’ve acclimated to writing 2021 without having to creatively turn your 0 in to a 1 after writing 2020 for the millionth time. I know I’m not the only one guilty of this. Also, I don’t know who needs to hear this, but take your Christmas decorations down (it’s me, I needed to hear this).

John and I have slowly taken down some of our Christmas decorations, but we’ve been so busy with other tasks that it’s been low on the totem pole of “to do’s”. Our Christmas tree and ornaments were put away on Monday morning before we headed out to Fredericksburg for our first adventure book vacation. Like I said before, work has pretty much been a non-stop thing. Working from home is great in so many ways, it allows us to be flexible with our schedules and we’re not confined to wearing real pants to work, hello sweatpants. But it also caters to working more than if we went to a normal 9-5 job. Even when we’re done working for the day we habitually monitor our inboxes and our ever-growing volume of work, anticipating notifications even when they’re muzzled. So needless to say, we were both looking forward to unplugging and relaxing for a while.

Off to Fredericksburg we went. For those of you not familiar with Fredericksburg it’s a city with German Heritage located in central Texas, known for its wineries. It’s about an hour drive for us, so not too far at all for our little getaway. We arrived around 11am and our check in to our Airbnb cabin wasn’t until 3pm so we had some time. We headed up Main Street which is the center of action for this city, boasting a number of shops, boutiques, art galleries and restraunts. One of my favorite shops was “Rustin’ Rob’s Texas Gourmet Foods”. Home to over 350 gourmet foods from nut butters, mustards, jams, salsas, dressings all available for sampling. One of my samplings was Jalapeno Peanut Butter, surprisingly the two flavors worked well together but the money was on this Salted Caramel Pecan Butter. I of course had to check the ingredient label to see what this thick heavenly butter was made out of and let’s just say you definitely couldn’t sub out your normal nut butter for this one.

From there we headed up the road to the vineyards for wine tasting. This was actually my first experience with wine tasting. My assessment was, I enjoy reds over whites and my favorite was a nice Port. After hitting up two wineries it was time to get checked in to our Airbnb which was a really awesome cabin close enough to main street to have access to everything but set back far enough that we had privacy. Once settled in dinner time was rolling around and what do you eat for dinner when you’re in a town with rich German heritage? German food of course.

German food was also a first for me! My assessment? Absolutely mouthwatering. This is one of those meals I’ll look back on when I’m deep in prep and remember fondly while I’m counting out my grains of rice. The Flammkuchen (German Pizza!) and Schnitzel were out of this world good, like an explosion of flavor on each taste bud. John and I appreciate the occasions that we get to sit down in a restaurant and have a meal together because it is such a rarity. No food scale, no Tupperware, just some good food and conversation. It truly is the little things that can make life so rich.

We headed back the next day after getting breakfast and going for hike. Although this was a quick trip it was just what we needed to recharge before heading in to another week full of work. Regenerating your energy is so important and something that should be made a priority. Unplugging is a key component to our personal happiness and work productivity. The two halves of a healthy whole.

Our next adventure will be cleaning out our garage to make a home for the ’68 Ford Mustang Fastback that’s in route to San Antonio as we speak. We’ve (John especially) have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this classic beauty. Stay tuned for updates and to find out if we ever take down the rest of our Christmas decorations!

Think bigger!

Train Hard!

Renee Jewett IFBB Pro

Low Calories & Sleep Equals More Muscle Loss & Less Fat Loss

mark — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 10:09:39 +0000

Getting on the bodybuilding stage we want the most muscle and least amount of fat as possible, sleep has a major part in making sure this happen. We are all told how important sleep is, but it seems many still don’t prioritize it. We have busy lives and work comes before all. We diet hard, train hard, and then whatever time we have left we allot for sleep. “Hey what is one less hour of sleep really going to do”? I know so many people that work Monday through Friday and “catch up” on sleep on the weekend. This strategy seems logical, but does it hold up?

Let’s dive into our study for the week.

“Influence of Sleep Restriction on Weight Loss Outcomes Associated with Calorie Restriction”

Purpose: Examine the effect of calorie restriction with or without sleep restriction on body weight and composition.

Subjects: 36 overweight and obese 35-55-year old, untrained.

Protocol: Subjects were randomized to a calorie restriction (95% of RMR) with one group told to reduce there in bedtime during the week by 90 minutes and sleep as much as they want on the weekend. The other group was to continue normal sleep habits.

Results: The sleep restricted group ended up reduce sleep on average by ~1 hour during the week and increased sleep by ~ 1 hour on the weekend. This totaled up to about 75 minutes of less sleep for the entire week. Both groups lost 3.3kgs of body weight over the 8 weeks. The sleep restricted group lost ~32% of weight as body fat and ~68% as lean mass. The normal sleep group lost ~78% of mass as body fat and ~22% as lean mass. The sleep restricted group had a 24% decrease in Leptin levels and 26% increase in Grehlin.

Conclusion: Moderate sleep restriction during the week of 1 hour per night results in less proportion of fat lost and a greater proportion of muscle loss in a calorie deficit. The sleep restriction can increase appetite signaling hormones and make dietary adherence more challenging and weight regain higher.

Take away: Small changes in sleep can greatly impact body composition changes. In a contest prep phase when attempting to retain as much muscle as possible and get shredded lean lack of sleep can greatly detracting from that goal. You can nail your diet and nail training but if you miss on sleep you might be letting your gains fade away and loss prep time from lack of fat loss. Another issue is further increase in appetite stimulating hormones that can make contest prep miserable dreaming about pizza and ice cream all day. Prioritize sleep every night, as catch up sleep does not hold up in regard to body composition in calorie restriction.

What about sleep do you want to know more about, let me know!

John Jewett, MS, RD IFBB Pro

1. Wang X, Sparks JR, Bowyer KP, Youngstedt SD. Influence of sleep restriction on weight loss outcomes associated with caloric restriction. Sleep. 2018;41(5):10.1093/sleep/zsy027. doi:10.1093/sleep/zsy027