Shows / 3D Muscle Journey
3D Muscle Journey
The 5 natural bodybuilding and powerlifting coaches from 3D Muscle Journey come together for conversations dissecting the art and science of muscle and strength. Be a fly on the wall as this collective of coaches discuss the ins and outs of helping athletes reach their potential on the stage, platform and in their personal lives. Dedication. Discipline. Desire. #Team3DMJ
Episodes
3D Muscle Journey#320: Q&A Session 32
Alberto, Brad, and Brian answer audience-supplied questions about periodization, warm-up sets, coming back from injuries, recomping, competing, and more. If…
3D Muscle Journey#319: What Supplements Do You Take?
Jeff, Eric, and Brian share their perspectives on supplements, what they are currently taking, and advice for those who want to optimize all the variables in…
3D Muscle Journey#318: Post-Season Blues
Alberto and Brian discuss how athletes commonly feel after their bodybuilding season is over and what you can do to get back to feeling like yourself as soon…
3D Muscle Journey#317: Is The Mind-Muscle Connection Overrated?
Alberto, Jeff, and Brad discuss what the mind-muscle connection is, how important it is for muscle growth, who can benefit the most from focusing on it, and…
3D Muscle Journey#316: Maintenance Phases in Bodybuilding
Brian, Alberto, and Brad discuss the benefits of maintenance phases, why they are sometimes superior to gaining phases, and what to consider when setting your…
3D Muscle Journey#315: The Identity Trap of Bodybuilding
Jeff, Brian, and Brad discuss how a person’s identity as a bodybuilder can change across their training career, why it’s important to see yourself as more than…
3D Muscle Journey#314: Training Modifications During a Diet
Alberto, Eric, and Jeff discuss autoregulating your training while dieting and how learning to autoregulate your training is vital if you want to get the most…
3D Muscle Journey#313: Diets For Crazy Schedules
Brad, Brian, and Alberto discuss the details that actually matter for fat loss, so you can create an eating routine that works well for you and your schedule…
3D Muscle Journey#312: The Mentality Required to Finish a Bodybuilding Prep
Brad, Jeff, and Brian discuss the mindset an athlete needs to have to successfully complete a bodybuilding prep and to feel good about the end results…
3D Muscle Journey#311: Machines vs. Free Weights
The coaches discuss the pros and cons of training with machines versus free weights, what they prefer, and how the value of specific machines differs depending…
3D Muscle Journey#310: Q&A Session 31
Brad, Eric, and Alberto answer seven audience-supplied nutrition and training questions. What are good strategies for hitting your protein goal if you’re in a…
3D Muscle Journey#309: Recreational Drugs & Bodybuilding
Brad, Alberto, and Brian discuss how common drugs and alcohol can negatively interfere with your bodybuilding goals and what you can do to minimize their…
3D Muscle Journey#308: Building Your Own Bodybuilding Team
Brian, Jeff, and Brad discuss how to build a good support system so you can maximize your rate of progress and have fun doing it. What is the origin story of…
3D Muscle Journey#307: Do I Have to Learn Programming to Get Jacked?
Brian, Alberto, and Jeff discuss how much you need to know about programming in order to make continued progress. What did the coaches focus on when they first…
3D Muscle Journey#306: How Much Does Food Quality Matter?
Brad and Alberto discuss why it’s important to look beyond the calorie and macronutrient content of foods if you want to get the most out of your bodybuilding…
3D Muscle Journey#305: Periodization for Bodybuilders
Brian, Eric, and Brad discuss the misconceptions and utility behind using periodization to help maximize muscular hypertrophy. How important is periodization…
3D Muscle Journey#304: How to Build a Training Day
Jeff, Brian, and Brad go through how to build a training session (exercise selection, exercise order, number of sets, rep ranges, tempo, etc.) and clarify how…
3D Muscle Journey#303: Who Still Counts Macros?
Brian, Alberto, and Jeff discuss the pros and cons of, “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM), why it’s not the cure-all the fitness community wanted it to be, and…
3D Muscle Journey#302: Stress Management for Bodybuilders
Brad, Alberto, and Jeff discuss strategies they use to manage stress, and how they program for themselves and their athletes based on life stress at the time…
3D Muscle Journey#301: Our Biggest Bodybuilding Lessons of 2025
Brian, Alberto, Jeff, and Brad discuss what they learned in 2025, how so many different approaches work for hypertrophy, and the things people commonly miss in…
3D Muscle Journey#300: Q&A Session 30
Brad, Alberto, and Brian answer audience-supplied questions about pre-workout nutrition, rest periods, belt squats vs. barbell squats, muscle maturity, sleep…
3D Muscle Journey#299: How to Fast-Track Fat Loss
Jeff, Brian, and Brad share their opinions on and the times and places for aggressive fat-loss phases. If someone has a lot of fat to lose, can they be more…
3D Muscle Journey#298: What Does “Evidence-Based” Even Mean?
Brad, Alberto, Jeff, and Brian discuss different types of evidence, where to get them, how to use them, and the problem with relying too much on one type of…
3D Muscle Journey#297: Verbal and Mental Cues for Lifting
Alberto, Brad, Brian, and Jeff discuss their all-time favorite lifting cues, how and why they prioritize getting a good stimulus over beating the logbook, and…
3D Muscle Journey#296: How Much Consistency Is Required for Progress?
Jeff, Brian, Alberto, and Brad discuss the underrated and underleveraged role of consistency in the achievement of one’s strength and physique goals. What…
3D Muscle Journey#295: Why Do You Stay Natural?
Alberto, Jeff, and Brian share why they have chosen to stay natural, why they are glad they have, and give advice to younger lifters who are considering using…
3D Muscle Journey#294: The Biggest Mistakes Among Intermediate Bodybuilders
Jeff, Alberto, Brian, and Brad share their wisdom, experiences, traps they’ve fallen for, and common present-day obstacles to help you get the most out of your…
3D Muscle Journey#293: When to Bulk, Cut, or Maintain
Alberto, Jeff, Brad, and Brian go through a variety of scenarios discussing what they recommend doing in each one. How beneficial are aggressive bulks? What…
3D Muscle Journey#292: Competition Day Coaching
Brian, Jeff, and Brad discuss what to do the night before and day of your bodybuilding competition to help ensure you look and feel your best onstage. What is…
3D Muscle Journey#291: Optimizing Your Off-Season
Brian, Jeff, Alberto, and Brad discuss how to set up your off-season plan so that you can have the most productive off-season possible. Is it normal to feel…
3D Muscle Journey#290: Q&A Session 29
Alberto, Brad, and Brian answer audience-supplied questions about using straps vs. a mixed grip, starting a diet more aggressively vs. more conservatively…
3D Muscle Journey#289: How to Beat Cravings, Hunger, and Lethargy
Brad, Jeff, Alberto, and Brian discuss how to successfully manage your appetite during prep, strategies to lower hunger, how to prevent binges, and what to do…
3D Muscle Journey#288: Bodybuilding With a Social Life
The happier you are, the better off your bodybuilding is going to be. Brian, Brad, Jeff, and Alberto discuss how to balance bodybuilding with the rest of your…
3D Muscle Journey#287: Intuitively Tracking Your Training
Alberto, Brian, Brad, and Jeff discuss why it’s important to track your training, who should track their training, and what details to track based on your…
3D Muscle Journey#286: The Ideal Pace for Fat Loss
Brian, Alberto, Jeff, and Brad discuss how fast someone should be losing weight based on their goals. Why is it important to pay attention to how you feel and…
3D Muscle Journey#285: The True Cost of Contest Prep
Alberto, Jeff, Brad, and Brian discuss all the costs (financial, time, health, etc.) to consider when planning a contest prep. What are the financial costs…
3D Muscle Journey#284: How To Build Your Back
Eric, Brad, and Alberto discuss programming and exercise technique strategies to make your back training more effective. Why does training your back require a…
3D Muscle Journey#283: Is Your Obsession With Clean Eating Holding You Back?
Alberto, Steve, and Brian discuss what orthorexic behaviors can look like in bodybuilders and how these behaviors can lead to suboptimal progress and a reduced…
3D Muscle Journey#282: The Importance Of Mind Muscle Connection
Eric, Jeff, and Brian discuss the intersection between effort, mind muscle connection, and biomechanics to give you more flexibility in your technique…
3D Muscle Journey#281: You Need Better Progress Pics
Brian, Alberto, and Brad discuss the importance of progress pictures, how to take them, how often to take them, and explain the difference between social media…
3D Muscle Journey#280: Q&A Session 28
Brian and Jeff answer audience-supplied questions about recovery, refeeds, periodization, food focus, exercise selection, posing, and more. Is it okay to train…
3D Muscle Journey#279: Post Competition Assessments
Eric, Alberto, and Jeff discuss how they review an athlete’s season with the athlete to help them process their emotions, see their achievements, develop a…
3D Muscle Journey#278: The Art Of Fatigue Management
Brad, Jeff, and Brian discuss the unavoidable side effect of generating fatigue, the current fear of doing too much that is causing some athletes to miss out…
3D Muscle Journey#277: Stretching For Hypertrophy & Performance
The big question…Is long-duration static stretching redundant if someone is already resistance training or does it provide complementary effects? Nick, Eric…
3D Muscle Journey#276: How To Travel & Keep Your Gains
Jeff, Alberto, and Brian share how they eat and train when traveling, both during prep and in the offseason. The coaches also go over the importance of…
3D Muscle Journey#275: Why You Should Gamify Your Gains
Brian, Alberto, and Brad discuss the benefits of making your training fun and a bunch of different things they do to keep themselves and their athletes excited…
3D Muscle Journey#274: Gut Health & Fat Loss
Eric and Steve discuss how our food choices affect our weight, digestive system, and how we feel. They also go through dietary changes you can make to help…
3D Muscle Journey#273: Are You Progressing?
Alberto, Eric, and Jeff discuss how to know if you are progressing at a good rate for your genetics and where you are at in your lifting career, what to do if…
3D Muscle Journey#272: Tackling The Mental Isolation of Bodybuilding
Brad, Jeff, and Brian talk about times they felt and still feel isolated and misunderstood during their bodybuilding journeys. Along with sharing stories from…
3D Muscle Journey#271: How We Train Arms & Delts
Brian, Nick, and Brad discuss how to grow your arms and delts while keeping your joints pain-free and healthy. How have the coaches’ views changed when it…
3D Muscle Journey#270: Q&A Session 27
Andrea, Brian, and Alberto host an audience-supplied Q&A session. Topics range from programming, to lifting equipment, dietary strategies when trying to put on…
3D Muscle Journey#269: Train & Diet For Your Competitive Division
Brian and Alberto share their thoughts on and benefits of the newer divisions that have come into the sport of bodybuilding in recent years. The coaches give…
3D Muscle Journey#268: Rest Periods, Rest Days, and Double Days
Brad, Eric, and Jeff discuss different strategies you can use to help you find the sweet spot between time efficiency and stimulus efficiency for your…
3D Muscle Journey#267: Cardio Programming For Physique Sport
Brad, Jeff, and Brian discuss when, how, and why they program cardio for themselves and their athletes. How do the coaches view and prescribe cardio during a…
3D Muscle Journey#266: How Much Does Genetics Matter?
Brad and Jeff discuss the physical and mental characteristics of a successful bodybuilder, how to maximize *your* potential, and the amazing things that happen…
3D Muscle Journey#265: How & When To Adjust Your Diet
Brian, Steve, and Alberto discuss when and what criteria need to be met to make a dietary adjustment. When do the coaches adjust an athlete/client’s plan and…
3D Muscle Journey#264: The Best Male Bodybuilder Of All Time?
Alberto, Brian, and Eric have a spirited debate about who they each think are the top 5 natural male bodybuilders of all time. The coaches talk about the early…
3D Muscle Journey#263: Why Is Gaining So Hard?
Alberto, Jeff, and Nick discuss the struggles with gaining weight in the offseason, finding your ideal rate of gain, identifying what your current rate of…
3D Muscle Journey#262: Is Powerbuilding A Compromise?
Eric, Brad, and Brian discuss methods dual athletes can use to maximize their competitiveness in both bodybuilding and powerlifting. These same methods can…
3D Muscle Journey#261: How To Act Right During Prep
Brad and Alberto go into detail about what to expect when prepping for a bodybuilding competition, the importance of having people you trust to give you honest…