Jeff Alberts on How to Get and Stay Fit at Any Age

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Hello there, this is Mike from Muscle for Life and I’m back with yet another episode of the podcast. And in this episode, I interview Jeff Alberts, who is an accomplished natural bodybuilder with about three decades of experience under his belt and two pro card wins, 16 class titles, 26 top three finishes, and he took first place in the 2014 IFPA Pro International.

And as you would expect from someone with so much bodybuilding experience, Jeff is also an accomplished bodybuilding coach. He’s been doing that for about five years now and he has worked with hundreds of athletes and he actually started the 3DMJ brand, which has now expanded to include four other coaches, including Andrea and Eric, who I also recently interviewed.

So as you’ll see in the interview, it’s always great to talk to someone like Jeff, who really [00:04:00] is a consummate professional who has a ton of experience working with all different types of people men and women, different ages, different circumstances, different genetics has really just seen everything and knows what he’s talking about.

And in this case, what we talk about are the major lessons that Jeff has learned about what changes as you get older in terms of gaining muscle and losing fat. Now, this is something that I get asked about all the time because many guys and gals think that if you’re over a certain age and you’re not already in great shape, somewhere in the forties seems to be the usual kind of cutoff that people have in their minds.

And, people think that you’re basically screwed. They think that you will not be able to build any muscle to speak of and that you’ll probably get hurt trying and that your metabolism is basically just on a downward spiral and it’s going to grind to a halt and you’re just going to be fat forever.

Now most of you probably know that aging isn’t that dramatic, physiologically speaking, things don’t change nearly as much as [00:05:00] you probably think. You can’t necessarily get away with as many shenanigans in your forties as you can in your twenties, but you absolutely can train hard and build your best body ever.

And that’s really what Jeff breaks down in this interview. We touch on many things ranging from how to know when you’re under recovered and how to recover faster. And those are very important points because that is the main thing that changes. You get older is your body’s ability to recover from your workouts diminishes.

We also talk about how exercise selection changes as you get older or how it probably should change or just will need to change in many cases how to periodize your training, how to deload and a lot more. And this is a good interview to listen to, regardless of your age too, because if you’re like me, your goal is first and foremost longevity.

Sure, we want to gain muscle and lose fat as quickly as possible. We want to look a certain way as soon as possible, but we also want to be doing this for the rest of our lives. And that mainly boils down to not getting [00:06:00] hurt and not getting burned out. And that’s really what this discussion is all about.

I hope I have whetted your appetite for it, and let’s get to it. Jeff, thanks for taking the time to do this. I, so you’re number three from 3DMJ, to first was Eric, and then Andrea, and now now the patriarch. 

Jeff Alberts: It’s a pleasure, but, man, Eric gets first dibs, man, I don’t know. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, no, he was great.

He was fun to talk to, which is, I’ve been a fan of his work for, I recommended, his books and his research and stuff. So it was cool to talk to him. 

Jeff Alberts: Oh yeah. He’s what, 12 years younger than me and I’ve been around a lot longer, but I’ve learned so much from him. That’s really helped this last leg of what I have left in this sport.

He’s a good dude. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Yeah. He was fun to talk to. All right. So let’s just give everybody a quick little preview of what we’re gonna be talking about, which is a subject that I’ve been asked quite a bit about. I get emailed on it pretty frequently. I even actually just recently sent out a survey, just asking people, how can [00:07:00] I, you would Do what I’m doing better.

What are some things that I haven’t covered extensively enough? And this area of longevity is one of them. So I guess there’s kind of two facets to it is there’s the longevity. So you have people that are maybe in their twenties and thirties that are looking forward saying, Hey, I want to be able to do this when I’m 40, 50, 60.

And then people that are 40, 50, 60, that either most cases they’re newer to it. And they are they usually are wondering. Is it too late? That’s their first. A lot of people asking that. And then people that know that it’s not too late wanting to know how do they reduce the risk of injury and how do they stay healthy.

And they figure they can’t go at it in the way maybe they did in college. Things are probably different now. And it’s good because I haven’t I’ve written a little bit about this and I actually spoke with Mark Rippetoe about it. I don’t know, maybe six months ago and he’s always fun to talk to, but he gets off on tangents.

So I think there was some. He’ll go, he’ll just start ranting on things, which I think it’s, I love talking to Mark. I think he’s hilarious, I was excited [00:08:00] to, to talk to you about this because I know this is what you live, not just personally, through your coaching who better to talk to than people that, you know, when you’re coaching competitive bodybuilders and these are guys that, and girls that are really taking this.

Whole the sport to its extreme. They’re they’re putting their bodies through a lot more than what the average person has to do So if you can help them do it, then you can definitely help the everyday person It just wants to you know, be in great shape for the rest of their lives, basically.

Yeah for sure 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah It’s the mentality I’ve had like early on versus now like early on let’s say in my 20s versus now in my mid 40s Yeah, the mentality and the approach Is a lot different and I think that plays a big role with longevity early on. I was a pretty intense Trainer like I came from the doreen yates mike mincer, which was basically, Low volume but taking everything to extreme failure and basically I was you know Running myself into the ground like literally every [00:09:00] workout every set every rep.

I mean I made sure that everything was And I got pretty lucky that I didn’t get any major injuries early on. So I feel lucky now, looking back in hindsight, that I made it through that. But I it out when I was 

Mike Matthews: younger. I’m not, I’m 32, but I, 10 years ago, I remember you say I used to go into the point of like mental failure.

Like it’s beyond physical. It’s where you mentally, you can’t even conceive of doing another pushup, let alone a bench press or something. 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah. Like when I’m talking to failure, like I would literally take like the positive reps, like I can’t do another rep. But then once I completed that last rep, then it was like a static hold.

So holding it as long as you possibly can until you’re just basically done. Yeah, and that’s how intense I was a lot of times now, when I talk about this subject usually like on instagram or the social media outlets you know always get some of the younger crowd that kind of like Looks at me like you’re soft or [00:10:00] you’re not hard enough and things like that It’s just I’ve learned to really train a lot more intelligent over the years So I can stay at the top of my game like I am now I’m still training at a high level still competing at a high level, you know into my mid 40s.

Mike Matthews: Yeah, so And so I guess that’s just a segue into some of the, some of the key lessons that you’ve learned. So how do things look now versus then, and what does that mean training smarter? Because it’s also just talking about that super high intensity kind of training. That’s something that I get asked.

Semi frequently about what do I think about that as a, viable, not just for bodybuilding, but for people, because I deal more with people, just everyday people that want to get in shape as opposed to, the competitive crowd, which you obviously specialize in. So how have things changed now?

And then looking even forward. So you’re looking forward for you for the next 20 years. What are you, what does that look like in terms of training and recovery and diet and, just the kind of questions that. People have that don’t [00:11:00] know. What are they, what is too much? What’s too little?

What should they be doing? 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah it’s hard to say ’cause there’s, it’s very individual, like what people can tolerate. The intensity levels and actually the amount of volume that you can handle, like we hear a lot, volume. That’s the key for progress and growth. But you have to be able to recover from it.

And what I’m noticing with myself, especially as of late, like the last year, I’m running into a little bit more aches and pains. And it’s getting harder to recover from workouts. So I’ve had to be a little bit more strategic as far as giving myself a little bit more recovery days. So now I’m like training, taking, training one day, taking the next day off just so I can recover.

Cause I was noticing was I was training a little too frequent and it just was like feeling beat up and run down. And how does 

Mike Matthews: that how, just to be specific, cause that’s something, again, that’s a point of like, how can, what does that look like for you? At what point were you like. No, this is not just me being soft.

This is me under recovering. [00:12:00] 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, because it, you’ll hear it there’s no such thing as overtraining. Exactly. There, there is. You can definitely get run down. Like, when you’re, when I start experiencing I’m just not motivated to go train or I’m in pain. Most of the day, like I’m just achy and, tight and I’m like, okay, I’m probably doing a little too much here and quite often, when I do work with, let’s say a new athlete, that comes in, they apply and, they have, we have a breakdown of, we ask how their training is, what their intensity levels, the volume and, what their setup is like probably, I would say a good 70, 80, 90 percent of the time I’m lowering down people’s volume and the first thing is fear.

It’s like insecurity and fear like, okay, if you’re taking away work, then I’m not going to progress. But often it’s like My poor ex wife, but basically it’s a story of like I was married for 20 years and I thought that was a good marriage I thought that’s what it was normal And it wasn’t until I actually got out of the marriage and I looked back in hindsight now that i’m Married for the second time [00:13:00] happiest i’ve ever been in my life.

I look back and go. Wow that first marriage Really wasn’t what it was supposed to be so sometimes removing somebody out of their current situation and putting them into a new situation It could come they could see things a lot more clear because they’re looking at it from the outside looking in Sure, so a lot of times we can make progress with glass But it’s just getting people to, accept or embrace that change.

Sometimes better is better, not more is better. Yeah. So for me personally, it was just like, I was doing too much and that can change, like I can go, train for a month training three days a week. And all of a sudden I’m recovered. I’m like, okay, I’m feeling really good now.

Okay. Now I could take this maybe for the next month. Let me see if I could add another training day in, or maybe add a set here, maybe a set there, maybe throw in a couple more exercises. So you tend to overreach a little bit and then you’re like, okay, it’s going to accumulate again. That fatigue is probably going to accumulate again at some point.

So I’m gonna have to back off. So it’s [00:14:00] basically periodizing your training. So just, picking your spots, when to push, picking your spots, when to back off. 

Mike Matthews: And would you say that’s, it’s, I hate to say like getting, listening to your body, quote unquote, but there’s something to be said for, getting a feel for your body and knowing, like you were saying, at what point can you push it in overreach and at what point, I know I’ve run into it in my training where I’m not exactly feeling like I’m up to it, but I feel like it.

I need to, because I haven’t in enough time, I feel like enough time has gone by where I haven’t really tried to push it. And and then it turns out I was right and everything just feels way heavier than it should be. And it just doesn’t really, it doesn’t really go well. But I think it, do you agree that it takes time?

It takes time training to get a sense of these things. I don’t know of any like formulaic Ooh, then you can do X number of weeks. You know what I mean? Yeah. 

Jeff Alberts: I don’t know. Yeah, I wish I could just give you some type of broad generalization but really it’s like you said it’s experience you start learning yourself as you go.

And I know when I work with athletes from the get [00:15:00] go, it’s yeah, I could set up this training program based off of their individual needs. And, when we write it up right there on the spot, in theory, it sounds great. You set up this plan, you’re like, okay, here’s the plan, but then you don’t really know.

How it’s gonna fold till they start executing right so usually you know a month two months go by you know then we have to reassess things you know what’s working well what’s not working well and then make the revisions to keep that person progressing and evolving and sometimes you know i’ve written programs where i’ve stripped the volume and we find out that you know they recover really well and it’s not enough so we have to actually add volume and there’s other times where i made the right call from the get go okay yeah this person’s progressing so well, on less, so it’s just a matter of setting things up and then you actually have to run it and assess and see how it goes and make revisions based on what you’re seeing. And I think, someone who’s just starting out, they’re really not going to understand how to make the right calls for themselves [00:16:00] in most cases.

And I think. That’s where coaching comes into play. I really don’t recommend people just run out and buy like 8 or 12 week weight training programs. It’s cause you’re just following something blindly. Whereas, if you get an 8 to 12 week program, but you have someone helping you and coaching you through it, then they can help you make the assessments and then make the adjustments.

Then you learn how to make those calls for yourself. Yeah, and then 

Mike Matthews: hopefully by the end of that time, you’re self sufficient to, to some 

Jeff Alberts: degree. Yeah, but getting back to it. Yeah, but getting back there’s just really no broad generalization how to in my opinion How to have people know how much volume how what’s what is enough what’s not enough right until they actually go through it 

Mike Matthews: right and to the point of Aging so what is the major thing then that changes as you get older because a lot of people again I mean I hear from guys and girls that think that it’s not they think that really once you get over, let’s say, 40 years old, your ability to gain muscle and [00:17:00] strength just plummets, and everything goes to shit, basically, is what they think, and that’s obviously not true.

Jeff Alberts: No I’ve made really good games. From the time I was like 38, when I was 38 years old, I competed in 2009. I was at 38, I weighed 160 on stage. A couple years later, I was 170. But it really, it had more to do with Not gaining muscle in the off season because at that age Yeah, you’re not going to gain 10 pounds of muscle as a natural lifter it was more about the way I dieted a lot more intelligent took a more conservative pace So I held on to a lot more muscle but yeah, as far as What i’m experiencing now on someone i’m forty five i think probably the last couple years this is more you the recovery is probably more something i’m dealing with noticing that the recovery is not as good so the aches and the pains are there they’re more prominent whereas like maybe in my early forties right around forty ish i still felt pretty well i could train hard and still recover decently well but [00:18:00] now it’s like i’m noticing it’s starting to slow down a little bit as far as recovery but the actual.

Performance. I’m still, gaining strength and it’s just dealing with these little tiny little aches and pains that prevents you from performing well. When you’re turning you to push hard. Yeah. So that’s the biggest challenge. And I think so now it’s like instead of thinking about okay, how ways can I can what ways can I progress other than Increasing let’s say the load.

It’s okay. Maybe I can do a higher rep range so we’re in higher rep range Obviously the load doesn’t have to be as high and you can still make good gains in higher rep ranges Sure. So it’s just one way to take some of the stress off the joints. I’ve done a little bit of BFR training too, for arms, blood flow restriction, 

Mike Matthews: just so for the people that are listening. Yeah, blood flow restriction. 

Jeff Alberts: Okay, yeah, so just basically, yeah, you don’t have to work with heavy loads. It’s again, it’s just taking the stress off your joints. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah rest pause can be good for that too, as I’m sure if you don’t want to, it’s different than [00:19:00] BFR, obviously, but some people are turned off by BFR just because it seems weird.

And 

Jeff Alberts: it’s, yeah, it can be like, see what’s that? Even for me, when I first saw it, I was like, I don’t need to do that. But that’s when I wasn’t feeling what I’m experiencing now. It’s okay, it’s getting a little bit harder to train now. So that it makes sense at times to do things like that.

Mike Matthews: Yeah, sure. And are there any other things that you’ve found just help you recover faster? Are you finding that you need more sleep or is that not, has that not changed? 

Jeff Alberts: I do notice that this with other athletes that I work with too is your stress levels plays a pretty big role as far as performance in the gym and recovery.

Like I know it’s like when I’m under a little bit more life stress that my performance, it tends to suffer a little bit And It’s just, I don’t recover as well. Obviously, higher stress levels are going to do that. Sure. So same thing with athletes I’ve worked with, a lot of times, if they have, let’s say, college exams or college student, their work got college exams coming up.

They got they’re working, part time, full time at the same [00:20:00] time. Maybe they’re girlfriend issues or whatever, boyfriend issues. That stuff plays a huge role. And. And training and all that. And yeah, I think keep trying to keep a, as much handle on stress is a good thing. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah.

Yeah. I’ve just trying to be listening. If you go to multiple life, you search for relax. I wrote an article a bit ago on just some simple evidence based, like some ways to lower cortisol levels, essentially to have some signs that aren’t just take weird supplements, but things that you can, good bedtime routines and good sleep hygiene and stuff like that.

I know a lot of people like meditation was never really my thing, but it seems to help some people. Yeah, 

Jeff Alberts: I’ve never meditated, but I definitely like when I can, I, cause I’m pretty aware I’m doing this for so long. I get, I’m pretty aware like when my stress levels outside the gym is pretty high that I know, okay, I need to probably tone things down in the gym.

Cause if you’re, your body’s under a lot of stress, both physical and mental. You’re more susceptible to injury. So I definitely make sure I’m aware [00:21:00] of like when my stress levels get high, that I tone like intensity down in the gym, or I take a day off here and there if I need it. And I think that’s a even when your stress levels aren’t that high, if you’re experiencing like some extra fatigue and all that, I’d never fear like taking a day off from the gym.

Mike Matthews: Yeah, no, that’s a good point. It’s something I even myself have had to force myself to learn just because it’s again okay fine. I’m 32, but I work a lot. I don’t sleep that much I don’t go crazy with my exercise, but I don’t feel like I’m particularly stressed But I’m sure my body is I feel like I push it and it’s different now than it was five years ago even just I feel five years ago.

Nothing was I had the same Type of lifestyle, but I could go real hard and heavy always in my training and I never noticed anything. It was just like, and now I’m starting to notice a little bit. So I’m, it’s been an interesting transition even for me where I’m like, I think I’m going to go even just the idea of I think I’m just going to work in [00:22:00] like the 10 to 12 rep range today because think I need to, or I think I’m going to, I think I’m just going to go four days this week. So I think for people listening there, you have it’s always, it’s good to want to push yourself, but it can be weird because then, like you were saying earlier, you can feel like, am I just being soft? Am I just being lazy?

Do I need to just shut up and do the work? 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah. Cause usually like the, I guess there’s two sides to the coin to this is I guess sometimes people actually talk themselves out of not going to the gym when they probably could go to the gym, right? So if you’re doing that too frequently, then obviously you’re not going to make too much progress doing that so you have to differentiate between if you’re just Mentally fatigued like I just don’t feel like doing it or if you’re actually really like physically and mentally fatigued.

There’s a difference. Struggling. Yeah. Yeah. Cause the one experience I can share is that three years ago I tore my calf and. I didn’t listen to my instincts. Basically, going into that workout, it was my first set of squats felt [00:23:00] terrible awful. And, I knew, I’m like, okay, I just don’t feel it today, I don’t feel off, but I’m like, I have, I’m like, okay, don’t be, don’t be soft.

Push yourself. So the ego got the better of me that day. No pain, no gain. 

So 

Jeff Alberts: I got through my squats, got through my leg curls and it felt, the whole workout just felt terrible and off. And then on my second set of calf raises, my calf just said, Nope. And it tore. So I just think, after going through that ordeal, and basically I was out of 11 weeks, that anytime I feel off in a workout, like if I get to the gym, I just feel off, I stop.

I just say, you know what? I’m just gonna go back home, like I have a home gym, so I just say, okay, I’m going back in the house, and I’ll just do this tomorrow, because I’m gonna be more rested, I’ll have more energy, and I’m probably gonna have a better performance. When I’m more rested so in a sense quote unquote, I’m going to get more volume in by performing well the next day So yeah that definitely taught me valuable lessons, especially so that’s the times I preach with a lot of younger guys Is that if you want to make it 30 [00:24:00] years like me, I mean You can’t do it.

You can’t just listen to your ego. Otherwise, you’re going to get busted up and you’re not going to make it. So that’s pretty, pretty key in my opinion, is to listen to those, your instincts that are really telling you if you can or can’t. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Yeah. No, I totally agree. What about warming up? Just in our, in emailing back and forth, I thought that was a good point and having a good warm up routine.

What’s your warm up routine like now? Did that change over time? Where, cause Yeah, the average like gym bro’s warm up is what? You just throw some weight on the bar and start going, right? 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, that’s basically what I do now, but it’s like gearing myself up to perform.

Let’s say for example, I start out. It’s a, it’s an upper body day. I’m doing bench press first. I’ll warm up with a bar on the bench, three or four sets of 20 with the bar Yeah, so I’m getting pretty warm, you know with that I don’t do like a lot of the the typical dynamic stretching and all that stuff It’s just yeah, whatever like if I’m squatting, okay, it’s gonna be bodyweight squats two to three sets of 20 to get really warm I might do a little bit of [00:25:00] goblet squats warming up and then I’ll do acclimation sets Which is basically just, working with a light load and then just gradually increasing the load but dropping the reps down So you don’t obviously burn yourself out.

Yes Yeah, getting yourself acclimated to a heavier load to the heavier load. So when you do your top sets your body’s ready to go Yeah, when I was in my 20s early 30s, it was just like you said, hey, bro Let’s get in there and just throw weight around. Yeah, so some people need more mobility work Prior some people not so much.

But yeah, we would definitely have a eric made it a good video on warming up So there might be where that working people find that but the 3dmj youtube channel. Yeah YouTube team 3dmj Okay, cool. Yeah It’s I can’t remember the video offhand the name of it We could probably get the link for you and shoot it over to you 

Mike Matthews: Okay, cool.

Yeah, I can post it in the description and people that are familiar with my stuff will be that’s exactly how I recommend They warm up. So a lot of people listening are already that’s [00:26:00] what they do is and that’s what I do is exactly the same approach. So once I started hitting the heavyweights, like I’m ready to go.

Jeff Alberts: Yeah. And even like jumping on a stationary bike, five, 10 minutes prior, just to get the body, get the temperature up, so you’re ready to go. Yeah. That, that works pretty well and obviously it’s not that impactful, so it doesn’t tire you out. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Yeah. I would say that I know it’s a good idea, but I generally don’t do that.

I usually just start with the weights. It’s one of those things where I had some people I’m like, just give it a try. If you like it and do it, like theoretically, it’s a good idea. Yeah. I’ll just drive to the gym with my heater on all, and then my bike is fine. 

Jeff Alberts: There you go. My, my garage in the summertime, it’s, it gets up, it’s a hundred degrees so yeah.

Where do you live? I live in Stockton, California. Oh, okay. Which is yeah, the Central Valley, so it gets pretty, pretty hot in the summer. Yeah, 

Mike Matthews: yeah. But you have the nice rest of the year climate. 

Jeff Alberts: [00:27:00] Yeah it’s cooling down now. It’s we’re about 80 today, so the gym is like maybe a few degrees cooler than that.

So that’s very nice. Nice. 

Mike Matthews: All right. So what about exercise selection? So what does that look like? As time goes on? 

Jeff Alberts: That, that could be, that can go for young or old. It’s basically the way I see exercise selection. You want to use exercises that are safe for you, that are comfortable.

And you enjoy, I think those three things is pretty key. Cause obviously, let’s say you’re just not built for squats, then to force your body to squat when it creates pain or discomfort, or it doesn’t feel good and it’s obviously, it’s not going to be enjoyable like that. You’re gonna end up getting injured or you’re just going to be like.

Yeah. It’s, it’s just not going to be a lift that’s going to go too well for you. So for me personally, for athletes I work with that’s huge. Like I try to find exercises that are going to be safe, fun, but also effective. So it’s going to give you the most bang for your buck, 

Mike Matthews: and do you normally start [00:28:00] with okay, I would like you to be able to do these, here’s coming your, here are your foundation lifts. Sure. And it would be nice if you could do these. If you can’t, we can work around it, 

Jeff Alberts: yeah, the compounds, the basically the bench squat deadlift, a row, an overhead press, the core movements and then build around that.

But that’s not to say that, you can’t progress using alternative exercises. Sure. So if you can’t squat, leg press, hack squats, then things like that. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, front squats even. 

Jeff Alberts: But yeah, that’s one of the main questions I’ll ask somebody before I start working with them is, any aches, pains, injuries, figure out what they can or can’t do.

And then from there, it’s what do they actually enjoy doing? Because chances are, if you give them something, I know for myself personally, if I do exercises I know I like, I’m gonna stick with it. Absolutely. It’s similar with 

Mike Matthews: dieting, right? That’s like the little, the old adage, the best diet is one you can stick to.

That’s true to a point. I think it’s, it applies to training too. I’ve said that many times where if you, okay, let’s just say that this were [00:29:00] scientifically on our, there’s no question that this is the best way to train, to maximize muscle growth, but you hate it. That’s a bad program for you. 

Jeff Alberts: Oh yeah.

I’d say probably you might follow it for a couple of weeks, maybe a month and you’re like, screw this. And then it goes to something else. I could look at my last contest prep a couple years back, and on paper, if someone looked at my spreadsheet, they’d be like, there is no way this dude got in that shape following this, because it’s just, in science eyes, it’s not the most optimal.

But it was optimal for me because basically I’m a veteran. I’ve been doing this forever. So everything that I did was based off of past history. So sure. Yeah. I’ll look at science and I’ll go, okay, this makes sense. This is optimal. Can we apply this to this person? If we can, and it works, great. If not, then we need to find something else that’s going to get the job done.

But yeah, adherence and sustainability, it comes down to enjoyability too. 

Mike Matthews: Totally. Especially when you’re talking [00:30:00] longevity, because if you want to make it a lifestyle, it’s hard to force yourself to do something that every day you just really don’t want to 

Jeff Alberts: do. 

Mike Matthews: Exactly. 

Jeff Alberts: You’re going to be like, I ain’t going to do this.

Yeah. Even like right now I’m contest prepping and I just wasn’t having too much fun. Part of it was the aches and pains I’m dealing with. But the other part was like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. Trying to do better than the last time or try to, climb certain status.

I’m like, wait a second, I’m putting too much pressure on myself. I’m not enjoying it right now. So I did a lot of soul searching in the last couple of weeks. I’m like, I just need to get back to having fun again. And yeah, it’s just totally changed my mindset. And I’m like, okay, now this, actually this week I’m starting to have fun again.

Doing it. I’m like, okay, this is actually good again. I’ve heard a lot of 

Mike Matthews: professional athletes talk about that kind of thing, actually. I don’t follow much sports, but I’m into golf. So that’s actually like where I’ve heard from quite a few golf just talk to your professional golfers that ran into that problem where they just were getting burned out on it and not having fun anymore because they’re putting so [00:31:00] much pressure on themselves and performance and then, winning and trying to do this or do that.

And then coming back around to what you’re saying where it was a relief for them. I can think of a couple that made comments along those lines to just be able to have fun again, to actually just be able to go out and play the game and enjoy it. Like when they were younger. 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, I think you could relate it to just like maybe people that you.

That follow you. It’s even though it’s maybe, let’s say, not a high level competitive athlete, it’s still, you they tend to put pressure on, okay, I need to lose weight, or, I’m trying to change my body composition, or whatever, and you put a lot of pressure on yourself to make that progress, and when you don’t If you put that pressure on it, what’s that do?

It elevates your stress levels. Yeah. And when your stress levels are elevated, that’s when progress is harder to come by because your body’s not in the ideal environment to make progress. So that’s what I was experiencing as of late, like putting just way too pressure on myself trying to better my previous season where I did quite well.

I’m like, [00:32:00] why am I putting so much pressure on myself? Just making this a miserable process. Yeah, so yeah, it’s just like I let go of that and I go, you know what? Let me just focus on the process itself. Enjoy it and just let the progress follow I think anytime we try to force progress to happen again, the stress levels go way up so I think that’s it’s huge to keep you know, the mindset needs to be a good one a calm one Yeah.

That makes sense. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Totally. So what about exercise form? That’s obviously also one of those things that when you see a lot of younger people just it goes by the boards or it’s just, you get that weight, however, you get that deadlift. However it gets, I don’t care what happened. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 

Jeff Alberts: I think it’s pretty important, obviously, if you’re not doing an exercise correctly, especially a deadlift or a squat.

You’re more susceptible to injury. And you got two camps. You have one who’s okay, form Nazis where they’re just like, okay, everything has to look super, super perfect. 

Yeah, 

Jeff Alberts: and then you have other people say, [00:33:00] no, it’s okay to be a little bit loose. I think, you can be a little bit loose, but as long as everything looks mechanically sound, I think if you’re heaving, obviously if you’re, your deadlift form is totally off, you’re gonna get injured, but if you’re pretty, pretty sound, that’s, in my opinion, that’s your insurance policy for, to prevent injuries and for longevity.

I think for me personally, I’m more on the side of, Like a form nazi like I try to keep everything pretty pristine So i’ll never sacrifice load for you know perform at all like priority for me and with athletes. I always encourage them like Priority is form overload at all times anytime your form starts to break down at all like you start using a lot of momentum or you change in body english It’s too heavy just lower down Clean it up and then go from there.

A lot of times if you, it might seem like you’re taking a step back because you’re lowering the loads down, but I like to call it timeless form. Meaning if you lower loads down, clean your form up, you make it timeless. Then [00:34:00] you’re going to be able to probably increase your loads higher over time because you’re using prop.

Cause you’re only going to go so far, especially Delos or Square or something like that. You’re only going to go so far with crappy form. 

Mike Matthews: Yep. 

You’re just going to get stuck or you’re gonna get hurt. 

Jeff Alberts: Exactly. And I ran into that 

Mike Matthews: myself years ago when I finally first started like actually educating myself.

And so I had to, I remember on my squat, so I had gotten up to four Oh five with shitty, one third rep type nonsense. And it was years ago. And then I finally learned how to squat properly. I remember I had to go down to one. So I was doing like four or five bullshit reps for a few. And I had to go down to one.

I think it was one 90. No, I think it was like two Oh five for like sets of eight to 10 with proper form. I remember that I was humbled. Yeah. 

Jeff Alberts: That’s pretty key is being humble in the weight room. Because again, if your form is on lock, you’re going to prevent [00:35:00] probably many aches and pains and injuries.

But it’s hard to keep, I guess the older people, but the younger crowd, it’s like, they tend to want to chase those personal records, the one rep maxes, and sometimes I’ll see the form video or, watching them do it in the form, I’m like, cringing, going, oh my gosh. That’s an injury waiting to happen and that’s like how I was younger.

I’ll still I had pretty good form in my 20s I was I would get after it a lot more So when I was trying to do those one hour rams, the form would break down obviously, you know He was in heavy load like that. It’s gonna break. Yeah, but you didn’t give it up. You’re like whatever i’m now, so A 20 year old versus a 40 year old, obviously your body’s probably going to be a little more resilient when you’re younger, but I would say I just got lucky.

There was a few occasions where I’m like, okay, I just, I got lucky. Could have went the other way. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, and I think that speaks to the point of something you had mentioned earlier, which is patience. So common reason why just doing people I talk to why their form will it They’ll, it’ll slowly go out [00:36:00] is because they want to see that progress, especially if I’ve seen it with people that are newer to weightlifting.

And so they, they had a first year that went really well and they have their new begins and, especially if they start out with doing everything more or less, and then they’re now moving into year two and things are slowing down and they’re feeling impatient. So you can just cheat a little bit on form.

And then all of a sudden you’re still adding the weight as you were before. But, eventually, like you said, you pay the piper one way or another. 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah. You could get, you could definitely get injured like we talked about, but also too, I think form has, as far as development goals, like you could be shooting yourself in the foot as far as actual making good strides with your physique, if you’re, if your goals, let’s say, getting more muscle, especially with let’s say back movements. How many times have you seen people who don’t do a row correctly or don’t do a pull down correctly. You get those, the lows get way too heavy. You see a lot of momentum and swinging. You see a lot of the arms taken over and they wonder why they have big arms, but not no back.

So I think not just for, [00:37:00] health reasons and safety reasons, but also like as far as if you’re trying to improve your physique. You want to be, you want to make sure you’re doing things correctly. So you can maximize the targeted muscle. And you can be earlier. 

Mike Matthews: It’s quality. It’s the quality of the work matters, not just the sheer quantity of times you’re moving your limbs.

Jeff Alberts: Exactly. Yeah. And like you said early on, yeah, you might make these serious strides and gains, but over time. Especially, if you look at someone like me who’s been doing this for 30 years, that’s gonna slow down. And I’ve been, it’s 30 years consistent. So it hasn’t been like, okay, off and on.

It’s been consistent. So I know at this stage of the game, it’s like trying to gain muscle is going to be really slow or maybe non existent, so it’s, you’ve got to be super patient and realize that you have to train smart and intelligently. And you have to factor too is that like I look at it like it’s like a your body or your muscle That’s like a muscle account like a bank account.

So every rep you’re dealing it’s one penny deposited And I [00:38:00] think that’s a mentality I take and try to teach to other people is that you know Just you know each rep counts whether you’re having a great workout Or an average one or even a shitty workout. You’re still moving weight.

It’s still going to go towards your physique It’s going into your account And I think a lot of times people they get if they’re having a bad workout or like you said they get impatient They want to throw the weight on or do more than maybe they should be doing that It really isn’t going to make you grow probably that much faster.

If anything, you’re just more at risk 

Mike Matthews: I liken it to speeding. We’re like, you don’t really get anywhere that much faster by, by speeding, but you just increase. No, you hit the 

Jeff Alberts: red light, man. The guy who’s going 25 in the 25 zone catches up. 

Mike Matthews: Exactly. But all you do is increase the likelihood that you’re going to get a ticket.

That’s all you’re really accomplishing. 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, it’s yeah, because you get to the red light, you see the guy there, the light turns red and they’re frustrated, they’re banging on the steering wheel, they’re, like this, and then the guy that comes next to him drives up with a little [00:39:00] cup of coffee and he’s that I’ll see you at the next light.

Patience, have some poise and not only you’re going to progress just fine, but you’re probably going to progress a lot longer than the guy that’s speeding. And you’ll enjoy it more because you’re more in control and in command of yourself. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good point. Random question that I just, this is something I’ve been meaning to ask someone that would have some good insight on it.

So is there something to be said for muscle density changing over time? Where is there anything too, this is something I’ve actually tried to read about, I’ve tried to educate myself on and I have never really been able to come up with anything. 

Jeff Alberts: We’re talking about muscle maturity.

Yeah. Yeah, I don’t, I think this question has been posed even like Eric the science guy and it’s yeah. We do know that the skin thins a little bit as we age. I think that probably has maybe a little bit to do with it, but a lot of it too is just, Training age like I’ve been trained 30 [00:40:00] years.

So yeah, the muscle is just going to be more developed Let’s just say for example, there’s a 25 year old who’s trained five years They’re six percent body fat. They have the same amount of muscle as I do And i’ve been training 30 years and we’re the same level. We’re six percent I’m, probably going to look leaner even though i’m not Yeah.

On paper. Yeah. Just cause of that training age, that density. And it’s like you said, it’s hard to explain. I don’t really, I can’t really give you like a scientific answer of why that is. 

Yeah. 

Jeff Alberts: But I can tell, like I can look at older guys, especially in, in, in my field in natural bodybuilding, the elite level guys are usually.

Guys in their 30s and 40s and even into their 50s, you don’t there are a few There’s some exceptions where there’s some 20 year olds that are like a really high level at the top of the sport But the majorio brian whitaker, he’s 40 years old. He’s the world champion doug miller.

He’s in his I think mid 30s somewhere in there marshall johnson is another one Who’s 55 56 years old? one of the best natural [00:41:00] viabilities on the planet and these guys just look Denser and harder than the younger guys, and I just think it’s just because there’s just more time under tension more training time 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, that’s the basic.

I chalk it up to just I mean get something that seems to be An actual phenomenon. I just never had a good explanation for it because that’s one of the things people ask about I’m like, I wish I had a good answer But it seems like I can just tell you that when you have 10 years of training under your belt You’re gonna look better than when you have to I just that’s 

Jeff Alberts: and What’s what’s interesting to throw out there, maybe help cure some insecurities, is that I could look back at, like when I was in my early to mid thirties, compare it to what I’m looking like now, and the body, like the stage weight, body weight, it hasn’t changed that drastically.

Besides the 2009 to 2011, but each season I’ve done it’s I’m like right around 170 pounds, but I look a little bit bigger, a little bit leaner and denser, and really the body weight staying the [00:42:00] same. So it’s like sometimes you can’t. You can’t quantify progress with numbers, and I think a lot of people are number chasers and if you’re going to be in the sport for, if you plan to have a lot of longevity, whether it’s actual in sport or just trying to change your physique in general, sometimes it’s just, you gotta go by the visual.

Measurements the scale, that’s, that, you can use it as tools, but sometimes you just don’t quantify things. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, ultimately, I, what in the mirror is, matters more than what the scale says and what You could be 10%, 

Jeff Alberts: you could say, my goal is to get 10 percent body fat at this, I want to be this weight, 10 percent body fat.

You get there, and then you look in the mirror and go I still don’t like the way I look. Those numbers mean absolutely nothing. 

Mike Matthews: Absolutely. I totally agree. It’s also, especially when you’re talking body fat percentage, because no matter how you measure it, you have individual error rates that are, it can be anywhere from two to five percent.

Even DEXA can be off. Every, the only way you could ever really know would be to like get [00:43:00] dissected. 

Jeff Alberts: Exactly. So yeah, that the mirror never lies. 

Mike Matthews: Yep. All right. So one last point I want to touch on something you had mentioned, which is periodizing your training. So how do you obviously this is, can be a pretty complex subject, but just keep, summarizing how what is working well for you now versus maybe where maybe previously, maybe 15 years ago, you never really bothered with it and you just went, balls to the wall all the time or whatever.

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, basically I was going balls of all the time, like back in the day. That was just. No de loads or no light training weeks or anything like that. Now it’s hard to game plan my training because I have to work around little aches and pains quite often. But see the difference with me is I have a lot of experience so I can definitely manage myself day to day easier now than obviously when I had less experience.

So it’s more so like the athletes I work with, it just depends on what the goal is. If you were getting ready for a show, then basically it’s okay, I’m going [00:44:00] to have set up blocks of training where we’re deloading maybe every fourth week, every eighth week, seventh week, sixth week, just depends.

And basically paying closer attention to volume and the recovery. Because obviously when you’re dieting for a show or dieting your calories are lower So your recovery isn’t going to be as good as it was probably when your calories are higher obviously, 

right? 

Jeff Alberts: So so that’s one way you have to periodize that there’s periodize periodization for like obviously a contest prepper, but someone in general where you’re not really trying to Lean them down, like the calories are there to support the training.

Then you might be setting up blocks of training, like an intensity block where you’re going pretty hard. Okay, we’re gonna, we’re gonna tone that down. Have a recovery block. Maybe we’ll have another block where we go towards volume. So instead of focusing more so on loads, now we’re gonna try to increase volume versus, reps and sets.

There’s just different ways to do it. Like I said, we can, we could probably break this down for a good Couple hours sure sense, but in a nutshell It’s like you’re [00:45:00] just game planning when you’re pushing and when you’re backing off Because if you’re just like you said you’re just going pushing Eventually, there’s gonna be a breaking point, right?

And I think as far as long term progress and long term like longevity I think periodization is definitely the way to go 

Mike Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. And so we did just for, to, to throw a rule of thumb out there, I guess it comes back to what you were saying earlier in the interview, which is listening to your body in a sense and knowing when it’s time to dial it back.

And for example, what does a deload look like for you? 

Jeff Alberts: A deload for me would basically, it would be like, okay, let me, like personally, the way I like to do it for myself, I just lower some of the volume down, like I’ll try to keep the load, loads up, I just lower the volume down, because what I’ve experienced with myself is if I lower the loads down, let’s say for a week, the following week when I try to go back to, push the loads up, it’s like, everything feels really heavy.

It feels like a ton of bricks and it usually takes me two or three weeks to get myself [00:46:00] back Whereas if I just tone the volume down I get the recovery I need but I still i’m still capable of Maintaining my loads the following week. Yeah, that’s funny 

Mike Matthews: But you’ve probably run how you’ve probably worked with people that are they have no same I’ve heard, I’ve seen, I’ve heard from many people that, because I talk about some people depending on how you’re feeling, so every once in a while, I just did this last week, actually, I just do no exercise for a week.

I’ll do it once every six months or so. And yeah, it just feels good. And, but I’ll email with people that will do that every couple months and they’ll come back stronger. I’m like whatever. Good for you. 

Jeff Alberts: That’s another part of the periodization, like you could throw in like transitional blocks.

Yeah, whether it’s a week long or a month long where you just swap out exercises to give yourself that break, like if, if you’ve been deadlifting regularly for months, going away from the deadlift and doing like maybe an RDL or something different can help. Yep. So yeah, that’s definitely one way of deloading.

Yeah I think yeah, what’s common though is like you said like most [00:47:00] people majority a lot I don’t say most or majority, but quite a few that I’ve worked with that lowering the loads down It’s usually like the wrong move, but like just lowering some bowling down tends to do the trick Yeah, and a D load could even be days off too.

Let’s not forget that like a D load could be like Okay, you take a few days off the gym or even a week You know every six months you might okay, let’s take a week off from the gym there’s nothing wrong with that either because if you think about it if you’re gonna be in this we’re talking longevity So if we’re gonna be you’re gonna be in this for the long haul 30 years Let’s say you take a week off once a year or twice a year.

I mean if that’s like a drop in the bucket 

Yeah. 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah. And so people freak out when they take time off of the week from the gym. It’s oh gosh I’m getting a shrink. I’m gonna lose my maybe but it’s not like it’s not gonna come back 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. Especially you can’t lose any muscle in a week. He takes longer than that.

Yeah, absolutely. I think just off the detraining research, I read, I think it’s like at about three weeks of no exercise, maybe you can start seeing some drop off, but [00:48:00] yeah, a week you’d have to eat like nothing. You have to like, start like, yeah, maybe if you fasted for seven days and did no exercise.

Jeff Alberts: That’s very unlikely, yeah. But yeah, the atrophy takes a little bit longer than people think. Yeah. You might see flatness there’s a difference between flatness and actual real muscle loss. You’ll probably see flatness, but muscle loss, eh, maybe some strength loss, maybe. Yeah. But like a week or two later, you’re like, okay, 

Mike Matthews: I’m fine.

Yeah, exactly. Awesome. I think that’s again, the periodization is, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, Try to dive too heavily into that but I just wanted to touch on it so people can You know, they can also find a lot of good information on the internet On that. I don’t know if you have stuff on your channel if they can check out but i’ve written a little bit about it 

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, I think about the youtube, team 3d and j they look at the muscle and strength pyramids that eric elms did he did one on training.

It’s an awesome series. So there’s, right there, it’s like, it gives you the outline formula to weight training. Perfect. 

Mike Matthews: All right. I think we have touched on [00:49:00] everything. Is there anything else that is sticking out that we don’t think that, that we should talk about before wrapping up?

Jeff Alberts: No, I think we did a pretty good job of covering quite a few subjects in a short amount of time. I definitely don’t want to go catabolic. 

Mike Matthews: Yeah. I need to get a protein shake that’s been like 30 minutes no, that’s great. So then where can people find you and, in terms of your, is there as a coach, if they wanted to talk to you about that let them know how can they get in touch with you.

Jeff Alberts: Yeah, 3dmusclejourney. com. We have coaching services there. You can go to Instagram 3d, 3dmjgodfather and then Jeff Alberts on Facebook. And then I also have a series on our YouTube channel, which kind of just follows right now I’m prepping. So it just just follows, 

Mike Matthews: awesome. And I’ll put all the links in the, in the blog posts and in the description so everybody can find it easily.

Cool. Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Thanks a lot for taking the time, Jeff. This is great. I think people are going to like it. I [00:50:00] think they’re going to find it very helpful because again, these are all just things that I’ve been asked many times. So it was nice to just give you the questions and let you explain.

Perfect. All right, man. Hopefully it helps. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, it’s Mike again. Hope you liked the podcast. If you did go ahead and subscribe. I put out new episodes every week or two where I talk about all kinds of things related to health and fitness and general wellness. Also head over to my website at www dot muscle for life.

com. where you’ll find not only past episodes of the podcast, but you’ll also find a bunch of different articles that I’ve written. I release a new one almost every day. Actually I release four to six new articles a week. And you can also find my books and everything else that I’m involved in over at muscle for life.

com. All right. Thanks again. Bye.