John first started lifting in middle school. His parents had a two-story workshop and he had a bench and dumbbells on the second story, which also had no lighting. It was dark and John was alone and doing something he loved. He would see all those old black and white Animal Ads and just thrive on living out the hardcore journey. In school he couldn’t satisfy his knowledge on training or nutrition. He had to read everything and know how the body worked; John is a bit of a muscle nerd. This led John to get his Bachelors in Exercise Science and Masters in Nutrition, becoming a Registered Dietitian.
Now as an IFBB pro he has worked his way up the ranks now being a top 5 Olympia competitor. When he first started, he set his goal too low and didn’t see the potential in himself. So, set that goal high and make sure everyone thinks you are crazy, then you know your goal is right.
Accolades World Champion in powerlifting, 2005-2010, broke 12 world records, 706lb bench press 2014 NPC Branch Warren Classic, 1st place Light Heavy Weight 2015 NPC USA Championship, 6th place Middle Weight 2016 NPC Dallas Europa, 1st place Heavy Weight and Overall winner 2016 NPC USA Championship, 1st place Heavy Weight (IFBB Pro Card obtained) 2016 IFBB Phoenix Europa, 5th place 212 Pro 2018 IFBB New York Pro, 7th place 212 Pro 2018 IFBB Dallas Europa, 5th place 212 Pro 2019 IFBB Chicago Pro, 3rd Place 212 Pro 2019 IFBB Tampa Pro, 1st Place 212 Pro, Olympia Qualified 2019 IFBB 212 Olympia Championship, 4th place
As the gyms begin to open and we head back in, there are some precautions people should take if they have only been doing bodyweight exercises or haven't been doing anything at all. John Jewett explains how to properly reintegrate into the gym scene.
Stop doing cardio and you will never lose your gains—this answer seems like the obvious one, right? It’s commonly thought that in concurrent training—the combined training of aerobic and resistance training—endurance training creates some interference that can limit hypertrophy signaling. As a result, bodybuilders all around have been trying to limit cardio to prevent muscle gains from slipping away, but if implemented correctly, cardio won't steal your gains. From a bodybuilding standpoint, cardio must happen sometimes to create the energy deficit possible to get stage lean. From an off-season perspective, there is some merit to continuing cardio for general health reasons, such as aiding sleep and stress management, and allowing those squats to wear out your quads before wearing out your lungs. I am going to cover how to implement cardio with the least impact to strength and hypertrophy gains.
John, I am writing this to guide you in a very uncertain time in your life. As the decade older version of you, I have gained knowledge that will really help you move forward in exactly what you want to do. You just graduated with your bachelor’s. Well done! At the end of this degree you finally gained some confidence in your academic ability. Your collegiate powerlifting journey was a great feat as well and, now that it’s coming to an end, bodybuilding has piqued your interest. I know you have lots of questions about what to do for a career—should you continue your education and how can you become a bodybuilder? I am going to guide you through this.