Written by Kirsten Yovino | CPT Brookbush Institute
Fact checked by Tyler DiGiovanni, BSBM
FACT CHECKED
One glance at J'zotta Rolle’s Instagram account and you can’t help but feel inspired to hit the gym.
A trainer, fitness and health influencer, and owner of Fitgirlbomb, J'zotta has carved out a space for herself within the health and fitness industry, creating an IG page filled with motivational messages, useful tips for weight loss, dieting, and exercise, and workout plans.
J'zotta has a long health and fitness history, as before starting Fitgirlbomb, her website featuring helpful articles, tips, workout plans, and ebooks, she was a high school athlete, collegiate track star, and a former medalist bikini competitor, earning 2nd place at the 2018 NGA Ultimate Fitness Championships' Open Bikini division.
Her love of exercise transformed into a passion for providing clients with sound nutrition advice and workout programs to look and feel their best. She is a health and fitness expert with years of insight into building muscle, losing weight, and crafting the body of each of her client's dreams, and fortunately for us, J'zotta is more than willing to share her knowledge.
SET FOR SET sat down with J’zotta to get answers to our most pressing fitness questions, learning everything from her training secrets to her favorite lifts and the workout split she follows.
1. Can you share a health & fitness-related training philosophy, habit, or diet tip that you believe in and follow that you think most people would disagree with (but actually works)?
Staying 100% natural and working hard for your gains - hard like “blood, sweat and tears” type of gritty stuff.
When you work hard to achieve certain goals, whether weight loss, building muscle, a set physique (for competition) or a measurable athletic performance, you develop your character to not just seem, but actually be, the person you aspire to be, all while learning the techniques and skills necessary.
You will be proud of who you have become. But when you start cutting corners, you might “achieve” your goal, but you never develop to be that person, and you might try to convince everybody that you did the work but everybody will know the truth and inside you will feel disappointed. Like taking certain performance enhancing substances or esthetic medical procedures.
Unfortunately, it’s an ever- growing self-destructing trend to find the quickest, easiest way to get results in something that is inherently hard, and this has led to a rise in steroid use amongst women in recent years who try to compete in bodybuilding.
2. Tell us something interesting about yourself most people don’t know.
People think that I’m blessed with genetics when they look at my body. But most of them still don’t know that I used to be skinny. The body you see now took years of hard work including training as an accomplished Division 1 college track athlete and later insane weightlifting sessions with my husband who prepped me for a natural bodybuilding competition in 3 months where I placed 2nd.
So no, it’s not genetics. It’s just time and the maximum effort that I learnt and developed through real athletic sports, where you cannot cheat your way to the top, you've got to earn it and the glory goes to the hardest worker by measurable performance.
That’s also why I don’t compete in bodybuilding anymore, it’s more like a beauty pageant not athleticism, respectfully.
3. If you could only pick 5 weightlifting exercises, what would they be and why?
It’s easy, the 4 basic compound movements + glute bridges. So:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Bench press
- Barbell row
- Glute bridges
All being compound movement means each works multiple muscle groups at one time, which is more time efficient, and you can lift heavier (greater mechanical overload) than when you do unilateral or accessory lifts. That translates to more calories burnt during workout, higher EPOC (– or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), greater anabolic response which in layman’s term more fat burnt, more muscle built, and greater strength increase in less time.
Of course, this is true given that your diet and all other component of your training program align with the above mentioned targets.
4. Do you lean toward bodyweight and calisthenic exercises, free weights, or a mixture?
I would say to keep a good balance and a healthy functional body a mixture.
But I’ll be honest I lean more toward free weights because I love lifting heavy and it’s just something that I’m used to by now. Therefore, free weights make up about 80-90% of my training, but I still spice it up here and there with some bodyweight exercises. I also used to like doing pullups a lot, but lately I neglected them. It might just be time again to put it back on my plan.
And of course, when it comes to bodyweight exercises, sometime as a choice of cardio I might switch to a no equipment HIIT routine instead of treadmills and Stairmasters.
5. What’s your favorite workout split? Is there any particular reason for it?
Pretty much an Upper-Lower split with an occasionally added light arms-shoulder day. Well, it’s simple. With an upper-lower split, I have the chance for higher volume per week specifically for my lower body. I need an extra glute focused day because every lady like to work on that peach and I’m no exception to this. Also the 3rd day can always be used for isolation work and accessory lifts that focus on weaknesses to make sure I do not develop imbalances.
Besides, I like to keep my back and chest for the same day, because I can’t work my back too much unless I’ll look like Shehulk. And the reason for the extra arms- shoulders day ever so often is that I like to keep these “guns” tight.
Honestly, this routine works for me the best with my current schedule, but it can change as my schedule shifts, or as my body or targets change. For a long time, I was doing PPL splits, and even had a phase when followed a carefully designed muscle group split.
There are no right or wrong splits (one just might be a bit more efficient than the other). It’s really about what works with your lifestyle, goals and your body, and it obviously needs to be properly designed.
6. What’s your go-to cardio workout?
I’m a former college track champion so I guess that explains that I’m a runner for life. I switch it up between slow steady and sprint intervals, inside (treadmill) and outdoor (trail jog and track workouts).
My other favorite is boxing (I’m a boxing coach as well), however in the last couple of weeks I did not get to do it as much, because I don’t have access to heavy bags close to my house. But as I mentioned above, I also like to sprinkle in a little HIIT time to time.
7. Between diet and exercise, if you could only pick one, which is it better to prioritize?
Well, that’s a tricky question because each one has a complex effect on multiple aspects of your health, other than just your body composition. While looking at general health and weight management diet definitely takes the top spot, because you cannot outwork a horrible diet and on the long run a bad diet can take a major toll on your health.
On the other hand, exercising with all its benefits in physical and mental wellbeing is top priority, especially when considering functional aging. So, my verdict is that you might get away with focusing on just diet and neglecting exercising while you are young, but as you get older absence of exercise will catch up to you fast.
Therefore, if I really need to pick one, I’ll go with exercise.
Because if I keep exercising regularly, I believe I still could manage every aspect of my health even while eating average and not too terrible.
8. Do you follow a certain diet? What tips do you have for someone who is trying to lose weight? What about ladies trying to gain muscle?
No, not really, at least in terms of one-fit-all quick fixes and fad diets. But I watch my caloric intake and macros that are calculated and regularly adjusted for my body. I generally try to keep a balanced and sustainable diet, meaning I don’t torture myself and if I want something like an ice cream. I know not to overdo it as well as how to fit it in and adjust my workout and the rest of my daily intake accordingly.
First and foremost, to lose weight you need to be in some level of caloric deficit, but there’s also a minimum you should eat every day. If you eat too little, that can also hinder weight loss because of the hormonal and metabolic changes that can happen. You need to hit your protein intake as well, to not lose muscle and that’s where resistance training comes in place too.
So, the best thing to do is get a meal plan designed by a professional for you, considering your body metrics, lifestyle, and goals (better yet use a caliper bodyfat test or dexa scan when making the plan if available). That will give you the best estimate for your caloric and macro needs.
Workout hard 3-5 times a week, for best results mainly weightlifting but include some cardio as well. I say this because a lot of people just start doing massive amounts of cardio exercises and going on an extreme diet, and while most cases they lose weight in the beginning, a good amount of that weight is usually lean muscle mass. In the long term, it is counterproductive.
Also, I might get some heat for this, but don’t believe any coach/nutritionist who tries to put you on a zero-carb or other extreme diet with zero sweets/treats, the same way not to trust when someone tells you, that you can drink unlimited amounts of zero sugar beverages.
A diet is only good and delivers results if it’s sustainable and considers healthy hormone levels.
And please do the work because those results will last. Lastly, try to stay away from the alcohol for the most part (again negative hormonal effect is the main reason, not strictly the empty calories).
For the ladies trying to gain muscle, just make sure you eat enough, and don’t shy away from weightlifting (proper plans for both needed). So go ahead and pick up some heavy weights and give the fuel for your body. While gaining muscle (so called bulking) don’t be afraid of gaining a little bit of fat, that’s normal, since targeting macros and calories 100% precisely is extremely difficult if not impossible.
And please ladies don’t fall for the lies. Remarkable muscle gains in relative short time (while also having a six-pack) is lab-made no matter what they say. Follow a person like that and most likely you’ll be offered the same not-so-ethical supplements they took to get the results.
9. What's one piece of lifting advice you'd give to someone just getting started?
If possible, get a qualified, knowledgeable, and caring coach. (This can be really hard these days in the ocean of money-chasing, unqualified individuals and corner cutters). If that’s not an option, get a good plan. First master the proper techniques and build a solid foundation. From there just be patient and push yourself hard, but always keep safety a priority.
Stick to free-weights, lift heavy on compound exercises (use progressive overload), incorporate accessory lifts and isolation (that’s where you can really utilize metabolic overload) to make sure your muscles develop equally.
Only use the well-researched and ethically passable OTC supplements, such as protein, BCAAs, creatine, some pre-work if needed and daily greens mix if you are slacking on your veggie/fruit intake.
Anything else is either unnecessary or morally questionable. Important, have your vitamins daily, try to minimize stress, and get a restful sleep every night.
10. Where can the SFS community go to learn more about you?
It’s kind of a secret yet but I’m getting ready to launch my apparel and supplement line very soon, so stay tuned. It just takes a lot of research and development, since I try to only give the best for my audience and customers.
Also, I’m ready and launching 2 new ebooks in the upcoming weeks. One is specifically for the ladies about syncing fitness to their cycle called: FlowFit: Mastering Your Workouts Through Your Cycle.
It's available on Amazon, go grab a copy.
For more tips, nutrition and training advice, Q&As, and workout routines, head to J'zotta's website, Fitgirlbomb, and IG page.
Kirsten Yovino
Author