Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

This time I’m going to make a bit of a case for “clean eating” because I think it doesn’t deserve all the ridicule that it gets online, and especially among the “cool crowd” that love to showcase not only how good their bodies look but also how heinous their diets are. I don’t know about you, but if I had to choose between the diet of your average clean eater that thinks sugar makes you fat and gluten causes leaky gut and the diet of your average IIFYMer that doesn’t like to waste calories on nutritious foods like fruit and vegetables, I’ll take the former every time, and I’ll explain why in this episode. I’m also going to talk about a style of dieting that gives us the best of both worlds -- the quality of clean eating and the adaptability of flexible dieting -- something that I’ve dubbed “flexible clean eating.” I know, very creative of me. This style of dieting is perfect for improving not just your body composition but your health and vitality, as well. It also makes you a better intuitive eater and helps you develop a healthier relationship with food, which ultimately makes it easier to a lean, muscular physique without having to count and track everything that you eat. 4:10 - Why is the rejection of "clean eating" a bad idea? 4:54 - Is body composition an indicator of health? 5:50 - What does a smart flexible dieter's meal plan look like? 6:40 - What are the benefits of a nutritious diet? 7:54 - What's the problem with highly-processed food? 11:39 - How can you develop a healthy relationship with food? 12:48 - Are you better off with a "clean eating" style of dieting? 13:40 - What's the best way to eat? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is part of a weekly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: Every Monday morning, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’s one thing to know what you want to do, but it’s something else altogether to actually make yourself do it, and I hope that this series gives you a jolt of inspiration, energy, and encouragement to get at it. So, if you like what you hear, then make sure to check back every Monday morning for the latest and greatest installment. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

If you have entrepreneurial ambitions of any kind, then you need to read this book. It will teach you one of the most important lessons you can learn if you want to build and own a business, not just have another job: systematization. In other words, if you want to build a business that serves you and your lifestyle–instead of the other way around–then you need to learn how to make it dependent on systems and not people. This is especially true if you also want a business that can scale. And that’s the focus of this book. Want to be notified when my latest book recommendations go live?Hop on my email list and you’ll get each new installment delivered directly to your inbox. Click here:https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

In this podcast, I’m going solo to talk about ketogenic dieting because it’s getting more and more hype these days for losing fat, gaining muscle, and improving general health and well-being.The question, of course, is whether or not it can live up to its reputation, and as you’ll see, my current answer is no, it can’t. I’ve done quite a bit of research on it, and my take is that keto dieting makes sense for certain people under certain conditions, but these people are in the minority, and you’re probably not one of them.Here are a few of the things you’re going to learn in this episode...Why what commonly passes for “ketogenic dieting” in the fitness space isn’t true ketogenic dieting.Why the ketogenic diet can help you lose weight faster -- in the short term at least -- but probably can’t help you lose fat faster.Why the ketogenic diet isn’t optimal for gaining muscle and strength, and why a high-protein & high-carb diet is better.How the ketogenic diet can benefit your overall health and well-being.How to know whether the ketogenic diet is right for you or not.And more…3:17 - Why does fasting suppress epileptic seizures? 4:09 - What is the purpose of the ketogenic diet? 5:21 - How does the ketogenic diet work? 6:33 - Does keto help you lose weight faster than traditional dieting? 14:05 - Does keto help muscle building? 21:35 - What about studies showing that low-carb is better for gaining muscle and strength? 25:50 - Does keto dieting have health benefits? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

In this episode I interviewDr. Cate Shanahan, who’s an author, physician, and nutritional consultant for professional sports teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets.Cate has been studying the relationship between diet and health and wellbeing for a long time now and recently published a book on the matter called Deep Nutrition, and I wanted to get her on the show because of how many people in the fitness space have little regard for the nutritional quality of their diets.Thanks to the rising popularity of flexible dieting, more and more people are realizing that they can more or less eat like shit and still be lean and muscular, which is why you see the social mediaz full of such people boasting about how much crap they can “fit into their macros” while still having abs, as if it’s some sort of “lifehack” or dietary achievement.Well, what they’re failing to realize that our bodies need a lot more than just “macros” to function optimally and stay healthy and, ultimately, disease-free over the long-term. And I don’t know about you, but I’m more interested in making sure that Future Me is healthy and vital than pleasing Current Me with mountains of junk food delights.So, that’s the topic of the discussion that I had with Dr. Shanahan. In it, she shares quite a few insights on how our food choices affect our physical and mental health and performance for better or worse, including...The two biggest problems with most people’s diets.How eating a lot of vegetable oils and sugar screws up your metabolism (among other things).How you can use flexible dieting in a way that gives you the best of all worlds: a great physique, enjoyable meal plans, and outstanding long-term health and vitality.One simple dietary change everyone can make to immediately improve their health and possibly even body composition.And more...5:41 - What is the concept of deep nutrition?7:00 - How much do lifestyle choices contribute to diseases? Can you offset poor dietary choices with exercise?   9:26 - What are the effects of processed foods on your body? How does it affect your metabolism and energy?20:40 Can you manipulate your macros for maximum muscle gains?22:41 - What is epigenetics?33:09 - Does a high carb diet benefit training?43:51 - What are the common types of vegetable oils and why are they bad for you?47:41 - What are some common foods that are rich in vegetable oils?51:35 - What are some dietary changes people can start on today?57:12 - How can people connect with you and follow your work? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

If you’ve been kicking around gyms for a while now, you’ve probably noticed that steroid use is becoming more and more common.Just here in the U.S., at least a million guys and gals of all ages turn to the sauce every year to get bigger, leaner, and stronger faster, and these numbers only seem to be going up with time.This isn’t surprising, really, considering how many juiced guys and gals dominate the fitness social media scene, how much of a difference the right drugs can make, and how easy it is to get your hands on anabolics (you can buy ‘em on Amazon, FFS…).And so I’m asked about steroids. A lot. And so I thought I’d make a podcast to answer the questions that I get most, like…What do I think of people who take steroids?Why am I not on steroids when it could probably help me make more money?What are good and bad reasons to take steroids?How can you tell if someone is on steroids?How dangerous are steroids, really?5:02 - What do I think about people on steroids?6:27 - Are there good and bad reasons to take steroids?19:30 - Why am I not on steroids?Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

In this episode I have Mr. Eric Helms back on the show, as promised a bit ago, to talk about how to “bulk” properly. In other words, how to gain as much muscle and as little fat as possible.   In case you don’t know Eric, he’s a member of the3DMJ coaching team and is himself a professional natural bodybuilder and strength athlete, as well as anauthor and credentialed scientist with a number of peer-reviewed papers under his belt. 

I’ve referenced his work quite frequently in my own writing, so it’s a pleasure to interview him and pick his brain about the science of making gains. This time we’re talking about how to gain muscle quickly without just getting fat.   As you probably know, some fat gain is inevitable during a proper bulk, but most people make a handful of common mistakes that not only sabotage their efforts to gain muscle but set them up for a long, grueling post-bulk cut that, in many cases, more or less wipes out the progress they made.   The good news, though, is when you know what you’re doing, you can gain significant amounts of muscle without gaining large amounts of body fat, and it’s not as hard as many people think.   Eric breaks it all down in this interview, where he explains the big mistakes that many people make and then the simple science of making “lean gains.”   So if you want to know how to gain strength and size without packing on pounds of fat, you definitely need to listen to the interview. Here it is...5:34 - What are some of the common mistakes people do when trying to gain muscle and strength? 8:57 - Can you keep your body fat at a specific percentage and still gain muscle? 11:13 - What is your advice on mini bulk cycles? 17:05 - What are the common training mistakes when bulking? 25:40 - What is the proper diet and nutrition when bulking? 39:50 - What are the common diet mistakes when eating at restaurants? 46:00 - How do things change on the training side when bulking? 50:50 - Are there any differences in exercise selection when programming a cut verses a bulk? 1:00:46 - What supplements do you recommend for strength and muscle mass? 1:09:29 - How can people connect with you and find your work?Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

In this episode, I interviewDr. Layne Norton, who you’ve probably heard of, but in case you haven’t, he’s a professional powerlifter, bodybuilding coach, and host of his own podcast, Physique Science Radio, and really is at the forefront of the “evidence-based fitness” movement.I’vehad Layne on the podcast before to talk about contest prep, maximizing fat loss, reverse dieting, and a few other topics, and people loved the interview so I wanted to get him back on to talk about the bane of every weightlifter: injuries.Now, contrary to common belief, weightliftingisn’t nearly as dangerous as many people think, and especially when you’re using good technique, progressing intelligently, and generally taking good care of your body.That said, if you lift weights for long enough, you’re going to experience at least a minor injury, even if it’s only a soft tissue problem stemming from repetitive use. And when it does happen, it’s going to frustrate the shit out of you, because as anyone that has gone through it knows, it quickly derails your plans and sometimes forces you to train suboptimally so you can recover. I wanted to get Layne on the show to talk about this, because as a competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter, he has a lot of wisdom to share on the subjects of preventing and healing both minor and severe injuries. He himself has gotten hurt in ways that most of probably never will, and so he has had to go a lot further than most of us into rehab, recovery, and rebuilding his strength and performance.As you’ll see, Layne covers a lot of ground in this interview, ranging from common mistakes that people make that lead to injuries to simple indicators to watch for that precede injury, how to know if you’re fully recovering from your workouts, how to rehab and work around injuries, and more.Here’s the show…12:51 - What is your history with personal injuries?14:52 - What are some common mistakes that lead to injuries?25:51 - What are some signs and symptoms that can help determine if someone is pushing themselves towards an injury?29:56 - What are some preventative lessons you have learned with technique and form?36:31 - How can someone tell if they are not recovering properly?43:44 - After an injury, how can you continue to train properly?50:07 - What are the advantages and disadvantages between conventional deadlift and sumo deadlift?52:55 - What are some alternatives for dead lift if you are injured or recovering?55:41 - What are some alternatives for bench press if you are injured or recovering?57:02 - What are your tips for treatment options and getting through injurie59:48 - What is Avatar Nutrition? 

If you’re like a lot of my readers and listeners, you more or less always feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything that you want to do. You might even feel that your life is totally out of balance and walk around in a constant state of anxiety about what you’re doing, not doing, should be doing, shouldn’t be doing, and so forth. Well, I know how that goes, what with writing a new book, running several businesses, raising a family, and so forth, and while there are deeper discussions that can be had about purposes, priorities, and perspectives, a great place to start on the problem is simply time management.  In short, if you make a few simple changes to how you spend your time every day, you might be shocked at how much more you can get done and how effortless and enjoyable it can feel. As you’ll see in this interview, this is really low-hanging, common sensical stuff that, for whatever reason, very few people actually do. And to break it all down for us, I’ve recruited personal trainer, attorney, and time management coach Donata White to explain how we can get far more out of the 24 hours that we get every day than we’re used to or even thought possible. As you’ll see, she outlines a simple productivity strategy that starts with asking yourself a few questions and learning to prioritize your time, and then moves into implementing a few basic but powerful productivity strategies like time blocking, minimizing transitions, eliminating distractions, and more. We also talk a bit about how all these things apply to health and fitness, namely meal planning and building a sustainable exercise routine. So, if you could use more productivity and less stress in your life, I think you’ll find this interview helpful. Here it is... 8:54 - What is your personal story that led you to create good time management practices? 12:02 - What is the first step of creating good time management practices?  15:15 - What are the common mistakes people do that eat up their free time?  22:30 - What is time-blocking and transitions? 28:25 - What are some meal-prepping tips to create even more free time? 33:24 - How are people underestimating their transition times? How can transition times improve?40:42 - What are the benefits of good time management practices?50:34 - What are the best apps and services that help time organization?58:50 - How does your health and fitness affect your time management?1:01:31 - What are some practices people can do to help them focus more on their current task?1:10:34 - How can people connect with you and find your work? Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

There aren’t very many people in the fitness space who I think everyone should follow, and my guest on this episode, Greg Nuckols, is one of those people.I’ve been reading his work for about a year now and really appreciate what he’s doing. When I have a question, his site, Stronger by Science, is one of the first places I check for an answer before venturing off into literature.As you can guess, I was really excited to get him on the podcast to talk about what he specializes in: the science of getting bigger and stronger.And specifically, I wanted Greg to address a hot topic these days, and that’s the relationship between gaining strength and size.In other words, does maximizing muscle strength also maximize muscle size, or as many people say, is strength training rather poor for making your muscles bigger.I get asked about this all the time and there’s a lot of misinformation out there, so I thought this would be a worthy discussion, and as expected, Greg knocks it out of the park.As you’ll see, he breaks down the relationship between strength and muscle growth and gives simple, practical insights that you can immediately apply to your training to get bigger and stronger, faster.Greg also touches on a number of other interesting topics such as how motor learning affects our progression in the gym, how important adequate sleep is to muscle growth, how to manage personal expectations and break through plateaus, and more.So, if you want to get stronger and gain muscle as quickly and enjoyable as possible, then I think you’re going to like this interview.Here it is...5:15 - What is the relationship of building muscle mass to building strength? Is there a ratio? How does it change from beginners to veterans?11:43 - How do our motor skills influence our strength gains?22:55 - What advice do you have for beginners on gaining full body strength?27:47 - What advice do you have for intermediate and advanced lifters to continue building muscle mass and strength?30:27 - How do your sleeping habits affect your muscle mass?35:35 - What are some psychology studies on how your personal expectations affect the results of your strength?43:25 - What advice do you have for intermediate and advanced lifters who have hit a plateau on building muscle mass and strength?46:35 - How can people connect with you and find your research?Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/