Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

In the early 1960s, a scientist named Ancel Keys was puzzling over a question:Why were rich, middle-aged businessmen in Minnesota more likely to die of heart disease than poor villagers in Italy?Up to this point, most scientists considered heart disease to be part and parcel of the aging process—a result of your decaying DNA rather than your diet or exercise habits.But then there were these remote villages in Southern Italy that had the highest rates of centenarians in the world and some of the lowest rates of heart disease, despite being populated with people genetically similar to American men.Data like this convinced Keys that heart disease might be preventable, and was bolstered by other findings.For instance, Keys discovered that in food-starved regions of post-war Europe, cardiovascular disease dropped along with the food supply, implying a connection between the two seemingly unrelated circumstances.As the evidence mounted, Keys became more convinced that diet was a key factor in the risk of heart disease, and to test his hypothesis, he conducted an enormous study—one that would become his magnum opus.The short story is that the Mediterranean diet is popular among scientists, doctors, and the average dieter for a reason: it’s a perfectly healthy way to eat.That said, it’s not for everyone and not the only way to eat well.Let’s find out why.7:28 - What is the Mediterranean diet? 12:08 - Why is the Mediterranean diet popular? 12:50 - Can the Mediterranean diet prevent heart disease? 26:22 - Can you get the health benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet while still eating red meat, dairy, and poultry? 30:07 - Can the Mediterranean diet prevent type 2 diabetes? 35:24 - Does the Mediterranean diet help you lose weight? 39:13 - Can the Mediterranean diet help you live longer? --------Mentioned on The Show:Books by Mike Matthews--------Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Clickhere: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

As a general rule of thumb there are two reasons people take gut health supplements:1. They have been told that to be optimally healthy you need to maintain a healthy gut. 2. Something just hurts and doesn’t work properly and they’d rather it was normal.A theoretical and more long-term reason that you put your faith into, and a super simple “as long as it makes me feel better and makes the washroom trips go easier” reason.Both are valid reasons, mind you, and it wasn’t until the rise of probiotics that people even cared about gut “health.”“Gut health” can also mean many different things, and so gut health supplements can work in many different ways.And we’re going to go over the main ones that work in this podcast.Let’s get to it.-----Mentioned on the show: Book by Mike Matthews-----Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!Clickhere: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Recently, Jordan Syatt lost 6 pounds in a month.Ho-hum, so what.Well, the twist is he did it eating a Bic Mac every day, which is also completely ho-hum if you understand energy balance, but many people don’t or don’t want to and, well, many discussions ensued after word got around.Some people refused to believe the results, others denounced the experiment as irresponsible, and others still tried to reconcile it with their fetish for calorie denial.And in this interview, Jordan shares why he pulled the stunt, what he ate on the diet (besides Big Macs), how people responded, and most importantly, what he wants people to take away from it.We also discuss strategies for staying in shape while traveling or just really busy, because as Gary Vaynerchuk’s strength and nutrition coach, Jordan knows a thing or two about helping busy, on-the-go people reach their fitness goals.Not only that, but Jordan’s also a guy who has set several powerlifting records and definitely doesn’t just talk the talk.Let’s get to the show!4:18 - What is the Big Mac challenge? 5:23 - What are some objections you received from doing the Big Mac challenge? 10:15 - Were you just eating a Big Mac or did you eat anything else? 11:31 - Have people criticized you for encouraging people to make bad dietary decisions? 15:17 - What causes the “what the hell effect”? 25:12 - Are you thinking about doing another challenge? 32:19 - How do you stay fit while traveling? 43:32 - How do you maintain a diet while traveling? 54:17 - How to manage alcohol while on vacation or business trips?Mentioned on The Show:Books by Mike Matthews Jordan's YouTubeJordan's InstagramJordan's Mini PodcastWant 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.legionathletics.com/signup/

As you might know, I’m the founder of a supplement company called Legion, and it has gone pretty well so far.In just six years, Legion has grown into an Inc 5000 company with 8 figures in annual sales and close to 200,000 customers served and much more to come.Thus, I’m often asked about how it all started, what the supplement industry is like “on the inside,” and what advice I can share to others wanting to follow in my footsteps.I was invited to go on another podcast—the Supplement Engineer Podcast—to discuss these things and more, and as I don’t talk much business here on the podcast, I thought you might find the discussion interesting.And so I’m sharing the interview here.Tune in and let me know what you think!3:24 - Why did you step into the supplement business? 10:29 - Did any of your previous experience with building Muscle For Life help you with Legion? 12:36 - What challenges did you face with manufacturing? 17:34 - Is there any recourse for you as a brand owner when a manufacturer screws you over? 19:06 - What drives you to make a new supplement? 32:52 - What do you think separates Leigon’s proteins bars from the rest of the market? 38:09 - What has kept you level headed and allow you to keep pushing forward? 46:24 - Do you think the way your parents raised you had a key determining factor on how you built your business? 48:54 - How do you manage to run a business while still being a family man?Mentioned on The Show:Shop Legion Supplements Here:https://legionathletics.com/shop/ 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.legionathletics.com/signup/

If you can’t endure discomfort, you’re not going to make it very far in your training, not to mention your life.Lifting weights is hard. Doing HIIT is hard. Stick to a diet is hard. Learning valuable skills is hard. Burning the midnight oil at work is hard. Overcoming setbacks is hard.What’s more, willpower and motivation are notoriously fickle, and when they’re at a low ebb due to poor sleep, stress, angst, or whatever else get us down some days, everything only gets harder.That’s why it’s often the ability to endure that separates the successful from the unsuccessful in just about every arena of life, not just athleticsNow, endurance can be defined in many ways, but my guest Alex Hutchinson has an elegant one: the strength to continue despite an increasing desire to stop.Even if you aren’t an endurance athlete (I’m not), understanding how people find the physical and mental stamina and grit to finish marathons and other even more extreme endurance events can help you reach more of your own finish lines, inside and outside of the gym.In fact, one of the reasons so many people enjoy endurance exercise is because of how it empowers them to struggle through hardship of any kind. All of this is why I invited accomplished endurance athlete, writer, and researcher Alex Hutchinson back on the show.In case you’re not familiar with Alex, he’s a New York Times bestselling author of several books including his most recent, Endure, as well as an award-winning science journalist and former physicist and national-class runner.And in this interview, he shares many of the insights he gleaned from researching and writing his book Endure, including how the brain influences our physical and mental limits, how elite athletes are able to exceed these limits, how to “recharge” after intense effort, and more.Let’s get to it.5:49 - Can a mother lift a car to save her baby? 12:54 - How is our performance limited by our brain? 15:46 - What are some of the reasons the brain limits itself? 22:02 - What are some ways that elite athletes are able to exceed brain limitations? 26:30 - Does enduring physical pain improve your ability to push through discomfort in other areas of your life? 32:21 - What are some strategies to recharge between mentally demanding tasks? 50:51 - Does incorporating fun into your life improve sleep and decrease anxiety?Mentioned on The Show:Shop Legion Supplements HereAlex’s WebsiteAlex’s Twitter Alex’s Book: EndureWant 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.legionathletics.com/signup/

The first few weeks after starting a diet are usually smooth sailing.You aren’t that hungry, your energy levels are good, and you’re still adding weight in the gym.Then, often at about the four to eight-week mark, the gears begin to grind to a halt.You feel more hungry before meals and less satisfied after.Your energy levels drop and it becomes increasingly hard to add weight to your compound exercises.And worst of all, the number on the scale moves slower and slower with every weekly weigh-in.What changed?Why did dieting suddenly transform from a sprint into a slog?Are you eating too much or too little? Not doing enough cardio? Not eating the right foods? Not taking the right supplements?The answer to all of those questions lies in a hormone called leptin, which is the topic of this podcast.Leptin lies at the center of the constellation of problems every dieter experiences as they lose fat—lethargy, hunger, metabolic slowdown, and even increased risk of illness.Like anything related to weight loss, there’s a lot of misinformation, hype, and chicanery surrounding leptin.In the past decade, a new wave of Internet doctors, fitness gurus, and online influencers have seized on the significance of leptin and come up with specialized diets and supplements designed to “hack” weight loss by controlling leptin.  They throw around enough big words and studies to make their pitch sound sciency, but like any fad diet, it’s all a bunch of smoke and mirrors.There’s no such thing as “hacking” your metabolism, hormones, or body fat, though, and controlling leptin levels isn’t the secret to weight loss any more than controlling other hormones like insulin or testosterone is.Now for the good news:Understanding how this hormone works can give you a better perspective on what’s going on inside your body as you lose weight and how to make fat loss easier by making a few simple modifications to your diet.On the plus side, though, understanding the workings of leptin allows you to make a few informed changes to your diet that make losing weight significantly easier.Let’s start by looking at what leptin is.Mentioned on The Show:Shop Legion Supplements Bodyweight Set Point PodcastWant 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.legionathletics.com/signup/

This episode is part of a monthly 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:One Monday every month, 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 for the latest and greatest installment.Mentioned on The Show:Books by Mike Matthews:https://legionathletics.com/products/books/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.legionathletics.com/signup/

Have you ever stopped losing weight despite “doing everything right” with your diet?Have you ever struggled to gain weight no matter what you ate?Have you ever wondered why some people can stay lean eating sugar and junk food regularly?Well, the principles of energy balance answer these mysteries and more.They’re the fundamental laws that dictate how your body weight changes over time, and they can be used to intentionally gain and lose weight as desired.That means that you're going to be able use what you learn in this podcast to... - Consistently break through weight loss plateaus. - Kickstart weight gain (and even if you think you’re a “hardgainer”). - Maintain your current body fat percentage with ease.The bottom line is out of everything you could learn about dieting, energy balance should be at the top of your list because it’s the biggest linchpin.In other words, if you don’t understand energy balance and know how to use it to your advantage, you’ll never be able to put the rest of the puzzle together.You’ll always struggle with your weight, and you’ll never quite understand why some approaches to dieting work and others don’t.So, if you’re ready to learn how energy balance can help you lose fat, gain muscle, and stay lean, then listen to this podcast.4:10 - What is energy balance? 9:21 - What are common misconceptions about energy balance? 23:53 - How can I use energy balance to lose weight? 28:02 - How many calories should I be eating? 28:51 - What are macros? 31:09 - What should my macros look like while I’m cutting? 36:23 - How can I turn macros into an effective meal plan? 40:06 - How do I use energy balance to gain muscle?Mentioned on The Show:Books by Mike Matthews: legionathletics.com/products/books/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: www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Winstrol is one of the most famous steroids of all time, mainly thanks to a man named Ben Johnson.In 1988, Johnson was the reigning world champion in the 100-meter dash, widely considered the most prestigious of all track and field events.He had set a world record a year before, beating Carl Lewis with a time of 9.83 seconds. He was instantly propelled to world fame, reportedly making almost $500,000 a month from endorsements.He was showered in accolades including the Lou Marsh Trophy and Lionel Conacher Award, and was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year for 1987.Johnson cemented his status as the golden boy of track and field on September 24, 1988, in one of the most competitive 100-meter races ever run, when he sprinted to an Olympic gold medal and a new world record of 9.79 seconds.Unfortunately, this would be the capstone of his career.Three days later, the Olympic Doping Control Center found traces of an anabolic steroid in Johnson’s urine sample.The drug?Stanozolol, aka Winstrol.Johnson denied taking steroids at first, but was promptly stripped of his new world record and the one he’d set a year before. Later, he admitted to taking steroids such as Winstrol and testosterone since 1981, and was banned for life from professional sprinting after he failed another drug test in 1993.Although Johnson made stanozolol famous, it’s been used by sprinters, bodybuilders, and athletes of all stripes long before Johnson got busted and is still used today.It’s known as one of the best steroids for cutting, helping people gain moderate amounts of muscle without any increase in water weight or body fat.What does the science say, though?Why are athletes still risking their careers to reap its benefits?And, what are the side effects?In this podcast, you’re going to learn the answers to all of these questions and more. You’ll learn . . .- What Winstrol is - Why people take Winstrol - What the Winstrol side effects are - How to tell if someone is taking Winstrol - And more.Let’s get started.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.legionathletics.com/signup/

This is part two of my interview with Maariana, who used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to gain over 20 pounds of muscle, fit into her college clothes again, and even improve her career as an opera singer.In case you missed the first part interview, it ended with Maariana revealing that she was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after starting Bigger Leaner Stronger.I couldn’t end the discussion there, of course, and so on it went, which is what you’re about to hear.In this part of the interview, Maariana talks about her battle with cancer and how she refused to take it lying down and instead chose to view it as a challenge and opportunity to become stronger, inside and out.This meant regular physical training in the gym alongside her treatments as well as deep research into behavioral psychology to find practical techniques for elevating mood, boosting willpower, and reinforcing resolve (and she shares some of her favorites in our discussion).So if you’re looking for a jolt of inspiration or like hearing motivational stories, I highly recommend listening to part one of this interview and then tuning in to this episode.4:57 - How did you have the energy to exercise while battling cancer? 33:35 - Where did you get the idea of making an app? 36:11 - What are some examples of mental exercises? 52:49 - What are some examples of a learning mindset?Mentioned on The Show:Legion VIP one-on-one coaching: https://legionathletics.com/coaching/Maariana's website: https://maariana.com/Maariana's app: https://fulfillapp.com/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.legionathletics.com/signup/