Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

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/

Since the first affordable microwave ovens arrived in 1967, they’ve become an indispensable tool in most people’s kitchens.They’re one of the quickest, easiest, and, compared to open flame, safest ways to cook food.Or maybe not.Some say that microwaves make your food “radioactive” and release toxic radiation, which raises your risk of cancer. Others say that microwaves destroy the nutrients in food, which could increase your risk of nutrient deficiencies. And still others say there isn’t enough research on microwaves, so we should all play it safe and avoid them.On the other hand, people say that the claims against microwaves are unfounded. They’re just one more example of better living through science that people need to stop handwringing about.So, who’s right?Well, despite the constant Internet fearmongering, there’s no evidence that microwaves are dangerous. They have been studied repeatedly, and not only are they safe, they may actually be a healthier way to cook some foods.There are legitimate concerns about microwaving plastic containers, but it’s still debatable how dangerous that is, too.In this podcast, you’re going to learn the top four reasons people say that you shouldn’t microwave food, why they’re wrong, and why microwaving food can actually be a safer, healthier option than other cooking methods.Let’s get started.Mentioned on The Show:My interview with Anthony Jay: https://www.muscleforlife.com/low-testosterone-estrogen-podcast/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/

"When's your next book coming out?""What kind of supplements are you going to release next?""What would you name your boat if you had one?"I'm asked questions like these all the time and so I thought I'd start doing monthly updates about what's new and exciting here at Legion and MFL HQ.So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately.Enjoy!Mentioned on the Show: Bigger Leaner Stronger: geni.us/BLSBook Birthday Cake Whey+: https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/whey/?flavor=birthday-cake Stim-Free Pulse: https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/pulse-stim-free/ Hafthor World Record Deadlift Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacP3CN0WkcWant 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/ 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 interview, I talk with Jake who’s 32 years old and used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to completely transform his physique.He shares his personal fitness journey, including what he was up to before finding me and my work and how it was going, and how things started to change after implementing the advice in my books and articles.The bigger picture looks like this: When Jake first found Bigger Leaner Stronger about six years ago, he was about 16% body fat at about 155 pounds, and today, he’s about 10% at 167 pounds and has added a ton of strength to all of his major lifts.Jake’s transformation wasn’t without struggles, of course.He ran into a number of roadblocks along the way that most of us can relate to, including issues with workout and meal scheduling, hunger and cravings, dietary temptations, and more. And in our chat, Jake shares what has most helped him navigate these barriers skillfully and prevent them from derailing his progress.So, if you like hearing motivational stories about how people have changed their bodies and lives, and if you want to pick up a few tips that may help you along in your personal journey, this episode is for you.4:12 - What was your diet and fitness like before the Bigger Leaner Stronger program? 8:28 - How tall are you and how much did you weigh before you started the Bigger Leaner Stronger program? 13:07 - How do you eat well while traveling? 26:20 - What are your current numbers? 28:28 - What is your current body fat? 1:01:55 - What did Elon Musk say about feudalism on The Joe Rogan Experience? 1:02:32 - Did Elon Musk have a solution on how to slow down the progress of artificial intelligence? Mentioned on the Show:MFL Coaching Jake's Book, MaroonedWant 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/

Every day I hear from people in their 40s and even 30s who are worried it’s too late to get into great shape.If you’ve spent any time around these parts, you know this isn’t true. So long as you know what you’re doing with your diet and training, you don’t have to be in your 20s to build a body you can be proud of. You can do it just about any age, really.There are a few things you have to do differently as you get older, though. The main thing that changes is your ability to recover from your workouts declines, and this often manifests in more muscle, joint, and tendon soreness after training, and particularly if you’re working hard in the gym.Many middle-aged people aren’t prepared for this and think they can just grind through the pain like they did in college, but this usually leads to further injury, overtraining, and burnout.My friend and fellow researcher and writer, Christian Finn, knows a thing or two about this himself. He’s over 40 himself and in great shape, has worked with thousands of people, and recently had to slog through a rather nasty bout of joint problems, and in this interview, I pick his brain on what happened and why, what he did about it, and what we can do to give our joints a break without sacrificing our hard-earned muscle.In this episode, you’re going to learn:- What causes most joint injuries in older lifters - The right and wrong ways of dealing with joint injuries - Christian’s favorite exercises for “training around” joint problems - How to program your workouts to prevent and fix joint issues - And more.Mentioned on the Show: Recharge: https://www.muscleforlife.com/store/supplements/recharge/ Muscle Evo MX4: https://muscleevo.com/mx4/9:39 - How old are you? 10:43 - Did you stop playing tennis after your knee injury? 12:01 - Do you think tennis injuries are related to volume overloads or is it just the nature of the sport? 12:45 - How did the strings of your tennis racket cause elbow problems? 13:22 - Does a tennis ball produce more spin if it spends more time on the surface of the rack? 15:04 - What kind of joint pain were you suffering from and how did that impact your training? 16:09 - Was your knee pain above or below the knee cap? 27:59 - Did you do split squats for your lower body as an alternative? 41:36 - What are the criteria for determining whether you are progressing or not? 44:17 - What did you do as an alternative for pulling? 48:12 - Where can people find you and 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/

Learn about the causes and solutions for tight hip flexors, including stretches and exercises. Discover the importance of strengthening hip flexors and the benefits of exercises like the barbell back squat. Get tips on building a strong lower body and learn about a post-workout supplement called Recharge.

It’s high time I reviewed this book because it’s one of my favorite self-development books.To understand why, close your eyes and think back to an instance where you were doing something that made your consciousness feel harmoniously ordered, that absorbed all of your focus and attention, and that dissolved your awareness of time, worries, and even yourself.Maybe it was playing an instrument, spending an evening with loved ones, coding a website, cooking a meal, driving a car, whatever.Csikszentmihalyi refers to such occurrences as “optimal experiences” and the psychological and emotional state they produce as “flow,” and this book is a scientific investigation of these phenomena and how to increase their frequency and intensity in our lives.Flow is cool, clinical, and sometimes discomfiting, which some people find off-putting. It wasn’t written to lift spirits, alleviate insecurities, or justify weaknesses and failures, and it doesn’t contain flowery prose or resonant stories.Instead, this book reads more like a friendly but firm textbook that doesn’t care much about your problems or feelings, but don’t let that stop you from absorbing and applying its wisdom, which revolves around this central premise:The more time we can spend in a state of flow, the less time we’ll have to be disconnected, dissatisfied, or dejected.What’s more, as flow-producing activities are almost always active and constructive in nature, the more we engage in them, the more conscious, competent, and complex we become as individuals and the more stimulating and rewarding our progress and achievements are.Thus, Csikszentmihalyi believes one of the most powerful ways to improve our quality of life is to spend as much of it in flow as we can. And although he doesn’t provide a pat, step-by-step checklist to follow, he does give enough pragmatic principles and real-world examples for you to understand how to lift the information off the pages and incorporate it successfully into your day-to-day.For me, the flow framework has helped me make better choices in just about every area of my life because I’ve found the more flow-producing activities I engage in, the more my real-world conditions improve and the better I feel about them.To do that, sometimes I modify activities to incorporate elements that are conducive to flow (more on this in a minute) and other times I simply say no to things that I know I’m going to find boring and unengaging no matter what I do.Let’s get to the takeaways.Want to be notified when my next book recommendation goes live?Hop on my email list and you’ll get each new installment delivered directly to your inbox: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

There’s a basic law of living that goes like this:If you want more, do more.It applies more or less across the board. You tend to get out of life in proportion to what you give.Want more money or a bigger business? Work harder at it and you’ll have the best chances of success.Want deeper, more fulfilling relationships with friends or family? Spend more time building those relationships and watch them blossom.Want to be the best player on your team? Practice longer and harder than your confreres and you’ll slowly pull ahead of the pack.You get the point.Working out isn’t that simple, though.The “more is better” approach works…until it doesn’t. And then it becomes counterproductive.That is, in terms of building muscle, strength, and endurance, more training is generally better than less…but once you exceed your body’s ability to recover, the wheels start to fall off.Here’s a short list of what can happen next:-You struggle to finish your workouts.-You lose strength and endurance.-You sleep poorly.-You struggle with fatigue and lethargy.-You have odd aches and pains.-You get sick more frequently.These are all signs that there is a systemic imbalance between work and recovery.Scientifically speaking, this symptomatology is known as “overtraining syndrome,” and chances are you’re going to wrestle with it to one degree or another at some point in your fitness journey.Well, this podcast is going to help.In it, you’re going to learn how to spot overtraining before it becomes a serious problem, what to do if/when you find yourself overtrained, how to prevent it in the first place.So, let’s start with one of the more common (and misguided) cliches about overtraining…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/

The first few weeks of a cut are usually smooth sailing. You aren’t that hungry, your energy levels are good, and you’re still enjoying your workouts.Somewhere around the four- to six-week mark, however, the other shoe begins to drop. You’re starting to feel hungrier leading up to meals and less satisfied after. Your energy levels begin to sag, and especially in the afternoons. You’re no longer progressing in your workouts, which are feeling harder and harder.There are two schools of thought on what to do next:1. Grit your teeth and keep dieting so you can move on to the fun stuff as soon as possible (maintaining and lean gaining). 2. Take periodic diet breaks where you increase your calorie intake to maintenance for several days or weeks, then continue dieting after your reprieve.Many diet break advocates say that taking a break here and there can speed up your metabolism, help preserve muscle mass, and even “hack” your hormones to supercharge fat loss.Others claim diet breaks offer no real benefit beyond “feeling good” and are only necessary if you’re too “weak” to stay the course.Who’s right?That’s what I ask James Krieger in this episode.James is an accomplished researcher and writer as well as a lifter who knows what it’s like to diet down to extremely low body fat levels, and in this episode he tells you everything you need to know about the real science behind diet breaks and refeeds.In this episode, you’re going to learn:- Why people incorporate diet breaks and “refeeds” into their cutting regimens - How taking diet breaks affects fat loss, muscle retention, and metabolic rate while dieting - When you should or shouldn’t take a diet break - The pros and cons of diet breaks versus continuous calorie restriction - How to take an effective diet break - And more.6:06 - Why do people do diet breaks? 10:30 - What did your research find regarding diet breaks? 13:52 - For most people, isn’t the bulk of their total daily energy expenditure really their resting metabolic rate? 17:35 - How can you use diet breaks effectively? 24:38 - Is the weight loss related to a reduction of cortisone levels? 25:29 - Where can people find you and 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/

I’ve churned through over 100,000 emails, social media comments and messages, and blog comments in the last 6 years.And that means I’ve fielded a ton of questions.As you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others, and I thought it might be helpful to take a little time every month to choose a few and record and share my answers.So, in this round, I answer the following five questions:1. What do you do when resting between sets in the gym? 2. Can I still gain muscle and strength while training for long-distance running and, if so, how should I set up my training? 3. How much fat can you lose in the first 30 days of a cut if you’re doing everything right? 4. Do you need to adjust your meal plan while losing fat, or can you stick to the same plan from start to finish? 5. How many hours of sleep should you get to maximize muscle growth?If you have a question you’d like me to answer, leave a comment below or if you want a faster response, send an email to mike@muscleforlife.com.Recommended reading for this episode:https://www.muscleforlife.com/how-long-to-rest-between-sets/https://www.muscleforlife.com/cardio-or-weights-first/https://www.muscleforlife.com/cardio-workouts/https://www.muscleforlife.com/not-losing-weight/https://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-sleep-better/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/