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: www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

If you want to know how to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in your work and life in less time, then you need to read this book.This is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and one I will definitely be reviewing regularly.In it, Cal defines deep work as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task,” and he argues that it’s the skill that will most help you achieve excellence in everything that you do and enjoy the deep sense of fulfillment that comes from reaching a level of true craftsmanship.In short, Cal believes that deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy, which is going to be radically transformed by smart and capable machines. Furthermore, this skill is becoming rarer and rarer as more and more people surrender more and more of their time to the frenetic whirlwind of email, social media, and on-demand entertainment, which means those that do master it will be in great demand and enjoy the lion’s share of success.I particularly enjoyed this book because it’s part social commentary, part theory, and part practical. Cal articulates his personal philosophy for work and living, which really resonated with me, and makes a strong case for the importance of cultivating the ability to do deep work, and then provides a simple but powerful regimen for actually developing that ability.I’ve implemented several of the strategies outlined in the book and enjoyed immediate results in terms of increased productivity and satisfaction, and I think you can, too.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.Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

There’s no way around it.If you want to gain muscle efficiently, you’re going to need to eat more calories than you burn each day.While eating slightly more calories than you burn every day is conducive to muscle growth, eating a lot more isn’t more so.That is, you’ll gain just as much muscle eating ~110% of your total daily energy expenditure as you would eating 120 or 130%.The only thing that will change, really, is how much fat you’ll gain.In this episode, we’re going to cover how to know how many calories you need to eat to gain weight, without just getting fat.I also created a simple and accurate calorie (and macronutrient) calculator to make these calculations easier:→ https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/Let’s get to it.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/

As you probably know, I work hard to understand and promote high-quality diet, nutrition, and exercise science. That’s why I’ve spent and continue to spend a lot of time researching and writing, and why I reference quite a bit of scientific literature in my work.What I don’t do, though, is produce a research review where individual studies are broken down and analyzed because my plate is already overflowing with work as it is, and honestly, I don’t think I could do it better than the researchers whose work and research reviews I myself read regularly, like James Krieger, Eric Helms, Greg Nuckols, Mike Zourdos, Alan Aragon, and Bret Contreras.And so I had an idea: why not get those guys to come on my podcast to discuss studies they’ve analyzed in their reviews and share with us what they’ve learned, and how we can use that information to optimize our diets, exercise routines, supplement regimens, and overall lifestyle.In this episode, I have the newly minted Dr. Eric Helms on to discuss a study published in 2016 titled “Effects of a modified German Volume Training program on muscular hypertrophy and strength.”This study looked at the popular “German Volume Training” program, which involves performing 10 sets of a specific exercise in a single workout (usually 10 sets of 10 reps), and gave great insights into the overall effectiveness of this style of training versus more traditional, moderate-volume work.8:19 - What is volume? 9:24 - What is the study behind German Volume Training? 15:15 - What are the risks of overtraining? 16:40 - If German Volume Training isn’t the correct approach, what is?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 someone feels they’re carrying around too much fat, they’ll probably say they need to lose some weight.Ironically, if that’s their only goal–reducing the number on the scale–they’re like to run into a new problem along the way: becoming skinny fat.You see, the phrase “weight loss” is tossed around by just about everyone, including myself, but what we really want is a bit more than that.We don’t want to just “lose weight”–we want to reduce our body fat percentage and thus improve our body composition. That is, we want to reduce our total amount of body fat without reducing our total amount of lean mass.If this is obvious to you, you’re in the minority. Most people don’t realize how much muscle they can lose with a poor “weight loss” diet and are puzzled when they succeed in losing weight only to be disappointed by a weak, soft physique staring back at them in the mirror.Well, in this episode we’re going to talk about how many calories you should eat to lose fat and not muscle.To make these calculations easier, I created a simple and accurate calorie (and macronutrient) calculator:→ https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-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: www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

In this episode, I interview my buddy Sal from the hugely popular Mind Pump Podcast, which he hosts with Adam and Justin, and which you should definitely check out.I wanted Sal to talk about three topics that he’s particularly revved up about recently, and that’s gut health, overcoming systemic fatigue, and using mindful/intuitive eating strategies over more rigid, planning/tracking-based strategies.Here’s a little sneak peek of what we talk about in today’s interview:- What “leaky gut” is and how it can affect your body. - How artificial sweeteners can harm our gut health, and how that can in turn affect many aspects of our health and wellness. - What “HPA/HPAT Axis Dysfunction” is, why many people are suffering from it, and what you can do to beat it. - Some of Sal’s favorite mindfulness practices. - And more…4:59 - Why is the health and wellness space flooded with bad information? 11:53 - How are anecdotes accelerating medical research? 19:04 - What is leaky gut? 22:47 What are glyphosates and how do they affect our bodies? 29:00 - How do Artificial Sweeteners affect our body? 31:22 - What is HPA/HPAT Axis Dysfunction and what are its symptoms? 37:16 - What can you do to reverse HPA/HPAT Axis Dysfunction? 42:21 What is intuitive eating? 48:09 - What is the repeated exposure effect? 1:01:59 - How does the central nervous system affect our workouts? 1:05:09 - What is mindful eating? 1:10:20 - What are some of your personal mindfulness practices? 1:12:30 - What are the studies behind the breathing technique? 1:13:17 - Where can everybody 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/

Among all genres of supplements fat burners are surrounded by the most misinformation and blatant lies.We’re going through an obesity epidemic and it’s reaching far more than just the US. I mean, a third of the entire damn world is overweight according to BMI. The. Entire. World.It’s clearly an issue of habit formation, easy access to food that happens to be unhealthy but oh so delicious, and a society that places more value on mind than body leading to a lot more sedentary work than before.But as long as there is science to suggest that a pill could help you lose fat, which there is, and people promising that their pills will make all the pain go away, then there’s going to be a market for them.Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in the concept of fat burners. Even the best ones are far from magic bullets, but they can help speed the process up a bit…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/

Once upon a time, my girlfriend (and now wife) packed protein bars in her purse when we went out for the day.They weren’t for her. They were for me.She did it because she knew that if I didn’t eat protein every few hours, Mr. Hyde would come out.I wouldn’t just get hungry. I would get angry. Hangry.It was kind of pathetic, I know, but I thought that if you went for more than a few hours without protein, you’d lose muscle.And when you think you’re losing muscle, you swear you can feel the your precious biceps disintegrating with every passing minute.Well, I eventually canceled my magazine subscriptions and wised up.You don’t have to eat protein every few hours to build muscle, and you could eat nothing for an entire day without losing any muscle to speak of.That said, what’s optimal for gaining muscle?Is there a difference between eating two and five servings of protein per day?And if so, why?Let’s find out.3:58 - What is protein and why is it important? 6:46 - What happens in your body when you eat protein? 9:53 - What is the science behind protein and muscle growth? 14:29 - How important is protein timing?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/

Build muscle and lose fat at the same time.It sounds so simple, right? Why shouldn’t we be able to do it?Well, some people say it’s a fool’s errand. Others say you need to follow “special” forms of dieting and training. Others still say it takes steroids.They’re all wrong.Building muscle and losing fat simultaneously (or “body recomposition,” as it’s often called), isn’t beyond the power of us mere natties.It’s doable, and it doesn’t require esoteric knowledge, fancy or newfangled methodologies, or drugs.There’s a catch, though.You may or may not be able to do it, depending on your body composition, training experience, and more.So, in this episode, I’m going to help you understand how body recomposition works and exactly what to do to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.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/