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If you want to know how to build muscle, lose fat, and be healthier, happier, and wiser…faster than you ever thought possible…then this podcast is for you. Hosted by the bestselling author and entrepreneur, Mike Matthews, each episode gives you simple, science-based know-how and inspiration that will help you build your best body and life ever.
Find out more at www.legionathletics.com
Copyright: © Mike Matthews
Weight loss can seem wildly complex.
Some say that carbs are the culprit when it comes to weight gain, and going low-carb is the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off for good.
Others say that weight loss goes beyond carbs—it’s about the quality of your diet.
If you avoid toxins, lectins, phytates, and other nutritional bogeymen that are menacing your metabolism, the pounds fall right off.
And others say that you just need to eat clean. Eat more fresh, whole, minimally processed foods and less junk, and you’ll lose weight like clockwork.
Most trends ebb and flow in cycles—liberals and conservatives in power, booms and busts in the economy, and complexity and simplicity when it comes to popular diets.
It’s not surprising then, that after several decades of fake doctors, fitness gurus, and marketers shilling complex diets like The Plant Paradox diet, the ketogenic diet, the carnivore diet, the military diet, and the like, that many people are yearning for a simpler approach.
It’s not surprising, then, that people are becoming tired of complicated diets, and are becoming more interested in simple ones, like the “calories in, calories out” diet, aka the CICO diet.
Proponents promise that it’s the simplest, most reliable, and effective way to lose weight, and that once you try it you’ll never try another weight loss diet again.
Critics say that while it can help you lose weight, it does so at the cost of your long-term health.
Who’s right?
The short answer is that the CICO diet isn’t really a diet at all. It simply describes the mechanism by which all diets work and have always worked—eating fewer calories than you burn.
As the old saying goes, though, everything old is new again, and in this article, you’re going to learn why the CICO diet is being exhumed once more.
By the end, you’ll know . . .
- What the CICO diet is
- Why people follow the CICO diet
- What the benefits and downsides of the CICO diet are
- A better way to eat than the CICO diet
- And more!
Let’s get started.
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Mentioned on The Show:
Shop Legion Supplements Here: legionathletics.com/shop/
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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/
“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 HQ.
So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately.
Enjoy!
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Mentioned on The show:
Books by Mike Matthews: legionathletics.com/products/books/
My Free Workout App Stacked: getstackedapp.com/
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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/
As you can imagine, I’ve heard many January resolutions over the years.
“This is my year. I’m finally going to lose 20 pounds.”
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’m going to get fit again!”
“I’m going to set an example for my friends, family, spouse, kids, etc.”
And I’ve seen many people, when armed with the right know-how and an extra helping of piss and vinegar, do exactly as they intended.
I’ve also seen many unsuccessful attempts at personal transformation inside and outside of the gym, and while a sheer lack of discipline and stick-to-it-iveness is often partly to blame, many times the problems begin right at square one: how they go about setting goals.
And then, to add insult to injury, they often botch the next crucial step, and that’s creating a system that will produce their desired results.
If you can do those two things well--set goals and build systems--there’s no telling what you might be able to achieve inside and outside of the gym.
That’s the topic of today’s discussion with Donata White, who I invited back on the podcast to share her personal story transitioning from a successful law career to social media and business consulting as well as how she helps her clients tackle goal setting and execution.
In this episode, Donata and I talk about . . .
- Why people often fail at their resolutions
- Creating goals you care about rather than ones that “sound” good
- Setting up systems to achieve those goals
- Outlining your core values
- What failure really is
- And more . . .
Give it a listen!
6:52 - Why do people fail with their new years resolution?
24:35 - What sort of goals sound good but actually aren’t?
38:37 - Whats the difference between quantitative and qualitative goals?
43:59 - What is your system for achieving goals?
01:08:34 - When did you realize that you didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore?
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Mentioned on The Show:
Books by Mike Matthews: legionathletics.com/products/books/
Donata White:
Website: donatawhite.com/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/donatawhite/
Twitter: twitter.com/donatawhite
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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/
One of the main reasons many guys get into working out is to be more attractive to women.
And for good reason—it works.
Men have known for thousands of years that women generally prefer men who are muscular, lean, and strong to those who are soft, fat, and weak, and modern research has vindicated this fact.
This isn’t surprising, of course.
Having a fit, healthy, athletic body is a good indicator of many desirable traits, such as discipline, determination, patience, perseverance, and self-respect.
So if you’re a guy and looking to improve your chances of finding a partner, getting in better shape should be near the top of the list.
Of course, that raises the question:
What kind of body do women find most attractive?
Let’s get started.
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Mentioned on The Show:
Books by Mike Matthews: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/
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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/
I’ve churned through over 150,000 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 questions:
1. Why haven’t you sold out yet?
2. What is your current take on intermittent fasting?
3. Does isometric exercise work?
4. How much does time under tension contribute to 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.
2:32 - Why haven’t you sold out yet?
14:26 - What is your current take on intermittent fasting?
19:51 - Does isometric exercise work?
23:27 - How much does time under tension contribute to muscle growth?
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Mentioned on The Show:
Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: https://legionathletics.com/coaching/
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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/
There are many different ways to program your training, many different exercises to choose from, and many ways to do them.
Some methods and choices are better than others.
Periodization, for example, helps keep the gears of gains greased as you move into the intermediate phase of your weightlifting journey and beyond.
Supersets, on the other hand, are like supplements—a sometimes helpful but nonessential tool.
And then there are many training techniques that have no place in most people’s routines, like forced reps, negatives, and cheat reps.
What about paused reps? Worthwhile or worthless or somewhere in between?
Well, the short answer is when used properly, paused reps can help you gain muscle and strength faster, but not for the reasons people often say.
And in this podcast, you’re going to learn why, as well as how to effectively incorporate paused reps into your workout routine.
Let’s get to it.
Time Stamps:
2:54 - What are paused reps?
4:52 - Why do people do paused reps?
5:14 - Can paused reps improve technique?
8:42 - Can paused reps help you prepare for a powerlifting meet?
11:13 - Do paused reps make exercises more difficult?
18:49 - Can paused reps make your training more interesting?
20:59 - Can paused reps help you break through training plateaus?
23:15 - How do I incorporate paused reps into my training?
30:19 - How do you properly execute a paused rep?
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Mentioned on the show:
Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: legionathletics.com/coaching/
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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/
Fasting is becoming more and more popular.
You have intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, 24-hour fasting, the 5:2 diet, and endless other variations.
And most of these methods don’t seem all that difficult or complex.
Instead of evenly spacing your meals throughout the day, you eat all of your calories in a shorter period of time (usually 4 to 10 hours) and you don’t eat the rest of the time.
According to some, though, there’s a better mousetrap out there—water fasting.
As you can guess, water fasting involves abstaining from all forms of food or drink except water, and you keep this up for anywhere from a day to several weeks.
You don’t have to look far to find stories of people who swear water fasting offers all kinds of benefits, including:
- Effortless weight loss
- More energy
- Improved complexion
- Slowed aging
- Better health
- And more . . .
Sounds good so far.
To many people, the most appealing part of water fasting is it’s so simple.
You never have to wonder what you can or can’t eat during the fast. You don’t have to make shakes or meal replacements or take supplements. You don’t have to plan your meals.
All you have to do is stop eating and drinking anything except water, and you’ll look sexier, feel better, be healthier in a few days, the water fasting proponents say.
Sure, you’ll be hungry some of the time, but it’s not that bad.
At least that’s what everyone on the Internet tells you.
You have your doubts, though, too.
It has the stamp of “too good to be true” written all over it, and if it doesn’t deliver on these promises, you’ll have suffered for no reason.
And yet . . . what if it only helped you lose a few pounds, or have slightly clearer skin, or gave you a little more energy, wouldn’t it be worth it?
In a word, no.
Water fasting will help you lose weight, but not because there’s something unique about only drinking water for a few days. Chances are also good that you won’t be happy with how you look at the end of your self-imposed starvation experiment.
It’s also not going to “detox” your body, improve your skin complexion, or do much of anything else for you except make you really, really hungry for a few days.
In this podcast, you’re going to learn why water fasting is an unhealthy way to lose weight and what you should do instead.
Let’s get started.
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Mentioned on the show:
Shop Legion Supplements Here: https://legionathletics.com/shop/
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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/
You may not recognize Ethan Suplee’s name, but you’ve almost certainly seen his face.
He’s appeared in quite a few blockbuster movies and hit T.V. shows such as Mallrats, Without a Paddle, American History X, Cold Mountain, Remember the Titans, My Name Is Earl, Chasing Amy, and many more.
During much of this time, Ethan was big, tipping the scales at nearly 530 pounds at his heaviest. As he jokes in our interview, he basically had the “fat guy who can act” niche cornered in Hollywood.
While this was helpful to his career and bank account, it wasn’t doing his body any favors.
And so, about a decade ago, Ethan realized his life was likely to come to a painful and humiliating end if he didn’t make a major change. He got a wild hair and through crash dieting, keto, martial arts, and cycling, he managed to get all the way down to 220 pounds.
As impressive as that was, Ethan still wasn’t happy. He didn’t have much muscle mass and he felt small, weak, and uncomfortable in his own skin.
So back up his weight went, all the way into the mid-300s.
Eventually, however, he found his way to me and my work as well as the good work of others in the evidence-based fitness space and learned about proper meal planning, macronutrient balance, and heavy weightlifting, and today, you wouldn’t even recognize him as Louie the lineman from Remember the Titans.
He looks like he’s ready for the next Mission Impossible flick.
What’s more, Ethan is using his celebrity and story to help spread the word about proper nutrition and training through his growing Instagram account and new podcast, American Glutton.
So, if you want to hear Ethan’s inspiring story and how he went from super fat to fit to really fat to super fit, this podcast is for you.
16:00 - At what point did you get serious about weight lifting?
20:50 - How was your experience with losing fat with the keto diet?
27:29 - When did your weight become an issue and you decided to change your lifestyle?
28:42 - What kind of conversation did you have that helped you change your life?
37:56 - How did cycling affect your work?
48:59 - Now that your physique has changed dramatically, how is it going to affect your work and the type of placements you get?
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Mentioned on The Show:
Ethan's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/american-glutton/id1490933138
Ethan's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethansuplee
Shop Legion Supplements Here: https://legionathletics.com/shop/
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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/
Want to know what protein sparing modified fasting is, why people do it, and whether or not you should try it? Keep listening.
You probably know trying to lose weight too fast is a mistake.
You’re going to run into the hurdles of extreme hunger, lethargy, irritability, and the metabolic hobgoblins attendant to all crash diets.
Plus, you’re walking a tightrope where one misstep could lead to a binge that wipes out your progress.
That said, there are advantages to losing fat as fast as possible.
You see results faster in the mirror, you don’t have to diet for as long, and you can get back to building muscle and getting stronger sooner.
If you want to lose fat as fast as possible, though, you need to do it the right way.
The worst thing you can do is follow some half-baked diet like water fasting, the military diet, or a detox diet, which are just forms of reckless calorie restriction in disguise.
Instead, you should follow an evidence-based, structured, effective crash diet that helps you lose fat as fast as possible without losing much muscle.
And the only diet that checks those boxes is known as a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF).
If you want to learn what a PSMF is, why it’s so effective, how it compares to other crash diets, and how to use it to lose fat as fast as possible, keep listening.
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Mentioned on the show:
Shop Legion Supplements Here: legionathletics.com/shop/
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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/
There’s a lot of confusion and debate about how muscle fiber types relate to muscle growth.
Some people say only fast-twitch muscle tissue can get big and strong and some of us naturally have more or less of it and can’t change that regardless of what we do in the gym.
Others say both fast- and slow-twitch muscle can grow bigger and stronger and the makeup of our muscles is malleable, but we shouldn’t take any special measures in our training to try to emphasize one muscle type over the other.
And others still say “muscle-specific hypertrophy” training—using different rep ranges with different muscle groups based on their dominant fiber type—is the optimal approach to training, and especially as an intermediate or advanced weightlifter.
Who’s right?
Well, I wasn’t even sure myself, that’s why I invited Dr. Andy Galpin on the show to explain.
In case you’re not familiar with Andy, he has a PhD in Human Bioenergetics, teaches various university-level courses on sports nutrition and exercise physiology, and heads a lab that runs studies on muscle fiber type and muscular adaptations to exercise on a cellular level.
His lab is also conducting an intermittent fasting study to learn more about the implications of fasted training on muscle growth, which I’m helping fund through my sports nutrition company Legion Athletics.
6:38 - What are the different types of muscle fibers?
13:49 - Is muscle fiber type the main reason why people gain muscle faster than others?
23:14 - Why do you think the olympic lifters had more fast twitch muscles?
24:37 - Can some people transform from type 1 to type 2 faster than other people?
26:55 - Is this information useful for normal lifters or experts? Should training be optimized or altered according to muscle fibers types?
29:48 - How do you emphasize building type 1 and type 2 muscles?
41:02 - How should people perceive muscle groups and how does that affect your exercise routine?
47:10 - Can you lose your fast twitch muscles by focusing on slow twitch?
56:00 - Where can people find you and your work?
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Mentioned on the show:
Books by Mike Matthews: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/
Bigger Leaner Stronger: https://legionathletics.com/products/books/bigger-leaner-stronger/
Find Dr. Andy Galpin Online:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drandygalpin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drandygalpin
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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/
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