Stay ConnectedOVER 25,000,000 DOWNLOADS AND COUNTING!
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
If you're a skinny guy or gal struggling to gain weight…
Or a "fluffy" one struggling to "shift" fat…
Or somewhere in between…
This is going to be the most important fitness podcast you listen to.
Seriously.
And I want to start it with some good news:
Your genetics can't stop you from getting the body you really desire.
Yes, some people's bodies respond better to training than others', but I don't care how much of a "hardgainer" you think you are or how "stubborn" your body fat seems to be…
-You can build muscle.
-You can lose fat.
-And you can do it faster than you think.
Now, if you were to tell me your goal is to be an elite, competitive weightlifter or bodybuilder or physique competitor...that would be another story.
In those cases, genetics are hugely important.
Yes, steroids are involved and yes, training experience and methodologies matter...but the biggest and strongest guys and gals in the world were abnormally big and strong their entire lives.
My point is this: at the top, where everyone works smart and hard, genetics determine who's truly great and who's not.
That doesn't mean that us mere mortals are screwed, though.
Your genetics will influence how quickly you can reach your goals but aren't going to keep you small, weak, and fat.
And in this podcast, you're going to learn the three major body types, how to determine which you (primarily) are, and how to approach dieting and training for maximal results.
Let's get to it.
8:09 - How do I determine my body type? Which body type do I have?
15:48 - What is the best type of body for ectomorphs?
37:16 - What are the best type of workouts for ectomorphs?
40:48 - How much cardio should ectomorphs do?
41:38 - What are the best supplements for ectomorphs?
43:53 - What is the mesomorph body type?
45:17 - What is the best diet for mesomorphs?
47:59 - What are the best type of workouts for mesomorphs?
50:13 - What is the endomorph body type?
51:34- What is the best diet for endomorphs?
54:52 - What are the best type of workouts for endomorphs?
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’re over age 65, you’re more likely to die from heart disease than any other cause.
Why, though?
Is it due to stress? Over or under exercising? Eating too much fat, cholesterol, and junk food? A bit of each or something else altogether?
Scientists have been searching for answers to those questions for a long time now, but if there’s one culprit that has been fingered more than any other, it’s diet. For a couple decades now, we’ve been told by experts everywhere that saturated fat, cholesterol, and often just dietary fat in general increases our your risk of heart disease, full stop.
This idea has been further bolstered by the promotion of the food pyramid, which tells us to get most of our calories from whole grains like pasta, cereal, and bread, and as few calories as possible from added fats like oils, butter, lard, and others.
Is it really that simple, though? Is reducing our dietary fat intake really the best way to avoid heart disease?
Frankly, while I’ve read enough to know there are some major holes in the “less fat = less heart disease” hypothesis, I’m not an expert on the topic, so I invited my buddy Dr. Spencer Nadolsky on the show to break it down.
I caught him at a good time, too, because he’s currently studying for certification on this very topic and shares some great insights on the most current scientific understanding of how our diets actually affect our tickers.
6:16 - How was the food pyramid created?
8:30 - What are the different types of fats and how do they affect your cholesterol?
10:25 - Does eating cholesterol raise your cholesterol?
14:09 - If you usually eat no cholesterol and start eating cholesterol, will you have a jump in your blood cholesterol? Does that normalize over time?
15:49 - What’s the purpose of having two different types of lipoproteins?
18: 27 - What does endogenous and exogenous mean?
19:39 - What is familial hypercholesterolemia?
21:03 - What does the research say about the mediterranean diet?
23:41 - What kind of effect does the stearic acid in chocolate have on LDL?
26:27 - What foods should people limit their intake of?
28:24 - Have you seen doctors go to the dark side?
37:07 - At what number is our LDL cholesterol a risk of heart disease?
40:06 - How much red meat should we have?
43:52 - Any more advice you had on saturated fat?
43:42 - How many servings of butter should we have per day?
51:11 - Can eating poorly from a young age have irreversible damage to your body?
53:55 - 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/
“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!
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/
My books for men and women—Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger—include an entire section on the “mental game” of getting fit. I’ve also recently published an entire book on the topic called The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation.
The reason I’ve put a lot of time into discussing the “softer” side of fitness is just knowing what to isn’t enough. You also need a strong enough why—strong enough to help you persevere through the struggles and setbacks, pick yourself up when you fall, and ultimately see your goals through to completion.
Fortunately, you don’t need a psychology degree to accomplish this, either. It mostly boils down to understanding and applying a few powerful mental strategies that effectively combat many of the mental hobgoblins that can sabotage you.
If you can overcome these obstacles, you’ll probably get the body you really want, and if you can’t, you probably won’t. It’s really that simple.
All that is why I invited my friend and fellow fitness professional, Sal Di Stefano of Mind Pump Media, on the show. Sal’s a bit of a specialist on the inner game of getting fit because he spent the better part of a couple decades in the trenches helping normal, everyday people get into great shape and he knows what the real issues are and what really solves them and what doesn’t.
In this show, we talk about . . .
- The psychology of “food addiction”
- How you can prevent and fix intense cravings and binging
- How to resolve body image insecurities
- The benefits and drawbacks of prolonged fasts
- And more.
So . . . if you’re curious how you can conquer the mental demons that so often demoralize dieters, this episode is for you.
19:01 - What is the psychology behind food and why is it hard to break bad eating habits?
21:17 - What are some of your strategies to help break people’s attachment to food?
54:17 - How have you dealt with the high expectations of body standards?
58:58 - Do you still have body insecurities?
1:14:246 - 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/
“Sugar is the new crack cocaine!”
Yeah, people are actually saying that these days.
They're telling us that sugar is as addictive as cocaine, and the more we eat, the more likely we are to get fat, sick, and, ultimately, dead.
It sounds bad. Really bad.
How true is it, though?
Does every dessert we eat push us a little further down the slippery slope of disease and dysfunction, and make it ever harder to claw our way back to optimal health and vitality?
Can we develop a “sugar dependence” in the same way we can become physically dependent on alcohol, cocaine, or heroin?
Can it get so bad that we can experience legitimate withdrawal symptoms if we stop eating sugar?
Well, the short answer is this:
The “addictive properties” of sugar are being grossly exaggerated by many mainstream diet and health "gurus."
Yes, it’s tasty and pleasurable, and yes, many people might think they're addicted to it, but as you’ll soon see, that doesn’t make for a valid medical condition.
Likewise, most discussions of “sugar withdrawal” are equally bogus.
In fact, the absence of genuine withdrawal symptoms, like those seen with hard drugs, is one of the dead giveaways that sugar doesn't warp our brains in the same ways.
So, if you’re ready to learn the truth about sugar withdrawal, and what constitutes a real addiction and what doesn't, then you want to listen to this podcast.
4:36 - What is sugar withdrawal?
8:07 - Is sugar withdrawal real?
Mentioned on the Show:
10 Proven Ways to Relax Your Muscles and Mind: https://www.muscleforlife.com/ways-to-relax/
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/
Meditation has become wildly popular in the past decade or so.
So popular, in fact, that’s it’s easy to write it off as another “woo woo” fad, like water fasting, cupping therapy, or lectin-free diets.
It’s not, though.
While the health benefits of meditation are often overblown, it’s hard to argue with the subjective benefits it provides.
I don’t have much personal experience with meditation, so I wanted to pick the brain of someone who does: Ben Pakulski.
Ben has been through intense highs and extreme lows in his life as a professional bodybuilder, and he’s used meditation to help him grow from these experiences for over a decade.
So . . . if you’re curious if carving out some time every day to meditate can actually improve your ability to cope with and benefit from life’s many stressors, this episode is for you.
5:50 - Why are you getting into meditation and what does it do for you?
13:21 - How did it look before and after you had overhauled your ability to focus?
19:57 - Do you find it hard to switch hats from a business man to a family man every day?
21:44 - Have you written down the traits of each of your avatars?
48:00 - What does spirituality mean to you?
52:36 - What’s an example of an altered state of consciousness?
54:08 - What do you think experiencing an altered state of consciousness means?
1:23:17 Where can people find you and your work?
Mentioned on The Show:
Bigger Leaner Stronger: http://geni.us/BLSBook
Reincarnation Research from UVA: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/who-we-are/dops-media/video-reincarnation-research/
The Anglo-American Establishment by Carroll Quigley: https://www.amazon.com/Anglo-American-Establishment-Carroll-Quigley/dp/0945001010/?tag=mflweb-20
Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley: https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Hope-History-World-Time/dp/094500110X/?tag=mflweb-20
The Muscle Intelligence Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/muscle-intelligence/id1448211060
Ben’s Website: https://www.mi40nation.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.muscleforlife.com/signup/
If you want to lose fat or gain muscle, then you need to know how many calories you burn every day.
If you don’t, it’s going to be a lot harder than it should be, if not impossible.
But if you’re here, that’s probably not news to you. (And if you don’t, read this article first and come back.)
You just aren’t sure how to actually do it – how to easily and accurately calculate how many calories you’re burning.
You’ve probably also poked around for an answer already and discovered that you have quite a few options.
Mathematical formulas, fitness and activity trackers, workout machine readouts, and so on.
Which can you rely on, though? Which will be best for you?
Well, that’s what you’re going to learn in this podcast.
By the end, you’ll understand which methods of calculating calories burned work, which don’t, and which are the simplest and most practical.
3:30 - How do scientists measure energy expenditure?
11:23 - How accurate are the calorie readouts on workout machines?
16:45 - How can you figure out how many calories you’re burning through exercise?
22:03 - How can you figure out how many calories you burn every day?
Mentioned on the Show:
Bigger Leaner Stronger: http://geni.us/BLSBook
A Simple and Accurate BMR Calculator (and How to Use It): https://www.muscleforlife.com/bmr-calculator/
How to Use Calorie Cycling to Build Muscle and Lose Fat: https://www.muscleforlife.com/calorie-cycling/
This Is the Best TDEE Calculator on the Web (2019): https://www.muscleforlife.com/tdee-calculator/
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/
Chiropractic is a controversial subject in the fitness community.
On the one hand, some people claim it can fix all kinds of aches, pains, and ailments ranging from low-back pain to indigestion, headaches, brain fog, and more.
On the other hand, some say that chiropractic is a pseudoscientific discipline run by greedy charlatans who provide absolutely no value beyond the placebo effect.
And if you poke around on the Internet and there’s plenty evidence of the latter, what with the myriad Internet “gurus” who use their “Doctor of Chiropractic” credentials to mislead people into thinking they’re medical doctors and thus experts on anything and everything related to health and wellness.
What’s the real story though? Is chiropractic a science or a sham?
Well, that’s what prompted me to invite Jordan Shallow on the show. Jordan’s a licensed chiropractor but also a high-level strength coach and competitive powerlifter, and in this interview, he helps shed light on the pros and cons of chiropractic, how it works, why people use it, and how it can and can’t benefit you, and more.
7:41 - What is a chiropractic?
10:21 - Point of adjustments
13:43 - Golgi tendon reflex
22:02 - How do you find a good chiropractor?
25:30 - What are Common Issues ?
35:08 - Mobility / yoga at home
39:37 - Stretching Properly
42:32 - Exercises to improve stability
49:00 - Whole body exercises
54:50 - Stabilizing positions
1:04: 41 - Find your work
Mentioned on the Show:
Legion Athletics Triton: https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/triton/
Clinical Athlete Website: http://www.clinicalathlete.com/
Jordan’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rxd-radio/id1197955534
Jordan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_muscle_doc/?hl=en
Jordan’s Website: https://themuscledoc.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.muscleforlife.com/signup/
You probably know drinking water is good for you.
You probably also know dehydration is bad for you, and you’ve probably heard you should drink water frequently throughout the day and err on the side of drinking a little more than you feel necessary rather than less.
And you’re probably here because you heard that instead of drinking boring peasant water, you should avail yourself of the miraculous health benefits of alkaline water, including . . .
- Less inflammation and oxidative stress in the body
- Better hydration
- Anti-aging effects
- Weight loss
- Less joint pain and fewer headaches
- Lower risk of cancer, fatigue, leaky gut, osteoporosis, and basically every other ailment
- More energy, drive, and vitality
- And more
In fact, according to some of the self-professed H20 experts shilling alkaline water, you should never drink anything but high-pH water.
To do that, all you have to do is fork over a few grand for a contraption that uses a process called ionization (magic, basically) to transmute toxic tap water into a super-hydrating, inflammation-fighting, life-giving elixir “they” don’t want you to know about.
If you’re uncomfortable with that price tag, you’re looking at this the wrong way. Just think about how much money your pristine health is going to save you in the long run.
When your friends and family start dropping like flies due to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and the like, you’re going to be bouncing gleefully from one day to the next, like you’ve swallowed the star from Super Mario.
So the real question is how can you not afford to buy a water sorcery machine from me for which I’ll be paid a 50% sales commission?
What’s that? You want to know if there’s any scientific evidence of these claims?
Of course there’s scientific evidence. Don’t look into it, but 97% of water scientists agree with everything I’ve just said. Now will that be cash or credit?
And this is where my comedy shtick ends and real joke begins, which is alkaline water itself. Because the short story is it’s nonsense. All of it.
Let’s find out why.
5:06 - What is alkaline water?
6:59 - What is ionized water?
10:22 - Why do people drink alkaline and ionized water?
19:20 - Who popularized alkaline dieting and drinking?
21:04 - Is ionized water better for you?
22:05 - What does ionized water do for you?
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/
Ten years ago, pre-workout supplements were for the unhinged looking dudes in the gym who nobody made eye contact with.
You know the type: steroids, stringers, water jugs, strutting and peacocking, and the like.
Back then, the pre-workout space mostly consisted of products like Craze, Jack3d, and Detonate (all of which have been banned, by the way) that contained mega-doses of amphetamine-like stimulants and little else.
Fortunately, times have changed, and now we have pre-workout supplements that contain lower levels of much safer stimulants plus clinically effective doses of safe, natural ingredients scientifically proven to enhance performance and muscle and strength gain.
That’s why people who take their training seriously aren’t asking whether they should take a pre-workout supplement anymore but instead which they should choose and why.
And that’s what Kurtis Frank and I talk about in today’s interview.
In case you’re not familiar with Kurtis, he’s the director of Research and Development for my supplement company Legion Athletics as well as the co-founder and former lead researcher and writer for Examine.com, which is the premiere online resource for science-based information on supplementation.
Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll learn in this episode:
- What a pre-workout is
- Ingredients that do and don’t significantly improve performance
- How much you need to take of these ingredients to see benefits
- The pros and cons of including creatine in a pre-workout supplement
- And more.
5:43 - Interview
7:00 - Definition of Pre Workout
11:40 - Power output
18:18 - Alpha - GPC
20:12 - Alpha GPC dose
23:01 - How long before the workout should you consume?
31:39 - Best time to take creatine
34:32 - anaerobic
38:31 - Effective dose and timing of Citrulline
46:47 - Beta - alanine dose and timing.
49:09- What is betaine
59:05 - Aerobic
1:01:57 -Bad pre workout supplements
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/
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
