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
As you’ve probably guessed, these are shorter-than-usual cuts and bulks, normally in the range of three to four weeks, and in this podcast, Layne and I talk about how well they work.
Are they worth the trouble or should you just stick to the traditional bodybuilding approach of “lean bulking” until you’re uncomfortably fat, cutting until you can see your abs again, and then repeating?
That’s the question we answer in today’s interview, where we share what we’ve learned from our experiences with our own physiques as well as the thousands of people that we’ve worked with over the years.
So, if you want to know the pros and cons of continuous versus intermittent lean bulking and cutting and what’s probably going to be best for you, keep listening.
8:25 - Is it better to do longer or shorter periods of bulking/cutting?
13:30 - Should women do mini-cuts?
18:00 - What are the benefits of implementing diet breaks while cutting?
24:10 - What’s the body’s evolutionary response to caloric restriction?
28:00 - Is exercise a good means for fat loss or not?
32:46 - Do you think eating nutritionally bankrupt food increases the desire for more food?
42:20 - Should someone follow the carnivore diet?
54:45 - Should someone cut or bulk if they’re brand new to weightlifting and at a high body fat percentage?
57:35 - Where can people find you and your work?
Mentioned on The Show:
Triumph Multivitamin: https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/triumph/
Layne’s Website: https://www.biolayne.com/
Fat Loss Forever: https://www.biolayne.com/fat-loss-forever/
The Complete Contest Prep Guide: https://www.biolayne.com/the-complete-contest-prep-guide/
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'm running a giveaway on my Instagram!
Five (5) will receive a bottle of the newest flavor of Legion Athletics Whey+ - Salted Caramel!⠀⠀
⠀⠀
The flavor maestros at my manufacturer spent months working on this, and they really outdid themselves here.⠀
⠀
Imagine . . . a caramel-flavored protein powder that tastes like caramel and not burned wallet. That you don’t slam down but sip slowly. That makes sweet, dulce de leche love to your tongue.⠀
⠀
That’s what awaits you in every serving of salted caramel Whey+.⠀
⠀⠀
Listen to this episode to learn how you can enter to win or click here for more details:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvwq4luDJfr/
Every time I go to the gym, I see the same crowd of overweight people grinding away in their spin classes and treadmill, StairMaster, and elliptical sessions.
Every day they're there, sweating on the same machines--probably reserved and named by now--and they're just as fat as they ever were. Some are even fatter than when they started.
After all this time do they really think anything is going to change or am I witnessing some twisted kind of Stockholm Syndrome between fleshy slaves and mechanical lords?
Jokes aside, the truth is these people are just following decades of bad exercise advice centered around long hours of cardio, which has produced millions of overtrained, overweight, underfit people addicted to burning calories instead of getting fit.
Now, you might be thinking I'm staunchly anti-cardio. I'm not. I do cardio regularly and as you'll see, it has its benefits and uses.
When done properly, cardio can improve your health, help you lose fat faster, and even help you build muscle. But when done improperly, it can do the opposite: impair health, fail to help you lose weight, and negatively impact body composition.
So, in this podcast we're going to break down how much cardio you should do, how to get the most bang for your (sweaty) buck, and how much cardio is too much and why.
Let's start with how to determine if you should be doing cardio at all and if so, how much you should be doing.
4:53 - How much cardio should you do?
7:19 - Does cardio help you lose weight?
15:24 - How can you lose weight with cardio?
22:22- How does cardio affect muscle building?
25:34 - Should you do cardio or weights first?
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: 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=RacP3CN0Wkc
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/
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, Marooned
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/
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/
If you’re like most people, your hips feel tight all the time, and especially right at the top of your thighs.
They probably flare up when you do lower body exercises too, like the squat and deadlift.
Such is life with tight hip flexor muscles.
What can you do about it, though? Should you stretch? Strengthen? Something else altogether?
Well, poke around on the Internet and you’ll find a lot of conflicting opinions on what causes tight hip flexors and what to do about it.
Some people say that sitting is to blame because it shortens and weakens the muscles, others say exercise--and weightlifting in particular--is at fault, and others still say that muscle weakness is the root cause.
There isn’t much agreement about how to best fix the problem, either.
“Stretching is the key,” says one expert. “No,” counters the other, “strengthening must come first.”
And there you are in the middle, wondering whom to believe and what to do.
Well, the truth is hip flexor tightness isn’t as cut and dried as many people would have you believe. As you’ll see, causation is murky and “magic bullet” fixes are unlikely.
The good news, though, is you don’t have to know exactly why your hip flexors are acting up to figure out how to fix it, and with a little trial and error, you can do just that.
Let’s start at the top...
4:09 - What are hip flexors?
5:37 - What causes tight hip flexors?
9:01 - What are the best stretches for tight hip flexors?
14:18 - What are the best exercises for strengthening the hip flexors?
Mentioned on the Show:
https://www.muscleforlife.com/yoga-routine/
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/
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/
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
