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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
Intermittent fasting is pretty simple.
At bottom, you don’t eat for most of the day, then you cram all of your calories into an “eating window” that can last anywhere from a couple to 6 to 8 hours.
If that sounds stupid, uncomfortable, or even unhealthy, I understand. I thought the same thing when I first heard about it years ago.
It turns out, though, that it’s not like other fad diets. It’s not going to go the way of the grapefruit diet, “detox” cleanses, and the dodo bird.
On the contrary, intermittent fasting can be an effective tool for improving dietary compliance, it has good science on its side, and it doesn’t have to be unpleasant.
In fact, many people enjoy IF more than traditional eating patterns, mainly because it allows you to have larger meals.
What IF isn’t, though, is a miracle maker.
It won’t automagically help you gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, burn away that belly fat, or stay young forever.
As you’ll learn in this episode, the fundamentals of proper dieting still very much apply, and the main reason to do it is simply because you like it.
It isn’t complicated, either. There are just 5 simple steps to getting started:
1. Choose which protocol you want to follow.
2. Calculate your calories.
3. Calculate your macronutrients.
4. Create a meal plan that works.
5. Train while fasted (optional).
Let’s take a look at each.
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If you’re into weightlifting, you’ve become very acquainted with sore muscles.
You’ve done many reps of the “half-squat-toilet-fall.”
You’ve had the “is this just muscle soreness or am I actually dying?” thoughts.
And maybe you’ve even gone full Stockholm syndrome and now crave the daily debilitation.
Well, I’ve been there, I’ve learned some things, and now I’m going to pass on those lessons.
You see, like many people, I used to think muscle soreness was pretty black and white.
I assumed that sore muscles were a sign that I was doing something right, and the more sore I was, the more effective my workouts were.
(And as a corollary, I worried that workouts that produced little soreness also produced little results.)
Well, it turns out it’s not that simple.
Years ago, I used to do workouts that produced a tremendous amount of muscle soreness…and I made mediocre (at best) gains.
After dramatically changing the way I trained, however, I experienced far less muscle soreness but made far better progress.
In this episode, I’m going to explain why that is and what you need to know about sore muscles and training to optimize your results.
Let’s get started.
4:30 - Why do muscles get sore?
6:36 - What is delayed onset muscle soreness?
8:00 - Does muscle soreness mean muscle growth?
9:07 - What is muscle damage?
13:41 - How do you get rid of sore muscles?
17:35 - Which supplements should I take for building muscle and recovering faster?
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The Holy Grail of Fat Burning.
A supplement that you can take once a day and will prevent you from getting fat despite allowing you to eat anything you want. That magic bullet to shoot away all your problems and, hopefully, not kill you at the same time.
It doesn’t exist right now unfortunately, but that hasn’t stopped researchers from trying to discover it.
And even if the researchers haven’t discovered it, it definitely doesn’t stop marketers from trying to sell it to you.
There are many ideas that have popped up when it comes to how such an amazing theoretical fat burner could work and one of them, the topic of this episode, has quite a simple premise . . .
What if you just didn’t absorb the calories you ate? In one end and out the other?
Carb and fat blockers are a sub-genre of fat burners dedicated to preventing calorie uptake and have been studied, well, not extensively, but they do have evidence behind them.
Only one problem, they don’t always block calories alone. They sometimes block nutrients as well.
Are they worth your consideration? Do the benefits of absorbing fewer calories outweigh the hazards of absorbing fewer nutrients? Are some better than others?
Listen to this episode to find out.
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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 Mark Murphy, who is the founder and CEO of Leadership IQ, a leadership training services provider and the author of Hard Goals.
Mark and his team have worked with companies like Microsoft, IBM, Mastercard, and other industry giants, and in this interview, we dive deep into what he has discovered about effective goal setting, including...
Why setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely (“S.M.A.R.T.”) isn’t enough, and what you should do instead.
What people who have a hard time “finding their passion” should do to get motivated.
How to increase your sense of urgency to do the things you know you should be doing.
And more...
Click the player below to listen in ...
6:00 - What are hard goals versus smart goals?
32:29 - What is your advice for people who have a hard time finding passion driven goals?
40:20- How do we get better at avoiding procrastination?
47:45 - Why do people misjudge their future needs?
56:00 - How important is a sense of urgency for achieving goals?
1:03:29 - What are some ways people can increase their sense of urgency?
1:10:13 - How does minimizing costs increase sense of urgency?
1:15:10 - How do schools fail to educate their students on independent thinking?
1:18:47 - Where can people follow you and find your work?
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In this episode I interview Amy, who is 42 years old and recently completed my 90-day coaching service.
She shares how she found her way to me and my work, including what she had tried previously, how things changed after she started implementing the advice in my books and articles, and how my 90-day coaching service helped her take her body to a whole new level.
More specifically, she lost 8 pounds, 4% body fat, and an inch and a half off of her waist, while adding 145 pounds to all of her big lifts.
As with everything, nothing ever goes exactly as planned, and learning to adjust and adapt to conditions is an important part of the fitness game, which is something Amy experienced firsthand.
She 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, Amy shares what has helped her navigate these barriers skillfully and prevent them from getting in her way.
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, then this episode is for you.
6:54 - What caused your weight gain?
9:26 - How did you find our coaching program?
10:19 - What was the transition like from a low carb diet to a balanced diet?
12:33 - What was your weight and body composition when you started our coaching program?
13:30 - What was your experience with our coaching program?
20:15 - What were some obstacles you had to overcome during our coaching program?
23:37 - What were some of the differences you felt between a ketogenic diet and a balanced diet?
29:10 - Did being on a ketogenic diet affect your mood and energy levels?
30:05 - What were your results after our coaching program?
35:02 - What were people’s reaction to your transformation?
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In this episode, I speak with Greg Nuckols who’s a world-record holding powerlifter, researcher, and coach, and one of foremost authorities on the science of strength training.
Greg also produces a fantastic monthly research review along with Dr. Eric Helms and Dr. Mike Zourdos, called MASS (www.strongerbyscience.com/mass), and in this interview, Greg is going to break down one of the studies analyzed in their review.
The study he’s going to discuss looked at how doing high-rep squats and deadlifts compared to cycling sprints for improving cardiovascular fitness. In this discussion, Greg explains the different effects strength training and cardio have on cardiovascular fitness, whether or not doing high-rep compound weightlifting with short rest periods can give you the same benefits as sprints, what this means for your own training, body composition, and more.
4:10 - Can lifting replace cardio?
5:37 - What are the benefits of HIIT versus high intensity cardio?
10:13 - Which is more difficult - 30 seconds of 60% one rep max deadlifting or 30 seconds of sprinting?
15:14 - Physiologically, why don’t we need a lot of cardio when trying to lose fat?
Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!
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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/
You’ve probably heard that meditation can do many wonderful things for your body, like reduce stress and inflammation, help you live longer, think more clearly, and more.
How true are these claims, though?
Can something as simple as controlling your attention and focus for a few minutes every day have such profound benefits?
And, if so, what are the best and most effective ways of doing this?
Should you do “body focused” meditation, “open monitoring,” transcendental meditation, or something else?
Well, this is what we’re going to explore in today’s episode with Kurtis Frank, who is the co-founder of and former lead researcher and writer at Examine.com, as well as the Director of Research for my supplement company, Legion Athletics.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a tremendous amount of research available on meditation, but Kurtis read everything relevant that he could get his hands on, and in this interview, he breaks down his findings.
So...if you’ve wondered if carving out some time for daily meditation can actually make a difference in your life, then this episode is for you.
6:36 - What is meditation?
8:38 - What are the types of meditation?
12:00 - What is the difference of passive focus and active focus and what are some examples?
12:39 - Is reading a book more beneficial than listening to an audiobook?
15:02 - What are the benefits of focused based meditation?
15:25 - How can you tell if you have a problem with focusing?
17:53 - What are the benefits of open monitoring meditation?
20:09 - Which type of meditation is right for me?
21:30 - What are the downsides to meditation?
22:27 - Do brain training apps help your ability to focus?
25:10 - What are bullet hell games and are they beneficial?
28:16 - Is exercise a type of meditation?
28:48 - Is reading a type of meditation?
33:01 - What is the link between meditation and hallucinogens?
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“Muscles don’t grow in the gym.”
I’m sure you’ve heard that old bodybuilding adage before.
Well, there’s truth in it.
Weightlifting alone doesn’t make your muscles bigger and stronger. That’s what happens after the workouts.
That’s why the work that your body does to repair the stress and damage caused by training is just as important as the work you do in the gym to stress and damage your muscles.
The bottom line is if you’re not fully recovering from your workouts, you’re going to gain muscle and strength slower than you should.
This goes beyond muscle soreness, too.
The presence or absence of soreness is a factor to consider, but it’s not the acid test of post-workout recovery. Just because you’re not sore doesn’t mean your body is ready for another hard workout (and, on the flip side, just because a muscle group is sore doesn’t mean it can’t be trained again).
You see, heavy weightlifting places a lot of stress on the body that goes beyond muscle damage. It impacts your joints, glycogen stores, and nervous and endocrine systems, and it leaves a residue of systemic fatigue and inflammation that accumulates over time.
Your body does an excellent job of setting all this right, though, if you give it what it needs, which boils down these five steps:
1. Eat enough calories
2. Eat enough protein
3. Eat enough carbohydrate
4. Get ~8 hours of quality sleep every night
5. Take the right supplements
Let’s dive in and learn how to do each correctly.
Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter!
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