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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
I’m not sure any of us can say why, but having abs is cool.
They’re sexy, something to be proud of. To show off, even. They’re the fitness equivalent of “having arrived.”
That’s probably why many people start working out with the sole purpose of getting a six pack.
And then the confusion begins.
Diet after diet, workout after workout, supplement after supplement, all claiming to be the key to getting a ripped core.
Frustration is next.
After months of trying anything and everything, still no abs. Just belly flab.
Well, if you can relate to any of that, you’ve come to the right place, because in just a few minutes, you’re going to know the exact steps to get abs.
And I think you’re going to be happy to see that it’s much easier than you’ve been led to believe by mainstream “gurus.”
At bottom, there are just three things you have to do to get the abs you really want:
1. Lose the belly fat.
2. Do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting.
3. Do the right ab and core exercises.
Yup, that’s it. No “weird tricks” or strange diets or silly supplements.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these steps.
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In this episode I interview Jared, who recently completed my 90 day coaching program, which helped him lose 23 pounds, 6% body fat, and 5 inches off his waist while also gaining a significant amount of strength on all of his major lifts.
Even more impressive is the fact that he did this at 42 years old with a family and a full-time job, and in this interview, he’s going to walk us through his journey. He’s going to share with us what he’d done previously and what worked and what didn’t, how he found his way to me and my coaching service, and how he and his coach worked through a number of challenges and the biggest lessons he learned along the way.
4:09 - What was your fitness journey like before starting our coaching program?
7:31 - How did you find us?
9:29 - What are some of the obstacles you had to overcome?
13:11 - What was your body fat and weight before and after our coaching program?
13:52 - Are you currently maintaining or bulking?
21:02 - How did you manage your diet during the holidays?
22:34 - What was your diet while you were cutting?
26:19 - What did your workout program look like?
28:27 - How has being healthy and fit impacted other areas of your life?
30:32 - How has being healthy and fit impacted your psychology?
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Bulking is a controversial topic.
Some say it’s the only way to gain muscle effectively, and others say it’s a relic of the Dark Ages bodybuilding.
“You gotta eat big to get big,” the former say.
“No,” the latter reply, “you just have to eat right.”
That is, traditional bulking maintains that, to achieve maximum muscle growth, you should do whatever it takes to cram down thousands of calories per day (GOMAD, for example), and accept rapid fat gain as a price to be paid.
Followers of the new philosophy, however, say that you don’t have to eat a large surplus of food and gain a large amount of body fat to build muscle effectively.
If you train right, and ensure you’re recovering adequately, they claim, you don’t need to cudgel your body with calories to grow.
Who’s right? Well, both are.
Old-school bulkers are correct in that you need to eat more food than usual to build muscle efficiently, and new-schoolers are correct in that ballooning your body fat percentage is not only unnecessary for muscle building, but detrimental.
There’s a sweet spot is in the middle, which is where clean bulking enters the picture.
It marries what bodybuilders have known anecdotally for decades with what modern scientific research into muscle hypertrophy has revealed, giving you the best of both worlds.
In other words, clean bulking allows you to gain muscle as quickly as possible, without forcing you to get fat in the process.
And in this episode, we’re going to break it all down.
You’re going to learn where “dirty bulking” misses the mark, why clean bulking works better, and how to actually go about doing it.
Let’s get started.
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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/
Pre JYM is one of the most highly rated pre-workout supplements on the market today, and it’s no surprise why.
It boasts a long list of active ingredients, it contains no proprietary blends, and its formulation appears to be backed by sound scientific research.
It’s also quite similar to my pre-workout Pulse because both contain citrulline malate, betaine, and beta-alanine, so many people wonder how the two compare.
So, how good is Pre JYM? Well, the short story is this:
Pre JYM’s formulation is better than many other pre-workouts on the market. It contains several high-quality ingredients at clinically effective levels and will likely enhance your physical performance and mental alertness.
That said, Pre JYM also contains ingredients that don’t make sense given the formulation, as well as ingredients that are included at suboptimal dosages.
Pulse, on the other hand, contains fewer ingredients, but all are chosen for good reason and included at clinically effective levels. Thus, it’s likely to deliver more bottom-line benefits and results.
Let’s find out why.
6:15 - What does science have to say about Pre-Jym?
6:42 - What is Creatine HCL?
7:49 - What is the clinically effective dosage of creatine?
9:27 - What is beta alanine?
10:04 - What is the clinically effective dosage of creatine?
10:32 - What is betaine?
10:59 - What is the clinically effective dosage of betaine?
11:17 - What is taurine?
12:13 - What is n-acetyl cysteine?
13:11 - What is the clinically effective dosage of n-acetyl cysteine?
13:44 - What is alpha gpc?
14:21 - What is the clinically effective dosage of alpha gpc?
16:00 - What is citrulline malate?
17:00 - What is the clinically effective dosage of citrulline malate?
17:19 - What is beetroot extract?
18:26 - What is the clinically effective dosage of beetroot extract?
19:18- What is branched chain amino acids?
22:47 - What is tyrosine?
23:53 - What is the clinically effective dosage of tyrosine?
24:25 - What is caffeine?
24:44 - What is the clinically effective dosage of caffeine?
25:05 - What is huperzine a?
27:19 - What is the clinically effective dosage of huperzine a?
28:08 - What is black pepper extract?
29:18 - What does science have to say about Pulse?
32:38 - What is l-ornithine?
33:23 - What is the clinically effective dosage of l-ornithine?
33:56 - What is l-theanine?
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If you ask the average gymgoer what single physical factor most affects muscle growth and fat loss, they would probably answer “testosterone levels.”
And they’re right.
Testosterone is certainly a primary hormonal driver of muscle growth. Research has shown that anabolic steroids, which drastically raise testosterone levels, given to even young, healthy men can induce muscle growth and fat loss without any exercise whatsoever.
Thus, it would be fair to assume that the higher our testosterone levels are, the more muscle we build and the leaner we get, right?
Well, this is where things get interesting.
Let’s dive in.
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Blood flow restriction training is making waves of late.
It sounds new. It sounds scientific. And some are saying it’s revolutionary.
Well, it also smacks of artifice. Like it was contrived by marketers to sell the latest round of magazines, pills, and powders.
And so if you’ve been skeptical, good. You should be.
You see, the more time you spend educating yourself in the ways of muscle building, the more you become certain of one thing:
If something sounds too good to be true — too easy, too effective, too innovative — it almost always is.
Is that the case with blood flow restriction training?
In this episode, Dr. Mike Zourdos is going to break it all down. He’s going to explain what blood flow restriction training is, how it’s supposed to increase muscle growth, what it’s best suited for, how to do it safely, and more.
In case you’re not familiar with Dr. Zourdos, he’s an assistant professor of Exercise Science at Florida Atlantic University, published scientist, and competitive powerlifter, as well as the head Powerlifting coach at Florida State University.
Mike also produces a fantastic monthly research review along with Dr. Eric Helms and Greg Nuckols, called MASS (www.strongerbyscience.com/mass), and this interview is actually based on one of the studies analyzed in their review.
11:07 - What is blood flow restriction training and how do you utilize it?
12:30 - Does blood flow restriction training increase strength and hypertrophy?
14:10 - Is blood flow restriction training safe?
15:21 - How much blood flow restriction is dangerous?
18:49 - When should we use blood flow restriction?
19:42 - How does blood flow restriction work and what makes it legitimate?
21:55 - How can you use blood flow restriction training after an injury?
30:26 - Is blood flow restriction training a good stand alone training method?
32:19 - Which areas of the body should you apply blood flow restriction?
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 dread the idea of “dieting,” I understand.
Most diets feel more like punishment than self improvement.
Instead of educating you on how the metabolism truly works and giving you the tools you need to manage it effectively, most diet “gurus” resort to fearmongering and food restriction instead.
If you want to lose fat or build “lean muscle,” they say, you can kiss just about everything you like eating goodbye.
Grains…anything containing gluten or sugar…high-glycemic carbs…red meat…processed foods…fruit…dairy…caloric beverages…granola…it’s all gotta go.
All your toys. Throw all that shit into the fire. No pain no gain! Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion!
Maybe you’re not up to this, you think. Maybe you’re not tough enough. You’ve always had trouble with willpower and dedication. Maybe abs aren’t really worth it.
On the other hand, who knows, maybe all you need in life is chicken, eggs, and vegetables? Starving children in Africa have it much worse…
Stop! Put the Kool-Aid down and slowly walk away.
What if I told you that you could dramatically transform your body eating foods you actually like…every day…7 days per week?
What if all you had to do to build muscle and lose fat was follow a handful of flexible dietary guidelines…not starve and deprive yourself?
And what if I promised you could forever break free of the restrictions and anxieties most people associate with dieting and learn to love it instead?
Too good to be true, you think? Downright heresy?
I know. I used to think the same thing. I now know the truth, though, and in this episode, I’m going to break it all down for you.
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/
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’ve ever wondered what a day in the shoes of yours truly is like, and how I generally think about and approach my work and life on the whole...then you’re in for a serious disappointment because it’s probably not nearly as glamorous as you might think.
Seriously though, this episode is actually an interview that I did with Dan Bradbury for his podcast, which is called The Business Growth Podcast, and I thought you all might find it interesting, so here it is.
In this interview, Dan and I talk about some topics that are more important than ever right now, including what gets in the way of us realizing our full potentials, what my daily routine looks like, what books have most helped me in my career, what are my most important pieces of advice for people who want to grow their businesses, and more.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
3:54 - How do you balance multiple businesses and family?
9:31 - What do you think gets in the way of people achieving their full potential?
18:39- What is driving your businesses rapid growth?
34:00 - What is your daily routine?
38:54 - What’s your opinion on human growth hormone spikes after heat exposure?
52:02 - What are the top three books that have had the greatest impact in your life?
65:34 - What’s the most important piece of advice you have for people who want to grow their businesses?
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/
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