Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - 12 Diet and Exercise “Hacks” That Actually Work

Starting point is 00:00:00 I am Mike Matthews, and this is Muscle for Life. Thank you for joining me today for a short but informative episode where I share with you some very simple diet and training hacks. I use that term hacks tongue in cheek because that usually means bullshit. But in this episode, I'm going to give you some very simple tweaks that you can make to your nutrition and to your exercise that can make a big difference in your bottom line results. But first, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and want 125 of my favorite

Starting point is 00:00:42 quick, easy, and delicious fitness-friendly recipes, you want to get a copy of my flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Because here's the deal. You don't need to follow a bland, boring bodybuilder diet to get into the best shape of your life. You can eat delicious home-cooked meals you love without living in the kitchen, struggling with hard-to-prepare recipes, or overspending on expensive ingredients. And the Shredded Chef is the shortcut because it has 13 delicious and easy-to-make breakfast recipes like BLT Eggs Benedict, Huevos Rancheros, high-protein banana oat cakes, and more. It has 11 mouthwatering salads and dressings like a spicy Santa Fe taco salad, grilled Mediterranean salad with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, creamy jalapeno cilantro dressing, and more. It also has 14 low calorie

Starting point is 00:01:38 snacks that you'll actually want to eat like blueberry coconut pancake batter smoothie, maple walnut protein muffins, peanut butter protein swirl brownies, and more. There are also 16 succulent beef and pork recipes for savory lunches and dinners like beef stroganoff, one of my personal favorites, beef lo mein, parmesan crusted pork chops, and more. And then there are 18 tasty poultry dishes that you will love again and again, like curry chicken, Mexican meatloaf, which is killer, polo fajitas, and more. There are eight flavorful seafood recipes like creamy fettuccine with scallops, graham cracker crusted tilapia,

Starting point is 00:02:18 seared cod with no cook mustard caper sauce, and more. There are 11 appetizing side dishes like crispy squash fries. Squash fries are so good. If you've never had them before, you're in for a treat. Sweet potato chips, roasted garlic, twice baked potato, and more. And finally, there are 10 delectable and macro-friendly desserts that you can enjoy guilt-free like peach cobbler, maple raisin bread pudding, triple berry crisp, and more. I also give for all of those recipes, cook time, prep time, servings, calories, protein, carbs, and fat, which makes meal planning a breeze. And I even went further and put all of that information into a spreadsheet, which makes it even easier to build out your meal plan. And you can get that as a free download when you get the book, part of the free bonus material. And so all

Starting point is 00:03:11 of that is why The Shredded Chef has sold well over 300,000 copies, has received over 3,304 and five-star reviews on Amazon, and has helped that I know of thousands of people build their best body ever. And you can find it on all major online retailers, wherever you like to buy books, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play, BN.com, even Audible. There is an audio book. And yes, some people do buy cookbooks as audio books. Who knew? And you can also find The Shredder Chef in select Barnes & Noble stores. Let's start with diet. Here's a simple diet hack. Go unfollow anyone who says that you should do a cleanse or a detox of any kind whatsoever. Because here's what you think happens on a cleanse. Fat loss and detoxification. That's normally the pitch.

Starting point is 00:04:06 on a cleanse. Fat loss and detoxification. That's normally the pitch. And then here's what actually happens. Fat loss, muscle loss, no detoxification, mind-flaying hunger and cravings, explosive mud butt, and cleaning the 47 different parts of your $500 juicer. Here is another diet quick fix. Go unfollow anyone who says that you should take a DNA or a microbiome test to improve your diet. Here, I'll save you the $100. Eat vegetables instead of cinnamon rolls and drink water instead of Oreo shakes. There you go. Now you don't need to do the DNA test. And another person you should go unfollow is the person who says that you need to stop drinking diet soda because it will make you fat. Now, can artificial sweeteners make you crave sweets? Maybe, but probably not enough to matter. stimulate our brains in the same way that sugar does. And studies have found that replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners can help with weight loss and often does not with everyone, but often

Starting point is 00:05:11 does. Yet another very simple diet hack is unfollowing anyone who says that skipping breakfast is the secret to getting ripped and living forever. And intermittent fasting also will not boost your metabolism. Ironically, in the short term, fasting does the exact opposite. It reduces energy expenditure. You should also bat away anyone who says that nuts are a great source of protein, that fruit has too much sugar, and that white rice is bad for you, but brown rice is okay. much sugar and that white rice is bad for you, but brown rice is okay. And don't let the credentials of these people short circuit your critical thinking. Just because someone has an advanced degree from a prestigious school, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and so forth, that does not mean that they can't give quacky or even dangerous diet and exercise advice. And you know who else deserves the gate?

Starting point is 00:06:08 Anyone who says that eating any individual food or macro will ruin your health or make you fatter or make you leaner. These people are just as confused as the people who think that strippers are really into them. And this happened that one third pound hamburgers contain less meat than quarter pounders. And again, yes, that happened. One third pound hamburgers were not received well by hamburger eaters. They wanted their quarter pounder back. Maybe somebody should have tried a fifth pounder. Okay, now let's talk about exercise. Exercise hacks. Who should we unfollow here? Well, let's start with unfollowing anyone who says that your knees should never go past your toes when you squat. Now, forcing your knees too far forward when you're squatting or when you're lunging, that can increase the risk of injury, especially if you

Starting point is 00:07:03 are lifting heavy weights. But if you happen to have long limbs, for example, your knees will probably extend up to, or maybe beyond your toes as you reach depth in those exercises with good form. Another exercise quick fix, go and follow anyone who says that cardio does not help you lose fat. Go and follow anyone who says that cardio does not help you lose fat. Cardio burns fat. But remember that burning fat isn't the same as losing fat in the sense of reducing body fat levels. To lose fat, to improve body composition, to reduce body fat percentage, you have to burn more fat than you store consistently over time. You have to be in a state referred to as negative fat balance. And another tip that will make an immediate difference in your training is to get off your phone in between sets. And not for the

Starting point is 00:07:58 reasons that you might think. Surprisingly, research shows that scrolling in between sets can significantly hurt athletic performance. And so what should you do instead? Well, there are a couple of options proven to do the opposite to help your training. You can visualize your next set, visualize yourself doing it successfully, of course. You can review effective weightlifting cues. Think about the cues that you're going to use in your next set that's going to help you maintain proper form and perform better. And you can listen to rousing music. And I have a few more useful exercise dribs and drabs for you. The first is an effective strength workout looks like this. You do a few hard sets, which are sets taken close to muscular failure of a couple, maybe one or two max three compound movements, big movements that involve multiple muscle joints,

Starting point is 00:08:54 multiple major muscle groups. And then you do a few hard sets of a few isolation exercises, and you call it stumps. That is an effective workout. Number two on my list here, the order in which you do exercises in a workout does not appear to affect muscle growth, but it does impact strength. Research shows that strength gains are greatest in the exercises that are done earliest in a training session. So as a rule of thumb, start your workouts with the exercises you most want to get stronger in. And that is usually a compound movement or multiple compound movements. And then toward the end of your workouts is usually where you are doing your isolation exercises. And my third and final exercise hack for you is 10 to 15 high effort sets, sets that are taken

Starting point is 00:09:49 close to muscular failure where you're focused and you're pushing yourself. That is far more effective, economical and fun than 20, 25, 30 plus medium effort sets where you are ending the sets far from muscular failure, four plus reps from failure and where you are not focused and you are not feeling any sort of mind muscle connection. You're not getting much of a pump and so forth. Remember that you can train any which way and get sweaty and sore, but to get stronger and to get fitter, you have to train in very specific ways. And that doesn't necessarily mean training longer. It means training better. and it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general,

Starting point is 00:10:55 or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - 12 Diet and Exercise “Hacks” That Actually Work

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.