Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Easy Fitness Wins You Can Score This Week

Episode Date: December 24, 2021

In this podcast, I’m sharing my appearance on The Pat Flynn Show, in which I discussed easy fitness wins. These are simple changes you can make right now to start establishing a healthy lifestyle that you can stick to long-term. Many people try to jump straight into the deep end when they try to get fit and healthy. Grueling workouts with no days off, and extreme diets that deprive you of your favorite foods and leave you hungry and tired. The “all-in” method can work for some, but most people do better with the tiny-habit approach. That is, fostering small behavioral changes that you sustain and build on over time. So in this episode, I share some easy, simple changes you can make that can help build momentum and overcome the inertia that pulls you toward staying sedentary and unfit. Timestamps: 0:00 - Pre-order my new fitness book now for a chance to win over $12,000 in splendid swag: https://www.muscleforlifebook.com/ 21:14 - Walking 29:24 - What's my motivation? 34:33 - Be flexible with your programming 39:59 - Perfection isn't necessary 42:26 - An easy diet win 45:43 - Food journal 47:10 - Replacing soda and sugar-sweetened beverages 49:48 - Increase your protein 52:43 - New book Muscle For Life Mentioned on the Show: Pre-order my new fitness book now for a chance to win over $12,000 in splendid swag: https://www.muscleforlifebook.com/

First, have you pre-ordered your copy of my new book, Muscle for Life, yet and entered my giveaway of over $12,500 of splendid fitness swag? What? Why the devil not? Do you hate fun? Well, look, if it pleases your grace, go to muscleforlifebook.com, muscleforlifebook.com now and pre-order a copy of the book and enter the giveaway. Let's remedy this scandalous state of affairs. And I would counsel haste as well because my big book launch bonanza ends in a couple of weeks and then the winners will be chosen. So anyways, let's shift gears quickly and talk about tracking body weight, which is more fiddly than people realize. Because one of the easiest ways to drive yourself to distraction in your fitness journey is to obsess over daily

shifts in your weight, which often have nothing to do with gaining or losing fat or muscle. So for example, even slight swings in fluid retention, glycogen levels, that's a form of carbohydrate stored in your muscles, primarily in your liver as well. And bowel movements can produce pretty noticeable ups and downs in your body weight. And so a much better way to measure and to track body weight is to look at longer range averages. Those are less erratic and those better register the stuff that we actually care about, which is fat and muscle. Now, if over the course of weeks and months, the averages are moving down, then you are clearly losing weight. If they are moving up, you are clearly gaining weight.

And so here's a simple procedure. Weigh yourself every one to three days, first thing in the morning, naked after the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything, and then record those numbers somewhere accessible, like an Excel file or a Google sheet or the notepad app in your phone. And if you want to take it even further, some people like to graph the numbers in a spreadsheet. And then every couple of weeks, every 10 to 14 days, add your weigh-ins together and then divide the sum by the number of weigh-ins to get your average daily weight for that period, and then record that as well. And so here's how this might look for somebody who's cutting. Let's say on Monday, they weigh 163 pounds. On Thursday, 164. On Sunday, 162. On Wednesday, 161. On Saturday, 161. On Tuesday, 160. So the average daily weight is 162

pounds. We add up all of those weigh-ins, 808 pounds. We divide by six, the number of weigh-ins for 162. And then repeat that process. And let's say the average is 161, great. If they're cutting, that is a good sign. If it is 163, that is not necessarily a bad sign. It depends what is happening in the mirror, what is happening with their body composition. But if after several rounds of six weigh-ins, the weight is going up and the waist is getting bigger, for example, body composition is not getting leaner in the mirror, then that just means they have to make some adjustments. So that's a simple process. It's a clean process. And if you want more of my wisdom on how to measure and how to improve your body composition, pick up a copy of my new book, Muscle for Life today, go over to muscleforlifebook.com

and pre-order your copy. It comes out on January 11th and then enter the giveaway. Instructions are on the page and you can win all kinds of glorious fitness goodies. Again, I'm giving away over $12,500 of stuff. So go check it out, muscleforlifebook.com. Hey, and welcome to Muscle for Life. I am Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today. And if you haven't already, please do take a moment to subscribe to the show in whatever app you are listening to me in so you don't miss any new episodes. And it helps me because it boosts the ranking of the show in the various charts.

Now, this episode is me going on Pat Flynn's podcast, and not the Smart Passive Income Pat Flynn, but the Chronicles of Strength and Pat Flynn Show, Pat Flynn, the fitness Pat Flynn. And he and I and his co-host, James Madden, talked about easy fitness wins. And it was a lot of me talking because I was the guest on the show. And so I thought it would be worthwhile to share this discussion here on my podcast because I think that you, dear listener, will like it. Now, what are easy fitness wins? Well, they are easy things you can do right away to improve your fitness in some capacity. Sometimes it's

directly improving your physical fitness and sometimes it's more about the inner game. It's more about improving your motivation, improving your habits, or just maintaining your habits. We are coming into the holiday season and And for a lot of us, that means schedule disruptions, diet disruptions. We are probably not going to be getting in all of our normal workouts. We are probably not going to be following our normal meal plans. And that is totally fine. That is part of enjoying the holidays. And I do that myself. So I recommend that to everyone. Don't let rigid adherence to your normal routine get in the way of enjoying time with your friends and family. You can have your cake and eat it too, literally. You can stay active, go after some of

these easy wins that we are going to share with you in this podcast and minimize the quote-unquote damage minimize the fat gain really is what most of us are concerned about right we don't want to gain too much fat we don't want to lose too much muscle and so it's fairly easy to minimize fat gain and to at least maintain muscle and strength over the holidays so then in the new year, we can get back to what we normally do and quickly, and by quickly, I mean within a couple of weeks, lose any fat that we might've gained and quickly get right back to our normal training regimen, our normal weights, our normal volume and so forth. And lastly, but not leastly, this episode will also be helpful for people who

are just starting out in their fitness journeys, because depending on where you're at, it might not make sense for you to try to go all in on my bigger, leaner, stronger, or thinner, leaner, stronger program right away. For example, it might make sense for you to ease into that level of meal planning and weightlifting. And that, by the way, is why I wrote a new book specifically for people who are new to all of this and specifically for people who are new to all of this and in the 40 plus crowd. And that book is called Muscle for Life. It is available for pre-order right now at muscleforlifebook.com. And so if you are just starting out, Muscle for Life will help you as well as the information in this podcast, because as you will learn, there are very

simple things you can start doing right away to start improving your fitness, to start improving your body composition, and to start building the most important habits that are going to allow you to get and stay fit for the long term. Rock and roll. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I am joined by my now regular co-host, Dr. Jim Madden, and we have the great pleasure, indeed the honor, to be joined once again by the master himself, Mike Matthews from Legion and Muscle for Life. It's been a while, Mike. Welcome back to the show, my friend.

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to, I think I saw it on my calendar in the next week or two, we're going to be having some fun again, Pat, on my show. Yeah. Let's, let's talk about that for a minute. We're going to talk about some easy fitness wins in this episode. So I think this will be really appropriate for just the holiday season coming up and just help people build momentum and stuff like that. We're also going to talk about a new book you have coming out, but your podcast has been a lot of fun because, um, I think, I think it started, we we you wanted to just have me on the

tall kettlebells and it went so delightfully off the rails uh i think we started talking about politics and philosophy and religion and we enjoyed it so much that we've kind of made it a semi-regular series and jim joined us for one of them on philosophy of mind so i don't know if we have a topic for the next one but if anybody anybody wants something that is on a fitness, we don't actually, we usually, I think we maybe, maybe for once we'll actually put a little bit of forethought into it. Yeah. Well, I think it's best when, when we don't. And the one thing I just, and then we'll, we'll hit the topic at hand that I really appreciated about those conversations, Mike, is that, and Jim and I have talked about this a lot is, you know, we i have talked about this a lot is you know

we agree on a number of things but you know we have different positions on a lot of other things and uh like we just had a really productive conversation amidst disagreement right and um how lacking that is in today's world so i always i always just remember those conversations we have is like dang if only if only all conversations could like model this when people disagree right because it's it's frustrating where we are in today's world but anyway i mean i personally like being challenged i like those types of discussions even where the tables are turned i mean obviously if i'm interviewing you i'm mostly just listening and i'm trying to just shut up because that's what most people want in an interview but uh the the. But and this is something I've said many times. I actually wish if I look back over the course of

maybe even my business career, but also in my personal life, I would have valued, I have a couple of these people in my life now, particularly in business, who will challenge my thinking, who I can go to and I can say, hey, this is what I'm thinking about strategically. I have A, B, or C, which of these doors I think A makes sense. And one of my good friends, he's a very nice guy, but he's very straightforward. He'd be like, no, it doesn't make sense. Hey, let me explain to you why if I were you, I would take door B. And I really value those discussions. Like I am not a very defensive person. Certainly not. I don't quickly retreat into that bunker mentality.

And I have maybe a couple of contacts in my personal life who would do the same. But it's interesting that I've had to cultivate that kind of relationship with a few people where I've had to show them that I'm not going to just argue for the sake of arguing. And initially, when they would give me that kind of advice, there would be a lot of preamble to try to soften it. And, oh, yeah, I totally understand what you're thinking about there. And you could totally do that. But you might want to consider – and then I would be like, you don't have to. And you could totally do that, but you might want to consider. And then I would be like, you don't have to soften it. If you think it's stupid, just tell me it's stupid. I just want a better idea. I don't care if it's my idea, your idea. I don't give a shit. I just want to be more right. And if you can give me that shortcut,

just give it to me. And if I disagree and I can actually articulate why, I will, but I also will be inclined to listen to what you have to say. Because in the case of business, when I'm thinking about it, this is somebody who his net worth, I don't know, is at least five, $600 million. You tell me. You know what I mean? You've already done more than I might ever do in my life or might even want to do in my life in terms of – There's a reason why you asked him. Exactly. Exactly. And I just – I don't – I can't say that I know very many people who actively seek out not just advice but – Criticism. Criticism. seek out not just advice but criticism criticism yeah or or or i mean if we wanted to be maybe um

less less inflammatory because criticism again is is one of those terms that immediately triggers that reaction in people at least just seek out counterpoints but you know right well that's why we keep jim around because he doesn't let me get away with any bullshit that's true that's true he doesn't yeah he's he's a bullshit detector he's i'm the bullshit he's the shockproof bullshit detector that's right yeah i like it um and you know pat knows like i'm very open to changing my mind about things too right i'm i'm right i think i actually frustrate a lot of my colleagues that way but uh you know like one of the like the keys to failure is to surround yourself by sycophants right you know like we can go through you know, like one of the keys to failure is to surround yourself by sycophants, right?

You know, like we can go through, you know, historically, like that's one of the great downfalls is when as soon as people get powerful enough to hire people who agree with them, right? This is the end, right? Because they're going to like enter their own fantasy world. And I would rather not live in a fantasy world. I want to live in the real, right? And for practical reasons and even for theoretical reasons, right? So, yeah. I am happy to be disagreed with. Yeah, and, you know, we need to, not to get too sidetracked right away on the conversation,

but this is a good point. It's like we just need to get over this really wimpy mentality. You know, I was fortunate enough to have some coaches early on, especially a guitar coach, where he emphasized, look, I'm going to criticize you, Pat, and it might seem like I'm overly critical, but it's because I care that I'm criticizing you, and my job is to make you better. So I'm not going to tell you how handsome you are. You're not handsome, but I'm not going to tell you it anyways, but I'm going to tell you where you suck at the guitar and you need to improve, and that's what we're going to focus on, because if you're good at something, I don't need to tell

you about that. You're already fine. You already know you're good at it. Just hug yourself every day. You're fine. Yeah, yeah. And I had to have a pretty hard conversation with my son the other day. He's in second grade, but I gave him a ninth grade level book to read. Actually, I gave him How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, and I've given him a science legend because he's a smart kid, and he can do it. And so I wrote up a little exam for him on this, you know, appropriate, but challenging and, um, and he, and he failed and he would, there was going to be a reward if he passed and he gave

it to me. And I had to look, I said, I said, you know, Roan, and he is, he's a really smart kid. I'm like, you just didn't pass, bud. You just didn't pass. And that was, that was hard for him. Uh, but then, you know what he did after he, he kind of, you know, sobbed a little bit uh he went back on his own accord did better rose to the challenge and then and then passed right now i could have been you know and like it's it's hard for a parent to criticize their kid like what i want to do is just be like oh you you did good enough son let's go play some video games right but that that isn't that actually isn't caring right it's it's this kid's development that I care about because I love my son. And that means that I had an obligation to be direct with him in that situation.

I am constantly trying to set up occasions for my kids to fail. Right. Yeah, I kind of am too, man. It's kind of sinister, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, and hoping they'll win. But, you know, if you protect them from failure, I mean, this is a familiar story now, right? I'm going to sound really, but you know, if, if you protect them from failure, I mean, this is a familiar story now, right? I want to sound really, really cruel here. Right. But, um, anytime any one of my kids has ever done, you know, in a sporting event, you know, they've come off the mat or

they've come off the field and said, well, you know, I lost, uh, but I still had fun. I'm like, I'm always like, no, no, it would have been more fun if you won. Like, let's not, let's not lie about that. Right. Okay. And like, and if you didn't come here to win this, right. We don't need to pay money for recess. Okay. I mean, like we're, we're trying to win.

I'm out every time, every time one of my kids comes off the field or a mat or anything like that, the first thing I do is I give them a hug and a kiss and I tell them I love them. Okay. So I'm not saying like victory is like a condition of my love for you but yeah to act like there wasn't a real possibility of failure and it happened is to like miss the point of the entire endeavor right spot on yeah and so um so and yeah go ahead i was just gonna say so this is really ironic because the topic for today is easy fitness wins there are no easy but that's a really important point.

So however we tie that in, we'll tie it in. I guess the general point is like, look, if you're looking to improve yourself, don't surround yourself with sycophants. Look for people who are willing to criticize because they care. I think that's the point. Mike, yeah, any other further thoughts on that, and then we'll turn to you. I think we can segue, actually, in that I agree with everything you guys were saying. However, if we look now at fitness and particularly if we look to people who are just getting started, who are trying to overcome inertia, who are trying to reach that critical mass where the amount of forward progress you've made is motivating, you want to keep going.

progress you've made is motivating. You don't want to keep going. Failures early on can be, I mean, if we just look at the practical reality of it, if we look at things as they are, maybe rather than as we wish they were with people, and this is in my experience, and I'm sure, Pat, you've had the same experience working with a lot of just normal everyday people who are not fitness freaks. They're not trying to compete. They just want to lose some weight, build some muscle, get healthy, feel good, look good. That first three to six months is crucial and that you build momentum in that first three to six months. And if you experience too many failures in the beginning, some people, of course, will rise to the occasion and they'll just keep going and they won't give up. But many people do give up. And I do have some empathy for them because I remember if I

rewind to when I started, I didn't know what I was doing. And when it comes, I'm not in, I probably am like not a quitter to a fault. I don't even like to stop reading books that I don't like. I'll go 30 pages without a highlight. And I'm like, I really should stop reading this book, and I still want to keep going. I always finish it, man. I know. That's my personality, and that's fine. That's fine. But many people are not like that, maybe even a little bit more maybe balanced, well-balanced in that regard, right? And so if you look again through the eyes of that type of person, especially

somebody who has tried many things in the past and they have failed and they've really tried, they put in that effort and 30, 60, 90 days and it sucked and they couldn't eat anything they liked and they were doing workouts they hated and maybe they lost a little bit of weight. And then finally, when they tried to go back to some sort of normal living, it all just came back on. And you experience that again and again. And a small failure in the beginning carries a lot of emotional weight, right? Because of the past experiences. So that's where I think trying to intentionally go for some of these easy wins in the beginning can make sense.

Yeah. You have to learn to win. Like there has to be an occasion to actually win. So there has to be a possibility of loss. But if you get over your head, you're learning to be a loser, right? This is like, that's why we need like belt ranks, right? If everybody had to compete against a black belt, everyone would quit after their first tournament because it would just be impossible.

We need to scale this. There have to be real, legit possibilities of victory. So you learn to think of yourself as a winner. I mean, anybody who has played sports or learned an instrument or really pursued any sort of technical skill knows that the sweet spot for learning is, I mean, if we were to even assign some numbers to it, it's probably like, okay, if you're going to try to do something 10 times and you can't even get it right two or three

times, it's just too hard, right? If you can get it right, let's say seven, eight, nine times, it's probably a bit too easy and you should make it a little bit harder. But if you start off at too high of a you're trying to have a learning curve and you're just trying to leap to, you know, the top of it or three quarters of the way up, that doesn't work for most people. It just doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. Spot on. And, you know, there's a sort of cliche that big doors swing on little hinges and Jim, I think both of us sort of have a fitness story that reflects this, right. It's like each of us in our sort of own unique way seem to just make a few simple changes that, that quickly led to some very inspiring results. Right. And you're, you're, you've talked about this before of like these sort of just simple rules, whatever they are, maybe getting a protein target, maybe getting a calorie swing, maybe you just start swinging kettlebells, right? Whatever they are, realistic, simple rules where you do see.

And by quick means, we don't mean like I want to be careful with the language here because this isn't like the secrets they don't tell you about kind of crap we're talking about, right? It's just like, no, like one weird trick. One weird trick. It was like a picture of banana or whatever the heck the ad is right it's just like no it has to be like a banana with worms coming out of it or something pat flynn's secret biohack that'll change your life right we're talking really about uh yeah like simple tweaks that make a big difference that can build momentum doesn't mean it's gonna be easy but it's gonna be simple so let's dive into this a little bit like what did you have in mind here and uh what are some and i think this

is really good because look new year's is coming up people are going to look for like some wins that they can score early on to build that momentum so let's dive in so a simple a simple one a simple example of kind of a tiny habits approach right is just start going for a walk every day for this should obviously be for somebody who's not doing that currently, who's rather sedentary. Instead of going from that to, oh, I'm going to do Mike's bigger, leaner, stronger program five days a week, an hour a day in the gym. I've never even touched a weight before, but I'm going to do it. Many people do that. That's fine. And those people, I think they know who they are because the prospect of doing that excites them.

It doesn't trigger that resistance and friction that excites them. Fine. But in a lot of people, that is not the place to start. Why don't we just start real simple? Can you go for a 30-minute walk every day or 15 minutes even? and or 15 minutes even and if you want some bonus points can you do it in nature like a where you have some pretty green around you right because that can is that the thing that's on the other side of my front door is that what that's it's not it's not yeah i mean it's in the it's outside of the metaverse so it doesn't matter yeah zuckerberg says we shouldn't care about it so there's a there's a beautiful kind of a

river walk path in our downtown where i live and um i walk on there every morning right catch the sunrise down there and uh whenever i'm walking home i i always i have to walk past the local imca and i always see the people on the treadmills walking. I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? It's not even cold out. I guess, though, to argue on their behalf, if somebody, if they just know that getting in the gym is part of their routine, and they're a little bit more likely to stick to it and maybe

let's say after they get off the the treadmill now they're inclined to go do some kettlebell swings or they're inclined to do a short resistance training workout of some kind then to that person i would say let's let's just keep it like that if that's working you know and it's a social thing too because it's the same people every day. They're talking. But that binds them to the practice, right? True. There's a community around. And also to play up the benefits of walking a little bit more, a lot of people don't realize that you burn a fair amount of calories walking, a few hundred calories per hour, which is not nothing. And you actually – you can increase that if you want by walking a little bit faster. You could throw on a backpack with some books in it, just add some weight that won't make much of a difference for your experience of the walk,

but it can further increase the calorie burn. So for people who want to, let's say they're starting out and they want to lose weight and they've just learned about the importance of energy balance and maintaining a calorie deficit, then there is value also there in walking. Many people, when they, particularly when they first start out, they think that walking, they think that to really move the needle with cardio, it has to be very intense, even high intensity interval or nothing, right? And that's not true. In fact, I wouldn't recommend probably more than maybe an hour of high intensity interval training per week. And you don't have to do it if you don't want to. But if you are going to do it, I still would recommend taking the total time that you have to exercise, giving most of it to training your muscles, and then putting less time into your cardio.

And if you're going to do high intensity, keep it moderate because it does put a lot of strain on the body. Here's just a practical question here. This is really for both of you because we know walking is good, right? But it's kind of something you know either by just being familiar with the research or having just done it and experienced it, right? But the problem is the people are in this mindset that you've identified, Mike, where it's just like it just seems like walking is so unsexy. You know what I mean? It's like if I'm not doing the CrossFit seven times a week, then why even bother type of thing, right? How do you help people get over that hurdle of doing the unsexy but simple things that actually work?

And this is a good question. This is a, yeah, it's a good question. And particularly with, again, if we're speaking to people who are new or people, let's say who are not necessarily new, but they, they, they, they come in and out of, of, of a fitness habit. And now we're going into the holidays, which is where they usually fall out of it. And then they try to get back into it. Right. Is I think, I think the easiest way to do that is to find something you

enjoy, like something that you actually like, it can be hard and you're not going to like every workout, like every minute of every workout, but generally speaking, you look forward to it more than you dread it. And, and that that's, that's true for any type of training, even if we're talking about hard, somebody who's saying, all right, I want to get jacked. That's what I want to do. I would much rather put together a program for them that maybe is not scientifically optimal in terms of the exercises or some other component of the program, but they like it. And if I were to give them the most scientifically optimal program for getting jacked and they really don't like it, then what I know is compliance is going to suffer.

And even if they are the grittier type and they're like, I don't care if I hate it, I'll go do it every day. What will always happen is they are not going to be as engaged in those workouts. And that is going to impair their performance you you have better workouts when you are enjoying them that that's just that's just an unfortunate fact of being a human right and so so this is this is also an easy uh an easy win is when people are first starting out find something that you like talk about you know the social aspect that's one of the reasons why many people like fitness classes is because they have their little, they can, it's like a little community. They, they meet people they like, they're all in it together is, is a fitness class, the most scientifically optimal way to transform your body composition. No, it's not. But if you like it a

lot more than the stuff I do, which is very unsexy. Anybody who follows me on Instagram sees I post my workouts almost every day. And they are, it's the same type of training. I mean, I practice what I preach. It is not sexy. I enjoy it. But it's, you know, picking heavy things up and putting them down mostly. Yeah, that's a good point. But I mean, like, what's sexy about, I just want to drive this because I think it's important

to people to just, if you get this conceptuallyually then maybe this will help clear the barrier for you but in this stuff that is actually effective it's typically not like sexy to watch as you're practicing it i mean there's kind of an inverted relationship right right i've got my guitar higher the sex value uh the lower the efficacy yeah i've got my guitar right here i'm a i'm a pretty good player i think right but like most of what i do in guitar is just really boring exercises it's not sexy playing right it's drilling it's drilling same thing with jujitsu right jim like what do we do well it's like when we're just watching the practice it's pretty boring right but it works towards a sexy outcome same thing with like good training is like at any particular point it might not seem that sexy right because we're not

competing we're just practicing something but you're working towards something that is itself good productive exciting so yeah i would even say you know find something to enjoy and even better find something you want to get good at right because i think that will hold you to it in a way right you know um just just to segue quickly on, uh, from, from that too, let's,

let's talk about, uh, strength training in particular, something that has helped in it with me, uh, with, uh, helped me with,

with that is, so I've been lifting weights now for 20 years, first eight years or so. I didn't know what I was doing, but at this point, there's not much muscle or strength left for me to gain, especially not at this body weight. If I want to stay fairly lean, if I were willing to put on 15 pounds, most of it would not be actual muscle tissue. Sure, I could get my

numbers up a bit, but still, I'm basically at the end of my genetic rope for how big and strong I can get. And so people will ask me, what's my motivation? Why do I keep doing it? And something that is fun, something that is kind of a skill component is every, so I have four month training blocks basically. And at the end of each training block, I do a round of AMRAPs. So as many reps as I can do with 95% of one RM from the beginning of that training block. So if things have gone well, that is no, that's no longer actually 95% of my one RM at that point. And, and, and, uh, you know, so a lot of my four months is, is cold, man. That shows some progress. Yeah, exactly. And so in the last, in the last training block, uh, for example, uh, I was safety bar squatting and I wrapped up with two 65 for eight is what I got. And so that's like a one RM of three 20. I started that training block. Now I hadn't safety bar squatted in a while. So there is a skill component, just getting better at the activity. And, uh, but, but that was a pretty

significant jump, probably 30 or 40 pounds in one RM, which again, it's partly because I hadn't safety bar squatted in a long time, but still that's fun. And on my bench press, I was up 10 pounds and that that's pretty significant at my, where I'm at for four months. And so that's something with weightlifting in particular, that, that makes it more fun as an experienced weightlifter. That's sort of what happened with me with, I haven't, even though, you know, I believe in barbells and, you know, I wrote a book about barbells. I haven't touched a barbell in years because it just, you know, I got to where in my forties, you know, I pulled a 300% body weight deadlift and I'm like, well, okay, there's nothing really left for me to do in

any attempt at progress it's getting really damn dangerous right you know and so and i have to admit i just got bored to tears by it all right uh and i think you do have to find challenges goals new skills to hold yourself to it yeah because at a certain point like just looking good might not be enough right yeah yeah yeah and this like Olympic weightlifting for that reason. Right. Or technical. There's more skill to it than a deadlift. Right.

Or tie in something that, like a martial art, right? Something outside of the weight room activity where you can now, rather than, oh, my deadlift is stronger. Oh, this movement pattern is clearly transferring to me being a more durable or stronger in jujitsu or something like that. to me being a more durable or stronger in this in jujitsu or something like that right you know um the kind of a general point i think like is in the background of all this is you know i have found you know with people that i'm either working with and like helping coach or just you know teammates of mine or something like that i'll have people you know i really want to get in shape and then and and you know they'll they'll kind of like use what i'm doing as a model and they're like i'm gonna do do two day workouts

and I'm going to eat ketogenic diet and I'm going to like have a 20 hour fast every day and not eat one day a week and do all this stuff because they think it's got to be really hard isn't that hard 75 hard I just saw somebody post that thing

I looked at it and I'm like this is not like 2 45 minute intense workouts a day I just saw somebody post that thing. I looked at it. Just beat the shit out of yourself for a couple months. Like two, two 45 minute intense workouts a day. And then a whole bunch of other stuff. Like who's going to, who on earth? My,

my 50 year old wife did it. Yeah. Good. Well, Hey, God bless her, man. But she's,

but she's not a beginner, right? She's a terminator from what I understand. Yeah. I mean, she's, yeah, she's a terminator.

Right. But anyway, I couldn't do it honestly. She's a terminator, yeah. She's a terminator, right? But anyway. I couldn't do it, honestly. But also, I don't like – Because there's nothing attached to that that I would care enough about to do it. You know what I mean? Especially if you know that you could do it. You know what I mean?

It's not a matter of do you have the discipline or can you gut it out. If you know, sure, I could i could but what just just to prove what i already know why why yeah the funny thing with the heart 75 was when i looked at i'm like this is just this is kind of like a normal day for me actually kind of a light day but and so i always tell people like when they say oh i'm gonna do all this stuff i'm gonna go keto and i'm gonna fast i'm gonna have two-day workouts and i'm gonna do all this stuff i'm gonna go keto and i'm gonna fast i'm gonna have two-day workouts and i'm gonna do all this stuff i'm gonna meditate i'm like great cool but you know what uh it took me literally like 30 years of training to get to that point right where i can just just going back to the belts uh yeah exactly we got to go white belt and i tell people like look your workout

just using the workout uh leaving diet aside your workout doesn't have to be great. It doesn't have to be hard. It has to be, it has to exist. It has to come into being first and foremost. And, and I think what people think that, you know, they go to the gym and it's got to be this like magical moment of a PR or a near puking CrossFit kind of workout or something like that. Um, when really, uh really, just just getting in there, right. And I think people a lot of times feel like I can't go in there and perform really awesome today, I feel like crap. It's not going to be magic, so they don't go right. Just show up, just show up, just showing up is the key for this, right.

And find something you can scale to where you're at. So it's easy for you to show up, right. And you know, 30 years down the road, you might be like a psychopath, right? And just a point to add to that, something that has been useful for me is if, for example, I really didn't sleep well, I'm not feeling too good. I wasn't able to take a nap and I'm supposed to go do a heavy lower body workout. I'm supposed to do some heavy squats and other things. I might swap that for the following day's workout, which is an upper body, not as difficult session, um, in hopes of sleeping better that night and then do that, the heavy, hard stuff the following day. Uh, and, and I, I recommend that to people, you know, be a little bit flexible with your programming. And it is better for people who are more experienced. So,

because you understand you have enough experience to know, like, I'm not just making excuses here. I'm really going to have a more productive session if I have slept more than five hours. That's a great point, Mike. I think if you're going to do really set piece programming, you have to have like a concession to a bad day built into it. If there's no guarantee next Thursday, I can go 90%. There's no guarantee. That's a great point. You have to be able to afford a bad day because you're going to have a bad... I've struggled with this, especially when I was powerlifting, where I You know, where I would have these 16 week programs pre-meet, you know, and in week eight, I got to hit, you know, 90% for three doubles. Yeah. But

what if, what if I suck that day and now the program is shot, right. So what do I do? You know, I think you've got to have bad days built into it. Yeah. right so what do i do you know i think you've got to have bad days built into it yeah yep so so let's um so this this is great because i think i hope this will be really both helpful and inspiring to people again whether you're just starting out or you're just trying to like course correct before the new year or even before the new year there's no need to wait to the new year to do any of this stuff right i mean do it now do it now at least you can start getting into the habit now. I mean, for people take, take the walks or maybe it's daily kettlebell swings or daily, any sort of exercise activity that they can do and stick with understanding that, yeah, diet is going to be a

bit wonky for, for the next couple of weeks. And it may or may not, but for somebody who knows they have these holiday parties coming up and they do want to enjoy themselves. They don't have to necessarily be egregious about it, but they also don't want to be feeling guilty because they ate a muffin or something. You don't have to maximize the damage, though. Yes, yes. Just don't. For me, it's like take Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner or whatever. I'm going to enjoy myself, but I don't eat to the point of what did Louis C.K. say, where I hate myself. I've done that in the past just kind of for fun, and then I was like, it's no longer fun to be on the couch for 45 minutes sweating.

Just can't even move no longer fun yeah yeah i mean but also like i mean let's let's let's let's get a sense of perspective and proportion here i mean like look even if you hate it even if you even if you ate to hate yourself right uh on thanksgiving christ and New Year's, but all the other days are kind of like on target. It's not going to make any difference. It makes no difference. Now, you shouldn't do that. What's the most fat you can gain in an entire day? I've written about this.

I've looked at some of the research. Let's find out. Yeah, I mean maybe it's a pound or so, you really have to go for that right that that's going to be many thousands of calories the prop yeah probably some alcohol as well to really maximize fat storage okay yeah get up early to eat extra right right so it's just it's like you know the sense of perspective like really helps the problem is when people turn thanksgiving into all of november and christgiving into all of november and christmas into all of december and there's there's no reasonable reason to do that right that's that's

not a good mindset we don't we don't have to make you know the holidays diabetes season right you know like you just have a couple good days in there yeah yeah 100 now you said daily kettlebell swings i like this because that was jim like that's kind of your story right i mean it was like just simple kettlebell workouts right you said daily kettlebell swings. I like this because that was, Jim, like that's kind of your story, right? I mean, it was like just simple kettlebell workouts, right? You lost simple kettlebell workouts, simple nutrition. You lost over 100 pounds, right? Which is phenomenal. And obviously, you've gone not just to sustain that, but to build significantly upon it. I've always liked the idea, and Mike and Jim, I'll be curious to get your thoughts on this of like, and I guess this is sort of in line with the idea of having

bad days kind of built in. Not that you want a bad day, but just realistic understanding that sometimes the kids are going to be up all night. You're not going to get a good night's sleep and whatever. They will come. Of kind of having floor and ceilings. So I got my ideal ceiling. Here's what I would love to hit workout-wise. Mike's bigger, leaner, stronger.

Do all the sets, all the reps. Get to the gym. Feel great. But kids are up all night don't feel good so at the very least look i can do a kettlebell swing and push-up ladder right at the very it'll take 10-15 minutes it's an easy win i'm gonna feel good after that uh i'll get my calorie burn in i'll build some strength some muscle it wasn't wasn't the ideal but it was doing you know it was always something rather than all or nothing but it was but it but it was it was it came into existence it was distinguished from nothing it had an active

existence yes and that's uh that's that's all that matters yeah what are your thoughts on that mike and jim i mean it's perfection is not necessary in any of this and that that is i think also uh a mistake and you and i i made it in the beginning is thinking that you have to be basically perfect with like take that when i first i remember when i learned about energy balance and macros and um i was surprised wait it's this simple to lose fat all i have to do is eat like 2200 calories a day and get enough protein and that's it like i don't it doesn't matter how many carbs it doesn't even matter what i'm eating i couldn't believe it really at first this is again before i even understood the principles this was introduced

to me by uh he was a bodybuilder powerlifter he didn't explain why um he was he was shredded he was getting prepped for a contest and i and he was was working at a, uh, like a, uh, what was it? Um, it's kind of like a whole foods, like a grocery store. And I simply asked him, I was like, how, how do you, how did you, how do you do this? And he's like, oh, well, how much do you weigh? Yeah. Whatever. Just like 20, you go online, figure this out. 2,200 calories, 200 grams protein a day. I don't care about carbs and fat. And so I did that. And then I got pretty lean for the first time. But I remember I would text him saying, hey, his name is Steven. Hey, Steven, I'm going to go for my cheat meal this week, which I've changed my outlook on cheat meals a little bit as well but uh i'm gonna go get sushi is it okay if i get two

spicy tuna rolls and uh maybe like first i love you like a mo emoji yeah i always love that sushi is kind of like the default cheat meal it's kind of i know too jim it's yours too isn't it it's like sushi is like it's just it's because it's you know it's tasty it's high protein yeah it's still it's still broadly like healthy depending on the technology it's like you know you've gotten to a fitness place when sushi is your cheat meal that's the black then that is the black belt level right yeah exactly yeah and but but my point is i i didn't understand again that um how much wiggle room you have and the the the the fitness elite none of them are perfect they are just the ones who are good enough most of the time in the ways that matter the most they just miss the fewest workouts and they screw up

maybe the fewest meals or or go way off plan the few or the the least often really right and uh so so that so that i think that that mentality that mentality helps. And it's probably worth mentioning an easy diet win that can work toward that black belt level would be just taking where you're at right now. And can we just make some slight modifications? So maybe instead of the fried chicken for dinner, can we do baked chicken or maybe, maybe air fried chicken, which you can get like the same kind of result for, for fewer calories, maybe just get rid of the pop tart. I mean, just, yeah. Or can we replace the pop tart with a protein bar and maybe a tasty protein bar? So you still get a little bit of enjoyment out of it. Uh, pop tart, those things

existed. And that, I mean, that was, that, that remember how popular Pop-Tarts were? Dude, man, like that. When I was at FYM, when that was the rage, people were doing it just because you could. To go to show how bad school lunch programs sometimes are. I remember literally in high school, you could get two of my friends would always get two of the um s'mores it was for whatever it's always the s'mores pop tart right that was the one and then they could go and get a cookie afterwards yeah it's nuts yeah right it was nuts is that uh nutrition pyramid approved probably i guess so man i guess so but it's like man that was and like usually like they would have

my lunch table we were all a bunch of degenerates some people ate healthier than we did but the fact that like you could even get away with this was pretty ridiculous you go get a fried spicy chicken sandwich the s'mores pop tart and then a giant cookie right and with like a chocolate yeah yeah and then and then you're gonna go get medicated for having ADHD. Exactly. Yeah, right, right. And wash it down with a caffeinated drink too, right? Yeah, exactly. Right, yeah, which they would sell in the school store.

They'd sell like Red Bulls and stuff like this. It's like, oh yeah, these kids are out of control. We need to pump a full meds, right? Yes, that's what they need. Did you know that right now I am in the middle of a big book launch bonanza for my new fitness book for men and women of all ages and abilities, Muscle for Life, which is releasing on January 11th and is currently available for pre-order over at muscleforlifebook.com, muscleforlifebook.com. And why should you pre-order? Well, to invoke an electrochemical response in your brain and stimulate something approximating joy, I am celebrating the release

of this new book by giving away over $12,000 of glorious fitness goodies, including a Bowflex C6 bike, that's $1,000, a Hypervolt Go, that's $200, an Instant Pot Duo Crisp Air Fryer, another $200, a Vitamix E310 blender, $350, a 30-minute Zoom call with yours unruly, and that is priceless, of course, and much, much more. Now, there are several ways to enter to win, too. You can buy books, you can spread the word, you can follow me on social media and more. So again, to get all of the giveaway sauce, go over to MuscleForLifeBook.com. MuscleForLifeBook.com. Something I've used to help people out on the making small changes in their diet thing is a food journal.

Okay. What I'll say is, look, and I did this once at a point where I had kind of fallen back a little bit and I didn't realize that I needed to make some changes. So I did a food journal for like two weeks and tried to really be honest about it. And I had realized I was still, I wasn't eating very much garbage at all, but I was eating a metric ton of food. I was eating way more than I had to. Okay. And what I tell people to do is like, do that journal to be as honest about it as you possibly can. I'm not saying you have to do it forever. Just give yourself like a week or two. Okay. And then look at that journal

and just what is the stuff that you see in there that is clearly part of like a death wish, right? What is the stuff that you see in there that is clearly part of like a death wish, right? Like what is like just the obvious, you know, grown human being should not be eating this, right? And just cut that out, right? And go for a couple weeks without that and see if the scale moves. If the scale doesn't move, go back and look at, okay, what else is on that list that really just should not be in a human diet? Cut that out. And as soon as you get the scale – Or make a replacement. Yeah, always make a replacement.

Take the Frappuccino ridiculous 800 calorie. I don't even know. They might be 1,000 plus calorie drink. Can we turn that into – it doesn't even have to be an Americano per se, but can we turn it into like a cappuccino maybe, say six to eight ounces of milk with some espresso? It doesn't even have to be, all right, get rid of your coffee. Maybe some Stevia instead of something like that.

Yeah. Or even, hey, if you're drinking sugar sweetened soda, would we like to get you to just drinking water? Yes, absolutely. But if you're not ready to make that jump just yet, because let's say you are dieting and that's something that is nice and then you enjoy the sweetness and it's something you look forward to, then can we switch to a diet soda? And as far as artificial sweeteners go and the ongoing controversy over them, my position, my understanding of the weight of the evidence is if you are, let's say, having 8 to 10 plus servings of artificial sweeteners per day, every day, probably not the best thing for your health, probably not great for your gut health. That's one of the reasons why when I started Legion, I wanted all natural products. I, myself, I'm not interested in having 6, 8, 10 plus servings of sucralose a day if I'm going to use my own stuff. But could you have a diet soda, a can of diet soda every day and be fine? Yeah.

I think that's okay. And if that helps, again, especially, and I bring that up because having worked with a lot of just, again, normal people sometimes will will struggle with things when they're dieting that dude i'll speak you wouldn't struggle man i was i grew i grew up on that diet soda means something to like i did not drink water growing up i grew up on soda and sprite i guess they're the same thing right i grew up on pepsi and sprite so like this was another big if you like i had the worst nutrition offering we got both beverages pepsi and sprite yeah no like that's that's what it was man it was really bad um so when i decided to get my act together actually diet soda i don't drink diet soda anymore but uh i'll tell you what man having like the coke zero or whatever that was a helpful sort of transition for me could i have

done it without it yeah maybe probably um but it was there why make it harder than it needs to be so again particularly when we're trying to help somebody gain enough momentum to really start to establish a lifestyle that they can stick with for the long term right yeah so yeah i just want to just point that out just just even in my sort of process, just that little switch to the diet soda was something that made it a little bit easier. And then it's been years and years since I've had a diet. So I'm not – give me a Coke Zero, I'll drink it. But I just don't crave it. I tasted Coke for the first time in years the other day, and I was like, eh, okay.

Not really for me but yeah yeah yeah yeah so so yeah just good point good point there right and then uh what about just like protein too that's an easy win right just like get get your protein up i remember uh dr spencer uh gives um recommendation a lot of his clients he's like you know if you're kind of coming from the standard american diet perspective this isn't a universal rule but maybe a general enough one it's like just like double your protein half half your carbs, right? Like if you're coming from like the, the fast food diet world, like just double your protein, half your carbs, right.

Um, or at least double your protein. And then I will probably start there. I mean, if somebody is, and this is, I don't think this is asking too much for them to understand how much protein is in a few of, if you were to ask them, what are some higher protein foods that you like? Do you like chicken? Do you like beef? Do you like high protein yogurt? All right. What do you like? All right. Let's quickly just familiarize ourselves with how much protein is in a serving of these foods. And we don't have to get out the scales for that. We can just use our hands. We can say, all right, a palm of chicken. It's about 40 grams of protein.

All right, cool. A fist of yogurt, 20 grams of protein. And can we get you, can we get this person to anywhere from probably, depending on their size, whether it's a guy or a girl, whatever, 150 to maybe 180 grams per day. Can we get there? And that's your meal plan, so to speak, is just getting enough protein. Let's not worry about any of the other stuff you're eating. You just continue ad libitum, basically. But we are going to just control your protein for a little bit. And what many people find is just by doing that, they, one, are less hungry throughout the day. So they automatically just start eating less because protein is very filling. And two, then again, it builds momentum. They have the win of feeling less hungry, then eating less junk. Even if that doesn't make a noticeable change in their body comp yet, they can't see it in the

mirror. They know that it is good that now they are less hungry. Generally, they know that eating more protein is good. They know some of the health benefits of that. I can speak for many women who have, in particular, who have noticed more muscle tone right away, which of course makes sense. I mean, women who are going from, on average, no more than probably 50 grams of protein per day. I can think of cases where women, I had them, to your point, Jim, like, okay, a simple food log, what are you eating? 30 grams some days, no protein to 120, 130, 140 grams per day. And they were amazed at, again,

how much fuller they were, how many fewer cravings they had because they just weren't hungry. how many fewer cravings they had because they just weren't hungry and how it, again, it didn't, of course, like magically start burning fat, but they did start noticing that their muscles just felt a little bit tighter. They had a little bit higher energy levels and those are easy wins that are just encouraging. Yeah. Right. Spot on. Hey, we're going to take a question or two at the end here. So if you have any questions for Mike or Jim or myself, send them in. But before we get to that, Mike, I want to talk about this new book you have coming out because I think this will be a good tie in. Now, you are you're a book guy. You got a lot of books out already. They're excellent.

We've recommended them before, but you've got one coming up. So tell us about what this new project is and where people can preorder because it is preorder right now. It isn't correct. It isn't out yet. Correct. Yeah give us a guess my friend so it's called muscle for life which uh is a i figured that would make a good book title a while ago and now finally got around to doing it right it's kind of i guess what is this this is like the artist who then they release their self-titled album like years later right um but but it it is very much actually just in line with the conversation that we're having today so this is the book for people who

are so i'd say it's really it's for one it's for people who are middle-aged and beyond specifically for them and the reason why i i wanted to write a book specifically for them. And the reason why I wanted to write a book specifically for them is I've heard from so many people, 40s and beyond in particular, who will read Bigger Leaner Stronger or Thinner Leaner Stronger, and then who will write me asking if they can just jump right into this, or do they need to make some changes? And in some cases, they don't need to make changes. But in many cases, I had copy and paste responses that I would modify as needed, but I would explain to them some of the modifications that I think are appropriate. Like take somebody who's 55 years old, a guy or a gal.

They have a lot of weight to lose, and they've never touched a barbell or a dumbbell. They've never done any sort of resistance training. ever touched a barbell or a dumbbell. They've never done any sort of resistance training. Are you going to tell them to right now start heavy squatting, bench pressing, deadlifting, overhead pressing? No. If you're training that person, you're not going to do that. You're going to try to work them up to that, but that might take a year for them to get to that point where it makes sense for them to do that, right? And also on the meal plan side of things, are you going to tell them to get out the scale and the measuring cups and go all in on Excel?

No, some people are ready for that and they will do that. But for many other people, it's just too much. It's trying to ask them to be the brown belt when they really just need to start with the white belt. And so that's muscle for life. It is very user-friendly, particularly very quote-unquote newbie-friendly. And so, for example, on the training side of things, whereas Bigger, Leaner, Stronger has one program and they have a few options. You have a three, four, or five-day option, it is a power building, I guess would

be the term, right? It is for people who are ready to grab heavy dumbbells and barbells and pick them up and put them down. And of course they're starting where they're, where they're starting. If they can only squat, I mean, with many women, for example, maybe they can only squat the bar initially, but they're ready to go squat a bar, right? Or maybe with 25s or something like that. In Muscle for Life, there's a beginner program for men and women, which is just body weight. It starts with building the basic movement patterns, with building some muscle and strength. You can add some bands, and I talk about that as well, but it's also, you don't even need a gym for it, which is another hurdle that many people who are, again, and this would apply not just to middle-aged people, but people who have a lot of weight to lose who are very out of

shape and understandably so are intimidated by gyms and particularly the free weight section where you have the sweaty gorillas groaning and grunting who ironically most of them are actually nice people and people learn that but but it is intimidating right nicest very yeah i mean often often actually um and and so so it starts with body weight some bands it then moves into some dumbbell exercises and even before you for for a for a pull or a hip hinge right so starting with a trap bar deadlift not even a traditional deadlift and then moving into the advanced program or programs i would say those are those are kind of like light versions of bigger leaner stronger and thinner leaner stronger so now we're getting into some more traditional weightlifting, but it helps people work up to that. On the meal plan side of things, I talk about the importance of understanding how

calories in and calories out works and macronutrient works and how these nutrients affect your body in different ways. But again, I'm not asking people to weigh and measure everything that they eat. I teach them a pretty intuitive and simple system of portioning foods, again, just based on your hand. For certain foods, for fattier stuff, you can use your thumb as a reference point. For proteins, you can use your palm as a reference point. For carbs and other high-protein foods, your fist. as a reference point for carbs and other high protein foods, your fist. And the point, the point of doing that is to just quickly get to a point where you understand approximately how many

calories you should be eating and what that kind of looks like. Uh, just, just when you plate the food, what does that look like with the foods that you like to eat? Awesome. You know, I, I, Mike, well, obviously I'm going to link it in the show notes so people can go preorder a copy. And, hey, get more than one for an awesome holiday gift. I should mention that at MuscleForLifeBook.com, MuscleForLifeBook.com, right now I'm doing a whole book launch giveaway where if people preorder, it's going to be January 11th is when the book comes out. So I'll end it on the 10th or the 11th. But up until then, I'm giving away over $12,000 of stuff. And I think we're actually over 13 or 14 now. We're just continuing to contact companies and they're giving us some pretty cool stuff like a $1,000 Bowflex bike, an air fr air fryer mentioned that um a set of adjustable

dumbbells from smart fit which are actually pretty nice like this is real stuff it's not just pdfs and right where i assign the value not if there's any huge pdf fans out there but this is this has real existence right well the pdf that i say logically thick stuff right i say the pdf is worth a hundred dollars but it's actually just a blog post that i so so anyway at most of life book.com right now there are other ways to enter too not just buying books but that makes it kind of fun awesome guys go go pre-order it's going to be great i recommend mike's books are so practical in fact i recommend your stuff over my stuff sometimes i had a guy who reached out that's a long ago he's like pat i've done the same thing when people are with kettlebells but just check out pat yeah no because

it's like you know it's just like look i'm fine i'm thank thank you know thank god i'm fine right and like also just like the guy reached out to me he's at a gym situation he has goals i'm like and he's like pat which of your kettlebell programs i should i'm like honestly go buy mike's book and just start with that and he did It's going awesome for him. So I really do highly recommend your work. It's awesome. And people should definitely go get and preorder this new book. Should we take a question or two, gentlemen?

We got a couple minutes here. Let me just highlight this one real quick because I just enjoy it. Shabby says the guy in the middle looks like Magneto. I would not want to act with him. No, I don't. I would think like Wolverine. If we're going to X-men i think i think jim's kind of more like wolverine uh i don't know about magneto jim how do you how do you see yourself yeah i don't even know who magneto is the he's the he wears the helmet and he can manipulate uh metal that's magneto oh okay

he's a bad dude it's a compliment to be be sure. Oh, yeah. I'm too busy actually trying to kill dudes. Right, right, right. All right. I appreciate the compliment. It's the young mag. Yeah. Maybe I haven't seen those movies in a long time, so maybe there is a closer resemblance than I'm familiar with.

I appreciate the compliment, though. Yeah, Kirill has a question. Hello from Finland. What do you guys think about this strategy? Heavy weights greasing the groove style, I guess, for though. Yeah. Yeah. Kirill has a question. Uh, hello from Finland. What do you guys think about this strategy? Heavyweights greasing the groove style, I guess, for, for an easy win. So I'll say a few things and I'll let you guys give your thoughts. So when I think greasing the groove, and this is kind of referencing Pavel's work, right? We're thinking generally, generally like it's going to be submaximal frequent movement practice. So generally, or more often than not, probably not very heavy

weights for greasing the groove. I mean, you might have an occasionally heavy session, but the idea is you're greasing the neurological groups trying to, you know, make more efficient the mind muscle connection. So it's, it's almost always, but not always going to be like quite submaximal. So I'm a fan of that in terms of like easy wins because it's very practical you know you kind of take these movement stats snacks but i think if you're doing it frequently and heavy you're probably going to be inviting trouble but i'll let these gentlemen chime in i agree 100 on that right um yeah i mean it if if it's if it's really taxing it's too heavy for that right if because because the grease and the groove is only going to work if you can come.

Like think of Pavel's original Power of the People. Guy had you deadlifting like five days in a row. Okay, so if you're going to do that, it's got to be pretty submaximal. If you're going to come back and do it every day, you're going to do, what was it, two sets of five. And low volume. Yeah, low volume. Yeah, it was never more than 10 reps and sometimes it's few is like even four uh and you would have you'd go every day right now that's got a short

shelf life eventually it's going to get heavy you can't do it but um i i like the gtg style i still use that quite a bit especially on things like weighted pull-ups and all that um but you've got to really discipline yourself and like check your ego to do it. Yeah. Mike, any thoughts? I would say warm-up sets. I've talked about using warm-up sets for that. I understand you could make an argument against warm-up sets altogether unless you are really lifting heavy weights, and that's fine. that's fine. I've found in my own training and just having interacted with many people that I find my performance probably a little bit better with two warm-up sets before I load the bar, for example. But I make those warm-up sets a little bit more productive with this mindset of really paying attention to my technique, lifting explosively in those warm-up sets just just getting the feeling of of being strong and

and executing the lift correctly and i think there's some value in that in improving technique when the weights are heavy but i will say there is a difference uh you know i i i wouldn't say i'm a golfer but i i put some time into it i put enough i put the amount of time that i'm willing to put into it. Right. And so there's, there's a difference. There's a difference between if we liken this to golf swinging it, you know, let's say 50 to 60% of, of, of intensity, so to speak. And it is, it's, it's,

it's much easier to swing with proper technique at that intensity than it is at 80, 90 or 100%. And so similar to lifting, I think that those are different skills. Just because your technique looks real nice on the bench press or on any exercise when you're warming up, it doesn't transfer, at least in my experience, as easily as you would like to when it's heavy and yeah and so something that has helped me is to work on video which i do for social media anyway but it's but it's helped me to review those videos and i'll see that i found that you know um there are little technique inefficiencies that i wasn't aware of because

when i'm warming up, it looks real nice. And then I load it. And if I'm dead lifting, for example, a trap bar in particular, my knees will tend to move inward a little bit. Is it a big deal? No, it's not enough to cause a problem, but that's not optimal. Even squatting as well. And when I'm getting deeper into a set, the weights are heavy. I have to still consciously keep my knees in the right position or they'll bow a little bit inward. And sometimes my hips will move a little bit too fast. I would not see those things, though, in my warm-up sets. It's always the guy who wants to check his form and he's deadlifted 135.

I'm like, well, anybody can look pretty good deadlifted 135. Correct. Yeah. Exactly. You know. Yeah. Exactly. Yep.

And that's when he's looking in the mirror or maybe even having his buddy check him out. Yeah, it looks real good. And then the buddy doesn't really say anything, though, when there's 315 on the bar. And he's starting to go into the scaredy cat, you know. But he got the reps, bro. Yeah. Which brings us back to the point we started with. Yeah.

Did he die? Yeah. Right. My next time. Yeah. All right. So awesome. Awesome conversation. which brings us back to the point did he die? did he die? awesome awesome conversation before we wrap up here Mike aside from the new book which again I'll link that in the show notes over at chroniclesofstrength.com

along with your other books as well where else can people keep up with you? your website, your podcast just give us an idea of where people can enter the world of Mike Matthews if they if they dare uh i think of uh was it was it in dante's inferno uh band and hope uh you enter um no so so my so my podcast is called muscle for life uh which which it has always been called that so the book came after and and that you can just find wherever you listen to podcasts and and every everything else of

mine lives over at legion's website which is my sports nutrition company legionathletics.com if you go to the blog you're going to find uh millions of words now and at least a couple million from me and then i have a couple of other people who write with me and they write under their own names but um we we have articles on on i would say most things that that people reach out to me about i have an article i can just link them to that's a good question here it's handy isn't it yeah i mean it has it does it does come in handy just the benefit it weeds out again people who who are who are not serious at all, who maybe have a question, but if they're not willing, and these are not 10,000 word articles. I've done that before, but I do try to keep them. I'm asking for 10 minutes of your time, and it's going to give you a good answer to your question, a practical answer.

And if you're not willing to do that, then you're also not going to be willing to actually do what I would tell you to do. So anyway, so there are a lot of articles over there. And as you mentioned, I have other books and those you can find anywhere you like to buy books. And yeah. Fantastic. Well, I'm going to link all that in the show notes. Mike, Jim, it's been a blast, gentlemen. Thank you so much. It's good to talk to you, Mike. Yeah, you too. Thank you. Well, I hope you liked this episode.

I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. 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, 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.