Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Maria Got Fit with 3 Kids and Stays Lean In Her 50s

Episode Date: May 29, 2020

Women face quite a few unique challenges that have downstream effects in their fitness journeys. You know, things like intimidation and peer pressure to stay near the cardio equipment at the gym and away from the weight section. And then there’s the whole pregnancy and having kids thing. To speak to these challenges, I invited Maria Blacutt onto the podcast. Maria is a personal trainer and mother of three who stays lean and strong in her 50s. She also started lifting 30 years ago in Bolivia in a male-dominated gym, so she knows first hand about the challenges women face. Maria found her own way in the fitness world and discovered the benefits of heavy weight training and compound lifting. Finding my work has helped solidify what she discovered, though, and now she shares my content with her own clients. In this episode, Maria and I chat about … How she got strong and stayed fit while raising three young children Why many women give up after having kids The most important lessons she’s learned over her 30-year lifting career Why consistency is more important than perfection How she maintains 18% body fat in her 50s And more … So, tune in if you want to learn how to get fit while raising children and how to stay lean and strong as you get older. 7:22 - How did you get into fitness? 15:53 - How did you manage to work out when you had kids? 27:25 - How long did it take for you to feel fit after having a baby? 29:23 - How have things changed now that you’re older? What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned? 34:18 - What type of foods do you get your protein from? 43:43- Do you feel like the fitness journey has been hard? 50:54 - How did you come across me and my work? How did that impact things? --- Mentioned on The Show: Maria's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strongmariastrong/ Save 15% on fat burners: https://legionathletics.com/products/fat-burners/ --- 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.legionathletics.com/signup/

Hello, my fabulous fitness friends. I'm Mike Matthews. This is Muscle for Life. Welcome to a new episode. Now, women face quite a few unique challenges in their fitness journeys. Getting fit is hard for everyone, male and female, but it is harder in some ways for women than men. For example, there are things like intimidation and peer pressure to stay on the cardio equipment and away from the weights. For example, there's a lot of really bad misinformation, mainstream misinformation that sucker women into ineffective weight loss and body composition strategies that at best land them in the skinny fat conundrum where they've starved themselves, they've done a ton of cardio, and sure, they've lost fat, but they don't look the way they want to look and they don't understand why. And then there's menstruation, there is pregnancy, there's

having kids and how much time and energy it takes to raise kids. And then there's the whole body image issue. There's a lot more pressure put on women culturally to look a certain way and to conform to traditional beauty standards. And so there are many challenges, right? And in this episode, I speak with Maria, who is a personal trainer and a mother of three who got fit while raising her kids and stays fit and lean and strong now into her fifties. And in the 30 years that have elapsed between the beginning of her journey and where she's at now, she's learned a lot. She's experienced a lot and she's worked with a lot of people, particularly a lot of women to help them overcome many of the obstacles that I just spoke about. And her story is also interesting in that she did this in Bolivia in a very male dominated gym and society. So in some ways, the pressure that she felt and the issues that

she ran into were probably a bit more extreme than most women would experience here in the United States. But Maria found her way regardless, and she found her way eventually to my work, which really helped her understand what she was doing well and why she had gotten good results and also understand what she could do better and how to refine her eating and her training and her supplementation to get into the best shape of her life in her 50s, which is pretty cool. I love when I hear from people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond who are in great shape because it shows that it's never too late and that no matter where you're at in your life, regardless of your age and your circumstances and your training history or lack thereof,

you can get into fantastic shape. You really can have the body you really want. If you're like most people, you want to be very fit. If you're a guy, you don't want to look like a hulking bodybuilder. You might not be able to do that. You might not be able to gain 60, 70 pounds of muscle. Well, I can say you certainly won't be able to do that. But if you're a guy 40, 50 years old and you want to gain 20, 30 pounds of muscle and get lean, 10 or so percent body fat, you can do that. And that's what most guys want. If you do that, you're going to look like a fitness model. And if you're a

woman, you want to gain probably 15-ish, maybe 20 max pounds of muscle, say anywhere between 10 and 20, depending on the look you want. And you're going to want a body fat level, probably around 20%. And that's where you're going to look athletic. You're going to look feminine, but you're also going to look defined and lean. And again, any woman can do that regardless of where she's currently at. And so in this chat with Maria, we talk about what she did to get and stay fit while raising kids. Some good tips in there. Why many women give up after having kids and how to stay on track. Now you have to modify your routines and you're going to have to be okay with something far less than perfection, but you can still get results. We talk about some of the most important lessons that Maria's learned

over her 30 year lifting career. One of those relates to consistency and why that's so much more important than perfection. I completely agree and more. Also, if you like what I am doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. And we're on top because every ingredient and dose in every product is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research. Every formulation is 100% transparent. There are no proprietary blends, for example, And everything is naturally sweetened and flavored. So that means no artificial sweeteners, no artificial food dyes,

which may not be as dangerous as some people would have you believe, but there is good evidence to suggest that having many servings of artificial sweeteners in particular every day for long periods of time may not be the best for your health. every day for long periods of time may not be the best for your health. So while you don't need pills, powders, and potions to get into great shape, and frankly, most of them are virtually useless, there are natural ingredients that can help you lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy faster, and you will find the best of them in Legion's products. To check out everything we have to offer, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout, post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint

support, and more, head over to www.buylegion.com, B-U-Y Legion.com. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout, and you will save 20% on your entire first order. So again, if you appreciate my work, and if you want to see more of it, and if you also want all natural evidence-based supplements that work, please do consider supporting Legion so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. Hey, Maria, welcome to my podcast. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Thank you so much, Mike, for having me on. You are my hero. I have been following you for a very long time and I love your work. It's 100%.

Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And we were just talking beforehand that, you know, a lot more to come. The writing and the recording of the creating of the content. So books, articles, podcast videos is still by far the most enjoyable work that I do. So it's nice to be able to continue doing what I like and to continue growing my audience for it. So I appreciate that. Well, thank you very much. I

can't wait to hear and see what else you come up with because it's very good quality, Mike, for sure. Thank you. Thank you. So we're here to talk about you. And I think a good place to start, how I like to start these discussions is a bit of background. So how did you get into fitness? What were you doing before you found me and my work? What was working? What was not working? What led you to finding me? And yeah, let's just start there. And then we can kind of get a picture of a before and an after, you know? Okay. Sounds good. You know, I think something that's important to say, I don't usually tell people my age, but I think it's important to say how old I am. I'm 53 years old and I have three kids and I'm in very good shape. And I think my story is interesting because a lot of women don't think that they can keep and continue being in good shape at this late stage of the game. So I began getting into fitness and

bodybuilding around 23. Before that, I mean, we're talking 35 years ago, right? It's a long time ago. But before that, I was into the whole Jane Fonda thing and the leg warmers. And I was more what you would consider skinny fat or scrawny. So I was thin, but I just had no muscle on me. And at that time, a boyfriend of mine said, I was going through a really hard personal time, Mike. And so a boyfriend of mine said, why don't you try lifting? Why don't you go to the gym? Now I'm from Bolivia. So for a woman at that time to step into the gym was like really weird. But anyways, For a woman at that time to step into the gym was like really weird. But anyways, I went to the gym with him and it was a male dominant ambience.

Like 99% of the people there were men. And here I was in the gym, but I kind of liked it because I just saw like how focused everybody was and it was just different from what I was used to. And I began lifting and honestly, Mike, that changed my life. I like one of your quotes that you say, if we have the power to change our bodies, we have the power to change our lives. That's you. I think it's true. Yeah.

And you know what? That absolutely resonates with me because at that time, I was going through such a rough personal time. And here I found weight training. What was going on then? Unless you don't want to talk about it, but I'm just curious. No, no, for sure. You know what? First of all, my mother got very sick. She had a brain hemorrhage. And so it really harmed, it gave her brain damage. And so for me, you know, this happened when I was 19. By the time I was 22, it was something very, very hard to deal with. And just a whole bunch of personal problems.

But in particular, my mom's illness was a very big one for me. My mom actually was the owner of a Jane Fonda style gym at that time. So she, I worked for her. We were very close. So I was just trying to pull through that. I see through that moment of my life. And so I began training at the gym, it was imperfect, because nobody knew anything at that time. Nobody showed me how to do it. But I just began training at the gym and lifting a little bit of weights and following what everybody else did. A lot of people criticized me for it at that time because Bolivia is a very male-dominant society.

And so for me to go into a gym where it was all guys was like really weird. And a lot of people thought, you know, why is she going to, like, why isn't she training like normal people? But you know what? Why doesn't she train like normal people? But you know what? Incredible. Within a matter of months, I began seeing muscle, muscle on me. I had never seen that. I had done cardio and all of these little classes for years, and I had never seen muscle. And all of a sudden my legs began popping and I got a little bit of abs and arms. I lost weight. I looked really good. So I continued. And that's not what you expected from weightlifting, I'm assuming? I wasn't sure what to expect. Obviously at the time, we thought, everybody thought that I would get bulky and huge. I mean, that's what all my friends said. You're going to

look horrible. You're going to have, and you know what, Mike, I've tried to get huge my entire life and no, it hasn't happened. I'm certainly very athletic looking. I have a lot of muscle on my body, but I'm far from huge. I weigh 125 pounds. Not too huge. So that's not very huge. I have a six pack though. Yeah. Most women, and you know, obviously I write about this and talk about this. Most women don't realize that to get truly jacked as a woman that you need top tier genetics and you really have to work specifically for that. And it takes many years and oftentimes it also would entail drug use. So for the average woman, it's not even remotely possible. Now, of course, what can happen is if a woman has a higher body fat percentage than she

would like, and she just adds muscle without reducing her body fat, then okay, that can just make her look bigger. But yeah, to truly to end up like some of the pictures that women see on the internet that immediately turn them off weightlifting entirely. A lot of them don't realize the backstory that that again, is very, very rare that to have the genetics to be able to gain that much muscle. And then there's the amount of time and work and often drugs that it takes as well. No, absolutely. Like women don't get to, unfortunately. No, just kidding. I mean, I would have loved to gain more mass, but the athletic body that I gained, and I was like, at that time, I was 25, 26. I had like,

I looked awesome. I was so happy. But more than that, it's more than that. I mean, you lift weights, the gym is a refuge. It was a lot more than what I looked like. It was also the empowerment. I mean, I can't tell you it changed the gym, changed my life, but in a way it did. Like it empowered me. I all of a sudden began feeling stronger, not only outside, but in the inside too, like the discipline, the grit, the resilience that was built inside of me just from lifting weights is amazing. It made a huge difference in me and to this day, for that matter. And what's great is it's really such an easy way to instill those values or virtues. I think probably the easiest way to go about it, really. It's a lot easier to just do it physically by picking things up and putting them down, I think, than mentally

by trying to change your thoughts and change your attitudes without changing your behaviors. In fact, I would say the latter doesn't even work. I think that you very much need to just address behaviors. And if you do that, then the subjective just aligns with it naturally. Yeah, that's true. And it's a heck of a lot better than doing hours and hours of cardio, that's for sure. So you get into weightlifting at a young age, and then let's fast forward to the period when you started having kids, because it's timely in that I'm working on a new book that I'm going to be publishing with Simon & Schuster. I'm not

going to self-publish this one. And it's going to be specifically for the 40 plus crowd, men and women. And I sent out a survey recently with, I don't know, five or six questions specifically for people following me in the 40 plus age bracket. And just to get a better understanding of what the experience of being out of shape was like, or is like if they're currently out of shape and how it has affected them and what motivated them to get fit and what obstacles they had to overcome. And unsurprisingly, one of the things that is coming up a lot for women is this pattern of being in, let's say, anywhere from decent to really good shape when they were in their 20s to then having kids and having everything just fall apart. And I understand seeing firsthand with my wife, she's done a good job maintaining her fitness, but I understand how that can happen when you're not sleeping well. And especially if you're, if you have multiple kids and it's also, there's an interesting point, you can probably speak to this as well. Something that it made sense when I started to see it

recurring in these survey responses, but I didn't immediately think of it when I was kind of trying to put myself in the shoes of a 45 year old woman, and that is a lot of women also struggling with the idea that it's okay to prioritize their health or just put themselves first when they're so used to putting their kids first, putting their husbands first, putting everyone else first, and then, you know, leaving no time or energy for themselves. What was your experience like when you started having kids and how did you deal with those things? Okay. Well, I have three kids and they were two years apart. So think of this nightmare. I had a one, a three and a five-year-old at one point. I mean, that's like crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. Because the five-year-old is not even at that point they start to take care

of themselves but they're not even i guess they really don't become independent until a bit later but at least like i have a seven-year-old now and he's pretty independent he can make himself some toast or he can you know take care of himself but at five they still need you oh yeah the three-year-old will just destroy everything if you don't watch them and the one-year-old is always in your arms. Exactly. One year old is always in your arms and napping schedules and whatever. Yeah. So, I mean, people always ask me, so how the heck did you do it with a one, three and five? And this is the answer. I did it imperfectly, Mike. That's how I did it. It wasn't perfect. I did little sets here and there wherever I could.

I just accepted the fact that there was no way in heck I was going to go to the gym for 45 minutes or an hour a day. There was just no way. I couldn't do it. So what I did is I did little five-minute squats holding one baby, a little bit of lunges while I was, I don't know, one was taking a nap, whatever I could. I did five minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time, maybe 15. And it added up. Like if you add five plus five plus 10 plus 15, it added up to 45 minutes of a workout. It wasn't perfect, but I think that's my biggest

recommendation to young moms. Just do it imperfectly, but do it. It's better than nothing. Like I have friends who said to me, you know what, I'm not even going to work out until my kids are in preschool. And then they never began. But I beat everybody else because I was doing something and cracked quite a bit. So tip number one is train imperfectly. And that's it. Do whatever you can. And I guess the tip number two I can tell moms is that, you know, babyhood and toddlerhood doesn't last forever. You think it does, but very soon, if you have three kids like me, very soon, my eldest was in daycare. And then a little bit later, my second, and I had a little bit and a little bit more time. Maybe I still couldn't go to the gym for an hour,

but I squeezed in whatever I could as I had a little bit more time. And it's good that you talked about prioritizing because I did. I mean, as a young mom, you have so much to do. Your house is a mess. You have a ton of laundry. The dishwasher is full, but a lot of my friends left their kids at daycare and they went home to fix the mess of their house. I did the opposite. I left my kids at daycare or whenever I had a free minute and I went to the gym. Period. I thought, I need to go to the gym.

And then I got home and I did whatever I could with my house. Maybe it wasn't as clean as my next door neighbors. But who cares? I got my work out. See as my next door neighbors. But who cares? I got my work out. See, my wife is German. So I think her inborn OCD works against her in that she wants the house to be absolutely spotless at all times. And that's how her mom is, too. And that's how her grandma is.

Well, you know what? I wanted that, too. But I just had to prioritize. No, I understand. But that's the point is you only have so much time and so much energy. And I would say that by making the time to fit exercise in, because it's not just a point of vanity. And this is something that I'm going to be addressing this new book because this is an important kind of inner game thing that needs to be in this book in that it's not just a point of wanting to look better. That's sure a good reason to exercise, but then there's all the

other benefits that come with it, physical and mental and emotional health. And so by taking time to do a few imperfect workouts a week, you are probably benefiting a number of other ways that allowed you to be a better mom, for example, because your body just felt better and you felt better about your body. And so there's more to that. It's not just you being vain, you know? It's a lot more than that, Mike. And also, I know dad's experiences, but mom's for sure. Once you become a mom, you're mom, I know dad's experiences, but mom's for sure. Once you become a mom, you're mom. You don't even have a name anymore. You're a mom and that's it. So you lose your identity. And trying to make it to the gym a few times a week, it just brings your identity back. I don't know if you've ever

gone through a difficult moment or haven't been able to go to the gym and you walk into the gym and you go, oh, this is so nice. This is me. And you can focus on your things and put on your music and get your workout in. And that happened to me. Like all of a sudden, my gym time, I just reconnected with myself again. I was Maria again. I wasn't just mom.

And I think I was a better mom because, and a better wife because I went to the gym and I had a little bit of time to do something that was really, really important to me, even if my load of laundry wasn't done. But I think that, yeah, I mean, it's do it imperfectly. You just have to do your fitness. Anything you can do, just do it and fit it in any way you can. But it's a hell of a lot better than not doing anything at all. Yeah. And don't, uh, for the listeners, don't underestimate what you can do with even what you were saying first of doing squats and lunges and whatever kind of upper body things you could

do. If you could do knee pushups or regular pushups, or maybe you had a pull-up bar and if you could do regular pull-ups or assisted pull-ups with bands or whatever, but if you do just five or 10 minutes at a time, but you can do that several times a day, one, you can actually have a pretty good body weight workout. And two, you can, I mean, whether you need to, you can definitely maintain a decent level of fitness. So let's say you were in the gym, you're lifting weights, you had that routine. I'm sure you found that through your body weight routine, you weren't as fit as you were necessarily when you were in your normal routine, but you probably retained a fair amount of your muscle and you didn't just lose everything. It's not just a on or off switch.

It's not a, you know, all or nothing proposition. If you have a certain level of fitness, you certainly can maintain a fair amount of it through just body weight training. And if you're just starting out, your body will respond well to the body weight training. Now, of course, there is a point where you're going to notice it doesn't really move the needle anymore. And that's where you just need to be able to make your workouts harder. But I would say for the average person, just starting out with resistance training, they can see results probably up to the first six months or so. If they just did something like what you're talking about and just have a, it could be a simple program, but some sort of simple system they follow and making sure that they're just getting a fair amount of training volume in for the upper body and lower body,

but just doing it like you're saying, and having your little spots in the house where you do what you can, when you can, that is a very viable training program, especially for maintaining a certain level of fitness or for beginners. Yeah, for sure. And if you compare somebody who's been doing little bits and pieces for a year or two while they had little kids and somebody who did nothing at all, it's a huge difference. Like the little bits and pieces, they add up like you wouldn't believe. I mean, bicep curling your baby does count. Yeah, that's true. Also, it just helps keep the fire alive, so to speak. It helps remind you that you are going to be able to get back to your normal routine. And this is something you can do now, but you don't lose your interest in it, which you naturally would if you were just to completely stop for a couple of years. Yeah,

it's a lot harder than to restart. And even if for people who, and this is women in particular, who maybe weren't into it at all, and then have kids and a couple of years go by. And often again, just from going through all these survey responses often, then there's a couple of years go by. And often again, just from going through all these survey responses often, then there's a lot of weight gain and sometimes aches and pains. Now it's just harder to get started because things have gotten significantly worse, you know? Yeah. And you know, I think something that's important to talk about openly is after you have a baby, what can I tell you? You look awful. I mean, a lot of people say, oh, you look beautiful. No, you don't. I mean, oh my gosh, your stomach looks disastrous.

I can't even tell you. You do look awful, but you just had a baby. It's the miracle of life. If you begin to think just even what your body just produced, like the miracle of life. And in fact, yeah, you look at yourself and a lot of women look at themselves and they go, oh my gosh, this is the end of me. And they throw in the towel and that's it. And I think it's important to realize, yes, you do look awful, but one, you just had a baby. Think of what your body just did. And two, things do with a little bit of training and healthy eating and patience. Things get back into place. Maybe not 100%, but that body is not there forever. It was just majorly traumatized, but your body does heal. Things go back into place and don't throw in the towel. The worst thing you can do is look at yourself and throw in the towel. That's the worst thing you can do. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Believe in the process. And that's what I did. I fought the process. I thought, I don't want to look like this forever. I want to get back into my gym as soon as I can. I want to get back into my eating program as soon as I can. And I did.

And it worked. It took a while, but... But that's that point of patience. I mean, patience is a key aspect. There's a quote that is floating around the internet. It's often ascribed to Bill Gates. I don't think he was the first person to say it, but it's basically just that people often overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years. And it just speaks to that point of staying patient and having a system that you believe in and that you have a good reason to believe in, right?

A system that has proven to work for people just like you and many times over. And then putting in the work in the system, feeding it the effort it needs, and then just being patient and accepting that, especially in a situation like this, like what you're talking about, where I'd say it's, you could liken it to when you are an intermediate or advanced weightlifter and no longer making progress. Like when you were a beginner and that's, this is often unsettling for particularly for guys. I hear from guys who

they don't understand why, and they don't know what to do about it. But first there's a shift that needs to occur in terms of expectations and mentality. And it's now that any progress is progress. And so similarly, I think exactly what you're saying is after you have a baby, the expectations need to change a little bit. At least there's a period. This doesn't have to always be like that, but I would say that any progress is progress and do what you can, yes, and stay patient and make sure that you are acknowledging that if things are getting better, they're getting better, which is a lot more than most women can say after they have a baby because they don't know what to do or they don't do the right things. Yeah, no, absolutely. A lot of people ask me, so how long did it take you

to feel fit, like to look hot after you had your babies? And I say a few years. What? A few years? What are you talking about? But Mike, if you think about it, I had my last baby at 30 and I was looking hot by 33 and now I'm 53. So in the large scheme of things, a few years is nothing. I think it's important to put that timeline because it's not like you get back into shape in six months. That's ridiculous. After having three kids, no, it doesn't happen that way. But yeah, in two or three years, you can look like amazing, amazing in a healthy way. It takes a little bit of time, but in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. And I think the same with weight loss, right? It takes a little bit of time.

It doesn't happen overnight. Absolutely. And it's easy for, this isn't just for women, this is just for humans, for all of us to get overly worked up about our circumstances and think they are more urgent than they are when we're in the middle of them. You know what I mean? And then later with some perspective, after things have improved, it's easy to look back and be like, what was the big deal? Why was I so worried about that? Or why didn't I just keep going? Why did I subject myself to all this added unnecessary stress? Yeah, no, you're so right. And the thing is that when you stress yourself out and you want results right away, you do extreme things that then make it non-sustainable. And then you throw it all away and then nothing gets done.

So it's better to do it slowly and sustainably than to go hog wild and then to go, that's it. I'm not doing this anymore. I hate it. And I'm doing anything. I totally agree. and not doing anything. I totally agree. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. So how's things changed? What are some of the key lessons you've learned now as you've gotten older? Because as fit as you are, I'm sure that it's not quite the same as when you first got into weightlifting when you're in your 20s, right? Okay, well, I think the big thing that has changed or that has worked for me is in order to really see that fit physique, both men

and women, you do need to lift heavy, you do need to lift those weights. And to focus mainly on compound exercises. I know you preach that too. But it for me, it's made the world of difference when I switched from doing a whole bunch of little isolations. I was still lifting, but I began doing just bicep curls and tricep extensions. But when I actually began squatting and deadlifting and benching and overhead pressing, all the big lifts, that is when I saw a huge change in my body. When did you make that change? Honestly, about 10 or 15 years ago. So it took me 10 years of lifting to figure that one out because there was no literature at that time. There was no you, Mike, to tell it. To preach the gospel of the barbell.

Your book hadn't been published. But yeah, I mean, I know for sure that that's one of the things you preach. And absolutely, it made a huge difference. And not only in my strength, but in my core. Like I actually didn't have abs until I began lifting compounds. Like that's when my abs popped. Really? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I totally believe it. And it's one of those kind of counterintuitive things for people who have come from just the mainstream morass of bad advice, which includes, for example, if you want abs or if you want core muscles, you just need to do a bunch of ab exercises. No real talk about diet or maybe a passing mention of like, oh, and you also have to like eat clean or something, but no specific mention of energy balance. And then on the training side of things, no mention of how I would say for women in particular, for most women, they can get the core that they want without ever doing a single ab exercise. Now that isn't always the case. And some women are going to want, some women are going to come with just naturally less core definition, especially the ab muscles in the front, maybe are going to come with just naturally less core definition especially the ab muscles in the front maybe are going to be especially underdeveloped and to get the look they want maybe they have to do some direct core work but for i'd say most women to have the stomachs that

they want they don't need to do any core exercises they just need to know how to get their body fat into the right range and get strong on the big compound lifts. And it's the same thing for guys. I would say, though, it's more common, though, for guys to have to do ab work because the look that most guys are after is really it's kind of an overdeveloped look. If we're talking about it functionally, there's no reason to have the bigger kind of blockier abs that most guys want. Some guys just have them naturally when they get strong and cut their body fat percentage

down. But many guys find that in the Instagram age of photoshopped and drugged perfection that to get a really impressive core, it usually does require a bit of core work. But for many women, you can not do a single sit up and have an awesome core. Yeah, yeah. And it's amazing how to this day you see women go into the gym and they do a whole bunch of isolation, very few compounds, and they get demotivated because they don't see the big results. So focusing 80% on compounds for me has been

a life changer. Plus it's cool to do the compounds. And ladies like to see a lady go into the gym and bench. I mean, everybody goes, Whoa, you're a badass. It's true. And I don't do a lot of cardio. I mean, I have overdone the cardio in my life before and become like super scrawny and skinny. I've done that. And it doesn't work. Like it doesn't give you the physique you want. I've already done that. So I have a dog and I walk my dog half an hour, 45 minutes every single day at a good pace. That's my cardio, Mike. That's what I do. That's great. Yeah. The other thing is when I began lifting, I didn't even know what protein was for the first 10 years. I think nobody did. So that has been a huge change, like including protein in every single one of my meals. So I'm 125. I usually have probably 130, 135 grams of protein per day. So it's one gram of protein per pound of body weight. That has been for me a lot.

Yeah, pretty standard. Do you use any protein powders or do you get all of that through whole food? I use for my snack because I'm usually on the road doing things. So I just take protein powder. I mix it with water and have an apple as a snack because I'm in a rush. But usually it's more through food. But I do have one a day. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

What types of foods? And the reason why I'm asking is just because this is something that I hear more from women than men. But like, how do I get in enough protein? Just because like you mentioned, I mean, that's still even the case now, I would say in the mainstream, there's a bit more awareness about the importance of eating a higher protein diet, even for people, not even just for weightlifting people, but for really anyone and everyone, a higher pro doesn't have to be a high per se, but a higher protein diet is going to be better than a lower protein one. If nothing else,

it's just going to help you retain muscle as you get older. But I do often hear from women who are so not used to eating that way that they struggle a bit in the beginning to make a meal plan that makes sense to them that, you know, that they can follow. Yeah. Well, always for breakfast, I have eggs and egg whites. So I always make, I always eat the same thing for breakfast, but actually that works for me and for a lot of people to kind of eat the same thing for a few meals. Sure. So you don't have to think about it all the time.

So I usually, every single breakfast, I have two eggs plus 120 grams of egg whites and two pieces of toast. That's what I have every day. And then for lunch, I usually have some chicken, a chicken sandwich or chicken and rice, chicken and rice and vegetables, something like that, or roasted turkey. I usually have one of the poultry. And for dinner, I have fish, meat, lean cups of meat. So I'm not a vegetarian. I'm not a vegan. I eat everything. I sometimes have more of a vegetarian meal, but I usually have either chicken, fish, seafood, lean cups of meat,

along with a good carb. I have carbs by all means. I eat 40% of my calories from come from carbs. So I do have carbs and I always have a source of fats. So I have a really well balanced diet, Mike. I don't cut out anything. I have probably 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat, more or less. So, and that keeps me strong, healthy. It's sustainable. Something I can maintain. I'm about an 18% body fat, which is quite low for a woman my age in particular, but it's sustainable for me because I don't feel hungry. I eat well. I have good carbs. I have fat. I might give myself a treat whenever I want. I just make sure I kind of included it to my calorie count. And it's super sustainable for me. It's really doable, honestly.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that's the low end of what is healthy and sustainable. If you were to try to maintain probably like at 14, 15%, that's probably where you'd start to notice side effects, both physically and also just psychologically, it starts to get a bit annoying. So the male equivalent for people listening, I would say you're like, you know, let's say the male equivalent of where you're at now would probably be eight or 9%, which you look great. It's definitely sustainable. You do have to watch what you eat. You have to care, but you don't have to be neurotic about your food intake and you don't have to go out of your way to burn a shitload of calories every week. You don't have to be doing 10 plus hours of exercise per week

just to make it work. But if you want to, let's say as a guy, if you're trying to maintain, let's say 6%, that's where I've noticed that it's doable, but it's just not enjoyable. Quality of life just goes down. And if you have a good reason to get there, if you're doing a photo shoot or if you just want to do it for fun, I understand, but to try to stay there year round naturally, it's just not very workable unless it's extremely important to you talk about priorities. And I'd say for women, you're at that sweet spot where you can look great. You can look athletic. You still look feminine. You don't look is also that point where if you look how women look, if they get down to that 14 or 15% range with a fair amount

of muscle, many women probably wouldn't want to look like that. They think it starts to look a bit masculine where then you're going to get noticeable vascularity and thin skin and going to lose a fair amount in your chest. And so it's just, it's a look that many women wouldn't even want. So I'd say you're in that sweet spot where that's how most women that I've worked with and spoken to over the years, that's how they want to look. And it is healthy and it's sustainable without inconveniencing you too much. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think, Mike, you know what? The secret to success, because I've been fit for 30 years or more. The secret to success, honestly, is consistency.

And, you know, in 30 years of training, you have good moments and bad moments. You have illnesses. You have trips. I've had a few surgeries. I've had it all. Babies. I've moved from one continent to the other. We've moved a lot. So a lot of life happens. We've moved a lot. So a lot of, you know, life happens. But through thick and through thin, I've just kept on going. Sometimes perfect and sometimes imperfect. And sometimes I've had to stop for different reasons. Two years ago, we moved from Holland. We lived in Holland to Texas.

That was a huge change. That was a huge change. And I couldn't train for a while because I was kind of overwhelmed. I had never lived in the U.S. It just took me a while to get used to it. So maybe I was off the gym for a while. But then I got back into it. I knew I was going to get back into it.

That took me a few weeks just to get my bearings again. And I got back into it. So life happens. Just go back. Just go back. Just go back. And realize that there are bumps and ups and downs along the way. But if you look at the graph of your life, if you're constantly going up, you're always there.

Consistency trumps perfection. I know that's an overkill. Everybody says that, but honest to goodness, in all of these years, I can just say, I've always been consistent. I've always been at the gym. Yep, and then you've also gotten the most important things mostly right most of the time. That's something I like to say, but I think it highlights this point, which is like you said,

perfection is, it's not even desirable because it's not attainable. It has nothing to offer beyond maybe, I think it's good to have high standards, but even perfection isn't even a standard worth striving for unless you, I don't know, like it's almost like a philosophical discussion, but for what we're talking about, have high standards. And this really is, this is the very good. Best is hard to measure or impossible to measure in some cases, but very good, oh, we can measure that. And in the context of fitness, yes, very good is being consistently good in doing the most important things, mostly right, most of the time. And that can deliver great results with enough patience. It is true.

But the other thing, Mike, is that nowadays, you know, there are so many easy fixes and pills and quick workouts and stuff. And I mean, none of that is true. We both know that. I think it's important also to say consistency is important, but also hard work is. It's not an easy life. You do have to put in the work. There is no magic pill or powder or potion or voodoo that you can do to get fit. You just have to put in the work, unfortunately. It has to be done. Like if it's important to you, put in the work and the results will come. But a lot of people think it's easy or it's, you know, there's a quick way to do it. There is not. You just have to put in the grind, enjoy the process. But you do have to put in the work, enjoy the process, but you do have to put

in the work. I think it's important to say that. I don't know about you, but a lot of people say, oh, you're lucky to look that way. No, I work for it really hard. Yeah. No, I don't get that. But to be fair, I don't interact with too many people outside of my bubble that includes a lot of people, but it's still kind of a bubble, you know, like in my immediate interactions, it's the people who work with me and it's my immediate family. And then in my other interactions, it's, there are many of them via social media and via email, but they're still kind of pre-selected in terms of how we interact. So people know you work hard then. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, but the luck one is good. I guess I've gotten that maybe be a little bit more so in regards to success as an entrepreneur

and, but it's the same kind of thing where people, they just don't understand that luck plays a role. Even if we say in fitness, luck can play a role in genetics. For example, some people are lucky to have good genes for this kind of stuff where they just respond well to training. They gain muscle and strength easily and quickly, and they lose fat easily and quickly. And other people, let's say if you go to the other end of the spectrum, they can respond quite poorly. Now they still can get to where they want to be, or they can still get very fit, but it's going to take more work. It's going to take more time. It's going to take more patience. And then we can say that there's luck in what does not happen, right? So major injuries

can really derail your progress, obviously. So if you've gone for an extended period of time without any major injury, no matter the precautions that you've taken, you could say there's a little bit of luck involved because when you're lifting heavy weights, even if you know exactly what you're doing, random things can happen. But for the most part, luck did not get you to where you are. Luck did not get me in our fitness. It did not get us to where we are. It played a, I think, a relatively minor role. And yes, the majority of it was just having a good system and being consistent and just putting in the work. And you mentioned that it's hard. Do you feel like it has been that hard? I'm actually curious because I have my own thoughts on it, but.

Well, no, because I enjoy the process, right? And I have habits set, but when I go into the gym, it's not that it comes easy to me. I have to train hard. I have to be very focused. Every day for me is a challenge because I don't just go in and do the moves. I really try to do my best even now. And after so many years of training, I think right now at 53, my biggest challenge is just to keep my muscle mass. I think that's my, I don't know how much more I'm going to gain, but if I can keep my muscle mass, but for that, I really have to train hard. So it is sacrifices because probably like you, I've sacrificed social time. I've sacrificed maybe meals that I wanted to have. And I didn't because my fitness goals were more important.

The focus that it needs, there are, one has to have priorities and everything has a price. And for me, paying the price of fitness has been well worth it. Absolutely. I mean, the price of bad health is much higher. So either you make it a priority yourself or it will become a priority eventually, whether you like it or not, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, but I've enjoyed the process, Mike, so much. It's been something that has 100% paid off for me because today at 53, I am so strong. Like I can squat 225. I mean, who does that? I have a very strong body. I'm very healthy.

I think I have a very healthy and young vibe. Maybe, you know, I always tell people this is my age, but people say, you know what? It's not only that you look younger, you talk younger. There's something about you. You know what? I want to hit on something that you just, I just want to go back. You said that people say you're lucky for your entrepreneurship successes. Well, I follow you. The amount of material you put out, Mike, I mean, you're insane. I can't even imagine how hard you

work because I get my Twitter beeping from you all day, your books, the amount of stuff you've written on your page. Like if you just log into your page, you have articles, videos, definitely your success has not been luck. I mean, you are an incredibly hard, dedicated worker and kudos to you. Oh my gosh. Well, thanks. You know, funny though. So speaking, I totally see that on the outside looking in, but similar to fitness, it's really just a matter of routine. I just have my routine and I stick to it and I rarely deviate from it unless I have, really, it's a higher priority where it makes sense to, okay, like for example, when I was rewriting Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, when I was rewriting Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger, when I was writing the new third editions of those, I wanted a tight deadline.

I wanted to get it done in. So for a couple months, I think I only wrote maybe two or three articles on my blog and it bothered me the entire time, but I was deviating from the routine for a good reason because there was a lot of work to do to get these books. I really had to kind of rewrite them from scratch and they're pretty big, 130-ish thousand word books. And so probably eight hours a day just working on rewriting those books, which isn't that much work in and of itself. But for that kind of work, it is quite a bit because you have to focus a lot. You only can do so much of that kind of work before it becomes kind of counterproductive. But really it's a matter of just having the routine and sticking to it. And, you know, and being a little insane. Yeah, you know, I don't think that's bad, though. I think in this world, if you want to get anywhere,

you have to be a little bit insane, actually, at least by normal standards, right? Like, yeah, what I've been doing for some time now, and even what you've been doing with just your fitness, some people would say, oh, that's crazy. That's obsessed. But if you're not, I would say if normal people, if you don't have people, at least some people thinking that you're a little bit crazy or a little bit obsessed, you're probably not getting anywhere. But I, one thing that this point of it being hard or hard work for me, I consciously choose to think otherwise. I'd say maybe a lot if we look at it in terms of the effort that needs to be expended, but I don't really think of it as that hard. I'm more look at, well, how is it not hard? Like, okay, yes, we're in the gym and we're training and we're training hard, but that's not hard like maybe fighting in a gladiatorial arena to the death is hard.

It's not that hard. And I look at my work in the same way. It's a lot of hours and it requires a living better than kings lived just a couple centuries ago. And it's not because I'm not a billionaire. And that could be said for most people. I don't know if they realize really what they have in terms of quality of life. They're living better as well as the average person is living in many ways, as well as if not better than kings and the royals and the aristocracy lived just a couple centuries ago. So yes, it's a lot of work and it's quote unquote hard work, but it doesn't feel, I just choose not to think of it as, oh, it's hard. Oh, this is so hard. I have so much to do. Well, you do what you love. That makes a big

difference. You do something you love and clearly you enjoy this and you're a content producing beast. Come on, Mike. You produce so much high quality content. It's insane. It's insane. time and does, I think, contribute most to the overall motion. But yes, that's true. I do really enjoy it. However, I would say I also really enjoy working. And so long as I have a bigger kind of picture and a bigger purpose and bigger goals that I'm working toward. And so there are quite a few things that I have to do that I don't love doing. I don't love doing everything. And especially with building and running a business, for example, there are aspects of it I don't enjoy at all. I just don't.

And I think it's really a personality thing. It's not a matter of, oh, I'm just not good at that and I don't like it. Even things that I would say I'm pretty good at, I still just don't like, but I do them anyway. And even with those things though, I just always try to just in general, not complain and not look at things negatively

when I can just look at them positively. And I understand that can be a trap sometimes. It's one thing to use that to justify some bad situation that needs to be addressed. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking more about a positive use of it of doing work, for example, and just choosing to see what is good about it and choosing to see how it aligns with the things that matter the most, you know? Yeah, no, I totally get you. I totally get you. So last question. Now I'm just curious. So how then did you come across me and my work and

how did that impact things? Well, I'm not sure. I've been following you for a while. I guess I always look up fitness influencers. I like to listen to podcasts. And somehow or another, I came across yours and I loved it. Because everything you say aligns with my experience. Everything. I cannot say one thing that you say that I think, no, that's wrong. Really, really, your philosophy, your approach, the things that you teach people are totally in alignment with what has worked for me for so many years. And so obviously, I have all of your books.

I follow you on Twitter. And more than anything, what you say just confirms my lifestyle. As I go listening to what you say, I go, yeah, totally true. Absolutely. So that's why I'm a big follower and fan of yours. Well, that makes sense. Because I mean, I have a lot of experience in listening. I've done it for so many years. And for me, it's been more of a trial and error because nobody has taught me, especially for

the first 10 years. And just to listen to you and what you teach, and especially women, how you empower women, I love to hear what you say. I mean, I'm a personal trainer myself, and I send a few of your podcasts to my ladies. You have one that's the ultimate fitness program for women. I love what you say there. Like you say, don't do so much cardio, focus on weightlifting. All of my clients love that. They just love to hear you. That's great. You're not sending us another Mike Matthews podcast. Yes, it's your homework. You have two days to listen to it. That's great. I see that that episode in particular, it did quite well and it continues to keep getting plays. So you're contributing to that. Oh, yeah. I actually want to start producing more content specifically for women.

There's a woman, her name is Casey and smart girl. She has a PhD and she's into fitness and she has good personality. I think she's just a good person. And she's been producing some content, writing some articles for over at the Legion blog. And I'm having my editor in chief, like we're looking at having her focus on more on female specific content, just because whenever I do do something specifically for women, it does quite well. And I would say most of the stuff I produce is for men and women. It's not specifically for one or the other, but I have more male specific stuff than female specific stuff. And that's really just driven by, it's kind of by accident. It was driven by, I guess, mostly by SEO. If we're

talking about article writing and just looking at what keywords could I rank for and what do I feel knowledgeable enough about to write about and so forth. But there's a lot out there that is not, I could serve my female following better by producing more specifically for women. And I thought, Hey, I could do that, but I think it'd be even better if a woman does it because she's going to speak more authentically to other women than I ever could, no matter how much interaction I've had with the people I'm speaking to. And so I'm excited to do that. I also I think it would be interesting to start with written content and then even consider having a female specific podcast as well, where a lot of the same topics could be discussed. Be similar to my podcast. Some of the episodes could be monologues.

Some of the episodes could be interviews. I like the idea. Well, you know what? I totally applaud you because the thing with fitness in women is that there are so many magazines and articles and stuff that sell the wrong thing to women. They sell them fast. And social media, like Instagram alone is a cesspit. Yeah. And they sell them like, you know, hit workouts and all sorts of things that don't even work. Detox teas, poop teas. Oh my gosh. And you know, few fitness influencers, Mike, tell women the truth, that it comes down to what we were talking about,

lifting heavy, limiting your workout, eating well, don't like starve yourself, like starving yourself is the worst thing you can possibly do. Telling women the truth and selling them the true package. Men's fitness magazines, on the other hand, have already done that. Tell them the truth. They get men to eat protein, they get men to lift heavy, but women, there's a lot of confusion. So if you can get that message out to women, I think it would be very well received and you would impact a lot of people because you are a no BS type person. You're telling women what works and you're not all gimmicky and you know, like so many magazines do. Totally. Yeah. So we're going to start on the blog and then I, again, I liked the idea of the podcast. We'll see how that comes together, but minimally you're going to start with the blog

and start getting more female specific information out there. Even if in some cases, let's say an article could be written in a kind of genderless way because maybe the information generally would apply to both men and women, but taking it and crafting it specifically for women. So that is in how it's presented, but then also the specifics can change a bit too. There are many different examples I could give of that, but yeah, I think it's going to go well. And it's going to be also just good timing because we're doing a whole rebrand redesign over at Legion. So new logo, new look of everything. And one of the, yeah, one of the things specifically I wanted to address is that the products look hyper-masculine. They look like

they're for bodybuilder dudes and many women don't care and they understand what they're buying and why they're buying it. But first impressions do matter. And especially we're going to get into retail. We're gonna do some retail stuff as well. And when you're just sitting on a shelf, first impression is everything. And so I know firsthand from hearing from quite a few women who even use the products, but have said like, yeah, when I first saw Legion, my first impression was, oh, that's not for me. Like that's for bodybuilder guys. So the new look is it's also the current look is not in line with modern design trends. It looks kind of cheesy on some of the products. So the new design though,

is much more premium looking, more in line with modern design kind of best practices, more minimalist and much more gender neutral, and it'll be a lot more appealing to women. So I just think it'll work nicely to kind of rebrand the company as not just a bodybuilder thing, and then also really start getting a lot of high quality educational stuff out there for women. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, as Lyle McDonald says, I mean, women are not little men. We are a different animal than men, Lyle McDonald says, I mean, women are not little men. We are a different animal than men, psychologically, physically.

So I think it's interesting to address women's fitness issues separately. Obviously, we're all human, but we're definitely not little men. And a lot of the research in fitness has been done on men, not on women. The approach to fitness in women and a lot of the, I guess, a lot of the taboos that women have against weightlifting should be lifted because it has made such a big difference in any women who have lifted weights. And in me particular, it's been life changing and physique changing. Like my body has completely changed. Yeah. I'd say that the biggest differences are probably in getting buy in. So ultimately what you're doing in the gym, what you're doing

is not that much different than what I'm doing. Like we probably do a lot of the same exercises. We probably work in similar rep ranges on those exercises. Maybe I do a bit more than you do, but we're doing a lot more similarly than we are dissimilarly, but there's how it's presented and how it's packaged and how do you get that buy-in? And then there's also, yes, there's definitely some different psychological, I would say just barriers. Like for example, women feeling intimidated when they first go into a gym, because like what you were saying, I mean, you had the ultimate version of that where you are in a gym of exclusively men and culturally it's a bit weird, like you feel out of place. And so there's peer pressure to just not be there. That's not so much the case, obviously here in America, but still a lot of

gyms, especially gyms that are heavier on weightlifting at any given time, there's going to be more men than women. And then particularly in the weightlifting area. And so that's something that can be troubling for women, but that's not something that most guys don't experience anything like that. So there are also things like that. Well, and also, for example, our cycle, and I've heard Lyle McDonald speak about this. It has hit me right in the heart because, for example, a woman right before her period in the days leading up to it, you lose a lot of strength. I honestly lose 50% of my strength and coordination. Honestly, like I just become an idiot. And then in the days passing your period, I become strong, obviously. I mean, if you look at it from an evolutionary

point of view, when you're ovulating, you have to be strong and active and full of energy. And so if you're going to program for a woman, you should program like her really heavy lifts and like her overreaching time right after her period when she's like a tiger and she has all the energy. And maybe kind of her rest days right before her period. That makes a huge difference. Because even if you feel emotionally and to talk about it, to acknowledge how a woman feels right before her period, you feel more emotional, you feel weaker, you're off, you have a bit of mind fog. And right after it, you know, you're ready to go. I have so much energy after that. I'm just like, in during that ovulation period, that is when I hit my PRS.

Makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. You know, you you're in mating season you're ready to go so if you peacock peacock around but if you make a woman's program around that time you will see her flourish as opposed to you know trying to hit her hardest lifts around her period and her feeling discouraged and like what's wrong with me i don't even understand what's going on. If you know how to program a woman to lift, you can get her to really increase her strength and her stamina just programming around her menstrual cycle. And I know Lyle has spoken a lot about that. That's a huge difference in men and women. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. So if I'm hitting a PR, you know. Your lifting buddies can track your cycle just by your lifts well this was a great discussion Maria I really appreciate you taking the time where can people

find you and your work and is there anything in particular you'd like them to know about or anything new and exciting that you have coming well I have my Instagram page and it is strong Maria strong. So it's strong Maria strong. Very simple. Yeah. So I appreciate it. If anybody who's interested in my work could follow me, I believe in training people and keeping people fit at any age. If me at the Jurassic Park stage I'm in is fit and strong.

Not quite. Anybody can do it. Anybody can do it. So that's really my motto in life. Be fit and strong and healthy at any age. So yeah, it's strong Maria strong on Instagram. I have my Facebook page. I'm just beginning to really grow that. But main account is that one, Mike. So I really appreciate the time you took to speak with me. Yes, absolutely. Thanks again. Okay, well, take care. And I look forward to seeing all of your wonderful work. Thank you. Me too. It's a relief when finally the next big thing is done. You know what I mean? You get into that middle, there's always that dip in the middle where you're like,

does this ever end? And then you finally see the light. Yeah. Well, you crush it. I know what I mean? You get into that middle, there's always that dip in the middle where you're like, does this ever end? And then you finally see the light. Yeah. Well, you crush it. I know you will. Thank you. All right. Well, that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind doing me a favor, please do leave a quick review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to me from in whichever app you're listening to me in, because that not only convinces people that they should check out the show, it also increases search visibility, and thus it helps more people find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger,

healthier, and happier as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any new stuff. And if you didn't like something about the show, please do shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com just muscle for life.com and share your thoughts on how I can do this better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, even if it is criticism, I'm open to it. And of course you can email me if you have positive feedback as well, or if you have questions really relating to anything that you think I could help you with, definitely send me an email. That is the best way to get ahold of me, mikeatmuscleforlife.com.

And that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode. And I hope to hear from you soon.