Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Newsy News How: Italy + Winning + First Live Event (!)

Episode Date: August 9, 2019

“When’s your next book coming out?” “What kind of supplements are you going to release next?” “What would you name your boat if you had one?” I’m asked questions like these all the time and so I thought I’d start doing monthly updates about what’s new and exciting here at Legion HQ. So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately. Enjoy! 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/

Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural evidence-based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. Head over to www.LegionAthletics.com now to check it out. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order and it'll ship free if you are anywhere in the United States. And if you're not, it'll ship free if your order is over $100. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing podcasts like this.

Hello, my gremlins. Welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. This is the monthly update episode. This is what has been happening around here for the last couple months. So it is the dead of summer in the year of our Lord 2019. And that means a snoot full of hay fever and headaches, harassment from quote unquote bored, you know, boring kids, and lots of kvetching about bursting thermometers and lava hot taints. You know, I for one think the world would be at least a slightly better place if nobody complained about the weather ever. Anyway, despite the triple digit temps here in the DC area, my merry band of marauders and I have been busy little buzzards.

My merry band of marauders and I have been busy little buzzards. So please behold the many things happening around Legion HQ. First up, I went and't even know how long since I'd taken a real bonafide just for fun vacation, you know, hashtag hustle, hashtag grind, hashtag boss, hashtag no days off, et cetera, et cetera. A few months ago, however, my perspective changed when vapid Instagram motivation con man number 2,353 said, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And so I figured, what the hell? Why not cash in a few chips and indulge in some hashtag wanderlust? And so off to Italy, my family and I went. And yes, I brought my two and six-year-old kids on a two-week trip to Italy. What could possibly go wrong? I mean, it's not like the little one's nickname in Casa Matthews is Rambo Romy. Rambo Romy. So anyway, our first stop was Portofino, which was a quaint and quiet little coastal town with an idyllic charm and a rather glamorous pedigree. And even better was the fact

that my little scamps didn't transform into jet-lagged terrors and were actually quite relaxed. I mean, Rambo had her moments of mischief as expected, but I was envisioning something more along the lines of a truck full of chainsaw-wielding juggalos. So the bumper cars felt pretty easy, actually. After Portofino was Venice, which had been described to me by a number of my friends as basically the urinal of Italy, crowded, dirty, smelly, and the like. And I suppose my low expectations paid off rather handsomely because I wasn't disappointed at all. I actually really liked it. Yes, Venice was definitely crowded, but it wasn't strikingly

dirty or smelly. And the combination of the canals and the architecture and atmosphere made the city captivating in a way that was unlike any other city that I've been to. And I've been to quite a few. It felt like I had stepped into an amusement park or onto a movie set that was meant to transport you back to the 1500s. It was pretty cool. Next up was Florence, and this time the high expectations worked against me. I'm a bit of a history wonk. So as Florence was the heart of the Renaissance and is now home to some of Europe's most precious architecture and art, I couldn't help but thrill at this stretch of the itinerary. And yes, the city was beautiful and the Uffizi in particular was glorious.

But for whatever reason, the city just didn't rev my engine. It felt like a less enchanting Italian version of Paris. So after playing around there for a few days, we went back to Portofino for a couple more nights where I was able to watch a couple hundred million dollars in yachts come and go every day and humbly reflect on how much of a peasant I truly am. And so that was my Italy trip. The end. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode

and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. The next bit of news is the launch of my new third editions of Bigger Leaner Stronger and

Thinner Leaner Stronger went very well. Now, if you are a regular around here, you have certainly heard that I released these new books and we sold close to 20,000 copies in the first week, which was really solid. Bigger Than You're Stronger peaked from what I saw. I should actually probably check one of those services that just tracks rankings of all books and gives you history. But anyways, I saw BLS peak at number 14 in all of books on Amazon, the Kindle in particular, the ebook, which was pretty cool. particularly those who read the previous editions and are downright impressed by the quality of the new material. And also speaking of the launch, we have chosen and contacted the giveaway winners, including our grand prize winner, John Cecil, who is going to be flown out to DC to meet up with me and my team. So congrats, John. And I look forward to meeting you soon, my man. Okay. Next up is something that many people have been asking for, and that is a live event,

my first live event. And this is actually one of the most common requests I get these days. And so I'm going to start doing them. You see, that's how life works. Ask and you shall receive. That's how life works. Ask and you shall receive. But it gets better because I am going to kick this off with a bang by teaming up with my fitness besties over at Mind Pump Media for an afternoon of ruckus and tomfoolery. So if you want to meet me and them, mostly me, naturally, then plan on being in San Jose on September 27th of this year. Now, there are more details to come soon on this, so I'm just giving you a heads up now. And once I get some more specifics from the Mind Pump team, I will be sharing them. It'll be soon, though. Obviously, we want to give people plenty of heads up. In fact, I'm going to call Sal right after this just to make sure that I get all the

information well in advance. So those are some of the highlights of my last couple months. And as far as Legion goes, the stuff I'm most excited about are the new things we've been releasing and are getting ready to release, including Sour Candy Pulse, which is downright delicious. I want a stim-free version now. Strawberry Casin, which is downright delicious. I want a stim-free version now. Strawberry casein, which is also surprisingly delicious, especially if you eat it as a pudding. So if you just put less water than you'd normally put and stir it up, it kind of turns into a pudding. Super good. A brand new formulation for Thrive. The biggest change here is we got rid of the quinoa and the hemp protein. So it is strictly rice and pea protein now and just worked on the flavor and the mouth

feel. And it's fantastic. I liked the previous Thrive, but this is just really, really good. Impressively good. And what else? What else? Oh, one exciting thing that is coming soon is a new protein bar, a s'mores protein bar, which I think is even better than our chocolate

chip cookie dough, which is my current favorite. I like the chocolate peanut butter, but I agree with many people who have reached out to say it needs more peanut butter. So we're working on that and that will be coming. But until then, chocolate chip cookie dough is my go-to. It is my number one. However, s'mores is better. And if you are a consumer of Legion protein bars, then microwave them. Microwave them for like 15 seconds. And you might be surprised at just how delicious they are. And also a little microwaving tip is microwave them facing down with the top of the bars on the plate, not the bottom, because the bottom is where the coating is, right? So it's the chocolate on the chocolate chip cookie dough, and it's the peanut butter on the chocolate peanut butter. If you microwave them with the coating facing down, it kind of

melts over the plate and you lose a bit of it. If you microwave them with the coating facing up, however, you get maximum enjoyment. All right. And before I sign off, another cool Legion thing that we haven't officially announced yet, but it is live. We are just waiting for a slot to open up in our email schedule. It'll be soon. And this is our new rewards program.

It launched about a week or so ago, maybe two weeks ago, and people are already taking advantage of it. And it's very simple. Here's how it works. You buy stuff in our store over at legionathletics.com. You get points. You then redeem those points for discounts, and then you rejoice. Yay.

If you want to learn about it, head over to legionathletics.com and you'll see it on the menu, but the URL is slash rewards. Well, that is all for now, my friends. Thank you as always for listening. And I will see you. Well, I won't see you. I will speak to you in the next episode. Hey, Mike here.

And if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural evidence-based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. Head over to www.LegionAthletics.com now to check it out. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And it'll ship free if you are anywhere in

the United States. And if you're not, it'll ship free if your order is over $100. So again, if you appreciate my work, and if you want to see more of it, please do consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing podcasts like this.