Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: “Boring” Training, How to Grow Calves, New Books, 1-Rep Max Testing, and More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello there and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I am Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for the 33rd installment of my Q&A series of episodes where I answer questions that people ask me over on Instagram. At Muscle for Life Fitness, come follow me. Every week or two, I put up a story asking for questions. I get a bunch of questions. I answer them there on the Instagram-o. And then I bring everything over here on the podcast and answer the questions in more detail. And so today's questions are all over the place. One is, why is my training so boring? I answer a question about testosterone. Is it worth dabbling in? Cable flies versus cable dips. why are calves so hard to grow and what can you do

Starting point is 00:00:48 to grow these stubborn little bastards cooldowns post-workout cooldowns should we be doing them why i increased legion's prices the prices of well everything that leg Legion sells and more. Before we sink our teeth into it, how many calories should you eat to reach your fitness goals faster? What about your macros? What types of food should you eat and how many meals should you eat every day? Well, I created a free 60-second diet quiz that'll answer those questions for you and others, including how much alcohol you should drink, whether you should eat more fatty fish to get enough omega-3 fatty acids, what supplements are worth taking and why, and more. To take the quiz and get your free personalized diet plan, go to muscleforlife.show slash diet quiz, muscleforlife.show slash diet quiz muscle for life dot show slash diet quiz now answer the questions and learn

Starting point is 00:01:48 what you need to do in the kitchen to lose fat build muscle and get healthy okay the first question comes from anonymous because unfortunately this was a time when instagram was glitching and I wasn't able to easily record who was asking questions. But question is boxers or briefs? And this must be a trick question because boxer briefs is the only right answer. Next question. Why are your workouts so boring? Well, you are asking the same guy who has been eating more or less the same foods, like exactly the same thing, every meal, every day for about three years with maybe slight variations every, I don't know, six to 10 months. very much. My vegetable slop dinner has changed a little bit over the years. For example, there was a time when it was an Asian stir fry. I took the Asian stir fry recipe from my cookbook, The Shredded Chef, and just added a couple of other vegetables and played around with the spices and sauces. But it basically was that recipe for a long time. Now it's kind of a Thanksgiving dinner slop because it is similar to a stuffing

Starting point is 00:03:06 recipe without the stuffing. And I love stuffing. I love the flavor profile. So for example, I have a base of onion and celery and garlic, and there is some parsley and oregano, rosemary, some chicken stock. You can use vegetable as well, but I like the taste of chicken stock a little bit more. So very similar to a stuffing dish, but then I put some rice in there and I put some sort of meat. It's usually chicken, usually ground chicken. And that's my vegetable slop as of right now. And in a few months, I'll probably want to change the flavor profile to something else. Maybe that'll be a cookbook one day. It'll just be Mike's vegetable slop. So it'll be 50 different vegetable slops. So anyway, coming back to the question and giving a serious answer. Yes, in some ways, my training is kind of boring, right? Familiar exercises, simple progression models, repetitive workouts, but that is the type of training that produces long-term results. So in that way, the more boring your workouts are, the more effective they generally are going to be.

Starting point is 00:04:20 And ultimately, if we're talking about sustaining motivation, it is a common misconception that fun is the most motivating factor in your training. Fun does matter. It can be motivating. But what I've found for me and for many, many people I've spoken with and worked with over the years is results are the most motivating factor. Getting the results you want is extremely motivating, even if your training isn't all that interesting, even if there isn't much variation or much novelty. Maybe it isn't even that fun as an activity unto itself, but because it is producing results and it is getting you closer to your health and fitness goals that mean a lot to you, you are very motivated to do the training. Next question, is experimenting with testosterone worth it?

Starting point is 00:05:16 No, definitely not. T levels and you have tried to fix it naturally and it is not working, then I understand TRT, testosterone replacement therapy. I think it is warranted. I would do it myself if I were in that position. Again, low testosterone, symptoms of low testosterone, low energy, bad mood, bad workouts, low sex drive, et cetera, et cetera. And if I then tried to do everything I could naturally with diet, I would even try some supplements that have shown to be effective in some people in some circumstances like diaspartic acid, for example, and a couple of others that generally don't seem to do much. But again, you might get lucky and respond well. I would try everything that I could naturally. But if none of that worked, then yes, I would get on TRT because at that point,

Starting point is 00:06:13 it's a matter of quality of life. It's not just to try to gain some muscle or lose some fat. But if my testosterone levels are fine, and so if you out there are thinking about dabbling with steroids, if your testosterone levels are fine, I would not recommend injecting any of these drugs or swallowing any of these drugs because you're probably going to find it very hard to stop. If you talk to just about anyone who has used a lot of steroids and who is honest with themselves and willing to tell you the truth, basically every single one of them will say it's very hard to stop. These drugs are not physiologically addictive in the same way as, let's say, cocaine or opioids, but there are strong psychological addictions that can develop

Starting point is 00:07:08 because you are going to feel very good if your testosterone is out the roof. And if you're adding other drugs, your workouts are going to be great. You're going to gain a lot of muscle and strength. You're probably going to need less sleep, but you're going to have very high energy levels, et cetera, et cetera. If you want to hear more about that side of steroids, the dangers associated with their use that are not often talked about, check out the interview I did with Greg Doucette, D-O-U-C-E-T-T-E, and see what you think. All right, next question. Cable flies or dips? I would say flies if you want a joint-friendly isolation exercise for the pecs, but dips are great if you want a tougher compound movement

Starting point is 00:08:01 for the pecs, tris, and shoulders. Now, dips are not bad for your joints, but cable flies are more joint friendly. Next question, why are calves so hard to grow? Well, for many of us, I've had a lot of difficulties growing my calves. It's a combination of starting with basically nothing, which is me. I started with essentially no calves, even though I played a lot of ice hockey, which is odd. So it's a combination of that and having a lot of type one muscle fibers in our calves. And these types of muscle fibers do not grow as easily as type two muscle fibers. That said, if your calves are lagging, if you can figure out how to do, let's say 15 to 20 hard sets per week.

Starting point is 00:08:46 And I also would recommend doing a variety of rep ranges, say four to six, do some sets in the four to six range, and then the eight to 10 range, and then the 12 to 15, or even 15 to 20 range, because research shows that some people's calves respond better to certain rep ranges over others. And instead of trying to figure out which rep range is ideal for your calves, it's best to just do a variety and know that you are going to be maximally stimulating your calves. So if you can do that, let's say 15 to 20 hard sets per week, your calves will grow. And that's actually what I've been doing for about two months now. I've been training my calves basically every day, four or five days per week, doing three to four sets per day. And they are growing. Well, some of that might be a residual pump, but they have grown at least a little bit because I've bumped up my volume by 50 or 60%.

Starting point is 00:09:42 And you usually can't do that if you are training, let's say your legs, and you're doing 10 to 12 hard sets per week for your legs, if you were to try to increase that by 50 to 60%, one week to the next, you would be very sore, I would not recommend that I would recommend going up maybe by 10 to 20%. And then acclimating to that for a week or two and then going up by another 10 to 20% repeating. But with a small muscle group like the calves that recovers quickly, you can do that. And when you greatly increase your volume, so long as you maintain your intensity, so long as you keep ending your hard sets close to muscular failure, you can't help but grow. So we'll see. We'll see where my daily calf training gets me. Next question. How may I pay you back for changing

Starting point is 00:10:32 my life? Good sir. You know, I never know what to say when people say things like this to me, because it's just a little bit surreal, I guess. And I don't know, I'm just not great with compliments. However, my honest answer is people who I've helped don't owe me anything. Really, I'm flattered and I appreciate that you gave me a shot because there are so many people out there hustling for your attention these days. Now, if that is not enough and you really want to do something to pay me back, quote unquote, just spread the word. Just tell people who want to get into better shape about me and my work. That is one of the most valuable things anyone can do. Okay, next question is, I tend to skip cool downs. How important are they? Very unimportant unless you want to do some stretching or some mobility work. I recommend doing that after your strength training. And you don't have to do those things. Stretching slash mobility work isn't all that important unless you have specific issues or specific restrictions that you are

Starting point is 00:11:46 addressing. Many people don't, though. Many people maintain great mobility and great flexibility with proper strength training alone because there's a lot of stretching involved in proper strength training. Think about the amount of lower body stretching involved in a proper squat, for example, a proper deadlift, especially a Romanian deadlift or a straight leg deadlift. Think about the upper body stretching involved in a bench press, in an overhead press, even in a pull-up and chin-up. And all that is why a lot of people who do a fair amount of strength training and no formal stretching retain very high levels of flexibility, above average levels of flexibility, very healthy levels of flexibility. Next question, why did you jack the price of your protein powder?

Starting point is 00:12:35 So they are referring to my sports nutrition company, Legion, and we raised the price of our protein powders, whey, casein, our vegan plant protein as well. And we actually have had to raise the price, I think, of every single product. And the reason is, well, everything is more expensive now, a lot more expensive, raw ingredients, packaging labels, bottles and bags, fulfillment. It is all a lot more expensive than it was just a year or so ago. For example, since this period of transitory, put that in scare quotes, inflation began, the cost of producing and shipping a bottle of my whey protein isolate, which is called Whey Plus, that has jumped by 68%. The cost of getting a bottle of my post-workout supplement recharge into your grabbers, that's up 71%. My casein protein, 75%. I mean, I could go on, but the

Starting point is 00:13:36 economics have soured so much that I was actually losing money on hundreds of monthly subscription orders, for example, because people had locked in those subscription orders some time ago at lower prices. And so anyway, I had to do what everyone is doing these days. I had to raise my prices. But the good news is Legion's costs have stabilized. So I don't expect to have to make any further price increases anytime soon. And my customers' willingness to pay slightly more for Legion's products have allowed me to maintain the quality of my formulations, which is very important to me. And to that point, if there is a supplement company out there that has not increased prices in the last year, they either have the financial acumen of Paul Krugman or they are probably reducing the quality

Starting point is 00:14:27 of their products to maintain their profit margins. Maybe they're using fewer ingredients. Maybe they are using smaller doses. Maybe they are reducing servings and so on. Next question is, should a 145 pound man with 14% body fat lifting for the first time bulk or cut first? You know, this is a scenario where maintenance calories actually will probably work quite well because this guy is going to, and this would apply to a woman, let's say a woman who has a normal body composition. The weight would depend on her height, but let's say, you know, 14% body fat in men is athletic looking. It's not shredded. It's not overweight. In women, maybe the comparable level of body fat would be maybe 25%, 24% and 145 pound man. So obviously he's probably not very tall, I would guess, but normal build.

Starting point is 00:15:29 And so this advice would apply to a woman starting out with a very normal, maybe even a little bit of an athletic build. So cutting is probably not the best place to start because ultimately what's going to happen is, yeah, you're going to get leaner. And in the case of this guy, he's going to get to, let's say, 10% body fat. He's going to have a nice six pack, but he's going to feel very small. And then he's going to just want to focus on building muscle. And if a woman is starting out relatively small as well and relatively lean, sure, she can also get to where she sees her stomach muscles, but she's probably going to feel kind of frail. On the other hand, starting with a lean bulk,

Starting point is 00:16:12 it would not be a mistake here. But what will happen is after this guy who's starting at 14% body fat, after he gains probably 3, 4, 5% body fat, so once he's approaching 20%, he's going to start feeling kind of fat. It's going to be a little bit uncomfortable. And the same thing would go for the woman starting at 24. By the time she approaches 30, she probably is going to want to get back to the mid twenties. That's at least been my experience working with many people over the years. So maintenance calories could work quite well here because with maintenance calories, this guy or his female counterpart, what they'll be able to do is gain quite a bit of muscle with little or no

Starting point is 00:16:56 fat. They might even end up losing a little bit of fat because when you are eating at maintenance calories, of course, you are not hitting that exact number that you are burning every day. You're just around it. Some days you're a little bit over, some days you're a little bit under. And I've seen when people are starting out with strength training and proper dieting

Starting point is 00:17:18 with maintenance calories, they tend to eat a little bit less, more often than they eat a little bit more. Also, their body is so responsive to the training and has so many better uses now for those calories that they tend to lose a little bit of body fat rather than gain a little bit of body fat over the course of, let's say, four to six months of maintenance. And even if they don't lose or gain body fat, even if they just maintain the exact same amount of total body fat as when they started, if they add muscle, now their body fat percentage has gone down, right? Because body fat percentage is percentage of body weight that is fat. And that can make you look leaner because you've added muscle that is going to distribute the body fat a little bit differently. Your body just looks better and looks leaner with the same

Starting point is 00:18:13 amount of body fat. It fills out, that muscle kind of fills out your body better and it kind of shifts the fat distribution in ways that people generally like more. So nothing wrong with starting out with maintenance calories. Hey there, if you are hearing this, you are still listening, which is awesome. Thank you. And if you are enjoying this podcast, or if you just like my podcast in general, and you are getting at least something out of it, would you mind sharing it with a friend or a loved one or a not so loved one even who might want to learn something new? Word of mouth helps really bigly in growing the show. So if you think of someone who might like this episode or another one, please do tell them about it. Next question. Does the progressive overload principle apply to accessory exercises?

Starting point is 00:19:08 Some get heavy fast. Yes, absolutely. Progressive overload applies to all resistance training if you are trying to make progress. If you are trying to gain muscle and strength, you have to figure out how to progressively overload your muscles. And sometimes you have to work very hard

Starting point is 00:19:24 to finally add more weight, especially on certain isolation slash accessory exercises in particular. The smaller muscle groups, think of a side raise for your side delts, think of a rear raise for your rear delts. Think of calves, think of biceps. In the beginning, it's easy to add weight to these exercises for the first six months or so. But once you get fairly strong, it's easy to add weight to these exercises for the first six months or so. But once you get fairly strong, you might have to grind for months before you can move up just five pounds in each dumbbell, for example. So what you need to do is work on increasing the amount of reps you can do, increasing the amount of sets that you can do, and eventually you can turn that into increasing the amount of weight. And my last comment here is the double progression

Starting point is 00:20:09 model works really well for that. And that is the progression model that I use in my bigger, leaner, stronger and thinner, leaner, stronger programs. So if you want to learn more about double progression and how to put it into use, check out bigger, leaner, stronger book. If you're a guy, thinner, leaner, stronger book. If you're a guy, Thinner Leaner Stronger book. If you are a girl, even if you don't want to get thinner, I wanted to call that book Fitter Leaner Stronger. But in surveying a lot of my female readers and followers,

Starting point is 00:20:37 they much preferred Thinner Leaner Stronger over Fitter Leaner Stronger. I use a Likert scale, a one to five Likert scale, one being I hate it, five being I love it. And thinner, leaner, stronger, averaged, I want to say like a four. It's surveyed quite well with hundreds, if not thousands of women. So a good sample size of women simply asking them, here's the book. Here's what it's about, right? Here's a summary of the book. Here are a couple of potential titles.

Starting point is 00:21:08 Rate them one to five. And thinner, leaner, stronger, again, averaged like a four, which is very good. And fitter, leaner, stronger, averaged, I think it was around a two, not very good. So I simply went with what the market told me was best. Okay, next question. International vacation for two weeks, no gym access. What can I do to maintain my progress? The easiest way to stay lean while also enjoying your vacation, there are two steps. One is eat freely to the point of satisfaction, not suffering, but satisfaction once or twice per day and otherwise. Alternate between protein shakes and extra filling fruit like apples and oranges and low calorie kind of high protein

Starting point is 00:21:53 snacks like Greek yogurt or skier, low fat cottage cheese, deli meat, turkey jerky, stuff like that. And then two, include regular physical activity in your itinerary. You can do formal workouts if you want to, but you don't have to. It could be leisurely walks. It could be hikes. It could be bike rides. Just try to stay active. Okay, next question. Would you ever do a U.S. meet and greet tour of some sort? Yes, I would. I'm interested in this. And in fact, I was thinking about doing a couple day live event sometime next year in the Tampa, Orlando area with Legion athletes and with some of my fitness friends. And although I have not formally started to work on that yet, I would say there's at least a 50-50 chance that we do it next year.

Starting point is 00:22:46 It's not a matter of desire. I do want to do it. It's only a matter of bandwidth. I don't have anybody currently working with me who I can give that to. So I'm going to have to probably hire an outside service and then have somebody internally coordinate the details. It's just the logistics have to be worked out. But I very much like the idea. I'd like to do that once a year. We'll call it Legion Live. It'll be fun. Okay, next question. Why do you think the carnivore diet has so many positive testimonials if it is mostly BS? Well, many people can experience many benefits when they start eating more nutritious protein. So meat is nutritious protein. And when they start eating fewer calories, when they start eating more nutritious protein. So meat is nutritious protein. And when

Starting point is 00:23:26 they start eating fewer calories, when they get rid of highly processed foods, and when they also tend to make other lifestyle changes along with the diet. For example, they might start exercising again or exercising more or doing better types of exercise. They might start drinking less alcohol. They might start getting better sleep. Many people start with diet, but then also start making these other changes. So what we have to remember, though, is that carnivore is not the only way to do all of those things and is, in fact, inferior to a plant-centric approach. That is the clear weight of the scientific evidence. And if you want to learn more about my take on the carnivore diet and on all of the relevant research that I could find, head over to legionathletics.com, search for carnivore,

Starting point is 00:24:20 and you will find an article that I wrote probably a year or two ago, but it also got updated recently. And so it is my current position on the carnivore diet. Next question is bigger, leaner, stronger version for when is the new book coming out? So the fourth edition of bigger, leaner, stronger, something I've been working on for at least a year now, I think a little bit longer. However, the ebook is live everywhere. The audio book is also up. I think it went up about a month ago. So audio book is live and I'm getting ready to order the hard copies. So the new paperbacks, and I'm also going to do a hard cover and they will be live probably early next year, Q1 next year, because it takes a couple also going to do a hard cover and they will be live probably early next year, Q1 next year, because it takes a couple of months to print a bunch of books and then you have to

Starting point is 00:25:10 sell through the existing books that you have, et cetera, et cetera. And I have also done a fourth edition of Thinner Leaner Stronger, and that is currently in the production process. So the audio book is getting recorded, should be done in the next couple of weeks. And the e-book is almost there. There just are a couple of illustrations that an illustrator is drawing. And then once those are done, we'll be able to wrap up and launch the e-book. And that's on all platforms, not just Amazon. Wherever you might buy an e-book.

Starting point is 00:25:41 If The Noon is Stronger is there, it's going to be the fourth edition. Probably by the end of the year or January. And then comes the hard copies. I would say the hard copies probably are not going to be live like on Amazon and elsewhere until summer of next year, just because of the delay between ordering new ones, selling through existing and so forth. And I am also updating the workout journals that go with those books. So the year one challenge for men that goes with bigger, leaner, stronger, and the year one challenge for women, which goes with thinner, leaner, stronger, a year's worth of

Starting point is 00:26:15 workouts programmed by me takes you through the programs. Those are getting updated to be exactly in line with everything that is in the fourth editions of those books. And both of those workout journals should be 100% live in both digital and hard copy formats by probably summer of next year. Slow, I know. Don't get into writing and publishing books unless you are very patient. Okay, next question. Bulgarian split squats as a permanent substitute for barbell back squat? Sure.

Starting point is 00:26:51 If you do not do well with the barbell back squat, maybe you have an injury or something is preventing you from doing it properly without pain. The Bulgarian split squat is a great alternative. without pain, the Bulgarian split squat is a great alternative. Remember, you don't have to barbell squat, back squat or front squat unless you're a powerlifter or Olympic weightlifter. But if you're just somebody who wants to get and stay fit, the squat is a great exercise if you can do it. But if you can't or you don't want to, there are plenty of alternatives. Next question, to, there are plenty of alternatives. Next question, how should you incorporate a one rep max into your routine? I prefer testing in the range of three to five reps. So three to five rep maxes because it's safer and it's less draining than a true one RM. But I will say that true one RM

Starting point is 00:27:40 testing can be fun. I have not done it myself in some time, but I used to do it every six months or so in my 20s, my mid to late 20s when I was basically invincible. And I get the allure. If you are strong, I would not recommend doing it more than once per six months because it is hard on your body. You are going to be doing it on probably the squat, the deadlift and the bench press, maybe the overhead press. I doubt you are going to 1RM test your leg press, for example. And so some people, they don't appreciate how much stress a true 1RM test puts on the body.

Starting point is 00:28:19 So again, once every six months or so is plenty often. And I would also recommend planning it so you can follow it up with a deload. So if you are going to 1RM your squat, deadlift, bench and overhead press, do those things in one week and then have the following week be a deload, maybe even a week off just to help your body fully recover so you can get back to your normal training without increasing the chances of experiencing symptoms related to overtraining. Next question, would you do four to six reps even for isolation exercises like lateral raises or flies? Those exercises in particular, not so much. I did a lot of that in the past. However, now not so much because it's hard to maintain proper form. But there are many other isolation exercises that I think do lend themselves to heavy reps like biceps curls, for example. And I'll say that my biceps have responded really, really well to heavy training. I did not notice another spurt of growth in my biceps until I started doing a lot of four to six rep sets. I came from doing a lot of tens and twelves and

Starting point is 00:29:33 fifteens. Not that those are not effective for building biceps. They are, but I noticed that once I started doing a lot of fours and fives and sixes and maybe some sevens and eights, my biceps responded really well. And I've heard from many people, usually guys, but I've heard from many people over the years who have had the same experience who say that their biceps were stuck until they started to do heavier training on their biceps. Same thing with triceps. You can do many different triceps exercises safely and comfortably in that four to six triceps. You can do many different triceps exercises safely and comfortably in that four to six rep range. You can do various pull exercises in that rep range. You can do some lower body isolation exercises in that rep range, and it can be very effective. It's not only that

Starting point is 00:30:19 those heavy fours, fives, and sixes are not only for your big compound lifts. Final question, 10 reps of deadlift feels like hell in Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger, which is my program for intermediate and advanced weightlifters. Is that common? Yes. Yes, the program does call for sets of 10 on the deadlift. And yes, it is grotesque. 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.

Starting point is 00:31:03 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.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: “Boring” Training, How to Grow Calves, New Books, 1-Rep Max Testing, and More

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