Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Daily Supplement Routine, Maintaining Motivation, Chiropractors, and More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, I'm Mike Matthews, and this is Muscle for Life. Thanks for joining me today for another Q&A, where I am going to answer a handful of questions that people asked me over on Instagram. And those questions include things like, what was wrong with my shoulder and how did I fix it? If you are having any shoulder issues, this is a really simple tip that might help you.

Starting point is 00:00:24 And if you are not having shoulder issues, this is a really simple tip that might help you. And if you are not having shoulder issues, it can help you continue to not have shoulder issues. I also answer a question about how many of my own supplements do I take every day? What does my supplement stack look like? How long does it take to go from skinny to jacked. What are my thoughts on Elon Musk trying to buy Twitter? Is low intensity cardio better than high intensity interval training for losing weight? My thoughts on carnivore and carnivore MD 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?

Starting point is 00:01:11 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 now. Answer the questions and learn what you need to do in the kitchen to lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy. Brandon881014, let's go Brandon, he asks, what's wrong with my shoulder and how did I fix it? Well, a couple of months ago, my biceps tendon was starting to bother me in the bicipital groove on my right side and I would notice it most when I was bench pressing and I know from working with a physical therapist many years ago that what happens in my body is on my right side my lat my subscapularis, my infraspinatus will get tight. And eventually that causes pain in the

Starting point is 00:02:27 bicipital groove. Eventually those tissues are not moving the way that they should. And then when I do certain exercises, it slowly but surely aggravates my biceps tendon. And I worked with a PT previously. And to resolve that, we had to get those tissues moving. It basically was stretching and massage, a combination of stretching and deep, painful massage. And going forward, I have worked on and off with massage therapists basically to do the same, but I still would run into this issue from time to time. And the fix that I implemented months ago now and has continued to work is simply dead hangs. And I learned about this from an orthopedic surgeon. I believe his last name is Kirsch. He was an orthopedic surgeon for 30 years or so. He wrote a book on this and I learned it from his work. I don't know him personally.

Starting point is 00:03:31 And Kirsch swore by the power of dead hangs and the importance of doing dead hangs regularly if you use your shoulders a lot. So particularly athletes, right? So like think baseball players, something would be really good for all baseball players to do, but also for those of us who are just in the gym doing a fair amount of pressing. And so what I started to do was four sets of 30 to second dead hangs. So just think of a pull-up grip. So palms facing away, that's important. You wouldn't want to do this palms facing you, you do it palms facing away. And I just would hang there and really feel that stretch in my lats. And I would feel it also in my subscapularis. And I would just do that 30 to 60 seconds. As my grip got a little bit stronger. I found that 45 to 60

Starting point is 00:04:26 seconds was pretty easy in the beginning, 30 to 45 seconds or so. And I would do that just in between weightlifting sets. So in between working sets of my workouts, I would just go hang for, you know, whatever, 30 to 45 or 60 seconds, and then rest another minute or two and do my next working set in my workout. And I would do that five to seven days per week. And within three weeks or so, I went from, I would say when bench pressing probably a seven out of 10 pain in my bicipital groove area on my right side. So that's where I started three weeks later, it was probably a two out of 10. So just a little bit uncomfortable. Three weeks later, it was probably a two out of 10. So just a little bit uncomfortable. And that was months ago. And I've been training pretty heavy. Like today on my flat bench, I did 245 for five and I could have definitely gotten one more, probably not two. That fifth rep was a little bit of a grinder and I could have probably grinded through one more, but I don't think two. And so for me, I weigh about 195 pounds. That's pretty heavy for me.

Starting point is 00:05:32 I have been stronger in the past, but my strongest on flat bench was 295 for three, I think I got two or three. And I was probably 205. And that was also like 10 years ago. I was younger, sleeping better, and all around just a little bit stronger. And so my point, though, is that 245 for five felt good today. I felt a little bit of discomfort in my bicep groove in that biceps tendon, but it wasn't even to the point of pain. It was just something that I noticed. And on some days I don't notice it at all. And so now I'm sold on the hanging.

Starting point is 00:06:05 It's just something that I will do indefinitely. And I would recommend if you are running into any shoulder issues, especially any sort of impingement issues when you are trying to bring your arm overhead, then try the dead hangs. And if you are not having shoulder issues, you might still want to do these. Again, just do like four sets. Do it in between your working sets and your workouts to keep your shoulders pain-free and functional. Okay, F. Urbina O. asks, how many of your supplements do you take daily? I take a lot. I take all of the health supplements. So my daily legion routine is two scoops of plant plus, which currently I am having zero scoops per day of because I ran out of stock of it, even my own personal stock. return, I am with you. And what happened there, by the way, is sales took off. They just far outpaced what we forecasted. And with lead times, what they are right now, production lead times, four to six months in general. So when I place an order for something, I don't see it leaving my manufacturer for four to six months. And so we have to do our best forecasting sales and

Starting point is 00:07:26 forecasting demand. So then we can determine how much of each, not just even individual product, but individual skew. So individual flavor, we need to order blah, blah, blah. And with plant plus, it was cruising along at a certain amount of sales. I don't even remember what the number is off the top of my head, but it was slowly growing as it was gaining popularity, the new formulation that we released. And then out of nowhere, that number doubled, which was great to see. We started selling twice as much of Plant Plus as we normally did or previously did. And unfortunately, I couldn't just go to my manufacturer and ask them to make more of it or make it faster because of supply chain issues. I had to run out of stock. And so anyway,

Starting point is 00:08:14 it will be back soon and we will now be working with these new larger numbers and we shouldn't be running out of stock for any extended period of time again, unless again, it just randomly doubles in volume. Anyway, so coming back to my daily legion routine, two scoops of plant plus normally one scoop of whey plus, and I like to mix one scoop of the whey and one scoop of the plant, like the mix them together. So I'll have one scoop of plant plus by itself. And then at some other point in the day, I will have one scoop of plant plus by itself. And then at some other point in the day, I will have one scoop of plant plus mixed with one scoop of whey. I also have a serving of triumph every day. That's my multivitamin Genesis, my greens supplement ascend by nootropic balance, my gut supplement fortify my joint supplement vitality, my vitality, energy hormone, not hormone booster, but it does have DHEA, which can help optimize hormones in older peoples. And I'm 38, so I'm not sure if it has an effect yet, but research shows that DHEA does positively influence hormones in people in their 40s and beyond. So maybe I'm a

Starting point is 00:09:23 little bit ahead of the curve, but that's okay. And I also take my immune supplement, which is simply called Immune Every Day, because it not only can help you recover faster if you do get sick, but it also can help you not get sick in the first place. And lastly, I have two servings of Triton Every Day because I do like to have a larger amount of omega-3s than is required simply to maintain sufficiency, to maintain basic health needs. If you take a bit more, you might notice that your joints hurt less, and this has been shown in research, and it also can help with post-workout recovery. Okay, Hello Johnny asks, how many years to go from skinny to jacked? Simple answer. Fast answer to this one. Four to six years. For most people, that's what it takes.

Starting point is 00:10:11 Consistent, correct eating and training. Not perfect, but just consistent and mostly right most of the time. I Jake Ryan asks thoughts on Ilan buying Twitter? So this question was asked before the lawsuits started flying, by the way. But my answer at the time and still is, if it does happen, I think it's delicious. largest salt mine in the world, and ditto heads everywhere will have to learn that while they can ignore reality, they can't ignore the consequences of ignoring reality. Jeff Palm asks, what is your favorite razor for shaving? Well, I use a Phillips electric razor on my face. I don't know the model, nothing special, something I bought on Amazon for, I think, under $100. And then I use the manscaped mower thing on my chest and my stomach and my tiddly bits, which isn't as clean as a razor, of course, but good enough. My wife doesn't complain, so that's enough for me. Linda Sepp asks, what would you say is the best way to keep

Starting point is 00:11:27 motivation while on a weight loss journey? Well, I would recommend that you focus more on establishing the right mindset and the right habits and the right lifestyle, because that is what not only gets you to your goal, but also ensures that you can maintain your goal, your ideal body composition once you get there. Because when you're finally done cutting, you are doing it right when you don't really need to make any major changes to your diet or your lifestyle. You simply eat a bit more of what you've been eating, or maybe you include one or two new things in your meal plan, new foods that you have wanted to eat, but just didn't quite fit your calories and macros. I also think it's especially important to approach weight loss that way when

Starting point is 00:12:20 you have a lot of weight to lose, because while you will start seeing results immediately on the scale, it's going to be a bit until you really start to see big visual changes, which are very motivating, but are much less motivating if you know it is going to take many months to see your first big visual change. And so in the meantime, then it is, I think, more effective, certainly more motivating to focus. This is more in the beginning to focus again on building the right mindset, building the right habits, building the right lifestyle, becoming the type of person who does the most important things in the kitchen and in the gym mostly right most of the time because once you become that person your results are guaranteed it is only a matter of time until you start seeing those big visual changes and then motivation really starts to just take care of itself

Starting point is 00:13:19 okay liz foley 31 20 asks is l, so low intensity steady state cardio better than HIT, high intensity interval training for losing weight? Well, strictly speaking, HIT is better for losing you are going to burn more fat in those workouts than if it is LIS. But the problem with HIIT is it's harder to recover from. It can be very hard to recover from if it's also high impact, like sprinting around. Maybe it's just running sprints outside on a hard surface or playing a sport that involves sprinting around on a hard surface, like maybe tennis. And so my general recommendation for HIIT is to do something with little or no impact. Biking is great. Swimming is great. And also limit yourself to no more than one hour of HIIT per week. You can do more cardio than that, but limit your HIIT to one hour per week. Luke M 81 asks thoughts on carnivore MD. Unfortunately, the carnivore diet is a great elimination diet. It can work really well if you

Starting point is 00:14:33 are having some very thorny problems with food and you don't know what foods are causing it. And you need to strip your diet down to the absolute bare necessities and build it back up from there. That is elimination dieting. And that is a good evidence-based method to find food intolerances and to find foods that don't upset your stomach or cause you problems. But otherwise, the carnivore diet is silly. I mean, the point of an elimination diet is to start from scratch and start building back up to a balanced and nutritious diet. You're not supposed to stick with the eliminated diet forever. And that is the carnivore diet, an extremely eliminated, extremely restricted diet. And if you want to hear all of my thoughts about the carnivore diet and hear, I guess, an evidence-based argument

Starting point is 00:15:34 against it, head over to legionathletics.com and search for carnivore, and you'll find an article I wrote on it. And I also recorded a podcast as well. Okay, I have another question here from Luke M81, and he asks, is it normal to be more sore after and fatigued during workouts in a cut? Yes, that can definitely happen. Most people will notice it after maybe their first four to six weeks of cutting. And if it gets to be a bit much, if the soreness and the fatigue gets to be a bit excessive, reduce the volume in your training. You don't have to reduce the intensity. You don't have to reduce the load. You don't have to stop lifting heavy weights. You want to reduce the volume. And I would recommend reducing it by maybe 20 to 25% and then seeing how that goes.

Starting point is 00:16:22 And a very easy way to reduce volume, by the way, is to just take your training, your programming, however it is, too sore, too fatigued, and just reduce the number of hard sets that you do per major muscle group per week by 20 to 25 percent. So in my workouts, I'm always doing these days four hard sets per exercise. Whatever exercises I'm doing, I'm going to be doing four hard sets. So I would just make that three hard sets per exercise and see how it goes. Rucha Patel asks, 10k steps a day every day. What's your thoughts on it? There's nothing particularly special about 10,000 steps.

Starting point is 00:17:01 It has its roots in marketing after all, not science. But I do like it because it encourages daily movement and it encourages a fair amount of daily movement. So I like it. Go for it. Sparks Fitness asks, are you still trying to learn German? No, I have not been working on learning German for some time now because what happened is I reached a point where I was going to need to put in at least an hour of dedicated study per day to continue making meaningful progress. And I actually wanted to do that. I thought it would be fun. I did enjoy learning the language. However, I did not think it would be a very smart use of time right now, considering all of the other things that I need to do. And so I tabled it and I do plan on picking it back up in

Starting point is 00:17:52 the future, but it's going to have to be at a time when I am ready to give it the time that it needs. And I had to kind of do it for a bit to understand that I got to a point where my vocabulary was coming along two or 3000 words probably. And I built that through flashcards. And that was very easy to work into my normal daily routine. I was doing them while I was resting in between sets at the gym, for example. gym, for example. And I also was able to learn a bit of the grammar of the language also through flashcards. And then I started to study a grammar textbook and that was helping out. But again, that system was no longer robust enough for me to continue making noticeable progress. The JBS family asks, is chiropractic worth it for gym goers? How often? Well, it's not vital, but I personally do like to see a good chiropractor every few months or so. I would say on average, maybe every four or five, six months, because a good chiropractor will quickly identify a problem area without me guiding them, such as

Starting point is 00:19:06 a hip or a shoulder. My neck right now could probably actually use an adjustment. It feels a little bit jacked up from weightlifting. And then after I get that adjustment, I will notice that the problem area or problem areas will immediately feel better and they will remain better for some time after I get the adjustment. And so while I do understand there is controversy over the value of chiropractic treatment, there is evidence of efficacy. You can't say that the overwhelming weight of the evidence is that it is always worthless. That's not true. And I personally have experienced benefits from it. Okay. Last question comes from the real sadkins and they ask, does intermittent fasting reduce testosterone levels for active young men? No. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope

Starting point is 00:20:01 you found it helpful. And if you did subscribe to the show, because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you. And if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.com, and let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you'd like to see me do in the future. I read everything myself. I'm always looking for new ideas and constructive

Starting point is 00:20:45 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: Daily Supplement Routine, Maintaining Motivation, Chiropractors, and More

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