Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Sodium-Potassium Ratio, Best Lifting Belt, Overcoming Workout Funks & More

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

In this episode, I discuss the optimal sodium-potassium ratio, recommendations for the best lifting belts, strategies for overcoming motivation slumps, and lots more. As always, these questions come directly from my Instagram followers, who take advantage of my weekly Q&As in my stories. If you have a question you're dying to have answered, make sure you follow me on Instagram (@muscleforlifefitness) and look out for the Q&A posts. Your question might just make it into a podcast episode! If you like this type of episode, let me know. Send me an email ([e-mail]) or direct message me on Instagram. And if you don’t like it, let me know that too or how you think it could be better. --- Timestamps: ( No brackets for YT) (00:00) Intro (05:07) Rest periods (05:55) BBLS adjustments on a cut (07:19) Aggressive cut duration (08:38) Training with BLS vs. BBLS (14:12) Sodium-potassium ratio (20:58) Life’s purpose (21:51) Belt squats & core (22:43) Diet’s effect on injuries/recovery (23:27) Training after poor sleep (23:55) Legion Vitamin C benefits (24:06) Best lifting belt (24:25) Success of pseudoscience (25:30) Overcoming funks (26:00) Upper-lower split 5x/week (27:05) Interrupted workouts --- Mentioned on the Show: Thinner Leaner Stronger Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger Bigger Leaner Stronger Energy Drink

Hello, hello, and welcome to Muscle for Life. I am Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for a Q&A episode number 68 that I have recorded where I answer questions that people ask me over on Instagram. So what I do is every couple of weeks, I put up a story, asking for questions, people submit a bunch of questions, I pick ones that are interesting or topical or new, unique, and I answer them briefly there on Instagram. And then I bring everything over here to the podcast and answer them in more depth and detail. And so if you want to ask me your questions, follow me on Instagram at Muscleful Life Fitness, watch my stories, submit your questions,

and I will see them. I can't answer most of course, because I get a lot, but I do look at all questions and I do really try to pick the ones that I think my followers and my listeners and so forth will enjoy the most. And so today's questions are all over the place per usual. We have a question here on the optimal rest times

for different rep ranges, how to modify my Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger program for cutting, how long you can stay in an aggressive calorie deficit before you start losing muscle. Some of the things that I think makes life better and makes life worth living, how the quality of your diet can affect your injury risk

and affect your injury risk and affect your ability to recover from your training and more. Before we commence with today's episode, I need to tell you about the biggest sale of the year going on right now over at my sports nutrition company, Legion. So from now until December 4th over at buylegion.com, that's B-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com,

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And all of that makes Legion the number one brand of natural sport supplements in the world. So again, go to buylegion.com now, save some major coin on everything in our store and see for yourself why scientists, athletes, doctors and everyday fitness folk alike, trust Legion for all of their supplementation needs. Andy Frauda asks, what's your rest period

when doing sets of six to eight reps versus four to six? So for six to eight, it's usually about two and a half minutes on isolation exercises, maybe two minutes if I'm running out of time, and three and a half minutes on compound exercises, three minutes if I'm running out of time and four to six, it's going to be probably also two and a half minutes on isolation and then a little bit less on compounds three minutes because the higher rep sets on the compound exercises, especially when they're taking close to failure are more metabolically demanding.

They're more cardiovascularly demanding. And so I like to take a little bit more time to recover from those versus the four to six, especially with heart rate and breathing. Big Tim 27 asks, BBLS, that's Beyond Bigger Linear Stronger, a book I wrote sequel to Bigger Linear Stronger with a different program on a cut or make any changes. You can do Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger on a cut, but I would recommend reducing the total set volume by about one third. And my preference for BBLS when cutting

would probably be the three day program rather than an abbreviated five day program. And then using those off days for cardio, I think that would produce the best and the fastest body composition results. Because if you are running BBLS, you are an experienced weightlifter, you are not new. So you know that you are not going to gain any muscle

or strength to speak of while you're cutting. And so unless you just really like being in the gym lifting weights, you want to use your weightlifting to preserve your muscle and strength. And then you want to use your cardio to accelerate the fat loss. So again, I think three days of intense lifting, which in the case of BBLS would reduce your total weekly volume by about one third compared to the five day program. That's enough. That's great for maintaining muscle and strength.

And then you can use the extra exercise time that you've now opened up to do more cardio, which is going to be more effective per unit of time for burning fat. Charlie Omak Isaac asks, how long can I stay in an aggressive cut, 50% of maintenance calories before muscle loss? For men, you can do that until probably about 25% body fat, at which point you have to slow

down you have to shrink that deficit, maybe to let's say 75% of maintenance calories or you will start losing muscle. When you have a lot of fat to lose, and this has been shown in research, you can aggressively cut calories and you can exercise and you can even gain muscle, especially if you're new to weightlifting. But again, as you get leaner, there is a point where you are going to start losing muscle

if you are being too aggressive with your calorie restriction. And for women, that cutoff is probably around 35% or so. So if a woman is above 35% body fat and she feels up to eating let's say 50% of maintenance calories, now of course it needs to be high protein, I would recommend getting as much carbohydrate in there as you can as well, eating nutritious foods, filling foods, etc. But again, if she's over 35% and feels up to a very aggressive deficit,

even if it's just for a short period, maybe it's for four weeks or so, she can do it. Especially if there's some strength training as well to also just prevent muscle loss. Dennis Rathke one asks, why do you personally train using BLS and not BBLS? So for probably about a year now, I've been doing the three day routine for BLS because it's a great maintenance routine.

It's actually, I would say maintenance plus, meaning that you still can make progress on the three day BLS routine. If you are an experienced weightlifter and I have made progress with a couple of muscle groups. I've made progress with my quads that has been noticeable and I've made some progress in my pulls. And with my quads, I can see it in my training logs. So my numbers have gone up, my strength has gone up, but I can also just see it in my quads. My legs are just bigger now and in my pulls I guess I haven't been taking pictures of my back so I'm not sure how the visual has changed but I have seen improvements in my numbers.

It's just slow and you have to know that because the weekly volume is 8 to 12 hard sets per major muscle group per week which is enough to make progress but probably just enough to make slow progress and I have been at maintenance calories the entire time. I haven't intentionally been in a enough to make progress, but probably just enough to make slow progress. And I have been at maintenance calories the entire time. I haven't intentionally been in a surplus for any extended period of time. Now why BLS three day versus BBLS three day for maintenance? I guess a couple of reasons. One, I was doing the five day BBLS program for a couple of years and made good gains

across the board, hit PRs, all-time PRs across the board and just wanted to change it up a bit and so went back to BLS. And also the BLS workouts are a little bit shorter than the BBLS workouts probably by 20 minutes or so on average and that just works better for me because I'm busy and I want to get my workouts in. I enjoy working out, but I really don't wanna be spending more time in the gym lifting weights than I need to, at least not right now. I need to tell you about my best-selling fitness book

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Diego from the Sierra asks, what is the ideal sodium to potassium ratio in natural bodybuilding? They say reach one to one. Yeah, I would say four to five grams of each per day is reasonable for people who are sweating a fair amount. If somebody is not exercising much, not sweating much, they probably don't need 4 grams of sodium per day.

They probably could cut that in half and be fine. Something between 2 and 3 grams per day. And the potassium could be at least 2 to 3 grams. Probably wouldn't hurt them if they were getting up to four or five grams per day. And to hit those numbers, by the way, you don't need ripoff electrolyte supplements. Just so you know, you can just salt your food. Teaspoon of table salt has 2.3 grams of sodium.

And then for your potassium, you can eat potassium rich fruit and vegetables. And you can also, if you need to, quote unquote, supplement your potassium with a salt substitute that is potassium chloride rather than sodium chloride. Now, if you are a regular listener, you know that I've dumped on electrolyte supplements many times, I don't sell an electrolyte supplement.

Well, my sports nutrition company, Legion, does't sell an electrolyte supplement. Well, my sports nutrition company, Legion does not sell an electrolyte supplement, even though it is currently our number one most requested product from customers. But a little update here is I am taking a new look at the electrolyte category, the electrolyte supplement, to see if there is a legitimate use case because the market is big, but that's not enough for me at least. I don't sell products just because I can make money with them. They also need to have a solid scientific grounding and so far my opinion has been that electrolyte supplements simply do not and I've openly said I would love for people who disagree with me to reach out and

share research maybe that I'm not aware of or arguments that I haven't thought of. And so far, I have had some people reach out, but it hasn't changed my mind. However, I have been working with the people I work with on formulations who know a lot more about supplements than I do, frankly, to look deeper into the existing literature to see if there is any valid use case for such a product. I already know that you cannot honestly sell an electrolyte supplement as necessary or even beneficial for everyone. That's just a flat out lie.

However, we have drilled down to people who are doing longer intense workouts in high temperature environments so they're sweating a lot and it's possible that having an electrolyte supplement having some sodium in particular is really what matters before or during those workouts may slightly improve performance may slightly improve mood during the workouts may slightly reduce the perceived effort in those workouts. It's not clear yet. This discussion is ongoing and the review of the research is ongoing, but we may be able to make an argument that the sodium is going to help with water retention and there is good research on that. You

could just call that better hydration, I guess, but I think that it's helpful to be more specific. We're talking about better fluid retention. And so if that can help you stay better hydrated during these longer, intense, very sweaty workouts, then you could expect certain benefits based on other good research on the effects of hydration and dehydration. However, the key question, and I don't have an answer to this yet, I just posed this question a day or two ago, is how do the benefits of water before and during these workouts compare to water plus sodium? The benefits of just water, well established. Now, if you add sodium, do you experience further benefits? Because no matter what the mechanistic research says about

sodium and quote-unquote improving hydration, if it doesn't produce any noticeable or meaningful benefits in reality, if adding sodium to that water that you're drinking before or during the long intense sweaty workout doesn't actually change anything that you can notice, then why bother, right? Now, I know that electrolyte shillers are going to say, well, a lot of people who are into fitness and who eat well, they don't eat enough sodium, so they can take the supplement to get enough sodium and that's going to benefit them. No, that brings me back to the point I made previously. Just use table salt, save yourself money. And so then if adding the sodium to the water before the workouts doesn't really do anything, and if you should just use table salt to supplement your sodium

intake if you are not getting enough sodium, you can just put sodium in water, for example, again, a teaspoon, a teaspoon, 2.3 grams of sodium. You could just put sodium in water, for example, again, a teaspoon, a teaspoon, 2.3 grams of sodium. You could just put a teaspoon in some water in the morning and drink it and realize that that's really all you're getting with the electrolyte supplements. You're just getting massively marked up overpriced flavored sodium with a little bit of potassium and a little bit of magnesium. And if you do that to make your water tasty, I guess, and that's the main benefit is tasty water, then I suppose go ahead and spend the money.

But I don't think I can sell an electrolyte supplement simply as something to make your water tasty. Not a great sales pitch. Although it might be kind of funny if I were to do that, if I were to just that, if I were to just summarize what I've explained here and in previous episodes and what I've written about showing that these supplements are not going to do basically anything that these other companies claim unless you are not

eating enough sodium. And even then there are dubious claims that probably are also not true, even if you are going from inadequate to adequate sodium intake. However, if you refuse to salt your food, which is what I'd recommend, if you refuse to mix a little bit of salt into water, if you don't want to salt your food which is what I'd recommend. And you just want tasty water that also supplements your sodium intake as well as your potassium, maybe magnesium. All right, here you go. I guess it's worth considering because it would be honest at least and people would probably find it amusing at at least some people would, because it's not the sales pitch that you're used to hearing.

And the product wouldn't be harmful so long as someone isn't massively overdosing with sodium. And so maybe that's where it's going to go. We'll see. Anyway, moving on. Lyndon Sepp asks, what do you think makes life better slash worth living? Ten things. One, lifting weights. Two, eating plants. Three, and yes, eating meat is okay. And I recommend eating meat as well. But

most of your calories should actually be coming from plants, because that means fruits and vegetables and seeds and legumes and whole grains and so forth. Anyway, three, speaking less, listening more. Four, getting enough sleep. Five, reading books, reading good books, reading hard books, reading books that challenge your thinking. Six, rejecting the current thing. Seven, doing work that matters to you. 8. Asking good questions. 9. Refusing to get offended. 10. Not parroting stuff you hear in the news. LukeM81 asks, do belt squats still train core?

Yes, they do. In fact, research shows that using a belt increases core activation, not decreases it. However, using a belt too often, So let's say if you are always using a belt all hard sets of all your relevant compound lifts like your squats, your deadlifts, your overhead presses for too long. So if you're doing that all hard sets for many months, it's not optimal because it can subtly lead to and kind of train in worse form and it can also mask growing problems. So for instance, if you can't painlessly perform a big lift with a heavy amount of weight for you without a belt, something is wrong and you want to address that. You don't want to cover it up with the belt and just keep going.

I've made that mistake myself. Marcus JB asks, can a poor diet contribute to injuries or inhibit recovery? For example, muscle slash tendon tears and strains? Yes, absolutely. And in several ways. One, higher levels of inflammation and oxidative stress in the body. Two, impaired immunity, which increases the risk of illness. 3. Nutritional insufficiencies that impair many processes related to recovery and injury prevention. 4. Worse sleep quality and 5. Impaired muscle recovery if protein and or carbs are too low. So pay attention to your nutrition and pay attention to the micronutrients, not just the macronutrients.

Mateo Tatz asks, if I didn't get optimal or okay-ish sleep, how should I train that day? Or sorry, should I train that day? So yes, you can train. In fact, research shows that physical activity for 25 to 65 minutes a day eliminates the increased mortality risk associated with poor sleep patterns like difficulty falling asleep having sleep disturbances in the middle of the night and long sleep so keep exercising force yourself to do it

mercifully and graciously loved asks why should I buy the new Legion vitamin C product sell me well because if you don't buy my stuff, I die. Another question from the same person. Best lifting belt? Well, personal preferences vary, of course, but I really like the company Pioneer. I like their 10 millimeter single prong belt. And if you want a lever belt, Inzer Forever lever is a great product. Moeen S Smalley 92 asks 4-Hour Body Book, Why Pseudoscience is so successful in sales? So yes, 4-Hour Body is full of pseudoscience. Don't waste your time with it. And the reason why such books are so successful. It's a few things.

One, humans find compelling narratives much more interesting and more persuasive than boring data and facts. And so if you only care about acquiring status and money, it's much more important to become a great storyteller than a true expert, especially when you tell stories related to history and science, because those two things are stories related to history and science because those two things are especially persuasive when combined with high quality storytelling. Another reason why bullshit like the four-hour body is so successful is humans love to imitate others. So nothing succeeds like success, the mathie principle and so forth. And finally, there is the halo effect of his celebrity and a lot of the work that he has done in the podcast space, a lot of which has been good.

Pictures for my grandma asks, how to get out of a funk and start getting up early, working out and get off my phone. So I would recommend clearly formulating at least one goal that directly or indirectly is related to fitness and that excites you and then decide that not accomplishing it simply isn't acceptable because that process is the only way anyone gets to anywhere worth getting to. Peter G. Doit asks, is an upper lower split five times a week too much with BLS?

No, that can work, but I would recommend setting it up like this. So three upper or lower body workouts per week and then two of the other rather than a four one. I would also recommend alternating between the workouts in the following way if you're training on weekdays. between the workouts in the following way if you're training on weekdays. So day one would be upper or lower, day two would be the other that you did not do on day one, and then day three would be the same as day one, day four would be the same as day two, and then day five would be the same as day three. And by same I mean same muscle groups, upper or lower. You may be doing different exercises in those workouts and you probably should be, but again, same muscle groups. And then if you are willing to train on the weekends, I would do it like this. So I would do day one, upper or lower, I would do day two, the other I would do day three, rest day four, same as day one, again, same muscle groups, day five, same as day two, day six, same as day 4, and then day 7 I would rest. RSA Dog asks, have you ever started a workout, say push day and had to leave?

Do you pick it up later? Yeah, that's happened. It doesn't happen often, but it has certainly happened and it is totally fine to do two half workouts in a day if you have the time and inclination. Otherwise you can do, let's say half of the workout that you got done, and then you could skip the other half or do the missed half over the rest of your workouts by, for example, doing a few sets you missed at the end of subsequent workouts. That's totally fine too. So let's say you did half of your pull workout and now you have a lower body

workout and then at the end, you're just going to do three or four sets that you missed on your pull workout. Totally fine. You can think of training volume kind of like calorie intake in this way. You can look at it over the course of a week rather than just an individual day because your weekly numbers matter more than your daily numbers with both calories and training volume. You just want to make sure that by the end of the week, you are more or less where you wanna be in terms of your calories and your training volume.

And if we're gonna talk about macronutrients, you would also want to apply that thinking to your protein intake in particular. Well, it's getting to be about that time, but first I need to tell you about a new energy drink that I think is the perfect alternative to coffee or pre-workout when you want a boost to get through a workout or maybe through an afternoon slump. And this new energy drink is my own, of course.

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coupon code MUSCLE at checkout because it's going to take 20% off your first order. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don't miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit,

which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you and if you didn't like something about this episode or about the show in general or if you have ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share shoot me an email Mike at muscle for life calm muscle for life calm 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.