Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Stronger but Not Bigger, Improving Recovery, Vaxx Mandates, and More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy, howdy, and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for an inaugural episode because it is the first time that I have recorded an episode like this one. So what is this episode going to be exactly? Well, it is a Q&A episode, but it's a bit different than the Q&A episodes I've posted in the past. In the past, I've taken one question from Instagram or email usually, and then answer it in an episode. And some people would say belabor it because the answers can get long winded and I just can't help it. I just love the sound of my own voice. You know what I mean? So anyway, I started doing these weekly Q and A's in Instagram stories, you know, where you use the questions sticker and then pick questions and answer them in your stories. And it occurred to me that I could repurpose that content as the

Starting point is 00:00:58 marketers say. It occurred to me that many of you fantastic listeners of the podcast might enjoy hearing these questions and my answers. Because instead of talking about one thing for 15, 20, 25 plus minutes, I'm going to talk about many things. And some of the questions, as you will hear, are just for fun, just for the lulls, as the kids say. So if you want to ask me questions in my little Instagram Q&A dealios, follow me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness. And I put up the ask me anything sticker post thing about once a week. And then I go through a bunch of them in one session and then usually have enough for another session of answers that get posted into my stories. And if I answer one of your questions, then it might make it into the podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:54 And also, if you like this idea for an episode, if you like this format, if you like the episode, let me know. Let me know if you think I should keep doing this or not. Send me an email, mikeatmuscleforlife.com or DM me on Instagram. Also, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my health and fitness books, including the number one bestselling weightlifting books for men and women in the world, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, as well as the leading flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef. Now, these books have sold well over 1 million copies and have helped thousands of people build their best body ever. And you can find them on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play, as well as in

Starting point is 00:02:45 select Barnes & Noble stores. And I should also mention that you can get any of the audiobooks 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account. And this is a great way to make those pockets of downtime like commuting, meal prepping, and cleaning more interesting, entertaining, and productive. And so if you want to take Audible up on this offer, and if you want to get one of my audio books for free, just go to www.buylegion.com slash audible and sign up for your account. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, and if you want to learn time-proven and evidence-based strategies for losing fat, building muscle, and getting healthy, and strategies that work for anyone and everyone, regardless of age or

Starting point is 00:03:31 circumstances, please do consider picking up one of my best-selling books, Bigger Leaner Stronger for Men, Thinner Leaner Stronger for Women, and The Shredded Chef for my favorite fitness friendly recipes. Okay, let's start with the first question here. And I don't have who asked me this question because it's not included in Instagram's little functionality for replying to questions or selecting questions and then replying to them. But going forward, I will make a note of the usernames and I will share those on the podcast too. That's kind of fun, right? All right. So the first question is Republican or Libertarian?

Starting point is 00:04:11 Now, if you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I'm not a woke liberal. I don't identify as a woke liberal because I make fun of a lot of woke liberalism. because I make fun of a lot of woke liberalism. And many people assume that because I make fun of that stuff, I must be a Republican or maybe a libertarian. And I have never considered myself a Republican. For as long as I've paid attention to American politics, I have said that I think it works like a two-lane street where both lanes are going in the same direction. You pick your side and you end up in the same place because the elites that run both of the major parties are marching to the beat of the same drum. So not a Republican and not a libertarian either. When I was younger, I thought the libertarian utopia sounded great,

Starting point is 00:05:05 and maybe I would have identified as a libertarian. But now, as I have gotten older, and I would like to think wiser, maybe more cynical, I view libertarianism fundamentally as utopian politics. I would rather have that utopia than the communist dystopia, I would rather have that utopia than the communist dystopia, but it's not a platform I can believe in or get behind. And conservatism in general, as it is generally practiced in American politics, is a joke to me. Conservatives have conserved nothing. They have not conserved science. They haven't conserved law and order. They haven't conserved educational standards, freedom of speech, job opportunities, American sovereignty, American identity,

Starting point is 00:05:50 American security, the nuclear family, freedom to smirk, freedom to defend yourself, school prayer. And with that, I ran out of room to type more things out on the Instagram story, but I think I made my point. Your average conservative today is just your average liberal 10 years ago. And your average conservative 10 years from now will just be your average woke liberal today. And I'm just going to stop there. No tangent. Next question. Why am I getting stronger, but I don't look bigger? Good question. Something that many newbies have asked me about. And the answer is strength always precedes size. It always comes before size, especially when you're new to lifting. So for the first several months, you are going to gain a lot of strength, but very little size. And that can be confusing

Starting point is 00:06:42 if you are new and you are not expecting that. Okay. The next question is, do you take all of the vitamins every day? So referring to legions, vitamins, eight triumph capsules, four Triton soft gels, six immune capsules, et cetera. And yes, I take everything Legion makes every day, except the fat loss products because I'm not cutting and the sleep product lunar because I don't like the taste and we're working on that. I'm just going to make it a simple fruit punch flavor. I'm going to get rid of this weird tasting attempt at a night tea. Okay, next up.

Starting point is 00:07:21 Why do you do so much cardio? Is it necessary? Is it helpful or do I just like it? And just for some context, I do 30 minutes of cardio six to seven days per week, sometimes five days per week if I'm otherwise very active on the weekends and it's moderate intensity, maybe four out of 10. just usually save it for phone calls that I have to do, usually work-related phone calls. So I'm not pedaling so hard. I'm doing it on an upright bike, if I didn't mention that. I'm not pedaling so hard that I can't have a conversation, but I am a little bit winded. And so I just let whoever I'm talking to know I'm on a bike and I'm going to be breathing heavily. And so I don't do that because it's necessary, but it is helpful. And even as a weightlifter, and if you want to learn more about that, head over to legionathletics.com and search for, should you do cardio and look for an article called, or the title is, should

Starting point is 00:08:14 you do cardio? If you lift weights, science says, yes, good information as to why we should all be doing some cardio. Even if we are lifting weights and lifting, doing a lot of weightlifting. And then also in the article, it helps you put together a very simple regimen for your cardio, which you can really just treat as exercise as moving the body, sweating. You don't have to treat it with the same level of rigor as you do your lifting. It doesn't have to be training. It doesn't have to be systematic progression toward goals unless you want it to be. All right, next question,

Starting point is 00:08:49 how to improve recovery? I wish I could say, oh, just take legions recharge supplement. That's all you need. I wish I had some weird trick, one weird trick for recovery, but unfortunately it's the fundamentals. If you want to improve your recovery from where it's at right now, you want to eat maintenance calories or more. You want to eat plenty of protein. You want to get plenty of sleep. Very important. You want to take a couple of days off of weightlifting every week, at least one day off of vigorous physical activity. You can still do lower intensity stuff, but give your body generally a break at least once

Starting point is 00:09:26 per week. You want to be deloading every four to eight to maybe 10 weeks, depending on your circumstances and what you're doing and moving on. Yay or nay to vax mandates. Well, I'll say this. The data clearly show that they are highly effective at boosting pharma revenues. For example, Forbes reported that Pfizer expects $33.5 billion in vaccine revenue in 2021. And just to put that number in perspective, in 2020, Pfizer did about $42 billion in revenue. So you're looking at almost doubling the size of a company of that size of a fortune, I'm guessing 100, certainly 500 business in one year. Okay, moving on. Were you lucky enough to catch COVID this pandemic? Yes, abso-floggingly. I've had it twice.

Starting point is 00:10:27 It was mild congestion both times. The first time was mild congestion for about four days, maybe five days, and maybe one out of 10 in terms of a head cold. I felt a little bit off. I didn't feel sick, just a little bit off. And I was generally congested for about four or five days. And then round two was mild congestion for three or four nights. I only noticed it at night in the day, no congestion and no feeling of sickness whatsoever.

Starting point is 00:10:57 Maybe I felt a little off the first day. And by day two, I didn't feel anything. By day three, I was doing cardio. I took a break from the gym, obviously, because I don't want to go give it to people. And then I wasn't doing cardio the first couple of days because I was like, eh, all right, I have COVID again. I guess I'll rest. I'll take a couple of days off of cardio. I tend to do that every few weeks anyway. So by day three, I was doing cardio again, didn't notice anything. I just did my normal thing. And by the end of the week, it was gone.

Starting point is 00:11:29 And that was it. Horrifying. I can't believe I'm alive. All right. Next question. Exercises that you might as well eliminate from your routine. So we can turn that into a question, I suppose. Which exercises or what exercises might you eliminate?

Starting point is 00:11:45 that into a question, I suppose, which exercises or what exercises might you eliminate? So here are a few that I used to do randomly that I no longer do at all. So side bends, especially weighted side bends, no thank you, hyperextensions, which can have a use, of course, if you are rehabbing or if you are maybe a power lifter and you are really trying to build up your lower back strength. But for most of us, we don't need to be doing hyperextensions. Anything on a Bosu ball, Bosu anything, just don't do it. Ab machines, hate them. Triceps kickback, it's just a shitty exercise because you can't load it. Anything under 10 reps gets very awkward. A Yates row, just not a fan of the much reduced range of motion. I know some people say they feel it more in their lats and they program or they include it in their programming specifically for more lat training. Okay, fine. But I would not replace a Yates row or sorry, I would not replace a barbell row with a Yates row and then a partial squat. So a half squat,

Starting point is 00:12:48 a quarter squat, just don't do it. Next question, why do I lift my head up when I am benching? Which you will see if you follow me on Instagram at mostflyfitness. So the reason I do that is I just tend to naturally do it when I'm pressing the bar upward. But it also prevents me from pressing the back of my head into the bench, which if I don't lift my chin up a little bit, I will tend to do the opposite and jam my head into the bench. And that's bad. You can hurt yourself that way. So don't do that. Next question. What books am I currently reading? So these days I only read one book at a time. I used to read two at a time and just split my reading sessions, my morning and nightly reading sessions between those books. But then I found

Starting point is 00:13:34 that I actually prefer to just get through one book faster than two books slower. So now I just read one book at a time. And currently I am reading a book called Wired to Create and I am liking it. I really liked the first 80 pages or so. And now the next 40 to 50 pages are a bit less interesting, fewer highlights. But overall, I do like the book. I do recommend it if you are a creative person or if you're interested in creative work and figuring out how you can do better creative work. It's good information.

Starting point is 00:14:09 Next question, lunges or step-ups for a leg workout? I prefer lunges. Step-ups are a great exercise, but I think lunges rank a little bit higher in terms of efficacy. Okie dokie, next question. How can I make all of this fun? Well, make sure to start with diet and training plans that fit your goals, that fit your preferences, that fit your lifestyle. Don't try to stick square pegs into round holes, which

Starting point is 00:14:40 is also going to be the opening of my sexual tell-all. Next question. Do you suggest a pre-workout and fat burner holiday ever? So do I suggest that you stop taking pre-workout and fat burners? Well, if you are taking Legion pre-workout and fat burners, no. Of course, you take them seven days a week forever. No days off. No, joking. So fat burners. Yeah. I mean, I don't

Starting point is 00:15:07 take fat burners unless I'm cutting. So that's what I'd recommend to all of you. And you don't have to cycle on and off of pre-workout unless you want to reset your sensitivity to caffeine. And there's not a great reason to do that unless you are going to use caffeine very strategically for your training, meaning you are just going to take large amounts once or twice, max three days per week before your biggest and hardest workouts. And then you are going to take, you're going to have none on the other days, which most of you probably don't want to do. But if you do want to learn about that, head over to legionathletics.com and search for why caffeine stops working. And you'll find an article that explains why we quickly become desensitized to it and how you can resensitize yourself to it and why you might want to do that. Okay. Next question. Now that you are

Starting point is 00:15:56 in shape, do a lot of women flirt with you? No, no women flirt with me ever. Now I don't go looking for it. I'm not flirting with women. So maybe that's why. And I don't interact with many women other than my wife really. And a few other people who are just a part of my normal weekly routine, so to speak. So for example, I see a massage therapist once a week and she's a woman and she doesn't flirt with me and I don't flirt with her, but I don't interact with many women otherwise. But I thought this would be a funny question to answer because generally, and this is more for the single guys out there, women, they do not care nearly as much about our big muscles as we do. We do this mostly for us and other dudes in the gym. Those are the guys who are

Starting point is 00:16:46 going to give us the looks, not your average woman. There's research on this where women have ranked what is most important to them or what they find most attractive in a potential male partner. And I would have to pull up the paper. I didn't do my prep for this, but physical looks, especially physique, it was in the top 10, but it was relatively low. It was, I want to say maybe six or seven, somewhere around there, much higher up were what you would expect, financial considerations, ability to provide, especially for a family, social status that was up there. And I don't remember the other factors, certainly some personality related stuff like sense of humor and charisma, but muscles, muscles specifically, that wasn't even in the survey that was a part of this research but i'll

Starting point is 00:17:47 bet you with most women muscles specifically don't even make the top 10 next question how many days a week do you train well i lift weights five days a week right now monday through friday about one hour and then i do six to seven cardio sessions per week on my upright bike for about 30 minutes, moderate intensity. I can still have a conversation on the phone and I play some golf Sunday afternoons, which counts. I burn a few calories. I go out on the range and bang some balls for a bit.

Starting point is 00:18:16 That burns a fair number of calories, actually. If you get out there doing a bunch of driver swings for like 30 minutes straight, you're burning some energy. But on the course, in a cart, not so much. All right. Well, that's it for this first installment, this foray into the rapid fire Instagram Q&A format. And if you are still listening, let me know what you thought. Shoot me a DM at mostforlifefitness on Instagram. Send me an email

Starting point is 00:18:45 mikeatmostforlife.com. Should I keep doing these? And if you want to send me your questions, you can of course follow me on Instagram at mostforlifefitness and just watch my stories. That's one way to get questions to me. You can DM me your questions on Instagram as well. But the best way if you want a rapid-ish answer is email me, mikeatmuscleforlife.com. And you will hear back one way or another, but I am able to stay on top of email the best. 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.

Starting point is 00:19:26 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 feedback. So thanks

Starting point is 00:20:04 again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Stronger but Not Bigger, Improving Recovery, Vaxx Mandates, and More

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