Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - The 3 Little Big Things About Building Lean Muscle

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

This episode is one of the 37 chapters of the new third edition of my bestselling fitness books Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, which is now live everywhere you can buy books online. I’m thrilled to release this new edition of the books because it has been in the making for about four years now, and has been reorganized and rewritten from scratch to make it as clear, practical, and effective as possible. Even more exciting, however, is the eBooks are currently on sale on Amazon for just 99 cents and when you forward your purchase receipt to [e-mail], you’ll be entered to win over $6,000 in free prizes, including . . . An all-expenses-paid trip to meet me and my team in Washington DC. Apple Watch Series 4 Vyper 2.0 High-Intensity Vibrating Fitness Roller Bose Soundsport Headphones NoBull training shoes And more... To get in on this deal, search your local Amazon site for Bigger Leaner Stronger or Thinner Leaner Stronger and navigate to the Kindle book or simply go to www.biggerleanerstronger.com or www.thinnerleanerstronger.com and you’ll be automatically forwarded to it. Then, buy the book for just 99 cents and forward your receipt to [e-mail] and you’ll be automatically entered into the giveaway. You have to act fast, though, because the sale and giveaway ends on July 22nd, so don’t put it off for later and then forget! Head over to Amazon now! Oh and you can also gain additional entries in the giveaway by helping spread the word on social media. You can learn more about that at www.biggerleanerstronger.com/launch or www.thinnerleanerstronger.com/launch. Alright, let’s get to the episode. I hope you like it!

Hello, Mike here from Legion Athletics and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. Now this one is special because it is one of the 37 chapters from the new third editions of my best-selling fitness books for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger, respectively. This chapter is in both of the books, and both of those books are now live everywhere. You can buy books online. Now, I am super excited to release the new edition of these books because they have been in the making for about four years now and have been completely reorganized and rewritten from scratch to make them as clear, practical, and effective as possible. Even more exciting, however, is the eBooks are currently on sale on Amazon for just 99 cents. And when you forward your purchase receipt that Amazon sends you to launch at muscleforlife.com,

that's just launch at muscleforlife.com, you will be entered to win over $6,000 in prizes, including an all expenses paid trip to meet me and my team in Washington, DC, an Apple watch, a series four Apple watch, a Viper 2.0 high intensity vibrating fitness roller from Hyperice, Bose sound Sport headphones, NoBowl training shoes, and more. So to get in on this deal and giveaway, search your local Amazon site, whichever country you are in, the eBooks are on sale there. So just go to your local Amazon site and search for Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. If you are a guy who wants to get bigger, leaner, and stronger, or thinner, leaner, stronger. If you are a woman who wants to get bigger, leaner and stronger or thinner, leaner, stronger. If you are a woman who wants to get thinner, leaner and stronger, or maybe not thinner, maybe just fitter. I went back and forth on the title. Should it be fitter, leaner, stronger, or thinner, leaner, stronger? I ultimately went with thinner, obviously, but it's not just for

getting thin. It really is for getting fit. So if you are a woman who wants to get fitter, for getting fit. So if you are a woman who wants to get fitter, then go to www.thinnerleanerstronger.com and then you will be forwarded to the appropriate Amazon ebook at your local Amazon site. And then just buy the book for 99 cents, the ebook, the Kindle book, and forward your email receipt that you get from Amazon to launch at muscleforlife.com and you will be automatically entered into the giveaway. You got to act fast though, because the sale and the giveaway both end on July 22nd. So don't put this off for later and then forget. Head over to Amazon now and get your book for just 99 cents. And you can also get additional entries in the giveaway by helping spread the word on social media. And you can learn more about that at www.biggerleanerstronger.com slash launch. All right, let's get to the episode. I hope you like it.

Chapter 10. The three little big things about building lean muscle. Quote, never cease chiseling your own statue. Plotinus. If you've spent any amount of time in the fitness space, you've heard a lot of things about muscle building. Things like, muscles respond differently to different types of training. Muscles don't know weight, they only know tension. There are different types of muscle growth. Training with lighter weights and higher reps is best for muscle gain. Training with heavier weights and lower reps is best for muscle gain. Muscle building is mostly genetic, and how you train doesn't much matter. And you've probably also

heard that most of that is pseudoscientific nonsense and that some other theory or model altogether is the real secret to gaining muscle quickly and effectively. If this has left you confused and frustrated, unsure of what to believe and do in the gym and what to ignore, I understand. I've been there. the science of gaining muscle is far simpler. In fact, at least 80% of effective muscle building comes down to understanding and applying a handful of laws that are as certain, observable, and irrefutable as those of physics. When you throw a ball in the air, it comes down. When you apply the three principles you're going to learn in this chapter, your muscles grow bigger and stronger. It's that simple. Law number one. There are three ways to stimulate muscle growth.

are three ways to stimulate muscle growth. The first thing you need to understand about the physiology of muscle building is there are three primary triggers or pathways for muscle growth. 1. Mechanical tension. 2. Muscle damage. 3. Cellular fatigue. Mechanical tension refers to the amount of force produced in muscle fibers. When you lift weights, you produce two types of mechanical tension in your muscles, passive and active tension. Passive tension occurs when your muscles are stretching, and active tension occurs when they're contracting. Muscle damage refers to microscopic damage caused to the muscle fibers by high levels of tension. This damage requires repair, and if the body is provided with proper nutrition and rest, it'll make the muscle fibers larger and stronger to better deal with future bouts of tension. It's still not entirely clear whether muscle damage directly stimulates muscle growth,

or whether it's just a side effect of mechanical tension, but as of now, it deserves a place on the list. Cellular fatigue refers to a host of chemical changes that occur inside and outside muscle fibers when they contract repeatedly. When you repeat the same movement over and over again to the point of near failure, this causes high amounts of cellular fatigue. Research conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School shows that mechanical tension is the most important of these three pathways for muscle growth. This has been confirmed in a number of other studies as well. In other words, mechanical tension produces a stronger muscle-building stimulus than muscle damage and cellular fatigue. These three factors also relate to what scientists

call the strength-endurance continuum, which works like this. Heavy, lower-rep weightlifting primarily increases muscle strength and results in higher amounts of mechanical tension and muscle damage, but less cellular fatigue. Lighter, higher rep weightlifting primarily increases muscle endurance and results in lower amounts of mechanical tension and muscle damage, but more cellular fatigue Given what you just learned, which style of training do you think is more effective for gaining muscle over time? That's right. Heavy, lower rep work, because it produces more mechanical tension than lighter, higher rep work. You can find plenty of evidence of this in the scientific literature. For example, in a study conducted at the University of Central Florida, scientists separated 33 physically active, resistance-trained men into two groups.

1. Group 1 did 4 workouts per week, consisting of 4 sets per exercise exercise in the 10-12 rep range, 70% of 1 rep max. 2. Group 2 did 4 workouts per week consisting of 4 sets per exercise in the 3-5 rep range, in the 3-5 rep range, 90% of 1 rep max. Both groups did the same exercises, which included the bench press, barbell squat, deadlift, and seated shoulder press, and both were instructed to maintain their normal eating habits. After eight weeks of training, researchers found that the second group gained significantly more muscle and strength than the first group. The scientists suggested two main reasons for why the heavier training beat out the lighter

in not only strength gain, not surprising, but muscle gain as well. 1. Higher amounts of mechanical tension in the muscles. The lighter training, on the other hand, caused higher amounts of cellular fatigue. 2. Greater activation of muscle fibers. As you learned in Chapter 8, this results in greater muscle growth across a larger percentage of the muscle tissue. Similar findings have been demonstrated in other studies as well. findings have been demonstrated in other studies as well. This brings us back to your primary goal as a weightlifter, to get stronger, and especially on key whole body exercises like the squat,

deadlift, and bench press. The more weight you can push, pull, and squat, the more muscle definition you're going to have. That isn't to say that lighter weights and other training methods have no place in your workout routine. But if your goal is to gain muscle as quickly as possible, the best way to do this is to gain strength as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is to gain strength as quickly as possible. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on

Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. Law number two, muscles don't grow in the gym. You might have heard this old bodybuilding adage before. There's truth in it. Weightlifting alone doesn't make your muscles bigger and stronger. That's what happens after the workouts, when your body repairs the stress and damage they cause. Every day, your body is constantly breaking down and rebuilding muscle proteins. This process is known as protein turnover, and when viewed on the whole, protein breakdown and synthesis creation rates generally balance each other out. This is why the average non-exercising person doesn't gain or lose muscle at an accelerated

rate. Mechanically speaking, muscle growth is the result of protein synthesis rates exceeding breakdown rates over extended periods of time. In other words, if your body is creating new muscle proteins faster than it's breaking them down, you're gaining muscle. And if it's breaking them down faster than it's creating them, you're gaining muscle. And if it's breaking them down faster than it's creating them, you're losing muscle. Therefore, if you want to gain muscle as effectively as possible, then you want to do everything you can to keep protein synthesis rates at or above breakdown rates. The more time your body spends in this anabolic state, the faster you gain muscle. When you do resistance training or cardiovascular exercise, protein synthesis rates decline during the workouts. Then, both protein synthesis and breakdown rates rise soon after you finish,

with breakdown rates eventually overtaking synthesis rates. In this way, exercise is a catabolic activity, especially with longer workouts, and repair, recovery, and growth can only occur after. Unsurprisingly, sleep plays a vital role in this process, because much of what your body does to recuperate and rebuild happens in bed. This is why studies show that sleep deprivation directly inhibits muscle growth and fat loss and can even cause muscle loss. Interestingly, these negative effects become even more pronounced when you're in a calorie deficit. Furthermore, research shows that even a single night of poor sleep can interfere with your

performance in the gym, and two nights is enough to ruin it. Multiple studies have also clearly demonstrated that athletes who get enough sleep perform the best. Law number three. Muscles don't grow unless properly fed. Most people think that calories only count when you're talking weight loss. What they don't realize, though, is that if you don't eat enough, your body can't do many things as effectively, including everything it needs to do to recover from your workouts. This is why research shows that when you're in a calorie deficit, your body's ability

to repair and grow muscle tissue is impaired. This is also why workouts take a bigger toll on you when you're dieting and why intermediate and advanced weightlifters have to accept slow or no muscle gain when dieting to lose fat. Remember that calories are what fuel every process in your body and the system for muscle building is metabolically expensive. Therefore, if you want to maximize muscle growth, then you need to make sure you aren't in a calorie deficit. The best way to do this is to deliberately eat a bit more calories than you're burning every day. This ensures that your body has all the energy it needs to push hard in the gym and recover from your workouts. Another vital aspect of feeding your muscles is eating enough protein. In fact, this is just as important as eating enough calories, if not more so.

Carbohydrate also contributes to your muscle building efforts. One of the substances that carbs are converted to in the body is glycogen, which is stored in the muscles and liver and is the primary source of fuel during intense exercise. When you restrict your carb intake, your body's glycogen stores drop, and studies show that this inhibits genetic signaling related to post-workout muscle repair and growth. When you're exercising regularly, restricting your carbs also raises your cortisol and lowers your testosterone levels, which further hampers your body's ability to recover from your workouts. All this is why research shows that athletes who eat low-carb diets recover slower from their workouts and gain less muscle and strength than those who eat more carbs. It's also worth mentioning that eating a low-carb diet

will reduce your strength and muscle endurance, which makes it harder to progressively overload your muscles in the gym and thereby maximally stimulate muscle growth. And what about the final macronutrient, dietary fat? Some people say a high-fat diet is conducive to muscle gain because of its effects on anabolic hormone production, testosterone production in particular. When you dig into the research, however, you quickly realize that these effects are far too small to make a noticeable difference in the gym. Furthermore, the more dietary fat you eat, the less carbs you'll be

able to eat, which will more than wipe out any potential muscle-building benefits from slight hormonal upticks. You can spend hundreds of hours studying muscle growth and barely scratch the surface. It's extremely complex and involves scores of physiological functions and adaptations. Fortunately, you don't need to be a scientist to have a working understanding of the research and to be able to use it to gain whole body strength and muscle. strength and muscle. You now have the foundation of this understanding. You overload, damage, and fatigue your muscles in your workouts, and then feed and repair them after. This also brings us to the end of part two of this audiobook, and I want to congratulate you on making it this far. You've digested a lot of information and gained a whole new perspective on fat burning and muscle

building. If you've been enjoying yourself, then you're going to absolutely love what I have in store for you next. In the third part of this audiobook, we're going to take a break from the physiology of fitness and dive into the psychology, because if you don't get your mind right, you're probably never going to get your body right. probably never going to get your body right. Key takeaways. There are three primary triggers or pathways for muscle growth. Mechanical tension, muscle damage, and cellular fatigue. Mechanical tension refers to the force you apply to your muscles against a resistance.

Muscle damage refers to microscopic damage caused to changes that occur inside and outside muscle fibers when they contract repeatedly. Mechanical tension is the most important of these three pathways for muscle growth. Heavy lower rep weightlifting primarily increases muscle strength and results in higher amounts of mechanical tension and muscle damage, but less cellular fatigue. Heavy lower rep work results in more muscle gain because it produces more mechanical tension than lighter, higher rep work. Muscle growth is the result of protein synthesis rates exceeding breakdown rates over extended periods of time. Exercise is a catabolic activity, especially longer workouts, and repair, recovery, and growth can only occur after. Sleep deprivation directly inhibits muscle growth and fat loss, and can even cause muscle loss. If you want to maximize muscle growth, you need to make sure you aren't in a calorie deficit. A vital aspect of feeding your muscles is eating enough protein. And this is just as important as eating enough calories, if not more so. One of the substances that carbs are converted to in the body is glycogen,

which is stored in the muscles and liver and is the primary source of fuel during intense exercise. When you're exercising regularly, When you're exercising regularly, restricting your carbs raises your cortisol and lowers your testosterone levels, which hampers your body's harder to progressively overload your muscles in the gym and thereby maximally stimulate muscle growth. The more dietary fat you eat, the less carbs you'll be able to eat, which will more than wipe out any potential muscle-building benefits from slight hormonal upticks. Well, that's it for this episode.

But before you go, I just want to make sure that you do not miss out on a chance to get my new third editions of Bigger, Leaner, Stronger and Thinner, Leaner, Stronger for just 99 cents and the chance to win over $6,000 in goodies. Now, in case you didn't listen to the intro where I shared all of the details, I'm just going to play it again here so you know how to get the books for just 99 cents and how to enter the giveaway to win all the stuff. Hello, Mike here from Legion Athletics and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. Now this one is special because it is one of the 37 chapters from the new third editions of my best-selling fitness books for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger respectively. This chapter is in both of the books and both of those books are now live everywhere you can buy books online. Now, I am super excited to release the new edition of these books because they have been

in the making for about four years now and have been completely reorganized and rewritten from scratch to make them as clear, practical, and effective as possible. Even more exciting, however, is the eBooks are currently on sale on Amazon for just 99 cents. And when you forward your purchase receipt that Amazon sends you to launch at muscle for life.com, that's just launch at muscle for life.com. You will be entered to win over $6,000 in prizes, including an all expenses paid trip to meet me and my team in Washington, DC, an Apple watch, a series four Apple watch, a Viper 2.0 high intensity vibrating fitness roller from Hyperice, Bose sound sport headphones, from Hyperice, Bose Sound Sport headphones, NoBowl training shoes, and more. So to get in on this deal and giveaway, search your local Amazon site, whichever country you are in. The eBooks are on

sale there. So just go to your local Amazon site and search for Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. If you are a guy who wants to get bigger, leaner, and stronger, or thinner, leaner, stronger. If you are a woman who wants to get thinner, leaner and stronger or thinner, leaner, stronger. If you are a woman who wants to get thinner, leaner and stronger, or maybe not thinner, maybe just fitter. I went back and forth on the title. Should it be fitter, leaner, stronger or thinner, leaner, stronger? I ultimately went with thinner, obviously, but it's not just for getting thin. It really is for getting fit. So if you are a woman who wants to get fitter, then go to www.thinnerleanerstronger.com. And then you will be forwarded to the appropriate Amazon ebook at your local Amazon site. And then just buy the book for 99 cents, the ebook, the Kindle book, and forward your email

receipt that you get from Amazon to launch at muscleforlife.com, and you will be automatically entered into the giveaway. You got to act fast, though, because the sale and the giveaway both end on July 22nd. So don't put this off for later and then forget. Head over to Amazon now and get your book for just 99 cents. Amazon now and get your book for just 99 cents. And you can also get additional entries in the giveaway by helping spread the word on social media. And you can learn more about that at www.biggerleanerstronger.com slash launch.