Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - The Best of Muscle For Life: Mind Pump Interview, Ultimate Fitness Plan For Women, and Principles

Episode Date: February 25, 2021

I’ve recorded hundreds of episodes of Muscle for Life on a huge variety of things related to health, fitness, and lifestyle, ranging from the basics of diet and exercise like energy and macronutrient balance and progressive overload and training frequency and volume to fads like the ketogenic and carnivore diet and collagen protein to more unfamiliar territories like body weight set point and fasted cardio. Some episodes resonate with my crowd more than others, but all of them contain at least a few key takeaways that just about anyone can benefit from (that’s what I tell myself at least). And as cool as that is, it poses a problem for you, my dear listener: Ain’t nobody got time for that. Well okay, some people do make the time to listen to most or even all of my podcasts, but my wizbang analytics tell me that while many listeners tune in on a regular basis, they don’t catch every installment of Muscle for Life and thus miss out on insights that could help them get a little better inside and outside the gym. People have also been saying they’d like me to do more shorter, multi-topic episodes, like my Q&As. And so I got an idea: how about a “best of” series of podcasts that contains a few of the most practical and compelling ideas, tips, and moments from my most popular episodes? This way, people who are new to the show can quickly determine if it’s for them or not, and those who enjoy what I’m doing but don’t have the time or inclination to listen to all of my stuff can still benefit from the discussions and find new episodes to listen to. So, in this installment of The Best of Muscle for Life, you’ll be hearing hand-picked morsels from three episodes: My Interview on Mind Pump Media (Originally published August 23rd, 2017) The Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women (Originally published November 21st, 2018) Book Club: My Top 5 Takeaways from Principles by Ray Dalio (Originally published October 8th, 2018) And we’ll be starting with number one, My Interview on Mind Pump Media 5:51 - My Interview on Mind Pump Media 14:28 - The Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women 23:19 - Book Club: My Top 5 Takeaways from Principles by Ray Dalio Mentioned on The Show: Legion VIP One-on-One Coaching: https://buylegion.com/vip https://anchor.fm/muscleforlife/episodes/My-Interview-on-Mind-Pump-Media-eei637 https://legionathletics.com/fitness-plan-women-podcast/ https://legionathletics.com/principles-book-review/ --- Want free workout and meal plans? Download my science-based diet and training templates for men and women: https://legionathletics.com/text-sign-up/

Hello, and welcome to the latest and greatest episode of Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews, and thank you for joining me today. Now, I have recorded hundreds of episodes of Muscle for Life, and I've talked about a huge variety of things related to health, fitness, lifestyle, mindset, ranging from the basics of diet and exercise like energy and macronutrient balance and progressive overload and training frequency and volume to fads like the ketogenic and carnivore diet and collagen protein to more unfamiliar territories like body weight set point and fasted cardio. And some episodes resonate with my crowd more than others, but all of them contain at least a few key takeaways that just about anyone can

benefit from. At least that's what I tell myself. That's what helps me sit down in the chair every day and do this. And as cool as that is, it poses a problem for you, my dear listener, especially if you are new here. And that is, ain't nobody got time for that. We're talking about probably a thousand plus hours of content at this point. And while some people actually do make the time to listen to most or even all of my podcasts, my whizbang analytics tell me that while many listeners tune in on a regular basis, they don't catch every installment of Muscle for Life and thus they miss out on insights that could help them get even just a little bit better inside and outside the gym. Because if you just get a little bit better consistently enough, that can add up to big

results in the long run. And people have also been telling me that they would like me to do more shorter, multi-topic episodes like my Q&As and Says You episodes. And so I got an idea. How about a best of series of podcasts that contains a few of the most practical and compelling ideas, tips, and moments from my most popular episodes, going all the way back to the beginning. This way, people who are new in particular can quickly determine if this is the droid they're looking for, if this podcast is for them or not. And then those who are regulars and enjoy what I'm doing, but just don't have the time or inclination to listen to all of my stuff. And I do understand that. I don't take it personally. You can also then

benefit from the discussions and the episodes that you are not listening to in full. And you can also find new episodes to listen to without having to give an hour of your time to determine whether it was worth it or not. So here we are with the best of Muscle for Life. And in this episode, you will be hearing hand-picked morsels from three episodes. One was titled My Interview on Mind Pump Media. Very creative, Mike. Good job. And this was published back in August of 2017. And then the other is a monologue that was published back in November of 2018 called The Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women. And then the third and final episode that is going to be featured in this episode is a book club

episode published back in October of 2018. And that was my top five takeaways from principles by Ray Dalio. Also, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my VIP one-on-one coaching service because my team and I have helped people of all ages and all circumstances lose fat, build muscle, and get into the best shape of their life faster than they ever thought possible. And we can do the same for you. We make getting fitter, leaner, and stronger paint by numbers simple by carefully managing every aspect of your training and your diet for you. Basically, we take out all of the guesswork. So all you have to do is follow the plan and watch your body change day after day, week after week, and month after month. What's more, we've found that people

are often missing just one or two crucial pieces of the puzzle. And I'd bet a shiny shekel it's the same with you. You're probably doing a lot of things right, but dollars to donuts, there's something you're not doing correctly or at all that's giving you the most grief. Maybe it's your calories or your macros. Maybe it's your exercise selection. Maybe it's your food choices. Maybe you're not progressively overloading your muscles or maybe it's something else. And whatever it is, here's what's important.

Once you identify those one or two things you're missing, once you figure it out, that's when everything finally clicks. That's when you start making serious progress. And that's exactly what we do for our clients. To learn more, head over to www.buylegion.com, that's B-U-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N.com slash VIP and schedule your free consultation call, which by the way, is not a high pressure sales call. It's really just a discovery call where we get to know you better and see if you're a good fit for the service. And if you're not for any reason,

we will be able to share resources that'll point you in the right direction. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, and if you also want to finally stop spinning your wheels and make more progress in the next few months than you did in the last few years, check out my VIP coaching service at www.buylegion.com slash VIP. Okay, so let's start with the highlights from my first interview. I've done a couple of appearances over at Mind Pump, but this was my first interview on the Mind Pump podcast. By the end of the year, by the end of 2012, I believe I'd written one or two other books, shorter, kind of trial balloons, just some other ideas to kind of see like, hey, this one's doing well. The next one that did really well was a cookbook, actually, which still does very well. Oh, interesting. And I've also subsequently revamped my book several times, which is a smart business strategy. I'm not saying, I'm not like puffing myself up. I'm just saying for as just a,

like when you have something that works, iterating on it and making it better. You know what I mean? And so I've done that several times and actually took quite a bit of work. Now, were you writing blogs or anything at this time? Along the way? Well, not really, no. So I had posted like one or two little things on this Build Healthy Muscle website, but otherwise, no.

I had really just kind of like, by the end of 2012, I don't remember the exact timeline, but I had maybe two max three books. So Big Leaner Stronger and then a couple of shorter other ones. I believe the cookbook was in 2013. I don't remember exactly. But at the end of the year, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger was selling a few thousand copies

a month. All organically at this point. Yeah. Wow. And two word of mouth. And I'll say also a big takeaway from, and it's something I've kept in up until now, is being helpful to people. also a big, a big takeaway from, and it's something I've kept in up until now is, um, being, being reset, like being helpful to people. So when people write emails, when they, when they message me on social media, if they DM me on Instagram, like they will hear back. Uh,

you're still like that. Yeah. I messaged you and you messaged me, you know, right away. Exactly. That's why, because then that was me. It's not like an assistant or something. Right. And I have a couple of people that help, like my email gets hammered. And so I have a couple of people that help with sometimes they're very filtering. Yeah. Very simple questions. Like, but everyone always gets an answer though. You know what I mean? Where it's like a lot of them actually are fairly simple questions that I've already answered in an article that I've written or a podcast.

So it's kind of just like, Oh, that's a good question. Go check this out. This will answer your question. Let me know if you have any, you know, let me know if it doesn't. And then, you know, but I think this is going to take care of you. But it's just that point of taking care of really taking care of people. So up until, you know, maybe the last year or so, I mean, I was spending four-ish hours a day every day and then probably six hours, seven hours on the weekends as well. It was usually on Sunday. Like I would be off on Saturday and then just answering people's communication. It was usually on Sunday.

Like I would be off on Saturday and then, and then so just answering people's communication. And, and that, I mean, does tremendous things as far as word of mouth goes, because, I mean, that's pretty cool. If you just look at it, like you just, you bought some book on Amazon, you read it and you're like, oh, it's a good book. And you have a question you actually heard back and got a really good answer. What a lost art. That is such a lost art nowadays to be able to do that. Cause, and that's, and those are old school impacts.

Yeah. That's, that's old school business advice is to be able to do that because and that's and those are old school big impacts yeah that's that's old school business advice is to be able to do that kind of stuff and i think it doesn't scale but it's it's it's huge and that's one of the reasons why it's huge and it's one of the things that again like people a lot of people don't want to do that right because it's not it's not sexy what do you do for fun besides work um so like you and you're like what you're like okay i got some time like i'm gonna i'm gonna do what I really want to fucking do and have a good time. Um, so I haven't been in, in Virginia. I've been, so in Florida I had like, my routine was I would golf on like Sunday afternoons. And so I was into that. And, uh,

but I was funny because like the first probably 500 hours of golf or so was working on a building a swing. Cause I don't like to be bad at things. Like I don't like to do things that I'm bad at. So if I'm going to do something, I'm going to get good at it or I'm not going to do it basically. And so to get good at golf and I'd read, you know, 20, that's also what I'll do. I'll go and if I'm going to get into something, I'm like, I'll find 20 books to read on it. Right. How did that go? That is such a complicated sport. I mean, actually, so, so it went well, but just because I, you know, I'm such an OCD Nazi about how I'm going about it. Right. So like I read a bunch of books and to first, so one of the first things is a book

called every stroke counts, really good book. If anyone's into golf and you haven't read it, read it, read it. Right. This is a guy, he's a professor of statistics at Brown university, I believe. And he is a business statistics, but also happens to be a golf aficionado. And so anyways, the dude he, because of who he was, he got access to the PGAs. They have a database going back, I think a couple of decades now of every long shot accurate to within a yard

and every putt accurate to within an inch. And so they gave him access to all of their data and basically allowed him to just go have fun and see what kind of correlations there were. And so basically he kind of debunked, it's similar to like, it's like the, I won't say it's my book, but it was a book that like overturned a lot of things

that people assumed about golf and what made for good golf, you know what I mean? And one of the big things was, one of the big takeaways was that if you want to be a great golfer, you have to have a good long game, meaning like, you know, getting to the green where you're putting,

you have to, especially off the tee your your drive your drives and then your approach shots that's where you that's where great golf is that's where it happens and there are different reasons for that and it's backed up with data and so anyways this dude his i mean his work um he he came up with a statistic that the pga tour now uses um so i mean he's completely legit right and so that that's why I was like, okay, so I want to get good. I don't want to just be like, okay, so I need to have a good long game, which means I need to have a good swing. And that's what a lot of people, going back to doing what people don't, most people don't want to do. They don't want to work on building a swing

because it's a pain in the fucking ass. So now as a father, you're in the fitness, you know, space. This is a big part of your expertise you have kids now how do you your oldest is what four you said four how do you tackle food with kids we get this question all the time uh because this is it's very difficult it's one thing being an adult occurring theme for yeah it's one thing being an adult and eating right or whatever but then when you're dealing with a kid and then they go to birthdays or they start going to school and you know what are some takeaways that you that you can maybe give our audience that you found with your kids or how do you handle that so so far um so lennox has he's been going to school for about a year now um and they're i would say

that he he doesn't he's not a big fan of sweets and like the normal junk food stuff maybe that kids go to and i also don't i don't like uh not completely a big fan of sweets and like the normal junk food stuff, maybe that kids go to. And I also don't, I don't like, not completely not allow him to have some like- No, is it because you created good habits around the house? So just you guys eat that way? Exactly. And he also sees, so like when, you know, he sees how Sarah and I eat,

which is generally very clean, so to speak. And not for, not because I have, you know, weird ideas about clean eating, but no, like I'm talking about eating nutritious foods. Whole foods. Exactly, whole foods. They eat a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of whole grains.

And I myself am not an indulgent person when it comes to food. I don't, I think I probably, I think I have a good relationship with food where I can go out and I can eat random stuff and enjoy it or not. You know what I mean? And generally, my diet is, I prefer to eat that way. And so like my little thing is

I like dark chocolate. So I'll have maybe 150 calories of dark chocolate every day. And that's enough. That's status. I like that. You know what I mean? Um, and so, so Lennox from the beginning, um, Sarah also did a good job in the beginning, exposing him to different foods when he was a baby. So like, um, blending up different stuff vegetables fruits and uh just kind of i guess maybe conditioning his palate in that way as opposed to giving him um very you know sugar laden stuff right right off the bat i'm glad you said conditioning his palate that's that's that's something it's real important there because you do if you do understand that you're conditioning uh your child's palate

you know that in the beginning like any kind of conditioning it's crucial it's gonna suck you know if you have a kid and you're all of a sudden like okay we need to clean up their diet it's gonna take you is like you know yeah candy and like fast food uh it's gonna take you a second from there yeah it's gonna take you a second and you're gonna have to recondition them with new foods and it's a slow process so because i've had people message me and they're like, oh, I tried what you said and my kid just didn't want to eat. So it's not going to work for us. It's like, well, it's going to take some time. You have to change the way they perceive the taste of these foods and associate it.

I mean, there's research on both that point of exposing when they're, especially when they're infants, exposing them. And I believe, if I remember correctly, I read this, I read it a bit ago, but I believe it also, you can even start with breastfeeding if I remember correctly. It starts in the womb. They have studies now. Was it Dr. Nicole Avina we had on the show that got into that? Yeah. She was talking about that. All right. Well, that's it for the highlight reel from my first interview that I've done with the boys over at Mind Pump. And if you want to listen to the full interview, you can find it on my podcast feed. You can go back and find it on theirs sometime around August, 2017,

but that's when I published it on mine. They probably published it earlier than that. I would guess they probably published it in June or something like that of 2017, but then I republished it to my crowd in August of 2017. Okay. let's move on to the key takeaways from the ultimate fitness plan for women. Let's start with the absolute worst fitness plan for women. Now, really what this comes down to is just the bulk of the mainstream fitness advice for women, which is guaranteed to really just make you skinny fat. So here's what I'm talking about. One thing is eating very little food, starvation dieting, and very little protein and carbs in particular. The second point would be to develop a clean

eating monomania, obsessing over eating only quote unquote clean foods, which of course change depending on who you're listening to. Third point would be doing an excessive amount of cardio, one to two hours per day. A fourth point would be very little weightlifting. And if you're going to do any weightlifting or resistance training, make sure it's not heavy. you're going to do any weightlifting or resistance training, make sure it's not heavy. And the fifth and final point would be very long workouts, two plus hours in the gym, six or seven days per week. All that probably sounds familiar. And what do you get when you subject yourself to this prescription? You get misery. You're tired all the time. You're hungry all the time. You are dreading your workouts. You are daydreaming centrally about binging on carbs and you are

simply counting the days until you can finally live again. It sucks. And I've done the male version of that. It's not quite the same. The male version sucks as well, but I have worked one-on-one with many, many women who have gone through that, and it is no fun. And that's not all that sucks about it. Even worse is what happens to your physique. As I mentioned earlier, it is a one-way street to skinny fat. Now, if you do all that, you lose weight. Of course, you starve yourself, do a bunch of exercise. You are going to lose weight, but you are also going to lose a considerable amount of muscle. And the more muscle that you lose, the worse your body will begin to look, even at a low body fat percentage. You see, what most women don't know

is just how different low body fat levels can look with and without good muscle development. Many, many women who I have spoken with and worked with over the years have been shocked to learn the body weight of some of the women whose bodies they admired the most, their dream bodies. And the reason is body composition. The women with the model physiques often had quite a bit more muscle than the average woman. There still are many women in many gyms who are pretty into weightlifting, who don't look super jacked necessarily, but are big or bulky or blocky enough to give you pause. And here's what you need to know about that. Heavy weightlifting is not what is making them bulky. That's not what could ever make you bulky. Being too fat is what makes them look bulky. That's the only way that you could look too

bulky. I know that might sound a little bit harsh, but let me explain. if you took a super fit fitness model woman who is on the cover of magazines and who has fantastic muscle definition where she looks muscular, but also lean, defined, toned, not bulky, if you took her and just added 10 to 15 pounds of fat on her body, you just had her overeat for a bit until she had gained 10 to 15 pounds of fat, she would look very different. Her legs would lose those sleek lines. Her core would bulge and grow. her core would bulge and grow, her arms would fill out like sausages. And the reason for that is very simple. When you gain fat, the majority of it accumulates inside and on top of your muscles. So the more you have of both, the more you have of both muscle and fat, the larger and more formless your entire body begins to look. Therefore, a simple rule of thumb for women who want to be lean, toned, and defined is the more

muscle you have, the leaner you have to be to avoid looking bulky. For example, a woman with very little muscle might feel raw boned at 18% body fat and comfortable at 25%. Whereas a woman with a bit more muscle than average, 10 pounds, let's say, would probably love how she looks at 18% body fat, but feel downright huge at 25%. 18% body fat, but feel downright huge at 25%. And this is why I've mentioned that many of the women who I have spoken with and worked with seem to be happiest after gaining 10 to 15 pounds of muscle and dropping their body fat percentage down to about 18 to 20%. The muscle gives the shape and the relatively low level of body fat really lets it shine. That brings out the definition. Okay, so let's move on now to the mistake of starvation dieting.

So imagine for a minute, you have the lean, sexy body that you want and you maintain it by eating foods that you like every day, including treats that are normally considered off limits. Yes, even ones that contain sugar. You are never feeling starved. You are never feeling deprived. And so you rarely feel the urge to binge or even overeat. You do this every day, every week, every month for the rest of your life, and you live happily ever after. What a great story, right? The end.

Okay, I am not a storyteller, but that isn't a pipe dream. Millions of women and men, for that matter, are living that fantasy right now, And you can too. You do not need to develop an eating disorder or a tapeworm to get and stay lean. You can eat more than you probably think and you can enjoy your diet and your lifestyle. That said, you do have to follow a few rules. There are a few non-negotiables and they mostly revolve around energy balance and macronutrient balance. So energy balance is the relationship between the amount of calories that you are eating and burning and macronutrient balance is how those calories break down into protein, calories that you are eating and burning and macronutrient balance is how those calories break down into protein, carbohydrate, and fat. And so what that means is if you want to get

leaner, you are going to have to eat fewer calories than you are burning. No matter how you get there, no matter what foods you eat, no matter how often you eat, no matter what type of diet you follow, it's going to have to produce a calorie deficit to produce fat loss. And if you want to retain as much muscle or gain as much muscle as possible while you are losing fat, you are going to have to eat a fair amount of protein. Once you have those things taped, though, everything else really becomes negotiable. And in many ways, the best diet for you is going to be the one that you can stick to, so long as it stays within some pretty loose boundaries. And that's it for some of my favorite parts of the Ultimate Fitness Plan for Women. Again,

that was published back in November of 2018, in case you want to go back and listen to the whole episode. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my VIP one-on-one coaching service because my team and I have helped people of all ages and circumstances lose fat, build muscle, and get into the best shape of their life faster than they ever thought possible. And we can do the same for you. All right, let's move on to the featured snippets from the third and final episode in this installment of Best of Most for Life. And that is my top five takeaways from Principles by Ray Dalio. Okay, let's get to the featured book, which is Principles by Ray Dalio, who is the founder of one of the world's largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates. Now, it is rare for a

billionaire legend to take his or her time to carefully outline their own personal operating system, so to speak, for achieving success and fulfillment in both work and life. And that is exactly what Ray Dalio has done with his book Principles. Inside this book, you are going to find many of his ideas and procedures for many different aspects of both his professional and his personal life, ranging from his definition of meaningful work to his recipe for turning pain into pleasure, his prerequisites for deep relationships, his fierce intolerance of badness of any kind, and much, much more. Now, unlike similar books, Principles doesn't try to entertain you with anecdotes or fancy prose or sell you with references to science or history. Instead, it simply presents Dalio's thoughts, experiences,

and practices in a very clear and highly organized manner, which is something that I appreciated because it allowed him to share an almost overwhelming amount of high-value information in the book. By the end of this book, I had made a ridiculous, truly ridiculous amount of highlights and notes. I extract all of my highlights and notes into a single Google document after I'm done with a book. And this is one of the longer Google documents I've ever made for a book, if not the longest. Anyways, I also appreciated that Dalio is not one to mince words. He professes an unwavering fidelity to discovering, facing, and embracing the truth. And he communicates in this way as well.

His goal is not to make you feel better about yourself or help you justify your shortcomings, but to challenge you to change your core beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors for the better. So let's get to my five key takeaways from this book. The first is this, quote, reality is optimizing for the whole, not for you. Contribute to the whole and you will likely be rewarded. Now, my note here is for me, this is a simple reminder that all the various marketplaces that we participate in life, whether intellectual, commercial, or interpersonal, operate according to some form of natural selection that strives to retain and pass along positive and desirable qualities and squash negative and undesirable ones. Not to satisfy, validate, or improve any of us individually. In other words, reality could

care less about our intentions, our efforts, our struggles, and only cares about the quality of our results. And so whenever I am faced with a failure of any kind in my life, I choose not to blame others or bemoan my circumstances, but to assume that I should have and could have done better, that there is a lesson to be learned that will help prevent similar failures in the future. Takeaway number four, quote, it seems to me that if you look back on yourself a year ago and aren't shocked by how stupid you were, you haven't learned much. And my note here is things either get better or they get worse. And if we are not continually educating and improving ourselves, it is very safe to assume that we are continually getting dumber, lazier, and quite frankly, less valuable as people, even if by small degrees. Therefore, a simple but very effective way to assess which direction we are generally heading in is to periodically check ourselves against this benchmark of Dalio's. Okay, my fifth

and final takeaway, quote, the courage that's needed the most isn't the kind that drives you to prevail over others, but the kind that allows you to be true to your truest self, no matter what other people want you to be. My note here is, we live in a society that is full of now-you-are-supposed-tos that stretch from the very beginning of our lives to the very end. So I have a lot of respect for people who are willing to reject the expectations of the status quo and go discover and pursue what is truly meaningful to them. I've also noticed that almost one for one, the most fulfilled and satisfied people that I know have done just that, regardless of their level of material success. in my feed back in October of 2018. And so much for this episode of Muscle for Life. Thanks again for joining me. I hope you liked it and definitely tune in tomorrow to check out

another installment of my Q&A series, where I'm going to be talking about ecthysterone, bug roids, basically, fasting and muscle loss and lessons to teach my children. And then next week, I have a motivational monologue coming called Think Big, Do Big, Win Big. I have an interview coming with Nick Shaw, who is the co-founder of Renaissance Periodization. Another Says You is coming and another Q&A. Please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes

or wherever you are listening from, because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show, they also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live then simply subscribe to the podcast in whatever app you're using to listen and you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that i have coming and last if you didn't like something about the show then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscle for life.com and share your thoughts. Let me know how you think I could do

this better. I read every email myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. All right. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.