Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - The Best of Muscle For Life: The Right Ways to Press, How Many Calories You Burn, and Flow

Episode Date: January 1, 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: 1. Mark Rippetoe on the Right (and Wrong) Ways to Bench and Overhead Press (Originally published August 31, 2018) 2. How Many Calories Do You Really Burn Every Day? (Originally published April 22, 2019) 3. My Top 5 Takeaways from Flow by Mihaly Csilszentmihalyi (Originally published March 18, 2019) And we’ll be starting with number one, Mark Rippetoe on the Right Ways to Bench Press. 5:25 - Mark Rippetoe on the Right (and Wrong) Ways to Bench and Overhead Press 15:18 - How Many Calories Do You Really Burn Every Day? 21:56 - My Top 5 Takeaways from Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Mentioned on The Show: Shop Legion Supplements Here: https://legionathletics.com/shop/ 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. You'll be hearing hand-picked morsels from three episodes. The first is an interview I did with Mark Ripito back in August of 2018 on the right and wrong ways to bench and overhead press. Then we have a monologue I recorded back in April of 2019 titled,

How Many Calories Do You Really Burn Every Day? And last is a book club episode published in March of 2019 that has my top five takeaways from the book Flow from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Yes, that's really his name. Also, if you like what I am doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. And we're on top because every ingredient and dose in every product is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research. Every formulation is 100% transparent. There are no proprietary blends, for example. And everything is naturally sweetened and flavored. So that means no artificial sweeteners, no artificial food dyes,

which may not be as dangerous as some people would have you believe, but there is good evidence to suggest that having many servings of artificial sweeteners in particular every day for long periods of time may not be the best for your health. So while you don't need pills, powders, and potions to get into great shape, and frankly most of them are virtually useless. There are natural ingredients that can help you lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy faster, and you will find the best of them in Legion's products. To check out everything we have to offer, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout, post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more, head over to www.buylegion.com, B-U-Y legion.com. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout,

and you will save 20% on your entire first order. So again, if you appreciate my work, and if you want to see more of it, and if you also want all natural evidence-based supplements that work, please do consider supporting Legion so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. Okay. Let's start with the highlights from the interview I did with Mark Ripito on the right and wrong ways to bench and overhead press. Back to the bench press for a few more questions. Grip width, what are your thoughts? Well, my thoughts on grip width are derived from what are we trying to do with the exercise.

If we're trying to bench press as much weight as we can, then what we want to do, like if we're at a meet, then what you want to do is probably going to be a little bit wider grip width than what you would do is if you're trying to just use the bench press as a strength exercise. And the reason I say that is as follows. How come? Just to clarify.

To clarify that, the IPF rules state that the maximum permissible legal competition bench press grip width is 32 inches, and whatever that is in centimeters. All right. Now, if you're 104 pound female and you're, you know, 4'11", the rule does not stipulate that your grip width is any narrower than the super heavyweight guy weighing, you know, 330. But the difference in anthropometry is going to turn those two lifters

into completely different creatures performing that movement pattern. A 330-pound man with a 32-inch maximum width grip is going to be very close to vertical forearms at the bottom. A 104-pound female at 4'11 may be able to get the barbell out of the rack, unshrug her shoulders without even bending her elbows, and then shrug back up into a lockout position having moved the bar an inch and obviously those movements are not comparable right one is a different thing than the other yet both of them are considered bench presses by the IPF. So, in my opinion, for training purposes, we want to use the longest range of motion around the shoulder, which means that the grip you take yields a vertical forearm when the bar touches your chest. I think that the primary thing that a person ought to be

doing when they bench is to adduct the shoulder blades and get the chest up. And the reason you want to do that is because it's kind of a complicated mechanical thing that we cover in the book. And I can summarize it probably for you here by just saying that if you have your shoulders, shoulder impingement is the issue. I'm trying to think of the best way to introduce this topic. Shoulder impingement occurs when you have an extreme amount of abduction at the humerus with regard to the glenohumeral joint. If you sit up in your chair right now and raise your elbows up straight to the side,

then when your elbow approaches when your humerus approaches about just just to introduce people listening that is ab abduction right moving away from the middle yeah moving away from the middle and ad you've probably heard of ad is in yeah adduction is in so when your elbows are down laying on your lats you're ad ducted and when they're out at 90 degrees to the side they are ab ducted at approximately 90 degrees of ab duction you are going to feel the sensation in your shoulder and that sensation is produced by the entrapment of the rotator cuff tendons between the head of the humerus and the inferior aspect of the acromioclavicular joint. And I would say if people want to see this, if they want to visualize this, just Google AC joint and you'll see. And there's an illustration in the book that perfectly illustrates this point. Okay.

So what we recommend as far as a bench press angle from humerus to the midline of the body is about 70 degrees because that removes all the impingement. What that does do, though though is drop the elbow down relative to the shoulder and this produces a moment arm that has to be dealt with that exists between the barbell and the shoulder joint. And the price you pay for reducing that moment arm through elbow position is you're going to impinge your shoulders, and bench presses sometimes are hard on the shoulders because of this. So we recommend 70 degrees of abduction instead of 90. The mechanical price you pay for that is that there now exists a little moment arm between the barbell and the shoulder

joint that you have to overcome when you press. That's why the bar path and the bench press is not a straight vertical line. It's a curve and it curves from the chest back up to the shoulders because the lockout position is directly over the glenohumeral joint, and the bar contact on the chest is down below that. So there's about a three-inch moment arm there that's going to have to be built. So it's kind of like a little bit of a J kind of motion. Let's talk about the hip drive. That's obviously one of the things on my list because that's often misunderstood. Right.

I found it a little bit tricky to get used to. It is. Again, it's right i found it a little bit tricky to get used to it is again it's complicated and the way we teach it at the seminar is we have uh we'll have the person stand there with their hands on their hips just arms akimbo hands on your hips and we'll we'll tell we'll tell you to tighten up your abs and your quads so that there is a band of tension from your chin all the way down to the floor. You're tightening the anterior front, just the front of your body, the whole abs, quads, everything is tight.

And then you're going to push your hips forward into that tension. If you stay tight, it is the equivalent of drawing a bow because you're pushing into the tension. And the further you push into that tension, the more resistance you meet. And what you have to learn how to do is push into that tension to create a rebound. All right. Now, if the bar is sitting on your shoulders and you go from a straight vertical line down the abs and the thighs into a curve, then the position of the barbell will drop a little bit, about an inch, just because you went from a straight line to a curved line. You see the geometry of that, right? Right.

So what you're going to do is stand there with a bar in your hands. You're going to push your hips quickly. You're going to push your hips quickly. You're going to push your hips forward. The bar is going to come down, and then as the hips come back out of the tension, the bar jumps up a little bit. So you're going to create a little bounce in the position of the bar. The bounce is caused by the change in the length of the vertical line

caused by the curve as you push into the deal, into the tension of the hips and abs. Right. As you from that convex position back toward us. Right. Exactly. And then the bar jumps back up. So what you do is in the way we teach this, and it's easy to learn if you teach it like this, we put the empty bar in the hands and we make the bar jump up a couple of times. And then we say hips and press. So you're going to catch the momentum as the bar comes up off the shoulders

and press through it and lock it out. And once you do it once, you do it once like that, you say, oh, okay. And then the timing is easy. Now you have to make sure you're not unlocking your knees because you leak power out of unlocked knees. Right. And you have to make sure you're not doing a down and up push press. This movement turns a forward and back, a horizontal

hips movement into vertical bar movement. All right. Well, that's it for the featured bits from the interview I did with Mark on how to bench and OHP. And if you want to go listen to the whole interview again, it was published back in August of 2018. So you can just go find it and listen to it. Okay, let's move on to the next highlight reel from a monologue that I recorded on how many calories you burn every day. The gold standard, scientifically speaking, for measuring energy expenditure is a method called indirect calorimetry. And this involves measuring the amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide that you inhale and exhale, and from this, calculating your energy expenditure. And this method is very accurate because there is a direct relationship between how your body uses these gases and how

much energy it is burning moment to moment. And the reason there is a direct relationship between how your body uses these gases and how much energy it is burning moment to moment. And the reason there is a relationship there is your cells need both oxygen and carbon dioxide to create energy, which is why you need to breathe to stay alive. And only small amounts of what you inhale are used for energy generation though. Most of the gases are exhaled. And how much of the oxygen and carbon dioxide are exhaled depends on how much energy is needed. So the greater the energy demand at any moment, the greater the need for these gases. And therefore, the difference between how much of each of these gases are inhaled versus exhaled is a reliable yardstick for energy production. So the less of these gases that's exhaled, the greater the energy production.

And this is what scientists eventually figured out and they figure out how to measure it and how to quantify it. And the result is this indirect calorimetry. All right, let's talk about workout machines. How accurate are the calorie readouts on these machines? Now, many people, when they go into their cardio workouts, they have a target for the number of calories they want to burn, which makes sense. And they rely on the machine readouts to know when they've achieved their goal and they can end their workout. Unfortunately, most of these machines overestimate the number of calories that you are burning in your workouts and by a lot, which is not surprising. Methinks that's probably not a mistake because it is definitely encouraging to see a big number and makes you want to keep using the machine. A good case in point here is

a study that was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco's Human Performance Center. And researchers found that on average, stationary bicycles overestimated calorie expenditure by 7%. Stair climbers were over by an average of 12%. Treadmills, 13%. And ellipticals by 42%. That's no good. How can you figure out how many calories you're burning through exercise and other physical activity, which of course you need to know to be able to calculate how many calories you're burning every day. Because again, you have your basal metabolic

rate, which is the amount of energy that it costs to simply remain alive. If you were to sit in bed all day and literally not move, it would still cost a fair amount of energy to keep all of your organs working and keep everything going. And that amount of energy would be your basal metabolic rate. You take that, you add in all the energy you burn through physical activity, and there is your total daily energy expenditure. But how do you get there? Well, the easiest method that is very accurate is a system based on what's called a metabolic equivalent of task or M E T. So think of an M E T like a calorie, but instead of measuring the amount of energy that is required to heat one kilogram of water, one degree Celsius, which is the amount of energy

that is contained in a calorie, at least when we're speaking about calories in food, which technically are referred to as kilocalories, but we just call them calories. An MET is the amount of energy that an average size person will burn while sitting still for one minute. And different activities are assigned different MET scores. So walking at a slow pace for a minute, for example, burns about double the amount of energy of sitting still and thus has an MET score of two. Vacuuming is on the list of things quantified. And as it's more vigorous than walking at a slow pace, it's listed at 3.5 METs and so on. And you can find the MET scores of wide variety of physical activities in the compendium of physical activities tracking guide. If you

Google that, it will come up. And once you have that guide, here's how you can use it to figure out how many calories you're burning. So the first step is you got to understand the basic MET equation. So the math that is used to determine calorie expenditure here is simple. You have calories burned equals METs times your weight in kilograms times hours of activity. So that is the equation. And the second step is to find the MET value for the activity that you want to measure. So let's take weightlifting, for example, that's listed at six METs. And make sure you pay attention to the activity intensity as well, because many activities like walking have more specific entries with different MET scores. So walking up and down stairs, for example, has a higher MET score than strolling

around the block. So the third step here is you plug the MET value of the activity into the equation. So let's say that you weigh 80 kilograms or about 175 pounds and you lift weights for one hour and you want to know how many calories did you burn. So here's the equation then. You have six METs times 80 kilograms times one. So again, that is the weightlifting MET score, which is six, which is an indication of how difficult it is, times your body weight in kilograms, 80, times the duration in hours, which is one. And you do that math, six times 80, 480. So you burn about 480 calories per hour of weightlifting that you do. Okay. So those are a few of the juicy tidbits from the monologue titled, how many calories do you really burn Every Day? Published back in April

of 2019 in case you want to listen to the whole episode. And that leaves the final episode that we will be covering in this episode of The Best of Muscle Life. And it is my top five takeaways from Flow from the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. Alrighty, let's get to the featured book, which is Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Yes, that is a tongue twister.

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Yes, that is a tongue twister. And it is high time that I reviewed this book because it is one of my all-time favorite self-development books, one that I constantly recommend to people who ask for book recommendations for living a better and more fulfilling life. And to understand why, do something for me. Close your eyes and think back to an instance where you were doing something that made your consciousness feel harmoniously ordered, that absorbed all of your focus and attention and that dissolved your awareness of time, worries, and even yourself. So maybe it was playing an instrument or spending an evening with loved ones or coding a website, cooking a meal, driving a car, whatever. Csikszentmihalyi refers to these occurrences as optimal experiences and the psychological and emotional state they produce as flow. And this book is a scientific investigation of these phenomena and how to increase their frequency and intensity in our lives. All right, the second takeaway quote, contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times, although such experiences can also be enjoyable if we have worked hard to attain them.

The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. So my note here is that we all want to be happy, but what does that mean exactly and how do we achieve it? So for me, the surest route to happiness is twofold. One, making progress towards specific, articulated, and achievable short and long-term goals. And two, experiencing a sense of mastery and control along the way, which is produced by concentrating on tasks, overcoming challenges, and executing intentions. Now, what is conspicuously missing from that list, of course, is the actual achievement of goals and desires because, for me at least, this provides a certain

measure of fulfillment but also dissatisfaction as a new list of wishes dampens the glow. In this way, I actually find more enjoyment and pleasure in doing the work than having done the work. So this takeaway that I just shared also gives some insight into why I enjoy most work for its own sake. For me, work is an easy way to get into a flow state where my attention is fully absorbed by something that I feel is meaningful, something that aligns with a vision of the future I want to realize, and something that can provide tangible feedback. As Cheekson-Mahaly says elsewhere in the book, quote, goals justify the effort they demand at the outset, but later it is the effort that justifies the goal. Final takeaway. Number five, quote, it is true that life has no meaning. If by that we mean a

supreme goal built into the fabric of nature and human experience, a goal that is valid for every individual, but it does not follow that life cannot be given meaning. Much of what we call culture and civilization consists in efforts. Typo. Consists in efforts. Consists of efforts, probably. People have made generally against overwhelming odds to create a sense of purpose for themselves and their descendants. It is one thing to recognize that life is by itself meaningless. It is another thing entirely to accept this with resignation. The first fact does not entail the second any more than the fact that we lack wings prevents us from flying. From the point of view of an individual, it does not matter what the ultimate goal is, provided it is compelling enough to order a lifetime's worth of psychic energy.

So my note here is, well, it starts with a quote from Fight Club, something Tyler Durden said. He said, you have a class of young, strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need generations have been working in jobs they hate just so they can buy what they really don't need we don't have a great war in our generation or a great depression but we do we have a war of the spirit we have a great revolution against the culture the great depression our lives. We have a spiritual depression. And that, I believe, is a prescient, and remember that was published back in 96, I think, and also a poignant social commentary with a point. Unless we fully align our energies to

goals and purposes that matter to us, we will always feel disconnected from ourselves and others and reality. No amount of trinkets, indulgences, or substances can change this. In the book, in Flow, Csikszentmihalyi shares another Thomas Carlyle quote, which is, blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness. That resonates with me and is relevant to this last takeaway. I think that we all must strive to find and hold onto our work for as long as we can, not to reach the peak, our work for as long as we can, not to reach the peak, but to March of 2019. And that's also all I have for you in this episode of Muscle for Life. Thank you for listening. I really appreciate the support and I have a lot more good stuff coming. So definitely keep an eye on your podcast feed. For example, I have a monologue

coming on the best time of the day to lift weights. And I have an interview I did with Mike Israetel on how to customize your weightlifting routine to make it maximally effective for your body. How to determine, for example, if one exercise is better for you than another. All right. Well, that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did and you don't mind doing me a favor, please do leave a quick review on iTunes or wherever

you're listening to me from in whichever app you're listening to me in, because that not only convinces people that they should check out the show, it also increases search visibility and thus it helps more people find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger, People find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier, and happier as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any new stuff. And if you didn't like something about the show, please do shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com. Just muscle, F-O-R, life.com, and share your thoughts on how I can do this better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, even if it is criticism. I'm open to it. And of course,

you can email me if you have positive feedback as well, or if you have questions really relating to anything that you think I could help you with, definitely send me an email. That is the best way to get ahold of me, mikeatmusclelife.com. And that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.