Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Why I'm Not on Steroids, A "Day in the Life," and More...

Episode Date: December 30, 2014

In this podcast I talk about why I've never done drugs and never will, how a typical day of eating and training looks for me, and how to adjust your training if you have to miss workouts. ARTICLES RELATED TO THIS PODCAST: 5 Huge Fitness Mistakes That Nearly Made Me Quit: http://www.muscleforlife.com/5-common-fitness-mistakes-to-avoid/ Bostin Loyd steroid transformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MaaC6VD4ZA The Definitive Guide to Leptin and Weight Loss: http://www.muscleforlife.com/leptin-and-weight-loss/ How Much Muscle Can You Build Naturally? http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-much-muscle-can-you-build-naturally/ Why and How I Use Fasted Cardio to Lose Fat as Quickly as Possible: http://www.muscleforlife.com/fasted-cardio/ How to Stay in Shape When You’re Traveling: http://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-stay-in-shape-when-youre-traveling/ Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

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Hey, this is Mike Matthews from MusclefulLife.com. Thanks for checking out another episode of my podcast. In this episode, it's just me, and I want to talk about a few different things. One is a question that I get here and there, and it's a funny question, but it's actually a good question. I thought I'd make a good podcast topic, and that's why I don't do steroids. Why am I not on steroids? The other thing I want to talk about is kind of what's a typical day. I get asked this fairly often too in terms of how I eat and how I train and how I sleep and how I kind of work everything in. And then the other thing I

want to talk about is if you have to miss workouts, what's the best way of going about that? Do you just double up and try to try to, you know, sit, get in the gym for two hours on another day to make up for it? Or do you, is it best to change your, your split for the week or whatever? So I'll talk about that as well. All right. So let's talk about steroids. So the question that I just got asked, then it just reminded me that I've been asked this before. And I thought it would be something worth talking about is why am I not on steroids? And why have I not done steroids in the past? And it's a good question because a lot of guys in my position would be on steroids. I mean, let's face it. A big part of

how I make my living is how I look and to some degree, I guess, how I train. I don't do as many training videos as other guys do because I think they're kind of boring just to watch somebody do the same workouts over and over. And even if they're getting a little bit stronger over time, it's not, I don't know. It's just not my thing, but, um, you know, looking good, being strong, being lean, uh, definitely helps me, you know, make money and helps people be more interested in what I have to say. Uh, so why not, why not be on steroids? And, um, it's a good question. Um, when I, you know, if you're familiar with my story, uh, for my first six or seven years of, of weightlifting, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just did a bunch of bodybuilding

kind of magazine type workouts. Um, my diet wasn't, well, actually it wasn't horrible. It just was, uh, I never really, I didn't know anything about energy balance. I didn't really know how to manipulate macronutrients. I didn't know if I wanted to get lean, what do I really do? I thought I would do the standard like, well, I'll just cut my carbs way down and I'll do a bunch of cardio. Yeah, I lose some fat, but after a month or so of that, you know, I would get pretty burned out. So generally my diet was I just kind of ate a lot of food, and I just hung out around probably 17% body fat, 16% body fat, and so not the worst, actually. If I would have known what I was doing with my training, I actually probably would have made decent gains simply because I was eating a lot of food,

so at least I wasn't under eating. But during that time period, I didn't make great gains. And in my first six to seven years, maybe I gained 30 pounds of muscle. Maybe. It might have been a little bit less. I'll link an article down below where you can kind of see some of the big mistakes I made in that time period. And you'll see it in the uninspiring results. that time period and you'll see it in the, in the uninspiring results. Um, and that, you know,

during that period would have, uh, been the normal, if someone was going to do steroids and, you know, if I was going to do steroids, it would have been in that beginning period. Um, because when other people come to me and I'll have people that will email me and just openly ask, should they, should they do one cycle just to see how it goes? Hard gainer type of guys that they think maybe they'll just never be able to build enough muscle. Maybe they do need to just do steroids. And that's not one. Well, I'll get into why I wouldn't recommend just doing one cycle. As a matter of fact, somebody, a guy I know in the gym this morning, he was the exact same conversation.

This guy that he trains with is on drugs. He cycles on and off, which the guy says, which means he's always on. And whenever people say they cycle off, they don't cycle off. Now it's all about you just are always on, probably like at least low doses of tea. And then that's like cruising, and then you blast it with other drugs and whatever, right? So this guy that just this morning was like, well, I'm going to, I'm going to cut down and I'm going to do a cycle with this other dude. And so I'll kind of have the conversation I'm going to have now. And the reason why I never got into drugs when I was younger and I didn't really

know what I was doing, I wasn't making good, is I guess I've never been into drugs. I never really was even into drinking. I'm not morally opposed to drinking, or I don't care if somebody smokes weed or whatever. I mean, whatever. It's their body. It's their choice. But for me personally, I just never got into it. I don't really like alcohol. I never did. I've never tried any other drugs., I don't really like alcohol. I never did. I've never tried any other

drugs. It just wasn't really my thing. So already kind of naturally was, uh, uh, inclined to not want to do steroids. And then I didn't know anybody doing steroids, so I wasn't exposed to it. Um, so, you know, for those two reasons are the main, probably the main, main reasons why I never really tried it. Um, and, and then, and then also, I mean, there is the legality point of it, not that I even necessarily agree that these drugs should be illegal. I mean, it's your body. Uh, it's not the, the, the, the, the, the, well, with certain, with certain drugs, like take, take, take, take testosterone. Um, some of the, some of the dangers, the risks of testosterone are very, very overplayed in the media. If you've seen the documentary Bigger, Faster, Stronger, you know what I'm talking about.

I don't even know exactly. I haven't looked into it much because I never really had much, much interest in drugs, but I don't even know really if the prostate cancer, if there really is any good, uh, uh, evidence of, of, of an increasing risk of prostate cancer. And that probably depends on dosing and such. Um, but yeah, so there is also that point that I, you know, I, I kind of generally try not to do illegal things. And, uh, so that was probably another reason why I never got into it. But now, you know, fast, fast forward to today, there are a few reasons why I am not on steroids and I'll never do steroids. One is that point of there are definitely health risks that are associated with some of the other drugs that are popular. While, you know, while I probably could run a low,

popular. While I probably could run a low dose of tea and be okay in the long run, there may be a chance that I would be increasing my risk of prostate cancer. Again, I don't really know. I haven't looked into it that much and it seems kind of contradictory and would really require some studying. But then some of these other drugs that these guys are on that are very popular, like Trenbolone acetate, right? That's a very trend. It's just what it's called. Very, very popular drug, very interesting drug in the, in its effects in the body. I mean, you have these guys that they run, um, like a low dose of, of, of testosterone and a high dose of trend below. And I think a high dose of growth hormone as well as kind of like the bodybuilder, the new age kind of stack. Although I guess Tren kind of even go, it does go back. I think there was Tren around even in Arnold's days. I think he even talked about doing it.

So I don't know, maybe it's just kind of come back in popularity again. But the point is when, when guys run this, this stack of drugs, I mean, one, the changes in their physiques can be just staggering. I'll link an example of this below of a guy named Boston Lloyd who's very open about his drug use and shows what a one-year steroid transformation, hard steroid transformation really looks like. It's pretty ridiculous. transformation really looks like. And it's, it's pretty ridiculous. Um, so there are tremble and it's very powerful for, uh, building muscle, even when you're in a calorie deficit. Um, and, and also particularly it's, it's strange in that it's short circuits, uh, a process called de novo lipogenesis, which is the process whereby the body converts carbohydrate into body fat. Um, so basically guys, these guys

that are running trend and then T and growth hormone, they can eat absurd amounts of food and absurd amounts of carbs and gain no fat and just stay shredded. Um, and so their, their workouts are obviously, uh, I mean the, just there's, there's a, another guy that, uh, works out in the morning. guy cool guy he he runs all kinds of drugs and he's very open about it he talks to me about it and he he actually is one of the guys that tells me don't get on drugs and and i'll explain why in a minute it's another one of the reasons why i'm not going to be doing steroids anytime uh in the future um he said that when he's on you know his cycle, I think his last cycle was like,

uh, it was testosterone of course. And then it was trend balloon and it was maybe deck. I don't remember. And a couple other popular drugs. And he said that basically he just feels like a God. Like he, he has so much energy in the gym. He just feels invincible and not only in the gym, but in life. Like he, he, from the second he wakes up to the second he goes to bed, he's just on. And he – the biggest thing that he regrets about getting into steroids is that he's now psychologically addicted. And he's one of the – he's an interesting – you're not going to meet very many guys like this. A lot of guys that are on drugs are very secretive about it. They're going to, they're going to swear their natural all up and down. And they're going to talk all kinds of shit about guys that are on drugs and how steroids are so unnecessary and this and

that. And they're running so many drugs, it would blow your mind. So this guy's the opposite. This guy is very open about his drug. He doesn't care. Uh, you know, he'll tell me here and there like, Oh, I just, you know, just changed my cycle, this and that, and tell me how it goes and stuff. And I find it kind of interesting. Um, and so then he's also though, he has enough self-awareness to know that he is fully addicted psychologically. You know, he said that that's the, that's the problem. Now when he's off drugs, he just doesn't, he said it just being natural is, is almost like miserable in comparison to how good he feels when he's on the drugs. Um, so, and that's, that's also one of the reasons why I will never do steroids is because I don't want to put myself in that position. I mean, that's like a, you know, a heroin addict or

where you, you feel life, you know, under the influence of a certain drug, and then you can't reproduce that feeling without the drug. It's just, you can't, there's nothing that's going to do it. And you know, you get hooked to that feeling and you just go back to, and you know, then the psychological stuff of similar to even smoking or triggers can come into play or certain things that trigger you to want to use the drugs. And you're constantly dealing with that. That's one of those cases where in my opinion, you're better off never even knowing what it feels like to, you know, feel like he, like he says, like a God superhero, you know, just unlimited energy, just, you know, ridiculous strength in the gym and all that. Like, yeah, that sounds good until you realize that you have to, you know, inject yourself with quite a, quite a few drugs every week to get there. And, you know, in the case of Tremblone, this, this kind of comes back to the health point that I was talking

about. Um, there is research that shows that it is genotoxic, meaning that it can, uh, damage your DNA and that's cancer shit. And that's where you don't, I mean, that's something I never want to mess with. Uh, if there's one way I don't want to die, it is suffering, you know, with a disease like cancer. And I just don't want to ever, ever kind of go down that road. And, you know, we'll see when give, you know, in 30 years, we'll see what a lot of these bodybuilders today that are abusing, you know, drugs like Tremblone and these other drugs that are that are popular. We'll see what, you know, what like Tremblone and these other drugs that are, that are popular, we'll see what, you know, uh, what, where their bodies are at. And given that it's a very niche, uh, thing, it's unlikely to get much in the way of funding. Uh, you know, Tremblone is used with to transport to, to, they use it with cattle to, to keep the lean mass on cattle while they're

transporting them to be slaughtered. So are we ever really going to know the whole effects in the human body? I don't know. Is that ever going to really get enough funding research? I would be surprised. So it's just very much like you're taking your life in your own hands when you're messing around with these drugs. And also, I mean, if we're talking health stuff, obviously, orals are very hard on the liver. And guys that run a lot of orals are always kind of fighting that. And then, you know, when it comes to abuse and we, you know, you'll hear these stories of these bodybuilders. There was some guy recently that died and he had, you know, some massive tumor in his liver or, you know, there's just, you, the more steroids you do and the longer you do them, uh, the,

and especially if, if you're kind of going outside of just testosterone, which guys that run steroids, if you're really into steroids, you're not just running testosterone. Yes, there are people out there, and there are a lot of people out there that have had no problems. You can definitely find stories of guys that they've run drugs for 40 years and had no health issues. So it's not that everyone is screwed. that, you know, they've run drugs for 40 years and had no health issues. So, you know, there, it's not that everyone is screwed. Um, and I, I don't really know enough about it to know that like, well, the guys that do get screwed, is it because they abused drugs? You know, they abused the drugs so heavily and also abuse their bodies in other ways with, you know, cause also a lot of

these bodybuilders that are on a lot of steroids on a lot of other drugs too. They're into cocaine, they're into meth, they're into all kinds of stuff. So in alcohol, of course. So is it all the whole picture that is the problem or is it mainly the steroids or what? I don't know. But it stands to reason that doing a bunch of steroids is not good for your health. It's not going to improve your health. It probably is going to detract from it. And you're going to be constantly kind of, uh, you know, battling with that. So that's another reason why I'm just not interested in, in, in messing with it. Um, and which kind of takes me to my next point in that doing steroids is not necessary for what I want to do with my body. Right now, I weigh about 190 pounds.

I'm somewhere between about 7%, 7.5% body fat. I like how my body looks. I don't want to be bigger in general. I could use some more calves. I could use some more shoulders, which is the never-ending. As a natural weightlifter, you'll never have enough shoulders, basically. And my calves are a genetic weak point. Genetically, I had zero calves before I really started training them. have enough shoulders basically. Um, and my calves are a genetic weak point that I genetically,

like I had zero cows before I really started training them. So now at least I have something, but they're still kind of, uh, they're lagging. Um, and I'm, you know, I'm working on it. It's just, it's, it's kind of strange how stubborn my calves are. I'm kind of surprised. Um, but I, I not generally trying to just put on a bunch of size because I really don't want to look like a bodybuilder. Uh, I guess you could say't want to look like a bodybuilder. I guess you could say I kind of look like a bodybuilder now, but when I think bodybuilder, I think more somebody like I couldn't go compete, you know, in a bodybuilding class. I'm way too small. I could go compete in a physique class. And if, uh, even then, you know, even if I went up against

the drug guys and tried it, I would, if I got down to competition, you know, 4%, 5%, I would look pretty small compared to these other guys that do well in physique. So I can maintain the type of body that I like, and I got here without doing drugs, and I can maintain it pretty easily without doing drugs. In terms of diet, if you're familiar with my work, you know that I'm very flexible in my dieting. I eat foods that I like right now. My calories are about 2,700 a day, which is right in the middle. It's not, I probably could go a bit higher. Um, but I found it's kind of an interesting thing that I've noticed, um, in terms of staying very lean is that technically, like per the catch McArdle, my TDE, my total daily energy expenditure is fairly high. It's probably about 3,100, 3,200 calories a day. But I can tell you with absolute certainty, if I already eat that much food right now, I would get fatter.

And I've actually tried this multiple times. I've tried reverse dieting, like slowly increasing my calories up and that it, uh, I still, I get a little bit fatter and I can hang out. If I were to eat that much food, I would hang out at about nine or 10%. Um, and the only explanation that I have for that is that because my body fat levels are low, my leptin levels are going to be low or low-ish, lower than they would be if I had more body fat. So my metabolism is essentially, and if you're not familiar with leptin, by the way, it's a hormone that regulates the metabolism among other things, regulates hunger. I'll link an article down below so you can go learn more about it. But basically the lower the leptin levels are in your body, the worse it is essentially to a point. Uh, it's not like, well, is having higher leptin levels

is good, but if you have too, too, too much leptin, like obese people have a lot of an, a, a, a surplus of leptin, that's bad as well. Um, so because I'm staying pretty lean, my leptin levels are kind of low, which is probably keeping my metabolism a little bit down regulated, which might sound bad, but it's not going to impair my health. I'm not starving myself. I'm eating plenty of food, and my body feels good. My training is good. The reality is if I wanted to be able to eat more and without gaining fat, I would have to – well, I mean if I wanted to eat more to kind of reach my total daily energy expenditure or approach to dieting where I'm in a surplus five days a week on my training days, slight surplus. And then I'm in a moderate deficit two days a week in my rest days to offset the surplus, uh, that I was, you know, the little bit of fat that I've gained during the week in a surplus essentially. So I could go that route. I, you know, but, um, I've, I, I do that sometimes kind of depends on

what I'm doing, uh, in, in the week do that sometimes kind of depends on what I'm doing, uh, in, in the week. And it kind of depends on what I feel like eating. Uh, I like to be flexible with, with what I eat. Um, the, the simplest method of dieting is just eating the same amount of food every day. And I kind of default back to that because I don't like having to make a bunch of food decisions. I have a lot of things that I'm doing and I'm just busy with a lot of things and I don't really want to have to sit down every day and think much about what I'm going to eat. I'd rather just kind of plan it out, take the foods I like, eat that every day, get on with my life, change things here and there when I really want to. So back to steroids. At this point, why? Why do

steroids? What would be the point? I'm not trying to, uh, my strength is decent. I'm, I'm fairly strong. Um, you know, my, my recent best numbers are I've pulled about four 50. It was give or take, I don't remember exactly for two or three reps. Um, I've squatted about three 50 for about the same, which is not too great, but I neglected squats for a long time. So I've only really been properly squatting for probably about three years or so. Um, and you know, it just takes time. It takes like to, I'm always impressed with people that can, uh, squat four plates in under, in under two years. Uh, that's just abnormally strong. Um, and also my legs for some reason have, have, were kind of a weak point, I guess. So didn't come up as quickly as I thought they would.

And on bench, I've put up 295 for two or three. And on military press, I've put up 225 for two or three. So I'm fairly strong. I enjoy my workouts. I have plenty of energy. So, you know, at this point, it just doesn't really make sense for me to do steroids. Now, if I wanted to be, I'm 190, I'm six, two. Um, and if I want it to be two 10, if, uh, you know, same seven,

7% or whatever, seven to 8%, there's no way I could do that naturally. No way. Uh, the, the most, I think at this point that I could gain is probably another 10 pounds of muscle. It'd probably take three or four years and it would take, you know, a lot of bulking and just kind of doing what I, what I preach, uh, you know, slower type of bulking and then cut to get rid of the fat and just, you know, it really takes some work. So maybe I could reach 200 pounds, uh, at about 7%, which kind of, which does align with, um, some, some of the, some of the more accurate models of how much muscle you can naturally grow or how big you can naturally get, which I'll link an article down below that I wrote on this subject.

You can see what these models would predict for you or for me or whatever. So yeah, if I wanted to gain another 20 pounds of muscle, I would have to do steroids if it really mattered that much to me. But I don't. I just kind of want to keep my body the way it is now bring up certain weak points a little bit more. Um, I do have some strength. Uh, I don't know, I guess you could say milestones that I'd like to reach. I would like to pull at least 500 for, for one or two with good form. Of course. Um, I would like to, I would like to be able to squat four or five for a few reps. That'd be cool course. I would like to be able to squat 405 for a few reps. That'd be cool. And I'd like to be able to bench 315 for a few reps. And I think 225 is pretty

good on the military press. But if I could get that for maybe four or five reps, that'd be cool. So getting there is a slow process at this point because I'm not willing to eat a bunch of food, essentially. Uh, I do kind of want to keep my, my body fat where it's at. So I, uh, I can make gains, but it's just slower. If I, if I didn't care, I mean, it was like, I did a, an interview and I've talked subsequently just, you know, off, off the air with Mark Ripito a few times. And, and, you know, he'll ask me to be like, so do you, you know, the first thing he told me is you need to weigh, I think he was saying that I need to weigh like 210 ish or something like that. Like right now, like if you want to be strong, you need to gain some weight. And he's right. If I wanted to be, if I just wanted to be strong and, you know, push, pull and squat a bunch of weight, this is not the type of physique that I would want. I would want to

probably, you know, yeah, be up to somewhere around 200 to 10, I'd be around 10 to probably 11% body fat. I wouldn't look bad. I'd be big. I wouldn't like, I I've had been up to that body fat percentage, you know, a year or so ago. And, um, I don't like how it feels. Everything might, all my clothes are super tight and my, I can barely get on my pants and I just feel like, I don't know. I like being lean. So, you know, he always kind of jokes with me about that. And that's true though. If I, if I really wanted to get stronger, I'd have to get fatter. Um, and so yeah, building up strength, that could be one reason to be on drugs, but it's not that, you know, I'm not, I don't need it. I'm not trying to be, be a compete in a, in a show or as a bodybuilder or as a powerlifter or anything else. I'm just doing it to stay healthy and enjoy it. It feels good. So that's another reason why I'm really not interested in doing steroids

and why I never was interested in doing steroids. And another reason is I think it's kind of cool to do it naturally. I think that the mentality of wanting to cheat it, and the idea that steroids are cheating. That's cheating who? What? What are you talking about? I mean, it's some dude that wants to build muscle,

so he's taking drugs to help him do that. But it's not cheating unless we're like in a, you know, if he's competing in a natural, you know, bodybuilding league with a bunch of other guys that actually are natural. cause a lot of the natural, natural bodybuilders are a joke, not actually nanny. These guys aren't natty. But if some of the guys were, if let's say a lot of the guys are natty, then yeah, that's cheating. But if everybody's on this, if everybody's doing the same drugs and it's not cheating. And if you're not competing, if you're just like wanting to look good to attract, I don't know, be attractive or whatever, feel good about yourself,

I don't know, be attractive or whatever, feel good about yourself. Cheating who? How does it? So now the truth is, though, that steroids make a huge difference in terms of how quickly you can build muscle and kind of get the body that you want. Again, I mean, I'll link down below what a one-year steroid transformation, hard steroid transformation can look like. transformation, hard steroid transformation can look like. And generally speaking, if you're going to run the drugs that you run, you probably can condense, make about three years of gains in one year probably. And if you're not going to run a ton of drugs, if you're going to be more moderate, you could probably make two years of gains. Like your first two years, let's say you started on drugs your first two years. Not that that even be a good idea. Guys, even steroid guys will not recommend the ones that actually know what they're talking

about. Don't recommend that newbies jump on drugs. They recommend that you probably do your first one or two years natural and then, and then do steroids if you're going to do that. Um, so, but so it's that mentality though, of where you're impatient, you just want it now and you don't want to wait for it and you want it to be as easy and quick as possible and so forth. And I think that there's some value in doing it naturally and kind of learning to embrace the process and embrace the work that goes into it and the amount of discipline that

it takes, being strict with your diet. And again, when I say strict, I don't mean like obsessing over clean eating. I mean more just, uh, making sure that you're hitting your numbers every day and not just kind of, you know, being random with your diet and showing up to the gym every day and you have to work hard. Um, definitely when it comes to training, uh, training on steroids is quite a bit different when you see guys in the gym doing all those super high rep drop set, super set giant set, you know, big lean guys, they're on drugs. You can't train like that and get anywhere as a natural weightlifter. And, uh, the reason why you will not see guys on a lot of

drugs, um, often they will not be doing very heavy weightlifting is because, um, the muscles, they grow faster than tendons and ligaments can support them. So they need to watch out. If they started throwing around the weights that they felt like their muscles could handle, they can get hurt. So I've known quite a few guys that have been on drugs that they'll go in in their do, you know, sets of 20 and sets of 30 and really kind of go for the pump and go for the burn. And that's just, I used to do that stuff, uh, as a natural weightlifter and didn't really get far with it. Um, and it's, that's just a different style of training than, you know, even mentally, I think it's, uh, it takes a bit more toughness to work in the four to six rep range or even do some heavier stuff.

Go stand under 400 pounds of weight and squat it or go try to pull a bunch of weight. You do a lot of that. It definitely has some residual effects on just your mindset and how you approach things. So I think there's some value in doing it naturally. It's also by doing it naturally, and this is something that I personally care about why, you know, another reason why I'm not, didn't do drugs and won't do drugs is I want something that I can maintain for the rest of my life. I want a lifestyle. I don't want to just look good. You know, I'm 30. I'm not trying to just look good for my thirties and then have things start

declining as I get older. And I'm also would not want to be thinking that, you know, to look the way that I want to look and have the type of body I want and the strength and whatever that I'm gonna have to be on drugs, what for the rest of my life, like, there are quite a few guys that that's kind of how they look at it. They've been on drugs for 30 years or whatever. And they're going to be on drugs until they die. And that, I don't know, that's just, that, that does not seem appealing to me. I much, much, much prefer having a lifestyle that is, is a, is healthy and sustainable. And yeah, I'll never look as good as some of the guys on drugs. It's, you know, there are certain looks you can't achieve without drugs.

You just can't. You can't get all the muscle development, especially in the little muscles. You'll see it in guys where their serratus is just ridiculous all the way down. And you'll get these big shoulders, these big upper chests, these big traps. Certain drugs give you a very, very dense look. So you get that hard, just where their skin looks paper thin because they're super lean and they're vascular everywhere. You just don't get that look without drugs.

So yeah, I mean, I think there are certain, it goes too far. I wouldn't even want to look like that. But there are certain looks like, you know, you've probably heard of Ziz, Z-Y-Z-Z, right? He was very open about his drug use. He would joke about it on the internet and stuff. So there are certain periods of his physique kind of changed over the years. But at the point when I think he looked the best, he was running all kinds of drugs and he talked about it.

And so there's just that look. You're just not going to get it naturally. And he was also using cutting drugs like clenbuterol and such. So I'm fine with that, whatever. I'm happy with how my body looks. And I think that's part of a benefit of being a natural weightlifter is once you have the body that you like, it's very easy to maintain it. You get to eat plenty of food. If you overeat for a couple

days, big deal, then you just kind of reduce your food for a couple of days. And, but my point is you're not relying on chemicals to, to keep your body in the shape that you, that you like. And another personal point of why I wouldn't want to be on drugs is I wouldn't want to have to constantly lie about being natural. Like a lot of these people in this space do that would just personally, it would just bother me. Um, especially because I, you know, if I looked when, when, uh, with how my body is, um, and I, you know, I'll, I'll talk, I talk with quite a few people that, um, are experienced weightlifters and also just kind of like, you know, they've, they've made their way around the fitness, fitness space. And the people in the know, when they, when they see my pictures and stuff, they think that their initial, their initial,

uh, you know, thought is that I could be natural. They're not sure. Uh, I'm not clearly on drugs. I'm not clearly like some guys are clearly on drugs. It looks so good. And so over the top, some, in some cases over the top, but in some cases, it's good, and there's just no question. And then in some cases, guys look so soft and bad and kind of frail that you're like, yeah, that guy's natty. That's clear. So I'm somewhere in the middle of that,

but then guys that really know, that are familiar with drugs, if they look at my upper chest, they look at my shoulders, they look at just my core development, and they look at my upper chest, they look at my shoulders, they look at my core development, and they look at certain parts of my body, and they go, yeah, he's probably natural. But if I got on drugs, it would be pretty obvious. You would see within two months of me starting a steroid cycle, you'd start seeing my pictures. You'd be like, Mike, what new supplement are you

on? And then I have to start making up stories like everybody, like, oh, what, like, so what, uh, what new supplement are you on? What? And then, and then I have to start making up stories like everybody like, Oh, I started this new sick training routine where I'm, you know, increase my frequency, this, that fix my diet, you know, just doing a lean bulk, uh, like, you know, just all that bullshit that these guys say. And, um, you know, yeah, fine. You know, whatever. I don't care. Everybody can do what they want. But me personally, that's just really not my style. I'm not like I'm a saint or anything, but just like I try not to do illegal things.

Like I'm not into even downloading music. Like if I like someone's music, I just use Spotify actually. But if I couldn't find something on Spotify, I'm probably going to go buy it. You know, if I want to watch a movie, I'm going to go rent it on Amazon because I like Amazon and I want to support them and support if I, if I support the, whatever it is, the movie, the, even if it's, you know, supporting the movie studios, fine for the most part, like they're the ones that put up the money for the movies that I like. So, uh, just like how I, you know, try to do that and kind of live my life that way. I also try to be as honest as possible, try not to lie. I try to – and again, of course, I'm not saying I'm perfect or anything, but that's – my inclination is more in that direction of just being honest and being open and not being shady basically.

So then being on drugs and lying about it, because I'd have to lie about it. If I were on drugs, I couldn't say that I was on drugs because then it would totally ruin my credibility. Uh, and yeah, you know, a lot of people then would say, Oh, you know, he's just cheating. And you would, it would appeal to guys that are on drugs, but to your average, uh, you know, guy or girl just wanting to get in shape, that'd be a huge negative, uh, you know negative turn off if I were just open about it saying, yeah, I'm just doing all these drugs. That's how I look good. It's not even necessarily that drugs are the key because there are plenty of guys. I go to the gym early in the morning. It's very empty. But I've gone in the afternoon before and

it's full of guys. I guarantee you there, probably 50% of the guys in there are either on drugs at this time period when I went at least, or have done drugs. And the majority of them look terrible and they're weak because they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing in the gym and they don't know what they're doing with their diet. So it's not like steroids are magic. It's not like you can know nothing and just do, you know, inject a bunch of stuff. And all of a sudden, now three months later, you look awesome. The guys that really make those impressive transformations, they not only do the drugs, but they also know what they're doing with their training. And that means they know how to train as somebody that's on drugs because it's different. And they know what they're doing with their diet.

And that's not so much different. The biggest difference is depending on what drugs you're doing, you're probably just going to be able to eat more than you would otherwise, but there's not really that much of a difference otherwise. So yeah, I guess those are really the main points of why I've never did drugs and don't really want to. So my recommendation to you if you're considering steroids is, of course, don't do it. I just don't think it's necessary. I think that there are potential negatives way out, way the potential positives when you can

have all the positives that you want. You just have to wait longer for them and work harder for them. Unless you want to be like a hulking bodybuilder type of dude, if that's how you want to look, like if you're like my, if you're my height, if you're six foot, six foot one, six foot two, and you want to be 230 pounds and lean, you're going to have to do drugs. Like period. I'm not suggesting that you do drugs, but if that's really what you're, have you, have you have your heart set on, then just, you better be willing to do a lot of drugs. So yeah, you can, you can have the type of body you want though without drugs. And the vast majority of guys, they just want to look, they want to have more type of body that I want to have.

You want to be lean. You want to be athletic and muscular but not over the top and that – there's also one thing that's worth mentioning is a fair amount of the size – I don't know. I've seen this both ways. For instance, this guy in the gym that's always on drugs, he has talked to me about this, that depending on the drugs that he's running, like he'll run certain drugs and gain size quickly and be very, very strong in the gym and then come off the drugs and lose quite a bit of that size. Not necessarily all of it, but it's not like you just do a cycle and then you just – or you can just maintain that, you know, cause I've run into people that had that idea too, which is understandable. They're thinking, all right, if I just do like, let's say I just drug for a year or two and then I have the body I want and I just get off drugs. Yeah, maybe to some degree, but it probably isn't going to go exactly like that. When you get off, you are going to lose some of your size. You're definitely going to lose a fair amount of your strength. And then you're going to deal with the psychological

stuff, which is going to lead almost inevitably back to, you know, doing drugs again. And then if you've done it a second time, then it's less likely that you're even going to come off again. And then you just go down that slippery slope until you're the guy in the gym who, you know, is, uh, he is, he, he, he likes the feeling of being on steroids, the physical feeling, but he does not like the psychological aspect of it. But right now, for at least, he's kind of resigned himself to the fact that he can't quit right now. That's how he feels, that he would be too unhappy. So I don't want to mess with all that, and that's why I don't recommend that you, uh, do steroids. All right. So let's move on to the next point here, which is kind of just a typical day and kind of how I like to balance

things. Um, I get asked this fairly often, especially regarding how I eat and, um, I'll go through it quickly because if you're familiar with my work, there's really nothing, uh, revelatory about this. It's pretty straightforward. Um, so I wake up early, I wake up at about six 30, let my dogs out, go to the bathroom, blah, blah, blah. And I, uh, I go train and I get there at about seven 20 ish or so. Cause I also do some reading in the morning. So I usually am reading for about 20, 30 minutes and then, and then I'm out, uh, just catching up with blogs that I follow and stuff. Um, so then I'm training at about 7.30ish or so, maybe a little bit earlier. I'm there for about an hour, and then I come to the office.

Depending on what I'm doing with my training, I might have – if I'm cutting, I'm going to be training fasted with – so I take some BCAAs. Well, actually, I take leucine, but you can do leucine or BCAAs, and I also take yohimbine, and I'll link an article down below that explains why. If I'm not cutting, then I'm going to have a pre-workout meal of 30 or 40 grams of protein and about 50 or 60 grams of carbs. It really makes a difference in the gym. Quite a bit more strength just from the carbs alone.

Train, come to the office, have my post-workout, uh, which is usually I do a shake. I blend up a frozen banana with some rice milk and some protein powder and cinnamon. Um, it's tasty, you know, about a hundred carbs, 40, 50 protein, very little fat and just drink it down and get to work. Um, in the morning, about an, about two hours later or so, I'll usually have another snack. This time it's just carbs, uh, or mainly carbs. Um, like, you know, these days, uh, I have some Harry and David pears and these things are so good. So maybe it'll be a couple of pears or, uh, it'll be like, you know, I'll do these, um, what are they? They're like spelt, they're spelt English muffins. Uh, and they're really good.

They'll do with like some PB two and jelly, just about 50 carbs or so. And my lunch these days, um, around 1230 or so, uh, 1230 or one, I'll do something simple. I've been doing a salad recently, just a salad with chicken. Uh, and, uh, I do some chocolate PB two, not in the salad, but I mix it with some water and just eat it after. Cause it's so good. I love that stuff. I can eat a tub of it a day. It's I think I just love chocolate. I just love chocolate. I love peanut butter. So you combine them and I'm just, it's so good. I love that stuff. I could eat a tub of it a day. I just love chocolate. I just love chocolate. I love peanut butter. So you combine them and I'm just, it's so good. So I'll do, but yeah, my lunch. And also I use this, this dressing or these dressings from a company called Bolthouse Farms. And they, they basically take these yogurt-based type dress or these dairy-based

dressings like Caesar's, what I've been eating every day recently. And they make them with Greek yogurt and just lower fat ingredients. So you have, I mean, this Caesar dressing per, Caesar dressing normally is ridiculous. Look at the calories of Caesar dressing. It's delicious, but you know, a few tablespoons is like 30 fat or something. So this Bolthouse Farms, I don't remember the macros off the top of my head. I have it in my meal plan. I want to say two tablespoons. It's ridiculous.

Two tablespoons is like some protein, five carb, and five fat or something like that. Two tablespoons. So all you need is, what, three tablespoons max. You can even do two tablespoons. I think that's what the macros are. I don't remember exactly, but it's very, very low, very easy to fit into a meal plan. Because I don't like doing high fat. I'm not a high fat guy.

My fat are 50, 60 grams a day, and I want to load up on carbs because carbs make a much bigger difference in training, give me a lot of energy and a lot of strength in the gym, feel good in my body. I don't need more than that for fat to, for my dietary fat, for my body to do everything it needs to do. So that's my lunch. And then around three o'clock or so, I have a scoop of whey protein and water. And I usually do my cardio when I get home about, so I usually leave the office anywhere from 530 to six and I go home and then I do my cardio. At that point. I'm fasted again, because if I'm only having a scoop of whey protein at

about three, uh, two to two and a half hours, it's out of me and my insulin levels are back to baseline. So if I'm cutting, then I'll do it fasted cardio. I'll take more, more yohimbine before the cardio, do that for about 25 minutes and then eat dinner after. So my dinner, six, six 30, maybe closer to seven, depending on what I'm cooking. Um, and my dinner is usually about, I kind of just have it slotted as like about 130 to 140 carbs, you know, 40 ish protein and 20 to 30 fat is what I generally will, will have for dinner. And then I have a little bit of a dessert after have about 200 calories allotted for a dessert. So I'll mix and match what that'll be. Sometimes it's a little bit of chocolate. Sometimes it's, uh, you know, I, there's like little coconut ice creams that are

fairly low calorie that I like, or even I have like little fudge bars or low calorie, just something tasty that, you know, it's about 200 calories. And then before I go to bed, um, you know, it's about 200 calories. And then before I go to bed, um, I go to bed these days about midnight. Uh, I don't need that much sleep. I sleep about six hours a night and that's really just all I need. I could sleep seven hours, I guess, but I tend to wake up even before my alarm. So, you know, whatever, I'll, I'll take it. Um, so before I go to bed, I'll have, uh, about 20 grams of protein, a slower burning type of protein. Not because you're going to go catabolic when you sleep. That's a myth.

But research has shown, there's one study in particular that showed that just having a slower burning protein before going to bed improved muscle recovery in guys that were weightlifting. And of course that makes sense because if you have your last protein at let's say 8 p.m. and you go to bed at 12, makes sense because if you have your last protein at let's say 8 p.m and you go to bed at 12 unless you know unless your meal was huge and it's really taking a lot a lot of time for your body to get through all that food your body's going to be basically done processing uh what you just ate you know by by midnight what you ate at 8 p.m is already processed and the amount of available amino acids in your blood is obviously going to be lower than uh they would be if you had some protein right before you go to bed. And if, let's say, you're sleeping eight hours, there is a point where your body just runs out of amino acids to rebuild itself with. And it doesn't mean now you lose muscle.

It just means that you're missing out, in a sense, on a little bit of potential recovery. So I have some slow-burning protein before I go to bed just so there's amino acids in my blood that my body can continue to use while I'm sleeping. And so, yeah, I mean that's kind of the simple breakdown of my day. I'm lifting five days a week right now. I'm doing cardio three days a week, and I play some sports. I play some golf on the weekend, which can burn quite a bit of calories, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm on the driving range, hitting a bunch of balls that actually, it burns a surprising amount of calories more than I thought. I think it was like four hours of on the, on the range was like a thousand calories burned or something like that.

Um, which isn't that much if you were doing cardio, but it doesn't feel like cardio when you're out there. Um, you know, it doesn't feel, I don't feel that active when I'm just hitting balls, but, uh, you know, there's quite a bit of whole body, I guess, total body energy that goes into that. Um, so that's, that's how I have my day broken down. Um, if I'm going to be shifting things around, sometimes, sometimes I'll, uh, cut, I'll cut carbs for my post-workout meal. I'll cut it down to maybe 50 or so, and then move those to dinner. If I'm going to be doing, like I've been trying different recipes because I'm working on a new cookbook and sometimes I

need more calories for dinner and I don't really feel like just overeating. So I'll shift things around. I'll take 50 carbs from my post-workout and I'm going to move those calories or move those carbs to dinner so I can make some pasta dish that I'm trying out or something like that. And you can do that kind of stuff, especially when I'm maintaining, like I'm not cutting right now. So I can do that and just be a little bit more, uh, kind of loosey goosey with, with my intake. If I were cutting, I still could do the same thing, but I would definitely want to be, make sure that I'm being strict on my numbers or I just slow the whole process down. Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, types of foods, I don't easily, I don't get sick of foods

easily. So I tend to eat the same stuff every day. But if you know, if you really are into variety, you can do that. You just have to plan for it. That's all. All right. So now let's move on to the last little bit of this podcast. And that's going to be regarding if you're missing training, how to best go about it essentially. So basically I have a simple kind of rule of thumb. If I'm going to miss a workout, I'm training five days a week right now. My split is chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs. And there are also like depending on I'm doing a little bit of extra chest on my arms day. So I'm training my chest twice a week.

And my legs, I mean between the heavy deadlifting that I do and the heavy squatting that I do, I don't do chest twice a week. Um, and my legs, I mean, between the heavy deadlifting that I do, uh, and the heavy squatting that I do, I don't do more on my legs. And also I actually don't want my legs are, um, I need, I need to measure them again, actually. But the last measurement, I think my upper thighs, I want to say we're about 27 inches and I don't really want more there. It's already, you know, there are certain brands of jeans that i kind of just can't wear that i that i would like to be able to wear and suits can be a bit like i've been i went through i think i went through six suits uh buying you know i buy them on online like guilt or rule of law they'll have sales on nice brands product ysl whatever and so i'll try these different suits and you know oh it's great

up top but then stupid pant i can barely even get over my leg so and, you know, oh, it's great up top, but then stupid pant. I can barely even get over my leg. So, you know, I have to get it tailored. It's a bit of pain in the ass. I kind of don't want bigger legs, so I'm not doing a ton of squatting. But I am, of course, training legs every week and I'm also deadlifting heavy every week. So they are going to grow to some degree, I guess. And so if I'm going to move things, if I'm going to miss a day, first to go is arms.

Arms is definitely the least important day. I mean, you don't even, I can just maintain my arm size, uh, and, and a lot of my arm strength without even really training them. If I just kept up my heavy pulling and my heavy pushing, it would, my arms really wouldn't change visually. I would lose a little bit of strength on the curl and on stuff like overhead dumbbell press and stuff like that, but you wouldn't see it. So arms would be the first to go. So if I knew I had to miss a day next week, I'm just not going to be doing arms. I'm going to be doing chest, back, shoulders, legs. And then if I have to miss another day, then I'm going to drop shoulders. And, uh, well probably what I'll actually, I won't drop it. I'm going to move. I'm going to take my, my military pressing that I do on shoulders day, and I'm going to move that to my chest day and kind of turn it into a push.

So basically I'm kind of turning it into push-pull legs is what I'll end up doing. So I'll do my normal chest workout, and then maybe what I do, normally I'm doing 9 to 12 sets on my chest. So I'd probably drop my chest sets to six and then do three sets of military press and three sets of side raises. So that'd be my push, get my, get my shoulders and chest trained and then do my back or my pole. Um, you, uh, if I, if I really cared, I would move my bicep work to my back day. So turning it into a more traditional pole where you're doing your back plus your biceps. Um, and then I would do my, my legs. Um, so you could move legs to shoulders.

You can also do it that way. Um, and that's a very hard workout. You can do it that way though. Some people do prefer, like they'll go chest and tries back and buys legs and shoulders or push, pull legs. Um, I prefer push, pull legs, but some people prefer, uh some people prefer the former. So you would have to kind of try both and see how does your body respond, which workout do you feel you can push yourself the hardest in, which do you enjoy the most, and so forth. And then if you're only doing, if you only could lift two days a week, then I would just do an upper-lower. I'll link an article down below where I give an example of how you can do that., one day a week, then you have like a whole body thing, of course, which is also in the article.

Um, but that's, this is useful for if you're traveling and especially now in the holidays, you know, if you're out of town and what I try to do, even when I'm, uh, my wife's from, from Germany. So we'll, we'll go to Europe usually every year. And I try, I mean, depending on how close, where, where we're staying, is it close to a gym? Is it really feasible for me to train every day? If it is, then cool. I'll wake up early, do my thing, just normal.

But if it's not, then I'll try to at least get a couple workouts in. And you'd be surprised how much of a difference that makes. If you just train two days a week, you can maintain everything that you have right now for, I mean, it doesn't matter. You could be out of town for a month. And if you're just doing two good workouts a week, a heavy upper, a heavy lower workout a week, you're going to maintain your muscle. You're going to maintain your strength. Um, and it's going to help mitigate the fat gain that's going to come with you're out of town, eating a bunch of food. It definitely,

uh, not working out at all, like being very sedentary and just eating a bunch of food is kind of a recipe for travel disaster and just physique disaster in general. But if you keep your training in, it gives your body, it gives your body things to do with the food other than store fat. So, so yeah, that's, that's how I recommend you kind of modify your week if you can't get in the gym as much as you want. And that's it for this podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. And hey, it's Christmas this week. If I don't see you before then, then have a great Christmas. I hope that you get a lot of cool stuff and have a lot of great times or good times with your family and with your friends. It's always a fun time of year for me. So yeah, thanks again, and I'll see you next time. Oh, one last

thing before I go, uh, head over to legionsupplements.com, L-E-G-I-O-N supplements.com, uh, because we still have our cool, uh, Christmas deals and end of year deal stuff going. And, uh, we're going to be kicking off a pretty cool, I'm pretty excited for it. Actually, we're gonna be doing a, a transformation contest, a New Year, New You transformation. It's going to kick off in January, similar to Shredded Summer if you remember that. So we're going to be doing a whole cool thing for that. I'm excited for it. So yeah, if you are interested in checking out my supplements, then head on over because now you can save money and win cool stuff.

We're kind of just having fun with it. All right. Thanks again and see you next time.