Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

In this episode, I interview Cheri, who read my book Thinner Leaner Stronger and used it to completely change her body and life. When she first started on her journey, Cheri was 187 pounds and well over 30% body fat. She tried everything to lose weight, including low- and high-volume training programs and even the HCG diet. After years of frustration, she read my book and got started with proper t...

You don’t have to look far to see that extremism and alarmism sells. Turn on any cable news network at just about any time of the day, for instance, and it’s a daisy chain of drama and conflict—”breaking news” banners preceding humdrum bits of information and “countdown clocks” to minor events underscored by melodramatic music and striking sound effects. The same forces are at work in the health a...

Let’s face it: a big reason most of us guys work out is to look great. You know, muscular, lean, proportional . . . “aesthetic” as the narcissists like to say. People are always looking for “hacks” and shortcuts to live a better life and looking good is a big one. When you look good, people instinctively like you more and treat you better, and this more or less always pay dividends no matter what...

I’ve churned through over 150,000 emails, social media comments and messages, and blog comments in the last 6 years. And that means I’ve fielded a ton of questions. As you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others, and I thought it might be helpful to take a little time every month to choose a few and record and share my answers. So, in this round, I answer the following four quest...

“When’s your next book coming out?”   “What kind of supplements are you going to release next?”   “What would you name your boat if you had one?”   I’m asked questions like these all the time and so I thought I’d start doing monthly updates about what’s new and exciting here at Legion HQ.   So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately.   Enjoy!...

CoolSculpting… The name itself reminds me of the 70s, perhaps an artist scene. Rebel against the government by making radical statues (back when radical was less “feminist” and more “Sonic the Hedgehog on a skateboard”.) Fight against the institution like Greek statues fight against pornographic standards of penis sizes. Then I learned it was a fat loss technique popular with middle-aged mothers w...

Many people have had rough childhoods thanks to stuff like oppressive parents, grinding poverty, and mental and physical roadblocks, but few have experienced what Chris Duffin has. First, he grew up in the wilderness. Not metaphorically, but literally. As a child, Chris and his family were vagabonds who wandered the California countryside, essentially living off the land. As you can imagine, this...

If there’s one supplement that has truly passed the test of time, it’s creatine monohydrate. It has been the subject of hundreds of scientific studies, and the evidence is clear: - It helps you gain muscle and strength faster. - It improves anaerobic endurance. - It enhances muscle recovery. And moreover, it does it all naturally and safely. When it comes to improving your body composition and wor...

This episode is part of a monthly series that I have dubbed “Motivation Monday.” (Yes, I know, very creative of me. What can I say, I’m a genius…) Seriously though, the idea here is simple: One Monday every month, I’m going to post a short and punchy episode that I hope gets you fired up to tackle the workouts, work, and everything else that you have planned for the week ahead. As we all know, it’...

If you’ve been in the fitness game for any amount of time, you know that consistency is the key. It takes months of work to see any major changes in the mirror, and it takes years to see how fit you can really get. This is why developing good habits is a major element of long-term fitness success. Motivation comes and goes, and often without rhyme or reason, but habits can endure. You're far more...

Optimists say that with enough hard work, patience, and the right nutrition, you can get as big and strong as you want. That there really is no hard ceiling on your potential for whole-body strength and muscularity. To support this rosy outlook, these people often point to top-level bodybuilders and elite college athletes who claim to have never used steroids. I’ve written and spoken about this ex...

I want to do some posts specifically for women, starting with a question I get asked often: how do you get rid of cellulite naturally and safely? Ironically, cellulite was once respected as an attractive symbol of wealth. It meant you could eat rich foods and didn’t have to physically labor. Well, these days almost all women have cellulite to one degree or another, and it’s generally considered a...

If you can’t recover from your workouts properly, you’re going to have a hard time. You won’t be able to lift as much weight, progress on your lifts and get stronger as quickly, and you won’t enjoy your workouts, reducing the likelihood that you’ll stick to your routine over the long term. Muscle recovery supplements can get you back in the gym faster and allow you to train harder, speeding up you...

If you’re a veteran gymgoer, you probably know what it’s like to feel fatigued. You’re drained, achy, and lethargic. The weights feel oppressively heavy. You’d rather go home and take a nap than train. Look around online for an answer as to what causes this, and one of the first explanations you’ll likely find is something called central nervous system (CNS) fatigue, aka “neural fatigue.” The reas...

“Can you recommend a book for…?” “What are you reading right now?” “What are your favorite books?” I get asked those types of questions a lot and, as an avid reader and all-around bibliophile, I’m always happy to oblige. I also like to encourage people to read as much as possible because knowledge benefits you much like compound interest. The more you learn, the more you know; the more you know, t...

Almost every day, I’m asked about the hugely popular ketogenic diet. I’ve written about it some time ago and more recently had Dr. Eric Helms here on the podcast to talk about it in the context of lean bulking, but as keto has become THE next “it diet” and science is always moving forward, I figured it’s high time to address it again. That’s why I invited Dr. Brad Dieter on the podcast to discuss...

Gluten-free is still going strong these days. According to Google Trends, it’s just about as popular now as it was at its peak six years ago, and gluten-free foods still pack the shelves of grocery stores, coffee shops, bakeries, and the like. In other words, gluten-free dieting is no longer just a buzzword among bloggers, paleo fanatics, and health gurus. It’s become a bonafide mainstream diet fa...

I’ve churned through over 150,000 emails, social media comments and messages, and blog comments in the last 6 years. And that means I’ve fielded a ton of questions. As you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others, and I thought it might be helpful to take a little time every month to choose a few and record and share my answers. So, in this round, I answer the following four quest...

How often do you hear sympathies these days for the “downtrodden, exploited, and underpaid” common folk, along with harsh, condemning words for those people with any measure of financial success? Well, it’s very true that there are criminals operating in the largest corporations, the highest levels of Wall Street, and our government that make the robber barons of the past look like noble saviors,...

In this episode, I interview Fred, who used my work to help radically transform his life and literally save his life. Fred originally got in touch through one of my Live Q&As on Instagram, and after hearing his story, I decided he’d make a great guest. Why? Before finding my work, Fred was 415 pounds, and dying. That sounds dramatic, but the truth is he had a heart attack, his kidneys were fai...

Fat was practically falling off your body just a few weeks ago, and now you're wondering if your scale is broken because no matter what you do, your weight won't budge. What gives? Why did your routine suddenly stop working, and what can you do to push through this weight loss plateau? Listen to this podcast to find out. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat fa...

Aside from the basic military diet meal plan and eating schedule (which we’ll go over in a moment), there’s no official military diet and the recommendations and rules vary based on who you ask. Furthermore, there’s no fitness guru claiming credit for the military diet. There’s no diet book promoting its eating principles. There’s no official website on the diet and the main argument thrown around...

Take this supplement and you’ll be able to train harder. Train harder and you’ll gain more muscle and strength. Gain more muscle and strength and you’ll get the body you want faster. The pitch sounds alluring … and familiar … right? It’s how pre-workout supplements (among others) are sold, of course. And these days, many of the most popular pre-workout supplements contain beta-alanine and spotligh...

There has been a lot of grumbling about genetically modified foods over the last decade or so, and many of the claims are alarming enough to scare your pucker shut. These foods are POISONOUS, some people say, and increase your risk of all kinds of disease and dysfunction. At some point, they prophesy, we'll look back on GMOs like we do fluoroscopes, lobotomies, and DDT. Hogwash, the other camp pro...

News flash: us Westerners aren’t exactly paragons of health and wellness. While it’s easy to blame our bloated body fat percentages and sedentary living on many different external factors, the reality is that much of what’s ailing us collectively has stemmed from the compounding effects of bad habits that began in childhood. And these trends aren’t getting any better. Kids these days are less acti...