Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

In the early 1960s, a scientist named Ancel Keys was puzzling over a question: Why were rich, middle-aged businessmen in Minnesota more likely to die of heart disease than poor villagers in Italy? Up to this point, most scientists considered heart disease to be part and parcel of the aging process—a result of your decaying DNA rather than your diet or exercise habits. But then there were these rem...

As a general rule of thumb there are two reasons people take gut health supplements: 1. They have been told that to be optimally healthy you need to maintain a healthy gut. 2. Something just hurts and doesn’t work properly and they’d rather it was normal. A theoretical and more long-term reason that you put your faith into, and a super simple “as long as it makes me feel better and makes the washr...

Recently, Jordan Syatt lost 6 pounds in a month. Ho-hum, so what. Well, the twist is he did it eating a Bic Mac every day, which is also completely ho-hum if you understand energy balance, but many people don’t or don’t want to and, well, many discussions ensued after word got around. Some people refused to believe the results, others denounced the experiment as irresponsible, and others still tri...

As you might know, I’m the founder of a supplement company called Legion, and it has gone pretty well so far. In just six years, Legion has grown into an Inc 5000 company with 8 figures in annual sales and close to 200,000 customers served and much more to come. Thus, I’m often asked about how it all started, what the supplement industry is like “on the inside,” and what advice I can share to othe...

If you can’t endure discomfort, you’re not going to make it very far in your training, not to mention your life. Lifting weights is hard. Doing HIIT is hard. Stick to a diet is hard. Learning valuable skills is hard. Burning the midnight oil at work is hard. Overcoming setbacks is hard. What’s more, willpower and motivation are notoriously fickle, and when they’re at a low ebb due to poor sleep, s...

The first few weeks after starting a diet are usually smooth sailing. You aren’t that hungry, your energy levels are good, and you’re still adding weight in the gym. Then, often at about the four to eight-week mark, the gears begin to grind to a halt. You feel more hungry before meals and less satisfied after. Your energy levels drop and it becomes increasingly hard to add weight to your compound...

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’...

Have you ever stopped losing weight despite “doing everything right” with your diet? Have you ever struggled to gain weight no matter what you ate? Have you ever wondered why some people can stay lean eating sugar and junk food regularly? Well, the principles of energy balance answer these mysteries and more. They’re the fundamental laws that dictate how your body weight changes over time, and the...

Winstrol is one of the most famous steroids of all time, mainly thanks to a man named Ben Johnson. In 1988, Johnson was the reigning world champion in the 100-meter dash, widely considered the most prestigious of all track and field events. He had set a world record a year before, beating Carl Lewis with a time of 9.83 seconds. He was instantly propelled to world fame, reportedly making almost $50...

This is part two of my interview with Maariana, who used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to gain over 20 pounds of muscle, fit into her college clothes again, and even improve her career as an opera singer. In case you missed the first part interview, it ended with Maariana revealing that she was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after starting Bigger Leaner Stronger. I couldn’t end the discu...

Organic food is big business these days. Here in the US, it raked in about 50 billion dollars last year alone, and that number is projected to exceed 135 billion by 2025. What does “organic” really mean, though? And is it worth it? Are you really improving your health by eating organic food, or is it just a marketing ploy to exploit the common belief that if something is more “natural,” it’s autom...

In this episode, I interview Maariana, who used my Bigger Leaner Stronger program to radically transform not only her physique, but also her career and life. Before finding her way to me and my work through her boyfriend, she had fallen into just about every health and fitness trap out there—excessive cardio, very lightweight lifting, inadequate protein intake, and on and on. Despite working at it...

“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...

“Lose fat by drinking fat!” “Turn on the fat-burning power of ketosis with the flip of a switch!” “Supercharge your brain with this super-oil!” These are just a few of the many reasons MCT oil peddlers say you should give them your money (and a lot of it—this stuff ain’t cheap). In fact, according to many of these self-styled gurus and “biohackers,” MCT oil is one of the most effective supplements...

“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! Want to g...

There are two very different philosophies of dieting. One revolves around planning or counting/tracking the calories and macros of everything that you eat. The IIFYM Diet is a good example of this method. The other eschews numbers and opts for rules about how, what, and when you should eat, instead. All forms of dieting that agitate for one form of “clean eating” or another fit into this category,...

If you’re new to working out or weightlifting in general, the world of bodybuilding can be intimidating, confusing, and contradictory. Maybe you’re getting mixed signals about how much muscle you can gain or how lean you can get. Maybe you’re struggling with the terminology of sets, reps, mesocycles, cutting, bulking, and so forth. Maybe you’re unsure of exactly what you should be doing in your wo...

These days, there are a variety of companies offering DNA testing so you can learn about your genealogy, origins, and genetic makeup. Chances are you’ve already used one of them, like 23andMe or Ancestry.com. There’s even more you can do with these services, though. Poke around online and you’ll find quite a few self-styled experts who are eager to review your raw DNA data and provide you with ver...

If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you’ve heard me talk about many things related to training. I’ve covered how to squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, break through plateaus, utilize different rep ranges, deload, and on and on. Something I haven’t talked about before, though, is kettlebell training. This isn’t because I think it’s without merit, though—it’s simply an unintenti...

If you’re like most people, you don’t just want “big muscles”--you want defined muscles. For example, if you’re a guy, would you rather be big and “fluffy,” or smaller but ripped? And if you’re a gal, would you rather be skin and bones or lean and toned? Well, if you chose the second option, then you’re in the right place, because in this podcast, I’m going to teach you the simple science of not j...

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...

Tom Brady’s diet has become something of an obsession for many Americans. Since the publication of his 2017 health and wellness book, The TB12 Method, “Touchdown Tom’s” eating habits have gone mainstream in a major way. Every major media outlet has weighed in multiple times and you can even find “I tried Tom Brady’s diet and here’s what happened” videos online. And unlike many fly-by-night celebri...

In this episode, I interview Tom, who found me on Youtube and used my teachings to completely change his body and life. When he first started working out, he didn’t know what he was doing with his training or diet and after a spurt of newbie gains, fell into a rut. He was also dealing with debilitating sciatica that sometimes had him crawling to the bathroom in the middle of the night and asking h...

For many people, ibuprofen, naproxen, and acetaminophen are godsends. Whenever they feel a niggling ache or pain, they pop a pill and feel right as rain. Elbow pain from benching? No problem. Knee pain from squatting? Nothing a few pills can’t fix. Shoulder pain from overhead press? Not today. Have a bad case of DOMS? NBD, man. Take a few pills, and you’ll be able to push through workouts that mig...

If you’re new to proper weightlifting, you have much to look forward to.  You’re taking your first steps in a journey that can transform not only your body but your entire life.  With every bit of muscle and strength you gain, you’re going to look a little better, feel a little better, and thrill a little more at the prospect of what else you might be able to achieve.  You have a special advantage...