Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

You want to build muscle. You want to get strong. And you want to do these things as quickly and effectively as possible. What exercises should you do and why? Ask different people and you’ll get different answers. Some will say that compound exercises are all you need. They train every muscle in your body and are “highly functional” to boot. Others will say compound exercises are overrated or eve...

This episode is part of a weekly 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: Every Monday morning, 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’s o...

If you’ve spent any amount of time pushing or pulling heavy things, you’ve probably experienced elbow pain. Maybe it only flares up when you’re doing heavy compound exercises, like the bench press, military press, or barbell row. Or, maybe it only happens when you’re doing isolation exercises like curls, triceps extensions, or skullcrushers. Or maybe it comes and goes with no rhyme or reason. Rega...

“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 and MFL HQ. So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately. Enjoy! W...

In this episode I interview Rachel, who recently completed my 90-day coaching service and dropped 15 pounds and 6% body fat, while getting stronger on all of her key lifts. Before finding me and my work, Rachel didn’t look unhealthy, overweight, or feeble, but that’s how she felt. Like many women, she was an avid runner who avoided weightlifting because she thought it would make her look “bulky” a...

My years in the fitness racket have taught me many things about people, and one of them is that binge eating is far more common than I previously realized. In many cases, it’s prompted by extreme forms calorie restriction like water fasting, detox diets, and the like, and in others, it’s the result of bad eating habits developed on the way to becoming overweight. Binge eating isn’t just a problem...

For years, milk has been touted as one of the healthiest foods you can eat.  It’s packed full of protein, calcium, and other nutrients, and it’s delicious to boot.  It’s also hugely popular among bodybuilders and people just generally interested in improving their body composition. If you go asking around the gym for the best way to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible, it won’t take lo...

Like it or not, the Bench Press is one of the primary lifts on which your strength is judged. Nothing turns heads faster in the gym than an impressive Bench Press, and it’s the first (and often only) lift people want to know your numbers on. There’s a good reason for this beyond ego, though. The Bench Press is one of the best upper body exercises you can do because, when performed properly, it tra...

The ketogenic diet is all the rage right now. According to many, it’s the single best diet for losing fat, staying lean, and improving health and longevity. It’s not, of course, because there’s no single diet that’s best for accomplishing all of that in everyone all of the time, but the ketogenic diet can work well as a weight loss diet for some people some of the time. That’s how it has mostly be...

The featured book this time around is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. And I know, this recommendation is pretty “basic” of me as stoicism is all the rage these days, but I’m going to make it anyway because I really do believe everyone can benefit from this book and stoic philosophy. I feel that’s especially true in today’s zeitgeist, which is moving further and further away from individualism, res...

Typically, “functional foods” are those that can provide additional health benefits beyond fulfilling basic nutritional needs. For example, fatty, cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines contain omega-3 fats, which can positively impact your health and wellbeing in a number of ways. Colorful fruits and vegetables like broccoli, berries, and Brussels sprouts are another good example. Th...

How can you tell if someone is natty or not? This is a wellspring of controversial fitness gossip, and particularly among men. Some people say that it’s childish, rude, and unnecessary to ask or even wonder if so-and-so is “natty” or not. Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls and all that. Others don’t take issue with the line of discussion but claim there are major problems with the common methods of...

This episode is part of a weekly 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: Every Monday morning, 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’s o...

I’m a big believer in the value of aligning the various parts of our lives toward goals. In fact, I think it’s the only way to resist the forces of entropy that govern the universe and create a life worthy of our ancestors. While spontaneity and short-term thinking certainly have their uses (“what song should I listen to right now?”), I firmly believe the better we can conceive of positive long-te...

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re either experiencing or have experienced the following scenario: You’re dieting to lose weight and are doing everything right. You’re... - Maintaining a calorie deficit - Eating enough protein - Sticking to your meal plan - Lifting weights regularly - Limiting your cardio And at first, everything more or less went as planned. Your weight and wais...

Face fat can be slightly baffling. You can be fairly lean, with decent muscle definition and even a nice set of abs underneath your shirt, and still see double chins in every picture. Why? And what the hell can you do about it? Well, I have good and bad news. Let’s eat the frog first: There are no amount of face stretches or exercises that you can do to slim your mug. Unfortunately, there’s no mag...

I’ve churned through over 100,000 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 and MFL HQ. So here’s a quick hosedown of what me and my jolly band of pirates and bums have been up to lately. Enjoy! W...

In this episode I interview Lyell, who’s 46 years old and used my one-on-one coaching service to completely transform his physique and add 300 pounds to his big compound lifts in just 6 months. In this interview he shares how he found his way to me and my work, including what he had tried previously, how things changed after he started implementing the advice in my books and articles, and how my c...

Back pain is the bane of athletes everywhere. About a third of adults deal with it at some point, and that number is even higher for us fitness folk. To make matters worse, the cause of back pain, and low-back pain in particular, is rarely obvious and notoriously difficult to diagnose. It also often strikes out of nowhere, lingers for a while, and then suddenly vanishes for no apparent reason. Or...

Muscle hypertrophy is a confusing subject. Hell, it’s a confusing word. How do you even say it? (Hi-PUR-trophy). And what does it mean, exactly? (It’s the technical term for muscle growth.) Some people say that the best way to stimulate muscle hypertrophy is to use different rep ranges to develop different kinds of muscle fibers. Some say that there are different kinds of muscle hypertrophy—"myofi...

What is it about six pack abs? Why are so many people so enamored of a rippling stomach? Why is it the epitome of being fit and sexy? Well, I’ll leave those questions to the “fitlosophers” of the world, and instead, answer this one for you: How long does it take to get six pack abs? And I mean a real six pack, not some hazy lines that are halfway visible in perfect, “half natty” lighting. You know...

According to a 2016 article in the New York Times, only 40 authors had sold more than 1 million books on the Kindle store in the previous 5 years. Another survey by Digital Book World found that the vast majority of self-published authors made $1 to $999 per year—with most authors on the lower end of that range. These numbers are a stark reminder of how grateful I should be to have achieved the le...

I've tried a lot of supplements in my 13 years in the gym. Protein supplements, pre-workout supplements, fat loss supplements, and, of course, muscle building supplements. You see, I used to think that supplementation is far more important than it really is. I naively bought into the myth that supplement companies were on the cutting edge of science. That they were in the business of selling legit...

Chances are you’re not a politician, sociopath, or psychopath (*cough* often interchangeable *cough*), so you’re probably not much interested in the arts of obtaining, wielding, and preserving power. Your primary focus is probably producing a better life for yourself and your loved ones and allowing others to do the same. Thus, you might think this book isn’t for you. And you’d be wrong. Your libe...