Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews

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...

Salt has been with us for thousands of years. The Egyptians used it in religious rituals and trade. The Greeks bought slaves with it. The Romans paid their soldiers with it (hence the word “salary”). European plutocracies ran on salt, Confederate troops suffered for want of it, and these days, it can be found in pantries everywhere. Salt was once a precious resource and now it’s a humdrum condimen...

Most people are preoccupied with trying to lose weight, but here’s something they don’t know: It’s only the first step to getting the body they really want. Because once you’ve lost the weight, you have to keep it off, and that can be just hard, if not harder.  That’s why research shows that dieting simply doesn’t work for most people. Sure, they can step into the breach and lose weight, but many...

Why can some people do things so much better than others? There’s a question us humans have been wondering about for a very long time. Many believe it’s due to extraordinary amounts of innate talent--that nature ultimately dictates who can do what and how well they can do it, and that our strengths and weaknesses are more or less immutable. On the other hand, some people say that talent has very l...

Drinking enough water every day is like flossing. It’s one of those “annoying” little habits that’s hard to embrace but pays big dividends. “Wait…is flossing really that important?” you ask? Surprisingly, yes. Research shows that periodontal disease subjects the body to high levels of bacterial exposure, which increases the risk of heart disease. Studies also show a strong association in the elder...

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...

What determines the true limits of our physical performance? It it mostly hard-wired physiological factors that can’t be changed, or is it more nuanced than that? What about psychological factors? How much does the “inner game” affect the “outer game,” and how much is this under our control? People have been searching for answers to these types of questions for decades now, and new research has pr...

Losing weight fast is really easy. Eat as little food and do as much cardio as you can for the next month or two, and you’ll lose weight fast. I promise. You might be disappointed in the end, though, even if you can suffer through it. Why? Because while the scale will proclaim a victory, the mirror will disagree. You may not look as fat as before, but you’re going to look more skinny fat, and that...

The fitness industry is extremely tough to navigate as a beginner because of the sheer amount of “gurus” proclaiming they have the “secrets” to getting ripped. If you hit the popular fitness sites, you’ll find contradictory advice at every turn. -Some people say you have to eat bland “clean” foods to get ripped, while others will say you can do it eating junk food. -Some say you should focus on hi...

Imagine if you could fall asleep easily and quickly. Imagine if you slept deeper and didn’t wake up several times per night. Imagine waking up feeling rested, restored, and rejuvenated. Well, this isn’t supposed to be a fantasy. In fact, it’s how your body is programmed to work. Unfortunately, though, we can screw this programming up through simple, innocent mistakes. Many people making these mist...

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...

Today I talk with Steve Magness, an elite-level runner, running coach, exercise physiologist, and author. His latest book, Peak Performance, is a detailed and practical overview of the science of optimizing your mental and physical performance, and in this interview, we discuss some of the key takeaways from the book, including how to use stress and recovery to stimulate progress and growth, how t...

I’m not sure any of us can say why, but having abs is cool. They’re sexy, something to be proud of. To show off, even. They’re the fitness equivalent of “having arrived.” That’s probably why many people start working out with the sole purpose of getting a six pack. And then the confusion begins. Diet after diet, workout after workout, supplement after supplement, all claiming to be the key to gett...

In this episode I interview Jared, who recently completed my 90 day coaching program, which helped him lose 23 pounds, 6% body fat, and 5 inches off his waist while also gaining a significant amount of strength on all of his major lifts. Even more impressive is the fact that he did this at 42 years old with a family and a full-time job, and in this interview, he’s going to walk us through his jour...

Bulking is a controversial topic. Some say it’s the only way to gain muscle effectively, and others say it’s a relic of the Dark Ages bodybuilding. “You gotta eat big to get big,” the former say. “No,” the latter reply, “you just have to eat right.” That is, traditional bulking maintains that, to achieve maximum muscle growth, you should do whatever it takes to cram down thousands of calories per...

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...

Pre JYM is one of the most highly rated pre-workout supplements on the market today, and it’s no surprise why. It boasts a long list of active ingredients, it contains no proprietary blends, and its formulation appears to be backed by sound scientific research. It’s also quite similar to my pre-workout Pulse because both contain citrulline malate, betaine, and beta-alanine, so many people wonder h...

If you ask the average gymgoer what single physical factor most affects muscle growth and fat loss, they would probably answer “testosterone levels.” And they’re right. Testosterone is certainly a primary hormonal driver of muscle growth. Research has shown that anabolic steroids, which drastically raise testosterone levels, given to even young, healthy men can induce muscle growth and fat loss wi...

Blood flow restriction training is making waves of late. It sounds new. It sounds scientific. And some are saying it’s revolutionary. Well, it also smacks of artifice. Like it was contrived by marketers to sell the latest round of magazines, pills, and powders. And so if you’ve been skeptical, good. You should be. You see, the more time you spend educating yourself in the ways of muscle building,...

If you dread the idea of “dieting,” I understand. Most diets feel more like punishment than self improvement. Instead of educating you on how the metabolism truly works and giving you the tools you need to manage it effectively, most diet “gurus” resort to fearmongering and food restriction instead. If you want to lose fat or build “lean muscle,” they say, you can kiss just about everything you li...

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 ever wondered what a day in the shoes of yours truly is like, and how I generally think about and approach my work and life on the whole...then you’re in for a serious disappointment because it’s probably not nearly as glamorous as you might think. Seriously though, this episode is actually an interview that I did with Dan Bradbury for his podcast, which is called The Business Growth Pod...

Here’s an involable truth of nutrition science: If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. And the more calories you eat, the more weight you’ll gain, and the more of that weight is going to be fat. That begs the question, though. Is there a limit to how much fat you can gain in, say, a single day? Can 24 hours of uninhibited gluttony really lead to several pounds of fat gain, as...

In this episode, I interview my buddy Adam from the Mind Pump team to talk about, well, things. Life things. Business things. Personal things. All kinds of things that I hope you, dear listener, find interesting. This interview is a departure from my normal routine of drilling deep down into one topic, because Adam and I go all over the place and share some of the hard lessons we’ve learned growin...

Once upon a time, I was stuck in a rut. Despite training 5 to 6 days per week, my weight wouldn’t budge…I couldn’t get stronger…and I hadn’t built any muscle to speak of in years. What is an aspiring little “shredder” to do? Well, I consulted the prestigious annals of broscience and quickly found the answer: Eat more protein. A metric f$%# ton, to be exact.   And so the great protein gluttony bega...