Ep. #368: Q&A: My Favorite Snacks, How to Train Abs while Cutting, Correcting Leg Muscle Imbalances, and More . . .

Hello, Michael Matthews here from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics. And welcome to another episode of the Muscle for Life podcast. Now this one is a Q and A, and that means that I am answering questions that people ask. See, I have churned through over a hundred thousand. Emails and emails alone.

Actually, my inbox is probably at 120, 000 ish sent and received. But when you add in social media comments and messages and blog comments, and even book reviews, it is a lot of communications that I’ve gone through over the last six years or so. And that means I have fielded a lot of questions, of course.

And as you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others. And while I do. answer everything. People get answers privately in writing. I thought that it might be helpful to take some time every month and choose a few questions and record answers for everyone to enjoy. So in this round, I answer the following questions which were sent to me from followers, readers, stalkers, who knows.

The first question, is it okay to use a higher rep range for some accessory exercises? Second question, do you have any snack recommendations for cutting? Third question, do you have to train abs while cutting to get a six pack? And the fourth question, how do you fix a muscle imbalance in your quads? So those are the questions I will be answering.

And if you have a question that you would like an answer to, shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife. com and you will get a reply. And if it is a question that many other people tend to ask, I may choose it for the next Q& A. This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in.

So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my hugely popular and 100 percent natural pre workout supplement, Pulse. It has sold over 250, 000 bottles in the last several years, and it increases energy, improves mood, sharpens mental focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue without the unwanted side effects that you probably experience with many other pre workouts or the dreaded post workout crash.

It’s also naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary ingredients. And all of that is why Pulse has over 3, 100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average and another 500 plus reviews on my website. Also with a four and a half star rating.

So if you want to feel focused, tireless, and powerful in your workouts, and if you want to say goodbye to the pre workout jitters, upset stomachs, and crashes for good, then you want to head over to www. legionathletics. com and pick up a bottle of Pulse today. And if you’re not sure which flavor to get, I highly recommend Blue Raspberry.

It’s my personal favorite. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10 percent on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back period.

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And if for whatever reason, they’re just not for you contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty. That is enough shameless plugging for now. At least let’s get to the show.

Hey, Mike Matthews here from muscle for life. And. Legion athletics and welcome to another video podcast. This time around, I’m going to do a Q and a, so I’m going to be answering questions that people have asked me mostly via email, social media, and YouTube comments. And the idea here is simple. I have four questions that I’ve chosen and I will do my best to give quick and helpful answers to each of them.

And I plan on doing one of these Q and A’s every month or so. So if you would like me to answer your question in the next one, simply email me at Mike at most for life. com or leave a comment in one of my videos. Or DM me on Instagram or tweet at me or Facebook message me, reach out to me, ask your question.

And chances are, I will get back to you if it’s email, almost certainly because I have the best system for staying on top of my email. And I would say if it’s a social media message, almost certainly if it is a comment. On a YouTube video, probably not because those are the most neglected out of everything.

Okay. So let’s get to the first question, which is from a reader of my book, bigger, leaner, stronger, who is following the advice in the book and working in the four to six rep range or with about 80 to 85 percent of his one rep max on most of his lifts. But is asking if it’s okay to work in a higher rep range on some of his accessory stuff because he finds that working with heavier weights on those exercises makes it tough to maintain good form.

And the answer is absolutely. You absolutely can work in a higher rep range on any exercise. Really, but I do recommend that you focus on the four to six rep range for your compound lifts. And if you are relatively new to proper weightlifting, and that’s really who I wrote bigger, leaner, stronger for. I didn’t write that for intermediate or advanced weightlifters.

It’s really for people who are new to proper weightlifting. I recommend that you work exclusively in the four to six rep range on your compound lifts, at least for the first year to year and a half. Now, as far as your accessory exercises go, you can also work on the four to six rep range on those exercises.

However, you might find that certain ones like shoulder raises, for example, are quite difficult in that rep range, especially if you are a New weightlifter. What you’ll find is what the person who wrote me found your form breaks down. And in that case, yes, you can absolutely move up to I would say the six to eight rep range is my standard recommendation.

And I actually addressed this point specifically in the new third edition of bigger, leaner, stronger, which is coming out soon. It’s going to be Q1 of 2019. Digitals eBooks and audio book or the eBook and audio book is going to be first followed by the hard copies. So I would recommend bumping up to the six to eight rep range in the case of accessory exercises that do not lend themselves well to the four to six rep range.

That said, if you have no issue with the four to six rep range on your accessory exercises, there’s nothing wrong with doing that and not periodizing, not working in other rep ranges into your training routine. Periodization does have a place in the training. weightlifting routines, but it is more suited to intermediate and advanced weightlifters.

It is really not necessary for beginners. And just a quick note, if you are going to be periodizing, if you are going to be working in higher rep ranges on some accessory exercises, make sure that you still work to progressively overload on those exercises, that you still use the same progression model, the Double progression model that I share in the book.

All the rules are the same. It’s just, you are working in a different rep range. That’s all. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well.

Please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle4LifeFitness, Twitter at Muscle4Life, and Facebook at Muscle4LifeFitness. Okay, so the next question is if I have any snack recommendations for cutting.

And my first piece of advice here is to minimize snacking when you are cutting because it is the easiest way to accidentally overeat. This is especially true when the snacking isn’t controlled, meaning these aren’t planned meals. You are not weighing or measuring the amount of food that you’re eating.

You’re just eating things in your environment here and there in between your larger meals. And the problem here is it doesn’t take all that much snacking or all that much mindless eating, so to speak, to more or less erase your calorie deficit for the day. If those calories aren’t accounted for in your meal plan or aren’t being tracked via an app or however you are ensuring that your calorie intake is lower than your calorie output.

And so the smart way to snack while cutting really, I’d say in general, but specifically while cutting is to plan those snacks as. meals. So what I do, for example, when I’m cutting is I wake up early, I wake up at about five 30 or six o’clock and then I go in my infrared sauna and I read for a bit. And then before I train, I will usually have some caffeine.

So I’ll have some of my pre workout pulse as well as my pre workout fat burner forge which has your him being and HMB and CDP choline. And I used to also have a serving of my fat burner Phoenix, which has sinephrine and other natural ingredients that increase your metabolic rate and your fat burning.

However, the green tea extract in it started to make me nauseous. I used to be not sensitive to it. And for some reason now I am. So I save that for when I have food. So I’m doing my training fasted. That’s why I have the yohimbine. If I were not fasted, it wouldn’t work. I go and I lift. So I’m at the gym, let’s say 715, 730.

I do my workout. I go to the office. I’m there by 845, give or take 10 minutes or so. And then I have my first meal, which is a protein shake. And these days, it would be either two scoops of whey. I just take my own whey plus. It’s just 100 percent whey isolate or a scoop of whey with a scoop of casein. And in this case, it would be my own casein, casein plus.

You can’t go wrong either way. Of course, I just like the combination of whey and casein. I like how it tastes. I like how it feels in my mouth, but you could just do Pure whey, or you could do a vegan protein. You can do whatever you want. Really. The point is, I just like to have about 40 to 50 grams of protein for my breakfast.

Then comes snack time at about 11 o’clock. That’s my first snack. And again, this is on my meal plan and it’s simply an apple. And the reason why is I like apples. They’re delicious. They also have a fair amount of prebiotic fiber and they are very filling, especially for the calories. And then my lunch is about 1230, which is simply a salad with chicken.

And usually the salad is pretty plain because I don’t mind it. And I don’t feel like putting in a lot of time making fancy salads, but it’s going to have some spinach. It’s going to have some red lettuce and green lettuce, some Romaine lettuce some avocado to get some monounsaturated fat in. And I usually use a bit of a light balsamic, like a Newman’s light balsamic.

with Jen, just some balsamic vinegar on top of it to give it a bit more flavor, but keep the calories low. And the reason why I’m keeping the calories though, the reason why I don’t eat very much for breakfast. And as you can see, I don’t eat very much for lunch. And especially when I’m cutting and why my snack is just an apple is I prefer to eat more calories later.

I prefer to eat more calories at dinner, eat them, large dinner because I like How my body I like when I’m not, I’m at work all day. And if I eat smaller meals, I find that I have smoother, steadier energy levels. And I don’t really ever get that kind of weighed down feeling that you get when you eat a lot of calories.

These days, however, I am leaving the office a bit later and therefore eating a bit later and therefore I’m not working after dinner. So I prefer to have that larger meal at dinner when I don’t care if I feel a bit sluggish afterward. Anyway, back to my meal plan. So lunches. 1230 or so. And then my second snack of the day is around three or three 30.

And it’s usually something that is more or less just protein. So it could be a scoop of protein powder. That would be my third scoop of protein powder for the day or a high protein, low fat snack. Lower calorie, lower fat, lower carb yogurt, like skier. That’s my yogurt of choice these days. I like it more than Greek yogurt.

It is Icelandic yogurt. And I believe that the company that I like the most right now that I’ve tried, I don’t like Siggy’s so much. It is, I believe it’s Icelandic. Provisions. And I just like their plain yogurt, which is also very good mixed with some protein powder. And that will usually hold me over until dinner, which is somewhere around seven 30.

And then if I’m going to eat any more after that, it will be some slow burning protein before bed, like a scoop of casein or some more. Yogurt or low fat cottage cheese. That’s another good snack that I like. You put some salt and pepper into it And if you want to put some fruit into it as well It’s a high protein low calorie filling snack.

And so as you can tell my Preference for snacks while cutting and really just in general Is foods that are higher protein and lower calorie Because one, they help me hit my daily protein target and two, they help keep me full and they don’t cause wild fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which can mess with your energy levels and can make you feel tired and give you that, post sugar or post carb crash that many people experience.

I also like fruit and apples in particular for snacks because most fruit is lower on the glycemic index, which has nothing to do with weight loss or really doesn’t have anything to do with health. But many people will find that if they stick to mostly lower GI foods, their energy levels are more stable.

They do feel more alert. They don’t have as big of an afternoon dip as People who load up on carbs and especially high GI carbs around lunchtime. A lot of people that do that. And I know this just firsthand from working with so many people within an hour or so they’re struggling to stay awake.

Another good snack when you are cutting, if your meal plan allows for it, if your macros allow for it is nuts. Nuts are filling. They provide monounsaturated fat, which is a very healthy form of fat. And in some cases, a bit of protein as well. So the types of snacks that I would stay away from are any sort of caloric beverages.

Those are the worst while you’re cutting. It is way too easy to drink way too many calories and not feel full at all from it or feel maybe a little bit full for a little bit. Whereas food is always going to be much more filling simply because volume, the amount of space that is occupied in your stomach directly impacts the feeling of fullness.

I would also recommend that you do not snack on just high GI carbs, stuff like pretzels, chips white bread, candy, stuff like that. Because if you’re like most people, what you’ll find is that while those foods can contain quite a few calories, they are not going to keep you full for very long, which is going to leave you hungry.

Early and you’re gonna have to just suffer through that to wait till the next meal or eat off plan, which can often lead to overeating. Okay, so that’s it for that question. Let’s move on to the next one. Do you have to train abs on a cut? And the answer is no, you don’t necessarily have to train abs at all to have a great core and to know whether you need to or not, you first need to get lean and see what you’re working with, so to speak.

So for guys, I would say get to about 10 percent body fat and see how your core looks. And for women, I would say get to about 20 percent and see how your core looks. There is a chance that if you are doing a lot of heavy compound weightlifting, like I and many others recommend, that your core is going to be highly developed and you really don’t need to do any additional training whatsoever.

That said, you may also find that once you get down to that body fat percentage, your core muscles just look underdeveloped too. And the rectus abdominis muscles in particular, the bulky ab muscles on the front that make up the six pack And having worked with thousands of people over the years, I would say that’s more common than the previous scenario.

It’s more common that people, both men and women, get down to that lower body fat percentage and find that for the look that they want, they need to develop their core muscles a bit more and their rectus abdominis muscles in particular. And that’s really why I recommend that everyone just starts training their core right from the beginning.

It doesn’t take much time to do, six or nine sets of core exercises per week, which is all you need to do in addition to your compound weightlifting. And if you’re like most people, you are probably going to need to do it to get the core that you really want. So I might as well just start right away.

And if you’re one of the Minority for one of the few people who doesn’t need to, who all you really need to do is just get lean and you’d have the exact core that you want. Doing some core training isn’t going to ruin that. In fact, it will probably just make your core look that much better. So to summarize, no, you do not have to train your abs or train your core when you’re cutting and It’s probably not going to do all that much if you’re cutting for a shorter period of time anyway.

So let’s say you’re doing a 10 or 12 week cut, whether you train abs or not during that period probably isn’t going to influence the outcome all that much. However, if you are training your core for longer, a longer period of time, like if we’re talking six months or even 12 months of core training, yeah, you can make a pretty significant visual change in your core in that period of time.

And so really what you want to be thinking with your core is to focus on it and train it regularly until you are happy with the look that you have at, 10%, if you’re a guy or 20%, if you’re a girl. And from there you can continue training your core or not. So these days I don’t do any core exercises.

I’m not doing any core exercises right now. I’m taking that time to train my calves, which. Yeah. Is probably a lost cause, but I refuse to give up on it. They’re growing millimeter by millimeter. I have the most stubborn calves ever. It’s actually impressive. But I’m taking that time to train my calves instead of my core, because I am happy with my overall core development.

And because I do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting, I don’t lose anything. If I don’t directly train my core with cable crunches or leg raises or the various exercises that you’ll find in my books for men and women. Okay, so let’s go to the final question for today’s Q& A, and here it is. He says, my right quad is larger than my left, even though I almost never do single leg exercises.

What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this issue? Now, if muscle imbalances is something you really want to dive into, if you are, you Dealing with some imbalances yourself, or if you want to just know how to best prevent them, you can find a podcast that I recorded on that specifically. I don’t think it was a video podcast.

I think it was just like a long form monologue podcast, but you can find it here on my YouTube channel or in my podcast feed. And I also have an article. On it over at musclefullife. com. So if you go there and search for muscle and balance, you will find the article. I believe the podcast video is embedded in the article as well, but the long story short here is just because you have a muscle imbalance does not mean that you are doing anything wrong.

In fact, it is very common and almost guaranteed that you are going to develop at least one muscle imbalance in a major muscle group over time. And the reason for that is it does not take much in terms of favoring one side of your body over the other on barbell exercises in particular to develop a slight imbalance over time.

And chances are that this is going to happen even if you try to remain conscious of your body. of using both sides of your body equally. For example, I noticed that in my squatting, when it came down to my last few reps, the hard ones, when I was really just trying to focus on giving everything I’ve got to keep the bar moving, I would tend to favor my right side a little bit over my left side over time.

This has made my right quad a little bit more developed than my left quad. It’s noticeable when I’m flexing. And so to address it, I first have really started to pay attention to make sure that I am pressing through the left side of my body as much as the right side. And I actually at first had to even overcompensate what felt like overcompensate to get things more or less equal.

But now it feels pretty balanced and I’m more aware of when I’m starting to favor my right side and I can quickly correct it. And I have also just increased the weekly volume on my left side, but not my right side using the split squat. Good exercise, simple exercise. So I’ll just do a few sets of split squats for my left leg that I do not do for my right.

So my left leg is getting a bit more training every week than my right, which in time will help me. balance out the development. And that of course is the easiest way to address a muscle imbalance. First, make sure that your form is good on the exercises that you’re doing on the bilateral exercises that you’re doing.

So let’s say it’s an arm imbalance, a biceps imbalance. If you’re doing a lot of straight bar bicep curls, that’s fine, but you’re gonna have to make sure that you are not favoring your bigger or stronger side on that exercise. And another tip is simply increasing the volume on the lagging side, and you can do that using a unilateral exercise, a dumbbell exercise in the case of the biceps, of course just be doing some extra biceps curls for your lagging side.

And I should also mention that unilateral exercises where you’re. Limbs move independently are good for not only fixing muscle imbalances, but also preventing them because one side of your body cannot take over and make up for the other side, like what can happen with a barbell exercise. And so including unilateral exercises, dumbbell exercises really in your weightlifting routines is generally a good idea for this reason.

And for others. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility. So And thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any of the new goodies.

Lastly, if you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at Mike. at Musclefullife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.

And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously, though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my hugely popular and 100 percent natural pre workout supplement, Pulse. It has sold over 250, 000 bottles in the last several years, and it increases energy, improves mood, sharpens mental focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue without the unwanted side effects that you probably experience with many other pre workouts or the dreaded post workout crash.

It’s also naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And all of that is why Pulse has over 3, 100 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average and another 500 plus reviews on my website, also with a four and a half star average. So if you want to feel focused, tireless, and powerful in your workouts, and if you want to say goodbye to the pre workout jitters, upset stomachs, and crashes for good, then you want to head over to www.

legionathletics. com and pick up a bottle of Pulse today. And if you’re not sure which flavor to get, I highly recommend Blue Raspberry. It’s my personal favorite. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code PODCAST at checkout and you will save 10 percent on your entire order.

And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don’t have to return the products. You don’t have to fill out forms. You don’t have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans.

So you really can’t lose here. Head over to www. legionathletics. com now. Place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they’re just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.