Ep. #955: Q&A: Daily Supplement Routine, Maintaining Motivation, Chiropractors, and More

Mike: [00:00:00] Hey, I’m Mike Matthews, and this is muscle for life. Thanks for joining me today for another Q and a, where I am going to answer a handful of questions that people asked me over on Instagram. And those questions include things like what was wrong with my shoulder and how did I fix it? If you are having any shoulder issues, this is a really simple tip that might help you.

And if you are not having shoulder issues, Can help you continue to not have shoulder issues. I also answer a question about how many of my own supplements do I take every day? What does my supplement stack look like? How long does it take to go from skinny to jacked? What are my thoughts on Elon Musk?

Trying to buy Twitter is low intensity cardio, better than high intensity interval training for losing weight. My thoughts on carnivore and carnivore MD and. Before we sink our teeth into it. [00:01:00] How many calories should you eat to reach your fitness goals? Faster. What about your macros? What types of food should you eat and how many meals should you eat every day?

Well, I created a free 62nd diet quiz. That’ll answer those questions for you and others, including how much alcohol you should drink, whether you should eat more fatty fish to get enough omega-3 fatty acids. What supplements are worth taking and why and more to take the quiz and get your free personalized diet plan.

Go to muscle for. Dot show slash diet quiz, muscle F or life.show/diet quiz. Now answer the questions and learn what you need to do in the kitchen to lose fat build muscle and get healthy. Brandon 8 8 1 0 1 4. Let’s go, Brandon. He asks what’s wrong with my shoulder. And how did I fix it? Well, a couple of months [00:02:00] ago, my biceps tendon was starting to bother me in the BI groove on my.

Right side. And I would notice it most when I was bench pressing. And I know from working with a physical therapist many years ago, that what happens in my body is on my right side. My LA my subscapularis, my inverse will get. Tight. And eventually that causes pain in the BI groove. Eventually those tissues are not moving the way that they should.

And then when I do certain exercises, it slowly but surely aggravates my biceps tendon, and I work with a PT previously and to resolve that we had to get those tissues moving. Basically was stretching and massage, a combination of stretching and deep, painful massage, and going forward. I have worked on and off with [00:03:00] massage therapists basically to do the same, but I still would run into this issue from time to time.

And the fix that I implemented months ago now, and has continued to work is simply. Hangs. And I learned about this from an orthopedic surgeon. I believe his last name is KSH. He was an orthopedic surgeon for 30 years or so he wrote a book on this and I learned it from his work. I don’t know him personally.

And KSH swore by the power of dead hangs and the importance of doing dead hangs regularly. If you use your shoulders a lot. So particularly athletes, right? Think baseball players, something would be really good for all baseball players to do, but also for those of us who are just in the gym doing a fair amount of pressing.

And so what I started to do was for sets of 30 to second dead hangs. So [00:04:00] just think of a. Pull up grip. So palms facing away, that’s important. You wouldn’t wanna do this palms facing you, you do it palms facing away. And I just would hang there and really feel that stretch in my lats. And I would feel it also in my subscapularis and I would just do that.

30 to 60 seconds. As my grip got a little bit stronger, I found that 45 to 60 seconds was pretty easy in the beginning 30 to 45 seconds or so. And I would do that just in between weightlifting sets. So in between working sets of my workouts, I would just go hang for, you know, whatever, 30 to 45 or 60 seconds, and then rest another minute or two and do my next working set in my.

And I would do that five to seven days per week and within three weeks or so I went from, I would say when bench pressing probably a seven out of 10 pain in my BI groove area on my right side. So that’s where I [00:05:00] started the. Three weeks later, it was probably a two out of 10. So just a little bit uncomfortable.

And that was months ago and I’ve been training pretty heavy, like today on my flat bench, I did 2 45 for five and I could have definitely gotten one more, probably not two. That fifth rep was a little bit of a grinder and I could have probably grinded through one more, but I don’t think. And so for me, you know, I weigh about 195 pounds.

That’s pretty heavy for me. I have been stronger in the past, but my strongest on flat bench was 2 95 for three. I think I got two or three and I was probably 2 0 5. And that was also like 10 years ago. I was younger, sleeping better and all around, just a little bit stronger. And so my point though, is.

That 2 45 for five felt good today. I felt a little bit of discomfort in my bicep groove in that biceps tendon, but it wasn’t even to the point of pain. It was just something that I noticed. And on some days I don’t [00:06:00] notice it at all. And so now I’m sold on the hanging. It’s just something that I will do indefinitely.

And I would recommend if you are running into any shoulder issues, especially any sort of impingement issues, when you are trying to. Bring your arm overhead, then try the dead hangs. And if you are not having shoulder issues, you might still want to do these again. Just do like four sets, do it in between your working sets and your workouts to keep your shoulders pain free and functional.

Okay. F or Bina O asks, how many of your supplements do you take daily? I take. A lot. I take all of the health supplements. So my daily Legion routine is two scoops of plant plus, which currently I am having zero scoops per day of, because I ran out of stock of it, even my own personal stock. . If you are anxiously awaiting plant pluses [00:07:00] return, I am with you.

And what happened there by the way, is sales took off. They just far outpaced what we forecasted and with lead times what they are right now, production lead times four to six months in general. So when I place an order for something, I don’t see it leaving. My manufacturer for four to six months. And so we have to do our best forecasting sales and forecasting demand.

So then we can determine how much of each, not just even individual product, but individual skew. So individual flavor, we need to order blah, blah, blah. And with plant plus it was cruising along at a certain. Amount of sales. I don’t even remember what the number is off the top of my head, but it was slowly growing as it was gaining popularity the new formulation that we were released.

And then out of nowhere, that number doubled, which was great to see, we started selling twice as much of plant plus, as we normally did or previously [00:08:00] did. And unfortunately, I couldn’t just go to my manufacturer and ask them to make more of it or make it faster because of supply chain issues. I had to run out of stock.

And so anyway, it will be back soon and we will now be working with these new, larger numbers. And we shouldn’t be running out of stock for any extended period of time. Again, unless again, it. Randomly doubles in volume. Anyway. So coming back to my daily lesion routine, two scoops of plant plus normally one scoop of way, plus, and I like to mix one scoop of the way and one scoop of the plant, like the mix them together.

So I’ll have one scoop of plant plus by itself. And then at some other point in the day, I will have one scoop of plant plus mixed with one scoop of way. I also have a serving of triumph every. That’s my multivitamin Genesis. My greens supplement ascend my neutropic balance. My gut supplement fortify, my joint supplement vitality, my vitality [00:09:00] energy hormone, not hormone booster but it does have D H E a, which can help optimize hormones in older.

Peoples, and I’m 38. So I’m not sure if it has an effect yet, but research shows that D H E a does positively influence hormones in people in their forties and beyond. So maybe I’m a little bit ahead of the curve, but that’s okay. And I also take my immune supplement, which is simply called immune every day, because it not only can help you recover faster if you do get sick, but it also can.

You not get sick in the first place. And lastly, I have two servings of trite and every day, because I do like to have a larger amount of omega threes than is required simply to maintain sufficiency, to maintain basic health needs. If you take a bit more, you might notice that your joints hurt less, and this has been shown in research and it also can help with postworkout.[00:10:00] 

Okay. Hello. Johnny asks how many years to go from skinny to Jack simple answer. Fast answer to this one, four to six years for most people. That’s what it takes consistent. Correct? Eating and training. Not perfect, but just consistent and mostly right. Most of the time I, Jake Ryan asks thoughts on Ilan buying Twitter.

So this question was asked before the lawsuits started flying by the way, but my answer at the time and still is if it does. Happen. I think it’s delicious. That means an African immigrant will own the largest salt mine in the world. And ditto heads everywhere will have to learn that while they can ignore reality.

They can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality. Jeff Palm asks, what is your favorite razor for shaving? Well, I use a Phillips electric razor on my face. I don’t [00:11:00] know the model, nothing special, something I bought on Amazon for I think under a hundred dollars. And then I use the manscaped mower thing on my chest and my stomach and my tiddly bits, which isn’t as clean as a razor of course, but good enough.

My wife doesn’t complain. So that’s enough for me. Linda SEP asks, what would you say is the best way to keep motivation while on a weight loss journey? Well, I would recommend that you focus more on establishing the right mindset. And the right habits and the right lifestyle, because that is what not only gets you to your goal, but also ensures that you can maintain your goal, your ideal body composition once you get there.

Because when you’re finally done cutting. You are doing it right when you don’t really need to make any major changes to your diet or your lifestyle, you simply [00:12:00] eat a bit more of what you’ve been eating, or maybe you include one or two new things in your meal plan, new foods that you have wanted to eat, but just didn’t quite fit your calories and macro.

I also think it’s especially important to approach weight loss that way when you have a lot of weight to lose, because while you will start seeing results immediately on the scale, it’s going to be a bit until you really start to see big visual changes, which are very motivating, but are much less motivating.

If you know it is going to take many months to see your first. Visual change. And so in the meantime, then it is, I think, more effective, certainly more motivating to focus. This is more in the beginning to focus again on building the right mindset, building the right habits, building the right lifestyle, becoming the type of person who does the most important things in the [00:13:00] kitchen and in the gym mostly right.

Most of the time, because once you become that person, your. Results aren’t guaranteed. It is only a matter of time until you start seeing those big visual changes and then motivation really starts to just take care of itself. Okay. Liz Foley, 31 20 asks is li so low intensity steady state cardio better than.

Hit high intensity interval training for losing weight. Well, strictly speaking hit is better for losing weight because it burns more calories per unit of time. So if you do one hour of cardio per week and it is hit, you are going to. Burn more fat in those workouts than if it is LIS. But the problem with hit is it’s harder to recover from.

It can be very hard to recover from if it’s also high impact like sprinting around. Maybe it’s just running sprints outside on a hard [00:14:00] surface or playing a sport that involves sprinting around on a hard surface, like maybe tennis. And so my general recommendation for hit is. Do something with little or no impact.

Biking is great. Swimming is great. And also limit yourself to no more than one hour of hit per week. You can do more cardio than that, but limit your hit to one hour per week. Luke M 81 asks thoughts on carnivore MD. Unfortunately the carnivore. Is a great elimination diet. It can work really well. If you are having some very thorny problems with food and you don’t know what foods are causing it, and you need to strip your diet down to the absolute bear.

Necessities and to build it back up from there that is elimination dieting, and that is a good evidence based method to find food intolerances and to find foods that don’t upset your stomach or [00:15:00] cause you problems. But otherwise, The Corvo diet is silly. I mean, the point of an elimination diet is to start from scratch and start building back up to a balanced and nutritious diet.

You’re not supposed to stick with the eliminated diet forever, and that is the Corvo diet. A. And extremely eliminated, extremely restricted diet. And if you want to hear all of my thoughts about the carnivore diet and hear, I guess, an evidence based argument against it, head over to Legion athletics.com and search for carnivore, and you’ll find.

An article I wrote on it and I also recorded a podcast as well. Okay. I have another question here from Luke M 81. And he asks, is it normal to be more sore after and fatigued during workouts in a cut? Yes, that can definitely happen. Most people will notice it after maybe their first four to six weeks.

Cutting. And if it [00:16:00] gets to be a bit much, if the soreness and the fatigue gets to be a bit excessive, reduce the volume in your training, you don’t have to reduce the intensity. You don’t have to reduce the load. You don’t have to stop lifting heavy weights. You want to reduce the volume. And I would recommend reducing it by maybe 20 to 25% and then seeing how that goes and a very easy way to reduce volume by the.

Is to just take your training your programming. However, it is too sore, too fatigued, and just reduce the number of hard sets that you do per major muscle group per week by 22, 20 5%. So in my workouts, I’m always doing these days, four hard sets per exercise, whatever exercises I’m doing, I’m going to be doing four hard sets.

So I would just make that three hard sets per exercise and see how it. Rucha Patel asks 10 K steps a day every day. What’s your thoughts on it? There’s nothing particularly special. About 10,000 steps. It has its roots in marketing after [00:17:00] all, not science, but I do like it because it encourages daily movement and it encourages a fair amount of daily movement.

So I like it. Go for it. Sparks fitness asks. Are you still trying to learn German? No, I have not been working on learning German for some time now, because what happened is I reached a point where I was going to need to put in at least an hour of dedicated study per day to continue making meaningful progress.

And I actually. To do that. I thought it would be fun. I did enjoy learning the language. However, I did not think it would be a very smart use of time right now, considering all of the other things that I need to do. And so I tabled it and I do plan on picking it back up in the future, but it’s going to have to be at a time when I am ready to give it the.

That it needs. And I had to kind of do it for a bit to [00:18:00] understand that I got to a point where my vocabulary was coming along two or 3000 words probably. And I built that through flashcards and that was very easy to work into my normal daily routine. I was doing them while I was resting in between sets at the gym, for example.

And I also was able to learn a bit of the grammar of the language also through flashcards. And then I started to study a grammar textbook and that was helping out. But again, that system was no longer robust enough for me to continue making noticeable progress. The JBS family asks is chiropractic worth it for Jim goers.

How often? Well, it’s not. Vital, but I personally do like to see a good chiropractor every few months or so I would say on average, maybe every 4, 5, 6 months, because a good chiropractor will quickly identify [00:19:00] a problem area without me guiding them such as a hip or a shoulder. My neck right now could probably actually use an adjustment, feels a.

Jacked up from weight lifting. And then after I get that adjustment, I will notice that the problem area or problem areas will immediately feel better and they will remain better for some time after I get the adjustment. And so, while I do understand there is controversy over the value of chiropractic treatment.

There is evidence of efficacy. You can’t say that the overwhelming weight of the evidence is that it is always worthless. That’s not true. And I personally have experienced benefits from it. Okay. Last question comes from the real sad kins and they ask does intermittent fasting, reduce testosterone levels for active young men.

No. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did [00:20:00] subscribe to the show, because it makes sure that you don’t miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you.

And if you didn’t like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have. Ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share. Shoot me an email Mike muscle for life.com, muscle F or life.com. And let me know what I could do better or just what your thoughts are about maybe what you’d like to see me do in the future.

I read everything myself. I’m always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode. And I hope to hear from you soon.