Ep. #666: The Best of Muscle for Life: Staying Super Lean, How Much Cardio, and the “Self-Made” Myth

Hello and welcome to the latest and greatest episode of Muscle for Life. I’m Mike Matthews and thank you for joining me today. Now, I have recorded hundreds of episodes of Muscle for Life and I’ve. Talked about a huge variety of things related to health, fitness, lifestyle, mindset, ranging from the basics of diet and exercise, like energy and macronutrient, balance and progressive overload, and training frequency and volume to fads like the ketogenic and carnivore diet and collagen protein to more unfamiliar territories like body weight, set point, and fast.

Cardio and some episodes resonate with my crowd more than others, but all of them contain at least a few key takeaways that just about anyone can benefit from. At least that’s what I tell myself. That’s what helps me sit down in the chair every day and do this, and as cool as that is. It poses a problem for you, my dear listener, especially if you are new here, and that is, ain’t nobody got time for that.

We’re talking about probably a thousand plus hours of content at this point. And while some people actually do make the time to listen to most or even. All of my podcasts, my Whizbang analytics tell me that while many listeners tune in on a regular basis, they don’t catch every installment of Muscle for Life unless they miss out on insights that could help them get even just a little bit better inside and outside the gym.

Because if you just get a little bit, Consistently enough that can add up to big results in the long run. And people have also been telling me that they would like me to do more shorter multi topic episodes like my q and As and says You episodes. And so I got an idea. How about a best of series of podcasts that contains a few of the most practical and compelling ideas, tips, and moments.

My most popular episodes going all the way back to the beginning. This way, people who are new in particular can quickly determine if this is the droid they’re looking for, if this podcast is for them or not, and then those who are regulars and enjoy what I’m doing, but just don’t have the time or inclination to listen to.

All of my stuff, and I do understand that I don’t take it personally. , you can also then benefit from the discussions and the episodes that you are not listening to in full, and you can also find new episodes to listen to without having to give an hour of your time to determine whether it was worth it or not.

So, Here we are with the best of Muscle for Life. So in this 10th installment of the Best of Muscle for Life, you will be hearing handpicked muscles from three of the most popular episodes I have recorded. The first one is an interview I did with Mark Perry from built lean.com on how to stay super lean year round without hating your life.

That’s a key point. And that, uh, interview was originally published on July 18th, 2018. In case you wanna go back and listen to the whole thing, and then you’re gonna hear the highlights from a monologue I recorded called How Much Cardio You Should Do and How Much Is Too Much. And that was originally published April 3rd, 2019.

And last is a Motivation Monday episode, a monologue called Beware, the Self-Made Myth. And that was originally published. August 27th, 2018. Also, if you like what I am doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you, is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world.

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But there is good evidence to suggest that having many servings of artificial sweeteners, in particular every day for long periods of time may not be the best for your health. So while you don’t need pills, powders, and potions to get into great shape, and frankly, most of them are virtually useless, there are natural ingredients that can help you lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy faster, and you will find the best of them in legion’s product.

To check out everything we have to offer, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout, post workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. Head over to www.by legion.com, bui legion.com, and just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps. Use the coupon code M F L at checkout and you will save 20%.

On your entire first order. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you wanna see more of it, and if you also want all natural evidence based supplements that work, please do consider supporting Legion so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. Okay, so let’s start with highlights from the first episode featured in this episode.

And that is the interview I did with Mark Perry on how to stay super lean year round without hating your. So let’s get to the specifics. So like, where are you at right now? Um, and, and if you’ve just been, where, if you, have you been in where you are now for, for a period of time? Or have you, have you cut even leaner recently?

And what is, what do those specifics look like in terms of calories, macros, the type of foods that you eat, um, the type of exercise that you do, and, and also how does that work in terms of a social life? Um, you know, eating out parties and so, Absolutely. I mean, those are, it’s a lot of great questions. I think, um, kind of starting with, I’m trying to think like kinda where we start.

I think essentially we have like three kind of categories here. We’ve got exercise, nutrition, lifestyle. I think starting with exercise. Um, I do kind of three full body strength training. Uh, kind of workouts a week. And these workouts tend to, in general though, I call them strength circuits. They tend to be, um, you know, only like 25, 20, 30 minutes.

But I do pretty intense training. So, for example, I dunno if you’ve heard of a workout called Simple and Sinister, a guy named Pavel Satlin created it. But basically I’ll do a hundred kettle ball swings in five minutes. Um, basically 10 on my right, 10 on my left, every. And then I’ll do, uh, a Turkish get up, you know, five Turkish get ups on my right, five Turkish gets on my left.

It takes, uh, that takes about another 10 minutes, the entire training session, the actual workout’s, 15 minutes. But I’ve essentially lifted, you know, like I do, I use a 70 pound kettle ball, by the way, to do that workout. Um, so I’m basically lifting, you know, what is it? Um, it’s like 7,000 pounds in five minutes, right?

If I’m doing a hundred kettle swings in five minutes. So anyways, I guess what I’m saying is like my full body training, like workouts, they tend to be pretty. And that is kind of, definitely has an impact on how my physique looks. Um, so I do that a few times a week. Uh, so Monday, Wednesday, Friday is when I do my full body strength training.

Um, on, uh, Tuesday, uh, I do yoga, hot yoga. I know you’re a fan too. Mm-hmm. . Um, cuz that really helps open up my body on, uh, Thursday. I do like a cross training type of thing where I’ll just go for a run. I moved to Santa Monica recently, so I go on the beach, um, and. , um, on. Saturday, I’ll either do yoga or like, you know, some more cross training, and then on Sunday I’ll do a hike.

But the idea is I try to stay as active as I possibly can. And so that’s kind of like an overall, that’s, that’s a key point actually, just to, just to emphasize is a lot of activity. That’s one of the key things. If you wanna stay lean year round, you are going to have to be very active just because you’re gonna need the additional energy expenditure.

If you want to eat, uh, a halfway re like an amount of food that isn’t just punit. Totally. And one kind of one more kind of quick thing and, and by the way, in terms of my kind of workout structure as. I think since, from how I described it, it’s pretty well balanced. You know, it’s like I’m not just doing one thing or the other thing.

I’m, I try to make it more balanced. I think as I’ve gotten older, I think that that’s become more important. Yep. And then kinda one more kind of quick thing to recommend, uh, mention about the exercise. I also do, every morning I do like a daily bulletproofing routine. Uh, I used to call it my morning mobility routine, but now I call it daily bulletproofing.

It kind of motivates me even more. And I also do a little bit, you know, A little bit of kind of core and glute work and then also some mobility. And the idea is it just makes me more resistant and I imagine it also helps a little bit with the kind of counter expenditure. So that’s, that’s like an overview of my exercise.

So that’s basically the nutrition is, again, I just keep it kind of, I basically have a template that I follow, and this is essentially what I’ve done with my own kind of like fitness programs I’ve developed is essentially get people to kind of buy into this like concept of a template and concept of like, Hey, choose.

Two to three breakfast. Three to five lunches. Three to five dinners, and just kind of stick with them and, and kind of plan ahead as to, okay, how many calories, protein, and carbs is in each one. So, and just stick with it. So that’s kind of what I recommend people do. And so that’s kind the nutrition. Then in terms of let ask that before we move on, so, so, Where are your calories at approximately?

Obviously you’re not weighing and measuring everything because you did that at some point to understand. I’m sure we’ve, I mean, anybody that’s gotten really lean has, uh, weighed everything. They’ve eaten every day at some point. Um, so where are your calories at and how do your macros generally, uh, break down?

Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a great question and I, I did. You know, I like, like you said, I certainly went through a phase where like I knew precisely everything like the, the number of protein, carbs, and fat, and I kind of went through that phase, which is, I would say it’s pre to be able to do what you’re doing now.

Right. Because if you didn’t, if you didn’t go through it, you wouldn’t know. I mean, now you just know almost subconsciously probably the foods that you like to eat, you know, uh, how much you should be eating without even thinking about it. Because you know that if you were to double that portion, like that doesn’t look right.

you know that you couldn’t tell exactly how many calories is there. You’re like, yeah, that’s too much. I just know that’s too much. And I, I, I think that, that, that’s very fair for sure. And, um, I’m just thinking here in terms of, yeah, like the number of calories I’m probably at somewhere around like 2300, 2400, but it can be even lower.

But I would say probably 2300, 2400. Um, in terms of protein, carbs, kind of fat breakdown, it’s probably around. 30, 40, 30, I’m guessing. Um, so like I, that way I think it was kind of like high protein again, relative to what, you know, the government recommends or whatever. Like definitely high protein, um, moderate carb and kind of moderate fat.

It’s kind of, yeah. That’s something else that might stand out to people is it sounds like there’s no sugar. Uh, and there are no treats. , great question. I, I don’t, I don’t do, I don’t do too much sugar just because I, of all the things that I can eat, I don’t, I, I think sugar’s just bad. I just don’t like it.

Like as in, I think it’s bad for the body to have too much sugar, cuz you know, even four grams of sugar is essentially one teaspoon of sugar and, and. You know, I’m sure you’ve seen this, like I, I got to go to some of these like kind of health conferences and stuff. They have these organic treats and everything’s organic and raw and healthy, and they’ve got like 30 grams of sugar in like a, like a bar.

And I’m just like, there’s nothing healthy about that. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I tend to avoid, and it’s funny, it’s actually a really great point. Uh, Mike, I’m really happy you brought that up because like when I look at something, I’m about to eat it, like the nutrition facts, like that’s the first thing I.

What’s the sugar like? Is there a lot of sugar? If there’s a lot of sugar, I, I just. I don’t have something on else that’s, that’s worth mentioning is in going out and eating in restaurants is if you wanna stay really lean, you really can’t have, uh, I mean, forget cheat days, that that can be a disaster.

Sure, you can have cheat meals, free meals, no meals is whatever you wanna call them, but they have to be within reason or you will notice. The chain. You, you will gain fat back. Uh, you, you might be surprised at how quickly you can, you can notice a difference from just a few, you know, several thousand calorie days.

Um, it doesn’t have to be from the whole day. It can be from a single meal. That’s easy to do, at least for me in a restaurant, if I go and just like, I don’t even have to eat to, I can eat to 60 or 70% and, but it could be thousands of calories depending on what I’m eating. And so I don’t know if you experienced that, but I definitely have when.

You know, stayed super lean for, for months at a time. I had to basically do kind of what you’re talking about. I kind of stick to my plan at all times. Um, because I, cuz cuz the reality is every, every time I would go to a restaurant and if I were really to eat a lot, uh, I would notice a little bit of a difference.

And that means, okay, sure you can go into a deficit for a few days and, and get back to where you wanna be. Yes, that’s fine. But that’s just the reality of it. You cannot go, uh, and, and just. You know, turn it loose a few days a week and, and stay super lean unless of course you are like, you know, a swimmer or something and you just swim for seven hours a day.

Right, right. I mean, that’s, that’s what happened when I was a college athlete. I literally ate whatever I wanted and it was just disgusting food. Like, looking back, if I knew what I knew now, I would’ve been a better athlete. Right. I would just would’ve. Um, but anyways, like then once I got into finance and I was sitting down all day long, that’s when like I literally gained 30 pounds in like three.

It was just because you’re eating Yeah. Your habits were, uh, engineered to your previous . Exactly, exactly. So I guess, you know, you know, if, if you just as you, as you know, of course, it’s, it’s ultimately, uh, comes down to kind of the calorie balance. I mean, if you’re just eating way more calories in your.

Expending. I mean, it’s just, you’re gonna gain weight. And I think when you have those like three meals a week or days a week where you’re just eating a ton of food, it, it’s most likely you’re gonna add some, um, some fat. And one more kind of quick thing I think don’t think we touched upon is alcohol. I mean, the, the, one of the biggest challenges I find with guys, um, who.

You know, kind of are unable to get to that next level. Um, is, is alcohol, uh, because there’s something strange about alcohol in that even if someone drinks a little bit, it just affects their physique and affects how they look. And I don’t know if you’ve come across this yourself, you know, working with, with people and with clients, but, uh, I think alcohol’s definitely the biggest challenge.

It’s not even eating too much, just there’s something about alcohol that, um, inhibits people’s, um, uh, I guess people lose control of their basic, uh, desire to wanna stay lean, right? Cuz if you, you drink a little alcohol, then you start eating more food and it’s just kinda this chain of events. Uh, but anyways, I think alcohol is one of the biggest challenges guys face to kind of getting to that next level and staying super lean.

So that’s it for the snippets from the interview I did with Mark Perry on how to stay super lean year round without hating your life. Again, that was originally published on July 18th, 2018. In case you want to go back and listen to the whole thing and let’s move on now to the second episode, featured in this Best of Muscle for Life, and that is a monologue I did called How Much Cardio You Should Do and How Much Is Too Much.

How much cardio should you do? And my answer is pretty simple. You should do as much cardio as it takes to achieve your health and fitness goals and know more, and it shouldn’t be so much that it significantly impairs your physical performance, your recovery, or your health. And if that sounds overly cautious to you, I understand.

I’m making cardio sound kind of like a medicine that you have to carefully dose to beat the disease without wrecking your body in the process. And. That metaphor is a bit extreme, but there is something to be said for it. For example, research shows that endurance athletes are generally at a higher risk of heart dysfunction than the regular non-running public, and the older these athletes get, and the more miles they log, the worse the problem gets.

Studies have also shown that marathon runners can develop. Arterial plaque than sedentary non-runners, which of course increases the risk of stroke and dementia. There’s also the not so fun fact that the more cardio you do, the more stress you place on your body. And if you take that too far, you can wind up in a state of chronic.

Over training, you could say chronic stress where your body simply can’t adequately recover from your workouts. And finally, if you hang out around, died in the woo endurance athletes for a little bit, not even that long, you will quickly notice how many of them have trouble with their knees, their backs, their hips, their.

Tendons their bones. And I understand that the research that I’m talking about is epidemiological and cannot establish causation, but simply indicate correlation. And I’m also referring to some anecdotal evidence as well. I understand that. And so of course my point isn’t that doing too much cardio can kill.

But the reality is if your goal is simply to look good, to feel good, to be healthy and vital and so forth, doing more cardio and more exercise in general for that matter, is not. Always better. Yes, moderate amounts of exercise and moderate amounts of cardio can definitely improve your health and wellbeing, but too much impairs it.

What is the right stuff when it comes to cardio and weight loss? Well, as I mentioned, I myself do more, no more than a couple hours of cardio per week when I’m dieting for fat loss, and I recommend the same thing for. But there’s a bit more to that because when it comes to losing fat, not all types of cardio are created equal.

The type that you see most people doing is called low intensity steady state cardio, or lis I ss. And it involves longer periods of low intensity activity like walking, jogging, or biking and list is not bad. It can definitely help you lose fat. But it is very easy to out eat and it burns less and less energy over time, and in many people it also stimulates their appetite.

That’s why I am a big fan of high intensity interval training or h i t hit, which involves alternating between periods of high intensity, all out exertions and low intensity rest periods. And yes, that’s. Then less, but it’s also far more rewarding if your goal is to lose fat as quickly as possible. A number of studies have shown that shorter sessions of high intensity cardio result in greater fat loss over time and significantly greater than longer low intensity sessions.

In fact, one study that was conducted by researchers at the University of Western Ontario found that doing just four to six 32nd sprints. Burns more fat over time than 60 minutes of incline treadmill walking. And that’s impressive because even when you factor in the rest periods in between the sprints, you’re talking about a relatively short workout.

You’re talking about no more than 15 minutes beats. 60 minutes of walking for fat loss Research also shows that high intensity interval cardio is particularly good for getting rid of that stubborn belly fat that everybody hates so much, mostly due to improved blood flow to the region, as well as the dangerous accumulations of visceral fat.

Let’s talk about cardio and muscle building because many bodybuilders and many fitness folk shun cardio first because they just dislike it. But second, because they do believe that it has an almost mystical power to just shrivel up the muscle and SAP strength. And while it’s true that doing too much cardio can definitely, and it does, it does get in the way of muscle and strength gain, that’s been shown in a number of studies.

But what about small amounts of cardio? What about like what I’m doing right now, an hour per week? Well, while cardio can definitely get in the way of your body’s muscle building machinery, Can also help. And that is one of the reasons why I am always including a little bit of cardio in my routine. And there are three primary ways that cardio can help you build and retain more muscle.

I won’t go into all the details here. I think it would probably make for a good standalone podcast, so I’ll make a note. But the. Primary factors are cardio can improve muscle recovery, improve your body’s metabolic response to food, and help keep up your conditioning, which makes the transition from a lean bulk or a gaining phase to a cutting phase easier on your body.

And again, I’ll dive into the details in a separate podcast, but to just quickly touch on them as far as muscle recovery goes, this mostly comes down to increasing blood flow, which of course improves the delivery of nutrients and the removal of waste. And as far as your metabolism and how your body responds to the food that you eat, cardio improves your body’s insulin sensitivity, which is how well it responds to the signals from insulin.

Research shows that it does so in a dose dependent manner, meaning the more cardio you do, the more benefits you get, and improving insulin sensitivity or maintaining high levels of insulin Sensitivity is good for muscle growth because the more. Sensitive your muscle cells are to insulin, the better your body can deliver nutrients to them nutrients that are needed for getting bigger and stronger.

Of course, and that’s why research has shown a correlation between general insulin sensitivity and muscle gain. So the more insulin resistant somebody’s muscle cells are, the worse their results are gonna be from their resistance training. And as far as cardio and condition. Go. The point here is really just to prevent the shell shock that many people experience during the beginning of a cut, especially if they’re adding cardio after not doing it for a long time.

And another interesting point is research shows that cardio helps our bodies better retain their ability to oxidize fat, to burn fat, and that of course, is useful when we are cutting.

And that’s it for a few of the high points of that episode. Again, it was called How Much Cardio You Should Do and How Much Is Too Much. And it was published back on April 3rd, 2019, in case you want to go find it and listen to the whole thing. And that brings us to the final stretch of this episode.

Highlights from a monologue I recorded called Beware the Self-Made. If you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you, is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world.

The grant study is one of the longest running observational studies ever conduct. It began in 1938 and has followed the lives of 268 Harvard undergraduate men for 75 years, measuring an astonishing number of psychological, anthropological and physical traits, ranging from personality type to iq, drinking habits, family relationships, and even hanging length of his scrotum.

You never know what the data might reveal. This project was undertaken to determine what factors contribute most to human wellbeing. And George Valant, who directed the study for over 42 years, published its most striking findings in his 2012 book, triumphs of Experience. Among them are the obvious.

Alcoholism is incredibly destructive. The encouraging moderately intelligent people have the same earning potential as highly intelligent folk, and the peculiar politically left-leaning men tend to be more sexually active later in life. The crown jewel of the entire endeavor, however, is the single factor that appears to be most powerfully correlated with flourishing, the warmth of your relationships.

The 75 years and 20 million expended on the grant study points to a straightforward five word conclusion. Valance says, happiness is love. Full stop. The men who scored highest on measurements of warm relationships earned more money than those who scored lowest, achieved more professional acclaim and experienced less anxiety, dementia, and other disorders.

Valence’s best advice to all of us who want to be healthy and happy then is to cultivate positive and meaningful relationships. This conclusion has been supported by other research as. For example, a study conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan looked at 270,000 people in nearly 100 countries and found that while both family and friends are associated with happiness and better health, As people got older, the health benefits remained only in those who had strong friendships.

Even Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he couldn’t have made it as a bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, without all the help he received from many people at every point in his journey. You can call me Arnold. You can call me Schwartzenegger. You can call me the Austrian. You can call me Schwarze.

You can call me Arnie, but don’t ever ever call me the self-made man. He said in his 2017 commencement address at the University of Houston, the whole concept of the self-made man or woman is a myth. He went on in that speech to share parts of his story that you don’t hear in motivational monologues and biographical sketches.

Arnold’s mother tutored him through school. His father taught him how to play sports and develop discipline. A lifeguard taught him how to do his first chin up. Coaches taught him weightlifting and power lifting. Fitness magnate. Joe Weeder brought him to America and gave him a place to live men and women patiently gave him acting voice, English, speech, and accent removal lessons.

Studio executives, producers and directors found roles for him. Teams of specialists worked tirelessly to make him look and sound great on the silver screen, and Jay Leno helped him announce his candidacy for the governorship on his late night. So this is why it is important for all of us to recognize, and this is why I tell you on every step of the way, I had help Arnold said.

And the reason why I want you to understand that is because as soon as you understand that you are here because of a lot of help, then you also understand that now is time to help others. That’s what this is all about. You’ve got to help others. Don’t just think about yourself, help others. I couldn’t agree more.

You wouldn’t be reading this book if I hadn’t received the help directly or indirectly of literally thousands of people, researchers, writers, readers, followers, colleagues, friends and family to name a few. To say nothing of all the people who have helped me get into a position where I could write the book in the first place.

I scoff at the notion of being a self-made man. I was taught at an early age that no matter what you want to do, don’t try to go it alone. You won’t get very far. Most of us assume that people achieve success and then start giving back. Dr. Adam Grant said in a 2013 interview in Scientific American, but what if the opposite is true?

Could it be that giving First actually leads people to succeed later? Dr. Grant provides a thoughtful answer to that question in his 2013 book, give and Take, where he explains why some of the most successful people in not just business, but life in general, are in fact classic givers. People who genuinely try to help those around.

Use this insight to your advantage. Every aspiration of yours is going to require help from others, which means you will always have opportunities to give back. If you can find joy in that reciprocation and strive to give more than you take, you’ll become what Dr. Grant refers to as a giver, and your chances of personal success and satisfaction will increase markedly.

An easy way to incorporate this into your daily routine is to recruit a friend or friends to work out with you. You will all benefit from this in several ways. You’ll be there to spot each other and help improve each other’s technique. You’ll provide each other with accountability and external motivation.

You’ll help each other stick to your diet and exercise programs better. You’ll help each other push harder in your workouts. You’ll help each other have more fun in your workouts. Okay, so that’s it for the takeaways from Beware the Self-Made Myth, and that was originally published on August 27th, 2018, in case you want to go hear the whole thing.

And that also brings us to the end of this episode. I hope you liked it. Thanks again for joining me today, and if you did like it, you are definitely going to like what I have in store for you for the rest of the month. I have another q and a. I have a monologue specifically for women, the four best workout splits for women.

I have an interview I did with a body of mine, Michael Chernow success. Entrepreneur and media personality and all around good guy, as well as another installment of says you another q and a and much more. Please do leave a quick review on iTunes or wherever you’re listening to me from in whichever app you’re listening to me in, because.

That not only convinces people that they should check out the show, it also increases search visibility. And thus, it helps more people find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier, and happier as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any new stuff.

And if you didn’t like something about the show, please do shoot me an. At [email protected], just muscle f o r life.com and share your thoughts on how I can do this better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback. Even if it is criticism, I’m open to it. And of course you can email me if you have positive feedback as well, or if you have questions really relating to anything that you think I could help you with, definitely send me an email.

That is the best way to get ahold of me, Mike, at multiple life.com. And that’s it. Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.