Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Tackling Asymmetrical Abs, Squatting With Long Femurs, Deloading Strategies, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, this is Mike Matthews, and this is actually Mike Matthews actually speaking into a microphone in my daughter's closet, because the acoustics are good here, because I'm surrounded by clothing. And yes, this is me, this is not AI. Although I suspect in the next, can't be more than a year, there will be no way to tell the difference, which is an interesting thought, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. Today's episode is another installment in my Q&A series where I answer questions that people ask me over on Instagram. What I do is post a story usually every week or every other week asking people to ask me questions. I go through all of the questions and I pick ones that are topical or interesting and I answer them briefly there on Instagram. And then I bring everything over here to the podcast

Starting point is 00:00:50 and answer the questions in more detail. And so if you want me to answer your questions, follow me on Instagram at Muscle Life Fitness and look for that story that I post again, usually every week or every other week. Sub submit your questions and I will see them. Now, I get many, many questions, so I have to skip over most of them. Please don't take that personally, but I will see them. And if any of your questions catch my fancy, then I will answer at least one of them. And I will then talk about it here on the podcast as well. Now, if you have been submitting questions and I

Starting point is 00:01:25 haven't answered your questions, again, please don't take it personally. I am mostly trying to pick questions that I know my audience will like, including my podcast audience. And so in today's episode, I'm going to be answering questions about physical performance and ovulation, what's the relationship, if we can do anything to make our ab muscles more symmetrical, my favorite sources of information on current events, how I like to deload, some of my New Year's resolutions for this year, and more. Said Physical asks, what are you most afraid of?

Starting point is 00:02:03 Well, sometimes I think about the future and I envision a scenario where I'm on the 15th COVID-26 booster. I'm watching Tiger King 9. Ellen is president. The camps, of course, are for our own good. And I'm excited because our day of sun is coming up next week. And, you know, on balance, everything is pretty good. Caesar Byzante asks your opinion on fat grips. Do they really improve forearm growth?

Starting point is 00:02:34 Well, I haven't looked at fat grips in a while. I haven't looked at their marketing. I haven't used their product in a while. I did use it many years ago. But the last time I did look at how they were selling it and the last time I did use it, my conclusion was it was overblown. You are not going to get jacked faster with rubber grips, but I did like them for improving grip strength, especially on pressing exercises. On pulling exercises, they didn't work so well because it limited the amount that you

Starting point is 00:03:05 could pull. But on pressing, it was nice because you could just squeeze them as hard as you possibly can and thereby do almost like what felt like sets of plate holds while you are bench pressing or overhead pressing. And so the fat grips can be used like that with some exercises, cannot be used with others. That said, personally, and this is why I stopped using them, if I really wanted to increase my grip, I would just include some grip training in my program. I would do some plate holds or some farmer walks, good for general preparedness as well, just the ability to do work. Or I would get some captains of crush grippers and just work on them. Chrissy Maria asks, my core feels weak

Starting point is 00:03:52 around the monthly. Is that normal? I feel off balance when I am working out. Yes, that is normal, at least having your core feel weak or just feeling weak in general. And then that in turn can make you feel off balance during certain exercises. And the reason that is normal is thanks mostly to fluctuations in estrogen. Women generally perform best in their workouts and experience less hunger during the follicular phase of their cycle. And they notice a drop off in performance and an increase in hunger as they ovulate and move into the luteal phase. Next up, we have a question from Daniel Mufti1, and they ask,

Starting point is 00:04:29 my abs are finally here, probably a guy then, but they are not symmetrical. I'm sure I can't do anything, right? Unfortunately, no, we cannot change the arrangement of our abs. We can only make our abs bigger and more developed by adding some direct training into our regimen, which, by the way, is not necessary for most people. For most people, just doing heavy squats, heavy deadlifts, heavy overhead presses, as well as other exercises that engage the core is enough to develop their abdominals and their other core muscles to a satisfactory degree. And then it's mostly just

Starting point is 00:05:06 a matter of finding the body fat level that they like the most that allows them to see the level of abdominal definition that they want to see. However, some people do start weightlifting with very underdeveloped cores, very underdeveloped abdominal muscles. And while they probably can get to the place they want to be with just heavy compound weightlifting, if they include some direct training for their abs, and it's usually the rectus abdominis muscles, the abs, quote unquote, that most people think of and look for in the mirror, if they add some direct training for those muscles, they will develop faster. And some people find that motivating and worth the effort. So if you want to include some direct

Starting point is 00:05:52 training for your abs in your workouts, you can do that. But again, coming back to the question, unfortunately, if you have asymmetrical abs like I do, my abs are not symmetrical and I can't even get a proper six pack. I can get something closer to like a four or five pack because unfortunately that's just my anatomy. That's how my muscles formed and my body formed. And all I can do is take what I have and make it bigger, more developed and more defined. But I can't add on my left side, for example, I can't add the third abdominal muscle that should be there if I had perfect abs. Perfect abs are perfectly symmetrical. You have six or even eight perfectly aligned in two rows. I don't have that. And there's no way for me to get that. And generally, by the way,

Starting point is 00:06:46 the same thing goes for any major muscle group. We can make it bigger, we can make it more defined, but we can't change the inherent shape or the inherent structure of the muscle group. And so practically speaking, when I talk to guys about this kind of thing, it's usually about their chest. They want their pecs to have that kind of cool armor plated look, which can be partly a function of body fat. If you have a lot of body fat, your pecs are going to be rounder. And if you get leaner, you will find that your pecs get less round, they get flatter. But your pec muscles have formed in a certain way and they attach to your skeleton in certain ways and they integrate with other muscles in certain ways. And the same thing goes for biceps. Many guys ask if they can

Starting point is 00:07:32 increase their biceps peak. Yes, to some degree, you can make your biceps bigger. You can do hammer curls to make a smaller little muscle called the brachialis a little bit bigger, and that can help push your biceps peak up. But unfortunately, most of your biceps peak is going to come from your genetics. It's going to come from how your biceps are actually structured and how they attach to your skeleton. And all of that also applies to women, of course. But when I have women asking about this, it is usually more related to lower body, glutes and quads and hamstrings. And again, all women can have a great lower body. They can have a great butt. They can have great legs, but waist sizes are going to vary from woman to woman.

Starting point is 00:08:19 Pelvic structure varies from woman to woman. Muscle insertions vary from woman to woman. And ultimately, that means that there are variations in how those butts are going to look and how those legs are going to look. And some women really like a specific look that they don't have the anatomy for. And I hope you don't find any of that discouraging. And just to put it into perspective, the reality is, while you might not have the anatomy or the genetics to be a top level competitive physique athlete or bikini athlete or bodybuilder, like I don't, for example, maybe I could do some physique stuff, but certainly not bodybuilding. I just don't have the body for it.

Starting point is 00:09:05 You absolutely can get into fantastic shape by anyone's standards. You can love what you see in the mirror and really not care at all what might be judged as physical shortcomings if you were stepping on stage. I mean, think of it this way, to use a financial analogy, what I'm saying is with enough work and enough patience and enough consistency, you can absolutely become a multi-multi-millionaire, but you probably can't become a billionaire. And if anyone were to find that discouraging, I probably would suggest that they do a bit of soul searching because the satisfaction that they think they're going to find in going from the multi-multi-millionaire to the billionaire is a mirage, is never going to materialize. Okay, Dr. Doug MC asks,

Starting point is 00:09:55 best source of info for current events? Well, I like to use news aggregator sites. I spend probably on average 15 minutes a day just looking through headlines and reading or at least skimming an article or two that catches my eye. And the places I go are Drudge Retort, not report, but retort for hard leftoid propaganda. Drudge Report for, I guess it's kind of centrist-ish, never-Trumper news. And then Zero Hedge is great for fascist hate speech. But I suspect that in the near future, I will be using some sort of great AI-driven product that does a great job summarizing stories from different outlets and according to political bias. I think it could be very interesting to be able to quickly see news stories summarized according to specific outlets that tend to align one way or the other. Inked and Bearded asks, do you enjoy eating a

Starting point is 00:11:01 bunch of protein and then Dutch ovening yourself? Only when it's Legion Way Plus because angel farts, man, I'm telling you. 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 60-second 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 muscleforlife.show slash diet quiz, muscleforlife.show slash diet quiz now, answer the questions and learn what you need to do in the kitchen to lose fat, build muscle,

Starting point is 00:11:55 and get healthy. Jessica Williams Black asks, how do you typically deload? Well, what I usually do is I keep the weights heavy, so high intensity, but I reduce the reps per set by a few reps per set. So if I'm working in the four to six rep range on an exercise with a given weight and I'm going to deload and I'm, let's say, getting fives and sixes, I'm going to drop that down to threes. And then I reduce the number of hard sets that I'm doing per exercise by about one third or one fourth. So if I'm doing four sets per exercise, I'll drop that down to three. If I'm doing three, I'll drop that down to two. And so really what I'm going for is a reduction in volume because

Starting point is 00:12:35 that's what drives a lot of the fatigue that accumulates in our training. It's the volume, it's the number of hard sets, it's the number of hard reps taken right up close to muscular failure rather than the absolute amount of weight that we're lifting that makes us feel more and more run down. Now, the amount of weight that we're lifting, the load is harder on our joints than the volume. So heavy weights beat up our joints faster than lighter weights, but it's the volume that beats us up systemically. And so then what I'm doing in my deloads is I'm keeping the weights heavy just to keep my muscles acquainted with my normal working weights, but I am reducing my volume quite a bit. I'm doing fewer reps per set. I'm doing fewer sets per workout. And that allows my body to catch up in recovery. Josh Gonzalez MWS asks, what is your new year resolution for 2023?

Starting point is 00:13:34 And this was asked probably a couple of months ago because I do one of these Q and A's every week, usually, but I only post them every other week or every three weeks here on the podcast. And so anyway, new year resolution for 2023. Number one, forget past mistakes and make even bigger ones. Two, stop worrying about what could go wrong and just focus on getting bigger biceps, of course. Three, stop wearing pants because screw pants. Four, read more takeout menus than books. Five, save more money by buying more stuff that's on sale. I learned that one from my wife. And six, don't let anything get in the way of eating more cheese and ice cream. Another one from Josh Gonzalez MWS. What book are you reading right now? So at the time I was reading Die With Zero, which I liked. I thought it made some very good points

Starting point is 00:14:26 about the stupidity of spending 40 plus years of accumulating wealth to the exclusion of all the other things that you could do with your time only to die with a lot of money. Dying rich makes no sense to me. And that really is the theme of the book. It explores that idea in a few different ways, but great title because it gives you the premise of the book and it gets your attention. Of course, it's controversial, but I think that philosophy makes a lot more sense. I think it makes sense to strive to die with zero or like a friend of mine says, no, no, die with debt because they can't discriminate against you because of your age. So when you're 85 and you want that boat, get the biggest,

Starting point is 00:15:11 most expensive boat you can possibly finance, because when you're gone, all they can do is repossess the boat. They can't come after your kids or grandkids. And, you know, he kind of has a point. But anyway, coming back to the book, I think it makes a lot more sense to use your money for whatever you want to use it for. And that can include stuff like philanthropy and helping your kids out. Doesn't have to be just conspicuous consumption, but do that while you are here. And so then by the time you cash in your chips, ideally, you've used most, if not all of your money. I really don't see the logic in trying to die rich. Lyndon Sepp asks, what did you think about the U.S. and Russia prisoners exchange? This is referring to Griner. Was it Brittany, the basketball player? And so my

Starting point is 00:15:59 thought at the time was, you know, I wonder if Griner took a knee when she landed in America. And interestingly, I just saw a headline a couple of days ago where she wasn't taking a knee at a basketball game. Isn't that interesting how a little sojourn in Moscow can change your perspective a little bit? Another question from Lyndon Sepp, and they ask, is hypertrophy training better for fat loss than strength training? Well, technically, it's at least a little bit better because hypertrophy training will burn more calories, but the difference is negligible when you consider it in the context of the calorie deficit that's required to drive fat loss. So do whichever style of training you like the most or do a mixture of hypertrophy

Starting point is 00:16:47 and strength training if you prefer that. Sharia Soleimani asks, triceps push down underhand or overhand grip? Both. You can alternate really on whatever schedule makes sense to you. But doing both is a good idea because the underhand grip places emphasis on the inner portion of the triceps. So the portion that's closest to your body, whereas the overhand grip emphasizes the outer portion. Tedesco Fitness asks, heels lift forward lean when squatting due to long femurs, best solutions? A couple of things if you're listening or having this issue. One is to look into your ankle mobility because you might need to improve it. Many people do. Two is get a pair of squat shoes, and that's going to

Starting point is 00:17:32 elevate your heels a little bit when you squat, and it's going to alleviate some of that issue. And three is turn your toes out a little more than standard. That can help. And four is try the low bar squat. Train with Keith asks, can I mix Genesis? So that's Legion's greens supplement, but it's not your typical greens. I just don't know what else to call it. Really, it's green because it has spirulina, not because it has powdered vegetables in it. And I don't believe in powdered vegetable products, powdered fruit products.

Starting point is 00:18:02 You should eat fruit and you should eat vegetables and you cannot substitute them with powdered fruit and vegetables and get the same nutrition. So anyway, Legion Genesis, can I combine it with Legion's whey? That's the question. If so, what's the best flavor combo? Yes, you can. That's what I do personally because I don't love the taste of Genesis and we are working on a reformulation and we'll see how it comes together. Maybe we can get the flavoring a bit better, but it's hard because spirulina, that's going to stay and that stuff does not taste good. Reishi mushroom, probably going to stay, does not taste good. And we'll see what we can do. But anyway, my favorite combination is the acai berry flavor of Genesis with a vanilla based protein powder. So it could be a whey if you do whey. I think it's even better with our plant plus our plant derived protein powder. It's rice and pea protein. And so I do the acai Genesis with the vanilla plant plus. And I think that it's pretty good actually, but I am weird. So you might not agree with me. Vilma Ved asks, how to lose fat from the legs? All right. So let's answer this one like a meme. Them. How do I lose? One, face fat. Two, belly fat. Three,

Starting point is 00:19:18 underarm fat. Four, thigh fat. Five, lower back fat. Six, love handle fat. Seven, butt fat. Eight, thigh fat, five, lower back fat, six, love handle fat, seven, butt fat, eight, ad infinitum, me, ketosis. No, I'm just kidding. Detoxing. No, that's not it. Oh, that's right. It's just a calorie deficit. ER22 asks, every session is planned or is it sometimes just a session better than no session? Well, when you are considering skipping a workout because you don't have time to do a full session or to do the session that you planned, remember that compromising, like doing fewer exercises or fewer sets, or maybe taking less rest in between sets, that always beats surrendering. Great workouts are not always the ones that you asked for. Well, I hope you liked this episode.

Starting point is 00:20:05 I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, 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.

Starting point is 00:20:24 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 at muscleforlife.com, muscleforlife.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.

Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Tackling Asymmetrical Abs, Squatting With Long Femurs, Deloading Strategies, & More

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