I’m an old hardheaded strength coach, but I have enough sense to know that most people are primarily interested in their appearance. So read this book, and read mine too, and come away with what you need to know. The rest will be up to you.
—Mark Rippetoe, Author of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming for Strength Training
Part 1
What’s in This for You?
It Works!
Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Results. Will You Be Next?
The men you just saw are just like you.
They’re in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and they come from all walks of life and levels of fitness. Some were once fit, others were always overweight, some had tried many diet and exercise routines before and failed, others were brand new to it all, some had a lot of time and energy for working out, and others had very little.
What they all have in common, though, is they’ve all used the diet and exercise principles and programs you’re about to learn to get into the best shape of their lives.
Every one of these guys has dropped pounds of unwanted fat, added lean muscle in all the right places, and dramatically reduced their risk of disease and dysfunction.
And they did it eating the foods they love, doing workouts they enjoy, and taking few, if any, supplements.
I want to introduce you to several of them whose stories have inspired and touched me, and who are definitive proof that with the right know-how and guidance, anyone can build a body they can be proud of.
If they can do it, why not you?
Kendrick’s Story
I’m 26 years old and dropped 47 pounds in four months following Mike’s Bigger Leaner Stronger program, going from 210 to 163 pounds and around 8 to 9 percent body fat.
I’ve tried a LOT of other programs that didn’t work the way I expected. I got bigger and a little bit stronger but never got the definition I desired.
For the first time in my life, I got significantly stronger while losing fat. Learning to lose fat the correct way has been such a blessing.
I’m naturally a skeptical person, so I did my research on the program. When I saw the amazing reviews, without hesitation I got the book, and the rest is history.
I’ll admit I was a bit suspicious of the advice to lift heavy weights while you lose fat, because it goes against all “conventional” wisdom. I’d done several programs which involved doing as many reps as you could in a minute, drop sets, even one in which you did 10 sets of 10 reps of each exercise.
I always got burnt out, plateaued, and took forever to recover, and I gained too much body fat along the way.
With Bigger Leaner Stronger, my bench press has increased from 240 to 265 pounds, my squat has gone from 250 to 320 pounds, my deadlift has gone from 295 to 365 pounds, and my military press has gone from 145 to 175 pounds. Those results speak for themselves.
I think anyone who’s willing to put forth the work and wants to maximize their potential will benefit from this program. I always had the work ethic to achieve it, I just needed the knowledge. This is just the beginning, and I’m far from done.
I’m much more confident, and my friends are constantly asking me to go to lift with them and set them up on a program and diet. That’s been awesome to me!
Push yourself, be patient, trust the process, and find out what you are capable of accomplishing.
Brandon’s Story
I used Mike’s Bigger Leaner Stronger program to lose 60 pounds in 12 weeks to prepare for a men’s physique competition for men over 50.
I took fifth place in the men’s open novice division, and my strength increases were massive, too.
My bench increased from 185 to 285 pounds, and I increased my squat, deadlift, and overhead press, too!
Before discovering Bigger Leaner Stronger, my excuses and untrained mind (conditioned to give up easily) prevented me from attaining my goals. I used my shoulder surgery, my drinking problem, and my lack of wanting to change my lifestyle as excuses.
Then, I stumbled upon Muscle for Life and Bigger Leaner Stronger, and my life changed.
I’m a former Marine, Gulf War Veteran, husband, and father to three beautiful children, and my best friend’s name was “beer.” I had tried Mike’s program twice before, and each attempt lasted four months. I looked great, but then my addiction beat me on both occasions.
Sick and tired of how I was living, I had to change my ways, my attitude, and my approach. I was worried I would end up like my father—dying way too young from abusing alcohol; he was 46.
I finally started using the knowledge Mike shares in Bigger Leaner Stronger to overcome anything that was in my way—cravings, urges, and thoughts that had held me back in the past. I haven’t looked back since September of 2016, and now I’m unstoppable.
The support I have received from Mike’s book saved my life!
Let me give you some advice: THIS PROGRAM WORKS! Just apply the principles that Mike has laid out for you, and trust me, the sky’s the limit. Don’t change, add, subtract, or manipulate anything—just do it like he’s laid it out and record your workouts daily.
Remember, this is NOT a quick fix, Hollywood diet, or fad weight loss program. This is the beginning of a lifestyle change you need to maintain for the rest of your life to feel and be happier and healthier. I guarantee you that Bigger Leaner Stronger is better than anything you’ve tried before.
I promote Bigger Leaner Stronger and Muscle for Life on a daily basis—so much that it now interferes with my own personal workouts, but that’s fine with me. This program saved my life! A BIG and SINCERE thank you to Mike—I owe you big time!
Jenkin’s Story
In one year of following the Bigger Leaner Stronger program, I went from 207 to 142 pounds for a total of 65 pounds of weight loss!
For the first six months my strength improved, especially my deadlift. It went from 275 to 325 pounds while I lost weight!
Working out wasn’t an issue, but being disciplined and not eating whatever I wanted every day was tough. It took me a solid three months to really make the permanent lifestyle changes I needed to.
The other strength programs I’ve tried never went into specifics concerning nutrition aside from telling you to “eat more” or “drink a gallon of milk a day.” Well, I’m fat man! How do I look like an underwear model?
I came across Mike’s book and saw that it had all the basics of eating for building a great physique. Originally I was only going to follow Mike’s nutrition plan, but after reading about the training program, I saw it shared a lot of the same principles I had come across in other programs I liked. I couldn’t help but completely agree with what Mike was saying, so I gave that a shot, too.
The whole program really spoke to me, and I appreciate how Mike backs everything he says with facts. Mike really connected with me as a reader, and he gained my trust. I felt he had integrity; thus, I was willing to follow his program. And I have only gotten results since.
The program is not a magic pill or quick fix, it does not give you a secret or a shortcut; it merely teaches principles. By abiding by these principles, you’ll see results, but it will take time, patience, discipline, and effort—DON’T GIVE UP!
•••
I hope you enjoyed those success stories as much as I did and are inspired to follow in the footsteps of these outstanding men.
Who knows, maybe people will be reading about your transformation story one day?
Anything is possible if you want it enough. And in this book, I’m going to show you the way.
1
The Promise
No matter how old you are, no matter how bad you might think your genetics are, and no matter how lost you might feel after trying and abandoning past diets and workout programs . . .
. . . you absolutely, positively can have the le
an, muscular, and powerful body that you dream about.
What if I could show you how to dramatically transform your body and health faster than you ever thought possible?
What if I gave you a science-based, doctor-approved formula of eating and exercising that makes adding 15 to 25 pounds of lean muscle while also shedding handfuls of unwanted body fat a breeze . . . and what if you could see dramatic results in the mirror in just the first 30 days?
What if I showed you how to get a cut, ripped physique by investing no more than 5 percent of your time each day?
And what if I promised to be at your side the entire way, helping you discover what you’re truly capable of, helping you overcome obstacles and setbacks and avoid pitfalls, and basically doing everything I can to see you achieve your fitness goals as quickly and painlessly as possible?
What if I promised to show you how to build that killer Hollywood body without having your life revolve around it?
What if you didn’t have to starve yourself, put in long hours at the gym, or do grueling cardio workouts that turn your stomach? What if I even showed you how to get leaner and stronger while still indulging in the “bad” foods that you love, like pasta, pizza, and ice cream?
Imagine waking up every morning, looking in the mirror, and feeling downright excited by your reflection. Imagine being able to take your shirt off at the pool or beach with confidence.
Imagine, just 12 weeks from now, being constantly complimented on how you look, having dawn-till-dusk energy to do all the things you want to do, and feeling up to getting other parts of your life under control and into the fast lane.
Well, you can have all these things, and it’s not nearly as difficult or complicated as you probably think.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re 21 or 41 or whether you’re in shape or not. No matter who you are, I promise that you have the power to transform your body and life.
Just ask the thousands of men whose lives have been changed by my work. They accepted my help, and now they look and feel better than ever before. They are the proof that this book can help you look and feel your best, too.
So, would you like my help?
If you answered “Yes!” then you’ve taken a leap, not a step, toward the new you—the bigger, leaner, stronger, and happier you who loves his body, inside and out.
Your journey begins as soon as you turn to the next page.
2
Who Is Mike Matthews and Why Should I Care?
Opportunity is missed by most people, because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
—UNKNOWN
I’m Mike, and I believe that every person can achieve the body of their dreams.
My mission is to give everyone that opportunity by providing time-proven, evidence-based advice on how to build muscle, lose fat, and get and stay healthy.
I’ve been training for more than a decade now. In that time, I’ve read thousands of pages of scientific literature and tried just about every type of workout program, diet regimen, and supplement you can imagine. At this point, I can confidently say that while I don’t know everything, I know what works and what doesn’t.
Like most people who get into weightlifting, I had no clue what I was doing when I started out. I turned to fitness magazines for help, which told me to spend a couple of hours in the gym every day and hundreds of dollars on pills and powders every month. This went on for years, and I jumped from diet to diet, workout program to workout program, and supplement to supplement, only to make mediocre progress and eventually get stuck in a rut.
I then turned to personal trainers for guidance, but they had me do more of the same. After spending many thousands of dollars with them, I still hadn’t gained any more muscle or strength to speak of, and I still had no idea what to do with my diet and training to reach my goals. I liked working out too much to quit, but I wasn’t happy with my body and didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
I finally decided that something had to change, and I knew that I needed to start with learning the actual physiology of muscle growth and fat loss. So I threw the magazines away, fired the trainers, got off the internet forums, and searched out the work of top strength and bodybuilding coaches, talked to scores of natural bodybuilders, and started reading scientific papers.
Several months later, a clear picture was beginning to emerge.
The real science of getting into incredible shape is very simple—much simpler than the fitness industry wants us to believe. It flies in the face of a lot of the stuff we see on TV, Instagram, and YouTube and read in books, articles, and magazines.
For example:
You don’t need supplements to build a great physique.
You don’t need to constantly change up your workout routine to “confuse” your muscles.
You don’t need to “eat clean” to get and stay lean.
You don’t need to stop eating carbs and sugars to lose weight.
You don’t need to eat small meals every few hours to “boost your metabolism.”
You don’t need to grind out hours and hours of boring cardio every week to get six-pack abs.
You don’t need to be in the gym hours per day and sacrifice your relationships with your friends and loved ones.
As a result of what I had learned, I completely changed my approach to eating and exercising, and my body responded in ways I couldn’t believe. My strength skyrocketed. My muscles started growing again. My energy levels went through the roof. And here’s the kicker: I was spending less time in the gym, doing less cardio, and eating foods I actually liked.
Along the way, my friends and family noticed how my physique was improving and began asking for advice. I became their coach. I took “hardgainers” and put 30 pounds on them in a year, took people who were absolutely baffled as to why they couldn’t lose weight and stripped away piles of fat, and took people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who believed their hormones and metabolisms were beyond repair and helped them get into the best shape of their lives.
A couple of years later, these people started urging me to write a book. I dismissed the idea at first, but eventually I began to warm up to it. “What if I’d had such a book when I started training?” I thought. It would have saved me who knows how much time, money, and frustration, and I would have built the body of my dreams a lot faster. I also enjoyed helping people with what I had learned, and if I were to write a book and it became popular, what if I could help thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people?
That gave me a wild hair, and so I wrote Bigger Leaner Stronger and published it in January 2012. It sold maybe 20 copies in the first month, but within a couple of months, sales were growing, and I began receiving emails from readers with high praise. I was ecstatic. I started making notes on how I could improve the book based on feedback, and I outlined ideas for several other books that I could write.
Fast-forward to today, and I’ve now published a number of books, including this book for men and a “flexible dieting” cookbook (The Shredded Chef). Altogether, my books have sold over a million copies, and my work has been featured in a number of publications like Men’s Health, Muscle & Strength, Elle, Esquire, and more.
More importantly, every day I get scores of emails and social media messages from readers who are thankful for my work and blown away by the results they’re seeing. They’re just as shocked as I was years ago when I first discovered just how straightforward and enjoyable getting fit and healthy can really be.
This is why I continue to write books and articles, record podcasts and YouTube videos, and generally do everything I can to be as helpful to as many people as I can. It’s motivating to see the impact I’m having on people’s lives, and I’m incredibly inspired by the dedication and determination of so many of my readers and followers. You guys and gals rock.
I also have bigger ambitions that I
want to realize.
First, I want to help a million people get fit and healthy. “Help a million people” just has a sexy ring to it, don’t you think? It’s a big goal, but I think I can do it.
This goes beyond merely making people look hotter too.
I want to make a dent in some of the alarming downward trends we’re seeing here in the West—in particular, the decline of people’s physical and mental health and performance, which has significant and negative downstream effects in their family lives, careers, and personal happiness and satisfaction. I think helping people get strong and fit is a great way to do something about this.
Second, I want to lead the fight against mainstream health and fitness pseudoscience and BS.
Unfortunately, this space is full of misinformation, disinformation, idiots, liars, and hucksters, and I want to help change the status quo. I’d like to become known as the go-to guy for practical, easy-to-understand advice grounded in real science and results.
Third, I want to help reform the sport supplements industry.
The pill and powder pushers use all types of scams to foist their junk products on unwitting consumers. They use fancy-sounding-but-worthless ingredients; they cut their products with junk fillers like flour and useless amino acids; they use tiny, ineffective doses of otherwise good ingredients (“pixie dusting”) and hide it with the notorious “proprietary blend”; and they rely on fake science, overhyped marketing claims, and steroid-fueled meatheads to convince people they have the “secret sauce.”
So, that’s me. From this point on, it’s all going to be about you.
I hope you enjoy this book, and I hope it helps you reach your health and fitness goals faster.
Mike Matthews
Vienna, Virginia
May 20, 2018
P.S. If you’re on social media, come say hi! Here’s where you can find me:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/muscleforlifefitness
Bigger Leaner Stronger Page 2