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There are very few books I would call “life changing,” but this is without a doubt one of them. I’m 41 years old and have spent most of my adult life in the gym, not aspiring to be a bodybuilder necessarily but simply striving to stay strong and lean, to feel good and to be healthy. My goal has always been to maintain an athletic look without excessively long and complicated workouts or bizarre and restrictive diets. I own or have read stacks and stacks of fitness books, from Arnold’s Encyclopedia to obscure spiral bound books from self-published authors, on every topic from the paleo diet to barefoot running to bodyweight exercises to genuine bodybuilding. I’ve wasted more money and paper than I care to think about over the years on magazines such as Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, and various bodybuilding mags to little or no avail. I’ve tried every conceivable workout method and fad from crossfit to circuit training to bodypump to good old fashioned iron pumping with supersets, drop sets and more. While I picked up some valuable information and skills along the way, my sheer dedication to fitness is what pulled me through and gave me results, mediocre though they were.
But then I stumbled upon Bigger Leaner Stronger (BLS) on Amazon. Always open to reading new material, but jaded from a couple of decades of reading poor to mediocre books, I bought it with no great expectations. The first chapter or two is pretty much what you’d expect in a book on this topic -- big promises. But unlike any other book I’ve ever read on the topic, BLS delivers on those promises, and how! Of course I couldn’t know that until I had finished the book and actually tried the program for awhile, so here is a summary of my experience.
As of this writing, I’m 11 weeks into the program. I started off at 175 pounds and 17.5% body fat. Today I’m 166 pounds and 11.5% body fat. If you run the numbers, I’ve lost 9 pounds, BUT I’ve also put on a few pounds of muscle at the same time, so the results are far more dramatic than simply losing 9 pounds. I’m on what’s called a “cutting diet” (outlined in the book) which is designed primarily to make you lose fat while maintaining or slightly gaining muscle. After the cutting diet, you follow with a bulking diet which does the opposite -- primarily designed to build muscle quickly while minimizing fat gain. A few cycles of cutting and bulking (with your workouts, of course) and you can have a body like Mike (the author of BLS.) I say this as a skeptic who was blown away by the results that this is without a doubt the easiest, most efficient, most effective, simplest and most comprehensible way to get the body you want. The real kicker here is that there’s almost nothing new in this book. There are no revolutionary secrets or cutting-edge fads, no complicated workouts or strange exercises, and no diet “tricks,” miracle pills or evil foods to fear. It’s all just basic sensible eating and good old fashioned sweat, and yet it works magic. So if there’s nothing new in it, why is this book so good? First, because Mike did what none of the rest of us took the time to do: he did his homework. I don’t mean he read Muscle and Fitness Magazine. I mean he read primary clinical research in peer reviewed journals, and then he tested it on himself. Second, and this is where he really shines, because Mike has an ability that apparently other authors of fitness books lack: the skill to take what he learned and put it in a clear, concise, highly organized, highly digestible format that anyone can understand without getting lost in the weeds or bored to tears. Mike has exhaustively researched and put into practice every principle in his book, and he includes references to all of the clinical trials he read so you can read the primary research for yourself if you’re so inclined. In addition to that, his website, muscleforlife.com, is brimming with FREE, interesting articles that go in greater depth about many topics and answer questions that newbies to the program will invariably have (as I myself did.) And as if that weren’t enough, Mike’s really good about personally responding to questions posted on the website. He also does live Q&A’s online which are helpful, as well as video podcasts which are also helpful.
Here’s a bullet list of the major points I got from the book:
*a few sets of heavy reps of basic lifts is all you need to build a ton of muscle
*a few sets of heavy reps of basic lifts burns more fat that cardio
*a few sets of heavy reps of basic lifts keeps your gym time surprisingly short
*eating the right ratio of fats/carbs/protein is absolutely essential for success
*eating the right ratio of fats/carbs/protein need not be an exhaustive chore
*eating the right ratio of fats/carbs/protein need not be absurdly restrictive
*eating the right ratio of fats/carbs/protein is not a starvation diet
*doing cardio is important, but not as important as you think
*doing cardio isn’t nearly as miserable or long as you think if you do it right
*tracking your progress is absolutely essential to success and is hugely motivating too
*tracking your progress need not be an exhaustive chore -- in fact I find it fun
*your genetics, age, perceived bad luck, lack of experience, past failures and current state of couch-potatoness will not define your success on this program
*your commitment to this program will define your success on this program
*its not a program, it’s a lifestyle change just like a hobby, having kids, having pets, having a career or cooking at home instead of eating out every night
Here’s how I think the book could be improved:
There are a few details missing from the book that you won’t even realize are missing until you have a question as a result of actually being on the program. For example, your weight loss is unlikely to be linear, and it may even stop weeks or months into the program if you’re trying to cut fat. But that’s no reason to despair. There are simple ways to get it moving again, which are discussed in exact detail in various articles on the website. One important, very simple, very effective method is the reverse diet which isn’t discussed in BLS. It is discussed in the book’s sequel, Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger, which is for advanced lifters who’ve already gone through BLS and have been lifting at least 1-2 years. It is also discussed, as I already mentioned, in articles on the website for free. I also found his treatment of supplements a bit confusing. He’s extremely critical of supplements in the BLS book, but if you go to his website you’ll find that he’s got his own line of supplements which at first seems extremely hypocritical. I’ve since come to understand that he’s critical of the supplement industry as a whole for their various frauds (and rightly so) but that there are a number of mostly natural supplements that have been clinically proven to be effective, and his supplements are just that: clinically effective dosages of clinically proven substances, and nothing more. He also has made it clear that while supplements (even his own) can be helpful in getting faster results, they are by no means necessary and are absolutely no substitute for proper diet and exercise.
Here are some tips/advice for anyone new to the program:
The number one issue I feared with this program is the one thing I vowed never in my life to do: count calories or exclude entire food groups from my diet. If you share that fear, read on. I’m a prolific home cook. Cooking is one of my greatest joys in life and I hold the joys of food -- from growing it and hunting it, to cooking it and eating it, to sharing it with friends and family -- in reverence above nearly all else in life. I love dairy. I love breads. I love pork. I love dessert. And I will not give these things up. Ever. I have a small farm and raise pork and dairy goats, poultry and eggs, honey and red meat. I also hunt and fish. And I eat it all, every bit. So with great trepidation I read Mike’s stance on food, and I thought, well, at least I don’t have to give up any foods. I figured that maybe I could try tracking my calories, fat, etc IF it’s not a lot of trouble and doesn’t detract from my joy of food in any way. And you know what? After I thought about it, and then tried it, I realized I had been missing a tactic of awesome proportions. Let me explain. Even before BLS, I planned meals. I have to, but also I like to. I cook every meal. Literally, every meal. In order to feed my household and use the exceptional foods I grow on the farm and hunt in the mountains, I have to plan for what’s coming out of the garden each week, or what I’ll need to take out of the freezer to thaw in time, or what incidentals like baking powder I’ll need to pick up at the grocery store. I already had seasonally and weekly recurring meals and treats such as lasagna, beef stew, pumpkin bread, pancakes, etc. on the menu, and typically set aside Sunday to do the bulk of my weekly cooking so that weekday meals are a no-brainer. The only thing I wasn’t doing was tracking the nutrient ratios. But Mike proposed an ingenious solution: the spreadsheet. Instead of writing down my weekly meal planning on the chalkboard as I had previously done, I just moved it to a simple spreadsheet. The spreadsheet had the advantage of both making my planning faster and easier AND keeping track of my nutrient ratios automatically so I scarcely had to think about it. Mike shows examples of how to build and use a spreadsheet in his book but it’s really simple. I took it one step further. Admittedly my spreadsheet savvy is slightly more advanced than the average Joe, but nothing I did can’t be learned on Google in a few minutes. Nothing. Here’s what I did:
For my favorite lasagna recipe, I put all the ingredients and their amounts in the spreadsheet, along with their total sodium, fiber, protein, fat, carbs and calories. Nutrient ratios can be gotten from boxes of food, manufacturer websites and from calorieking.com. It was a one time task that takes less than 10 minutes per recipe. Then, I just summed each column and divided by the number of servings in that recipe. In my weekly planner, I created separate tabs for each day of the week, and on each tab I created dropdown boxes where I could pick from the list of recipes I’d entered into my spreadsheet. So for example, on the Monday tab I simply click the dropdown box for lunch and choose any food or recipe I’d previously entered into my spreadsheet. Let’s say I choose lasagna. Well, the sodium, fiber, protein, carbs, fat and calories for 1 serving of lasagna automatically populate the fields for lunch and add them to the daily total. If I want 2 servings of lasagna, I just change the quantity to 2 and all the numbers are updated. Repeat for breakfast, dinner, post-workout, snacks, whatever, and you can instantly build your day and, subsequently, your entire week and never have to manually add a single number in your head. The only requirements are that you take the time upfront to build the spreadsheet and spend a few minutes per recipe to enter them into the spreadsheet. After that, you just have to commit to using it as an extremely fast and effective meal planner. I just added 2-4 recipes per week in the beginning until I had a large number of my favorite recipes in the spreadsheet, and now all I have to do is sit down and chose from the list what I’m going to cook that week. Adding something new is literally and figuratively a piece of cake.
Another tip for the newbie is to track the physical changes in your body. I also use a spreadsheet for this. It’s very simple: weigh yourself every day (on the same scale, at the same time, like first thing in the morning) and enter that into your spreadsheet. I added a chart on a separate tab and I can see how my weight has changed over the weeks. It tends to go up and down daily, but the overall trend is down and it’s extremely encouraging to look at, especially on days where you “feel” like you aren’t making progress. One look at your little chart and all doubts are quashed. I find it extremely motivating. In a few clicks you can also add a regression line (I know, it sounds scary, but it’s not.) It’s just a line that shows the trend in your data points (your weight.) Basically it’s your average weight loss shown in a straight line that runs across your chart. You can use it to very effectively predict when you’ll hit a target weight. I also use the spreadsheet to track my body fat percentage, waist and other body measurements, calculate my lean body mass (LBM), my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and other things Mike explains in BLS. These terms may sound complicated but I assure you, if you can learn to drive a car you can very easily learn how to keep a simple spreadsheet and calculate these numbers and understand what they mean. The beauty of the spreadsheet is that once it’s all set up, you just add your daily weight and everything else is updated for you.
A third tip is to use the website, muscleforlife.com. It’s absolutely brimming with fabulous, plain-English, no-nonsense articles that will answer most, if not all, of your additional questions. Failing that, just post a comment online and Mike will respond. Failing even that, you can call Legion legionathletics.com (Mike’s supplement company) and you can ask a live person your question. They’re very friendly and helpful.
My final tip: take advantage of Mike’s suggestions. He doesn’t suggest stuff willy-nilly. His supplements are truly effective. The lifting shoes and body fat calipers he recommends really work. His exercises and diet advice are like magic. Again on his website you’ll find so many tidbits of helpful advice, but don’t feel like you have to know it all or have all the “stuff” before you can start. A lifestyle change like this isn’t something you achieve overnight. You don’t have to be an expert on day 1. Indeed you can’t be. It’s the journey that makes you the expert. As Lao Tzu said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but you’re lucky to have BLS because it lays out such a clear map.
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Popular Highlights in this book
That’s it for pre-workout nutrition: 30 to 40 grams of protein (and whey is best), and 40 to 50 grams of carbohydrate 30 minutes before training is all you need.Highlighted by 5,338 Kindle readers- Regardless of the source, 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories as well, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories.Highlighted by 4,846 Kindle readers
- And this is why I recommend that you eat the familiar number of 30 to 40 grams of protein in your post-workout meal.Highlighted by 4,354 Kindle readers
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Mike Matthews is the #1 bestselling fitness author in the world, with over 1.5 million books sold, as well as the founder of the #1 brand of all-natural sports supplements, Legion.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has helped tens of thousands of people build their best body ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Reviews with images
1st year in the bag!
What you want to know:Abs? yesShredded? YesBig all around physique? YesIs it worth your money? YesIs it worth your time? Yes-What It covers- Diet, exercise, technique, points you toward other good people to listen to, product recommendations (on Muscle for life blog, no, 99% of them are other peoples products that range from cheap to expensive.) And more.-How does all that fit in a book?-PDF with links to videos, products, and muscle for life website, which is Michael Matthew website of free articles of all the information on health you could possibly want to know.-Can I get this for free?- Sure, if you want to piece all the articles in Muscle for life together. It’ll take a ton more time and effort than buying the inexpensive book though.-Is it the “be all end all” fitness program?- No, nothing is. This teaches you what the right track looks like. Eventually you are going to tailor your own program for your own wants and needs, and this book and beyond bigger leaner stronger teaches you how.-Downsides?--You!- The biggest problem most people will have is a preconception of how exercise should be. Ask yourself: Do I look like how I want to look like from all the years of exercise? Probably not if you’re looking into fitness education. In a year, if you were doing it right, you should look shredded when you want to and in three years you could look like a fitness model if you wanted to. Been exercising longer than five years? Then you should look like the author of BLS. Think about how all those celebrities have those transformations? No, besides drugs. I’m talking about Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, all those Spidermen (Tom Holland is the best one). They’re shredded and lean and look natural. Most people must be missing valuable pieces to the puzzle. Personally I have struggled for two years trying to get abs with little success (first row only wth some obliques).-Everyone else- you talk to about this will not be on board! But does their opinion matter? A good way to tell if their opinion is valid is by seeing if they are the “full package”; ask yourself, do they look like a ripped greek god statue? No? Then ignore them and finish the program to the best of your ability and you will see as the results speak for themselves.-You again!- You’re not perfect you’ll get a few things wrong, unfortunately I did, even if you're trying your best. The best thing to do is every month or so re-study the areas you think you might be fuzzy in, including exercise technique. The closer you get to doing 100% of what the book says the better the results.-Diet!- It’s best to track everything everyday. It’s ok, there is an app for that, so you get used to it quickly.-Upsides?-Knowing what is real and what is just a scam. I was so close to spending around one hundred bucks on some youtube guy’s program and it wouldn’t have taught me what I needed to know after the program. It was only three months of meals and exercises. Shop around and you’ll find everything else is really expensive if you want a year of programing, but not Bigger Leaner Stronger, it teaches you how to make your own program.-Knowing workout magazines are time sinks- with their misleading half truths designed to grab the readers attention long enough for them to come up with something else that’s a waste of time. There is a whole community that is exercising effectively and they are not subscribed to those magazines. They’re reading double blind clinical studies and lifting real weights safely, not doing some weird new exercise of the month.-Making continual progress- in the gym and seeing it in the mirror is a huge motivator. I may stall out for a month now (bye, bye newbie gains) but eventually I jump in weight. No, muscle confusion is a waste of time. See the stats below, if I was bouncing from exercise to exercise, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am now.-My Statistics:-Of which my actual starting weights are lower than listed here but because I did not take the best notes I'm er-ing on the underestimating side. Again, I messed up a lot because of enthusiasm. Also I was untrained on everything.Flat barbell Bench press Start- 105 lbs X 5 1 year- 240 lbs x 4Incline barbell Bench press Start 75 lbs x 4 1 year- 215 lbs x 4Dead lift Start 185 lbs 1 year 375 lbs x 5Barbell Squat: Start 135 lbs 1 year 295 lbs x 5Barbell Military press Start 85 lbs 1 year 170 lbs x 4Side lateral raise Start 15 lbs 1 year 50 lbs x 6Weighted Captain’s chair leg raise Start 25 lbs 1 year 70 lbs x 10Ab wheel to a breath above the floor Start 5 reps 1 year all day long-Learning to eat right:- I found out I was under eating and over exercising. Once I corrected that I slept better and felt better throughout the day. This should have been taught in health class. I was not avoiding food in the slightest by the way, I had three meals a day plus snacks, still I was not even close to what my body needed.-Not wasting any of my time.- Everything I do has a purpose and is effective.-No more working myself to death.- Because I know that there is only a certain amount that your body can recover from naturally. I had several of the symptoms of over training, and I wrote it off as other stresses in life.-Compliments from strangers.- Until I switched gyms half way through the program I used to get a lot of compliments from the other serious lifters at the gym, the ones with the big upper body and small legs. I know it’s corny but everyone at the gym will notice the difference and when they ask you what you’re doing, don’t tell them. They won’t listen anyway, their ego won’t let them, just say I’m on a new diet or something.P.S. A few months into the program you might strain a muscle or feel too tight. When this happens read the sequel Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger. It covers stretches, massaging muscle knots away (which can impede muscle growth), plateauing on lifts, and how to make your own program. This guy truly wanted to do the right thing with these books. This is what happens when greed isn’t the big motivator behind a fitness product.P.P.S All that being said buy all his Legion products!Pre- workout Pulse recommended flavor Fruit punchPost workout Recharge recommended flavor fruit punch (it’s like candy)Protein whey + they are all delicious but my top 2 are cookies and cream and french vanilla but they are expensive luxury type proteins so if you are looking for affordable but trust worthy Micheal Matthews recommends ON Natural protein. There are other brands and now that you know how to tell the good from the bad supplements you can find them easier.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2017
What you want to know:
Abs? yes
Shredded? Yes
Big all around physique? Yes
Is it worth your money? Yes
Is it worth your time? Yes
-What It covers- Diet, exercise, technique, points you toward other good people to listen to, product recommendations (on Muscle for life blog, no, 99% of them are other peoples products that range from cheap to expensive.) And more.
-How does all that fit in a book?-PDF with links to videos, products, and muscle for life website, which is Michael Matthew website of free articles of all the information on health you could possibly want to know.
-Can I get this for free?- Sure, if you want to piece all the articles in Muscle for life together. It’ll take a ton more time and effort than buying the inexpensive book though.
-Is it the “be all end all” fitness program?- No, nothing is. This teaches you what the right track looks like. Eventually you are going to tailor your own program for your own wants and needs, and this book and beyond bigger leaner stronger teaches you how.
-Downsides?-
-You!- The biggest problem most people will have is a preconception of how exercise should be. Ask yourself: Do I look like how I want to look like from all the years of exercise? Probably not if you’re looking into fitness education.
In a year, if you were doing it right, you should look shredded when you want to and in three years you could look like a fitness model if you wanted to. Been exercising longer than five years? Then you should look like the author of BLS. Think about how all those celebrities have those transformations? No, besides drugs. I’m talking about Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, all those Spidermen (Tom Holland is the best one). They’re shredded and lean and look natural. Most people must be missing valuable pieces to the puzzle. Personally I have struggled for two years trying to get abs with little success (first row only wth some obliques).
-Everyone else- you talk to about this will not be on board! But does their opinion matter? A good way to tell if their opinion is valid is by seeing if they are the “full package”; ask yourself, do they look like a ripped greek god statue? No? Then ignore them and finish the program to the best of your ability and you will see as the results speak for themselves.
-You again!- You’re not perfect you’ll get a few things wrong, unfortunately I did, even if you're trying your best. The best thing to do is every month or so re-study the areas you think you might be fuzzy in, including exercise technique. The closer you get to doing 100% of what the book says the better the results.
-Diet!- It’s best to track everything everyday. It’s ok, there is an app for that, so you get used to it quickly.
-Upsides?-
Knowing what is real and what is just a scam. I was so close to spending around one hundred bucks on some youtube guy’s program and it wouldn’t have taught me what I needed to know after the program. It was only three months of meals and exercises. Shop around and you’ll find everything else is really expensive if you want a year of programing, but not Bigger Leaner Stronger, it teaches you how to make your own program.
-Knowing workout magazines are time sinks- with their misleading half truths designed to grab the readers attention long enough for them to come up with something else that’s a waste of time. There is a whole community that is exercising effectively and they are not subscribed to those magazines. They’re reading double blind clinical studies and lifting real weights safely, not doing some weird new exercise of the month.
-Making continual progress- in the gym and seeing it in the mirror is a huge motivator. I may stall out for a month now (bye, bye newbie gains) but eventually I jump in weight. No, muscle confusion is a waste of time. See the stats below, if I was bouncing from exercise to exercise, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am now.
-My Statistics:-Of which my actual starting weights are lower than listed here but because I did not take the best notes I'm er-ing on the underestimating side. Again, I messed up a lot because of enthusiasm. Also I was untrained on everything.
Flat barbell Bench press Start- 105 lbs X 5 1 year- 240 lbs x 4
Incline barbell Bench press Start 75 lbs x 4 1 year- 215 lbs x 4
Dead lift Start 185 lbs 1 year 375 lbs x 5
Barbell Squat: Start 135 lbs 1 year 295 lbs x 5
Barbell Military press Start 85 lbs 1 year 170 lbs x 4
Side lateral raise Start 15 lbs 1 year 50 lbs x 6
Weighted Captain’s chair leg raise Start 25 lbs 1 year 70 lbs x 10
Ab wheel to a breath above the floor Start 5 reps 1 year all day long
-Learning to eat right:- I found out I was under eating and over exercising. Once I corrected that I slept better and felt better throughout the day. This should have been taught in health class. I was not avoiding food in the slightest by the way, I had three meals a day plus snacks, still I was not even close to what my body needed.
-Not wasting any of my time.- Everything I do has a purpose and is effective.
-No more working myself to death.- Because I know that there is only a certain amount that your body can recover from naturally. I had several of the symptoms of over training, and I wrote it off as other stresses in life.
-Compliments from strangers.- Until I switched gyms half way through the program I used to get a lot of compliments from the other serious lifters at the gym, the ones with the big upper body and small legs. I know it’s corny but everyone at the gym will notice the difference and when they ask you what you’re doing, don’t tell them. They won’t listen anyway, their ego won’t let them, just say I’m on a new diet or something.
P.S. A few months into the program you might strain a muscle or feel too tight. When this happens read the sequel Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger. It covers stretches, massaging muscle knots away (which can impede muscle growth), plateauing on lifts, and how to make your own program. This guy truly wanted to do the right thing with these books. This is what happens when greed isn’t the big motivator behind a fitness product.
P.P.S All that being said buy all his Legion products!
Pre- workout Pulse recommended flavor Fruit punch
Post workout Recharge recommended flavor fruit punch (it’s like candy)
Protein whey + they are all delicious but my top 2 are cookies and cream and french vanilla but they are expensive luxury type proteins so if you are looking for affordable but trust worthy Micheal Matthews recommends ON Natural protein. There are other brands and now that you know how to tell the good from the bad supplements you can find them easier.
Abs? yes
Shredded? Yes
Big all around physique? Yes
Is it worth your money? Yes
Is it worth your time? Yes
-What It covers- Diet, exercise, technique, points you toward other good people to listen to, product recommendations (on Muscle for life blog, no, 99% of them are other peoples products that range from cheap to expensive.) And more.
-How does all that fit in a book?-PDF with links to videos, products, and muscle for life website, which is Michael Matthew website of free articles of all the information on health you could possibly want to know.
-Can I get this for free?- Sure, if you want to piece all the articles in Muscle for life together. It’ll take a ton more time and effort than buying the inexpensive book though.
-Is it the “be all end all” fitness program?- No, nothing is. This teaches you what the right track looks like. Eventually you are going to tailor your own program for your own wants and needs, and this book and beyond bigger leaner stronger teaches you how.
-Downsides?-
-You!- The biggest problem most people will have is a preconception of how exercise should be. Ask yourself: Do I look like how I want to look like from all the years of exercise? Probably not if you’re looking into fitness education.
In a year, if you were doing it right, you should look shredded when you want to and in three years you could look like a fitness model if you wanted to. Been exercising longer than five years? Then you should look like the author of BLS. Think about how all those celebrities have those transformations? No, besides drugs. I’m talking about Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, all those Spidermen (Tom Holland is the best one). They’re shredded and lean and look natural. Most people must be missing valuable pieces to the puzzle. Personally I have struggled for two years trying to get abs with little success (first row only wth some obliques).
-Everyone else- you talk to about this will not be on board! But does their opinion matter? A good way to tell if their opinion is valid is by seeing if they are the “full package”; ask yourself, do they look like a ripped greek god statue? No? Then ignore them and finish the program to the best of your ability and you will see as the results speak for themselves.
-You again!- You’re not perfect you’ll get a few things wrong, unfortunately I did, even if you're trying your best. The best thing to do is every month or so re-study the areas you think you might be fuzzy in, including exercise technique. The closer you get to doing 100% of what the book says the better the results.
-Diet!- It’s best to track everything everyday. It’s ok, there is an app for that, so you get used to it quickly.
-Upsides?-
Knowing what is real and what is just a scam. I was so close to spending around one hundred bucks on some youtube guy’s program and it wouldn’t have taught me what I needed to know after the program. It was only three months of meals and exercises. Shop around and you’ll find everything else is really expensive if you want a year of programing, but not Bigger Leaner Stronger, it teaches you how to make your own program.
-Knowing workout magazines are time sinks- with their misleading half truths designed to grab the readers attention long enough for them to come up with something else that’s a waste of time. There is a whole community that is exercising effectively and they are not subscribed to those magazines. They’re reading double blind clinical studies and lifting real weights safely, not doing some weird new exercise of the month.
-Making continual progress- in the gym and seeing it in the mirror is a huge motivator. I may stall out for a month now (bye, bye newbie gains) but eventually I jump in weight. No, muscle confusion is a waste of time. See the stats below, if I was bouncing from exercise to exercise, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am now.
-My Statistics:-Of which my actual starting weights are lower than listed here but because I did not take the best notes I'm er-ing on the underestimating side. Again, I messed up a lot because of enthusiasm. Also I was untrained on everything.
Flat barbell Bench press Start- 105 lbs X 5 1 year- 240 lbs x 4
Incline barbell Bench press Start 75 lbs x 4 1 year- 215 lbs x 4
Dead lift Start 185 lbs 1 year 375 lbs x 5
Barbell Squat: Start 135 lbs 1 year 295 lbs x 5
Barbell Military press Start 85 lbs 1 year 170 lbs x 4
Side lateral raise Start 15 lbs 1 year 50 lbs x 6
Weighted Captain’s chair leg raise Start 25 lbs 1 year 70 lbs x 10
Ab wheel to a breath above the floor Start 5 reps 1 year all day long
-Learning to eat right:- I found out I was under eating and over exercising. Once I corrected that I slept better and felt better throughout the day. This should have been taught in health class. I was not avoiding food in the slightest by the way, I had three meals a day plus snacks, still I was not even close to what my body needed.
-Not wasting any of my time.- Everything I do has a purpose and is effective.
-No more working myself to death.- Because I know that there is only a certain amount that your body can recover from naturally. I had several of the symptoms of over training, and I wrote it off as other stresses in life.
-Compliments from strangers.- Until I switched gyms half way through the program I used to get a lot of compliments from the other serious lifters at the gym, the ones with the big upper body and small legs. I know it’s corny but everyone at the gym will notice the difference and when they ask you what you’re doing, don’t tell them. They won’t listen anyway, their ego won’t let them, just say I’m on a new diet or something.
P.S. A few months into the program you might strain a muscle or feel too tight. When this happens read the sequel Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger. It covers stretches, massaging muscle knots away (which can impede muscle growth), plateauing on lifts, and how to make your own program. This guy truly wanted to do the right thing with these books. This is what happens when greed isn’t the big motivator behind a fitness product.
P.P.S All that being said buy all his Legion products!
Pre- workout Pulse recommended flavor Fruit punch
Post workout Recharge recommended flavor fruit punch (it’s like candy)
Protein whey + they are all delicious but my top 2 are cookies and cream and french vanilla but they are expensive luxury type proteins so if you are looking for affordable but trust worthy Micheal Matthews recommends ON Natural protein. There are other brands and now that you know how to tell the good from the bad supplements you can find them easier.
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Andes Hernández
Para principantes, tiene todo lo necesario. Para avanzados, es un buen recordatorio de las bases.
Reviewed in Mexico on January 15, 2024
