
Protein intake becomes more important, so eating a high-protein diet let's say something around 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Let's just say the majority of your food is relatively unprocessed, highly nutritious stuff. You don't have to obsess over clean eating. It’s going to be important, for example, to make sure that you are eating plenty of nutritious foods.

What do you recommend to your over-40 clients to help with their recovery? But they can do that, and then they can keep that body for the rest of their life. But somebody 60 years old with 50 pounds to lose who has never touched a weight before can do that. It may take them a little bit longer than it would have taken them if they would have started at 20. We're talking, for guys, it requires gaining 20 to 25 pounds of muscle in the right places on their body, and bringing their body fat percent percentage down to maybe 10 or 15 percent.Īnyone can do that, regardless of where they have been, where they are now, how much fat they have to lose, how much muscle they have to gain. But that's irrelevant when you look at it in the context of the average guy or gal that I’ve worked with over the years for the body they want. And if you are looking at total potential muscle and strength gain, it's going to be higher if you start at 18 versus 50. Now what is accurate is that recovery is better when you're younger, so you can abuse yourself more aggressively when you're younger. I talk about research that shows, for example, that men and women middle-aged and beyond can gain muscle and strength at about the same rate as people half their age.

It’s coming out in January, and it is specifically for the 40-plus crowd. I have a book coming out called Muscle for Life. So much so now that it's probably not worth even trying, or the return on the investment of the effort is going to be so low that it's just very hard to stay motivated. I think it all falls under the umbrella of “it’s too late,” or that now they will not be able to gain muscle or gain strength or lose fat anywhere near as effectively as they could when they were younger. In the Little Black Book, you say you “took people in their forties, fifties, and sixties who believed their hormones and metabolisms were beyond repair and helped them get into the best shape of their lives.” What’s the biggest misconception people in those age ranges have about their bodies and their abilities? This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
BIGGER LEANER STRONGER BODY FAT HOW TO
Matthews spoke to Men's Health about the challenges guys in that age range face, how they can maximize their gains, and how to keep things interesting and motivating when you’ve already had years in the gym. Next year, he’s debuting a new book, Muscle for Life, focused on building and maintaining muscle and fitness after 40.

And while you might not think “realistic” would sell books, thousands have picked up not just Bigger Leaner Stronger, but a sequel, a version written for women, a cookbook, and a book on motivation, The Little Black Book of Workout Motivation. In his books and social media posts, Matthews tries to cut through those false expectations to help people achieve realistic fitness goals-and get there sustainably. “And that can make a lot of people feel like they are just inadequate, like they just don't have the genetics, because they seem to struggle so much for so little.” Sometimes they are going to be guys and gals 40, 50, 60-super jacked, super shredded… They say that they've been training for 20 years and they're still gaining six, eight pounds of muscle per year,” says Michael Matthews, author of Bigger Leaner Stronger and founder of Legion Athletics. “If you just cruise around on Instagram, you're going to see a lot of very impressive physiques.

The chiseled, perfectly-lit bodies of social media aren’t just screwing up our views of our own bodies-it’s also messing with our perception of how quickly we can get the body we’ve always wanted.
