Life gets busy. Has Thinner Leaner Stronger been gathering dust on your bookshelf? Instead, pick up the key ideas now.
We’re scratching the surface here. If you don’t already have the book, order it here or get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.

---

If you want to take charge of your life, improve your health, and boost your self-esteem, this book is for you. It’s the perfect tool for sculpting the female physique. It includes a training plan designed to improve women’s physical appearance. Put another way, trim down, bulk up, and your nudeness will improve dramatically.

The author’s goal is to help as many people as possible achieve and maintain their ideal body composition and level of health. It’s vital to understand the philosophy behind the exercises and diet that underpin it to get the most out of the program, and this book does just that.

Inspiring anecdotes and practical advice combine in this book. The program’s viability and adaptability mean that its effects can last.

About Michael Mathews

The creator of Legion Athletics and author of the bestsellers Bigger Leaner Stronger and The Shredded Chef is Mike Matthews. Over a million copies of his books have been sold, and he has helped tens of thousands of individuals achieve their fitness and health goals. His work has been published in several publications, including Men’s Health, Elle, Esquire, Women’s Health, and Muscle & Strength.

StoryShot #1 Two or Three Major Muscle Groups Should Be Trained in Each Workout

As opposed to other training methods, such as full-body exercises, Matthews prefers the push-pull-leg routine because it effectively targets all major muscle groups, allows for adequate recovery time, and can be modified to accommodate a wide range of individual needs and preferences.

The primary muscular groups are targeted in a push-pull-leg program in that order: chest, shoulders, and triceps; back and biceps; and legs. Matthews elucidates how this procedure is also simpler to grasp.

While there are other methods to structure exercise routines, Bigger Leaner Stronger follows a push-pull-legs (PPL) split, in which you work out just two or three primary muscle groups simultaneously.

StoryShot #2 Increase Your Set Count to 9–10 per Workout if You Want To See Results

In each session of Bigger Leaner Stronger, you’ll warm up and complete 9-15 challenging sets. For instance, if you’re doing bicep curls, you might do ten reps at about half your hard-set weight, rest for a minute, and then repeat.

After resting for a minute, you would do ten repetitions at a slightly quicker tempo with the same weight, followed by four repetitions with a weight around 70% of your hard-set weight. Three intense muscle-building sets would be the last phase.

StoryShot #3 For Each Challenging Set, Aim for 4–6 Reps

Your hard sets in Bigger, Leaner, Stronger will typically consist of four repetitions minimum and no more than six reps maximum. Matthews notes that this implies most guys should be lifting between 80% and 85% of their one-rep max.

One rep of dumbbell biceps curls entails lifting the weights from your sides, flexing your biceps, and returning them to their starting positions. Then you’ve completed one challenging set if you accomplish five additional repetitions to the level where you can no longer sustain good form.

A rep is one complete movement of lifting and lowering weight. A heavy, strength- and muscle-building set carried almost to failure is called a “hard set.” A set is a predetermined series of repetitions of an exercise, and a “hard set” is one in which the weight is so heavy that the lifter can no longer maintain perfect form.

StoryShot #4 Once Every 3–5 Days Is Optimal for Training Most Major Muscle Groups

In conclusion, if you’re lifting large weights, frequency is mostly a technique to get to your goal weekly volume for each major muscle group.

When it comes to how often you should and can exercise each major muscle group, Matthews says several factors come into play. These include your training routine, your physical objectives, the weight you use, and the number of sets you do.

Mathews also says that if you want better outcomes, you have to reduce the frequency with which you exercise because intensity and volume go hand in hand. You could theoretically squat and bench press three times each week, but you couldn’t complete ten hard sets of each exercise.

StoryShot #5 Every 8-10 Weeks, Take a Break

Matthews encourages you to test out both approaches in Bigger Leaner Stronger. In his book, Matthews describes two simple strategies for preventing overtraining-related symptoms. The first is deloading, which is regularly lowering the intensity or volume of our workouts. The other is to take a break from lifting weights every five to seven days. 

StoryShot #6 A Flexible Diet Is Essential

Chapters 16 to 20 cover creating and implementing a nutrition plan tailored to your specific needs and goals, building on the information presented in earlier chapters. These guidelines are invaluable for those starting from scratch with no background knowledge. Mistakes involving cheat meals are discussed in the section’s final chapter. Mathews provides an overview of his daily routine, including a cheat meal.

Then, based on this Total Daily Energy Expenditures (TDEE), Matthews provides a clear framework for developing individualized calorie and macronutrient programs for weight loss, weight maintenance, and weight gain. In the end, he explains how to implement that strategy in a diet.

Proper nutrition is essential for both muscle gain and fat loss. You require macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. You won’t get enough fuel and won’t put on much weight if you restrict your calorie intake too much.

 Alternatively, eating too much might lead to excess muscle and fat. Make smart choices about your macronutrient intake to improve your body composition. While attempting to lose weight by dietary restriction, one’s goal should be to reduce body fat while preserving muscle mass. Therefore, when reducing calorie intake, it is important to continue consuming sufficient protein, carbs, and even fat to prevent muscle loss and hormone disruption.

Again, resistance exercise may assist prevent muscle loss while you strive to reduce weight by counteracting the body’s natural tendency to break down muscle during a calorie deficit. When dieting, the body attempts to keep its weight constant by slowing its metabolism. To combat this, engaging in resistance exercise might help keep your metabolism steady or even increase its efficiency when you are in a calorie deficit.

Matthews summarizes what researchers have learned regarding the benefits and drawbacks of taking supplements. Some succeed, and others don’t. In addition, it is recommended that you have a pre-workout snack around 30 minutes before your workout that is high in carbohydrates for energy and protein for muscle building. Eat something similar after your exercise.

Depending on your objectives, you can choose a cutting, maintenance, or lean bulking phase to begin your dietary regimen. Meal planning and macronutrient ratios vary depending on whether you’re cutting, lean bulking, or maintaining. So, the order in which you do things will determine your diet’s macronutrient ratios. Beginning with a period of cutting until a target percentage of body fat is reached is recommended by Michael Matthews.

Muscular cells get the energy necessary for muscle contractions from ATP, which is synthesized from glycogen. Reduced or eliminated carbohydrate intake leaves muscles with low glycogen to generate enough levels of ATP for contraction. As a result, the effectiveness of the muscle is severely reduced. If you’re attempting to gain or maintain muscle mass by lifting weights, you don’t want your muscles to operate at less than their best. To achieve your fitness and health goals, you must build muscle, and carbohydrates are essential for the muscle to function at its peak.

StoryShot #7 Exercising More Often Is Preferable

When you work out for too long every day, you risk overtraining, which leaves you fatigued and unable to recover your strength since your muscles haven’t had enough time to heal. So, it’s possible that you could start to lose muscle and gain fat as a result. To avoid being hurt during a workout, it’s important to use proper technique and not put too much pressure on oneself.

Having a workout buddy may be quite beneficial. They may serve as a spotter, an accountability partner, or both. Act as a reliable collaborator. Remember to keep your word and arrive when you said you would. Don’t talk too much, and tire out your workout companion. You should both try to concentrate on your exercises for the time being and discuss things afterward.

Matthews has various training plans for people who exercise three, four, or five times weekly. It’s important to keep a workout log to gauge your success with the training plan. Again, it’s helpful to keep tabs on your development, but if doing so seems too much like extra effort, you may as well stop doing it. Information such as weight, body fat percentage, and repetitions performed with various weights and loads is included. Multiple methods are available, including digital applications and traditional pen and paper. Choose the one that serves you best.

StoryShot #8 Using up Precious Time on Ineffective Workouts

Gaining muscle and strength in the gym can be accomplished with only three things: a healthy diet, lifting gradually more challenging weights, and plenty of rest. Compound exercises, which include the deadlift, squat, and bench press, are the most effective for growing muscle since they work out more than one muscle group at once.

Exercises focusing on one muscle group at a time, like the cable fly and the leg extension, are ineffective at best.

Strength training with no forward momentum. Of course, that will never be successful. The forces of evolution are stacked against you as you strive for physical perfection. Each of us prefers ease and comfort to any other feeling. Going to the gym is a commitment; you should make the most of it.

Unfortunately, most individuals don’t know anything about the correct type of workouts, which slows their development and leaves them vulnerable to devastating ailments by putting extra stress on their tendons, ligaments,  and joints.

StoryShot #9 Eat To Lose Weight or Gain Strength

Working out is essential, but it’s just half the battle. And even among educated women, good nutrition is severely lacking. Fail to consume sufficient calories and a balanced diet of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, and your muscles will not expand or strengthen. Even with intense workouts, muscle development is impossible without sufficient calories.

You may grow muscle, but it will be covered up by an unsightly layer of fat if you consume too many calories, the wrong kinds of carbohydrates and fats, and don’t know how to balance and plan your meals correctly.

StoryShot #10 There Exist Many Myths on Exercising

Matthews dispels popular misconceptions about weight training and dieting. One such thing is the common misconception that doing more sets would help you become stronger. Also, it would help if you didn’t experience pain when exercising; that’s not a sign of progress. 

Perform a combination of exercises instead of individual ones. Shoulder workouts that focus on isolation are okay. Weight training using free weights is superior to using machines. 

Maintaining proper technique and seldom switching up your regimen are both sufficient.

The body’s fat-burning and -forming processes occur in cycles. Body fat is formed during meals and burned off, particularly at night. Follow your routine when it comes to when you eat. Weight growth is not much affected by eating fewer large meals, more small meals, or later in the evening. The overall amount of energy used and consumed is what counts. Maintaining a regular dietary routine is essential. However, research shows that eating protein 30–40 minutes before bed aids muscle repair.

Although some may tell you otherwise, keeping an eye on your calorie intake is still important. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will acquire fat, and vice versa. Slim down by consuming fewer calories than you use up.

It has been shown before that it is possible to lose weight while following a junk food diet by eating fewer calories than are consumed. Although tempting, this is not advised since it might lead to nutritional deficits. Extreme calorie restriction for brief periods is another unhealthy activity many engage in. It is not suggested that you do this. After stopping a diet, most people binge on unhealthy foods and regain all the weight they lost, plus some.

Below are some myths discussed by Mathews.

•    Counting calories is unnecessary if you want to lose weight; you need to keep track of your calories. It is necessary to expend more energy than is taken in via food to reduce body fat. It is because calories are the unit of measurement for the amount of energy a certain diet provides. Extra fat is the inevitable effect of consuming more calories than one expends during the day. It is as easy as it sounds.

•    Cardio causes weight loss- Doing cardio can help you lose weight, but only up to a point and not at all if you’re consuming too much. While jogging can help you lose some weight, it won’t prevent you from gaining weight if you consume 600 more calories than you need.

•    When it comes to building lean muscle, low weight and high repetitions win hands down- Having little body fat makes you thin; working out is irrelevant. And it’s not something you can hope to accomplish with a routine emphasizing lightweight and many repetitions.

•    Reduction of spot- Only via careful dietary management can excess fat be decreased; spot reduction with focused activities is ineffective. If and how it is diminished is up to the individual’s processes. There is nothing we can do to alter the unique ways our genes have designed our bodies. Having clear, measurable objectives is important before beginning any exercise or diet program. Motivate yourself to do this task. Whether your goal is to improve your relationship or your hobby skills doesn’t matter. Just choose one that will keep you moving forward with confidence. Seeing as how it’s quite a trek there and back.

Review and Final Summary

Though it may seem counterintuitive initially, the method presented in Thinner Leaner Stronger requires less time in the gym than the conventional wisdom would have you believe. Matthews also provides supplemental guidance and extra content. Whether you’re just getting started or are an experienced expert who feels like you’ve hit a wall, this book should help you get unstuck. The proposal, once again, is founded on evidence rather than speculation. You need to save this book for future reference.

Standard exercise schedules are designed for those who exercise 5, 4, or 3 times a week. To me, dieting isn’t all that challenging, but it may be more difficult if you share a kitchen with folks who prefer to have high-calorie foods on hand.

This book is fantastic all the way through. The book offers straightforward guidance for both weight loss and muscle gain. On top of that, the book includes research to back up all of its claims. This book is a great resource for those with some fitness experience or who are just starting out. 

Nonetheless, Mathews does not skimp on the details and provides services and supplemental materials to help you create your own meal plan. The book is highly recommended to the female reader who aspires to a toned, athletic physique.

Interactive Infographic of Thinner Leaner Stronger Workout Plan and Summary