Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I review this book, l want to tell you about my opinion of Mike Matthews. His flagship text, self-published through his publishing company, Oculus, Bigger, Leaner, Stronger has been the foundation I use to live my greatest life in my greatest body. I have a long way to go, but Mike has been there every step of the way for me. (I have actually ripped up my BLS and given out various pages and chapters to friends and trainers). As he has become a better writer, this foundational text has become denser and more effective with each new edition. Mike’s Muscle for Life podcast; blog, and videos contain some of the best-researched, most informative articles I have discovered during my health journey. His straightforward, practical, science-based approach has informed my own decisions as well as led me to make better choices and plans for myself. I use many of Mike’s supplements from his Legion Athletics brand. They are expensive but the best and most effective I have ever used. Clean, pure and supervised by his scientific board and clinical team, Legion Athletics is Mike’s market response to the charlatans and chicanery riven through the supplement industry. I can’t say enough good things about every product I have purchased…my bank account groans but at least my gut doesn’t. After following Mike for three years, this is what I know: He used to live in Florida but now lives in Virginia; his Dad is a ‘successful’ entrepreneur; he didn’t go to college; he decided to grow muscles because ‘girls seemed to like muscles’; he’s married to a German ‘unicorn of a wife’; he has two children; he’s learning German; he has an infrared sauna; he recently purchased a car; he has a disdain for government intervention, and he does not like the health & fitness industry due to its rampant deception and narcissism. After three years of thrice-weekly exposure, one would think that we would get to know and love Mike Matthews. But the truth is EVERYTHING I know is listed above. That’s it. All of this leads to Mike Matthews’ fatal flaw: he is not vulnerable and therefore creates no intimacy with his audience and hence doesn’t create connection with us in any meaningful way. Mike loves to use quotes and (well-researched) historical anecdotes to illustrate many of his points, but he NEVER CONNECTS TO US ON A FOUNDATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL LEVEL. He doesn’t share anything of himself and leaves no blood on the floor for us to examine. I desperately wish the people around Mike would tell him to read Brene Brown or to watch Simon Sinek so Mike could finish the job and make us FEEL SOMETHING. Mike doesn’t understand that the personal is political. He doesn’t understand that what people really want is the STORY behind the man, the B-roll if you will. You show that and the products will sell themselves. Mike is really good at giving us the WHAT and the HOW but he has never created a WHY. Mike’s stated goal is to help millions of people…if he is going to do that then he must make himself vulnerable so that we can connect. Examples of this systemic flaw: Every few months Mike will interview someone going through his MFL training program for his podcast. For the last few years, every single person he has interviewed has had some type of athletic background or been in fitness in other ways. Mike doesn’t get that most people who read him and follow him are overweight and unhealthy and are trying to change their bodies and their lives. For the vast majority of us, it’s neither useful nor interesting to hear how a guy went from 14% body fat to 8% body fat. Why doesn’t he get that the real CONNECTION is to the vulnerable and the dispossessed - not the already ripped. Mike was interviewed on another podcast and actually stated, “Do I know what it’s like to fall off your diet during a cut? No.” He went on to say that he does ‘understand it’ because he’s helped thousands of people deal with that issue. How can a person connect with you, EMPATHIZE WITH YOU and ultimately, HELP YOU if they have not experienced these setbacks and failures themselves? Even in the video promotion for this book we see images of Mike running (alone) up marble stairs (a la Rocky); we see him sitting at his desk researching, and (for a very few seconds) we see him in his backyard with one of his kids. What we don’t see is him with anyone else - HELPING anyone else. This video is emblematic of this fatal flaw. WHERE IS THE CONNECTION? All of this leads up to my review of this book: it is NOT motivational because Mike doesn’t connect with us…the little people who want to be big. His writing and grammar are excellent and everything is researched to within an inch of it’s life but make no mistake, there is no soul in this book. Please stick to Bigger, Leaner, Stronger or his cookbook or his other products. Definitely check out Legion Athletics’ supplements, they are fabulous. But DO NOT BUY this book because it will not motivate you. It will make you feel like you are sitting in philosophy class and thinking about what you are going to order for lunch from the food truck outside. I preordered this book and part of the marketing push was that you could win a trip to Washington D.C. to meet Mike and his team. I prayed I would not win because if I had, I would have no choice but to tell him my opinion on these matters. I truly and deeply want Mike Matthews to succeed. I want his message to spread far and wide but he must learn to access emotions and be vulnerable and to connect. No one’s life is that perfect and seamless, it’s just not human and it is certainly not motivating.