Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body
As you know, getting in shape and building a better body is far from easy. In fact, it can seem downright impossible for some people. People spend hundreds, if not thousands, on fitness supplements, exercise regimes, and workout programs, every single day. They do this in order to help them build the ultimate body and finally crush their fitness goals once and for all.
This is why Mike Matthews created ‘Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Body’. There are plenty of fitness and workout books out there, yet Bigger Leaner Stronger always seems to be the first one that people speak of when asked for recommendations of tools to utilize to get in shape.
But just what is it about Mike Matthews’ book that has fitness fanatics all over the world so thoroughly impressed? Well, let’s take a look, shall we? Here is an honest and detailed review of Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Body.
Who is Mike Matthews?
– Before we look at the book, first we’re going to learn a little more about the author to give you some context. It’s important to know about who is doing the writing as it can help set your mind at ease. You see, if an overweight, lazy, bone-idle slob wrote a book about working out and getting in shape, there’s a very strong chance that the info it contained would be generic, simple, and would basically suck. If, however, a fit, healthy, knowledgeable and enthusiastic young guy with years of experience in the fitness industry wrote a workout book, you’d feel far more comfortable with making the purchase.
Well, as it happens, Mike Matthews does indeed fall into the latter category. Mike was like many other an enthusiastic fitness newbie once upon a time. He longed for a muscular, lean, and athletic body, yet had no idea of how to go about achieving it. He started reading fitness magazines and articles and started to acquire new knowledge. He made some improvements to his physique, but the more he read, the more he found that 90% of the fitness advice out there is plain and generic. He decided to do more extensive research. He trained with personal trainers, fitness coaches, nutritionists, and more besides, and started to really delve deep into the world of fitness.
Now he knew what was required to build an amazing physique, and that’s exactly what he did. He started working as a personal trainer and trained his friends and offered great advice. They encouraged him to write a book as they were sure people would pay good money for his advice. So he did. That book was Bigger Leaner Stronger, and it’s that book we will be reviewing today.
Bigger Leaner Stronger –
This book is basically a book designed to provide the average person with 
easy-to-understand knowledge and advice on what to do to build a lean, muscular, strong, and athletic body. It is there to help people understand that, no matter how down they feel, how poor their genetics may be, or how tough they find it to exercise and eat right, they CAN build their dream body with a little help from the right places.
The book is designed to outline the basic principles required for building muscle and getting in shape. For example, Matthews talks about how you need to consume enough protein and lift heavy to build muscle, whereas to burn fat you need to cut calories.
This sounds simple because it is, and that’s the point that Matthews is trying to make. He spent years reading generic fitness magazines that tried to recycle tried and tested info by putting overly complex scientific spins on things, and he quickly learnt that this info made the process far more complex than it needed to be. For building muscle, ideally he recommends 3 working sets of 4 – 6 heavy reps, mainly with free weights. To burn fat and help stay lean, cardio is included as and when needed. There is nothing complex to understand here, to build muscle, you simply need to
gradually add resistance with each session, get enough protein, eat the right carbs at the right time, and be sure to include cardio along the way.
Muscle Building Myths and Mistakes –
In one particular section of Mike’s book, you’ll see that he has taken the time to list the 6 most common muscle building myths and mistakes. These myths and mistakes are:
• More sets = more muscle growth
• To grow you must ‘feel the burn’
• Wasting time in the gym focussing on the wrong exercises
• Lifting like an idiot
• Lifting like a wuss
• Eating the wrong foods resulting in fat gain rather than muscle
We won’t go into detail about each of these myths and mistakes as we don’t have time, but as an example, Mike talks about how people seem to think that more working sets mean more muscle growth. He mentions how people will perform countless sets to try to build muscle by increasing training volume, when in reality all that is needed is gradual increases in weight. Progressive overload on the muscles through increases in resistance is all that is required to build muscle. Focus primarily on heavy compounds as they recruit more muscle fibres. Some isolation work is of course recommended, but an emphasis should be placed on compounds.
The science of building muscle – Bigger Leaner Stronger
One thing that we really liked about Bigger Leaner Stronger, is the fact that, while keeping things simple and easy to understand, the book still goes into detail about the science behind building muscle. According to Mike, there are 4 laws of building muscle, which are:
1. Your muscles will only grow if you force them to grow
2. Your muscles will only grow from being overloaded. They won’t grow from pumps or fatigue
3. Muscle is built outside of the gym
4. Your muscles will only grow if they are fed with the right nutrients
People seem to think that we build muscle in the gym through lifting weights. This is not true, in fact, it’s the exact opposite. We actually destroy our muscles through lifting weights as we cause microscopic rips and tears in the muscle tissues and fibres. The body actually repairs these tears when we rest, rebuilding them bigger and stronger than they were previously. However, it only does this if it has access to the right nutrients, and if the body is getting enough rest. In order to build muscle, heavy weights must be lifted, and ideally you should perform intense, relatively low reps to failure. Getting enough sleep is vital when it comes to building muscle, as is eating the right foods at the right times. Without the right nutrition, it doesn’t matter how hard you are training, you simply won’t make any real progress. Generally, Mike Matthews breaks down the process of getting in shape into three sections:
1. Lift hard and heavy
2. Make sure you are getting enough rest
3. Ensure that you are feeding the body with the right nutrients
Pros and cons –
Bigger Leaner Stronger is very popular amongst fitness enthusiasts and experts alike, and it’s easy to see why. There is plenty to like about this book, which is why we’ll shortly be listing the main pros of it. There are however, things than can be improved upon, which we will be listing in the form of cons. Let’s start with the good.
Pros – Here are some of the things that people, us included, found most appealing about this book:
• Great for beginners
• Honest, no BS advice
• Scientifically based evidence
• References to backup the claims
• Very personable author
• Tried and tested advice
• 1 entire year of workouts included
• Available via audible, kindle, and print formats
• Interesting content
• Easy-to-follow instructions
Cons – Now we’re going to list a couple of things that we, and others, feel could perhaps be improved upon:
• Emphasis is placed on weight training so is perhaps not suitable for people looking to simply trim up and get fitter
• Not as many high-quality images as we would have liked
Final thoughts –
So, after looking at the book in more detail, and learning more about Mike Matthews’ background, it’s now time for us to decide whether we think Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Body is worth the money or whether it’s just another generic training program offering recycled advice like 90% of the other content out there. Well, we have to say that Bigger Leaner Stronger is definitely WAY BETTER than the vast majority of workout books and programs out there, and that’s mainly because Mike set out to offer simple, straightforward, honest, no BS advice, to help people avoid making the same mistakes that he made when he was trying to build his body. The end result is a professional, effective, and thorough book that will almost certainly add value to any training and dietary regime. For that, we give it 4.8 out of 5.