My Story

About The Guy Behind Tried & True Fitness

That’s me, knocking out chin-ups with an extra 100 pounds tied to my waist.

That’s me, knocking out chin-ups with an extra 100 pounds tied to my waist.

My name is Matt Marshall — I’m the guy behind the Tried & True Fitness website.

At the time of this writing, I’m 31 years old. I’ve been training for over 16 years, yet I’m embarrassed to admit that…

I Can NOT Bench Press 1,000 Pounds!

I just thought I should mention that right off the bat — since it seems nearly every internet and arm-chair expert will tell you about how strong and “hyoooge” they are. Sure, they never post any videos of themselves and you’ll never see a picture of them… but that doesn’t stop these “keyboard kingpins” from posting fake stats and fake achievements all over the internet.

So… since I’ve already admitted that I can NOT bench press 1,000 pounds… why should you listen to me?

Well, it’s because (in my opinion) I am an “expert” when it comes to practice of building muscle, stripping off body fat, achieving optimal health and doing it all without illegal or expensive drugs.

What makes me an expert? Well, it’s quite simple really.

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Pretty sweet, huh? By that definition, I’m also qualified as an “expert” in many other fields… such as winning arguments with my wife, defeating procrastination and making a perfect omelette.

But, above all else, I’m an “expert” in building muscle and burning fat. Because I’ve been striving for those goals for the past 16 years and I can honestly say I’ve made just about every single mistake in the book.

Join me on a quick trip down memory lane, because I bet you’ll discover we have a LOT in common…

“I FORBID You To Lift Weights!”

That’s what my dad told me when he caught me lifting weights in the basement at age 13. Ok, perhaps he didn’t say “forbid” but the message was clear enough. He thought lifting weights would stunt my growth, so he wanted me to wait until I was 16.

But as any parent knows, the best way to ensure that your child develops an insane curiosity and intense obsession with an activity is to tell your kid it’s off-limits.

So for the next few years I would secretly work out in my basement. I’d “train” after school, before my dad got home. By “train”, I mean I would knock out endless sets of bench presses and bicep curls as quietly as I could.

Needless to say, I didn’t see much return for my early efforts.

Which is a shame — because I had a very good reason for wanting to get big and buff at an early age. You see, I didn’t care about how much I could bench or how many chin-ups I could do.

I Just Wanted To Stay Out Of The Girl’s Bathroom!

I went to Middle School/Junior High in Livonia, Michigan. And junior high in Livonia consists of just two grades — only 7th and 8th grade.

You’d think the 7th and 8th graders and would get along since we were all practically the same age… but that’s NOT how it worked. The 8th graders acted like kings, and tried to punish the 7th grade “baby’s” whenever possible.

If an 8th grader was walking down the hall and saw a 7th grader anywhere near the girls bathroom, he would sprint over and body-check the 7th grader into the girl’s bathroom.

That was the pinnacle of embarrassment when you were in 7th grade.

But it was even more embarrassing for me because when I was in 8th grade I thought I would get revenge. But things didn’t work that way. I was so skinny that 7th graders body-checked ME (an 8th grader) in the girls bathroom!

Someday, you’ll laugh about this…

Looking back, the whole situation sounds kind of funny. But I also remember how PAINFUL it was to be skinny. And let’s get one thing clear — I was definitely skinny. Scrawny. Heck, let’s call a spade a spade — I looked like a bag of bones.

For me, this was simply a case of the apple not falling far from the tree. My dad was scrawny too — weighing at 129 pounds (at a height of 5′11) on his wedding day.

So needless to say, the deck was stacked against me. Listen, it sucked being so skinny. It wasn’t just about getting body-checked by younger (and bigger) kids. Being scrawny, skinny and weak made life so much more difficult than it had to be.

I was a pretty decent athlete growing up — decent speed and coordination. But because I was skinny, I got out-muscled and pushed around. So I found myself on the sidelines and eventually off the court all together in high school. That sucked.

Plus, when you’re super skinny you are pretty much invisible to women. Especially when even the tiniest girls end-up looking fat just because they’re standing next to a human toothpick.

High school wasn’t much better. I got pushed around a LOT, completely ignored by girls and I had absolutely zero self-confidence or self-respect.

Skinny & Weak Is No Way To Go Through Life

I hated — absolutely detested — being skinny and weak. So at a young age I set out to build up my body and get strong.

Along the way, I made nearly every mistake you can possibly imagine.

It started with my secret basement workouts. I mainly did bench presses and curls and I may have gained a few pounds along the way but I was still scrawny and weak.

Then I discovered muscle magazines. I started copying the training routines of famous bodybuilders. Of course, at such a young age I didn’t realize that the professional bodybuilders featured in the magazines all had two things in common: #1) Outstanding genetics… and #2) Massive doses of steroids.

So no matter what how closely I followed their advice, no matter how hard I worked… I didn’t see any results. Probably because my genetics sucked and I’ve never touched steroids in my life.

If It Worked For Arnold, It Will Work For Me… Right? Nope.

Then I met a guy named Joe. Joe and I were both lifeguards and we both liked to work out so we became friends. Joe had Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.” And even at 16, Joe was a big, strong kid. So we started working out together… and because I wanted to be big and strong like Joe — I followed Joe’s training program.

Joe followed Arnold’s advice to the letter — and before long we were both working out six days a week, for two hours a day.

This worked great for Joe — he didn’t really pay much attention to what he ate… and he never really worked out his legs much…. but it didn’t seem to matter. At the age of 16 Joe was already bench pressing well over 300 pounds.

But this strategy wasn’t working for me — not at all. I was also 16, nearly six feet tall and still weighed less than 150 pounds. And I was still weak as a kitten too.

Maybe Less IS More?

In college, I discovered the books of Mike Mentzer… and I thought I’d stumbled upon the holy grail of bodybuilding. In case you’ve never heard the name, Mike Mentzer won the Mr. Olympia contest in 1979 and made a name for himself with his revolutionary idea that you only needed to work-out once per week to grow big and strong.

As a busy college student, I found the idea incredibly appealing. I devoured all of Mentzer’s writings… and even plunked down $400 for personalized phone consultations with the man himself.

He explained his theories to me… and designed a customized training program for me to follow.

Only Trouble Was… That Didn’t Work Either

I got bigger — Mike had me eating more food in my life than I’d eaten before. But I wasn’t getting much stronger. To be perfectly honest, I was just getting fat. And the less I gained, the more Mike reduced my training — to the point where I was working out just once every 9 days for about 25 minutes.

Needless to say, my time spend using Mike Mentzer’s training system just left me fat and weak.

But still I pressed on. And tried all sorts of training programs over the next few years.

The Big Beyond Belief Bulgarian Training Program — I followed it to the letter and even bought all the supplements that went with it.

Body-For-Life by Bill Phillips — I tried it… and again I even bought the supplements. I did gain a bit of weight and strength from this, but looking back now I see it was mostly from the creatine.

The One Day Arm Cure — yep, tried that one too.

That’s just the beginning. I also tried HST, Static Contraction Training, The Super-Slow Method, Max Contraction Training… and a dozen other methods with awesome names that yielded zero results.

But still, nothing worked.

So I Started Throwing Money At The Problem!

In the corporate world, one solution to a problem is to simply “throw money at it”. This rarely works in the corporate world and it didn’t work for my problem of being skinny and weak — but I gave it a go anyway.

First I shelled out $500 bucks to a VERY famous online trainer. I won’t mention his name but he runs his own forums and claims to have all the answers for hardgainers. I gained a bit of muscle and strength under his guidance but nothing to write home about.

Then I shelled out a whopping $1,000 bucks for an online consultation with one of the nation’s top bodybuilding coaches — this is a guy famous for taking regular people and helping them win bodybuilding contests within a few short months.

I gained some weight under this coaching (he had me eating 10 times per day) but most of it was fat.

So then I dropped another $800 for a top bodybuilding diet coach — he was going to show me how to strip off all my unwanted bodyfat and actually build muscle at the same time!

I did manage to lose the fat… along with all my hard-earned muscle. So I was right back where I started — skinny and weak.

Houston… We Have A Freakin’ Problem — This Isn’t Working!

Around this time, I started to get really fed up. I mean really sick and tired. I started to realize just how much time, money, and energy I’d wasted over the years.

As they say on the infomercials, “there’s got to be a better way!”

I’d always admired the old school bodybuilders, like Reg Park, Vince Gironda and Steve Reeves. But until this point, I never did much research on their training or diet methods.

Mostly because I assumed that “newer” was “better” and anything “old” couldn’t possibly be useful or effective.

But the more I investigated the training methods used 50, 75, even 100 years ago… the more everything seemed to make sense. Back then, they didn’t have steroids, creatine or fancy machines.

Yet guys still figured out how to get big and strong!

So when it comes to building muscle, stripping off body fat and achieving optimal health and fitness, I started to think…

“Maybe The Old-Timer’s Had It Right All Along…”

I’ve been training with “old-fashioned” methods for a few years now. And it’s amazing how well these “out-dated” training programs work.

Don’t get me wrong, I still can’t bench press 1,000 pounds. But I’m bigger and stronger than I’ve ever been before. Best of all, I don’t throw any money away on over-priced, “new-fangled” supplements. I don’t obsess about searching for the latest and greatest workout routine every month. And most importantly, I make steady and consistent progress.

I get more results in a month than most gym-goers get in a decade.

50% Thrilled, 50% Pissed Off

Part of me is thrilled that I FINALLY discovered these tried & true methods. And another part of me is sick with regret about how much time I wasted over the years.

If I’d discovered this stuff when I was younger, I think high school and college would both have been a heck of a lot more fun. I’m no longer skinny and weak… and I’ve got to say — life is better now. So it’s understandable to think that my early years would have been better if I’d have been big and strong back then too.

But that’s water under the bridge now. I can’t change the past. But I CAN help others to avoid the same mistakes I made. And that’s part of the reason I wrote this book — to help others avoid my mistakes. To show you that getting big and strong doesn’t have to be a guessing game.

There are simple, proven, repeatable method that guys have been using for DECADES to gain strength and size. They worked 75 years ago, they worked 25 years ago, and they work just as well TODAY.

Most guys will never learn this stuff — because all the popular fitness gurus and all the popular fitness magazines continually PUSH the latest and “greatest” workout of the month.

And that’s fine for guys like my friend Joe — the guys that seem to sprout new muscles no matter what they do. But for regular guys like you and me, these tried & true methods work far better than the modern crap out there today.

Note: This article appears in my book, The Tried & True Guide To Muscle & Might. Get it here .