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Spandex & Wine
Spandex & Wine is a podcast for finding balance between being healthy & living a happy life. Hosted by Robin Hackney, a 23-year veteran in the fitness industry & wine consultant, this is a place to be our authentic selves as we have real conversations exploring wellness and all things wine! Subscribe now so you don’t miss an episode.
Spandex & Wine
Move, Rest, Thrive: Nature's Guide to Wellness w/ Trey Worcester
Find Trey on IG: @twuestrength
Ever feel like health and fitness advice has become needlessly complex? Meet Trey Worcester, a college football player and biology student who's cutting through the noise with refreshingly simple wellness wisdom.
"If an animal wouldn't eat it in the wild, I'm not going to eat it," says Worcester, summarizing his straightforward nutrition philosophy that eliminates the need for complicated diet rules. As a senior at Pittsburgh State University balancing academics and athletics, he's developed practical approaches to health that don't require expensive equipment, supplements, or rigid programs.
Worcester shares his evolution from focusing solely on getting stronger to developing a more comprehensive training philosophy: "I just want to be hard to kill." This means prioritizing mobility alongside strength, incorporating varied movement patterns, and training for resilience rather than just aesthetics. His approach represents a growing awareness among fitness enthusiasts that longevity matters as much as short-term gains.
What stands out most about Worcester's perspective is his emphasis on free, accessible wellness tools everyone can use. Sleep optimization, spending time in nature, walking barefoot on grass (grounding), and simply moving more throughout the day form the foundation of his recovery protocol. "None of this stuff costs money," he reminds listeners, challenging the notion that good health requires expensive interventions.
For those feeling overwhelmed by conflicting health information, Worcester offers practical advice: utilize free resources like scientific databases, ask better questions, and most importantly—take action. "Even if you don't know exactly what to do, just do something," he encourages, emphasizing that progress comes from consistent experimentation rather than perfect planning.
Ready to simplify your approach to wellness? Follow Trey on Instagram at TWE_strength to learn more about his balanced, nature-aligned health philosophy that makes vitality accessible to everyone.
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Hello and welcome to the Spandex and Wine podcast. I'm your host, robin Hackney, and I'm so happy that you're here. This podcast is a place for conversations about balancing a healthy lifestyle and being happy more specifically, happy hour. Together we'll explore all things wellness and wine. I hope you learn a little, laugh a lot and, along the way, know you're not alone on this balanced wellness journey. Ready to jump in, pour something in your glass that makes you happy, because it's time for Spandex and Wine. Hello and welcome to the Spandex and Wine podcast. I'm your host, robin Hackney, and just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to listen today. For those of you that have been in your field for a good amount of time, let's say 15 plus years, how do you feel about the younger generation in your industry? My personal experience has been very positive. I've mentioned that I share a space with Sam Goodwin of Goodwin Strength and I love how he is molding young athletes. And Sam is how I found today's guest, another aspiring fitness professional passionate about living life to the fullest, making wellness simple and sharing all of his knowledge with others.
Speaker 1:I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with Trey Worchester for today's episode. The content he shares on social media is not only inspiring. The content he shares on social media is not only inspiring, but it is accurate and informative in a straightforward manner. He is currently attending Pittsburgh State University in Pittsburgh, kansas, which holds a special place in my heart as both of my boys graduated from Pitt. He was determined to play college football and did the hard work to walk on. That is quite an accomplishment, and being a student athlete is not easy. I remember watching my boys and wondering how they did it all. Determination and drive two characteristics you must have, and Trey possesses both of them and many more. I was impressed with his social media presence and more impressed with him during our time together. I think we can all learn something from our conversation. Without further ado, I give you Trey Worchester. Hey, trey, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good Nice to meet you.
Speaker 1:Nice to meet you too. Are you like in your dorm room or what year are you in school?
Speaker 2:I'm a senior. I'm graduating in the fall. I live on like some on-campus apartments, so they're pretty nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they look nice. I like your fancy lighting.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:And at last check Gorillas. Pittsburgh State was still the only school that Gorillas are the mascot.
Speaker 2:Is that still true? Very true, yeah.
Speaker 1:Isn't that wild.
Speaker 2:It's crazy to me, because I mean there's teams that are like sea slugs and stuff and we're the only team that's a gorilla. It doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I was telling you when we were messaging back and forth that you know, the more that I see of your posts and your reels, I'm like, okay, I'm really excited to talk to this guy and I found you because of Goodwin's strength. And I found you because of Goodwin's strength. Do you know, sam Goodwin?
Speaker 2:I know him, I've talked to him a few times on Instagram and things like that. He actually he trained one of my buddies that played baseball for a while, so that's kind of how I found his page and then after that, I mean we follow each other. I like the content he puts out. So I've communicated with him quite a bit Awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he and.
Speaker 1:I share space. Oh really Awesome. Yeah yeah, what a small world. I love it. Well, one of the reasons the other reason I was excited to meet with you is just where you are with your education and what you want to do with your career. Having been in the fitness industry for 23 years now and this is my second career, pretty much it's just always fun to see someone so passionate and young and just fired up and ready to help people. So thank you for everything that you're putting out there.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. It's nice to know that people are enjoying my content. I post out of my own interest. For the most part it's kind of like a hobby of mine, but it's always nice hearing people that can actually like, relate or get something from my content. It always makes me happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one of the things that I really liked was how you just make things simple. I feel, like there's so many confusing things out there and people are like well, should I do this? What should I do? Should I drink this there? And people are like well, should I do this? What should I do? Should I drink this? Should I drink that? Should I eat this? And really we're just making it too difficult, like you're opposed about hydration.
Speaker 2:Speak a little bit about hydration, just that in simple terms. Yeah, I mean hydration along with basically everything else in health, nutrition, performance training, anything like that. It just gets butchered and it gets kind of like overcomplicated for no reason. As long long as, as far as hydration goes, it's really the fact is, you want to consume liquids, water, but you also want to make sure you're prioritizing things like electrolytes, minerals, which is a thing that a lot of people miss out on.
Speaker 2:They're told that you'll be drinking like a gallon of water a day. That's actually not going to help you. It's going to do the opposite. It's going to draw water out of your cells. You're going to do the opposite. It's going to draw water out of your cells.
Speaker 2:You're going to be left with a messed up electrolyte profile and it really is as simple as drinking juice, drinking water with salt in it, drinking electrolyte packets are kind of a gray area because a lot of them are just filled with one harmful additives, artificial sweeteners, things like that and then they also just don't have the correct electrolyte profiles. That they're really just like expensive salt packets that you could just accomplish by drinking fruit, fruit juice, eating fruit, eating normal food. But yeah, as far as hydration goes, it's really drink water, yes, but you also make sure you're getting minerals, whether that's from your, your diet, from fruit, from juice, and the thing that I always kind of come back to is following nature. So, like anything that you want to do to improve your health, like we're animals, I think people forget that you just look to nature, it's going to have the answers for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I love being out in nature. I think it's fantastic and everything that we need we've. So, yeah, it's a good thing, yeah, okay. So I want to get into some of that as well. But let's go back to like what's your story? Have you always been healthy? Have you always been an athlete? Take me up till now.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I've always been relatively healthy. My mom competed not competed, but like took her health pretty seriously. When I was young, like every kid, I eat processed foods. I did that. I was always an athlete. And then, up until probably my sophomore year of high school, I started to get interested in health stuff. Realized, I really liked biology, any science class like that.
Speaker 2:Fast forward to like my junior year. I'm a football player, baseball player. Covid hits, we have lockdown and that kind of like put everything in a stand still, so I didn't have really anything to do, so I just spend my time outside working out. And that at that point I got really into listening to podcasts. I was listening to like the Joe Rogan podcast and then that put me on to like the Huberman podcast. And then once I once I interacted with like the Huberman podcast. After that, like it just went exponentially up.
Speaker 2:So I graduated high school, didn't know what I wanted to do. Realized I wanted to play football. I was never recruited to play college football, so I kind of set my sights on that and everything like my page started because of that. I started posting workouts, because I wanted to walk on at insert college here, um, so I just started training, reading up on basically anything I could get my hands on health related, nutrition related, training related, um, and that kind of flourished to the point where I am now. I eventually made it to the point where I walked on at Pitt state as a football player Nice and yeah, I just use my page honestly to just help people, because exactly what you were saying is, everything on social media is so broad spectrum, everything's like telling you not to do this but to do this, and then people have conflicting arguments and it kind of leads people to be more lost than before they even, like, went on social media.
Speaker 2:And so I kind of just use that, use my platform, as a way to help people. I kind of use it as a page where I wish I had when I was first getting involved in health and trying to, you know, go through the weeds and actually understand what works and what doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I think you're doing just that. So you're a senior, you said so. What's the next step?
Speaker 2:Right now. So I'm a senior. I started football late so I technically could be playing football until I'm like 25. But that's not in the sights for me. So I'm graduating in the fall with a biology degree. I take mostly pre-med classes. Initially I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to go to medical school. After going through about four semesters of college I realized I don't like school that much. My grades are where they need to be, but I just don't really fit into the go to class, learn this, all that type of stuff I learn much better on my own. So, yeah, the future is uncertain.
Speaker 2:Honestly, with my page, my ultimate goal is to make social media content full time help people, whether that be health consulting, online training, nutrition programs, things of that nature and honestly, it's just I'm less set on a career path. I'm more so like set on creating a life that I want to live Like. I don't want to get bogged down at a nine to five or just doing something to put food on the table. I want to actually enjoy what I'm doing and if that means being broke and living out of the suitcase for a couple of years before I figured it out, that's perfectly fine with me, I just want to do what I like to do, which is research health training content, and then create my own content and just have fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and I can resonate with that. I mean, I was in the corporate world for over a decade or about a decade, and then I was like I hate this. I don't want this nine to five job. I don't want to be stuck behind a desk, and so I entered the fitness industry and I absolutely love it. I can't imagine going back now. I can't want to be stuck behind a desk, and so I entered the fitness industry and I absolutely love it. I can't imagine going back now. I can't imagine not being able to go outside and take a walk when I want to take a walk. It's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And that's like one of the big things that I have a problem with is like I'm fine with a structured schedule, that's fine with me, but when it's a structured routine of stuff that I don't want to do so for example, take school things like that it kind of just it doesn't mess up my day. I try not to let it affect me. But I'd rather have like okay, I need to do this because I want to do this, and then after that I can go do, I can go for a walk, I can go outside. I don't want to be stuck inside all day doing things I don't want to do. I'd rather do the complete opposite.
Speaker 1:So who would you say is the ideal person that you were trying to target with your posts and your social media?
Speaker 2:That's something I've had quite a lot of thinking about recently. For the longest time I was just making content for myself before. I was like taking it seriously and really caring about if anyone looked at it. I still don't really care that much about if anyone sees it. I'm just kind of making it because I like making it.
Speaker 2:But I think the ideal person for my content is honestly someone that is either unaware of the nature of their health and doesn't know where to turn. So I'd want to be like a pillar that they can lean on and look to like doesn't know where to turn. So I'd want to be like a pillar that they can lean on and look to like okay, I heard this here, is this true? And they can consult my page and be like okay, well, he says he actually like researched this. He's just not putting out content that is like click baiting, just like to get a bunch of likes on it. I want to be someone that people can depend on and actually look to for answers. But yeah, I think the ideal person is really most people that are interested in a healthy lifestyle.
Speaker 2:As far as training goes, I've trained rather uniquely compared to most people. My training is very, very athletically focused, obviously, since I am a college football player, but, yeah, basically anyone that is looking to expand their knowledge of health and, with that knowledge, actually being able to implement that into their own life. And I'm not going to sell you some product, I'm not going to tell you you need to pay for this course to learn this. Like all of this stuff is super simple and that's where a lot of people get lost in the weeds of social media is a lot of the content you consume. You can just go on Google, go on chat, gpt, go on PubMed, whatever it is, and look it up and find the answers yourself, and that's honestly what I recommend to people Like you should not be going on to Instagram and like asking someone, hey, what should I be eating? Like you can do the own, your own research and it really is hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think people just want it right there in front of them and not have to do the work. Yeah, so you mentioned your training style was a little bit different. Tell me about. Tell me about what you do.
Speaker 2:Um. So initially, uh, after high school, I kind of started training, pretty normal, like every high school kid does, just lifting heavy, trying to get bigger arms, bigger chest chest, trying to squat more, bench more, and then, through the path of trying to become a college football player, I reached out to some third party company, some instagram account account I saw, actually, and I paid for training for them for like two months and it was like a thousand dollars it was. It was a lot of money and it was out of my own pocket and I was like, oh, it's so cool, I get to do this. And then I get the training and it's like an excel sheet of like four weeks of workouts and they're all the same workout. It's really basic stuff, like not unique in any way. Very basic stuff that I could have made my own. I could have made a better program on my own, um, and after that it kind of like piqued my interest of like there's so much more you can do for training than just lifting weights and stuff like that. So I mean now, compared to what I did five years ago, my training is vastly different. I do a lot of sprinting. Sprinting is like my favorite thing to do in the world Jumping. I still lift heavy. But something that really kind of like transcended my training philosophy was I got in touch with a couple guys on social media, which got me in touch with a couple other guys on social media, and I ended up actually going up to Minnesota uh, in Minneapolis, uh, over the summer of 2023. And I interned at a training facility and we were training college and NHL athletes. So that was really eyeopening. I learned a lot about very niche training when it comes to training like an athlete, um made a lot of connections there and then from there I kind of just pick and pull from different people I follow on social media things. I found interesting things that made sense, um, and basically I just try to.
Speaker 2:My whole training philosophy is I just want to be hard to kill Like. I don't want to be. I want to be resilient individual. I don't want to be injury prone Like. I don't want to just be muscular. I want to be muscular and mobile. I don't want to just be strong and strong and explosive. I don't want to just be fast. I want to be able to actually like express that in a variation of several environments, several environments. So my main training pillars are basically sprinting or running in some sort jumping, lifting, heavy lifting, lifting fast, and then things like gymnastics, random stuff like that, where it involves strength but also involves mobility, because I think a lot of people just all they want to do is get jacked, look good, and then their shoulder hurts, their knee hurts, and then five years later they can't do all that stuff they used to do anymore because they didn't train properly in the past.
Speaker 1:And I think people are getting more and more aware of the importance of mobility and flexibility and stability. So that's that's really good, but let's switch just a minute then and talk about your philosophy with nutrition.
Speaker 2:So yeah, for nutrition kind of draws back to what I was talking about earlier is looking to nature. We live in a world where everything's meant to be super easy, super quick. We're all busy, we all have hectic lives. We don't have a lot of time to make food, so that leads to us going to the store. Oh, they have pre-made burgers here, they have pre-made lasagna here, all that stuff and basically my nutrition philosophy.
Speaker 2:I look at it as if an animal wouldn't eat it in the wild. I'm not going to eat it. I'm just going to eat whole foods, an animal. If you put like a pack of lasagna or like pre-made bread or something animals don't really want to eat, that that's not going to do anything for you nutritionally. So my my idea with nutrition. It's very basic. It's really I eat whole foods. So I eat meat, fruits, vegetables, um, carb sources. I eat potatoes, rice that's really about it. Basically, anything that isn't processed I eat because it's good for your stimulation, right, because in some way, because moderation is key. So basically anything that doesn't have 55 ingredients on it I eat on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:And I know a lot of kids your age are into like county macros and are you? Do you do that at all or do you just kind of guesstimate?
Speaker 2:I did that for the longest time. I was really religious with it, kind of like an OCD esque obsession. I did that for the longest time and then I've kind of gotten to the point where I relatively the same thing Every day. I mix it up.
Speaker 2:I'm not eating like the same chicken and rice meals five times a day, but I kind of know how my body reacts to certain foods. So if I want to gain weight, I maybe have like 30 more grams of rice during the day, um. If I want to lose weight, maybe I eat a little bit, uh, less food, um. But basically all I do is I just kind of play it by ear. I've never really had an issue with my weight, so I've never really wanted to gain a lot of weight or lose a lot of weight. Most of the time it's just maintenance for me, so prioritizing foods that are good and then making sure I eat enough protein. I don't count my protein either, but yeah, I just kind of go off based off how I feel. If I step on the scale one day and I'm three pounds lighter than normal, I know that I need to eat probably another meal during the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I know that I've seen that you prioritize rest, recovery, sleep, so speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 2:So with recovery, sleep's always going to be the biggest thing. It's it's kind of overhyped, in my opinion, like people talk about sleep all the time, but I think it's rightfully talked about as much as it is and it's something that I could go on like a whole. Nother tangent with that, with like light and all that stuff, but with sleep it's really people just sleep and stress. People don't know how to manage their stress. That impacts their sleep and their sleep makes them feel stressed and it's just like this never ending loop. So, recovery in mind, for athletes, general population, whoever it is being able to one relax at night so that you can actually sleep and yield all of the benefits from sleep, because sleep, you need sleep. That's part of your biology. It's definitely the best recovery tool. If your sleep isn't locked in, your recovery is not going to be locked in.
Speaker 2:And then outside of that nature is a huge one. People don't go outside nearly enough. People stay cooped up inside all day. They don't get underneath the sun, they don't touch grass with their bare feet, they're not exposing themselves to the earth's charge. And then movement, walking people don't move enough either. It's really. It comes down to people aren't doing a lot of stuff. That's really really, really easy. None of this stuff costs money either. Right, sleep good. It doesn't cost money. You don't need supplements Um. Go outside, that doesn't cost money. Move exercise Doesn't really cost money, um, and it's really it's so simple that it's hard for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you mentioned going out barefoot and walking in the grass and the grounding. I a hundred percent agree and I know some people are like what, what are you talking about? But it's so important for us and the color green, like green, is all around us. It's a very calming color.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with the grounding it's I can't remember. I think I probably learned about grounding around three years ago and it's like one of the few things in health that's like super fascinating. Like I get fixated on stuff and like sleep. That's something I've been fixated on for a while. And then grounding and I I was kind of skeptical at first. I was like what is this? It's kind of like pseudoscience. This is kind of woo, woo a little bit out there.
Speaker 2:But after doing it consistently and emphasis on consistently, because I would do it like once or twice a week, I'd be like this doesn't do anything. Then I started doing it like every single day this past year or two and like I noticeably feel different. Like my just walking around, I can feel my body. My body feels much less tense, I feel relaxed. And then with that, it's just if you're going to go outside to ground, you're going to be underneath the sun, you're going to be enjoying nature. Hopefully you're not outside just sitting on your phone watching like Instagram reels or something. So it kind of like pulls you into a combination of other things that are going to help your health anyways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, that's amazing. So what else would you want?
Speaker 2:the listeners to know Just keep, do your own research. That's really the biggest thing I can. I can ask you. We live in like the most abundant informational age in history. You can look up anything, you have the answers to everything. Pubmed's free. You can read research articles, you can read reviews, you can go on. We have AI now. Have ai. Now. You have chat, gpt. You can ask it. Okay, is this true? I saw it on social media. Is it true? Is there any supporting evidence to this? Should I be doing this? Is it worth it?
Speaker 2:Um, and then as far as training, it's just, really just doing something. At the end of the day, yes, other certain training models are, certain diets or certain recovery approaches are going to work, but it really boils down to if you believe something's going to work, likely it's going to work because we know with the placebo effect. So, even if you don't know what to do, just do something. That's one thing that I think a lot of people should take away from basically anything. You can apply it to anything in life. It's just having agency and being like okay, I have X problem, what's the solution? Instead of dwelling on that, trying to figure out what the solution is actually doing something, and if you fail, you fail, you learn something, then you try another solution. If that works, great, keep going yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like it. How? How can the listeners find you?
Speaker 2:On Instagram. My Instagram is TWE strength, T-W-E strength. And then I post on YouTube. Probably type in my name, it comes up. And then on Twitter, my Twitter is Trey Worcester, T-R-E-Y-W-O-R-C-E-S-T-E-R.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll make sure I put that in the show notes as well. Well, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I had a great time.
Speaker 1:Thank you. What a delightful young man. I have no doubt he will be successful in whatever he does. I mean, he already is. He's figured out how to be happy through simplicity, fueling his body correctly and moving well. I mean, he's way ahead of the game. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:After our call, I had to go let the dogs out and, of course, I kicked off my shoes and walked in the grass. It felt fantastic, something that I love doing, but I don't always take the time for it, or, you know, I have my tennis shoes on or whatever. So today I just kicked it off and it felt great. It's such a simple action with a profound effect over time. So thank you, trey, thanks for being a guest on the show, thank you for sharing your time and knowledge and thank you for sharing your energy. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1:If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to follow Spandex Wine so you don't miss an episode. To do this, just go to the podcast and click subscribe or follow. Wherever you're listening, look for the plus sign or follow button. This is one of the best things that you can do for the podcast. If you'd also be willing to give a five-star review, that would be amazing and much appreciated. Lastly, please share an episode with a friend or five to keep the love going, and join the spandex and wine community in our private Facebook group by searching spandex and wine. Feel free to reach out to me at any time by emailing info at spandexandwinecom or text me at 913-392-2877. I appreciate you, thank you.
