035: Strong Is the New Standard – Women, Weightlifting, and Bodybuilding

Step inside the world of bodybuilding and strength training with our guest Jason Vlastaras — a personal trainer, lifelong weightlifter, and natural bodybuilding competitor. We dig into the myths that won’t die, the mental grind behind the muscle, and the rise of women in weightlifting. From competition prep to gym culture and social media pressures, Jason shares what strength really looks like. Whether you’re new to lifting or chasing PRs, this episode is your playbook for building muscle and mindset. 

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Chapters

• 00:00 - Welcome to the Gym Jungle
• 05:12 - Top Gym Faux Pas
• 12:45 - From Weights to Stage Lights
• 20:30 - Natural Bodybuilding: No Steroids, No Problem
• 28:15 - Chicken, Broccoli, and Gummy Bears
• 35:00 - The Tanning Chronicles

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00.814)
If you're the influencer, you're always having to do something different to try to engage a different population. So that could make it so, hey, try this crazy exercise, which again, goes against trying to create consistency, right? Like it's not great to say, hey, I did squats for 15 years and this is how I look. You know, you're not going to get a lot of followers from that, but the supplement side, the workout side. It's not sexy to say, just do the same thing over and over again. But sometimes that's the simple answer. And for my opinion.

Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn.

And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 2 (00:52.706)
Welcome back, Almost fans. Today we are thrilled for a really exciting episode because today's guest brings a unique combination of lived experience and professional insight to the mic. Jason Vlasteris is the director of campus recreation at Texas State University, a personal trainer, I got to work with him at the University of Florida, and he's a lifelong weightlifter.

He's also a former natural bodybuilder who competed at the highest level. So when it comes to the discipline, the mental side, and even the cultural pressures of body transformation, he's been there. But Jason's perspective goes deeper than sets and reps. He's worked with all kinds of people, chasing all kinds of goals, and he's thoughtful about the fine line between motivation and obsession, especially as some trends grow really loud online. So...

Whether you today are curious about bodybuilding or you wanna feel stronger in your own skin or just wanna better understand what's really going on in the gym world today, we're so excited to have Jason with us. Welcome, Jason.

Thank you for having me in that wonderful intro. Yeah. So I had to dive into this, this wacky world of bodybuilding. I'll say it that way. So.

You know, the fans love a good strong intro, so we love to deliver.

Speaker 1 (02:19.278)
Cool, cool, well excited to be here, thank you.

So Jason, we usually start our episodes with a quick top three segment. We call this our hat trick. We're hoping that you can actually be our hat trick guest today. So here's my question for you. Will you tell us your top three gym faux paws? What are the most embarrassing things people do in the gym?

That's really tough, right? Because you name things, you don't want people to start feeling insecure because of those things you name, but it's a really timely conversation. was having a conversation with a member about this just in my last workout over the lunch hour. And so the number one thing I would say, the faux pas would be dropping weights. So kind of like the ego lifting, I'm going to make a big scene from dropping these weights. And I approach it from, really hurting the equipment. I got to pay for that at some point. So that's not great.

Um, the second faux pas, I kind of think that fits in your, in the wheelhouse of what you're mentioning faux pas. So dropping weight. Um, again, I'm trying not to, to call out things that I think people are to be really uncomfortable with. And this is one that it's just so human nature now, right? But it's like being on your phone for half the workout, right? So that's it. I would call that one out a little bit and I'm just as guilty, right? Like I just told somebody I need to like get my iPod shuffle out and like put my phone in my bag and. I have it. I just don't have the charger. So if I can find the charger, I think my workout.

Hold on, you have an iPad shuffle.

Speaker 1 (03:41.806)
quality would increase quite a bit. So I'm buying time. I'm trying to get to the third one. So it's looking at your phone, it's dropping weights.

taking pictures of yourself.

You know, I was going to stay away from that because it's so in the culture now, right? I have this conversation quite a bit with facility policies, right? Like, do we make that a policy? Do we not? I will say taking up extra space by taking photos would be like a nuance of that, right? So like, have no problem if you're going to take pictures, know, document your whatever. Not my thing. It might be somebody else's. it's when you do the tripod, when you do the, you know, kind of like stay out of this, which we have, you know, it is becoming more pervasive.

every year with new students. I'm saying this from the Camp Streck side is we see that we see a lot of tripods. I'll make that my third, right? Is like, you're gonna, you're taking up space in Iraq, which is fine. We want you to be there. But the whole like, I've got a, you know, got this film crew aesthetic around me is not great. So the tripod was like, that's a good point.

The tripod feels extra. Next.

Speaker 3 (04:41.242)
Yeah. Level. Those are good. Well, Jason, thanks so much for being here. Can you start by telling us a little bit about your journey from getting into weightlifting to eventually stepping on stage as a bodybuilder?

Yeah, it's an interesting one, I'd say. Maybe not, you what is a traditional route for a bodybuilder, right? Like, you probably get into it for different reasons. If I have to point to like an origin point, in some ways it was watching these, and I get into different hobbies because of documentaries. So when I was a kid, they would show the Arnold documentary, Pumping Iron, all the time. And I just fell in love with the storyline and the characters in it, because they're real life people. you know, kind of this idea that, you know, there was, if you watch the film, there's camaraderie, there's people working out.

to get to this competition, the Mr. Olympia competition. And Jason, little Jason didn't know back then that that was all performance enhancing drugs and a lot of things, but there was a lot of hard work. was a lot of, right? There's the concepts of bodybuilding that are still really true in that documentary. So it was around high school. You started lifting weights and you started working out because other people were doing it. And then it kind of has a parallel path of becoming a personal trainer because it was in college. I got my personal training license.

And it was a certification, should say, right when I was a first year student, I was working at the YMCA and they were they were going to pay for my cert. So I said, this is great. And this is my first personal training job. You know, I met some other people at that gym was at what was called a now defunct Valley Total Fitness, the chain of gym I worked in, that could be a whole chain of stories of the behind the scenes of a of Valley Total Fitness. But I had a guy there who was doing competitions and he kind of took me under his wing. And so I did I did a first few in college and kind of every year in college, I do these

these preps and try to compete. And I was always trying to get to that next level, which is to attain your pro card. And from a very early on point, I had some interactions with people who were not natural or natural. And I chose this path of, I really want to seek the high level of the sport, but I want to do it in a way that's natural, meaning not using performance enhancing drugs. Which when you're looking at your magazines and your other things of the big most popular bodybuilding competitions, that's what you're going to see. You're going to see what they call the enhanced look.

Speaker 1 (06:50.854)
So it's even a subsection of a niche sport, There's like natural bodybuilding and what that is. So it was in grad school, actually. I had the biggest jump. I went to Oklahoma State for grad school and I knew that the world champion natural bodybuilder was an econ professor there. And all I wanted to do was work out with this guy and he took me under his wing when I was in grad school and I did a string of shows my first year in grad school and...

And he was great. taught me everything about, know, he was big into, know, we don't wear tank tops. We don't compare ourselves to other people in the gym. You know, we're working for this goal. We're doing a competition, try to be the best. You know, we're not competing against people in the gym. We're competing against ourselves and eventually on this stage, you know, this bodybuilding stage. So I really learned most all my success in bodybuilding from him. And so I got to do a string of shows my first year and won the what's called the Southern States Classic outside of Kansas City, Missouri, and is one of the largest amateur shows in the country. And so.

I got my pro card there and then spent the next couple of years competing in the pros and then COVID hit. And then it's been a little while since then, since I've competed, but that that string of a couple of years there were definitely the most impactful, right? Was working with people who had gone, who were the best in the world. My mentor there, he had won both pro championships across the two different federations for natural bodybuilding. And so I really took that example of how to do it.

Not that you can ever do it necessarily the right way because there's a lot of things we can talk about with the unhealthy side of bodybuilding and all that, right, that I hope we can dig into, but that was the most healthy way I'd seen somebody go about it and still achieve those results. So that was a big example for me going into it.

So I feel like you're maybe you're not lifting the rug. I don't know if that's the saying for everybody else, but it's kind of mind blowing because I'm not really into the bodybuilding sport, but I am more so into like the traditional sports. And obviously, performance enhancing drugs are not allowed. So you're telling me that is a sport that is basically created for people to use performance enhancing. It is welcomed and everyone's doing it.

Speaker 1 (08:58.818)
Yeah.

Forints enhancing drugs. Not natural bodybuilding, but other forms.

And I'm gonna be held liable for those things I said, but also, yes. I would characterize it. I'm not a part of that world. I was a part of the natural body building world, but I would say if I had to characterize it, it's, um, it's something that's really not talked about, but accepted, right? So you knew if you were competing in this federation that there was going to be no drug test. So you could choose to be natural or not. There's going be, yeah, that's really the big distinguisher, right? There's in the natural world that they're going to have all the literature and the policies and saying, Hey,

We don't, know, lifetime drug use or no drug use in the last seven years, there's nuances to it. But you know, when you show up for those natural shows, there's going to be a polygraph test. If you place in the top, whatever you're going to get a year analysis right when you step off the stage. So it's not a perfect system, but it's an acknowledgement. Whereas in the other federations or associations, there's really not going to be, they're not even, they're not acknowledging that or talking about it. So.

Yes.

Speaker 2 (09:54.542)
I have so many questions about being a natural bodybuilder. okay, so can't use performance enhancing drugs. What's your strategy? Like what is your, and maybe we can get into training later, but on the nutrition side of things, what does your diet look like in order to be able to achieve those awesome results without the artificial drugs?

You know, there's, I would almost call it there's pros and cons to both, right? Of being the, of what you have to consider a natural bodybuilder has to condition things completely differently in my opinion than enhanced. Cause you can't push things with the help of a drug or an enhancement drug, right? Like, so you have to be even more particular as a natural bodybuilder about how you're structuring the macronutrients, your foods, what you're eating. Cause you're trying to support.

know, preserving as much muscle as you can while losing fat, moving into, you know, a contest prep, working in a contest prep. So you to be so much more considerate, not saying you can get away with things when you're on enhancement, you know, performance enhancing drugs, but as a natural bodybuilder, we are having to pay much closer attention. And sometimes our, what's called our conscious prep will have to be so much longer. That was a big change working with the pros when I moved to Oklahoma State for grad school was, you know, he was doing 26 week preps is what it's called, like half a year worth prepping.

It's not because we were doing it really extreme. It's actually because we were doing it kind of like a low and slow method so that we could preserve all the muscle. Whereas, you know, but it's a sport that, you know, attracts extreme personality. So you think, I'm just going to go hard for eight weeks and get ready for this show. But when you're natural, the body is on is a little bit more of a pendulum, right? So you really can't throw it out of out of equilibrium or else you're not going to, you you're to kind of shut things down. You're not going to get the responsiveness to you.

losing the body fat, maintaining the conditioning. So it's really a longer process, I would say, as a natural body.

Speaker 2 (11:39.854)
That's fascinating. Okay, is it all chicken and broccoli or do you get to eat like gummy worms once in a while?

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (11:45.868)
Yeah, and it was a philosophical thing, right? Like I think some people like the punishment to be able to say, I just eat these bland foods. My analysis would be you don't have to. Eventually when I became a pro and prior to becoming a pro, was we really evolved to think about things from macronutrient lens. Like food quality matters, but we were really being very strict in how we were documenting how many carbs, proteins, fats. And then what made those things up is where the quality came in.

The variety was good because you're dieting for 26 weeks. one week, the majority of your protein sources might be chicken or something like that. And then the next week, you might switch it up, or you do. So there were actually less rules when I moved towards macronutrient tracking as a pro. And it actually made things more enjoyable because you also weren't, you were kind of leaving behind some of the myths. Like, hey, fish makes your skin thinner, or don't do salt because you're going to retain water.

that doesn't really matter when you're 18 weeks out, right? Like you care about those things when you're a day out, not when you're 18 weeks. So it allowed you to have a little bit more freedom. And honestly, it was a little bit more healthy mentally as well to be able to say like, I'm not going to do these very restrictive behaviors. I'm still going to create this consistency in this discipline and how I approach my prep, but I'm not going to overly restrict where I don't need to and have an unhealthy relationship at the end of the day too, because of that, right? Like I'm going to, I can't do, you know, I can't eat, I can't drink a diet Coke because I'm scared of what it will do. So.

you

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Speaker 2 (13:42.562)
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Speaker 3 (14:10.734)
Okay, I think we jumped ahead because we had other questions, but I think we're already into it. And I think we need to even step back a little bit because can you just in a very generic way describe for our listeners, bodybuilding 101, what is bodybuilding? And you've already talked a little bit about being a natural bodybuilder, but can you just be very generic about it? Like what is the sport?

Yeah, right. Yes. So what is the sport? It's a physique competition. It's a subjective judging of somebody's physique. And I'm trying to soften it because it sounds bad sometimes you try to describe how it actually is, right? But that's what it is. are going in front of a panel of judges and there's a level of categories. So I used to compete in the classic bodybuilding where you're looking for the size, the symmetry and the definition, those three things.

But the other categories that are included on the men's side, there's what's very popular now, classic physique or men's physique. Those are, you know, a little bit more like the modeling side with the swim trunks and the classic physique now is used commonly in untested shows where the guys might be not as big, so maybe not on as many in performance enhancing drugs. So they're not going to weight as heavily the bigger muscle. They're actually going to look for the symmetry in the size because in my opinion, it's kind of gone out of hand.

The big open bodybuilders are so kind of like monstrous now. So that's just a, that's an aside on the female side, there's bikini, there's physique, there's figure. So they have their own categories as well. And so the nuance of the sport is you're essentially preparing to get to this optimal state of conditioning to get on stage, to get your tan, to wear, to wear these trunks and to go in front of a panel of judges from the sport and to spend the morning.

It's a more, there's usually two parts to your show. If you go to a bodybuilding show, you're doing your, judging in the morning. So you're, you're in a class, whether it's a weight class or a height class, and they're kind of putting you up on stage. You're doing these, these dedicated poses. You know exactly which ones they're going to call, but they're calling them out in different orders. You're all being shuffled around and compared to each other. and then at night there's more of the art form side of it. You're doing a routine based to music.

Speaker 1 (16:23.758)
And that's more for the audience side and to kind of tie together the event. So it's interesting, bodybuilding shows are actually usually two parts. It's a morning and a night. And then between there, they're doing all their judging. And then you're getting kind of an overall placing at the end of it.

You said something that really reminded me of a question that I have, and that is the tanning. The tanning. How much of that, like, can you just describe that for me? Are you going and getting a spray tan? Are you doing the lotion? you like, and how many levels up do you have to go to get to the place where you need it to be? Cause I agree having a little tan does make me feel a little bit better about myself. So I see why they do that.

How can they contour? you like, artificially make things look...

I wonder now if you can because that I mean you are your competitor, right? So you are looking for every angle So it's not you know, no I always say like nobody's they're not pulling a scale out on stage to see how how much heavier you are than the next person that doesn't matter at all It's all appearance. So even the way you pose the way you hold your body So tanning is a big factor in that and you have to really so I'm when I was working with the pros Finally when I was trying to figure things out and then forget us going to the tanning bed And I'm like 26 weeks out right and he's like, why would you you don't need to go to the tanning bed? We're all gonna get a tan

like the day before we're gonna spray it on. And I was like, okay. So I was just doing that for vanity, I guess. I don't know. So the tanning though is, I mean, it's its own world, right? So you're generally hiring a professional who's set up there in a hotel room and they're gonna do, you I usually opt for, there's a couple of different products. I usually opt for a spray tan and it's skin type actually kind of matters in some of this. I noticed for me, the sprayed on thinner tanning,

Speaker 1 (18:01.238)
liquid that they use was a lot better than they used to make stuff. I think it was called Jantan where you'd actually apply it yourself. So it's more of a cream, but you really don't need to do that more than two days out. And then there's a shine and there's some family there's little intricacies, right? We would spray a, in fact, they would use a what's called like a niacin spray, which is a vitamin you can actually take and it will vasodilate your veins from outside the skin. of seeps in and it kind of creates like a heating effect. So these little things that you would do.

to get that kind of question. But the tanning is, it's a big part of the day of, but you know, that's a microcosm, right? The week of your competition is its own, is its own separate journey, the 25, 20 weeks before. So yeah, the tanning's important. Yeah.

interesting.

It's like...

Tanning is just so interesting to me because you're like, that is dark. Like it's very dark and I get it. It makes you look more defined. And so it's just an interesting factor to it.

Speaker 1 (18:56.482)
Well, in the behind the scenes, is like you're under these extremely hot lights and they're flushing you out and you have to make sure that it's, you know, the reflective quality. So we're thinking through all these different things. We're thinking through where we're standing on stage, where the lights are, you know, the type of tan we have, there's different shades. So just like any other sport, right, it's got these little fun details that as you do it more, you figure out what works best.

Yeah. And while you're on stage and you're either in the morning, so you're standing still being compared to other competitors or in the evening when you're doing a full on routine, you are in order to make your muscles look as big as possible, you're flexing. Like you are holding a muscle contraction, several muscle contractions at once. It's like exhausting, right?

yeah, I've almost passed out several times. That's the part that is kind of like people don't fully maybe fully appreciate or understand, especially working with newer competitors. They will like start to, cause that was a separate workout. would, we would work out and then early in the mornings we would go into a dance studio and we would do probably 30 minutes straight and it's a, posing and it's a conditioning exercise. You're, you're looking at every angle. How can I hold my arm differently? How can I, you know, where should my leg be? Where should my chest? And it's just, it's wild how you think it's pretty straightforward, but you'll make tweaks.

all the way up until and you're training yourself to like you said, like hold all your muscles contracted and for 30 minutes because there's your typical poses like your front double bicep, we're all familiar with like kind of that or like the, I'm forgetting something, the side chest pose, but they also will say relax and it's never really relaxed, right? Like, so you're even figuring out how to pose when they say relax because you only have so many variables you can control. you're gonna do, you're gonna try to look the best even when you're off to the side of the stage when they're looking at somebody else.

It's a grueling, it can be at the pros, it can be 30, 40 minutes of just nonstop flexing and it's brutal.

Speaker 3 (20:46.828)
is sounds brutal. So Ambre mentioned the like physical side of it. Can you mention what you know, talk to us a little bit about what don't people understand about the mental side of it maybe or emotional side of bodybuilding?

Yeah, and some of that is, I'll touch on some of side of the physical, right? The thing I would note is, know, the low body fat percentages, the extreme look of the muscle definition, which is more pronounced in the natural world, I would say, because we have to get to some lower body fats to really show off the muscle, if you want to say it that way, right? Because that's kind of what we're holding onto is conditioning. But that puts your body in a really tough hormonal state. So have to be really careful about those things.

It's a state we almost like purposefully get ourselves into, right? But it's not healthy. Like the body doesn't want to be at 5 % body fat or whatever people think it's at. And so that can do, that can do a real number on somebody's hormones and which can affect your mental health. And so there's, there's all those considerations of, you know, you're going to be, you know, my, my, bless my, my spouse, was, she was my girlfriend at the time when I won my pro card, but she's been with me through.

a lot of preps and she knew like I would be very cranky towards the end when I'm not eating as much. My hormones are a mess and I'm at this low body fat and you're just very, so mentally you're just in a very tough spot. very agi, you can be agitated quickly. You're just kind of emotional. Um, and then the other side of it, call it the post contest blues. So you work 26 weeks to get on stage for, you know, 30, 40 minutes. If you don't place, then that was your whole year.

And then afterwards you kind of are left with this like, what would I do now? Kind of feeling as well. So that can create some feeling of waywardness when you get done with the shows. But there's definitely a mental side. I know if those are quite touching. I was like the personal side of it when you're really kind of at those low lows at the end of your prep. That's when it really, really becomes pronounced. Cause those disruptions in body fat and hormones, that affects your sleep, that affects your energy obviously. And it puts your body in a tough state.

Speaker 3 (22:44.162)
kind of an emotional eater, so I'm hangry just thinking about it.

Truly. I work with Teryn on some events where we're running around doing a lot of stuff and they're really busy and there are plugged in times where I will say, time out, stop what you're doing, look at me in my eyes. When was the last time you ate? Seven hours ago. Sit down. I'll get you a granola bar.

I thought you should act today so you don't get hangry.

That's kind of the other side of body-mucilla building, It's like you kind of get more in tune with your body in a lot of ways because you're paying more attention. So that kind of an L in healthy side and healthy side. The healthy side is kind of you are more aware of like, oh yeah, you know, I need to eat something right now. can feel this coming on. You've got that more intuitive relationship built up.

Teryn, you should never bodybuild.

Speaker 3 (23:31.229)
No, I couldn't handle it.

I don't think that would be the right time for you.

Speaker 3 (23:38.53)
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Okay, so Jason, we've heard so far all about your time as a competitive athlete. You've also been and maybe still are a personal trainer, at least have that experience. So how has training other people shaped the way that you think about fitness and body image?

Yeah. So yes, I started in fitness, beginning my career for campus recreation, and I've worked my way up through that. But being a personal trainer and being a bodybuilder just gave you a really a lot of appreciation for everybody's backgrounds and their journeys and what they're right. I think sometimes when people look at, let's say, bodybuilding from the outside, it's, well, if I just do this, this, and this, this will be the outcomes. And when you work with people who have different motivations and have different life circumstances and

genetics and environment and all those things that play into that, right? You realize that, okay, there's not a one size fits all for anything when it comes to fitness, in my opinion. And you learn that from being able to work one-on-one with individuals and their goal might just be to be able to stand up because they had a really tough surgery or their goal might be to do a tough mudder run or to lift really heavy weights, which is very different than a bodybuilder, right? Like we don't really care about in some ways lifting heavy weights. It's all about what we look like. So you just understand those motivations are all kind of.

Speaker 1 (25:28.482)
different and you just become a lot more appreciative of that and those individual journeys.

Yeah. Love that. For our listeners who do lift weights or want to, what are some of the benefits of lifting weights or weight training?

Yeah, it's interesting how that's shifted now that I don't do competitive bodybuilding, but I still do the same things I used to do. So it's funny how, you know, the motivations early on where this is going to be about a look that I'm trying to achieve. I'm not, you you're not trying to, you're not trying to claim that it's not. That's what you're, you're doing is you're trying to build muscle to show that, but muscle building, right? Like it has amazing benefits for your metabolism, your immune system. You know, if you, if you do it properly, it can be a cardiovascular workout. So it has benefits for your cardiovascular system. So it's well documented at this point that right, just general weightlifting.

has this outpouring of benefits. has the longitudinal studies that'll show people who work out at an advanced age, right? They have better health outcomes. And I'm saying workout in the aggregate, right? Like just weightlifting and working out, which has its levels of intensity and difference. But it's an amazingly fact. I go back to Arnold's first book where he was like, hey, I worked out and never got sick. It's a general sentiment, but it's like, there's real...

know, documented benefits there. So yeah, but nowadays it's staying active, working out, doing the same things, not to the intensity I used to, but seeing that I feel better, I have better energy, you know, I'm able to maintain a little bit of a better metabolism than if I wouldn't work out, which is great. I can eat differently. That's awesome. like that has the benefits are still the same, but they've shifted over time as far as their importance.

Speaker 2 (27:00.238)
Speaking of shifting over time, over time, what are some misconceptions that you've noticed about weightlifting for both genders, but most especially for women?

Yeah, and I, it's funny, I just was having a conversation with a member right before this from working out. We're talking about strength training and the benefits and the current culture of things. And when you say misconceptions, too, I'm very happy that we're in a time where some of the misconceptions we've moved away from, right? I think females in particular, we've seen in the Campus Direct Collegial World, they're embracing weight training, strength training. You know, we've kind of moved, it feels like we're kind of post, I'll get too bulky if I lift weights, which is really great to hear. I'm not saying that's a,

and across the board sentiment, but it does seem like with the increase of fitness influencers and social media, that there is much more of a, yeah, this is more acceptable if you want to say that. Misconceptions though that I face most directly are probably, I need to do something different to see results, right? People ask me all the time, wow, like what did you do for this? What did you do for this? And I'm not being snide or patronized about it. I usually say I just did the same thing for 10 years. I mean, I've been doing the same 20 exercises.

at varying intensities for 15 years now. mean, that's, you it's good to mix things up, but there's definitely a point I've noticed where mixing it up all the time has diminishing results because you never actually know what worked, right? So we're always looking, the misconceptions are generally this supplement will make a difference. This new workout routine will make a difference. But at the end of the day, the real secret formula to it all is really consistency plus intensity is like, I to really distill it down. It's like, are you doing things consistently? Are you able to make adjustments?

within that and are you doing it in a way where you're really actually working yourself? Not like in a CrossFit way, like I'm just gonna leave it all there and never recover and I'm just gonna like puke after every workout, but are you doing things at an intensity where you can recover and you can come back and make improvements? It's a little bit more of a science at that point.

Speaker 2 (28:52.92)
Tell us your 15 exercises. What have you been doing for the last 10 years?

curls, squats, deadlifts, right? There's multi-joint exercises there. There's a lot of dumbbell use, you dumbbell press, dumbbell shoulder press, depends on body part, right? You kind of have your go-to three or four per body part. And as a competitive bodybuilder, it takes, what I'll also say is it takes a lot of time to even the simple exercises to build the mind muscle connection to do them right. So a row, you know, if you're really make this your passion and your sport.

You've got to really tweak how you do a row to make sure you're getting the most out of that exercise every single time. Instead of saying, I tried that. It didn't really feel great. I'm going to do this next thing I saw on Instagram. but it takes years to really, you know, squats, a great example. It's a multi-joint power lifting, weightlifting exercise that I still don't after 15 years feel like I'm doing it right. And, uh, but I built, know, yeah. Is anybody doing it right? Right. But that's, that's some of the, you know, if I have to point to the misconception of what would really, so those are squat bench press and deadlift writer are your, your three that are always going to be in rotation. And then there's.

There's what I would call like accessory work after that, because it's really all based on those three.

you

Speaker 2 (29:57.966)
What is your least favorite muscle group to work?

Wonderful question.

I hate my triceps, just saying.

Love art, you know, it's funny as people have different, you we get really into the nerdy, like where muscles insert to joints, which makes it a little bit easier to work out and write like certain things. So you have, there's all these physiological things that make it more interesting or not. Like if I have longer legs, if I write, I might enjoy legs less. I'd say shoulders is usually the one that I forget about the most. And like, I feel like I'm just doing all kinds of other stuff. So I have to be very intentional of making time for shoulders, but I don't enjoy it. don't like the.

It's like the workout you're gonna use the least amount of weight in, it's like the most annoying workout. So it's my least.

Speaker 3 (30:36.75)
I 100 % agree. hate when I get on the little like shoulder press and it's like 30 pounds. I'm like dying.

I'm It doesn't feel good.

Yeah

Less than my child ways!

Yeah, I'd rather do a whole leg workout, which is usually people's favorite than do a shoulder workout.

Speaker 3 (30:57.152)
Yeah, I'm the same exact way. I actually have a question. So one of our listeners, she reaches out to me. I, if she's listening, she's going know who she is, but she, she's like, you're my little inspiration about working out. And I'm like, I'm not qualified for that. But she asked me one time, she's like, I really want to get, she's on the older side. She's like, I want to get to like doing five pound weights, but it's really hard. like, what are some, like what's some, some advice that you would give for someone who's like trying really hard and they want to move up?

I'll tell you what I said, I want to hear what you said.

Oh, no, I am really Chris. I haven't given advice like this in a long time. So just say like, hey, I'm really struggling at this and then I need to. Yeah, she's like,

I really want to get to the point where I can use my two five pound dumbbells when I'm doing my like little chair workout or whatever. So what would you say to someone like that?

I would say are there similar movements that can help support those muscles? So it may not be about, just gonna try to pick up the next heavy weight. Is there a similar movement that can be band assisted or do you need to look at a stretch that maybe changes the physiology of your shoulder to your arm to really help make sure that that's not an impingement on the area, right? So it's like maybe look at a different angle and then come back to it. It's like, we used to talk about pull-ups. Can you find an assisted way to do that?

Speaker 1 (32:09.676)
and then eventually work your way down from less assistance, less assistance to get there. It's a great goal. love setting sort of like these benchmarks. Hey, I really want to get to this and how do I get there? But just accomplishing it with one exercise may not be the answer, right? Maybe it's actually stepping away from that exercise and doing something else.

Yeah. Yeah. I told her, said, start with doing three reps with five and then put it down and finish the reps without it or whatever, you know, and then the next day make your goal to be do four or five reps with it, you know? And then she's like, I I'm to the point now where I can, you know, do all of the reps with the five, know, so she gives me little updates, which I'm like, that's so great. I'm so proud of you.

Yeah. The rest side, like that though. Yeah. The rest side of it can be kind of, can kind of interesting. We don't talk about enough to, right? It's like, Hey, I'm going to try this every day and you know, you got to step away from it sometimes. I'll let your body recover.

Yeah, yeah, that's good too. I love that.

Speaker 3 (33:05.442)
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Okay, so how has social media changed the way people relate to their bodies, both men and women?

Yeah, this is like a real neck, you know, former generation, get off my lawn type moment for sure of like, well, this is what I see now. And I didn't have this when I was weightlifting, even though I did have that. we just had it, you know, not as readily available, but that's what you see, right? The, the, the fitness influencer, this is how I look because here's my 10 % coupon code. And if you just take this, right? Like I would all, you know, that that's the thing that kind of gets me a lot is it seems to come back to a cell in some ways. And like I mentioned, it kind of

from having been at those levels of body fat, right? That's the thing that's always tough. Talk to other people is like, that's not what you see there, what you wanna be is not an enjoyable state of being. And it's not something you should strive for. Like your body's gonna wanna get out of that really quickly. So we see that cause it's tough because then it just feeds into the comparison side. I know that that's kind of something that's very common to talk about, but the comparison culture of it all. But the issue with that in a lot of ways too, is then you're always having to do something, if you're the influencer, you're always having to do something different.

Speaker 1 (34:48.75)
to try to engage a different population. So that could make it so, hey, try this crazy exercise, which again, goes against trying to create consistency, right? Like, it's not great to say, hey, I did squats for 15 years and this is how I look. You know, you're not going to get a lot of followers from that, but the supplement side, the workout side, it's not sexy to say, just do the same thing over and over again. But sometimes that's the simple answer. And for my opinion, right. And I'd always tell people from the supplement side, I was way more into supplements when I was not placing well in bodybuilding than when I was a pro. When I was a pro, was taking like,

two things creatine and caffeine, because you realize that the supplements make like a 2 % difference in your overall physique, right? It's more the effort and what you're doing and the consistency, like I mentioned, the long preps and all of that. So when I look, you know, I kind of get these questions of from somebody who's very early in their journey, it was the same way I was who's like, well, just should I take this supplement? Should I do this thing? I like, just focus on your workouts. Like that's, it's not going to really make a, again, it's gonna make a 2 % difference in some ways. But if you go on social media, that's all you're going to see, right? It's like, Hey, I found this new

plant in the middle of Brazil that will just change your life. And I put it in a pill or whatever that the FDA didn't approve. And so here we are. So anyway, it's tough. would say if I'm a student right now, because that's I work with, it's an incredibly tough environment to be in from the side of the fitness influencers and wanting to look a certain way. And then also now a pressure to document that if they want to be a fitness influencer, which is like a whole different thing, which we kind of touched on our top three.

are there any social media trends, influencers, things that you see that are good, are beneficial, are helpful?

Yeah, think that's a really good note. I haven't been in that world a long time to see stuff that I follow mainly baseball cards and comic book accounts, so that's pretty tough.

Speaker 3 (36:32.846)
Well, I was going to say, like, I feel like the kind of on the flip side to what you said, which was there's so much like out there and it's overwhelming, but there's also so much out there to utilize. You know, like during COVID, for example, I just started following a lady who was putting up free YouTube videos to do at home workouts. And there's just so much, there's so much of that now. If you don't have access to a gym or, know, so you do have to filter some of it, but at least the

availability is out there for lots of people.

That's really the, that's the super positive side of the trend, right? With AI, with the different things that are available, you can plug in information and get a workout plan. You can have somebody analyze what you're doing through technology. And I love that from a fitness influencer side, love the most, the positive thing I see right now is that people are finding creative ways to do workouts in a lot of different locations. I love, absolutely think that's wonderful. know, calisthenics outside or going on a trail or here's what I set up in my garage or, know, I just love that it's.

You know, we're removing some of those barriers of what we think of, well, I need to be in this space and I work in that space. That's tough for me to say, you know, need to be in the gym to do this thing. But I think that's what's really opening up the world for people to experience fitness in a different way. And to make it their own journey is to say, it doesn't have to look like being on a bench press for 45 minutes. I can be out, you know, taking a, taking a trail hike and then running up really quick and doing some pushups or, and I love that creativity side of it. I love that we're embracing some of those outdoor workouts and calisthenics and all those things.

and getting more creative. that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (38:04.662)
Yeah, I would say probably, I mean, being from the Campus Rec world also, the goal is to get people active, right? How you do it, obviously we're here as resource. You're at a gym. We've got all the different things that we would like to offer up for you and you for you to utilize. But the goal is to get people active. So I think that's cool. And you guys could probably provide some of those resources too. I'm sure you have a social media person who's

providing some resources for people and you probably have a nutrition person at your university that's helping in those ways.

Yeah, the resource available students are great. modernization, the digital world of pelotons and all these different pieces of equipment now that you can light up a workout quickly and hear from an expert. I just think that's such a cool world to be living in now for individuals looking to get a workout in a satellite space or in different space. Yeah.

Okay, so we've talked a little bit about this when we were inside your bodybuilding topics, but talk about specifically for men, the pressure to be bigger, right? The stereotype that a fit man has big muscles, if we distill it down into really simple terms. And I've seen online terms like muscle dysmorphia or even more so bigorexia. How does this?

Have you experienced this? Have you seen other people struggling with it? Will you sort of break it down for us and maybe tell us what you've seen?

Speaker 1 (39:34.99)
Yeah, I think, yes. Have I seen it, you especially working in a college population, you see a lot. Have I experienced it? Absolutely, right. It's unavoidable in some ways, if you're in some of these physique competitions. So it's something you really have to do a lot of self work on when you're in the middle of those things and seeing that. So the bigger, actually, right, like always, it's really kind of this thought of like, I'm not good enough. I have to keep stretching for this thing. I have to keep comparing myself. I have to keep striving for more. And it's in both directions, right? I'm losing weight, gaining weight, but it's kind of this feeling of like, I'm never at a point of feeling fully competent and

good in my own body, right? I'm always wanting to be different, whether it's bigger, smaller, whatever direction it is. So you do see that a lot, never feeling fully satisfied. And that's a tough thing to see. think it's here. I think we're also seeing too, we see that from, I think even Arnold said that, like, hey, I struggled with that, like, through my whole career, and he was the best in the world. He basically admitted, he said, I'd buy this Morphe, I never felt like I was the best, even though we would have all looked and said, yeah, you won all the competitions, you're the best in the world. So you see those and how it really shows up a lot of times, I'll say in the most extreme ways.

in an extreme sport that attracts extreme personalities, right? Is then it's becomes you over restrict or you over exercise and you do the exact opposite of what I mentioned before, which is be consistent and keep your body in an equilibrium. So it creates these really unhealthy relationships with food too. So it can be, I've talked to students who it's like, I had this meal and then I went to the gym right afterwards for two hours or I was at the bar with my friends and I had a couple of drinks and so I went to the gym after like they will say that I'm like, my gosh, we're like.

I indulged in this behavior and I felt really bad about it I thought it had this immediate negative effect and I went and sat in the sauna for two hours. And you're just like, you're just really engaging in these behaviors. And at the heart of it, think that some of it is like, I did this thing to myself that I thought was unhealthy and so I'm going to respond in this way. And that's a really acute version of how that shows up, right? With that unhealthy relationship with food and how they view their own bodies. But in bodybuilding, it's at the core of a lot of what you see.

It's just how are you becoming cognizant? So for me, right, I found that with tracking of foods. So we do, you know, as I mentioned, that's how you would get in that shape. But coming out of the contest, which I didn't mention, is there's a whole reverse dieting cycle, because you actually want to come out very slowly. You don't want to gain 10 pounds in a week. That can be just as damaging for your body and your hormones. So you do this whole reverse dieting. But eventually I had to get to this space where was like, okay, I'm not doing a competition. I need to stop tracking foods because now I'm becoming overly obsessive with.

Speaker 1 (41:58.37)
Like it's a good thing to a level, right? Like it has a purpose and a tool, but I was finding myself having to take long seasons away from tracking food because I was like, I'm not competing for anything. I don't need to be so overly consumed with how many calories were here. What was the macronutrient profile? And that's, you see, and that's some of the ways, you know, we've had to kind of combat some of those things of like, where am I, where am I pushing the limit in a sport that pushes already pushes the limit a little bit too far? Where am I pushing the limit outside of my other life and the self negative self talk and the

the over-corrective behaviors and some of those things that show up a lot in that diagnosis.

For someone who's listening to this and maybe just getting started with lifting weights and maybe they're intimidated by the idea, what would you tell them? What kind of advice would you give them?

Yeah, and you know, the intent, what I would tell them, I tell this to people all the like the intimidation never leaves. Like I never feel comfortable in a gym. I'm always self-conscious. You people will use, compete, you do all these things. Like you're always self-conscious. You just, my advice would be how do you, how do you make it about you? Right? Like how do you really focus on bettering yourself and making it more of a competition with yourself than what I think is like just very human nature, which is to step in a weight room and look all around and see, did I mess that up? Did I do that wrong?

did anybody notice that? Right? Like, you you still have the, I saw those thoughts daily when I work out. so, you know, for somebody who wants to be body, that can hold people back. And what I'll say is the other thing I tell people do if they're interested, don't wait till you're at a, hear it all the time for people. Well, I need to get to 195 pounds before I can think about doing a competition. I always say the weight does not, you know, that, is no factor. You need the experience you need to, you know, I didn't become a pro until I had a lot of bad finishes. Right? Like I always tell that story. was like,

Speaker 1 (43:36.108)
I placed really poorly for like four years and I was like, okay, what do got to do to figure this out? but that took experience. didn't just, you know, delay the delay, the idea of competing actually jumped in really quickly when I was, when I was 18 into competing. But that is, that is a, another thing I'd encourage is if you have an idea, you know, be realistic, I want to compete, you know, work really hard, but I was, there's also some just like simple, psychological mechanics to like, I'm going to go ahead and register for this competition eight months in advance. And there's something really.

interesting about that practice, right? I used to do that all the time. It like, as soon as I sent off that 150 bucks, whatever it was, I was like, I'm committed. I'm going to do this now. And so that's another like last piece of advice. Once you've made it past some of those like, OK, I'm thinking about this thing. I want to do this thing. you know, I've noticed some success in gym. OK, I'm going to let's just go ahead and register for that thing. So I'll tell you, the majority of the time people I've talked to that really seem like they're interested and have that response. Well, I'm just going to wait till this thing happens that they just never end up doing.

Speaker 1 (44:39.266)
Yeah. Yeah. I would say when you got 70 % of it figured out, just start it. It's my work mantra and my personal mantra.

This was awesome. Thanks so much, Jason. We are so glad that you were able to come out and share with us a little bit about your experience.

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (45:00.706)
That's a wrap on today's episode of Almost Fans. A huge thanks to Jason for joining us and flexing his knowledge on all things bodybuilding. We hope you learned a lot and maybe have a new inspiration to hit the gym. If you want to keep the conversation going, follow us on Instagram at Almost Fans podcast. We're always down to chat and we love to hear your thoughts on everything we're covering. Come say hi, send us your questions or just drop a flex emoji if you're feeling strong.

Until next time, keep showing up, staying curious, and don't skip leg day.