Plus Sized Mobility - Roy Belzer

For those struggling with fitness and building muscle, coaches can sometimes do more harm than good by not meeting clients where they are at. 

This can lead to people feeling overwhelmed, giving up on their goals and not living their best life.

Let’s Grow Big Together! The podcast that tells you: 
Don’t just stand there, lets get to it, strike a double biceps pose, there’s nothing to it. Pose. 

In this series, we’re taking a look at the passion for muscle, adventures in bodybuilding, muscle gods, muscle worship and practical advice to put on the gains. 

Today self described thique goddess, mobility coach and plus size supermodel Roy Belzer joins us to look at fitness for big folks, loving yourself unconditionally and working to have the best body possible with what you got. 

ROY BELZER FITNESS:
★ instagram.com/roybelzerfitness

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ instagram.com/marcfelion

Plus--

• Overcoming the deadly impact of sitting behind a desk all day long.

• Water as the most underrated fitness supplement. 

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
For those struggling with fitness and building. Muscle coaches can sometimes do more harm
than good by not meeting clients wherethey are at. This can lead people
to feeling overwhelmed, giving up ontheir goals and living their best life.
Ah, let's grow big together.Don't just stand there, Let's get to

(00:26):
it. Strike a double biceps pose. There's nothing to it pose. I'm
Fausto Fernos and I'm Mark Fillian.In this series, we're taking a look
at the passion for muscle, adventuresin bodybuilding, muscle gods, muscle worship,
and practical advice to put on thegains today. Self described thick Goddess,
mobility coach and plus size supermodel YBelzer joins us to look at fitness

(00:52):
for big folks, loving yourself unconditionallyand working to have the best body possible
with what you got, plus overcomingthe deadly impact of sitting behind a desk
all day long. And water hasthe most underrated fitness supplement. Hello,
Hi, is this thick Goddess?Roy Belzer? It sure is? Hi?

(01:15):
How's it going? Let's grow bigtogether? Roy? Y? That's
my demon voice? Oh? Isit is that? What it is?
Yeah? It's like whenever you listento like, you know, straight guys
who are bodybuilders on their podcast,They're like, I'm going to build muscle
with you. And I was like, okay, Satan, calm down,
right, Yeah, I was like, yours is a lot less toxic,

(01:38):
so we're here for that already.Although I you know, toxic maxillinity gives
me a little bit of a boner, a little bit, a little bit.
I'm like Samantha and the original Samantha, not the missing one from Sex
in the City. You know,you know what, I've never seen Sex
in the City. I'm a reallybad homosexual. Oh no, give me
your card burst. Anyways, I'mfoul Stoe and I'm Mark and you're on

(02:00):
Let's You Grow Big Together, thebest podcast in the world. I was
excited. Thank you for having meand let me. I gots share with
you how I found out about you. Yes, please so. To your
clients and to folks on the internet, you're known as a plus size fitness
coach. Your main focus is mobilitywork, so how your body moves,

(02:24):
not just how it looks. Andyou were featured recently in Men's Health magazine.
Right, I was, yeah,I was in the January February edition
of Ments Health and so these youknow, I listened to all kinds of
podcasts just to sort of see whatother people are doing and get a sense
of, you know, where people'sminds are in the in the bodybuilding and

(02:46):
fitness verse. And these three straightguys were losing their mind over you,
over me, over you, thatwere hating on you. Yeah, oh
my god, I need to findout what podcast I'll send you the lane.
They don't, they don't deserve thething. Unlike a lot of like
athletes, they fall prey to isolation, and isolation leads through misinformation. The

(03:10):
misinformation leads to the dark side ofthe force, to conservative values and rejection.
Right funnel is really deeply rooted inthere. So I get it,
yep. And so part of theywere like criticizing you is because they said
that you don't look like a muscular, thick guy. You just look like

(03:30):
a thick guy. And I wantto investigate, and I said, you
know, despite your body does looklike you know, an average big guy.
It you have this really excellent mobility, which a lot of people,
if they're just judging you superficially,they're not looking at your movement, they're
going to miss the good stuff thatyou're able to give them, right exactly.

(03:52):
And so much of what I talkabout in my platform and what I
do in my practice is non estheticgoals because and I'm sure with your looking
through what I have been through whatI do for work, I have a
heavy history with eating disorders myself,So creating goals for myself outside of the

(04:12):
way that I look and simply increasingmy strength and mobility is always what I'm
striving for. So it's interesting tosee the way that I'm perceived on the
outside versus the things that I cando well. Part of it is,
you know, it's hard to makea living as a coach or in any
sort of like you know, selfdriven career path, and I imagine that

(04:33):
you're doing pretty well because you speakto people where they're at. Yeah,
so's it's really nice to be ableto work with people who are looking for
someone who is a little bit morerelatable and more accessible to them. And
that's exactly the demographic of people thatI'm wanting to reach. And I've worked

(04:55):
with bodybuilders in the past, andit's not my core demographic at this time,
so I much more work with theeveryday Joe's who are just getting started,
And why do you not want towork with bodybuilders or do you feel
like you guys have different sort ofgoals or definitely different set of goals from
where I'm at right now. So, like I said, with my with

(05:17):
my history with ed stuff, Iin the last couple of years have fallen
back into a little bit of thatmindset and just for my own safety and
protection, have taken a step backfrom working with people on aesthetic goals.
So, well, let's talk aboutyour own journey. So you were in

(05:38):
musical theater in college. Right inhigh school, you're in glee basically essentially,
And I actually was in high schoolat the same time Glee was airing.
So it was you one, rightyeah? Or unlucky you because people
are comparing you to Kurt and belike, why can't you sing like cam
or or whatever? Right, Well, I was the the group, So

(06:00):
I was the curtain. Oh wow, but I yeah. I ended up
working in musical theater and opera forabout a decade, okay, and so
working in that space, so muchof what I did as a professional dancer,
it really predicated on the way thatI looked as well as the way

(06:23):
that I moved, so understanding likewhat was expected of me in my size
and my aesthetic was really important tomaintaining a career there. And so you
got cast in Katz the musical andthey were like here's your units hard and
you're like, are you fit intothat all right? Well? As much

(06:45):
as all of my followers want tosee me in some kind of spandex,
it was. It was not cats. I will say though, in my
time working in musical theater, Ithink I only ended up doing two shows
where I was fully clear for theentire thing. Oh what were your hair
or the musical? I wasn't inhair. I've done songs from hair,

(07:05):
but I wasn't in hair. Itwas a lot of opera work that pulled
me into more shirtless roles. Itwas a naked naked boy singing Old Calcutta.
It's funny that I can remember likefive musicals that show off your body
a lot, but oh my god, I'll never hear naked boys singing without

(07:26):
thinking of that perky little porn starfrom Skookie Illinois. All I can think
of is that song. And sowhen you sort of decided to pivot into
fitness and and and getting into yourown bodybuilding career. You developed an eating
disorder at that time, so Ihad had the eating disorder prior to that,

(07:49):
and getting into fitness was honestly partof my healing journey from that and
wanting to work with other people inpreventing them from going through the same kind
of struggles that I was, becauseI didn't work on my fitness journey while
trying to maintain a good relationship withmy body and with food, which is

(08:13):
what I I try to work onwith all of my clients now is you
can get strong, you can workon your fitness journey, you can do
all of this while maintaining that healthyrelationship with how you perceive your body.
And forgive me if I'm getting alittle too deep or to personal, but
like in terms of your eating disorder, it was mostly like to determine on

(08:35):
you with holding food from you,or was it binging and purging or so
I fell into three categories with that, and all at different points. It
started with anorexia, so a lotof restrictive and then I fell into bolimia,
so a lot of the binging andpurging, and then Eventually I got

(09:00):
more into the orthorexia, so Iwas forcing myself to overexercise the calories that
I was consuming orthorexia mm hmm.And that's eating, but then trying to
outrun the calorie and take by exercisingyep. So oh yeah, Yeah,
mccolwell says you can never outrun abad diet yep. So it's faster than

(09:22):
light. Yeah, and that's whatI was trying to do. I was
trying to you know, I wasat that point eating maybe twelve hundred calories
a day, and I was dancingprofessionally in marathon training, so it was
definitely not good for my body.Interesting, and so in terms of like
your fitness or your dietary life,now, what does that look like as

(09:46):
opposed to what it looked like backthen. Now I have a much better
understanding of what my body needs,and I try to consume foods that are
going to nourish me as much aspossible while not restricting myself from eating something
that's going to serve me mentally inthat moment. So, yeah, you're

(10:07):
not a vegan right now in termsof you're looking more for like unprocessed foods
for example. Yeah, so I'mI'm definitely not vegan. I eat a
boatload of chicken, like an obsceneamount. You'd think I was bodybuilding at
this point with how much chicken I'mconsuming. I feel like most people don't
eat enough protein as it is,regardless of general. Yeah, that's a

(10:31):
real struggle for a lot of peopleis their protein intake. And if you
go out to eat, it's alsoa struggle. Like a lot of Americans
they don't even eat at home.They're not cooking for themselves. So if
you're relying on the public business sectorto feed your body, you're going to
be up a creek without a paddlebecause you don't have enough protein in your
diet. Yeah, and it's sohard to get that when you're going out

(10:52):
to eat, because I feel likea lot of what's out there when you're
when you're going out to a restaurant, it's it's a lot of like filler
food, we'll say, where it'sit's not going to be the most nutrient
dense. You're not going to takefrom it what your body needs to actually
function to its full capacity. Soit's it's definitely a struggle when it comes

(11:16):
to you know, people eating out. Well, let me phrase this a
little bit different for you, ifyou had your ability, your dithers,
your way of going, What wouldyour ideal body look like? Is it
looks much like it looks now?So that Oh that's a big question.
So right now I'm in a bitof a bigger body than I typically present

(11:39):
in. I in the last yearor so, went through a bit of
a rental uh mental health patch withmy mother going through cancer and sorry some
other stuff. She's doing really wellnow in remission. We love it.
But knowing myself and my history witheating disorders, I fell more into the
over rather than under eating. SoI'm a little bit heavier right now than

(12:05):
I typically would otherwise be. Sofor me, I do tend to fall
more in the like medium to largeshirt size, and you're huskie. I'm
a little husky. So I guessthe question is like, if you do
you feel like right now you haveyour ideal body or that's something you're always

(12:30):
sort of like striving forward. Becausepeople people turn to me and they were
like, oh, you have adisorder, you have a what is it?
What I say when bigger raxia orwhatever, And I'm like, no,
I have ambition, you know,like you know, and part of
it is, like as a coachmyself, like it's about celebrating and loving
yourself unconditionally as you are right now. And because you're doing that, that's

(12:56):
why you're going to have the ambitionto seek something better than where you are
now, regardless of where you're at. And I learned this from a yoga
teacher, so just said, thegoal of working out should have two things.
Either stay exactly the way you areright now or get slightly better mm
hmm. And like we were justtalking about my goals for the last several

(13:20):
years, because of my EDS havealways been kind of more on the non
esthetic side. Ever since I brokeout of that, I've I've been striving
for that. So like this year, I am working back towards running a
marathon again, which I haven't donein a while, and getting back into
that, and I'm doing a lotof goals that are focused around around acrobatics

(13:45):
as well, So like handstands area big one that I want to be
able to get back into, workingon the rings, doing all kinds of
gymnastics stuff this year. And asfar as reaching those goals, I'm not
quite there yet, So I wouldsay I'm quite in the body I want
to be in yet, But asfar as size goes like, I'm perfectly

(14:05):
happy and the body I am forthe size I am. And then a
lot of coaches, you know,like struggle getting clients, but you're saying
that basically, I'm more success nowas a voluptuous trainer than a rip trainer
in the past. And then I'mwondering, like, do you feel like
if you, you know, gotleaner that you were sort of be you

(14:28):
could sort of be sabotaging your careerto pay your bills. This is something
that I've played with the idea ofbecause I make sure to talk about this
online pretty consistently. My body isalways changing its size depending on what goals
i'm working towards. Like I justsaid, I'm working back towards running a
marathon, and knowing the way mybody is and how it changes, I'm

(14:50):
going to be dropping a fair amountof body fat percentage just in how I'm
training. So I try to makesure that all of my clients understand that,
regardless of what my body looks like, I'm going to continue to advocate
for all bodies in the fitness spaceand all goals that are associated with it.
So I don't think that it's goingto be detrimental to my career once

(15:13):
my body changes, as long asI continue to maintain the message that I'm
portraying. Because for me, itwas like, you know, it's it's
easier to get clients where you're sortof like in the off season to some
degree, Like you know, whenI did my bodybuilding show in December,

(15:33):
I went from two hundred and twentypounds to one hundred and seventy, and
so I was extremely lean to thepoint that people are like, are you
okay? Yeah? Yeah, Andyou know that when you're that shredded,
it intimidates people, you know,they don't feel like you can relate to
them, you know, and it'svery real. Yeah, And so I'm
like being like, hey, thisis a temporary stage. You know.

(15:56):
This is like you know, wherewhen we're rehearsing for a play, and
you know, we're developing skills thatare going to be executed and presented during
the run of the show. Butonce that show's over, you can't expect
an actor to remember all the linesor all the all the movements. Yeah,
heavens now. Yeah, and soit's very yeah, no, no,

(16:18):
no, you know, I wasjust agree yeah, yeah. And
so in a sense, it's like, you know, there's this idea,
and I think part of it isit is, you know, we can
blame sort of capitalism and marketing andstuff to giving us unrealistic expectations of what
our bodies should look like. Andcertainly like Hollywood right now, a lot
of these actors are relying on CGIcomputer effects. You know, they're face

(16:41):
tuning their bodies to look like Thorand either in Chris Hensworth doesn't look like
Thor when he's not in front ofthe camera. Yeah. And at the
same time, you know, wedo see people in everyday life at the
gym especially, they're you're just like, my god, that body is so
phenomenal. But they don't make necessarilythe best coaches because not able to translate

(17:03):
how they look into helping somebody modifyor change their lives to look the way
they want to exactly. Yeah,And that's also a thing. I I
don't think that a lot of peopleunderstand that just because someone can look a
certain way that they should be acoach, you know, just because your

(17:25):
body can get to that point,doesn't mean that you can coach other people
into that. And the same canbe said for the opposite, where I'm
in a little bit bigger body rightnow, it doesn't change my education or
my experience in working with people.And you sorry, I lost myself there

(17:45):
for a second. No. Andin terms of like what you do,
your focus is on mobility. Soa lot of people don't even know,
Like you know, bodybuilders and fitnesspeople don't even understand what that is.
Can you talk a little bit whatmobility mobility actually entails. Yeah, So
a lot of people confuse mobility andflexibility, and that's a big thing that

(18:10):
people just totally misunderstand the disconnect there. So flexibility is going to be you
being able to be in a staticspace through the end of your range of
motion, whereas mobility training is youbeing able to utilize the muscles while moving

(18:32):
through that space. And when I'mworking with clients on mobility training, the
majority of what we're doing is makingsure that they can live their everyday lives
to the fullest without any kind oflimitations. So a lot of the clients
that I work with are going tobe like parents who want to make sure
to be able to crawl around onthe floor with their kids as they're growing

(18:53):
up, or be able to goand throw a baseball with them without tweaking
their back. And so we makesure that their goals are set in line,
and we work on the mobility trainingto strengthen through that in range of
motion with all of the moves thatthey're going to be doing while going through
that space. Well, and youcertainly have a lot of hip mobility even

(19:18):
for a guy your size, Likeninety of people men who have similar physical
bodies as yours don't have the abilityto move in the way that you do.
So for example, you're able toget pick yourself off the floor without
touching the floor. You're able togo into a deep squad without you know,

(19:40):
any kind of assistance or holding onto something. Yeah, and being
able to work through those spaces anddoing you know, a deep squad or
getting up off the floor. It'sit's a really great way to embody embody.
Oh my gosh, I'm totally forgetting the word here self sustainability just

(20:06):
in your everyday life, to bemore independent. That's what I was looking
for, to be more independent andnot have to rely on any kind of
assistance when moving through space, becausebeing able to sit into a deep squad
is really important for doing this,that or the other. You know,
you're going to be doing that topick things up off the floor or to

(20:27):
you know, grab your kid andgo about your everyday life. Being able
to get up off the floor.One of the biggest things I teach is
how to hold something in your armswhile you're getting off the floor. I
think I recently, I know alot of people want to be able to
hold their kid while getting up offthe floor. But the video I made
recently about getting off the floor washow to hold your cup of coffee without

(20:49):
spilling it and getting off the floorbecause I don't have kids right now,
and that's what made sense for me. Well, and there's a certain test
out there for people to be ableto get off the floor without using their
hands, and they say it's agreat indicator of your general overall health and
longevity, and people that need assistanceto getting up with the floor are not

(21:10):
going to live as long as peoplethat don't. Yeah, no, it's
totally true. Is I mean,that's just like a biological thing that I
can't remember what that test is called, but it's the cross leg to stand.
Yeah, we were taught that inballet class, you know, and
people who have backgrounds in very traditionalperformance arts like you know, ballet or

(21:34):
you know, opera, there tendsto be a more unhealthy dynamics between the
body and and their perspection of itthan people who tend to be in like
modern dance or experimental theater. Yeah. Well, I was talking to a
couple of my friends about this theother day who currently work in ballet and

(21:55):
what their experience has been with theexpectations surrounding their body, and it's so
strict, and not just in liketheir size, but in their capability as
well. So they're all training inreally functional movement spaces outside of their regular
ballet practice, just to make surethat they stay safe while being forced into

(22:19):
these honestly awkward and in range ofmotion positions. To be able to you
know, do a standing full split, or to be able to just contort
into any kind of poses that they'regoing through. It's wild the amount of
strength and stability that they need intheir body. So as a coach,

(22:41):
you know, when you get aclient and you're thinking, maybe this person
does need to lose weight or orgain weight, or change their eating habits,
or change the way they think abouttheir body. How do you approach
that like, because you know,because they could quickly say, well,
you know, put practice what youeach doctor, you know, and they

(23:02):
could come off on the defensive aboutit. So how do you like position
that information that you need to bemaking changes that in order to get the
best life possible for yourself. Somore than anything, I talk about them.
I talk to them about their relationshipwith food and with their body before
anything else. And then I talkto them about like what their end all

(23:25):
goals are, and if their goalsare attainable outside of any kind of bodily
modification, then we don't have tohave any kind of heavy conversation surrounding that.
But if there are things that arenot doable in the body that they're
currently in, we talk about,like what do we have to do to
get you to the point that youcan move through this space and do it

(23:48):
safely? So safety and health arethe number one thing when I'm talking to
clients about goals and any kind ofbodily changes. Well, and we think
about, you know, like FitnessGrower was like Richard Simmons. You know,
he wasn't known for being this,you know, a you know,
six pack ads muscular kind of build, you know. And yeah, that's

(24:10):
somebody who inspired millions of people toexercise and to live better lives just with
their enthusiasm. Yeah. And honestly, this is so funny that you said
Richard Simmons, because my mother alwayscomments saying, you're like a modern day
Richard Simmons, because I have thatkind of energy when I'm taking it into
my videos, because I during thepandemic, I filmed a workout class every

(24:38):
day for like three hundred days andbuilt a membership out of that. And
just the energy I have in thatis kind of you know, to that
Richard Simmons killed and to be ableto inspire people, regardless of what your
body looks like, just to moveand live a better life. It's it's
inspiring back on me, you know. And in terms of like that,

(25:00):
if someone wants to take your Richardyour sweating to the oldies class, how
do they go about doing that?Just going to your Instagram account Roy Belzer
Fitness, Yeah, so you can. You can find it through any of
the links on any of my socialmedia's as well as just on my website,
roybelserfitness dot com. Oh yeah,and so it's like a separate way.

(25:25):
It's not like on YouTube. It'sa separate website and they pay.
Can we ask how much that costs? And yeah, no, sure,
it's a it's a membership fee.So it's you pay monthly for as long
as you want access to it,and I charge fifteen dollars a month for
that, okay. And within thatyou also get access to an app where
you can track your nutrition, trackany kind of progress you have. You

(25:48):
have access to my private Facebook groupwhere everyone talks about their goals and sets
sets weekly goals and about any kindof issues that they're having throughout the week.
Like I just had someone recently talkabout how they're struggling through marathon training
because of a former injury. AndI have this, you know, group

(26:12):
of a thousand people who are helpingbuild each other up, talk through strategies.
It's just a really lovely community ofpeople. That's great. And in
terms of you know, getting peopleto where they need to go, is
everybody's going to have different goals,so like in terms of like listening to

(26:32):
those goals, like how do youyou know, part of it is like
it's sometimes really hard to not overwhelmyour clients with so many changes, and
so like, for example, onething I do with my clients is like,
you know, the first month,we're just focused on your protein.
We're not even looking at your fator your carbs or whether it's process or
on processed foods. We're just tryingto get you to train you into the

(26:57):
idea of tracking your food because forsome people, the eating disorder stems from
the fact that they start getting OCDobsessive compulsive disorder on the food they eat.
Yeah, honestly, that was abig thing for me and a big
trigger when I started getting into myed stuff was over over complicating all of

(27:19):
the calories that I was consuming.It was less about like the protein,
fat, carbs, et cetera.For me, it was simply calories,
and that's what I obsessed over.Yea. So having people strictly look at
their protein intake for that first monthis a really great idea because, like

(27:41):
we talked about earlier, so manypeople struggle with getting in enough protein just
for their body to function regularly.So let's what's what's your favorite protein source.
What's the most underrated protein source thatno one is paying close enough enough
close attention to. So I well, like I have my answer, but

(28:02):
I want to hear yours and Mark. Let's only here about Marks, you
know. Yeah, yeah, soI uh, like I said, I'm
very big into chicken. I eatso much chicken it's obnoxious. But there
are even times when like I strugglewith getting enough protein. So after a
workout, I I do take aprotein supplement. Recently, I've been really
into the seek see Q protein powder. It's a wave protein isolate and it's

(28:30):
it's a clear protein. Okay,so it's not one of the proteins that's
like on the like chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter side. It's uh.
The one I have is fruit punch, So you're basically having a Hawaiian punch
that has protein and no sugar init exactly. So it's it's low en

(28:51):
calories and a lot of protein.So it's perfect. And especially with moving
into summer, I love to havesomething refreshing like that instead of something that's
like overly milky chocolatey. Yeah,I'm looking here, how much like a
scoop of protein's going to give youtwenty two grams, so you're gonna need

(29:11):
the basically like two scoops per serving. I guess right, Yeah, I
do two scoops per serving for this. The other stuff's usually like twenty seven
grams, is that right? Yeah, so it's it's gonna be a little
bit under it. You could evendo three scoops honestly. Yeah. Yeah,
and they're they're small scoops. Soyou've got a lot of playroom with
that too, to where it's notoverwhelming to add a little bit more.

(29:34):
And that is the one, uh, the one give and take with that
is you don't have to have thelike really thick drink, but you have
slightly less protein as a thing.But like I was trying making ice cream
with this stuff, like you know, the Ninja creamy. Yes, that's
just what I was going to talkabout. I've done the ice cream with
that, and I do it withwith a Greek yogurt as my base.

(29:57):
And then in one of the morechocolate ones for that, I haven't done
the chocolate chocolate way or something,because I was imagining that something like this
will actually translate to a nice sorbet. Yeah, I bet it would.
And I haven't had time to trythat out yet. That's a really great

(30:18):
idea. You know, if NinjaKareami wants to send us a mill,
we would I'll try it out.You know. Part of it is like
we're giving all these great references tothese companies, you know, I don't
know Instagram. You are like,we would love to partner you up with
our fashion line for fitness products,and I'm like, it's all like sports
bras, and I'm like, yeah, I get so many because I'm I'm

(30:41):
mostly big on TikTok. There's ofthousands of followers there, and I get
so many emails from different different TikTokcreators who want me to model their sports
brand. And then I look atit and it's exclusively like sports bras and
I'm like, I do not wearthose I have for a show once,
but uh not. It would kindof be funny if you did, though.

(31:04):
Yeah. I mean, I'm thinkI'm going by being like, okay,
send me your sports brawl put iton, right, yeah, free
sample. I mean, I'm notashamed to try anything on. It's fine.
We're fluid here, you know.And part of it is because you
know a coach lights the fire insidea person. A trainer lights a fire

(31:26):
underneath a person, right, mYou know, in dealing with my clients
and I'm curious to hear about you, we talk about their sexuality or lack
of it or or you know,whether they're a sexual or you know,
polyamorous or whatever. And and partof it is, like, you know,
your thoughts about your body and yourthoughts about sex are kind of intertwined.

(31:48):
So in order to sort of likeundo a lot of the damage or
the toxicity of how you think aboutyour body, you have to sort of
like start thinking differently about your sex. Yeah, no, absolutely, And
I so the majority of my clientsare somewhere within the LGBT QUI A plus
community, So having these conversations andcreating a safe space for people to talk

(32:14):
about that and talk about what theystruggle with in that space. In relation
to how they perceive their body,it's so important. And there's definitely a
correlation between their body dysmorphia or selfworth attached to how they perceive themselves and

(32:34):
what they're doing in the bedroom ifanything. So, like what's a common
like, uh, you know,misdirection that you see in your clients that
you're just like, you know,come on, guys, let's goals,
let's among people, let's let's let'schange how we think about this. I
think one of the biggest ones ishow a lot of my gay clients are

(32:59):
really attract to people who are inthe body that they currently have, but
they struggle to find self worth inhow they look themselves. Oh interesting,
because I usually think about it theother way. It's like they're they're attracted
to somebody who doesn't look like them. And I explain this to my clients,

(33:21):
I say, you know, becauseI've you know, made a lot
of changes in my life, andthe same people that rejected you in the
past, and you thought, well, if I get abs, if I
if I get abs, if Ilook like a bodybuilder, then they'll want
to talk to me or they wantto be more interested in me. And
that's not the case, because theirrejection of you has very little to do
with you and everything to do withthem exactly. So much of it is

(33:45):
is internalized and not actually what youproject. So yeah, it's it's always
so interesting to talk to people whoare you know, already interested in people
in the body that they're in.You know, I I see it so
often, especially like I currently fallinto kind of the bear community. So

(34:07):
it's really interesting seeing uh ray obviously, Yeah, I told you I'm struggling
with protein. But no, Iit's it's just fascinating. I will say,
as someone who is recently back inthe dating scene, I am finding

(34:31):
a lot of people who are whoare more in that fetishizing world as well
of where my body currently is versuswhere it's been versus where it's going.
Well, yeah, you're a you'rea plus size supermodel, you know,
you're a bear like that. Likeyou know, in terms of people,

(34:52):
if you want somebody with a bigbelly, you're the guy. Yeah,
you know, because you have alot of mobility, you have a lot
of energy, and you have thatvoluptuous body that they're seeking. Yeah,
I'm I keep saying. I'm like, I would do really well if I
got into rugby. Is kind ofthe body time I'm in right now.

(35:14):
I can't play any team sports becauseI travel full time right now. But
yeah, that's that's for your listeners. Where my body is kind of sitting
right now. I can't tell youhow many people are always like, oh,
do you want to get into wrestling. Oh, we're going to I
can't wait to tackle you in arugby game. Somebody wanted to meet a
rugby I'm like, do you knowhow old I am? And I told
them they're like, yeah, youdon't want to play rugby at that age.

(35:35):
Like, yeah, I'll break myneck. It's not going to end
well for any of us. Well, that's like, you know, part
of my chronic back issues. Imean, I think like as Americans,
you know, we we're always talkingabout, like you know, obesity as
a problem, but we're not talkingat all. I would like to hear
more of a conversation about corporate workculture and sitting behind desks. And you

(35:59):
try to all my clients, allof us, including myself, we all
share. The problem is that we'redeveloping sciatica, which is inflamed the nerve
that runs from your back to downyour legs. Yeah, lower back pain
issues, hit mobility issues, kneeand ankle mobility all is a result of

(36:20):
sitting behind a desk for hours andhours and hours and end. And and
you know a lot of companies theycould put adjustable height desks so you're always
moving, but they don't do that. And to me, I'm just like,
you know, if we really wantto like have people live their best
lives and their best bodies, Iwould say motion is more not the size

(36:44):
of the ocean, but the motionof the ocean. I can't tell you
how rewarding it was to years ago. I used to work and did some
like corporate wellness work where I'd gointo different office buildings and I would just
teach a basic movement class. Andit's wild seeing the way these people's muscles

(37:07):
have atrophied after years of just sittingat a desk. They were in so
much pain and not able to move. Their mobility was struggling, and I
feel like that's so much more detrimental, just like sitting all day, regardless
of what their size was, itwas it was their you know, their
lack of movement throughout their day andthroughout their lives. So, in terms

(37:30):
of the underrated food is chicken,but like it is a chicken breast,
chicken thighs, lemon chicken thigh forsure, chicken thighs that's good for building
muscle, but it's also like chickenthigh's for people that't know that they're they're
richer in nutrients just like red meatis because they have more blood in them

(37:51):
and they're more resilient against cooking.So if you want to, like,
if you want to make your chickenburrito bowl, you know Mexican fast food
franchise burrito bowl, which is goingto be healthier and more affordable using they
all use chicken thighs. And alsoif you're going to do like, you
know, your low carb orange chickenequivalent in the air fryer, you can

(38:15):
using chicken thighs as the way togo. Yeah, chicken thighs is always
the way to go with stuff likethat. They also hold moisture a lot
better than chicken breast does, soI feel like it always comes out just
a little bit more flavorful. Ifyou are cutting for a bodybuilding show,
then you know you want to getleaner cuts of meat like chicken breast.
But you know, chicken thighs untilrecently were even cheaper than chicken breast.

(38:37):
There were usually ninety nine cents apound. Now one protein source that no
one is talking and I know thatI sound like the National Egg Council,
but it's eggs. You know.I had this old bodybuilder one time at
the gym and like he I waslifting late. He cames up to me,
He's like, young man, youwant to gains, you gotta go

(38:58):
to Costco and get yourself a trayof eggs and eat all those eggs because
the cholesterol and the eggs build themuscle. Oh goodness, I love old
bodybuilding coaches like that. I'm sohere for it. Oh and it was
right, you know, and thisis years before we sort of change the
way we think about, you know, cholesterol and eggs. But the cholesterol

(39:22):
eggs is actually super important for optimalhealth, right. Yeah. I feel
like that was one of those AlmondMom kind of situations where Almond you know,
the Almond Mom, the Woman's Worldmagazine, the Crunchy moms, we

(39:42):
have to be on weight Watchers andJenny Craig moms. I feel like that
whole movement is what pushed the theegg white industry and moved away from the
egg yolk. So but I'm veryhere. I'm very team team eggs.
As a it's a protein. Ifeel like a hit. Like in terms

(40:04):
of exercise, like what is yourfavorite exercise that people you would like to
see your clients and more people doso first and foremost is balance. That's
gonna be a big one that alot of new clients struggle with more than
anything. So just to keep themsafe, I have a lot of new
clients start with balance training. Andthe easiest, most effective way that I

(40:29):
start working with people who have themobility to do so is to stand on
one leg, pick something up offthe floor, and then put it back
down without touching the other foot onthe floor. Dude, you're gonna kill
me. H yeah, well whatabout it? Just doing like something even
more gentler, like a pigeon posewhere you stick your the foot that's not

(40:50):
touching their ground on inside your innerthigh. Oh yeah, oh like a
sorry, not a pigeon pose,a tree pose. Sorry yeah, tree
pose. Tree pose is great,but I take out that, you take
out that mobility portion of it.There's no movement. Yes, yeah,
I want them moving. You know. Maybe it's a little bit about can

(41:12):
you talk a little bit about likethe difference between movement stretching, dynamic stretching,
and static stretching. Why those haveeach have their place, but they
serve different functions. Yeah, eachdefinitely have their place, each serve different
functions. I I definitely tend topush my clients through more dynamic stretching than

(41:34):
static stretching because I want them tobe able to function through the end of
that range of motion instead of justhaving the the openness to sit in a
space. So having having that dynamicstretch, especially before getting into any kind
of like heavier lifting, is reallyimportant just to have the muscles like warm

(41:54):
and ready. So I I'm I'mdefinitely more team dynamic stretching and than just
static stretching. I go through staticstretches and I'm here for it. But
you know, in terms of staticstretching is what we were usually taught in
our childhood, you know, interms of like you know, warming up

(42:15):
for a dance class, it wasusually like you know, trying to touch
your toes for example, whereas nowit's it's more like doing a sun salutation
as something, or you know,a downward dog. And yoga in terms
of the movement is just as importantas the pose itself. Absolutely, Yeah,

(42:36):
being able to move into and outof that space is just as important
as being able to be in thatspace for an extended period of time.
And in terms of like you know, getting from there to to incorporating that
into your training. Like say,if you're lifting weights, is it do
you do you like sort of alittle bit of beginning at the end or

(42:59):
do you have a different approach Ido. I do a lot of dynamic
stretch in the beginning, and thentowards the end of the workout is when
I integrate the static stretching. Sosay I'm doing squat day where I'm just
lifting heavy stuff on the squad rack, I will go through my dynamic body

(43:21):
weight work through squats, lunges,et cetera, all through my body weight.
I'll get on the squad rack,do my reps there, and then
at the end I'm going to sitinto my poses and live there for a
minute so that my body can reallystretch out and live at that end range
of motion. But that's towards theend more. Yeah, So I do

(43:44):
the static towards the end and dynamicprior. Yeah, that's usually when I
do my warmups. It's always dynamic, and then you know, after I
work out, maybe I'll do somestretching that'll kind of elongate that because philosophy
now is that you don't want thatstatic stretch before a lift. Is my
right even for like cross country,like it used to be. Back in
the day, cross country runners woulddo all sorts of like static stretching,

(44:05):
and I think that that's kind offallen out of favor now too, right,
Yeah, So a lot of thestatic stretching, it's that's almost like
moving into that end range of motion, and and you don't want that before
really putting stress on the muscles themselves. That's more of the recent findings and
what we learned growing up though,Like you said, with the ballet class,

(44:29):
pushing through all that static stretching beforegetting into class. Oh well,
it's like you know, back inthe day, we didn't have a myofascial
release or phone rolling. And youknow, when we started incorporating that into
our warm ups at the time,like people were like, this is not
the proper warm up technique. AndJeffrey Nippert, of all people, collected

(44:52):
a lot of data and said,you know, it doesn't it doesn't hurt
necessarily as much as you think itdoes. It doesn't help as much as
you do, but if it workswell for you, it's something he enthusiastically
recommends because everybody's bodies are going tobe different. And one thing that I've
observed with people who have a lotof you know, mass on their bodies,

(45:13):
especially you know, not muscle butmore fat that it. You know,
foam rolling or myofascil rolling can bea difficult thing to start doing.
How do you get your clients doingfoam rolling like that? Yeah? So
I do have a couple of giantswho are in larger bodies wanting to get
into foam rolling, and when theyfirst start specifically foam rolling like legs,

(45:37):
they struggle to be able to holdtheir body up to be on top of
the foam roller. So we workthrough different spaces that are a little bit
less calves, and we use differenttools for that. So instead of using
an entire foam roller for doing myofasurelease on your calves, I have them
use like a massage ball or alacrosse ball, so it's a little more

(46:00):
pinpointed so they don't have to holdtheir body up. They can have more
specific weight targeted on smaller areas sothat it's not as distributed out. Does
that make sense? Yeah? LikeI tell people's like, hey, you
can pay a massage therapist one hundreddollars or even more these days an hour

(46:21):
to work on your body, butwith myofascial or phone rolling. It's twenty
five dollars for the styrofoam stick andyou can do it as much as you
like, and it's like having yourown in home massage therapist. Absolutely as
soon as you know what you're doingwith it as well, it's so easy
to just jump on it. AndI will say a lot of people when

(46:44):
they first get into film rolling don'tunderstand how aggressively painful it can be the
first couple of times. But afteryour body moves through that space a few
times, it is, it's justlike rote, it's fine, and it's
kind of painful if you have alot out of a kind of like fatty
tissue. Right. Because I hada friend who was you know, she's
a big girl, and she wasjust like I tried it and it was

(47:05):
just super painful where it's for me. The first time I did it was
like almost felt very cathartic and likea huge stress release. I had a
little tear come out, but itwasn't from pain, but from like,
wow, this is really like hittingsomething. Yeah. And we I mean,
just in general, we hold tensiondifferently in everyone's body. So for
me, I hold all of mytension from from everyday work, in everyday

(47:30):
life, I travel full time,I hold all of my tension in one
spot, like right beside my rightshoulder blade. So taking that ball and
going in and doing like a Mayafashion release on that specific spot, it's
almost like I'm releasing the trauma thatI've been holding right there and the catharsis
attached to that is so wild.Yeah, it's it's really. Our bodies

(47:54):
do store a lot of trauma.And you know, whether it's massage,
therapy or or a Maya past she'llrelease foam rolling when you get to that
point. It can really. Mymother one time she got a massage and
she said I felt like I wasreleasing trauma from past lives. Wow,

(48:14):
Oh that's what you want. Yeah. Wow. They went super deep on
that one, that's for sure.Well. They also say like we carry
so much stress like in our inour joints, really like in our hips,
and then on our shoulders like youor even like your neck, Like
it's in kind of those places whereyour body kind of comes together where a
lot of that problems happen. Yeah, in those spaces where we we tend

(48:35):
to use those a lot more justin general. So holding trauma there and
holding that stress makes sense, youknow, So I totally get that.
I I mean, I am sograteful for the mobility that I've worked on
through my hip space, so Idon't hold as much trauma there. Well,
you really have almost like a youknow, like you have this big

(48:57):
body, but you're like as flexibleas like a Disney character. You know.
It's like you're just lighter than air. You know. I don't think
of ever being compared to a Disneycharacter in that aspect, but I love
that. But you know, youknow the way the like the animate these
characters, especially like in Lion King, you know, and when they're dancing,
and it's like there's gravity is nota factor here, you know,

(49:20):
and for you, like watching yourvideos, clearly you're like you're almost defying
gravity. I love that, andI'm here for the Wicked reference. Yeah,
thank you. Let's talk about yoursex life. Sure you're likely to
realize this kind of show you arefine? Well, you know, part

(49:40):
of it is, like I tellpeople, it's like, hey, you
know, if if any sprinkle proseperformance goddess, she said this, it's
like she loves going to the gymbecause exercises like orgasmy and Arnold Schwarzenegger said
that too. He said, Uh, can you imagine what heaven I am?
Because when I get the pump atthe gym, it is like orgasming.
When I'm flexing in the stage,I'm orgasming. And when I go

(50:05):
home, I definitely get to orgasm. So I've got the best of everything.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, well, I don't have much
to tell in this area right now. I have been in a bit of
a dry spell myself with the wayI travel, et cetera. I'm not
seeing anyone, and just in general, I'm a little bit more demi sexual.

(50:27):
So that means that you're into DemiMoore. Yeah obviously, yes,
No, well it depends on aterrible joke. So demisexual, I require
just a little bit more of aconnection with someone prior to wanting to see
them in an intimate light. Soit doesn't even have to be like we've

(50:52):
got to go on several dates first. It could be like a thirty minute
flirt in the bar and there's aconnection there situation, so you're not like,
like, you know, giving somebodyhungry eyes from across the gym and
be like, hey, man,you want to spot me, and like
I want to spot you for life? Oh my god. I mean I've
definitely I've been that girl before.We've been there, but no, I'm

(51:15):
much more in the demi sexual realmnow and we're in a little bit of
a dry spot because of the wayI've been traveling and focusing on my work
stuff and career. Where are youliving right now? Nowhere? Actually CouchSurfing.
CouchSurfing essentially, so the term isdigital nomad. Digital nomad, yeah,

(51:38):
digital nomad. So I full timetravel without a permanent home base,
and I work exclusively online. Sowhile I'm on the road, though,
I will see my online clients inperson occasionally if I'm in their city,
Like I just met up with acouple of people in San Diego, someone

(52:00):
in Portland, Oregon, someone inSan Francisco, one in Milwaukee. It
just kind of depends on where I'mat and whether or not I have clients
there to go and meet up with. Okay, I'm expensive to travel so
much, and you're staying in hotels? Are you staying with your clients?
I mostly stay with friends, andright now I'm staying with family back where

(52:22):
I grew up in Iowa. SoI am having a lovely time visiting with
my brother and my nieces. Butyeah, so I'm about to head back
out to the East Coast where Ilived for the last five years before getting
on this journey, and I'm goingto be staying with a lot of friends
and spending Pride Month and my birthdaywith them, and then doing a bunch

(52:45):
of filming and photo shoots in NewYork. So fun. It just kind
of depends. Yeah, now you'reyou're planning a fitness retreat in Chicago.
Yeah, so, I've got mysecond finn retreat in Chicago, and that's
going to be coming up here.It's my first retreat that's fully sold out,

(53:07):
and I'm so excited for that.People are fifteen Oh my god,
Richard a bigger venue honestly. SoI've got a full five day, four
night itinerary built out for us.We're gonna have a lot of conversations on

(53:27):
our on our bodies, by dysmorphia, our relationships with food. I'm going
to do a whole seminar on nutritionand how to meal prep. We're doing
a couple of like cut little thingstoo, like a tour of the zoo
and a couple of little things throughoutthe city. And then we're doing a

(53:52):
lot of goal setting stuff as well, for long term and short term goals.
It's it's all encompassing too, it'snot, you know, which is
what I think the best kind ofyou know, coaching is is one that
looks at everything in your life,not just what you're eating, how you're
lifting, how you're sleeping. Yeah. So I want I want people to

(54:15):
be able to come to this andtake away how to start their fitness journey
on their own and not follow off. I want them to be able to
actually take away from this and notjust look at it as a vacation.
You make a lot of these fitnessretreats affordable because one of the criticisms,

(54:35):
you know, with health and fitnessand bodybuilding is that it's for the rich
folks, you know, Like andI always tell people's like, hey,
you know, kay green build thatbody while living in you know, subsidized
housing, right, yeah, youknow, And I mean this day and
age, it's kind of like ifyou don't eat at home, you're you're
going to struggle even more. Yeah, So much of what I do is

(54:57):
creating accessible spaces for fitness for allbody types, and I wanted to create
even more accessibility and making my fitnessretreats accessible financially. So I make sure
that all of my retreats have optionsfor payment plans, cheaper down payments.
I offer referral programs for people toget money knocked off of their retreat cost.

(55:23):
And I have a scholarship program forpeople to be able to come on
the retreat with a free slot.So you fill that slot up. I
sure did, Oh no, ButI mean, you know, like in
terms of like these kind of retreatsand workshops, like I remember, you
know, benefiting from one that wasin a theater experimental theater workshop and they

(55:47):
just had us basically like wash dishesand help prepare food. Yeah, I
know, you have kind of theequivalent like a work study kind of thing.
So it's it's less work study,it's more whoever you bring. If
you bring someone, then I'll giveyou a little bit of a discount nice
off of that. So that Imake sure I fill my retreat slots and

(56:08):
you get a little bit of akickback. That's wonderful. And I imagine
that like people are really enjoying justhaving that community for those four days.
Honestly, that's one of the biggestthings that people are taking away from being
in these retreats is the community ofother people who are kind of on their
same journey and having a safe spaceto have these conversations, because so often

(56:32):
in our lives we don't have acommunity of people right next to us who
you feel safe talking about what you'restruggling with. Yeah, well so it's
hard, you know. We're sovulnerable with our bodies, you know,
Yeah, and it's your only oneand being open with that is hard to
do. I was walking down thestreet and there's these two people behind me,

(56:53):
and I heard as I walked pastthem, when I heard one of
the women say to the other oneabout how she was going to go to
some store like Fleet Feet, andthey test you for how you walk,
you know what I mean? Sheand she says to her friend, she
goes, I want to do it, but I'm afraid they're gonna shame me.
And her friend immediately snapped and said, they will definitely shame you for

(57:15):
the way you walk. And Iwas just and I thought to myself,
well, it just how do youwin with an attitude like that. You
know, you don't, you don't. I honestly like I would give my
friends guff like that, just becausethat's the relationship I have with my friends.
Sure, but they know it's iningest rather than you know, being
malicious. Yeah, but I don'tfeel like going into a space like Fleet

(57:38):
Feet is somewhere where you get agate analysis and they'll give you guff for
it. You know, mentioned thatexact store, but that's the one I'm
familiar with they were talking about.But how do you how do you deal
with this because we have someone shameabout our bodies? How do you recommend
people kind of like dealing with thateven just to make those first steps because

(58:00):
a lot of people you're like,I'm just so ashamed of the way I
look. I'm ashamed that I don'tknow how to exercise, I'm ashamed of
what I'm eating? How do youget out of this trap? So much
of that is just having open conversationsabout it and figuring out what their why
is, Like why are you ashamedof this? Why haven't you taken the
steps to make a change in thisspace? You know what about going to

(58:22):
a gym? Space makes you nervousor uncomfortable. What are you struggling with
with food and why? Because Ifeel like identifying that reason the notation behind
it is a huge step in understandinghow to move forward with rectifying it.

(58:44):
Roy, It's a pleasure of talkingto you, and it's certainly great to
hear all your sort of like affirmativethoughts on the body and on fitness.
You know, I imagine that alot of people who would benefit from your
coaching or your wisdom might not getit because you don't fit their expectations of
what a personal trainer or coach lookslike. Yeah, well, I appreciate

(59:07):
that. It's it's been so greattalking to you as well, and you
are correct on that one, butyou know, you know what I'm saying,
like it part of it is likelike even for myself, like I
feel like I have to, youknow, meet my client's expectations of what
I should look like. And evenI've had clients, a lot of the

(59:30):
people listen to the show, they'relike, we pay attention to what you're
saying because you look like the waywe want to look. And I say
to them, it's like, youknow, the way I look works well,
for me because it's something that I'mpassionate about, but it may not
work well for you. And sowhen we're working together, we have to
look at your job schedule, youravailability, your your time, your energy,

(59:53):
your ability to sleep, because youknow, I tell people, it's
like, hey, if you're notsleep enough and you're going to the gym,
what's the point. Yeah, you'rea nice such an important part of
that recovery process, right, andjust yeah, yeah, it's so important.
And and everybody's spending all this moneyon you know, way protein all

(01:00:15):
this other stuff, and I'm like, but you're dehydrated. You're not drinking
enough water. That's that's the supplement. I want everybody this week to focus
on. Get your water, Getyour metal what are those those metal bottles
that are whoa the Stanley cup?Stanley cup. Get your Stanley cup,
knockoff. Don't spend the money andfill that thirty two ounces up four times

(01:00:37):
a day, get that get thatgallon in there, m hm. And
you know your life will be better, seriously, all your all. You
will make more money, you'll getmore sex, you'll get a better night's
sleep just by being hydrated, justby drinking those four damn ounces of four
down Damn Stanley cups thirty two ouncesa day. Your life will be better

(01:00:58):
guaranteed or your money. I havea hydrated queen. Love a hydrated queen.
But you know what it is?I don't know. Like my dad,
I was like begging my dad beforehe passed away, like please drink
water. He's like, I don'tneed to drink water. I'm a camel
m m. And I'm like acamel you're a human being. Yeah.
I was like, that's not howthat works. But parents will be parents.

(01:01:22):
How do you manage? Like there'sapps that like will remind you to
drink your water four times a day, you know, and you know what's
like some kind of tricks you doto sort of like stay on track.
So mine, I have a Camelbacknot sponsored. I have a camel Back
water bottle that's thirty two ounces insulated, and I do the four times a

(01:01:45):
day refill. And what works forme is I have a little bit of
an oral fixation. So having thatlittle nipple on the top that I can
chew on, m is it's perfectfor me because as soon as I bite
down on it, I'm sucking itand it's I am walking myself right into

(01:02:06):
this hole. But why are youbreast My mother believes that people who are
into that they were not breastfed bytheir parents. See I was, you
were, I was, yeah,I don't know. I asked this question
too. It's like, so whenI was doing my competition, they were
about thirty five, you know,at least openly heterosexual men backstage sharing the

(01:02:30):
area with me. You know,we're all competing together, and it was
actually a really wholesome experience. Itwas like I was expecting, you know,
toxic masculinity, toxic sports culture,none of that. Oh good.
Yeah, So, like the world'schanged, you know, what is it?
Stay stay the courseroy because the worldyou are making an impact. People

(01:02:51):
like you are making an impact onthe world, and that impact is being
felt and seen. I love thatso much, and I every day I
hope the work that I'm doing ismaking a difference for people who struggle to
see themselves represented right right, Andso you know, I'm like, I'm
always comfortable being the only gay inthe village, but you know, it's

(01:03:14):
nice when you run into other people, and so thirty five men, they're
all looking at my chest and they'reall like, you have such such beautiful
pecks and you know, and someof these guys are like, you're nice
trips. Yeah, I said,you like my titties, huh? And
I was just like, would youlike to touch them? You know?

(01:03:35):
And these guys they're no slouches either, you know, they have really you
know. For me, I'm like, I'm standing next to supermodels here and
they're all like cooing over my titties, you know. And yeah, I
was like right, and I wasjust like, oh my god, this
is so great. But part ofit is like there were and then there's
a question I get asked, islike the sexuality of your muscle development changes

(01:03:58):
the way you think about your body, but also how you want to touch
it. And in terms of like, you know, a lot of bodybuilders
they build the muscle, but theydon't flex it. They don't learn how
to practice presenting it. I tellthis, like you make this beautiful meal,
but you don't know how to putit on the plate. So people
look at the plate and they go, this is a bunch of slop,
you know. And and so interms of that, it's like, you

(01:04:21):
know, someone asked me who waslike, do you think, like the
more muscle you put on your chest, the more sensitive your nipples are.
And I would say, yeah,you know, and talking to enough bodybuilders,
enough people who built muscle through thecourse of their lives. The muscles
not just the like a heat sinkfor injuries, for disease and for obstacles

(01:04:42):
and mental health, but it alsoenhances the way you feel when you're being
touched. Oh absolutely, yeah.I mean I'm fully remembering like back when
I was a much lower body fatpercentage and I was focused more on like
a steady muscle building. Just likethe sensitivity of the majority of body parts

(01:05:06):
was not all body parts, buta lot of body parts was a lot
higher. Yeah, so yeah,yeah, Well do you do you do
you want to go to that differentlocation or is that something like it's just
it's too much, too much stimulation. I am not sure because it's it's

(01:05:28):
been a while since I've been ina body where that was a thing,
And like I said, I'm notcurrently in a like sexually active place,
so it's not something that I'd belooking for in an outside stimulation. So
not opposed to it, but it'snot something that I have on my goal
set. But like I, likeI said earlier, it's like, you

(01:05:50):
know, part of it is you'rekind of, you know, been so
successful as a plus live fitness mobilitycoach that if you sort of like,
you know, change the way youlook that it may, you know,
discourage new clients and drive away someof your existing ones. So I,
like we were talking about earlier,I don't think I'm gonna have any issues

(01:06:13):
with that. I am very fortunatewith the following that I have with having
open conversations around bodily changes and notjust one size and a bigger size is
what I want to be because Idefinitely advocate for like healthy at every size,
not just the singular size I'm in. And I was looking at some

(01:06:35):
of my Facebook memories from when Iwas much more steadily aesthetically focused on goals,
and even then, I was alwaysadvocating for health at every size,
and I had clients then who Iwould work with now and I think would

(01:06:55):
work with me without any kind ofconcern over that. But do you think
like framing all that as health islike a little bit overrated because people like
come up to me all the timethey're like, is bodybuilding healthy? And
I'm like absolutely not. Neither's mountainclimbing, neither's football, neitherre's water skiing,
neither's You know, there's some buildingmuscle is good for your body,

(01:07:16):
but if you're trying to get buildingmuscle, it's good for your body.
But every hour, there is anew study that came out. Every hour
that you're spending in the gym isadding youthfulness. It's subtracting of your bi
chronologual age three hours. So ifyou're in a gym five hours a week,

(01:07:36):
you're you're making yourself fifteen hours youngerthat week, which you know,
in terms of the fountain of youth, it's right there. It's it's exercising.
Yeah, I you know you're talkingabout like healthy versus unhealthy when I'm
looking at like bodybuilding. I thinkone of my favorite people who speaks on

(01:07:57):
this is Been Carpenter. Do youfollow him? He he does a lot
of strength coach work and a lotof bodybuilding coaching, and he was a
competitive bodybuilder for a long time,specifically in the UK, and he talks
really candidly about how far he hadto push his body during competition season and

(01:08:21):
how he makes sure to let hisclients know, like he wasn't in a
healthy place regardless of where he wasaesthetically and how well he did in competition.
Well, he's so cute, youknow, it's like wearing he wears
a wigs, you know, tocross dresses in his videos. I'm like,

(01:08:43):
I'm not hating that. Oh youknow, yeah, he's a cutie.
And so what was that the thinglike his the takeaway from him,
it was that that he was likefelt like he was being judged too harshly
in competitions or no. He hewas talking about how at that point he
was essentially starved at that uh,with how much he was consuming versus how

(01:09:09):
much his output was and how helooked esthetically, very very on point.
For the bodybuilding competitions he won several, he was very highly ranked in the
UK and phenomenal. Yeah, helooked phenomenal. But he ended up being
hospitalized for I think he passed outduring the competition, if I'm not mistaken.

(01:09:32):
That's a big problem because you're you'reyou're dehydrated. So for a lot
of people who don't know, it'slike, so when you're in a competition
day, you want to replenish enoughof the nutrients to make your muscles look
big, but not to add waterto your body, so you stay that
shredded look. And it's definitely it'sa it's a it's a balance you have

(01:09:53):
to strike. And for a lotof people, you know, their willpower
so strong that they're able to overlooklook how they feel the day of the
competition, and as a consequence that, you know, craps can happen,
or you can you know, passout or other things can happen. And
you know, I always tell peopleis like, you know, the more

(01:10:14):
you practice getting into that state,the better you are when you're in that
situation, because there's so many thingsdistracting you and you're so tired and you're
so excited that it's easy to overlook, you know, the signals your bodies
is sending you that day. Absolutely. I mean I was the same way
when I was marathon training and whenI got to marathon day, you know,

(01:10:38):
trying to find that that perfect balancebetween what I've consumed versus how much
water I'm consuming, what food,what I need to do to fuel my
body appropriately and so be able tocompete without running myself into a into a
wall and passing out. You know, it's all about finding that balance in

(01:11:00):
those extreme sports. So yeah,and definitely, you know, the marathon
running is an extreme sport. I'mnot a fan of it, just I'm
like, I tell people, like, can you do anything else though the
marathon? But you know, thepeople who do the marathons really really love
it. And part of it is, I think those endorphins that you get
from long distance cardio, right,oh, yeah, that runners high that

(01:11:25):
you get. Yeah, it's incrediblebeing able to hit that. Honestly,
when I'm back in my stride andback on that you know, it's so
worth it to me to do atwelve mile run just to hit that runner
sigh. It's like a like aself induced drug hit. Well yeah,
it's like, you know, you'regonna either drop ecscessy or run for twelve

(01:11:46):
you know miles. It's like,well do the twelve mile running. You
know. I was like, Iwould much rather do the twelve miles.
Are you doing? Yeah? Yeah, no judgment as those you're not my
client, you know, like whathappened to him, he died. He
died. It was not on thetraining regimen in that day. But it's
fine, and they're like what happenedis like I'm not a doctor. Yeah,

(01:12:10):
I was like, I am nota medical professional. This is not
my place to say. Well,that's the thing is like, you know,
part of it is like, youknow, our medical professionals are sometimes
at odds with us in terms ofour health and our wellness and our and
our bodies, you know, andit's certainly like I cannot tell you like
in terms of hormones. You know, as you get older, your hormones

(01:12:31):
start to drop, and as asociety, we're in a really bad place
that the average testosterone and estrogen levelsof all people, not just men,
is dropping so much that you know, they're redefining what the average is.

(01:12:51):
And so now your health insurance providerwon't cover estrogen or testosterone replacement therapy because
they've adjusted the average to lower it, to lower it. So this would
be like, you know, ifall of a sudden, you know,
in the next ten years, Americansget fifty percent more headaches and aspirin cost

(01:13:15):
two hundred dollars a bottle, andyour health insurance now says, you know,
I know you're getting more headaches now, but you're gonna have to pay
two hundred dollars for that aspirin becausewe're not covering it. Yeah, we're
not covering it because the curve haschanged. And that to me is like,
is extremely unnerving. And I tellpeople it's like, you got to
work with your doctors who are willingto sort of like you know overlook,

(01:13:41):
you know, not go with whatthe insurance companies want them to do.
And it's true and it's hard.Yeah, I am very fortunate that my
general physician is one of my bestfriends, so I can speak candidly with
them and have these open conversations aboutlike what's needed and what we should be
doing, course of action, etcetera. So it's not as nerve racking

(01:14:06):
to me to have those open conversationsknowing that we're still going to be friends
at the end of the day.So that's wonder but it is a little
bit terrifying just knowing in general practicethat is a thing. Well, Roy,
it's a pleasure chatting with you.I hope that nothing but the best
for you and your success of youand not just your career, about your

(01:14:27):
clients too. Thank you. Yes, And people want to know more about
hiring as a coach or attending someof your in person workshops. They can
go to Roy Belzer Fitness on Instagram. Yeah, they can go to Roy
Belser Fitness on Instagram and TikTok ormy website, Roybelserfitness dot com. Wonderful

(01:14:48):
And Roy, where are you based? So nowhere currently, but I spend
a lot of time on the EastCoast in New York Philly. Well,
where are you at now? Iowa? Right now, I'm in Iowa.
Yeah, Okay, in what cityin Iowa? Iowa City? Okay,
So I'm in the in the IowaCity area, out in the suburbs,

(01:15:09):
all right. I just like thatsort of ground you in a geographic location
because then people who are in thearea they're like, oh my god,
he's right in my nine backyard.Oh yeah yeah, Iowa City. Well,
thank you so much for talking tous today, Roy, Thank you,
Roy, Thank you for having me. Of course, it's a pleasure.
And good luck on your adventures inmobility training. Thank you so much.

(01:15:30):
Congratulations and your success on talk andInstagram. I appreciate it. Thanks.
Of course, You're welcome. Byebye bye. Gat Roy Belzer currently
is in Iowa City, Iowa.But of course he's also in the New
York Philadelphia area. So if youlive around there and you're interested in working
with a plus size mobility fitness coach, check them out. Mobility is all

(01:15:55):
the rage. Yeah, it's anunderrated field of study and coaching. Like
you've a lot of those you know, online subscription based fitness websites, they
don't have anything with mobility. Well, and it's so important, especially I
think about it as you age,you know, because when you look at
your parents and your grandparents and theirlack of mobility, and that's something that

(01:16:18):
they probably could have worked on,you know, in their earlier in their
life, and now they're dealing withthe consequences of it because they didn't work
on it in their forties, fifties, sixties or seventies, and now they're
eighty and ninety and immobile. Well, you know, and I think about
this too, is like we're justso hard on ourselves and hard on our

(01:16:38):
bodies. And I think about,you know, Kate Pornstein being like get
out of Hell free card or whatmister Rogers said. It's like the hardest
thing you're going to have to doin your life is to forgive someone who's
hurt you. Really deeply, especiallyif that person is you. And to

(01:16:59):
me, I'm like when I firstheard that, I was like in tears
because I was like, yeah,you know, we we set up so
many high expectations of ourselves and giveourselves no grace, no ability to adjust
when we fail to meet those expectationsof ourselves. And especially as young people,
you know, we all were like, I want to be as famous
as Lady Gaga. I want tobe the next Chris Bumpstead. I want

(01:17:21):
to be, you know, thesuperstar. And for sometimes that comes true,
but for a lot of us itdoesn't, but does because we are
not turning into these superstars in thosefields doesn't mean that pursuing those fields is
not worth while on its own.You know, just because you don't become

(01:17:43):
Yo Yo Ma doesn't mean that learningto play the cello isn't a worthwhile endeavor.
Just because you don't become Michael Jordandoesn't mean playing basketball is not a
worthwhile endeavor. And for all thelisteners out there, you know who are
sort of like on the edge aboutthis, you know, working with a
good coach, whether that's me orRoy or anybody, you know, we

(01:18:03):
have a list of people that welike that we refer you to please reach
out to me ninety nine dollars.There's still well, you know, I'm
everybody else who doesn't listen to thepodcast, they get charge one hundred and
forty nine dollars. So this isthe Let's Grow Big together. This is
the Let's Grow Big Together discount.So you can reach out to me on

(01:18:25):
Instagram and we sit down for anhour and we look at everything you're doing
from top to bottom, inside andout, and and make changes, you
know, set you on a career, on a path for success, because
you know, for a lot ofpeople, there's so much of misinformation,

(01:18:45):
there's a lot of anxiety, there'sa lot of fear, and you don't
have to you know, people likeme and Roy we've sort of gone through
a lot of the things you're goingthrough and you don't have to do this
alone. Together we can overcome anything. Yeah, it's one of the best
things you can do for you isto really just take your health into your
own hands and try and work tomake it better, to build that muscle,
to have that good lifestyle. Andyou know, people ask me,

(01:19:10):
like what's more important sleep, exercise, nutrition, stretching, rest, happy
mindset as that all that matters.But if you really at the end of
the day, like the one thingthat most Americans are not doing well is
sleeping. So we're gonna put togethera podcast about you know, sleep health,

(01:19:30):
sleep etiquette, sleep hygiene and makethose gains come by you know,
getting the proper way to health andfitness. Yeah. Wow, I'm just
practically ripped just because I took agood nap today. And sometimes that's exactly
what happens. That's what you need, you know. Remember, Let's Grow
Big Together is a production a Feastof Fund. You can access thousands of

(01:19:53):
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(01:20:13):
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(01:20:34):
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(01:21:00):
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(01:21:23):
Of course. Uh you know,write us a good review and tell
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