0:04

Steve. Yes. We've got

0:06

an interesting one today. We're talking about exercise.

0:08

Yeah. Let's go to the gym. Smash it.

0:10

Yeah. We're talking about the dark side

0:12

of exercise when it becomes unhealthy. We're

0:15

talking about drugs. We're talking about body dysmorphia.

0:17

We're talking about influences,

0:19

putting out maybe dangerous information. It's a

0:21

bit controversial. going to upset a lot of

0:23

people, I'm sure. But information,

0:25

I think, needs to be out there. People

0:28

need to be aware. So, yeah, keep

0:30

listening if you're interested. I'm just going to get

0:32

on my phone and look up Instagram and death scroll and

0:34

all that sort of stuff there. All right,

0:36

no worries. All right. Let's get into it. Hey

0:40

guys, welcome to the ATP

0:42

project. You're with your host, Nick and Steve,

0:44

I was going to say Steve and he got

0:46

changed in the last You can say that women go first

0:48

all the time. Yeah, but I would usually put

0:50

your name first. I don't know why, but... Because

0:52

I'm older. Change it up today. I'm older. That's

0:55

true. I'm older and I need to

0:57

exercise because I'm getting too old not to exercise.

0:59

But now you're going to tell me the

1:01

exercise is unhealthy, Nick. Yeah. Yeah.

1:03

So today's podcast is a little bit different.

1:05

Ooh. I think a little bit of a

1:07

different style today. Okay. More of a... conversation,

1:10

discussion type piece. But

1:13

it's going to be when exercise

1:15

becomes unhealthy. See, okay,

1:17

we've been doing this podcast about $500.

1:19

I should have known, but we've done

1:21

and we always tell people the exercise

1:23

is good for you. Now going to

1:25

tell us it's unhealthy. What do you

1:27

mean, Nick? What's going on? Because you

1:29

exercise, I exercise, Matt exercises

1:31

behind the camera. It's

1:34

good for us, isn't it? Why is it unhealthy

1:36

now? Yeah, it is good for us,

1:38

but there comes a line. And this will

1:40

make more sense as we sort of

1:42

go into the discussion. But

1:44

it's like anything, if you do

1:46

too much or the balance

1:48

is out, it can actually

1:50

be more detrimental than actually

1:52

beneficial. And that

1:55

can happen when people

1:57

exercise to a point

1:59

where it becomes an obsession, they're

2:01

overexercising, that type of thing. We're also

2:03

going to talk a little bit

2:05

about the comp industry. competition

2:07

industry fitness comps. That's

2:10

gonna be interesting. It's very

2:12

controversial but from a standpoint

2:14

of seeing what goes on

2:16

behind the scenes. what

2:18

can happen, the outcome. I mean, a

2:20

lot of times people just see these amazing

2:22

fit, healthy people. I said that in

2:24

their quotes on stage. And

2:26

then, you know, the accolades and their social media

2:28

and all that sort of thing. No one

2:30

sees what goes on outside of that. No one

2:32

sees the fallout from sometimes from the prep

2:35

and the comps. No one sees the mental stuff.

2:37

No one sees the health issues that come

2:39

with that. So it's really

2:41

interesting. It's fascinating, isn't it?

2:43

And going to talk about influences, my favourite

2:45

pet words that heard. Influences in other words.

2:47

Yeah, we have quite a lot in this

2:49

conversation. So look, let's just say, yes,

2:51

it might be controversial and we might annoy

2:53

people. We always annoy somebody. Oh, we always

2:55

do. That we always wrong in somebody's eyes.

2:57

But I thought it would be a

2:59

really good one because we're always talking about,

3:01

yes, the benefits of exercise and there are

3:03

so many. But

3:06

we never really talk about when,

3:08

you know, when it goes too far. Yes.

3:10

And I see a lot of the, the,

3:13

the, the, um, what do you say, like the

3:15

results of when it goes too far. They come

3:17

and see you as a practitioner. You know, you're,

3:19

you're, you're in practice. Now you treat people like

3:21

this, Nicole Brown, that drop. If you Google it,

3:23

you can go and see Nick as a patient.

3:25

If you wanted to, um, you're in practice. So

3:28

you would see a lot of this stuff. And

3:30

I've been through it as well. Um, I'll now

3:32

talk from a personal standpoint. Can I ask you

3:34

personal questions? Yeah, you can ask me personal questions.

3:36

Um, yeah, cause I've competed and I, and

3:39

I saw I've seen the whole other side

3:41

of it and what can happen. Oh man.

3:43

I mean, I know a little bit about

3:45

this, but not as much as you. Um,

3:47

I see, you know, well, I

3:49

know the famous people that have passed, you

3:51

know, too young because they've, and we

3:53

see a lot of the bodybuilders passing away

3:55

in very young ages. The probably the

3:57

most famous one is rich piano, which was,

3:59

it was a massive bodybuilder and was

4:01

the first to be openly. discuss his drugs

4:03

and probably not the first but he

4:05

was a massive guy and um he passed

4:07

away he was two years in his

4:09

40s or something like that he was less

4:12

than me younger than me yeah yeah

4:14

and you know and it's like you know

4:16

we see all this sort of stuff

4:18

and we see online these social media things

4:20

where people are you know it's become

4:22

like a Exercise in

4:24

my day was suffering alone like I

4:26

did this morning. Drizzly morning running

4:28

around the Gold Coast like an idiot on

4:30

my own, no one around. But now

4:32

it's become like people have to video themselves

4:34

or it doesn't happen. Well, that's the

4:36

thing that that's exactly right. That's that's part

4:38

of and social media can be part

4:41

of the problem. It also can have some

4:43

really good benefits for promotion of fitness

4:45

and health. But it can also be detrimental

4:47

to a lot of people as well. So

4:50

yeah, we kind of talk. Cross

4:52

the board with a lot of different

4:54

things. We'll talk about steroids and

4:56

things as well. I'm going to touch

4:58

on all these controversial topics, but

5:00

I think it's good because you need

5:02

a balance of information. A

5:04

lot of people are getting into the comp

5:06

world and that sort of thing and they

5:08

start out just looking at social media and

5:10

they think, these people look amazing and they

5:13

do. That would be great. I

5:15

want to do that. that some

5:17

people do it really well and really healthily.

5:19

And some people don't. And I think that's where

5:21

we want to go. So we're not, we're

5:23

not bagging out the industry at all. But

5:25

as I said, there's always positive and negatives

5:28

to everything that goes on. And a lot of

5:30

times in the fitness world and the health

5:32

world in general, the

5:34

negatives really aren't shown or discussed. So

5:36

it's funny because like, you know, just

5:38

taking the negatives on that, say like

5:40

when I was 18, I could put

5:42

on muscle a lot easier than I can

5:44

now at 56. And that's largely because

5:46

my testosterone is declined. So there is

5:49

a temptation there to go, okay, well,

5:51

I'm just going to replace my testosterone by

5:53

taking a testosterone replacement therapy, TRT, and

5:55

boost my testosterone levels back to thing. And

5:57

that'll be good for me. And I'll feel

5:59

good. And you do. I've taken testosterone before

6:01

you feel good. You feel on top of

6:03

the world. So that the brain goes, Well,

6:05

what if you take more? Yeah.

6:08

And my logic brain goes,

6:10

no, that's unhealthy. But

6:13

if you're not worried about

6:15

health, you're worried about size or

6:17

it's like, yeah, take more.

6:19

Yeah. And we can talk about

6:21

that. And a lot of

6:23

it can come down to things

6:25

like there's a term called

6:27

bigorexia where there's a distorted view

6:29

of the obviously men mainly, just

6:32

some women bodybuilders as well, a distorted view

6:34

of what they actually look like. So we

6:36

can talk about all of that. So I

6:38

guess, where do we start really? So I

6:40

think, like you said at the beginning, there

6:42

kind of needs to be a balance when

6:44

it comes to your health and to exercise

6:46

and fitness and all of that sort of

6:49

thing. And it obviously has amazing benefits we've

6:51

talked about, but you can become obsessed and

6:53

you can go too far. And

6:55

I guess that's when,

6:57

you know, You know

6:59

that you're starting to get getting a little bit

7:01

obsessed with it when you start to have

7:03

anxiety around it. We start to sort of think,

7:06

you know, well, if I don't get an

7:08

exercise, if I don't get a workout in, I'm,

7:10

you know, things, it's not good. I might

7:12

get anxious. You know, your day might

7:14

be terrible, that sort of thing. So, so

7:16

that's the thing where we can start.

7:18

So sometimes some of the signs and symptoms.

7:20

Yeah, let's go through those. that

7:22

you've actually, it's become an unhealthy

7:25

obsession or an unhealthy addiction because it

7:27

is an addiction. Just like any

7:29

other addiction, it can actually be really

7:31

dangerous. And a lot of people

7:33

die from doing this sort of thing.

7:35

So that pushed themselves that far. So

7:38

some of the signs and

7:40

symptoms would be like increased exercise

7:42

duration and frequency. So you're

7:44

doing more and more and more.

7:47

You can't seem to get enough of

7:49

it. It's never ending. a quest to

7:51

say, oh, I haven't done enough activity

7:53

today. And it's funny, like I went

7:55

away on the weekend camping and I

7:57

sort of, I did hiking, which is

7:59

good exercise uphills and everything Thursday, Friday,

8:01

Saturday. I woke up when we

8:03

were at the campsite with all the other four wheel

8:05

drivers. And I didn't exercise that morning. I felt a

8:08

bit funny. I didn't go for

8:10

a run. I didn't go for a walk. I just woke

8:12

up in the morning. And

8:14

yeah. And so it was felt a bit

8:16

weird because I normally exercise every morning. Yeah.

8:18

So that can be, that can be part

8:20

of it. And so it can get to

8:22

the point where if you don't exercise, then

8:24

your anxiety level goes through the roof. You

8:26

can become depressed, you, all of that sort

8:28

of thing, or you get fearful that you're

8:31

going to suddenly lose your gains, lose your

8:33

fitness, put on weight, that sort of thing.

8:35

If you don't do that, that workout, no

8:37

matter what, you have to do that. You

8:39

have to do it. And it's funny. Look, I

8:41

follow a fun page called Gymnation Fail or

8:43

something. It's all, it picks on people like us

8:45

that exercise and go to the gym and

8:47

it's all our lives and all this. And, you

8:49

know, there's a funny meme on there that

8:51

talks about this guy. He's, you know, the

8:53

day before when he's full of muscles and next day he's

8:55

looking the mirror and he's skinny as hell because he didn't go

8:58

to the gym that day. That's right. It's

9:00

a little bit like that, isn't it? It is a little

9:02

bit like that. Or you get fat for one day. Yeah,

9:04

yeah, that's right. Or you lose your muscles. So

9:06

another one is neglecting

9:08

your responsibilities. So

9:10

that can be anything from family.

9:14

Work social engagements things like that partners

9:16

so they that they the prioritizing exercise

9:18

over responsibilities is a big red flag

9:20

as well. Yeah, you got parents and

9:22

you go on I can't see today.

9:24

I was I've got to go to

9:27

the gym and the word got to.

9:29

Yes. Yeah, I said I was like

9:31

that. I like full disclosure. I was

9:33

I had an obsession. Yeah, and very

9:35

unhealthy obsession and I'll. I'm pretty

9:37

open. I'll talk about it. But I

9:39

was like that. I would neglect everything

9:41

else because exercise took priority. And

9:44

I used to think nobody understands. You

9:46

know, they'd be like, well, you can't exercise

9:48

all the time. good for my mental

9:50

health. I have to do it. I have

9:52

to do it. But it's like, it's

9:54

like my dear friend who passed. He said

9:56

that if he doesn't smoke, he feels

9:58

awful. You know what I

10:00

mean? And it's just a withdrawal of,

10:02

in his case, a drug called nicotine.

10:04

But in exercise case, a gym session.

10:06

So it's a very similar thing. It's

10:08

like a drug. dopamine hit. Yeah. So,

10:11

you know, nicotine drives dopamine. Yeah, that's

10:13

right. So you get addicted to that

10:15

high, that exercise high. Sure. Um,

10:17

withdrawal symptoms. So feeling anxious, irritable, restless

10:19

when you can't exercise. And I would be

10:21

like that if I couldn't exercise. Well,

10:23

to be honest, there was, there was never

10:25

a time. So this would have been

10:28

probably, um, after I competed,

10:30

which we'll talk about what that does

10:32

to you mentally. But after

10:34

I competed, it got a lot worse.

10:36

Um, and I, um, there was

10:38

no, I would always find a way to

10:40

exercise if I had to go somewhere, if

10:42

I had to go away, anything I would

10:44

always find a way. to exercise and I

10:46

would always take a bag of something with

10:48

me whether it be bands and I'd kettlebells

10:50

if I could get them in the car.

10:52

Anything so I could exercise because that was

10:54

always my first thought whenever I had to

10:57

go anywhere or go away. My first thought

10:59

was how do I exercise? That was always

11:01

my first thought. It's funny because I

11:03

go to Fraser Island, we do a Fraser

11:05

Island cleanup with the four wheel drive club every

11:07

year and every morning I go for a

11:09

run. And no

11:11

one else does yeah, but it's run on

11:13

the beach. I enjoy it. Yeah, it's not unhealthy

11:15

But but you do feel that urge you've

11:17

got that brain thing that says I've got to

11:19

exercise So I get it a little bit

11:21

not not to your level. I mean mine was

11:24

always my train So I always had to

11:26

do resistance training everywhere I went so something that

11:28

you can't I couldn't just get out and

11:30

go for a run No, it had to be

11:32

sort of resistance training which makes it more

11:34

common Complicated very complicated. Yeah, but or I'd always

11:36

look if ever I had to go anywhere

11:38

with it whether there was a gym there and

11:40

you know So if I couldn't if there

11:42

was no gym I had to figure out how

11:44

to train and if there was no way

11:46

I could train I would go super unhealthy really

11:48

really unhealthy. So Yeah, and that anxiousness and

11:51

that sort of thing So tolerance so the more

11:53

you exercise the more you need to exercise

11:55

You know if you exercise for 30 minutes then

11:57

30 minutes isn't enough. So got to do

11:59

more and then 55 minutes isn't enough you're gonna

12:01

do an hour and then more and more.

12:03

And so I used to be to the point

12:05

where my workouts had to be an hour, 60

12:08

minutes minimum. And

12:10

if I went 59 minutes, I would go

12:12

for the extra minute to get 60 minutes

12:14

in. Wow. That's how narrow my line was.

12:16

you just have to and lots of stuff,

12:18

yeah. And if I didn't, if I did

12:20

50 minutes, I would have to go back

12:22

later and do another 10 minutes to make

12:24

that up. So even though you went to

12:27

the gym, you did 50 minutes of exercise. You

12:29

had to go back and do another 10

12:31

somewhere. I had to get that 60 minutes. Literally,

12:33

I had to get that 60 minutes in

12:35

every time. And even now, I'm so

12:37

much better now than I used to be.

12:40

I mean, this was this... When I competed, that

12:42

was... I don't even want to say how

12:44

long ago. Say how long ago. That

12:46

was 20 years. You don't need two hands only. I

12:48

know. I started competing

12:50

25 years ago. So it

12:52

was a long time ago.

12:54

And I had a really

12:56

unhealthy... sort of obsession with

12:58

exercise for, I would say at

13:00

least 10 years after that, after

13:02

I finished competing. So, you know,

13:05

up until my, probably even up

13:07

to my mid 40s, I was

13:09

still quite obsessed with it. Not

13:11

the degree was a little bit less, but

13:13

there was still an obsession there. And even now,

13:16

I still look at doing 60 minutes. But

13:18

if I do 50 minutes, I don't freak out

13:20

and go back into another 10 minutes, but

13:22

I always aim for that 60. So it's always

13:24

there. It's a bit like, Eating

13:26

disorders, which we can talk about how that

13:28

comes into play. Alcoholics, you

13:30

know, once an alcoholic, always an

13:32

alcoholic, it's just you avoid the

13:34

trigger. So if you want to exercise

13:36

every day, that can be a

13:39

trigger for a lot of people. So

13:41

you have to really manage that

13:43

really well. So that can be it.

13:45

Loss of control, so not stopping

13:47

despite. wanting to actually stop, you

13:49

know, if it's hurting, but you just keep

13:51

going, you push through that sort of thing.

13:53

You've got things pulling you in life, like,

13:55

you know, family's partners and not, not, I've

13:57

got to keep going, got to exercise above

13:59

all that. Can only start my day at

14:01

exit, exit o 'clock because I've got to do

14:03

that exercise and yeah, wow. Yeah. So that,

14:06

so that can be part of it. The

14:08

negative impact on your mental

14:10

health, which is huge, like depression,

14:12

mood swings, guilty,

14:15

guilty. If you don't exercise, I used to

14:17

get that I'd feel extremely guilty if I didn't

14:19

exercise. And then

14:21

social isolation is a big one because

14:23

my view was when no one understands,

14:25

no one around me is really that

14:27

super fit. They don't understand

14:29

how important it is that I actually

14:31

do this. This is my life. This is

14:33

my identity. And you

14:36

to exercise and that makes you

14:38

happy because you're exercising satisfying the drug

14:40

addiction. That's right. If I can

14:42

call it that. Yeah, makes sense.

14:44

It's a vicious loop. Yeah. So I never went out.

14:46

My social life was zero because I was always

14:48

exercising or wanting to exercise or they wanted to go

14:50

out. Planning to exercise. Planning to exercise. I've got

14:52

to exercise in the morning so I can't go out

14:54

at night. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And I might

14:56

eat the wrong sort of food at night too. Well,

14:58

that's the other thing. I wouldn't go to restaurants.

15:00

I wouldn't go out to eat because I didn't know

15:02

what the food was in the food. I didn't

15:04

know what they cooked it in. I didn't know any

15:06

of that sort of stuff. And if I actually

15:08

ever went anywhere, I remember I used to go to

15:10

the movies every now and then and this was Why

15:13

have to finish competing? And you

15:15

go to the movies and eat popcorn and stuff like

15:17

that sometimes. So I used to make, this would

15:19

be on a treat day. So I would have a

15:21

treat day like once a fortnight and a treat

15:23

day I would cook my own popcorn and I'd cook

15:25

like a cup of popcorn, just a

15:27

cup of cooked popcorn. And I'd, you

15:29

know, put it in a bag and I'd put the bag

15:31

in my bag and go to the movie and I'd eat

15:33

that one cup of popcorn that I cooked at home. So

15:35

it wasn't one of those big baskets that we used to

15:37

carry in the olden days. It used to sit on your

15:40

lap and. You know, no, it was just a cup. to

15:43

that degree so but i wouldn't go out

15:45

i wouldn't go out with friends to eat

15:47

anything like that because i was also obsessed

15:49

with with my diet which comes and yet

15:51

you have to be in bed because you

15:53

have to get up and exercise next morning

15:56

that's right yeah yeah so there's that so

15:58

that's a big part of it and then

16:00

the body image which is huge i will

16:02

say huge in the fitness industry absolutely huge

16:04

and i know this because for myself and

16:06

also before i was a naturopath i was

16:08

obviously a personal trainer and i would train

16:10

a lot of Female athletes

16:12

or females wanting to compete and females

16:15

who have competed. Yep And the body image

16:17

issues through the gyms is horrendous horrendous

16:19

and I can still see it in clinic

16:21

now Males and females and females obviously

16:23

it's you have to be No fat light,

16:25

you know smaller and then there's the

16:27

the muscles so the men's have to be

16:29

bigger and bigger and obviously and some

16:31

men also had You know a fat thing

16:33

as well that they thought they were

16:35

fat as well. So yeah, there's a lot

16:38

of that so And

16:40

you look at these, some of these

16:42

people that looked amazing and you would be

16:44

surprised how distorted their view of themselves

16:46

had actually become. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, and

16:48

there's a lot of fitness influences that

16:50

actually have this issue. And a lot of

16:52

them have spoken about it, but a

16:54

lot of them don't. So

16:57

that's a really big thing. So body

16:59

dysmorphia is massive. And I had it,

17:01

and I look back at photos now

17:03

of when I was super fit and

17:05

I thought I was too

17:07

overweight or not muscular enough and I

17:09

just shake my head and think I

17:11

can't even. Oh no, I've seen those

17:14

old photos. You look amazing. I looked

17:16

really good and then there was someone

17:18

I had dropped so much weight that

17:20

I looked like death. I

17:22

ask what your weight, the lightest, was? The

17:24

lightest I weighed was 49

17:26

kilos. And you are how tall?

17:28

I'm 5 '7 and I have

17:30

a I have a large

17:32

secluded frame. large frame, yeah. Yeah, like

17:34

measured large. So 49 at 5 .7. Yeah,

17:37

49 kilos. It's incredibly underweight. And my

17:39

body fat, which we can talk about

17:41

another thing, but my body fat was

17:43

5%, which for a female is dangerous.

17:45

No, she'd be about 25. Yeah. Yeah.

17:49

So, and that's extremely common. And in

17:51

the, in the comp area, very,

17:53

very common as well. So the body

17:55

image issues, huge. And if you

17:57

didn't have them going in, a lot

17:59

of you had them coming out.

18:01

Yes. So that's the big part of

18:03

it. I don't think I had

18:05

any significant body image issues going in.

18:07

I never had any issues with

18:09

food, obsessions or disordered eating or anything

18:11

like that. But then after competing,

18:13

I did. And that's a

18:15

big trap for women, or

18:17

even men as well, because you come out

18:19

and you've been dieting strictly for so long. And

18:22

then you come out and all you want to do is

18:24

just junk or you just want to have something nice because

18:26

you've eaten so strict for so long. Um,

18:28

and then a lot of women have

18:30

a real big bounce back where they

18:32

put on a lot of weight and

18:34

then they struggle to get the weight

18:37

off because they have all these underlying

18:39

imbalances, right? She's in brain issues. Yeah.

18:41

So then they develop unhealthy eating habits

18:43

and, um, you know, bulimias or

18:45

even don't eat that sort of thing.

18:47

So, um, and then it just goes

18:49

on from there. So that's another thing

18:52

that nobody ever talks about that comes

18:54

out of that sort of thing. So,

18:56

um, so yeah. So, so if you're

18:58

somebody and I treat. clients in clinic

19:00

like this, that they will exercise despite

19:02

anything else going around them and their

19:04

own health. So their own health

19:06

is suffering, but they can't see past

19:09

their own obsession to see that that's

19:11

actually what's contributing to their health issues. And

19:14

I've said to them, you need to back

19:16

it off, you need to do this. But how

19:18

do you tell someone who's addicted to do

19:20

that? It's like my mate smoked it so I

19:22

couldn't. You know, even the last conversation I

19:24

had with the last time I saw him, you

19:26

know, we talk about everything and smoking, he

19:28

goes, he's friend, one of his friends had to

19:30

give up smoking because they're a heart attack. Doctor

19:33

gave him a heart attack and he said,

19:35

oh, it's like losing my best friend. I said,

19:37

your best friend's not trying to kill you. Smoking

19:41

is literally there to kill

19:43

you. And I think everyone knows

19:45

that now, but it's like,

19:47

you know, the mental gymnastics to

19:50

attached to something like excessive

19:52

exercising when it's like

19:54

they do an hour or two

19:56

at the gym some, you know, some go on forever.

19:59

I know you used to swim for hours. I don't

20:01

know, was that part of it or was that? Yeah,

20:03

no, that was before I actually competed. I was always

20:05

into fitness, but no, I used to swim for hours

20:07

on end. That's cause I lived out in the middle

20:09

of nowhere and it was nothing to do. And I

20:11

was obsessed with swimming as well, but I have an

20:13

obsessive personality. So I will do, if

20:15

anything I do, I do it like obsessively.

20:17

So I'm careful what I choose to do now

20:19

because I can become obsessed with it. But,

20:21

um, but yeah, I assume, but I would actually,

20:24

there was times where I would exercise five

20:26

hours a day. Yeah. Five hours

20:28

a day. So around, I was, I was, um,

20:30

PT, I'd do it around my, my clients

20:32

and things. Cause you're always

20:34

at the gym. Yeah. was at, it was

20:36

at the gym. Yeah. So you just waited

20:38

for the next client. You just do a

20:40

couple of sets of bicep curls. What the

20:42

hell? Yeah. So, so yeah, um, very, very,

20:44

very, um, unhealthy. So, um, so, so

20:47

yeah, the comp industry, I think is, um,

20:49

it's never shown on social media it's never

20:51

shown all these things that can actually happen

20:53

but you know you look at them the

20:55

athletes and they look amazing they look so

20:58

healthy yeah but it's actually one of the

21:00

most unhealthiest sports you can do it's so

21:02

unhealthy absolutely i mean i you know i

21:04

follow up to my male friends on there

21:06

and so every morning i see a photo

21:08

of them in their underwear which is Not

21:10

not what the great start today, but you

21:12

know that they're showing their bodies and it's

21:14

like and what they do to their bodies

21:16

to their bodies to look that good It's

21:18

not healthy people don't unless you've done it

21:20

you don't realize actually how hard it is

21:22

on your body So you're doing I mean

21:25

you're going through you know bulking phases and

21:27

cutting phases putting on a lot of weight

21:29

Then you're dropping off a lot of weight

21:31

So when you're cutting it can be very

21:33

restrictive and leading up to a show Can

21:35

be extremely restrictive. So you're doing a lot

21:37

of workouts. You're not fueling yourself optimally.

21:40

So you're always tired for one. And as you

21:43

know, you get closer to the comp, your,

21:45

your weights, your strength drops right down because you're

21:47

dropping so much weight, you're dropping muscles. So

21:49

you're dropping strength, that sort of thing. you

21:52

know, you're very restricted with your eating,

21:54

you're very regimented. And I think this is

21:56

where I was very OCD and still

21:58

have a little bit of OCD. I like

22:00

everything to be a certain way. And

22:02

I think a lot of it comes from

22:04

competing because, you know, you had to

22:06

log all your workouts, you had to log

22:08

all your calories, you had to log

22:10

your whole day. And I lived by tracking

22:12

everything, like I tracked everything. So,

22:14

um, and you know, and then you get

22:16

to comp day and you have to, um,

22:19

water fast. So you have to dehydrate yourself.

22:21

So most of the people on the stage

22:23

are extremely dehydrated. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that

22:25

becomes thick and pasty and they dropped it

22:27

of heart attacks. It's not. It's not an

22:29

uncommon thing for people to die. I think

22:31

there was a lady, a woman that died

22:33

and wasn't that long ago, a few months

22:35

ago. That's right, yeah. Not even a few

22:37

months ago. Yeah, I saw that.

22:39

And a few people said, ah, she was having too

22:41

much protein. No, she was extremely dehydrated and her

22:44

electrolyte balance was out and she had a heart attack

22:46

and died. And it's not an uncommon thing for

22:48

that to actually happen. Hyponatremia, low

22:50

sodium in the blood, causes heart attacks.

22:52

Yeah. And hypokalemia, which is potassium. That's

22:54

right, yeah. I'll tell you what, it's

22:56

a scary thing because You know, we

22:58

took, you took mention about bulking and

23:00

cutting phases and there was a famous, he

23:03

was absolutely famous for his bulking

23:05

phases. A guy called

23:07

Lee Priest, he's an odd or

23:09

Kiwi, blonde guy, very short,

23:11

but huge. And he beat Ronnie

23:13

Coleman. But he was

23:15

famous for his bulking phases where

23:18

he'd eat like, excuse the word, but

23:20

shit food, like massive amount of

23:22

KFC and just calories. And he would

23:24

become huge and put on. 100

23:26

200 pounds, you know or 50 to

23:28

100 kilos massive amount of food

23:30

and then do an extreme cut down

23:32

that this is not healthy so

23:35

bad for you so bad yeah, so

23:37

so that's So that's that's a

23:39

it is very unhealthy sport and then

23:41

you it's interesting because you there's

23:43

a lot of people in the industry

23:45

I might have mentioned this in

23:47

another podcast But there's a lot of

23:49

that I know females in the

23:52

industry that have auto immune conditions Hashimoto's

23:54

is really common loads of infertility

23:56

And a lot of these are quite

23:58

high profile people on social media

24:00

that have never mentioned it. So it's

24:02

all about the health and the

24:04

lifestyle, but they are also battling chronic

24:06

diseases in the background that are

24:09

a result of the lifestyle that they're

24:11

having to maintain as far as

24:13

the body composition and all of that

24:15

sort of thing. Well, we were

24:17

talking off camera before this and you

24:19

were mentioning a woman, you

24:21

know, 20s and 30s about that. who didn't

24:23

have a period for nine years, do you

24:25

want to talk about that? Oh

24:27

yeah, well that was me. Yes, I

24:30

wasn't going to throw you under the

24:32

bus thing. I might have mentioned this before.

24:34

Yeah, I'd had no cycle for nine

24:36

years. Nine years. Nine years, because I was

24:38

so obsessed with exercise at my body

24:40

fat level. I mean I used to sit

24:43

at around, not

24:45

after finished comp. around

24:48

53, 54 kilos, I would

24:50

say that. I mean, for context,

24:52

I'm about 65 now. 65

24:54

kilos and I wouldn't say that

24:56

I'm heavy or light. I

24:59

mean, kind of just pretty average.

25:01

Perfect. But, but I

25:03

just kept my body fat too low

25:05

because I was obsessed with my body.

25:07

And like my body, um, my body

25:09

dysmorphia was that I always needed to

25:11

be like Belina and better and, um,

25:13

you know, more masculine and all that

25:15

sort of thing. So my body fat

25:17

was too low. Um, my body fat

25:19

used to sit at around about 15,

25:21

14, 15%, which is about what, um,

25:23

a lot of athletes that the comp

25:25

girls sit at, which is quite low.

25:28

Um, but I was sitting at that, not competing.

25:30

So, of course, I'm not going to

25:32

produce hormones, am I? My body

25:35

fat's too low. You need cholesterol to

25:37

make your hormones. Yeah. So, what

25:39

drove you to Well, in your mind,

25:42

when you were... say disordered but you know

25:44

I mean and unhealthy so yeah What what were you

25:46

trying to look where you did you have a bigger

25:48

bar or would you two bigger something or what? Why

25:50

did you think you needed to be leaner? What was

25:52

the thought process? Because it was

25:54

my entire identity. So everyone knew me

25:56

as the fit person as they're like I

25:58

was I was it's funny because I

26:00

was the healthy person Yeah, but I was

26:02

actually probably the most unhealthy person out

26:04

of my family in France realistically But that

26:06

was my identity. So I thought if

26:08

I lose that Who even

26:10

am I because who what am I

26:13

if I don't have that? So that

26:15

was really my driver and I never

26:17

thought that I was Huge overweight by

26:19

any means but I was I have

26:21

to maintain what I have and also

26:23

Get better and get better and get

26:25

better and that's what can be

26:27

a result of competing because you end

26:30

up getting this obsessive addictive Mindset and

26:32

and you always want to be better

26:34

and better and better and initially it's It's

26:37

like a huge high. So when you're up on

26:39

stage, it's a massive high and you want to do

26:41

it again. And so soon for you. Right. And

26:43

the funny thing is when you compete, so you do

26:45

all this prep, you know, you do your bulking

26:47

phase and you go into your cutting phase and your

26:49

prep can be 12 weeks, 16 weeks depending. So

26:52

you're doing all this and it

26:54

takes up your entire life. And

26:56

then you get on stage and it's like

26:59

10 minutes of your life and that's it. And

27:01

if you don't play, so you don't do

27:03

anything, then you walk off and that's it. for

27:05

all of that time, just to get one

27:07

moment. So when you're on stage, it's a huge

27:09

high, so people just want to continue with

27:11

that. And so that's why I continue doing this.

27:13

I love being on the stage, and I'm

27:15

not an extrovert by any means. But

27:17

when you're on stage, it's like a whole

27:20

different thing. I mean, I never went on

27:22

stage competing for bodybuilding. I was on

27:24

stage a lot for being a muser. And

27:26

there is something to that high. Yeah, I

27:28

don't know what it is, but it's... you're

27:30

surrounded by other people and they're all doing

27:32

the same thing and everyone's just like, yeah,

27:34

yeah, you can get each other on. It's

27:36

such a good, yeah. So that, that was

27:38

kind of my driver before I never even

27:40

wanted, ever wanted to compete, but I was

27:42

training with a trainer who, um, he won

27:44

a lot of comps over the years, a

27:46

big guy and his wife also competed and

27:48

she needed a training partner. And he said,

27:50

you know, instead of training with me, do

27:52

you want to train with my wife? Because

27:54

she's she's getting ready to compete. I

27:56

don't know. OK, cool. So I just was her

27:58

training partner. And so I was training like her. So

28:00

I started to get quite good, you know, body

28:02

composition, a good, quite muscular and that sort of thing.

28:04

And she said, why don't you look at you?

28:06

Why don't you compete? And I went, I never really

28:09

thought about no way, no way could I get

28:11

up on stage in my undies? Yeah,

28:13

right. It's kind of like on stage. No

28:16

way in hell. So anyway,

28:18

that I ended up she commits me. So and

28:20

you have, it's a great community. It can

28:22

be a great community back in my day. It

28:24

was, we had lots of friends and we

28:26

used to, you know, we all trained together and

28:28

it was really a lot of fun. So

28:30

that's really what started it for me. And I

28:32

have to say, the worst thing I ever did, worst

28:35

thing I ever did. Yeah,

28:37

for me, I'm not saying this to everybody

28:39

because there is extremes to everything. So there's some

28:41

people that can do this really healthily, well,

28:44

quite healthily and come out of

28:46

it okay and love it and have

28:48

a very healthy outlook on it

28:50

all. What we're talking about is the

28:52

other side that you don't see. And

28:54

that's kind of where I was at

28:56

and I went through years of health

28:58

issues and I wish I'd never ever

29:00

done it when I was going through

29:02

those health issues. In hindsight, it

29:04

sort of led me to where I am

29:06

now career -wise. But yeah, I hated

29:08

it because I had so many health

29:10

issues out of it. Thyroid

29:12

issues. Hormonal

29:15

issues. Hormonal issues. The

29:17

works, you know, I ended up with every sort of

29:19

intolerance under the sun. I couldn't eat much because my

29:21

gut was a mess. So it was,

29:23

I was miserable for a time. I

29:25

haven't asked you this. What are your bones

29:27

like? you have dexascanes? Yeah, I actually

29:29

have good bones. Oh, sure you go. Surprising,

29:31

surprisingly. Yeah, because you are underweight and...

29:34

hormone. Yeah, because

29:36

I trained a lot. A lot of

29:38

strength training. I guess that's what helped

29:40

with my bones. And I won't say

29:42

genetics because my - my grandmother had

29:44

osteoporosis, but she had parathyroid

29:46

issues. So I don't know, I'm just

29:49

lucky that I didn't end up with

29:51

issues out of that, but a lot

29:53

of women do. Yeah, the parathyroid hormone

29:55

is the one that regulates calcium in

29:57

the blood just so you know people

29:59

are playing on a home. That's a

30:01

little bit different. So yeah, so it

30:03

was I regretted it for a long,

30:05

long time. So yeah, so that industry,

30:07

there can be a very, very dark

30:09

side to it. And the thing is,

30:12

I see a lot of girls, younger

30:14

girls, that see social media and they see

30:16

these amazing bodies and that's what I want to do.

30:19

And so they'll do it and they don't know

30:21

what they're getting themselves in for. And if

30:23

you get a terrible coach, and there are some

30:25

terrible coaches out there who are not about

30:27

doing it in a healthy, balanced way. It's

30:29

all about getting up there and winning. Then

30:32

your setting can be setting

30:34

yourself up for a disaster, basically,

30:36

once you're finished. And I, you

30:38

know, people might roll their eyes and go, yeah,

30:40

yeah, yeah. I see it in clinic. I treat these,

30:42

I treat these patients. I saw it

30:45

in my track, when I was PT, I

30:47

saw a lot of it. I saw it when

30:49

I was competing. I saw other competitors, the

30:51

same issues. So it is there's

30:53

a lot of it going on.

30:55

And as I said, I still

30:57

have them coming into my clinic

30:59

today with health issues because of

31:01

that, because of their competed or

31:04

they have and not always fitness

31:06

competitors. It can be people who

31:08

are just obsessed with exercise and

31:10

people who compete in other sports

31:12

and they have very similar things.

31:14

So there's, it just comes down

31:16

to that balance and that extreme,

31:18

there can be extremes of anything

31:20

and that's what can happen. So

31:22

quite can be quite a sordid

31:24

industry. And then the

31:26

social media is a whole nother thing. So

31:28

social media wasn't around when I did

31:31

it. You know, like we had cameras taking

31:33

photos and that's why I don't have

31:35

heaps of photos now because half of them

31:37

got lost over the years of photos

31:39

because then we didn't have smartphones. No. No

31:42

smartphones, no nothing to take photos.

31:45

But social media now, you

31:47

know, it's full of it. It's full of

31:49

all that stuff. So in the social and the

31:51

fitness influence influences. A lot

31:53

of them, look, what

31:56

they've put forward, there's a lot of

31:58

decent ones and there's a lot of

32:00

legit ones and there's a lot that

32:02

aren't. And there's a lot that put

32:04

forward all these photos and now with

32:06

AI and editing, a lot of them

32:08

look very different than they're portraying themselves

32:10

at and even videos can be edited.

32:12

So you can be doing something and

32:14

that's edited. So it's very easy to

32:17

do. And then you've got you

32:19

know people looking at these photos can

32:21

well I want to look like that And

32:23

so that would do everything they can

32:25

to look like that and they don't realize

32:27

it One it may not even be

32:29

entirely real anyway and two if they did

32:31

get like that or they have competed

32:33

that sort of thing they take Hundreds if

32:35

not thousands of photos during that time

32:37

when they look like that and that's all

32:39

they post throughout the year and they

32:41

don't show when they're not in that shape.

32:44

So somebody thinks that that's how you can be

32:46

all year round. So if you've got a

32:48

female in there and she's got, say, 12 %

32:50

body fat and she's looking ripped, you

32:52

can pretty much guarantee, again, there's not everybody,

32:54

but for a lot of them, that's not

32:56

what they can hold all year round. Correct.

32:58

So, you know, and then you get these

33:00

people who are really inspired, they go, I

33:02

want to do that. And then they go

33:04

down this road and they can't, they can't

33:06

attain what this other person looks like. no

33:08

matter what they do because it is an

33:10

extreme sort of part of it. So

33:13

then they end up with body image issues

33:15

and they have all these mental health problems

33:17

and that sort of thing. So the social

33:19

media can be really dangerous. And here's another

33:21

trend that bugs me. What is it? Bugs

33:23

me, bugs me. The whole what I eat

33:25

in a day trend. Oh,

33:28

my God. It does my head

33:30

in. It's like because because they

33:32

do what they started with the

33:34

cricketers in the olden days when Bradley

33:37

was famous for saying, this is what I

33:39

did all day, you know, 12 weeks of

33:41

breakfast. And Bradley is a fast bowler. He

33:43

puts every effort he probably trains four to

33:45

six hours a day because a professional athlete,

33:47

goes to runs and swims and bowls a

33:49

billion times a day. And it's like, yeah,

33:51

that's the thing you shouldn't eat because nobody

33:53

does that. Oh, 1%. less than the population

33:55

do that. He's the last guy you should

33:58

copy. Then you've got these body dysmorphic men

34:00

and women. And this is what I eat.

34:02

It's like, you don't copy them because they're

34:04

unhealthy. Yeah, that's exactly right. So that

34:06

bugs me. So and the thing that bugs me

34:08

the most is you get the young girls, the

34:10

young fitness girls. And yet they look great,

34:12

that sort of thing. And then they show what

34:14

they're eating a day, which would have to

34:16

be 3000 calories plus of all this food. And

34:19

I'm like, I can I can guarantee

34:21

that a lot of them aren't eating that.

34:23

Because it's shameful to say, well, I restrict, I

34:25

have to die to have to watch what

34:28

I eat. It's all about I can eat what

34:30

I want and look how great I look.

34:32

That's what it is. So people go, well,

34:34

how are you eating all this stuff? How

34:36

are you eating all this food and look like that? So people

34:38

then go, well, that maybe that's what you're supposed to eat. One,

34:41

they could have a great metabolism naturally. They

34:43

may not actually be eating that. And two,

34:45

they're early 20s, yet you've got a 30.

34:47

maybe 35 year old who's maybe had a

34:49

baby that goes, oh, cool. Well, that's what

34:51

she's eating. How can she eat that and

34:53

look like that? They're giving it nutrition advice,

34:56

not even training. So that's

34:58

another trend that I can't stand because

35:00

it's just guys. It's just a

35:02

bad. There's one guy who's only saying,

35:04

I eat a chocolate donut every

35:06

day and he's got his shirt. Obviously

35:08

it looks like. And

35:10

the average partner will go, oh, well.

35:13

I can yeah, whether he doesn't I just completely

35:16

well as most of the time I probably don't

35:18

I probably don't because this whole it seems to

35:20

be this glory and so many celebrities do it

35:22

as well as I don't die it I don't

35:24

do. Of course they freaking die of course they

35:26

do so but you can't say that you can't

35:28

say I was I have to watch what I

35:30

eat because that be. I don't know what, admitting

35:32

that what you're a normal human being that you

35:34

can put on body fat, I don't know. They

35:36

could take glimbutaryl, they could be getting life, but is

35:39

a fat loss struggle. You know, there could

35:41

be all sorts of things and it just destroys

35:43

your body. Yeah, totally. So

35:45

there's that, so there's so much. stuff

35:48

on social media that is dangerous and people

35:50

portraying something that they're not. And there's a

35:52

lot of really great accounts out now that

35:54

are very transparent about a lot of it,

35:56

you know, and showing the reality of maybe

35:58

bodies and things. And so maybe have a

36:01

little bit of cellulite, no matter how much

36:03

they train some women, you know, may not

36:05

get a six pack, you know, but

36:07

that's fairly normal. What you're seeing on

36:09

social media is actually the, this sort of

36:11

extreme end of it for a lot

36:13

of people. So, so

36:15

that really bugs me i'm on the

36:17

i'm on the train but you know why

36:19

i'm on the train because i see

36:22

all the people in clinic that have the

36:24

result of trying to do this stuff

36:26

yeah without being informed without being told the

36:28

entire truth without knowing the negatives attached

36:30

to that You know, that's glorified that it's

36:32

look at these people are amazing and

36:34

they they look fantastic and they look like

36:36

they're living the life. They've got the

36:38

money in the cars and they look fantastic.

36:40

I see that shit all the time.

36:42

Right. I mean, you don't see. And you

36:44

don't But does he shit me? And

36:46

yes, there are some people who who

36:48

slide through it and actually find it

36:51

easy to maintain on this, but they're

36:53

probably more than the minority. So.

36:56

So that bugs me, bugs me. There

36:58

is this one influencer that my wife

37:01

follows and, you know, she always used

37:03

the word influence. I said, oh, God, I hope

37:05

she's not influencing you. You know, it's like, but,

37:07

but, you know, oh, yeah, she drives a

37:09

flash car and I said, what is her part?

37:11

Oh, yeah, he's a real estate agent. Like,

37:14

yeah, she's probably. doesn't work,

37:16

has a wealthy husband, maybe

37:18

got an inheritance, maybe you don't know

37:20

all this sort of stuff and they're

37:22

driving this flash car that was bought

37:24

from, I know people in my circle

37:26

who drive way better cars than my

37:28

Mazda and they're way poorer than me.

37:31

Yeah. Because it's not

37:33

about the car but everyone equates, they

37:35

make this leap that, oh you

37:37

drive a Mercedes, you must

37:39

be wealthy. Yeah, I know people who

37:41

drive Mercedes that are absolutely poor broke

37:43

because they've just made a bad financial

37:45

decision a lot of debt. Yeah. Yeah.

37:47

And it's like, this is not someone

37:49

we should be copying off. Yeah, it's

37:51

distorting. And the other thing is it's

37:54

distorting health. So there's nothing

37:56

healthy about that. There's nothing. That's

37:58

the other thing that bugs me is

38:00

it's all about aesthetics. It's all about how

38:02

you look and how you get the

38:04

six pack and how ripped you can get.

38:07

There's no talk about health and wellness

38:09

and lifestyle and balancing everything out. It's just

38:11

about aesthetics for a lot of it. You

38:14

have wellness influences. That's a whole

38:16

nother topic we can talk about. But

38:18

when did it become less about health and

38:20

more about aesthetics and what you have and

38:22

all that sort of stuff. So that bugs

38:24

me as well. Yeah.

38:27

And then the body fat levels I want

38:29

to talk about because women, they're trying to

38:31

attain these, these levels of body fat that

38:33

are unhealthy. You know, and I have had

38:35

clients come to me that are 23, 22

38:37

% body fat. And they said, how do

38:39

I get the fat off? I might 22,

38:41

20 for your height or that sort of

38:43

thing is actually a perfect weight. It's, it's

38:45

a, sorry, body fat level. It's perfectly healthy,

38:47

normal body fat level. No, no, no, I

38:49

need to be like 17, 16%. It's funny

38:51

when they say need to be. Yeah. it's

38:54

like you don't need to be what do

38:56

you want to be that and don't get

38:58

me wrong i i these guys that i

39:00

follow and some girls mostly guys um and

39:02

and they look great felt amazing i want

39:04

more bustles like that i want six packs

39:06

like that i've got about a four pack

39:08

not really a six pack um but but

39:10

it's sort of like um you know it

39:12

would be good to be perfect and but

39:14

but i just don't want to kill myself

39:16

well that's the thing to do it that's

39:18

the thing guys are bad too guys are

39:20

bad well we're going to talk about steroids

39:22

and we'll talk more about men as well

39:24

but but yeah the the women i'm like

39:27

you know if you're if you want to

39:29

get to 16 17 80 % body fat you're

39:31

talking more athletes sort of levels Like, you

39:33

can't carry that all the time. You know,

39:35

I carried like 14, 15, 16 % body

39:37

fat, no cycle for nine years. And that's

39:39

basically my body's way of saying, yeah, you

39:41

do thin, so you can't, you know... Can't

39:43

reproduce, yeah. So that's another thing. I mean,

39:45

we've distorted the view, we've distorted the idea

39:47

of what's actually a healthy... Healthy... Healthy body

39:49

fat level and a body weight and what

39:51

you look like. And to be healthy, you

39:53

have to be ripped and like, but they're

39:55

generally living a very restricted lifestyle to maintain

39:58

that and the underlying stuff that can happen.

40:00

in some people and some people not. You

40:02

don't hear about that stuff. So,

40:04

you know, if I, if social media was

40:06

around in my day, there's no way would have

40:08

put up that I had thyroid issues. I

40:10

had hormonal issues. I had, you know, food obsession

40:12

or food, disordered eating or disordered body. I

40:15

would never, I would have just put up the

40:17

photos where I looked good and, you know,

40:19

made it out to be look like it's living

40:21

the life. But you really, there's a lot

40:23

that goes on the background that you know. One

40:25

of my favorites, I showed you her thing

40:27

and she rips all this off. Yeah, in the

40:29

cold. Yeah. And she

40:31

just like plays on it. You know, she,

40:33

it's a big joke. Yeah. But it's kind

40:35

of funny what she does. I mean, they're

40:37

so good. There is a lot of satire

40:39

around it. And I can, you know, people

40:41

might get upset at it, but I think

40:43

it's quite funny because it has become a

40:46

little bit a bit too fast with something.

40:48

So you need to laugh about it, but.

40:51

Um, yeah, so a lot of

40:53

young girls are influenced by so

40:55

many and even not even so

40:57

much young girls I get as

40:59

I said middle -aged Well middle -aged

41:01

30s 30s 35 It's like young

41:03

to us. It's like little babies.

41:06

I know right? So yes, I

41:08

could have a 35 year old

41:10

as a child if I Yeah,

41:12

you could yeah, that's good. So

41:14

um, so yeah, not even really

41:16

young women so more middle -aged I

41:18

think that's what he's saying. Women

41:20

in their 40s even sometimes are

41:22

really pushing it too far. So

41:25

the next thing would

41:27

be steroid abuse. It's

41:29

huge. There's so much steroid abuse between

41:32

men and women, but obviously men looking bigger and

41:34

bigger. But a lot of these influences are taking

41:36

steroids. I'm not going to judge and say everyone.

41:38

It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying we have

41:40

to look at the elements of there is

41:42

this element. I worked in gyms. I was in

41:44

the industry. I used to see what

41:46

was going on. So cocaine was massive. massive

41:49

cocaine use in the fitness industry.

41:51

See, normally we associate drugs with muses

41:53

in my world, but there were

41:55

drugs, loads of them. But you just

41:57

don't think of a coke addict

41:59

as a gym girl. It

42:02

doesn't make sense. But cocaine, you

42:05

know, in my very limited experience

42:07

with it, you feel amazing. Well, yeah,

42:09

it's great for body, you know,

42:11

body composition as well. Stimulant and

42:13

all that sort of stuff. So yeah,

42:15

that's really huge. But steroids are really

42:17

big and a lot of influences takes

42:19

a lot of openly take them and

42:22

a lot of them don't openly take

42:24

them take them but The problem is

42:26

they're they're normal they started to be

42:28

normalized and yes If you do them

42:30

safely, I'm not judging anything. I have

42:32

no I'm not an expert in this

42:34

area. So but but there is a

42:36

lot of risks around it particularly if

42:38

they're taking a lot of a lot

42:41

of them in the high amounts and

42:43

the problem is the risks are although

42:45

there's a lot more younger people dying,

42:47

a lot of younger influences, male influences

42:49

dying of natural causes, some of them.

42:51

I'm like, well, it was 26. So

42:53

it's natural cause. It's not many natural

42:55

causes that get you at 26. No,

42:57

that's right. So steroids is used quite

43:00

a bit. And the problem is that

43:02

it's sort of in your 40s and

43:04

50s that you start to have the

43:06

effects of Taking them in your younger

43:08

years if you're taking them longer term

43:10

if you're doing one cycle, whatever, whatever

43:12

It's not going to be hugely detrimental

43:14

down the track But if you're taking

43:17

them longer term Well, you're also taking

43:19

you're not just taking testosterone the natural

43:21

hormone that men have but we're taking

43:23

in tremolone and all these other with

43:25

wickedly powerful Androgens that that do all

43:27

sorts of things to the body that's

43:29

not like humans can tolerate testosterone So

43:31

we've had it in our body for

43:33

millions of years But these guys

43:36

obviously take it to the level, even

43:38

if you take it to a higher level

43:40

and not super high, super physiological, it

43:42

can be okay and you can deal with

43:44

it. But they just go off

43:46

the deep end with this stuff. Because got

43:49

to remember that if a little bit does some good, a

43:51

lot of people think, well, you take more, you'll get better. I

43:54

know Beck, during her nursing

43:56

qualification at Master's, she did an

43:58

assessment on testosterone abuse. Huge

44:01

yeah huge huge and the thing is

44:03

you start off with a little bit and

44:05

then Then you start to develop dysmorphia

44:07

and there's bigger X here So the more

44:09

you have to take more and more

44:11

and more to get bigger and bigger and

44:13

bigger receptors down Regulate so it has

44:16

less of an effect. So you take more

44:18

and more. Yeah, take more and more

44:20

and more problems You know, it's really begin.

44:22

Yeah, they do so cardiovascular issues. So

44:24

anything to do with the heart. So What's

44:26

happening is they start to get enlarged

44:28

left ventricle although it's called a left ventricle

44:30

hypertrophy. So basically what

44:32

that means is the left ventricle gets

44:35

too large and its walls grow

44:37

too thick and it can't pump as

44:39

well. So that can

44:41

lead to heart failure. The left

44:43

ventricle for those playing along at home is the

44:45

side of the heart that pups blood out

44:47

of your aorta around your whole body. The

44:49

right side goes through your lungs,

44:51

just to keep it in thing. It's

44:54

the bottom ventricle, the bottom one that

44:56

grows thicker, and that's the real important one.

44:58

It's really well -tall important, but it is

45:00

quite important. Okay, so I guess if

45:02

you're starting to put on fluid, you take

45:04

water pills for diuretics. Yeah, so diuretics

45:06

is another one. So

45:08

yeah, that can be very, very

45:10

common. A lot of

45:12

them take them building up to the comp

45:15

day and that sort of thing, so they

45:17

shed their water before the show, so they

45:19

They water fast and they take diuretics. Jesus.

45:23

So as you said, you can

45:25

end up dying from that sort

45:27

of thing. And

45:30

the other thing with people, they get

45:32

heart problems as well. So also blood clots and

45:34

things. And the other thing

45:36

is the vascular issues because they're

45:38

putting so much pressure on the vascular

45:40

system that they can actually end

45:42

up with aneurysms that burst and that

45:44

sort of thing. So

45:46

blood clots. all that sort of

45:48

thing. And so a lot

45:51

of them to sort of offset that

45:53

they take hypertensive medications. Yeah, so so

45:55

lowering blood pressure then. Better block a

45:57

screw with your your adrenaline so you

45:59

can't exercise on them. No, you No,

46:01

you can't. So so yeah, so then

46:03

they take diuretics, you know that on

46:05

comp day that as we said some

46:08

people have actually died from that passed

46:10

out and a lot of die some

46:12

have died that sort of thing. And

46:15

then the other thing is they're turning

46:17

off their natural men, turning off their

46:19

natural testosterone production. Yes. So your own

46:21

body will shut down if, you know,

46:23

it senses it all coming in, which

46:25

shrinks your testis. And

46:27

they can shrink by

46:29

25 to 35%. So

46:32

within a few months. So,

46:34

you know, and yes. The

46:37

argument is well as soon as I stop

46:39

my body will kick in and start making its

46:41

own production again, which yes it can and

46:43

it can take some time but sometimes it doesn't

46:45

actually kick back in. And I

46:47

think there was one, the one that died, I

46:49

don't know his name because I don't know

46:51

if all of these people, but there was the

46:53

male influencer that died would have been last

46:55

year sometime. I can't remember who

46:57

he was, big, really big guy, blond guy.

46:59

He said that he was on steroids because

47:01

he abused them initially and shut down his

47:04

own testosterone production and it never came back.

47:06

So he had to continue to take steroids.

47:08

And he was extremely large. So he

47:10

was taking it for more than that. And

47:13

he died. But

47:15

yeah, so fertility then can become an issue for

47:17

men and obviously for women as well with fertility

47:19

issues as well. So there's that. So if they're

47:21

not having, if they're not, if

47:23

they manage to get to 50 and 60,

47:25

and not have heart failure or heart attacks,

47:27

strokes, then they could have

47:29

fertility issues. And if they then

47:31

get to 50 and 60, then they may end

47:33

up having heart attacks and strokes because of the

47:35

damage they've done previously. So that's

47:38

the other side of it as well

47:40

that people don't talk about, you know, and

47:42

it's glorified. Like, you know, people

47:44

will actually glorify taking steroids now. And I think

47:46

that it can be dangerous, particularly people that don't

47:48

know what they're doing. So,

47:52

and women take steroids as well. And that can de

47:54

-feminise them and that's irreversible. Yeah,

47:57

it's shrink to uterus. It can create, they

47:59

can masculise their features so they can get

48:01

it like a square, a jaw. Yeah,

48:04

deeper voice. Deeper voice. I've

48:06

seen that a lot. Yeah, it

48:08

can also impact their female

48:10

area, feel genitalia. Yeah, you get

48:12

genital engorgement. Yeah, all that sort of thing.

48:14

So, and a lot of that's irreversible. So, you

48:17

know, all for the sake of

48:19

what, to a certain way. So

48:22

that's another area that, you know,

48:24

it's quite bad. Brains,

48:27

it can affect the brain as well. So

48:30

that aggression and violence and that sort of thing. Mood

48:33

disorders, insomnia, depression, psychosis,

48:35

sometimes suicide in some people

48:37

as well. Cognitive

48:39

decline in people who take

48:41

it in long term. So

48:44

that's another one. So there's a

48:46

lot of issues with that. So that's

48:48

another dirty area of the industry.

48:50

It's bad. Like a little bit of

48:52

testosterone replacement as you get older

48:54

for men, a little bit low, it

48:56

helps a brain. 100%. Yes. Same

48:58

with estrogen and progesterone for women. Too

49:01

much. Too much. It's just, it sounds

49:03

like more is better, but it's not. It's

49:05

not. And really scary, isn't it? It

49:07

is. So. So we're in

49:09

a bit of trouble here, aren't we?

49:11

Yes. So I think that that's Yeah,

49:14

I think that is good to talk

49:16

about this sort of thing because it's

49:18

so much on social media and it's

49:20

becoming so big and fitness competing is

49:22

becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and

49:24

everyone wants to do it or a

49:26

lot of people want to do it

49:28

and they don't understand what it entails

49:30

and the health implications that it may

49:32

come out of that for some people.

49:35

Mental health and physical health implications. So,

49:37

you know, it's like everything don't

49:39

believe everything you see. And on social

49:41

media, obviously, because a lot of

49:43

it's curated, a lot of it, they don't tell

49:45

you the full story. As I said, not

49:47

everybody, we're not saying the whole industry, we're

49:49

not saying that everyone's doing it. There are

49:51

some people that are quite healthy and that

49:53

do things the right way. But there are

49:55

a lot of people that aren't and not

49:57

forthcoming with what actually is going on behind

49:59

the scenes. So we just want to talk

50:01

about it because people don't. And you've got

50:03

Photoshop. And also, like, you know,

50:06

you felt the pressure to be the quote

50:08

fit girl. Yeah. If you're a

50:10

social media person and you fatter yourself

50:12

in lycra like girls do every 10

50:14

seconds these days, they've got to maintain

50:16

that. Yeah, that's right. Because no one's

50:18

going to be, you know,

50:20

they just need to, and they'll

50:22

need the likes from the girls and

50:24

guys to get there to self -fulfill

50:26

their prophecies, giving the dopamine hit.

50:28

Yeah, that's right. And, you know, the

50:30

only way to do that is

50:32

if you look hot and you look

50:34

hot by... broids or exercising unhealthy

50:36

or eating unhealthy to thin yourself out,

50:38

it's a terrible vicious circle for

50:40

these young girls to tolerate and men.

50:42

Yeah, it's terrible. Men need that

50:45

sort of, you know, I look at

50:47

that, mate, you look great, you

50:49

know. Yeah, so I think if

50:51

you're looking at these, I mean, be careful

50:53

who you follow, really look into who you're

50:55

following, don't just look at their pictures, look

50:57

at what they're actually um what they're sort

50:59

of pushing are they pushing a healthy lifestyle

51:01

like look at the authenticity of them look

51:03

at their qualifications look at what they've done

51:05

don't just follow us at inspo because they've

51:07

got loads of followers and they look great

51:09

because a lot of times it's dangerous some

51:11

of the information they're putting out there um

51:13

and you know when you look at all

51:15

these these fit people in the comps and

51:17

all that sort of thing there is a

51:19

dark side to it so you have to

51:21

be aware if you want to get into

51:23

that world you have to be aware going

51:25

in that There is a chance that you

51:27

may have health issues. I mean, some people

51:29

are super robust and can do it. You

51:31

know, I obviously wasn't that robust and I,

51:33

to be honest, but I took it to

51:35

the ENTS degree. You're a smart woman too.

51:37

You know, it's not just for anyone. If

51:39

you can be sucked into this world, anybody

51:41

can as far as I'm concerned. Well, you

51:43

just, you know, if you have

51:45

that personality type, you're a little bit sort

51:47

of like an addictive. kind of personality.

51:49

And I was like, well, at least I'm

51:51

addicted to healthy things. Well, I became

51:53

unhealthy for me for a long time. I

51:56

mean, I'm very balanced now with my

51:58

exercise and then food and all that sort

52:00

of stuff and I have issues anymore,

52:02

but it took a long time for me

52:04

to actually turn it around and actually

52:06

get back to a healthy mindset and a

52:08

healthy, balanced life. So with my exercise

52:10

and my, my, my nutrition and all of

52:12

that sort of thing. So yeah, it's

52:15

hard to come back from that obsessive kind

52:17

of thing. So Yeah, there's a

52:19

lot of traps scary stuff, but beware

52:21

by beware as they say well Nick that's

52:23

about all we got time for but

52:25

what an interesting conversations interesting I think depressing

52:27

bit depressing but I think it's more

52:29

of it because because this stuff happens and

52:31

people don't talk about it and and

52:34

Like anything, you know, there's good and bad.

52:36

As we've said in everything, you need

52:38

good balance and you need people out there

52:40

who are actually giving out healthy information

52:42

and healthy guidance and doing things the right

52:44

way rather than just doing it to

52:46

make their money on Instagram or trainers who

52:48

are don't really, there's a lot of

52:51

trainers that really know what they're doing. There's

52:53

a lot that are amazing. Stick

52:55

with those ones. But yeah,

52:57

just be just be aware of everything.

53:00

Cool. All right, well. We'll

53:03

revisit this topic down the track, Nick.

53:06

We will. Alright, well

53:08

you have a great day and see you next week.

53:10

See you guys. See ya.