Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler - An Exercise in Patience with Ben Bruno

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

Chelsea is joined in studio by her personal trainer, Ben Bruno where they discuss World Cup Soccer, therapy and fitness. Credits:Host: Chelsea HandlerGuests: Ben BrunoExecutive Producer: Conal Byrne Producers: Sophie Lichterman, Jack O’Brien Writers: Jamie Loftus, Anna Hossnieh & Sophie Lichterman  Consulting Producers: Nick Stumpf, Miles Gray, & Anna HossniehThis episode was Engineered, Mixed & Edited by: Danl Goodman Music by: KingsburyOrder: "Life Will Be the Death of Me"Available in stores and online now Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell. Connection is everything. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Chelsea Handler. Welcome to Life Will Be the Death of Me, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, everybody. We're here in studio this week.

Instead of giving you another stand-up show, I thought we would give you an in-studio interview with my personal trainer. Brandon's here, my personal assistant. Brandon, are you an executive assistant now, or are you a secretary? We should talk about that. I'm not quite sure. Okay. And Bernice, it's all of the Bs, Ben, Bruno, Bernice, Brandon, and Bitch.

Ben, thanks for sitting down with us today. That's actually how I have you programmed in my cell phone. Oh, really? I thought it was cunt. Nope. Good to know. He's my personal trainer, and he is also a friend. A lot of people think that we have penetrated each other, so we'd like to clarify at the

top of this podcast that that is not the case, that Ben is single. Ben, are you currently single? Yes, very. Ben is single and available. I am single and available. Brandon, you're in a relationship? yes okay so two out of three um live ones correct live ones anyway i just what's live ones just mean we're actively like available like just not for each other three out of three live ones well no

no he's taken okay he has a lover i'm a live okay yeah but we're not he's on a live one like he's not out there looking okay to get some action i get it i know that you're out there looking to get action right yes i am also looking to get action are we going to put my cell in the podcast No, no. We'll put your address on it. I just got back from London. I went and I saw Wimbledon. I saw a bunch of people play tennis, which I love.

I love going to London for Wimbledon. It's one of the most civilized sporting events, and it's civilized. Well, just watching it is just a civilized experience, being at Wimbledon, because I have a real problem with it. I know you love football, basketball, because you train a lot of those guys too. Wimbledon's actually on my sports. It's actually not with a T. It's Wimbledon with a D.

Wimbledon. I can't even say it right. No, that's the right way. Wimbledon, whatever, is on my bucket list of sporting events. That and the Masters are the next two that I want to check out. And the Masters is golf? Masters is golf, yeah. Yeah, I don't need to see that.

Do you have a preference for sporting events, Brandon? Not one. I love to go to a live sporting event, but I'm not going to watch anything on TV. Okay, well, we had a huge victory for the U.S. with the Women's Cup, and that is something that I could watch over and over and over again. Even though I don't understand soccer, I don't get any of the plays. I just know when somebody makes a goal. The problem with soccer, though, when you say that, I'm with you, is that in a 90-minute game, there's like one to two goals. And they always seem to happen when you get up to take a piss or something like that.

So most of the time you're watching the game, they just kick it down, they shoot, miss, there's a corner kick, they go back the other way, like nothing happens. That's the tricky part for me with soccer. I feel like soccer is one of those sports too where you have to have played it to really enjoy it. Like if you go to watch it, you're not just going to a football game to like have a beer and watch what happens. Soccer, those are committed people. No, I used to play soccer, but I still feel because there aren't a ton of goals, except the U.S. Yeah, we scored 13 the other day. How about the U.S. just running up the score in the first round?

But for the most part, it's one to two goals and, you know, then a whole lot of jogging around, nothing. Well, I mean, but it's the most watched sporting event. Yeah. I mean, people love women's soccer. People love it more than men's soccer. Well, me right now, too. Right? Yeah.

And now I'm firmly on the bandwagon now. Yeah, why would? There's nothing not to love for men and women. It's got something for everybody. This is their fourth consecutive title? I don't know about that. It's their second consecutive title? Do you know, Ben?

I don't. I don't. I mean, when I say I'm firmly on the bandwagon, I was firmly on the bandwagon four years ago, too, for like a week. Who's your favorite player? week. Well, I mean, Megan Rapinoe is a stud. Yeah. Alex Morgan is a stud too. A studette. Studette. Yeah. Yeah. So she's probably my favorite. Well, yeah. I like how vociferous Megan Rapinoe is. I like that she takes notes.

We really can't put my cell in this. Okay. For Alex Morgan. Okay. Well, I'll see if she contacts us and we can let you know. We brought you here specifically today so anyway we first of all anyways first of all i want to say congratulations and i want to say that every victory like this is so great for women and this has been happening a long time but uh with women's soccer but it's really great to see it especially when we have such uh such competitive women i mean we are the best soccer team right now right women's the usa so yeah but we won we won seems like so easily each country it was like a gold and a half because it was we won but it was like a beat down every yeah okay so let's talk about

working out because how long how long have i known you been a lot of people are curious about our workouts and and people say i look really good so i want to say thank you because i know you know that i don't always feel that way that i'm very hard on myself and that i don't always take compliments very well well at all okay so when did we start working out together we started working out uh i remember march of 2015 so that's like four and a half years that's like that's like the trainer equivalent of common law it's been a while yeah and there's a lot of like trainers out here in la and so i was very averse to having one of those celebrity type trainers that trains a lot of celebrities because I don't like that action. I like to be on the DL. You do train other

celebrities, but you don't seem to be an asshole about it. I try not to be an asshole. Brandon, do you think Ben's an asshole? No. Ben is the nicest guy around. Nicer than you? Well, I don't know. That's a tough call. Ben, do you think Brandon's nice? Brandon's really nice. Thanks, Ben. Right. Earlier, you mentioned that he does train a lot of athletes. And what is the difference in that clientele? Because it's pretty specific.

And you don't talk about a lot of your celebrity clients, but you do post a lot about your athletes. Yeah, you know, well, the thing about training athletes, my background is actually training athletes. Before I moved to LA, that's mostly what I did. And where were you before LA? Right outside of Boston, Woburn, Massachusetts. and the thing about training athletes in la well so to backtrack in boston i trained a mix of

pro athletes but it was mostly year-round it was middle school high school and college athletes and in la now it's just pro athletes so that means that when i say that i train athletes it's like for two or three months out of the year and then the rest of the time they're in season doing their thing it's just in the off season so it's not like i'm training them year-round the clients like Chelsea that live here it's year-round and so when you look at somebody like me because there's a big fallacy that women can't lift weights because we're going to get bulky and you've shown me that that's not true because I lift heavy weights and I'm smaller than I have been my entire life working out and that's true for other clients of yours like Kate

Upton does says the same thing that she lifts heavy heavy weights and she's thinner than she's ever been and you so what what is that what is the philosophy there to explain to women to not be scared of weights, because I was scared of weights, and I thought cardio was the way. And what I've discovered is the less cardio I do, the more weights, the leaner I am. Well, I think a lot of women are scared to lift weights, understandably so, because a lot of the programs out there come from guys, and a lot of the guys that train women train the women like they would train themselves. And I think that when I talk about strength training for women, I'm not talking about

doing tons of bench press and that type of stuff. It focuses on the areas that women want to focus on. And when I, you know, and the thing now is like, I do personal training. So the workouts you do are different than some of the other women I train because of the areas you're trying to focus on and your injury history and all that type of stuff. But the thing about the weights is that I don't think women always really realize the word that I hear a lot is they want to be toned instead of like guys say like jacked or whatever women want to be toned but like tone when you hear a guy come in and say i want to get jacked do you want to punch him in the face i mean that would be real douchey i've thankfully i've never really had anybody say that maybe i have actually had

people say that but because sometimes it seems like the week the workouts you get up to on the weekends with your buddies seem very gorilla ish yeah i i have that inner meathead in me that i kind of have to channel you know i used to be actually before you met me i was way more of a meathead and then i've kind of become a little bit soft since i moved to la but i still have that meathead in me do you think that's a thing people come become soft when they move to la oh totally and yeah exactly i mean it's happened to me i drink like greens juice and shit like things that i would have like i want to kick my own ass sometimes like for the things i'm doing now why don't you like it's just hard to do but i haven't figured out a way you um yeah no i've

definitely changed i don't think i'm like a huge huge pussy yet but it's like i'm more so than i was when i moved here but you're right the the workouts it's funny i spend my whole i don't know if it's funny i say that too much but it's not funny at all but i'm glad you corrected yourself thank you because i don't want the listeners looking forward to something funny so i spend my whole day with clients being somewhat of a mom and being very um you know overly cautious with what I have them do. I really don't want to hurt my clients, which, you know, you shouldn't want to hurt your clients. But then what makes me happy as far as training is like doing all the stupid shit that I tell my clients not to do. So, you know, sort of when everybody goes home, then

that's like when my buddies come over and I do, you know, questionably reckless things that I just want to do. On the subject of moving to LA and becoming more, I guess, of a pussy, right? Because we all have. I have to say that I said that and then I almost didn't say it because sometimes when I say that, women say that that's a really mean thing and I shouldn't say that. Okay, well, I said it, so you shouldn't say it. I don't mean that in a derogatory, I don't mean that in a mean way. I love pussy. Okay. Brandon, do you love pussy? Not in the same way. Right. So let's just get that off the table right now or on the table. Actually, let's get it off the table. Right. So So, Brandon, have you taken some workout tips from Ben?

Because I know that you come in and try and, you know. Yeah, Ben's always willing to help. I try not to cross that line. And when you find someone who has a specific profession, it's like asking a doctor for medical advice all the time. But he has given me good tips. He's given me supplements. Because Brandon works out like a lunatic more than I do. He's jacked.

Yeah, you're jacked, Brandon. He wouldn't say it because he's not a douchebag, but he's jacked. I don't feel like it. But I think that's one of those, like, body dysmorphia things. You look at it, and as you get bigger, you don't see it. The same way when you get thinner, it's harder to realize until someone's like, oh, you look really thin today. And then it's like, oh, that's the affirmation that you need that you're doing the right thing. I want to go back to something you said really quick because you said that you never want to hurt anyone that you train.

But what is that threshold? When Chelsea says that she wants to either tone or tighten a certain area, how do you know how far to push it, still making them uncomfortable to get better but not hurting them, obviously? Well, that's a great question because when you're a personal trainer, I'm friends with a lot of physical therapists, and we always talk about how our jobs are seemingly similar, but they're very different because nobody comes to me to address their injuries. They come to me to, if they're an athlete and, you know, improve their performance or most people, it's more aesthetic, you know, or health or what, but most, most of the time it's aesthetic and to get in really, really good shape, you have to train really, really hard and push your body, but you can't get hurt. You know, the easiest way to get out of shape is to get hurt and not be able to train.

And my clients always come to me wanting to push it hard and getting good shape and things. and I am sometimes I'm very conservative because having hurt myself and had gone you know I've actually had a couple surgeries that's when you get out of shape but my clients don't always like see that so like Chelsea sometimes feels like I ask her too much how she's feeling or she wants to work through things when I want to let it rest because I kind of know like in the moment they don't think about getting hurt but I know like if you get hurt then you know that sucks and that puts your life on hold so safety is kind of like the underlying thing of any program but at the same time yeah you do have to train really really hard to get results you know it's um but i i also

think that the i you know like i i've been talking this whole podcast and my tour has been a lot of therapy talk i think the two go hand in hand a lot because i think becoming really physical like i used to look at physical fitness as a necessary evil like i just had to do it to remain thin because I was on TV all the time. Now I look at it as a mental necessity. Oh, for sure. Because to stay fit physically is linked with staying fit emotionally

and staying fit mentally. Like the two go hand in hand. So when I don't feel strong physically, it affects me mentally and I want to feel strong in both areas. And those two things, people say that to you, I think, a lot when you're learning about fitness

or you're getting into fitness and you're like, yeah, fuck off. But it's so true. Oh, it's so true. Well, for me, I've always said that working out is like therapy for me, and I've always meant that. I used to literally just work out. I didn't go to therapy.

Now I do both. Yeah, we both go to therapy. And we meditated together the other day on the lawn, right, in the sunshine. Wasn't that nice? Yeah, it was, actually. And then Ben fell asleep for two hours, if that gives you any indication of his personality. Yeah, I pass right out. What I was going to say, though, is I think guys tend to get a default emotion

is like anger, pissed off. But a lot of guys that I know feel similarly to me that when they're pissed off that, you know, doing a really hard workout and turning on angry music and, you know, lifting really heavy weights just somehow makes you feel better. Right. You know, do you feel that way when you work out? Like if you're angry, do you want to go work out? I'm stoned a lot when I work out. So it helps me deal with Ben and then B, it helps me really focus on the workout. And then i get really strong like the couple times i've been really stoned remember you've had good workouts i've had great workouts so now i know okay you know and i've had good workouts when you're stoned because you tend to be nicer to me which i appreciate right okay well i guess you're

welcome thank you i want to ask you a question about therapy because you never went to therapy until you moved to california right i did twice but i was oh for two it was it never stuck and so what made you want to go to therapy? I like when men talk about therapy, so I think it's important for us to discuss it a little bit. What made you decide to bite the bullet and find a therapist here? Well, I first went to therapy against my will when I was like 10. And my dad committed suicide when I was nine. And that's really tricky to figure out at any age, I think, but all I can say is that it's really tricky to figure out when you're 10. And I was put in therapy with more of like a psychiatrist that also wanted to give me medicine. And I didn't

like the medicine. I didn't like talking about stuff. And so I basically stopped going as soon as I convinced my mom to stop going. I just, and I never bought in. I used to, with my psychiatrists, we would just play cards and stuff like that. And I would very rarely talk about anything. the second time I went to therapy I went through a really bad depression for like two years to the point that because I think my dad committed suicide I always vowed I would never do that because it seems like a really frankly just a cowardly thing to do to people that love you but I used to really when I was like 19 and 20 I used to like look at people that got in fatal car accidents and think like lucky bastard because I just felt really in pain all the time and I

didn't think I was going to get better and I couldn't drive and I felt very isolated because my friends were in school and you know you're kind of out of sight out of mind so I just felt very lonely and my day consisted of this is pre-netflix I would buy like box sets of like the sopranos and the wire and stuff and just watch them and just try to kill the day so I actually went back to church and I didn't like that and I tried therapy again and did you go on antidepressants that time no i did when i was 10 and i just like didn't want to take them up so i have an interesting stance on antidepressants interesting to me anyways that we can get into but i went to this therapy but i wasn't open to therapy and so for somebody i have

a really hard time and i still do with my current therapy i have a hard time talking about feelings because i think i tend to be somebody that's kind of literal and when people ask me questions that are therapy-ish, it feels very weird to me. And so I don't really know how to answer. Are you able to get emotional in front of your therapist? I don't know. No, thinking now, I don't think I ever have. I've got emotional very few times. I can remember them all, but it's always like random with friends and stuff like that. Therapy feels very tricky to me. And so I didn't really like it that much when I was 20. And then life kind of just chugged along and then i went back to if this is 2000 november of 2017 i started

it back up and that is um it's almost two years now but it happens yeah and i think the key to the key to it is that when you're open-minded things come to you yeah when you break like you know me going to therapy opened my mind because at first i was shut down and then i became more and more open. And then I'm more open to meditation. And then I'm open to listening to a podcast like Oprah's Super Soul, which five years ago, I wouldn't have listened to. I wouldn't have had the time for. I think being open-minded helps in every way with regard to fitness, with regard to therapy. It's like, okay, I have something to learn here. To assume that you don't know everything and to say, okay, I want to absorb everything I don't know about this topic

is a great, healthy way to be. Yeah. But I think just being open-minded to the idea of therapy is huge too, because when I first went, it was like, I don't, I probably didn't tell you for like three weeks of going to therapy. I probably, and, and you might've been one of the earlier people I told because you had told me about your therapy and stuff. So it felt like a safe, like, I honestly kind of saw it as a confession and I didn't tell anybody in the beginning uh and a couple of my friends i told them that i had a panic attack and i remember thinking i was super embarrassed to tell them and i'm trying to think of like how to describe the embarrassment but it was kind of like i felt like my guy friends were going to be like dude you're

soft like you're just so soft for doing this well they're probably all in therapy well that's just it there were so many of my friends because for like five days i didn't work out and it's because my throat was like just bugging me out i felt like i couldn't breathe and so i didn't want to like have to breathe harder and i remember one of my friends coming over and was like dude it's anxiety like you could you could work out like you're fine and i'm like oh you've had this and he was like yeah i've had this come to find out a ton of guys that i'm friends with like go to therapy or were like i'd like to go to therapy if my financial situation was different it's dope you're doing that like there might be some guys out there that are like oh man ben's a huge pussy

and but for the most part i felt like a lot of people were like dude that's really cool and still it's a little bit weird for me i don't think i've actually ever even like said this publicly but most people in my life know it now i still feel a little weird about the idea but it is there's so many guys that it's like um you know the emperor's new clothes like everyone's thinking something, but they never say it. Like, I think it's that type of thing where anybody that I know has, has gone through similar feelings to me. And I don't think everyone's done therapy, but a lot more people have than I thought. But it's a thing that, um, I think when you talk to your friends about those types of things, it makes your friendships a lot more

real or meaningful. Because I remember when I came to LA, this place will teach you LA, you know, probably more than anywhere in the world, like money doesn't buy happiness. And I think that I've learned like, it doesn't matter what your life is like on the outside, like everyone's got shit they're dealing with, you know, a lot, even if your life is ostensibly great, you know, there's stuff that, that irks people in me in real ways. And it's like, you know, if you have a job, you have stress, but it's like, if you have, if you have a family, like you have shit to deal with. If you don't have a family, you have shit to deal with. Like there's just, everyone's got shit to deal with. Right. Cause I do think every, everybody listening to this

podcast has shit to deal with, you know, either some people have the luxury of being able to go to a therapist, which is a luxury and some people don't. Um, but it is good to hear that about a guy going to therapy because I know every woman in a relationship with a man would be happy to know that that person is in therapy and that, you know, there are men going and it does help and it's not stupid. I said to my cousins recently after their father passed away that they should all go to a therapist and a grief counselor, which they were like, we don't need therapy, we don't need therapy. And they went to one session with a grief counselor and, you know, five boys in the room and every one of them came out going, oh my God, that helped us so much. So it's good to hear

people talking about it brandon we're going to get you your own therapist i would like one so you can stop confiding in my bell okay we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back get bell pure fiber internet with crave netflix and disney plus from 94 a month price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit visit bell.ca for details and to check availability bell connection is everything when i was 14 years old i was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots

between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages.

So tell us how you became a trainer, first of all. So do you want the short version or the long version? Always the short version. It's going to be kind of long. I could probably tell the story for you, that you were injured. Don't tell the story. I mean, yeah. So I actually was a sociology major in college and interned in finance with Raymond James and hated that. And also in college, halfway through my sophomore year,

I had a back surgery that didn't go well and I had to take two years off of medical leave and I lost 40 pounds of body weight. So I was super skinny. So I used to do this core stuff. In 2006, I would wager a bet that I did more planks, side planks, and sit-ups than any human in the world in 2006. Brandon, will you write 2006 down in your notes section on your iPhone? No, that's just what I did. Man, I just wanted to get better from this fucking surgery. And I'm somebody that if some is good, more is better. And I do that in good ways and in bad ways. It's both I've just always somebody that takes things to the extreme you know and I would do sets of like hundreds of sit-ups and shit and now like you're not even supposed to do sit-ups if you

have a bad back I didn't know so I just did a fucking shitload of everything like I just read you know that's how I've always been but I was given long story short I was giving people advice some of it was shitty advice and I just really liked that so I connected the guy who I worked under at Raymond James connected me with a trainer who trained his sons for football and that guy offered me a job I kind of parlayed finance into a training job and then it turned out that this guy was a real douchebag and pulled the rug out from under me I hope he hears this too I hate that guy well why don't you give him a shout out yeah I don't want to call him out I mean if I would we could give him a shout out but also if you could land the fucking plane on the story instead of

going on and on you said it was going to be the abridged version it's it's abridged ish I could gone longer. What about boundaries? Did you want to ask him about boundaries, Brandon? I'm not great with boundaries. Do you, how do you set boundaries for you and your clients? Because obviously you, yes. Uh, you know, I don't think I'm great with boundaries. I think that's, um, I have a bit of a different training business cause I don't have a gym and staff or anything like that, you know, and, and most of my clients have trained for as long as we've trained, you know, and, um, we, and we, we see each other quite often. So, well, I'm your worst client though. You would say, right. Or do you have a bad, a worse one than me? You don't have to mention

anyone else's names. No, I, well, I don't have to, cause you're the worst, uh, like by far. What constitutes me being your worst client? Uh, just, I mean, can I really be honest? Yeah. I mean, sometimes I just wish that I had a security camera in my gym that could with audio that i could just let people know a normal day workout because i think like when people see our instagram videos and you're chewing me out i think like this is nothing compared to just the normal day of like like you know so just so people get an idea chelsea will walk in and i'll say hey how are you doing and she'll go why the fuck do you always ask me how i'm doing i just saw you yesterday nothing nothing's happened like why would you even say that like why would you even

ask me how i'm doing and i just sit there and think like for a split second just because of her tone i think like oh god i did something wrong like i fucked up and then i think and i'm like i didn't fuck up she's just kind of a bitch right now like it just doesn't yeah no you're right in in my defense you you do say hey how you doing three or four times at the beginning of every workout so by the third or third or fourth time i want you to stop not three or four but And then for example, when we talk about how I train clients, most people, I will just simply ask them for their feedback. Like, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Like basic stuff that gives me info to whatever. Chelsea doesn't want to answer, like, does anything hurt? It like

annoys her if I ask how she's feeling. Like if, or if I say, does something hurt? She'll be like, she just like, doesn't even say anything. She just goes like, in this way of like, i'm super annoying so i don't have the info to even like know what to do uh right but you have to understand that if something is hurting me i'll probably come i'll lead with that no yeah but you you don't though yeah but you'll say like for example you know my shoulder hurts and then i'll go you know i'm kind of captain obvious so you'll go my my shoulder hurts and i'll go okay well like lay off your shoulder and you're like no no no but i need to do like shoulder and i'm like well this it's you don't want to be hurt like i don't want to tell you you don't want to be you

No, well, I will say when something's really bothering me, is there a way to work around it? Is there a way to do something with my shoulder that's not going to exasperate it? Exacerbate? Exacerbate. Oh, shit, you caught me. Exacerbate.

You're right, you're right, you're right. Anyways, what were we saying? Good for you, good for you. Up top, there you go. What about for people? Oh, and the other reason that you're- Annoying. That the worst is,

you think we've done over a thousand workouts. We probably have. It feels like it. It's probably we've done over 1,000, and there hasn't been one of those 1,000. We'll just say it's 2,000, where we have made a time and stuck to that time. I've never met somebody— That's not true. That's an exaggeration, and that's the right word for that, exaggeration.

Well, there's been a very few times. So, like, yeah, you're a lot. I do change my schedule around all the time, and you have no boundaries. Exactly, exactly. uh so it's kind of but i will say as far as a client uh i kind of want you to close your ears because i don't like to be nice to your face but you are the strongest client i have with core stuff like it's funny because you always like tell me i don't know how to do abs and you do shit that like a lot of people a lot of men can't even do and you hear that brandon i'm listening

You're also the best, and I actually mean this literally, the best at, you know, the exercise that you actually like, but it's like the most ubiquitously hated exercise in the world. It's called rear foot elevated split squats with your back on the bench. Every listener is probably listening like, fuck that exercise. But you actually like it and are the strongest woman I've ever trained on rear foot elevated split squats. What I would like to say to all women listening is that any exercise that looks so, like, brutal or hard or that you don't want to tackle when you do do it, and all you have to do is rehabituate yourself. If you make a commitment to yourself to say, hey, I'm going to do these workouts, you start to enjoy your workouts. You don't hate them every single time. Sure, there are days where you wake up and you're hungover or you don't feel like working out.

But if you push through that stuff, it just becomes a way – it's like breathing. it's like oh I don't feel right unless I work out it doesn't matter what kind of shape I'm in that day that to get in and like move your body helps you maintain happiness throughout the day and maintain energy throughout the day so all of it is like you know it's all of the things that I I hate and I'm right there with all of you when I'm like oh I can't do that but I have to tell you it pays off and it does work in in your life in a way it adds something to your life in a way that you know i can always keep up with guys no matter what i'm doing whether it's skiing whether it's hiking you're a really good skier too by the way thank you ben that's nice you're

a good skier too um thank you that's nice well this is nice it's like a therapy session for us it is a lot of the women that i train now like you'll see our social media posts of them lifting heavy weights and stuff but like it didn't start there you know i you know like i kind of meet people where they're at as far as their workout and as far as like how gung-ho they're trying to go and just try to, you know, make small changes. Do you tell people not to drink? Do you tell, do you tell any of your clients not to, you don't do that? Well, I, yeah, I do tell people to not to drink. If you need to look your absolute best for something, by the way, if you choose to, you know, not listen to me, then that's fine. But I will tell people that have to aesthetically

look a certain way that drinking is is not going to help with that you know um but for just a lifestyle thing you know to me that's like a sad way to live but are you drinking again i know you didn't drink for a few months because you had some issue right no i didn't well yeah the answer is yes because i got rid of this goddamn cough but i was on oh right yeah it was um i i googled i just couldn't get i couldn't shake this cough and and said that that was uh that caffeine and alcohol were no bueno so I just said that and then I'm not coughing so what were you gonna say Brandon well I was going to pay Ben a compliment because when we I know you plowed right over me but this was a good one I wanted to give when we went to Park City Ben went skiing with us and I'd

never seen him one I've never seen a photo of you shirtless and your body's kind of misleading because you wear you don't wear super tight clothes I would say everybody's body's misleading Yes. You know, I mean, a lot of times it's misleading. Well, Ben's was for me. Mine is definitely misleading because mine looks a lot better than I believe it is. No, and see, I believe the opposite. Okay.

Anyway, back to what you were saying. Okay. So when we were in Park City, Ben went up to Hot Tub and I saw him alone. Sounds about right. But again, I'd never seen him without a shirt on and there's like no photo online that I've seen. His body, your abs, all those abs that you did in 2006 have endured because you are built like a mannequin. like every ab is perfectly symmetrical you look like gaston from beauty and the beast oh wasn't it my uncle terry that yeah you oh yes i remember this he's since passed away so he's no longer with

us but my uncle terry uh who was over one day remember we went to a blue plate oysterette on ocean avenue i remember it well and we had some drinks and we had some that's when the bromance started and then we all went back to my house and you got in the pool and my uncle was sitting outside in my living room going, oh my God, look at that guy's body. Can you believe it? And I thought he was talking about Brandon. I'm like, Brandon's in the pool. And then apparently he was talking about you. Yeah. So he had a big, he had a big heart on for you. But do you remember he hadn't stopped thinking about it? No. And then a week later he brought it up.

So I have a question for you guys then. That's interesting. I mean, I try to stay in good shape because I'm a trainer and just, I, you know, I still like thinking of myself like an athlete. So I, like, train harder than I probably need to and stuff. That said, I always think it's super douchey when people that are trainers, like, share lots of photos of themselves with their shirt off. Yeah, don't do that. That is super douchey. I think it's, yeah. But I've had people, actually, matter of fact, I put on the Instagram Q&A if people wanted us to talk about anything on the podcast.

And somebody wrote in, like, why don't you ever take pictures with your shirt off? And it's like, because I'm not a douche. Was that a gay guy who asked? No, it's like, I don't know who it is. It's definitely more of a gay thing that men do than straight men because as soon as a guy is with his shirt off – No, I have trainers that for all their Instagram videos literally take their shirt off to like lift their weights and then they put their shirt back on. No, you don't need to do that. It's insane.

It's like when you go to Barry's Boot Camp and all the guys take their shirt off in unison. Like as soon as they get on the treadmill, I'm like, you haven't even started sweating yet. What are you doing? Leave your shirt on. I think it's also inappropriate for men to be able to take their shirts off while they're exercising when we're not allowed to take our shirts off and run down the street. You're allowed to. No, we're not allowed to. The rule in my gym is I don't care if you wear a shirt, but you just can't wear gloves.

That's for men or women, but just no gloves. Do you like a catchphrase, which is also another question that I'd like to ask? Because you're wearing a shirt right now that says, remember when I asked for your opinion, me neither. Do you look for these? Do people send them to you? Because if you like a shirt with a logo or not a logo, a catchphrase. Yeah, I do. I have a solid t-shirt collection because people know what I like.

Is that what you think? That's all I care about is what I think. Well, that's a great answer. That's a good answer. Yeah, long story short. yeah i get these are gifts that was a short story well that wasn't a story that actually was an answer yeah oh long story short is only for storytelling so as clients if you because people have said to me that like you know that you do this thing where you talk over somebody

but because you were talking shit i'm just trying to get shit you shut the fuck up but i would say as a trainer people tell me that you know you should your body is your business card is one thing that people say and that clients are more likely to want to train with you if they see you're in good shape but like if you saw a trainer that had all these shirtless pictures would you be more apt to train with them or less apt personally less but brandon answer for yourself because you're a gay man do you like that no i would say less as well i would i think that for me it's saying like that they have that body but i don't need to see it like if they have it i know what they're doing but like i don't need to look at it there's a personality type that goes along with

posting naked photos of yourself i know because i'm one of those people so that is something that you know if somebody's posing like that you're gonna have one of two reactions usually i mean i'm sure there's a group of people that have a third reaction which is in the middle and they don't care either way but yeah it seems to be no i was asking more out of curiosity what about your mom your your mom's personal trainer does that interfere at all with your relationship with her are you able to talk about personal stuff when you're training her my mom is how old i'm not gonna uh 21 maybe or i think 20 she's turning 21 soon uh i give her workout tips sometimes but you ever heard that saying you're never an expert in your own home

um i'm sure it's a saying but he has it on his shirt that's how i feel about i have my house brandon yeah yeah that has different applications but she doesn't always listen to me on workout But you train your grandmother, too, who's like 90, right? She can work out. Well, my grandmother can run circles around most people. She does exercise class six days a week, you know, stuff in the pool and everything. And she's also 21 years old. Okay, well, this sounds like a good time to take a break.

Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney+, from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto-pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell. Connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying,

Shut up. Don't say anything. every week i'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable i knew if he woke up without a doubt he was going to hurt me i started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed and i just started screaming they are abducted stalked controlled and nearly silenced but these aren't stories about what's taken from them they're stories about what it takes to make it out alive Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations,

or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Is there a boundary or is there a thought process that you have when working with like a Kate Upton or Chelsea? Well, I'll say this.

With any client I train, I always tell trainers that are asking how to program because one thing, a lot of trainers that train a high-level clientele are more specialists or have a niche. Is it niche or niche? Niche. Niche. I thought it was niche, whatever.

It can be either. So a lot of trainers will have a niche. So it could be training just models or just superhero actors or just baseball players or just basketball players. And my clientele is probably the most diverse of any trainer. You train a lot of athletes. You train like Justin Timberlake, Kate Upton. You know, I train my youngest clients like 18, my oldest clients in the 70s.

And some are athletes, some are non-athletes. You train Jess Beal, right? Jessie Beal. She's got the best. I mean, that's pretty much the best body, I think, in my opinion, of any female. I think Jessica Beal's body is what I would like to have. They have a saying, form follows function. But she does some of the most savage workouts.

Yeah, she's stronger. And she's stronger than I am, for sure. So what I was going to say, though, with personal training is the personal part refers to the client, not the trainer. So a lot of trainers, in my opinion, go awry because they just try to train everyone the same. And for me, I ask the client their goals and then just do that. I know that sounds super obvious, but when you talk about problem areas, I've actually never once said to a woman, like, oh, like, I know you said you want to work on, like, your glutes, but, like, your arms are pretty shitty. Like, I think we might need to work on that.

I've never said that. Like, when I first meet a new client, we have three questions. Goals, injury history, and past training history. The last one I don't really care that much about, but it just gives me an idea of what they like and don't like. But the goals and injury history are really the only things I care about. And it comes from the horse's mouth, what they want to work on. And then we just do that within the constraints of their injury situation. And I also want to add that when there are trainers that do the same thing for every client, that's how you get injured.

I've done that. I've been injured with every trainer that I've ever worked with except for Ben. And so that one prescription for everybody does not work. When people have you dancing around like a maniac, and that doesn't work for everybody. No. And, like, for example, you're somebody that likes to do a lot of arms. I train some women. we haven't done arms in three years none we do all lower body and core uh and what's happening

with their arms they don't want to work on their arms they don't want muscle yeah i want muscular arms uh well some women are uncomfortable with the level of muscularity in their arms and want to back it everybody's different you know and uh guys are different in this regard some guys like being really thin and their worst nightmare is like being like all jacked up some guys like being bigger and you know women are the same way beauty is in the eye of the beholder there's a lot of women that like a little bit more muscle, some that don't. It depends. And as a personal trainer, it's not my place to pass judgment on anything. It's just like basically doing what they want to do. Yeah, but his question was, how do you remain appropriate when you're dealing

especially with training women? I mean, I think that has nothing to do with being a trainer. I think that's just more not being a creep. I've always just kept it above board. I don't know how to really explain it because we laugh, we joke, but I think there's never a question that it's like, you know. How do you think being a trainer in LA has affected or impacted your dating life? Has it helped you? No. I mean, it doesn't have any bearing, I guess. I think it has a lot of bearing. I mean, you make a lot of connections just based on your social media because of your training. So I think there is a linkage. I mean, depends who you ask. Being a trainers either like, my friends tell me, for example, that I underplay my job a lot. Because

if you were to meet somebody, you talk about how many trainers there are in LA, it seems like there's more trainers than people in LA. And most of the time in LA, when I think trainer, I think somebody that wants to be an actor or whatever, and is just training in their free time and probably makes like shit money and you know, whatever. And my friends always tell me with girls that I need to like talk my job up a little more because like you know if you just say you're a trainer like this girl might think like you just have a shitty job but to me that like like doing that or name dropping everybody you train or things is akin to taking your shirt off every day on social media it's a real douchebag move so it's it's interesting you say the trainer thing

because sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing well then what's your stance on dating a client i've never done it would you do it yeah but i never have but i mean i i would never just like hook up with a client but if there's somebody that i really liked and whatever then i i mean i guess i'd have to like figure it out if that happened but i would probably either stop training or like whatever but um yeah i think i mean one of my friends that's a trainer uh met his met his wife training i mean you can you know it's are they going strong Yeah, it's been, like, 20 years. I mean, you always meet people that you just, like, spend time with,

so it could happen, but it's actually never happened. But I'm not like, yeah, it could happen. But you have a lot of, like, fitness models hit you up on Instagram or, like, I feel like we've talked about this a few times. I get myself in trouble here. Why? Why? It's not like anybody who's hooking up with you

doesn't know you're hooking up with other people. Yeah, I mean. Unless you're in some serious relationship, which you're not. He's probably got a hidden wife and kids somewhere. But everyone needs to understand as adults that if you're just hooking up with somebody, that's simply all that it is until you get to the next level. And there should be no hurt feelings about that. As long as everybody's not committing to anything.

I mean, we're all single. Everybody's trying to just get a nut. Amen. Amen, sister. Love it, bro. Just be glad you're not in the single dating world, Brandon. Well, I have one more question for Ben that's personal. So you're talking about wants and needs.

And recently I realized at 29 I need to start stretching before or after I work out, which I never did. Oh, yeah, let's do the stretching. I just said that. What's the deal? Because I get conflicting reports all the time. About what? About stretching before or after. So a lot of trainers now, you know, everything goes in waves.

It's like same with food. You know, at one point something's good, at one point something's bad. stretching has fallen out of favor pre-workout because people say it decreases your strength and force production. So a lot of people don't think that you should stretch pre-workout. I do believe in stretching pre-workout for the most part for people that are tight because one, the people I'm training, if you told me, you know, we stretch at the beginning of every workout. But if you told me my new goal is to set the world record in squats, we wouldn't probably stretch pre-workout. We would, you know, stretch after and we would just, everything would be,

you know, singularly focused around that goal. And so if you, you know, I wouldn't want to maybe take the chance of your force production going down or whatever, but for most people's goals that are tight, I think the more you stretch, the better. And stretching definitely does increase your mobility in the short term. So it allows you to get into the positions that you need to be in for the workout more effectively. Like for example, those rear foot elevated split squats, if you didn't stretch your hip flexors first, it might be tough for you to get into that position with an upright torso. Like this is probably more nerdy than people want to get, but. Okay. I'm going to stop you right there, Ben Bruno. Uh, we're going to have to

wrap this up because I have to go tanning. Uh, I would like to thank Brandon for being here today. And I would like to thank Ben Bruno for being here today. I will be on the road this weekend doing stand-up. St. Louis is sold out, but there are tickets to Minneapolis. You can get tickets to My Life Will Be the Death of Me stand-up comedy tour in Minneapolis, New Orleans, Nashville, coming up at LiveNation.com. Oh, and Australia, I'm announcing, and New Zealand. Yeah.

How are you liking doing stand-up again? Oh, Brandon, it's just coming back to my roots. You know what I mean? I just had to back my way right back into it. Well, I'll be seeing you in Nashville and New Orleans. Oh, is that right? Oh, great. It'll be a whole family affair.

Little did you know. Is my belle coming as well? She is. And Willie. On that note, I want to announce that all of the proceeds from my I Decide bracelets and the I Decide t-shirts that I've been selling on tour, and they're also available on my website, ChelseaHandler.com. All the proceeds go to True Colors United, which helps LGBTQIA youth, people who are

homeless, who've been kicked out of their homes and have nowhere to stay. It helps them get jobs. It helps them with food and clothing and shelter. And, oh, what else? There's another charitable organization. We redonated the proceeds of my Atlanta show to... To the Feminist Center in Atlanta. It's thefeministcenter.org.

If anyone out there would like to make their own donation, they're helping make sure that women retain their reproductive rights. Yes, and have access to safe health care in the state of Georgia. So there are lots of organizations that are trying to do great things while there is a terrible administration trying to rip us apart. So don't lose faith. Okay. We'll be back next week with another podcast for you. So suck on that.

Life Will Be the Death of Me is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. i survived nine months in captivity and i've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them i'm elizabeth smart and these are the survivor files every week i'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable abducted stalked controlled and nearly silenced these are stories about what it takes to make it out alive listen to the survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality,

welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers book talk creators and plenty of overthought opinions listen to pro society on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts did you hear the new episode of the hey jonas podcast we are at d23 so we'll see who stops by the cast of frozen stopped by kristin bell josh gad and adina menzel i auditioned for frozen what for kristoff they said okay what are you going to be singing today i said i don't know that must have been why you didn't get it

Plus, John Stamos, Hayden Christensen from Star Wars, and more. And I guess I can share that, uh... Listen to the latest episode of Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.