Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler - Killing the Hour with Chelsea’s Trainer Ben Bruno

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

Chelsea’s fitness trainer Ben Bruno joins her in the studio this week to talk about living with anxiety, how a painful accident led him to his life’s work, and why every dude is secretly in therapy. Then: Listeners write in with their most burning wellness and exercise questions.  A traveling teacher wonders if she should give up her beloved bike rides and brave the gym.  And a girlfriend struggles to stay after her boyfriend transforms into a gym rat. * Need some advice from Chelsea? Email us at [e-mail] * Executive Producer Nick Stumpf Produced by Catherine Law Edited & Engineered by Brandon Dickert * * * * * The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the Podcast author, or individuals participating in the Podcast, and do not represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees.  This Podcast should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, mental health counseling or therapy, or as imparting any health care recommendations at all.  Individuals are advised to seek independent medical, counseling advice and/or therapy from a competent health care professional with respect to any medical condition, mental health issues, health inquiry or matter, including matters discussed on this Podcast. Guests and listeners should not rely on matters discussed in the Podcast and shall not act or shall refrain from acting based on information contained in the Podcast without first seeking independent medical advice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 lived 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. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements.

We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Each week, we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle.

I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everybody. While I'm taking the month of September off of doing stand-up, I return on October 1st to complete my Vaccinated and Horny Tour, October, November, and December. I have new dates up. I kick it off in Saratoga, California, and I'm coming to all parts of California, Long Beach, Bakersfield. I'm coming to Niagara Falls, Tucson, Arizona, Colorado, Minneapolis, San Diego, Reading, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, just to name a few.

There's also some Floridian dates in there since this will be my last year that I'm able to go inside the state of Florida. So check out ChelseaHandler.com for more stand-up dates for my Vaccinated and Horny tour. These are my last dates. Okay. Hello, Katherine. Hi, Chelsea. Oh, my God. I am fresh as a daisy.

I'm so glad. I had a big photo shoot this weekend, and I had to really nail it down, which was not hard at all. I actually enjoyed the week of preparation because I had been on vacation for basically a month and drinking, obviously, a lot and eating whatever I felt like. Actually, no, I'm pretty good when I'm on vacation. I don't go off. But anyway, I had to get my act together for this photo shoot that will be coming out soon. I won't say what it is for yet, but everyone's going to find out because it'll probably be a pretty big campaign. But I love having to get ready for something.

That's so good. That's the only reason I would just get it. Like, I came home for a week, hunkered down. I'm, like, on my program, no drinking, no da-da-da. I have been smoking pot, but I'm not supposed to be smoking pot at all because of my situation with my vocal cords. But I decided to give myself a treat. And I signed a new endorsement deal, also a brand partnership deal,

with a company called Leisure Town, which is a cannabis drink. So you will be getting a full supply of that because it has the lowest amount of sugar. It only has 4 grams of sugar. it's 25 calories and they're light so you can get CBD or you can get THC and the THC version only has 2.5 milligrams of THC so yeah I'm gonna bring you a case I love that thank you that's so exciting see I'm somebody who works the deadlines too like if I have something that I know is coming up like I can get it done I can make it happen but like I need that sort of motivation that impetus to like here's what I'm aiming for yeah you know yeah absolutely I need a deadline as

Well, if it left to my own devices, I mean, I would just basically sit on my ass and smoke pot with Bert and just stare at him until a taco arrived. I love it. He likes pot a little bit more than Bernice. Well, he's like a pothead, you know, that explains his laziness. They're so sweet, though, since I haven't been there. They love me now and they come in my room at night and they're both on the floor. And then Bert looks at me in the morning like, when are you going to feed me? And I'm like, oh, honey, I am going to feed you, actually. because when I'm home now, I take their feeding more seriously

because I want them to know that I, too, love them. I'm just not that interested in sticking around all day. Right, and, like, the food comes from you when you're home, not my bell. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we have a quick follow-up from one of our callers. This is from Quinn who called in on our episode with Ashley Graham a few weeks ago. She had sort of wanted to know if she should lose weight before getting into the dating scene.

And she says, Hey, Chelsea and Catherine. I know it's only been a short time since we last spoke, but I wanted to give a progress update. I just recently started a new job as a campaign manager for my boss's state assembly re-election campaign. Don't worry, he's a Democrat, and a damn good one at that. At first, I was really nervous about taking this job, as I would be in a new city where I wouldn't know anyone. However, per your advice, I've begun journaling most nights and have become more conscious of how I've been treating myself, both physically and mentally. All of this has helped me find new avenues of confidence, like being a motherfucking campaign manager.

This new confidence has helped me get on the dating apps again in this new city and begin swiping away. I haven't had a date yet, but I'm definitely talking to multiple people right now, and it's always fun. I know I will definitely have to keep building my confidence, and my healthy living journey is far from over, but I am proud of the progress I've made so far. Thanks for your help, Quinn. Oh, great job. Quinn, way to fucking get after it. Yay. Good job.

I love that. I know. And it's like when you start doing other things, you realize like, man, confidence can come from all these different places. Like it just doesn't have to come from like one avenue in your life. Absolutely. Confidence can come from your friendships, from your family, from your job, from, you know, your relationship with yourself, from your animals.

Just making contributions instills confidence and builds it. Absolutely. Well, it's actually a fitting follow-up for our guest today. He is going to join us here in studio. Okay, guys, you're in for a real special treat, okay? I have Ben Bruno, my trainer, is our guest today. And I have spent every morning at 8 o'clock with him for the last week. So the last thing I fucking want to do is spend an hour with him on this podcast.

But guess what? He's coming right in. Yo, yo, yo, Ben. How's this work? You put on headphones. all right ben bruno's here today everyone he's my personal trainer and katherine have you ever met ben before not in person just see him on your instagram okay well this must be a thrill for you ben thank you first of all for bringing me coffee that was really nice you're what i brought her

coffee i just got yeah yeah he brought katherine and me coffee if i had known it was for you i wouldn't have brought it well you were texting me so it's pretty weird that you don't know that that was for me. But furthermore, why did you call me when I put my order in for the coffee? Oh, because the order, I didn't know what it was. It was called a Starbucks refresher, which I didn't know what that meant. And then when I ordered it, no lemonade, I was faced with the choice of mango, strawberry, or pineapple. So I called and nobody picked up. So I just went with mango. So whoever that is, you're getting mango. I'm really pleased. I've never tried the mango one before. So here we are.

Well, I just picked what I would want if you didn't like it. I was like, then I would go with mango. Thank you, Ben. Strong decision-making. Strong. Yes. So, Catherine, Ben has been my trainer for how many years, Ben? What's our—

Too long. Probably— Seven years? Yeah, seven or eight years. Long time. Long time. I would say it's probably common law at this point. He annoyed me, extremely annoyed me, from the very outset of our relationship.

Same. And I also annoy him a great deal. But we've managed to remain in a trainer relationship for a very long time. My longest trainer relationship, that's for sure. Wow. And so he's trained a lot of my friends and a lot of my family members. And no one who's really as enthusiastic as I am about working out. I wouldn't call it enthusiastic.

No, you're not enthusiastic at all. But, well, what's my motivation then? I will say you always do show up, but you never seem to like it. Well, I mean, I don't know what kind of excitement you want to happen during a workout where you come out of a set and you're like, fuck, that was, I killed that. No, no, no, I don't, I get it's just working out, but I also think I've never actually met, trying to think that this is true, but I don't think I've met anyone that complains more than you do. I don't, that's such bullshit. That is total bullshit. No, it's not. About working out I complain about?

Put me on a polygraph. I'm serious. Well, we don't have a polygraph, Ben, because that's from the 1970s. 1970s. I'm telling the truth. No, they still use polygraph. Not admissible in court, though. Anyway, Ben, are you what people would consider a bro? In some ways, I'm a bro. Yeah, I don't like to admit it, but when I think of my interests and what I do for fun and things, for better or worse, I'm just like a typical dude. Right. Okay. So you, what does that mean to you? What are your interests? You know, I like working out. I like watching football. I love golf. I love watching golf all my golf friends understand that everyone else thinks that's the dumbest thing ever

I like dude stuff I like uh you know my go-to order is a burger and fries yeah I would say I'm pretty average I actually googled average height for a dude because I have a lot of friends that play basketball and so when I'm around them I feel like I'm just three feet tall and I'm right on average I'm five nine and three quarters and the average according to google is five nine and like point six and then my shoe size is a nine and a half which is average for a guy so in just about every way i'm average well that's good for you to know i'm glad that there's scientific data behind that to back up that argument because yes well when i saw no one's saying five nine and three quarters so stop that that's ridiculous well no one is saying three

quarters i listen i will round up i'm going to say five ten fine say that that's better than saying five nine and three quarters why don't you say five ten minus one quarter see just so the listeners know this is the type of shit that i deal with every single workout chelsea comes in every day i'm gonna i'm gonna give the listeners i this is actually therapy for me i'm gonna give the listeners a taste into what i deal with on a daily basis she comes in i say hi how you feeling because that's actually very important info for a trainer it's not an annoying question because Because I'm a fucking trainer. I need to know how your body's feeling.

Then I say, how you doing? Which to me means like, you're like mental state, what's been going on, whatever. Also to backtrack, I see Chelsea every fucking day. So a big part of it is just trying to kill the hour. I need talking points. Yeah, well, that's what you do need is talking points. Because the questions you ask are repetitive. When I say, how's your body feel?

And then how you're doing? She goes, you just asked me that. You just asked me how I'm doing. Well, that's because you do. It's two different things. But you repeat yourself all the time. Meanwhile, you go like this. Hold on. Let me talk now. You say he goes, I come in. He goes, hey, how you doing? Good. How you doing? Yeah. How you doing? The third time. The third. No. Well, then come up with some new material. There's not new material. Nothing. You can't just keep asking the same question and hoping for a different answer. That doesn't make any sense. Normally I accumulate talking points if I do something on the weekend, but otherwise my day is my life's groundhog day. I train people and then I eat dinner and I watch a little TV, go to bed, call it a day. So there's not much for us to talk about from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday. Also, her life is groundhog day, so she don't have shit to talk about either.

So I'm just grasping at straws. And then everything I do say, she tells me is a dumb question. And then also, just so that people know, as a trainer, I actually, I find this funny. I take pride in being pretty creative. I'll toot my own horn. I got named the most innovative trainer by Men's Health. Meanwhile, every single day... innovative every day that since i've trained chelsea which i don't know how many days that is but it's way too many she goes google new shit we did this one before as if like that's what training is we just pretty much rotate 20 exercises till one of us gets sick of the other person and moves on but every day it's like google new shit google new shit and then anytime i show something different she's like this is way dumber than the original one this is like dumb So that is what I go through, people. And you fucking love it, okay?

This is cathartic for me. You love it. I'm glad. It seems like you're getting stuff off your chest. That's perfect. This is more for me than, yeah. So, Catherine, Ben is a very straight bro, how I would classify him, in my group of people that I know. And he goes to therapy.

He has a therapist that he's been seeing for a few years now, right? Six or seven. Oh, yeah. Wow. Six or seven years? Mm-hmm. Time flies. And let's talk about, I would like to hear about your therapy experience as a male, as a bro, because a lot of men can't go to therapy and they don't want to even talk about what's really happening because they're scared and they don't think it's necessary. So what's been your experience?

Well, I'll tell you how it started. I tried therapy at two different points in my life before this little six-month run once. Six-year run. Six-year run, sorry. Once when I was 10 years old, I got put in therapy. But I don't think it was therapy. I think it was, I don't know all the differences, but this guy was a psychiatrist. To backtrack real quick, my dad passed away when I was nine.

And that's obviously, there's a lot of shit that comes with that. So my mom put me in therapy with the guy that my dad had actually seen. And that was definitely different than the therapy I do now, because that was like I would say to him that that was a failed attempt, I guess, because he would say he was a medicine guy. And I think maybe some people benefit from medicine, but I think sometimes feelings of depression and stuff can be situational. Sometimes it's probably chemical. Sometimes it's situational. And I just remember at 10, the guy would say to me, how do you feel about your dad dying? And I'd say, I'm sad. And I'm like, dude, who wouldn't be sad?

And then I went again when I was probably 19 or 20 at another low point in my life. I had a back surgery when I was 19 in college and the surgery did nerve damage in my right leg. And in hindsight, it was a great thing for me because it got me into physical fitness. and now I'm a trainer because of it. But at the time it was a real low point because I had always been very physically active and into sports. And after the surgery, I lost about 40 pounds and I'm, I was this big to begin with. So I didn't even have that to lose. I was super skinny, weak, and just really depressed because my right leg like basically shut down. I couldn't drive or

anything like that. And so I was super depressed and tried therapy again, but I wasn't really open to it at the time. Long story short, now this is my third foray into it. And this time started about six years ago. I woke up one day and thought I just drank too much coffee on an empty stomach and just felt wired and just got something to eat, kind of went about my day. Second day this happened, I felt this crazy fast heartbeat in the middle of Los Angeles, which is hot. And I was freezing cold and felt like I couldn't take in air. It was this really weird feeling. I couldn't breathe. So I was training a guy. I still train him now. And he was like, dude, you got to go to the doctor. So I went to the doctor. They did this whole workup on

me, EKG, the treadmill test. And then the guy told me I had a panic attack. And I was like, what the fuck? I think most of my friends, people in my life would describe me as pretty chill. This is like, right now, this is as animated as I ever get. I'm a pretty even keel person. And so the panic attack thing felt weird to me because I usually felt like I was never too up or down. And that really threw me for a loop because I was like, wait, am I like crazy? Like, what is this thing?

The panic attack was made worse by all those feelings that I think people, dudes might have when they think of like, I had a panic attack because it seems weird. And I took myself down this whole rabbit hole over the, this is over the course of three or four days where I was like, I can't believe I had a panic attack. Like, am I like this anxiety kind of person now? I just felt very weird about it. And so someone suggested therapy. And then the first person that was recommended to me, her advice was to carry around a brown paper bag in case you get anxiety and then you can breathe into it. And I'm like, yeah, no, not doing that. so then I was talking to one of my family friends from home because I had remembered his son got anxiety and to be truthful I didn't even really know what anxiety was prior to that and he told me that there's this woman in LA that was a great therapist and I looked her up and she happened to be very close to my house so I've seen her ever since that panic attack and originally my first appointment was just to figure out why i had a panic attack and then i've just been going ever

since in some ways i think of it like a paid friend but a friend that just gives like way better advice than my real friends because the thing about dudes dudes don't want to go to therapy but i bet guys we probably need it more than women because guys just in general give shitty advice so if you ever talk to your friends about your problems you're not getting good advice they're probably going to direct you in a way that'll like lead to more problems so i think it's good to just have a professional opinion and then also too i i do spend a lot of time as a trainer i take on a lot of other people's problems over the course of the day they tell me all their stuff but i don't really get too into my stuff and i realize that it's just good for me to have

one hour this outlet you have this outlet to get everything off yeah exactly this is uh yeah i haven't spoken in like eight minutes so i mean let it rip no i'm just talking honestly i had to deal with chelsea for an hour already today so i can't hear her talk anymore i'm just gonna keep talking but i think uh for me it's just i go once a week or once every other week and i get a good sounding board and i think sometimes even if there's actually a lot of times i will say i'm i've told her straight up i that i'm not really good at the therapy process sometimes she'll ask me i'll be telling her something and she'll ask me like how does that make you feel and i'm like I don't know like I'm still trying to figure out my emotions but I think talking through things

sometimes I solve my own problems but it's also just good to have someone to talk to and it's made me probably better I think a lot of training I mean maybe it has I don't know your body's pretty good at least I've yet to google any exercises for her personality we're working on that but I do think it helps me I noticed I think it's helped me a lot in now I have a live-in girlfriend it's help me with that type of stuff. And she likes that I go to therapy. So dudes should go just, it's probably a better way to get girls too. I think girls actually, now it's like, now it's cool to go. Now it's mandatory. Now it's cool. So the other part to this is I remember when I first went to therapy, there was like sort of a shame when I had the panic attack where I felt

like I was copping to guilt to a couple of my buddies. And across the board, all my guy friends but one was like, oh yeah, dude, I go too. And I was like, what the fuck? I've known you forever and I don't even know this. Guys just don't really talk about it, but I think it's more common than they think. Have you had a panic attack since you went to therapy? You know, I don't think to that level, but yes, I have.

But it's actually way better now knowing what it is because I've had times, you know, and I don't know the continuum of panic attack versus stress versus whatever, but I've definitely had times where I'll be feeling nervous about something or uncomfortable or just unhappy. And then my heart rate just gets jacked. It's like, I can feel it throughout my whole body or I'll just start sweating or things like that. And so I've learned now I it's less of a panic attack because I think part of the panic part comes at least for me from not knowing what

it was. But when you know what it is, and I've learned breathing techniques and I've learned how powerful breath can be to back that stuff down. That's really great. The breathing thing is crazy in the sense that I can go from feeling jacked up to like a zen, like stoned in like a minute just through breath. Wow. What breathing exercises do you do? Well, they're all cousins of each other i think i've learned different ones but one is called a it's just a breathing ladder that i learned and that is essentially the exhales twice as long as the inhale so you breathe in for one second out for two in for two out for four three six four eight five ten then you do five ten twice and then go back down four eight three six etc and by the end etc

era. Thank you. And then by the end, you either are cool or you do it once through. Another thing that I just learned actually from therapy is called square breathing. And I believe it started with the Navy SEALs. I could be wrong about that, but I think that's what she said. And that's essentially, think of a square. So you inhale for four, then hold it for four seconds, exhale for four hold it for four seconds and you repeat that another thing is called five seven eight you'll see they're all related but five seven eight is breathe in for five hold it for seven exhale for eight that that i learned from my training mentor mike boyle and that takes it's a 20 second breath and you go through three times he actually told it to me in the sense of he's a

he's a napper and can basically put himself to sleep in the afternoon doing that which is pretty crazy and then i can't remember the fourth one but they're all in a similar type of thing and i actually remember that time you taught me the meditation where we did the guided meditation in my front yard and then i just passed out i don't know if you even remember that you had a guided meditation i didn't teach you anything it was a guided meditation that we listened to well you taught me i never tried it before oh well uh to the people listening i thought meditation you shut up i'm not even fucking talking i don't think you can tell me to shut up at this point buddy well i think uh the the meditation was a thing that chelsea turned me on to that felt too woo

woo for me i um i have a real tricky time like i hate like yoga class i like stretching but uh anything that feels too woo woo that's what i thought the meditation was but chelsea's actually taken me through two guided meditations and I fell asleep both times and I'm not a napper. So that, that shows to me that, uh, it's probably something worth exploring. Yeah. Well, and I mean, when you're focusing on your breath, you know, some people say that meditation is really just focusing on yourself and focusing on your breath. So in a way, like you're doing your own form of meditation where you're doing this box breathing or these, you know, these other types of breathing techniques. The breathing stuff actually works better for me than just trying to meditate because

It could just be me, but I doubt it. It's really hard to just be told, clear your mind for 10 or 20 minutes, because all I do is just think about all the shit that's been bothering me. So I think the breathing stuff is good for me in the sense that I don't go blank-minded. I'm counting the whole time, so my mind can't wander. Yeah, gives you something to focus on. Yeah, I bet you with all your breathing, though, now, you would be able to meditate more easily because the meditation is just focusing on your breathing, because it is a meditative

thing. Anyway, so are you ready to give some advice to callers? People call in, ask for real-life advice, and then we have to give them good advice. This feels like the blind leading the blind. Well, we're going to take a quick break, and we will be right back to answer some questions. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pesto survive the first bite?

Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish Episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? 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 and 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

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And we're back. Fantastic. Well, you know what? We're going to do things a little bit differently today because this is training-focused and health-focused. We got a lot of sort of like quick little bite questions. So are you going to be able to answer a question succinctly or are you going to ramble on and on and on and on? All right. Let's hear the questions.

We have some to ramble on a little bit later. We have some really good callers calling in, but we'll just start with some little quickies. So our first question, is resistance training using one's own body for weight training, a.k.a. plank, pull-ups, push-ups, etc., just as efficient and beneficial as lifting weights? JoJo. Yes, to a point. I think in the beginning it's great, but I think as you acclimate to your own body weight, it's really good to add a little bit more resistance. And we follow a tenet in training.

It's called progressive overload, basically meaning you want to gradually make things harder. So unless you just kept adding body weight, which I don't think many people want to do, you're going to run out of ways to progressively overload. Got it. I agree. Chelsea concurs. Hi, Chelsea and Ben. My name is Abby.

I follow Ben on Instagram, and I'm curious if he's still single. Nope. I wanted some advice. No, he's got a live-in girlfriend. That was quick. Good for you. Sorry, Abby. I wanted some advice on how to get motivated for the gym.

I used to go every day in between shifts at work. I now find myself struggling for motivation to go even once a week. Chelsea, you're in insane shape, so maybe you could chime in on this, too. P.S. I'm 26 years old. Abby. Ben, why don't you take the lead on this one? I don't know the question in that. It sounds like she was just explaining her situation.

Yeah, I think the question is how to get motivated for the gym. To me, something that is interesting to note is that like she was maybe doing like a shift at work, going to the gym and then doing another shift at work, which like you can do when you're like 24, 25, but she may have just been sort of overworking herself in general. Yeah, I mean, I feel like my motivation is looking good. So I just feel more like mentally normal and clear-headed when I am feeling good and looking good. And I like to be strong. I was on vacation for two weeks recently and I didn't work out for two weeks.

And that was probably the first time in like two weeks I've never worked out. First time in two weeks? First time that I didn't work out for the duration of two weeks. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, like I'll always work out. So, and shut the fuck up. Just trying to help the people. That made no sense.

And I didn't like it because my ass melted. And then I got back and I worked out for like a week. I did Pilates for a week. But as soon as you start working out and seeing the results, I think that's really it. Once you start to see the results, it becomes kind of addicting. I will say personally, I'm not the type of trainer that just lives to work out. I'm not somebody that works out every day. I usually strength train three days a week.

And then on other days, I try to be active every day, but I get sick of my own workouts. Tell me about it. I've been training people for 15 years and I'm just kind of, you know, I spend my whole day in the gym. So what I do when I'm not feeling motivated, cause I definitely have weeks where I won't do the weights is I just make appointments with friends to hold myself accountable. You know, a lot of, a lot of my clients, probably a big part of it, it's just built in accountability, but if you don't have a trainer, you can create that same accountability by

just making appointments with friends. There's a lot of times that I'll make an appointment on a Monday with my buddies for Tuesday, and I think to myself as they're driving over, man, if they cancel, like, I'm skipping. So it's a really good way, I think, for me to stick to it. That's great. Next question. My question for Bruno is, why don't you like burpees? I hate them too. Wendy.

Man, I don't even know why this is controversial. When I say I don't like burpees, all these like really jacked CrossFit guys get mad at me, but I'm not talking about for them. They can do whatever they want. But a lot of just normal people that don't live to work out think that that's the way that they're going to lose weight. But burpees are actually, I call an advanced exercise masquerading as a beginner exercise. It's actually pretty hard to do correctly and requires a lot of mobility.

So if you just passed a normal workout class, I would call myself Captain Obvious. If you went past a normal class, almost everyone that does burpees sucks at them. Like, jack guys are the ones that fight me on it, but they don't even do them. It's always, like, beginners, and it requires a lot of mobility, and a lot of people hurt their back, wrists, knees, et cetera, doing that, et cetera, and could easily just get their heart rate up through safer means. yeah it seems like something that is very easy to do with poor form which can lead to getting hurt so i just a simple way i just say break it down into its two constituent parts and do push-ups and squats separate but don't combine them i once had a trainer i think this was i used chloe kardashian's trainer for a short period of time probably before i met you ben and i remember no

in the middle i remember i remember we broke up a couple times no we didn't we didn't no i thought he did. Anyway, I think he made me do a burpee. If I'm thinking correctly about what burpees are, which is when you run up and down the floor, right? Like jump up. You like do like a belly flop and jump up. As soon as I saw that, I was like, I can't do that. Not because I don't think the burpees work. It's just because they're too hard. It's too annoying to jump up and down like that. I'm not into jumping, period. Well, our next question is. Make sure we ask Ben some real life questions too not just fitness we should let him get off easy today okay well we'll have a couple more quickies and then we'll get to some serious stuff okay great i'm like 12 i always

laugh when i hear quickie oh god that's what i'm dealing with everybody like a fucking eighth grader well that fits right in with our next question because our next question is i always have pain in my hips when i have sex and missionary position i'm in the gym four times a week and i I've done a lot of hip mobility work on my hip flexors, but it hasn't fixed the problem. Any suggestions on specific exercises or stretches I could try? I like it from behind, so it's not the end of the world, but variation is the spice of life. Thanks, Jess. I'm glad you covered that, Jess, because Ben was going to say take it from behind.

That's exactly what you were going to say. I was thinking it. I wasn't going to say it. I would say, first off, I'm curious what exactly she means when she says missionary, Because I don't know how your hips could hurt just, like, lying flat. But I think if her legs are up, you know, around whatever, I would say that she probably could be doing some, yeah, I mean, now, sorry, I'm just visualizing some stuff.

Well, you open your legs, and then your hips are involved. You don't just lie there like a stick figure. Some do. But, you know, there's some clarifications I need. But in general, I would tell her to do the pigeon stretch. That would be a good one. Oh, yeah, that's good. That's good for your hips.

Yeah. And then if she wants to Google or YouTube or whatever stationary Spider-Mans, that's a really good bang for your buck mobility drill. LOL. I don't hate that joke. I don't hate it. Not my best. I can't even say anything right now. Chelsea, we have a quick call from a friend of yours.

Rosanna is calling in. Oh, perfect. Oh, this is my friend from Vancouver. She had a question for you. It says, my question for Ben would be how to make my calves smaller. They are enormous. Thanks, Rosanna. That is a really tricky one.

She already asked me, and I gave her my feedback, which was, well, I'll wait for your feedback. Oh, my God. Look who it is. Hi. Hi. Oh, my God. Hey, hey. What a development.

I love it. I'm in my pink palace. rosanna's one of my friends who i just went to vancouver island with oh i told them earlier about falling asleep or maybe it was in another episode about falling asleep at three in the afternoon and then waking up at 3 a.m rosanna we had a great time chuck spent a lot of the the week sleeping and uh we watched her sleep brought her what she needed in between getting drunk in the hotel bar it was a good week yeah we didn't make it very far but rosanna made various reservations all throughout town every night like six or seven different

places for lunch and dinner. And then we would just cancel all of them. And activities too. We also canceled a lot of activities, but we didn't need them. Okay. So this is Ben Bruno. This is my trainer. You're finally meeting. Rosanna, tell him about your situation. I have a situation. I have the opposite situation that most people have. I don't need to build up my calves. I need to reduce my calves. They're massive. They are not calves. They're full grown cows. So I just would like to be able to fit into boots. You also recently lost weight, right? How much weight have you lost? I'm not really quite sure, but I've definitely lost some weight. And I've been heavier. I've been smaller. But no matter what, my calves are still so muscular. My legs in general

and muscular, but my calves especially. I mean, Chelsea can tell you, we were in Victoria and she was like, damn girl, those are some calves. So I don't know if there's something I can do to lean them out. Wait, let me ask you one question. Did you notice that they reduced in size when you lost weight? A little bit. Yeah, for sure. That's really the best thing you can do. Unfortunately for both people that have small calves and big calves, calves are just, some people have big calves genetically some have teeny ones and more so than almost any other muscle it's hard to change that but i would say losing weight all over will definitely help you lose girth in your calves but also doing things like calf raises to get them to shrink won't have that effect so i would say

like don't do anything other than you know maybe lose weight and also just know that it's one of those grasses greener things you probably think it's way more negative than most people i get far more questions about how to grow calves and like like me for example i have teeny calves to the point that i if i ever share a video of myself doing pull-ups on youtube the trolls tell me i'm cheating because my calves are so small that i have nothing to pull up so just know uh that's Some gym humor for you, Rosanna. There is, yeah. It's just, I bet people judge.

Soak it in. Yeah, right? Well, she used the calves to cows. That's cheesy gym humor too, so we're even. Is it? I thought I made that up. No, calves to cows is the title of every like cheesy internet calf article, like how to turn your calves to cows.

Well, thanks, Debra now. Yeah, thanks, Debra now. But yeah, I would say, first off, congrats on losing the weight. But I would say as you do that more and your body acclimates and stuff, they'll probably come down a little bit. Okay. So, I mean, I take classes and stuff. And sometimes when they'll do calf raises and calf exercise, I think, well, maybe I should sit this out. Yeah. Yeah. Sit that one out. Do the yoga shavasana and just lay there while they do the calf raises.

What about Pilates? Like, will that help lengthen them out? No. So actually that's a tricky one for me to broach because a lot of women that do Pilates tell me that they want to get long and lean. It's actually impossible. Your muscles insertion points are set so you actually can't lengthen a muscle when women say that i just kind of nod because i know what they mean but that's actually not happening you can't lengthen a muscle it's it is what it is uh your anatomy but i think you can tone the muscle and stuff like that but i think a lot of what you're talking about will is just more about like weight loss and fat loss got it but i do think pilates does help you be more conscientious of your posture and your alignment so just by

nature of doing it you stand up a little bit taller and your posture is a little bit better and that always makes everything also look better yeah I actually love Pilates I didn't mean that to say I don't like Pilates I love it I do it myself sometimes but I think that it's a misnomer to say that you're lengthening things but I do think that you're there's a ton of benefits to it okay so my calves are what they are more or less unfortunately okay well I want you to take that into the weekend, Rosanna. Yes, exactly. But it was nice meeting you.

Take that big calf energy into the weekend. It was very nice meeting you. Like it's your last. It was nice to meet you too. Yeah. Thanks for calling, Rosanna. No problem. I'll talk to you later, Chuck.

Toodles. Bye. Bye. That was funny. She's cute. They all call me Chuck. I love that. Why?

That's very cute. I don't know, actually. Just a mystery. Well, this is a very interesting gym and relationship related question. It's a little long. I cut it down to about a third of its original length. Thank you. She's a writer by trade, but just be prepared.

Dear Chelsea, I'm a 26-year-old grad student in a relationship with my partner. We'll call him Dan, who's 31. We've been together for five years now, and it's been the most stable and loving relationship I've ever had. I've always been very skeptical of marriage, but in this relationship, I'm open to the idea, and we've been recently talking about getting engaged. Then something happened that has me questioning everything. Within the last few months, Dan has started a fitness journey, cringe, I also hate that word, and has been going to the gym with a personal trainer.

It's all he talks about anymore. And I've often found him standing in the mirror flexing his arm muscles, which kind of makes me want to hurl. But I know he has had some insecurities about his appearance in the past, and I'm proud of him and the work he's been doing to feel good about himself and his body. When he started getting very into his gym life, I noticed that our intimacy was decreasing. There was an obvious shift. When I would bring it up, he'd brush it off, saying he was tired and deny my advances.

One night when I was met with this response, I'd had enough. When I asked him what was going on, he paused, said he didn't want to hurt me, and eventually told me, you've gained a lot of weight in the last six months and it's made me less interested, I guess. I was crushed. I'm a healthy weight and I love my body. I work out five days a week at home, walk often, and eat well. I know I've gained a little weight and I just accepted it as part of becoming an adult. I'm aware that I won't be the scrawny 110-pound girl he met five years ago forever. She's 26, by the way. If this person is distancing himself from me due to a few pounds of weight gain? Are the foundations of our relationship strong enough to handle the

really hard things together? I can't get the comment out of my head. I went to stay with friends and when I returned home, my boyfriend apologized endlessly. However, it all just feels like damage control. I fell in love with him because he was a kind, thoughtful, smart, and loving intellectual book nerd. Now he's starting to feel like a conceited gym rat. Should I try to work through this incident or hit the road? My love for him is not based on appearance, but this comment is making me question if he can love me the same way. Amy. Hi, Amy. Hi, how are you? Hi, Ben Bruno is our guest today. Hi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. That must have been an unpleasant conversation to have.

It was. It was. It shocked me a little bit. But yeah, I decided to come back home and work it out. but not much has really changed especially on his part still kind of obsessive with the working out a lot of damage control like saying you know I didn't mean what I said this and that and it's like okay then why did you say it and it's just been really confusing did you leave for a period of time I did yeah about a week okay just to like get my mind off of things and hang out with some friends. But yeah, it's just been, it's been hard to wrap my head around. Yeah. That's a pretty icky thing for him to have said to you. And also like the whole obsessive working out, like you could forgive that, but those two things together, now you're piling on unattractive

qualities. It's out of left field too. This is not like him. So within like the past two months, this obsession has started and has changed the way like he treats me and how he feels about himself as well. You know, we were at the beach the other weekend and I saw these bro-y guys that were like very muscular playing a game or whatever. And he looked over at them and like looked at himself, not really good about himself. So I'm trying to decide, like, are you saying these comments because you don't feel good about yourself or is this, I don't know, it's just been so confusing. Yeah. I mean, I think it's worth a longer conversation about it where you sit down and be like, listen, this is like a big red flag to me. Like, not only are you behaving

in a way that seems obsessive, now you're attacking me. These are not qualities I'm looking for. To have a larger conversation about that and what that sets up for any future together, right? You should call him out. What do you think, Ben? well has he gone from non-worker outer to like a full gym douche like a full transformation kind of thing yeah it's kind of been like i work out and stuff but it's not all i talk about yeah yeah like it's just like a part of your routine like being healthy a part of your regime yes regime yeah the full-on gym culture does he do like the weird eating habits and like the shit like that too not really definitely has cut down on alcohol which that's fine and definitely

from working out at home to going to a gym where he has like a personal trainer and things like that maybe he's like looking at other people's bodies that are super jacked i don't know i'm just trying to figure out where this is coming from but it could be just like the new environment of where he's working out well i think a lot of workout dudes it's hard for me to say without knowing him, but a lot of workout dudes have this, they call it body dysmorphia, but I think about themselves. And then I think they put that onto other people too. So I'll have trainer friends that are big dudes, you know, as reference, I'm five, nine, about 170 pounds to some people I'm big to some people I'm small, but there's a lot of trainer dudes that are huge by all standards.

And they talk about how they're insecure because they lose size and stuff. And I look at them like, what are you talking about? And then I think they also put, I don't know what the word would be, but they have unrealistic expectations of what other people look like and things like that. But I think if he's going like full gym, you know, I don't want to say douche, but douche, then I think he could be in that mindset where. And I think also a lot of dudes get a superiority when they lift. You know, I remember when I moved to L.A. and started training actors, a lot of my gym rat friends would ask me what some of these famous guys like benched and squat and stuff. And when I would tell them the number, they would be like, pussy, like they were better than them. And I'm like, this dude has you beat in every facet of life and you're acting like you're better than him.

but gym people are really like that sometimes. And I think that a lot of guys when they lift get an arrogance about that, but as it relates to you, I don't know. Uh, it's hard for me to say, but I think it's like super shitty that he's putting you in that spot. And I also wonder if he's expecting you to do all that weird stuff too, which would be dumb. I don't think you should, that pressure should be placed on you. I will say again, I'm a trainer. I'm not somebody, I have very few trainer friends because I'm not somebody that likes to work out every day. If I have a buddy that tells me that, you know, he does like chest on Monday, back on Wednesday, I'm like, okay, we're probably never going to be friends, that type of thing. But I think it's very

healthy to work out in moderation. But I think when you take it too far, it can be unhealthy for your body and your mindset. You definitely have to talk to him. And you said he's like flexing in the mirror. This might be like addition by subtraction if it doesn't end up working out. that's tricky right yeah it feels like this may be an opportunity to encourage him to get into therapy this doesn't even feel like a couple's therapy situation but like he needs to examine why he's turning this self-hatred of his own body and his own fat or whatever on you so this might be a time to like encourage him to be like why don't why don't you explore that with somebody and what's coming up for you with that. Yeah. So he started going to therapy and then we did

have a longer conversation about this whole topic and he like blamed it on seeing unrealistic body expectations, like both in the gym and on social media. And for me, I'm like, as a female, like that should I deal with every day? Like we all do that. So don't put it on me. Like this isn't my problem you know right it's his shit I think that's a really really good point and first of all even if you have gained a little bit of weight like you're still a very slender person and even if you weren't it wouldn't matter it shouldn't matter to him what you weigh he's having some sort of a physical mental reaction to whatever he's going through and that's that's something he's got to kind of unpack on his own yeah I guess my question is do I stick around for that

and how do I move forward with trust I don't really trust you now like I don't really feel like I even know you anymore like you've changed in two months like drastically and not even his body just like his personality and what he's doing his actions so yeah I mean if there's an opportunity for you to go to therapy with him and talk to his therapist with him I would take that opportunity really okay yeah and just say like this is what I'm seeing this is a different person and I'm concerned. It's a little bit fanatical and it's also having a negative impact on me. It's hard for someone to be happy for somebody to encourage them when it's coming right back at you. He should be happy about his body. What's he focused on you for?

I definitely think you have to press him a little more on what he meant by what he said and things, because I think it sounds like he backtracked. And I just know as a dude, sometimes if I say something that doesn't get a good reaction. I just retreat and then just go like, Hey, I didn't mean that like all good, but where there's smoke, there's fire. So I think you have to really understand where he's coming from. And then you can evaluate if it's something you can get past or not. But I think the retreat thing would probably be because he saw that he pissed you off and hurt your feelings and doesn't want to keep that going, but the feelings are still there. So even if you just sweep it under the rug, that's, it's going to come back. If you don't

really talk about that a little bit more yeah that's kind of like where I'm at is how to move forward with this and whether it's worth it or not um how long have you guys been together five years so it's kind of gotten to the point where like things are getting very serious and I've never been like a marriage person or kids person and like we've talked about those things I've been more open about them. And then this comment came up and it like really was triggering for me just with like my past and everything. And so it's just, yeah, trying to, trying to figure out what to do next, but I would agree that a deeper conversation and possibly therapy together would be good. Yeah. You should give it, I mean, it's five years is a long time to be with somebody.

So give it the amount of attention it deserves and the respect it requires. And if there's not to change then you know you have your answer and you're going to move on right right okay well thank you all right well keep us posted amy okay i will i will thank you so much nice meeting you bye thanks i see you too see this is serious shit ben yeah behind every night spent making the kids lunches there's a lot of suspense will they finally eat the veggies will the pesto survive the first bite will the lunchbox come home empty half full or come home at all and will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers get bell pure fiber internet with crave netflix and disney plus from 94 a month price guaranteed

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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. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover those things together through meaningful conversations with fascinating people.

Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. You have something in your guts. You go with it. And Shawn Johnson recalled the moment she realized her now husband, Andrew, was the one. He was just so unapologetically himself and knew nothing of Hollywood. He hadn't been on a plane before without his family.

It was so pure. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planning houses.

We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life. Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bulls**t. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube.

They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, our next caller is Alicia. Alicia says, I'm 53 and I'm in perimenopause. I've begun reading some things about how women my age should focus on strength training and do less high-intensity interval training or high-impact cardio. When we talked on the phone, she said she's kind of always been a cardio person. If I can work out four days a week, what would you suggest as a training schedule?

P.S., my current back-to-school routine is Monday, I do cardio strength. Wednesday, day, triple Metcon, all cardio, but at different levels. Saturday, cardio strength, where I mix in some weights. Sunday, strength, all weights. Alicia. Hello. Oh, shitsky doodle. Hi, Alicia. Hi, Alicia. Hi, I have Ben Bruno, my trainer here. Perfect timing for your question. Yes, I was excited to see that you were looking for questions. I'm at the age where I'm starting to read and learn about menopause. And I really like to work out. And I've been reading and hearing about that women my age should be focusing more on strength training. And I grew up doing so much cardio all the time. So what do I need to be doing? Well, question. You said that. But then

when Catherine was reading your schedule, it sounded like you did three days of strength training and one day of cardio. Mondays and Saturdays are a mix of cardio and strength. Okay. So if I classify that as a whole strength class. Well, what I'll say, I always recommend I tell women to think of strength training as the entree and cardio is the side dish. So they're both important. But if we had to allocate percentages, I would probably say two thirds to three quarters strength training, one third to one quarter cardio. but I don't think that you have to have a strength day only cardio day only what we'll typically do is just incorporate a little bit of cardio at the end of the strength workouts um just you know some intervals and stuff but I would say for you three full body strength workouts a week is great and then if you enjoy cardio on top of that do it and also I do agree sounds like you answered

your own question in the question, but you were talking about trying to not do as much high impact cardio. I do think that first off strength training, if you do full body strength training is cardio people that do body parts splits, not so much if you do like a chest day or whatever, but if you're pairing upper body and lower body exercises, you're going to get a cardio effect from that too. But I think it's great to supplement the full body strength work with some low impact interval training. And then also it's just some low intensity training, like going for a walk or a hike or things like that. But I think that's like a good long-term strategy. And then also incorporating mobility work in there too.

Yes. That's, that's built into a couple of the classes. My trainer, the best part of this whole COVID thing is I found this trainer. Love it. Sounds like a good trainer. Yeah, so it sounds like I'm kind of on the right road. I need to make sure I get the strength in on the weekend because she does that on the days I go to work. So, all right, I will keep at that. Cool.

Yeah, don't overdo the cardio. Yeah, it's hard though. I know, I know. It feels like it's good, but it's better to strength train. Yes, yeah, okay. Okay. It's been so fun to talk with you. Thank you so much for taking my question.

Nice meeting you. Nice to meet you. Bye. Bye. All right. well, our next question comes from Kim. Kim is 49. Dear Chelsea, I'm really struggling with my fitness. I started putting on tons of weight about 10 years ago. In 2016, after a round of Whole30, I knew something was wrong, and after several doctors, I was diagnosed with celiacs

and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. I went gluten-free, obviously, and soy-free, another allergy I discovered and started to feel so much better. Work relocated me to Florida. I'm a private teacher slash family assistant, and it was great for the health part because I would just ride my cruiser bike around the horse farms for 10 to 20 miles a day, taking in the canals and the sunsets. The weight seemed to fall off. I move a lot with this job, and my location and level of activity during work and time spent outside seems to vary, as has my weight. Now that you have my backstory, I'd like to ask for your help in mindset. I've always been one to just do fun activities my whole life

and not think of it as exercise. I just recently signed up for an adult tap class here in my current location, and I hiked at my last location. I'd love if you had tips to help me develop a traditional workout mindset, whether at home or going to the gym. Kim, is she with us?

Oh, hey, Kim. Hi. Hi, how are you? Hi, I'm well. How are you? Good, thank you. Ben Bruno's our guest today, so it's perfect timing for your question. Yes. He's our in-studio health expert today.

Yeah. So is your question more related to the fitness side or the diet side? Well, I have the diet side pretty well nailed. I know how I have to eat to feel good and that's what I do. But I just have a hard time getting in the mindset of going to the gym and doing typical workouts I like to be active I ride my bike I hike I just started tap lessons I know if I'm moving with my I have hashis and celiac so if I move like three four hours a day I'm great but sometimes it's really hard and I just feel like I need to somehow incorporate going to a gym and not looking at it as a torture chamber can you do it with a friend will that help you to enlist a friend that you like go to a class two days a week if it's a bar method or

soul cycle anything i mean i guess i have a few i just relocated to nashville so i know a couple of people well that's a good way to make friends probably too actually yeah so and i've already become friendly with people in my top class so you know hopefully that'll progress i have a partner who loves to bike ride he does that shimmy shammy riding not my thing but you know we do ride a lot So I'm lucky to do that. But I just don't know why I have such a it's like I have a wedge to prevent me from going to the gym. You just have to find some classes that you like in that are in the gym. You know what I mean? And just sign up for like two a week and commit to that. That's a great way to a workout and make friends. And they could be strength training classes.

You know what I mean? So, you know, you're going and you're not responsible for your own regimen. it's being provided for you, right? I sort of feel, Kim, like you have the best of both worlds. You know, I think that's what everybody wants to get to is like just doing something fun and it's exercise by the way. It's like that old saying, find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. But I feel like the same applies here. You'll never work out a day in your life. Like, I feel like you got it great. Like Chelsea said, joining a couple of extra classes, maybe that's a strength training class or something like that. But I think you've got a good mindset. Oh, well, thank you. Do you have anything to add, Ben? I actually hate to say this,

but I really liked what Chelsea had to say, but I would also add that they have a lot of workout programs that you can get that you can do at home. So if you just have an aversion to the gym, there are a lot of home workout programs. And I know a lot of female trainers do stuff where the workout program includes an online fitness community element like Facebook groups and whatnot. So if you struggle with accountability, some of those might be good. You do it and then you report back to the trainer in the group. That's not totally my thing. So I'm not I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I know they exist. I would also I want to plug my girlfriend. She is a celiac. She has a whole thing. She's on Instagram and has a blog called

Ben Bruno's girlfriend. Yeah. At no bread, um, at no bread. And it's like a website and an Instagram handle that has, she's an amazing cook, but it's all gluten-free stuff. Yeah. You should follow her. She's got great recipes and great brands to buy all of that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. I'm always looking for new things. Yeah. But I would look at some of the online, the female trainers that do online programming, do a really great job of doing stuff to build a community. If you just hate going to the gym, you can check in with people online and whatnot. Yeah, I don't even know. I guess I don't have an aversion going to the gym.

I just I guess maybe just to get started and just not look at it as, oh, let me go ride my bike. It's all fun. And, you know, I know when I do go, I feel good. I have results. I just don't know what the mind block is. You just have to find a class you like and then you're going to be down with going. That's it.

Just find a class you like and go and do the social aspect of it, too. and if you don't like going to the gym but you like the working out then do it you know and then get one of those i mean they're on peloton they're on tonal there's all these types of things you could do at home but i hear what you're saying but you just have to like dive in and find the thing that you like to do and then you'll want to go to the gym one more thing i want to add a lot of people when they embark on strength training for the first time feel like they have to do this whole crazy program and work out an hour at a time and it's totally fine i would maybe start with like 15, 20 minute workouts and just dip your toe in. And I think as you

get a little better at it, you might like it more too. Okay. Start in small amounts. Maybe that's my problem. I just feel like I have to. Well, strength training is a thing that if you just come in guns a blazing and go too hard, you're going to be sore as shit. So I think I sometimes think, and that's very demotivating. So I think that if you start slowly and build progressively to kind of mitigate that soreness and get used to it, it'll help you in the long term. Okay, great. Thank you so much. I will try both the online and just moving to the gym and making it a social thing. Cool. Thanks for calling in. Thank you. Bye. And on that note, I think I'm done talking about nutrition. Well, let's take a break so we can be done

talking about that. And we'll be right back with Chelsea and Ben Bruno. behind every night spent making the kids lunches there's a lot of suspense will they finally eat the veggies will the pesto survive the first bite will the lunchbox come home empty half full or come home at all and will you finish episode eight before you're done slicing the cucumbers 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 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. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. If you know me, you know I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover those things together through meaningful conversations with fascinating people. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space.

You're hired to fill the space with you. You have something in your guts. You go with it. And Shawn Johnson recalled the moment she realized her now-husband, Andrew, was the one. He was just so unapologetically himself and knew nothing of Hollywood. He hadn't been on a plane before without his family. It was so pure. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our town is small taters by most standards, right? but to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right-wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is pioneers in Appalachia. But they weren't just planting houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life.

Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. God need men to rule. Great. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bulls**t. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test tube. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration.

Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to Our Town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Excellent. Well, Ben, at this point in the show, we like to ask our guests if they would like to ask Chelsea for some advice. Yes, Ben. Not really, to be honest with you. I mean, that's why I go to therapy, so I don't have to ask people like Chelsea for advice.

I accept that. I feel like if I asked Chelsea for advice, I would end up, like, face down in a ditch somewhere. Then why hasn't that already happened? Because I don't take what you say. Like, I don't really pay attention. Yeah. Interesting. Well, I think that means that Ben Bruno doesn't have any questions for me.

And you know what? I'm totally down with that. I need the day off of answering questions. What questions would I have for Chelsea? Well, why don't you think about that? Actually, I have a question for Chelsea. Here we go. I knew it.

If you were me, how would you deal with a client like you? Because I've struggled with this for seven, eight years, however long we've trained. Every single day, I think, like, I don't know what to do in this situation. Well, fire me if I make you so miserable. No, but, like, probably 51% of the time, you're pleasant. Right. So that's either this is the bed you made, and now you either have to lie in it, not lay in it. You have to lie in it or fire me.

I mean, the ball's in your court. No, 51% of the time, the juice is worth the squeeze. No, I'm not. Okay, so then there we go. Then how would you deal with me? I don't know what to tell you. I wouldn't know how to deal with me either. That actually makes me feel good.

To hear that makes me, this has been big. This is a cathartic podcast for me. It's been such a release. Ben, where can everybody find you? At the kitchen. That's the name of his gym at his house. It's called The Kitchen. And his address is?

Exactly. Don't say the address. Do you have Instagram, Ben? I do. Ben Bruno Training? Ben Bruno Training. Yeah, Ben Bruno Training. Ben Bruno Training.

Do we need to research this? Training. Not really. Not really. That's the wrap up. We're done, Catherine. We're done here. Good night.

So if you'd like advice from Chelsea, just send us an email at dearchelseaproject at gmail.com. Dear Chelsea is a production of iHeartRadio, executive produced by Nick Stumpf, produced by Catherine Law, and edited and engineered by Brad Dickert. 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 lived 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. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman.

I can wait four hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next time. 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. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Turturro. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, The Longest Yard, or Spike Lee's Black Klansman. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro, I deliver pizza to a new guest. I've shared a slice with everyone, from Seth Rollins.

What are you doing with my belt? To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind as I am. And now, we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Turturro. It's called happiness. Delivering happiness. And many, many more. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Delivering Happiness with Nick Turturro, and listen now.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.