Pride Flags, The Comeback, & Gym Wisdom 🌈 Outlifting Ep 17
Ep. 17

Pride Flags, The Comeback, & Gym Wisdom 🌈 Outlifting Ep 17

Episode description

Welcome to Episode 17 of The Outlifting Lounge, a weekly show for gay, bi, and trans guys. Hosted by Alan and Derec, we chat all things LGBTQIA+, pop culture, news, and fitness.

This week we’re discussing wisdom for a gym newbie, the very welcome return of Valerie Cherish with the Comeback Season 3, and Bad Bunny being a huge LGBTQIA+ ally. We’re also covering some serious news and celebrating the community fightback that’s put the pride flag back up outside the Stonewall Inn 🏳️‍🌈

Chapters:

00:00:00 - Welcome to Episode 17

00:03:11 - The Comeback Season 3

00:12:34 - Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl: A Win for the Gays

00:16:23 - LGBTQ+ News: Attacks in Germany & the US

00:23:13 - 5 beginner gym lessons

00:33:27 - Outlifting: Online coaching for our community


🌈 What is Outlifting?

We’re Alan & Derec - husbands who are passionate about health and fitness. We set up Outlifting together as a community exclusively for gay, bi & trans men who want to hit their fitness goals. With personal workout plans accountability coaching, nutrition planning, new healthy recipes weekly, wellness and mindset coaching, and more, Outlifting is not just another online personal training platform. We’re here to set you up for success so that this time, you can’t fail.

➡️ Work with Us: Ready to transform your body and build unstoppable confidence? Book a free, no obligation video consultation: calendly.com/outlift/discoverycall

➡️ Follow us on socials: Instagram - instagram.com/outlift.ing/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@outlift.ing

➡️ Visit our website: outlift.ing

Download transcript (.srt)
0:00

Hello, and welcome to episode 17 of The Outlifting Lounge.

0:03

This is the show all about

0:05

pride, fitness, and everything in between.

0:07

I'm Alan.

0:08

And I'm Derec.

0:09

This week, we are going to be discussing

0:12

one of our favourite sitcoms ever, The Comeback.

0:15

We'll also talk about the Super Bowl halftime show,

0:18

touch on a couple of really important LGBT news

0:21

stories, and in the fitness section, we will discuss

0:25

some beginner tips in the gym.

0:31

So Alan, how's your week been?

0:32

My week's been good.

0:33

I am getting stuck into reading, which was

0:36

obviously one of my resolutions for 2026.

0:40

I managed to finish the first book

0:42

from Darren Pickersgill, which was Followers.

0:46

Brilliant.

0:47

Loved it.

0:48

Twist and turns.

0:49

I've got his new book, Open, but I'm going to

0:52

wait, and I've started reading the third book in Housemaid.

0:55

You've done very well.

0:56

You've been an avid bookworm since the New Year, and

0:59

you have inspired me as well because I have been

1:02

tearing through Project Hail Mary, which is a really good

1:06

book from Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian.

1:09

So The Martian was turned into a film with Matt Damon, and

1:12

I believe that Project Hail Mary is coming out soon as well.

1:15

That's Ryan Gosling in the lead.

1:17

What did you say to me yesterday when you were reading it?

1:19

So I'm not going to give any spoilers about the book,

1:22

but at the start of the book, he is naked.

1:27

And there are various times in the book so far where

1:30

he has had to get changed and wash himself and stuff.

1:33

And I thought it'd be quite an

1:35

interesting film to go and watch.

1:36

Let's see how faithful it stays to the book.

1:38

Well, we need to go check it out to find out.

1:40

So absolutely.

1:41

Ryan Gosling all the way.

1:43

So yeah, it's it's been good.

1:45

It's, we are, it sounds very boring, but

1:48

we are early in bed with our Kindles.

1:51

I'm really enjoying it because I'm putting

1:53

my phone down and I'm not doomscrolling.

1:55

And any opportunity I get for a little bit of

1:57

downtime, I'm grabbing my Kindle rather than my phone.

2:00

So yeah, we've done well to stick

2:02

it out until the 15th of February.

2:05

That's not bad.

2:06

Honestly, we're still watching, like, maybe an

2:08

hour of television together in the evenings.

2:10

We've got our shows that we love,

2:11

which everybody who tunes in will know.

2:14

We're watching The Traitors, we're watching Drag Race.

2:16

Guilty pleasure, we've been watching

2:17

Married at First Sight Australia.

2:22

That was the gayest gay gasp.

2:24

It's not in the UK yet, but we'll obviously talk about that

2:27

once it starts showing in the UK, because we love it.

2:30

Yeah.

2:30

So, we maybe watch an hour of television

2:32

every night, but we've been so much better.

2:34

We've been reading in the garden as well.

2:37

We've been getting a little bit of sun, maybe an

2:39

hour here and there, and sitting and reading our books.

2:43

So yeah, we've been really good.

2:44

And I would probably say that has had

2:47

such a good impact on my mental health.

2:49

Don't know about you.

2:50

Yeah, definitely.

2:51

Like I said, doomscrolling, out the windy.

2:53

So it's been good just to get stuck into some books.

2:56

I've got some others lined up for when I finish.

2:58

Handmade.

2:59

Handmade?

3:00

No, Housemaid.

3:01

Open, and then I've got some others lined up after that.

3:04

Good. Speaking of getting stuck in, will we get

3:07

stuck into the main content of the show?

3:09

Let's do it.

3:11

Right, the first little bit of pop culture news that I

3:14

want to talk about is something I'm super, super, super excited

3:18

about, and that is that The Comeback is coming back.

3:21

The Comeback is coming back!

3:23

You didn't actually believe me when I sent

3:25

you the reel months and months ago to

3:27

say it's coming back for a third season.

3:29

For anybody that doesn't know, The Comeback is

3:32

a sitcom that aired back in 2005 originally.

3:36

It was one year after Friends aired its final episode,

3:41

and it stars Lisa Kudrow, who was Phoebe in Friends.

3:44

So it was really the first thing that

3:46

she did on TV after Friends, really.

3:49

So it got cancelled after one season, but

3:51

then it became such a huge sleeper hit.

3:54

It was a cult classic, and nine years later, they randomly

3:59

decided to bring it back in 2014 for Season 2.

4:03

And Season 2 was the swan song.

4:06

It was only 8 episodes long, but it was perfection.

4:10

I would say, I don't know if, you probably

4:12

would agree as well, it probably has one of

4:14

the most perfect endings of any sitcom series ever.

4:19

It's amazing.

4:20

Lisa Kudrow, like, she was my favourite character in Friends,

4:24

but seeing her as Valerie Cherish, which is her character

4:27

in The Comeback, she just absolutely nails it.

4:31

And the first couple of episodes, I was like, oh,

4:33

I'm not sure about this in the first season.

4:37

But like you said, you got me into it.

4:38

And it's amazing.

4:39

In fact, we loved it so much.

4:41

When we moved to Gran Canaria, we obviously had to travel

4:44

through Spain, and we had to get on ferries and stuff.

4:47

And we watched it again as we were travelling.

4:50

To move to Gran Canaria.

4:52

Yeah, and do you know what?

4:52

It gets funnier every time you watch it.

4:54

There are so many quotable lines, the most

4:58

famous of which people will know as...

5:00

Hello, hello, hello!

5:02

Which is RuPaul's workroom entrance, but he

5:05

took that directly from The Comeback.

5:07

And I think it was, so, season nine of RuPaul's

5:11

Drag Race, Lisa Kudrow came into the workroom and he

5:14

revealed that that was based on her character, Valerie Cherish.

5:17

Yeah, and RuPaul's a huge fan of The Comeback, because he

5:20

actually had a cameo in season two, along with Andy Cohen.

5:24

So for anybody who doesn't know, I mean, we haven't

5:26

really given a description of what it is, but basically,

5:30

Valerie Cherish is a washed up sitcom actress.

5:34

All these years later, she then lands another role

5:36

in a new sitcom, and this is meant to

5:38

be her comeback, hence why it's called The Comeback.

5:41

In tandem with that, she lands a reality show, and

5:45

it's basically just cameras following her about, chronicling this comeback,

5:50

and when it was set in 2005, it was at

5:53

the infancy of all of these reality shows.

5:55

There was no Real Housewives or anything like that, so

5:59

the footage is really choppy, it's really of that era,

6:03

and The Comeback television series that we watch,

6:07

season one was very much in the style of

6:11

found, unedited reality footage.

6:15

Yeah, it's really smart how they filmed it actually.

6:17

It's really good.

6:18

And like you said,

6:19

it was at the start of all those kind of

6:21

reality programmes.

6:22

So it's got that kind of essence of it,

6:24

you know, when it first started.

6:25

And I think a lot of the comedy comes from

6:27

how stuck in the 1980s Valerie still is as a character.

6:32

She can't really get with the times

6:33

and everything has changed a little bit

6:35

and she feels so out of place

6:36

and there's so much tension and awkwardness

6:39

that comes along with that as well.

6:41

It's super funny.

6:42

And her house keeper.

6:45

Cos she is just as, she's like kind of off-camera

6:48

but you can see her

6:49

it's comedy gold

6:51

and like you said the more times you watch it

6:54

you notice these things.

6:55

Yeah, I mean season one was a lot more awkward

6:57

than season two.

6:58

Season two was a bit more polished

7:00

and they were very clever the way they brought it back because

7:03

when it came back it had a bigger budget.

7:07

Some of the stars from season one

7:10

actually had become stars in real life

7:12

and then they kind of mirrored that

7:14

so those people came back as big stars.

7:17

It was quite clever how it was done, but they had,

7:19

like, Seth Rogen had a main part in season two, so

7:22

it was much, much bigger and very well done.

7:24

But season three, I found out what the plot for

7:28

season three is, and I am so excited for this.

7:31

So Valerie lands a role in the first

7:36

ever sitcom to be written entirely by AI.

7:39

Oh my god, that's gonna be amazing.

7:41

It has absolute potential to be pure comedy gold.

7:45

I cannot wait to watch it.

7:48

And there are so many quotes that we

7:50

quote practically every week, isn't there, from it?

7:53

Well, I got it.

7:55

Well, I got it.

7:59

Jane, Jane.

8:00

I'm sorry, Jane, just, you're not gonna be able to use that.

8:04

Time out, time out.

8:06

What else? What's your favourite?

8:10

Note to self.

8:11

Note to self.

8:12

I don't need to see that.

8:16

I hope people listening have seen it,

8:19

because they're just going to be like, "What

8:20

the hell are these guys talking about?"

8:22

I am going to put clips in, because I can't do her justice.

8:26

Nobody can do Valerie Cherish apart from Lisa Kudrow.

8:30

The other one, and it's not exactly

8:32

a quote, it's more a scene.

8:34

It's when she is singing "I Will Survive",

8:39

and she's in the recording booth, and her,

8:42

like, accomplice, Mickey, is upstairs watching her.

8:46

It's so, so super funny.

8:47

Mickey is her hairdresser that is

8:50

gay, but nobody knows he's gay.

8:51

And he's the camp- Except for everybody.

8:54

He's the campest thing ever.

8:56

And I think it's season two, where he was

9:00

supposed to turn up to do her hair, and

9:02

they go to his apartment, and he's in bed with someone.

9:08

But of course, because it's a fly on

9:09

the wall reality thing that Valerie's recording.

9:13

The whole crew are in Mickey's bedroom. It’s brilliant!

9:16

And he's in bed with a naked twink.

9:20

And do you know what, the character of Mickey

9:23

really exemplifies the gay appeal that the show has.

9:26

So it was cowritten, produced, directed by

9:29

Michael Patrick King, along with Lisa Kudrow.

9:32

Michael Patrick King has been producing some

9:34

quality gay television for decades now.

9:38

He was like one of the main people behind Sex and

9:41

the City, Sex and the City films, and Just Like That,

9:45

when it came back again, although...

9:47

Yeah, maybe don't mention that one.

9:49

But he was involved, I think he was

9:50

involved with Will and Grace, things like that.

9:52

Maybe don't mention that one either.

9:54

Sorry, The Jack and Karen Show.

9:56

There we go.

9:57

So not only is Valerie Cherish a massive icon herself,

10:02

in the UK, she would be called a hun.

10:04

Yeah, absolutely.

10:06

There's a corniness and a cheesiness, a little bit like Jane Macdonald

10:11

Yeah. But less less self-aware than Jane Macdonald.

10:15

Exactly.

10:15

So she's got all that going on for her.

10:17

So she is a gay icon herself

10:18

She's got Mickey.

10:20

The fact that there are cameos from the likes

10:22

of RuPaul, Andy Cohen,

10:25

Brad Goretzky - he was in season two.

10:28

Forgot about that, yeah.

10:30

His cameo is hilarious.

10:33

Yeah. Would not spoil it!

10:34

But yeah, that is funny what happens to him in that.

10:38

We need to watch it again now you're talking about it I'm like

10:41

yeah we need to watch it once again.

10:43

We need to do a re-watch before season three.

10:45

So we've got one month.

10:47

Season three is bringing in some people to do parts

10:50

and cameos as well. So...

10:53

Sadly Mickey will not be back

10:55

because the actor who played him died in 2017.

10:58

So that is very very sad that

11:00

he won't be there for season three.

11:03

However there are some other gay actors that

11:06

are coming in so Zane Phillips who...

11:12

If anybody's listening to the audio version of this,

11:14

my eyes just popped out of my head.

11:17

You were like a cartoon character.

11:18

It was like, "Awooga!"

11:21

Yeah, he's a very handsome man.

11:23

On the last season of Drag Race All Stars, there was

11:28

an episode called The Golden Bitchelor, where they all dressed up

11:30

like dogs, and they had to act out a sequence.

11:32

He was the hot guy that came in and acted with them.

11:35

He was in Fire Island, and he was also in a few

11:38

episodes of the latest season of Loot, where he was very handsome.

11:43

If you haven't watched Loot, go and watch it,

11:44

because it's brilliant on its own, but then the

11:46

last season with Zane in it, chef's kiss.

11:50

He looks like he was constructed by a committee of gay men.

11:54

He really does.

11:55

Absolutely.

11:56

So he's in it, and also Andrew Scott.

12:00

From Pride, one of my favourite films.

12:02

Yes, and All of Us Strangers.

12:04

People will know him from Fleabag and various things.

12:06

Brilliant actor, but he has a main role in season 3 as well.

12:10

So, yeah, lots of gay appeal in The Comeback.

12:12

Lots of reasons to watch it, and if people have not seen it, for

12:17

people in the UK, I think it's on Now TV and Sky TV.

12:21

Seasons 1 and 2 available to stream now, so you've got one

12:25

month to watch seasons 1 and 2 before season 3 starts.

12:29

Get on it.

12:29

And if you do, send us a message, leave a

12:31

comment, let us know what you think of it.

12:33

Yeah, should we talk very, very quickly about

12:35

the Super Bowl halftime show as well?

12:37

Because that was something else.

12:39

Absolutely amazing.

12:40

Bad Bunny, phenomenal.

12:42

Like his music is absolutely brilliant.

12:46

He's a huge, huge, huge gay ally.

12:48

And he's also the biggest streaming musician

12:51

in the world at the minute.

12:52

And do you know the thing that I love more about it?

12:54

It was getting all the wrong people

12:56

worked up in all the right way.

13:00

Very much so.

13:01

All of the manufactured outrage before the Super Bowl happened,

13:05

a lot of it revolved around it should be an

13:08

American, despite the fact that plenty of non-Americans have performed

13:13

a half-time show, and despite the fact that Bad Bunny

13:16

is an American citizen, but the fact is that his

13:19

songs are in Spanish, and they just didn't like that,

13:21

because it's that whole, "This is America, speak English," from

13:24

people who can barely spell their own name.

13:29

Also, the performance itself, there were so many

13:32

little nods to different things in it.

13:34

Obviously, we had Lady Gaga performing, huge gay icon,

13:38

Ricky Martin, who is a huge out gay singer.

13:41

I think the word you're looking for is daddy.

13:43

Ricky Martin, who is a huge daddy, and also the

13:47

two guys that were dancing just next to the truck.

13:50

Like, that little quick scene where they're grinding against each

13:55

other, it didn't go unmissed, like, with us, did it?

13:58

I was like, oh my god, that is amazing.

14:00

You know, that was very much three things.

14:03

First of all, people who are

14:05

in same-sex relationships are included.

14:07

This is for everybody.

14:08

Second of all, it was a bit of a thirst

14:10

trap for all of the gays that were watching.

14:12

And third of all, it was put there to boil people's piss.

14:16

And it has, because there's some Republicans

14:18

investigating, because apparently it was pornographic.

14:22

It was immoral.

14:23

Crazy.

14:24

So yeah, and there were a lot of

14:26

other cameos, like Pedro Pascal as well.

14:28

Cardi B.

14:30

Jessica Alba.

14:31

Karol G.

14:33

Yes.

14:34

Bad Bunny himself, as you've already touched

14:36

on, he's a massive LGBTQIA+ ally.

14:39

We are so fortunate.

14:41

He's the biggest musician in the world at the moment, and we

14:44

are so fortunate that he is such a strong ally for us.

14:47

And he has a gay cousin, and he used to produce

14:49

the music for the cousin, who is a drag queen.

14:53

And Bad Bunny used to produce music for their shows.

14:56

Yeah, he used to do mixes, and a

14:57

lot of it was very heavily Lady Gaga.

15:00

And through that, Bad Bunny became a massive Lady Gaga fan.

15:03

So it was beautiful that he had Lady Gaga at his show.

15:07

She did a number and then she danced with him and stuff.

15:09

That was so cool.

15:10

And Bad Bunny's also done drag himself

15:12

in one of his music videos.

15:14

Yes, it was Yo Perreo Sola video, and he did, I

15:18

think it was three different drag looks, and he got some

15:21

backlash from it as well, and his response to that was

15:25

"I have never felt more masculine than the day that I

15:28

was put into drag for the first time.”

15:30

Chef's kiss.

15:31

And he was asked before about his sexuality.

15:33

He was put on the spot in an interview, and

15:34

he said , look, it doesn't really matter to me.

15:37

He said, at the minute, I'm a straight guy, I

15:40

like women, but I don't know what the future holds.

15:43

In 20 years time, maybe I will meet a

15:45

man and like him and I'll be with him.

15:47

I thought that is such a cool response.

15:50

That is something very, very special for somebody to have

15:53

zero toxic masculinity, to be so open and so fluid

15:57

with things, and just to see people as they are.

15:59

Brilliant guy.

16:00

Yeah, we enjoyed the show.

16:01

Yeah, and we enjoyed the show.

16:03

It was phenomenal.

16:04

Well, the Bad Bunny concert, as it's known, apparently there

16:06

was some little football match going on as well.

16:08

I know, but if you tune in to the Apple app, you can

16:12

see the video of the halftime show without any of that football.

16:16

That's a win for the gays.

16:17

One for the gays.

16:18

Shall we move on to the news section? Let's do it.

16:23

The first item of news we've got was a

16:26

good news story and then it turned bad.

16:28

Yeah, so the German referee who proposed

16:31

to his boyfriend at a football match.

16:35

Amazing story.

16:37

Like, what an amazing feeling for both

16:40

of them to have that moment.

16:42

But unfortunately, it turned a bit sour.

16:45

Yeah, so it was Pascal Kaiser, who

16:48

is the gay football referee in Germany.

16:51

He proposed to his partner Moritz on the

16:54

field, and it was a beautiful video.

16:56

It went mega viral.

16:57

I'm sure most people will have seen it.

16:59

For them to feel comfortable out in the open,

17:02

proposing like that, in an atmosphere which is generally

17:06

regarded as not very welcoming to our sort, and

17:12

yeah, for it to turn so sour afterwards.

17:14

So the referee, Pascal, had received threats, and he

17:17

contacted the police, and the police basically said, "No,

17:22

nothing to worry about, it's nothing serious."

17:24

Twenty minutes later, he was in his garden, and

17:27

three guys came along and beat him up.

17:29

Unbelievable.

17:30

And the photo of him that he put out on social

17:32

media, his face is so swollen and bruised, his eye.

17:36

It's such a shame.

17:37

It's like such a special moment in

17:40

their life has been completely overshadowed by

17:43

these, that attack by these three guys.

17:46

It's crazy.

17:47

And that's the reason why we still need pride.

17:50

We don't have true equality.

17:53

Even the fact that he wasn't taken seriously by

17:56

the police, they said nothing to worry about.

17:58

And then 20 minutes later, the police were proven wrong.

18:00

And we see that time and time again.

18:02

As you say, this is why we need pride.

18:05

Speaking of which, actually, that leads us into the second story

18:08

that we want to talk about, which was about Stonewall.

18:11

Yes, they have raised the pride flag again

18:15

outside of Stonewall, after the Trump administration had

18:17

said it had to be taken down.

18:19

It’s the park outside the Stonewall Inn in New York.

18:24

Hugely significant place for us.

18:25

That is sacred ground for us.

18:27

That is where, really, the fight for our rights

18:32

became very, very serious.

18:33

That memorial is very, very special.

18:36

I know a lot of people you travelled over

18:38

for the 50th anioversary a few years ago.

18:41

Because they felt that they had

18:42

to do that, they had to make, it was almost like

18:44

a pilgrimage for them to visit Stonewall at that special time.

18:47

You know, some people can maybe brush that

18:50

off to say, "Oh, it's just a flag."

18:51

It's not.

18:52

It's symbolic of the progression of attacks on the

18:55

LGBT community from the right and the far right.

18:59

What made it so special is it's actually

19:01

the original pride flag with the eight colours

19:03

in it that was made by Gilbert Baker.

19:07

And we have been to San Francisco, and we did

19:09

a tour of the Castro, a walking tour of the

19:12

Castro, which was just, it was amazing, wasn't it?

19:16

Absolutely amazing.

19:17

If anybody goes to San Francisco and wants to

19:19

do something like that, I highly recommend it.

19:21

It was the public library that ran the tour.

19:25

Those two tour guides were

19:26

so well informed, so knowledgeable.

19:29

The stories that they told us

19:31

was just like, it was so special.

19:33

Yeah. It made me,

19:35

especially because the tour kind of

19:37

it meanders around the Castro

19:39

but it ends up back on the Castro again.

19:42

And one of the last things that you visit

19:44

on the Castro is Harvey Milk's camera shop.

19:48

And that, like if anybody knows anything about Harvey Milk,

19:51

that is so significant.

19:53

And that hit me,

19:55

it was such an emotional experience for me.

19:57

I felt really deeply connected to a sense of history,

20:02

to this unreal moment in history when things were really

20:07

changing, when people were changing the world for us.

20:13

All of the rights that we take for granted

20:15

were because of people with immense bravery and vision.

20:18

Absolutely.

20:19

So the reason I mentioned the Castro Tour and the significance

20:23

or the link to the flag is they made the flag,

20:27

the original flag, with the eight colours in San Francisco.

20:30

So the story we were told on the tour was that they

20:33

dyed the flag in the camera shop, and then they had to

20:36

sneak into the laundrette late at night

20:38

because fabric dyes were banned.

20:41

So they had to wash it and dry it whilst they were in there.

20:44

And then once they took that out, they then

20:46

had to make sure that the

20:48

machines were fine, so they had to do another rinse cycle

20:51

on it with bleach and stuff, and that's how the flag

20:54

was made, and that's basically the history of that flag.

20:57

So we've learned about that on the tour, but there's

20:59

so many other things, so it was really special to

21:02

see that they just raised that original flag at Stonewall.

21:05

Yeah, there are people out there that are like, we

21:08

don't need to change the flag, the flag that we've

21:10

got, because they don't want the pride progress flag.

21:12

But they think that the flag that we've

21:15

got is the six colour rainbow flag.

21:17

And it's actually not the pride flag has changed many,

21:21

many times since the original Gilbert Baker flag of 1978.

21:26

And we move with the times we are, our movement

21:29

has to change because the attacks on us change.

21:33

We are more attacked than ever right now.

21:36

They are trying to erase us.

21:37

And that is literally what they're trying to do.

21:39

They're denying people healthcare.

21:41

They're denying people the right to fairness

21:45

and equality by changing discrimination laws.

21:48

There is a clamp down on LGBT people.

21:52

We need to, we've said this

21:53

before, we need to stick together.

21:54

We need to remember what this is about.

21:56

They are attacking us.

21:57

They don't want us to exist.

21:59

They don't want us to be visible, and we need to fight back.

22:01

And that's what's happened though.

22:03

A group of activists, politicians, the whole

22:06

community has gotten together outside Stonewall, and

22:09

they put the flag back up.

22:10

And I believe you're going to show a video?

22:12

I think he's a local New York council member, Erik Bottcher.

22:17

I hope I haven't botchered his name.

22:19

Yeah, so he gave a really rousing speech at that,

22:23

along with a lot of other people as well, but

22:24

I really, I think what he said really hit me.

22:28

Yeah, and the special thing about that is he's out

22:31

and gay and an elected council member, which is amazing.

22:35

Let's roll that clip.

22:36

"This is not a fight that we have asked for,

22:40

but this is a fight that we will win.

22:43

Because we have been subject to

22:47

persecution for thousands of years.

22:53

We have always persisted.

22:55

In the end, we always win.

22:58

And that is what is going to happen here."

23:02

Yeah, really powerful words, and he could say

23:04

it better than either of us two could.

23:06

Yeah, absolutely.

23:07

Okay, shall we move on to the fitness section?

23:10

Yeah.

23:13

Welcome to the fitness section of the show.

23:15

This week, we are going to be discussing

23:17

a Reddit post that we found quite interesting.

23:20

We thought we had some things to say about it

23:23

and share that might be useful for you guys.

23:25

So I will hand over to Alan, who is going to read it out.

23:29

Okay, so the post is about beginner gym mistakes

23:32

I made in the first year, and we've all

23:35

been there, people that go to the gym.

23:37

So the post mentioned no stretching, not focusing on

23:43

form, not focusing on muscle contraction, speeding through reps,

23:50

and not focusing on all muscle groups.

23:53

And I think we've probably got quite a

23:55

bit to say about all of that.

23:55

Yeah.

23:56

It was quite a short, succinct post.

23:58

It was just like five bullet points, and that was it.

24:00

But we find it quite interesting to see how

24:04

somebody at the end of their first year of

24:07

getting in shape, what their reflection on it was.

24:11

Some of the stuff I think is really good,

24:13

some stuff I have some things to say about,

24:16

which you'd come to expect from me.

24:19

Got opinions?

24:20

Well, yes.

24:21

But yeah, so let's take them one by one.

24:23

So first one was no stretching.

24:25

I think the person has maybe phrased that wrongly.

24:31

Stretching for me, when I think of that, is what you

24:33

do during your cool down at the end of your workout.

24:36

For me, what is much more important is

24:38

the mobilization and warmup at the start.

24:43

And that's probably what they mean

24:44

when they say stretching, hopefully.

24:46

But yeah, it's much more important to do active

24:50

dynamic stretching and mobilisation at the start to warm

24:54

your body up and get it ready.

24:56

And we've spoken about that before.

24:57

Yeah, we've spoken about that on a previous episode.

25:00

So definitely that, but also stretching at the end as well.

25:03

That's super important.

25:05

And even if you could introduce like a yoga class

25:07

or something like body balance to your routine, that's really

25:11

going to help with your progress as well.

25:13

What I will say, so I used to run marathons,

25:17

and what I found is that the year that I

25:21

took up yoga, I ran the London Marathon.

25:25

I was very lucky to have a spot, and I shaved roughly

25:29

about, I think it was 20 minutes of my PB that year.

25:35

There were a couple of factors to it.

25:37

It was, I did a lot more core training that year.

25:40

I did a lot of yoga that year.

25:42

I didn't pick up a single injury during training or

25:45

the run, and shaved 20 minutes off my PB.

25:48

My aim was to get a sub-3:30 marathon, and I thought

25:51

that was a bit of a tall order for me, and

25:54

I ended up, it was what, three hours, 23 minutes?

25:57

So I managed to do that, and then some.

26:00

So yeah, highly recommend that.

26:03

And whilst eating a plant-based diet.

26:05

Oh yeah, I suppose as well.

26:06

That was the first marathon that I

26:08

had run on a plant-based diet.

26:10

So there were a number of factors.

26:12

I think yoga was the one in particular that was the reason

26:17

why I didn't pick up any little injuries along the way.

26:20

There were no like strains or pulled tendons

26:23

or anything like that in that training cycle.

26:25

So yeah, but yeah.

26:27

Well done.

26:28

Yeah.

26:30

Anyway, let's move on to the next one.

26:32

So the second point was about not focusing on form,

26:35

which is something we've spoken about before, super important.

26:39

Yeah, I think, especially as a newbie in the gym,

26:43

there's a lot of what we would call ego lifting,

26:45

and that's trying to lift as heavy as you can,

26:48

without actually focusing on how your body is moving.

26:52

So form, technique, whatever way you want to see it, if

26:55

you're not focusing on that... Huge, huge, huge risk of injury,

26:59

and actually your progress is going to stall as well.

27:03

So, when you start in the gym, it's

27:06

super important, whatever way you do it, to

27:09

get your exercise form absolutely spot on.

27:12

So whether that's watching YouTube videos, or maybe asking a gym instructor

27:17

that works in the gym to help you with some things, hiring

27:20

a PT, whatever it might be, form is going to be a

27:23

great, great foundation for the rest of your journey.

27:27

Absolutely, I don't have much more to add to that apart

27:29

from it can be quite overwhelming for people because it just

27:34

feels like there's a lot for them to learn.

27:36

So don't let it become a barrier to you exercising.

27:42

Try to see your first phase of the gym as learning.

27:49

It's not about going and lifting really heavily.

27:53

As you've said, it should be more

27:56

about you getting the foundations in place.

27:58

So if that means that you go to the gym and you have

28:01

some notes or you've got things on your phone about form and you

28:04

just play about with form until you get it right, do that.

28:07

Don't care about what other people are

28:09

doing or what they might be thinking.

28:11

Do what you need to do to get that form nailed down so

28:13

that you learn it and can then be very successful after that.

28:17

That's why the mirrors are in the gym.

28:20

Do you know that?

28:22

Well, it's not just for taking selfies.

28:24

The reason the mirrors are there are to check your form.

28:27

So if there's particular exercises that you feel that

28:30

maybe your form isn't as good as others, perform

28:33

them in front of the mirror and critique yourself.

28:36

Or if you feel comfortable enough, film yourself

28:39

in the gym doing the exercises as well.

28:42

Yeah, brilliant advice.

28:44

The third point that I'm just looking at was about

28:46

focus again, and this was not focusing on muscle contraction.

28:50

Now, I think as for a beginner, this is

28:54

difficult, because when you start really working out and

28:59

doing some like resistance weight work in the gym,

29:04

you tend to not have that mind muscle connection.

29:08

And I see people that I've trained before in classes

29:12

or whatever else, it's like a light switch for them.

29:17

Once they start, particularly with their core, once they start

29:20

to become stronger, they get a bit more switched on,

29:24

and you see that, and that is feedback that they

29:27

give in some form or another, that they suddenly have

29:30

this mind-muscle connection, and a much greater understanding of their

29:34

body and how their body moves.

29:36

Yeah, I think taking a bit of time to

29:39

learn the muscles and how they move and how

29:41

your body moves particularly is super important.

29:44

And that can kind of be tied

29:45

in with form and technique as well.

29:48

So when you're performing a certain exercise, say it's

29:51

a bicep curl, for example, really understand how it

29:55

feels in your bicep as you're moving.

29:58

And again, it's, it can be a

30:00

little bit overwhelming, because it's quite technical.

30:02

But having that at the start

30:04

of your journey is really going to help.

30:06

Yeah, and I think actually what will help

30:09

get that correct muscle contraction and really

30:12

help you focus on it is the next point.

30:15

Yeah, one of my favouite things to talk about

30:17

is not speeding through reps.

30:20

So tempo is basically what we call it

30:22

and we’ve all seen people work out in the gym

30:26

and they might be in a rush

30:27

so maybe that’s why they’re speeding through their reps

30:30

but you want to be able to feel the movement.

30:33

So if you’re moving too quickly,

30:35

it’s not really going to be working the muscle

30:37

the best way that you can.

30:39

So some advice that we always give to our clients is

30:42

think about the lowering phase of an exercise,

30:45

so when the weight is actually lowering.

30:48

So it's gonna be different for different exercises.

30:50

So if we take that bicep curl example again, so

30:53

when we lift the weight up, if you can really

30:57

slow down when the weight is coming down, that's going

31:01

to have a huge impact on your progress, because muscle

31:04

is actually built on the lowering phase of the exercise,

31:08

rather than the contraction of the exercise.

31:11

It is very much about the time that

31:13

the muscle spends under tension as well.

31:15

And if you're just rushing through them,

31:17

it's pretty much the same as sex.

31:19

It's going to be bad.

31:20

You're going to have bad results.

31:23

That's a nervous laugh from the sound of it Alan.

31:27

I was just having no comment on that.

31:30

Yeah, time under tension, super important.

31:32

Tempo.

31:33

There's lots of information out there about it.

31:35

It can get quite technical.

31:37

So if you want to learn a little bit

31:38

more about it, then just do your own research.

31:40

Yeah, and speaking of which, the last point that they

31:43

made was about not focusing on all muscle groups.

31:46

So a lot of this comes down to research and learning things.

31:50

I would say at the start, if you're an

31:52

absolute beginner, you need to keep it quite simple.

31:56

And again, don't let this be a barrier.

31:57

What's your thoughts?

31:58

Yeah, so a lot of people when they start,

32:01

they'll maybe just train one muscle group each day.

32:04

It's kind of known as the bro split.

32:06

So Monday, you do chest, for example, Tuesday, you'll do

32:09

back, Wednesday, you'll do legs, Thursday, you'll do arms.

32:13

It's not the best way to approach it, depending on

32:16

how many times you can work out through the week,

32:19

depends on what your split will be in the gym.

32:22

Ideally, you want to be hitting the muscle

32:25

groups at least twice during the week.

32:27

For example, if you can only work out

32:30

three days a week, three full bodies, perfect.

32:33

You're going to hit all the

32:33

muscle groups throughout the week.

32:35

If you can only do four workouts, an upper, lower, upper,

32:39

lower split is going to be the way to do it.

32:41

Doing the bro split, the traditional way of doing it,

32:45

isn't really going to help you if you're a beginner.

32:46

Absolutely.

32:47

And then you'll end up probably overworking one

32:49

muscle group, and then you'll end up with

32:52

horrendous DOMS, you'll feel really sore and stuff.

32:54

So I think definitely trying to break

32:56

it up a little bit more.

32:57

It's what drew me to BODYPUMP classes when I

33:00

first started going to the gym, because you do get

33:02

that full body workout in that class format.

33:06

Although it's a different kind of exercise, because you're

33:09

doing low weights, high reps, it is good because

33:14

it's much more comprehensive, you're getting the whole thing.

33:16

Yeah, those are all really, really good tips.

33:18

And I think that's probably us covered all of it.

33:21

I would agree.

33:22

Shall we wrap up the show?

33:24

Let's do it.

33:27

That's us for another week.

33:29

Thank you so much for tuning in, as ever.

33:31

Remember, Outlifting Lounge is just part of what we do.

33:34

Alan and I run Outlifting, which is an online

33:37

training service for gay, bi, and trans guys who

33:40

want to get in shape and build unstoppable confidence.

33:43

If you tune into the show every week, you will

33:45

know this spiel, so I won't go on too much.

33:48

If you want to book in for a free call with us, though,

33:51

at any time, and see how we can help you, absolutely do that.

33:55

You can click the link in the show notes below.

33:57

And don't forget, you can get in touch with us

34:00

to give us your comments on the show, or if

34:02

you have any ideas for any future episodes.

34:05

You can email us at podcast@outlift.ing,

34:10

and you can find us on social media @outlift.ing

34:15

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34:18

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34:20

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34:23

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34:36

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34:37

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34:38

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