Hello, and welcome to episode 15 of The Outlifting Lounge.
This is the show all about
pride, fitness, and everything in between.
I'm Alan.
And I'm Derec.
In today's show, we're gonna be chatting
about Drag Race UK Vs The World.
We will cover some really positive LGBT news,
and we'll be talking about DOMS.
Oh, kinky.
Other kind of DOMS.
Let's get the show started.
So Alan, how has your week been?
My week has been good.
My knee is almost 100% better, which is brilliant.
I've managed four workouts this week, which has
been really good, 'cause I didn't think I
was gonna get to the gym this week.
I also finished my third book of
the month, so happy about that.
And I'm just about to start reading
Followers, which is Darren Pickersgill's first book.
And his third book is actually out tomorrow.
It's coming out a day early, called Open.
So once I finish Followers, I'll then move on to that one.
And also, I was stuck in traffic for about two and a
half hours the other day, which is quite unusual for Gran Canaria.
Well, it's not really that unusual for
Gran Canaria, but when there's an accident
on the motorway, you're f***ed basically.
So I had to take a detour
up through Telde, which was quite pretty.
I haven't been up that way before, so it was
quite nice driving through different towns and seeing the scenery.
But by the end of it, I was done in.
How's your week been?
Eh, my tennis elbow's just getting worse and worse.
And yeah, I can't really train with it.
It's sore.
I can barely even open a bottle the way it is at the minute.
Resting it doesn't really seem to be helping.
So I don't know, I'm just getting fed up with it.
I'm a bit scunnered.
Might be time to go and see a physio.
It might be.
This is what we would tell our clients.
Yeah, I think the time's probably passed.
So let's, let's deal with that.
But yeah, apart from that, just getting on with things.
The weather is starting to brighten up.
It's starting to get a lot warmer here.
It's starting to feel like summer-ish.
So that's good as well.
Yeah, that's good.
Shall we chat about Drag Race UK Vs The World?
Absolutely.
It launched this week, and I have to say,
the first episode was phenomenal, really, really good.
Tens across the board and all that.
So I'm really looking forward to this series.
Yeah. I think it'll be good.
The entrance episode is always my favourite, 'cause I like to
judge them on their entrance looks and who they are.
Obviously, we know some of these queens because
it's like an all-stars, essentially, isn't it?
Even at that, though, I was
still like, who's that, who's that?
You're very good at remembering who people are
in these types of programmes, and I'm just
like, not a clue who these people are.
So this season is a bit different than the
other ones have been, because I think when UK
Vs The World started out, it basically felt a
bit like the UK Vs the English-speaking world.
So it was like queens from America and Canada.
Whereas this time around, there's
a really good international selection.
We've got somebody from Drag Race Sweden, Drag
Race Philippines, Drag Race Thailand, Germany, Mexico.
And we have not watched all of them.
We've watched Mexico, but we've not watched Germany, Sweden,
or the main Philippines or the Thailand seasons.
So these are new queens for us.
It's quite good.
Who's your favourite?
I've got a few.
No, one.
Favourite, not favourites.
I've got people that are favourites for different reasons.
So Kate Butch, I think is just so funny.
And she's coming into it with a really clear
point of view and an elevated version of herself.
So I thought it was a really strong episode for her.
I thought she was going to be in the top two, but
I can understand why they didn't
because they wanted a big spectacular first episode
and they wanted two really fierce dancers
in that lip sync at the end
and that's why they did it.
What, you're telling me that it's produced?
My other two favourites were Gawdland and Fontana,
who ended up in the top two.
Gawdland is just crazy in all the best possible ways.
See the way RuPaul describes like wackadoodle.
They're my favourite kind of queens, totally offbeat.
Like not your, I mean, looks amazing, like stunning,
stunning queen, but it's just totally out there.
A bit like kind of Jimbo, you know?
That kind of like, just not quite
what people perceive drag queens should be.
So yeah.
I think Gawdland is like the epitome of wackadoodle queen.
Just crazy, like absolutely bonkers.
My favourite, favourite, favourite look from that episode.
And possibly
one of my favourite looks of all time in Drag Race
was her runway look, her queen of my hometown look.
It was like the big prawn dish, and she had the thing
on her head, the headpiece, and it was all bedazzled.
It was just such...
She had the pincer as well.
Oh, that pincer was so good.
So, so good.
Yeah, so I'm hoping we see very good things from her.
I think she'll go far.
And I think as well, because we watch Slaysian
Royale, like, she is that kind of level of
the queens that were on there as well.
We were totally blown away by that.
Yes, a high calibre queen indeed.
And another high calibre queen, I would say, is Sminty Drop.
Another one that I didn't really
remember from her season from UK.
What season was that?
You'll know because you know them all.
I want to say season four.
She took her, you know how they always have their
exit lines, and hers was quite funny on her season.
But she took that for this season and then kind
of elevated it and kind of ran with it.
The same way, you know, Miss Vanjie
was a whole thing for her.
Like her slow twerk was a whole thing
for her when she left her season.
So this episode here was really good.
She owned it, which was brilliant.
Yeah, no, I agree.
And her runway look as well was out of this world.
It was so good.
I hope that there were no swans harmed in the
making of that dress, but it was so spectacular.
Yeah. Really simple, but just like hit the mark.
Fashion week worthy.
It was so phenomenal.
She has come back really elevated as well to hit it.
The only British queen that's come back,
so there's three of them,
that I'm not really rating so far is Zahirah.
I just think she's a bit...
Like, her Big Ben look on the runway was
whomp whomp!
Basic Ben? Yeah.
It was a bit more big bin than Big Ben.
Yeah, her Big Ben look was a bit crap.
And I thought it was a bit delulu of her
when she went back into
the Untucked Lounge to say,
oh, I thought it was going to be in the top.
It's like, you weren't really that good.
So I don't think she'll be in very long.
She seems a really nice person, though.
I feel awful trashing her
like I’m Michelle Visage or something.
But yeah. Yeah, it's fine.
Are you happy there's another season of Drag Race?
Yes, always, always love more Drag Race in my life, especially
when it's like an all stars slash versus the world.
Yeah. And then we'll have the Down Under one
coming soon that reportedly Michael Marouli is on.
Yes, we're very excited about that.
Fontana as well. Phenomenal.
I was not aware of Fontana's work and
presence before this, but she's so good.
Like every single look hit that
entrance look with the wings.
Incredible.
The runway look, the dancing queen look, so good.
Like, the attention to detail is brilliant.
Yeah, she's brilliant.
So she's Brazilian, but she
competed on the Swedish franchise.
Yeah. And some trivia as well.
So she is the first queen ever to
lip sync a performer's song while that performer
was a guest judge on two different franchises.
So the same thing happened in Sweden.
Loreen was a guest judge and she lip synced to a Loreen
song in front of Loreen and then did it this week on
UK Vs The World as well in front of Loreen.
So yeah, there you go.
And she wasn't in the bottom, it was a lip sync for the win.
Yes.
We should have maybe said spoilers by the way at the
start of this, but I think people don't know if we're
going to speak about something there's going to be spoilers.
Yeah, if we've just spoiled it on you, sorry not sorry.
Sorry not sorry.
What are you still listening for?
That's a good way of saying it, all right.
Yeah.
Before we wrap up the UK Vs The World
chat, I just want to touch on Melinda Verga.
I think she is going to be the drama.
She was so dramatic in Canada on her original season.
So maybe watch out for her.
The thing is about her season on Canada's Drag Race was,
I think she was just wanting the airtime and she got
it because she had an absolute meltdown during an untucked.
But she seems okay.
Well, there's only been one episode.
She seems okay so far, but there
might be some drama from her.
You've done that a few times.
I've had to edit it out, where you’ve
just had a big strop during the recording of this.
And it's usually you that pisses me off.
Screaming. No, I'm joking.
It's all harmonious.
I'm not joking.
Right, shall we move on?
Yeah, let's do some LGBTQ+ positive news.
So this week, the Council of Europe, which
is a body consisting of, I think there's
like 46 different countries involved in that.
It's not all EU countries, obviously,
but so the UK
is a member, Turkey is a member, things like that,
and all of the EU member states as well.
So they passed a resolution this week, and
it's really super positive because the resolution is
calling for the end of conversion therapy practices,
and the resolution is also trans-inclusive.
So the reason that this is so important
is because we've seen backlash in the UK,
for instance, from these so-called gender critical activists.
We're talking about really horrible transphobes here,
and that's the way they choose to
brand themselves as gender critical.
I will not call them that.
I'll just call them transphobes
because that's what they are.
So the transphobes have been trying
to stop the conversion therapy ban.
They want trans people excluded from it because they
think that trans people should be allowed to go
through counselling, as they call it, quote unquote.
Really, conversion therapy is a form of
torture, and it should never be allowed.
We hear really, really shocking accounts, literally,
because sometimes people have gone through electric
shock treatment and other things.
It's a form of abuse, and it
should be banned in all its forms.
And it passed with a huge majority as well.
71 for, 26 against, and 2 abstained, which is amazing.
Yes, that's really positive.
And although it's not a legally binding vote, in that it
doesn't require member states to now go ahead and pass these
bans, it does provide guidance to member states as well about
the direction of travel that they should be taking.
And really, I'm looking at the UK for this because
there has been a trans-inclusive ban promised for a long
time, and it has now been held up because of
the anti-trans moral panic, which really gets me so angry,
that's happening in the UK under the guise of women's
rights, when it's nothing of the sort.
It's just unbridled transphobia, masked.
It's the same hatred and bigotry that we saw
in the 1980s and the 1990s against gay people.
So yeah, the UK government really
needs to get its act together.
It was actually, incidentally, a UK Labour
politician, Kate Osborne, who is brilliant.
She is lesbian, and she's really super trans-inclusive.
She's fighting for all of our rights, so she
brought this resolution forward to the Council of Europe.
More power to her, but there need to be more people in
her party, and particularly the ones sitting on the front bench, who
are now going to deliver on this and make it happen.
As the viewers will probably tell,
we're quite passionate about this.
And like, props to Kate as well, someone that's
actually part of the community that's on our side,
unlike some other people who will not be mentioned.
Because they are part of that TERF community, shall we say.
Yes, they are people who history will forget.
Or they will be remembered the same way that Anita Bryant
is remembered by having a cream pie in her face.
That's the only thing she's now remembered for,
hatred and a cream pie in her face.
And that's the way these dinosaurs
will be forgotten as well.
But we will get through this.
We will persevere because that's what we do.
We have always existed, we will always exist, and
you cannot legislate us out of existence, you cannot
oppress us out of existence, so yeah.
And that so-called gender-critical group Sex Matters were
lobbying to have it rejected, so it's a
1-0 to us, I would say.
Well, more than 1-0.
Sex Matters have had an atrocious week,
like a really, really bad week.
It's just been loss after loss after loss.
They keep getting rejected.
They are not supported.
I'm going to throw in a wee Glasgow phrase here.
Get it up ye.
Get it right up them.
Honestly, it couldn't happen to better people because
they are just, they are the worst.
They are a rabid anti-LGBT hate group
that masquerade as a women's rights charity.
And they're nothing of the sort.
Nothing of the sort at all.
And the other big loss that they had this week was
in the High Court because they brought forward a case and the
judge threw it out and said, no, it's not happening.
Get it up ye.
Get it up ye indeed!
This all relates to the Kenwood Ladies
Bathing Pond on Hampstead Heath.
So this has been rolling on for years.
That pond is inclusive.
It's ladies only and it's trans inclusive.
There, again, the transphobe brigade don't like this, even
though the Kenwood Ladies Bathing Pond Association had a vote
on this a couple of years ago, and they voted,
there was a motion brought forward to exclude trans people.
And by a massive majority, they said,
no, we want to remain inclusive.
The transphobes didn't like that.
Sex Matters didn't like that.
So they said, no, we're going to take you to
court to force you to do something against your will.
Like, they're protecting women by forcing
women to submit to their will.
It's just bizarre.
Talk about being a little bit misogynist.
I know!
They really are.
It's so patriarchal.
It's so misogynist, the way
these transphobes and TERFs operate.
It is the worst.
But they're basically trying to force this.
So they brought it to the High Court, and the High Court
judge said, this has nothing to do with the High Court.
Off you go.
And he also admonished them because the City of London
Corporation, who has overall responsibility for this, is currently carrying
out a consultation, or was,
and the judge said, basically,
you shouldn't really be bringing forward a case.
You should let that process play out.
That is the statutory process.
So they got a double slap down
from the judge, which is good.
Please tell me that they have to pay for
all the court fees and stuff like that.
Well...
They're probably bankrolled by you-know-who.
They're bankrolled by the dragon lady who's sitting
on a mountain of kid's pocket money.
As Frankie Boyle once described her.
Yeah. She's basically just using this vast, vast, vast fortune
while she sits on the deck of her
superyacht, wherever she is in the world.
I hope she chokes on her f***ing cigar.
Wow.
They're bankrolled by somebody with very deep pockets, and
they will continue to bring these cases forward.
But do you know what?
They're actually losing case after case after case, and
they tried to overhype the Supreme Court verdict.
And basically, they've marched all of their followers and all
these froth-mouthed bigots up the top of a hill,
and they don't know where to take them now
because they've
led them to believe that the Supreme Court victory,
victory in inverted commas, was something that it wasn't.
And it doesn't mean what they say it means.
Like, for instance, this week, the head of the
Charity Commission came out and said charities should not
be excluding transgender people right now,
because the statutory guidance
is still being worked on.
The government are not happy with what the
EHRC brought forward, because again, that is an
organisation which was infiltrated by the transphobe brigade.
There were appointments made to that, and
it is not a neutral institution anymore.
It's full, it's just riddled with transphobia.
And the Charity Commission has basically said we need to
wait for that process to end, so you shouldn't.
So basically what that means is the
Girl Scouts shouldn't have changed their guidance, that the
Women's Institute shouldn't have changed their policies yet.
So hopefully we'll see some of that
change now, until that guidance is published.
The City of London Corporation actually published
the results of the two-month consultation.
On the same day as the High Court judge threw it out, yeah.
Over 38,000 people took part in it, and
86% agreed that it should still be trans-inclusive.
If that's not power
for the people by the people, I don't know what is.
I mean, if you look at the UK newspapers,
it's broadly transphobic, and they would have you believe
that the UK population is transphobic,
but it's not.
They're not against us.
They're with the LGBT community.
Most people can see through the hate and the division
that's being caused by really dark forces at work.
They will be defeated.
They will be yesterday's news.
We will get through this.
It's just horrible what's happening to
trans people specifically at the moment.
As long as we keep on shouting about it
and supporting it, then hopefully, you know, they'll all
disappear under a rock where they should be.
And look, we're talking about this.
This is good news this week.
There's so much focus has been on the
bad news and the things that are happening.
It feels like we are being
oppressed and attacked from all angles.
But look what's happening.
We're beating them.
They are losing.
And although they just keep coming and coming
with this endless stream of money
and lawfare
and vexatious court cases, they're not winning.
They are losing and they will lose.
They'll continue to lose and they'll be done with.
And that's the tea.
And that's the tea. Bye, TERFs.
Right, I think we have ranted
enough about horrible, bigoted, monstrous people.
Shall we move on to the fitness section?
Let's do it.
Okay, so we've reached the fitness section of the show.
And this week, we've got a Reddit post
that we found, which was really, really interesting.
And it's about DOMS.
So it's Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.
So most of you probably know what this is.
If you don't, that it's basically the aches that you
get after a workout,
usually 24, 72 hours afterwards,
that could maybe last the same amount of time.
You know that feeling when you've had a workout,
and then you sit on the toilet,
and then you can't get back up again.
So you just decide, okay, this
is where I'm sitting for the day.
That's DOMS.
So we're going to have a wee chat about that.
Yes, this post is really good.
The reason that we wanted to include this today
is because this is something that is a common
misconception with people going to the gym, especially kind
of beginners or intermediate gym users.
So the title of this post is,
"If I'm not getting sore, do I need to lift heavier?"
So this person says that they lift four times a week.
They have been off and on for around three and
a half years with the gym, with occasional lapses.
They've noticed that they no longer really get DOMS
on the days after a heavy lift, unless they've
tried a new exercise that challenges their muscles in
a radically different way than they usually do.
They go on to explain that they eat
sufficient protein, they take creatine, they get sufficient
sleep, and they discuss their lifestyle.
But the basic question that they are asking is,
if the absence of muscle soreness is a sign
that they're not progressively overloading enough.
Is it a sign that they need to lift even more?
The answer is no.
Yeah, they describe it quite well,
actually, when they get DOMS.
It's usually when they haven't been to the gym
for a little while, or they've tried a new
exercise, and that's basically what is happening.
Your muscles are under a stress that it's not used to,
so your muscle ends up having microscopic tears, and then when
they start to heal, that's when you get the soreness.
So it's good because you're putting your muscle
under stress because we want it to grow,
but you don't want that consistently.
That is not a good thing to have in your body.
If you're chasing that all the time, stop doing it.
It's just that you're not getting it because your
muscles are used to the exercise that you're doing.
But as long as you're progressively overloading, so increasing
the weight, increasing sets, increasing reps, reducing your rest
time, you're still going to be progressing.
You don't need to have that pain, those
DOMS, for you to be progressing, basically.
Yeah, totally.
And there were some really good comments on this as well.
So some people replied.
Here's one, for instance, to say you should
NOT, in capital letters, be getting sore regularly.
Some stiffness here and there is fine.
That's what she said.
But you shouldn't be having DOMS all the time, for sure.
Another one said, if you're getting stronger and
truly approaching failure during your exercises, you're fine.
Soreness isn't universal.
People experience it differently.
Really good.
Another one. I have been actively and
religiously lifting weights since the late 90s.
The only time I get sore is after I take a week off.
And one last one.
Lack of soreness correlates with consistent training.
Gold. Absolute gold.
Because if you're not getting DOMS, it means you
haven't had that lapse in time, like that previous
comment said, maybe had a week off.
If you're consistently training,
you're consistently moving your body,
it's used to what you're doing, which is brilliant.
So yeah, that's absolute gold.
And I understand why people chase DOMS, because
they correlate that soreness to them working hard.
But if you just continue to progress, like we
said earlier, with those variables, that's you working hard.
You don't need to be chasing that pain
all the time, or at all, actually.
You shouldn't be chasing it at all.
That's the tea.
Yeah, it's the same thing.
I mean, people also make that correlation with sweat.
They think that they need to
be absolutely drenched in sweat.
Otherwise, they're not going to burn fat.
And that's not how it works.
But I think sometimes people need that physical feedback,
the sweat or the soreness, and they expect it.
So yeah, like I understand why.
But if you are tuning in, and that is you,
you want the muscle soreness, you think you need to
have it, or if you don't have it, then you're
not progressing, then it's your mindset that needs to change.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, totally.
That was a good Reddit post. Good find.
Good little tips, eh?
So shall we wrap up the fitness section?
Have you anything else to say about DOMS?
Or subs?
No, that's a different kind of show.
Yeah, right.
Let's wrap it up.
As ever, thank you for tuning in to The Outlifting Lounge.
We have one quick favour to ask you.
If you are tuning in on an audio podcast platform,
please take a few seconds out to leave us a review.
You don't even need to write anything,
although you can if you want.
Even just leaving a five star review really helps us
to get the show to reach more followers
and hopefully get more subscribers, more listeners,
and help us reach a broader section of
the community to help them with their fitness.
So please, if you can, do that now.
Also, we're still loving all the feedback that
you're giving us, so keep that coming.
We love getting your comments and hearing
what you think about the show.
And if you think someone else would enjoy it,
why don't you share it with them as well?
And if you do want to get in touch and
give us some feedback, you can drop us an email.
The address is podcast@outlift.ing
You can also follow us on social media.
We are on Instagram and TikTok.
The handle is the same for both.
It's @outlift.ing
Don't forget, we have new episodes every Sunday,
and if you haven't subscribed, why not?
Hit that subscribe button
so you don't miss out on the conversation.
And don't forget, you can find us
on all streaming platforms, including YouTube,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
But that's us for another week.
Until next time, over and Outlifting.