Final Draft Podcast ENG 102

Two individuals, Collin and Nico, discuss their motivations and experiences with training at the gym. They both train to better themselves and prove others wrong. Nico started lifting weights seriously in March and has seen a positive change in his life since then. Collin has been training since high school and has noticed a mix of dedicated individuals and influencers at the gym. They both emphasize the importance of finding motivation and a supportive gym community. Nico wants to inspire others through his transformation, while Collin aims to gain respect and improve his body image. They discuss the importance of routine and rest in their training. They also share their workout splits, highlighting the focus on different muscle groups each day. Do you want to work out and be consistent but don't know how to start? Well tune in and we'll help you find your path. Hey guys, my name's Collin. I'm the host and I want to introduce our guest for today. How you doing? My name's Nico. I'm excited to be here. How you doing? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Let's get into it. Alrighty. So what are you training for? In the gym, what am I training for? I personally, I train for myself every day. I want to get better. I want to look better. I want to prove everyone wrong. I want to show them that I'm not messing around. I'm here to be the best version of myself I can be. What about you? Well, you know, I'm training for the same exact reason. You know, everyone just sees like, oh look at this guy. He's just trying to get jacked. He's just trying to lift heavy weights. You know, sometimes you just got to be a better man, you know. Yeah, I totally get that. Like, you're in the gym for a reason. Alright. How long have you been training, Nico? Well, we started like lifting weights like sophomore year of football. Yeah, in high school, yeah. But I wasn't actually training. I was just there because I had to be. So, I think last February, no, it was last March that I started actually lifting for myself. Yeah. So, that's coming up on almost a year now and my life has changed immensely. My goals, my views on everything. So, yeah. What about you? How long have you been training? Yeah, since high school, since that football stuff. I wouldn't call that exactly training. I think we're just doing some, you know, some football workouts. You know how it is. But I think I've been training since senior year. So, it's been a year and a half. It's been a while. It's been a while. It's paying off, too. Oh, thank you. Anyways, on to the next question. So, what do you see when you go to the gym, like as a community, especially here at ASU? Well, there's this new, like, culture going around or like new trend is to work out. So, when you're in the gym, especially for me, I can tell who's there, who's actually working, trying to better themselves. And then there's the people that maybe work out for five minutes, take a picture, post it, and leave. So, the community right now is kind of mixed up, but if you find the right people, people that motivate you, people that you can motivate yourself and all you guys are working together, then that's a solid gym community. I hope one day those influencers in there will catch on to that and actually want to better themselves, but yeah, the community is a little mixed up right now. What do you think? Yeah, definitely. I agree with you. Especially, like, with the influencers, you said they're just kind of like in there to take videos, trying to get likes, trying to get views. And, you know, they're doing their own thing and that's alright, but when I first started, you know, there's a lot of people in the gym that go into the gym at the same time as me that just wanted to help me out and, like, we just were there to benefit each other. There was no videos being taken. We're not really doing it for clout. We're just all trying to get better, you know? Yeah, that's what you want though. That's what's going to keep you in the gym once you have friends backing you, people on your side wanting you to get better as well, so yeah. Yeah, it's just like a big wheel of motivation, you know? It just keeps going in circles and you just keep getting better. So, what do you exactly want to get out of the gym? My personal goal is, I'd say, respect because growing up, I was a big, funny, goofy guy and, like, sure, I didn't get really any respect. There's, like, all these kids, like, he's just an idiot. There's nothing going for him. Like, he's just being funny. He's fat, whatever. Yeah. And I want to show people that I'm more than that. That I can put the work in. I can become this, like, beautiful figure, you know? Yeah. I can become this thing and then they'll see me and they'll be like, that's respect right there. When they see where I came from and now they see how I'm a different person. I can still be funny. I can still whatever, but, like, your body shape says everything about you, in my opinion, so. Exactly. Yeah, I feel like I grew up the opposite. I was really, like, super small, super skinny. Like, I was a hundred pounds in high school, like, freshman year. A little thick. Yeah, I was 180 freshman year. I had a whopping 5'2". 5'2", 180, you know, a little bolder. Yeah. I've always been told I need to bulk up, you know, but now I'm just doing it for my own personal, you know, because I feel like, I feel healthier instead of being, you know, super small. Yeah. But, definitely. So what are your current motivations? Now that you're, you kind of, like, sculpted yourself a little bit, you're kind of getting there. Yeah. So what keeps you going right now? What keeps me going is that now that I've hit this, this, like, certain, like, point where I feel like I have been told by others that I look better and all that and I kind of gained the respect, I want to kind of motivate other people to, like, they've seen my transformation and what I've gone through. Yeah. And there's probably people out there that want the same thing, but they don't know how to get there. And I want them to look at me and be like, if he can put the work in, like, knowing who I was, they're like, if that guy can put the work in, I know I can. And I'd love for them to reach out and talk to me because I'm there for everyone. I 100% agree. To get better. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say my motivation right now is, like, trying to stay in a routine, especially we're in college, you know, we're freshmen. I like to stay in a certain routine where I wake up, get my stuff done, go to class and then work out and just feel better, you know? Honestly, like, doing all that stuff and getting my day complete, I feel accomplished and I feel healthy, to be honest. Yeah. You feel great. Like you went and did something with your day rather than just, like, marinated in bed. Yeah. Marinated. I'm not going to say the other thing, but yeah, you're right. Just doing something with your day, feeling healthy. Anyways. Yeah. So how exactly have you created your motivations and how would you give someone the opportunity to create their own motivations? You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. That's a good question. How I created my motivations was, well, they were created for me, I'd say. I don't know. I've heard a lot of, I've been called a lot of names. I've been like, you know, picked on, whatever. And it's like, what someone thinks is like a funny comment sticks with me in the back of my brain the next time I'm in the gym. It makes me want to push harder. So I don't know. Whatever people have told me or said I couldn't do, that's what just stays in the back of my head and continues to make me want to push harder and be motivated. And I'd say, I don't know if that's the best advice to tell someone that wants to create motivations. I just say for, if you're trying to create a motivation and find a way to work out, I'd just ask you the question, like, what do you want in life? Like what do you want to look like? What do you want to do? What do you want to be? And once you start going to the gym, you'll get more energy. You get more like. Exactly. Yeah, I agree. And honestly, there's this one quote by, uh, Socrates. He says, no citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. I feel like that's a great motivation to really like push your limits as a man. And honestly, like to really see what you can actually do, what you're actually capable of because in everyday, everyday life, day to day life, you're not really pushing yourself. Um, physically you're just kind of walking around, going to classes, especially, you know, for me right now, going to classes, um, really working on my mental, but, um, you also have to work on your physical ability. And I feel like, um, Socrates really in quotes this, and it's just great motivation to be honest. Yeah. Um, so to finish off this segment, I'm going to ask you some questions about your training style and just some advice for others. So what's your split right now? What, what exactly are you working on throughout the week? Um, so I have this, it's kind of like an Arnold split, but if you're a new gym person, you wouldn't know what that is. So Monday's is back and biceps. Tuesday, I have chest, triceps and shoulders. Monday, I also do forearms with the back and biceps. Anyways, after, after chest triceps, shoulders on Tuesday, Wednesday's legs, you know, attack your legs. If you don't hit legs, then I don't know. I love to hit legs because it's the hardest thing. And yeah, there's a lot of jokes about skipping legs, but don't believe them. We don't skip legs around here. Oh yeah. We got some nice meaty legs. Tell you what. Anyways. Um, so that Wednesday's legs and Thursday is arms. So that's just biceps and triceps. Friday is, um, back and chest. So it kind of mixes up. And then Saturday is back to legs. And then Sunday is a rest day. You always need a rest day, but I'll still go in the gym and I'll do some conditioning, but that's just me. Cause I want to do some extra stuff, but yeah. Yeah. Rest is probably more important than training itself. If you're training on a consistent basis and your body just gets tired, it gets worn down very easily. So rest really helps you grow your muscles and it really helps you recover. So you can go back and train even harder. So what's your split? Yeah. My split right now. Um, it's not like on a week to week, but, uh, one day will be, um, just chest. Another day will be just back and then the next day will be, uh, biceps, triceps and forearms. So arms. And then, um, the last day will be legs. So it's a four day split and I take, I usually take a rest day in between. So after legs and before chest as it rotates, um, it's all right. I started with, um, push pull legs. So it's, yeah. Push is chest, shoulders, triceps, pull is back, bicep. Um, and then legs is legs. Yeah. If you're trying to get into the gym, that's, that's what I'd say you should start with. Push pull legs is very basic. It's like the foundation that's going to start like growing your muscles in those areas. And then from there you can go to a more complicated one. Once you know what you're doing. Yeah. Really the gym is all about trial and error. You got to do what you like to do. And when, when you feel comfortable doing something, then you could really push yourself. You really got to like build a foundation of what you like to do. And then you can explore after that. Yeah. All right. So how, how did you like really start in the gym? How did you get started? So like, like we said, so we had, we had football. So that, that introduced me on how to do some of the lifts, which really helps because like now I knew how to do them, but I would not go to the gym on my own. It was like three years of football where I didn't really care. I just do that list. Like I said, but once I actually, like how I started going to the gym, I was, I was, I was fessed up. I told myself so many times, I'm going to, I'm going to start next week. I'm going to start tomorrow. I'm going to start in a month. I'm going to start in during the summer. That's what I'm going to go to the gym and do all this. And I realized when you push something like that far in the future, you won't do it because you're not doing it in that second because you don't want to. So literally one day I was just like, you know what? I have pushed this too hard. I'm going to the gym today. I hadn't gone in like years to like an actual gym. So I went to the gym by myself one day. I'm not going to say it was a great workout, but that was day one. And from there I was like, you know, okay, like I might, I might not start dieting or anything right now. And I actually like whatever, but I'm going to start going to the gym. So I pick up this, like what is it like calendar? Like I pick up this thing where I can do it every day. And then from there it just took off. Yeah. Yeah. You know, people say one day or day one, I think that was the rock. I don't even know. Yeah. I a hundred percent agree. It's all about building that initial routine that really gets you started. You know, when you first start lifting, it doesn't have to be super complicated. You just really got to show up. That's all it is. It's a show up for yourself and you know, the rest will really come to you. And really the, the, the only way to start going to the gym on a consistent basis and build that routine is to honestly surround yourself with it. Your daily life while you're eating a meal, put on a YouTube video of this dude just talking about the gym. You know, there's a lot of different options. Sam Solick, Renaissance, Alex Eubank. Yeah. There's a lot of big talk. I do a lot of them too. So trend twins, there's a lot of influencers that just love to talk about the sport of bodybuilding and just going to the gym. You know, there's a lot of good ones out there and there's a lot of bad ones. You just got to find which one really encapsulates what you're trying to do. Yeah. And if you, if you're listening to this and you want to start, I'll give you the best advice right now. Start. Just go. Like I said, all you, all you gotta do is just go, just go show up. If you don't know what you're doing, you can ask somebody else. I know that might be scary or just look up sometimes when I need it. Like if something's not hitting right, I look up like how to do this exercise and there's pictures and there are videos that tell you exactly how to do it. Just go. And once you're in there, I swear you'll start feeling comfortable. And yeah, the gym is not scary. You know, people are there to help you. You know, there's some like scary looking guys in there. Of course there's probably mean people, you know, that's just how the world is. But if you ask someone genuinely, they will give you advice and they will tell you what they've done. And people are just there just to surround themselves with the gym. Just like what you're trying to do. You know, that's exactly what it's there for. Anyways. Thanks for having me. If you're listening to this, hopefully this motivated you at all. You know, in our stories, how we got here. But yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you, Nico. I appreciate all you've done for this podcast so far. And next episode where we talked about the history of bodybuilding and what really makes my gears turn. Oh yeah. Okay. Before we move on to the next episode, I just want to bring up some facts here. I pulled up a website. It's the National Library of Medicine and they did a study. They have a whole list of diseases and like the primary prevention of each disease. They have like a whole list here. So they have cardiovascular at the top, the primary prevent prevention. And there's like a graph that shows that exercise has benefited some people with this disease as a secondary prevention. And then there's diabetes primary prevention. I'll just read off a little bit. Yeah. It says through diet and exercise, it reduced the chance of high risk of getting diabetes type one, 40 to 60% over the course of three to four years. So that's pretty good. And then if you scroll down the primary prevention of cancer, physically active men and women exhibited a 30 to 40% reduction in the relative risk of colon cancer and physically active women, a 20 to 30% reduction in the relative risk of breast cancer compared like with the inactive counterparts in the study. So that's pretty, that's pretty helpful. It's a good website. And if that's like motivation wasn't enough for you that we talked about earlier in the podcast and you know, do it for your health, do it for yourself, do it for your future. And all of these studies just really point towards how exercise and really like reeling in your diet can affect your entire life and just make you healthier. Thank you guys for listening to this episode. I'll see you guys next time.