Ash, a Perth fitness content creator, joins us to chat about her experience as a first-time bodybuilder, her journey into fitness, building her page, and all things fitness industry related. We discuss:

- Bit of background on Ash

- How Ash's account began and developed into what it is

- Getting into bodybuilding

- Transition in workouts into lifting weights

- Current gym and mixing up gym locations

- Previous training splits compared to the present bodybuilding prep training split

- Being selective with energy expenditure and training types during prep

- Conversion in diet and meals, after becoming independent and moving to Perth from Busselton as a university student

- Sport and fitness background

- Different lifestyle focuses at different phases and the different kinds of people that come with those different focuses

- Connecting with people that share the same interests through social media

- Perth bodybuilding community

- Discipline and willpower that comes with bodybuilding

- Brief breakdown of the different female bodybuilding categories

- The category Ash is competing in and the focus that comes with it

- Training with a partner while sticking to your program

- Post-competition focus and direction

- Future progression goals in bodybuilding, mindset, and muscles wise

- Navigating the festive season while on prep

- Friends that live the same lifestyle and or can understand your lifestyle choices. Friends that support you and respect your boundaries

- First-time bodybuilding journey expectations for during prep and post-competing. Planning post-competition and different approaches, reverse or recovery diet, with future plans in mind

- Favourite and least favourite lifts

- Relationship with her body and how bodybuilding has affected that so far

- Having a coach to guide you and prepare you for the challenges that come with bodybuilding

- Costs that come with bodybuilding. Spending your money on the things that you value

- Hitting macros, getting vegetables in, and gut health

- Tracking everything through prep and keeping it simple. Meal frequency and variety

- Eating whole foods, satiety, and cravings. Eating what you enjoy and what works for you

- With a focus on physique instead of performance, the challenges of comparison especially on social media

- Body dysmorphia during prep and reminding yourself social media is not a reality

- Not consuming social media that doesn't serve you

- Thoughts on tracking and fueling for performance and to thrive and not just survive

- Optimising the components outside of training to see those extra results

- Benefits of having a good coach

- Training in a way that sets your soul on fire, trying things that inspire you, and consuming content that expands your mindset

- Current prep challenges

- Not glamorizing bodybuilding, enjoying the process and the mindset challenges

- Posting and not burning out with content curation through posting what you are passionate about

- Posting as a passion and not posting as a means of income

- Partnerships with brands with quality materials, durability, and communities

- Supplements and drug testing

- Working as a speech pathologist and competing what the future plans for both look like

Weekly recommendations

Words to younger self

Hope you enjoyed the episode, leave a review.

Lots of love Sarz and Ez.

#growthandgains

We are joined by Bri, fitness, nutrition and mindset coach. To chat on:

- Life, sporting, schooling, health and fitness background

- Transfer from sport to the gym

- Mindset shift from quick fixes and unrealistic expectations to consistency, sustainable and realistic goal

- Original inspirations and role models in the fitness industry

- Development of her social platform across different phases in her journey

- Initial guidance from online programs with training and nutrition

- Importance of seeking qualified guidance because there is a lot of misinformation that can be detrimental out there

- Different approaches to diet and nutrition. Journey from a restrictive mindset to finding and preaching balance

- Current training split and goals along with variety in training location

- Different kinds of training and being humbled by pilates

- How your environment and what you are surrounded by impacts your mindset and mental space

- Owning who you are and being comfortable showing up as that

- People pleasing and losing touch with your self-identity. Putting other's self-worth and opinions above your own in return lowers your own self-worth

- Knowing who you are at your core without all of the external and materialistic show

- The extra patience, space and love that implementing mindset shifts and working on yourself can allow you to share with others

- Progression of her account @balancedwithbri_ with the progression of her mindset and fitness

- Working in social media management

- Early childhood and primary teaching degree and teaching for two years

- Losing passion and switching careers

- Nutrition and PT background

- Future PT business ideals

- Support and pressure behind changing career directions

- Transition out of teaching. Being an ambassador and working for a teacher resource company and social media management

- Launching her own retreat. For the mind, for the body, for the soul. Held at the end of February outside of Busselton across 3 days

- Fitness boot camps meeting likeminded people

- Future business goals

- 2023 life focuses

- New years rituals

- Life and business balance. Being able to prioritize and say no to things

- Importance of alone time

- Anxiety, managing it and staying in touch with yourself

- Gut health, stress and anxiety poor health implications

Weekly recommendations

Words to younger self

Hope you enjoyed the episode, leave a review.

Lots of love Sarz and Ez

#growthandgains

In this episode, we are joined by our first male guest Stefan, an online personal coach.

- Sporting background to fitness journey and path into the gym

- University degree to becoming a PT to running an online business

- Balancing training while running a business, routine and current training split

- Opinions and experiences with online PT vs in person PT

- Training progression from soccer to more of a fitness focus and gym regime

- Current involvement and commitment to sport

- Celebrating other's wins

- Approach to coach and client relationships

- App usage for communication with clients, Trainerize. The kind of features and the components clients have access to within it

- Setting boundaries with clients when your clientele is online based

- Boundaries showing different aspects of one's life online. Not always transparent

- Clientele gender ratios

- Progression to finding your niche within the industry

- Opinion on what differences come with coaching different genders

- Providing the best you can for your clientele by only taking on what you're comfortable and knowledgable on

- Content curation suited to you as a coach and the niche you provide value in

- Authenticity on your account, showing your own personal progression in fitness, mindset, and challenges as a coach

- Promoting what you stand for and believe in. Getting more personal

- Comfortability and mindset change to filming in the gym

- Content looking back on your progression

- Getting out of your head and not worrying about what others think

- Content creation in the gym and respecting other's privacy

- Content variety. Different aspects of fitness

- How he has gone about navigating his platform over the years

- Posting across multiple platforms

- 365 series, a year of posting every day of 2023

- Fear of upsetting family and people closest to us. Family's opinions on career and life choices. Having the courage to do what is best for you

- Injuries impact sports, mental health, and life

- Lessons learned and mindset built through injuries

- Loved one's support with sports, injuries, and career

- Friendship changes that come with lifestyle changes and figuring out who your kind of people are

- Impact that sharing so much of yourself online has on your mental health

- Taking care of your mental health and having a support system

- Vulnerability and fear of being viewed as weak as a male

- Body image, and relationship with food and body

- Weekly inspirations

- Words to younger self

Hope you enjoyed the episode, leave a review.

Lots of love, Sarz and Ez.

#growthandgains