WEBVTT 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:06.620 We all knew that this day was coming. 00:00:10.940 --> 00:00:15.360 Well at least I knew…and those of you who follow me on social media. 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:29.400 This series is all about vegan athletes and he talks about vegan athletes....A lot. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.960 If you’re on YouTube and have a pulse, then you know his name. 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:49.840 Or at least his channel’s name. You may not know his real name. 00:00:50.980 --> 00:00:52.010 It’s Richard. 00:00:52.690 --> 00:00:53.660 It’s time. 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:54.760 [heartbeat] 00:00:55.060 --> 00:00:55.880 To interview. 00:00:56.260 --> 00:00:57.540 [heartbeat] 00:00:58.290 --> 00:01:01.580 Vegan Gains!!!! 00:01:11.740 --> 00:01:17.440 Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. The most trending, 00:01:17.450 --> 00:01:23.829 fastest-growing and most polarizing vegan channel is that of Vegan Gains. He came on 00:01:23.829 --> 00:01:32.429 the scene Dec 14, 2014, literally almost exactly six months ago, and exploded to where he’s 00:01:32.429 --> 00:01:39.519 now at almost 55,000 subscribers, which he has most likely blown past by the time I post this. 00:01:41.099 --> 00:01:46.389 And on the first day of 2015 he launched what is now his flagship series, 00:01:46.679 --> 00:01:48.709 the Worse of the Fitness Industry. 00:01:48.969 --> 00:01:55.129 So when I interviewed Richard we of course had to address this viral and incredibly controversial series. 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.179 Well, Richard, I just want to thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule 00:01:58.179 --> 00:02:02.189 to talk to my viewers and to give us your own experience. 00:02:02.969 --> 00:02:04.310 Alright, no problem. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:10.830 Alright, so first, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself, like when 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:17.110 you went vegan and why? And then a little bit...ah, just start with when you went vegan and why? 00:02:17.570 --> 00:02:23.580 Okay, well I went vegan about 4 years ago. It was back in April, so a little over 00:02:24.010 --> 00:02:30.020 4 years now. And um, I watched a Gary Yourofsky video, somebody linked it on facebook. And 00:02:30.020 --> 00:02:36.040 I was like ‘hmm, well I’m not into veganism’, but I was interested in it. I’ve never heard 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:42.600 any great arguments about going vegan until then. All the vegans I knew, they were like 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:48.490 ‘oh, you have to end animal suffering and everything’. I was a little disconnected 00:02:48.490 --> 00:02:54.420 back then. I didn’t really get it, the whole animal suffering thing and I thought you needed 00:02:54.420 --> 00:02:59.580 to eat meat for health, so I thought that kind of justified it. And then I watched Gary’s 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:06.270 video and it just totally flipped things around. He made me get more of an emotional connection 00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:12.220 than I’ve ever had before and I also never knew animal products caused heart disease, 00:03:12.220 --> 00:03:17.800 diabetes, cancer, and then I ended up learning about doctors, Colin Campbell, and Caldwell 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:21.600 Esselstyn, and stuff like that. And then just, right that day, went vegan. 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:27.980 Awesome, so you’ve been vegan for about 4 years. How long have you been an athlete? 00:03:28.980 --> 00:03:33.520 I’ve been training since I was a little kid, like doing hockey, so just my 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.650 entire life basically, but weight training specifically, it’s been about 8 years. 00:03:38.310 --> 00:03:43.670 So, for those people on Youtube who most likely, if they watch my videos, they 00:03:43.670 --> 00:03:50.940 know you. You’re known as Vegan Gains who does these incredible, incredibly like caustic, 00:03:50.940 --> 00:03:55.340 to a certain extent, callouts of people in the fitness industry. So, I just wanted to 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:59.260 talk about that, I mean, you call it ‘the worse of the fitness industries; the series’. 00:03:59.810 --> 00:04:04.410 Why do you think that the industry and individuals within it need to be criticized? 00:04:05.350 --> 00:04:11.240 Um, they’re just...like it’s weird. The whole bodybuilding thing, that’s 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:16.590 what it really is, the fitness industry who focus on bodybuilders, physique competitors, 00:04:16.590 --> 00:04:22.920 bikini models. It is just such a negative thing for people, not only help wise, but 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:28.350 just mentally. And if you look at the comments it’s a lot of younger kids in their teens 00:04:28.350 --> 00:04:33.900 and early 20’s who are saying, ‘your arms are so skinny’. It’s like, my arms are 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:39.940 literally bigger than my head and they’re calling me skinny. They’re causing like, 00:04:39.940 --> 00:04:44.930 mental illness and they really need to be called out for this. It’s not just a health 00:04:44.930 --> 00:04:51.250 thing, it’s a mental health issue. And it’s just, in every freakin way, it’s the most 00:04:51.250 --> 00:04:57.610 unhealthy thing you can possibly think of. They’re kids like...I get messages a lot 00:04:57.610 --> 00:05:02.090 kids saying, ‘wow, you really opened my eyes. I didn’t realize I had an eating disorder 00:05:02.090 --> 00:05:06.180 until now’. They actually don’t know that they have eating disorders and these people 00:05:06.180 --> 00:05:11.980 are driving these crazy, retarded, starvation diets, and they’re taking steroids, not 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:17.100 telling people. They have these massive fuckin arms, huge shoulders and they’re injecting 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:21.850 Synthol, and it’s all fake. Everything is fake and people think it’s real, and they’re 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:30.820 just going after this stupid ideal body image, and just really ruining their entire freakin lives up. 00:05:30.820 --> 00:05:34.510 They really need to be fuckin called out. People say I’m harsh but they’re 00:05:34.510 --> 00:05:39.600 literally ruining lives. They’re shortening their lives just from all the meat and crap 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:45.470 they’re eating but just from a mental health, and just general all around quality of life, it's just terrible. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:50.810 I think it’s good to have, especially more of a focus, and I know 00:05:50.810 --> 00:05:57.790 you hit both sides, but this side of male body dysmorphic disorders, and the hidden 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:02.430 world of male eating disorders. Because it’s not seen as that, it’s seen as ‘getting 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:05.639 pumped’ or ‘getting tough’. But just as for, and I know you have pointing this 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:09.940 out, just as for females who can never get small enough, males feel like they can never get 00:06:09.940 --> 00:06:16.919 big enough, and it’s the other side of the same spectrum. So, this may seem a bit of 00:06:16.919 --> 00:06:23.350 a stupid question, but you utilize a lot of peer reviewed studies in your videos that 00:06:23.350 --> 00:06:29.880 you link up in your description. Why should people go by these empirical studies that 00:06:29.880 --> 00:06:33.510 have been done rather than the apparent results that people seem to have? I think there can 00:06:33.510 --> 00:06:40.090 be this idea that, well isn’t someone’s muscle growth or their weight loss more concrete 00:06:40.090 --> 00:06:43.690 than some numbers some scientists, you know, dreamed up? 00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:49.390 Right, well...you can have the worst diet imaginable and still lose weight. There 00:06:49.390 --> 00:06:53.780 are people who have lost weight on twinkie diets. Literally, there are studies done on 00:06:53.780 --> 00:06:58.290 twinkie diets and people have lost weight, lowered their cholesterol, and all that. Obviously 00:06:58.290 --> 00:07:03.290 twinkies are unhealthy, and especially when you factor in, these people are insanely genetically 00:07:03.290 --> 00:07:08.740 gifted. They’re just in the top top genetically, forget steroids, they’re still...even if 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:13.600 you take all the drugs in the world, you’ll never get like them. Plus, they have an insane 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:17.900 amount of steroid use and an insane amount of hard work, and they’re just so mentally 00:07:17.900 --> 00:07:23.210 driven to do this. You factor in all those things together, these anecdotes just really 00:07:23.210 --> 00:07:26.979 don’t make any sense. So, it’s really best to rely on the scientific data because 00:07:27.899 --> 00:07:32.990 they’re just so far out of anyone’s reach, their genetics, their steroid use, their hard 00:07:32.990 --> 00:07:38.030 work. It’s just not going to apply to you so...yeah, focus on the research, something 00:07:38.030 --> 00:07:45.010 empirical that you can actually measure rather than just these crazy people who just don’t... 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:49.140 ...you know, come anywhere close to you at all. You should just focus on the research. 00:07:50.290 --> 00:07:52.710 So, you did, I can’t remember, have you done... 00:07:52.710 --> 00:07:55.040 ...you actually done competitive bodybuilding at one point? 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:55.759 Yeah. 00:07:55.959 --> 00:08:01.229 So, what is it that, I know we’ve talked a little bit before about the horrors 00:08:01.229 --> 00:08:06.419 of that industry to an extent. What is it that you personally….what happened where 00:08:06.419 --> 00:08:09.110 you personally decided, okay I’m going to stop this and I’m not going to do this anymore? 00:08:09.450 --> 00:08:16.550 Well, it was more of a gradually thing. The last show, I really tried my absolute 00:08:16.550 --> 00:08:25.169 hardest to do my best for that show. And you know, it’s such a mental drain on you, like 00:08:25.649 --> 00:08:31.340 dieting...anyone can throw weights around in the gym, that’s easy, but dieting for 00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:36.370 a show. I don’t think anyone who’s ever competed before just understands how insanely 00:08:36.370 --> 00:08:42.390 difficult it is. You just have to take it to the absolute limit and those days leading 00:08:42.390 --> 00:08:46.210 up before the show, you literally think, you’re not gonna make it, and you feel like you’re 00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:52.800 gonna die. I can normally curl 60lbs. and I’m pretty strong, but a few days before 00:08:52.800 --> 00:09:00.830 the show I can only lift 20lbs., and I looked strong but you are that...just dead from dieting. 00:09:00.830 --> 00:09:06.790 And I just didn’t want to go through that again, and my eyes were opening up to what 00:09:06.790 --> 00:09:12.560 the industry really is. And after that I just, you know, I thought I was going to compete 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:17.560 but then I learned about the high carb vegan thing. You don’t have to restrict calories 00:09:17.560 --> 00:09:25.370 and I basically got rid of my body image issues too. So, yeah that just made me kind of quit 00:09:25.370 --> 00:09:27.080 bodybuilding and give that up. 00:09:27.690 --> 00:09:33.030 If you could accomplish one thing with your ‘worst of the fitness industry’ videos, 00:09:33.780 --> 00:09:37.150 what is it that you’re hoping to accomplish with them? 00:09:38.260 --> 00:09:42.839 Well, I just want people to realize that just because these people look good and 00:09:42.839 --> 00:09:48.620 they seem nice, they’re not really trying to help you out. They want to sell supplements. 00:09:48.620 --> 00:09:53.160 They want to sell their lifestyle. They want to get money from sponsors. And all of this 00:09:53.160 --> 00:09:58.370 is just completely unrealistic. I think people should just focus on health and if you want 00:09:58.370 --> 00:10:04.760 to be athletic, and go after some real athletic goals, then you shouldn’t really be focusing 00:10:04.760 --> 00:10:10.209 on these bodybuilders because they’re not really athletic. They’re really out of shape, 00:10:10.209 --> 00:10:15.440 really. If you take a look, especially leading up to the show. To diet down that much you 00:10:15.610 --> 00:10:22.020 can’t maintain any level of athleticism, you need some body fat. So, just be healthy, 00:10:22.020 --> 00:10:27.750 eat well, don’t eat a ton of freakin meat. Hopefully that at least stops people from 00:10:27.750 --> 00:10:31.180 eating so much meat. Yeah, that’s basically it. 00:10:31.860 --> 00:10:35.460 Is there anything else you would like to say regarding that series of yours? 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:40.810 A lot of people say it’s about jealousy that I’m doing it or it’s about 00:10:40.810 --> 00:10:46.220 hating on people, and it’s not jealousy. I’m not jealous or...I don’t really even 00:10:46.220 --> 00:10:52.890 necessarily hate any of these people. Some of them, I think they really do believe what 00:10:52.890 --> 00:10:59.160 they’re saying, and people just need some perspective. Just look at the videos objectively. 00:10:59.570 --> 00:11:04.550 Just get some new perspective on things. It’s not about hating. It’s not about jealousy. 00:11:04.710 --> 00:11:09.270 I just want people to open their eyes and just see the other side of things, and see 00:11:09.270 --> 00:11:11.040 what’s really going on behind the scenes. 00:11:11.590 --> 00:11:15.810 Alright, well thank you so much for your time and thank you for what you do with 00:11:15.810 --> 00:11:19.779 trying to let people know the dangers that are out there within the fitness industry. 00:11:20.149 --> 00:11:21.260 Alright, no problem. 00:11:21.280 --> 00:11:25.570 I hope you enjoyed hearing from Richard on his flagship series. If you don’t like the 00:11:25.570 --> 00:11:30.720 way he approaches his activism or feel that he’s too harsh, I’ll reiterate my thoughts from 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:36.910 my controversy video: go do your own form of activism with all that you’ve got. 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:42.630 To paraphrase Gary Yourofsky’s paraphrasing of what Martin Luther King said when asked 00:11:42.830 --> 00:11:50.040 to stop Malcom X’s violent rhetoric, Vegan Gains will stop being so insane when the fitness 00:11:50.040 --> 00:11:57.110 industry stops being so insane. You want to shut him up? Help end the cruelty and misinformation 00:11:57.110 --> 00:12:02.510 that he’s reacting to. Be proactive. Be active, period. 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:06.490 Now I’d love to hear what you thought of the interview and Richard’s approach to 00:12:06.490 --> 00:12:08.370 activism in the comments below. 00:12:08.640 --> 00:12:12.390 If you enjoyed hearing from Richard, give this video a big thumbs up and share it around 00:12:12.390 --> 00:12:16.709 to help bring light to the insanity of the fitness industry. If you’re new here, do 00:12:16.709 --> 00:12:21.519 hit that big red subscribe button down there for more awesome vegan content every Monday, 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:26.649 Wednesday, and some Fridays and to not miss out the on the rest of the Vegan Athlete series. 00:12:26.649 --> 00:12:30.500 If you want to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either of the support links in the 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:35.660 video description below or click on the Nugget Army icon, or the link in the sidebar. 00:12:36.270 --> 00:12:41.890 Now go live vegan, make some vegan gains...I'm not gonna do the thing 00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:45.270 'cause it would just be ...depressing in comparison 00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:47.480 and I’ll see you soon. 00:12:47.750 --> 00:12:53.140 I'm just like...I’m still amazed by your arms, like...what is, how is…yeah... 00:12:53.610 --> 00:12:59.880 ...I measured them like a year ago and they were over 19 inches, and I think they're 20 now. 00:13:00.640 --> 00:13:06.990 That’s crazy. That’s like...like an infant in there….[laughs] 00:13:07.632 --> 00:13:20.275 [music playing]