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8-Week Muscle Transformation Challenge: How I Overcame Gymtimidation & Built Muscle
Jan 30, 2025
Watch how a Myprotein customer changed their mindset about the gym and started to lift heavier, feel better and eat more.
It's known to take 30 days to make a habit. This body transformation is 60 days. Ro started this body transformation with Myprotein with the goal to feel confident in their body as a non-binary person. Watch Ro take part in this transformation which will help and give the tools to Ro on their health and fitness with Myprotein's PT Keira.
It's amazing to see how Ro's mindset changed throughout this challenge to bypass gymtimidation.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:01
hi I'm Ro and I want to feel confident
0:04
in my body as a non-binary person so I'm
0:06
taking part in an eight-week
0:08
transformation program with my protein
0:09
which will give me the tools to take
0:11
control of my diet and fitness like a PT
0:13
and all the products that I need during
0:15
this journey
0:16
[Music]
0:21
so in terms of my history of diet and
0:25
exercise it's been
0:28
I'd say like a yo-yo I had quite a
0:32
difficult relationship with like my body
0:34
when I was a teenager I'm still kind of
0:36
working on
0:38
fixing those behaviors and kind of
0:40
making peace with my body that's that's
0:43
something that is like an everyday thing
0:45
for me starting a transformation now
0:47
kind of coincides with
0:50
um
0:50
myself as a non-binary person starting
0:52
testosterone I'm going to be going
0:55
through a lot of change both mentally
0:58
and physically so being able to kind of
1:02
refine those changes and
1:05
utilize this like confidence I've got
1:08
because I've got a like a newfound sense
1:09
of confidence that's come with feeling
1:11
valid in my body and valid in my
1:13
identity and my gender it's a really big
1:16
step in feeling comfortable in myself
1:20
and feeling aligned with the version of
1:24
me that I know I am in terms of
1:25
something that I'd really want to
1:27
achieve it's being able to do something
1:29
like say a deadlift or being able to
1:34
lift something that's like heavy and
1:37
feel oh this wasn't hard like I feel
1:40
strong I feel I feel good doing this
1:45
[Music]
1:46
hi
1:48
how do you feel about yourself now I
1:51
feel good you know
1:52
um I feel a lot more confident in myself
1:56
um it's been a really interesting
1:59
process to kind of
2:01
like look at my body but not scrutinize
2:05
it so much so I feel really like
2:08
happy with myself I know there's still a
2:10
lot more that I would like to do but I'm
2:14
at a good point with myself I think I
2:16
think what's one thing that you've
2:17
learned about your body over the course
2:19
of the program one thing that I've
2:21
learned is that I actually can lift
2:23
really heavy things
2:25
I didn't think I could I really didn't
2:26
think I could I was like oh no I'm just
2:28
going to be stuck like lifting like the
2:30
smallest weights for the rest of my life
2:32
but now I've built up that kind of
2:34
strength and I can I can do it and
2:37
that's really nice what was the biggest
2:39
challenge for yourself you're going to
2:41
get covered and it's going to be like
2:43
halfway through so you'll have built up
2:45
a real uh kind of routine and then it's
2:48
going to get wiped out in like an
2:50
instant and it's gonna feel really hard
2:52
to get back on track keep with it and
2:55
stick with it even though it might seem
2:57
really difficult and you'll like really
2:59
not want to so what do you see yourself
3:01
doing now you're gonna actually stick
3:04
with things
3:06
um because it's been really easy in the
3:08
past for you to just go oh I give up I'm
3:11
not seeing results so that's it let's
3:13
move on to the next kind of fad I think
3:16
you're going to build a much better
3:17
relationship with
3:20
your body and how you see yourself and
3:24
yeah it's really exciting you're gonna
3:26
you're gonna have a good time I think
3:33
talk to me a little bit about what those
3:35
goals are and what changes that you want
3:37
to see over the next eight weeks because
3:39
I'm non-binary I've got kind of a
3:42
very particular idea in my mind of what
3:44
my body should look like I'm trying to
3:48
move a bit more towards like the
3:49
masculine so building up kind of muscle
3:52
feeling confident in myself like I'm not
3:55
really looking to like have any extreme
3:58
changes anything like that it's more so
4:00
feeling strong and confident in myself
4:03
yeah row is a non-binary person and they
4:06
are looking to develop a more masculine
4:09
body so what we have done is we have
4:12
gone with a strength training based
4:14
program where we'll be working mainly
4:17
off of machines dumbbells kettlebells
4:20
and a couple of barbell exercises where
4:23
they feel the most comfortable as
4:24
they're not quite confident to go into
4:26
the bigger weight section as of yet I
4:29
was assigned female at Birth so I have a
4:32
body that if a regular person walking
4:34
down the street saw me they would go
4:36
that's a woman but there's things that I
4:38
can do to kind of change my body or like
4:42
um just change areas of it that would
4:44
make me feel more at home more
4:47
comfortable in myself more confident so
4:50
that's something that's like a real big
4:52
thing for me like in the past I would
4:54
have focused a lot more on trying to
4:56
lose weight trying to make myself
4:58
smaller but I've realized now that that
5:01
wasn't like something that made me happy
5:03
what actually will make me happy is
5:04
feeling strong I'm feeling like I can
5:06
take up space yeah I really really love
5:08
that around nutrition row is a
5:11
vegetarian but doesn't eat dairy
5:14
products either so that is very tailored
5:17
to their lifestyle they don't like
5:19
getting overwhelmed when they're in the
5:21
kitchen so they don't want hundreds and
5:23
hundreds of ingredients on their recipes
5:25
or meals that are very complicated so
5:27
we've included the things that they
5:29
enjoy like takeaways Chinese foods more
5:33
Savory Foods like crisps and stuff like
5:35
that to snack on so that they can feel
5:37
it is realistic for them to stick to
5:39
that meal plan and make the progress
5:40
that they want
5:44
so we're going to be doing three
5:45
physical assessments now just testing
5:48
your strength and your Fitness a little
5:49
bit so we're going to do a core and
5:52
upper and a lower body exercise core
5:54
being plank upper body your push-ups
5:56
maximum amounts in a minute and your
5:58
squats will be your maximum amount of
5:59
squats in a minute we're going to start
6:01
with planks two one and up we pop there
6:04
so squeeze in the back push through the
6:06
floor through your arms and then
6:08
obviously just nice big breaths in and
6:10
out
6:11
that's it okay
6:14
okay seconds
6:15
and do maximum squats in a minute and
6:17
then maximum push-ups in a minute and
6:19
three two one and off we go I'll count
6:22
them for you
6:26
it's just your own pace
6:29
done that's it rest in there lovely
6:33
stuff that was 13 squats okay so that's
6:35
something we'll look at improving on in
6:37
the future and then our last one is
6:39
going to be maximum push-ups three two
6:42
one and off we go there so just as low
6:45
as you can it might not be very low yeah
6:49
hold it there and as you come up that's
6:51
it five seconds see if you can get one
6:53
more
6:54
there we go rest in there that's it yeah
6:57
it's nice so like I said it doesn't
6:59
matter how many reps we get today it's
7:02
just a comparison that we're gonna use
7:04
and equally we're going to look at
7:06
seeing better form as well in the eight
7:08
weeks time
7:10
[Music]
7:11
so it is
7:14
of the workouts
7:16
um probably about 95 through definitely
7:19
been a bit anxiety and due to kind of
7:23
getting used to the space feeling like I
7:25
belong here but I've been able to
7:28
navigate it last couple of exercises and
7:31
then it's home for lunch so
7:35
I'm feeling rough
7:40
gel for like four days now and uh one of
7:44
the main things is uh
7:47
yeah like flu-like symptoms I'm really
7:49
feeling them at the moment uh so it's
7:53
been quite hard this morning to kind of
7:54
get up and stay on track but I'm gonna
7:58
attempt to go out now and grab some kind
8:01
of ingredients so I can come back and
8:04
make lunch okay
8:07
here we go so um our pizza rolls are out
8:12
of the oven but these are the ones I'm
8:13
gonna have for my lunch now I know it's
8:15
like a dead simple thing but um I'm
8:17
really proud of myself because normally
8:19
I wouldn't actually make the effort to
8:20
cook
8:22
I've just got home from the gym and it
8:24
was okay it was all right I survived
8:26
starting to feel more kind of
8:30
confident in terms of like
8:32
being in the space and I've started to
8:35
be able to kind of like recognize what
8:37
machines are For What and how to do it
8:39
so I don't feel as kind of worried about
8:43
um
8:46
doing it wrong or anybody judging me so
8:49
yeah it's good today was today was a
8:51
good day just back from a session at the
8:55
gym that was hamstring and
8:58
we'll say glute focused I think I'm
9:02
really really happy with half day one
9:04
really felt like I was pushing myself up
9:06
this kind of wrapped and
9:09
um weights on pretty much every exercise
9:10
so that's a real Plus
9:14
hello
9:16
um just a little end of week check-in
9:19
this week's been really good really
9:21
really good I'm genuinely really happy
9:23
with how it's gone I hit my workout
9:26
Target
9:28
um I've been pretty much mostly on plan
9:30
with eating there's been like a couple
9:32
of kind of afternoons out something
9:35
really kind of important to me that I've
9:38
noticed especially in the last couple of
9:40
weeks is I don't feel like guilt and I
9:43
used to feel if I did have something
9:45
that maybe was like indulgent like going
9:47
for a meal with my like partner I could
9:51
do it and I came away and I felt good
9:54
that wasn't it I wasn't off the wagon
9:56
for the day that's been really nice to
9:58
kind of feel comfortable in treating
10:00
myself because there isn't anything
10:01
wrong with like having something nice as
10:04
long as it's kind of in moderation so I
10:07
felt so accomplished coming out the gym
10:08
and I'm really kind of finding my groove
10:10
now
10:12
lots to talk about today
10:15
um today has been pretty intense
10:19
as we were leaving the gym because I go
10:21
to the gym with my partner
10:23
um we overheard
10:25
um a staff member at the gym uh talking
10:29
to one of their clients and essentially
10:31
it was along the lines of he couldn't be
10:33
bothered to learn
10:35
any more parts of the acronym the lgbtq
10:38
Ia Plus
10:40
kind of
10:42
you didn't want to know about them he
10:43
didn't he thought it was a waste of time
10:45
he didn't understand it and queer people
10:48
were the butt of the joke
10:49
so to speak and to hear something like
10:51
that in a space where
10:55
where you want to feel confident you
10:57
want to feel safe to be yourself and
10:59
I've been doing really well going to the
11:01
gym like I've
11:03
pushed through that lack of Confidence
11:06
from years of just feeling inadequate
11:10
and that was as as I said a CIS woman
11:12
but now as a gender non-conforming
11:15
person
11:17
it's even harder it's so much harder
11:20
because at its core the gym wasn't built
11:24
for bodies like mine
11:26
it's built from a male body
11:29
so to hear that reinforce to know that
11:31
you're not welcome that you're an
11:33
inconvenience that you're
11:35
a
11:37
joke
11:38
to somebody who's supposed to kind of
11:40
offer support and advice because
11:42
one of the greatest things about this
11:44
that I've encountered so far is the fact
11:45
I've had such a supportive team around
11:47
me
11:48
um that have just been great with every
11:51
part of my existence and and my needs
11:54
and wants but then anyway
11:57
I came home
11:59
um we did our field shop and I thought
12:00
oh I feel I feel quite worn down I don't
12:03
feel too well you know
12:06
so I thought I'll take a little covered
12:07
test
12:09
I've got covered
12:10
so that's put a bit of a spanner in the
12:12
works for the next couple of days I feel
12:15
okay at the moment but I feel like a bit
12:17
of a sore throat um and I'm a little bit
12:19
tired but
12:22
I can't
12:24
beat myself up if I can't do
12:27
what I was supposed to do
12:29
[Music]
12:33
it's been such a big hike
12:35
change like a jump like I know we've
12:38
tried to do stuff before where we've
12:40
tried to get fit and like stick with the
12:43
gym and that but I don't know
12:45
having something so comprehensive I
12:46
guess changed our like idea of what I
12:50
guess like
12:51
being healthy can be the gym I guess the
12:55
Gym's been
12:57
a bit of like a that's the harder it's
12:59
been hard hasn't it yeah going back that
13:02
first time after
13:05
after
13:06
we had kind of the the thing of
13:10
experiencing something really unpleasant
13:13
like like kind of like a homophobic kind
13:15
of thing and then I got covered so I was
13:19
already kind of thrown off about going
13:21
back into that space because suddenly it
13:23
felt very
13:24
like not ours again like we'd really
13:28
worked hard to make that space feel our
13:31
own because I remember those you know
13:32
those like first couple of days that we
13:33
went to the gym and I was like verge of
13:36
tears I was so scared that there that
13:40
was like the most frustrating thing
13:41
because it
13:43
in the space of somebody's 30-second
13:46
conversation had just undone our work
13:48
suddenly feeling very out of depth in a
13:52
space that you've
13:53
already felt uncomfortable in so that's
13:56
probably the hardest thing
13:58
reclaim in that space I guess over the
14:01
next couple of weeks again
14:03
we'll we'll do that we'll build back
14:05
we'll build back into it I didn't like
14:07
realize I like lifting heavy things I
14:10
enjoy that
14:11
and that's not going to change now like
14:13
now I know that and I know that I belong
14:15
in a gym and I can take up that space
14:18
and do those things like that's not
14:21
going to go away it has been gender
14:23
affirming even though it is hard it's
14:26
like
14:27
kind of issues the the kind of adversity
14:29
that we've faced as queer people going
14:31
into a traditionally non-queer space
14:34
but I don't feel as scared anymore I
14:38
don't feel like this isn't for me or I
14:41
don't belong here and it has been
14:42
affirming like I actually didn't realize
14:44
how much it was that he was supposed to
14:45
eat like we definitely weren't eating
14:47
enough so we didn't realize that's so
14:51
interesting I'm eating more but I'm
14:54
feeling better for it we have pancakes
14:56
for breakfast the other day yeah on a
14:58
meal plan I know it's ridiculous it
15:01
wasn't daunting like I didn't feel
15:03
intimidated trying to cook them and like
15:05
trying to try to figure it out and I
15:08
wasn't there having to like go oh but
15:09
that's got this amount of this and this
15:11
amount of this in it I wasn't thinking
15:13
it I was just going that's actually
15:14
going to be a really nice breakfast for
15:16
us it's it's been hard but I feel like
15:19
the payoff has been worth it like we're
15:22
getting there now and obviously we've
15:24
got like a couple more weeks of just
15:26
really
15:27
like
15:28
going for it
15:30
[Music]
15:32
hello
15:34
um a long time no see I had covered I
15:38
did say in my last late Vlog that I'd
15:41
got covered I think that was the day I'd
15:44
like found out since then oh my god I've
15:47
been like wiped out so the gym has kind
15:50
of been out of the question
15:52
um but I'm getting back into it
15:54
quite nervous to go back to the gym
15:56
that's my dog in the background sorry
15:58
um I'm nervous to go back because it's
16:00
been quite a while and
16:02
the fatigue that I've had it's been
16:04
quite
16:05
bad fight I didn't realize how tired I
16:08
would feel doing the smallest of tasks
16:09
but
16:10
I don't know
16:12
I'm ready to go back now I think so
16:15
yeah
16:16
dog bark hello just checking in as it's
16:20
the well it's just after the first time
16:23
that I've been back to the gym in like
16:26
over two weeks so since I had covered
16:29
I really really didn't want to go if I'm
16:32
gonna be quite honest but I did
16:34
got in there I was really stressed out
16:38
um I was really really anxious just
16:41
didn't know how it was going to be
16:42
um it was hard it was a lot harder than
16:44
it had been in the past I guess because
16:47
I kind of got into that routine
16:49
um but I did it and I think I've gone
16:51
over that kind of mental block or like
16:54
hurdle of like not wanting to go because
16:57
it feels like ages since I've been Pride
16:59
herself for doing it
17:01
just now need to stick with getting back
17:03
into the routine it's the start of a new
17:06
week I am
17:08
on campus today so I've been in the
17:11
office all day I'm very breathless since
17:13
covered so it's kind of made things
17:15
quite a bit harder to kind of
17:18
stay on track and stay kind of on
17:20
plan right now I'm just going to make
17:22
the most of like
17:24
the peace and the sun
17:26
um because I'm in Sunny anymore but like
17:28
the heat
17:30
um because I think that's a good thing
17:31
to kind of consider the balance as well
17:33
like taking time for yourself and
17:35
understanding what
17:36
your body's limits off
17:38
[Music]
17:40
my name is Darren I'm a live protein PT
17:43
So today we're going to go through your
17:44
final assessment following your eight
17:46
week transformation program so first of
17:48
all we're going to go through the plank
17:49
so upon assessment last time you're
17:51
doing 30 seconds which is pretty
17:52
impressive So today we're going to try
17:54
and see if we can improve on that
17:58
slightly dropped off to perfect hold
18:01
back position okay feeling okay
18:03
performs absolutely perfect
18:10
what do you think you're done I don't
18:12
know one one 122. nowhere
18:17
a minute and 22. so what we're going to
18:20
do for the next part of the assessment
18:21
is have a look at your press up push-up
18:23
so last time you're doing 11 in 60
18:26
seconds so that is a that is a score to
18:28
beat today okay let's go
18:34
[Music]
18:35
16. keep going keep going when you've
18:38
got two more Arisa
18:39
last five seconds
18:40
[Music]
18:44
I'm sorry
18:47
so for the next part of the assessment
18:49
we're going to have a look at your squat
18:50
so upon the first assessment you've done
18:53
13 in 60 seconds so we're going to try
18:56
and beat that today three two one let's
18:57
go
18:58
[Music]
19:00
but we're about locking out then you
19:01
come to the top
19:03
10 now in 20 seconds okay when you've
19:06
got one more on time oh my God I could
19:09
see the smile on your face as you was
19:11
doing it so literally a theater
19:14
in a minute
19:16
[Music]
19:20
my body does feel different I think my
19:23
posture is better I think I carry myself
19:26
differently because there's a more I
19:29
feel more confident in myself
19:32
lifting something heavy has made me feel
19:35
good
19:36
feels really euphoric it really actually
19:38
has helped you can be strong whatever
19:41
gender presentation you have but I feel
19:44
like it's allowed me to feel more at
19:48
home in my body
19:50
I feel like my arms might have changed
19:51
like a little bit there's definitely
19:53
start I'm definitely starting to see
19:55
like a little bit of like definition
19:57
I'm not beating myself up for having
19:59
having a body and that's nice because
20:03
any change that I do experience I'm not
20:06
now going I've got to do that I've got
20:08
to do that it's more just kind of like a
20:09
happy thing if it does happen
20:13
and like the small changes I'm starting
20:15
to see
20:17
um kind of helped obviously by
20:18
testosterone as well
20:19
it all kind of ties in together in
20:23
making me feel less dysphoric in my body
20:26
and just more kind of comfortable and I
20:30
know that that'll carry on the more I
20:32
put into it like the work I put in
20:34
continuously now well
20:38
help me kind of alleviate those feelings
20:40
that I have
20:42
the main thing I would just say to
20:45
anybody that works in in like in the
20:47
fitness industry and and like pts is a
20:51
willingness to understand and learn can
20:53
change a person's kind of entire
20:55
experience because when you don't do
20:57
that that you've potentially like lost
21:00
that person's confidence
21:03
what we need as like as queer people now
21:06
is just
21:08
support we just need to just be treated
21:11
the same and with that same dignity that
21:14
you would want it yourself I know it
21:16
sounds I know it sounds so like
21:18
cheesy but like treat all those how
21:20
you'd want to be treated because
21:23
that if I wasn't
21:25
if I was like more new like newly out
21:28
when that happened that would have set
21:30
me back like
21:32
so much further because I've become a
21:34
lot more resilient to stuff now because
21:35
it does happen but
21:38
yeah that has consequences and it's
21:42
somebody's identity is not a
21:44
inconvenience to you
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