Skillr Profile: Phung Tran

Phung Tran is an ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist and Fitness Trainer who has a passion for working with women on their fitness and body image journeys. She spoke with us about body image, common challenges people face when getting started with exercise and what skills she’s picking up on SKILLR right now. Without further ado, meet Phung! 

Alexa Goins: To start, could you tell me your name and your pronouns, and what you do on SKILLR?

Phung Tran: So my name is Phung Tran, and my pronouns are she and her. And I am, I think, under the fitness category on SKILLR.

Alexa Goins: Awesome. I'd love to hear about how you got into the field of fitness.

Phung Tran: It's a long-winded story, probably from childhood to adulthood. And basically, well I'm writing a blog about it because quite a few people asked me. But it's of me moving from Vietnam to the US, and the culture and what we have here, as what we call built-in environment. What the city plannings is between both places that made me sort of gain 40 pounds over my first two years of living here. And that was a problem. And so when I was going to college, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to go somewhere that is similar to where I came from and that college had an exercise science program and I'm like, well, that's great. I can learn about exercise. I can do things for myself first, obviously, try to get better, but also learn all the science, the anatomy, the physiology, psychology about exercise and what it does to the body.

Phung Tran: And I graduated and now I'm an online fitness coach talking to a lot of women, especially women of color about how to look, how their mindsets should be about body image issues. But also I do personal training in person. So, if you're in the Atlanta area, you probably will be able to meet up with me.

Alexa Goins: I really resonated with what you said about the way cities are built here. It's just so much harder to walk. And I spent a lot of time outside the U.S. and…

Phung Tran: Yeah it's crazy.

Alexa Goins: It's honestly different the way I feel in my body when I'm somewhere I can walk everywhere.

Phung Tran: Exactly. Yeah. And we do have research that's shown that people are more likely to be obese and overweight if they live in the more car-dependent society like we have here in the U.S. rather than other places where you have more options besides just driving around your cars.

Alexa Goins: I'd love to look at that research.

Phung Tran: I'll send you that.

Alexa Goins: What's your favorite thing about teaching people about fitness?

Phung Tran: It's just the light bulb that just goes off in people's heads when they realize the simple things that they can do. And so, for example, body image issues, per se, one of my clients had an influencer that she liked and she was telling me, “I want to look like this person.” And I'm like, “show me the pictures.” And she found the pictures on Instagram obviously. And then when you zoom in the background and you see all kinds of stuff happening in the background like there's a red line outlining all this model body and see how not real she was, that's just a light bulb. Let's just tell people that, okay, obviously, you want to get better. You want to look better, but there are limitations on what you can do and what you can look like. And it's more about body acceptance. So, that for me, that's what body positivity is like, you're still trying to improve, but you accept what you have instead of being resentful toward other people.

Alexa Goins: That's great. Yeah, I'm imagining, it's like a very interesting time to be in the fitness industry with Instagram and with…

Phung Tran: Yeah, crazy.

Alexa Goins: models everywhere on your phone.

Phung Tran: It is. And you know, my most popular reel was that of me comparing myself to a model. So there's this TikTok voice who says, “Do this if you want to look sexy.” And obviously me and a model side-by-side and it was hilarious. I look like a dumb version of Buddha while she looks gorgeous, but she's a model and that's her job. You know, I look like a weird, odd thing and yeah, that's something that I accept. That's fine.

Alexa Goins: I think you're gorgeous but I understand.

Phung Tran: Yeah.

Alexa Goins: What does a typical day look like in your profession?

Phung Tran: I'd say it's a little bit hectic. And so right now in the morning, I would do personal training at a boutique Chi gym that is in Atlanta. One of those things that's kind of far away to drive, but whatever. So I would work in the morning, just personal training. So, a lot of my clients are older women who just got back from surgery, from physical therapy or the pandemic. So, they want to get back into their exercise routine after two years of not doing anything. And then in the afternoon, that's where I focus more on the online business. And so sometimes it would be me making Instagram posts or reels or chatting to my clients. A lot of time, we meet over Zoom and then we'll talk for like an hour and a half each session about what they're doing, what they should be thinking about, any exercises that we can do. And then at night when I'm bored, I like to write some blogs. That's, I think, my greatest thing to do, just write blogs and emails. I feel like, yeah.

Alexa Goins: I feel that as a writer.

Phung Tran: It's lovely. And then for three days a week, I would go out to exercise in a group. So, I'm attending Judo and Kendo classes. So those are two different groups, but three days a week, I'll go out. And it's usually like two-hour sessions where I work out with people just doing moves and stuff. But I do work out at home whenever I can. I do a lot of bodyweight and resistance bands, but also I have an elliptical and that's pretty much my setup.

Alexa Goins: Have you been able to do any Skillr calls yet?

Phung Tran: I have actually. So, I think I've been a beta tester since December so I was able to connect to a couple of fitness trainers like myself. We were talking, seeing how this turns out, and I connected to a fashion designer so she was trying to help me find clothes because I do a lot of sports clothing, but not normal, real-life clothing. So that's a thing and yeah, that was fun.

Alexa Goins: Yeah. I was going to ask since SKILLR is all about learning and growing and trying to gain new knowledge from people in our digital community, what's one thing that you're learning right now or interested in learning more about?

Phung Tran: Actually I just talked to a Waffle House manager, but he's a chef here on SKILLR. And so one of the things he was talking about was how to sort of make food taste better without having to add too much sugar or fat. So, that's one of my personal goals and how to cook for yourself more regularly, like how to prep things. And he was like, you should do this and different types of oils, like when to use oils there. I think [he explained] boiling temperature or smoke temperature or whatever it was. But yeah, like how to use them and how to make sure that you're using them right. Not making them go rancid and all that.

Alexa Goins: Yeah. I bet that's helpful information also with your fitness passion.

Phung Tran: Right. And the thing is I'm more into exercise, like moving the body. And so I'm still learning about diet and like a chef, they know more than me about how food should taste and all that.

Alexa Goins: What's one thing that you'd want Seekrs to know about you if they're like scrolling through the app and thinking, “Oh, I might match with a fitness professional.” And they see your profile. What do you want them to know?

Phung Tran: I just want them to know that what they want to do is achievable. And that's why I think my username everywhere is beactiveiseasy. And so it is just about setting your mindset, right, having the right goals for yourself, doing the right things. And then you get what you want. It might take some time, but as long as you're being patient with it and keep going experimenting, usually I tell people, experiment at least two months on a new thing that they want to try to see if it's good for them or not so that's one of the things. And so it's just being realistic, you get what you want to get.

Alexa Goins: That's really helpful advice. What are some common challenges you would say people run into when trying to get into fitness?

Phung Tran: The biggest one is having to make up a goal. Obviously Instagram and stuff, they're like, “Oh, I want to look like this. I want to look like that.” But the thing is even those people don't look like that every day of the year, like 365 days. So if you watch Anthony Mackie's interview with Trevor Noah, he was like, I trained for four months to shoot that movie, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” 

He was paid to do that. He has a trainer, he has a group dietician, all that. And it took him four months to look that good. And so that's one of the things that I tell people like you don't have to look a hundred percent all the time. Those people, that's just some time that they want to do it, obviously when it comes to actresses, there might be some other things involved. But usually they don't look that way every day. And so, just having a more realistic goal about, okay, this is maybe what I, that's what I want to look in the morning when I haven't eaten or drank anything rather than I need to look that way 24 hours. And then every time I would weigh myself every single day and all that. And so that's probably the biggest thing that I see people have is just having too big of a goal. And there's no way for them to get there.

Alexa Goins: Is there anything else that you want people to know about you or about fitness?

Phung Tran: Yeah. And I think one of the biggest things that I've been, one of my passions is to fight misinformation online because obviously I just cringe at protein powder or meal replacement stuff. And natural is the best. Nature is already here. And you know, it's some of the things that people just overcomplicated their life for in the name of fitness. And it's not going to help them in the long term because you want consistency basically and you want to do things that you can do now and until the day that you die. That's how I talk about it with my clients, about their goals or whatever the things that they need to do. And yeah, so that's my little tidbits.

Alexa Goins: Thank you so much! That was great!

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