Chase Stokes Talks About Running, Workouts with Girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini, and Body Image
Chase Stokes Talks About Running, Workouts with Girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini, and Body Image
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Chase Stokes seems like he’s healthy and athletic — for any age — but when the 32-year-old actor he tells me he’s battled with body dysmorphia, it doesn’t completely shock me, either.
After all, Stokes is best known for his role in the Netflix drama Outer Banks, in which he plays a teenager. Embodying someone more than a decade younger isn’t an easy feat. And when he explains that negative online comments have been, well, awfully inappropriate, and hurtful, it’s a clear reminder that celebrities aren’t invincible specimens, neither in mind or body.
Of course, this notion isn’t breaking news, but it’s an interesting point Stokes has brought to the surface of conversation, after chatting about a knee injury that he rehabbed — a reminder that the people we stare at on screen aren’t superhuman. Even famous actors have bad days, and go to physical therapy… when they don’t want to (read: try to put it off). And now, after ignoring the pain (relatable), dealing with pain, and healing from the pain, he’s able to do something he loves: run again… which is why I’m sitting down to have a conversation with Stokes.
He’s partnered with Brooks Running to celebrate the launch of Brooks Running’s new top-of-the-line running shoe, Glycerin Max. During our one-on-one interview, the Uglies actor talks about getting back into running, the fitness classes he takes (with and without girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini) and dealing with unsolicited comments online.
How did you get involved with Brooks Running?
Chase Stokes: I injured my knee and had taken a lot of time off of running, and I didn’t do the responsible thing and immediately get into taking care of it. And then I finally did, and I just gotten back on the running track. I really started to get back into it since I’ve been rehabbing my knee. The Glycerin Max makes me get excited about running again, which is something that I didn’t think after a 10-year athletic career that I would look at running and be like, “Oh, I want to go run-run.”
HS: Are you training for anything in particular, like a marathon or half?
CS: Not in the near future because work kind of takes me away from that… but I feel like I run a marathon every season of Outer Banks. Truthfully, for me, because I’ve been slowly reintroducing running: It’s just kind of been at my own pace which has been nice. So, I try to at least get out three days a week, for at least 20 to 25 minutes.
HS: What else are you doing in terms of like cross training?
CS: Obviously my girlfriend [Kelsea Ballerini] got me really into Lagree, which has been a lot of fun learning. Kelsea has a girl named Joy who comes to the house and has worked with her for years. She recently opened a studio in Nashville. We’ve done the mega-reformers and I’ve gotten my ass kicked time and time again.
I’ve always been into HIIT training. I’ve always kind of found myself into weightlifting, with an athletic background. I got in a boxing two years ago, which has been another love of mine. I work with a gym down in Orlando called the Orlando Boxing Club. It’s cool because they don’t treat me like who I am in the real world. They treat me like another kid who’s coming in to spar.
HS: Do you get punched in the face?
CS: Often.
HS: Do you and Kelsea run together?
CS: I got her into running. She’s got a treadmill down at the house in Nashville. I’ll usually go out and run.
HS: Do you take any supplements to help your workouts?
CS: I’m pretty just basic. I take my multivitamin in my pre-probiotics. At night, I take magnesium.
HS: How has your job impacted your diet and workout regimen?
CS: With the internet constantly looking at you and staring at your every which way that you go, and the way your body looks then versus now: I’m like hypersensitive to that. Definitely a little body dysmorphia for me in that space. For me being 32 and playing a teenager on TV, we just have her aware of that.
HS: In terms of body dysmorphia: are there any co-stars that you’ve worked with who share that sentiment?
CS: When you have that level of eyeballs on your career, everybody is constantly [facing] some form of scrutinization. I think you find a way to fixate on those things. f you don’t feel comfortable in your own skin and then somebody mentioned something about something that hits a chord with you: we immediately just gravitate towards that because we’re self-deprecating by nature. I saw a comment the other day that said, “He’d be way much more attractive if he had better abs.” And I was like, “Okay. That hurt my feelings but that’s that’s rude.” That’s just the nature of the beast and I think that’s just a component of the industry I work in.