Welcome to Texbearjoe, our first ‘Growl-ebrity’ interview. A legitimate body builder who seems to have muscles on his muscles, Texbearjoe is one of Instagram’s most popular muscle daddies; he is consistently listed as having one of the most viewed profiles. Gentlemen and gentlemen, introducing TexBearJoe…

Hi Joe. Thanks for agreeing to share your health & fitness experiences with my readers. So, tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Joe, 53 years old and I’m a business executive living in Houston Texas. I’m not shy; I smile and laugh too much <grin>. You can find me on the Growlr app and the Bigmuscle and Bigmusclebear websites. I am also a writer and you can follow my adventures at texbearjoe.net.

You seem to have quite the online presence.
A lot of guys in the bear and musclebear community know me from literally decades of writing; I’ve been using internet from the days of “Darpanet“.

Tell us more about yourself.
I’ve lived in New Delhi, Paris, London and Amsterdam. I speak lots of languages besides English. I’m as familiar with food courts inside Shanghai Pudong Airport, as Sao Paulo Guarulhos, Amsterdam, Johannesburg and Kennedy.

How did you feel about getting a random message from me to your profile on Growlr?
I love getting random messages on Growlr; I get about 300-500 messages a day, more over holidays. I’ve coached a lot of guys on Growlr on routines, diet, and supplements; more than happy to dole any iota of wisdom that I accumulated after 37 years of training experience.

I wanted to be muscular and wanted to be around big sweaty guys.

37 years ago! So, when did you get into fitness and weight training?
I started at 16, finishing High School, and went to a local very rough old-school iron gym ’cause I wanted to be muscular and wanted to be around big sweaty guys. I lived in rural Tennessee and was moving to Los Angeles for school (Pasadena: Caltech) and decided that I wanted to be very fit. My entire family had a problem with obesity and I decided that I’d never be morbidly fat.

Do you have any fitness heroes?
I think I had a few heroes along the way, Nasser el Sonbaty was a guy I followed for years and very much Reg Park, mostly monster thick bodies and, as with Reg Park, often a beard. In LA I went to the Jim Morris club on Santa Monica Boulevard and had the same voice coach as Chris Dickerson, whom I admired. I liked Lee Haney in the 90’s and couple of guys I follow now are Branch Warren, Mike Ergas.

You are in remarkable shape, do still have any fitness goals left?
Want to get huge(r)!! I’d like to get up to 275lbs (125kg) from 250lbs (113.5kg) and compete. I’m 53, so I’d be in the Masters category. My body is already pro-sized – Schwarzenegger at Olympia was 20lbs (9kg) lighter than me and he was 6’3″ (1.9m), so I’m huge already. I’d like to get more refined and defined, less body fat. It’s all diet. My strength is pretty high, I’m more worried about joints at my age. I’ve got to increase my morning cardio dramatically. I’ve shifted my entire training routine to around 05:30 because work has become more intense. My arms are huge, as are my shoulders and chest. I want a big ass but that’s very hard to achieve.

Based on your own personal experience give me three essential exercises you can’t live without?
First is a squat – nothing else does it for ass, quads, and hamstrings. I hate them but it’s essential. I do a seated squat to reduce the stress on my back. Second is the “free motion” fly machine – doing incline, decline and press with one machine and having the constant stress throughout the range of motion, superb pump. The third is a side-deltoid raise in any form – cable or dumbbell. I’ve got very wide clavicles and side-deltoid raises make me even wider – I have an unfortunate (perhaps) enjoyment of a kind of freaky wide shoulder build.

How often do you go to the gym each week?
I go pretty much daily, I have either a four-way split with one day off, between 30-90 minutes; I don’t really understand “how long” though, for people who work out seriously, duration is determined by what exercise group you do, it’s not like one particular duration is better than another. My split is either chest/biceps, back/triceps, deltoid/abdominals, legs or one body part per day for 45 minutes.

I don’t have a workout partner – but would like one.

Do work-out alone or do you have a gym partner?
I use a trainer occasionally, I don’t have a workout partner – but would like one.

You spend a lot of time in the gym. Weights or cardio? Which one is your preference?
Weights or cardio? That’s an odd question. Isn’t it “weights and cardio?” You do cardio in the morning before eating. Weights are a constant cycle. I hate cardio in general, but that’s just me. I’m afraid of getting trapped on a machine facing a TV playing FOX News! Hehe.

How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date?
I change my workout routine constantly so I don’t get acclimated to one particular routine. It’s also important is to have someone else set up a routine for me occasionally because you tend to create a set routine, even if you vary, that’s comfortable for yourself, instead of pushing. I believe it’s a secret part of your mind that keeps your routines comfortable whether or not you’re aware parses better. I also change how I do a routine – one month I might do German Volume training, which is fewer exercises, and doing 10 sets of 10 reps for at least a second per rep. Then I might up the weight and do normal sets, more exercises. Or maybe very long (10 seconds) per rep. I’m tending to do lower weights and more reps to keep my joints happier though. Fitness strategy have changed as I’ve gotten older, so I just read what’s out there in magazines to see what’s matching my particular age, focus for a few months, or issue.

Would you date someone who wasn’t into health and fitness?
Sure, for me going to the gym is a little bit like wearing leather – it’s something I enjoy and is kind of my ‘fetish’ to have giant muscles, the way some guys might like to wear a harness, or have tattoos or piercings. I don’t at all limit whom I’m interested in to “big muscles”. It’s like big cock. Visually it’s very exciting at first but there’s got to be more to someone than 10″ (22cm) to sustain attention. A big body-built body may grab attention but needs to be sustained. I love all sorts of men – tall, short, big, small, wide, narrow, furry, smooth, men from all over the world. I’ve got a big appetite. It’s not limited to muscle.

Let’s talk about your eating habits. What are your favourite foods to eat?
Pan-roasted chicken breast, oven sweet potato fries, Brussels sprouts, green beans with lemon, parsley pasta, stuffed peppers, perfect rare steak, smoked salmon, bacon & scrambled eggs, Huachinango a la Veracruzana (Veracruz-Style Red Snapper), trout ‘en papillote’, Brunswick stew, stuffed pork loin, chicken or beef satay, Thai sausage, Italian sweet sausage, coq au vin, whole roast garlic chicken from Versailles in LA, collard greens…I could go on and on.

I want you to go on, it’s an interview, lol.
Well, I also like traditional Italian – small dishes – not a huge plate of pasta kind of US Italian. Spanish style tapas. I lived in the jungle in Borneo for some time and was addicted to satay with peanut sauce and white rice boiled in milk – beef, chicken or pork intestine satay (mmm). I lived in Paris and love all French food, particularly with lighter sauces. Southwestern grilled foods are fantastic, and Japanese fresh fish foods are fantastic can eat all day.

Wanna know my secret bad food? Pop Tarts!

So, what don’t you enjoy eating?
I don’t like US style Cantonese or Szechuan Chinese food – much, much too salty and carb-loaded.

Any food vices?
Wanna know my secret bad food? Pop Tarts!

How carefully do you have to watch what you eat?
The problem when you get above a certain muscle mass is not “watching what you eat” but the fact that it’s hard to eat enough “clean” calories. I have buddies who simply cannot get bigger no matter what they do. To eat 3000-4000 calories a day, that’s a full-time job to be honest. If I don’t eat constantly I start losing mass. That’s a fun position to be in since as a kid I was “husky”. I don’t eat processed foods at all if I can avoid it – potato chips, candy, pre-prepared pizzas and the like. I avoid fast food if I can – “McBurger” type things. A typical dinner might be pan-roasted salmon, sweet potatoes and spinach. Breakfast would be oatmeal, a couple of hard boiled eggs and a bowl of berries.

Lunch might be a chicken breast, brown rice, steamed veggies. I’m very insulin sensitive so if I do a zero-carb week, I can drop 10 lbs (22.2kg) water fast. For guys who don’t have bodybuilder muscle mass which burns energy like crazy, if they don’t watch what they eat, then they will get into problems fast, because there isn’t anything in their body to burn off excess calories.

You have a very healthy appetite!
I love dairy, cheese, butter, love all sorts of meats, I love vegetables – I could eat Brussel sprouts all day long – but I’m lucky to have fantastic food at home.

Do you take any dietary supplements?
Creatine, it’s fantastic, and I recommend it immediately for anyone not taking it. Better pumps, and stronger lifts.

I’m more worried about “precious bodily fluids”.

Are you a fan of organic foods?
Some of my best friends eat organic food. I think the hoopla about organic food is kind of silly. If you had the choice between organic processed food and traditional farmed fresh food, I’d go fresh. I’d be more worried about added salts and sugars, and not just the preservatives. People never seem to be too concerned about the plastic that processed food has been stored and distributed in. Just me, and Jack the Ripper, – I’m more worried about “precious bodily fluids”.

Lol

After 37 years of working out which part of your body would you say is your best feature?
What do I get the most reaction from? My cock, my arms, my shoulders, my chest in that order.

Of all of the Growlr categories, which one describes you best?
Muscle Bear Dad – it’s hard to pull them apart for me – I was a muscle bear, then after a certain age it was all “daddy, daddy”, then I was a muscle dad but the beard and the bodyhair kept pulling things in different directions. Perhaps “texbearjoe” is its own type.

Finally, tell our readers something about yourself that may surprise them.
I have two degrees from Caltech, one of them being Literature. I don’t know why literature, but there it is, from a school stuffed with Nobel Prize winners in science. Yes, “Big Bang Theory” Caltech, those guys were my roommates, I am a Sheldon. I’ve shed a bit of the annoying “know-it-all” arrogance, but sometimes watching the show, the humour hits a bit close to home, I mean, I can get obsessive <grin>.

Well Joe, I am glad that I reached out to you, there is much more behind the muscles and the cheeky smile. Thank you.
Thank you!

Joe has his own website http://texbearjoe.net where you can read stories about his many sexy exploits. Follow him on Instagram @texbearjoe and check out his Tumblr page http://texbearjoe.tumblr.com/ where there are even more of his sexploits for you read and to devour.