198: How I’d Train If I Had to Start Over

If I had to start training again, I’d do a lot the same—and change a few things. I share how I’d approach commitment, strength training, running and nutrition, what I learned from aggressive bulking, and why the way I enjoy training still matters after nearly twenty years of experience. CHAPTERS: 00:00 If I Had to Start Again 00:59 Go One More Method 03:09 Make the Commitment 07:43 Routines That Support Training 11:28 Why I Follow a Plan 15:04 Making Fitness a Lifestyle 18:14 Performance or Aesthetics? 23:08 Training in a Way I Enjoy 26:35 Goals That Create Momentum 30:44 Rethinking Bulking and Cutting 37:31 What My Bulk Taught Me 40:32 A Slower Approach to Muscle 42:51 Would I Run From the Start? 47:55 Understanding My Training Limits 54:07 Why I Choose Hybrid Training JOIN THE APP AND GET READY FOR UPDATES ⁠https://www.nickbarefitness.app/⁠ ORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210⁠ Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutrition⁠ FOLLOW: IG:⁠ ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠⁠ YT: ⁠⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitness This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice. This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Nick Bare?

  Hypothetical scenario. It's three years from now and I haven't been able to work out for the previous three years. I fell off my diet, stopped being mindful and intentional with what I was eating to support my health and performance goals and all sense of discipline, routine and healthy habits went out the window. This may be you and if it is, this is the framework that I would implement to get back on track, get in the best shape of my life, feel healthy again and retake control and responsibility of my health, my life. What I'm going to talk about today are things that I would do the same, things I would do

• 0:41Nick Bare?

  differently and also things I just wouldn't do again that I've done in the past. So hypothetically, this paints a picture of what I'm going to talk about in this episode.

• 1:00Nick Bare?

  Now, before we dive into the meat and potatoes,

• 1:05Nick Bare?

  I have a training app and the link is in the description of this episode. It is nickbearfitness.app, A P P. And this is where I have all the training programs that I've used over the last couple of years, hybrid athlete training programs that combine strength training, lifting, hypertrophy, bodybuilding, running, cardiovascular conditioning. I have hybrid athlete training programs, a high rocks prep, strong athlete training program, which is one of my favorites. There are marathon and half marathon training programs in there. And then there is G1M Daily.

• 1:46Nick Bare?

  Now, G1M Daily is a fitness program that I update and upload every Sunday. Every Sunday, six new workouts go into that week of training. It is one workout per day, about an hour per day, one rest day per week. So you have six workouts. This is where I would recommend to get started. This is where much of the community, thousands of members within the app are doing the workouts together and sharing their progress and engaging with all the other members.

• 2:21Nick Bare?

  So if you go to nickbearfitness.app, you can get started today. We offer a seven day free trial and these are all the workouts that I've done over the last couple of years and everything I've learned through marathons, ultra marathons, training in the military, bodybuilding prep, high rocks and overall just hybrid athlete training programs. So if you're looking for structure, you're looking for training programs that are going to facilitate progress, give you the results from a performance and physique or body composition perspective, go get started today. I highly recommend it.

• 3:03Nick Bare?

  And like I said, there are thousands of people in the app doing the workouts as we speak right now. So to get started, the foundation is the commitment. If I had to start training all over again, what would I do differently? What would I do the same? The same is the commitment. When I first started training, I went all in because I fell in love with the lifestyle. I fell in love with the, the meals, the diet, the community, the supplements, the experience, the training. I fell in love with all of it.

• 3:45Nick Bare?

  But I made a commitment early on and that commitment facilitated adherence to the routine,

• 3:56Nick Bare?

  discipline, habits, systems that led me to successful results. You have to make a commitment. You can't just dip your toe in and I'm going to try this for a little bit and dabble here and there, go all in. And anything that I've done in my life, I go all in on. And I haven't pursued a broad range of things. I've talked about this in the past and it's one of the reasons I haven't pursued many hobbies is because for me hobbies are dabbling and tinkering and I don't, I don't enjoy dabbling and tinkering. When I decide to do something, I go all in. I make the commitment.

• 4:43Nick Bare?

  A applicable example of that right now in my life is hunting. But one of the reasons I haven't pursued ambitiously hunting for many years, even though I've wanted to, is I just didn't have the time to dedicate to and commit. And now that I do, in this season of life, I'm going all in. I'm obsessed with hunting. I'm watching hunting films. I've hired a hunting mentor and coach who's helping me become a more efficient and proficient bow hunter in preparation for a backcountry elk hunt next fall. I'm all in. I'm obsessed and that's just the type of person I am.

• 5:26Nick Bare?

  When I decide to do something, I commit, I'm all in. It's not dipping one toe in and like I said, dabbling or tinkering. So I would encourage you, make the commitment. That's something I did early on with fitness, with my diet and learning more about nutrition and proper training techniques and protocols. I made the commitment. I went all in. I would encourage you, do that. Do it. Make the commitment.

• 5:58Nick Bare?

  Here's an interesting stat and I posted this on Instagram a few weeks ago. There are 168 hours in a week. If you train six days per week, one hour per day, which might seem like a lot to some people, a one hour commitment, six days per week, six hours of training, split up between strength training and endurance training, running specifically. This is the way that G1M Daily and my fitness app has broken down, six hours of training per week. Half of that is running or cardiovascular conditioning, half of that is strength training.

• 6:42Nick Bare?

  Six hours per week, you have 168 hours in a week.

• 6:49Nick Bare?

  That is only 3.57% of your week.

• 6:54Nick Bare?

  Can you commit 3.57% of your week to your fitness, to training, to performance? Something that is going to transform your mental health, your physical health, your energy, your body composition. It's going to set the standard for your family. It's going to put you in a position to lead, to be the standard.

• 7:21Nick Bare?

  I would say most people can.

• 7:25Nick Bare?

  One hour per day, six days a week. It sounds intimidating to a lot of people. It might sound like a lot, but the reality is it's not. It's 3.57% of your entire week.

• 7:44Nick Bare?

  Part of the commitment is setting yourself up to succeed. This is creating routines, rhythms and habits that support your commitment to train one hour per day, six days per week, 3.57% of your entire week.

• 8:03Nick Bare?

  One of the ways that I set myself up to succeed, and I've shared this and I've talked about this many times before, but I wake up between 4:30 and 5:00 AM. It typically leans more towards 4:30 AM. And I do this not because I want to, but because I want to knock out my morning run before my family wakes up, before my kids wake up, before my wife wakes up. I want to be done with my morning run before everyone else is awake. I am willing to sacrifice my time and a little bit of sleep to be able to train and knock

• 8:46Nick Bare?

  it out so that it doesn't disrupt my family's schedule and routine in the morning. And that works for my entire family. But that is a rhythm, that is a routine, there's a habit that I have built into my life that I do every single day.

• 9:07Nick Bare?

  It's a commitment that I made. And when you adhere to those commitments and those routines and rhythms and systems and habits over a consistent, long period of time, it just becomes ingrained into the way that you live your life.

• 9:25Nick Bare?

  Something that I posted on my Instagram story today that I don't know why I haven't thought about it before in this way or shared it, but I got back from my morning run and after I finished my run, I hop in the sauna for 10 to 15 minutes before coming in the house. As soon as I wake up, the first thing I do is I turn the sauna on, I preheat it so that by the time I'm done for my run, it's at 215 degrees Fahrenheit. So I finished my run, I hop in the sauna, I sweat like a madman, jump in the pool, cool off for a little bit, that is also my morning shower.

• 10:04Nick Bare?

  And I come into the house and start making my morning protein shake and taking my supplements. And 95% of the time, I can knock all of this out before the kids wake up.

• 10:19Nick Bare?

  And as I was finishing my protein shake this morning, I was thinking, you know what? Tomorrow morning, I'm going to do this whole thing all over again. And then the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that. And I posted this thing on my story saying, the best part about my morning run, finishing my morning run, is knowing that I'm committed to doing it all over again the next day.

• 10:47Nick Bare?

  A lot of the mornings I wake up, I don't want to go run.

• 10:51Nick Bare?

  A lot of times while I'm running, I don't want to run and it doesn't feel good sometimes. My legs are heavy and tired. I'm feeling heavy and tired, but when I'm finished, it feels really good. It's accomplishing. It's fulfilling.

• 11:08Nick Bare?

  But one of the best parts about finishing that morning run is knowing the job's not done and I'm going to show up the next day and do it all over again.

• 11:20Nick Bare?

  That commitment, that consistency, it's powerful.

• 11:28Nick Bare?

  One of the things that has led me to any level of success in life, success in the way that I personally define it, things that I have accomplished, growth that I have experienced,

• 11:45Nick Bare?

  it's because I have been committed and consistent, not to everything, but to the right things, things that matter to me.

• 11:56Nick Bare?

  And I followed a plan.

• 12:01Nick Bare?

  I made this note here. This was on my mind as I was planning this episode.

• 12:07Nick Bare?

  Anything that you ever succeed at

• 12:10Nick Bare?

  will be given a consistent and recurring allocated capacity of time, energy, and focus.

• 12:18Nick Bare?

  Think about that. Let that sink in. Anything that you ever succeed at will be given a consistent and recurring allocated capacity of time, energy, and focus. Anything that you accomplish,

• 12:38Nick Bare?

  it's not accomplished or achieved just by shooting from the hip or taking an action off of a whim, random acts of execution. No.

• 12:53Nick Bare?

  There is a consistent and recurring allocated time, energy, and focus committed to succeeding at this one thing.

• 13:08Nick Bare?

  AKA, you need a plan. AKA, you need to create routines, rhythms, and habits that support your commitment.

• 13:18Nick Bare?

  Structure.

• 13:20Nick Bare?

  That's the power of having a plan.

• 13:24Nick Bare?

  James Clear said, "If you only think about what you want,

• 13:31Nick Bare?

  then you'll end up confused or frustrated with lukewarm results at best.

• 13:38Nick Bare?

  Your choices will fall into place if you have a direction to move towards."

• 13:44Nick Bare?

  Commitment to performing a specific task is often the only difference between our results and our desires. There's things that we want to accomplish. There's things that we visualize, we dream of succeeding at.

• 14:02Nick Bare?

  People aspire and have desires and dreams of running a marathon or building their dream physique, losing body fat, having abs that are visible, getting leaner, feeling healthier, having more energy. People desire that. They visualize that. They want that.

• 14:29Nick Bare?

  But actually accomplishing and achieving those things, getting results, because we measure success by results, not desires.

• 14:41Nick Bare?

  Achieving those things only happens when you commit to performing a specific task.

• 14:50Nick Bare?

  You commit to performing a specific task, as James Clear said. And in order to commit to performing a specific task, you need a plan, you need structure, you need to commit to all of those things.

• 15:04Nick Bare?

  As I previously mentioned,

• 15:07Nick Bare?

  for me, I made fitness

• 15:10Nick Bare?

  something bigger than just going to the gym. It was something bigger than just

• 15:19Nick Bare?

  eating and consuming more protein.

• 15:22Nick Bare?

  I made it a lifestyle.

• 15:26Nick Bare?

  It became my identity. I went all in.

• 15:32Nick Bare?

  I didn't just fall in love with lifting weights or going to the gym. I fell in love with the entire lifestyle. Healthy choices replaced unhealthy ones. Intentional choices replaced unintentional ones. Efficient use of time replaced inefficient waste of time.

• 15:53Nick Bare?

  If you want to experience

• 15:57Nick Bare?

  massive results and life-changing breakthrough, make it something bigger than just the behavior or the action. Make it part of your lifestyle. Make it part of your identity. That is one of the things I did early on that led me to success.

• 16:19Nick Bare?

  You know, I love, I love training. And I've had for the last 20 years. I love going to the gym. I love putting forth effort. I love preparing my meals. I love eating healthy. I love feeling good. I love it. I love the lifestyle. And I got bit by the bug when I was in college.

• 16:43Nick Bare?

  I started dabbling in the gym late in high school. But it didn't take very long from from that dabbling to evolve into an all-consuming

• 16:59Nick Bare?

  mindset and lifestyle shift.

• 17:04Nick Bare?

  I mean, I got bit by the bug so hard. And I remember having like $30 in my bank account when I was in college. And I've shared this before, but I'd have $30 left in my bank account in college. And I would go to the local vitamin shop or GNC. And I would spend the last of my money on protein powder or pre-workout because I was just so

• 17:33Nick Bare?

  into and obsessed with the lifestyle of training and eating healthy and lifting weights and putting on size and strength and watching the progress happen in the gym with my lifts, but also watching my body composition change over time.

• 17:54Nick Bare?

  Something I would also encourage you guys to do,

• 17:58Nick Bare?

  if you want to see results, true results,

• 18:02Nick Bare?

  make it something bigger than just the behavior or the action. Make it part of who you are, part of your identity. Make it a lifestyle change. Okay, if I had to start training all over again, would I choose performance or aesthetics?

• 18:24Nick Bare?

  And the reason I added this here is because it's it's a question I get

• 18:32Nick Bare?

  frequently, not as much as I used to. I used to get this question a whole lot more.

• 18:38Nick Bare?

  And I believe the fitness industry and the fitness space,

• 18:45Nick Bare?

  it goes through these ebbs and flows. And it's cyclical.

• 18:51Nick Bare?

  You know, you see something that is popular and then it becomes unpopular because it's replaced by something else.

• 18:58Nick Bare?

  And then that thing is replaced by something else. And that thing is replaced by something else. And then it comes back to where we all started. And it's cyclical. I've seen it many times before where bodybuilding is very popular. And then something replaces bodybuilding, like CrossFit. And then something replaces CrossFit, like running in marathons. And something replaces running in marathons with something like high rocks. And if I had to predict, we're going to make our way back to where bodybuilding and strength training is really popular again. And then it's cyclical. It goes through ebbs and flows and things that were popular become unpopular. And then at some point, they become popular again.

• 19:45Nick Bare?

  And when I first started training,

• 19:49Nick Bare?

  2006, 2007, 2008. And then I got to college in 2009. That's when I went all in.

• 20:03Nick Bare?

  It was all about aesthetics.

• 20:06Nick Bare?

  It was the height of when bodybuilding.com was huge and fitness YouTube was just getting started.

• 20:15Nick Bare?

  And it was all aesthetics. It was all about how you look and bodybuilding and building your physique. And I think there was a small subculture that was focused on performance. But from where I was sitting in the whole fitness space during those years, it was mainly focused on aesthetics and body composition as opposed to performance.

• 20:47Nick Bare?

  And the age-old debate is, what should you choose? Aesthetics or building your body? Or performance?

• 20:59Nick Bare?

  And I don't think you have to choose one or the other. I think you can pursue both.

• 21:06Nick Bare?

  What I love about hybrid training, and there's so many different ways to

• 21:12Nick Bare?

  to describe hybrid athlete training. I was just having this conversation with someone at BPN the other day. Someone might say that hybrid athlete training is CrossFit or high rocks. And that is true. Someone might say that hybrid athlete training is the combination of bodybuilding and running. And that's also true. And someone might say that hybrid athlete training is triathlon, swimming, cycling, running with strength training. And that is also true. There's so many different ways to approach hybrid athlete training. I think if we just take a broad stroke over the top,

• 21:56Nick Bare?

  it's the combination, in my, in my opinion, hybrid athlete training is the combination of strength training and bodybuilding, being able to perform in the gym with a specific load, percentage of load, and combining cardiovascular conditioning. In my case, it's running.

• 22:20Nick Bare?

  That is hybrid athlete training. It's two disciplines where you excel at both. But from my lens of hybrid athlete training, what the way that I view it, and this is my personal take. Like I said, there's a many, many different ways to approach it. For me, it is the combination of strength training, specifically bodybuilding style training hypertrophy and running. That is the way that I like to approach hybrid athlete training. It is lifting heavy and running far. And yeah, there's like some different things you can incorporate here and there.

• 23:02Nick Bare?

  And I have approached different paths and ways of training over the years. But if someone's like, hey, Nick, if you had to choose one way to train for the rest of your life, what would you do? I would go to the gym. I would strength train. I do heavy compound movements and a lot of bodybuilding style workouts and I would run. And that's it. And I would be as happy as could be. And someone could say, well, there's a better way. You might be right, but this is the way that I like to do it. This is the way that I love to train. And if you don't agree, that's okay.

• 23:47Nick Bare?

  But I think we can all agree that the best way to train, the most sustainable way to train is in a way that you love, a way that you enjoy. If someone doesn't love running and strength training and/or bodybuilding, and I tell them, this is the way you have to train. And they say, but I don't enjoy that. But I say, you gotta do it. This is the best way to train, I'm telling you. And they say, but I don't enjoy it. They're not going to stick to it. It's not going to work for them, but it will work for you if you love it. So I do think that you can choose both performance and aesthetics.

• 24:30Nick Bare?

  This is the way that I've been training for the last couple of years. I've learned this by training for marathons, triathlons, Ironmans, bodybuilding competitions, high rocks competitions, and then just hybrid athlete training as a whole. I think oftentimes, if you train for performance in a certain way, the, the natural byproduct of that training will build a, a pretty strong and admirable physique.

• 25:09Nick Bare?

  Your, your body composition will improve in most cases, not all cases, in most cases, if you prioritize performance. And I would encourage you to follow the signal, not the noise. What I mean by that? Don't let anyone tell you how you should train. I'll reinforce what I earlier said. Do what you enjoy, what you love. That is the signal. Follow that. If you want to be successful in your health, in your fitness, find things in ways, methods

• 25:51Nick Bare?

  that you enjoy and pursue those things. That is the signal. The signal is a passion, a love that comes from a certain method of training, a certain method of eating, diet, nutrition. Follow that signal and ignore the noise of everyone telling you how you should, what you should, what you should not. Follow the signal, ignore the noise. And the more time you spend on social media, I can promise you, the more noise you will be consumed, influenced and unfortunately inspired by. Follow the signal.

• 26:36Nick Bare?

  I learned the most about performance and aesthetics in two different phases of life. The first, when I first got started and became obsessed with learning everything I could as fast as I possibly could. So when I first got started. And the second time is when I started signing up for races and competitions. So what can we learn from these two phases? One, when I first got started and two, when I started signing up for races and competitions. There's two types of energy that we're talking about here. There's activation energy and there's novelty energy. So let me describe this and give some definition because it might make sense of, of what you

• 27:21Nick Bare?

  might need to pursue in order to find some energy to follow a, a protocol, a plan to improve your health, performance, body composition, fitness. Activation energy. The initial surge of effort, motivation and mental power required to break inertia and actually get something new off the ground. And then novelty energy, the brain releases dopamine when encountering something new,

• 27:58Nick Bare?

  which translates into high focus, excitement and a temporary feeling of effortless motivation. When something is new, that novelty energy, there is this, like they said, feeling of effortless motivation. When you sign up for a race or competition, when you start pursuing a new passion or interest, this novelty energy is going to lead you to these feelings of effortless motivation because your brain is literally releasing dopamine when you are encountering this newness, this novelty.

• 28:41Nick Bare?

  Take advantage of that, lean into that, use that. And then the activation energy is when the initial surge of effort, motivation and mental power required to break inertia and get something off the ground, you start making progress, that activation, that momentum, that will carry you through into the next phase. So if you're struggling with motivation, if you're struggling with, with discipline and sticking to the plan and showing up, you might need to, I don't say artificially stimulate energy, but a way you do.

• 29:25Nick Bare?

  You might have to put a goal on the calendar. That's the power of races or competitions. That's the, the power of signing up for a half marathon or a full marathon or an ultra or a triathlon or a high rocks. Put something on the calendar. You will experience novelty energy and activation and momentum energy with that goal that is carrying you through. It's one of the reasons that if you don't have goals established, you don't have something on the calendar that you're working towards, it's easy to lose the motivation because

• 30:08Nick Bare?

  you don't have quite literally dopamine being released that is leading you to these goals of execution. So I would encourage you, follow the signal, ignore the noise. And it goes back to my initial statement of you don't have to choose performance or aesthetics. You can pursue both in a style of training that you love and enjoy. All right, here's a mistake that I have made.

• 30:51Nick Bare?

  I don't say many times before, but multiple times before. And it is the bulk, the dirty bulk, the dirty bulk and the aggressive cut cycles. This goes back to when I first got into the fitness industry. The way to build a physique, the, the way to

• 31:21Nick Bare?

  The way the train was cyclical, meaning you bulk and then you cut. You bulk and then you cut. You bulk in the fall, winter, and early spring. And then you start your cut just in time for the summer. So you're shredded come beach season or swimsuit season. This was when I first got into the industry, into fitness, the way to do it. And part of the reason is, as I was previously talking about,

• 31:59Nick Bare?

  there is some activation in novelty energy that comes from having these cyclical goals. A bulk and then a cut. You have a plan while you're bulking. You're going to gain weight, be in a chloric surplus, put on size, get stronger. And then you transition to the next phase of the cut. We're going back to maintenance calories and then into a chloric deficit to shred away body fat that you gained during the bulk and expose the hard-earned muscle that was built during that time.

• 32:40Nick Bare?

  So I think there's benefits, there can be benefits to a bulk in a cut, mainly from just having goals and the activation and novelty energy that you get from having a bulk cycle and then a cut cycle. But if not done properly, it becomes sloppy and just inefficient. I've done some dirty bulks in the past where I've gained significant amounts of body fat in hopes of building lean muscle tissue. And then I went and did the cut and I realized after the cut,

• 33:24Nick Bare?

  I really didn't gain much lean tissue during that bulk. I just gained more fat. So really during the bulk, I put on fat. And then during the cut, I lost the fat. But the amount of lean tissue I built during that time wasn't significant. There's been studies and research that shows that massive chloric surpluses do not always yield significantly more muscle tissue and instead often lead to a higher ratio of fat gain. You see, the concept is that when you do a bulk. Now, if we're talking enhanced athletes versus natural athletes, very differently.

• 34:09Nick Bare?

  For, for natural athletes, when you do a bulk and you're going into a chloric surplus and you're putting on body fat, the hope is that you're also building lean muscle tissue during that time. That is the hope. But for a natural athlete, it, it takes significant amount of time to build lean muscle tissue. It just doesn't happen overnight. Now, there are things called newbie gains. Where in, in, in this hypothetical scenario, if I stop training for three years and after three years, I decided it was time to make a change. I'm going all in.

• 34:54Nick Bare?

  I'm doubling down. I started training again. I started tracking my macros. I was eating a cleaner, healthier diet. I'm going to experience very quick gains early on. Commonly called newbie gains. But you're going to gain and then that's going to kind of plateau. And you'll make very small incremental gains after that. So if I look back at just a few months ago, I was in a, an Ironman prep for, I think it was 20 weeks. Around there.

• 35:36Nick Bare?

  And I didn't lift any weights during my Ironman prep. And I lost a lot of size. I lost a lot of muscle. After the Ironman was over, I, I got back into the gym right away. I started lifting weights again. I, I pulled back on my endurance training. I increased my chloric intake and I gained weight and I gained muscle and size pretty quickly. I, I experienced those newbie gains again. But then they plateaued at baseline at a certain point. And from here, it's, it's these very slow incremental gains in growth over years and years and years.

• 36:19Nick Bare?

  So if you go into it thinking that I'm going to do a six-month bulk and I'm going to go into this massive chloric surplus and I'm going to gain all this weight. And with all that weight, I'm also going to gain a lot of strength and muscle and size. It just typically doesn't work in the way that we would want or expect it to. And I share that to say, I don't foresee myself ever again doing a bulk, especially a dirty bulk. A dirty bulk is when you just kind of go all out and eat whatever you want and increase calories significantly

• 37:04Nick Bare?

  in hopes of putting yourself in a chloric surplus, training really hard and heavy and putting on as much muscle as possible. I've found, as the research and studies have shown, that these massive chloric surpluses just do not always yield significantly more muscle tissue. And instead, what happens is that it leads to a higher ratio of fat gain. So in 2023, that was my last bulk that I did. And I probably did a eighth month, eight-month bulk. And I went from like 205 pounds to 230 pounds.

• 37:49Nick Bare?

  I was going back through my, my photos on my phone the other night. I have photos and videos from 2023 when I did my bulk. I mean, I got thick. I was still running. I was running probably 15 to 20-ish miles per week. And my calories, I increased my calories way too fast, too aggressive. I put on significant amounts of body fat. I mean, I was, I was soft and fluffy. I was looking back at these videos and like, oh my gosh. Like sometimes when you're in it, you don't realize how much you gained.

• 38:30Nick Bare?

  But I did an aggressive bulk in 2023, 230 pounds. And it got to a point where it was just uncomfortable. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel healthy. But I will say, my workouts felt incredible. My strength training workouts, I felt stronger. My pumps were insane. Energy was, was great. Like the workouts themselves were awesome. And the fact that I was just eating a ton of food was very enjoyable. But then I went and did a cut in preparation for a bodybuilding competition.

• 39:10Nick Bare?

  And I dieted January, February, and March of that year. And I went from 230 pounds back down to about 195-ish pounds. So I was like 35 pounds. And it was an aggressive cut. But at the end of that cut, what I realized is that during the bulk, I really didn't put on that much lean muscle tissue. And it was kind of a waste of time. I thought when I was in the bulk, I was putting on all the size. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'm getting huge. But a lot of that hugeness was not muscle. It was fat.

• 39:54Nick Bare?

  And that was a great learning lesson and experience because I did the bodybuilding competition. I got as lean as possible. I stepped on stage. It was one of the hardest things I've done. It was a great experience. Learned a lot about diet and caloric deficits and refeeds and overall, I learned a lot from that experience. But one of the biggest key takeaways is that the bulk wasn't worth it. That going into this massive caloric surplus did not yield the lean muscle tissue that I would have thought it was going to or hoped

• 40:29Nick Bare?

  for. So after that, I realized these bulk and cut cyclical aggressive cycles just aren't as effective as we used to think they were, especially for natural athletes. And I now have the perspective of if I want to gain muscle tissue, I want to get stronger, I want to put on some size, I can do that at maintenance. I can do it at maintenance by potentially pulling back on some of my cardiovascular conditioning, some of my running,

• 41:14Nick Bare?

  or going to a slight caloric surplus. And when I say slight caloric surplus, it might be increasing calories by 100 calories per day and monitoring those results over weeks before making any changes. As opposed from going, you know, maintenance calories at 2,500 calories, for example, up to 4,000 overnight. I would do a very slight gradual increase in calories for that caloric surplus in hopes of gaining size and strength and

• 41:55Nick Bare?

  taking it very slow and having realistic expectations that I'm not going to gain muscle, strength, and size as fast as I would hope or expect to, but it's a long-term approach that is sustainable. But you can build muscle, lean muscle tissue by training the right way, eating the right way, at maintenance calories, and/or a slight caloric surplus. But we don't need to go into these super aggressive, dirty bulks when you gain 15, 20, 30-plus pounds. Because like I said, the studies in the research shows that these

• 42:40Nick Bare?

  massive caloric surpluses just do not always yield significantly more muscle tissue. But instead, they lead to a higher ratio of fat gain. If I had to start training all over again, would I run from the start? Running. I've sat on this one for a while. When I first started training, running wasn't even an option. I thought there was lifting and then there was running, but never combined. I was thinking back to when I first started

• 43:23Nick Bare?

  training, what my perspective of running was. And I thought running was reserved for high school cross-country athletes. And to be honest, I didn't aspire to build physiques like the high school cross-country athletes that I was surrounded by in my local community, at my high school. That's just me being honest. When I thought of running, what came to mind was high school, the school day was over, there was a group of guys that went to the gym and trained, and I was part of this group of guys. And then there was a group of guys

• 44:06Nick Bare?

  and girls who would go to cross-country practice. And I was like, I don't want to be doing that. I want to be in the gym, lifting heavy weights, listening to heavy metal, taking pre-workout, and just experiencing the surging testosterone of a 17, 18-year-old boy at that phase of life. I mean, just, it was a great time to be alive. But running was never even a thought or an option. And by not running back then, I was able to spend

• 44:49Nick Bare?

  all my time and energy into building muscle, getting stronger, and learning about bodybuilding. If I look back, I wouldn't change anything about the course of what I learned from training, the way I approached training. Because my first love was the gym and bodybuilding, and I learned a lot by that style of training. I learned so much about diet and nutrition, and tracking macros, and calories, and manipulating your nutrition and training to facilitate

• 45:31Nick Bare?

  a certain response for your physique and body composition. That was so powerful. That was foundational for me. And then when I finally started incorporating running, mainly because I had to in preparation for the military, for my time in the army. And then when I got out of the army and I started training for marathons, and eventually Ironman triathlons, and ultra-marathons, and all of those things, running became a huge part of my life. But if I had to do it all over again, if I had to start training all over again, would I

• 46:13Nick Bare?

  do it differently? And I have to be honest and say, no, I would do it the exact same way. I would prioritize strength training. I would prioritize bodybuilding. And then I would layer on endurance training and running. I'm not saying I wouldn't run from the beginning. But if it was three years from now and I had to start training all over again, I would prioritize building muscle and getting stronger and building my physique. And I would still run, but it wouldn't be the priority. It would be a supplement to my training for

• 46:56Nick Bare?

  the benefits of cardiovascular conditioning, of what it does for your heart and your lungs and capacity of life, energy. But it wouldn't be the priority. I would prioritize strength training, hypertrophy, bodybuilding, lifting. Would I run from the start? Yes, but again, it would not be a priority and it wouldn't be much. I'd be dedicating all of my energy, all my time to building muscle, getting stronger, getting my protein in, hitting my macros,

• 47:32Nick Bare?

  hitting my calories, rebuilding my body composition, my physique, and then at some point, when it felt right, putting more focus and emphasis on running, increasing volume, increasing intensity. But from the start, it wouldn't be my focus. I'd want to understand my limits if I had to start training all over again. And I think it's important to take your training to the limits, to know what's needed versus what's possible. You see, for a lot of people,

• 48:15Nick Bare?

  training is done just to maintain a certain level of health and performance. And I completely respect and I get that. But for me, and I'm sure many of you, I love training. It's much more than just being able to show up as a leader, as a provider, as a protector. In my case, as a husband, as a father. I don't just train to do the bare minimum to

• 48:56Nick Bare?

  be able to hold a standard. And if that's the way and reason you train, I think that's great. But if I'm being honest with myself, I love training. I love being in the gym. I love running. Part of it is protecting and providing and setting a standard for my family. But again, if I'm being honest, much of it is because I love it. I love everything about the lifestyle. And going to the gym is not this nuisance for me. It's not an

• 49:34Nick Bare?

  inconvenience. It is enjoyable. Not all of my morning runs are enjoyable, but it's a commitment that I make, and I get a lot of joy and satisfaction by honoring those commitments. So when it comes to exercise, there's a minimum effective dose and there's a maximum effective dose. The minimum effective dose is the small amount of physical, the smallest amount of physical activity or training stimulus needed to produce a meaningful health, strength, or muscle-building benefit. The smallest amount of physical activity or training stimulus

• 50:15Nick Bare?

  needed to produce. The maximum effective dose is the upper limit of physical training volume, intensity, or frequency beyond which you stop seeing additional physical adaptations or health benefits, and instead risk overtraining, fatigue, or diminishing returns.

• 50:39Nick Bare?

  I like knowing where my limits are.

• 50:44Nick Bare?

  Because for my training,

• 50:48Nick Bare?

  I want to know what the minimum effective dose is. But I don't consider that the standard. And I want to know where the maximum effective dose is. Because I still want to train smart.

• 51:04Nick Bare?

  And finding the most effective and efficient volume, intensity and frequency

• 51:13Nick Bare?

  that is somewhere between the minimum effective dose and the maximum effective dose is where I want to train. Because, let's be honest, I'm a business owner, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a leader. And if I continue to train above the maximum effective dose,

• 51:39Nick Bare?

  I put myself at risk of overtraining, fatigue and diminishing returns. And that doesn't do me any good and doesn't do my family or the people in my life any good.

• 51:51Nick Bare?

  So I want to find

• 51:54Nick Bare?

  the perfect spot between the minimum effective dose and the maximum effective dose. To be able to train hard with the appropriate amount of volume, intensity and frequency that gives me results, that makes me feel good,

• 52:12Nick Bare?

  that allows me to keep improving without overtraining, fatigue or diminishing returns. And the only way you know what's needed versus what's possible is by taking your training to the limits. I have trained probably more times than I'd like to admit above the maximum effective dose for long periods of time. And I have experienced overtraining, fatigue and diminishing returns. But I now know where those limits are.

• 52:45Nick Bare?

  So I know where my range of effective training lies because I've taken my training to the limits. For some people listening to this, it might not be applicable, it doesn't make sense. And you don't want to pursue that level of training and that is fine. But for me, and if I'm being honest with myself, I love training and I love pushing my own personal standard.

• 53:13Nick Bare?

  And in order for me to do that, I have to take my training to the limits. This is one of the reasons I've trained for 100 mile races and Ironman triathlons and I've pushed my marathon to a PR of two hours and 39 minutes. That's why I wake up every morning at you know, 4:30, 4:45 AM and I go log miles and I lift weights in the afternoon. That's why I'm in a high rocks prep right now. I like pushing the limits to know what's possible versus what's needed.

• 53:51Nick Bare?

  But if I had to start training all over again,

• 53:55Nick Bare?

  I'd want to know where those limits lie and I would test those limits every couple months or years to see if they are improving, progressing and/or changing. And that brings us to the answer. Nearly 20 years of training later.

• 54:17Nick Bare?

  As I've already stated in this episode, if I had to start training all over again, I would do a lot of what I've done the same. I'd make some changes along the way.

• 54:33Nick Bare?

  But I think with the way that I'm training right now is the result of everything I've experienced, tried and learned over the last 20 years. And that's hybrid training. That is the combination of being in the gym, strength training, multi-joint compound movements, heavy percentages of a one rep max and a lot of bodybuilding hypertrophy work. And combining that with cardiovascular conditioning, specifically in my case, running.

• 55:09Nick Bare?

  That is the style, that is the methodology that I genuinely love and enjoy.

• 55:17Nick Bare?

  And I have for the last couple of years and would predict and expect that that's probably going to be the way that I train for the rest of my life. It's adaptable, it's flexible, it's sustainable. It provides me the strength and hypertrophy benefits that I know are valuable. It provides me the cardiovascular benefits that I know are valuable. If I get to a point where I can't run anymore, I might use the ergs or bike. I probably won't swim. If I'm an avid swimmer in the next couple of years or the foreseeable future, I will be so surprised. I would rather cycle and be on a bike than swim, but running is my preferred method of conditioning.

• 56:03Nick Bare?

  This style of training provides me opportunities for solitude, listening to podcasts, audiobooks on my early morning runs, learning. And then it benefits performance and aesthetics for someone who is a bodybuilder, a gym rat at heart.

• 56:22Nick Bare?

  But the last 20 years of training has led me to where I am right now.

• 56:28Nick Bare?

  And it's been following a signal. And like I said, ignoring the noise. I train in a way that I love to train. And I know that many of you do as well.

• 56:39Nick Bare?

  So if you're looking for a plan, you're looking for structure, you're looking for a community that is supportive, I would highly encourage you and invite you to check out my training app, the Go One More Method.

• 56:53Nick Bare?

  nickbearfitness.app, sign up today. Get started. There's a seven day free trial. Like I stated, and then after that, it's $14.99 per month or $99 for the year. But there's multiple different training programs in there. There's G1M Daily that releases every Sunday, six new workouts per week. There's nutrition course, there's recipes and there's a very active, engaged community. So if you want a plan, you want structure, something you can open up every morning, know what you're going to do and go do it, that's the place to get started, nickbearfitness.app.

• 57:36Nick Bare?

  So guys, I appreciate you. Hope you enjoyed this episode and as always, go one more.