Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast.
Today's conversation is all about hybrid athlete training, lifting heavy and running far.
And this is very timely for me and the BPN brand.
As you may know, I just wrapped up my Ironman triathlon prep about a month ago.
The race was November 16th, 2025.
We are now in the middle of December approaching 2026.
And since the Ironman ended, my training has shifted back towards a hybrid training model, a blend or combination of endurance training, primarily being running, and then strength training.
And it feels so good to be back in the gym.
I will tell you I've said this many times before, but at the core of who I am, Nick Bear is a meathead.
I love being in the gym.
I love throwing around weight.
I love getting a pump.
I love lifting weights.
I always have.
I always will.
There's times and places to approached training with a more specialized and specific model or methods.
And that's what I had to do during my Ironman prep.
I stopped training, strength training almost completely for 18 to 20 weeks.
I lost a lot of weight.
I lost a lot of size.
I lost a lot of strength, lost a lot of muscle, not necessarily in my lower body, in my legs, but my upper body.
And I got fast and I got fit and it was conducive to endurance training.
It helped me swim faster, bike stronger, run better, more efficient.
And it was fun.
It was for a very specific reason for an Ironman triathlon.
But my favorite way to train is the way that I'm training right now.
It is hybrid.
Now, what is hybrid?
How do we define hybrid training?
We're going to debunk a few things here before we dive into some deeper parts of the conversation.
For this, I went to chat GPT.
What is hybrid training?
And from ChatGPT it says a style of training where you develop strength and power as well as endurance at the same time.
It prioritizes hypertrophy, max strength, and aerobic capacity.
And with hybrid training, it says you may not be the strongest or the fastest.
Truth.
But you'll be able to be highly capable across all domains of fitness.
Hybrid athletes can lift heavy and perform well in endurance events.
And the way that I've described hybrid training.
For the years that I've been practicing the style of fitness is More so than this is the style of training that you do.
I think what makes hybrid training cool and what's made it cool over the years is there's an identity behind it.
As individuals who like to work out and train, maybe compete as athletes who might not be competitive, but maybe are.
There's an identity that you can attach to in terms of the style and way that you like to train.
That identity is hybrid.
You know, if you ask someone, what kind of training do you do?
Oh, I'm a runner.
I run marathons.
I'm a triathlete.
I do triathlons.
I do Ironmans.
I'm an ultra runner.
Well, now there's an identity.
There's a title for this style of training.
What kind of training do you do?
Oh, hybrid, hybrid training.
That makes sense.
A combination of focus on strength and power, as well as aerobic capacity, endurance.
What hybrid training is not, and I've seen this over the years, Because I'd say I've seen hybrid training become more popular since probably 2018, 2019.
And it was right around the period of time, from my perspective at least, during the pandemic.
And before then, there were a lot of runners that I knew.
And there were a lot of strength athletes or people who enjoyed going to the gym and and practice resistance training bodybuilding, powerlifting.
And it was very polarizing.
You chose one domain or the other.
And again from my perspective, in the groups of people that I was surrounded by, the people who were endurance athletes, maybe dabbled in strength training, but it wasn't this perfect combination of the two.
And then the people who were into the gym and strength training and bodybuilding weren't into endurance training.
There were definitely people practicing hybrid training all across the world well before 2018 2019, but I believe it became more popular around that time.
And I do believe that the pandemic was a Kickstarter or initiated this movement that became so popular over the last five, six years.
And if I had to create a hypothesis of why, it's because that, as gyms were closed down during the pandemic, people who enjoyed strength training and bodybuilding and powerlifting started needed to find a new outlet to practice their fitness.
And what's so great about endurance training and running specifically, is that just about everyone can do it.
In some cases like running, you don't need many tools or resources.
It's very accessible, especially during the pandemic.
You can do it outside.
It's not indoors, closed off.
So we saw a lot of traditional strength athletes dabbling and then crossing over into endurance sports and endurance training, running specifically.
And post pandemic, you now have this surge of individuals balancing strength training and endurance training.
The hybrid movement, in my opinion and from what I witnessed, really grew, developed and became more popular from the pandemic, from the shutdown.
Now I've seen over the years as well, there's been a negative response to the term the hybrid athlete.
And I get it.
I see why people might be making these comments and having these concerns.
I guess it might be an easy target because...
For what a hybrid athlete is, or hybrid training mythology.
As ChatGPT said earlier, you may not be the strongest or the fastest, but you'll be highly capable across all fitness domains.
One of the negative connotations around the hybrid athlete is that that it's someone who is not the strongest and is not the fastest, but at the same time they have a strong baseline of fitness.
I think we have to ask ourselves the question of what is an athlete?
And again going to chat GPT.
An athlete is someone who trains their body and mind to perform physical activity at a high level, usually within a specific sport or discipline.
An athlete is anyone who intentionally trains with a goal to improve physical performance.
And to note, you do not need to be a professional or compete on a world stage to be considered an athlete.
And I think one of the reasons there's some negativity around the hybrid athlete or hybrid training online is is, in all honesty, there is this gatekeeping, this unnecessary gatekeeping around the term athlete.
I don't know why, but some people want to gatekeep the term athlete and reserve it for only individuals who are either professionals or competing at an elite or world-class level.
And I think that's just the wrong way to think about it and look at it.
I do believe that anyone who wants to consider themselves an athlete can be an athlete.
It's someone who trains their body and mind to perform physical activity at a high level.
That high level is relative to the individual, usually within a specific sport or discipline.
Again, anyone who intentionally trains with a goal to improve physical performance.
If you love training just as much as I love training.
But you don't compete, you just love to train.
You love to wake up early, go for a run.
You love to prep all of your meals.
Dial in your nutrition strength, train later.
Again, you don't compete on any world stage or at any level.
You can still consider yourself an athlete.
I don't agree with this gatekeeping approach of the term athlete.
I just don't think it's necessary or deserved.
And I believe that anyone who moves their body and tries to improve their physical performance can consider themselves an athlete.
Now there's a difference between being an athlete and being a professional athlete.
A professional athlete is someone who competes at an elite, world-class level and is paid to train and compete within that domain or sport.
But there is a difference between being an an athlete and being a professional athlete.
I just wanted to get that out of the way because I like, maybe and probably many of you love this style of training the hybrid training, hybrid athlete training approach.
And I see negativity around it online and I don't know why, for any reasonable reasons.
But I don't want anyone to be discouraged to call themselves a hybrid athlete, to embrace a hybrid athlete training approach or model, because of the negativity they see or are exposed to online, on social media.
If you love that style of training, just like I do, No matter what people say about it, lean in and love it.
That's my approach.
If there's something you want to do and doesn't hurt anyone else and it's morally correct and it's out of a place of true, proper character and people don't agree with you, lean in, double down, stand firm, brothers and sisters.
Because I love hybrid training.
I'm going to stand here right now and say, I love hybrid training.
I love the identity of being able to call myself a hybrid athlete.
And people might come at me for it and that's okay.
But I want you guys to know that if you're in a similar situation, you have that same passion.
You can love it too.
Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
It's all good.
It's all going to be okay.
Now, who pioneered the hybrid athlete?
Well, I think we have to give some credit to the ancient Greek athletes back in the day who were arguably the first hybrid athletes. who approached a training method that prioritized strength, speed, size, potentially, and endurance.
The ancient Greek athletes viewed fitness as holistic, which holistic is a complete picture rather than isolated components.
The ancient Greek athletes viewed fitness as a holistic approach.
Strength, speed, size, endurance, as opposed to specialized.
That's one of the reasons I love hybrid training.
It is a holistic approach, or can be a holistic approach to health fitness performance, body composition optimization as opposed to specialized.
Specialized training would be in a similar way that I was training a few weeks ago for my Ironman.
That was very specific and specialized training to accomplish a very specific and specialized goal.
I was training to swim 2.4 miles bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles.
I knew exactly what the race and competition was that I was training for.
And I had 18 weeks to prepare for that specific race, that Ironman triathlon.
So my training was very specific, based off of what I had to improve upon and and how I had to get fitter and faster and better.
It wasn't necessarily a holistic approach, but it was a very specialized and specific approach.
So if we're going to give anyone credit for the hybrid athlete, I think it's got to be the ancient Greeks.
But I also believe that the military has embodied hybrid training for a long time now, years and years and years and years.
And as I was kind of thinking through this and just how military individuals specifically combat arms military service members train and prepare for their job being war battle fighting, I had to reflect on how my military training has shaped my approach to physical performance and training.
Now a little background, which some of you may know, but a refresher.
My first love for fitness came from strength training and bodybuilding.
And this is back when I was 16, 17, 18 years old.
That's when I discovered pre-workout supplement industry.
I was working in a, a strength bodybuilding style gym, a pretty traditional commercial gym.
And I just fell in love with everything.
I fell in love with the training.
I fell in love with the industry.
I fell in love with, uh, supplement space.
I was going to the Arnold Fitness Expos.
I was watching bodybuilding videos online.
I was on bodybuilding.com forums.
The lifestyle as a whole was just very attractive to me.
I fell in love with it and I went all in.
And I'm the type of person when I find something that I love and I'm passionate about, I go all in.
I want to learn everything I can.
That's how I was first introduced to fitness.
And that's where my first love started.
It was strength training.
It was bodybuilding, hypertrophy, eventually dabbled in some powerlifting.
But the gym, like lifting weights is where it all started.
And then I started running when I was late in high school a little bit, but really when I got to college, because when I was in high school I applied for an Army ROTC scholarship.
And I was awarded that scholarship.
And I applied that scholarship to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania IUP, which is out near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
That's where I went to school.
So I went to college to study nutrition on an Army ROGC contract.
So I knew that I was going to be going active duty Army immediately upon graduating college.
I was going to commission into the Army as a second lieutenant go do my training and I had a four-year contract and commitment with the US.
Army.
So when I got to college...
And I was enrolled in the Army ROTC program.
We would do PT, physical training, I believe it was every morning.
So it was like 6 to 7 a.m. every morning.
And we did a lot of running.
And this is where I had to start running more.
I knew that I was going to have to run in ROTC.
I knew I was going to have to do a lot of running when I commissioned as a second lieutenant, especially when I found out I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the infantry and leading an infantry platoon.
I knew I was going to be doing a lot of running.
So I only started running at that point in my life because I was preparing for the next chapter of life of what I was going to have to do.
The type of fitness I was going to have to bring to my professional career and job at the time.
And when I first got introduced to ROTC and then...
After ROTC and graduating from college, I went to Fort Benning, Georgia for a year, was in a year of training there, and then ended up being stationed at Fort Hood, Texas in 2014 as my first duty assignment.
And I was introduced to the traditional military, in this case army infantry army, PT routines.
So we would do physical training every morning for an hour and we'd have a break, get breakfast, come back to work and we'd do our normal work day.
And what I found is that these traditional military workouts that we would do that were led by some of the non-commissioned officers, sometimes some of the officers, sometimes team leaders, soldiers within the platoon or company or, at some times, at the battalion level.
They were very non-specific in the way that they were programmed.
There was a little bit of running.
There was a little bit of muscular endurance work.
There was some calisthenics.
It was a little bit of everything.
And from my perspective, I thought this was a poor way to train, if I'm being honest.
It felt like we were doing a lot of workouts, not in every unit that I was assigned to, but there were certain people who would run physical training, lead physical training, and that was not their specialty, but they would just put together a program to sometimes just check the box.
And we would do a workout that incorporated some pushups, some pull-ups, a little bit of running.
Maybe some heavy water can carries some sprints, jumping jacks, burpees.
It was like this combination of a bunch of different types of training, but in a very non-structured, methodical way.
And I never felt like I was improving my fitness with these workouts.
Yes, they would make me tired and I would become fatigued and I would sweat.
But I didn't find that I was progressing in a lot of these workouts.
So when it was my turn to lead physical training, or at least be included in the programming and structuring of our PT program for our platoon, when I was eventually assigned to Fort Hood and I was a platoon leader and I was in charge of about 40 soldiers and non-commissioned officers, I knew that a lot of my soldiers and non-commissioned officers also like to lift weights in the afternoon or the evening after getting off work.
So we made the decision that we were going to use a lot of our morning PT sessions to run.
And then we would do our strength training later in the afternoon or the evening.
Now, this wasn't every morning that we were running, but my platoon at least did a lot of running.
And I was known to be one of those platoon leaders who loved to run.
And the truth is that I didn't really love to run back then, but I knew that I wanted to spend that time in the dedicated to a specific domain of fitness that I could actually improve upon and separate my endurance training and my resistance training within the day by a few hours.
Much of the military workouts that are planned and structured and incorporated at least when I was in the military, I believe focused on muscular endurance as opposed to muscular strength.
And there's a difference.
Muscular strength is done typically in a gym with a load that you're carrying.
It's the maximum force a muscle can produce in one effort.
This is typically heavyweight, few reps.
Think barbell training, kettlebell training, dumbbell training, even machines or in some cases even bodyweight movements.
And then there's muscular endurance, which is the ability to sustain repeated contractions or holds, typically done with lighter weight and many, many reps.
So, from the many military workouts that I was exposed to when I was in the military, they were programmed with the intent of building muscular endurance as opposed to muscular strength.
So I watched the way that we trained.
I watched the way that workouts were being structured and Some things I liked, some things I didn't like.
Many things we were doing weren't producing progress or improvement or results.
And it's when the workouts were just this random selection of movements and exercises and reps and sets that made you tired.
They made you fatigued, but there wasn't progressive overload incorporated.
They weren't structured appropriately.
And that's when I made the conscious decision when I got to my platoon we're going to separate the focus of each day.
On some days, if we're running, we're running the whole time.
Some days we're practicing muscular strength, muscular endurance work and we're going to do that the whole time.
It was pretty rare that we were combining endurance and strength work within a PT session.
Because I found we needed the appropriate amount of time to dedicate to that specific domain of fitness.
So we could actually stimulate the adaptation we're trying to experience and then build upon progressive overload, slowly increasing volume intensity, speed to experience growth adaptation results.
So the military definitely shaped the way I approached training, the way that I saw people making progress improving, getting fitter, getting faster, getting stronger.
And then I watched in a lot of ways how to not program fitness appropriately so that you don't receive the results, the improvement that you're hoping for, from the stimulus through the adaptation.
Now, I believe that hybrid training is the most optimal, enjoyable, and sustainable way to train.
Few reasons why.
One, there's flexibility to your training routine.
A good example of that.
When you're in a very specific style of training, it makes a flexible routine, a flexible schedule, travel very difficult and challenging.
Like when I am and when I was training for an Ironman, I had to know exactly what I was training when I was training, how long I was training, the intent of that training.
Once I could fit it in my schedule for the day around the other things that I had going on, but also too, so I could have all the fuel prepared for that training session and making sure I'm eating enough for those training sessions to fuel and also recover from that day.
There's a lot of intentionality that is required and flexibility sometimes plays against you.
You know, there've been a lot of people that I've met who want to train for an Ironman, but they're going into a busy season of life.
They might have a lot of travel requirements and demands that they're already committed to for the next couple of weeks and months and that will disrupt their training.
So they can't train for the Ironman or it's just a busier season of life.
And it just doesn't make sense.
But with hybrid training this approach of endurance running in many of our cases and strength training that provides you a lot of flexibility to your training routine.
You can change things up.
You can move things around.
A good example is this past weekend, we were in Nashville, Tennessee.
We were in Nashville for a running event.
One of our retail partners, The Exchange, who's based out of East Nashville.
If you're from the Nashville area, it's one of the coolest running stores I've ever been to.
Absolutely incredible, beautiful place.
A curated selection of really cool running brands, fuel, apparel, shoes.
The exchange carries BPN products.
And the last couple of years they have hosted this run called the shortest day of the year.
Longest run of your life.
Because it is, you know, based on the time of year, it is the shortest day of the year.
And the call to action is to come run from sunup to sundown.
And we were a part of that event this past weekend.
There were about 400 people who showed up and traveled from within the surrounding area and then from all over the country to come in and throw down.
And it was in a really cool part of East Nashville.
It's this old abandoned airstrip, which goes into Shelby Bottoms Park, Someone ran a hundred miles.
Many people ran 50 miles.
Some people ran five miles, but it was just a collection of really incredible people.
The exchange, BPN hosting this event.
And it was just, it was a really good time to invest into the community.
But we were in Nashville from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning.
I couldn't make it to the gym every day.
I made it to the gym a few times while we were there.
But based off of our routine and schedule, and I flew out to Nashville with the whole family.
So I had Steph with me, my wife, our two kids Charlie Nico, and then my mother-in-law Kim.
Training and getting to the gym regularly wasn't necessarily a priority.
One of the things I've had to learn at this chapter and phase of life.
Family comes before me getting to the gym.
And the thing about going to a gym is one, you have to travel to and from typically.
There are hours of operation that you have to work within.
If you go to the gym during a really busy time, it might take you much longer to do your workout as opposed to a time that isn't as busy.
This past weekend is a great example of I couldn't make it to the gym to lift weights, based off of the way my program is set up every day.
So I just ran more.
I walked down the front door with my running shoes on, layered up based off of the weather conditions.
It was cold in Nashville this past weekend.
I wore my gloves, wore my beanie, wore a jacket, and logged some extra miles.
Was it what I had programmed and scheduled for that week?
No.
But I still got in some great fitness because there's an element of flexibility that you can apply.
Now if I would have been, you know, in a hotel or an Airbnb right next to a gym that had 24, seven access.
And it was a blizzard.
It was snowing.
I couldn't go outside and run.
Well, I could have went to the gym more than running, but this style of training is provides you the flexibility based off of life situations and circumstances and travel and even injuries, or just flexibility of what you're feeling for that day.
If you wake up one morning and you're supposed to hit an upper body strength push workout and you're not really feeling it but you're feeling like a nice 10 to 12 mile run, go knock out that 10 to 12 mile run.
Feed the soul.
Listen to your body.
It allows for auto-regulation and seasons of focus.
With hybrid training, your training can be adapted to different goals, different times of the year, seasons of life.
You can change things up.
In one training block or one quarter or one season.
You might want to run more because it's really nice out and more people are running within your community and group of friends, or you want to go rip a fast half marathon or 10K in a couple of weeks or months.
You can increase your running volume and maybe reduce your strength training volume and intensity.
Or if it's a winter, like in my case right now, and you're you just wrapped up a big endurance prep again, like in my case right now.
Maybe you want to put on some size and bulk up a little bit.
Put a few LBs on a few pounds, eat some more food and get really strong.
You can do that.
You know, what I've loved about this hybrid training model over the years is, occasionally I set up a big fitness school.
I'll put it on the calendar and I'll go into a big prep like this Ironman that I just wrapped up.
That was 18 weeks of dedicated focus of training for a specific goal being the Ironman triathlon.
And, just being honest, when I finished the Ironman, I wanted to take a little break from endurance training.
I'm still running. but my running volume is much lighter and lower than it was during Ironman prep.
But right now in this season, I am so hungry and excited to get back in the gym and strength train.
It allows for the flexibility, this holistic approach in view to fitness.
Now I wrapped up the Ironman and I took the race was Sunday.
Monday, I took off.
Tuesday, I was like, I'm going to the gym.
I want to throw some weights around.
I'm so pumped to just move some iron again.
And it felt so good.
As weak as I was getting back in the gym and that first one to two weeks was painful in terms of recovery and soreness felt really good to get back in the gym again.
So I'm in a season right now where I love being back in the gym.
I'm still running, but running volume is significantly lower.
I'm running between 20 and 25 miles a week right now to maintain a base level of aerobic capacity.
But the focus right now, the fun right now, is within strength resistance bodybuilding, hypertrophy style of training.
I also believe that hybrid training is the most optimal, enjoyable and sustainable because it focuses on health and performance.
It's a great balance of performance outcomes and initiatives, but also prioritizes health in terms of optimal recovery, metabolic regulation, hormonal regulation.
I think it's just like, not only from a performance data point, but also health wellness data point as well.
It is the most balanced.
It's the most optimal.
It's the most sustainable.
And also hybrid training facilitates a fitness ability that invites community brotherhood, sisterhood and relationships bonding.
Again going back to being in a very specific, focused effort like this Ironman prep I was just in.
That was a season of training that provided a lot of silence, a lot of solitude, both powerful, but it's sometimes being lonely.
You're alone a lot of times.
This morning, I just hit a back training workout here at BPN HQ with Trey.
Me and Trey went through about a 90-minute back and biceps workout.
We had a conversation the whole workout, talking in between sets.
It was a blast.
I had so much fun and got a great workout, had a great pump.
My back and biceps are torched right now, but we had great conversation during the whole 90 minutes.
I have this standard that when I'm in a more holistic approach to fitness, health and performance, truly embodying hybrid fitness, I want to be able to go into the gym and rip a workout with my boys and really throw down and push each other.
But then wake up the next morning and go run 10 miles with those same guys or another group of people.
I never want to lose the ability to do either one of those.
Now, when I lean in, or when you lean into a more specific style of training for a specific goal, you may have more of an unbalanced ability to one or the other.
If you go into a bodybuilding prep, when you're deep into that prep, going and running an easy 10 miles with your friends might be challenging.
And at the same time, if you're in an Ironman, triathlon or a marathon build and you're not strength training much, if your friends ask you to come throw down in the gym, it might be a little bit challenging.
But those are during the seasons of training, when you have a specific goal which requires specialized training.
Hybrid, which can be competitive, but also competitive.
I think, more applicable to lifestyle, something that you can do and practice every day of your life.
It facilitates that really strong balance.
So my current programming, coming off of my Ironman prep, now hybrid training again.
I'll give a sample, but I'll have some caveats to that.
So Monday, Friday, Five mile run in the morning, which takes me 38, 40 minutes.
And then lower body strength in the afternoon.
Tuesday, push strength workout.
So this is chest, triceps, maybe a little bit of shoulders in there.
Wednesday five mile run in the morning and then a pull strength workout in the afternoon.
Being back biceps, maybe some traps for adults.
Thursday, lower body strength.
Friday, five mile run in the morning, and then shoulders and arms strength in the afternoon.
Saturday, long run, which is anywhere from eight to maybe 12 miles and then Sunday off or I repeat.
So when I share this, this routine not every Monday is going to be five mile run.
Lower body strength.
Not every Tuesday is push strength.
Not every Wednesday is five mile run, pull strength, so on and so forth.
Sometimes it's, instead of taking an off day on Sunday, I'll just start the cycle all over again.
So in this case, instead of taking an off day Sunday, I'll do a lower body strength workout on Sunday.
And then Monday would be a five mile run and push strength.
So I typically don't mess with the running days.
I like to run Monday morning, Wednesday morning, Friday morning, and then Saturday.
But the strength training days may rotate on a cycle that isn't applicable to what I just shared.
Sometimes I switch things up, uh And some weeks, based off of my schedule, what I have going on or just how I feel like training, I'll do a push, pull lower, split.
So it's push, pull, lower, repeat.
Maybe an off day Sunday, maybe just keep rotating through that push, pull, lower, push, pull, lower.
That's my current programming.
I like to hit a lower body twice a week.
I like to hit chest once a week, back once a week, shoulders once a week.
I hit arms twice a week.
Arms are just biceps, triceps, two body parts that can recover pretty quickly.
Smaller muscle groups don't get taxed as much.
And I find that you can do more frequency on arms.
But if you hit chest really hard, you might need a significant amount of time to recover.
If you hit back really hard, you might need a significant amount of time to recover.
But the way that I approach two lower body strength days a week is one of those lower body strength days is focused on quads, quad dominant day.
And the other lower body strength day is a hamstring and glute focused or dominant day.
And something that I've been incorporating more recently is the combination or, I guess balance, of unilateral and bilateral movements when it comes to lower body strength.
So bilateral meaning unilateral, meaning two legs at once.
Think a leg press or a barbell squat, for example.
You're using both legs simultaneously in one movement.
Unilateral, meaning one leg at a time.
This could be Bulgarian split squats.
This could be walking barbell or dumbbell lunges.
This could be weighted step-ups.
But I like to have one day that is quad focused, one day that is hamstring glute focused.
I'm barbell squatting once a week and I do this typically on my quad dominant day.
But I do believe that when most people train lower body strength, The movements they typically select are quad dominant and they're not training hamstring and quad or hamstring and glute exercises enough.
So I try to do about a 50-50 split of lower body exercises, 50 being quad dominant, 50 being glute and hamstring dominant.
Some of my favorite lower body strength movements right now.
Barbell squat is probably not my favorite movement.
I do barbell squats every week, but it's not like for me, the king of lower body exercises.
I love lunges. whether it's barbell or dumbbell.
I prefer barbell lunges more than dumbbell lunges just because I feel that I can load more weight and I can keep my back more erect, more straight.
So barbell lunges are some of my favorites.
Bulgarian split squats, some of my favorites.
Romanian deadlifts, for hamstring and glute.
We recently got a hip thrust machine here at BPN HQ.
You don't need a hip thrust machine.
You can always just set up a hip thrust station using a bench and a barbell, but hip thrust for glute activation and building super powerful.
I've been doing reverse hyperextensions recently for glutes, hamstrings, posterior chain.
Again, some of my favorite movements.
But I also love a traditional leg press and hack squat as well.
I love just trashing my legs on a lower body strength day.
But I think it's important that if you are incorporating weight, two lower body strength days per week,
Try to split them up where one day is quad focused and the other day is hamstring and glute focused.
Now, when it comes to programming your hybrid training, this is definitely very case by case and individually specific.
Some of the questions you got to ask yourself, what are your goals?
And your goals might change based off the season or The time of the year.
The strength block what you're trying to improve and build upon.
Do you have a strength focus?
Do you have an endurance focus?
Do you have a race or a competition coming up that requires more specialized training?
Do you have a physique or aesthetic focus?
I think about the last two to three years of my training and there's been times where there's a focus on strength.
That is the primary focus.
I am structuring workouts.
I am structuring frequency of how often I'm hitting body parts.
I'm structuring my complimentary endurance training or running based off of a strength goal.
When I'm in a endurance prep or competition prep, my training will reflect that.
Same goes for if I'm trying to build my endurance, but still incorporating resistance training, strength training, my training will reflect that.
And then if I have a physique goal or focus, aesthetic focus, my training will be more hypertrophy focused and maybe a little bit less running different forms of cardio.
But your goals should dictate how your program is set up.
100%.
If you want to get faster, if you want to improve your running ability, but you're spending more time in the gym strength training than you are running or any type of endurance activity building aerobic capacity.
It's really hard to say that you're going to build endurance by spending more and more time in the gym.
Resistance training.
To build endurance, you probably have to be doing more endurance work.
So what are your goals?
And that will determine how to set up your program.
Another question you have to ask yourself how much time do you have or want to dedicate to training?
If you want to train one hour a day and that's all you have well, maybe you do a push-pull leg split, where three days a week are dedicated to strength.
And then you run three days a week.
So that's a six-day training split where you're doing three strength days and three runs, with one off day.
It's a great split.
You're training one hour a day, six hours a week.
That's a hybrid approach.
If you want to increase the amount of training and you can't fit it all into one training session, or you don't want to then you might have to take the approach that I take, where three days a week I wake up extra early to knock out my five mile run before the family wakes up, So I can get more training in and dedicate the afternoon to more strength training.
So it's how much time do you have or do you want to dedicate to training?
What is your experience and skill level?
You can't just come out of the gates training 10, 12 plus hours a week.
You got to start low and slow and build into it. or you risk injury over training.
Um, it's just not the most efficient way to build into volume.
So what is your experience?
What is your skill level?
You know, some of the questions that I receive frequently about hybrid training and how to set up your programming is one uh, How does putting on size and weight affect running?
And I'll just share from some of my personal experience.
When I was in my Ironman prep.
I'll keep going back to Ironman prep just because it was only a month ago.
And it's my last applicable specialized fitness prep that I've been in.
And it was very specialized.
It was all endurance, very little strength.
I got leaner.
I lost a lot of weight.
All my training was dedicated to building aerobic capacity, endurance, stamina, speed.
Running in that prep felt effortless on many days.
Up into a 22 mile run, feeling effortless, like feeling very, very strong all 22 miles.
Now that I've transitioned back and do a hybrid approach, I'm putting size back on, I'm putting mass back on, I'm putting weight back on.
My legs feel heavier when I go run based off the two lower body strength days per week.
It has definitely affected my running.
Even a month being removed from Ironman prep, with the changes to my training style, the changes to my weight, changes to some of my size, which is slowly coming back on and rebuilding runs, just feel different.
Legs don't feel as poppy.
I feel a little heavier.
Not necessarily sluggish, but not as effortless.
So putting on size, putting on weight, can and will potentially affect your running.
But it just comes with the holistic approach to fitness.
There are ways to truly balance both, but I love putting on size and strength.
I don't lift weights just to be stronger and be fitter, but I lift weights because I want to put on some size and mass.
And the diet that I implement into my training facilitates putting on some size and mass.
One of the other questions I often get is around how to separate hard endurance days from, or sessions and heavy lifting.
And this is why I personally like to separate the two.
Now, I think back to when I first started hybrid training.
This was before having kids.
This was before or right after Steph and I got married.
And we would essentially spend the whole day at BP and HQ.
And we'd get here at 6 a.m. and we'd be at the office until 6 p.m., 7 p.m.
We'd work, we'd work out, we'd hang out.
We'd go to dinner with the team, which was just a big old family.
And I would do all my training in the afternoon.
So we would run first and then we'd go straight into a lift.
Sometimes we would run for an hour. seven to eight miles.
And as soon as we got back, we drink our pre-workout, get some carbs in, and then lift for an hour.
So it'd be a two-hour training session.
That's not necessarily my approach anymore.
One because I felt like I was sacrificing a lot of my potential in strength training, resistance training.
And in many cases, in many days, it's hard to dedicate two plus hours to training when I'm not in an Ironman prep, for example.
So I like separating my endurance efforts, my endurance sessions and my resistance training sessions by multiple hours.
So I personally like to run right when I wake up.
I've always been that way.
Those are just, for me, the most enjoyable runs.
I don't prefer or even enjoy running in the afternoon or the evenings.
I like to run.
As soon as I wake up, get some fuel in me run, come back to the house, eat breakfast, start the day, work for a few hours and then strength train a few hours later, after my body's recovered.
I've had a few meals in me.
I've gotten some carbs, rehydrated.
So I found, in that way of setting up your training, you can hammer in your endurance training, you can hammer in your resistance or strength training and you can apply maximal effort by allowing for a few hours in between, in multiple meals, potentially where the run is.
Doesn't sacrifice your effort in your strength training session.
Now, based off of your circumstance situation day timeline work family, all these things you might have to do, both back to back.
But if you have the ability to, I found personally it is a more effective way workout in both domains of fitness, to separate the two by a few hours and a few meals potentially.
And the last thing that I want to talk about when it comes to hybrid training.
I think this is probably the most commonly asked question and something that I've had to learn how to balance and program and implement over the years.
Most commonly asked question, How do you balance lower body strength days with running?
And it's going to come with some trial and error, some testing and experience.
What I have personally found is my lower body gets hit with DOMS like clockwork.
DOMS is delayed onset muscle soreness.
So if I hit legs really hard, say on Monday, Tuesday morning, I'll wake up and they're heavy.
They're a little tired, but they're not overly sore.
Come Wednesday, say 48 hours post-exercise, they are more sore than the day prior.
That is DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.
So I can anticipate.
It doesn't necessarily always change the way that I set up my training, but it's having that awareness and that anticipation of knowing what to expect post certain workouts.
So I know, if I'm waking up Monday morning and I'm running and I'm waiting a few hours to recover, getting a few meals in me some carbs protein, healthy fats Then when I go in to my strength workout in the afternoon on Monday, I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling strong.
By Wednesday, I have another five mile run in the morning.
My legs are going to be heavy.
They're in some cases going to feel like center blocks.
But I have the realization of knowing, okay, I'm experiencing DOMS right now.
They're going to be heavy when I start, but they're probably going to shake out and feel a little fresher towards the end of the run.
Again, get some fuel, some nutrition in me.
Hit a strength training workout later that afternoon, feeling good, feeling strong.
And this is another one of the reasons that I like to separate my strength days lower body strength days from one being quad dominant to the other being hamstring and glute dominant.
I like hitting my quad dominant day early in the week and then doing my hamstring glute dominant day later in the week, because I found that I can run more efficiently, more comfortably just better.
My long run comes Saturday and after a closer hamstring and glute dominant lower body day, as opposed to if I hit a quad dominant lower body strength day, and then shortly after that, try to go for a long run, it's going to affect me in a more meaningful way.
But this is again, the importance of progressive overload.
And when you start a new program, you don't want to go zero to 100.
You want to slowly increase the training volume and intensity to see how your body adapts to the stimulus and recovers, so that you can keep improving upon your fitness and just having the awareness.
I mean, even having... a notebook that you carry around with you, a training log.
They're so old school, but I believe they're so important.
Have a training log writing down your workouts and then just a little note after each workout of how you're feeling or maybe the next day how you feel from the previous workout.
And then you can adjust or modify your endurance training, your running, based off of your level of soreness or your ability to recover.
In some cases, it might be easier to incorporate a different style of aerobic conditioning other than running, based off the level of soreness that you have.
If you do a hard lower body strength day and you're super taxed two days after and you have a run that you're supposed to do but you know that that run might bury you more than it's going to help improve your fitness.
Instead of running, hop on a bike or choose an alternate mode of aerobic conditioning that's going to provide the same stimulus but maybe be less taxing on your muscles, your joints, your lower body.
So you can get the aerobic capacity benefits without just burning yourself to make it harder for you to recover.
So balancing lower body strength days and running in the beginning you're going to find it's probably challenging.
But as you navigate and you test and you learn and you apply what you're learning, you'll find out what works best for you.
How should you space out your lower body strength days?
Maybe for you, it's just one lower body strength day a week as opposed to two.
And that works better for you.
Especially if you're in a season where you're trying to improve your endurance more than your muscle building or strength capacity.
Maybe one lower body strength day makes more sense than two for you.
So you can then incorporate more running or aerobic conditioning days.
But a lot of your programming comes down to what are your goals?
What works best for your schedule routine?
How much time do you have or can you commit to training?
And then how is your body recovering improving developing, based off of your individual needs and uniqueness?
You know, for some people, certain body parts just respond better than others.
Some people have very responsive legs to lower body strength training and they only have to train their lower body once a week.
And that stimulus is enough to provide the adaptation for growth, for strength, for everything they need.
For some people, more frequency is required.
Maybe two hard strength days a week.
So it's individual case by case.
But I wanted to lay out this framework for why I love hybrid athlete training.
What it is, what it is not, how the military shaped my approach to training and how I fell in love with the hybrid method, and then how I set up my program.
And as I shared my current programming with you, I adjust that and modify that frequently.
But I know that when I'm in this more holistic approach to fitness hybrid training and there's not a specific goal that requires specialized training to accompany it, I can be more flexible.
I can have weeks where I'm running more and strength training less.
I can have weeks where I'm strength training more and running less.
That's the beauty in hybrid training.
It's flexible.
It's adaptable.
It keeps it fun, keeps it engaging.
And honestly, I love it.
I love every part of it.
So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
We'll have more hybrid athlete content coming into the new year.
Love you guys.
Appreciate you.
And as always, go on more.
