Nerijus Bagdonas: Diet & Workout Routine For A Lean & Healthy Body

Around 9 years ago, I was living in Murray Hill in NYC.

One day, I’m outside and I see this woman on the corner who looks like superwoman. I thought, “I’m definitely going to talk to her.” I went up and talked to her and a friend she was with.

A week later, I’m walking out of a restaurant in the same area. I look up and see this 6’3’’ super human dude walking towards me. He walks right up to me and says, “Are you Marc Perry?” I said, “Um….Yes”. He then said, “I heard you met my girlfriend last week.”

Nerijus and I ended up connecting, and we have done several workouts together and I’ve learned a lot from him. And he’s really been inspirational to me; he’s very mobile and strong yet he’s the opposite of a stiff bodybuilder.

This podcast will help you learn the mindset of someone who reaches a very high level of fitness, while still being healthy and grounded.

What You’ll Learn

• #1 piece of advice to stay consistent
• Top 3 bodyweight & weightlifting exercises
• Why he doesn’t eat processed foods
• 1 food he eats nearly every day
• His eating & workout philosophy

Listen Now

Listen on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.

Links

About Nerijus

• Workout With Nerijus
• Nerijus on Instagram
• Nerijus on Twitter
• Nerijus on Facebook
• Nerijus on Youtube

Exercises Mentioned

• Pistol Squat (1st exercise)
• Sissy Squat (2nd exercise)
• Crossover Pistol Squat (Last exercise)
• Jefferson Curl
• Skin The Cat

About Nerijus Bagdonas

Nerijus Bagdonas is a holistic movement, strength and lifestyle coach. He integrates mobility, strength, and skill building using a variety of disciplines, such as gymnastics, dance, yoga, martial arts, and the traditional strength training principles. Nerijus has 20 years of coaching experience, a degree in Kinesiology, numerous training and performance coaching certifications. He’s been featured as an expert and fitness model in several different major media publications.

Transcript

Marc Perry:
Hey guys, welcome to the BuiltLean Podcast. I’m Marc Perry, the creator of BuiltLean which helps men with demanding careers get lean, strong, and functionally fit with exceptional energy. And so today, I have Nerijus Bagdonas with me. And so Nerijus is a holistic movement, strength, and lifestyle coach. He integrates mobility, strength, and skill building using a variety of disciplines such as gymnastics, dance, yoga, martial arts, and the traditional strength training principles. Nerijus has 20 years of coaching experience, a degree in kinesiology, numerous training and performance coaching certifications, and he’s been featured as an expert and fitness model in several different media publications for years.

And so it’s actually kind of funny how I first met Nerijus. This is going back eight, nine years ago. And so I was in Murray Hill, living in Murray Hill at the time, I had a training practice there, and so I see this woman on the corner of the street, and I’m like… She’s like super woman, she’s super attractive, I’m like, “Hmm, I’m gonna talk to her.” So I end up going up and talking to her, and then fast forward a week later, I’m getting out of this health food joint that I used to go to and I’m coming out of it, and all of a sudden, I’m walking forward, I see this six-three super human person walking… Super human dude walking towards me, I’m like, “What is going on here?” And he’s walking right up to me, he’s a big dude, and he comes up and he’s like, “Hey, are you Marc Perry?” And I’m like, “Um, yeah.” He’s like, “Well, I heard you met my girlfriend last week.”

I’m like, “Oh yeah.” [laughter] And so it’s pretty funny how we met, but ever since then, we actually connected and we’ve done several workouts together. And Nerijus has reached a super high level of health and fitness, one I aspire to, and he’s really been inspirational to me. So I’m extremely excited to chat with him today and share his wisdom with you. And so with that said, thank you so much, Nerijus, for joining today. [laughter]

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Absolutely. It’s my pleasure. I just realized how funny the story is because just 10 minutes ago, the girl that you were talking about texted me. She lives in Munich and I live in Berlin, and she was asking me if I’m doing some online coaching because she’s looking for a coach.

Marc Perry:
Nice. [chuckle]

Nerijus Bagdonas:
So, how random. And I said, “Hey, I have to go to talk to Marc. I’ll text you later.” So this is super fascinating. But I’m so glad that we met because I think she mentioned you and I looked you up and I just was really impressed with all the things that you were doing. So when I saw you on the street, I just walked up to you, and I’m so glad that we met.

Marc Perry:
Awesome. Awesome, man. So let’s dive in, and… You’ve been at this for a long time, you’ve been at this for 20 years. And so why did you first decide to become a fitness professional?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I was five years old, and I watched a Shaolin movie, and it had the most intense effect on me. At that moment, at five years old, I knew that this is what I wanted to dedicate my life to. So I just knew that it was about developing and discovering my physical capabilities and my mental control and discipline, I just… I saw what those monks were able to do with their bodies, with their concentration, and I was just, “That’s it.” I had a vision of me being an old man with a white beard and living in the mountains teaching martial arts, and so that’s how it started for me. So as soon as I begged my parents… My parents were super young, they were 20 when I was born. I begged them to take me to martial arts schools, and in the beginning they couldn’t afford it, but then a friend of a friend was a Kung Fu teacher and then I started taking Kung Fu, and then when we moved to Pankration, which is Greek mixed martial art, and I just did whatever martial arts I could do ’cause we moved around a lot. And that’s how it all started for me.

And then since then, my modalities have changed. I’ve gotten… I was a really skinny teenager, and then I wanted to gain some muscle and started strength training and competed in bodybuilding at some point. And then I got back to a little bit more performance kind of training, a little bit more to body weight training, gymnastics type of training. I’m now more into even dance and see how that relates to strength training as well. But the whole idea of me wanting to be the best, strongest, most nimble, most flexible, the best version of myself, it started when I was five.

Marc Perry:
That’s pretty cool, man. [chuckle] I think it’s… Also, I’ve been interested in it for a long time, and that’s a really powerful story. And you just mentioned something, and actually that… It leads to my next question, which is how you’ve had a journey. You were a competitive martial artist in karate, you were literally did NPC bodybuilding. I don’t know if people really appreciate what that means, [chuckle] he was literally a bodybuilder on stage.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
In the tiny trunks.

Marc Perry:
Exactly, exactly, the whole nine yards and so… And you shifted, then you became a super in-demand fitness model, right? You’d literally run on the cover of a major magazine, and you’ve continued to evolve. So I’m kind of curious, can you talk a little bit about how you’ve evolved and where you are now?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah. I think, in a way, my evolution makes sense, and I don’t think it’s as original as I thought it was. I think most people start with the intention of wanting to look good, they want to be sexy, they want to be attractive, and so as a teenager that’s what I wanted. So initially, I had that martial arts passion and that’s what I started with, but then when I was a teenager, I moved to the States. I’m originally from Lithuania, and at 15, I moved to the States and I didn’t fit in at all. I was like a little black sheep and I didn’t speak English, I dressed differently and I was super skinny and yeah, so I just wanted to look better, I wanted to look more muscular, and I thought maybe I’ll get some dates that way. And that’s how it started.

I started lifting weights and it was a bit of a struggle for me in the beginning, but then in my early 20s, I started gaining a little bit more weight. And then after I competed in body building, I realized it wasn’t very healthy for me, it wasn’t very healthy for me mentally and just physically what I had to take my body through. But it was a dream of mine since I was 16, I wanted to be on a cover of a magazine and I wanted to be on stage, and I really admired Arnold and the professional bodybuilders. And so I did it and I’m so glad I did it. I learned so much about how to work with my body.

And after I did the body building, I thought, “Well, I want something more,” so then I started wanting to get more… Getting stronger, so I started lifting really heavy and doing power lifting. And after a while, that was really harsh on the body, and I was getting injured and feeling stiff and not so good, and so then, I started exploring other modalities. And at that time, I was around turning 30, I’m 42, turning 42 next month. My girlfriend was an acrobat, so she started introducing me to hand stands and contortions, and some really unique and pole-dancing and just really acrobatics, really unique disciplines for me, and so that’s how it expanded my awareness of all these other disciplines, and then I just kept leaning more and more towards towards that, and I still strength train obviously, but now I’m a little bit more into some esoteric kind of training and things that make me feel good and make me feel healthy and nimble and make my joints feel great.

Marc Perry:
Right. I was gonna say, I think I’ve gotten a similar journey in that you kinda start with that, “Hey, I wanna look like a fitness model, I wanna look like this,” and then all of a sudden it’s like, “Well, I wanna feel really good and I wanna be more mobile.” And I think that’s one reason why really, you’ve been inspirational to me, I’ve seen you’ll do… I remember you doing a side kick where your foot was really high in the air, I’m just like, “How is that possible?” And I couldn’t even come close to doing it, and then I actually started doing it and now I can do it. But really, like seeing where you’ve gone and how you’ve evolved has helped me evolve personally, so I wanna thank you for that. But yeah, I was gonna say, I think it’s a situation a lot of guys go through, it’s almost like this aesthetic paradigm to more of like, “I just wanna be functionally strong and fit,” and I still think the aesthetic is there, it’s just that the form follows the function so to speak, it’s more of a natural kind of look. That’s how I see it.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
In the beginning, it was a goal for me, the aesthetics were the goal, and aesthetics was just the side effect to me. I think it should be a reflection, the body should be an authentic thing, like when I look at someone’s body, to me, it tells me what they’re like, what they are interested in, how they use their bodies, and it should be authentic. And so, for a period of my life, I kind of manipulated my body to look a certain way, but it wasn’t necessarily… Because I thought that that image will make me athletic, a different way. But you get there and you realize, “But that’s not really what I wanted.” I guess it’s kind of like people wanting the money, but realizing when they get the money that it’s not the actual goal. Maybe building a business or going through that journey, or giving something back, contributing in some sort of way, maybe that’s kind of what they want, or maybe they wanna belong or give back, or whatever it might be, but money itself doesn’t give you the happiness. And so, to me, physique itself, it doesn’t matter if you just get the physique right now and it’s perfect, in the end, it doesn’t really give you any satisfaction. But that journey that I went through, of all the things that I learned, building the physique was awesome.

Marc Perry:
That’s profound, man, thanks for sharing that. And let’s go into your exercise, let’s talk a little bit about your exercise. So I know it’s evolved a lot over the years, I know we’ve done a lot of work outs together, and I actually did my first Turkish get up with you, which is pretty cool, which for me was a big deal, ’cause I’ve done thousands of them probably. So what does your exercise routine look like now?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
It kind of varies. At the moment, I do full body workouts and I do it it at least three times a week, or I do full body strength training, I have some kettlebells here in the back, I don’t know if you can see. Kind of limited, eight kilogram, that’s mostly for my girlfriend, eight kilogram, and the 24 kilogram. And so I use the kettlebells, and I do a lot of body weight training, I still, for legs, prefer heavy weights, so when gyms are open, right now we’re in a lockdown, when gyms are open, I’ll go and do some deadlifts or some heavy lunges or squats, but for everything else, I also have rails hanging here, behind the computer, and so I can use those body weights, gymnastics, martial arts, dance inspired strength training.

Marc Perry:
Nice. So can you give an example of what one of your strength workouts looks like?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, sure. So I start… The beginning of the work out is a warm-up, and I don’t really think of it as a warm-up, I actually… I think of it as probably the most important part of my training because I realized that also my clients, that’s where they get the most resilience and mobility and coordination, and a lot of magical things that help their joints and help their stability. And usually it’s kind of long, it’s probably up to 30 minutes. I will go through joint by joint, start with more gentle things like circular motions through every joint, and then I’ll start kind of strengthening them in different ways. And then depending on what my workout will include, there might be like if I’m doing hand stands, for example, I might warm-up my wrist a little bit more, do push-ups on the back of the wrist or something to kind of condition them or strengthen them. If I’m doing something heavy knee, some sort of single leg cross over pistol or something like that, I might do sissy squats or something to warm-up the knees. I don’t know if these names actually mean anything…

Marc Perry:
Keep on going. I’ll… I know what they are, but we can update everyone if they don’t know what that means.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, sure. And then I’ll get into the training and usually I’ll probably divide it into a couple of circuits. The first part would be a little bit more skill-based, so for example, it might include some sort of hand balancing, so maybe a hand stand. And then I would combine it with some sort of hanging drill, so maybe skin the cat, for example, or it may be front levers or back levers, so it’s kind of a nice push-pull, straight arm variations that kind of balance each other out. And then I’d probably do either something explosive for my legs or some sort of jumping movement or a skillful balance-based movement, so it could be… For posterior chain, so maybe like some sort of like squat and balancing and reaching, or it could be some sort of pistol. Like today, I was doing… Can you see me?

Marc Perry:
Yeah.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I was doing these pistols, crossing towards the front, crossing towards the back, that was one of my leg exercises in my first circuit with hand stands and the skin the cat. And then for the second circuit, I was doing some sort of squat. I was doing like a sliding push-up into a hip-like, so it’s like a core and a push-up and a single leg deadlift to bent-over-row.

Marc Perry:
Right. Okay. So just to kind of recap, you’ll do a really long kind of warm-up to really prime your body and get it mobile and kinda get it resilient. And then you’ll go into possibly a couple of circuits, maybe two, three exercises each. And for people who might not understand, like what’s a sissy squat and what’s a pistol squat, these are… Or what’s skin the cat, these are more advanced, almost gymnastic style types of exercises, that maybe… I don’t know, five, 10 people out of a 100 can do. It’s just not something that you see someone just being able to do, but they’re a little bit more advanced, is what I’m getting at, right?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, for sure.

Marc Perry:
Obviously, you’re advanced that’s why you’re doing them. So they’re almost a little bit more like gymnastic level or style. But the concept is basically, you got that long warm-up, you got that kind of body weight circuits, it sounds like maybe a little bit of strength in there, and then that’s it. So it sounds like the actual circuits themselves, they’re not too much longer than the warm-up.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
No. Yeah, it’s probably around 30 minutes.

Marc Perry:
Right. Right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Probably 15 to 20 minutes per circuit.

Marc Perry:
Okay. Okay.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
And in the warm-up I also put something creative. So I’ll start maybe with a song and I just move and I just kind of feel whatever my body needs. So some sort of something with improvisation, something that makes me really listen to my body. And then the circuits, I’ll divide… I have different phases that I go through, and sometimes I might only do gymnastics straight arm, push-pull kind of moves, and then the next day, do maybe bent arm, push and pull, and then legs the third day. So sometimes I’ll go through a routine like this. Lately, I’ve just been sticking to full body, and I just feel like if this is the only work out I’ll do this week, it’s complete. That’s what it feels like to me.

Marc Perry:
Cool, and what… Are you gonna say something else or…

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, there’s lots of little details, but I think…

Marc Perry:
Okay, like what else… Is there another detail that you wanted to share?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah. Sometimes… I don’t know how you felt during this pandemic. In the beginning, I didn’t have much motivation. And so sometimes I’ll do 20-minute workouts. I would set up maybe four or five exercises and I’ll just do 40 seconds at each exercise, then I’ll run through that four times. And if I have four exercises that’s 16 minutes, if I have five exercises, that’s 20 minutes. And I just say, “You know what, that’s all I have for today.” And if I do this and if I feel like doing more, then I’ll do more. Then maybe I’ll do another set or another round. But that’s what actually got me through in the beginning when I was kinda going through a little slump during the pandemic.

Marc Perry:
Interesting. Actually, I wanna come back to that in a moment. And, I guess, how many times are you doing these types of workouts? How many days a week?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I generally do something physical every day. So I’m very intuitive at this point, so it’s not as structured any more as it used to be. When I was bodybuilding or powerlifting or something, then I definitely was very, very regimented. Now, if I… Definitely, every day, I’m going to do something. And I start every morning with listening to a song and just moving and feeling what my body needs. And then based on that, if I’m feeling super-energetic, I’ll do a really heavy workout. And sometimes I could do three days in a row, and then sometimes I’m like, “Okay, I need a day or two,” and do something. Yeah.

Marc Perry:
That’s cool. I think intuitive… That’s kinda where I am right now. I’ve always had a goal, some type of certification or something, and that would… I’d be structured for months, whereas now it’s a little bit more intuitive. Kind of on the flip side, I think it can sometimes be really challenging for people who are not professionals at this to be intuitive, because it’s you don’t know what your body needs, so to speak, it’s a tricky thing. Okay. Cool. So we’re gonna dive into a little bit more about that. But what are your top three strength exercises? Let’s talk body weight and then weights. What are your top three for each, if you could only choose three?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Three for the entire body, right?

Marc Perry:
Well, that’s a good question. Well, how about this, if you had to push it to five, you push to five. But basically three… What are your top three body weight exercises, top three weight exercises, kind of strength-focused?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, so for body weight, I would say a pull-up, super-important. And you can keep progressing to single-arm pull-ups. So I think the amount of strength that you can gain from that is massive. Then I would go to some sort of pushing exercise, so then I would go either to a handstand push-up or a single arm push-up. And then for the legs, I’d say a pistol is a really, really nice one. Yeah. So those three. I feel like if you just do those three, [chuckle] you’ll be fit. In order to do a pistol, you have to have such nice ankle mobility and really healthy knees and everything has to work in a nice way, and you have to be mobile and strong. So if you can do pistols, and you can do them full range of motion, and you can start adding weight to them, I think you’re pretty good. [chuckle]

Marc Perry:
And by the way, that’s both sides too so you’re nice and balanced.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Definitely. You definitely get balanced. And the single arm pull-up, and then a handstand push-up or a single arm push-up, I think you’re pretty good.

Marc Perry:
Nice, man. Okay. Those are amazing exercises. I don’t think I would choose anything too much different. And what about with weights, a strength training with weights, what are the three exercises you would choose?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Deadlifts for sure.

Marc Perry:
And conventional or sumo? With a barbell or with…

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Conventional.

Marc Perry:
Oh, conventional? Okay.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah. I would do conventional RDLs, but yeah, probably conventional. Just really nice posterior chain work. Yeah. And then I would choose either a lunge or a squat. Probably a lunge, or back foot elevated split squats. I really, really love back lunges with a heavy weight. And squats are also great. I think squats kind of depend, not everyone’s physiology does as well with squats. I feel the back lunges are super-safe, I haven’t met anyone who cannot do back lunges pretty safely. And I feel like you get such a great workout and super-safe. But with squats, sometimes people develop back issues, or maybe if their hips are a little out of alignment or if they don’t have enough mobility in their lower back, it’s getting beat up. So squats are questionable, for some people they’re perfect, for some people they’re not. And then for maybe overhead press, like a push press or something like that, just because, again, you have to have really nice shoulder mobility to be able to do it correctly and stack everything and have really great core control. Yeah.

Marc Perry:
Nice, man. It only took me five years to work up to that after stretching, [chuckle] you know what I mean? Getting… Especially both… Getting both arms vertical and pressing with both arms, it’s funny, ’cause you see people do it, and it’s like, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal.” When you really understand the mechanics of it, it’s not easy, as you know. And it sounds like that… It forces you to have that… And what’s cool is that you have that mobility, you have that strength. And they kind of go together, and that’s something that’s kinda cool. Right? Okay, those are really great exercises, man, I’m just thinking about them. They’re really great. So you said you do something active every day, so you’re doing strength maybe a few times a week, I assume, that kind of circuit stuff?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, I’d say at least three times a week, maybe up to five times a week I’ll do strength training. And you know I teach lots of people online, so like I said, I’m intuitive with my own workouts, but sometimes I’ll teach someone and I have clients that are so bad ass and so strong and I’ll take them through, and I’ll just be like, “Woah, this is amazing, I can’t wait to do it myself,” and so I often will kind of experiment on them just to see how they do, and then I’ll do it myself. And maybe I’ll make it a little more complex, but I often get inspired by what I teach others.

Marc Perry:
Nice, man, and so you do these three or five, and what are you doing on the other days when you’re not doing a strength kind of training, workout.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, so often when I teach my classes, I teach classes four times a week, so I’ll jump in with them and move with them, and especially we’ll do warm-ups with them, and like I said, those warm-ups can be quite intense. I think sometimes people, when they start with me, they realize that the warm-up is really difficult, but… So I’ll do at least that kind of move and I’ll go outside, sometimes I’ll run or do some sprints or… Again, kind of put on the music and just improvise. And so when I go… Right now it’s wet and not so fun to do it outside, but during the summer, especially, I’ll go outdoors and there’s a park nearby, and it’s like an elephant park for kids that are kinda just playing around there, and I usually find a corner and I just put on some music and then start moving around and improvising. And then kids come around and start playing with me or dogs love playing with me and they’re always asking me what I’m doing.

It’s like a mix of acrobatics, stretching, dancing sort of thing, and I always tell myself I’m gonna do at least one song, and sometimes I end up doing an hour and a half. [laughter] It really depends kinda how my body feels. But it can be kinda strenuous because I definitely feel like I get to a flow. And when you get into this state of flow, it’s like you’re really challenging yourself. So there has to be a skill level that you’re pushing yourself, but because it’s so much fun, because I’m passionate about it, because I’m enjoying it, I don’t really feel the pain sometimes. And so I’m just like moving my body in all these crazy ways and there’s lots of pressure on the knees and pressure… Contorting and hand balancing, doing all these weird things, and so sometimes I get really sore from it, then afterwards I walk away and I’m like, “Oh wow, I really put in some work.” [laughter]

Marc Perry:
Nice. And are you doing any kind of conditioning stuff, ’cause I remember you used to do sprints and that sort of thing?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, once in a while, I still believe that sprints are awesome. It’s one of the best. So yeah, I haven’t been as focused on them lately, but I think when the weather warms up, I’ll go back to it.

Marc Perry:
Cool and so you’ve… And so for people listening, I mean Nerijus is super flexible, like you’ll see, he’s really… He could literally just about do a split or basically I don’t know… Okay, you can do a split, right? Yeah, you can do… We’re talking like side and front splits or close enough, and it’s major flexibility. [laughter] But really close and so I guess… And again, he’s literally trained acrobats, and he does acrobatic-style workouts himself. So the question for you, Nerijus, is how do you recommend the average guy kinda get more flexible, like where does he start? Like he’s not gonna do a split, right? [chuckle]

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah.

Marc Perry:
So what do you recommend?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I generally like to incorporate that into the strength training. So most of the time, most of the exercises that I do are taking people through a full range of motion. If I’m doing pull-ups, they’re fully distracting going to a full passive hang and they’re fully opening their shoulders. Not like slight bend in the elbow, but fully going through completely full relaxation and full chest to the bar. That, if you’re doing this all the time, will lengthen and open your shoulders, and if… When I’m doing push-ups, I’ll do deficit push-ups, so I’ll maybe use yoga blocks or something, and so then I go past the regular range. So that’s opening and working…

Opening through my chest. When I’m doing lunges, I’ll often do lunges that are really long, so instead of stepping back into a regular lunge like this, I might do a lunge that is extra, extra long, and so that’s working on opening my hip. When I’m doing RDLs or bending I’m making sure that I’m really, really challenging my hamstrings. And so in a way, I think mobility is built into my strength training. There’s no exercise that I do, I really don’t think so. Not many exercises that I do that don’t take me through a full range of motion and don’t challenge my range of motion. So that’s one thing. And then I’ll still do some mobility work, usually strength-based. So an example, like Jefferson curls, do you know what those are?

Marc Perry:
I know what they are, but I don’t know if the people listening know. So how would you try them?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
It’s like a deadlift done in a really bad form with a rounded back.

Marc Perry:
I was gonna say it’s… I’ve done them a couple of times and I was like, this is strong medicine. Anyways, yeah, you can continue.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
So you don’t necessarily have to use heavy weight.

Marc Perry:
Right, right. It’s very light, you use very light weight as you do it.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
But the point is, you’re going to the end of range of motion so…

Marc Perry:
Right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Using, let’s say, some sort of step, and at the edge, and I’m using a weight and then I come down as far as I can. And I’m usually holding a weight, and so the weight would pull me even further than I can go naturally. And then from there, I would roll up.

Marc Perry:
Right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
And so it’s actively pulling me into a deeper range of motion. And then it also strengthens me on the way up and on the way down, and it also does that to the spine too, so it’s mobilizing my spine. So I do kind of exercises like this. And I mentioned Skin the Cat because that’s an amazing shoulder extension exercise, mobility exercise, but it’s also a nice strength exercise. And then, no matter how much, I think, you can force yourself into certain mobility, but if you don’t practice these movements in your daily life or in your some sort of practice, then I think you lose them. So for me, when I say I’m playing in the park and I’m moving in all these different ranges of motion, I’m maintaining my range. So those are the two things that I would do, is first, I would add really full range of motion to my strength program, I would add some specific exercises that increase mobility, and usually they’re strength-based. So they take you to an extra range of motion with assistance. So a very good example, most people know what pull-overs are.

Marc Perry:
Right, of course.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Great opener. Arnold…

Marc Perry:
Right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
And Arnold had a nice shoulder mobility. But it’s a great way to open your shoulders through the ribcage, open through your thoracic spine, and also great strengthening exercise. RDLs or Jefferson curls, really great hamstring exercise as well as an awesome mobility exercise. So there’s lots of different exercises pretty much in whatever category you wanna choose, that were both mobility and strength. The strength program, do some of those exercises and then make sure that you’re moving in full range of motion.

Marc Perry:
Right, and it’s like a daily practice. And one thing I’ve attempted to promote or I have promoted is, essentially, is a kind of morning mobility or just kind of having some type of mobility routine and doing it daily. As in not like a few days a week, ’cause that just doesn’t get the job done. I don’t think. What are your thoughts?

Nerijus Bagdonas: Totally, [chuckle] but the key is that it has to be fun.

Marc Perry:
Yes, right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
And most people when they’re like, “Oh shit, I have to stretch and blah blah blah,” and it is not much fun. But if you somehow figure out a way to do it that it’s fun, then you love doing it. So for me, that’s why just improvising to a song is a lot more fun. And then connecting to the body and feeling where it needs to open.

Marc Perry:
Cool, so you’ve clearly reached super high levels of fitness in terms of, again, aesthetics, in terms of function. I’m kind of curious, what does your diet look like now?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Also intuitive. [laughter]

Marc Perry:
Okay.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, generally, I’m more of a protein type. Do you know much metabolic typing kind of… There is…

Marc Perry:
I’ve read about it, but please tell me about it.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
So there is an idea that based on our ancestry, there’s three basic metabolic types. If you grow up in a cold country, like Northern Europe or…

Marc Perry:
Lithuania is pretty cold, I imagine. [chuckle]

Nerijus Bagdonas:
For sure. Or I don’t know, Antarctica or whatever. You’re probably eating a lot more fat and a lot more protein. If you just ate some fruit and carbohydrates, they’d just run through your system very quickly. You need more sustenance and needs more density.

Marc Perry:
Okay.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
So the protein type. Then people that grew up in very warm countries, lots of fruit, maybe rice available, they’re well-adapted to eating carbohydrates, and they digest them a little slower, and it’s a perfect fuel for them. Then there are people around mild climates, maybe Mediterranean climate, where they’ve adapted to almost everything. They can digest breads really well, they like lighter protein, maybe some fish or maybe some chicken, some things like that. And so generally, most people fall into one of those categories.

Marc Perry:
Right.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I’m definitely more of a protein type. I was telling you that I went to India and I was eating vegan for a few months and I lost 20 pounds like that, until I started pouring ghee and butter on everything, and then my weight loss stopped down. So for me, I just know that I do better on the higher protein, higher fat. And so that’s… And I love potatoes for carbs. [chuckle] I’m a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Generally, that’s how I was raised in Lithuania, and that’s what works really well. I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. The most important thing for me is the source of the food, and then trying to put it in the balance that works for me. So generally, a little bit heavier fat or protein, and then lower in carbohydrates. I don’t really crave. Besides, potatoes, I don’t really crave lots of carbs as much. Fruit is probably, fruit and potatoes and vegetables are my main carb sources. Yeah, I don’t eat red meats as much anymore; maybe once a month. I love fish and some darker meat chicken, lots of eggs. I think I’ve eaten eggs since I was a kid every day. And I used to eat as many as 10 eggs a day. Now, I eat four or five, so I’ve gotten milder. And I don’t eat as many meals anymore. That’s also has slowed down.

And I pay attention to how many hours I eat during the day. So generally, I try to eat somewhere between nine and 12 hours, at the most. Twelve hours is the cut-off for me. So if I start… This morning, I started at 10:00 AM, so by… I’m already done 9:00 PM here, but I was done eating by 7:30 PM. So yeah, so if I wanna get lean, I give myself nine hours a day to eat, but if I’m just maintaining whatever, up to 12 hours.

Marc Perry:
So it’s more of a time-restricted approach?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Marc Perry:
Right. Can you give an example of a day, a typical day?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, sure. Let’s see. Today, I started with a tea and at maybe 9:00 AM. At 10:00, I had a butter coffee. So it was butter coffee, MCT oil, some collagen protein and yeah, blended together. That was my first meal. Then I had four eggs, boiled, with tomatoes, pickles and a little bit of cheese in a salad, with lots of tomatoes and some other greens in there, too. And then I had some fruit and cashew butter snack and a little bit of cottage cheese. And then for dinner, I had salmon with vegetables and a Lithuanian salad. [chuckle] Lithuanian salad is like a potato salad and sometimes, I’ll just… It’s with lots of vegetables. So there’s peas and carrots and sweet potatoes and some other things and some eggs and yeah. And so it’s just a nice little side dish.

Marc Perry:
Nice.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
So yeah, so that’s what my day today was like.

Marc Perry:
And you know, it sounds like it’s all unprocessed foods. It’s sounds like from… As I know, you’ve been like that for a long, long time. And you’ve been pretty committed to eating unprocessed foods, if I’m not mistaken, because I think it just makes you bloated. Why do you not eat processed foods? Or what are your thoughts around that? The candy, the cakes, the cookies, all that kind of stuff.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
I don’t really think of it as real food, in a way. And they just don’t make me feel good. So my energy drops, my moods shift. I think if my mood starts feeling… If I don’t feel grounded, that’s usually very much related to food for me. And so I just know that I need a really nice meal to keep my energy calm. And if I’m feeling overly stressed, almost anxious, for me, it’s often related to food. If I’m eating sugary foods, then my energy will just be really low or just very uneven. So first of all, it doesn’t feel good. Second of all, from everything that I’ve known and researched, I just know that it’s not good for you. [chuckle] So between knowing that it’s not good for me and then any time I eat, it makes me feel terrible and it makes me feel hungry very quickly soon after or just makes me constantly keep craving for more. That’s why I just feel really good on natural foods.

Marc Perry:
Cool, cool. Well, we’re getting up on time here. Is there anything else we haven’t really discussed or touched upon that you’d like to mention?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, I think I mentioned that we should have more fun with training. I think that’s one of the ways to get people to stick to it, is to make sure that they’re enjoying it. And one of the things that I really love to work with people with is to help them change their mindset on why they’re choosing to work towards a certain goal. And to me, it’s really important that they come from a very powerful position, that first, they appreciate what they have and just realize what an incredible instrument you have. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a little overweight. It doesn’t matter if you’re not perfect to the standards that we see on social media or magazines. But just realize how incredible it is that your body is functioning, that you’re alive. Because if you wanna go through this exercise and think about what hasn’t happened to you, you might not have cancer, you might not have broken bones or some horrible disease, wasting disease or whatever.

So if you are generally normal, if you’re a little overweight or you have some aches or some weaknesses, that’s not the problem. Just appreciate what you already have. And then from there, when you try to get stronger, when you try to become more mobile, it’s more of an exploration. It’s more exciting that you can… The potential that you can get to. So I think that’s the message that I want to tell people. First, appreciate what you have, and then have some fun and explore and be playful and just see what you can get to.

Marc Perry:
Awesome, man. I really appreciate… I think that’s an amazing message and I really appreciate you sharing. And I’m sure that our listeners are gonna really appreciate it as well. And so how can people follow you or learn more about you, Nerijus?

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram, nerijus_trainp3. And there’s… I haven’t actually done that much online ’cause mostly, I just work privately with people. But I have a page that describes all my services and my classes, and I’ll send it to you and you can just add that to your letter.

Marc Perry:
Cool. To the podcast notes, so to speak. I was gonna say I’ll have the podcast and the transcript and some of the links on the podcast article.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So yeah, and then I teach classes throughout the week. And I do some personal, private coaching for lifestyle and movement, yeah, yeah.

Marc Perry:
Cool. Cool, man. Now, Nerijus, again, it was so great catching up and connecting with you. And I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom, and clearly, you’ve had a really awesome journey and you’ve gotten to a really high level of fitness and health, and it’s really cool to see. And I’m just grateful to be able to chat with you about it. So with all that said, man, again, I really, really appreciate it and enjoy the rest of the night. [chuckle]

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Well, thanks a lot, Marc. And I really appreciate what you do, also. I think that you’re helping so many guys get more fit. And so I appreciate that we connected, and thanks for having me. Look forward to talking to you again soon.

Marc Perry:
Alright. Alright, alright, bye-bye.

Nerijus Bagdonas:
Take care.