Bear Mode NEEDS to Make a Comeback (⁠⁠@AlexLeonidas)

Exploring the 'bear mode' philosophy in bodybuilding, emphasizing muscle gain over being shredded and challenging industry norms.

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Key Takeaways

Bear mode promotes building muscle with a slightly higher body fat percentage for better hypertrophy results.
The fitness industry’s focus on being shredded may not align with most people's natural bodybuilding goals.
Fear of fat gain often prevents effective bulking, but logic and proper methods can help overcome this.
Muscle gain and some fat gain are natural companions during bulking and should be accepted.
Authenticity in fitness goals is important to resist industry trends and pursue what truly motivates you.

What the video covers

The video discusses the concept of 'bear mode' as a successful hypertrophy and muscle-building strategy.
Bear mode involves maintaining a higher body fat percentage (16-24%) than typical fitness industry standards.
The speaker credits Alex Leonidas for popularizing this approach and resonating with his own bodybuilding goals.
The fitness industry often promotes being shredded year-round, which the speaker argues is not the natural desire of most lifters.
Many people enter fitness wanting to get bigger but are influenced to prioritize low body fat due to industry trends.
The video encourages viewers to honestly assess their personal goals regarding muscle gain versus fat loss.
It highlights the emotional conflict between fear of fat gain and excitement for muscle gain during bulking.
The speaker advocates for logical thinking to overcome the fear of fat gain, emphasizing proper bulking techniques.
Muscle gain often comes with some fat gain, but this is manageable and temporary with proper cutting phases.
The video critiques the current fitness culture's obsession with being shredded and calls for a comeback of bear mode.

Chapters

What is 'bear mode' in bodybuilding?

'Bear mode' refers to maintaining a higher body fat percentage, typically between 16-24%, while focusing on muscle gain rather than being extremely lean.

Why does the speaker believe the fitness industry promotes being shredded?

The speaker suggests that influencers stay shredded to promote their businesses, which influences followers to prioritize low body fat even if it’s not their natural goal.

How should one approach the fear of fat gain during bulking?

The video advises using logic to overcome emotional fear, accepting some fat gain as natural when building muscle, and focusing on proper bulking techniques to minimize excess fat.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

All right, what's up everybody? So today I want to talk about the topic of bear mode. So bear mode is something that I believe led to me having pretty good success with hypertrophy training and building muscle, especially in my younger years.

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Stumbling upon Alex Leonidas, his former channel being Alpha Destiny back in the day when I first started lifting, it was kind of a hidden gem and it was really the only channel that genuinely resonated with me at the time. That

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philosophy of embracing bear mode and bulking up finally clicked, and I had somebody that kind of spoke what I wanted to actually do going into bodybuilding, getting into this whole like fitness industry. I never really lost sight of that, at least at first. I

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was always happy to be bulked up, and I saw all these influencers and all these people that were always shredded all the time, and I never really desired that look. And I want to talk a little bit about that today, but to bring it back to

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bear mode, it was something that I was like, this is somebody that actually understands lifting and the goal of becoming bigger in building muscle. And I think that it's sad to see that the industry hasn't really changed that much

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over the years, and that it's 2023 now, and I've been here for seven years, not on this channel, but lifting and in the industry generally speaking for seven years, and people are still just as obsessed with being shredded all the

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time. And it's kind of sad to see because I genuinely don't think that's what people are out to get. I don't think people decide out of the blue they internally feel this desire to be shredded. I think people want to build

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muscle and get bigger. Yet all the biggest influencers are people that are constantly shredded to promote their own business, and I think ultimately that's what it comes down to, and it's sad to see. So always fight against that, and

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it's something that I don't think I've done a good enough job of myself with having this channel. I have a platform to talk about these ideas. I talk about good ideas of training, in my opinion at least, but I think when it comes to something

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like bear mode and bulking and actually getting big and putting on muscle, I think that's something that should excite all of us, and it's something that the industry just fumbled, to be straightforward, and it's kind of sad to

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see. So bear mode, for anybody that's not familiar with this philosophy, and this isn't exclusive to Alex Leonidas, it's basically just referring to keeping your body fat percentage range a little bit higher than the industry standard. I think a lot of

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people are focused on being sub 15, which to me is nuts. I really can't wrap my head around desiring to be that unless you're just maybe you're suffering from body dysmorphia or maybe that is your genuine goal, and that's totally fine, or maybe

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you're just almost like brainwashed in a way to follow these industry standards. But I don't think these industry standards are what people actually want, and I know that sounds crazy to say, and that's a big claim for me to make, but I

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genuinely do think that, and I can't wait for a potential trend of this bear mode thing to come back and maybe prove my point right. You never know, so that's why I'm saying it here. So when it comes to

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bear mode, it's basically just keeping your body fat percentage, like I said, a little bit higher. This could be anything from 16, 17, maybe that low. That's probably the lowest I'd classify as bear mode, and even then that's pretty damn

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lean, I would say, up to maybe 22, 24 body fat. And I think the more muscle you have, the better that higher percent is going to look on you because your fat just has more places to go, and you have that much

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more of a base of muscle to make that distribution look even better. Anecdotally, I think a lot of us can attest to the idea that the people that have more muscle just somehow get better body fat distribution.

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I am in no desire to try and explain that or even research that because I simply don't care, because there's nothing you can really do about it aside from put on muscle. But I don't think it's an outrageous claim to say the

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people that are more jacked can have the same body fat percentage as someone that doesn't have that much muscle, and it just looks that much better. It just makes their muscles appear that much bigger. So to get back to a point I

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talked about earlier, is your desire to be shredded an original goal you had, or did it become a goal after spending your time in the fitness industry? And this is a bold claim because I don't know everybody. There's no way

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for me to take a mass poll on this to be solid in this answer, but I genuinely, from the bottom of my heart and truthfully, think that most people that enter the fitness industry come in

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because they want to be big, and then they get switched. The industry switches them, and they make these guys want to be shredded in sub 15 body fat 24/7. I don't, I genuinely don't think that's most people's natural desire. I

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do not believe that for a second. I really don't. So what I'd want to ask you is, is being shredded a genuine goal that you personally had before entering the fitness industry? And be honest with yourself. I'd love to hear what you guys

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have to say in the comments. It's super interesting to me. I would love to hear what you guys have to say and have a little conversation on that. Or was your goal just to build muscle and get jacked, and you didn't really

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care about shreds that much? Just answer that question to yourself, try and be honest, and when you really figure out what you genuinely want, the sway of the trends of the fitness industry just has such, such a minor, like

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non-existent pull on what you actually want. Because we see this all the time with any trend, whether it's training or body fat percentages or whatnot. Everybody kind of follows the trend, and the key with that is it's a trend, so

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it's not what you want. You're just following what other people do. And when you can separate yourself from that, you can say, all right, well, I'm gonna go in my own path over here, and then maybe the trend will come to me one day, and I can

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just kind of be ahead of everybody else, and I've been doing what I wanted the whole time, and maybe I can persuade people to actually stay in that if it's what they truly want. So when it comes to bulking and entering

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bear mode, the way I see it is there's two magnets. There's these two big emotional poles that people face, and a lot of the time people lose this battle. So there's going to be one over here, which is the emotional pull of the fear

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of fat gain. There's also another magnet on the other side that's the excitement of muscle gain. A lot of the time, the fear of fat gain is what outweighs the excitement of muscle gain, and people steer clear of bulk, and they get

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magnetically pulled towards this other side, and they spin their wheels for years. I mean, it's honestly sad because I feel like it's getting worse than it was even seven, ten years ago or whatever, which sucks, honestly. So

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part of the reason why I'm making this video. But I'd say when it comes to that mindset of the fear of fat gain, the way I see it is you have to look at it logically because you're feeling an

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emotion, so logic can override emotion in certain cases, and I think this is a perfect example of that. When you gain muscle, you are probably going to gain fat with it, especially if you're doing it properly. There's always going to be a

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little bit. If you're getting a bunch of fat, you're not bulking properly. Learn the basics first is what I'd say. But when it comes to bulking properly, you are going to gain some fat with it, and this is where the logic can actually win

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this argument of this emotional pull to either side that you have in your head when it's a situation like you built muscle and you gained fat. Let's say you bulked up 15 pounds. You gained seven and a half pounds muscle,

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seven and a half pounds of fat. It doesn't work with that. I know there's more factors in it.

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absurdly easy so it's basically permanent the fat gain let's look at it logically so again seven and a half pounds of fat can be lost in a couple weeks like lose you can lose a pound of fat in three

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days just from being at a thousand calorie or just above deficit maybe you have to sleep an extra night and it's gone by the morning of the fourth day look at that logically guys you can lose so much fat so easily and so quickly you

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just get it off real quick it's a little reset the mindset that you guys have is you're too focused on the now you you're blinded by the present you can't see the future what you have to do is zoom out

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just take a step back look at the bigger picture even if you go if you go 10 pounds above your bulking Target and you have 10 pounds of fat that you don't want you can lose that so easily like I said in a

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week you can lose two pounds just shed it off real quick and it's gone and the muscle sticks around so I don't get I don't get the the fear to bulk and I I do get it so I

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don't want you to misunderstand my words but what I'm trying to say is you guys are too focused on the emotions and you're not taking a step back and looking at it logically fat can be easily lost in the

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muscle sticks around forever the more muscle you have the better your fat looks so you might even be inclined to stay at a higher body fat percentage and not focus on losing all of the fat that you gained it actually kind of rock that

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bear mode look which is what I've been talking about all video so when it comes to actually looking muscular in day-to-day life a lot of these influencers they're that's literally what they're called they're called influencers to influence your mindset and influence your approach

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to training which is a little bit ridiculous in my opinion when you truly think about it and say it out loud these guys that are shredded the natural ones do not look jacked when they don't have a pump and they don't have their perfect

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camera in the perfect lighting and I promise you that they really don't they any any true late intermediate or Advanced natural lifter can also agree with that and I'm sure basically everybody does and this isn't to be pessimistic and say oh it's big shredded

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and natural you can only pick two like I think that's kind of stupid too but at the same time even like the top like jackedest of the most jacked natural lifters they don't look that big when they're that shredded when they're

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wearing a t-shirt like even like the biggest guys just don't look that impressive and of course of course it's impressive in its own way but if you want to look big and look muscular which going back to my first point I'd say

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that's what most people actually want you really don't want to be in that body fat percentage range because there's a couple reasons so with your muscles there a lot of it's water which is not a bad thing it's it's still a muscle it's

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still part of your muscle that's part of the makeup of muscle but when you look at something like being in a deficit versus being a surplus versus being in maintenance a lot of people will say oh you don't actually have that muscle when

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you're on a bulk or in a surplus because it's just that extra bloat well okay if the muscle wasn't there then the bloat would have nowhere to go so the bloat's only there because you actually have muscle and it's a it's a classic case of

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myself it's why I look decently big is because I'm in a little bit of a surplus and I'm filled out and I'm bulked up a little bit so I look I'm not going to say look bigger than I am because I

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think that's a weird thing to say but at the same time when I'm cutting not only do I lose that extra little bit of weight gain that water weight that below to put it simply when I'm in a deficit and I'm always

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trying to stay lean and I'm afraid of gaining fat I lose that extra bloat and since I'm in a deficit I lose even more and I artificially have less than I actually should have so my muscles are even smaller than they like truly are

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quote unquote and that's like the huge advantage that you can have as a natural lifter I'm telling you guys it's when you take these ped users these guys that are like quote unquote enhanced lifters the the drugs can help you maintain that

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bloat and kind of maintain that water weight when you're in a deficit so that's something to keep in mind and when you're natural you can do the same thing you just can't really be in that deficit and that's not to say you can't

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be big and lean as I mentioned earlier but that's like it's kind of like a secret that nobody is willing to take advantage of and that's something that I've tried to do and it works it's worked in my favor and I think I look I

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look pretty good I think I look pretty big and I think a lot of you guys would agree with that so I think that's a huge advantage that Naturals have you can just have that same fullness and same

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bloat but instead of injecting drugs you just eat a little more and if you're a foodie unlike myself you can actually enjoy that too rather than Force feeding but to move on to my next point proper permabulking and I know that's

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kind of a memed term but permabulking is actually a viable option but nobody knows how to bulk properly so when you're permabulking this is kind of like this is like a variation of what I do because even since having my channel

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it's been a year and a half or so I've only done one cut and it was for five weeks in my entire career of lifting which is seven years now I've only cut two times I cut back in 2019 or I just

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got shredded I was probably 11 body fat which is a classic case of me saying oh everyone else has shredded let me do the same so I look good on Instagram and I looked tiny in clothes and I did one

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other mini cut early this year just so I could continue bulking for a situation like that I'm in myself the reason it works is because I bulk properly the the amount of times that I hear people ask me oh should I gain five

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pounds of weight a month should I gain 10 pounds a month four pounds a month three pounds a month is absurd and that tells me most people are not bulking properly that is a massive Surplus considering the average person is

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probably high 100s in the pounds that's an enormous Surplus there's no way you're going to be to be able to have a like productive long-term bulk that's sustainable at that rate my general guidelines are going to be for

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most beginners that are relatively lean aim to gain two pounds a month for most intermediate lifters aim for that pound and a half for most late intermediates to Advanced lifters a pound or even a tad less per month is actually a really

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sustainable way it could be in a like a decent little Surplus and actually build muscle and you don't have to worry about cutting nearly as often because your bolt can go for so insanely long so as long as you do it properly that's kind

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of the secret and that's why some of these guys that do like quote unquote permeable can do it properly and get jacked and basically just ride that wave of momentum that they get from that little Surplus that goes into their

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training and builds their muscle and it's just this cycle of momentum that gets them huge and I think that's something I've done a pretty good job of in my training career is actually bulking properly and having a bit of a

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game plan when it comes to that and with all that being said that's my pitch for Bear mode that's my pitch for being a little bit more bulked up as a natural I think it just looks better too

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especially in day-to-day life you guys don't you don't see the behind the scenes of these info inflinters these guys that look incredible when they have a pump and the crazy lighting and they're super lean they shrink when they're out of the gym and they put a

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shirt back on I'm telling you guys it's like they have that physique because it makes them look good and you get attracted to that goal physique but you don't realize that it's honestly kind of fake so I'll always be a proponent of being a

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little bit more bulked up I would so much rather look good 23 hours a day outside of the gym than look good in the gym for one hour a day with a pump so I can post things on my Instagram so

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that's pretty much all I gotta say try bear mood really assess what you're in the gym for Do you want to build muscle or are you holding yourself back because you want to be shredded just because other people

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are and you don't see through the lies and the BS of the fitness industry so with that said that's all I got I'll see you guys in the next one for uh a video that might might include some

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topics on how to find your ideal volume but we shall see

Topics:bear modebulkinghypertrophymuscle gainbody fat percentagefitness industryAlex Leonidasbodybuilding philosophyfat gain fearfitness trends

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