3379: Never Have a Bad Workout Again by Dave Bonollo with Bach Performance on Consistent Workouts

Optimal Health Daily - Fitness and Nutrition

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Nutrition, Fitness, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 677 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3379: Dave Bonollo reframes what it means to have a “good” workout by shifting focus away from constant personal records toward consistent, meaningful progress. His Ladder of Workout Awesomeness shows how showing up, improving form, and building volume all count as wins, helping you stay motivated for the long haul. This perspective makes fitness more sustainable and far less frustrating, so every session feels like progress. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://bachperformance.com/never-bad-workout/ Quotes to ponder: "Even a bad workout is better than no workout." "Acceptance is the first step. The next step is to define what a good workout is." "Did you show up? If you did, you had a good workout." Episode references: Pumping Iron: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076578/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Optimal Health Daily.
0:02.9	Never Have a Bad Workout Again by Dave Bonolo with Bachperformance.com.
0:08.8	And I'm Dr. Neal, your very own personal narrator.
0:12.0	Let's get right to today's article as we optimize your life.
0:19.6	Never Have a Bad Workout Again by Dave Manolo with Bachperformance.com
0:25.3	Here's why workouts are like suss, and how my ladder of workout awesomeness will ensure you never
0:33.1	have a bad workout again.
0:35.3	How many times have you had bad suss?
0:39.8	If you consider the alternative of not having s'n't even bad s'f is still pretty dang good. Now let me ask you, how many times have you
0:45.8	a bad workout? Odds are this number is considerably higher. I'd argue it's more frustrating
0:52.6	than not getting any. Don't lie. You've considered quitting the gym after plateauing for a while. I'd argue it's more frustrating than not getting any. Don't lie. You've
0:55.4	considered quitting the gym after plateauing for a while. I know I have. Then I go on Instagram,
1:00.9	and I see someone crushing a personal record. It's almost like everyone in the world besides me
1:06.5	is crushing it every day. What's a bad gym session? Before prescribing the cure, let's first
1:13.7	diagnose the disease. What exactly is a bad gym session? Did you miss a personal record?
1:20.8	Was your energy non-existent? Were you sucking wind more than usual? Each of these things can put a
1:27.2	damper on a pretty sweet gym session.
1:29.7	Put them together and you might as well pack it up and consider the day a waste. The truth is,
1:35.5	you can't kill it every day in the gym. Some days are just going to suck. Acceptance of this fact
1:42.1	is the first step. The next step is to define what a good workout is.
1:47.8	Hitting a personal record? Lifting more than last time? Never-ending energy? If these were the only
1:54.2	criteria for a good workout, I'd only have two or three awesome workouts a month. That wouldn't
	...

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