Adrien Nunez doesn’t faux that tour life is simple. Between lengthy journey days, late-night performances, and fixed schedule adjustments, construction can really feel practically unattainable to take care of. However for the previous basketball participant turned artist, self-discipline isn’t about excellent situations; it’s about consistency.
Muscle & Health caught up with Nunez at Stagecoach throughout a TikTok interview to speak all issues coaching, routine, and the way he stays grounded whereas balancing life on the highway and within the studio.
Rooted in his athletic background, Nunez has constructed a routine that adapts to wherever he’s, prioritizing consistency over depth. Whether or not it’s a fast exercise between soundcheck and stage time or a full coaching break up when he’s dwelling, his strategy to health is much less about aesthetics and extra about efficiency, readability, and longevity.
Adapting His Coaching to the Highway
There’s no overly structured break up guiding his exercises on the highway, and there’s no obsession with monitoring each rep or chasing numbers for the sake of development. As a substitute, his coaching strategy is formed totally by what’s obtainable within the second and what realistically suits into the calls for of the day. Flexibility turns into the construction.
“Most days it’s one thing fast,” he explains. “I’ll run, hit half-hour on the StairMaster, or get a raise in if there’s a health club.”
It’s easy by design. Nothing about it’s meant to be flashy or overly difficult. On tour, the purpose shifts away from bodily transformation and turns into far more purposeful. “It’s not glamorous,” he provides in reflection, “but it surely works.”
When he’s dwelling, that total rhythm adjustments.
“That’s after I actually go in,” he says. “I’ll do an hour on the courtroom, then an hour lifting. 5 days every week.”
At dwelling, construction returns in a approach that isn’t doable on the highway. The coaching turns into extra deliberate, extra aggressive, and extra layered. Basketball classes carry again the aggressive basis he constructed his identification on, whereas lifting classes add the energy and conditioning aspect that helps every part else he does.
“You simply learn to regulate,” he provides. “That’s the most important factor.”
That distinction between the 2 is intentional. It prevents stagnation whereas additionally defending him from overtraining in a high-demand way of life.
The Athlete Mindset That Nonetheless Drives Him
Lengthy earlier than music ever entered the image, Nunez was dwelling in a very totally different world. One constructed on basketball, competitors, and repetition. It was an area outlined by construction and accountability, the place effort confirmed up each day whether or not you felt prefer it or not. Although his profession path has shifted dramatically since then, that athlete mentality by no means actually left him.
You’ll be able to nonetheless see it in how he trains, and you may nonetheless hear it in how he talks about self-discipline and ambition. It additionally reveals up in the best way he strikes by his schedule, particularly when issues get unpredictable. There’s a sure competitiveness beneath every part he does, even exterior of sports activities.
When requested a few dream stage or final efficiency second, he doesn’t pause or overthink it.
“The Tremendous Bowl,” he says. “That may be loopy.”
For him, it’s not simply in regards to the spectacle of acting on one of many largest phases on the earth. It’s additionally about what that second represents. It displays the identical mindset athletes carry once they discuss championships, high-stakes environments, peak strain, and the chance to carry out when it issues most.
“I believe that athlete mindset by no means actually leaves you,” he says. “Even after I transitioned into music, I nonetheless strategy every part like I’m getting ready for a sport. It’s about exhibiting up, doing the work, and being prepared when it’s time to carry out. Whether or not that’s on stage or on the courtroom, I’ve all the time been wired to compete. I like being in environments the place there’s strain, the place it’s important to earn it each day. That’s what retains me locked in.”
That aggressive edge additionally reveals up in how he engages with sports activities off the sector. When he builds his splendid basketball lineup, his decisions are rooted in respect for greatness. He names Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, and Shaquille O’Neal as his dream 5, combining totally different eras, enjoying kinds, and ranges of dominance into one lineup.
“That’s simply enjoyable to consider,” he says. “I’ve all the time been into basketball like that.”
Whilst his profession has developed, basketball hasn’t develop into one thing he left behind, it’s nonetheless actively a part of his identification. It features as extra than simply cardio or an off-the-cuff passion. It’s a reference level for the way he thinks about teamwork, effort, and competitors.
And that connection turns into much more apparent when he’s round different artists who share that very same vitality. He factors to Kane Brown as one in all his go-to individuals with regards to hooping and coaching.
“We’ve been enjoying at his home,” he says. “He can actually play, too.”
In these moments, the overlap between music and athletics turns into clear once more. It’s not nearly staying lively, it’s about staying linked to the mindset that formed him lengthy earlier than the stage ever did.
Coaching By way of Unpredictability One of many clearest examples of Nunez’s adaptability got here throughout a gaggle run, Stryde Social, in Nashville with different artists, together with Russell Dickerson. What was speculated to be a normal out of doors coaching session rapidly become one thing way more intense and unpredictable.
“We have been simply on the market operating, every part felt regular at first,” he remembers. “Then out of nowhere, a storm rolled in. It went from sunny skies to utterly darkish in like 10 minutes.”
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What adopted escalated quick. The wind picked up with sufficient pressure to noticeably influence motion, visibility dropped to the purpose the place it grew to become troublesome to see forward, and road fixtures started to sway below the strain. Then the rain become hail, shifting the complete dynamic of the exercise in actual time.
“It was truthfully type of insane,” he says. “We needed to duck below a bridge simply to remain protected for a minute as a result of it received that critical.”
For most individuals, that type of climate shift can be the sign to cease instantly and name it a day. However in true athlete mentality style, the expertise didn’t utterly shut the session down, it simply modified it. The group adjusted on the fly, regrouped, and handled it as a part of the coaching atmosphere quite than an interruption to it.
“That’s the factor about coaching with different artists,” he provides. “You simply adapt to no matter’s occurring within the second, and you retain going anyway. It’s by no means actually excellent situations, so that you learn to work with no matter you get.”
Why Group Issues Extra Than Motivation
Regardless of the self-discipline he holds himself to, Nunez doesn’t take a look at health as one thing that must be completed in isolation. For him, coaching has all the time been tied to different individuals, construction, and shared effort quite than particular person motivation alone.
“I like coaching with individuals,” he says. “That’s how I grew up: basketball, teammates, all the time pushing one another.”
That atmosphere formed how he views effort. In his expertise, consistency is simpler to take care of when there’s another person within the room holding the identical normal. It creates a pure sense of accountability, but it surely additionally provides vitality to the method. As a substitute of exercises feeling like one thing he has to get by alone, they develop into shared experiences that carry a unique stage of depth.
“Going by it alone isn’t as enjoyable,” he admits. “It’s simply higher when everybody’s in it collectively and also you’re all type of in the identical headspace.”
That mindset doesn’t cease at coaching. It extends into how he operates creatively and the way he manages his total well-being. Whether or not it’s music, efficiency, or psychological well being, he tends to gravitate towards environments the place there’s connection and assist quite than full independence.
Managing the Emotional Highs and Lows
The fact of the music trade is that it runs on extremes. One night time you’re performing in entrance of hundreds of individuals with every part feeling amplified, and the following second you’re again alone in a quiet room or a shifting bus attempting to come back down from that vitality. For Nunez, that transition is likely one of the most troublesome components of the approach to life.
“That post-show feeling is intense,” he says. “You go from hundreds of individuals and all that vitality to simply being by your self once more. It’s a very massive shift.”
Over time, he’s realized there isn’t an ideal option to clean out that emotional drop. As a substitute, it’s one thing he manages by small habits and intentional restoration decisions quite than attempting to remove it totally.
A kind of instruments is magnesium, which he makes use of as a part of his nighttime routine to assist his physique loosen up and transition out of efficiency mode.
“It helps me wind down at night time,” he says. “That post-show vitality doesn’t simply disappear immediately, so I would like one thing that helps me settle.”
Past restoration routines, he additionally depends on a mindset he’s constructed by coaching: deal with what he can management and cease over-attaching to what he can’t. That strategy turns into particularly essential in conditions the place outcomes are unsure. That was the case in the course of the rollout of his collaboration with Diplo, which stretched throughout months of back-and-forth and uncertainty. At varied factors, he genuinely wasn’t positive if the file would ever be launched.
“I believed it won’t even come out at one level,” he admits.
Quite than getting emotionally locked into the result, he deliberately stepped again from expectations. That wasn’t about decreasing ambition; it was about defending his mindset.
“I saved my expectations low,” he says. “That approach, I wouldn’t get caught up within the ready or overthink it if issues modified.”
That perspective ended up being grounding. It allowed him to remain regular by delays and shifting timelines, and in the end helped him deal with the second when the undertaking lastly did transfer ahead with out emotional whiplash.
The Inside Circle That Retains Him Grounded
In an trade the place opinions are fixed and sometimes unavoidable, Nunez is intentional about who he permits into his decision-making course of. Over time, he’s discovered that not each voice deserves equal weight, particularly when the noise is nonstop.
“Everybody has an opinion,” he says. “You’ll be able to’t take all of it in, otherwise you’d lose your self in it.” As a substitute, he retains a decent internal circle made up of household, shut mates, and his girlfriend, individuals who perceive him past his profession and aren’t influenced by exterior notion.
“They’re those I belief,” he says. “Every little thing else is secondary in comparison with that.”
That group serves as extra than simply emotional assist. It features as a grounding system that helps him filter choices, keep balanced, and keep perspective when issues transfer rapidly.
His relationship, particularly, has develop into a steadying pressure in his day-to-day life. It supplies consistency in an atmosphere that’s in any other case continually shifting.
“She’s tremendous supportive,” he says. “She understands the approach to life and what comes with it, which makes an enormous distinction.”
What stands out most for him, although, is that the assist isn’t passive; it’s shared.
Even health has develop into one thing they actively do collectively quite than individually. Over time, that shared routine has created one other layer of alignment of their relationship. “She didn’t actually prepare earlier than,” he says. “However now she’s within the health club persistently, and that’s one thing I actually worth.”
From basketball standout on the College of Michigan to one in all nation music’s fastest-rising names, Adrien Nunez has constructed his profession on adaptability, self-discipline, and a willingness to evolve. After first gaining traction on-line for championing rising nation artists and serving to amplify breakout information throughout social media, Nunez has stepped totally into his personal highlight with a quickly rising music profession that now contains greater than 182 million international streams, a spot on Amazon Music’s 2025 Nation Warmth Artists to Watch checklist, and performances on a number of the style’s largest phases, together with Stagecoach.
Following the discharge of his Don’t Wanna Go Residence EP and a headline tour run throughout the U.S., Nunez continues to show that the identical mindset that when fueled him on the basketball courtroom now drives him by each a part of his profession. “I believe every part is tied collectively,”
Nunez provides. “The best way you prepare, the best way you handle your self, your routine, your psychological well being, all of it impacts the way you present up each day.”
