The Lifetime Athlete

Carbs and Endurance Athletes

The use of high carbohydrate diets, as well as supplementary intraworkout (or competition) carb intake, is popular in athletics. This is particularly true considering endurance sports. The major objectives with this practice are twofold.Provide ample carbohydrate in the diet to (relatively speaking)

Training for LIFE!

Today’s topic is one which I find particularly fascinating. Let’s begin with a definition of what Training for LIFE means.Training for LIFE, in TLA terms, means two things. You are engaged in athletic and fitness training throughout your lifespan. This process will evolve and take on different shape

Human Locomotion

Here’s a super-cool topic we are always bouncing around in our community. Members in The Lifetime Athlete App use locomotion in a variety of applications, depending on their goals and body situation. Episode 386 of The Lifetime Athlete Podcast features a discussion on the following:What is locomotio

The Basics of Training Program Design

This article is a resource for Lifetime Athletes. It serves two purposes. First, it describes the rationale and methodology we use here at TLA to design our Training Tribe and sport-specific programming. This provides our team and community members with an in-depth understanding of the program desig

The Athletic Capacity Rating System

Have you ever wished you had an easy way of evaluating your fitness level and athletic abilities? At TLA, we use the Athletic Capacity Rating System (ACRS). This is a simple and very customizable system that we employ in our community to help you to do three things.Have a better understanding of you

Buttock Development for Lifetime Athletes

Back(side) by popular demand!In the kinetic train of human performance, the real locomotive that drives our speed and explosive power is actually the caboose. Having a full, round backside might not actually make you a more well-rounded person, but it can certainly enhance the fit of your wardrobe.

Mechanical Versus Metabolic Training

There are practically innumerable ways you can classify training. A lot of times the manner in which you describe your training is dependent upon your goals, or where your mind is in the moment. In many situations, a great way to consider your workouts is in regard to two distinctions. Is the sessio

The HYROX Lite Workout

Fitness competition has been around for a while now. One of the all-time most popular articles on the platform, which I wrote over 4 years ago, is CrossFit vs. Spartan vs. Hyrox. I really appreciate the thought and variety applied to these and other forms of sport and movement. Over the years, I’ve

Building Muscle, Using Plyometrics, and Treating Plantar Fasciitis in Lifetime Athletes

The title says it all. Well, almost! I’ve received a multitude of outstanding questions from our community over the past several weeks. It was time for a Mail Bag Q&A episode. I personally replied to all of the inquiries but I saved three great questions for a deeper discussion. Ever popular and for

Rate of Perceived Exertion, or RPE, is something we are always talking about in our community. We’ve certainly featured RPE as a popular article and podcast topic. Yet I continue to encounter many well-meaning Lifetime Athletes who struggle with the concept. My goal today is to simplify RPE in the c

Diet and Training Options for Weight Loss

What should you eat and how should you train when you’re trying to lose weight? Sometimes, as a Lifetime Athlete, you may be wishing to tune up your body composition a bit.Immediately, there are two critical considerations we must observe. In these types of pursuits, every Lifetime Athlete needs to

Knives for Backcountry Athletes

Let’s say you are a backpacker, hunter, fisherperson, skier, climber, mountain biker, kayaker…or anyone who ventures into the outdoors with a quest for experience and a concern for preparedness. You need to carry a knife. And that should be the ideal knife for your specific situation. Whether you ar

How to Scale a Workout at Any Level

One of the most common situations we encounter as Lifetime Athletes is the need to adjust a workout to fit our needs. Make a training session meet your unique body where it’s at…perfectly. This is a big FAQ in our community and it’s an outstanding topic for today’s discussion. Almost any workout can

Generalists Versus Specialists

Now here’s an absolutely scintillating discussion topic. If we consider the difference between generalists, or all-around athletes and single-sport specialists, there are several distinguishing characteristics we can identify.I’m thinking about this in the context of our community. Lifetime Athletes

The Lean4LIFE 30-day Challenge!

In the spirit of the New Year, we’re kicking things off with the Lean4LIFE 30-day Challenge! It’s popular to jumpstart the year with a month-long challenge and that’s especially true in the realm of health, fitness, and body composition. Strategically using diet, exercise, and lifestyle to reset the

Jumping for Joy…for Lifetime Athletes

Jumping is fun. It’s a natural, playful action in the human beast that is equal parts performance-enhancing and function-preserving. Jumping helps us to maintain our fast-twitch capacities, reactivity, and youthful vitality. The key to successfully incorporating jumping into your routine is doing so

Healthspan Versus Lifespan

I absolutely love this topic. It represents the crux of our quest at TLA. At some point, every Lifetime Athlete ponders some version of the following question: “How can my lifestyle interventions and behaviors, including but not limited to training and nutrition, impact both the length and quality (

Zone 2 Cardio for Lifetime Athletes

Today’s topic is being presented secondary to popular demand. I frequently receive inquiries from our community regarding exercise selection concerning a variety of performance capacities. Recently, and extensively, Zone 2 Cardio has been at the top of the list.The questions abound and they are very

Ergonomics for Lifetime Athletes

Ergonomics…the study of human efficiency at work. What on earth does this have to do with longevity and peak performance? Well, when you think about it, we spend roughly ⅓ of our time on earth at work. This has the potential to profoundly impact our health. And, if your neck, back, mojo (or anything

Open and Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises

Many exercises and movement patterns offer us a selection option between the open and closed kinetic chain. As a Lifetime Athlete, you may want to give consideration to how you utilize these tools.Let’s begin with a few simple definitions. A kinetic chain implies that a series of segments or linkage

The Value of Unilateral Exercise

Exercise selection is a fascinating topic. We choose exercises based on our desired outcomes and with regard to what works best for our unique bodies. And we determine how we perform those movements pertaining to body position, load, range, and tempo. Last week we talked about training for movement

Training for Movement Competency

We train for many reasons. Peak performance in sport is often a target. You might work out to improve your strength or muscle development. Maybe you exercise to increase your VO2max. Others engage in sessions to enhance their mobility. All of those things are good…in fact they are great. The objecti

Seasonality Revisited

Every now and again I like to reflect back on something I’ve written or said in the past and see where my mind is at currently. Occasionally, I end up not agreeing with a portion of what I’ve stated because my experience and knowledge has changed with the passage of time. But often, I find myself in

Aging with Elasticity

This post could also be labeled “Staying Bouncy as You Get Older,” or “Jumping for Joy.” Such phraseology connotes the preservation of elastic properties in the evolving human. Aging. Doing so gracefully. Maintaining health until right up to the very end. Keeping performance, and functional capaciti