The glory of summer is upon us as we greet the solstice and enjoy the warm, sun-filled days. I’m sure you are psyched to get the most out of your favorite activities and sports. Doing so can be made even more effective and enjoyable when you know your inner beast and how to best train it. Whether you run, play tennis or golf, hike and garden, or liketa lifta lotta…here’s the secret.
Athletic humans can be characterized by three specific classifications. These athletic mechanotypes are now well recognized in the sports training literature, and they are described in great detail in my book, AnimalFIT. You could be a strength-oriented beast who is force-dominant and muscle-driven. These are our bears (like shot putter Ryan Crouser who just broke the world record at the Olympic Trials). You might be an elastic athlete (a panther) who is gifted with explosive speed and elasticity like Sha’Carri Richardson who just took gold in the 100m at the OT. Or, you may be an endurance-based coyote whose proclivity for focused rhythm and fatigue resistance is like Aliphine Tuliamuk, the U.S. team leader in the marathon. Those are some great examples from our track and field squad, but you’ll also see these athlete types across all the sports.
If you’re really curious about nailing your own athletic profile and 10xing your results in training, I’d certainly recommend that you pick up a copy of AnimalFIT. Also, we just finished up a three-part series on The Lifetime Athlete Podcast called Training the Beasts. Here’s a quick look.
Episode 186 – Training the Strength Athlete. PK & I discussed the concentric nature of these athletes, their gift of power, and how program design can keep these beasts healthy.
Episode 187 – Training the Elastic Athlete. In this show, we appreciated the need for high intensity and relatively low volume in these masters of tendon stiffness and stretch-shortening cycles.
Episode 188 – Training the Endurance Athlete. We identified how high duration and density work well for these athletes who often strive for mechanical precision to match their movement economy and oxidative metabolisms.
Those are my suggestions to make this summer your best one ever. Knowledge is power but self-knowledge is ultimate power. AnimalFIT might be your ticket.