How I Train

Last updated: May 2026

On this page: Why I Train This Way  |  Philosophy  |  Structure  |  Weekly Split  |  Targets  |  The System  |  Life Integration  |  Example Week  |  Health

I train about two hours a day, seven days a week.

This is my hobby, the way some people play golf on weekends or tinker with cars in the garage. I love the work, the process, and the puzzle of making it all fit together. I also don’t think everyone should train this way. Most people would be healthier if they just walked more and ate better. The details below exist because I enjoy the details.

Why I Train This Way

Two ideas drive everything.

It’s a universe where I control the rules. I run a company. My calendar changes hourly. Most of my day is reacting to things I can’t predict. Training is the opposite: I set the plan, I execute the plan, I measure the result. The weights don’t have opinions. My friend Zach Kanter, the founder of Stedi, talks about something similar with startups: building a company is one of the few places where you get to define the rules of the game. Training is that for me. In a life full of chaos, it’s the one domain where inputs reliably produce outputs.

It serves the practice, not a finish line. I used to compete in Hyrox at the Pro level, working with two of the top coaches in the Hyrox world and, before that, a hybrid coach who holds the world record for the Murph workout. Talented people. I learned a lot. But over time, I became externally oriented, training for the race result, the finish time, the thing I could point to and say I did that. My body always hurt. I wasn’t getting stronger or faster. The race-day headspace wasn’t good for me.

So in January 2024, I walked away from competition and external coaching. Counterintuitively, I now train more hours per week than I did as a competitor, and I’m faster, stronger, and healthier. Most of what I do is solo. I build tools, analyze data, obsess over pace or cadence during a single run just to see what happens. The hobby extends well beyond the exercise. It could just as easily be woodworking. It happens to be exercise, which in some ways is just lucky.

The Philosophy

Build a body that performs like an athlete, and therefore looks like one. The physique is the outcome, not the target.

The architecture is three layers, not three competing pillars. Athletic performance is the daily practice. Physical capacity is the body that supports the practice. Healthspan is the foundation that lets both run for decades. Each layer protects the one above it.

I’m 44, advanced training age, running a company. Recovery capacity, joint health, schedule volatility. The program is calibrated to all of that. A program that crushes a 25-year-old won’t be sustainable for me, and the version that’s sustainable is the version I want.

Excellent at three things beats top-tier at one. A pure powerlifter out-deadlifts me. A pure runner out-paces me. I’m fine with the trade. When a heavy lift lands the morning after a long run, load throttles to protect form. The week-to-week numbers fluctuate because of that. That’s a feature.

When the layers conflict, three tiebreakers run in order:

  1. Session intensity titrates to readiness. Consistency wins, not heroic single sessions.
  2. Cycle objectives versus long-term wellbeing. Healthspan wins. Biomarkers, recovery, and joint health are not negotiable for cycle gains.
  3. Schedule versus life. Life wins. Training serves life, not the other way around.

The Structure

I used to run a single 20-week cycle followed by a 6-week consolidation, five named blocks culminating in 1RM testing. That worked when I was competing. It doesn’t work now.

Now I run seasonal cycles. Independent 3 to 6 month arcs, each carrying a different emphasis based on what’s happening that part of the year. Three reasons for the change.

1. Life isn’t 26 weeks long. It’s seasons. Travel patterns, work intensity, daylight, weather, what I want training to give me. All of it shifts seasonally. I hate running in the cold. A cycle that maps to a season runs naturally with my life.

2. Each cycle leans into something different and maintains everything else. Three pillars within performance (strength, power, aerobic capacity), plus the physique and healthspan layers. Trying to develop all of them every cycle is how the prior structure broke. Cycles are now explicit about what’s developing, what’s maintaining, and what’s off this season.

3. No more 1RM chasing. The aspirational max numbers had become the destination, and the chase distorted movement selection and intensity decisions away from what actually builds strength sustainably. Strength now develops in productive rep ranges, 3 to 8 reps at honest RIR. 1RM is incidental, not pursued.

How a cycle is built

Three nested layers: cycle → blocks → ramps.

The deload at the end of each ramp is mandatory. That’s where the adaptation lands.

Example: Summer 2026 (May 4 – Sep 6)

Eighteen weeks. Two blocks: Block A (10 weeks, two ramps, May 4 – Jul 12) and Block B (7 weeks, one ramp plus a tail, Jul 13 – Sep 6).

Leaning into:

Maintaining (not developing):

Off the table this cycle:

Healthspan as the foundation

Underneath every cycle is a permanent layer: the Four Horsemen framework. Atherosclerotic disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic dysfunction. A cycle that builds the body but moves my biomarkers in the wrong direction is a failed cycle, regardless of strength or run numbers. ApoB, fasting glucose, HbA1c, hsCRP, hormone panels, and body composition get measured every quarter and prioritized over any cycle outcome.

The Weekly Split

The day structure is fixed. What changes is the contents. Movement selection rotates for stimulus variety. Loading shifts week to week per the ramp position. Sub-intents within each muscle group rotate (chest alternates shelf-emphasis vs inner-thickness; quads alternate heavy-bilateral vs heavy-unilateral). Volume rises through the ramp, then drops sharply on the deload week.

Day Session Duration Type
Monday Heavy Lower (Quad-Leaning): squats, lunges, quad accessory + posterior + core ~90–95 min Gym
Tuesday AM Easy Z2 Run + PM Upper Push (Chest-led): foundational press + shoulder/tricep tri-set + multi-plane core 45 + 55–65 min Run + Gym
Wednesday Hybrid (Athletic Strength + Polish): two functional movements + compound rotation + visible-upper-body polish + core ~90 min Gym
Thursday AM Speed/Tempo Run + PM Upper Pull (Back-led): foundational pull + rear delt/bicep + bicep mass + core 45 + 50–55 min Run + Gym
Friday Heavy Lower (Posterior-Leaning): RDL, hip thrust/GHR, hamstring iso + posterior accessory + core ~90 min Gym
Saturday Z2 Cross-Train (modality of choice: bike, swim, easy run) 45–60 min Aerobic
Sunday Long Z2 Run (aerobic anchor) 100–125 min Run

The split is structured around CNS load. Two heavy lower days (Mon and Fri) bookend the week with 96 hours between them. Wednesday’s hybrid is moderate-heavy. Tuesday and Thursday upper-body sessions pair with easy or tempo runs at a different time of day. Saturday and Sunday are aerobic.

Two execution rules cut across cycles:

  1. Productive RIR, not max effort. Hypertrophy work runs at RIR 2–3. Strength work caps loads at honest RPE. If a calculated weight pushes RPE past target, the load throttles. Quality volume builds the body. Forced load builds injuries.
  2. Deload is mandatory, not optional. Every fifth week of a ramp is a deload. Volume drops, intensity drops. The adaptation isn’t earned during the work. It’s earned during the recovery.

Current Targets

Strength

The aspirational 1RM numbers I used to chase (500 deadlift, 360 squat, 270 bench, 225 OHP, 240 squat clean) were artifacts of a competitive mindset. Chasing them distorted movement selection and intensity decisions toward peak-effort testing. Exactly the choices that crashed my recovery and triggered the rebuild.

What I track instead:

The aspirational 1RM numbers still exist as a long-term reference. Incidental milestones that may surface naturally as a side effect of consistent productive strength work. Never actively pursued through max testing.

Running

Running goals work the same way. Speed milestones (6:00 mile, 20:12 5K, 1:45 half) are aspirational and deferred. They live on a multi-cycle horizon, not a within-cycle horizon. This summer is an aerobic-base cycle. Peak speed work is deferred to fall and winter when training conditions support it.

What I track this cycle:

Body Composition

Body composition lives in the 10–12% body fat range, held through ongoing recomposition. No bulk/cut cycling. Lean mass is the metabolic foundation: muscle drives insulin sensitivity and glucose disposal. The more lean tissue I carry into my fifties and sixties, the more buffer I have against metabolic dysfunction. The aesthetic outcome of holding this composition over time is a side effect of the structural choice, not the goal.

The most recent DEXA scan (April 2026: 185.9 lb / 11.4% BF / 164.7 lb LBM) is the current anchor. Body comp is reviewed weekly via a vascularity-driven check-in that adjusts the next week’s macros.

The System Behind It

When I went self-coached, I didn’t just write my own workouts. Over the course of two years, I built an elaborate coaching and tracking system that I find as engaging as the training itself.

The AI coaching system. The core of my programming lives in Claude. I’ve built a stack of interconnected reference documents: an active cycle plan, a per-block executable spec that defines each day’s session structure and movement intent slots, a movement library organized by intent category, programming rules governing volume and pace calculations, and explicit program goals with a tiered muscle group priority hierarchy. Each week I run a structured session that ingests the past week’s data (estimated 1RMs from the lifting log, running splits and heart rate data, Oura recovery scores) and produces seven days of programming against all of those documents simultaneously. The AI acts as a coach executing a program I designed. I review, adjust, and execute. The weekly programming session used to take hours; today it takes about fifteen minutes.

PALUS. I got frustrated with existing workout tracking tools and built my own. PALUS connects with every tool in my training life (workout data, running performance from Strava, nutrition logged through conversation, recovery data from Oura) and gives me a unified view of training load, compliance, and recovery trends. The tool doesn’t make decisions; it surfaces the data so I can make better ones. The long-term vision is for PALUS to generate workouts directly. That’s the engineering challenge I’m actively working on.

Nutrition by day type. Macro targets vary by session type. Heavy gym days (M/W/F) get the most carbohydrates. Hybrid days (Tu/Sa) are moderate. Running-only days (Th/Su) are fueled for the specific session demand. Rest days are lower carb. Targets are set at the block level and reviewed at each block transition.

Recovery tracking. I wear an Oura ring when I sleep. HRV, resting heart rate, sleep duration, deep and REM sleep, and readiness scores all factor into how I approach each day. Low readiness doesn’t mean skipping training. It means picking the less explosive option, or running the recovery run slower than planned.

Life Integration

There’s a block on my calendar every morning for training. In the past six years I’ve violated that block only a handful of times, always for meetings with whales before 10 AM. Otherwise, it doesn’t bend. Not willpower, just priority. I decided years ago that this is when I train, and stopped having the conversation with myself about whether to do it.

I travel with my gym bag. I check a bag pretty much everywhere I go, despite traveling extensively. Finding a great gym with an affordable day pass in a small town is actually easier than in a major city. I keep my schedule no matter where I am.

Beyond the core sessions, there are optional afternoon slots for a stationary bike, swim, or sauna. I have a Concept2 BikeErg with a desk attachment, so I can do mindless work (filling out forms, responding to messages) while getting Zone 2 cardio. That’s a small example of how I integrate training with the rest of my life instead of carving it out as a separate thing.

Example: A Week of Training

Below is the shape of Week 3 of the current Summer 2026 cycle, the Build phase of Ramp 1. Wk 3 is a normal mid-arc week. Intensity is climbing toward the peak (Wk 4), volume is mid-band, rep ranges sit in the productive 5–10 zone, RIR target is 2. The deload (Wk 5) follows.

Loads aren’t shown as specific weights. They’re calculated weekly off recent training maxes (the rolling estimate from honest working sets, not a chased 1RM). What’s shown below is the session shape: movement intents, set/rep structure, and how the week’s lean-into emphases (productive strength volume, aerobic base) interact with what’s being maintained (power, tempo running) and what’s off the table (max testing, peak speed work).

Week 3: Build Phase, Ramp 1 (May 18–24, 2026)

Monday: Heavy Lower (Quad-Leaning) · ~95 min · Gym

Foundational Strength (~35 min, all standalone): three quad-pattern lifts at productive RIR.

  • M1: Heavy bilateral squat (week’s quad pattern is bilateral per sub-intent rotation), 4×6–8, RIR 2.
  • M2: Heavy unilateral quad pattern (split squat or step-up), 3×8–10/leg, RIR 2.
  • M3: Quad-emphasis hypertrophy accessory (machine or cable), 3×10–12, RIR 2.

Posterior Accessory (~12 min, paired): hamstring isolation + glute medius work, 3 sets each.

Core (~10 min, paired): anti-extension + spinal flexion (Wk 3 sub-intent: full range, e.g., hanging leg raise to high knee position).

Tuesday: AM Easy Z2 Run + PM Upper Push (Chest-led) · 45 + 60 min · Run + Gym

AM Run: 45–60 min at Z2 heart rate, conversational pace, HR-governed.

PM Upper Push (~60 min):

Foundational Press (~24 min, all standalone): three pressing movements at productive RIR. Chest is the dominant front feature this cycle, so it lands at mid-band volume.

  • M1: Primary heavy compound press (chest mass emphasis), 4×6–8.
  • M2: Secondary press, sub-intent rotation (Wk 3 = shelf-emphasis, lower-pec focused), 4×8–10.
  • M3: Third pressing angle (inner-thickness work, mechanism distinct from M1 and M2), 3×12–15.

Side Delt + Tricep + Front Delt tri-set (~16 min, three movements, 3 sets each, 60–90s rest after all three): Side delts lead with strict-form lateral raise to ~90°, cap-rounding execution, light load. Tricep long-head buffer in the middle (overhead extension). Front delt cable raise anchors. Order matters. Side delt fatigue would compromise execution if it ran second.

Multi-Plane Core + Serratus (~10 min, paired): Wk 3 multi-plane sub-intent = loaded hinge-plane stability. 3 sets each.

Optional PM swim: distance freestyle with light pickup finisher.

Wednesday: Hybrid (Athletic Strength + Polish) · ~90 min · Gym

The cycle’s only home for the power pillar’s heavy / explosive expression. Two functional movements, mechanically distinct, plus compound rotation work plus polish.

  • Warm-up (~10 min): T-spine, hip, scap, light power prep.
  • Functional Strength #1 (~17 min, standalone): athlete-pick from the week’s eligible movements: heavy unilateral lower (e.g., heavy walking lunges, BB front rack), heavy hinge expression (e.g., kettlebell swings, sandbag ground-to-shoulder), or heavy skill / power (e.g., farmer’s carries, sled work). 3–4 sets, 90s rest.
  • Functional Strength #2 (~17 min, standalone): second heavy functional movement, mechanically distinct from #1.
  • Compound Rotation Completion (~13 min, standalone): Wk 3 sub-intent rotation = heavy hinge variant. Catches what the week’s main split missed. 3 sets, 2 min rest.
  • Visible Upper-Body Polish (~11 min, paired): Wk 3 polish rotation = arms emphasis. Bicep mass movement + tricep medial/lateral movement, 3 sets each, 60–90s rest after both.
  • Core (~10 min, paired): trunk rotation (mechanism distinct from Mon’s core) + anti-extension.
  • Chill (~5 min): mobility.
Thursday: AM Speed/Tempo Run + PM Upper Pull (Back-led) · 45 + 50 min · Run + Gym

AM Run: the week’s one quality running session, held at maintenance dose this cycle, not pushed to peak-effort threshold or VO2. ~45 min total: warm-up, tempo or threshold work governed by HR (Z4 floor), cool-down. Speed milestones are deferred to fall/winter cycles.

PM Upper Pull (~50 min):

Foundational Pull (~22 min, both standalone): mid-back thickness is the cycle’s elevated Tier 2 emphasis (driving the side-view back read).

  • M1: Heavy horizontal row (mid-back thickness), 4×6–8.
  • M2: Secondary pull (loaded carry or distinct row variant), 4×8–10. Drops to a 4-set version on a fatigue-trim week if recovery signals warrant.

Rear Delt + Bicep paired (~12 min): rear delt isolation + bicep peak (long-head emphasis), 3 sets each.

Bicep Mass (~8 min, standalone): 3 sets, 8–10 reps.

Core (~8 min, paired): different from Mon and Wed core mechanisms.

Optional PM swim: easy continuous freestyle, recovery flush.

Friday: Heavy Lower (Posterior-Leaning) · ~90 min · Gym

The week’s second heavy lower day, 96 hours after Mon. Posterior chain emphasis to balance Mon’s quad lean.

Foundational Strength (~32 min, all standalone):

  • M1: Heavy hinge (RDL or trap-bar deadlift, distinct from Mon’s quad pattern and Wed’s heavy hinge variant), 4×5–6, RIR 2.
  • M2: Hip thrust or glute-ham developer, 3–4×8–10.
  • M3: Bulgarian split squat or step-up (posterior-biased setup), 3×8–10/leg.

Posterior Accessory (~12 min, paired): hamstring isolation (mechanism distinct from Mon’s setup) + calves or single-leg posterior work.

Core (~10 min, paired): spinal flexion (Wk 3 sub-intent = full range, but loading mechanism distinct from Mon’s full range) + lateral flexion at light-to-moderate load.

Saturday: Z2 Cross-Train · 45–60 min · Aerobic

Modality of choice: bike, easy outdoor run, swim. HR-governed Z2 only. Active recovery from Fri’s heavy lower work.

Sunday: Long Z2 Run · 100–110 min · Run

The week’s aerobic anchor. Outdoor primary, HR-governed (Z2 ceiling), conversational pace. Decoupling under 5%. The aerobic engine is built here, through volume, not through speed.

Across the week: ~5 hours of gym work, ~4 hours of aerobic work, ~9 hours total. Two heavy lower days bookending. One quality run. One hybrid power day. Five distinct gym session types, no repeated session shape across the week.

The lean-into emphases (productive strength volume in the 5–10 rep range, aerobic base building, recomp-supportive fueling) show up in the volume distribution. The maintaining items (power expression on Wed, speed work on Thu) get one slot each, enough to hold the floor, not enough to compete with the development emphasis. The off-the-table items (max testing, peak speed work, bulk/cut cycling) don’t appear anywhere.

How This Connects to Health

Training is one piece of my larger health philosophy: stop doing things that hurt you, maximize your body’s onboard biology, optimize where biology falls short. Training lives squarely in Level 2, the engine that makes everything else matter.

The program is calibrated explicitly against the Four Horsemen: atherosclerotic disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, metabolic dysfunction. Cardiovascular health (VO2 max and aerobic capacity), metabolic health (muscle mass drives insulin sensitivity and glucose control), structural health (strength and stability to be functional at 70), and emotional health (the practice itself). Every cycle is reviewed against biomarkers: ApoB, hsCRP, fasting glucose, HbA1c, hormone panels, quarterly. A cycle that builds the body but moves the markers in the wrong direction is a failed cycle. Healthspan is the foundation, not a benefit.

I left competitive Hyrox for the same reason I take a statin and test my blood every three months: I’m optimizing for decades, not race results. A hobby that happens to be good for me.