I’ve always loved sports. From little league baseball to racing my bike as an adult, sport has defined every year and decade of my life.

Beyond the excitement of competition, sports have taught me how to improve at everything I care about, from being a better husband to finishing a work project to remaining calm (most of the time) when my kids drive me crazy.

In sports performance, success is most reliably achieved with training that mirrors the demands of a sport. Basketball players hone their shooting form. Cyclists build their endurance capacity. Training specificity breeds competition success.

But what if a sport has never really motivated you, or what if your competitive days are over? What should your training or exercise look like?

In the same way a competitors training should be informed by the demands of their sport, the “non-competitor” must frame life as their performance sport, using life’s demands to shape their approach to exercise.

Many of us are familiar with life’s challenges, such as major surgery, illness, pregnancy, or the natural effects of aging. Yet, we often neglect to train in a way that prepares us for these realities. Instead of our exercise preparing us for the peak demands of life, we end up training aimlessly, paving a costly path toward frailty.

When we view life as a performance sport, we reject frailty and embrace durability, focusing on what truly matters: building strength, maintaining muscle, and achieving a solid baseline of cardiovascular fitness. This commitment to durability is the cornerstone of thriving in the performance sport of life.