The Rise of Hybrid Fitness Training and Competitions

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Transcript: The Rise of Hybrid Fitness Training and Competitions

Season 11, Episode 15  | September 16, 2025

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Welcome back to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m David Freeman.

And I’m Jamie Martin.

And today’s topic is about hybrid training and hybrid fitness as a competition. So as you all know as well-balanced fitness routines that include both strength and conditioning efforts that are next level changing people’s fitness in this arena, when you combine both of these things into a single workout versus just parsing them out into separate ones, we all know that it can be effective and efficient at approaching anyone’s training.

And it’s one of the things that are intriguing within this space in growing numbers of athletes who are looking to challenge themselves. So this is how we’re changing some of the structure in their exercise routine and what we’re doing in this space as well. As well as bringing other competitions that we’re going to be diving into today, we got two special guests. Jamie, who do we have?

Yeah, I’m super excited for this episode today. We have Wes Robertson. He is the Senior Programming Operations Manager at Life Time, as well as a signature group training coach and the race director of LT Games, which we’re going to get into and talk a lot more about in a little bit.

And we also have Juan Herrera-Perla, also known as Juancho or coach Juan to his clients. He’s a Dynamic Personal Trainer, Master Trainer and ELI Group fitness Coach based out of Life in Plano, Texas. He played soccer professionally before joining Life Time as a coach. And he has a hybrid athlete who has competed in a variety of hybrid competitions. Wes, Juan, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having us.

Oh, thank you so much for having us.

Well, I mean, let’s jump right into it. I mean, I kind of gave an overview of what the topic is and we got a lot of exciting things that we’re going to dive into, but we want to hear from both of you. And I’ll start, go Wes and go straight to you, Juan. How would you explain what hybrid training is?

Yeah. So for me, hybrid training is all about someone who — an athlete — and that’s what we all are. I don’t care if we’ve got those people that come in and say they’re not athletes. If you’re walking into a Life Time, I consider you to be an athlete. A hybrid training is for an athlete who wants to be well-rounded in all spaces, whether it’s cardiovascular or strength, whether it’s mobility, a little bit of everything. So a hybrid athlete is well-rounded in all aspects that we offer at Life Time.

Yeah. I mean, Wes said it perfectly. I agree, when anybody or anybody that steps into Life Time, in my classes, they’re for sure athletes. For me, more specifically, a hybrid athlete — if we’re going to go ahead and label someone a hybrid athlete — it’s someone who combines multiple different types of training, whether that’s strength, whether that’s endurance. Pretty much is what we see now is what that current athlete is evolving to.

And they participate in many different types of events, whether that’s marathons, whether that’s your HYROX, your DEKAS, or — I’m going to speak it soon to be — LT Games is coming up, so I’m excited for. That for sure, a hybrid competition.

I love that. Well, let’s speak to what the benefits of this type of training are because, I mean, a lot of people, they come in like I’m doing — on Monday I’m doing my cardio training, on Wednesday I’m doing strength training, and we keep them separate. But what are the benefits of doing both when we combine them? So, Juan, I’m going to throw it right back to you.

Yeah. So, more specifically in the offseason I love to train whether that’s strength one day or cardio one day. But when we’re in season — which is a lot of our athletes, I would say — 80% to 85% of our athletes right now who are into this type of training — the benefits would be to include strength and endurance at the same time.

So whether you’re doing deadlifts or you’re doing a push press which involves a strength going into what would be a ski erg or what would be a running modality. So I think it improves overall fitness balance, for sure, and it builds athletic versatility and durability.

Got it. Wes, anything you want to add to that before David jumps in?

Yeah, I think David kind of hit it on the intro is, for me, the great piece about hybrid training is that it’s very efficient. Jamie, as you stated, we have some people who focus on, all right, I’m going to do my strength on Mondays, then I’m going to do my cardio on Tuesdays, well, we know that sometimes life gets in the way and we don’t make it to on a Tuesday or we maybe miss a Monday.

So, when we focus on hybrid style of training, it gives the athletes and it gives everyone a potential to work on all of those things throughout the week. You’re able to knock out the strength and take part in the cardiovascular piece, whether it — whatever the day it is. So a true hybrid athlete is going to be able to get both of those things in their workouts, so, as David said, that’s the efficient way to go right now.

Yeah. And all I was going to go is you both hit on, obviously, the benefits when it comes to fitness, the efficiency of the workout, how we can now compound both strength and conditioning. The one thing that we all get excited about whenever we get to go out into our regions or around the nation is we get to speak to this full thought approach to exercise as well as wellness.

So now that we tackle a little bit of the benefits around the fitness, how would you say some of the health benefits that come specifically from hybrid training? I’ll take that one because I think of — this is a weird thing to say, but I think of my father who was a heavy strength athlete. He would be able to lift.

And I remember looking up as a kid of how heavy he could lift things and then he was also the same guy that was maybe winded after walking up a couple flights of stairs. And he’s going to hate that. I just said that.

But when we think of that true overall health, the kind of mindset has shifted. Being strong is very important. As we age we know that strength and lifting weights helps with bone density and things like that. But also from a cardiovascular side of things, we know that the heart is arguably the most important muscle.

So being able to do some of those cardio things and train in a cardiovascular manner is going to help, as I go — continue to go back to just being a well-rounded human being when it comes to overall health and longevity, hybrid is the way to go.

I want to touch base a little bit of what Wes said because, yeah, absolutely, I think strength being as we progress in life, we definitely want to be able to get stronger. Science will tell us as we get older, we get weaker. But being able to stay strong at a longer period of time, when it comes to being a hybrid athlete, not only are you just doing strength as well but you’re also working your cardiovascular system.

I see a lot of athletes now — and more specifically clients of mine — who check their VO2 max constantly. They’re checking weekly, they’re checking biweekly — whatever that is — so you know these type of trainings, it’s making your heart healthier.

But also looking at it in the mental side of it all, psychologically, when you’re in the trenches of these trainings — whether that’s a zone three, zone four day — whatever we’re talking about — or you’re in any of these races, can I do 10 more lunges? Or I can do 10 more wobbles or I can push stronger, it’s just one more mile. Going the distance not just with cardio or physically but mentally has helped us evolve as well and getting stronger mentally.

Yeah, there’s something about building that resilience that’s happening there. You’re building physical resilience by doing these moves and these things, but it’s also that mental repetition of practicing, David. And I talk about that all the time. Like, we’ve got to practice these things and build that resilience. And it’s physical and mental always.

You mentioned already, Juan, you started leaning towards, when I work with my clients. So I know you were one of the first to start putting some of these hybrid type workouts into play here at Life Time. Let’s talk a little bit about what a hybrid workout might look like. Like what types of things might your clients be doing? Or if you’re leading a class, what does that look like in practice?

Yeah. Oh, you said it right there, practice. The way I treat the group that I have — I have two different groups. One group is a little bit more advanced. They need a little bit less coaching and more of like a grit or a push. And then I have another group who needs a little bit more of that technicality, needs a little bit more of the coaching, and, of course, the motivation.

This group, the first group, more specifically, they have been with me for about two years now. So we’ve been training for two years — or two seasons consecutively. What they normally see would be, for example, the first 25 to 30 minutes of our practice or our training is what I call it. We see some type of interval runs — whether that’s two minutes on, one minute off or incline runs for about 20 to 25 minutes.

And then the remaining time on that session — which will be about another 25 minutes — we go more into prepping for any of these competitions, whether that’s farmers carry, ski ergers or skier rower intervals as they go. So depending on the day, that’s what it’s structured.

I would say 80% of their training, though, when they don’t see me, it’s more of a zone two. And when they’re seeing me, when they come to me, that’s where that push comes.

Whether they’re like, oh, I can’t keep the consistency on the skier, well, no, yes you can. I’ve seen you done it. You’ve been there before.

When you feel this here now and it sucks, you’ll know this feeling in any type of competition or any race, so you’ve been there, done that type of thing. So more a little bit of that type of training, for sure.

Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about that zone three, zone four training and why it’s important to have coaching there. I know you alluded to that zone two we consider that steady state cardio where we’re really building our base. Wes, talk to us about zone three, zone four, and why that push is needed in this.

Yeah. I think it comes down to no one likes doing zone three, zone four by themselves. It’s easy to tap out. If my programming calls for five rounds and I’m pushing truly into those higher heart rate zones, it’s very easy for me to say, OK, I’m going to stop at three rounds and get that.

So as Juan talked about, having a coach or having an accountability partner there to make sure that you are truly hitting those zones and completing all of the efforts as intended. When someone like Juan writes program and when we write program for an LT games class, there’s always an intended stimulus and there’s always a design to get something out of that workout.

So the zone three, four is a great place for us as coaches to be part of because we want to make sure that we shape exactly what it is. Zone two is zone two. We want you to build that endurance, but in zone three, zone four, I might need you to — in the nicest way — get punched in the face so that I can help you get back up.

And, Jamie, as you talked about that resilience factor of, wow, this is really hard but I was able to keep going, or I fell down, but I’m able to get back up. That zone three, four is where that usually happens. So as coaches it’s nice to be that person to push but also that person to help when someone does need that helping hand and get them to that next stage with those more intense efforts.

All right, solid. There was one thing that stood out that you were talking about, Juan. Wes, you probably have heard us talk about this in the summit in the past. I think this is very valuable to champion what was said there. You said practice.

And then when you think of that practice, usually what we associate the practice is some type of skill that an individual needs to work on. And maybe that’s eight to 10 minutes of their workout. And then 20 to 30 minutes is the exercising portion, and that’s where they’re getting a lot of the reps of the movements that might be simulated in the eventual competition they may be in.

But what we try to always share with our athletes is understanding that you’re going to be practicing and exercising majority of the time. Don’t use that session as a competition. And so many individuals come into the space of what should be that general building of that base and they want to compete, they want to compete. They want to be the weekend warrior or Monday’s winner, or whatever it may be.

So I think that’s super important for our listeners to dive in on that, understand save the competition for the competition, which is a sanctioned event you can get on the podium. And have fun when you’re working out amongst the people next to you. I think it’s in our nature to be competitive, but I think as coaches, just reiterating that practice and exercise, getting those reps in that setting is very important. So I don’t know if y’all want to elaborate on that. And then I’m going to throw the next question that’s a big one. What do y’all think about that?

Yeah. So, I mean, David, yeah, you said it correctly on that one. Making sure a lot of the athletes in these semi-private or a lot of these athletes in our training sessions, they usually like to be number one. I have an athlete who is very, very competitive.

I mean, she is probably one of the better athletes — I’ll be honest — one of the better athletes across the nation with her age group, and she’s always trying to compete with everyone else. Which means it can be very healthy, but it can also be very toxic to the group. Which means it makes everyone else be more competitive and it gets out of what they need to be doing when it comes to the training session.

So I think, as a coach, it’s very important to make sure we stop that right away and be like, hey, save this, everything that you have. Get your reps in, you’re going to see the same type of movements again next Monday. Oh, and by the way, in two weeks, the next Monday will be the same type of movements because the more you practice, the better you get, the more you perform better so that you can bring all your tools together for our competition.

That’s where I want you to shine. Can you show up the day of the competition with this same type of energy that you’re bringing along with everybody else? And that’s the goal. And that’s the idea behind making sure that, like you said, this is not a competition — this is not a weekend warrior. Give me your best that day for yourself and then shine when the spotlights are on you.

Wes, same thing when it comes to GTX or Alpha or Ultra or what have you seen in that space. And what would you give as a nugget to the coaches and athletes?
Yeah. It’s one of those things. And that’s kind of why I chuckled when you asked the question is we have those athletes that look at this as a competitive atmosphere at all times. And there are some workouts that, I’ll be honest, are designed to bring out that competitive nature and scratch that itch that some of us still have from the old playing games.

But there are other workouts that are just designed to make you more fit. And it’s not about a leaderboard. It’s not who can get the most amount of reps or who can get the most amount of rounds. It’s just at your capacity, how your body feels at this time, getting the most out of that day.

So I think Juan kind of alluded to it, but looking at this as a training, as a practice, the body goes through so many different things. And some of those days that you’re going to see the most advancement as an athlete is when you don’t have a leaderboard and when you don’t try to win, and when it’s just you working within what your body needs for that day.

Yo, Wes, that’s some great advice, man. Every time I go up to Minnesota, you’re trying to compete with me. Sometimes I’m [AUDIO OUT] I’m just trying to practice with you, man. I don’t understand what the situation is here.

When I get to work out with Juan, that is my game time. I spend the four months leading up to, and those are my competitive days is when Juan’s in town.
I’ll have the pleasure one day to train with Jamie. But when I train with David, it kind of, like, brings me down sometimes. I’m like, OK, good. And he’s like nice training session today. We don’t have to compete today.

Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny. I can about imagine the three of you all in one space working out together. I’ve worked out with David before but, OK.

I’m the medium, Jamie. I’m the medium. So if they want to compete, I’m like, go for it. I’ll be the guy to be like, hey, y’all got it. I’m at that point. I mean, let’s go right into the competitions, I mean, the topic of discussion here. We know that there’s so many competitions out there. You got DEKA, you got HYROX, you got Spartan.

So, the exciting piece that we’re having this podcast to bring awareness to, Life Time is about to enter into this space with LT Games. So if you can, Wes, Juan, share a little bit about what these competitions are and why they become so popular as a whole and where LT Game fits in within that space.

Wes, do you mind if I start this one so that you can —

No, please, please.

—get all in together? Different types of competitions, David. You have your DEKAs, like you mentioned. More recently within the past, I honestly want to say in the past five to eight years, we’ve seen this growth of what they call hybrid of these athletes that are trying to do the different types of competition, whether that’s running — compromise running into some type of event or compromise strength into some type of cardio piece.

And we’re starting to see all these different races pop up. More recently everyone talks about Hyrox. And the barrier to entry for that one is super easy. You really don’t need a lot of equipment. You don’t really need a lot of things. The only thing you really need, honestly — based on what this style of competition is — is pavement on the ground or a treadmill, because a lot of these athletes need to build an aerobic base. And then from there, once they build that, everything else can come into play.

You don’t need the dumbbells. You can find a five gallon jug or lift your baby and do some squats, whatever that is. For those that are trying to be part of this type of environment, that’s what you see. And then, of course, you start seeing those athletes that are a little bit more competitive, and they start getting these memberships.

Or they’re looking for a little bit more, they’re itching. Like Wes said, they’re trying to scratch this itch that they have in their back as, what else is there? I want to be the best at something else. And then this is where the beauty of LT Games comes in. Wes, go ahead.

Yeah. You’re trying to set me up for success. I appreciate, Juan. One of the things that I’m most excited about LT Games is this is Life Time’s ability to put together a true competitive atmosphere. We have amazing spaces. We already have amazing formats.

Alpha Showdowns were a huge hit when those were running strong. Now that, as Juan alluded to, the kind of fitness industry has shifted a little bit more into that hybrid space, Life Time have been set up for success. When we think about even the SGT programs that we offer, we have GTX, we have Ultra Dit, you have Alpha Strength, we have Alpha Conditioning. We’ve had hybrid training in our spaces for a really long time.

Now we’re going to take all of those brands and we’re going to put it into one complete race. The LT Games here at the Target Center is going to be hosted in October, we’re excited. It’s a 17 station race where athletes will test not only their cardiovascular endurance, but they’ll test a little bit of strength, they’ll have some agility, a little bit of balance, a little bit of everything.

And, again, it really just comes down to, as we spoke to earlier, it’s a complete rounded athlete. We need someone — we can’t just have a great runner because they’re going to get eaten alive when it comes to the strength work.

You can’t just have someone who’s great at strength because they’re going to be breathing too heavy from the cardiovascular to be good at the strength stuff. LT Games is really going to test athletes in a way that I will say I don’t think is out there right now. So I’m excited to show these 17 stations off to the world.

I think it’s very, very important to understand exactly what he just said when it comes to there isn’t something out there right now. And I think the beautiful thing is that we’re getting ahead of the game already. When it comes to a program that we have that piloted in certain clubs, Hybrid XT was more of like a trial and error. Think about it as people at Life Time want something like a GTX, Alpha Con.

We’ll even add in Alpha Strength and MB360 added all into one thing, and we tried it out and see what it would look like and how hot it was and how hot members are hungry for. So now we’re like, OK, perfect. Now this is where we’re going to go ahead and start having LT Games and LT classes — LT games classes for those members that are hungry for these competitions.

And I think, Juan and me kind of taken over here. Sorry, Jamie, I know I just cut you off, like, me and Juan. But this back and forth, I think, the cool part about it is we can call it out. And Juan has the flags right behind him. Right now the big name is Hyrox in this space. They are doing amazing things.

I think while we’re not affiliated with them, it’s — and it’s an amazing company. They’re getting people repurposed into fitness and training the way that they used to as athletes. I think it’s great for the entire world. And Life Time, I want people to understand that Life Time isn’t here, the LT Games. The purpose behind LT Games is not to be another HYROX. We’re not to compete with HYROX. We’re not to compete with CrossFit.

We are trying to put ourselves in a position that lands somewhere in between those things. So it’s going to be a good mixture. Yes, you’re going to have things that overlap, but in the fitness industry, you can only recreate the wheel so many times.

We’re going to have things that you’re going to see in the CrossFit space, you’re also going to see in HYROX. But where we’re going to take those things, and we’re going to use the same science, the same kind of ideas, the same zone training, the same purpose and intensity that goes into us building out our SGT programs, that belief is built into LT Games. So we’re excited to really try to find our own footing inside of a space that is doing really well in the fitness industry right now.

Yeah. And that was really where I was going to go with my question is we’ve seen this — it feels kind of trendy but, like, Juan, you said, it’s been the last five to eight years this has been going on. And then, Wes, you said there’s been a shift in the fitness industry towards this more. What has driven that shift, do you think?

Like, why are we seeing this become kind a more standard of how we train going forward? Because more and more people — and it’s becoming more accessible for more people. So why is that happening? Why do you think, Wes?

Yeah. Jamie, I think you just said the word right there, it’s more accessible. If we go back even further than the eight years Juan was talking about is you can go back to the early 2010s where CrossFit was the big thing, and you couldn’t walk down the street without someone telling you about them doing a CrossFit workout. And that’s really the cool piece of it.

As CrossFit has evolved, the space has evolved and the things that they ask athletes to do in the CrossFit space has evolved, handstand push ups and double unders and right walking on your hands. The cool party tricks. Those are amazing things for people that want to live in that space. The great piece about Hyrox and Deka and Spartan is it is a little bit more accessible.

We’re taking some of those skill pieces out, things that you have to spend hours and hours learning. And as Juan alluded to is at the end of the day, if you have a really good engine and that solid foundation of cardiovascular ability, you’ll be able to build off of that. It’s, can you hold that zone two? Can you do a little bit of that strength work? Can you put one foot in front of the other?

And that’s where the accessible piece is really what it comes down to is we have beautiful spaces in Life Time but at the end of the day, you could train for Hyrox, you can train for DEKA, you can train for LT Games outside on the street. So that’s the piece of just that accessibility. People are starting to realize — and coming back — how important are healthy lifestyle is and healthy way of life, the accessibility piece is where hybrid training is starting to blossom again.

Also, I think, piggybacking off of what Wes said as well, I think it’s just also how life evolves as a whole. Just like fitness, fitness is so ever evolving and so people are getting accustomed to different things. And then, of course, the world spins, so does fitness spins as well. I like to think of it as like — I joke around with a lot of my members in class how we used to have — or ladies used to wear those high-waisted jeans back in, who knows, the ’70s and ’80s.

Well, guess what’s hot right now or guess what’s trending right now. Now ladies are wearing those high — and guys too. Wes, if that’s what you’re wearing, that’s cool. Wes, I’m not judging you. But those high-waisted jeans is what people are wearing nowadays, ladies are wearing. So it’s just a circle of life and it’s just coming around. Will CrossFit come back around?

Maybe a different style of it, but it’ll come back and be hot again, for sure, in the future. Right now, the generation that we’re living in now, this is what everyone wants to do.

It’s the hybrid training.

Yeah, I know everybody’s chomping at the bit since we now said that we got LT Games coming. Walk us through how it’s set up. You said 17 stations. Like, what all does the workout entail? If you could break that down to us.

Yeah. So, LT Games, I’ve been calling it — and this is — I have two young kids — so I’ve been calling it a choose your own adventure workout. So with those 17 stations, at certain stations, you’re, as an athlete, going to have an option to be able to pick from. So everyone is going to start with a 1,000 meter run, 0.62 miles if you round down a little bit, but 1,000 meters.

Once you complete that 1,000 meters, every athlete is going to move on to station two which is a Barbell Deadlift. Male athletes — again, I always get the shock factor here — male athletes are going to need to deadlift a total of 10,000 pounds. Female athletes are going to have to deadlift a total of 7,500 pounds.

Now, that’s a world record if you lift that up one time. We’re not asking you to do that. But we’re going to ask you — we’re going to give you three different options to be able to do that. So from a male athlete perspective — to keep numbers clean — 10,000 pounds. If I put 225 pounds on the barbell, I have to deadlift that 45 times in order to meet my 10,000 pounds volume.

So in order to move past station number two, I need to deadlift a total of 10,000 pounds. So once I move to that, I get to move on to station number three, which is our rower.

That’s another 1,000 meter row. But the cool part about that and the reason I keep coming back to that choose your own adventure is every athlete is a little bit different.

I know you probably can’t tell by this podcast, but Juan is a little bit lighter than me as an athlete. I’m going to be able to move a barbell a lot faster — a heavier barbell — just because of my body type. Now Juan’s going to — this is where that competitive — I saw a competitive face — Juan’s going to be off of 1,000 meter run probably 90 seconds ahead of me. But I know if I can load my barbell a little bit more and move it just as fast as Juan, I’m going to have to do less reps.

So I could do 225 pounds for 45 reps. Juan, as a really strong athlete — I’m not calling Juan out — but as a really right that mid tier, he’s probably going to pick that middle barbell, which is 185 pounds. He has to do 54 reps in order to get to 10,000 pounds.

Our third option would be 135 pounds. That athlete needs to do 74 reps. So each athlete is going to have the ability to lean into their strengths and pick a weight that makes sense for them to just complete that volume. So it’s always going to be based off the volume at those stations.

Station number three is the rower. And that’s where, again, 1,000 meters, male athletes. Our female athletes are going to need to accumulate 750 meters of rowing. But as you just chip away at those 17 stations, the volume of work gets a little bit lower. And then we finish with the 200 meter run.

Inside of that entire workout — again, I know we could probably spend an hour talking about every single station as it is — but inside of that workout. You’re going to see a station with wall balls. You’re going to see a station with a barbell shoulder to overhead. You’re going to see box jumps, you’re going to see burpee box jumps. You’re going to see a dball box get over where you have to hold a dball and climb over a box.

You’re going to see more rowing, more skiing. You’re going to see a dumbbell ground just shoulder to overhead. But at each one of those stations where there’s either a box or a weight that is part of it, you’re going to have an option between a heavy, a medium, and a light, and that’s where the athletes are really going to be able to lean into the type of athlete they are. Whether it’s 135 pounds barbell or 225 pounds barbell, at the end of the day, we’re still doing the same amount of work. It just looks a little bit different to get down our LT Games course.

Yep. I have been able to see some practices. I’m seeing this in going in competitions down there at the Target Center, and it’s a pretty amazing competition to see how different people move through different stations. And that’s one thing that I think is so cool about this is like, for me, strength is kind of my area of excellence, if I was to say that, compared to endurance. So I was like, that’s where I would move things quicker.

But, again, to again, to be able to adapt to each person, meet yourself where you are and continue to grow in that space. I think that’s really cool about this approach that we’re taking. I love it. Well, how would somebody train for this? I mean, I know we’ve talked about — we talked about the hybrid style workouts, but if somebody is like, I want to sign up for LT Games when it comes to my city eventually, how would you recommend training?

I know Minnesota right now is holding or having classes in Target Center, which soon to be in certain clubs and certain markets. And then they’ll be able to see the workouts online because it is a training program, just like our other competition — our other classes, excuse me, like our other classes, Alfa GTX, Alfa Con where our members can go into the app and follow a training plan that they see in classes.

So right now I think that’s what we’re doing right now in Minnesota, if I’m not mistaken, Wes. But hopefully soon a lot of the trainings — I’ve been blessed and lucky enough to see what the workout is, so I’m able to have my athletes here train a certain way because of the exercises that I already know and I’ve already seen.

And I think, Juan, hit on that is as of right now, our Target Center location is our only LT Games hub. There is more information to come with that hopefully sometime soon. But in order to train for the LT Games, it’s the reason we’re having this podcast, it’s a hybrid style. You need to be able to hold a good cardiovascular endurance challenge while mixing in some strength.

So we’re not only going to host classes here at the Target Center location for all members in Minnesota to come to, but also when you think about our other SGT programs, mixing in a couple of those throughout the week is going to build that hybrid training plan, just like we would want an athlete to do when they don’t have access.

You can always work with a Dynamic Personal Trainer. We’re also going to be putting out an eight week LT Games training program onto our app that will be complimentary just to get people a little sense of what it is to train like an athlete. And then we’ll always have the ability to build specialized program inside of that LT app with great coaches like Juan who works with athletes to be a little bit more personalized.

For someone who is looking to step up onto that competitive and potentially stand on a podium, I’m always going to suggest finding the coach that can lean into your areas of opportunity. I don’t want to call them weaknesses, but lean into your areas of opportunity and help build those up alongside of the strengths to get ready for whether it’s LT Games or any race that you’re looking to compete in the next few months.

No, you little teaser. Eight weeks, is that all you’re going to give me right there? Eight weeks only?

Keep you coming back for more.

Hey, that was big because when we — last year we’re talking about the one SGT, small group training, for those who are wondering what the acronym is. But, Wes, you just kind of alluded to it, but can you speak to how GTX, how Alpha, how Ultra Fit and MB360 serve as extensions for those who might still want to go into this space, whether it is LT Games or just life as a whole. So, what value and benefit does each one of those SGT brands hold and how does it help support to the LT Games vision?

No, it’s a great call out, David. The one SGT picture really comes down to how when we look at all of the programs, we’re ultimately building a hybrid athlete inside of this program. So, yes, we’re going to have those people in our clubs that are solely GTX athletes or solely alpha strength, but we know when we take a step back and look, we are going to build a stronger, complete athlete if we can get members to build a schedule that allows them to be in each one of those classes.

In GTX you’re going to have that straight line cardiovascular ability where you’re on the treadmill — Juan talked about having his athletes do it. You’re going to be doing intervals on the treadmill or on a cardio piece in that GTX class, two minutes of zone three into a one minute zone two. You’re going to get that zone three, zone four effort in there. That’s where that straight line cardiovascular endurance is going to come into play.

Alpha conditioning, we’re also going to give you that cardiovascular endurance but it might come in the form of kettlebell swings and box jumps and a ski erg. The strength component is definitely going to come from our alpha strength class where we’re going to give you the ability to get your hands on a barbell and do movements like a deadlift and overhead press and back squat.

Those are just foundational strength movements where MB360 is going to be not only do you get to work on mobility, you get that mindset factor, you get to really dive into the type of athlete that you are. And Ultra Fit, you know that Ultra Fit is bad for Juan and I. We’re right next to each other, sprinting next to each other because those treadmills just get so loud. But ultra fit is that straight line, all out effort.

You’re going to be in that zone four, zone five where you’re pushing to those higher capacities which, at the end of the day, not only give you all the great things that Ultra does, it gives you that mindset of, OK, I can get my heart rate that elevated and recover to have to do it again. So, David, as you alluded to, one SGT and also LT Games is really about all of these formats working together to build that complete program.

Awesome. So, we had your colleague, Danny King, on the podcast probably a season or two ago. And we talked to him about competitions and why signing up for a competition can add this other layer to your training. I would love to hear from both of you, why do you think competitions set the bar a little higher for athletes necessarily?

They put that goal out there. Why does that matter? And why is that important? Juan, let’s go to you first.

Yeah, that’s a very good question. to. Answer it personally, myself, it’s let’s reward all the training that we’ve done. Let’s reward all the classes that we’ve been to. Let’s go do something — soon to be within Life Time — but let’s go do something outside of Life Time to reward everything that we’ve done, to show the world the talents that we have within our four walls. And to show everybody the type of programs that we’re in that got us ready for these type of competitions. This is how I’ve seen it.

When it comes to Hyrox, I love, love seeing all of different members from different cities just wear Life Time shirts or when someone gets on top of the podium, they’re wearing a Life Time, whatever it is. Or if I see someone — someone came up to me one time in a race and they’re like, yo, where do you train? Where do you get all like your trainings and stuff like that? You look great.

The first thing I’m going to say is going to say Life Time. Oh, hey, we have 170 something — OK, 180 now, but 170 something locations. And it’s in a lot of our big major cities. There’s a location there where you can take these classes. I take these classes that have gotten me ready. Oh, and 30 or 40 different members from our specific club that participates in these races.

It’s cool.

And for me, it’s funny because Juan and I actually had a conversation, a little heart to heart a few weeks ago. Juan is a former professional athlete. He’s had that competitive lifestyle and lived the competitive lifestyle where he was being paid for it. Me, I didn’t make it that far. I played a little bit of college sports. But for me, the competitive side still comes from even though I’m getting old, I’m not ready to hang up the cleats yet. I still need that competitive — there’s still a ton of competitiveness inside of me that I have to have something that I’m willing to train for.

And, Jamie, as you talked about — and I remember listening to that podcast, as Danny alluded to — I know my training, I’m not going to miss a training session if I’m signed up for something. Because I know at the end of the day, when that date hits, I want to be able to perform my best.

I know when summertime in Minnesota, I mean, we go — we’re outside and there’s breweries and those types of things, I know I’m going to make better decisions because I have that competition that I’m signed up for. And I know on that date I want to be able to perform my best.

So that mindset of, OK, I have this as a goal or an end date, this is where something is going to happen, that helps a lot of us as athletes make better decisions, stay locked in on the training plan, and probably just work harder than we would if it was just a normal workout session. We’re never going to put in the effort unless there’s something you know is coming on the schedule and is circled, we’ve circled that date.

Yeah. I think what’s so interesting about competitions like this and just races in general is there’s that accountability factor that you have, but also I think it’s like people discovering their potential and what’s possible. I always feel like, oh, can I do this? Can I achieve this? And when that happens it’s like, OK, if I can do that, what’s next?

And so I think that’s what’s so cool about, hey, if you can complete the LT Games, OK, if I can do that, I never thought that was possible. If I doubted myself — there’s a new level of confidence and belief in the self to be able to achieve something great, whether it’s physical or emotional, mental, whatever. It just puts your potential in a different place. It kind of moves the mark for it and an ability for you to keep challenging yourself.

Definitely.

I don’t know.

I grew up playing, obviously, team sports. So, whether — I love doing single races, I love doing it by myself but I think where I get a lot of my excitement and pleasure and happiness is doing it with somebody else. I have two partners, more specifically, that I do my competitions with. One who is near and dear to my heart, my girlfriend, Vanessa, who I have seen her go from being just a cycle attendee classes to now running and lifting weights and doing cleans and participating and being a rock star.

And then on the other side, someone who I grew up with and I saw be born is my brother. Someone who was at some point — which is insane to me how someone so close to me was like this — but he got to 120 pounds. And he’s a little bit shorter than me, maybe smarter than me, but shorter than me. And now seeing him at the club and everybody just joking around saying, wow, your brother’s a beast. He’s better than you as an athlete or your brother’s just amazing.

All these things to me, what goes to my mind is back in the day when he was negative about himself just mentally, and now him speaking so positively about himself. When we’re in the trenches of these races together — when you’re alone, it’s your thoughts in your head. And you can bring yourself down to a negative thought.

But when you’re with a partner or somebody that you trust doing these competitions, motivating you, come on, we’re in this together, we’ve never been alone, we’ve always been together. And we grew up together. We went through the toughest times together. This is nothing compared to what we’ve done. All these things, it’s like a circle of light, complete circle of life to me. And doing it as a partner, doing it with someone else is just that much better for me.

That was awesome. I mean, that’s great reflection moment with you, Juan, Wes. When it comes to training individuals — because I see a lot on your story, different individuals post some of their successes with their lifts and so on and so forth, can you tell the value prop that comes from when you implement this training for your athletes and seeing their success? Can you share any stories that stand out to you?

Yeah. It’s actually funny Juan talked about training and having that accountability from a partner. I have two athletes that take my alpha strength class in Savage. And these ladies are — they’ve always been super hard workers. And I personally was doing a competition, a local Minnesota competition, and I invited everybody in class.

I put it out onto the group chat in the app and I said, hey, these are my heat times, and both of them came. They got to watch me, and they watched me — I think they enjoyed watching me suffer as much as they did. But they got to see what the competition atmosphere was all about. And I could see as the day went along as I’m trying to catch my breath and laying on the floor, I could see that their mind was, wow, this is what we do on a day to day basis.

And when I take Alpha strength four days a week, these are a lot of the similar things. And I could sense that. I didn’t say anything that day but then the following week when they were coming in class, I saw them and I said, all right, you both are ready, right? And they kind of looked at me with a side eye, and I didn’t have to say anything other than you both are ready, aren’t you? And they knew what I was talking about.

I could see that coming out of them. So it was really cool to see, is Juan — Juan puts himself out there as well with his training of the reason I train is to — as silly as it sounds — not only hold myself accountable, but I want other people to see the work that is done in order to get into some of these other places.

So they actually signed up for a competition. Super sad part about it is they weren’t able to do the competition. Some other things came up. But when they were locked in, they had like — they told me they had the best eight weeks of training that they’ve ever had.

They were there before class doing their 15 minutes of mobility. They were there after class doing their extra zone two work. So just having that locked in — and, Juan, you talked about them being as a team, they were going to do this as a duo — them being locked in.

So for me as a coach, it gets so exciting to — that’s why I post my workouts. I wanted to make sure that other people know this is how I train. This is how you can train in order to do the competitions and the things that I do as well. So that’s the excitement that I get is as a coach — and I know I talked about not hanging up my cleats, but let’s be real, what it is. Let’s call it what it is.

My playing days are over, but having the ability to impact someone in the way that I do and show them and get them outside of their comfort zone to potentially do some of these things — Jamie, as you talked about that you thought you might not ever do — as a coach, that’s what I’m most proud of. Whether it’s the personal best or signing up to get outside their comfort zone, as a coach, there’s nothing — there’s no better feeling than seeing your athletes want to do something that they didn’t think that they could ever do.

As you’re going to give me the tear eye a little bit, man.

No, no. You know what? I got a funny story, Jamie. And I know — before we close it out. But I got a funny story just to share. So Juan hit y’all with some sentimental stuff, Vanessa and his brother. That was awesome. And I love and I appreciate it. It was authentic.

Juan, he’s talking about doing it with other people, finishing together and all that. Let me tell you something about Juan, OK. Miami marathon, never done a half marathon before, didn’t really train for it. So, you know Juan, I think he said he’s never actually done a sanctioned one before too. So, hey, brother, I’m going to stay with you. We’re going to fight through this together. I got you. And we’re going to get through this together. I’m like, cool.

Just know that he left me — I forgot what mile point it was, but just gone and just forgot about the whole I’m with you the whole time, brother. It was cool though because in my head, I knew I was going to get to the finish line to let him know about himself. But it just had me reflect in that moment that maybe he’s like that for a short period of time, but when Juan gets into competition mode, that goes out the window. So that was cute, Juan, but we all know what time it is.

I remember watching my stories when Miami marathon was happening, and seeing David that you had done that. I’m like, did he even train for this? Like, what are they doing down there? That’s so funny that you — I was so proud of you for getting there and just taking on the — going to the line and doing it.

You guys like that little boost of himself, I didn’t train for it, but I finished it?

No, no, that was more of just the mindset piece. Like, I think all the reps over the years, when you’ve trained with that mindset, you’re going to finish. But, yeah, I don’t recommend doing that by any means.

Yeah, right. The training matters in that case, so. OK. I know we have to wrap this up. We’re getting to the end here. I just want to ask both of you, is there any — as we look ahead to the future, we know hybrid training is what’s happening right now in the fitness industry. Is there anything more about what Life Time envisions around this for the future of hybrid training that you want to mention or touch on before we get to David’s final question?

Yeah. I know for me, I’m excited to — while we’re still keeping the cards a little bit close to our chest, I’m excited to — not only are we hosting our first LT Games competition in October, but the plan is to build more of these hubs around the country.

We know that, as Juan talked about, it’s going to come and go, but the big hybrid style of training is something that’s great for all members and everybody looking to get in the fitness industry. So we’re going to have a couple more sites coming for LT Game locations in the next couple of years.

That will give us the opportunity to expand not only the training of LT Games as a class and have some training hubs, but we’ll be able to host more competitions as well and continue to expand the competition as we look for the top tier athletes. And I would argue the fittest members of Life Time is what we’re trying to find with LT Games.

The way I see it, I think — also, Wes, that was great, man. I think build this type of FOMO for people outside of Life Time. Just, hey, what is Life Time doing? We’ve always been a brand, we’ve always been a company who is always exceeded expectations always. Our expectations is here, we always shoot it up above that.

So now you’re going to start seeing a little bit more of LT Games in your social medias, in the media, and people are going to want to know what it’s all about. And I think that’s great that it’ll bring members — people outside to now become members to train for something like this, for sure.

Awesome. OK. Well, with that, I think, David, it’s time for your final question. Yep, are you ready? Are you guys ready for David’s mic drop moment?

Go.

Let’s hear it.

All right. You only get pick one if you have the choice of being the fastest man in the world or the strongest man in the world, which one would you choose, and why?

Wes, let me go first on this one because I want to — you kind of want to go first before someone great answers and you’re like, I don’t have an answer. I honestly and truly, I don’t want to be analytical like David is all the time but I’ll answer straight away.

And it’s going to be I want to be the strongest man in the world because I already know how I am as a runner and I’m so — I always hear from Wes all the time, Wes is always like, if you were as strong as me or if you were this. I know you’re running, but if you were as strong — so now if I can flip that roll around, my superhero self will come out and I’m like, what’s up, Wes? I’m stronger than you now. No.

And then also — with all seriousness — I think it’s also let it be God’s will if I ever have kids one day. I’m able to hang around and be stronger than those kids, be able to pick them up and have fun with them, play with them and keep being strong.

At some point, I see David’s example as his kids look up to him as like, wow, daddy, you’re so strong. And they’re getting older and older and he’s still staying stronger and stronger and I’m just like, yo, I need to get there too. I need to be — I need to naturally be strong always. So that’s my super talent is to be strong always.

Yeah. I’m glad I get to go second because Juan said he’s the strongest person in the — right, he’s the strongest person in the world. He said that first. Now that I’m saying it second, I’m always going to be stronger than Juan. So I would say I want to be the strongest person in the world. He said at first, I’m second so now I’m a little bit stronger than him.

But the thing that goes is, for me, I think back when you said that, I think about to as a kid, the superhero that always appealed to me was the Incredible Hulk, the super strength. While flash and all of these fast superheroes are amazing, to me I always looked up to the strength of someone like Incredible Hulk. So for me it’s always going to be strength.

And Juan said that I’ve got two young kids and I want to be able to — yeah, I’ll be able to chase them, but I don’t need to be the fastest person in the world to keep up with them. I need to be the strongest to make sure I get to throw them as high as they want and help push them on the swing and things like that. So I’m going to be the strongest in the world.

There it is.

All right. Well, as you can tell if you’re listening or watching this, we have a few competitive people on this podcast, but awesome. I think the work that we’re doing, all of you, thank you for the work you’re doing on hybrid training at Life Time. To see its growth and to witness it happening in real time is pretty exciting, and to know that this is coming.

So, we’re going to have more info on LT Games in our show notes, but we can — if you want to — people want to follow Wes on Instagram. You can follow him at SemiFitWes.

And if you want to follow Juan, he’s at BodyByJuancho. That’s body by J-U-A-N-C-H-O. Just to make sure you got that there.

Anywhere else that you would add, either of you, that you want people to follow you, are those the best places?

My TikTok is the same as well. It’s the same thing. So I’m starting to get into TikTok a little bit. Let’s see how it works.

Awesome.

I’m too old for TikTok. I’ll leave it to the young guys like Juan. So you follow me on Instagram and see more on the app when it comes to LT Games.

Awesome. Well, thank you both so much for joining us. And we can’t wait to be following you, and so we can follow along with LT Games too. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, David.

Pleasure. You got it.

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