Your heart has its own training plan

Read time: 4 minutes

I got home from work the other day completely wiped out. But I have one rule I try hard to keep: when my kids ask me to play, the answer is yes.

My son Edyn (4) has been obsessed with the World Cup. So we've been out in the backyard nonstop, kicking the soccer ball. And every single time, he hits me with the challenge: "Hey dada, vamos a correr." Dad, let's run.

One race turns into a hundred. He can't beat me yet, but one day I know he will. What hits me hardest is his engine: sprint, recover, go again, barely tired. Kids come with incredible engines already built in. The rest of us have to rebuild ours.

A client asked me this week: "What's the difference between cardio and conditioning?" This answer might add years to your life.

🔧 Your heart has its own training plan.

Cardio is the easy stuff. Steady, comfortable, 30 to 60 minutes, you could hold a conversation the whole time. It builds the volume of your heart.

Conditioning is hard and short. Heart rate way up, let it drop, drive it up again. Sprints, sleds, bike intervals, kettlebell swings, and battle ropes. This is what builds the thickness and strength of the heart.

You need both. Neither one is sexy. But here's the picture that made it click for me.

First: picture the house.

My mentor in Florida taught me this during my internship. Your body runs on three energy systems, and each one has to be trained on purpose. He explained it with a picture I've never let go of.

Your body is a house.

Here's the part that changes how you train: going into the attic on purpose is what raises the ceiling. Suffer up there a little, and the whole house gets bigger. Everything downstairs gets easier too.

That's how Josh Kerr just made history. Last Saturday in London, he broke the mile world record that had stood for 27 years. He didn't get there jogging. He got there in the attic, over and over, for years.

You're not chasing a world record. But it's the same house, and the same rule.

Then: know your number.

VO2 max is the size of your house. The most oxygen your body can use when you're working as hard as you can. Bigger house, more you can do: more hikes, more stairs, more life.

VO2 max may be the single best predictor we have of how long you'll live.

One large study found that moving from the bottom 25% of fitness up to just below average is associated with a 50% drop in all-cause mortality. Climb to above average and it's closer to 70%.

Unlike your age or your genetics, house size is something you control. Leave it alone, and it shrinks. Train it, and it grows.

Then: the Norwegian 4x4.

The method comes from Professors Jan Helgerud and Jan Hoff in Norway. Here's the protocol:

New to this? Take an extra minute of recovery until the rounds feel repeatable.

Three sessions a week raised VO2 max roughly 7–10% in eight weeks in the research. Your mileage may vary, but the direction doesn't.

Then: earn your way there.

The 4x4 is vigorous. Nobody should jump into it cold. Start at 1 minute hard / 2 minutes easy for four rounds, build to 2 and 2, then 3x3. By week 8–10 you're doing the real thing. Same destination, no blown-up first session.

One more thing, because I see it every week in the gym: guys who lift and never condition. Strength training is your steak and potatoes. It stays the priority. But 10–15% of your weekly training belongs in that high-intensity range. That's the part most men are missing.

QUICK HITS

Bloodwork: Your annual panel checks cholesterol and glucose. It doesn't check VO2 max, the marker that may matter most. You have to test that one yourself.

Training: Zone 2 isn't wasted time. It builds the first floor of the house, and it's where recovery and fat-burning live.

Fatherhood: Your kids don't care about your bench press. They care whether you can keep up, at 40 and at 70.

Stress: Stress and the attic follow the same rule: you can visit, but you can't live there. Hard intervals teach your body to spike, recover, and come back down.

🧱 ON THE WALL

Think. Feel. Move. Look. Perform like an athlete.

That's on the wall at Transform Athlete. Recently, one of my clients showed me what it looks like off the gym floor.

He just got back from Montana, and he was telling me his son is an absolute machine. One day, after half a day of hiking, he was wiped out at the Airbnb when his son said, "Hey Dad, I'm going for a three-mile run."

He didn't get discouraged. He got motivated: I want to be able to hang with them. He wants to be on that trail with his kids, and their kids, decades from now.

That's performing like an athlete. Not a pro, an everyday athlete. It's the whole reason this issue exists.

Your body is worth stewarding. Let's do the simple things really well.

— Coach Joshua

Founder, Transform Athlete

P.S. Go become 1% better.

Educational content, not medical advice. Partner with your physician, ideally one who believes in proactive care.