Mid-Year Check-in
We are now closer to the end than the beginning of the year; it is time to check in on your fitness program to make sure you are making the progress you want.
July 4
Whoa… Did the 4th of July JUST happen? 2026 is FLYING by! (Seriously, how many of you were completely unaware that July 4th was almost upon us?)
With the first half of the year now officially in the history books, it’s time to do 2 important tasks: check 401(k) plans and fitness program.
Failing to Plan is Planning to…
It’s important to review both regularly because retirement savings and fitness focus on the same outcome: preparing for the future.
With your 401(k), it’s important to determine whether you are on track to meet your retirement goals. With your fitness program, it’s necessary to identify whether it is having the desired effect, especially when working towards a specific long-term goal like extending longevity.
When planning for your retirement, it’s important to identify what you need to do to maintain the quality of life you want when you stop working. That’s the question that financial planners often ask: what kind of lifestyle do you want to have in retirement? And, are you saving enough to make that possible?
Long-Term Athletic Development
When planning your long-term fitness program, think of establishing a similar goal:
How active do you want to be in your 70s, 80s and/or 90s?
Do you simply want to be healthy and alive, or do you want the energy, stamina and physical ability to continue enjoying all of your favorite activities?
In the strength and conditioning world, this is known as Long-term Athletic Development (LATD), which is exactly what it sounds like: a plan, often over multiple years or even decades, for establishing the physical skills and conditioning needed to excel at a certain sport.
For example, in the current world cup, many countries have football (soccer) clubs with teams from youth league to the pro level. A youth can start playing for a club at age 7 and be developed into a top-tier professional by age 23; along the way he hit certain markers or milestones like competing at a specific level, or making regional or national all-star teams (like the world cup team). Think of a LATD as a plan for building the necessary skills and abilities to compete at the highest level of a sport.
Long Term Goals Require a Long-term Plan
If you want to optimize your health during the aging process, you should have some specific, stretch goals for how you want to use your body during the retirement phase of your life so that you can create your own LTAD. It’s not enough to approach exercise as a means for maintaining health; training like an athlete with an exercise program that focuses on strength training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can help you maintain the ability to enjoy all of your favorite activities when you’re no longer punching a clock (or racking up billable hours).
Think about it, we set goals to be financially independent when we retire; why not set the same goal to become strong and remain physically independent for as long as possible?
As you review your 2026 fitness program, take a moment to think about and identify your long-term fitness goals. Once you establish these goals, create the LATD plan to get there.
How My ‘26 is Going
To be transparent and to provide an example, here’s my current status for 2026:
Goal: maintain bodyweight at mid-190s, increase strength and lean muscle mass, maintain conditioning and improve mobility.
Tracking the goal is done with the scale (196 lbs at time of writing) and the amount of weight being lifted (repping 70 lbs on the incline chest press, 165 with RDLs and doing curls with the same weights I used in my 20s (35s and 40s). In addition, I track all of my hikes and mountain bike rides on strava to measure whether I’m maintaining pace or getting faster on the same trails (how I determine my level of conditioning).
YTD
I’ve hit 3-4 strength workouts per week, 3-5 hikes per week and 1-2 mobility workouts per week, so I’m on track to hit my goals for the end of the year. As I review my workouts, I see the opportunity to add sprinting. I used to sprint 3-4 times/month, it’s an awesome workout, but have lost the habit; and since my LTAD includes sprinting, the goal for the 2nd half of the year is to rebuild that habit. Once the weather cools a bit, I’m going to start sprinting again at least once a week. Finally, the only thing I’m not doing is getting on my mountain bike on a regular basis, which I’m hoping to change in the latter half of the year.
My LTAD
Here are my goals for my 70s, the workouts I’m doing now are laying the foundation for how I want to use my body in 20 years; which includes:
Compete in sprinting in the senior Olympics.
Start or continue sky-diving (if I start in my 60s).
Continue mountain biking and hiking as often as possible.
Maintain the ability to deadlift 225 lbs., swing a 28kg kettlebell and do 5 pull-ups.
Since those are my general goals for how I want to be able to use my body in 16 years (I turn 70 on 8/5/2042, which is not that far away); it’s important to have a workout program that can help me reach those goals. Which explains why I hike and strength train as much as I do, I want to maintain my strength, muscle mass and conditioning as long as possible.
Here’s the mid-year assignment:
Identify your long-term fitness goals; how do you want to use your body in 10, 20 or even 30 years?
What skills or attributes like cardiorespiratory conditioning, strength, muscle size or mobility need improvement to reach those goals?
What markers do you want to hit along the way? For example, how fit do you want to be in 1, 3 or 5 years?
How do you need to update your workouts to be able to reach your long-term goals?
Growing wealthy does not happen by accident, it takes planning and long-term commitment to a plan. Being fit in your 70s or 80s requires the same approach; set your goals, then create a plan to reach those goals.
In part 2, I’ll share my thoughts on how we should be changing our workouts as we transition from our 40s to our 50s; along with my hypothesis for how we should be training in our 60s and 70s. Hint: like an athlete.
We do not stop exercising because we grow old, we grow old because we stop exercising.
Develop your long-term fitness goals, then create the plan to get there. If you need help on how to create an exercise program; check out these previous posts:
How to Plan a Year-long Workout Program
How to Design a Workout Program, Part 1
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I like the way you comparing the fitness plan with the financial plan. Great sir!