"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which your body is capable."

— Socrates

I read that quote over a decade ago and it’s never left me. A modern athlete never abandons the pursuit of what her body can do. It’s not always centered around a competition, and it’s certainly not because she has a plethora of time—she does not. It is because she understands — in the way that certain athletes, actors and songwriters understand their craft — that mastery is not a phase. It is a standard you hold yourself to permanently. 

She does not put age limits on her capabilities. She trains like an athlete. Strength, power, speed, coordination, mobility, endurance. No quality of fitness gets left behind. She is not purely training for an aesthetic. She is training for capability and for the high that comes from running faster, lifting more, moving better than she did before. And the aesthetic that represents her hard work is the cherry on top. 

She is not obsessive. She operates within the confines of her real life, which include her career, her family, her full and complicated schedule and she maximizes what is possible inside of it. Fitness is not her number one priority, nor should it be, but it’s also not a competing priority. It’s a complementary one. Excellence, here, is not perfection in the abstract. It is perfection within context. It is the best possible version of performance given the current season of her life.

She knows that if her energy is inconsistent, then her training will be too. She understands that layering intensity on top of intensity is a pattern that breaks things. She is learning to match her inputs to her capacity. She is not lowering her standard. However, she is smart enough to know that is how you protect it.

She smashes through barriers in every room she walks into. She approaches her body the same way. Limits are not assumed. Ceilings are not accepted. Nothing feels out of reach, but she has learned that the path to what she is capable of is built on precision, not punishment.

She understands that her training protects her wellness and her vitality. She understands that when this is at the forefront, her energy— mental and physical— gets to be spent elsewhere, such as on career and relationships. 

She is not training to look like an athlete. She already is one. She has always been one. This is simply the work of becoming fully, deliberately, intelligently herself.