In the fall of 2024, I stepped up to the start line of the Austin ­Rattler 50K, an ultramarathon across challenging singletrack and fire roads in the heart of Texas Hill Country. The landscape was rugged and the weather was hot — and getting hotter.

The temperature was set to top out in the low 80s — a notable difference from my home training grounds in Minnesota, where a wintry chill was already in the air. The 50-degree temperature swing had me more worried than the rolling hills and potential rattlesnake encounters.

As I set off on the 30-plus-mile race — including some 2,500 feet of climbing — I calmed my nerves by leaning into my training. For 12 weeks, I’d been preparing for exactly this moment through dedicated endurance and strength training as well as progressive exposure to heat.

Research has shown that heat-prep training — also called heat training or heat acclimatization — not only prepares the body for heat stress but can also unlock endurance gains and higher levels of athletic performance regardless of temperature.

As Life Time’s director of performance and recovery, I love doing research and putting my findings to the test. Here’s what I learned while preparing for the Rattler.

 

Heat Training 101

Heat training comes in two forms: passive and active. Passive heat training is accomplished by spending time in a hot environment, typically a sauna or hot tub, directly after exercising. Active heat training is done by working out in a hot environment or, if that’s not available, by layering clothing to simulate heat.

There are drawbacks to and cautions around heat training. Driving up core temperature in heat training creates more stress on the body than it gets with standard endurance workouts. If you have any history of heart problems or stress-related health issues, this likely isn’t for you.

I can say from personal experience that heat conditioning can also be miserably difficult, even at lower intensities. Training in the heat drives up the rate of perceived exertion, so be sure you already have a strong routine before starting. As a rule, it’s wise to speak with your doctor before integrating heat training into your regimen.

 

Safe Protocols

The simplest way to integrate heat training into your routine is to visit the sauna or hot tub directly after your workout. These passive heat sessions should be at least 20 minutes long; most studies recommend at least 30 minutes. Start with one or two sessions per week and ramp up to three or four as your tolerance improves.

For active heat training, start by replacing one current workout with a heat-stress workout. This is best done at lower to moderate intensities (50 to 70 percent of VO₂ max) for 45 to 60 minutes. Some studies have suggested doing these workouts as many as five times per week, but one or two sessions is usually beneficial and safe for most people.

My preferred protocol combines the two. I spend 20 minutes in the sauna after my hardest run of the week and do two heat-stress workouts each week: one dedicated workout on a bike, plus one 20- to 30-minute moderate-intensity finisher in my DIY heat suit — think extra layers — after a harder workout.

When it comes to heat training, higher temps are not better; overdoing it can end up hampering your training efforts.

Make sure to increase your overall hydration and electrolyte intake to ­replace the extra fluids you’ll lose. And always stop a session if you feel dizzy, nauseous, or overheated.

When it comes to heat training, higher temps are not better; overdoing it can end up hampering your training efforts. A new category of wearable technology measures body temperature, but most people don’t need that level of precision. You are looking for an increased sweat rate, a slight increase in your heart rate above normal effort, and a feeling of being hot but not overheating.

The benefits may show up in as little as seven days, and the improvements seem to max out at around four weeks. This means it’s important to be strategic about ramping up your heat work. Adding it to your last block of training before an event is a great way to get positive gains without too much stress.

That said, the positive adaptations begin to dissipate within a couple of weeks. One or two passive heat ­sessions per week can help most people maintain the benefits.

While I don’t have lab data to prove that my heat training worked, I survived my Rattler race, and the Texas heat was no issue. My next race is taking place where the temp should be much lower, but I’m going to bring out the heat suit at least once a week during training to maximize my potential gains.

This article originally appeared as “Turn Up the Heat” in the September/October 2026 issue of Experience Life.

The act of lacing up her sneakers and heading out for a run has been a lifelong through line for Sarah Murphy. It’s a thread unspooling from her very first race at the age of 5, a one-mile fun run with her dad; through high school and college in cross-country and track; and following her pregnancies, in 2009 and 2011, when she would buckle her son and daughter into a jogging stroller so they could join her as she traversed their neighborhood in St. Paul, Minn.

“Even as my kids got older, I would just fit in running when I could,” says Murphy, 44. “I guess it was important to me to continue being fit and take care of myself. But it wasn’t the priority: Running and racing got put on the back burner.”

That changed last year, when ­Murphy decided it was time to reprioritize her hobby. Her kids were older; at 13 and 15, they were more self-sufficient and had taken up running themselves.

“Seeing my daughter compete and have a blast with her team made me miss that experience,” Murphy says. “I thought maybe I could recapture a bit of that feeling of ­camaraderie and support — and fun — that I ­remembered from my high school and ­college teams.”

And so, in January 2024, Murphy joined the Mill City Running race team, an inclusive group of runners of varied ages and abilities who train and race together all year long.

“For the past 20 years, I primarily ran on my own,” she says. “Joining the team has empowered me to prioritize my running. It’s motivated me to train harder and to get out and race again. The team also helped me enjoy racing in a way I was never able to as a younger, nervous athlete.”

As a member of Mill City’s master’s team — for runners over 40 — ­Murphy placed in the top 10 in her age group in all but one event she ran in 2024, a highly competitive 10-mile road race. But even that was no disappointment: She finished 11th in her age group with a new personal best. “I could never have run that time without the great training and ­encouragement from the team over the last year.”

For many people, fitness is a solitary pursuit. But just because an activity lends itself to solitude doesn’t mean it can’t also foster community. Clubs, teams, and classes dedicated to solo sports like running, cycling, lifting, skiing, hiking, rucking, and others can enhance the rewards of these sports exponentially.

“When we’re solo athletes but we’re in a group, we have the best of both worlds,” says Olympic sports psychologist JoAnn Dahlkoetter, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and performance coach in San Carlos, Calif.

Consider these five reasons for making your next training session a group event.

This article originally appeared as “Solo Athlete, Team Spirit” in the July/August 2025 issue of Experience Life.

With the finish line behind you, the focus of your fueling shifts from performance to recovery. Exercise breaks down your body’s tissues, and good postworkout nutrition can repair this damage and support your body’s regenerative powers. This helps not only to minimize postevent fatigue and soreness but also to rebuild your body stronger than before so it can tackle your next endeavor.

Immediately following your event, continue to hydrate with water supplemented with electrolytes and amino acids (check out “3 Functional Water Additives to Try” for more on these supplements). You might not have an appetite at this stage, but if you can stomach a protein shake or some other digestible source of protein and carbs, it may be beneficial. (Find more tips on managing impaired hunger after exercise at “Why Am I Not Hungry After a Tough Workout?“)

An hour or two after completing your effort, aim to eat a meal of solid food that includes complex carbohydrates, nonstarchy vegetables, and at least 20 grams of protein.

Further support your recovery by engaging in light movement (stretching and foam rolling are great options), doing breathwork or meditation, and catching some z’s.

(For even more nutrition tips to boost your recovery, visit “A Simplified Guide to Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition.”)

The closer you can get your ball to the hole, the fewer expected strokes it will take to hole out. That’s a key to improving your score on the golf course. And it’s partly why PGA TOUR players who are known for their power and distance — like Rory McIlroy, who currently leads the tour in strokes gained total and strokes gained off-the-tee — are able to consistently finish among the leaders at PGA TOUR tournaments.

When you’re on the course, you have what you have in terms of innate ability and hope to get the most out of it as you play. Off the course, however, you can work to build your power and swing speed, so the next time you tee up your ball, perhaps it will travel a little faster and farther. Certain strength and mobility exercises can help you improve in these areas, according to experts.

“By training the body to generate explosive power through rotational movements, golfers can improve their ability to quickly accelerate the clubhead through the ball, resulting in higher clubhead speed and increased distance,” says Brian Fox, CSCS, Dynamic Personal Trainer and Alpha master coach at Life Time in St. Louis Park, Minn.

To help you improve your game this golf season, we asked Fox to demonstrate a workout that includes the rotational and strength-building exercises he recommends for building power and adding speed to your golf swing.

Warm Up

1. Half-Kneeling Thoracic Spine Rotations

“This move helps warm up the thoracic spine (upper and middle back) and mobilize the lower body with a deep lateral adductor stretch,” explains Fox. “These areas of the body all have key involvement in golf-swing movements.”

• Start in a kneeling position and kick your left leg straight out to the side. Sit back into the heel of your right leg. Press the palm of your right arm onto the floor, keeping your arm straight.
• Take your left arm and rotate so it’s reaching under your chest across your body, behind your right arm. Hold for one second before rotating back and extending your left arm upward.
• Repeat for two sets of 10 to 12 reps on each side with a slow, controlled tempo.

2. Hinge Position Banded Reverse Fly with Rotation

“This exercise will warm up your rear delts, mid back, and your entire core complex, which are essential for some of the exercises in the strength portion of this workout,” says Fox.

• Attach a resistance band to the bottom of a weight rack (or something stable that is close to the ground).
• With one hand holding each side of the band, back up until you feel a little tension on the band and bend over in a slight hinge position.
• Holding your arms straight, bring one arm back until the band is across your chest and your upper body has rotated 90 degrees from your original starting position.
• Rotate back to center and repeat on the other side.
• Continue to alternate sides back and forth for two sets of 10 to 12 reps on each side.

Strength Exercises

3. Hex Bar Deadlift

“The hex bar deadlift primarily targets the posterior chain (muscles along the backside of the body), including the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and traps,” says Fox. “These muscles are critical for generating power in the golf swing. A stronger posterior chain helps maintain a stable and powerful base, which is needed for producing speed and control in the swing.

“This exercise also mimics the movement of hinging at the hips and driving through the legs, much like the kinetic chain in a golf swing,” he adds. “By strengthening the hip extensors (especially the glutes and hamstrings), it enables a golfer to increase their ability to drive through the ball, resulting in more distance.”

• Stand with your feet under your hips and your lats engaged. Bend over until you can reach the handles of the hex bar.
• With a slight knee bend, tall chest, neutral spine, and flat feet, stand up with the bar until you create a straight line from your shoulders through your hips, knees, and ankles.
• Lower back down and repeat for four sets of six to eight reps.

4. Bulgarian Split Squat with Rotation (Dual Kettlebell Front Rack Position)

“The Bulgarian split squat requires stable balance as one leg is elevated on a bench or platform,” says Fox. “This forces the body to engage stabilizing muscles in the lower body and core. Golfers need excellent balance and coordination to maintain proper posture and control throughout their swing. Practicing Bulgarian split squats can improve proprioception (the ability to sense body position), which is key to maintaining stability during the dynamic movement of the golf swing.”

• Start seated on a box or bench with two kettlebells in the front rack position.
• Kick one leg out in front of you as far as you can reach with your heel planted.
• Stand tall in your front leg and put your back foot up on the box or bench.
• With the top of your back foot pressed firmly into the box or bench and your front leg planted flat on the ground, squat down into a single-leg squat. As you squat, rotate toward your forward knee, reaching your elbow toward your contralateral knee.
• Repeat for four sets of six to eight reps on each side.

5. Dual-Cable Push-Pull

“Golfing requires coordinated movements between the upper and lower body, and the dual-cable push-pull exercise mirrors the functional patterns of a golf swing,” says Fox. “It develops neuromuscular coordination, helping golfers achieve smoother, more efficient movement and better timing.”

• Using a dual-cable machine, set the handles to around chest height and at least 7 feet apart.
• Standing tall, grab the right handle with your right hand and the left handle with your left hand.
• Rotate your body 90 degrees until you are facing one of the attachments (that arm extended fully), while the other is behind you (that arm should be next to your chest).
• While bracing your core, press with the handle that is behind you (so that arm is now extended fully) and pull with the handle out in front of you (so that arm is now next to your chest).
• Repeat for three sets of eight to 10 reps on each side.

6. Med Ball Side Power Toss with Shuffle

“One of the key components of a powerful golf swing is the ability to generate speed quickly,” Fox says. “Golf heavily relies on rotation — particularly through the torso, hips, and shoulders — to generate power. The med ball side toss is an explosive movement that requires a rapid transfer of force from the legs through the core and upper body.”

• Start by standing perpendicular to a wall about 12 to 15 feet away. Hold a medicine ball in your hands.
• Initiate the exercise by doing a side shuffle toward the wall followed by a side tossing motion, throwing the ball at the wall as hard as you can and then catching it as it bounces off.
• Side shuffle back to the starting position and repeat for four sets of four to five reps on each side.

Your in-race strategy is to keep your tank from sputtering to zero. The two-pronged focus for most athletes is on carbohydrates and hydration.

The exact amount, form, and timing of carbs and hydration will be unique to you, and it may take a fair amount of trial and error to ascertain those details. Still, there are general guidelines to help you determine what works best. These are largely based on how long and how hard you’re working.

The exact amount, form, and timing of carbs and hydration will be unique to you, and it may take a fair amount of trial and error to ascertain those details.

“Time and intensity dictate the fuel,” says Thomson. “For example, if you and I did five minutes of extremely hard effort, we would essentially fire the same substrate. But if we ran a marathon, my time might be three hours and five minutes, and yours might be longer or shorter, impacting our [nutrition] needs.”

 

Top Off the Carbs

Nailing the right amount of energy is a Goldilocks affair. Inadequate carbohydrate intake can lead to glycogen depletion, which occurs when your body runs out of sugar to burn. Many endurance athletes are familiar with this phenomenon, often called “bonking” or “hitting the wall”: The lack of fuel causes fogginess and extreme fatigue and typically leads to compromised performance.

When you hit the wall, it’s not just your muscles that run out of fuel. Your brain, too, runs on glucose and requires a steady supply for proper functioning. Without that supply, you may experience brain fog and loss of coordination and other cognitive skills, says Myles Spar, MD, an expert in ­personalized performance medicine and national director and vice president of medical services at AndHealth.

Glycogen depletion can also lead to digestive upset and impaired recovery after an event. In rare cases, it can cause exertional rhabdomyolysis — a potentially fatal condition in which muscle fibers break down and toxic compounds enter the bloodstream.

Overfueling can also cause problems, notably digestive distress: Excess sugar stimulates the gut to release water and electrolytes, which can loosen bowel movements. Other signs that you’ve ingested too much include lethargy, stomachache, cramping, and vomiting.

The optimal carbohydrate intake ranges from 40 to 90 grams per hour, says Thomson, but this can depend on the length of the event:

• For endurance efforts of 60 to 150 minutes, you may want to stick to the lower end of this range and ingest 40 to 60 grams of carbs per hour.
• For longer endurance or ultra­endurance efforts lasting four to six hours or more, you may benefit from edging closer to 90 grams of carbs per hour. (It may take rigorous training to ingest more than 90 grams per hour, explains Blow, who notes that this approach isn’t necessary for most exercisers.)

Again, finding the right range and timing for you requires practice. Take advantage of your training to determine what works best for you. You might find that 80 grams per hour is your sweet spot but only when divided into 40-gram increments every half hour.

Your experiment should include liquid carbs, solid carbs, and gels. They are all good options — and you can mix and match these as desired and tolerated.

A small banana, for instance, contains about 23 grams of carbs — about the same as a serving of many sports gels and chews. Sports-drink mixes can support hydration and replenish energy stores; super-high-carb mixes can provide as much as 100 grams of easy-to-digest carbohydrates.

In general, Spar recommends trying to avoid carb sources containing high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes.

 

Maintain Fluid Intake

“Hydration is about much more than water intake,” McKinney says. Your needs will depend on numerous factors. These include temperature, humidity, and altitude; your stress levels; and how well hydrated you were when you woke up on the day of your event, among others.

If you sufficiently hydrate prior to your event and anticipate a lower-­intensity effort or one lasting less than 90 minutes, you might only need to sip small amounts of an electrolyte drink. Blow notes that elite athletes competing in high-intensity aerobic events have benefited from rinsing their mouths with a carb-containing electrolyte drink and spitting it out. You can experiment with these methods during training.

Sweat loss can become more significant between 90 minutes and two hours into a race, making it important to rehydrate. As a general target, McKinney recommends drinking about 16 ounces of water with electrolytes per hour of physical activity. This helps replenish the minerals lost through sweating. Some elite athletes choose to measure their sweat rate and adjust their intake to account for sweat loss, she says. (Blow has instructions for testing this here.)

Drinking too much water is less common than drinking too little, but the consequences of extreme overhydration can be as dangerous as those associated with dehydration. Overhydration can dilute sodium levels in the blood, which can cause hyponatremia (an electrolyte imbalance) and water intoxication (a rare phenomenon that occurs when water intake exceeds the amount of ­water excreted by the kidneys).

For athletes who exercise for hours or even days on end, maintaining a precise blood chemistry can be extremely important. Look for ­electrolyte products containing sodium, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, and magnesium to make the most of every sip. (Learn more about the importance of electrolytes on page “How Electrolytes Can Boost Your Athletic Performance” and at “Everything You Need to Know About Hydration.”)

 

Consider Proteins and Fats

By the time you start your event, protein and fat will likely take a back seat to carbs — at least until the race is over. That’s because fat and protein take longer to digest, says Koff. They offer less potential as a quick fuel source and they may cause digestive distress.

But that doesn’t mean you should completely avoid either macronutrient. Test out what works best for your body several times before the actual race or event day.

Protein can help minimize potential muscle damage, a normal consequence of prolonged, intense activity. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends consuming about 0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight — about 0.11 grams per pound — per hour of intense endurance exercise when taken along with carbohydrates. For a 160-pound individual, that’s almost 18 grams of protein, roughly equivalent to three large eggs or ¾ cup of Greek yogurt.

For more convenient options, look for — or make your own — bars, gels, or chews that contain protein. (Steer clear of additives, like sugar alcohols, to ensure digestibility.) Plant-based athletes can find options containing protein sources such as chia seeds, nuts, and pea protein. (For more on fuel for plant-based athletes, see “The Plant-Powered Athlete.”)

If you carry a hydration pack, you can mix in protein or amino-acid powders, which offer the muscle-­protective properties of protein alongside water, electrolytes, and carbs. Clear protein powders are a good option if a thick shake is unappetizing or difficult to transport.

Unlike protein, fat doesn’t offer much benefit during an endurance event. “Fat doesn’t turn over into fuel well in the middle of a workout, and, ultimately, it may slow digestion and could cause GI issues,” Thomson says.

Think of fat as an incidental part of fuel, and pick something that you tolerate well. This might include relatively small amounts of fat in, say, dates stuffed with a bit of nut butter or a pat of butter on some sweet potato. Again, spread with a light hand and practice ingesting it during training.

Practice Makes Perfect

It can’t be overemphasized: Make intra-event fueling part of your training. “It’s important to train like you race and race like you train,” Thomson insists.

The number of training sessions needed to ensure a successful approach varies. One study on endurance runners, published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, found that two weeks of gut training resulted in improved gastrointestinal symptoms.

Other studies and experts say a gut-training protocol takes four to 10 weeks. “I recommend taking at least a month to adapt to nutrition changes,” says Spar.

During each training session, pay attention to your body’s signals to adjust what, how much, and when you eat. Feeling lightheaded or dizzy can signal dehydration, Spar notes. Craving salt can be an early sign that you’re running low on sodium. Stomach pain and muscle cramps are reliable indications of low electrolytes.

And feeling a lack of energy could be a sign of carbohydrate deficiency. If you crave sugar immediately after a workout, you likely didn’t eat enough carbs before or during your routine.

Learn from your missteps and your successes. Take note of what works for you and rehearse that winning recipe. By race day, you’ll be optimally fueled and ready to go.

Your body uses food as an energy source by breaking down macro­nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) into smaller molecules — namely glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids. It then uses them to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body’s primary energy currency.

There are several ways your body turns what you eat into what you do. Known as your metabolic energy systems, these pathways all switch on during physical exercise — but their roles depend on the available energy and specific demands of your chosen activity, explains Mike Thomson, CSCS, USATF, a Life Time running and triathlon coach.

Once you begin intense activity, it takes just thousandths of a second for the adenosine triphosphate-creatine phosphate system, or phosphagen system, to kick in. The ATP stored in the muscles can fuel only about six to 10 seconds of serious effort. This system might engage at the start of a race for quick acceleration, but its utility is short-lived.

The glycolytic system provides energy for high-intensity, short-duration bursts of activity. It can produce ATP rapidly without oxygen, using glucose as fuel. It kicks in for short bursts lasting about 10 to 75 seconds — great for picking up speed to overtake a competitor.

It’s the third energy system — the oxidative system — that is most critical for endurance athletes who need to maintain a relatively moderate intensity for a longer duration. This system uses oxygen to generate ATP. The oxidative system is also called the aerobic system.

“Think of it as the body’s slow-burning furnace,” designed to provide the body with most of its energy, says Thomson. This is the system you want your nutrition plan to stoke. (Learn more about the body’s energy systems at “All About Your Metabolic Energy Systems.”)

Mind Your Gut

Because the body breaks down glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids to produce ATP, it might seem intuitive to fuel and refuel for an endurance event with a balanced blend of carbs, fats, and protein. But not so fast.

“Food as fuel is not the same as nutrition for your health,” says  Ashley Koff, RD, founder of The ­Better Nutrition Program. While con­suming optimal amounts of macro- and micronutrients is imperative for overall wellness, the unique needs of a body under duress can make getting them from certain healthy foods hard to stomach.

During intense or prolonged activity, the body diverts blood to the muscles, lungs, heart, and brain, and away from the digestive tract, which may impair digestion and drastically alter gastrointestinal transit time. And hormonal changes during intense and long-duration exercise can tamp down hunger cues and diminish appetite. As a result, it’s common for endurance athletes to experience nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting.

But digestive upset is not a foregone conclusion, says Koff. She suggests avoiding high-fiber, high-fat, and high-protein foods and drink — all of which are more filling and as a result more difficult to digest — immediately before or during exercise. And limit these nutrients the day leading up to an event.

Thomson recommends avoiding unfamiliar foods, drinks, and nutritional aids the day of — or even in the week leading up to — your race.

“It’s important to train like you race and race like you train.”

So, what should you consume to fuel your performance?

It’s vital to make sure you’re topped up with fluids, electrolytes, and carbohydrates before you begin your activity.

“Trying to make up for a deficit if you start a bit dehydrated or energy depleted by eating and drinking during the activity itself is definitely leaving it too late,” writes sports scientist Andy Blow, BSc, in an article on his training website, Precision Fuel and Hydration. In other words, you can’t play catch-up during heavy activity.

Follow these tips in the days leading up to your event.

Carbo-Load With Care

We primarily store glycogen in our skeletal muscle and liver. An adult can store about 100 grams of glycogen in their liver and approximately 15 to 25 grams of glycogen per kilogram of muscle mass in their skeletal muscle (total storage varies by muscle mass).

On average, adults can store about 600 grams of total glycogen — and you want those stores to be topped off before race day. Rather than eat as much pasta and bread as possible the night before an event, take a few days to shift your carb-to-fat ratio, Blow advises. Your overall caloric intake likely won’t change; rather, the proportion of your calories from carbs gradually increases while that from fat declines.

This doesn’t have to be drastic. An extra spoonful or two of oatmeal or rice (or other carb-rich foods that you enjoy and tolerate) at each meal can go a long way while sparing your digestive tract from an abrupt change, notes Koff. (Learn more about carbo-loading at “What Is Carbohydrate Loading?“)

 

Hydrate Holistically

Like carbo-loading, sufficient hydration is a gradual process and involves more than just chugging plain water before toeing the start line. Samantha McKinney, RD, CPT, recommends the following best practices for hydration throughout your training cycle and in the days leading up to your event.

• Aim to drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water per day, plus an additional 16 ounces per hour of exercise.
• Add electrolytes around workouts. Sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium support muscle and nerve function.
• Avoid drinks and electrolyte products with artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners.
• Limit excess — or avoid ­— caffeine and alcohol.

 

Plan Your Prerace Meal

It’s paramount to test any preworkout nutritional strategy during your training cycle and to avoid mixing it up the day of your event.

With that important note, here’s what experts suggest for your first race-day meal:

1. One to two hours before your event, consume a meal of easily digestible, low-fiber carbohydrates (70 to 80 percent of the meal’s calories) with low to moderate levels of fat (less than 15 percent of calories) and protein (10 to 12 percent).
2. Additionally, drink 16 ounces of water with electrolytes. (For preworkout food ideas, visit “12 Quick Preworkout and Postworkout Snacks.”)

With ample glycogen and hydration stores, you’ll be set to perform your best when the race starts.

 

Practice Makes Perfect

It can’t be overemphasized: Make intra-event fueling part of your training. “It’s important to train like you race and race like you train,” Thomson insists.

The number of training sessions needed to ensure a successful approach varies. One study on endurance runners, published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, found that two weeks of gut training resulted in improved gastrointestinal symptoms.

Other studies and experts say a gut-training protocol takes four to 10 weeks. “I recommend taking at least a month to adapt to nutrition changes,” says Spar.

During each training session, pay attention to your body’s signals to adjust what, how much, and when you eat. Feeling lightheaded or dizzy can signal dehydration, Spar notes. Craving salt can be an early sign that you’re running low on sodium. Stomach pain and muscle cramps are reliable indications of low electrolytes.

And feeling a lack of energy could be a sign of carbohydrate deficiency. If you crave sugar immediately after a workout, you likely didn’t eat enough carbs before or during your routine.

Learn from your missteps and your successes. Take note of what works for you and rehearse that winning recipe. By race day, you’ll be optimally fueled and ready to go.

See Elise and Tom’s Top 3 Takeaways

One morning in May 2020, Elise Laedtke woke up feeling confused, slurring her words, and struggling to walk. This was bizarre for an otherwise healthy 59-year-old woman, but especially for Elise, who had been a competitive athlete all her life.

Elise and her husband, Tom, went straight to the hospital, where the medical evaluation and CT scan revealed Elise had suffered a stroke during the night.

Tom, an endocrinologist, was shocked. Given Elise’s age and health, it hadn’t occurred to him that her symptoms could be the result of a stroke. “We thought it was other causes,” he says. She didn’t have any risk factors for stroke, which include high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

Elise spent the following week in the hospital and another week in rehab. After subsequent testing and medical workups, her team of doctors discovered that she had a congenital anomaly — a hole in her heart that had allowed a blood clot to travel from her lower abdomen to her brain. Six months after the stroke, she under­went surgery to close the hole and reduce the risk of future strokes.

After months of physical, occupational, and speech therapy, Elise was able to walk again, even drive, but her speech and strength lagged behind. She couldn’t participate in life the way she once did, which affected how she felt mentally and emotionally.

That is, until her former tennis coach put a pickleball paddle in her hand.

Always an Athlete

Elise had long enjoyed sports. Her father was an All-American swimmer and guided three children to successful swimming careers; Elise was a Division I swimmer in college.

After graduating in 1984, she moved back to her hometown of Rochester, Minn., where she became an elementary school teacher and taught swimming lessons on the side.

Meanwhile, Tom had been a lifelong tennis enthusiast, and they started playing together in the early years of their marriage. Elise had played some tennis as a child and picked it up easily; the sport became a part of her life, as much for the social interaction as for the love of the game.

After moving to Edina, Minn., Elise and Tom joined Northwest Athletic Club in 1998, before it became Life Time. In time, Elise was competing in league play twice a week, coached by tennis pro Rajan Keswani. “Elise’s routine had been tennis, tennis, tennis, tennis,” Tom says.

The couple maintained an active lifestyle off the court and regularly walked, biked, and golfed together.

Before the stroke, Elise was free of physical complaints. In retrospect, both she and Tom are convinced her good health and active lifestyle — along with her drive and determination — ultimately spurred her recovery.

Quality Coaching

In spring 2021, after Elise recovered from heart surgery, she was hopeful about reclaiming her fitness routine.

Strokes often result in long-term complications, including muscle weakness and the language disorder aphasia. Although Elise felt encouraged by the progress she was making with walking and driving, her strength remained limited and she still had trouble speaking.

She and Tom started branching out, incorporating some of the activities that had been part of Elise’s life for years. “We were searching for what Elise could do to have fun,” Tom remembers.

She started walking their dogs, Frankie and Stella. At the pool, she found that her swimming stroke was as good as ever. She and Tom rented a tandem bicycle, and they rode around nearby lakes with ease. She practiced her golf swing.

All of that brought her joy, but she still missed her tennis game.

Tom began taking her to the tennis court and dropping balls for her to hit. “It was nice to be back on the court, but she couldn’t play like she used to,” he says. Her weak grip strength made holding a racket difficult, and she couldn’t manage the coordination required to swing the racket or quickly move around the court.

“It was kind of depressing,” Tom says. “We felt good that she tried, but Elise didn’t feel like she was getting much better at tennis.”

Tom could see how hard this was for Elise: She wasn’t accustomed to being a mediocre player, and improvement seemed unlikely. It was hard to accept that she’d lost the game she loved as well as the social network she’d developed while playing competitively.

One day that spring, Keswani, who had coached Elise on her tennis game for more than a decade, saw her on the court and suggested she come to the first pickleball mixer he was hosting. Pickleball was so new at Life Time that there wasn’t yet dedicated space for it: Keswani used masking tape to create a pickleball layout on a tennis court.

“Why don’t you try it?” Keswani suggested. He thought a racket sport with a smaller court and a smaller, lighter paddle might provide the accommodations Elise needed. He was right.

Elise and Tom showed up to that first mixer, along with about a dozen other Life Time members who were all learning too. Elise took to pickleball right away — and the more she played, the more she smiled.

“She was bubbly again,” Tom says about the way playing pickleball brought out her personality. “When she plays pickleball, I can see the Elise I married.”

More Than a Sport

Elise has attended a weekly drill class and twice-weekly pickleball mixers ever since. She and Tom are grateful for the variety of Life Time’s pickleball offerings. Tom shares that her successful adoption of the sport has improved her fitness and eased some of the frustration she experienced in the wake of her stroke. Participating in the mixers helps her running ability, overall fitness, and math (thanks to the nuanced scoring system).

Pickleball has also introduced her to a new group of friends who are understanding, supportive, and encouraging. “When she goes to Life Time and does these pickleball mixers, she has a big smile on her face,” Tom notes. “She sees people she knows, and more importantly, they know her and they’re very kind to her.”

As her cognitive processing improves, her teammates provide visual cues to help her keep score.

“We’re blown away at her incredible progress,” says Keswani. “Over the last three years, she has blossomed into a very good pickleball player. She listens, plays hard, never wants to stop, hydrates, then throws in an adorable dance when she wins a point.”

Elise continues with speech therapy twice a week, which has helped her increase her vocabulary and communication. “Her pickleball friends laugh because she has a few famous phrases, such as ‘Close, but no cigar,’ when the ball lands out of bounds,” Tom says.

And she still practices her tennis game, which has gradually improved. Occasionally, she’ll play doubles in a tennis mixer. She says she still likes tennis, but pickleball is now Elise’s sport of choice.

Elise and Tom’s Top Takeaways

1. Focus on recovery with physical activities and speech therapy. Elise is diligent and puts in a lot of practice.
2. Stay open to adjustments and accommodations. Elise may not play tennis like she used to, but she’s grateful for her new sport and for organized pickleball mixers.
3. Surround yourself with empathetic and supportive friends. Stroke recovery is a long, slow process, and the support of family and friends is priceless!

This article originally appeared as “A New Game” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life.

Lifelong runner Dan ­DeBaun learned something new during his eighth marathon, in 2023: Endurance events, in addition to being physically and mentally challenging, are effec­tively eating competitions.

Around mile 15 of that marathon, DeBaun bonked. His body simply ran out of fuel. “I was cramping up and miserable,” the Minnesota-based public-relations manager recalls.

Shaking, lightheaded, and barely able to move his legs, DeBaun questioned whether he could make it another mile. “It went horribly,” he recalls. He managed to complete the 26.2-mile race, thanks to sheer willpower and extra calories from sports drinks provided on the course.

“I never wanted to feel that way again,” DeBaun says.

After the race, he realized his training needed to include a nutrition strategy. What he ate before and during a race was going to be key to his performance.

Along with putting in the miles, DeBaun spent the training months before his next marathon testing and retesting his fuel intake. He began by experimenting with the timing of his intra-race fueling. “Instead of taking some carbohydrates every 45 to 50 minutes like I had been doing, I tried every 20 to 25 minutes and also every 30 minutes.”

When race day came, he felt like he had found his sweet spot. “I settled on every 25 to 30 minutes. More often upset my stomach; any longer [and] I didn’t have as much energy.”

By replenishing those all-­important carbs more frequently, DeBaun was ultimately providing his body with more fuel over the length of a race.

His fueling strategy was a game-changer. Running his ninth marathon — Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. — DeBaun recorded his second-fastest time ever: 3:23.

“I learned that in prior races, I was underfueled,” he says. It was a mistake he vowed never to repeat.

Once upon a time, the popular approach to race-day nutrition was simple: Ingest some combination of carbs and caffeine. Many endurance athletes relied on carbo-loading the night before an event and then downing an espresso or energy drink for a caffeine boost off the starting line.

During the race, they did their best to drink plenty of water — or, as a secret weapon, gulp flat Coca-Cola or eat jelly beans. There was little science to it but lots of superstition.

“Figuring out your race-day nutrition strategy is as important as what shoe you’re going to wear,” says Olympian Carrie Tollefson, an elite middle-distance runner.

Today, sports nutrition and endurance fueling are at the cutting edge of performance. Sure, new technology, ­refined technique, and better training all play a role in winning races and breaking records, as well as in simply crossing the finish line. But there’s a new level of understanding about the essentials of fueling before, during, and after an event.

“Figuring out your race-day nutrition strategy is as important as what shoe you’re going to wear,” says Olympian Carrie Tollefson, an elite middle-distance runner.

In bicycle racing, for instance — from the one-day “classic” races to the Tour de France — a revolution in nutrition science is helping racers eat more fuel during competition. That ­development is a big reason these events are claiming more record-­setting performances than ever before: By eating better, riders are able to sustain these elevated levels hour ­after hour, day after day — and recover more quickly to do it all over again.

There’s a simple explanation for this, says Ashley Koff, RD: “Without usable energy, you can’t perform at your best.”

From Food to Fuel

Your body uses food as an energy source by breaking down macro­nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) into smaller molecules — namely glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids. It then uses them to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body’s primary energy currency.

There are several ways your body turns what you eat into what you do. Known as your metabolic energy systems, these pathways all switch on during physical exercise — but their roles depend on the available energy and specific demands of your chosen activity, explains Mike Thomson, CSCS, USATF, a Life Time running and triathlon coach.

Once you begin intense activity, it takes just thousandths of a second for the adenosine triphosphate-creatine phosphate system, or phosphagen system, to kick in. The ATP stored in the muscles can fuel only about six to 10 seconds of serious effort. This system might engage at the start of a race for quick acceleration, but its utility is short-lived.

The glycolytic system provides energy for high-intensity, short-duration bursts of activity. It can produce ATP rapidly without oxygen, using glucose as fuel. It kicks in for short bursts lasting about 10 to 75 seconds — great for picking up speed to overtake a competitor.

It’s the third energy system — the oxidative system — that is most critical for endurance athletes who need to maintain a relatively moderate intensity for a longer duration. This system uses oxygen to generate ATP. The oxidative system is also called the aerobic system.

“Think of it as the body’s slow-burning furnace,” designed to provide the body with most of its energy, says Thomson. This is the system you want your nutrition plan to stoke. (Learn more about the body’s energy systems at “All About Your Metabolic Energy Systems.”)

Mind Your Gut

Because the body breaks down glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids to produce ATP, it might seem intuitive to fuel and refuel for an endurance event with a balanced blend of carbs, fats, and protein. But not so fast.

“Food as fuel is not the same as nutrition for your health,” says Koff, founder of The ­Better Nutrition Program. While con­suming optimal amounts of macro- and micronutrients is imperative for overall wellness, the unique needs of a body under duress can make getting them from certain healthy foods hard to stomach.

During intense or prolonged activity, the body diverts blood to the muscles, lungs, heart, and brain, and away from the digestive tract, which may impair digestion and drastically alter gastrointestinal transit time. And hormonal changes during intense and long-duration exercise can tamp down hunger cues and diminish appetite. As a result, it’s common for endurance athletes to experience nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting.

But digestive upset is not a foregone conclusion, says Koff. She suggests avoiding high-fiber, high-fat, and high-protein foods and drink — all of which are more filling and as a result more difficult to digest — immediately before or during exercise. And limit these nutrients the day leading up to an event.

Thomson recommends avoiding unfamiliar foods, drinks, and nutritional aids the day of — or even in the week leading up to — your race.

So, what should you consume to fuel your performance?

Prerace: Build a Strong Foundation

It’s vital to make sure you’re topped up with fluids, electrolytes, and carbohydrates before you begin your activity.

“Trying to make up for a deficit if you start a bit dehydrated or energy depleted by eating and drinking during the activity itself is definitely leaving it too late,” writes sports scientist Andy Blow, BSc, in an article on his training website, Precision Fuel and Hydration. In other words, you can’t play catch-up during heavy activity.

Follow these tips in the days leading up to your event.

 

Carbo-Load With Care

We primarily store glycogen in our skeletal muscle and liver. An adult can store about 100 grams of glycogen in their liver and approximately 15 to 25 grams of glycogen per kilogram of muscle mass in their skeletal muscle (total storage varies by muscle mass).

On average, adults can store about 600 grams of total glycogen — and you want those stores to be topped off before race day. Rather than eat as much pasta and bread as possible the night before an event, take a few days to shift your carb-to-fat ratio, Blow advises. Your overall caloric intake likely won’t change; rather, the proportion of your calories from carbs gradually increases while that from fat declines.

This doesn’t have to be drastic. An extra spoonful or two of oatmeal or rice (or other carb-rich foods that you enjoy and tolerate) at each meal can go a long way while sparing your digestive tract from an abrupt change, notes Koff. (Learn more about carbo-loading at “What Is Carbohydrate Loading?“)

 

Hydrate Holistically

Like carbo-loading, sufficient hydration is a gradual process and involves more than just chugging plain water before toeing the start line. Samantha McKinney, RD, CPT, recommends the following best practices for hydration throughout your training cycle and in the days leading up to your event.

• Aim to drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water per day, plus an additional 16 ounces per hour of exercise.
• Add electrolytes around workouts. Sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium support muscle and nerve function.
• Avoid drinks and electrolyte products with artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners.
• Limit excess — or avoid ­— caffeine and alcohol.

 

Plan Your Prerace Meal

It’s paramount to test any preworkout nutritional strategy during your training cycle and to avoid mixing it up the day of your event.

With that important note, here’s what experts suggest for your first race-day meal:

1. One to two hours before your event, consume a meal of easily digestible, low-fiber carbohydrates (70 to 80 percent of the meal’s calories) with low to moderate levels of fat (less than 15 percent of calories) and protein (10 to 12 percent).
2. Additionally, drink 16 ounces of water with electrolytes. (For preworkout food ideas, visit “12 Quick Preworkout and Postworkout Snacks.”)

With ample glycogen and hydration stores, you’ll be set to perform your best when the race starts.

During the Race: Stay Charged Up

Your in-race strategy is to keep your tank from sputtering to zero. The two-pronged focus for most athletes is on carbohydrates and hydration.

The exact amount, form, and timing of carbs and hydration will be unique to you, and it may take a fair amount of trial and error to ascertain those details. Still, there are general guidelines to help you determine what works best. These are largely based on how long and how hard you’re working.

The exact amount, form, and timing of carbs and hydration will be unique to you, and it may take a fair amount of trial and error to ascertain those details.

“Time and intensity dictate the fuel,” says Thomson. “For example, if you and I did five minutes of extremely hard effort, we would essentially fire the same substrate. But if we ran a marathon, my time might be three hours and five minutes, and yours might be longer or shorter, impacting our [nutrition] needs.”

 

Top Off the Carbs

Nailing the right amount of energy is a Goldilocks affair. Inadequate carbohydrate intake can lead to glycogen depletion, which occurs when your body runs out of sugar to burn. Many endurance athletes are familiar with this phenomenon, often called “bonking” or “hitting the wall”: The lack of fuel causes fogginess and extreme fatigue and typically leads to compromised performance.

When you hit the wall, it’s not just your muscles that run out of fuel. Your brain, too, runs on glucose and requires a steady supply for proper functioning. Without that supply, you may experience brain fog and loss of coordination and other cognitive skills, says Myles Spar, MD, an expert in ­personalized performance medicine and national director and vice president of medical services at AndHealth.

Glycogen depletion can also lead to digestive upset and impaired recovery after an event. In rare cases, it can cause exertional rhabdomyolysis — a potentially fatal condition in which muscle fibers break down and toxic compounds enter the bloodstream.

Overfueling can also cause problems, notably digestive distress: Excess sugar stimulates the gut to release water and electrolytes, which can loosen bowel movements. Other signs that you’ve ingested too much include lethargy, stomachache, cramping, and vomiting.

The optimal carbohydrate intake ranges from 40 to 90 grams per hour, says Thomson, but this can depend on the length of the event:

• For endurance efforts of 60 to 150 minutes, you may want to stick to the lower end of this range and ingest 40 to 60 grams of carbs per hour.
• For longer endurance or ultra­endurance efforts lasting four to six hours or more, you may benefit from edging closer to 90 grams of carbs per hour. (It may take rigorous training to ingest more than 90 grams per hour, explains Blow, who notes that this approach isn’t necessary for most exercisers.)

Again, finding the right range and timing for you requires practice. Take advantage of your training to determine what works best for you. You might find that 80 grams per hour is your sweet spot but only when divided into 40-gram increments every half hour.

Your experiment should include liquid carbs, solid carbs, and gels. They are all good options — and you can mix and match these as desired and tolerated.

A small banana, for instance, contains about 23 grams of carbs — about the same as a serving of many sports gels and chews. Sports-drink mixes can support hydration and replenish energy stores; super-high-carb mixes can provide as much as 100 grams of easy-to-digest carbohydrates.

In general, Spar recommends trying to avoid carb sources containing high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes.

 

Maintain Fluid Intake

“Hydration is about much more than water intake,” McKinney says. Your needs will depend on numerous factors. These include temperature, humidity, and altitude; your stress levels; and how well hydrated you were when you woke up on the day of your event, among others.

If you sufficiently hydrate prior to your event and anticipate a lower-­intensity effort or one lasting less than 90 minutes, you might only need to sip small amounts of an electrolyte drink. Blow notes that elite athletes competing in high-intensity aerobic events have benefited from rinsing their mouths with a carb-containing electrolyte drink and spitting it out. You can experiment with these methods during training.

Sweat loss can become more significant between 90 minutes and two hours into a race, making it important to rehydrate. As a general target, McKinney recommends drinking about 16 ounces of water with electrolytes per hour of physical activity. This helps replenish the minerals lost through sweating. Some elite athletes choose to measure their sweat rate and adjust their intake to account for sweat loss, she says. (Blow has instructions for testing this here.)

Drinking too much water is less common than drinking too little, but the consequences of extreme overhydration can be as dangerous as those associated with dehydration. Overhydration can dilute sodium levels in the blood, which can cause hyponatremia (an electrolyte imbalance) and water intoxication (a rare phenomenon that occurs when water intake exceeds the amount of ­water excreted by the kidneys).

For athletes who exercise for hours or even days on end, maintaining a precise blood chemistry can be extremely important. Look for ­electrolyte products containing sodium, potassium, phosphorous, calcium, and magnesium to make the most of every sip. (Learn more about the importance of electrolytes here and at “Everything You Need to Know About Hydration.”)

 

Consider Proteins and Fats

By the time you start your event, protein and fat will likely take a back seat to carbs — at least until the race is over. That’s because fat and protein take longer to digest, says Koff. They offer less potential as a quick fuel source and they may cause digestive distress.

But that doesn’t mean you should completely avoid either macronutrient. Test out what works best for your body several times before the actual race or event day.

Protein can help minimize potential muscle damage, a normal consequence of prolonged, intense activity. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends consuming about 0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight — about 0.11 grams per pound — per hour of intense endurance exercise when taken along with carbohydrates. For a 160-pound individual, that’s almost 18 grams of protein, roughly equivalent to three large eggs or ¾ cup of Greek yogurt.

For more convenient options, look for — or make your own — bars, gels, or chews that contain protein. (Steer clear of additives, like sugar alcohols, to ensure digestibility.) Plant-based athletes can find options containing protein sources such as chia seeds, nuts, and pea protein. (For more on fuel for plant-based athletes, see “The Plant-Powered Athlete.”)

If you carry a hydration pack, you can mix in protein or amino-acid powders, which offer the muscle-­protective properties of protein alongside water, electrolytes, and carbs. Clear protein powders are a good option if a thick shake is unappetizing or difficult to transport.

Unlike protein, fat doesn’t offer much benefit during an endurance event. “Fat doesn’t turn over into fuel well in the middle of a workout, and, ultimately, it may slow digestion and could cause GI issues,” Thomson says.

Think of fat as an incidental part of fuel, and pick something that you tolerate well. This might include relatively small amounts of fat in, say, dates stuffed with a bit of nut butter or a pat of butter on some sweet potato. Again, spread with a light hand and practice ingesting it during training.

Post Race: Keep an Eye to Recovery

With the finish line behind you, the focus of your fueling shifts from performance to recovery. Exercise breaks down your body’s tissues, and good postworkout nutrition can repair this damage and support your body’s regenerative powers. This helps not only to minimize postevent fatigue and soreness but also to rebuild your body stronger than before so it can tackle your next endeavor.

Immediately following your event, continue to hydrate with water supplemented with electrolytes and amino acids. You might not have an appetite at this stage, but if you can stomach a protein shake or some other digestible source of protein and carbs, it may be beneficial. (Find more tips on managing impaired hunger after exercise.)

An hour or two after completing your effort, aim to eat a meal of solid food that includes complex carbohydrates, nonstarchy vegetables, and at least 20 grams of protein.

Further support your recovery by engaging in light movement (stretching and foam rolling are great options), doing breathwork or meditation, and catching some z’s.

(For even more nutrition tips to boost your recovery, visit “A Simplified Guide to Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition.”)

 

Practice Makes Perfect

It can’t be overemphasized: Make intra-event fueling part of your training. “It’s important to train like you race and race like you train,” Thomson insists.

The number of training sessions needed to ensure a successful approach varies. One study on endurance runners, published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, found that two weeks of gut training resulted in improved gastrointestinal symptoms.

Other studies and experts say a gut-training protocol takes four to 10 weeks. “I recommend taking at least a month to adapt to nutrition changes,” says Spar.

During each training session, pay attention to your body’s signals to adjust what, how much, and when you eat. Feeling lightheaded or dizzy can signal dehydration, Spar notes. Craving salt can be an early sign that you’re running low on sodium. Stomach pain and muscle cramps are reliable indications of low electrolytes.

And feeling a lack of energy could be a sign of carbohydrate deficiency. If you crave sugar immediately after a workout, you likely didn’t eat enough carbs before or during your routine.

Learn from your missteps and your successes. Take note of what works for you and rehearse that winning recipe. By race day, you’ll be optimally fueled and ready to go.

This article originally appeared as “Endurance Fuel” in the March/April 2025 issue of Experience Life. Additional reporting by senior editor Maggie Fazeli Fard.

He’s a man of many titles. To name a few: Former world No. 1 tennis player. Eight-time major champion, claiming titles in each of the four major tennis tournaments — Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open — at least once. Olympic gold medalist. Father, husband, philanthropist. And, most recently, pickleball enthusiast. Andre Agassi has accomplished a lot on and off the court.

Since retiring from profes­sional tennis in 2006, Agassi, 54, has kept busy. He published his memoir, Open, in 2009; expanded the efforts of his education-focused foundation (more on that in just a bit); and remained involved in the racquet-sports world, discovering the joy of pickleball along the way.

“I have this outlet athletically and physically,” Agassi says. “There are so many reasons why I can talk about loving pickleball.”

That passion has led to a growing awareness of and participation in the sport. In early 2024, Agassi was appointed the inaugural chair of Life Time’s newly formed pickleball and tennis board. Together with cochair Bahram Akradi, the company’s founder, chairman, and CEO, they’re expanding racquet-sports access, enhancing programming, and building community across the nation.

“It was a no-brainer for me to participate in an organization that is the largest provider of pickleball by far,” Agassi explains.

Yet it’s playing the game that he enjoys most. “In tennis, I can push myself to extreme movement with the rotational wear and tear, and that really comes at a higher price for me at this stage. You wake up the next day and sometimes hurt in places that aren’t great places to hurt.

“I never feel that way after playing pickleball. If I hurt, it’s only muscular and soreness. It’s a good kind of pain.”

Along with his wife, fellow tennis star Steffi Graf, Agassi will be playing in the Pickleball Slam 3 in Las Vegas in February 2025. “My wife and I will be taking on [tennis stars] Andy Roddick and Genie Bouchard. I think it’s going to be an awesome matchup,” he says. “Steph and I have been playing a lot more together and have been enjoying pickleball as a couple in this new season of life.”

Agassi and Roddick were partners during the first Pickleball Slam, in April 2023. “I have fond memories of being with him that first year,” Agassi says. “I’m excited for him to be back and also to bring Genie to the event. She’s recognized by tennis athletes for how she’s embraced pickleball, and I have a great deal of ­appreciation for her.”

Beyond the Court

When he’s not on a pickleball court, Agassi spends time growing the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. Since 1994, the organization has provided educational ­opportunities and resources to underserved populations.

“My philanthropic efforts have been focused on education, probably largely due to my own lack of education. With that lack of education, I sort of had a lack of choice in my life. And tennis was never really my choice; I just happened to be good at it. I struggled with my relationship with it for a lot of years,” he acknowledges.

“When I saw kids who didn’t really have a choice in their life, I was compelled to provide that through education,” he explains. “It has been so important to me to provide education in an ­equitable way to children who otherwise might not have that opportunity.”

With his close friend Bobby Turner, who taught him about navigating the business world, Agassi has opened 130 charter schools across the country.

“When you can find a private-sector solution to a daunting societal issue, you really have scalability and sustainability,” he notes. “And that’s what we’ve done.”

Q&A With Andre Agassi

Experience Life |  You are the inaugural chair of the racquet-sports board at Life Time. Can you explain how that started and what it entails?

Andre Agassi | This started 15 years ago when I met Bahram Akradi, and we grew close with no business overlap or interest together — just a mutual respect for the other one’s world and execution of it.

A few years back, we started chatting about how it would be fun to do some things together that would be mutually beneficial. Bahram then approached me with this idea of the racquet-sports board maybe a year and a half ago and said, “I would love for you to sit on my team and be a voice of experience and direction.”

Bahram and I have talked so passionately about the growth of pickleball specifically, along with all racquet-sport endeavors, which is my background. I took him up on it and said to him, “Let’s see how this goes. If I can provide inspiration and hopefully guidance for how to best grow the things we love as individuals and Life Time as a company, that makes the world a better place.”

EL | Have you been playing more pickleball since taking on a more official role in growing the sport?

AA | My passion for pickleball would have continued regardless, but I have more reason to engage and to understand the sport through different lenses now. I can see the sport through the participation side of it, in some cases the facility side of it, and just the overall business side of it.

As it relates to Life Time, it’s definitely given me the platform to play more pickleball. But most importantly, it’s motivated me to understand the direction that pickleball can go.

EL | Do you prefer to play singles or doubles?

AA | With the right foursome for doubles — meaning an equal level of abilities — I think doubles pickleball is more enjoyable. Singles is just more straightforward — explosive and shot making — and I always know what I’m going to get. It’s always going to be a great workout and I’m going to get better. If you have the wrong matchup in doubles, you’re not going to get better.

EL | What kind of movement brings you the most joy or satisfaction?

AA  Obviously I play pickleball and tennis, but I also enjoy golf and snowboarding too. When the family gets together, we enjoy snowboarding over certain seasons of the year. I typically need to distract myself with traditional workouts, and playing sports is a great way of doing that. I also prefer playing sports outside; getting vitamin D from the sun is a bonus.

Photography: Kwaku Alston for foureleven.agency, Grooming: Mahie Stoner; Wardrobe: Nike. This article originally appeared as “A Whole New Focus” in the January/February 2025 issue of Experience Life.