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Sprints, Strength, and Balance: A Look at Ultra Fit Training

With Mechelle Lewis Freeman, Olympian and Ultra Fit Coach

Season 6, Episode 13 | March 1, 2023


The blend of sprinting with strength and balance work makes Ultra Fit training unique in its ability to improve your functional fitness and push you to your athletic limits. It’s also why Bahram Akradi, the founder and CEO of Life Time and developer of this format, describes Ultra Fit as one of the “most efficient, effective workouts.” In this episode, track and field Olympian and Ultra Fit Coach Mechelle Lewis Freeman digs into the science behind the training and explains how it’s designed to challenge your body and brain through every stage of life.


Mechelle Lewis Freeman is a 2008 track and field Olympian, Team USA’s head women’s relays coach, and the founder and codirector of the nonprofit TrackGirlz. She coaches Ultra Fit for Life Time.

One of the reasons Freeman loves Ultra Fit is because it’s not only about trying to be a faster person, but also the other functional and athletic benefits that can impact how you feel every day. She explains it like this:

“It’s what you need to be doing to build the foundation of how you operate functionally as a human being. Think about it as the trunk of a tree you’re building — a beautiful tree. You go through speed and power training, which includes your anaerobic system, and with that you get into the space of competitive exercise.

“But at the same time, you’re building your foundational athleticism, the buoyancy of how you move, the elasticity of how you move, the functional planes, gaits, going into push-pull, squats, lunges — the speed and power of it all. There’s also the unilateral movement of sprinting and how that translates to the unilateral function of walking every day, or when we have to run behind our kids or go catch that plane. Those things don’t have to be about just being an athlete, but how we as human beings go into our adult and senior years feeling elastic, athletic, and functionally strong.

“Then if you want to go to that high level of performance, you may want to build your muscle mass and be in an optimal space for your body to burn fat, for your body to metabolize the fuel you’re putting in it. It’s about living in this optimal space. How we’re giving ourselves the best opportunity to be who we are as human beings and perform the things we want to perform. “Ultra Fit gives you the opportunity. It’s going to build you functionally, build you athletically, and then you’ll see as you age, physical literacy, motivation, competency — we want to give you a program that will maximize all of those things.”

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Transcript: Sprints, Strength, and Balance: A Look at Ultra Fit Training

Season 6, Episode 13  | March 1, 2023

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Life Time Talks. I’m Jaime Martin.

And now, I’m David Freeman.

And in this episode, we are talking about the science of sprinting and really talking about Ultra Fit at lifetime. And we’re excited to have our guests with us, Michelle Freeman. She has been with us before and she has a last name in common with you, David. Let’s remind everybody of your connection.

This is my wife. This is my better half for sure. So you heard from her before so double time. This time we got you again this time around.

I think we’re equal parts, they not better half.

Yep, whatever she said, whatever she said is right. Let’s just go with it, all right, I’ll walk with it.

Well, we’ll tell a little bit about you, Michelle and people can go back and listen to your episode, which is really more about your full story. But Michelle Lewis Freeman graduated from the University of South Carolina has her degree in master’s and– bachelor’s and master’s degree in integrated marketing communications. She went on to manage advertising and marketing accounts for global brands, including Coca-Cola, IBM, and Xerox.

From there, she decided to pursue her childhood dream of the Olympics. And she left corporate America to become a world class athlete. Running track since she was 14. Michelle went on to become a 2007 world champion in the 4 by 100 meter relay a 2008 Olympian in the same event and is currently USA head women’s relays coach. Most recently coaching her teams to gold medal performances at the 2020 Olympic games and the 2022 world championships.

On top of that, Michelle is also the founder of the nonprofit track girls where she empowers girls through track and field with workshops and grants. And she currently lives in coaches Ultra Fit in Frisco, Texas. Michelle, we’re glad to have you back.

Yehey! Yes, I’m glad to be back. Yeah, you made it through that bio. That was my fault. OK, next time I’ll send the short version. But–

People want to know. I think they want to know.

That’s fair. But as you age, the bio just tends to get longer and longer.

Right, I know. Well, you’ve got some cool stuff and the stuff especially your coaching with the relays with track girls, it’s worth all talking about. So well, let’s jump in because today we’re talking about Ultra Fit which is one of the signature group training programs at lifetime. And we want to just we’ve done a shorter episode kind of giving the basics about Ultra Fit. And today, we want to delve a little bit deeper into the science of this.

So let’s start by talking a little bit about the three components of Ultra Fit, and then go from there.

Yes I love Ultra Fit. When the CEO, Bahram was talking about this program and of course I heard sprints, my ears, and heart, and eyes are going to pick up quickly. So Ultra Fit is– it’s an amazing speed and conditioning program. A performance training really to develop three main areas. And that’s going to be energy system training. Really helping to develop the aerobic and anaerobic systems.

You’re going to have some speed and power development of course because when sprinting it’s a big area of learning how to apply force and absorb force when you’re doing exercises and movements. And then lastly, there’s going to be some functional strength development through some balance, coordination, and stability training.

OK.

Yeah, I mean even talking about those elements. I hear about it all the time at the house, I’m like please stop talking to me about work, I don’t want to hear about anything work related. David, what do you think about this, what do you think about that? And I know you’re super passionate about the set piece which is sprint interval training. And a lot of people out there in the health and fitness industry have heard of HIIT, which is high in intense training. So what exactly is the difference between sprint interval training and HIIT training?

Yeah, so I mean the primary difference between HIIT and SIT is that with HIIT, although it reaches a hard intensity, a high intensity effort, it’s not maximal. And with sprint intensity training, you’re asking for maximum intensities. And if you think about the definition of sprinting, you are not actually doing sprint training until you are over that 95% effort of activity.

So and with the SIT training and Ultra Fit, you are going through 55 minutes of crescendoing– I’m sorry, crescendoing to this SIT opportunity where you have four maximum intensity, 15 second intervals. And so yeah that’s, the big that’s the difference. One thing is hard but it’s another thing to go all out.

So if I’m hearing you correctly. Just to recap what you said. So HIIT training is somewhat can sustain it’s challenging. But when you do SIT style training, that’s not something that is going to be easily repeated without the right amount of recovery in that space. Is that what you’re saying?

Well, OK, David. So you want to make your point that’s a good one. And that is the recovery the difference between the two. And when you have something like with HIIT, you’re thinking at about a 80% intensity level. 80 between 80 and 85. You’re going to have– you’re going to need less time for your body to recover to be able to match that intensity again, which is the aim repeatability in that space when you want to transform and in those high intensity areas.

When it’s something like SIT and you’re going maximum effort your body is going to need more recovery to be able to replenish the elements that you’re using in that space. And your energy system when you’re all out, you’re that ATP phosphate system that is going to be about six to eight seconds of flight or fight feeling where your body is using all of that energy to accomplish that effort. And it needs a lot of more time to replenish that space. Then when you’re using the different type of energy system when you’re having less intensity efforts.

So you tapped into it, right? That’s one of the three we’re kind of talking about the cardio element. You have two other elements as well. So when we think of functional strength training, let’s go ahead and talk about the strength element. And then the one word that you keep saying around this house, neurological training. Can you tap into both of those and how that comes to life within Ultra Fit?

Well, I mean for sure. Anything when it comes to movement it starts at a cellular level. You think about your central nervous system and what has to change starting there or it’s have a physical outcome. And so whenever you are doing training such as sprinting and balance training you’re asking your body at the– let’s just say the basic unit of a motor unit. Your fast twitch muscles versus your slow twitch muscles. In order for you to progress and have that adaptation in a set experience or that high intensity level your body has to know what that feels like. So it can funct– have that function from a nervous system level to have the transformation.

So when you’re thinking about fast twitch muscles, you have to have those the power output. You have to have explosive movement and that 95% intensity for your body to do those things that had an adaptation recruit more large muscle groups, recruit more. So now your fast twitch muscles are developing. Now, you’re getting increased muscle mass. And now you’re tapping into the body the parts of your system that’s going to activate development of HGH. And that’s going to affect how your body burns fat and metabolism. And so yeah, it all– the effort has to be there in order for you to get the transformation at the neurological level.

Jamie, I’m going to pass it to you but I think I got a new acronym for ATP. I know that she kind of ended up throwing a little bit out there already. But since she said adaptation. Let’s go with adaptation for A. Let’s go with transformation for T. Adaptation transformation and ultimately, it leads to progress, ATP. You can have that for today, that’s my that’s my one. One gift to you all for today. Jamie, you’re up, what you got?

You’ve always got a gift. It’s my favorite that’s why I love doing this with you. OK, so you mentioned Michelle the crescendo that happens and I want to stick with that for a few minutes because I tend to be somebody who’s like I think this is 100% like, how do you coach people because this is really hard that fight or flight response that you mentioned, it’s so easy to give in to that.

And I am completely like that is me like I’d be like, OK, this feels really hard. I just want to be done. But how do you coach people to get I mean, again like you said it’s a central nervous thing but you have to get mentally comfortable with this idea as well, , and you’ve coached elite athletes and how do you do that both for elite athletes and the everyday athlete that’s coming in to these classes because I see that as a huge like people being held back by their own mental kind of?

Yes, don’t give me preaching in here now because it’s a whole lot that goes into that space when you’re at a threshold point in your life. And that’s what we’re tapping into with Ultra Fit, like I said, you’re in performance training. And so within that mindset– or in that space comes the mindset to support that and I’m glad you said that about the intensity because it’s so many, my brain is going a couple of places.

But first on just thinking about the anaerobic training space in sprinting. When we are training for 100 or 200 or 400, you have to do sprint intervals get back to the line. No one’s ready to go again. But again, you have to follow– you have to follow the formula to get the result. In order for you to get the result, you have to go again when you don’t want to.

And that’s going to require a lot of things mentally to get yourself to say, I got to go when the body is saying I don’t feel like it. But you have to push there because even when I’m in bed and it’s starting to increase the intensity and increase the intensities, I’m letting them know, hey, this is our threshold. In order for you to get the benefits, you have to get through this bill and get to the other side.

The transformation is on the other side. Trust yourself, trust what you’ve been working on, trust me listen to my instruction, execute the movements, and then your body will be prepared. So it’s all going into a whole other path about preparation and execution. But that’s what the Ultra fit class does. So as you lead up to that crescendo, you’re prepared for that.

So when you start from the beginning and it’s starting with a three minute interval, and then it goes to the two minute interval, and the one minute and to that crescendo to the 15 seconds. You’re going from an– I’m sorry an aerobic effort. And from the very beginning, you’re talking about the mechanics so that the movement patterns are being instilled from the very first moment when you touch the treadmill or when you start the class because even like as an elite athlete, you’re showing up and whether it’s practice or if it’s time to compete. Then you have to be ready for and what you’re going to do in every movement you make, every thought you put into your mind in that moment is going towards the result.

And so you have to understand the importance of every detail that you have to execute in order for you to get this result. So like I said from the beginning, you’re thinking that way, I’m telling you from the very beginning, what movement patterns I want you to think about landed on the balls of your feet, your shoulders, hinge it from your shoulders, your breathing patterns. And you as you go from a aerobic effort and you’re increasing the intensity each level.

So again, I’m talking them through what those intensities feel like. But by the time we get to that crescendo, you’re prepared, you know the movements. We’ve been strengthening the movements on the floor. We’ve been coming back each time talking about what you feel like. We’ve been letting you know that each time you touch the thread, the intensity is going to increase. I’m more from you here. And so by the time we get to that crescendo, I’ve given you everything for you to be prepared as a coach and hopefully you’ve taken that in because there’s some athlete responsibility and accountability there too for you to say that I’m ready for this moment.

I love that. This is coming off of David, you and I did an episode about the importance of preparing and programming and that’s exactly what this is all built– are built around.

Right, exactly and it’s intentional. And so that’s why with Ultra Fit when you come away from it, you know exactly what you’re putting in, so you know exactly what you’re getting out.

Well, the one thing that stood out to me within a lot of the things that you just said is the mental capacity in this space. And I know a lot of people who come into the space of fitness and health and fitness what they’re looking for is results. So when we define Ultra Fit and we ask we talked about the three elements as far as the cardio, the strength, the balance, and neurological elements that all come into play. What results is one going to get from this class?

And more importantly, what you said that stood out to me is within that mindset of knowing when to go to what I call the dark place, right? How do you now get that individual to that place of understanding this is where you’re going to break through, not break down, but break through so can you share with us as far as how one will see results in this class and how you will get them, how you approach them to arriving there?

Right, it’s important that in order to get results like I said, you got to have some real intention on what you’re working towards. And in those three areas with energy system training, your aerobic conditioning, your– the way– your oxygen is at the foundation of all your systems. Your cardiovascular system, your muscular system.

What we are talking about your neurological. And the foundation of all of your movement so they’re thinking about your functional movement from day to day. What do you need to be done to build the foundation of how you operate functionally as a human being, right? So think of that as the trunk of this tree that you are building, beautiful tree, just life.

And so from there, you go through the speed and power training and that includes that anaerobic system. That anaerobic system now you really get into that space of competitive exercise. But at the same time, you’re building your foundational athleticism. The buoyancy of how you move, the elasticity of how you move, the functional plane’s gait going into push pull squat lunge, the speed and power of it all.

The unilateral movement of sprinting and how that translates to wear unilateral function of walking every day when we have to run behind our kids, run to go catch that plane. Different things that you have to do functionally that translates to speed and power just exercise explosiveness. Those things don’t have to be about just being an athlete. But how are we as human beings going into adult years and our senior years feeling elastic, feeling athletic, feeling functionally strong when we squat, lunge, push, pull, and those things.

And then on the other side of it, you know you’re talking about if you want to go to that high level of performance just to being a competitive everyday human being, then you may want to continue to build your muscle mass. You do want to have the and be in an optimal space on how your body burns back or how your body is able to metabolize the fuel that you’re putting in. So you want to like– about living in this optimal space.

How we’re giving ourselves the best opportunity to be who we are as human beings. Perform the things we want to perform. And that’s what Ultra Fit is giving you that opportunity. It’s going to build you functionally, it’s going to build you athletically, and then you’ll see as you age, as you talk about physical literacy, the motivation, and the competency, the knowledge of wanting to move from all the way through, you can’t move anymore. Then we just want to give you a program that will maximize all of those things.

OK, hold it, hold it right there. Hold it right there. All right, for the next 2 minutes when you answer this next question no more scientific terms. I’m breaking it down you’re about to talk to a third grader, fourth grader, they got to understand exactly right now, what you have seen from a transformational standpoint, from an athlete that you have coached result wise. What have you seen a person go from point A to point Z that you coached from a result standpoint? No scientific terms. I’m trying to limit your syllables to probably four whenever you have a word.

Don’t do that.

Let’s go, let’s go. What you got for us? The people want to know, let’s go.

Oh my gosh, OK.

I have moment transformation.

But transformation. The other thing is when you were talking about mental. I’ll just touch on my biggest memories of athletes that I have worked with are course, going to be some great accomplishments as far as results on the track. But it’s definitely attached to breakthrough moments of understanding their capabilities is a glass ceiling on what we see about ourselves that sometimes it’s an unconscious thing.

And you don’t realize you’re hitting against it because you’re not recognizing that it’s there. And so if you have somebody that can see that in you and reveal those things in you, and then you’re training against those thresholds and realize internally I can push through it. Then yeah, I have athletes who I worked with when I told them exactly what was going to happen. Look your anchor leg on the floor by four is going to come down to this last 100 meters. She’s going to catch up to you. When you come down to this last 100 meters, it’s going to be between you and her.

Now, how are you going to handle that? And when exactly that happened. It’s the Minnesota, I will never forget it. And she was anchor leg came down in the last 100 meters and I was on the field watching her because now it was really hard for her to respond to that. And she won by just thousandths of a second. She held the lead and she was on the ground. So yeah, we have won World championships, we have won Olympic gold medals. So I got memories there, but I tell you I will never forget why at a high school with that young lady. We went in that 4 by 4 and understanding that she could do that.

And so that’s what that performance trainer will do in Ultra Fit is pushing yourself mentally and physically. Understanding that things matter, like you’re not just coming in here to do movements, but you should be working on strengthening your neutral spine position because that’s your posture that you should be walking in every single day. And making them understand and become aware of those things so they can actually apply it and see differences.

And really, what you’re speaking to is there’s so much more than the aesthetics and the physical results that you’re going to get from a program like Ultra Fit. I mean, there’s things happening like you said at the cellular level. There are things happening at the hormonal level. There’s things happening in our minds that are breaking our those glass ceiling barriers that we put there for ourselves.

So I think that’s what’s really interesting about this format and I’ve only done a sample class of it fully and disclosing that to all of you because the sprinting, the set scares me. But it’s just one of those things where it’s so much more happening than you realize. And whether you have aesthetic results or not there’s a lot happening here.

Yes, it’s a lot happening here and that’s the trick of it all. But when you get yourself in there, I really– when I’m working with them I just– I get excited with Ultra fit but when I give them the awareness and they apply it and see that it actually works.

So it’s one thing. That’s why when we say Ultra fit faster, fitter. You’re going to get faster because you’re going to know how to execute movements. You’re going to be strengthening movements. And as you get stronger, you’re going to be able to sustain movements. And when you’re sustaining movements, then you’re faster. So it is real results that you will see that when you actually do what’s being active you it works. And so that’s what the biggest key is

This isn’t for everybody though, right? Just– I just want to caveat that to start anyway, like you can regress into this but I think it’s important to talk about getting into Ultra Fit and understanding when to kind of step into that type of training. And also how it fits into an overall workout program. So who’s it for and how does it fit into an overall workout regimen?

Yes, when you think about all that you’re going to, of course think about people with it says that high training age. But what that really is saying is that it’s different from somebody who’s a beginner as far as coming in as the consistency of how you move, how you exercise, how you work out. Is really someone who’s been showing some type of foundational capabilities of understanding functional movement, proper mechanics of functional movement. Somebody that has an understanding of stability, joint stability and mobility. Someone that has a basis understanding of what that feels like, what that looks like because we’re asking your body to do some,

I want to say high– I want to say high level things because it’s certain movement that you need strength to be able to do, such as when we’re asking you to get your knees to hip height so you can apply force. Sprinting, the whole point of it is that you’re increasing your body’s ability to produce force. So you need right angles, you need strength to be able to apply, you need joint stability for your ankles, and your knees to be able to absorb the force that your hips are now in the right position to put out.

And so when all of that is happening having someone who doesn’t have joint stability, having someone who doesn’t have mobility, your nervous system is going to see those energy leaks. And not going to give you maximum output of saying you can handle this force. And so it just comes into that ability of are you able to maximize your experience to get the results there. And so it works really well for somebody who has that foundational place as far as where they start and where their body how far their body is developed in that area and those areas.

As far as it is a high intensity class. So when it comes to how you incorporate this into your regiment, you want to think about high vigorous activities as getting about two touch points a week. With some type of active recovery day in between you like to think about it as having 48 hours of separation when you’re having an intensity such as a sprint or set.

So with that, that’s why it’s important that you understand intentional metabolic training. So knowing your energy system, knowing your heart rate zones, get an active metabolic assessment so you can be really intentional on your training. Then now you’re knowing if you’re having these zone four days and these zone 5 days like Ultra Fit asks for, then you’re going to need a zone today in between or zone.

You’re going to need to do a zone 3 day, you know how to map things out so you have classes like that’s also signature classes, small group like alpha and GTX that has very met cons that are going to speak to those heart rate zones.

So it’s good to know what other classes can come in, in between and supplement those high intensity to those moderate and lower intensity days.

Yeah, I think that’s so important for people to know this isn’t that a class you’re going to do every single day because you would–

Yes

You would yeah, just wouldn’t be

Right, I have– I’ve had members I’ve seen them the day before and I’m back the next day I’m like, oh, no. So I’ve got to make sure, we’re very clear on how the body feels when you hear my instructions of all right the intensities are increasing.

Right

All right, well, I mean I would say this that you’re not alone in this journey. And I know that you and the crew are currently revamping certain things to make sure to bring about execution because right now we understand the vision from what Bahram created. But now you as at subject matter expert bringing the execution element to life in the consistency. I can speak for this passionately around alpha that consistency is what truly elevates the brand.

So when I say you’re not alone, you have some superstars out there. We got you of course. And then we got James Bynum, we got Cory Jones, D’Joun Smith, Ashley Gradkowski, Eric Bertelsen, [INAUDIBLE] Shawn and Dominic Flores, all across the nation, and also in Canada that are representing this brand.

And I know that they’re going to appreciate a lot of the revamping pieces that you and the team have been working on. So just wanted to shout them out and I don’t know if you have anything that you want to say around consistency and brand elevation in this space when it comes to Ultra Fit, if so please chip in on that.

Now, we’re excited because going into the new year, I’m looking forward to having some touch points with different coaches. And then just getting the education on really looking at the brand promise and making sure we deliver that at our highest capability as coaches. So again, three main areas. If we’re teaching about energy system training, if we’re doing speed and power development, and if we’re doing balance, coordination, and ability, then we need to make sure that the education behind that is there and is being understood.

So it’s very important as coaches when we talk about LTE connect, and what I was saying about active metabolic assessments. All the added values of, again, getting the outcomes and being intentional about the results you want to see, then it’s important for our coaches make sure those things are understood by the athletes and members that are taking our classes.

So yeah this, is making sure the education is there around. What are the differences and the fueling that aerobic system versus the anaerobic system, and progressing those things. And again, on the energy system side, it’s important that the athletes understand that in order for you to get these results, then 80% or above feels like this. And going into that RPE of, you’re not really being verbal at this point. You’re, focusing on what you want to do you’re not worried about sharing about what you ate last night, what you watch last night. But I got to get through this interval.

So just making sure that they understand that if you want results as well holding the members accountable of knowing what it feels like to really be in an anaerobic state. But also just making sure the speed and power– and power, education is there knowing what it takes to develop force because that’s what sprinting is. And what does that look like on a functional strength side, on a balanced side, how you progress them in those areas. But at the same time, you’re developing the posture to help you a better sprinter as well even though that’s going to help you move better as a human being every day. So it’s just being intentional on the floor and the exercise selection helping the coaches just understand what we’re building.

So when we’re talking about going in a specific block order, starting with the core, we want to make sure we’re having them have neutral spine awareness. What does that feel like, especially if you’re on the balls of your feet, what does that position feel like that I should sustain. And then on the floor as we move to even our hips now. Adding hips a little bit more in the core area because that’s the anchor of our power when we move from functionally and when we sprint.

So yeah, now, I’m excited because the education will be there a little bit more on how we strengthen movements and why. So we can have some intentionality behind there and a programming side. And then lastly, just making sure that we know we’re training thresholds and coaches know what type of space we got to tap into mentally for that to happen.

There’s two names, I’m, sorry, and– and I cannot make sure we move on before I say these two names, Jason Greenwald, and the superstar right in our own backyard, Cheryl always just talking to him, Juan Herrera over at Plano. He’s a– I guess you could call him a secret weapon that we definitely will launch at some point in time. So shout outs to both of them as well because they’re doing great things in this space

Yeah, shout out, Hailey as well. Hailey [INAUDIBLE] who came on and talked to us in our shorter episode about this as well. She’s right here where I am in my backyard in Minnesota.

So the other thing, Michelle, you just mentioned something that I kind of want to just go on to. You mentioned fuel and I’m wondering as people are preparing to come into this class like, do you talk about fueling for these types of workouts because that matters so much of what we do outside of the health club matters, and it can help us do and perform once we get there for these kind of classes or the athletic event. So can you talk a little bit about the fueling aspect before we let you go, I know we’re like probably over time.

No, no, no, no, that’s important though. Of course, every class we talk about fueling because again going back to the energy system training. What you fuel your body is with meaning your nutrition, your hydration, then that’s going to support the outcomes. That’s how your system’s operating from.

So if we’re asking you to be in an anaerobic space, then you need to know what fuels those spaces going into a carbohydrate. So coming into a workout, what should you eat today for [INAUDIBLE]. You may want to grab something that has carbs– complex carbs. So now you’re being intentional about how again you’re progressing. And that’s what we want them to do. That’s what we want to see.

So the fuel is going to be important. I’m talking about it every single class after we finish. , Of course even on the hydration side like making sure we’re reiterating the hydration points throughout class, and then they understand what that looks like when they’re away from class.

And then last is the recovery. Of course, we want them to get rest and get their bodies chances to fully repair because we’re asking them to move body parts that it’s like, OK, your posterior chain, pull in, tuck posture here. And you’re now using your caps in different ways, your, quads, your glutes, your hips everything’s being tuck here, uh, uh.

And those are going to feel a little different the next day or two as your body adjusts to again, adaptation as you’re going into that speed and power movement and all of those things. So anyways, yeah, fueling is going to be a very important and actually detrimental part of getting the outcomes you want.

Anything else you want to add about Ultra Fit or just sprinting in general that before we sign off?

Now, I’ll just say it was great about atrophied and just speed and conditioning is when you think about sprinters and trying to be faster. It’s not just about, oh, I want to be able to be a faster person but the benefits of that functionally and athletically and just thinking about the things that how you want to feel every day. I want to feel my best. I want to be able to do the things I want to do when it comes to movement and just the energy. And that’s what Ultra Fit ultimately does, which is why I love it.

So, yeah you’re, going to get sprint training. You’re going to get balance, coordination, and stability training but you’re going to come out in a way that you’re going to be more educated. You’re going to be more aware of how you should be moving every day. Feeling your best and knowing tangible ways of pushing your thresholds in order to get the transformation that’s at the other side.

All right, David, do you have, do you have a question?

That’s somewhat like a mic drop moment. That’s what you’re asking, right?

Yeah, that’s what I’m asking for you always have one.

Mic drop moment. Where will Ultra Fit be by the end of 2023?

OK, that’s a good one. But Ultra Fit by the end of 2023, I would want all of the coaches to have all the information they need on how to provide a program that gives results for our members that’s really having performance training that it’s just making people feel better and encouraging them to be their best selves. And it’s going to be a program, I know David’s asking me this because he’s alpha. So we try to talk about Ultra Fit and take out alpha one day. But that’s not– but look at him shaking his head, look at him shaking his head.

It’s like, no, I’m not

No, but in 2023, I just want to see successful markets where you can see growth in the Ultra Fit space. It’s a program that’s fairly new. And just coming into its own, so I would like to see it in a place of consistency. Now knowing this identity in a strong, confident way. And that’s being understood on an every touchpoint that we have. So yeah, that’s what I see for ultra fit. A consistent, understood brand that’s having, I would say high growth state.

I love it.

Well, Michelle, thank you for coming back on. I know if people are interested, we’re going to link to the beginning– beginner sprinting program that you created for experience life. We’re going to put that up on the show notes page for this so people can see that. But then. We also have lots of different content already that we’ve created about Ultra Fit so people can continue to learn more. We have an Ultra Fit workout that our founder and CEO Brian McCarty, demonstrates– it was in the magazine at one point. So lots of good stuff.

But Michelle if people want to follow you and stay connected with you how can they do that?

Oh, please follow me on Instagram, it’s mechelle, M-E-C-H-E-L-L-E Louis Freeman. And then on Twitter, I took my husband’s, his alias and I’m Coach Breezy

Love it.

[LAUGHS]

Yeah.

And then pay attention, how do alpha and Ultra Fit like, what are they doing, try them both they’re all great. So right here. I’m so lucky because I get to be with you too who are such great representatives for these two really important and growing brands at lifetime. And I’ve spent more time doing alpha. I’m going to do Ultra Fit it’s got to get to my club my home club more but–

I’m coming to Minnesota so you better be ready

Tell me when and I’ll be there so.

OK, you hear, I hear.

I heard you already–

Well, I appreciate you both and Michelle, thank you again.

Thanks for having me.

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Have thoughts you’d like to share or topic ideas for future episodes? Email us at lttalks@lt.life.

The information in this podcast is intended to provide broad understanding and knowledge of healthcare topics. This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered complete and should not be used in place of advice from your physician or healthcare provider. We recommend you consult your physician or healthcare professional before beginning or altering your personal exercise, diet or supplementation program.

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