Losing Muscle as We Age: Why It Happens and What We Can Do About It

Most of us expect certain changes as we get older. Recovery might take a little longer, we may feel stiffer after sitting for extended periods, or activities that once felt effortless begin to require more work.

What we don’t always recognize is that some of these changes may be connected to a gradual loss of muscle mass and strength.

While muscle loss is common as we age, it’s also something we have more control over than many people realize. Maintaining muscle isn’t just about being strong in the gym. It plays an important role in our health, our ability to remain active, and ultimately, our quality of life.

What Happens to Our Muscles as We Age?

As we move through adulthood, maintaining muscle becomes more challenging. This process can begin as early as our 30s and tends to accelerate later in life, particularly when physical activity levels decline.

Age-related muscle loss can eventually contribute to a condition known as sarcopenia, characterized by low muscle strength and reduced muscle quantity or quality.

The rate of muscle loss varies considerably between individuals. Activity levels, nutrition, and overall health all influence how well we maintain muscle over time.

Aging is inevitable, but losing strength and physical capacity doesn’t have to be.

Why Does Losing Muscle Matter?

Muscle does far more than help us lift weights or perform athletically. It contributes to several important aspects of our health.

• Strength and independence: Muscle supports everyday activities like climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and enjoying recreational activities. Significant losses can affect mobility and independence.
• Metabolic health: Skeletal muscle plays a major role in regulating blood sugar and supporting healthy insulin sensitivity.
• Resilience and recovery: Having greater strength and muscle provides a physical reserve that can help us maintain or regain function following illness, injury, or periods of inactivity.

The value of muscle extends well beyond appearance or performance. It helps us continue doing the things that matter to us.

The Good News: We Can Build Muscle at Any Age

Our muscles retain the ability to adapt to resistance training throughout life. While building muscle may become more challenging as we get older, meaningful improvements in strength and muscle mass are still possible, even for those who begin training later in life.

The key is providing the right stimulus through consistent resistance training and gradually increasing the challenge as our capacity improves. This principle, known as progressive overload, is one of the foundations of effective strength training.

That doesn’t mean every workout needs to be exhausting. It means following a structured approach that challenges our muscles appropriately while allowing time for recovery.

What Does It Take to Maintain Muscle?

Maintaining muscle doesn’t require spending hours in the gym every day. For many adults, two to three well-structured strength sessions per week can make a meaningful difference.

A few key principles are worth focusing on:

• Train consistently: Challenge the major muscle groups through movements such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and carrying.
• Progress gradually: Increase the challenge as your strength improves.
• Support your training: Adequate protein, nutrition, and recovery help maintain and build muscle.
• Think long term: Consistency over months and years matters more than occasional bursts of intense exercise.

Building Strength for the Life You Want to Live

At Groundwork Athletics, we see strength training as an investment in long-term health and physical capacity.

For some, that means continuing to ride their bike, run local trails, or enjoy long days in the mountains. For others, it’s about lifting their grandchildren, travelling, or simply feeling strong and confident in everyday life.

Our coaching approach focuses on understanding each person’s goals and developing a structured, sustainable program that supports steady progress.

We can’t stop the aging process, but we can influence how we move through it. Maintaining muscle and strength is one of the most practical ways to support our health, independence, and ability to remain active for years to come.

Strength isn’t just about what we can do today. It’s about what we want to keep doing tomorrow.

Groundwork Athletics | Strength for Life

 

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Strength gets a lot of attention as we age, and for good reason. But there’s another quality I’m thinking about just as much as I head into this offseason: power.

Strength is our ability to produce force. Power is our ability to produce that force quickly.

That distinction matters, and not just for athletes, but for anyone who wants to remain physically capable as they get older.

Power Is Part of Being Athletic

Think about the moments when you need to move quickly. Accelerating on a bike. Running up a hill. Jumping over something. Changing direction. Coaching your kids and deciding to jump into the drill instead of watching from the sideline. Strength helps with all of those things, but so does the ability to access that strength quickly.

For me, that shows up very clearly on the bike. I’ve been recording my cycling power for about 12 years. Despite getting older, my peak power and 5–10 second sprint power haven’t declined. In fact, this season I produced my second-highest 5-second power ever. I don’t think that’s an accident.

In previous seasons, I would typically stop strength training once cycling volume and racing increased. This year, I kept one strength session per week in my program until the middle of July.

I find the older I get, the more positive an impact strength training has on my performance. Incorporating specific training to improve explosiveness and power is an important part of that.

Strength First, Then Speed

As I outlined in my last post, I’ll start with several weeks of consistent strength training before introducing more explosive work. That progression is important. First, improve the ability to produce force. Then work on producing it faster.

Eventually I’ll introduce simple bodyweight plyometrics. Jumps, hops, and other movements that require me to absorb and produce force quickly will be the backbone of my power training. The volume doesn’t need to be high, but the intent does need to be there.

As a masters athlete, I don’t think the answer is to stop moving quickly because I’m getting older. I think the better approach is to prepare my body so I can continue to do it.

Keep Training What You Want to Keep

That idea extends well beyond competitive sport. Most of us want to keep doing things. Run, ride, ski, hike, play a game of tennis, coach our kids, get down on the floor and back up again, or react quickly when something unexpected happens. Those are all things I want to maintain.

Endurance and strength are important pieces of that puzzle, but they aren’t the whole picture. We need to keep some speed and power in the system too.

That’s part of how we think about training at Groundwork Athletics. The goal isn’t simply to prepare someone for their next race or event. It’s to build and maintain the physical qualities that allow them to keep performing and participating in the things they enjoy.

At 51, I’m not training power because I’m trying to move like I did when I was 25.

I’m training it because I’d like to keep moving like an athlete for as long as I can.

 

-Jon Bula, GWA Owner

 

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What Does Strength Training for a Masters Endurance Athlete Look Like?

In my last post, I wrote about why I’m planning to double down on strength training this offseason.

I still have one race left on September 27, so I’m not quite there yet. But a couple of weeks from now, the focus will begin to shift.

At 51, I still want to perform at a high level on the bike. But the way I pursue performance needs to evolve. Maintaining strength, power, mobility, and resilience becomes increasingly important as we get older, particularly for endurance athletes who spend a lot of time repeating the same movements.

So what will that actually look like in the gym? For me, it’s pretty simple.

I’ll strength train twice a week, and each session will follow a similar progression: mobility, movement preparation, basic strength work, and eventually some power and plyometrics.

Start With Movement

I’ll generally spend about 20 minutes at the beginning of each session working on mobility and stretching.

Some of this will depend on what my body needs that day, but I’ll consistently come back to thoracic spine mobility, hip mobility, and stretching through the quads and hip flexors.

As a cyclist who also spends plenty of time sitting at a desk, there’s an obvious reason for that.

The goal isn’t to become exceptionally flexible. I want enough mobility to move well, access good positions, and then be strong within those positions.

From there, I’ll move into a dynamic warm-up, usually using kettlebells and the basic movement patterns: hinge, squat, lunge, push, and pull.

Early on, I’ll keep this deliberately easy. In fact, some of what makes up my workout in the first couple of weeks will eventually become part of my warm-up. That’s intentional.

Keep the Strength Work Simple

The lifting itself will be built around those same basic movement patterns.

I’ll organize exercises into blocks, using a combination of single- and double-leg movements. Volume will start low and gradually build toward four working sets as my body adapts.

A beginning session might look something like this:

Mobility — 20 minutes

Thoracic spine mobility
Hip mobility
Quad and hip flexor stretching

Movement Prep

Kettlebell hinge
Goblet squat
Reverse lunge
Push and pull variations

Strength Block 1

Squat variation — 2–3 sets
Single-leg hinge — 2–3 sets
Row or pull-up variation — 2–3 sets

Strength Block 2

Hinge variation — 2–3 sets
Split squat or step-up — 2–3 sets
Press or push-up — 2–3 sets

Nothing particularly exotic, and that’s the point.

I don’t need to recreate cycling in the gym. I already spend plenty of time riding my bike. The gym gives me an opportunity to develop qualities that riding alone doesn’t address as effectively.

Strength First, Then Power

One of those qualities is power.

Eventually I’ll introduce bodyweight plyometrics (jumps, hops, and other faster movements) to work on elasticity and explosiveness. But those won’t be part of the first couple of weeks. I want at least four weeks of consistent strength training first.

If I haven’t been jumping regularly, there’s no reason to suddenly introduce a large amount of explosive work. I’d rather rebuild my strength base, allow my muscles and connective tissues to adapt, and then progressively add speed. That progression becomes increasingly important as we get older.

It doesn’t mean masters athletes need to train cautiously. We still need strength, speed, power, and challenging loads. We just need to be more deliberate about how we get there.

Build Slowly

The first four to six weeks will be about building capacity. Start easy, move well, and then add load. Build consistency, and then progress.

That’s an approach we use regularly at Groundwork Athletics. The goal of strength training isn’t simply to leave the gym exhausted. It’s to apply enough stimulus to create adaptation, recover from it, and come back ready to progress.

For me, that will mean two good strength sessions each week throughout the offseason. I want to get stronger, become more explosive, and be more resilient late in races. At 51, I want to continue competing at a high level for as long as I can.

In a few weeks, once the training is underway, I’ll share what one of these sessions actually looks like, and how it changes as the offseason progresses.

 

-Jon Bula, GWA Owner

 

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Staying on Top of your Game: Masters Athlete

I can’t believe summer is ending. The speed of time from June to September seems to get faster every year. The kids head back to school today, which is a welcome thing for parents, me included, but I’m already missing the early morning light and bike rides without lights.

After a few more weeks of riding, Vancouver cyclists will officially enter the offseason. The Whistler GranFondo is this weekend, and for many it marks the end of their riding for the year. I’ve still got Gravel Provincials to race, and then it’s fall mountain biking for some of the best riding of the year. Some people will race a cyclocross campaign, but personally, I’m a little burned out from the rigor of road and gravel racing.

As a competitive masters athlete, I enter every offseason thinking about the same things:

1. I need to recharge my batteries and my desire for competition.
2. How do I continue to compete at my top level?
3. Can I even find a way to improve at age 51?

I think the answer to that last question is yes. But the way I go about improving at 51 needs to look different than it did at 31.

The Masters Athlete Has Different Needs

My plan for this offseason will be similar to other years, but with a slight tweak. I’m going to add one trail run or hike per week and double down on strength training.

The trail run will be fun and will add some “real world” athleticism to my typical routine of riding. The strength training is where I’m hoping to make the biggest difference in my performance for the upcoming season.

I’ve been strength training since I was 14 years old. That’s 37 years…yikes.

Over that time, I’ve had plenty of changes in volume and intensity. There have been years when I didn’t strength train at all for part of the year, and stretches in my late twenties and early thirties when I was lifting four times a week.

Now that I’m in my 50s, I think the secret to longevity in my sport—and continued performance—is going to come primarily from keeping my muscles and joints as healthy, strong, and capable as possible.

As we age, simply doing more of our sport isn’t necessarily enough. For endurance athletes in particular, we get very good at repeating the same movements thousands of times. What we don’t necessarily get from all those hours of riding or running is the muscular strength, power, mobility, and resilience we need to preserve as we get older.

Those qualities matter for health and longevity, but they also matter if you still care about performance.

What I’m Trying to Build

There are four qualities I’m particularly interested in developing this winter: elasticity, explosivity, resilience, and fatigue resistance.

Elasticity is the ability to absorb force and return it efficiently. Explosivity is our ability to produce force quickly. Resilience is about having muscles, tendons, and joints capable of handling the demands we put on them. And fatigue resistance is the ability to maintain force and good movement when we’re tired.

For a cyclist, those qualities show up everywhere.

They matter when you accelerate out of a corner, respond to an attack, push over the top of a short climb, or try to produce power after three or four hard hours. They also matter when you step off the bike. I want to remain an athlete who can ride hard, but I also want to be able to run, jump, lift, hike, and move well.

That becomes increasingly important to me as I get older.

Starting Easier Than You Think

My plan is to strength train twice a week, with an emphasis on mobility, maximum strength, and power.

But I’m not going to start by hammering myself in the gym.

In fact, my first few workouts will be so easy that they will probably look more like the warm-ups I’ll eventually be doing later in the offseason.

That’s intentional.

One of the mistakes masters athletes can make is remembering what they used to be able to do and starting there. Our training history can fool us into thinking we should be able to jump back into loads and volumes we haven’t touched for months—or years.

There’s very little upside to that.

Instead, I want to give my joints, tendons, muscles, and nervous system time to adapt. I’ll start easy, establish consistency, and progressively add load and speed as my body is ready for it.

The goal isn’t to prove how strong I am in September. The goal is to see how strong and powerful I can become by the end of the offseason.

Strength Training for the Long Game

This is also how we approach training at Groundwork Athletics.

Training a masters athlete isn’t about treating someone as fragile because they’re getting older. It’s about understanding that the inputs need to become more thoughtful.

We still want to train hard. We still want to get stronger. We still want to develop power and athleticism. But the progression, recovery, mobility, and overall training load need to work together.

For me, that means two focused strength sessions each week alongside riding and some trail running. For someone else, the balance will look different. The important part is identifying what your sport gives you—and what it doesn’t.

At 51, I’m realistic enough to know that some aspects of performance become harder to maintain. But that doesn’t mean improvement is off the table.

It just means I need to be more deliberate about where I look for it.

This offseason, I’m looking for it in the gym.

 

-Jon Bula, GWA Owner

 

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The Off-Season Is Where You Build Your Margin for Error

Most cyclists don’t need much convincing that riding more will make them better at riding. The problem is that a cycling season rarely unfolds under perfect conditions. Training volume increases, hard sessions start stacking up, work gets busy, and recovery isn’t always ideal. A long weekend on the bike turns into a much bigger day than planned. You’re often asking your body to perform when it isn’t completely fresh.

That’s where the work you do months earlier starts to matter.

One of the most useful ways to think about off-season strength training isn’t simply as a way to become stronger. It’s an opportunity to build more physical capacity than your sport regularly demands. In other words, you’re creating a margin for error to accommodate the unexpected.

Capacity Versus Demand

Every ride places a certain demand on your body. A two-hour endurance ride has one level of demand, while a five-hour ride with a lot of climbing has another. Add several weeks of accumulating training load, some poor sleep, a busy work schedule, or a hard group ride that got a little harder than expected, and that demand changes again.

The goal of training shouldn’t be to build a body that can just barely handle those demands. We want some capacity left in reserve.

Strength training gives endurance athletes an opportunity to build that reserve in ways that riding alone doesn’t always provide. We can expose the body to higher forces, strengthen tissues through different ranges of motion, and develop areas that receive relatively little stimulus on the bike.

When your overall cycling volume is lower, we have more room to do that work. That’s what makes the off-season so valuable.

The Off-Season Gives Us Room to Build

During the height of the cycling season, strength training has to coexist with a lot of riding. There are intervals, long rides, events, group rides, travel, and the normal demands of life. Strength work still has a place, but we have to be thoughtful about how much fatigue it creates.

The off-season changes that equation.

With fewer hours on the bike and less cycling intensity, we can dedicate more recovery capacity to strength development. That might mean developing stronger hips and legs, improving trunk strength and control, or spending time in ranges of motion you don’t regularly access on the bike.

The specifics will vary from athlete to athlete, but the principle doesn’t: when sport-specific demand decreases, we have an opportunity to build capacity elsewhere.

You Don’t Need Your Strength Until You Do

One of the challenges with strength training for endurance athletes is that its value isn’t always obvious during an easy ride in November. You may not notice your squat strength while cruising along at an endurance pace, but that’s not really the point.

The value becomes more apparent when the demands start accumulating.

It’s the fourth hour of a long ride when you’re trying to maintain your position. It’s a week when training volume jumps or a long climb late in the day. It’s getting off the bike after months of increasing mileage and still having enough physical capacity to train well again tomorrow.

Not every benefit of training needs to show up as an immediate improvement in power. Sometimes the goal is simply to increase the gap between what your body can handle and what you’re regularly asking it to handle.

That gap is your margin.

How You Build It Matters

Adding a couple of hard gym sessions each week isn’t automatically productive. The goal isn’t to create as much soreness as possible or simply make the off-season feel difficult. We want progression.

Exercises should have a purpose, loads should change over time, and the program should reflect your training history, current abilities, previous season, and what you’re preparing to do next.

An athlete who has never strength trained consistently needs something different from an experienced cyclist who has been lifting for years. Someone coming off a high-volume race season may have different priorities than someone whose biggest limitation has been maintaining consistency.

The off-season gives us time to build, but how we use that time matters.

Build More Than You Need

As cyclists, it’s easy to measure training by what happens on the bike. Power, distance, elevation, speed, and hours all give us immediate feedback. Some of the most valuable work, though, is the work that gives you more options later.

Building strength now means that when riding volume increases, strength training can shift toward maintenance rather than development. You’ve already done the heavier work, and the goal becomes keeping as much of that capacity as possible while cycling takes priority again.

That’s a much better position than trying to build strength at the same time you’re asking your body to handle its highest riding loads of the year.

The off-season isn’t just a break between cycling seasons. It’s an opportunity to prepare your body for the season that comes next.

Don’t aim to build just enough capacity to handle your training. Build some room to spare.

 

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How to Ride Your Best Whistler Gran Fondo

The RBC GranFondo Whistler is almost here.

For many riders, September 12 has been sitting on the calendar for months. You’ve put in the long rides, accumulated the climbing, worked on your fitness, and probably learned a few things about yourself along the way. Now comes an important shift.

You don’t need to get fitter at the last minute. You need to arrive rested, execute a good plan, and make the fitness you’ve already built work for you.

For the recreational rider looking to have a great day and ride their best possible time, race-day execution can make a surprisingly big difference. Pacing, nutrition, staying relaxed, and making smart decisions along the way often matter more than squeezing in one more hard training session.

The Hay Is in the Barn

With the Fondo on September 12, the final meaningful training push should happen before race week. There is very little fitness to be gained by cramming hard sessions into the final few days. There is, however, plenty of fatigue to be gained.

Think of the taper as allowing all the work you’ve already done to show up.

Your final week should become progressively easier. Keep riding, include some short efforts to keep the legs feeling responsive, but reduce your overall training load. You want to arrive at the start line feeling like you could have done a little more during the week.

That’s a much better feeling than arriving tired from trying to prove your fitness one last time.

Don’t Race the First Half

One of the easiest ways to lose time at the Whistler Fondo is to feel too good early.

The excitement at the start, fresh legs, other riders moving quickly, and the energy of the event can make a pace that is slightly too hard feel completely reasonable. For a while…

For most recreational riders, this is a four-plus-hour day on the bike. Decisions made in the first hour can have consequences several hours later.

And importantly, much of the significant climbing comes in the second half of the route.

The goal early isn’t to see how fast you can ride. It’s to move efficiently while keeping enough in reserve to continue riding well when the course gets harder.

If you’re constantly surging to close gaps, riding above your sustainable effort on early climbs, or taking long pulls because you’re feeling strong, you’re spending energy you’ll probably want later.

A slightly conservative first half can produce a much faster second half.

Find Your People

There is another reason not to go charging off early: riding with other people is faster.

A Gran Fondo is a community event, and there is a lot to be gained by treating it that way.

Find riders moving at a pace that feels appropriate and work together. Take sensible turns when appropriate, ride predictably, and communicate.

You don’t need to know anyone beforehand.

A quick conversation can turn a collection of individual riders into a group working toward roughly the same goal. You’ll get some aerodynamic benefit, but there is also a mental benefit. Four or five hours feels different when you’re sharing some of it with other people.

And if you’re riding with a good group approaching an aid station, talk to them.

“I’m stopping quickly for bottles. Anyone else?”

There’s a good chance someone is thinking exactly the same thing.

Eat and Drink Before You Need To

Your nutrition plan shouldn’t begin when you’re hungry.

By then, you’re already playing catch-up.

Start eating and drinking early and continue consistently throughout the ride. Race day is not the time to experiment with a completely new nutrition strategy. Use foods, drink mixes, gels, bars, or other products you’ve already tolerated during training.

Most importantly, have a plan before you start.

Know roughly how much carbohydrate and fluid you’re aiming to consume each hour. Know what you’re carrying from the start and where you expect to refill.

Then actually follow the plan.

It’s very easy to skip eating when the group is moving well or delay a bottle refill because you don’t want to lose the riders around you. But staying with a group for another 20 minutes isn’t much of a victory if you run out of fuel later.

A quick aid-station stop can save considerably more time than it costs.

Relax and Ride Your Bike

There will probably be moments when things don’t go perfectly.

You may lose a group. You might get stuck behind someone at an aid station. Your legs may feel strange during the first 30 minutes. Someone may surge past you on a climb and make you wonder whether you should follow.

You don’t need to react to everything. Stay relaxed.

Ride your pace, keep eating and drinking, and make decisions based on the entire day rather than the next five minutes.

A good Fondo isn’t necessarily one where everything goes perfectly. It’s one where you manage the imperfect moments without allowing them to change your whole day.

Your Best Time Comes From Your Best Execution

By race week, fitness is largely settled. What you can still control is how well you use it.

Arrive rested. Start conservatively. Find people you can ride with. Eat and drink consistently. Make the aid-station stops you need. Stay relaxed when the day gets difficult.

Then, when you reach the second half and the climbing starts to accumulate, you can begin using what you saved.

There is something very satisfying about passing riders late in a long event. Not because you’re suddenly fitter than they are, because you managed your day well.

For everyone from Groundwork Athletics and Velosophy lining up for the RBC GranFondo Whistler this year, enjoy the ride, look after the people around you, and save something for the road to Whistler.

We’ll see you out there.

 

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Training In The Heat: Why Your Normal Pace Suddenly Feels Harder

You head out for a run at a pace that normally feels comfortable. Ten minutes in, your heart rate is higher than expected, and the effort feels harder. You’re sweating heavily, and the pace on your watch isn’t particularly impressive.

Or maybe you’re on the bike. A climb you’ve ridden dozens of times suddenly feels much harder than it did a few weeks ago. You’re producing less power for what feels like more effort.

It’s easy to look at the numbers and wonder:

Am I losing fitness?

Probably not.

When the temperature climbs, the physiological cost of training changes. Understanding that can help you make better decisions about pace, intensity, hydration and, perhaps most importantly, your expectations.

Your Body Has Two Jobs Now

Exercise generates heat. On a cooler day, your body has a relatively straightforward job of getting rid of that heat. As the temperature rises, particularly when humidity is also high, that job becomes more difficult.

Your body responds by sending more blood toward the skin to help dissipate heat. You also sweat, and the evaporation of that sweat helps cool you. At the same time, your working muscles still need blood and oxygen.

In other words, your cardiovascular system is being asked to support the workout and help regulate your temperature. Your heart rate may climb higher than usual for the same pace or power output, and an effort that normally feels manageable can start feeling considerably harder. 

That’s not necessarily a sign that your fitness has declined, it’s a sign that the environment has changed the cost of producing that performance.

Stop Comparing A Hot August Run To A Cool May Run

This is where watches, bike computers and training apps can sometimes work against us.

We have access to an enormous amount of data, which can be very useful. But the numbers need context.

A 5:30/km pace isn’t physiologically identical under every set of conditions; neither is 200 watts on the bike.

Temperature, humidity, direct sun, wind, hydration status, sleep and accumulated fatigue can all influence what it takes to produce a particular number.

So if your normal easy pace suddenly requires a much higher heart rate and feels more like a moderate effort, forcing yourself to maintain that pace simply because it’s what you normally run may change the purpose of the workout. Your easy run isn’t really easy anymore.

The same applies to cycling. Chasing your usual power numbers during a long, exposed ride on a very hot afternoon may turn a manageable endurance session into something much more demanding.

Sometimes the smarter target is effort rather than pace or power.

Heat Acclimatization Is Real

There’s also some good news. The body adapts.

With repeated exposure to exercise in the heat, we become better at handling it. Heat acclimatization can improve our ability to dissipate heat and tolerate exercise in warmer conditions, but adaptation takes time.

This is particularly important during the first significant stretch of hot weather. You may be fit, but that doesn’t automatically mean you’re adapted to the heat.

Someone can have excellent cardiovascular fitness and still struggle during their first few hot rides or runs of the season.

Health Canada specifically recommends starting gradually when exercising in hot conditions and not expecting your usual performance during extreme heat. Give your body some time to catch up.

Hydration Matters, But It Isn’t The Whole Story

It’s impossible to talk about training in the heat without talking about hydration.

Sweating means losing fluid, and longer or harder sessions in hot conditions can substantially increase those losses.

Starting a workout well hydrated matters. Drinking during longer sessions matters. For athletes doing prolonged training with significant sweat losses, replacing electrolytes can also become part of the equation.

Hydration shouldn’t become a strategy for ignoring the conditions. You can’t simply drink enough water to make a very hot day behave like a cool one. Sometimes the better decision is still to change the route, start earlier, shorten the session, reduce the intensity or move indoors.

Hydration supports good training in the heat. It doesn’t eliminate the effects of heat.

Change The Workout Before The Workout Changes You

Imagine you have a two-hour run or a four-hour ride planned and the forecast is calling for significant heat. You don’t necessarily need to abandon the session, but you might need to change how you approach it.

Starting early can make a significant difference. Choosing a shaded running route or a cycling route with reliable places to refill bottles can help. Reducing intensity may preserve the intended purpose of the workout. Sometimes moving a hard interval session indoors while keeping an easier outdoor session makes more sense.

The important thing is to make these decisions deliberately rather than waiting until you’re already overheating halfway through the workout. This becomes particularly important for long rides, runs and hikes where turning around or finding somewhere cool may not be easy.

The farther you travel from home, the more important planning becomes.

Know When It’s More Than Just A Hard Workout

There is a difference between feeling the normal strain of exercising on a hot day and developing signs of heat illness.

Headache, dizziness, nausea, extreme thirst, muscle cramps and feeling unusually unwell are signs that should get your attention. Move somewhere cool, stop or reduce activity, cool yourself and rehydrate.

Confusion, fainting, loss of coordination or a very high body temperature are much more serious. Heat stroke is a medical emergency and requires immediate medical attention.

Being fit doesn’t make you immune.

In fact, athletes can sometimes get themselves into trouble precisely because they’re accustomed to pushing through discomfort.

Knowing when not to push is part of being an experienced athlete too.

Your Pace Isn’t Your Fitness

We talk a lot about consistency at Groundwork Athletics, but consistency doesn’t mean producing the same numbers every time you train. Good training responds to the environment you’re training in.

On a hot day, that might mean running slower at the same effort. It might mean producing a little less power on the bike. It might mean taking an extra break on a long hike, carrying more fluid, changing the route or moving the workout to a cooler part of the day.

None of those things mean you’re getting less fit. They mean you’re accounting for the additional stress the environment is placing on your body.

The goal isn’t to prove that you can force your normal pace regardless of the conditions. The goal is to apply the right amount of stress, recover from it, and come back ready to train again.

That’s how fitness is built, not through one heroic workout in the heat, but through months and years of good decisions.

Sometimes, slowing down is part of moving forward.

 

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Wildfire Smoke And Training: When Should You Change The Plan?

You wake up on Saturday morning with a long ride planned. The bike is ready, bottles are filled, and you’ve carved out a few hours to train. Then you look outside…

The mountains are barely visible, the sky has that familiar haze, and you can smell smoke.

For runners, cyclists, hikers, and anyone who spends a lot of time training outdoors, wildfire smoke has unfortunately become another variable we need to consider during the summer months. The question we hear is usually pretty simple:

Can I still train today?

The answer isn’t always yes or no. But it does require understanding what you’re exposing yourself to, how exercise changes that exposure, and when modifying the plan is the better training decision.

Why Training Changes The Equation

Wildfire smoke is a mixture of gases and particles, but one of the primary health concerns is fine particulate matter known as PM2.5.

These particles are extremely small and can travel deep into the respiratory system. Wildfire smoke can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and exposure can cause symptoms including coughing, wheezing, headaches and shortness of breath. For someone planning a workout, there’s another important piece to consider:

The harder you exercise, the more air you breathe.

Think about the difference between sitting on your patio and riding your bike up a sustained climb. Your breathing rate and depth increase considerably as intensity rises.

That means a hard ride, tempo run or steep hike isn’t simply exercise performed in smoky conditions. You’re potentially increasing the amount of smoke you’re inhaling at the same time.

This is why BCCDC specifically recommends taking it easier and limiting outdoor exercise on smoky days. The harder you breathe, the more smoke you inhale.

Start With The Air Quality, Not The Training Plan

One of the mistakes we can make as athletes is treating the workout on the calendar as something that has to happen. Tuesday says intervals, so Tuesday must be intervals.

Environmental conditions are part of training too.

Before heading outside during wildfire season, check your local Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) and any air-quality alerts. The AQHI runs from 1 to 10+, with higher numbers representing greater health risk.

Conditions can also change substantially throughout the day. A smoky morning doesn’t necessarily mean the entire day will look the same, and the opposite can also be true.

Health Canada currently recommends considering modifications as air quality worsens. At an AQHI of 7–10, reducing the duration or intensity of strenuous outdoor activity becomes increasingly appropriate. At 10+, cancelling or rescheduling strenuous outdoor activity should be seriously considered.

Those decisions also need to be more conservative for people who are more susceptible to smoke, including those with cardiovascular or respiratory conditions.

Numbers aren’t the only consideration, Pay attention to how you actually feel.

A scratchy throat, coughing, headache, unusual shortness of breath, wheezing, dizziness or chest discomfort are not things to push through for the sake of finishing a workout.

What Should You Do With Today’s Workout?

This is where coaching becomes less about following a program and more about making a good decision. Imagine you have a three-hour ride scheduled and the air quality isn’t great. You have several options:

You might move the ride to another day when conditions are expected to improve. You might shorten it and keep the intensity lower. You could ride indoors. Or you could replace the session entirely with strength, mobility or another appropriate indoor workout in cleaner air.

The same applies to a runner with intervals scheduled or someone planning a long hike. Changing the workout doesn’t automatically mean losing the day. Sometimes it simply means changing the stimulus. If the conditions are poor enough, taking the day off is also a perfectly reasonable training decision.

Don’t Try To Win One Workout

This is probably the most important part.

Athletes, particularly consistent ones, can become very attached to completing what is written in the program. We understand why. Consistency matters, building fitness takes time, and there is satisfaction in seeing a week of training completed exactly as planned.

Consistency shouldn’t be confused with rigidity.

One modified ride isn’t going to meaningfully change your fitness. Neither is moving a run by a day or replacing an outdoor workout with an indoor session. Training works through the accumulation of productive work over months and years. From that perspective, unnecessarily exposing yourself to poor conditions simply to check off today’s workout doesn’t accomplish much. There will always be another ride.

A Better Way To Think About Summer Training

Wildfire smoke isn’t the only environmental variable we deal with. Heat, humidity, poor sleep, travel and changing schedules can all affect what makes sense on a particular day.

Good programming needs enough structure to move you forward, but enough flexibility to respond when circumstances change. So when you wake up to smoky skies, don’t immediately ask:

“Can I get away with doing my workout?”

Ask a better question:

“What’s the best training decision I can make today?”

Sometimes the answer will be heading out as planned. Sometimes it will mean reducing the intensity, shortening the session, moving indoors or shifting the workout to another day.

Occasionally, the right answer is simply taking a day off. 

None of those decisions derail your progress.Learning how to adjust while keeping the bigger picture in mind is part of training well for the long term.

At Groundwork Athletics, that’s ultimately what we’re interested in, not winning a single workout, but building strong, capable and durable athletes who can keep doing the things they enjoy for a very long time.

 

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Why Eating During Long Rides Actually Helps You Lose Fat

Many people trying to lose weight make the mistake of avoiding calories during exercise. It seems logical, but for rides longer than about 60–90 minutes, the opposite is often true.

Your Goal Isn’t to Burn the Most Calories. It’s to Build a Better Engine

The real objective of endurance training is to improve your mitochondria, the tiny power plants inside your muscle cells.

Healthy mitochondria:

• Burn more fat at rest and during exercise
• Produce energy more efficiently
• Improve endurance
• Help regulate blood sugar
• Support long-term metabolic health

You can’t maximize these adaptations if you’re constantly running out of fuel.

What Happens When You Don’t Eat?

When glycogen (stored carbohydrate) becomes too low:

• Power output drops.
• Cortisol and other stress hormones increase.
• Your body begins breaking down muscle for energy.
• Technique and decision-making deteriorate.
• Recovery takes much longer.
• You often become extremely hungry later and overeat.

This is what cyclists call “bonking.”

A bonk doesn’t build fitness, it simply means your body ran out of readily available fuel.

Eating During Exercise Doesn’t Make You Fat

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in endurance sports.

The carbohydrates you consume during a ride are primarily used immediately by the working muscles.

During moderate to hard exercise:

• Blood flow is directed toward active muscles.
• Muscles rapidly absorb glucose without requiring as much insulin.
• The carbohydrate is burned as fuel rather than stored as body fat.

Proper fueling allows you to:

• Ride harder
• Ride longer
• Burn more total energy
• Recover faster
• Train consistently

Consistency, not under-fueling, is what produces long-term fat loss.

Weight Loss Happens Between Rides

Think of it this way:

Fuel the work. Manage calories the rest of the day.

It’s far better to eat enough during training and create a modest calorie deficit through normal meals than to starve during the ride and sabotage the workout.

A small daily calorie deficit (200–500 kcal) combined with quality training is much more effective than repeatedly bonking.

Simple On-Bike Fueling Strategy

Ride under 60 minutes

• Water is usually sufficient.
• Electrolytes if it’s hot or you’re a heavy sweater.

Ride 60–90 minutes

• Water + electrolytes.
• Consider 20–30 g carbohydrate per hour if intensity is moderate to high.

Ride 90 minutes to 3 hours

Aim for:

• 40–60 g carbohydrate per hour
• 500–750 mL fluid per hour
• 300–700 mg sodium per hour (more in hot conditions)

Good options:

• Bananas
• Energy chews
• Gels
• Rice cakes
• Fig bars
• Sports drink containing carbohydrate

Ride over 3 hours

Increase to:

• 60–90 g carbohydrate per hour (using multiple carbohydrate sources such as glucose + fructose)
• Continue fluids and sodium based on sweat rate.

The Bottom Line

If your goal is to become leaner, healthier, and a stronger rider:

• Don’t fear eating during long rides.
• Fuel your training so you can improve mitochondrial function and maintain training quality.
• Create your calorie deficit away from training, not during it.
• Better-fueled athletes recover faster, train more consistently, and almost always achieve better long-term body composition.

Remember: You don’t lose weight by starving your workouts. You lose weight by building a body that can train consistently, recover well, and efficiently burn fat over months and years.

 

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More Than Instructors: Meet the Coaches Behind Groundwork Athletics

When people think about group training, they often picture a workout. We think about the people leading it.

At Groundwork Athletics, every class is coached, not just supervised. That distinction matters.

Our goal isn’t simply to count reps or keep people moving. It’s to create an environment where every member feels supported, challenged, and confident in their training. Whether you’re stepping into the gym for the first time or preparing for your next race, our coaches are there to help you get the most from every session.

Coaching Means More Than Demonstrating Exercises

A great coach does more than explain a workout. They help you improve your technique. They know when to encourage you to push a little harder and when to suggest scaling things back. They recognize that every member arrives with different goals, experience, and life demands.

Some people are training to run faster, some want to build strength, while others simply want to stay healthy and active as they get older. Our job is to meet each person where they are and help them make steady, sustainable progress.

Small Groups. Individual Attention.

One of the biggest advantages of our group training model is that coaching doesn’t get lost in the crowd. Because our classes are intentionally sized, our coaches have the opportunity to provide individual feedback throughout every session.

This means you get coaching to help refine movement, answer questions, make modifications when needed, and celebrate progress along the way.

It’s one of the reasons members often tell us they are part of something more than just a workout.

A Team With A Shared Philosophy

Every coach at Groundwork Athletics brings their own experience, personality, and expertise.

What we all share is a belief that fitness should support your life, and the things you love doing.  We believe in building strength for the long term, and understand that consistency beats intensity.

We believe good coaching should leave you feeling capable, confident, and looking forward to your next session. Those principles shape every class we deliver.

More Than A Workout Community

The relationships built inside the gym are just as important as the workouts themselves. Over time, coaches learn your goals, celebrate your milestones, and help you navigate setbacks. Members encourage one another, friendships develop, and showing up becomes part of your routine. That’s what transforms a place to exercise into a community.

Come Meet The Team

If you’ve been thinking about trying group training, we’d love to welcome you. Come meet the coaches, experience the atmosphere, and see what makes Groundwork Athletics different.

Because great coaching isn’t about making workouts harder, it’s about making progress possible.

We hope to see you in class.

 

👉 Book a complimentary consultation to see if Groundwork Athletics Group Classes are right for you!

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