By Kevin Burnett, Contributiing Writer I enjoy climbing mountains. I like being at the tallest point. I appreciate the accomplishment of reaching goals. I just usually don’t like the hard work leading up to and enabling summiting! Back in late 2023, an itch to climb Kilimanjaro with some buddies hit me. We’ve climbed many of […]
Knowledge
Can You Lift Heavy Without Carbs? A Closer Look at Carnivore Diet and Strength Training
By Seung Choi, MTI Intern Throughout my academic journey—from earning my bachelor’s in exercise science at Temple University to pursuing my master’s at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs—one principle was consistently reinforced: carbohydrates are essential for high-intensity performance. While explosive and strength-based movements primarily draw on phosphocreatine (PCr) for energy, this energy system is […]
Sport as Conditioning: Why Playing Might Be the Best Cardio You’re Not Doing
By Sam Johnson, MTI Intern Last week, a few of us interns hit the local rec center for a pickup soccer game. One of our guys—a powerlifter who doesn’t do much traditional cardio—ran nonstop for nearly two hours. Sprinting, defending, getting beat, recovering, laughing, doing it all over again. He pushed himself harder in that […]
An Important Lesson I Learned on a High School Mountain Search and Rescue Team
By Jackson Mann, MTI Intern In high school, I was part of a year-round mountain search and rescue team made up of local students and run by the fire department. Our coverage area included two counties near the Front Range of the Rockies and southern Denver. Since our area didn’t see many lost-person incidents, […]
What I Got Wrong: A Special Forces Officer’s Leadership Failures
By Brett Simpson, MTI Contributing Writer 1) I Waited Too Long to Lead How indecision and fear of fallout let dysfunction take root on my team. I arrived at the team as a brand-new Special Forces Detachment Commander. A week later, the new Operations Sergeant (senior enlisted advisor) arrived. He was stepping into the role […]
3 Gym-Based Mental Fitness Training Tools
By Rob Shaul, Founder Early on in my coaching career, I harshly and unfairly judged athletes who struggled with the mental fitness element of completing intense, multi-mode work capacity events. I’m embarrassed and ashamed by this. I snapped out of it, however, and came to do my job: to help coach the mental side of […]
How I Trained for Mount Rainier in Flat, Hot, Humid, Miami
By Matt Hirschberg, Contributing Writer I live in Miami, Florida. Elevation: 7 feet. Average summer humidity: oppressive. It’s the last place you’d want to train to climb 14,410-foot glaciated Mount Rainier. This is the article I wish I had before I started. When I committed to Rainier, I already had a solid fitness base. I’d […]
Case Study: 46-Year Old Army Officer Averages 14% Strength and Rucking Improvement following MTI’s Max Effort Strength + 6-Mile Ruck Improvement Training Plan
By Dan Stuewe, MTI Athlete Team BLUF: 46-Year Old Army Officer and MTI Athlete Team Member, Dan Stuewe, completed the full 7 week plan. Overally, he averaged a 14% max effort strength gain improvement on the back squat, bench press, hinge lift and bodyweight pullups, and improved his 6-mile Ruck Time by 14%. Why This […]
What Playing (and Training for) 20+ Sports Taught Me About Athleticism
By Samual Johnson, CSCS I’ve always loved sports—playing them, learning them, training for them. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in or trained seriously for more than 20 different sports and physical disciplines. Soccer, water polo, golf, ultimate, tennis, wrestling, disc golf, pickleball, ping pong, swimming, volleyball, climbing—you name it. I’ve also spent years exploring things […]
I’m a 20 Year Old Young Man – This Lesson from Jordan Peterson Resonated With Me Most
By Jackson Mann, MTI Intern I received 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order as a Christmas gift in 2023, knowing little about Jordan Peterson or self-help books. Curious, I began reading 12 Rules during my first semester of college and found its ideas surprisingly transformative—so much so that I later gave my copy to […]