AthleForte

08/25/2026

Stop training like you're 25. The science says less is more.

A 30-year study of nearly 150,000 people just confirmed something masters athletes have been saying for years: you don't need to grind for hours to get the benefits of strength training. Researchers found that 90–120 minutes a week — that's two solid full-body sessions — was tied to a 13% lower risk of dying early, a 19% drop in cardiovascular death risk, and a 27% reduction in neurological disease deaths. Push past two hours a week, and the extra benefit basically disappears.

The takeaway for anyone training past 35: consistency beats volume, every time. Two focused sessions hitting your major muscle groups, plus daily movement, is doing more for your long-term health than you think. Skip the guilt about not training 6 days a week — this is the dose that actually moves the needle.

What does your strength training week look like right now?

08/25/2026

JOHN WRIGHT JUST REWROTE HIS OWN WORLD RECORD! 🤯

67-year-old John Wright 🇬🇧 has done it again.

At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, Wright stormed to 12.03s (+0.6) in the M65 100m, breaking his own world record of 12.15s that he set in 2025.

That’s a 0.12s improvement on a record he already owned.

📸:

08/25/2026

This is what “still getting better” looks like.

At 67, John Wright didn’t just win—he ran 12.03 for 100 meters and broke his own M65 world record.

We talk a lot about maintaining fitness as we get older. Performances like this are a reminder that maintenance doesn’t always have to be the goal. Masters athletes can still train, adapt, improve and sometimes become better than they’ve ever been.

Outstanding performance. Congratulations, John.

JOHN WRIGHT JUST REWROTE HIS OWN WORLD RECORD! 🤯

67-year-old John Wright 🇬🇧 has done it again.

At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, Wright stormed to 12.03s (+0.6) in the M65 100m, breaking his own world record of 12.15s that he set in 2025.

That’s a 0.12s improvement on a record he already owned.

📸:

08/23/2026

Sunday thought while following the World Masters Championships in Daegu.

I may never compete at a World Championship.

But I think seeing athletes our own age out there competing does something.

You start comparing ages. Looking at times and distances. Maybe thinking, “I’m not that far off.”

Or maybe it just makes you want to get out and train a little harder or be more consistent or even set that goal of competing in a world championship

I’ve already caught myself doing that.

Anybody else watching Daegu and getting a little extra motivation from it?

08/21/2026

Good luck to all the athletes competing in Daegu, Korea! 🇰🇷

Wishing everyone great performances, personal bests, safe competition — and hopefully a few medals to bring home. 🥇🥈🥉

From all of us at AthleForte — go represent Masters Athletics proudly!

08/16/2026

What can a 91-year-old sprinter teach us about aging?

Quite a lot, apparently.

Researchers recently studied Emma Maria Mazzenga, a 91-year-old world-record sprinter who set the W90+ 200-meter world record in 2024.

What they found was remarkable.

Even at 91, her motor-unit function looked more like that of women roughly 20 years younger, and researchers found very little evidence of the nerve-to-muscle deterioration normally expected at that age. (Physiology Journals)

Her muscles still showed signs of aging — she had less muscle mass, strength, and power than younger adults.

But some things were remarkably well preserved.

Her slow-twitch muscle fibers retained impressive size and force-producing ability, she maintained a high proportion of fast-twitch fibers, and another part of the research found her muscle oxidative capacity resembled that of women decades younger. (PubMed Central (PMC))

Think about that.

Ninety-one years old. Still sprinting. Still setting records. And scientists are studying her because parts of her neuromuscular system don’t look 91.

Now, this is one extraordinary athlete. We can’t say sprinting alone caused these findings.

But I think she demonstrates something important:

The average decline we associate with aging is not necessarily the limit of what is possible.

Training won’t stop aging.

But continuing to challenge speed, strength, power, coordination, and endurance may help us preserve far more capacity than we once thought possible.

Maybe the goal as we get older shouldn’t simply be:

“How do I slow down my decline?”

Maybe it should also be:

“How much of my ability can I still preserve — and how much can I still improve?”

That’s what masters athletics is all about.

We’re not done yet.

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00280.2026

08/14/2026

Want stronger bones as you age? Don’t overlook speed and strength.

We often hear that older adults should walk, stay active and do some resistance exercise. All good advice—but research on masters athletes suggests that higher-intensity loading may offer something walking alone can’t.

A long-term study of male masters sprinters ages 40–85 followed athletes for 10 years and found that those who continued regular sprint and strength training maintained—and in some measures even improved—important properties of the tibia, suggesting that bone remains responsive to demanding exercise well into later life. (OUP Academic)

More recent research published in Scientific Reports examined 199 female elite masters athletes competing in endurance, speed-power and throwing events. The researchers again found that the type of sport and its “osteogenic” loading mattered, with long-term athletic training—particularly higher-loading activities such as throwing—associated with better bone mineralization during aging. (PubMed)

That’s important because sprinting, jumping, throwing and appropriately programmed resistance training expose the skeleton to something it needs in order to adapt:

LOAD.

Muscle isn’t the only tissue that responds to training. Bone does too.

The message isn’t that everyone over 60 should suddenly start sprinting or lifting heavy. These activities need to be introduced progressively and matched to the individual.

But perhaps we should reconsider the idea that aging exercise should always become slower, easier and less demanding.

For those who are capable of it, maintaining some combination of strength, speed, power and impact may be an important part of maintaining the skeleton that supports us.

At AthleForte, that’s a big part of what we mean when we say:

Getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop training like an athlete.

Are sprinting, jumping, throwing or strength training part of your routine?

08/10/2026

One thing I don’t think we talk about enough is how hard it can be just to stay healthy enough to train consistently.

Over the last 3.5 years, cancer and treatment were only part of the challenge.

I had the flu and sinusitis that hung on for almost two months. A wrist sprain that seemed to come out of nowhere cost me a couple of weeks. I fell on the ice and hit my head and missed another week. I had a bad reaction after a colonoscopy that kept me from training for nearly two months. Then food poisoning took me out for another couple of weeks.

Add all of that together and it’s a lot of missed training.

Sometimes progress isn’t about finding the perfect workout. Sometimes the biggest accomplishment is simply staying healthy enough to keep training.

You lose some ground. You start back. You build again. You repeat that cycle again... and again... and again.

And you keep going.

What have been some of the hurdles or obstacles that have interfered with your training consistency?

08/06/2026

Training is more than the workout.

If I want to keep sprinting, throwing and competing, what I do before training and how I recover afterward matters.

That’s a big part of what AthleForte is about — helping athletes stay ready to train, compete and keep doing what they enjoy.

08/05/2026

My throwing facility and certainly not high-end implements. 😂

Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

Shot, discus and javelin today. Still working at it and still trying to improve at 74. I only started doing this less than three years ago, so I’ve got a long way to go.

No excuses. Just keep throwing.