A blog to help you optimize your full-body and life performance

In the ‘80s, it was aerobics. In the ‘90s, racquetball. What exercise craze made its landing in the 2000s? HIIT. In fact, since 2004, researchers from fields ranging from kinesiology to cognitive neuroscience have been studying the power of this workout style and its incredible health benefits.^1,2 And no, HIIT isn’t just for people training for an event or trying to hit a weight loss goal. Have we piqued your interest? Keep reading.

From CrossFit’s finest, to world record-holding triathletes, to pro ballers, we work with some of the best athletes in the world. They inspire us to make InsideTracker the authority on what the body needs to train properly, recover effectively, and most importantly, perform at 110% when it comes time for the main event.

They also inspire us on a personal level. No, we’re not going for Olympic gold anytime soon. But a noteworthy finish line is certainly on our horizon – we’re headed for Ironman Maine 70.3 this August. So please consider this post your official invitation to join us for the training ride as we – Ross and Ashley, InsideTracker's own amateur triathletes – share weekly recaps of our progress (and pain) right here on the blog!

At InsideTracker, we are all about personalization. Personalized nutrition, personalized lifestyle changes, and personalized supplement recommendations. But even while personalization is the name of our game, we know that sometimes, it’s important to take a look at the broader picture in addition to the details.

What do we mean by that? Well, take the Coeur Ambassador Group for example. Each team member wants their own personalized approach, but how about their captain and leaders? For them, clicking through account after account could be a never ending task, but with InsideTracker, they can take a look at the group as a whole. From there, they can provide tips to help everyone on the team reach their goals.

We sat down with Coeur Co-Founder and Team Captain, Hailey Manning, to find out why Coeur decided to partner with InsideTracker, and what a difference it can make when a team takes a scientific approach to training.

She started caring for you even before you were born. Eating the right foods, avoiding the bad ones. Monitoring every step of her pregnancy to ensure you were a happy, healthy baby. And that didn't stop once you were born. As is often the case, her life likely became a whole lot more about yours. So now that it's her big day, Mother's Day, how do you say thank you to mom?

Stevie Lyn Smith is an InsideTracker athlete and Registered Dietitian who jumped at the chance to give more than flowers. Stevie is always worrying about her mother’s health, thanks to a bit of sub-par family health history, and she decided that giving InsideTracker to the woman who gave her life was a good way to show how much she cares about her.  

I had the pleasure of chatting with Stevie to discuss all things InsideTracker and triathlon training – she shares both with her mom, Lisa Beaser – and most importantly, how they laugh their way through it all.

The Boston Marathon. The most storied marathon there is, and it just so happens to be in my backyard. I grew up watching it, and had ran it once before. But this time was different. I trained for a specific goal. A lofty goal of sub 3:00. A goal I thought was well within reach.

I was feeling great about my fitness. My strategy was honed. I was on the right track. So what happened?

Over the past few weeks, our blog has been chock full of food tips and biomarker-friendly recipes for National Nutrition Month. This week, I thought it was important to shift our focus to a nutrition-related topic that probably doesn't get the attention it should, especially in the world of endurance sports: eating disorders – specifically, the challenges to performance they present, and of course, recovery from them.

In this video interview, I'm joined by the amazing Sarah Canney. She's a marathoner, coach, mom, InsideTracker power user, and advocate for eating disorder recovery. Sarah opened up about her own nine-year-long struggle with anorexia and bulimia, how it affected her performance and quality of life, and how she used InsideTracker to get a better handle on what her body was really trying to tell her. She now eats healthy fats like avocados, and consumes 2-3 times the amount of calories than while she was struggling with bulimia – yet she weighs less, performs better, and is happy and healthy. 

With fall marathon season in full swing, I've been getting a lot of questions lately as folks begin planning for their race weekends. This year, I've set my sight on a new PR of 3:07 at the Philadelphia Marathon in a few weeks.

Being that I've asked these same questions myself, I decided to share 10 big tips I've picked up on my own journey to help you reach new records.

Whether or not you’ve optimized all of your endurance-related biomarkers (hello ferritin!), and whether or not you've tested with InsideTracker during a peak week or in the taper to measure the efficacy and volume of your training and nutrition, the following last-minute tips can make all the difference come race day!

Your heart is at the heart of your health. So today, on World Heart Day, we asked our friend, and Director of Sport at Spartan Race, Joe DiStefano, better known as "Joe DI," to share his take on Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which is rapidly gaining popularity.

In his fourth installlation as a guest writer on our blog, Joe breaks down what HRV is, and shares how he uses it to deal with his hectic travel schedule to perform “damage control” on the road, and how he monitors his biomarkers...

No one can deny that the feeling of fall can’t be beat. With temperatures finally going down and the prospect of apple picking right around the corner, it’s hard not to love the season. For some, though, the winding down of summer can also be a stressful time. Whether it be going back to school, the end of vacation, or changes at work as everyone returns from break and buckles down, fall introduces disruptions for most people that can throw off even the most resolute nutrition and wellness routines, and trigger weight gain.

A great way to decrease stress and control your weight and eating during times of transition is through mindful meditation. Although we at InsideTracker have found the research on weight loss to be too limited to make mindful meditation an official recommendation, we believe that it has great potential to help, and we are keeping a close eye on this exciting, developing field.

Nine hours, twenty-eight minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. When is the last time you did anything for that long? No, really. Have you even slept that long lately? Well, that's how long it took InsideTracker athlete, Kevin Portmann, to cross the finish line of Ironman Coeur d'Alene.

By crossing the finish line in personal record time and nearly 10 minutes faster than the runner up, he not only punched his ticket the Ironman World Championship in Kailua Kona, he also grabbed his Pro Card - a feat by any measure.

After this triumphant win, our colleague, Mariah Bridges, caught up with Kevin to talk about his training, nutrition, and the role InsideTracker plays in all of it. View the video below, or read the Q&A instead!