The Practical Athlete
Strength training for people who want their body to last.
This Isn’t About Doing More
It’s about doing what actually works.
The Practical Athlete is a hypertrophy-focused strength program built for people who care about:
building muscle
moving well
staying active outside the gym
and training in a way they can sustain for years
You don’t need extreme intensity.
You don’t need constant variety.
You don’t need to sacrifice your joints for progress.
You need structure with intention.
Most people don’t stick to a strength training
program for more than 1-2 cycles.
But that’s not because of the program itself. It’s because:
their joints hurt
they feel beat up all the time
workouts stop fitting into real life
or their body changes (pregnancy, endurance goals, age) and the
program doesn’t
The Practical Athlete exists for the people who still want to train,
but want to do it intelligently.
built by coaches who care about your future body
This program wasn’t written to crush you.
It was built by professionals who understand:
biomechanics
injury prevention
performance
and what real humans need to stay consistent
Designed and co-written by:
Nicole Fox, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Laura Savino, Certified in N1 Biomechanics
Kate Brien, Certified Personal Trainer, UESCA Running Coach, GGS Perinatal Coach
Every cycle is designed to help you get stronger without ending up in the ortho’s office.
Would you like to try a free workout?
The Practical Athlete works because it respects how bodies adapt over time. It’s not built on hype or novelty. It’s built on progression, repetition, and recovery — the things that actually create strength you can keep.
Here’s what makes the difference:
We repeat lifts on purpose.
Repetition builds skill, confidence, and connective-tissue strength — not boredom. This is how muscle is built without constantly starting over.Progression is planned, not forced.
Intensity builds gradually across each cycle so your body can adapt instead of survive. You get stronger without feeling wrecked.Warm-ups and activation matter here.
Every session prepares joints and muscles before load increases, so training feels better as you go — not worse.Core work transfers to real life.
We train stability, rotation, and control so your strength shows up outside the gym, not just under a barbell.The program adapts when life does.
Endurance seasons, pregnancy, postpartum, busy schedules — you’re never “off plan.” You’re still training intelligently.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about grinding harder.
It’s about building a body that feels strong, capable, and trustworthy — so you can train consistently for years, not just push through another phase.
That’s why people don’t just see results inside The Practical Athlete. They stay.
why our program works
What’s Included
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Designed for the home gym
You don't need a fancy gym to build strength and muscle. "The Practical Athlete" features strategic hypertrophy movements tailored for home gym setups, allowing you to achieve significant gains using minimal equipment.
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Options for all athletes
The Core TPA Program is a 4-day split for those looking to build muscle and stay mobile. We include modifications for endurance athletes in season for hiking, cycling, running, or other sports looking to pair body building style movements with hybrid goals. Our programming also includes pregnancy + postpartum swaps.
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DEDICATED WARM-UP sequences
We understand the importance of priming your body for peak performance. That's why every workout in "The Practical Athlete" begins with a carefully crafted warm-up sequence designed to activate your muscles, increase blood flow, and prepare your body for the workout.
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Multi-Planar Core Exercises
True strength extends beyond the confines of the gym. Our program incorporates multi-planar core exercises that challenge your stability and strength in various directions, keeping you strong and resilient in real-world scenarios outside the gym.
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Muscle Group Activation Sets
We believe in targeting muscles with intention and precision. Our program includes specialized activation sets that target specific muscle groups, ensuring they're firing on all cylinders and ready to tackle the main workout with maximum efficiency.
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A community like no other
In our dedicated members-only app, we review form checks, have monthly educational deep dive calls, Q&A calls, and engagement from your local community members!
Frequently asked questions
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The Practical Athlete is designed for the home gym. While we do make movement options available for people without a squat rack or weights, you will need at least every item tagged with an (*).
Barbell and Plates
Squat Rack
Array of DBs*
Big Loop and Small Loop Bands*
A way to do Pull-ups*
Stability Ball*
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Each cycle will be 6-8 weeks long. The programs will always be in a hypertrophy (muscle-building) cycle.
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The 4-5 main strength movements will repeat every week for each cycle, but the intensity will increase progressively until we work towards failure in the final week.
The functional mobility sections will also become more challenging as the program progresses.
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The upper body workouts should take between 45 and 60 minutes, while some of the lower body workouts may take 70 minutes, depending on your rest time between sets.
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Our workouts are designed to be done anywhere (although we have biased most of the movements for a home gym). If you don't work out at a home gym or you're not in your typical set-up, select one of the suggested movements for the given repeating exercise that day based on what you have available at the time.
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Nutrition is not included with the programming, but you can hop over to our sister company, Elevated Pursuit Nutrition, to check out the coaching options!
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Payments are automatic and recur each month on the day that you signed up. You may cancel at any time right in the TrainHeroic app.
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We have options for you! Each movement will have swaps identified as needed to ensure we can accommodate you from the first trimester through the fourth trimester.