You know an amateur but ambitious fitness enthusiast is experiencing an existential moment when he chooses to listen to Serena Williams' Spontaneous Speed playlist from 2007 to summon the gumption for a hearty workout.
That's the case for David Epstein, who penned a new piece last week titled "Why Our Champions Are Getting Older." It's not the fact that all-time winners in sports simply must age—that, as has been poetically and repeatedly said, the only opponent they surely won't beat is Father Time.
As Epstein puts it, "When athletes train consistently, recover smartly and get a little lucky, there’s no physiological reason their bodies should fall off a cliff in their 30s." He draws parallels between how Roger Federer and the Williams sisters have held up over the years (read: decades) and the likes of NFL quarterback extraordinaire Tom Brady, human fly-fish Michael Phelps and other over-30 wonders.
"If he avoids a major injury," the writer says of Brady, who will turn 40 in August, "I would not be surprised to see him playing in his late 40s."
Economical movement—in Federer's case, even graceful gliding around the court—has benefited all three tennis stars, who own 48 major titles among them in singles play alone. Respective penchants for power and thoughtful considerations of their tournament schedules have also granted them extensions on their professional playing days.
Serena Williams trained so as to possess the most potent serve ever in the women's game. Venus Williams learned, likely through some trial and error, how to manage her autoimmune disease. Federer deployed his SABR (Sneak Attack Behind Return) move to make points even shorter than he had already preferred them.
Each all-time icon also found ways to nurse and recover from injuries over time that, by now, might have permanently felled lesser spirits.
As Epstein has it, "In late 2014, I remembered Federer talking about how he felt bringing more consistency to his training—rather than ramping his training way down and then up just before tournaments—helped him temper back problems as he got older."
Upon channeling a listen to Serena's decade-old iTunes playlist into a workout injury, Epstein noted a need for a certain level of moderation.
"I started over," he writes, "with an eye less toward pushing through every day and more toward a Federer model: Start slow and build to consistency, rest when my body says so … and ditch Serena’s pump-up jams until I worked up to more intensity."
That's a recipe not just for building intensity, but for maintaining sanity.
Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.