The Complete Athlete: Why Most People Are Chasing an Impossible Dream (And How to Actually Get There)
Everyone wants to be "well-rounded." You know the type - they want to deadlift 2.5x bodyweight, run a sub-3 hour marathon, and still be able to clean and jerk their bodyweight with perfect technique. All whilst looking like they stepped off the cover of Men's Health, obviously.
The problem? Most people are going about this completely wrong.
I get asked constantly about becoming "The Complete Athlete" - someone who can demonstrate competency across the entire spectrum of human performance. And whilst I absolutely love the ambition behind this goal, the reality is that most people's approach to getting there is fundamentally flawed.
So let me break down what actually defines a Complete Athlete, why your current approach probably isn't working, and how you can actually make meaningful progress towards this lofty goal without spinning your wheels for the next decade.
What Actually Defines The Complete Athlete?
First, let's get clear on what we're talking about when we say "Complete Athlete." This isn't just someone who can do a bit of everything badly - we're talking about demonstrable competency across multiple domains of fitness.
The Strength Foundation:
Top end strength across the main lifts (Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Overhead Press) relative to bodyweight
Speed strength capabilities (Clean & Jerk, Snatch) that show you can express that strength rapidly
Pure explosiveness through vertical jump, broad jump, and sprint performance over 40-100m
The Endurance Spectrum:
Broad capabilities across all energy systems and modalities
From the anaerobic power of the mile, through the VO2 demands of 5km, all the way to the aerobic dominance required for marathon and ultra distances
Cycling power across different time domains (20-minute power vs 1-hour power)
The ability to perform under localised fatigue - think metcons, tactical situations, or any scenario where you need to keep performing when your body is screaming at you to stop
Sounds overwhelming, doesn't it? That's because it is.
The Biggest Mistake Everyone Makes
Here's where 99% of people go wrong: they try to develop all of these capabilities simultaneously.
They'll put together some Frankenstein programme that has them deadlifting heavy on Monday, doing sprint work on Tuesday, attempting to build their aerobic base on Wednesday, working on Olympic lift technique on Thursday, and then wondering why they feel like death and aren't progressing in anything.
It's the classic "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario, except they're not even becoming competent in multiple trades - they're just getting mediocre at everything.
The reality is that many of these training adaptations are directly opposing each other. The physiological adaptations that make you a better powerlifter can actually hinder your marathon performance. The volume of training required to build a proper aerobic base can interfere with your ability to develop explosive power.
This doesn't mean it's impossible - it just means you need to be a lot smarter about it than most people are.
The Smart Approach: Opposing Pairs and Seasonal Periodisation
My approach to developing Complete Athletes is based on one simple principle: focus on opposing pairs, not everything at once.
Instead of trying to develop strength, speed strength, explosiveness, aerobic power, anaerobic capacity, and lactate threshold all simultaneously, you pick strategic combinations that complement each other or at least don't actively interfere with each other.
For example:
Strength + Aerobic Base: Developing top-end strength alongside a solid 5km to half marathon capability
Speed Strength + Lactate Threshold: Olympic lift variations paired with threshold running and cycling
Explosiveness + VO2 Max: Sprint work combined with high-intensity interval training
The key is selecting no more than two areas from the strength/power spectrum and one area from the endurance spectrum at any given time. Yes, this means your progression in each area will be slower than if you focused on just one. But here's the thing - you'll actually make meaningful progress in multiple areas, rather than spinning your wheels trying to do everything at once.
Why This Actually Works
There are still significant overlaps in how you train different areas within each spectrum. The aerobic base you build for 5km training will serve you well when you later focus on marathon training. The strength foundation you develop will transfer to your speed strength work when you pivot to that focus.
Think of it as building layers of capability that stack on top of each other, rather than trying to build everything from the ground up simultaneously.
More importantly, this approach allows you to dedicate enough training time and recovery capacity to actually make meaningful adaptations. You're not constantly in a state of competing demands where every training session is compromising the next one.
The Year-Long Complete Athlete Blueprint
If you were clever about it (and had the patience), there's no reason you couldn't weave all these capabilities into a year-long training programme that flows through the seasons and sets you up perfectly for each subsequent phase.
Phase 1 (Months 1-3): Foundation Strength + Aerobic Base
Focus: Building your squat, bench, and deadlift whilst developing 5km capability
Outcome: Solid strength foundation with efficient aerobic system
Phase 2 (Months 4-6): Strength Maintenance + Extended Aerobic
Focus: Maintaining strength gains whilst extending to half marathon capability
Outcome: Proven you can maintain strength whilst building endurance
Phase 3 (Months 7-9): Strength + Ultra Endurance
Focus: Adding Olympic lift variations and a minimal dose strength system, whilst building ultra endurance.
Outcome: Ability to express strength rapidly alongside becoming a mountain goat.
Phase 4 (Months 10-12): Speed Strength + VO2 Max
Focus: Sprint work, jumps, with high-intensity intervals, Mile Training (A good idea post ultra endurance)
Outcome: Peak power expression with top-end aerobic capacity
By the end of this cycle, you've systematically developed capabilities across the entire spectrum, and each phase has built upon the previous one rather than contradicting it.
The Reality Check
Will your rate of progression be slower than someone who focuses on just powerlifting? Absolutely.
Will you be able to compete at elite levels in multiple disciplines simultaneously? Probably not.
Does this make the pursuit any less worthy? Not even slightly.
The Complete Athlete isn't about being world-class in everything - it's about being competent across the broadest possible spectrum of human performance. It's about never being the limiting factor in any physical challenge that life throws at you.
Where Most People Should Actually Start
Before you start planning your year-long Complete Athlete transformation, let's be honest about where you currently are.
If you can't squat 1.5x your bodyweight, run a sub-25 minute 5km, or do a proper clean and jerk with just the barbell, you're not ready for complex periodisation schemes. You need to build your foundation first.
This is exactly why I developed the Hybrid Foundation. It's your entry point into the Complete Athlete journey - developing top-end strength whilst progressing from 5km to half marathon capability over 6 months.
It gives you that crucial foundation of concurrent training that every Complete Athlete needs, whilst proving to yourself that you can actually progress in multiple areas simultaneously when you do it properly.
From there, you can pivot into any number of different hybrid goals - whether that's the speed strength and explosiveness side of things, or pushing further into ultra endurance territory.
The Bottom Line
Becoming a Complete Athlete is absolutely possible, but it requires patience, intelligent programming, and a willingness to accept that progress will be slower than single-sport specialisation.
Most importantly, it requires you to be honest about where you currently are and build from there systematically, rather than trying to do everything at once and achieving nothing.
If you're serious about this journey, start with the foundation. Everything else can be built on top of that.
The Complete Athlete isn't built in a day, a month, or even a year. But if you're willing to play the long game and do it properly, there's no reason you can't develop capabilities that 99% of people will never even attempt.
Ready to start building that foundation properly? You know what to do.
Henry Ives