Most training plans treat every athlete the same. We don't.

Using INSCYD — the metabolic analysis platform developed by exercise physiologist Sebastian Weber and used by the Norwegian Olympic programme — we classify every client into one of five metabolic phenotypes based on their VO2max and VLaMax. Your phenotype determines your training zones, your fuel use at every intensity, your key limiters, and your opportunities. It changes how you train, how you eat, and how you race. Most athletes in North Canterbury have never had access to this analysis. We built this studio to change that.

The framework that drives our work has been tested at the highest level in sport.

Our methodology draws on three sources: Arthur Lydiard's periodisation principles, which underpin almost every successful endurance programme in the world; the Norwegian threshold method as practised by the coaching staff behind Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden; and the metabolic phenotyping framework of Olav Aleksander Bu and Sebastian Weber. It's a framework built in elite sport. It scales precisely to any athlete who wants to train with more intelligence.

For health clients, the same tools reveal something different — but equally valuable.

Resting metabolic rate tells us how your body is managing energy. VO2max tells us the functional age of your cardiovascular system. Grip strength tells us where your functional fitness sits relative to others your age. Breathwork addresses the nervous system underpinning all of it. The science is the same as elite sport. The application is different.

Zone 2 training, the aerobic foundation of the Norwegian method, is one of the most researched interventions in metabolic health and cardiovascular medicine.

Iñigo San Millán at the University of Colorado has spent two decades documenting its effects on mitochondrial function, insulin sensitivity, and cardiovascular risk. The same training approach that makes endurance athletes fast also makes people healthier over the long term. At Tristar we apply it to both.