Hybrid athlete stays on the go

Lucas Sarnella runs along a trail. Photos submitted

By Tom Victoria

Lucas Sarnella is on the go running, lifting and making videos.

The teen athlete documents his hybrid sport training on his YouTube channel Sluke On The Go.

Lucas, 17, of New Jersey divides his training between the gym and the pavement.

“I am pretty much focused on running and lifting,” he said. “Those are my biggest things. I’m running a 50k ultra marathon. It's my first ever race. I don't know why I went straight to an ultra marathon rather than a marathon. I'm also lifting just so I can build muscle and try and become a better version of myself.”

Lucas explained how he trains for diverse athletic endeavors.

“The hardest thing about cross-training is the time commitment,” he said. “For the 50k I'm doing, it takes sometimes up to two to three hours for a run that I'm doing. It's a big commitment in your day, and then you still have to go out and you still have to lift. It's even eating, too. Eating is a big challenge. I have to get a certain amount of calories in a day. It's hard tracking everything and having enough time to balance the whole schedule.”

Lucas doesn’t fret about getting too bulky to run.

“Some people do, but one of my favorite influencers that I watch, he really inspires me,” he said. “His name is Nick Bare. He is this massive dude. He's yoked, and he still runs marathons. He runs like crazy. One of the races, he ran 120-something miles. He is a big dude, so I don't really worry about staying or not getting bulky because he does it. I really look up to him and he inspires me. If he can do it, I can also do it.”

Lucas enjoys running as it’s an outdoor sport.

“I love the freedom of nature and running,” he said. “I went on a run today and I saw three or four different animals. It's just fun. Out in nature, you're like, my gosh, there's a deer. Oh, there's a turtle. Oh, there's a snake. It's pretty cool just seeing all that stuff.”

Lucas also savors the regimen.

“The other thing is the discipline that it builds,” he said. “If I get up every single day and I run every single day, hopefully that will just stack on, just building a principle of making sure I show up every day. Nick Bare's theory is be consistently good rather than be occasionally great. If I show up and I do things okay every single day, hopefully, over time, I will rise and be the best version of myself.”

Lucas’ YouTube channel, which is named after his nickname “Sluke,” includes such videos as How I Am Building Muscle While Running and A Week Of Training As A Hybrid Athlete. He also documented an injury with How I Am Overcoming My Injury As A Hybrid Athlete.

“My injury was a fractured tibia in my left leg,” he said. “I got hurt in my lacrosse game when I collided with a teammate going for a ground ball. I trained by lifting at my house instead of going to the gym as I couldn't walk around on crutches at the gym. I completely stopped running even though it hurts my soul not to run because I love it so much. But I couldn't even walk, so I was forced into the situation. I did, however, still do some cardio with a homemade lacrosse smack station but it wasn't the same as running.”

Lucas plans to continue to run and lift years after ending his current extensive regimen.

“I don't think I would do it to such an extent because as time goes on, I'm gonna get older, I'm gonna have other commitments,” he said. “I will do it for the health benefits of running and lifting. It's one of my favorite things in the world. It's freeing. It's just fun and it improves your health at the same time. I don't think I'll do it to that extent, but I think I'll still definitely keep up with it.”

Lucas plans to attend college upon completing high school next year.

“It would be something in film,” he said about his future major. “I love everything film. I always have ever since I was young. I've created two different YouTube channels, and I've always loved going out, taking pictures. It would definitely be something in film.”

Lucas was featured on a third channel that was his friend’s.

“Just posting funny skits for fun, but I wasn't as active in this one,” he said. “The name is Idiot Heroes, but they don’t post anymore.”

Lucas said his other channel suffered from a lack of consistent posting.

“I created Lucas S Vlogs and wanted to make travel content, and did, but wasn't consistent with the posting,” he said. “If I was, it would be around travel content, and now is Sluke On The Go with the fitness/hybrid athlete topic.”

Lucas always was athletic.

“I grew up playing pretty much everything,” he said. “I played baseball, lacrosse, basketball, football. I did gymnastics. I was always moving. Sports were my thing back in the day. I’m playing lacrosse currently. I don't know if I'm gonna play next year because I'm really liking my running and lifting thing that I'm doing. I did jiu-jitsu, too. Maybe I'll pick up back on jiu-jitsu in the future if I have some time because that was probably one of my favorite ones.”

Lucas is passionate about fitness as it provides a good mindset.

“It's the consistency,” he said. “When I played sports, I didn't do it for fitness. I did it just for fun. That's why I'm running and lifting now. It's the lessons that it teaches me while having fun. I enjoy it to do it every day, but a lot of the days I wake up and I'm like I don't want to do this. It's going to be difficult. I can just hang out. I don't want to go on this run. But if I wake up and I don't want to do it, and then I go on that run, it makes you more disciplined. It means a lot to me just being consistent with things. Fitness allows me to put my consistency into something where I can just show up every day.”

Lucas stressed the importance of having a positive attitude and having amiable interactions with others.

“Trying to have good interactions with people is one of the biggest things,” he said. “Having a positive outlook on life is top tier. If you're going to be optimistic, optimistic versus pessimistic, it makes you have so much more fun in whatever you're doing. It makes you believe in your future.”

“An optimistic outlook literally changes everything about your life. It makes you feel a lot better, too. It’s more fun, it’s more inspiring, and it’s just, in my opinion, in a better way to go about life.”

Lucas cited how positivity helps him with such things as creating content.

“I truly believe that this YouTube thing is going to take off,” he said. “I believe it down deep in my veins. But if I was a pessimistic person, I maybe would be like this video didn't do so good. I'm not good at this. Being optimistic, it's this video didn't do so good. What can I learn from this video that can improve the next one? An optimistic outlook literally changes everything about your life. It makes you feel a lot better, too. It's more fun, it's more inspiring, and it's just, in my opinion, a better way to go about life.”

Lucas wants to inspire others.

“The reason has changed,” he said. “In the beginning, I wanted to inspire people because how it changed my life. From a couple years ago to now, I've just had dramatic improvement and I feel great. I love doing what I'm doing. It's not to change other people's lives, it's to build a community. It's to build a community of people who are willing to help each other out, who are trying to improve each other. I'm trying to build a community of people who love running and lifting and the hybrid athlete lifestyle, so we can all become more connected and united is my current goal with YouTube.”

Lucas started lifting about three years ago, but became more consistent after a year-and-a-half. The athlete wasn’t as shredded when he started the fitness journey.

“I wasn't that big,” he said. “I was probably the same weight I am right now, like 150, three years ago. And then I dropped 20 to 25 pounds. I wasn't lifting during that time, but I just started eating a little less and then I was like, okay, I like the way I look now, but I could definitely look so much better if I'm bigger and stronger. So that's when the consistency started to build in with the lifting. This is starting to get fun. I really like this. I like the progress I'm making. I'm liking the way it makes me feel, like the way I look.”

Lucas recommended everyone should reach for a minimum level of fitness.

“I read a book on this,” he said. “It's called Outlive by Doctor Peter Attia. He says exercising makes your happiness and your everything else that you're trying to improve better. It makes you more energetic, makes you just feel so much better on a day-to-day basis. Your mental clarity is there. You can love exercise, too. You can learn to love it with activities you love. You could just go on a 5- or a 10-minute walk with your dog every day. I definitely recommend based off of what I feel and what all other people are saying, that improving your fitness or exercise or health for everybody is worth it.”

Lucas said it’s not helping people to promote unhealthy lifestyles.

“If you're promoting a negative message that is going to downgrade people's lives, I wouldn't understand why people are trying to do that,” he said. “Because there is pretty much nothing good about being obese. It increases all sorts of health risks. If there's a message going around that's saying that being obese is a good thing, that's horrible. It's just trying to downgrade people's lives, basically. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love food. I can eat a lot of food at times but it's to a certain extent. You gotta control and find a balance that works for you. If you're a little tubby, that's fine, but don't be promoting a negative message.”

Lucas’ stamina increased as he became fitter.

“I would say having more endurance helps me out with things,” he said. “I don't get tired that easily anymore. If I'm hanging out with friends and I'm at a long day at the beach, I'm always down to keep going.”

As with just about anybody who works out, Lucas became the go-to guy for moving furniture.

“I literally moved the couch down here yesterday,” he said. “It was me, my brother and my dad. I was the one underneath the couch lifting it up with my dad, trying to bring it downstairs.”

Lucas began running two-and-a-half years ago, becoming more consistent a year-and-a-half ago.

“I wasn't expecting it to be as fun as it is,” he said. “Being in nature is probably one of my favorite things of all time. I just love it. I love going on hikes. I never really liked running. I wasn't fat, but I was bigger, so I'd always be like running stinks when we have to get this practice. Now, running is unexpectedly exciting. I really enjoy going out.”

“I’m meant here to inspire a community of people to become the best version of themselves.”

Lucas appreciates his encounters with nature while running.

“Today, I saw a deer on my runtime, and I saw a snake,” he said. “I was just running by a lake, and it was just absolutely beautiful seeing all this stuff. That was probably my favorite unexpected thing that happened with running is just connecting with nature more, which I love. The random experiences that you have on runs, there's nothing like it. You don't know what's coming. Each day you wake up, you go on a run, and you find something new that you never knew was out there before.”

Lucas said lifting improved his self-image.

“The confidence boost that you get from lifting,” he said. “When you look better, I'd say you feel more confident just going out to the beach or not even to the beach, just in your own skin. You feel better if you look better.”

Lucas said he started out with motivation, but developed discipline to keep going no matter how he feels.

“I'm not motivated every single day,” he said. “You can't be motivated every single day. But as long as you have something that means a lot to you, like building this community and growing my life into something that I want it to become, that means the world to me. Every single day, I'm not motivated to show up. But as long as I'm disciplined to show up every single day, that will work me towards my meaningful goals. As long as you have a meaningful goal that you're trying to reach and you're disciplined at it, motivation is a special treat that you get to enjoy on days where you feel motivated. A lot of the times, motivation is low and I just have to use discipline to get me through the task.”

However, Lucas said the motivation to do something in the first place is not lost.

“That’s why your meaning behind it is super important,” he said. “The meaning of me trying to grow the community, that's what I feel like I'm meant here to be. I'm meant here to inspire a community of people to become the best version of themselves. So that meaning behind it makes me motivated to be disciplined.”

Lucas offered advice to those wanting to start working out.

“I would say define a goal,” he said. “Figure out where you're trying to get to, whatever that is. It could be to just be healthier, look better, to have more energy, to whatever your goal is. Then take the first, easiest, simplest step you can and just do it a little bit every day. Say if your goal is to build muscle, you don't even have to join up to a gym. Doing push-ups every day will build muscle. Everybody knows that eating a little bit less food every day will make you lose weight. I would say define a goal and then do a little bit. You don't want to make it too challenging in the beginning. Just do a little bit each day. No matter what, do not miss a day. Keep up every single day just so you can build a routine.”

For lifting in particular, Lucas advised setting reasonable challenges to build off of as time progresses.

“People can lift for a whole bunch of different reasons,” he said. “People can lift to get stronger. People can lift to look better, to feel better. So I would define the goal, and then if they want to lift, find the right challenge level for them, which could be to show up for a 20-minute lift today just make it a little bit challenging. Over time, you can build up the challenge, which is called progressive overloading. Over time, you want a progressive overload.”

Lucas emphasized the key is consistency.

“At the beginning, it's just about building the routine,” he said. “Doesn't matter if you're thinking for the long term, it's just about showing up every single day. Just go to the gym every day and hit a quick lift. Don't worry about the quality of the lift, because all that stuff will come. It's just show up every single day. And then if you show up every day, you learn so much just by being in the environment. Look around, see what people are doing, ask a couple questions and make sure you are consistent with it.”

Lucas said the same consistency is needed to be a runner.

“I started off not knowing anything about running,” he said. “I would just get up, and I would go for a quick run on the treadmill in my garage. I didn't know why I was doing it. That's why I wasn't consistent with it. But the moment where I figured out my why and started showing up every single day is when I grew at it. My advice would be find your why, because that's what will make you want to do it. Start off small and slowly build up over time. Just get out and run a mile. Just one mile every other day, whatever your challenge level is. And then slowly build that up over time.”

Lucas’ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SlukeOnTheGo