NASA astronauts are incredibly fit

If pressed to name a profession in which you were expected—no, required—to work out for two-plus hours per day, scientist might not surface high on the list. Brains over brawn, the stereotypes might suggest. But for NASA astronauts, the body is an incredibly important tool. Maintaining physical fitness is not only paramount to a successful mission, but key to advancing scientific research and the prospect of future space travel.

Before becoming the first astronaut to successfully sequence DNA in space, Kate Rubins was a scholar and an athlete. “I actually started running a bit more in graduate school,” she says. “I joined the triathlon team at Stanford as a grad student there, and that was a lot of fun.”