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Try these fitness tips from the top athletes in the world
By John Brant, By Ben Court, Photographs by Peter Yang, Posted Date: December 19, 2011
You won't achieve your goals if you're averse to hard work. You don't have to love it, but you have to understand that it's a key to success. Not psyched to sweat? Make one of these adjustments. CHANGE YOUR PROGRAM Ask a buddy for his favorite workout. Or try a new training plan like SPEED SHRED, which has 18 workouts and hundreds of cutting-edge exercises to constantly challenge your muscles. You can also take a class to learn a new sport or to reach a higher level at something you enjoy.
CHANGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT If you work out at home, join a gym. If you don't like your gym, join a different one. If you're indoors, try training outdoors. COUNT YOUR WORKOUTS Give yourself weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals for total number of workouts. Make the number ambitious and the totals nonnegotiable, with rewards for reaching them and penalties for falling short. Does your warmup make you sweat? YES = 10 A LITTLE = 5 ONLY IF THE A.C. IS DEAD =-5
Your warmup should take 10 to 20 minutes, progressing from slow, easy movements to drills that test your power, balance, coordination, and range of motion. You can start with a couple of minutes of foam rolling for your major muscles, focusing on areas where you're typically tight or frequently injured. Proceed to basic movements like body-weight squats, lunges, and pushups. Follow that with more ballistic movements, like forward and side-to-side hops and jumps, and then finish with power movements, like skips, shuttle runs, and box jumps. Are your muscles sore the day after your workout? ALMOST ALWAYS = 10 RARELY = 5 ONLY IF I DROP SOMETHING ON ONE OF THEM = 0
Technically, soreness just means you did something your muscles weren't prepared for. It's not directly linked to muscle growth or improved strength. But if you're pushing yourself, you're probably going to feel it the next day. A muscle might feel a little tender or maybe just a bit heavier than it did before the workout. If you're so sore it hurts to lie down in bed, you'll know you took it too far. And if the pain is in your joints rather than your muscles, you may have done something wrong. How often do you change exercises, sets, and reps? EVERY 3 TO 4 WEEKS = 15 WHEN IT STOPS WORKING = 10 ONCE EVERY PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION = 0
If you're a beginner, you can probably stick with the same workout for up to 8 weeks and continue to grow stronger while mastering the basic exercises. But once you're beyond that stage, you should change your workout every 3 to 4 weeks. That doesn't mean dropping one program and picking up another that may have been designed for a completely different purpose. You simply want to freshen up your routine by subbing in new exercises, changing the order, increasing or decreasing the total weight lifted, raising or lowering reps, or some combination of those four. Are you nearing your goals? YES = 20
NO = 0 GOALS? = *5
You need to identify benchmarks that prove you're making progress. If your goal is weight loss, you need to know two things. First, are you losing weight? The answer is easy if you weigh yourself at the same time every day. (First thing in the morning is best.) You also need to know you're losing fat and not muscle. Measure your waist at least once a week, and the circumference of your upper arms, thighs, and calves once a month. If your waist shrinks but your arms and legs stay the same, you're losing the right kind of weight. (Test your fitness limits like the best. Be sure to read the Fitness Secrets of Top Olympians) How long can you hold a plank? UNTIL TOMORROW = 20 30 TO 60 SECONDS = 10 LESS THAN 30 SECONDS = 0
Stability of your core musclesa marker of their endurance, strength, and coordinationis crucial for maintaining good posture, training effectively, and remaining pain-free. Score Your workout: 60+ = Rocks! 3059 = Needs a tuneup! <30 = Is junk!
bitefor at least 3 days. To figure out total calories and tally your daily average, use an app (try Lose It!) or an online calculator (try fitday.com). This drill works only if it includes typical workout and nonworkout days. Step 2 is to estimate the calories you actually need. MH nutrition advisor Alan Aragon recommends this formula. Don't work out? Multiply your body weight by 10. If you weigh 200 pounds, that's 2,000 calories a day. Work out once or twice a week? Multiply your weight by 12. That's 2,400 calories for a 200-pound person. Work out three or four times a week? Multiply by 14. Now we're up to 2,800 calories. Work out five or more times a week? Multiply by 16, bringing the daily feast up to 3,200 calories.
These are just estimates, Aragon says. Human metabolism is notoriously resistant to simple math. But we need to start somewhere, and Aragon's formula allows you to focus on how much you eat and burn in an average 24-hour day. This determines whether you end up with more body fat or less. That brings us to Step 3: Figure out when, where, and how you can tweak your daily calories to create a bigger deficit. The timing of your meals matters, but not for the reason you think. "Your nutrient timing should be personalized to whatever maximizes your training or doesn't hinder it," Aragon says. Training on an empty stomach might work for your buddy, but if hunger pangs derail your workout, you're better off with a light meal before hitting the gym. That applies to postworkout nutrition as well. Aragon says that while short-term studies find that protein and carbs increase markers of muscle protein production, recent long-term research suggests that making sure you meet your daily needs for protein, fat, and carbs will benefit you more than a postworkout meal or protein shake. Of course, you can also do both! (Want the best way to work out every muscle in your body? Find hundreds of tricks in the Big Book of Exercises.)
events of the decathlon: javelin, discus, and shot. Working with his coaches, he recalibrated his training. "It's a combo of core work and explosive movement-specific drills," Hardee says. "Plus, I was sharpening my technique for each throw and watching video." Two world championships later, it's safe to say it worked. So how will you upgrade your own training? Rooney suggests making a list of your three weakest areas. These could be exercises, like deadlifts or pullups for a lifter, or sport-specific skills, like climbing for a cyclist. Or they could be overall fitness qualities like flexibility, or specific injury-prone muscles or joints. Seek guidance from a trainer to learn how to fix your weak areas, and track your progress with tests every 4 weeks. If you find that a weak core is on your list of problems to fix, here's a solution, courtesy of Ballantyne: It's called 5-Minute Abs. Do these exercises as a circuit; when you can complete three, your core is no longer a weakness. 1 Swiss-ball plank: (with your forearms on the ball) 30 seconds 2 Swiss-ball jackknife: (hands on the floor, shins on the ball; use your lower legs to roll the ball toward your torso while keeping your back flat) 20 reps 3 Swiss-ball rollout: (with forearms on the ball and feet on the floor, roll the ball forward as far as you can while keeping your body in a straight line) 12 reps 4 Side plank: 40 seconds a side
your muscle memory. When done before a specific movement, it prepares your body with small but beneficial neuromuscular adjustments. So there you have it: A mind-body plan to put yourself on top of the podium. Now, isn't that a great image.