1. Get Your Mind Right

Oksana Chusovitina, Uzebekistan, Gymnastics

The 41 Year Old Gymnast shows why Mindset Matters Most

From ESPN.com:

At this time, I don’t need much physical training,” she said.

“I do a lot of mental training. I have muscle memory that my body has developed over the years. I typically put in two to two-and-a-half hours in the gym.

“And then I visualize exactly how the skill needs to be done. I do this in my head, and when I get to the gym, all the mental preparation that I did after breakfast or just walking around, it just transfers to the gym and, if I’m vaulting, I know exactly what my body needs to be doing. I know exactly what I need to be doing to get a better execution or a better height or a better landing.”

2.  Don’t be dependent on gyms.  Use your body weight and/or TRX, Bands to train anywhere

Kerri Walsh- Jennings, USA Beach Volleyball

When Kerri Walsh Jennings is on the road, the gym is not always an option so she carries a TRX Suspension Trainer or does body weight exercises wherever she is!

3.  Strength Train:  Strengthen your Legs and Core

Kerri Walsh-Jennings, USA Beach Volleyball

After a dislocated shoulder, Kerri Walsh Jennings changed her routine to include more strength training and strengthen her legs and core.  By strengthening these areas, Walsh-Jennings would have much more power to make plays and strengthening the legs and core also helps with stabilization which may reduce risk of injury

Your Legs and Core are your foundation of movement.  Being able to fire up your glute muscles can protect your knees, ankles, and hips from so many injuries.  A great leg workout doubles as a fantastic core workout because your deep abdominal muscles as well as your hips must stabilize and be strong to have an effective leg workout.

4.  Get it in Early

Dana Vollmer, Swimming Kristin Armstrong, Cyclist

Both Dana Vollmer and Kristin Armstrong are busy Mamas in addition to being world class athletes.  Vollmer would rise and take her son with her to early morning pool workouts so that she could breast feed until her pediatrician told her it would be better if her son were on a more regular sleep cycle.  Vollmer ditched longer workouts in favor of shorter more intense workouts that were more compatible for her new lifestyle.

3x  Cycling Gold Medalist Kristin Armstrong said that having her son refocused her and she realized she needed to be finished with her training rides by 9 a.m. or it would not be done at all.

Not everyone is a morning exerciser but if you find that you just can’t get it done in the evenings, then you may want to switch to morning workouts to get it out of the way and get an energy boost for the day!

5.  Walk

Yep.  Even Olympic Athletes walk because it’s such a great form of exercise and it’s low impact enough that even if you’re injured you can do it.  When Allyson Felix was trying to heal from injury her coach told her to walk.  When her teammates need to shed weight they also walk for an hour after their workouts.

“I couldn’t even run, but something I could do was walk,” Felix said. “Walking is the basis and foundation of the movements of sprinting ― so you start with that.”

And because walking carries a lower risk of injury than other forms of physical activity, it’s a favorite of both the surgeon general and Felix’s teammates. While she has to work to keep weight on, her teammates who have to work to shed pounds often end their hours-long training sessions with another hour or so of walking.

“There’s only so much demand that your body can take,” she explained. “So if you’ve already put in your workout for the day, the walking on top of it helps because it’s not going to pound your muscles, and it’s not going to fatigue them the same way that sprinting would.”

6.  Use Jumping Exercises to Help Prevent Injury

Aly Raisman, Olympic All Around Silver Medalist

Plyometrics (sometimes called Reactive Training) can be used to help improve jumping height for athletes, cardio for conditioning, and also to help prevent injury.

Gold Medal Winning Gymnast Aly Raisman has survived her career with no major injuries and many credit her coach’s style of using plyometric training to build leg strength.

Mihai Brestyan is known for a kind of leg conditioning called plyometrics, which involves lots of jumping, basically…up and down onto high piles of mats, doing split jumps on each leg from squat positions, doing a million back tucks in a row…basically any leg workouts that build strength and muscle to make your legs indestructible, which is why Aly Raisman can drill her knees into the mat on her vault and walk away like nothing happened. The Brestyan girls get this kind of leg conditioning from an early age and think nothing of it, but when Brestyan has the girls at camp go through his plyometrics training, they all say 20 minutes of plyos feels like an entire workout. The more you build lower leg strength, the easier it is to get through leg routines like vault and floor without injury, which is why Aly has basically gone her entire elite career with only minor issues, nothing that’s taken her out completely. (the gymter.com)

This type of training can be useful for general exercisers as well.  It can help with reaction time, help to build up bones, and like Aly strengthen your legs to give you a stronger foundation and better balance.  However make sure to execute plyometric exercises with proper form to prevent injury.

7. Create Tiny Goals

Mark Spitz, a USA Olympic gold medalist in swimming, said, “I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.

This is the Slight Edge principle in action.  Over the years I have met so many people who want to see change in their lives but aren’t willing to do the daily habits that will get them to success.

What do you think would happen if I said I had a new program that would turn you into an Olympic Athlete in six weeks.  You can go from the couch to the Olympics if you just buy my new program.  Sounds pretty ridiculous right?  Well what if I got Ryan Lochte to endorse it (He could use the endorsement deal) Still pretty unconvincing right?

Why?  Because we understand and recognize that nobody can go from Couch Potato to Olympic Athlete in 6 weeks.  It takes time.  The same goes for anything we do.  Create small manageable goals like getting 60,000 steps a week, drinking enough water, eating more vegetables, etc.  These small tiny goals will pay off to a big result if you just stay consistent!

8. Stretch where you can!

Paul Chelimo, Silver Medalist 5000M

Paul Chelimo stretches wherever he can!  Especially those tight calves and the achilles tendon!

Here’s What he said on Twitter:

“Everywhere I get a road curb I stretch my achilles and its becoming an addiction hope i’m not the only one”