I want to start this post with a small but relevant rant. My back is aching from all the lifting I've done this week, I can hardly lift my arm to type and my hamstrings feel although they're about to cramp bloody murder! Like many people who are involved in a lot of sporting activity I often hear people warm me about wearing myself out or "over training." Is there any relevance to this term? I am going to look into the daily habits of 3 elite athletes. Swimmer Michael Phelps, Football (soccer) player Michael Essien and Strong man Mariusz Pidzianowski.
Michael Phelps
According to michaelphelps.net this elite swimmer consumes a whooping 14,000 calories each day. As amazing as that sounds I'm sure you participate that consuming these calories is an absolute effort. It's also very difficult to complete this task on a clean meal plan but eating clean doesn't really concern the Olympic sensation. Here is an overview of his diet:
Breakfast
3 fried eggs, a tump of cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onion and mayonnaise. (I'm not done yet!)
5 egg omelet, 2 pieces of French toast which has been powdered with sugar and 3 chocolate chip pancakes.
Ow yeah and a blow of grits!
Lunch
A pound of pasta with tomato sauce, 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise which has been made with white bread and an energy drink.
Dinner
A pound of pasta and tomato sauce, a full pizza and another energy drink.
This goes hand in hand with a grilling training regiment of 6, 5 hour long training periods within a space of a week.
Michael Essien
Here we have one of Chelsea's star players. A man who sleeps for 14 hours every 24 hours. That is 6 hours more than what is recommended. dailymail.co.uk have published a mention to Essien's sleep and it's effects on his focus. The article also went about noting the physical benefits of higher levels of sleep.
Mariusz Pidzianowski
Let's talk about athletes diet again. After all it was fun learning about the extreme eating pattern of Phelps but how does a multiple Worlds Strongest Man Champion match up? Here is Pidzianowski's meal plan according to theironsamurai.com:
Breakfast
10 eggs and 2-3 pounds of bacon
Lunch
A double serving of Polish pork chop, sauerkraut and potatoes.
Dinner
Any meat he can grasp with more sauerkraut and potatoes.
He also takes a series of performance supplements such as Creatine, magnesium and amino acids. He often has a protein shake after his evening session to.
Now it doesn't sound that bad. I forgot to point out that he eats chocolate and candy in a stupidly high quantity! He says he needs to eat in this manner for energy.
Now as interested as I am in the man mountains eating plan I take more interest in the way he trains. He takes part in a split routine every morning. This is a popular form of weight training where you work a specific muscle group each session. This ensures that you don't train the same muscles back to back for adequate recovery. He then spends his evenings practicing his strong man events. He does this 6 days per week.
Now he does resistance training twice a day 6 days per week. This completely goes against the standard 3-4 days per week! A rule developed to ensure that the muscles are not over trained. After all the muscles grow in recovery and not during the gym session itself.
What have we learnt from these athletes?
Well they're certainly not normal! But in all seriousness we can point out the the key to their success comes down the habits which support their intense training.
A. You need adequate calorie intake to train hard
B. you need plenty of rest for your body's recuperation
I take more interest in Pidzianowski than anyone else. It's because of the anaerobic activity that he puts his muscles through and the fact that he only rests for one day per week. How can his muscles develop if he doesn't give them time to grow?
I like to make a praise to one of the best books I've read on resistance training. It's called the Naked Warrior (I promise it is a book related to fitness!). The author Pavel Tsatsuline talks about the "grease the groove" methodology which simply suggests that we should practice our lifting, not train our lifting. Don't work to over fatigue yourself but lift heavy and influence your nervous system development. There's a lot more to the physiology than what was stated but in a nut shell you can lift multiple times per day and still develop strength and lean mass.
Basically I am a firm believer that correct nutrition and loads of rest aids in a much more relentless training plan. However the human body does have its limitations and you can't train like an elite athlete whilst working regular hours in your everyday profession. Here are signs to look out for:
Elivated or irregular heart rate
Just about any sleep related issue such as insomnia, drowsiness or restlessness
Frequent illness. This is particularly common for anyone on a low calorie diet
Do you have a good sense of humour?
I'm a big fan of Saturday Night Live and they really put me in giggles with this sketch on Michael Phelps diet. Enjoy?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_rk0iRE59Q
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