Phelps has won a total of 16 Olympic medals – 6 Gold and 2 Bronze at Athens 2004; 8 Gold at Beijing 2008. This is a record which no one has ever attained. At only 26, he will most likely have his chance of entering more competitions in the coming years and ensuring that his records will be intact and unbroken.
We would like to share on 2 main topics about him:
1. What Michael eats.
2. Michael’s gym workout
Phelps’ Diet
Phelps actually does not have a strict diet per se. He eats what he wants to eat, and whenever he wants to eat. For typical day, this is usually what is on his menu:
• Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; 5-egg omelette; 3 sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; 2 cups of coffee
• Lunch: Half-kilogram (1 pound) of enriched pasta; 2 large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayonnaise on white bread; energy drinks
• Dinner: Half-kilogram of pasta, with carbonara sauce; large pizza; energy drinks
At first glance, it may seem like an unhealthy menu to most. This all combines to a total of 10,000 to 12,000 calories a day, in which a typical guy only needs 2,000 to 2,500 calories. However, we have neglected the fact that he is a swimming champion who trains for 5 hours daily.
His coach, Bob Bowman in fact does not restrict Phelps to what he eats. If we look at his menu again:
• He eats white bread instead of whole wheat bread.
• He eats only 3 big meals instead of spreading them to more meals with smaller portion.
• He eats not so much fruits and vegetables. Instead, he eats damn lot of carbohydrates – pasta and bread.
Phelps had told reporters that he needs those calories in his body to swim. Due to his muscle intensive physique (about 8 per cent of body fats) and long hours of training, he has high metabolism. If an ordinary office guy eats 10,000 calories a day, he will probably gain 2 pounds of fats daily. However, Michael Phelps is no ordinary man. Unlike several celebrities who have to watch out for strict workout regime, Phelps just eats what he likes and still able to maintain a toned body shape which many yearns for. This is probably the difference between a world class athlete and those action heroes we seen in cinemas.
Phelps’ Gym Workout
If you have watched the underwater scene showing how Michael Phelps swim, you will notice that his strokes are clearly different from the other swimmers. Not only his strokes are necessarily fast, they are also long and smooth. Instead of going for short-stroke speed, he goes for stronger and longer strokes that propel him forward.
Few years earlier, Michael’s coach, Bob Bowman has hired a personal trainer to design a gym weight lifting workout program for him. However, they found out that program focused more on building bulky type of body, it has turned out to become counter-productive. What swimmer like Michael needs is buoyancy in water and not bulky body with huge muscle mass. They then sacked that trainer and got a new trainer which gave a more swimmer-friendly workout.
In order to slice through water with those deadly powerful strokes, one must be strong in multiple planes of motion. True enough, according to what his coach has disclosed, Michael Phelps does “diagonal wood chopper” and “straight wood chopper”.
Here are general guidelines how you can do diagonal woodchopper:
1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Hold a medicine ball with both hands.
2. Lift the medicine ball over your right shoulder.
3. Then, chop down across your body by moving the medicine ball towards the ground outside of your left foot.
4. Return to the starting position.
5. Do 3 sets with 10 repetitions for each side.
Note: Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any lying straight woodchopper video on youtube. However, this is the closest we could get for you.
How you can do “straight woodchoper”
1. Lie on your back on the floor. Bend your knees, but your feet remains flat on the floor.
2. Hold the medicine ball directly above your head.
3. Contract your abdominal muscles and lower the ball behind your head as far as you can without lifting your back or bending your arms. The motion is like chopping the air, but in one single straight plane.
4. Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
Phelps does other typical strength trainings, 3 times a week with 1 hour each session, but those trainings focus in building his muscle endurance and flexibility in addition to improving his stroke power. With such a powerful and long stroke, when others have to take 12 strokes, he probably cover the same distance with only 8 strokes.
As for cardiovascular exercise, Micheal Phelps relies on stationary bike because running is too much hazard for his knees. Believe it or not, Phelps claimed that he had often tripped and fell when he run. Rumors said that his flexibility in his knees and ankles, though enhanced his performance in pool, has resulted in some loss of stability on land.
For more information, you may visit the main article site here which consists of the full article.
Cheers!
-Jam-
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