By ELSA K. SIMCIK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
The Olympics are in full swing, and, as you watch them from the sofa (with or without a bag of chips), you're probably having a cliché daydream: you, on the podium, gold medal around your neck, tears in your eyes, smiling with pride as the national anthem is played.
Since getting to that point takes a combination of natural ability, extraordinary discipline and years of practice, chances are slim that it's going to happen. Still, we wanted to know, "Can regular exercisers do even a smidgen of an Olympian's workout?" We talked with Olympic coaches to get training tips.
TRACK AND FIELD: 'Break each event down'
Dave Wollman, Southern Methodist University's director of track and field and cross country, has four athletes competing in Beijing. While Mr. Wollman is thrilled for his protégés (shot-putter Michelle Carter, hammer thrower Libor Charfreitag and discus throwers Aleksander Tammert and Michael Robertson), he's no stranger to the Olympics. He's been sending competitors to the Games since 1984.
His approach to training throwers, jumpers, runners and sprinters? Start simply. "You break each event down into a lot of different kinds of drills. The event may have four or five different movements in it that, if you take them apart, you can work each movement separately," Mr. Wollman says. It's all about developing a motor pattern, something your mind doesn't need to think about. "It just happens automatically because you've trained it. So that's a very, very important aspect of Olympic training – that everything they do is done out of muscle memory rather than thought pattern," he says.
Training breakdown
"Olympians, when they do it right, they train four to five hours a day," Mr. Wollman says. His track and fielders work out in three areas:
Mechanical development: They break the event into segments and practice two to three hours, six days a week. Think drills, hurdles and sprinting.
Strength: Lifting weights in the gym, one to three hours a day, three or four days a week. (Three hours may sound daunting, but they rest between sets, Mr. Wollman says.)
Athletic development: "Being an athlete means all your muscle groups have to be conditioned, not just the prime movers," he says. That's why he has athletes focus on their core with exercises such as crunches and Pilates moves.
Tips for all
Run right: It may seem natural, but regular runners often do it wrong, Mr. Wollman says. "Developing the proper mechanics, proper foot strike [and learning] where you center your mass over the feet, that's all relative to how healthy you're going to stay," he says. He recommends using a trainer.
Posture makes perfect: If you maintain proper posture throughout a workout, you have a better chance to avoid overuse injuries to the feet, knees, ankles and hips, he says.
Cross-train: Take time away from your primary sport to do something else, he says, but make sure it's something you like. "If it's not fun, most people aren't going to do it," he says. "There are so many different options: kickboxing, shadowboxing, swimming, the elliptical machine."
Rest: "If you don't get the proper sleep, you don't get the proper recovery and you can't do the next workout," he tells athletes. "Your body can handle the work. Your mind needs the rest."
GYMNASTICS: 'Focus on fundamentals'
You probably remember gymnast Kim Zmeskal, who competed on the bronze-winning U.S. team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. She's Kim Zmeskal Burdette these days. The mother of two trains gymnasts with her husband, Chris, through the Texas Dreams Gymnastics program at EveryBody Fits in Coppell. Their star competitor, Chelsea Davis, 15, made the Olympic training squad this summer, but she just missed making the U.S. team. "We're very excited for the experience to get her that far," Ms. Zmeskal Burdette says. Chelsea is "raring to go to be one of the ones for next year's world team and potentially all the way through the next Olympics," she adds.
Training breakdown
Chelsea trains six days a week with Sundays off. Four of those days, she trains for six to seven hours broken into two sessions (one in the morning and one in the evening). Two other days, she clocks in four hours at the gym. While Chelsea works on the gymnastic equipment (beam, floor, vault and uneven bars), she's not always doing routines. Instead, the coach has her focus on fundamentals:
Conditioning drills: During the first hour of every practice, they go through conditioning drills such as running, punching, squat jumps and flips. These moves help train the body to hit the floor and punch the vault board with maximum quickness, Ms. Zmeskal Burdette says.
Separate parts: Then they do exercises for specific parts of the body such as the midsection (crunches, knee-ups on hanging bars) and upper body (lots of handstand work).
Tips for all
Use your body weight: Ms. Zmeskal Burdette doesn't use much equipment in her training program. "We're able to come up with hours and hours of different types of things to keep it different that are just using your body, and it develops a strong gymnast."
Balance: A beam exercise that can be done on the floor, Ms. Zmeskal Burdette says, is the calf raise (up on your toes then flat on your feet). It tones the calves and strengthens the core.
Run like a gymnast: Have you ever jogged barefoot? Gymnasts do it all the time (indoors, of course). They also run on the balls of their feet, lift their knees and sometimes jog backward. These variations may look silly, but they build strong calves, quads and hamstrings, Ms. Zmeskal Burdette says.
Be consistent: "If you do a lot of big training and then stop, you don't get the same effect," she says. "Making sure you're committed to doing a schedule, I think, is going to be the biggest part of success, whether it's training to be an Olympic gymnast or training yourself to be in shape."
SWIMMING: 'Practice is good, but perfect practice is better'
In his 29 years as the head men's and women's swimming coach at Texas Christian University, Richard Sybesma has seen his share of top athletes. He coached Olympic swimmer Walter Soza, who represented Nicaragua at the 1996 games. And this year, two swimmers from his team went to the Olympic trials: Jonathon Berrettini and Scott McCracken.
Training breakdown
In the pool: The National Collegiate Athletic Association allows college swimmers to train for no more than 20 hours a week, so Mr. Sybesma's team works out three mornings, five afternoons and a Saturday morning during the most intense training periods. "If you were training for the Olympics, you might want to train more than 20 hours a week," he says. Mr. Sybesma says that 75 to 80 percent of their time is spent in the pool, swimming laps and working on technique. "If you're a sprinter, you're not going to need to do as much aerobic work, and if you're a distance swimmer you'll need a ton of aerobic work," he says.
On land: The rest of the time, they're cross-training on land, lifting weights, taking spin classes, even doing yoga. "Our goal is to make them a better athlete out of the pool, make them stronger and faster and make them a better swimmer in the pool," Mr. Sybesma says.
Tips for all
Jump in: The best thing someone can do to become a better swimmer is to simply swim, he says. "There's nothing that can replace just training those muscles to swim."
Learn the proper technique: It's best to get proper technique ideas, he says. "Practice is good, but perfect practice is better."
Take advantage of the water: Any type of activity in the water is great, from water aerobics to masters swim programs, Mr. Sybesma says. It builds endurance and relieves pressure on the joints.
Swim for a change: If you've hit a plateau in your exercise or weight loss routine, swimming may jump-start it. If you're new to swimming, and you start doing it three to four days a week, you should see results, Mr. Sybesma says.
SOCCER: 'Use your imagination'
Last month, Dax McCarty, midfielder for FC Dallas, was promoted from an alternate to a full-fledged player on the 2008 U.S. Olympic soccer team. One of his biggest supporters is FC Dallas' head athletic trainer, Joshua Watts, who worked closely with Mr. McCarty to get him into Olympic-level shape. Mr. Watts has been on staff with FC Dallas for seven seasons, but this will be his first Olympian.
Mr. McCarty underwent surgery for a sports-related hernia a few months ago, so Mr. Watts had to develop a training program that was safe yet intense.
Training breakdown
During the height of training, Mr. McCarty worked out about three hours a day, five days a week.
Core training: Mr. Watts focused on getting Mr. McCarty's core strong by using unstable surfaces such as a Bosu, a DynaDisc and foam pads. "He stands on them, and then we would incorporate a ball with it so he's getting technical work, touching the ball," Mr. Watts says.
Drills: "We did a lot of drills that were intense and short in nature with very minimal rest," Mr. Watts says. Setting up cones three to five yards apart, Mr. Watts had Mr. McCarty do lateral shuffles, working on different passes. After he mastered that, Mr. Watts made the drills more complicated and moved the cones farther apart.
Strength: In the gym, Mr. Watts has Mr. McCarty and other FC Dallas players do traditional weight workouts, making sure the moves are quick and explosive.
Tips for all
Use your core: Doing a weight workout on an unstable surface such as the Bosu ball will strengthen your core, says Mr. Watts (although he recommends starting on the floor and working your way up). "If your core can't handle everything I'm asking your arms and legs to do, your weakest link is going to break," Mr. Watts says.
Play ball: Mr. Watts likes moves such as using a wood-chopping motion with the medicine ball. You can make it fun by doing throws with a partner, he says.
Get creative: "Use your imagination," Mr. Watts says. "As an exercise becomes too routine, too simple, change things up. Instead of doing a bench press on the bench, you lie on a big Swiss ball." Unsure about what to do? Mr. Watts recommends observing others at a gym. Or ask a trainer.
Source :http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/healthyliving2/stories/DN-nh_training_0812liv.ART.State.Edition1.27fbdea.html
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