Top Training Techniques Used by World-Famous Athletes

From Olympians to football players, world-famous athletes manage to achieve some remarkable feats of strength and endurance. It typically takes many years to develop and hone naturally gifted skills, with training sessions for the elite often making the most of advanced technology too.

If you want to train like some of the world’s fittest athletes who know how to get an edge on the competition, consider incorporating these techniques into your routine.

Mindfulness

Many athletes practice mindfulness to mentally prepare. For example, Olympic wrestling champion Jordan Burroughs may have had a disappointing finish in Rio 2016, but he used mindfulness training to help him move past it, learning from despair instead of dwelling on it. From managing stress to getting quality sleep on a regular basis, mindfulness has helped many athletes perform to their greatest potential.

Burroughs says one of the ways he uses mindfulness is to imagine the pain he’ll experience during a bout or workout which decreases the effects of the “knocks” he takes when performing. 

Fitness Trackers

To stay at the top of your game, it’s important to train hard and train often without overtraining. If you go at it too hard, it can easily lead to a series of injuries. The Denver Nuggets strength and conditioning coach told Men’s Journal that it’s much harder to “come back from overtraining than to get back in shape from undertraining.”

Fitness trackers have been coming to the rescue, with many pro athletes and entire MLS, NHL, and NBA teams in particular. Players are hooked up to all different types in order to keep watch on peak heart rate, the number of miles run, exertion, metabolic output, oxygen consumption, and more.

Ice Baths

Many famous athletes have been demonstrating their use of ice baths after sporting events, including Usain Bolt and Cristiano Ronaldo, who soak in them to facilitate recovery. It’s been positioned as a key strategy for rehab with the ability to reduce fatigue after tough training and competitions while promoting better performance.

These days it’s easy to find an ice bath for sale online and in brick-and-mortar stores, thanks to the many benefits athletes have reaped. In theory, plunging into an ice bath is said to reduce post-workout pain and soreness as they slow down the signaling of nerves in affected muscles and may even reduce the production of damaging free radicals. 

The cold causes constriction of the blood vessels, decreasing blood supply to immersed areas. After getting out of the water, the body pumps a large amount of blood to the affected areas, boosting circulation while flooding them with nutrients.

Resistance Bands

Resistance bands can be a big help when it comes to both stretching and strength-building, which is what Olympian and world champion Emma Coburn, who specializes in the 3000-meter steeplechase, uses. 

From mini resistance bands to those with longer lengths, they help her warm up muscles, increase mobility and intensity. She loops them around her ankles to improve mobility, uses them to help activate her glute, leg, and hip muscles before running, and adds them to core exercises to increase the challenge.

Iso-Kinetics

While most NFL players get their agility and strength from lifting heavy weights and in the gym, two-time Super Bowl champion Troy Polamalu focused on iso-kinetics, in other words, movements that actually mirrored what he did on the field. He managed to perfect this technique and used it to improve overall performance.

Specialized exercise machines are used to produce a constant level of speed no matter how much effort is expended. They control the pace of the exercise by fluctuating resistance throughout the range of motion so that speed is consistent even if the force exerted varies.

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