1) They train early!
Rising at the crack of dawn, or even before it, is no issue for the super-fit.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been known to train at 3am, so too Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Many of the world’s top swimmers will rise at 5am during their teenage years to get three hours training done in the pool before school and this is a pattern usually maintained into their adult careers.
Early morning training is done for a number of reasons. You burn fat faster if you train on an empty stomach, and daily chaos (such as work) won’t hinder or prevent you from training.
2) They train often
Granted, those of us who have to do ‘real’ work to make a living are not blessed with as many free hours as the best professional purveyors of the various sports. Still, the world’s fittest see training as a full-time occupation the way others do, just in a sporting context.
Professional boxers will train three times a day in advance of a fight, while cyclists, runners, rowers and skiers will clock up more hours in the week than most of us will in the office.
3) Fitness is a lifestyle choice
Even in their ‘off-seasons’, top athletes tend to stay in decent shape. They might not exert themselves to the same extremes as when they’re in full training mode but most will engage in some activity.
Fitness guru and surfing champion Laird Hamilton summed it up when he said “when you reach a certain level in any sport, you become so efficient at it that the effort level is really diminished. Your body has adapted. So what are you getting?
“Snowboarding has helped my surfing. Windsurfing has helped my surfing. Biking, for sure, has helped my surfing.”
4) Holiday time isn’t time to switch off
Now we’re getting into fitness freak territory. Most see holidays as a time to put the feet up and lay on the beach and you’ll see plenty pictures of top sportsmen doing this at the ends of their respective seasons.
But what you probably don’t see is them doing the push-ups, press-ups and core routines before breakfast and before bed. World champion endurance runner Killian Jornet, whose book ‘Run or Die’ made the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year shortlist, is a fan of such routines.
5) They sleep a LOT
Eight to 10 hours sleep a night is standard. How many of us can actually say we’ve achieved this for any length of time? Chances are there are few because to sleep for this long consistently, you need to be stressing your body a lot, and consistently.
6) They don’t graze
Tyler Hamilton has a great anecdote about diet in his seminal book ‘The Secret Race’. He said: “I don’t like to eat unless I’m hungry. When I sit down to a meal, I want my body to be in a state of craving.
“Not eating until you’re hungry means you’re not snacking much, if at all. Not snacking means you keep the weight off and your body expects less.”
7) They have no problem staying away from the bad stuff
This is part of the reason they are what they are — junk food rarely makes it onto their plates.
The super-fit are so in tune with what goes into their bodies a) because they have to be in case they ingest an illegal substance that could see them banned from competition, and b) because they abide by a simple maxim that if you put rubbish, rubbish comes out.
Not literally speaking; rather, the performance.
Originally published at 07.00
