Training like a professional athlete is not just about intense workouts. Training like a professional athlete is about living by a disciplined, well rounded program focused on your physical conditioning, mental toughness, nutrition, and rest.
If your goal is to take your fitness to the next level or you want the benefits of a stronger healthier body, you must transform your day with some of the elements of a professional athletes daily routine.
To give you some context, this article by Sports Buddy is going to share everything you need to know to train like a pro.
The Professional Athlete Mindset
Mindset is one of the biggest differences between professional athletes and casual exercisers. Professional athletes have defined goals they aim to achieve, they have focus, and they intent to achieve the impossible.
A big part of this is visualization; a mental exercise in which sporting historians mentally rehearse success by envisioning how their movements and strategies will play out. It helps to focus the eyes, boost motivation and keep the body and mind in the right stances before an intense physical performance. This can help you build the mental resilience you need to tackle tough workouts.
Peak Performance Program: Goal Setting and Planning
Professional athletes don’t do anything haphazardly, they set goals with a structured plan of how they’re going to get there. For most, there’s a technique called periodization in which they cycle their training broken down into different ‘cyclic’ types of things, like strength, agility and endurance. This allows them to work on specific skills, without feeling burned out.
To apply this, begin with some basic, easy, progressive goals that suit your level of fitness. If you have a goal of building strength, say, you can set an initial goal to add 10lbs to your deadlift every few weeks. Cycle training into endurance, strength, and flexibility.
Components of Professional Athletes Training Regimen
Professional athletes DON’T just lift weights or hit the treadmill to train. The various types of workouts are evenly spread out their routines to support overall performance. Here’s how they train across different fitness areas:
1. Strength Training
Any athlete’s foundation includes strength. It increases power, decreases injury risks and also improves speed and agility. Compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts and push ups which work multiple joint groups at once are used by professional.
Add these compound movements into your routine and try 2-3 strength sessions a week. Change your weights according to your goals and keep in mind to work on the form rather than lifting the heavy.
2. Cardiovascular Endurance
Performing cardio training makes the athlete more conditioned and enables them to maintain high performance over longer periods of time. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and steady state cardio is a popular mix in the world of fitness, side by side building endurance and perfecting your heart health.
Give short sprints and rests. Try alternating between short and long distance running session that are incorporated in the week. If you’re short on time and want to burn more calories in less time, HIIT is particularly useful.
3. Agility and Flexibility
Agility is used by professionals athletes who rely on being able to change direction in an instant without getting hurt and flexibility is used to move with a full range of motion without injury. They like to do agility drills (ladder or cone drills) and dynamic stretching in their warm up.
Try to integrate agility exercise, for example, lateral shuffles or ladder drills into your routine. To be flexible, add these stretching post workout or a weekly yoga class to increase mobility.
4. Skill-Specific Drills
Athletes engage in drills particular to the sport they’re participating in and then refine the technical elements needed to play at their highest level. These drills teach the body to make movements at speed and improve precision.
If you’re trying to make it to a specific sport, throw in some drills that will help with those specific skills. Say for example you play basketball, do dribbling or shooting drills. It will also improve your technical capabilities.
Optimal Training using Nutrition and Hydration
Performance is strongly linked to what you eat. Professional athletes have a well balanced diet amongst complex carbohydrates, lean proteins and healthy fats to ensure their body is fueled and ready for recovery.
Pre-Workout Nutrition: Whole grains and oatmeal are simple complex carbohydrates that will give your body the sustained energy it needs to train. Pair it with a bit of protein for an extra dose of energy.
Post-Workout Nutrition: Lean proteins (e.g., chicken, fish or plant based proteins) are required by athletes after workouts, in order to help repair and restore muscles. It is no surprise that we need complex carbs to restore energy.
Hydration: A key for high performance and recovery is to stay hydrated. Athletes tend to drink water all day and even use electrolyte drinks at times after intense sessions, athletes drink water quite consistently throughout the day.
The need for Rest and Recovery
In professional sports, recovery is a priority, keeping you from burning out, repairing muscles and preparing for the next workout. Sleep is the ultimate recovery tool, and most athletes strive for 7-9 hours each night which helps with physical and mental performance.
For instance, other recovery techniques are foam rolling, massages, and days of light activity like walking or yoga (active recovery day). Without additional strain, these activities increase blood flow, reduce muscle soreness, and help increase flexibility.
Rest days come into play more often than we would like to admit; use these to schedule regular days off, and when needed try foam rolling or stretching to speed up recovery and keep your muscles flexible.
Consistency and Adaptability
Training like a professional athlete involves putting consistent effort in and having a routine that is not only dissimilar but changes with time. They follow their progress, from tracking how they track, assessing where improvements can be made, and adjusting as they go along.
Monitor progress by keeping a training log. Looking at track weights, reps, times, or any other data points to see where you’re improving and how you can keep challenging yourself adjusting your plan.
Training Tips from the Pros
Here are some training secrets from world-class athletes that you can try:
Regular yoga and stretching by LeBron James gives him flexibility and mobility that helps prevent injuries and aid in recovery.
Cristiano Ronaldo completes explosive sprint drills and the agility exercises in his routines, which helps him sustain his speed and quick reflexes on the field.
Tom Brady follows TB12 Method which entails muscle flexibility exercises that promote pliability.
If you are adding even a few of these practices into your daily routine, it will help you to achieve your fitness goals faster and in a unique way.
Common Mistakes to Avoid when Training
Training like a pro requires some knowledge and having a good understanding of common mistakes to prevent injuries and setbacks. Here are some to watch out for:
Overtraining: You can burn out and get injured by training excessively. Always take time to recover fully to progress long term.
Poor Form: Using improper form with or without weights puts you at higher risk of injuries and less effective in your exercise. Ensure that proper form is prioritized at all times.
Skipping Flexibility Work: Flexible athletes have a wider range of motion and are less prone to injury.
