How Professional Athletes Prepare: The Weird to the Wonderful
People will go to extreme measures to prepare for major events, from a common person who hates conventional exercise to the star-studded athlete, and will put their bodies to extreme lengths to be in the best shape possible. This extends to a wider range of sports than many people realize, and more athletes than you might think will find (legal) ways to increase their performance and get the edge that they need to go from being mere winners to immortal legends. Here’s how professional athletes prepare.
How Professional Athletes Prepare: Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps is one of the greatest Olympians of all-time and with good reason. He was an incredible athlete who would push himself further than others were prepared to go. One of the methods that he adopted and how professional athletes prepare was by sleeping in an altitude chamber. This altitude chamber would make his lungs work harder in his sleep, and therefore increase his lung capacity, and it certainly worked. That isn’t the only odd training method that Phelps employed and how professional athletes prepare, as he also turned to ‘heat cups’ in order to increase his recovery times. He is certainly not the only athlete to use this method, as many athletes across many sports have adopted it, despite skepticism of its usefulness. It’s one of those areas though where the placebo effect might be important, and as long as someone thinks it works, it probably does.
Feeling hungry? This was Michael Phelps’ diet in his Olympic heyday. [Source: Youtube]
How Professional Athletes Prepare: LeBron James and Michael Jordan
Another extreme method of recovery and how professional athletes prepare, including guys like LeBron James, is using cryotherapy. This is where an athlete will sit in a chamber which reaches temperatures of up to -260F in order to prevent the build-up of lactic acid in the body. This is known to be highly effective and will increase the production of anti-inflammatory proteins in the body. It is not to everybody’s taste but the odds against his team – Los Angeles Lakers – winning the NBA Championship have shortened to just 10/1 on Betway Sports since his arrival, which is more than a mere coincidence. While some athletes prepare with unusual physical methods, others have to go through odd rituals to leave them in the right frame of mind when it comes to how professional athletes prepare. Jason Terry, for instance, owns a pair of shorts for every team in the NBA and wears them to bed the night before a game. In other examples of mad genius, Michael Jordan is reported by Bleacher Report to have worn the shorts of his college team under his NBA shorts during his playing days.
Michael Jordan would also prepare physically too, but it wasn’t pain he was trying to avoid – it was light. He found himself becoming distracted by the courtside photography flashes at the courtside, and in order to overcome this, he wore strobe light glasses in training. They would shine light into his eyes, preparing him for game time; it’s also a method used by the similarly hero-worshipped Steph Curry today. Though some skeptics may argue differently, sometimes the mental is more important than the physical, and these are things that athletes have to go through and how professional athletse prepare to be in the best frame of mind possible.
How Professional Athletes Prepare: Manny Pacquiao and Tom Brady
Boxing is a sport which lends itself to plenty of strange preparation techniques due to the physical punishment involved. In the world of fiction, there is that famous scene in Rocky where Sylvester Stallone’s character is chasing a chicken to increase his agility – and the reality isn’t far off. More dramatically, evergreen Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao was known to be beaten with a stick before his fights, in order to prepare himself for punishment. Though unorthodox and not wholly recommended for how professional athletes prepare, this has clearly acclimatized his mind towards pain.
Manny Pacquiao endures a good, old-fashioned beating…[Source: Youtube]
Perhaps the most famous way how professional athletes prepare comes from New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who believes in his methods so much he wrote a book about it. The ‘TB12 Method’, as summarized by SB Nation, has created many headlines and is seen as a complete lifestyle change which includes increasing pliability, brain exercises, use of supplements, nutrition and rest. It’s an example of how professional athletes prepare and how they go to extreme levels in order to keep up a high level of performance.
If It Works, Do It!
Athletes are constantly trying to find ways to increase their performance and speed up their recovery. This desire has led many to pursue both new scientific methods and ancient healing techniques. Ultimately, whatever works, works when it comes to how professional athletes prepare. Whether it is using a cryotherapy chamber, an altitude tent or heat cups, some people will do whatever it takes to win – though, for some people, like Jason Terry, that could just mean sleeping in your opponent’s shorts before every game!
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