How Olympic Athletes Can Help You

-by Vincent DelMonte Here is ONE thing I've discovered as a common theme from Olympic athletes that you can apply to your own 12-week transformation... -> They have created SPECIFIC habits that do not require thinking <- You would never hear an athlete say, "I am going to workout today and try and eat better today..." This is not SPECIFIC enough. Here's what they WILL say if they were following one of my programs... "I will go to bed at 10:30 pm the night before so that I get 7.5 hours sleep and rise at 6 am to cook my 1/2 cup of oatmeal and 2 scoops of protein powder and 1 tbsp of natural peanut butter. I'll drink 1 liter of water, take my fish oils, multi vitamin and drink 1 cup of black coffee and then leave my house at 6:30 am. I'm going to do day 1 of my Metabolic Overdrive program which will begin at 6:45 am and finish at 8 am and I will be doing shoulders and rotational work. The goal of today's workout is to finish the entire workout in under 55 minutes. I will finish my workout with 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill at 4.0 mph and a 12.0 grade. I will have meal 2 at 9 am, meal 3 at 12pm, meal 4 at 3pm and then go to the trails and run for 45 minutes at 4:30pm. Today I'll be doing a 10 minute warm up plus 5 minutes hard alternated with 5 minutes easy until I reach 45 minutes. I'll finish up with 15 minutes of static stretching and then alternate 1 minute of hot water with 1 minute of cold water on my legs and shoulders while I shower. I'll have my last meal at 6pm. I'll be in bed for 10:30pm tonight." Notice a few things? -> the specific wake up time? -> the specific amount of food at breakfast? -> the specific start and finish time of the workout? -> the goal for the workout? -> the pre planned cardio workout? -> the pre planned meal times? -> the pre planned PM cardio workout? -> the specific bed time? The reason athletes are SO successful is because they have built certain HABITS over a long period of time. They no longer need to "think about it..." Thinking is an athletes greatest enemy. They just do it out of habit. You have probably heard the saying, "It takes 30 days to create a new habit..." Most athletes have created these habits before they even reached their early teens (but it's NEVER too late). Well, I just listed about 12 habits that could take 30 days each to form. Imagine if you build one of these habits into your life every 30 days? You could build 12 new habits each year! I highly recommend that you become your own coach and create your own SPECIFIC plan and that you write it down on paper at least one week in advance so that you can see it and visualize it and so that you are no longer "hoping" or "wishing" for success. Go into your personal schedule and pencil out your next 7-10 days of training just like you schedule our your meeting, class schedule, social life, family time and errands. Your goal is to ELIMINATE the "thinking" that goes into your training and create habits that become natural. For this week, pick just ONE habit that you wish to focus on. Maybe it's setting your stop watch so your beeper goes off at 10:15pm each night to remind you that you need to be in bed by 10:30pm or whatever new time you wish to set for yourself. Once you master this habit, lets tackle another one.