Michael Phelps Workout and Diet Philosophies

 By Srdjan Popovic

Michael Phelps is recognized as being the greatest Olympic athlete to ever walk the earth. Phelps has collected 16 Olympic medals, eight in a magnificent fashion at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. So many accomplishments at the mere age of 23 years.

Michael Phelps is undoubtedly built for swimming. His size 14 feet, 6ft 7in arm reach, broad shoulders, and large chest muscles make him very hard to defeat. He boasts relatively short legs for his height, that give him more power in the water. He's got double-jointed knees and feet that can rotate 15 degrees more than possible by the average person. This allows him to fully straighten his body so his feet resemble powerful flippers. He is unquestionably the closest thing to a "human dolphin."

It's not only these inherited advantages that make Phelps the great swimmer that he is. Phelps is the hardest working swimmer, following an inredible workout and diet schedule.

Michael Phelps Workout

Have you ever seen the Michael Phelps workout? Phelps works out for six hours a day, six days a week. Nothing to it. Phelps goes through his full day of training regardless if the day happens to be Christmas day or his mother's birthday - simply no excuses. His unquestionable work ethic, persistence and dedication to the sport and training have made Phelp's the greatest swimmer of all time.

Phelps enjoys combining his workouts in the pool with workouts in the gym.

In the pool...

Michael Phelps spends large portions of his time working out in the pool. The in-pool portion consists of swimming 80km each week which equals over 13km each training day. His sample workout looks like this:

End of practice:

500 abdominal exercises and static stretching

Michael Phelps loves using various training tools to accommodate his swimming workouts. This gives him much-needed variation to his workouts.

"I use a bunch of Speedo training gear, like kickboards, pull buoys, training paddles, and snorkels," Phelps says. "I'll also listen to music during some of my longer workouts with H20 Audio's waterproof headphones."

In the gym...

Phelps aims to minimize his time in the gym. He doesn't like wasting time. He focuses on functional training and dry-land training. Those are the biggest components of the Michael Phelps workout.

"In preparation for Beijing, I started adding weightlifting to my dry-land work," Phelps says. "Since then, we've expanded the amount of weights I am using, and I'm running more than I ever have. Pushups and pull-ups have also always been essential."

To match his powerful stroke style of swimming, Phelps performs exercises such as the diagonal wood chopper and the straight wood chopper.

Michael Phelps offers advice on resting and recovering.

The best way to benefit from your toughest workouts is to let your body fully recover before training hard again. "Sleep is also a big part of my recovery," Phelps says. "It's really important that my body gets enough rest so that I'm ready to go for my next race or training session."

Michael Phelps Diet

Phelps is capable of consuming more calories in a single day than many of us can in an entire week. He consumes over 10,000 calories consisting of different types of nutrients each training day. Try and compare this to an average person's diet of 2000 calories per day. Eating this many calories is a workout in itself and takes great dedication and planning. But Phelps needs to consume this much because he burns up to 1000 calories every hour he swims. You do the math.

Srdjan Popovic is a fitness enthusiast and a certified trainer.

Visit www.BloomtoFit.com to learn more secrets about getting fit and staying healthy.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com