How Does an Olympic Swimmer Train?
Nutrition Nutrition is an important part of training for any Olympic athlete but even more so for swimmers. Swimming burns a lot of calories. A 150-pound body doing vigorous freestyle laps can burn nearly 700 calories in an hour. Many Olympic swimmers will swim more than six or seven miles a week. Nutrition should be targeted to build a balance between endurance and muscle strength because of the stringent training requirements. Protein, protein supplements and carbohydrates should be a major part of the diet. Michael Phelps consumed 12,000 calories a day, six times the amount of an average man’s intake. Weight Training Weight training for Olympic swimmers should be focused on building long and strong muscles. A swimmer’s body should have enough strength to cut through water resistance while providing enough flexibility to perform repetitive motions like the various swimming strokes. The legs should be strong enough to get a good push off of the walls for turns, yet able to maintain th
