Phelps does a lot of weighted pull-ups. This adds some extra resistance, which helps pack on more muscle and improves cardiovascular conditioning.

Michael Phelps swimming workout and 12,000 calorie diet are one of the most physically demanding around. His training routine and meal plan are astonishing for someone who is only 6’4 and weighs 165 lbs.

In peak training phases, Phelps swims minimum 80,000 meters a week, which is nearly 50 miles. He practices twice a day, sometimes more if he’s training at altitude. Phelps trains for around five to six hours a day at six days a week. To give himself some additional entertainment in the water, Phelps listens to music during his long workouts with waterproof headphones. Swimming in the water, especially that long, can be pretty boring. Listening to music can provide that extra spark to your workout.

Phelps does long swims to improve his endurance. However, he does other drills to improve his swimming speed and form. He does a lot of vertical kicking and underwater kicking. To maintain his feel for the water, Phelps does sculling, which is a stroke in which you move your arms back and forth in small figure eights. Phelps uses numerous training gear in the water, such as kickboards, pull buoys, training paddles, and snorkels. These types of training equipment can put more emphasis on your legs, glutes, upper body, and abs in the pool, in addition to providing a great way for injury rehabilitation.

Phelps is very tall and lean, which is ideal for swimming speed.

Phelps recently added a weightlifting regimen to his dry-land work, which is evident by his ripped six pack abs and body. He lifts weights 3 days a week, preferably on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. However, Phelps prefers bodyweight exercises like pushups and weighted pull-ups for muscular strength and endurance. These bodyweight exercises won’t bulk Phelps up like if he were doing more compound based weight exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc.). Phelps keeps a great balance between bodyweight exercises and weight exercises. Relying more on bodyweight exercises will keep Phelps lean and will not add too much additional weight where it could affect his swimming speed and movement in the water. The less weight you have to drag in the water, the quicker you can swim.

Phelps was born to be a swimmer. He has a 6 ft 7 inch arm reach, which is 3 inches longer than his height. He has short legs for his height, which gives him even more of an advantage in the pool. In addition, his knees are double-jointed and his feet can rotate 15 degrees more than average, allowing his feet to act more like flippers.

In terms of his diet, it has been reported that Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day, around 4,000 calories per meal. For breakfast, Phelps eats three fried-egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, and mayonnaise. Then he drinks two cups of coffee and then consumes a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes. For lunch, Phelps eats a pound of pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread with mayo. He then drinks about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks. For dinner, Phelps eats another pound of pasta and a full pizza followed by another 1,000 calories of energy drinks. You may think that this is overload and complete overeating. However, as mentioned above, Phelps trains five to six hours a day nearly every single day and is giving it his full effort most of the time. His body is burning thousands upon thousands of calories a day. Phelps probably has a very fast natural metabolism as well so this adds to even more reason why he needs to eat that much. The more calories you have, the more energy there is. This is all about energy for Phelps and these types of foods give him plenty of it. Try training that much and not eating thousands of calories a day. You wouldn’t be able to train effectively!

Here is a typical Phelps meal.

Source

http://www.mensfitness.com/bodyfortress/training-advice-from-michael-phelps

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