For thousands of athletes, competing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Aug. 5-21) will be the climax of everything they have trained for their entire lives. Check out how USA’s elite athletes have trained using traditional methods as well as the latest technology to gain that 1% advantage to win gold.SEE ALSO: 7 Leg-Busting Tips From An Olympic Weightlifter
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Jordan Burroughs
Age: 28 Height: 5’9” Weight: 163 pounds Sport: Freestyle Wrestling Previous Olympics: 2012 Medals: Gold (2012) Bio: The 2016 Olympic games in Rio will mark Burroughs second time representing the USA in freestyle wrestling, but the University of Nebraska alum has been dominating top-level competition long before he donned a team USA singlet. The returning gold medalist boasts two D1 NCAA championships, three World Championship gold medals and two first-place finishes at the Pan American Games. Come to think of it, it may be easier to list all of the times he didn’t finish first. After all, with a Twitter handle like “@alliseeisgold,” that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Factoids
He was inspired by Macho Man Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior.Despite his dominance, Burroughs had a 16-13 record his freshman year of college before amassing a 111-6 record for the next three years.
Key Workout Tips & Advice:
Toughest Workout
“Our coach will put me in the middle of the wrestling room and have two guys try to take me down and then sub out after 30 seconds.” They do this for six minutes straight (the length of a match).”
Diet
“I start to cut all the bad stuff out of my diet about two weeks before a competition. That means no carbs, bread, pasta, rice, juice, or soda. Only water, grilled veggies, chicken, beef, or fish.”
Cheat Meal
Bacon cheeseburger, vanilla milkshake, and doughnuts.
3 of 9
Norik Vardanian
Age: 29 Height: 5’9” Weight: 207 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: The son of Armenian Olympic gold medalist Urik Vardanian, the younger Vardanian holds the American record in the snatch (172kg). Norik, who was born in Armenia, competed for them at the 2012 London Games. He’s currently dating fellow weightlifter, and Rio Games athlete, Jenny Arthur.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Biggest Hurdle
“Having that mental strength to overcome a workout, but more important, knowing that the next morning I have to be back at the gym bright and early.”
Prep Pointer
“With anything we do, I like to use a barbell because it’s what we lift with in competition.”
Training Tech
Vardanian uses an iPad to record his form and then reviews the film with his coaches using the Coach’s Eye app that slows the footage down.
Diet
His typical breakfast: two eggs, yogurt, toast with honey, and coffee with cream, no sugar. On occasion, he makes “a killer French toast.”
Recovery
Logging two-a-day workouts three times per week requires adequate recovery methods. Vardanian alternates between 20 minutes in the hot tub and an ice bath, then steams to reduce lactic acid three days per week.
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Jake Dalton
Age: 24 Height: 5’6” Weight: 148 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: While gymnasts are known for having the world’s most impressive physiques, Olympian Jake Dalton still caught our eye with his Larry Scott–like sleeve stretchers. But Dalton isn’t all show and no go. The Reno, NV, native has accumulated three National titles in both the floor (2011, 2012, and 2014); and vault (2009, 2011, and 2013) categories. Don’t be surprised if you see him flexing his muscles all the way to the top of the podium in Rio.SEE ALSO: 4 Olympic Moves to Reshape Your Routine
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Biggest Hurdle
Getting back into a pre- competition routine after a hiatus. “We call it the grind… you have to split your routine in half [at first]. It’s a grueling process. It’s physically and mentally hard because you’re going through a failing process.”
Go-to-Move
Handstand Pushups: “I really enjoy handstand pushups because they involve your entire body. They help build balance and strength at the same time and you have to use your core to keep your body straight, which helps when you get into trouble or a little off balance during a routine.”
Training Tech
Dalton uses an Under Armour heart rate monitor to assess conditioning and daily calories burned.
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Shakur Stevenson
Age: 19 Height: 5’6” Weight: 123 pounds Bio: Named after rapper Tupac Shakur, the boxing version has amassed a 23–0 international record and is the only boxer to capture both the 2013 Junior World Championship and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games gold medal. Stevenson plans on being the first U.S. male boxer since Andre Ward (2004) to win gold.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Training Frequency
Three sessions per day—strength, skill work, sparring—at an hour and a half each.
Toughest Workout
Three minutes of sprinting followed by one minute of rest to simulate boxing rounds. “With three training sessions a day, there’s no room for anything like school or a social life.” Stevenson even watches boxing on YouTube every night before going to sleep.
Intensity Tip
Though there’s no need to sprint for a full three minutes, intervals of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off should do the trick.
Pre-Match Ritual
Bumping jams by 50 Cent and snacking on kiwi before every fight.
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Nick Lucena
Age: 36 Height: 6’1″ Weight: 190 pounds Bio: “The Greyhound,” the 2015 USA Volleyball Men’s Beach Player of the Year, has one milestone to check off his volleyball bucket list—the Olympics. When Lucena gets to Rio, he will face the pressure of knowing this may be his last chance to leave his mark on Olympic history.SEE ALSO:Top 10 Squat Mistakes
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Quote Him
“Lifting is 100% the biggest [thing] keeping my career going. I have always been a good athlete, but as I get older, staying in shape by lifting is the most important.”
Workout
Four of his five days a week in the gym include everything from squats, power cleans, Romanian dead-lifts, and trunk work for the core.
Pre-Match Ritual
Pumping Metallica and Rage Against the Machine.
Training Tech
Tendo Sports Machines allow Lucena and his trainer to monitor peak velocity and peak power while lifting to best monitor and measure performance. A heart monitor synced to the MyFitnessPal app ensures heart rate spikes and recovery match up in the gym as well as on the sand.
Cheat Meal
Chick-fil-A twice a week and “not ashamed of it!”
7 of 9
Phil Dalhausser
Age: 36 Height: 6’9″ Weight: 198 pounds Previous Olympics: 2008, 2012 Medals: Gold (2008) Bio: “The Thin Beast” scored Olympic gold in Beijing with then- partner Todd Rogers, and he’ll attempt to recapture the top spot with his first pro partner, Nick Lucena. The duo teamed up from 2003–05, and reunited in 2015.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Pre-Match Warmup
Band exercises for shoulders, run to get loose, forward and side lunges, another smaller band for glute exercises such as crab and sidestep walks, dead bugs to get the core firing fol- lowed by pepper—rallying the ball back and forth—with his partner.
Try It
Speed Sled: Push a 45-pound sled about 20 yards 20 times. Aim to complete all 20 pushes in about 10 minutes, resting 30 seconds in between each rep/push. “The speed sled is awful, but it gets the heart rate high.”
Cheat Meal
Burger and fries
Motivation
Two months before the 2012 Games, two blood clots sent Dalhausser to the hospital for five days; he was on blood thinners for a month and unable to practice.
8 of 9
Miles Chamley-Watson
Age: 26 Height: 6’4″ Weight: 185 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: With his platinum blond hair and modeling side-gigs, fencing’s bad boy has earned six gold medals in international competition. He’s looking for-ward to one thing in Rio: “kicking everyone’s ass.”
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Training Frequency
Four boxing sessions per week along with his fencing training, and strength and conditioning work- outs. “We do a lot of explosive workouts [with] cleans, box jumps, weighted runs, sprints, Romanian deadlifts, tire flips, and [we] get the sledgehammer and slam that thing down.”
Diet
Korean BBQ beef and kimchi are dietary staples.
Training Tech
Chamley-Watson uses a high-speed, 1,200 fps camera for instant form and technique feedback as part of his training prep with Red Bull. He’s even able to track his eyeballs during advances.
9 of 9
Ashton Eaton
Age: 28 Height: 6’1″ Weight: 185 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Medals: Gold (2012) Bio: Considered by some as the “Greatest Athlete in the World,” Eaton won gold at the 2012 London Games and the World Championships in 2013 and 2015 where he broke his own decathlon record. He is married to Olympic heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada.SEE ALSO:The Best Yogurt For Muscle Gains
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Training Frequency
”We practice six days a week, a couple of events each day. Hurdles and heights, with a short sprinting workout on Monday; long jump and pole vault, with a 400-meter speed and endurance workout on Wednesday.On Friday we do events that we haven’t touched on. Tuesdays and Thursdays are throwing days with [a] javelin, discus, shot put, and weightlifting with a focus on upper and lower body. We do a circuit on Saturdays.”
Diet
Eats Greek yogurt every morning with muesli and some honey, on occasion. “On harder-training days I’ll also have eggs and toast [to] round out my breakfast. For lunch I do my ‘food boards.’ I take a cutting board and put carrots, green beans—or some kind of other vegetables—pickles, meats, cheeses, and I graze. At dinner it’s simple and basic: I alternate protein sources of chicken, steak, fish, and pork, and I try to pack in a lot of veggies.”
For thousands of athletes, competing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Aug. 5-21) will be the climax of everything they have trained for their entire lives. Check out how USA’s elite athletes have trained using traditional methods as well as the latest technology to gain that 1% advantage to win gold.
Age: 28 Height: 5’9” Weight: 163 pounds Sport: Freestyle Wrestling Previous Olympics: 2012 Medals: Gold (2012) Bio: The 2016 Olympic games in Rio will mark Burroughs second time representing the USA in freestyle wrestling, but the University of Nebraska alum has been dominating top-level competition long before he donned a team USA singlet. The returning gold medalist boasts two D1 NCAA championships, three World Championship gold medals and two first-place finishes at the Pan American Games. Come to think of it, it may be easier to list all of the times he didn’t finish first. After all, with a Twitter handle like “@alliseeisgold,” that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Factoids
He was inspired by Macho Man Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior.
Despite his dominance, Burroughs had a 16-13 record his freshman year of college before amassing a 111-6 record for the next three years.
Key Workout Tips & Advice:
Toughest Workout
“Our coach will put me in the middle of the wrestling room and have two guys try to take me down and then sub out after 30 seconds.” They do this for six minutes straight (the length of a match).”
Diet
“I start to cut all the bad stuff out of my diet about two weeks before a competition. That means no carbs, bread, pasta, rice, juice, or soda. Only water, grilled veggies, chicken, beef, or fish.”
Cheat Meal
Bacon cheeseburger, vanilla milkshake, and doughnuts.
Norik Vardanian
Age: 29 Height: 5’9” Weight: 207 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: The son of Armenian Olympic gold medalist Urik Vardanian, the younger Vardanian holds the American record in the snatch (172kg). Norik, who was born in Armenia, competed for them at the 2012 London Games. He’s currently dating fellow weightlifter, and Rio Games athlete, Jenny Arthur.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Biggest Hurdle
“Having that mental strength to overcome a workout, but more important, knowing that the next morning I have to be back at the gym bright and early.”
Prep Pointer
“With anything we do, I like to use a barbell because it’s what we lift with in competition.”
Training Tech
Vardanian uses an iPad to record his form and then reviews the film with his coaches using the Coach’s Eye app that slows the footage down.
Diet
His typical breakfast: two eggs, yogurt, toast with honey, and coffee with cream, no sugar. On occasion, he makes “a killer French toast.”
Recovery
Logging two-a-day workouts three times per week requires adequate recovery methods. Vardanian alternates between 20 minutes in the hot tub and an ice bath, then steams to reduce lactic acid three days per week.
Jake Dalton
Age: 24 Height: 5’6” Weight: 148 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: While gymnasts are known for having the world’s most impressive physiques, Olympian Jake Dalton still caught our eye with his Larry Scott–like sleeve stretchers. But Dalton isn’t all show and no go. The Reno, NV, native has accumulated three National titles in both the floor (2011, 2012, and 2014); and vault (2009, 2011, and 2013) categories. Don’t be surprised if you see him flexing his muscles all the way to the top of the podium in Rio.
Getting back into a pre- competition routine after a hiatus. “We call it the grind… you have to split your routine in half [at first]. It’s a grueling process. It’s physically and mentally hard because you’re going through a failing process.”
Go-to-Move
Handstand Pushups: “I really enjoy handstand pushups because they involve your entire body. They help build balance and strength at the same time and you have to use your core to keep your body straight, which helps when you get into trouble or a little off balance during a routine.”
Training Tech
Dalton uses an Under Armour heart rate monitor to assess conditioning and daily calories burned.
Shakur Stevenson
Age: 19 Height: 5’6” Weight: 123 pounds Bio: Named after rapper Tupac Shakur, the boxing version has amassed a 23–0 international record and is the only boxer to capture both the 2013 Junior World Championship and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games gold medal. Stevenson plans on being the first U.S. male boxer since Andre Ward (2004) to win gold.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Training Frequency
Three sessions per day—strength, skill work, sparring—at an hour and a half each.
Toughest Workout
Three minutes of sprinting followed by one minute of rest to simulate boxing rounds. “With three training sessions a day, there’s no room for anything like school or a social life.” Stevenson even watches boxing on YouTube every night before going to sleep.
Intensity Tip
Though there’s no need to sprint for a full three minutes, intervals of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off should do the trick.
Pre-Match Ritual
Bumping jams by 50 Cent and snacking on kiwi before every fight.
Nick Lucena
Age: 36 Height: 6’1″ Weight: 190 pounds Bio: “The Greyhound,” the 2015 USA Volleyball Men’s Beach Player of the Year, has one milestone to check off his volleyball bucket list—the Olympics. When Lucena gets to Rio, he will face the pressure of knowing this may be his last chance to leave his mark on Olympic history.
“Lifting is 100% the biggest [thing] keeping my career going. I have always been a good athlete, but as I get older, staying in shape by lifting is the most important.”
Workout
Four of his five days a week in the gym include everything from squats, power cleans, Romanian dead-lifts, and trunk work for the core.
Pre-Match Ritual
Pumping Metallica and Rage Against the Machine.
Training Tech
Tendo Sports Machines allow Lucena and his trainer to monitor peak velocity and peak power while lifting to best monitor and measure performance. A heart monitor synced to the MyFitnessPal app ensures heart rate spikes and recovery match up in the gym as well as on the sand.
Cheat Meal
Chick-fil-A twice a week and “not ashamed of it!”
Phil Dalhausser
Age: 36 Height: 6’9″ Weight: 198 pounds Previous Olympics: 2008, 2012 Medals: Gold (2008) Bio: “The Thin Beast” scored Olympic gold in Beijing with then- partner Todd Rogers, and he’ll attempt to recapture the top spot with his first pro partner, Nick Lucena. The duo teamed up from 2003–05, and reunited in 2015.
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Pre-Match Warmup
Band exercises for shoulders, run to get loose, forward and side lunges, another smaller band for glute exercises such as crab and sidestep walks, dead bugs to get the core firing fol- lowed by pepper—rallying the ball back and forth—with his partner.
Try It
Speed Sled: Push a 45-pound sled about 20 yards 20 times. Aim to complete all 20 pushes in about 10 minutes, resting 30 seconds in between each rep/push. “The speed sled is awful, but it gets the heart rate high.”
Cheat Meal
Burger and fries
Motivation
Two months before the 2012 Games, two blood clots sent Dalhausser to the hospital for five days; he was on blood thinners for a month and unable to practice.
Miles Chamley-Watson
Age: 26 Height: 6’4″ Weight: 185 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Bio: With his platinum blond hair and modeling side-gigs, fencing’s bad boy has earned six gold medals in international competition. He’s looking for-ward to one thing in Rio: “kicking everyone’s ass.”
Key Workout Tips & Advice
Training Frequency
Four boxing sessions per week along with his fencing training, and strength and conditioning work- outs. “We do a lot of explosive workouts [with] cleans, box jumps, weighted runs, sprints, Romanian deadlifts, tire flips, and [we] get the sledgehammer and slam that thing down.”
Diet
Korean BBQ beef and kimchi are dietary staples.
Training Tech
Chamley-Watson uses a high-speed, 1,200 fps camera for instant form and technique feedback as part of his training prep with Red Bull. He’s even able to track his eyeballs during advances.
Ashton Eaton
Age: 28 Height: 6’1″ Weight: 185 pounds Previous Olympics: 2012 Medals: Gold (2012) Bio: Considered by some as the “Greatest Athlete in the World,” Eaton won gold at the 2012 London Games and the World Championships in 2013 and 2015 where he broke his own decathlon record. He is married to Olympic heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada.
”We practice six days a week, a couple of events each day. Hurdles and heights, with a short sprinting workout on Monday; long jump and pole vault, with a 400-meter speed and endurance workout on Wednesday.On Friday we do events that we haven’t touched on. Tuesdays and Thursdays are throwing days with [a] javelin, discus, shot put, and weightlifting with a focus on upper and lower body. We do a circuit on Saturdays.”
Diet
Eats Greek yogurt every morning with muesli and some honey, on occasion. “On harder-training days I’ll also have eggs and toast [to] round out my breakfast. For lunch I do my ‘food boards.’ I take a cutting board and put carrots, green beans—or some kind of other vegetables—pickles, meats, cheeses, and I graze. At dinner it’s simple and basic: I alternate protein sources of chicken, steak, fish, and pork, and I try to pack in a lot of veggies.”
