One thing that rings true with every sports fan is being jealous of athletes’ bodies. Every professional athlete has a fitness trainer, coach, nutritionist and a strict regime, helping them achieve the strength, stamina and techniques they need to be the best. As a result, they usually have rippling muscles, are totally toned, and generally the envy of every sports fan around the world. 

Even if you are a sports fan who plays sports themselves, goes to the gym and eats well, you might still be wanting to go to the next level and achieve the look of your favorite athlete. How does Tom Brady achieve his NFL legend status? How does Roger Federer maintain his physique despite being one of the oldest pro tennis players in the game at thirty nine years old? How can Michael Phelps achieve THAT body? Get off your butt and close your NFL betting app, and start acting like the real thing.

 In this blog you will find out exactly how some of these guys achieve their physiques, and what you can do to try to catch up.

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Get Hench Like The Rock

Okay, so nobody can promise you that you’ll end up looking like The Rock if you work out enough. But Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, former WWE champion turned Hollywood actor, is pretty open about his gym regime and food intake. On his YouTube channel, The Rock discusses and shows his daily workout routine with simple mantras that go along with the physical activity. ‘Blood, sweat and respect. The first two you give; the last one you earn,’ says The Rock as he prepares for his gym session. 

Additionally, The Rock shares openly about his cheat meals. While he sticks to a dietary regime very strictly, his cheat meals are off-the-charts. His mentality around working out and staying big is high effort, high reward – meaning his hugely calorific cheat meals would make anyone’s mouth water. ‘When my two delicious worlds collide on my cheat day. Extra thick brioche french toast, smothered with peanut butter (personal fav) and syrup. Washed down with my Teremana Reposado tequila shaken, chilled and poured back on the rocks,’ writes The Rock on his Instagram page. Cue the food envy.

So for The Rock, getting hench isn’t all about the physical effort – it is also about the mentality behind it. That’s the difference between your average gym enthusiast and a professional athlete; athletes bring their mentality with them into their fitness regimes.

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Adding Variation

Famously, the world’s most high achieving tennis pro Serena Williams does not just play tennis to work out. Neither do most professional athletes. While they practice their sport each day, athletes apply a variety of exercises which strengthen their muscles in different ways. This allows their bodies to take a break from repetitive movement and to be challenged in a diverse way each day. 

Serena Williams practices ballet, for example, as well as tennis. Ballet is a sport which requires balance, core strength, flexibility and focus; all of which apply to tennis, too, just in different ways. No, Williams will never be a professional ballet dancer – just like a footballer who practices deadlifts won’t be a professional weightlifter. Nevertheless, adding a variety of exercises to your regime can strengthen your skills at the sport you are most passionate about.

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Physical Therapy

One of the most crucial parts of hard exercise is recovery. If you put your body through high tension and powerful fitness routines, without cooling down effectively and allowing your body to rest you could easily injure yourself. Athletes are lucky enough to have the best physical therapists who are on call at any moment to help them recover from a particularly tough day on the field; you, however, might not have that luxury. Nevertheless, if you plan to up your game fitness-wise, it is best to contact a physiotherapist, chiropractor or holistic physical therapist to help you. Regular visits with a professional physical therapist can keep your body in tip top shape while it gets fitter and stronger.

One type of physical therapy which is highly popular among athletes is cupping. Cupping involves applying glass cups to your back, neck and shoulder areas and having the air sucked out of them. This suction sensation brings blood to the surface of your skin and promotes healing and relaxation in your muscles. Have you ever seen professional swimmers with red circular marks all over their backs? This is the result of cupping. This sounds like a very painful experience, but the discomfort is mild and the results are immediate. Many athletes have cupping on a regular basis to alleviate soreness and maintain muscle relaxation.

Keeping Track

Athletes don’t just work out, they keep a workout diary. Every single meal and physical exercise is documented meticulously in order to monitor their progress and see where they went wrong if they need to make changes down the line. For a regular person, this can be a little unnecessary – if not unhealthy – but keeping track of how many workouts you have done per week, and a rough diary of the exercises you did, can definitely help track your progress. This means that if a certain style or exercise isn’t working for you, you can notice that and switch it out for something else. Keeping track also means taking “before” pictures before you begin your new regime, so you can track the visible results!

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Final Thoughts

If you want to workout like a pro, follow this helpful guide to get you started on your journey. Remember: it isn’t just a physical journey, but also a mental one. No regular person can be quite as well-carved as a professional athlete who is paid thousands per week to keep fit, but you can achieve new heights by following their advice. Stay focused, keep it varied, take care of your body and document your progress, and you are bound to successfully take your fitness to the next level.