POPSUGAR

Here's What an Olympic Athlete's Training Schedule Looks Like (Hint: It's Not Easy)

Apr 22 2016 - 11:48am

Training for the Olympics is no joke, and few people have their formula down quite like swimmer Natalie Coughlin [1]. The 12-time Olympic medalist knows a thing or two about consistency, as she's been competing (and winning) for about two decades. This year, she's gearing up for the Summer 2016 Olympics in hopes of qualifying for Team USA [2] yet again via the trials, so she's got quite a busy training schedule.

For the past three years, her training schedule has been EXACTLY the same, every day. Natalie is in the water about eight times a week, and each of those swim sessions runs anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. Add in her gym time four times a week — in which she's weightlifting and cross training — for about the same duration, and you've got nearly 30 hours of intense workouts, every single week. "It's pretty hectic," Natalie told us. "I work out Monday through Saturday, and I have Sundays off."

We're seriously impressed but also wondering: how does that look in terms of day-to-day life? Each day is scheduled out. Here's what it looks like:

Ready to see all this hard work pay off? We're cheering on Natalie and hoping we'll see her in the Olympic games, starting Aug. 5 [3].


Source URL
https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Olympic-Swimmer-Natalie-Coughlin-Training-Schedule-41038115