What is Michael Phelps' training routine? Everything you need to know about the legendary swimmer's diet and weight training regiment
Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps has had an illustrious career. The American's achievements include 28 Olympics, 33 world championships, and several world records.
Phelps' unparalleled achievements were a result of unwavering dedication to rigorous and resolute training sessions. He followed a daily training routine, not skipping training sessions even on birthdays or any holidays. He swam 13 km every day for six to seven days a week, totaling an impressive 80,000m every week.
The former Olympian divided his training into two sessions - swimming and weight training. He spent an average of five to six hours in the pool in a day. His swimming sessions included six sets with 50 repetitions of sidekicks, Butterfly swimming drills, Pull buoy, 25 repetitions of butterfly, 50 repetitions of freestyle, and four sets of individual medley and ab exercises.
The retired American swimmer also carried out functional and weight training thrice a week that included 3 sets with 10-16 repetitions of standing dumbbell press, front raise, lateral shoulder, and raise Compound movements.
To complement his arduous training regime, Phleps followed a nutritional diet,, consuming around 12,000 calories per day. His breakfast included fried egg sandwiches, two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelette, one bowl of porridge, three sugar-coated slices of Fench toast, and three choco chip pancakes.
The former swimmers' lunch included half a kg of pasta, two large ham and cheese sandwiches and an energy drink. His dinner consisted of pasta with carbonara sauce, a large pizza, and energy drinks.
A brief look at Michael Phelps' swimming career
Beginning his swimming career in his formative years, Michael Phelps made his Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Following the debut, he competed at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships, breaking his first world record in the 200m butterfly event. He achieved this feat as the youngest male swimmer to set a world record, at the age of 15. The American further went on to shatter 39 world records, the highest number of world records broken by a male swimmer.
He bagged six gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, eight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and four at the 2012 London Olympics. Before retiring from the sport, Phelps bagged five gold and one silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.