5 Fitness Principles Elite Athletes Swear By, According to Their Coach

Whether you are looking to run a marathon or you simply want to improve your bench press, taking on the principles that elite athletes swear by is a great place to start. After all, this is a group that needs to perform for a living, so if anyone knows the tricks of the trade, it would be their coach.

Jackson Gray is a strength and conditioning coach who has worked with many elite athletes and world champions as they prepared to represent Australia. He has also worked with junior athletes on their path to their first world championship events. Previously, Jackson competed at a national level as both a swimmer and a triathlete. He has recently become the new owner of Sydney’s Flow Athletic, too.

In addition to coaching athletes and working as a Coach, Jackson also landed an opportunity to implement a health program for the Mining, Construction, and Trucking industries to improve health,wellbeing and overall performance within the workplace, so if anyone knows how to get serious results, it’s Jackson. There’s are his tips to maximise your training.

Train like a Pro

Don’t Get Injured

You’ve heard it all before, “consistency is key”. Stay away from getting injured at all costs to keep the momentum rolling. Injuries happen, some are unavoidable, but others can be. Control as many variables as you can, such as having good form when lifting heavy weights, doing some strength training if you are a runner, and taking recovery seriously because you can’t get better if you can’t do anything.

Quality is King 

I had a coach when I was younger who said almost every session, “practice doesn’t make perfect – perfect practice makes perfect”. Just “getting it done” isn’t the way to elite results. I take this to heart every time I train. If I am not feeling 100%, I will still show up, but I will do the work properly, even if that means perfect form over intensity. Practising incorrectly will mean you need to fix up your form later, or you may just get injured.

The Extra 1%  

If you could package it up and sell a program that would make you 3.5x better in 12 months everyone would buy it. That’s what a 1% improvement every day for a year would do. It will go unnoticed on a day-to-day basis, but 1% is really to make a difference. Mobility, recovery, nutrition, training – they all have something you can improve on.

Frequency Matters 

Doing 2 sessions a week will get you good results but if you are training for something that you want to PERFORM at frequency matters more than ever. Elite athletes will train anywhere from 5 t 15 sessions a week, depending on their sport. Spread the load, up the intensity and results WILL follow.

Confidence

One of the best things I was told growing up was “You don’t become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are” or said another way don’t worry about building confidence, build the evidence. If you’ve done it many times before there is no reason you can’t do it again.

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