Michael Phelps Workout & Diet - How the King of Swimming Does It

Have you ever seen the Michael Phelps workout? He trains extremely hard going six hours a day, six days a week. No excuses. It doesn't matter if his birthday, Christmas day, or family event falls on a training day, he goes through his full day of training, no questions asked. His incredible persistence and dedication to his training has made him the champion swimmer that he is today.

Phelps combines his swimming workouts with his gym workouts.

In the pool...

Phelps spends the majority of his time training in the pool. The in-pool portion consists of swimming 80km each week (this equals to just over 13km each training day). Here's a sample of his swimming workout:

Warm Up:
6x (50 free, 50 side kick, 50 fly drill, 50 pull buoy, 50 im, 50 im)
20x 100 on 1:15min (25 fly, 50free, 25fly)
500 stroke (50 kick 50 drill)

Main Set:
2000 timed kick stroke
4x100 IM drill continuous

Pulling Set:
10x 200 on 3:00min
where odd =free (moderate pace); even=fly (fast pace)

4 Speed Set:
24x25 fly on :30min (1-ez drill, 1-no breath, 1-sprint)

End of practice:
500 abdominal exercises and static stretching [read Dynamic Stretching vs Static Stretching

Phelps likes to incorporate a lot of training tools in his swimming workouts. This lets him bring a lot of variation into his workouts.

"I use a bunch of Speedo training gear, like kickboards, pull buoys, training paddles, and snorkels," Phelps says. "I'll also listen to music during some of my longer workouts with H20 Audio's waterproof headphones."

In the gym...

Phelps spends very little time in the gym. He likes being efficient so he concentrates on epoc training. He also focuses on functional training and incorporates dry-land training.

"In preparation for Beijing, I started adding weightlifting to my dry-land work," Phelps says. "Since then, we've expanded the amount of weights I am using, and I'm running more than I ever have. Pushups and pull-ups have also always been essential."

To match his powerful stroke style of swimming, Phelps performs exercises such as the diagonal wood chopper and the straight wood chopper.

Michael Phelps offers advice on resting and recovering.

"Sleep is also a big part of my recovery," Phelps says. "It's really important that my body gets enough rest so that I'm ready to go for my next race or training session."

Phelps consumes more calories in a day than some of us do in a whole week. He consumes over 10,000 calories each training day as he takes in different types of nutrients. Compare this number to the average person's consumption of 2000 calories a day. It takes ridiculous dedication to consume this much on a regular basis. But he needs to because Phelps burns 750-1000 calories each hour of swimming. You do the math.

Phelp's typical breakfast consists of:

Before practice:
- Cereal or oatmeal

After practice
- Three fried egg sandwiches topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise
- Omelette
- Porridge
- Three pancakes
- Two cups of coffee

Phelp's lunch typically consists of:
- One pound (500g) of pasta
- Two ham and sheese sandwiches
- Energy drinks (1000 calories)

Phelp's dinner typically consists of:
- Pound (500g) of pasta
- Entire pizza
- Energy drinks
- Protein supplements