Are you one of the fittest athletes?

Here is a good article from the American Council on Exercise (ACE).  It talks about who the fittest athletes are.  Although I may be a bit judgemental in this area (no athlete is as fit as someone who can compete and finish the Tour de France...clean...2500+ miles in 3 weeks over mountainous terrain and varied temperatures/weather, and at the speeds they do it in).  However, the article took more than just endurance and power, and mental strength into account.  In fact, several factors were taken into consideration and the results were a little surprising.

Click here to read the full article.

Rubberball Photos

Here is a sample of one of Todd Durkin's (owner of Fitness Quest 10) workout's for some of his fittest athletes that he trains.  Are you up for a challenge?

by Jim Gerard
How the Fittest Train
Now that we’ve reached educated conclusions about the fittest athletes, you may be wondering what kind of training it takes to become one. Durkin, who trains many pro athletes, gave us a detailed look. In the off-season his charges will do a 45- to 60-minute high-intensity interval workouts three to four times a week. As the season approaches, they’ll work out longer (up to two-and-a-half hours a day), working both the upper and lower body, incorporating weights and on-field sport-specific activities. A typical weekly breakdown is:

• Monday and Thursday: lower body and core
• Tuesday and Friday: upper body
• A peak workout for the lower body consists of some combination of squats, lunges, side lunges, plyometrics, single leg Romanian deadlifts, kettlebell swings and lateral band walks (for the hips), using a Superband. Core work includes exercises using the TRX Suspension Trainer, Swiss balls and BOSU balls, push-passes with a medicine ball, total gym knee tucks and rotational training work for the hips and core on the TRX Rip Trainer. “We’ll do four to six lower-body exercises, plus five to 10 sets of core training,” Durkin says.
• The next day, the upper-body work consists of four to six exercises (two to four sets of each) from among the following: balance-board push-ups, stability ball dumbbell bench press, TRX rows, Total Gym pull-ups, TRX movements for the shoulder and back, and one-arm rows and other traditional strength-training exercises on machines or with free weights. He also uses relatively esoteric equipment such as fat bars (which are thicker, harder-to-grip barbells) or rice buckets (to strengthen fingertip grip).
• Some days Durkin adds 30 to 40 minutes of agility drills that replicate moves on the field (with a 1:2 or 1:3 work-to-rest ratio; that is, 20 seconds of work, 40 seconds of rest) using cones, ladders, hurdles and Superbands.
• If those weren’t enough, he adds supplementary exercises for the neck, feet and ankles.

So, if as Chang says, “the fittest athlete is in the eye of the beholder,” anyone who can survive Durkin’s workouts can probably claim the mantle.