What Habits Can We Learn From Olympic Athletes?

Every four years, the Winter Olympic Games draw millions of people to their screens. We discuss their performances, cheer for them, pick our favorite teams or athletes, and even feel sad when they lose.

While we watch them perform, we sometimes think about whether we could do it better. Although we likely know the answer, we still feel curious. It might even motivate us to join a gym or try a new sport.

Before signing up for a membership, why not take a few lessons from professional athletes? In this article, we examine what habits from athletes' training routines we could implement in ours.

Mental resilience

You took out your old running shoes and decided it was time for you to hit your training goals. At the start, everything seemed to be going smoothly. First, you ran a few miles, and you kept increasing the distance. Until one week you have decided to skip, and then your running shoes ended up in a closet once again. Sounds familiar?

Professional athletes also face this problem. The difference is that, over time, they have built mental resilience. It is a dynamic process of bouncing back to normal after stressors. In sports, it can be something as simple as failure, self-doubt, injury, or work-life balance. However, it’s an area we need to improve in to avoid quitting.

There are five main psychological components that define mental resilience:

1. Internal sports motivation drives athletes to start and maintain their participation in their sport. It is a key factor in their behavior.
2. Self-efficacy is how athletes judge their ability to plan and carry out the actions needed to reach their goals. It can affect how hard they try and how much they enjoy their sport.
3. Coping strategies are the ways athletes adjust their thoughts and actions to handle challenges.
4. Optimism defines the positive outlook athletes have about their future. It is linked to confidence, mental toughness, good results, and overall well-being.
5. Hope is planning toward success.

Visualization

If you ever imagined things as a kid and everyone thought you were weird, you can have the last laugh now — this skill might actually help you achieve sports goals. According to a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Physician and Founder of CartiNova, Dr. Trevor Turner, visualization is a highly powerful method for cultivating the right mindset to achieve success.

For example, American Freestyle Skier Emily Cook, who competed in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, gave The New York Times a detailed account of how she imagines her performances. She would record herself explaining every little step of how she wanted the jump to turn out, then listen to it.

Even recent studies support the theory that athletes who can effectively visualize skills, strategies, goals, and emotions tend to perform better.

Understanding training zones

Here’s what Dr. Turner shares about training zones:

“Most athletes spend the majority of their training in zone 2, which can be measured with a VO2 max test. Only about 20% of their time is spent doing high-intensity interval training. This mix helps people balance the intensity and duration of their training. Also, most aerobic exercises give the most benefit in the first 60 minutes, with less improvement after that. So, unless you’re training for a special competition, working out for 60 minutes or less is usually enough for good heart health.”

How do you determine if you are training in zone 2? First, calculate your maximum heart rate (MHR). The most common formula for that is: MHR = 220 – Age. Let’s say you are 25 years old. That means 220 – 25 = 195 beats per minute.

When you know your MHR, you can determine your training zone by using the most common percentage ranges:

1. Zone 1 (recovery) 50–60% of MHR (warming up or cooling down)
2. Zone 2 (aerobic) 60–70% of MHR (building endurance, burning fat)
3. Zone 3 (tempo) 70–80% of MHR (expanding strength)
4. Zone 4 (threshold) 80–90% of MHR (speed and power gains)
5. Zone 5 (anaerobic) 90–100% of MHR (all-max out)

However, this is a general calculation that might be helpful for amateurs or beginners. If you are striving for more accurate information, a personalised assessment is needed.

Seeking help from a specialist

If you have ever paid attention to professional sports, you definitely noticed that behind an athlete’s success stands a group of people: psychologists, trainers, and other staff. There is nothing wrong with going to the gym by yourself, but if you are striving for specific goals, a talk with a specialist might be helpful.

“Athletes often train to excel at a very narrow skill set, whereas people training for life rather than competition may train for a much broader skill set,” Dr. Turner adds. “Then, having a coach look at training volume and intensity over time can be a prudent way to reach goals and limit injuries due to fatigue or overuse. Especially if there is an existing mobility or technical limitation.”

Science also supports these claims. A 2022 study examined three different training methods: individual, with a friend, and with a trainer. Their findings suggest that personal trainer guidance may lead to the most comprehensive improvements, including greater strength, significant fat loss, better diet adherence, and lower injury rates.

If you think trainers are only for professional athletes because, unlike you, they do only high-intensity exercises, think again. Strength and Conditioning Specialist Kori Lyn Angers breaks the myth:

“In reality, their programs are built on basic human movement patterns done exceptionally well — squatting, hinging, rotating, resisting rotation, gait work, and carries. Exercise selection is always a risk-versus-reward decision. Even with advanced athletes, we aim for the minimum effective dose to get the desired adaptation while minimizing injury risk. Every movement, set, and rep has a purpose. Progress comes from respecting how the human body adapts, not chasing trends or constant novelty.”

The importance of recovery

You hit the 6-month mark at the gym and felt really proud of yourself. Hard work paid off, and you finally saw some results. Even so, your body started signaling you about potential burnout, but you kept pushing yourself because you thought that taking a break might make you lazy.

However, it may be quite the opposite. Recovery plays a key role in sports success, as your body also needs to rest to perform.

For example, Olympic endurance sports coaches adjust their athletes' training schedules every 3–4 weeks, reducing physical activity. This means they have 1–2 fewer training sessions and a 25–35% reduction in training hours. Of course, days off are allowed too.

As it turns out, sleep and nutrition are the most powerful recovery tools, according to Angers. “Everything else — cryotherapy, red light therapy, massage, yoga — can be helpful, but they’re supplemental. Without adequate sleep and proper fuel, the body can’t get stronger, leaner, or more resilient,” she adds.

You don’t actually get stronger while you’re working out since that’s when your body is being stressed and broken down, Angers explains further. “Sleep is where repair happens, and nutrition provides the raw materials for muscle, joint health, and nervous system performance.”

Final words

Watching sports on TV can be really entertaining, but the real joy comes from knowing you’ve reached your training goals. Athletes can be great examples of determination and inspire us on our sports journey. However, success depends on knowledge — recovery, nutrition, training details, and mindset matter just as much as results.