“Gusto mo bang maging katulad ni Carlos Yulo?”
Not his millions, but his gold medal-winning stamina.
Olympic athletes are known for their almost superhuman endurance, pushing their bodies to limits that seem unattainable to most of us.
In this post, we’ll uncover the secrets to elite performance and discuss 5 ways everyday folks can have Olympic-level fitness—not to represent the country in the next Olympiad, but to live healthy, happy, and productive lives.
#1 Consistency Over Intensity
Consistency is the death of many a New Year’s Resolution.
It's not about going all-out for a few days or weeks and then burning out.
Olympic athletes build their endurance over time. They develop routines that they stick to for months and years until it becomes a lifestyle.
Intensity is built very gradually, and not overnight.
Long-distance runners often spend weeks (or even months) running at a slower pace. The steady effort builds their aerobic capacity, allowing them to endure longer and perform better when it counts. Cyclists follow a similar pattern too, riding for hours at a time, gradually increasing their distance and speed.
If you’re starting a fitness routine, don’t go all-out in your first days. It will surely backfire. Your body will remember the trauma of the intense workout, and your brain will start looking for excuses not to go through it again. A fitness routine or habit will never form.
Do you want to build an exercise routine? Start light. Even laughably light—so easy that in your head you’ll be thinking, “I can do this no problem.”
Maybe start with 5 minutes of light workout—a little stretching, then you’re done.
Then for the next day, maybe do it for 6 minutes. Then 7.
Then, when you have momentum and hints of a routine showing up, slowly build up the intensity. Build it very gradually and so slowly that your body will be asking for a challenge, thinking, “This is too easy, I’m not even sweating!”
Don’t give in to that temptation. Don’t force things. No big jumps.
Slowly build intensity and duration, and progress every day. Consistency is the name of the game.
Before you know it, you’ll be approaching elite athlete levels.
#2 Mix low-intensity workouts with high-intensity bursts
Swimmers, for example, will often switch between long, steady-paced laps and quick, high-intensity sprints during their training sessions. Soccer players also do the same and balance endurance runs with short bursts of sprinting. This combination ensures they’re prepared for both sustained activity and moments of intense effort.
One is aerobic—low-intensity, longer-duration routines exemplified in jogging or cycling. The other is anaerobic—short but intense, bursts of energy—like High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), weight training, and jump squats. The first one typically lasts 30 minutes. The other lasts as short as 10 seconds.
These two train your body in different ways. Aerobic activities strengthen the heart and lungs, improving oxygen delivery. Anaerobic increases heart and lung capacity.
You need both. So vary the duration and intensity of your exercises. And remember, when you’re building intensity, do it gradually so you don’t burn out.
#3 Focus on Recovery and Sleep
Building stamina doesn’t just happen while you're training—it happens while you’re resting.
During a workout, muscles undergo stress and deplete their stored glycogen. They require rest to recover and get better.
During resistance training or high-intensity workouts, muscle fibers experience damage, known as “microtears.” When this happens, the body responds by sending support to heal these microtears. And that’s how you build bigger and stronger muscles.
Without rest, repair is incomplete and the individual can be at risk for injury.
It may not look like it, but sleep is very important for building endurance—allowing your muscles to repair and replenish their energy stores. A lack of sleep doesn’t just get you eye bags. It negatively affects performance, and leads to burnout or injury.
The most decorated Olympian Michael Phelps may spend 5 hours a day in the water. But he makes certain that he gets 8 hours of sleep every night—in addition to the 2-3 hour naps he takes in the afternoon. Phelps considers this as one of the secrets to his success.
In addition to loads of sleep, athletes who train every day enlist the help of ice baths, massages, stretching, and even cryotherapy to aid in muscle recovery.
For everyday folks, doing 2 to 3 workout sessions a week allows enough time for the body to heal and recover.
#4 Fuel Your Body
You can’t build stamina on an empty tank. Nutrition plays a key role in the performance and endurance of Olympic athletes. Whether it’s carb-loading before a marathon or replenishing protein after a workout, athletes know how to fuel their bodies for maximum efficiency.
For sustained stamina, carbohydrates are your best friend. They are stored as glycogen in the muscles and they provide the energy needed for long-duration exercises. Athletes who are about to do long-duration competitions like marathons, distance cycling, or distance swimming load up on carbs to supersaturate the muscles with glycogen.
Meanwhile, those who just finished a session at the gym load up on proteins as these help rebuild muscle tissue after strenuous activity. (Electrolytes such as sodium and potassium are also vital to prevent cramping.)
Regular individuals who want to stay fit should have a balanced diet composed of whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, with a lot of fruits and vegetables—ensuring that they have enough fuel for whatever activity they may have in the day.
#5 The Mental Side of Endurance
Top athletes train their minds to endure just as much as their bodies. When athletes give heroic performances, it is not exactly just a physical thing. It is, in fact, a testament to their mental toughness.
Performing in front of thousands, even millions, under tremendous pressure, knowing that a centimeter or two can mean the realization of a lifelong dream or a decade of wasted effort, requires tremendous mental fortitude.
So if you want that kind of toughness in everyday life, you need to train like the athletes do.
One technique they employ is visualization—the practice of seeing or imagining events as you want them to happen. Tennis player Novak Djokovic, for example, practices visualization techniques to mentally prepare for the grind of long matches. He imagines himself winning point after point, staying calm under pressure, and ultimately achieving victory.
Studies have shown the impact of visualization on performance. Do you want mental endurance? Visualize yourself having mental endurance.
Another way elite athletes are able to push themselves is by controlling the thoughts in their heads. While other people think, “This is too hard. This is the best I can do,” elite athletes assume they have another gear to go to.
A study showed that athletes can push through what might otherwise feel like their physical limits by lowering the perceived effort. By thinking “May ibubuga pa ako,” their bodies respond accordingly.
By practicing the same techniques Olympians use, ordinary folks can strengthen their minds. By doing visualization exercises and by paying attention to how they perceive the effort exerted, they can build mental endurance like that of elite athletes.
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