1. Positive Attitude

To be an Olympic athlete, the core component of your training is embracing a positive attitude. If you embrace a positive attitude you will find it much easier to pick yourself up when you are down, fight through any failure and you will come ahead in the end. Winners have a positive attitude which helps to create success. To train like an Olympic athlete there will be intense training that you will find critical for a positive attitude.

2. Intense Training

To be an Olympic athlete you must train like an Olympic athlete, with intense training along with a variety. Based on the sport you are training for, you must have a program with workouts to build strength and endurance along with flexibility. Your intense training should also focus on core strength to help prevent injury.

3. Motivation

For Olympians to push for 6-8 hours a day in intense exercise this will take pure motivation, so find what is your fuel? Find the inner strength to push from within no matter how fatigued you may be. Most Olympians find their drive to come from pure passion. If you love the sport you are training for, you will push that much harder in your training and also in competitions.

4. Proper Nutrition

In order to perform optimally you need to fuel like an Olympian, with plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and protein. You wouldn’t expect your car to run without proper fuel, so how can you expect your body to run without the proper nutrition? Feed your body proper nutrition so you can perform effectively and go for the gold!

5. Dynamic Stretching

Dynamic stretching or stretching in motion is important both pre and post workout to help lubricate your joints, decrease risk of injury and elevate your heart rate to prepare for training or a completion. This stretching should last anywhere from 3-5 minutes.

6. Sleep

Sleep is an integral component of Olympic training which will determine your level of performance. Most Olympic athletes require anywhere between 9-11 hours of sleep a night. This large sleep requirement produces great results in athletic performance as well as recovery. Ample sleep is one of the things that separates them from the rest because they know when it is time to catch some extra Zzzzzzs.

7. Believing in Yourself

No matter how hard of a training day or the disappointment of a loss in a competition, an Olympian always believes in themselves and picks themselves up when they are down. They are fierce, fun and down right amazing because they believe in themselves no matter what! If you wait for someone else to do this, you just may be waiting your entire life so stop waiting. Believe in yourself and know that you are capable of amazing things. If you believe you will achieve a world of greatness.

Now that you know a few of the core components of Olympic training, are you ready to embark on this journey? If not, why not just up the ante on your own training and create some new goals? Good luck, good health and go get 'em!