Melissa Stockwell is aware of a factor or two concerning the worth of being well-rounded as an athlete.
A 3-time Paralympian, Stockwell competed as a swimmer within the 2008 Beijing Video games earlier than discovering the triathlon. “I fell in love with it from the beginning—the problem of all three sports activities,” she says. She received bronze within the paratriathlon within the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Video games, and can vie for one more medal on September 1 in Paris.
“Once I was a swimmer, we’d swim 12 to fifteen hours every week, and that’s an enormous toll on the shoulders,” she says. “Now, it’s not simply my shoulders taking the toll. I’m spreading the like to all components of the physique, which may also help with harm, assist with fatigue, and assist your physique be sturdy as a complete.”
In a health tradition the place daring, clickbaity statements loom giant—we have all seen the headlines {that a} sure kind of train will someway repair all of your issues—there’s one thing refreshing about occasions just like the triathlon, the place athletes embody the very definition of well-roundedness as they swim, bike, and run.
And it’s not simply elite athletes who can profit from being a jack-of-many-trades. We spoke to Stockwell and two of her paratriathlon teammates concerning the significance of being well-rounded, and what on a regular basis health lovers can study from how they practice.
1. Health must be enjoyable
Rachel Watts, who will make her Paralympic debut in Paris, says the numerous coaching of the triathlon helps her faucet right into a childlike sense of play.
“I really feel like I’m nonetheless a child after I do triathlon,” she says. “Our earliest playful motion was working round within the yard, or hopping on a motorcycle, or swimming classes. So I get to, as an grownup, play within the ways in which introduced me probably the most pleasure as a child.”
You don’t have to be swimming, biking, and working to channel your internal child: Perhaps you be a part of an grownup leisure group of the game you performed in center faculty to steadiness out your typical fitness center routine, or take a category in a new-to-you type of motion like ballet, browsing, or martial arts.
“Incorporate energy coaching, take a yoga class, take a Pilates class. There’s no hurt in making an attempt. Simply preserve making an attempt to maintain your complete physique pieced collectively and wholesome, and preserve issues attention-grabbing on the similar time.” —Melissa Stockwell, paratriathlete
2. Extra variation means fewer overuse accidents
Like Stockwell, Watts specialised in a single sport—working—earlier than switching to the triathlon. “Once I was a runner, I’d have overuse accidents quite a bit,” she says. Now, triathlon coaching has helped her discover steadiness in her physique and keep away from the accidents that always include repeating the identical actions again and again.
Emma Meyers, additionally a Paralympic debutante, says one other perk of the triathlon—and of being a well-rounded athlete normally—is that if you do get injured, it doesn’t essentially need to cease you from coaching altogether. (As an example, if you happen to develop plantar fasciitis from working, you may nonetheless hit the pool for some laps.)
Though the concept of doing three distinct sports activities can really feel intimidating, Watts says she truly thinks this variation makes the triathlon extra accessible than different sports activities as a result of decrease harm danger. “Anyone can do it,” she says. “It’s simpler to do three sports activities than one sport as a result of it permits [the activities] to remain novel and never get monotonous—and you do not get these overuse accidents.”
3. Restoration days are key
A well-rounded health routine isn’t nearly balancing energy and cardio, or dabbling in a number of sports activities. It’s additionally about various depth, Stockwell says.
For her, that appears like a mixture of speed-based work (like sprints and intervals), tempo work (medium-intensity efforts for longer durations to construct endurance), and restoration days. “If I have been to exit each day and attempt to run the quickest 5K I can, that’s most likely not going to prove very effectively,” she says.
These restoration days, which frequently appear like working or biking at a simple tempo, are particularly essential, she says. “That’s what units me up for achievement for the remainder of the week.”
Watts agrees that relaxation and restoration—for each the physique and the thoughts—are integral components of a well-rounded athlete’s routine. “I’ve leg compression boots that I like to make use of each evening, I do cupping, I take ice baths, I do scraping,” she says. “After which simply breathwork—taking a pause to assist me cease specializing in the following factor I ought to do and as a substitute simply let my physique relaxation and be.”
4. Steadiness in health equals steadiness in life
Don’t be mistaken: Discovering steadiness between the triathlon’s three disciplines comes with main challenges, Watts says. “It’s irritating as a result of I would need to spend 5 days simply dialing in on my working type, however there’s not a chance to try this, as a result of then I’m letting my swimming and biking go on the again burner,” she says. “If I focus too laborious on one side, what am I letting go along with one other? It’s about not overdoing it in any of them so I could be profitable in all three.”
If that appears like a metaphor for all times, that’s as a result of it’s, Watts says. The fixed negotiations of triathlon coaching have taught her life classes, like being versatile sufficient to regulate on the fly and accepting that even if you happen to can’t do all of it, you may nonetheless do one thing.
The excellent news for these of us who aren’t elite triathletes: There’s no have to purpose for perfection in anyone self-discipline. As a substitute, preserve an open thoughts and don’t be afraid to be a newbie at one thing, Stockwell suggests.
“Incorporate energy coaching, take a yoga class, take a Pilates class,” she says. “There’s no hurt in making an attempt. Simply preserve making an attempt to maintain your complete physique pieced collectively and wholesome, and preserve issues attention-grabbing on the similar time.”
