Girl Athletes
Last week I talked about the incredible fitness of two famous male athletes. However, there are plenty of women who practice clean eating and great physical fitness as well.
Kara Goucher
For those of you who do not know who this is, Kara Goucher is a world-famous distance runner. She is also a mom of a four year old as well as a wife to professional runner Adam Goucher. In 2012, GOucher won the USA Half Marathon Championships in a speedy time of 1:09:46. Goucher eats “whatever she wants” but looks at food as fuel for her body to recover and revamp her for workouts. When you loook at food and look at how it is really going to affect your body, it is easy to tell why Goucher is so fit because she knows everything she puts into her body has a consequence on her new workout. When training for the half marathon, Goucher was putting in about 130-135 miles per week. To put that into perspective, that is about 19 miles per day! Goucher not only focuses on running, which she does a whole lot of, but she does a lot of core training and flexibility exercises. In order to be able to successfully compete and be the best athlete you can be, stretching is crucial. Goucher incorporates a lot of stretching before and after every workout.
Serena Williams
Most of you proabnly recognize this athlete. Serena is an incredible tennis player and has won 17 Grand Slams throughtout her carreer. In the 2012 Olympics, Serena won the gold in both singles and doubles. Williams, unlike Goucher has an incredible amount of muscle mass. While Goucher represents a typical runner’s body, Serena is a powerhouse. Her workout routine consists of three to four hours of tennis daily, followed by strength training and cardio. Her powerful serves and hits show highlight how strong Serena truly is. She also practices yoga and pilates multiple times per week to gain flexibility and balance. As for her diet, Serena recently became vegan, eliminating all meat from her diet. This is a very bold move considering most professional althetes not only eat meat, but require it for them to stay on top of their game. However, Serena remains a powerful athlete embodied physical fitness at its finest.
Although these athletes take excersining and healthy eating very important, as their athletic performance is their job, we can learn a lot of applicable lessons from them. Do you idolize any female athletes? Are you a fan of the two ladies I just discussed? Share your thoughts about female athletes!
Sources:
http://serenawilliams.com/about/
http://health.india.com/fitness/how-2013-us-open-champion-serena-williams-stays-fit/
http://karagoucher.competitor.com
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Post #17: Women Athletes | Fight Against the Freshman Fifteen
I never knew that Serena Williams became a vegan. I have a lot of respect for anyone who has the willpower to keep with it and I am even more impressed because she is a professional athlete. I once read an article about body builders who were vegan. I think part of the problem is finding food to maintain a vegan lifestyle. One of my friends here at college, Steph, is a vegan and she only has a few options no matter where we go to eat. I still can’t believe people would be willing to give up ice cream for the rest of their lives.