Torres - Gold Medal Fitness

ALSO BY DARA TORRES

Age Is Just a Number

I wish to dedicate this book to my mom

for all the years of her support, encouragement,

and love, and for the sacrifices she

made to help my dreams become a reality;

and to my daughter, Tessa,

for her continued and neverending

inspiration

No book is written alone, and in the creation of this one I have many to thank, including David Hoffman, Michael Lohberg, Anne Tierney, Steve Sierra, Andy OBrien, Penny Johnson, Chris Jackson, Bruno Darzi, Mark Schubert, Richard Quick, Randy Reese, Terry Palma, and Evan Morgenstein, as well as those throughout my career who have helped me reach my athletic goals.

I would also like to thank Billie Fitzpatrick, my collaborator, who helped me capture in book form what fitness truly means; Christina Malach, my editor at Broadway/Random House, whose focus, energy, and nurturing of this project made all the difference; Diane Salvatore, whose overall publishing vision helped steer this project; Stacy Creamer, for her original belief in this book; Tammy Blake, who has been by my side for both my books, helping them reach all my readers; jacket designer Jean Traina; interior designer Songhee Kim; and Julie Sills for go-to marketing of this book. Id also like to thank Andrea Cross and Kelly Kwiatkowski of Studio 25 Design for their super photographic artistry.

Part 1

Part 2

A s an athlete, staying in shape has been my lifes work. Its also my passion and the source of my strength and confidence. When I work out, I feel most like myself and most comfortable in my body and mind. I feel motivated to continue to set new goals for myself, go after them, and give them my all. You might think that this tenacity comes from being an Olympic athlete, but I believe its the result of living in my body in an active way. Working out and staying in shape is simply how I take care of myself, and when I do this, everything else in my life falls into place. The same can happen for you. You might not have come to this book with aspirations to make the Olympics, but I can promise that what you find here will not only show you how to achieve your best physical shape, it will also inspire you to be the best you can be in all areas of your life.

Gold Medal Fitness is a five-week plan that will reshape your body through revolutionary strengthening and resistance stretching exercises that lengthen, tighten, and build your muscles. The plan will also offer a fresh, efficient way to include cardio in your workout, and share what has become my secret weaponan active recovery phase. This plan is based on the training Ive been doing for the past four years, since I made the decision, as a thirty-nine-year-old new mom, to try out for the 2008 Olympic team. Because of these cutting-edge techniques, my own fierce determination, and the support of a handful of devoted trainers, I not only went to Beijing to compete, I came home with three silver medals.

The games in Beijing were my fifth Olympics. My competitive-swimming career has spanned three decades, and Im not finished yet. As a student at the University of Florida, I earned the maximum possible number of NCAA all-American swimming awardstwenty-eightand as the first U.S. swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games, I set three world records and won twelve Olympic medals, including four gold. And Im still not finished.

This book is for all of you who dont want to hang up your suit, take off your running shoes, or give up on feelingand lookinggreat. My memoir, Age Is Just a Number, might have introduced you to me and some of the events in my life. But this book will share my workout regimen with you. We may not have exactly the same goals, but I bet we do share similar needs. Wouldnt you like to pick up your kids without your back aching? Have the energy for an early-morning workout before getting kids to school or yourself off to work? Achieve a sense of balance that enables you to feel relaxed, confident, and strong instead of depleted by the end of the day? I will show you how to achieve these resultsand morewhile getting into the best shape of your life.

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the publication of my memoir, I traveled around the country doing a book tour and making appearance as spokesperson for Hewlett-Packard, Fitness Nutrition, and other companies and organizations. During this busy year, as I continued to train for the nationals and World Championships, I met thousands of women and men of all ages who wanted to hear about how I had made a comeback as a forty-one-year-old athlete.

As I crisscrossed the country, I was struck by how many women approached me with questions. How do you do it? I cant believe youre still going so strong! Whats your secret? I began to think about how I approach training and how my regimen might actually help other peopleregardless of their age or level of athleticismget into better shape. Yes, Ive been a competitive athlete for a long time, and I probably do have a genetic edge in terms of body type and athletic skill. But I am also just like youa busy woman and mother, juggling work, child raising, and training (my primary job). And like you, my day doesnt end when I finish training for the dayI also take care of my very active four-year-old daughter. I continue to travel, give talks, and attend book promotions and other sponsor-related events. Im basically always on the run, trying to keep up with all that I have to do.

The more I thought about how to answer the myriad questions these women (as well as some men) were asking me, the more I realized that across the span of five Olympics, Ive never stopped changing, adjusting, and fine-tuning how I train and stay in shape. I think its this realization that has most inspired me to write this book: I believe that you, too, can achieve optimal fitness if you make getting and staying in shape a priority; adapt your workout routine to your bodys ever-changing needs; approach working out as an integral part of taking care of yourself; and then go for it. Training does not mean focusing on one part of your body or group of muscles; its a full-body experience and approach to taking care of yourself. For all of you women out there who think you might have what it takes to get physically fitregardless of your age, your shape, your weight, or your long list of responsibilitiesyou definitely can. But youve got to want it.

In this book I am offering a simple, straightforward plan of exercises and workouts that will strengthen your core and increase your lean muscle mass through dynamic resistance stretching techniques. You will also learn a unique strengthening approach that is absolutely essential for women (especially as women begin to feel the effects of their age) as well as a choice of cardio workoutsall based on the combination that Ive been doing with my committed group of trainers. I am now forty-three and probably in the best shape of my life, but these workouts are not just for those of us past forty. In fact, many of my teammates who are in their twenties have adapted these stretching and strengthening techniques and found amazing resultsincreasing their speed and endurance, recovering from practices and meets more quickly and with less downtime, and bouncing back from injury more fully. These women are elite-level athletes, but like me, they need to constantly work at their overall fitness in order to maintain their strength.