Mikaela Shiffrin is a popular American World Cup alpine ski racer who is a key member of the United States Ski Team. When you look at her performances and her form, you can’t help but wonder what she does to stay fit. If this question has popped into your head too then, you might want to know her exact diet plan right here. You can also know about her favorite workout move.
Preferred Workout Move
The athlete says that she sprints 200 meters after every 60 seconds and does it for an hour. While doing it, her focus is on the sprint technique in which she makes sure that her arms are coordinated with foot strides so that she can use her momentum to get the most powerful steps possible.
The start requires a lot of discipline and precision as a lot depends on arm movement coordinating with exploding off the starting blocks which helps her to get her first stride quickly. Mikaela also believes that the first three steps are essential to get the actual start and for ensuring swift momentum.
Talking about when she does it, the stunner says that she does three sprint workouts every week and doesn’t always do intervals. Sometimes, her workout consists of 20 minutes of technique work and drills. She uses it as a warm-up for one of her strength sessions.
She is a fan of this workout method because sprinting is quite explosive like skiing and needs a lot of discipline. Both sports also need a lot of technique and require you to be powerful and strong while being agile as well.
This exercise method is a killer because it lasts just 60 seconds but still needs you to have power, strength, coordination, aggression, and balance. All these are essential for skiing too so sprinting is an awesome way to cross train for ski racing.
No Additional Mass
Mikaela Shiffrin’s coach Jeff Lackie says that athletes should not have additional mass because gravity is essential for them. But at the same time, the strength to weight ratio cannot be ignored. In his opinion, an optimum downhill body type is that which can overcome up to three times its bodyweight during big direction changes or jumps and can still get into an aerodynamic position along with being fluid and dynamic on the skis.
With Shiffrin, he is constantly trying to find a balance where she has the power and strength to be competitive in all events. He believes that they have found a pretty good balance at the moment.
Diet Philosophy
Balance and moderation are an essential component of her diet philosophy. Her diet usually includes a lot of proteins, fruits and vegetable consumption throughout the day. She has about 3,000 calories a day and ensures that she eats carbs with every meal.
The Unusual Superfood
The Colorado-born says that pasta is her superfood because it provides her with the energy she needs, especially on race days that can last up to 12 hours. She says that though she won’t eat a 1,000-calorie pasta for dinner, it’s a good addition to any meal and serves as an awesome base for all vegetables. It also helps her soothe the nerves and a jittery stomach before the race day. She is partial to Barilla pasta and its multigrain ProteinPLUS version that’s loaded with protein, fiber and ALA omega 3.
Diet Plan
Breakfast
The participant of 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang starts her day with two slices of whole wheat toast and two eggs. Sometimes, she prefers simple cereal or oatmeal with fruit. Breakfast gives her a kickstart of energy in the mornings, so she picks her foods carefully.
Lunch
In lunch, the sports star has lean protein like fish or chicken with some salad to get her carbs in.
Snack
If she feels hungry between meals, she munches on a mix of seeds, dried mangoes, and nuts as they fill her up and are easy to carry around.
Dinner
During dinner, she likes to have a steak, pasta with roasted or steamed vegetables.
Dessert
Her focus is always on having simple and well-balanced meals, but like most of us, she indulges every once in a while and has some chocolate as a preferred indulgence.
Featured Image by Manfred Werner / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0