Staying Fit, Fast & Injury Free with the Legendary Greg Bennett

The Peak Performance Podcast

I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness!

Today I’m Pumped to bring you this interview with an absolute LEGEND in the sport of triathlon, Greg Bennett! Greg Bennett raced as a professional triathlete for 28 years! Over his time as a professional Greg won 2 ITU World Series Titles, One Triathlon World Championship, 6 World Cup Titles, was ranked the world’s #1 triathlete in 2002 & 2003, is a 3X Olympian and won 6 Ironman 70.3’s, the last at 41 years of age! His last world title, the 2011 World Championship (non-drafting) in Des Moines, Iowa was won just before turning 40 years old. If there was one triathlete who figured out the recipe for staying fit, fast & strong for nearly 3 decades of professional triathlon racing it is Greg Bennett!

Greg, welcome to the show! It is such an honor to have you with us today! When I was just getting triathlon in the late 2000’s I really enjoyed reading and following what was going on amongst the pros in our sport. What really stood out was this: When so many of your peers from the ITU circuit were crossing over to long course racing, which seems to be what happens to most professionals as they get older and lose some of their top end speed, there you were, not only staying with short course racing but continuing to win!

Overview
Let’s Dive in: Over the course of your career I am sure you learned a TON in terms of what worked & what didn’t work in helping you stay so competitive over the course of your career! Lets begin with the 3,000 ft view: What are some of the most important keys to your training regime that helped you to stay at the top of your game for so long?

Strength Training
In the sports medicine world we are hearing more & more often that strength really does seem to equal speed, however there are so many different ways to develop strength, let’s use leg strength for example: It can be built in the gym with squats, deadlifts or step ups; Or it can be built out on the road with run hill repeats or on the bike with big chain ring hill repeats? Did you favor one type of strength training over another & how often did you typically do strength sessions both pre-season and during race season?

Training Volume
Another controversial topic when it comes to training is volume. Some folks really push high total volume training plans, while others are opting for less total volume plans but higher intensity sessions. What are your thoughts on total training volume, high vs low intensity sessions and the mix that seemed to work best for you?

Racing Volume
Let’s shift into racing. You were certainly a racer who seemed to thrive on racing a pretty full calendar. Is this something you grew into or were you always an athlete that liked to race a lot? Did racing a lot play a role in your longevity?

Mindset
I would love to ask you some questions on Mindset. As we often share with both patients and athletes that we work with, what you focus on or more simply stated, what you think about you bring about. Do you have some favorite mental strategies that you used to keep your head in the game, especially over the long haul, this could be mantras or visualization techniques or anything else like meditation practices?

Recovery
Let’s now dive into something that I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on: Recovery! As someone who kept their body in such great high end shape for so long, there is no doubt that you developed highly effective recovery techniques. What are some of the most important things that you utilized for maximizing recovery immediately after training sessions/races and on a daily or weekly basis? (Massage, chiropractic, E-stim, compression boots, float tanks, sleep)

Nutrition
Now let’s pivot towards the infamous 4th leg of triathlon: Nutrition! If there is one topic packed with so much seemingly contradicting information its Nutrition. As if it weren’t confusing enough, it seems like every few months there is a new fad diet that sweeps the world, even pro-athletes can get off track by making huge changes; for example; Lionel Sanders in 2018 greatly altered his diet which resulted in his performance suffering tremendously. Are there some key overall nutritional strategies that you implemented that were particularly helpful? Did you experiment with any nutritional strategies that were not helpful or even hindered peak performance?

Greg’s New Podcast
Thank you so much for all of this GREAT information! Now that you have retired from professional racing it seems you have taken the same success principles you applied when racing into your post-race career. You have an absolutely fantastic podcast: Be with Champions Podcast. Can you tell our listeners about what inspired you to create such a show?

I strongly advise all of you listeners check out Greg’s show, the in depth interviews he has done with other of our sports top performers are packed with information that can help all of us become better athletes!

Greg, as we get ready to wrap things up today, do you have any last words of wisdom for our listeners?

Greg, thank you so much for providing our listeners so much actionable advice! One last question: How can people connect and follow you?

I will put a link to each of the ways you can connect with Greg in our show notes page @ www.peakperformancepodcast.com.

Greg, thank you so much, I wish for you an abundance of success this year and in the years ahead!! Cheers!!

Links

BE Bennett Endurance

Be With Champions

Bennett Consulting

Instagram: Gregbennettworld

This concludes today’s episode of The Peak Performance Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools and strategies for optimizing athletic performance, overall health & wellness! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE take a moment to Rate & Review us on Apple Podcasts, Thank you very much for listening & Have a Great Day!

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