Alysha Newman is a pole-vaulter. She will be competing in the Olympics for the third time this summer, representing Canada. Newman shared an announcement post on Instagram. In the photos, she is seen on the track and going over the bar. Newman captioned the post, “Third time to the Olympics. First time turning 30.” How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Alysha Newman stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.
Newman shared some of her workout secrets with BodyBuilding. She says that she switches things up. “During the week I stick to a specific schedule,” she explains. “I usually have two technical days comprised of pole vaulting, gymnastics, and plyometrics. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I run—anything from tempo runs to quick 60-meter sprints. I finish those running days with weight training. Whenever my competition schedule allows it, I take off Saturdays and Sundays to rest.”
Newman shared her favorite core workouts with Muscle & Fitness. “We do very elongated exercises. Not crunches or any of that. It’s rope climbing while upside down. We’re doing pole-rope climbing, wall bar where you’re laying on your back and lifting your legs up but we don’t crunch at the hips; we crunch at the shoulders. When we talk about abdominal strength in the pole vault, it’s literally from the chin to the pelvic region. So, it’s our lats, core, obliques and all that stuff is activated while we’re doing core work.”
Newman tells Muscle and Fitness that she does cardio exercises. “As track athletes, we try and stay dynamic before and static after. A lot of jogging or biking before training to kind of get the muscles moving. I do know some athletes like to do the contrast bath but I’ve never been one to do that just because I like to feel elastic. I like to be a little bit tighter when I train because I want to feel a little resistance. I don’t want to feel too good. I like to do a little warmup — we call them gentle exercises. Arm swings, karaoke [running drill] and we go into a lot of band work also to open up the joints. Usually, we’ll end with about three to four 60- to 100-meter runs just to get the legs moving. In Toronto, we have this awesome curved track, so we do them like a downhill run to get the feet moving as fast as you can before practice.”
Newman talked about the importance of her diet in an interview with BodyBuilding. “If I were going to put it on a scale, my mentality is priority number one, nutrition is number two, and practice is number three,” she says. “I put my nutrition before practice because I have to fuel my body with the best nutrients to get the best results. It’s extremely important to put the proper nutrients in your body, especially during long, hard, and critical practices. If you don’t eat right, it’s like putting cheap gas in your car. Yeah, it’ll drive, but not as well as it should. Our bodies are the same way.”
Newman shared how she recovered from a concussion to Muscle and Fitness. “I think one thing for me to persevere past was literally not focusing on what I did wrong but focusing on the positives and my strengths,” Newman said. “As you know with athletes, we have this timeline in being our best self. I worked on all my weaknesses, and I’ve gotten weaknesses to turn into strengths, but this late in my career — I probably have two more Olympics in me — there’s no point in trying to fix that because I already have the habits. Now, we’ll focus on what I’m great at.”