'I trained with Paralympian Lauren Steadman - here're 9 things I learned'
Four-time Paralympian, Rio silver medallist, Tokyo gold medallist, world champion, and European champion are just a few of the titles the multi-faceted Lauren Steadman MBE has under her belt.
And, on top of being an elite sportswoman, the 31-year-old is also a PhD student in athlete mental health, a skier, baking devotee, and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant.
Born missing her right lower arm, Lauren's first foray into competitive sport was swimming, and she represented Team GB aged just 15, competing at both the London and Beijing Olympics. However, encouraged by her uncle, she switched to triathlon after he saw her potential in all three sports - swimming, cycling and running. Lauren took on the new challenge and came second in the 2011 British Championships. She's been unstoppable ever since, and competed as a paratriathlete at the Rio and Tokyo games.
I went to Everyone Active in London to train with Lauren and try the moves that propel her through water and land, and learn about how she prepares for competition season while staying at the top of her game, mentally and physically. Here's everything she taught me about her routine and, with the Paris 2024 Paralympics edging closer, what it means to be heading to her fifth Games.
1. She trains in cycles
When I spoke to Lauren, the Paralympics opening ceremony was 24 weeks away - and the pressure was on. 'We work in three-week cycles,' she said. 'Two weeks will be hard, and one week will be adapting to those two weeks. I'll get an active recovery day every 10 days. So after some really high, intense few days, I'll do an easier swim or run, to flush out all the muscles.
'Right now, my routine is quite specific, and it's heavy, structured and intense,' consisting of 'around 17 - 20 hours of training a week'. That's split between 'swim, bike and run for the cardio, where the sessions are based on your race speed and capacity, and three one-hour sessions in the gym. Strength work will complement the cardio.'
2. Her off-season training involves more lower-intensity sessions
'Off season, you do longer, lower-intensity sessions from October through to around February. Bike rides might be four hours long, but your heart rate stays at 130bpm if you build a big aerobic base. Imagine a triangle with your race at the top: your hours become shorter nearer the competition, but the training gets more skill-specific, [targeted and high intensity].'
3. To recover, she switches off physically and mentally
'My favourite ways to recover definitely include weekly massages!', says Lauren. 'Stretching is in there, too - I really need to make sure my body is prepped to do the exercise and cools down.
'Mentally, to switch off, I bake or cook in the evenings. I love to get my ingredients out and come up with something delicious. I made a homemade chicken ramen last night, and my housemate gave it 10 out of 10. I also enjoy salsa dance or just getting up in the morning with my dog.
'You have to get the correct balance. Athletes are so targeted and focused that totally stepping away from sport gives you a different perspective.'
4. Eating to compete is different from eating to train
'When you're eating for training, you're fuelling for 20 hours a week of [hard exercise], and every day you replenish what you've lost. But when you're eating to compete, you have targeted bodyweights that you're optimal for racing at,' Lauren explains. 'I'm currently on a high-protein phase for the intense workouts, but during winter, I need more carbohydrates for longer, low-intensity sessions. But you never underfuel.'
5. She has an impressive academic career
'My parents were pretty [adamant] that one day, my body would fail me, and I wouldn't be an elite athlete my whole career. So academics were just as important as sport,' said Lauren.
'I have studied all of my education at Portsmouth University. I have an undergraduate in psychology, a master's in business and management, and I'm currently doing a PhD in athlete mental-health narratives, in our Olympians and Paralympians. I train hard, switch off and study all day and then train again.'
6. To overcome challenges, she's learnt to reframe, question and remove self-doubt
Lauren has clearly raised the standards for paratriathlon and is at the peak of her career, which has jumped from strength to strength over 20 years. She's developed a robust mental narrative to deal with setbacks. Here's her advice:
1. Reframe
'It's interesting doing a PhD and knowing some of the methods they'll deploy for athletes. Reframing, and how to perceive a barrier, is huge in an athlete's mind. The pressure is intense, but I see it as a privilege. I'm bestowed the honour of representing my country, who believes in me, and flying the flag, and I have what it takes to deliver.'
2. Learn from failure
'You can always improve on something. In failure, you question yourself and work out what the small percentages are where you can get better. [You have to] accept the constructive criticism.'
3. Remove self-doubt
'You have a list of doubts and everything that you think could go wrong, but you also have the answers in your head and can solve them for yourself. You might doubt [that you'd be able] to run fast enough to [hit certain target numbers]. But then all of a sudden, in session, and you start hitting them - that fuels confidence. Give yourself evidence that you're capable of achieving your goals.
'Write [the doubts and the evidence] down as a way of compartmentalising, so that when you get to race day, you go there with a fresh mind and just focus on the performance. As I've gotten older and wiser, I know my capabilities and limits. I wrote my doubts on paper [years ago], and now they're gone.'
7. She was a successful swimmer before becoming a triathlete
Lauren's uncle urged her to switch from swimming to triathlon. 'It was a really hard transition,' she explains, 'because swimming is structured as you practise in the morning and evening, two hours each, from four till six. With triathlon, [it's much more varied]: you can swim indoors or in open water. You can cycle indoors or outdoors. You can run anywhere. So to do three sports and have a schedule that was never the same each week was really daunting at first. I had to use a very structured timetable.
'But I learned to love it, because you can do triathlon with anyone of any standard, anywhere in the world, by tailoring what you're doing. My mum's got an electric bike and she'll come riding with me, putting it in the top-end power.
'Swimming also gave me the perfect platform to get a good head start in my triathlon races. It's one of the most difficult skills to learn and you can only get better by being immersed in the water for hours. Coming from 10 years of swimming, I had a natural ability to manipulate the water.'
8. She wants to increase young girls' and athletes' participation in sport
'With young girls, I hear a lot of, "I don't like sport", but do you know how many sports are out there? Many just aren't highlighted as mainstream activities. I'd like girls just to try [a new activity]. If you don't like it, you can step back.
'I would love to open the sporting world to young girls - sport created monumental change for me - it gave me confidence and opportunities to network and travel around the world.
’I'm also really passionate about getting access to the younger generations and giving them opportunities. I work with Everyone Active, as an elite athlete and mentor on its Sporting Champions athlete development scheme. I had to learn a lot for myself as an athlete, so being able to be a mentor for grassroot athletes is really important.’
9. She is working to ensure sport will be increasingly accessible to those with disabilities
'Disability sport has [grown] massively in the last decade. My biggest dream is that anybody with a physical impairment or anything hindering them from doing sport has a can-do attitude, and is willing to try.
'There are so many sports centres now making physical activity accessible, and removing barriers with specific classes. I hope to [show people] that they can challenge themselves to be better.'
3 exercises from Lauren's training programme
1. Loaded step-ups
'When cycling and running, the last part of the movement is that powerful push as you straighten your leg. Doing step ups mimics that movement and activates the glutes,' Lauren advises. She uses this move throughout the year.
Equipment needed: One plyo jump box, step or bench; one pair of dumbbells
a) Hold a dumbbell in each hand, or rack a barbell behind your neck.
b) Get ready to step onto the box with one leg. Don't push off the back leg. Instead, load your front leg by leaning into it and engaging your quads, in order to maximise strength. Focus on a point about 45 degrees down from your eye level when you first step on the box, for visual balance.
c) At the top, fully lock out the back leg and squeeze your glute. 'That promotes the power at the top of your glutes, which is what we'd use at the bottom of a cycling stroke, and [in the hip extension to propel yourself] in the run. I'd do about six on each side,' Lauren advises. Go fast up and slow on the way down. To increase difficulty, load with heavier weights.
Single-leg - unilateral - work is good as you can identify which side's weaker. 'But you'd never change the reps or weights for the less dominant side,' Lauren reminds us.
2. Single-arm bent-over row
'We would use this traditional move for the targeting the lats, rotator cuff, and shoulder muscles, and working your shoulder stability, which are all very important in swimming,' says Lauren. 'Some call it a three-point row, because you've got three points connected to the ground [or stable surface].'
Equipment: One plyo jump box, step or bench; one dumbbell
a) Place one knee and the same-side arm on a box, with the other leg on the floor, knee slightly bent.
b) Keeping a neutral, flat back (not too arched or curved), pick up your weight with the free arm. Don't let your shoulder drop.
c) Bend your elbow and bring the weight straight back towards your hip, where a pocket might be. You don't need to raise your elbow too high - in line with your hip and the rest of your body is fine.
d) Hold for two at the top, engaging your lats - 'You want to squeeze as though you've got a credit card in between your shoulder blades', says Lauren - and then lower. Make your movements controlled and deliberate. To progress, go for a heavier weight.
3. Isometric calf raise
'A lot of my strength and conditioning programme is about injury prevention and doing exercises that stabilise and strengthen the smaller muscles so that the bigger muscles don't have issues,' explains Lauren. 'In running, when your foot hits the ground, you're taking seven times your body weight through each calf. I do calf-raise variations throughout the year to make sure that my calves are robust.'
An isometric exercise is where muscles contract and are under tension but they and the joint don't change length, as you're static e.g. a plank
Equipment needed: One barbell plate or other slightly raised surface; one dumbbell
a) Hold the dumbbell with one head in both hands. Stand on the plate in a split stance, with the toes of your front foot just on the plate edge and your knee directly over the ankle. Your quad should be just above parallel to the floor - don't go too low, as this puts the focus on your quads rather than on the calves. Your back foot should be behind your hip, your knee slightly bent.
b) Raise the heel of your front foot, as if you're wearing heels, and push through the ball of your foot. Hold for 30 seconds. If you wobble, tense your core and pull your belly button towards your spine. The isometric hold creates power in your calf and also stabilises your ankle joint, making you more resilient to injury. To progress, use a heavier weight.
'Doing calf raises during other activities like cleaning your teeth can help you increase your daily rep count,' says Lauren.
Why did Lauren choose these moves?
'The step-ups are really good for your top-end power at the end of a cycle stroke or when you hit the ground for the running.
'The calf raises to make sure that you're stabilising the ankles and rehabbing any little niggles that might start.
'For swimming, your lats are a huge part in the upper body, so I do the three-point row as I respond very well to having the strength in such a specific movement.'
Read next: 5 things to consider before getting a bob haircut
More about Paris 2024...
Ellie Simmonds: 'I can finally enjoy the Paralympics without any pressure'
Why the Olympics has got all of us reaching for a pair of wrap-around shades
Cut through the noise and get practical, expert advice, home workouts, easy nutrition and more direct to your inbox. Sign up to the WOMEN'S HEALTH NEWSLETTER
You Might Also Like
