Want to get gold medal fit? It’s child’s play!
Olympian’s quirky workout... with his daughter as a weight
Olympians are known for their impressive levels of physical fitness.
and gymnast max Whitlock has found an innovative way to keep active – by using his baby daughter as a weight.
Whitlock, 27, balances his exerciseheavy lifestyle with being a father to his 11-month-old daughter Willow, and incorporates her into his workout routines.
now the sportsman, who picked up two gold medals in Rio in 2016, has demonstrated how easy it is to look after your baby while getting fit at the same time in a photoshoot.
For baby Willow, gymnastics is in her blood. Whitlock and his wife leah, 28, are childhood sweethearts and met at south Essex Gymnastics Club when they were both 12.
leah turned her hand to coaching rather than competing, but has stepped back from work to focus on raising their young daughter. as well as training for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he is hoping to be picked for the fourstrong Team GB, Whitlock has published his own fitness manual.
in the book, called The Whitlock Workout, he advocates using things such as a sofa cushion – or a child – rather than high-tech gym equipment to help incorporate fitness into everyday life.
Whitlock said: ‘ Gymnasts take their bodies to the limits and i wanted to package that up and give it to people so that they can get a small ounce of what a gymnast can do to help them in everyday life.’
He said he wanted to change perceptions of gymnastics with the book, and break down the exercises into manageable chunks using ‘not much equipment at all... which is the great thing about gymnastics’. Whitlock told how having Willow gave him a ‘push’ when it comes to his own training as he gears up for august’s Olympics, and said she is ‘someone else i can try to make proud and probably the most important person to make proud’.
The gymnast, who competes in allround team and floor exercises and on the pommel horse, said: ‘it’ll be exciting but it’ll be difficult to be away as i’m a home person.’
He added: ‘i love being at home and going away has always been difficult but since Willow’s been born its ten times harder.’
Whitlock, who is the most successful male British artistic gymnast of all time, said having a newborn has changed his intensive training regime due to the lack of sleep and recovery time after a workout.
He added: ‘What Willow does is actually force a balance. if i’ve come home and i’ve had a really bad session at the gym, i’ll instantly forget about it as coming home to Willow, you have no choice.’
‘Someone I can make proud’