- Former Olympian Allyson Felix dominated track and field for 17 years across multiple events.
- She said her elite training taught her the small details that take your game to the next level.
For more than a decade, Allyson Felix reigned supreme in track and field.
Winning her first World Championship gold as a 19-year-old phenom in 2005, she went on to earn 11 Olympic medals (seven of them gold) and a record-setting 20 World Championship medals in all. By the time she retired after the 2022 season, Felix had secured her title as one of the most decorated American athletes in sports history
Now 38, Felix told Business Insider how she maintained peak performance and dealt with the intense pressure of elite competition.
"It's a full-time commitment, full-time job," she said. "The Olympics can be kind of crazy because for us, it's about 21 seconds that you get to show the world what you've been working on for four years."
Felix, a vocal advocate for working parents, spoke to BI in an interview about her partnership with Pampers in support of premature babies and their families.
At her competitive peak, she trained for five hours a day, five days a week, to develop the precise technique needed to excel at sprinting. But you don't need to be a full-time athlete to get faster, become more efficient at running, or boost your recovery like an Olympian.
Felix shared three lessons from her Olympic career that can help everyday athletes level up on their next run or workout.
Rest days are crucial
During her 17-year elite athletic career, Felix dominated the 200-meter sprint and helped the US women's relay team lock in multiple gold medals.
She said taking time to rest was crucial to staying fast enough to compete at the top of her game over time.
"Recovery was huge. It was a huge lesson that I had to learn. My coach always said a day off is just as important as the days that we really get after it," Felix said.
While it can be tempting to work out every day to make faster progress, skipping rest days can backfire and lead to overtraining, burnout, injury, and plateaus.
Felix also used recovery strategies like foam rolling and massage.
"All the little tedious, not fun things," she said. "I think that's what really gave me such longevity."
Warm up correctly
Olympic athletes are just like the rest of us — sometimes, they feel like warming up is boring and want to get right to the good stuff.
"I've thought about skipping out on it," Felix said.
But she said by skipping a warmup, you'll risk getting hurt and likely worsen your performance.
"When I was competing, you never can because that's what protects you from injury," Felix said. "You're going to be like, oh, I don't need to do that. But you absolutely do, if you want to make sure that you're healthy and you want to get the most out of it, whether it's a workout or a competition."
Your warm-up doesn't need to be complicated, either. Trainers recommend warm-up exercises that mirror what you're planning to do for your main session, such as drilling a hip hinge if you're deadlifting or practicing some bodyweight squats before loading up a barbell.
For a running warm-up, especially if you'll be sprinting, Felix said drills such as A skips and B skips (a type of high-knee motion) are great to prep for explosive movement.
Focus on the small wins
One of the most important rules for long-term fitness success is to just keep going, according to Felix.
Even if you only achieve a little at a time, small but consistent progress is the best way to see lasting results, running coaches previously told Business Insider.
There's no single perfect workout or routine, but showing up consistently over time is what can turn your goals into reality, whether you're trying to hit your personal best run time or win Olympic gold.
"I think you look at something like the Olympic Games or competing at a high level, and you see that one moment, but it's just like in anything else. It takes the dedication, it takes all of the little moments to build up to that," Felix said. "It's consistently putting in that work and building to get to where you want to go."