Olympian Dara Torres Wants You To Listen To Your Body

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Dara Torres at The 2022 ESPYS held at the Dolby Theatre on July 20, 2022 in Los Angeles [Photo by … [+] Christopher Polk/Variety via GETTY IMAGES] Penske Media via Getty Images Dara Torres will go down in history not only as one of the most medaled Olympians ever but also as one of the most impressive athletes of all time. Retirement from Team USA for 12-time Olympic medalist and winner of four golds came after the 2008 Summer Games. But the now-57-year-old Torres stays active at a rate that would give pause to almost any top athlete. A quick spin through Torres’s Instagram would show Olympic memories and highlights, cute photos of dogs, pics and videos of the four-time gold medalist on a Pilates reformer or demonstrating stretch techniques. Yet Torres said, during a recent interview via Zoom, that she encourages everyone to be active but to do it at their own pace and comfort level. “I just did a TRX class, and I’m gonna post today, and I do some aerobics stuff,” Torres added, stating that people should not necessarily feel compelled to keep up with Olympians. “I’m a little bit of an anomaly, and only because I’ve trained my whole entire life. So my body is used to it.” Torres explained that she does various things to stay fit, including yoga, cycling, solid core exercise, and rumble boxing. Torres acknowledged that just because she has trained at a higher level than most does not make her immortal. She pointed out that starting as early as age 30, adults can lose 3-8% of their muscle mass per decade and even more after age 60. This impacts the ability to enjoy the activities we love most, as we age,” she said. MORE FOR YOU Netflix s Most Popular New Movie Is Getting Rave Reviews But Hit Man Is Pretty Bad A Ukrainian Drone Strike May Have Destroyed A Russian Air Force Su-57 Stealth Fighter Samsung Drops Galaxy Watch 6 Price In New Promotion So, to help keep Americans fit, Torres has teamed up with Boost, maker of nutrition-rich beverages for older adults, to develop Boost Camp, a first-of-its-kind fitness program for people aged 50-plus. Boost Camp, which launched with a live in-person class in New York City on May 16, consists of 15-minute sets of low-impact workouts aimed at promoting flexibility and raising heart rates. Working out, Torres said, “It’s really about listening to your body. Especially, I think, for those people who are intimidated, (who) want to work out but don’t know what to do.” Torres said that even longtime Olympians must listen to their bodies, too, and that a lifetime of workouts doesn’t necessarily make your body operate like a younger person. She also submitted the fact that she is, indeed, mortal. VIDEO: Dara Torres talks mind-body connection during Boost Camp “I’m just like everyone else. I get out of bed and, maybe, my back is killing me for what feels like the whole day, because I slept too long. I have aches and pains just like everyone else. But it’s a matter of how you recover and how you do.” “If you compare me in the gym to the 20 year old—I’m sure our workouts for like drastically different,” she said. “Everything (during Olympic training) was about heavy weightlifting, the more you do, the stronger you’re gonna be in the pool. But when I was training for 2008 at age 41—and then 2012 at 45, it wasn’t about lifting those heavy weights.” Amy Van Dyken, Dara Torres, Courtney Shealy, and Jenny Thompson (L-R) of the USA women’s 4×100 meter … [+] freestyle swimming relay team bite their gold medals following their win at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images) Getty Images After the live launch in New York, anyone interested in Boost Camp can view a series of workout videos that are easily accessible on YouTube. There is also a nutrition component to Boost Camp, which emphasizes the importance of protein intake and maintaining “the strength essential to enjoying your best life now.” “I’m psyched about the videos, to show people that you can work out hard and listen to your body,” at the same time, Torres said. “But it is also important to make sure you take your protein. You gotta take protein. And it’s about recovering. It’s about allowing your body to rest.” At the moment, Team USA’s athletes are gearing up Paris 2024. In some sports, such as basketball, the USA’s provisional team rosters are set. Meanwhile, in other sports such as track and field, athletes face the final round of Olympic Trials to decide who represents the USA this summer. Four-time track and field Olympian Richard Thompson, now Senior Leadership & Character Development Coach at IMG Academy, points out that only one in 500,000 athletes make it to the Olympics. As such, the pressures and rewards for making it on an Olympic team are huge. “The final stages of Olympic preparations require extreme detail. There’s a fine line sometimes between producing the best performance of your life or picking up an injury that could impact your dreams,” Thompson said. Thompson adds that even athletes at the top of their game, like Dara Torres was during the 1984, 1988, 1992, and later the 2000 and 2008 Games, don’t get to lean solely on their natural talents or physical prowess. “As a result, (Olympic athletes) must be meticulous in everything they do. Meals, recovery, mental preparation, workouts must all be well calculated,” Thompson said. “Ultimately, the holistic preparation and attention to detail is what will determine how confident they are when the bright lights are turned on.” That post-Olympic best life After the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, when she became the oldest female swimmer, at age 41, to compete, Torres returned to the USA to work as a motivational speaker, a coach and an author. Torres, the all-time most decorated US female Olympic athlete, wrote and published two books: the New York Times Bestseller Gold Medal Fitness: A Revolutionary 5-Week Program (2010) and a memoir titled Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life. She’s also been a spokesperson for a wide variety of companies and non-profit campaigns and a regular on the CBS Sports show and podcast We Need To Talk, a critically acclaimed all-female sports talk program that focuses on women’s perspectives on sports. Torres said that her current efforts, as well as her two books, have been motivated and inspired by her triumphs in the Olympic waters, but also by the pressures of competition and other difficulties along the way. “You know, I learned a lot because of my eating disorder in college.” Torres, who struggled for years with bulimia—a topic she’s she’s covered in her books—said that she had to work to move beyond “depriving” herself of the simple pleasures and basic benefits of food. Torres, who is the mother of a daughter headed to college in the fall, said that one of her favorite indulgences is celebrating fun moments with a little bit of cake. “My daughter graduated on a Saturday, and we had this great, huge vanilla cake with buttercream and ice cream. I was like—woo!” Torres said. “For me, it’s about enjoying things like that but just doing everything in portions.” Read Frye’s interviews with USA Olympians Katie Ledecky and Rose Lavelle. ***** Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. Andy Frye Following Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions